[Speed Dating, Round Two]

[callofkaren]

With the first round done without any hiccups, Karen spent half an hour straightening things up, checking names off as the second group of half uncomfortable, half vaguely excited looking potential daters showed up, and soon it was much like the first. The spiel was the same, drinks were handed out, and luckily getting everyone in order came easily

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[artemiodes]

In general, Camilla strives for subtlety. The white cotton skirt that flutters in the wind just slightly too high, the just-too-grown-out haircut that is coaxed into appearing to have a mind of its own, the smile that entices while promising nothing - these are the tokens she offers to those lucky enough to catch her eye. And then she waits for her admirers to come to her, and never the other way around.

Speed dating is not subtle. But when she had seen in the sign up sheet, she had put her name down in a fit of pique. Why not? she had thought. This wasn't Hampden College, where such an event would surely have been run by the likes of Judy Poovey, and all who showed up either too desperate to find dates the usual way, or too impatient. Here, people are friendly. Here, intentions are laughably overt. If she is stuck here, why not join in the game? Si fueris Romae, Romano vivito more as they say

[weary_head]

"Uh, hey," says Dean, still shaken but mostly recovered after barfing his insecurities all over Olivia. Taking a deep breath, he resolves to do better, showing this woman a bright, if slightly panicked smile.

"Hey," he says again around another mouthful of whiskey. "I'm Dean." Jesus, she looks young, innocent in a way the old Dean might have pursued back home. "I like your dress. Yellow is. Good."

[artemiodes]

Camilla arches an eyebrow and presses her lips together to hide a smirk - and all of a sudden, she looks older than she did before. More knowing, at least. She allows the awkward compliment to settle for a moment before she speaks. "So I'm guessing you're new to this, too," she says with twinkling eyes.

At least he's easy on the eyes, she thinks, if in a tough-dumb-football-playing sort of way.

[weary_head]

And just like that the innocence is gone, replaced by something Dean should have seen there in the first place, the out-of-your-league painted all over her. Weirdly, it serves to settle his nerves.

"Never done the speed dating thing before," he confesses, showing her a decent smile this time. "I'm Dean, and I gotta say, you don't seem like you need to sign up for one of these things to get a date."

[artemiodes]

"Well, we can be amateurs together, then," Camilla declares, propping her chin on her hand again, something conspiratorial in the flutter of her eyelashes. She doesn't respond directly to his compliment, only smiles knowingly. "Mm," she hums thoughtfully instead. "But if I hadn't, I might not have met you. I'm Camilla."

[weary_head]

"Huh," says Dean. It's not a name he's heard before. It's pretty, as elegant as the rest of her, and even if he's not equipped to return fire, he sees the art in the way she smiles at him. Jesus, she's gonna wreck some hearts.

"Where you from, Camilla? Me, I was born in Kansas, but I've pretty much been on the road since I was five."

[artemiodes]

Wry smile still curving at her lips, Camilla files this Dean under strong, silent, awkward type. He's amusing for now, but it's unlikely that someone like him will be able to hold her attention for long. "Never been to Kansas," she murmurs absently, though she can't imagine ever actually going. "I grew up in Virginia, near Richmond, but I've been going to school in Vermont."

[patration]

The temptation to switch the blue and white windflowers he's collected for Camilla for the brighter plumeria, touched with a golden hue in the center, is great, but Zhuge refrains. To adjust one's gift based on the spur of the moment will always be something he considers, being the type of person to act and respond immediately, but he's put a great deal of thought into the choices he's made for the women here today. He'd like to see, at least, if his choices are at all accurate. If he's still capable of reading the little signs in people like he did back home; if that intuition lasts and spans across all people and all times

[artemiodes]

Camilla's mouth makes a small 'o' of genuine surprise as this new man offers her the flowers. Of all the things she might have expected to find on this night, actual charm is not one of them, and this second conversation is already looking to be a welcome - perhaps even joyful - diversion. "And I thought everyone said that there were no gentleman left," she murmurs with a playful smile. "Yes, Camilla. It's a pleasure to meet you."

