As Jasmine was reading the Daily Prophet, she looked up and noticed a women was standing there. Woaahh she was a tall one. She grinned and shook her head. "Oh you can sit there. Don't worry I would like some company actually." Now that was the truth. She always met new people at this cafe no matter what time she went. "I am Jasmine by the way." she introduced herself while cleaning up her stuff. I mean she would need to know her name because then it would be awkward. "Are you new to the Ministry and London?" she asked. She never had seen her before and she was curious. She took a sip of her tea while she waited for her to answer. She didn't want to bombard the new girl with questions in the first five minutes.

"Thank you ever so much." Honoria smiled, and took a seat. She set her cup and pastry item down, and put her purse on the ground next to her feet. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Jasmine." Honoria smiled, and took a sip of her tea. "My name is Honoria." She introduced herself. "I am rather new to the Ministry, actually. How did you guess?" She chuckled. "I've only been back in England for a few weeks. I was traveling; doing volunteer work, and such. It kind of ties into what I will be doing now at the ministry. My work is on level five; International cooperation." Honoria beamed. She was incredibly excited to start her new career. "I actually spent most of my life up north, near Chester." Honoria took another drink of her tea. "What about you Jasmine, what do you do at the Ministry?"

Jasmine raised her eyebrows at her name. She was impressed with the uniqueness of it. "Wow that is a really unique name." she nodded. "I really like it." she beamed at her new friend. "Well I kind of knew because you seemed to be wandering the streets and stores kind of aimlessly. You seemed to have a confused look on your face. Forgive me for being observant." she added in incase she thought she was rude. Jasmine congratulated her on her position in International Cooperation. "Well I hope you do like your floor. You will love the people you work with. I mean I know I do. Everyone has their own clique inside their department but try to find people on different floors. It will help." she said giving her some advice.

Oh of course she needed to tell her about her department. "Well I work in Accidents and Catastrophes. Isn't that a mouthful?" she asked with a small chuckle and took a sip of her tea. "Oh Chester huh?" she said recapping the infor she said. "That is interesting, is it close to here?" she was curious. "Sorry for that, I also work as a Charms Developer in my department." she nodded and asked, "What do you do as your job?"

"My mother was a fan of unique names. I have sisters named Amora and Valencia. My mother is a squib, and my father is a muggle, and I am the only one out of my sisters that has magic." Her family's history just slipped out. She hoped Jasmine wouldn't judge her family. "Sorry to bombard you with my life story... It just slipped."
Honoria looked down at the table, and back up again. "I cannot wait to meet the people on my floor!" She clasped her hands together, and then put them in her lap again.
"Chester is up North. Near to Liverpool." She added.
"I'll have two jobs, being an Immigration Officer, and a Secretariat for the International Confederation of Wizards." She said with a sense of dignity.

Jasmine waved off the apology and was glad she told her. "No no I am glad you told me. In return I will tell you my history. Well for me I am the only child. I mean my mother is the rich and high proper kind of mom. She wants everything her way and will scrutinize you if you don't things her way. She taught me ways that like right now if I was talking to you she would be like no don't talk to her. She isn't high status." she shrugged. She didn't mind talking about her mom because she had a rocky relationship with her. Jasmine beamed at her and she should be happy to meet her workmates. I mean she is gonna be working with them for a while. "Well I am glad just try and make some close friends, I know I did and still do ." she grinned. Ah so that is where Chester was.

Jasmine was impressed with her two jobs. "Well damn that is impressive. I am honored to have met you." She is someone she will need to keep in contact with in the near future. "Would you like some coffee or tea?" she asked when she realized she finished her drink.

"I never know who will take offence to my roots, you know? I do not understand the prejudice that some witches