[patration]

Although he's done his best not to observe the other men present too closely, afraid of picking up ideas and mannerisms that aren't his own, at Camilla's surprise, Zhuge finds his gaze skirting over the room regardless. His eyebrows raise a touch when he realizes that he's the only one who's come with presents at all- practically unheard of in his world to show up without something in hand. He berates himself mentally, just a touch, for not having noticed this earlier.

Not that, he tells himself with a smile, he would have done anything differently had he this information from this start.

"Ah, I do not know if I am gentle man," his smile broadens. "But I grew up on farm, and flowers make my mother and sisters happy. This island has so many kind, I try to pick different one for everybody."

Tilting his head, he folds his hands neatly on his lap, shoulders pulled back. "This is my first, what you call... speed date. I do not know how to start," he laughs, self-deprecatingly.

[artemiodes]

Not even Camilla can quite tell if the man's sheepish charm was manufactured or genuine, but she couldn't bring herself to care. He was entertaining. He'd brought her flowers. That was enough for her to happily offer over the necessary five minutes. She laughs lightly, cheerfully. "It's not my usual modus operandi, either," she confesses, "so I suppose we will just have to struggle through together. Where are you from, Liang?"

[patration]

"It is the country now call China," Zhuge smiles easily, all too pleased by the sound of her laugh, easy and light, freer than he's accustomed to seeing women be. Certainly around grown men, at least. Not for the first time, he finds himself frustrated that the learnings of the future can't be pulled back to his time, frustrated that all of the women he's met over the years can't similarly enjoy this level of choice for themselves. But everything takes time, and everything is realized in its due course, he reminds himself. The lessons themselves cannot be skipped over just at a simple word of mouth. Although his gaze drops for a moment, it picks up soon again, his words fond. "Many, many year ago. Two thousand year before the island time. This is why my dress is a little strange, but it is... part of me, I do not want to throw away."

He gestures at his robes, allowing his thumb to briefly brush over the smooth surface.

"What about miss Camilla? I have read few history books, I hope I know something about your home."

[artemiodes]

"What was it called when you lived there?" Camilla asks, for all the world rapt. Chinese, she muses thoughtfully. It's a language too far east for even Henry, and though not dead, certainly ancient enough, and full of majestic tonal secrets. "I was born in Virginia," she says, though in truth, she has never felt much affinity with her home state. No single place has ever quite represented home for her, in the way she understands they do for most people. "In the United States. Have you read much about it?"

[patration]

"Shu Han," he replies easily, pleased at the attention he's receiving, not as a man who ever needs that much attention and care directed to his own person, but instead as a man who is, ultimately, proud of his land. Proud of his roots. "Shu is the name of the state, and Han is the name of the people my emperor come from. There are three kingdom back then that come together to make... Chinese people. The other two are Cao Wei and Dong Wu. Much fighting between these three." He nods to himself, remembering that he knows how history progresses now. That he knows the fate of all of the people in these regions, that they are to come together as one again, but surely without a great deal of loss first

[artemiodes]

Camilla nods, feeling a surprising glow of pleasure at the thoughtful but removed way in which he speaks of America, as though it was only something out of a story. When she has considered the outside world at all, in those rare times when she chooses to move beyond the thoughts inside her own mind, she has always been drawn to faraway places, to the abstract and the exotic. Perhaps it is the fact that Liang probably sees her home in precisely this way that gives her a sense of pride. "We haven't always been free of fighting," she confesses with a small laugh - she might not know her modern history very well, but she is still a born-and-bred Virginian, after all. "But that was a long time ago."

[patration]

"Yes, I read about this too," Zhuge smiles, broad, not quite proud of being able to repeat all of what he's learned at will, but still more than happy to share, to have his misconceptions corrected if needed, or to be given more insight. Not everyone would spend this kind of time detailing history from centuries ago, he's sure, and the chance to do so now with Camilla is one that he finds remarkably fortuitous, even as he still remains hesitant, hoping that he doesn't overstep her generosity and dip to the point where she no longer finds the conversation interesting at all.

Fortunately, the bar isn't too high. Five minutes should be nothing.

"Start as... people who are very far away from king. The king does not listen to what people want, so fight to make own laws. And hundred years later, there is a civil war. China has many of those, too. Not just one," he tilts his head, as though to remark that it's just a part of everyday life.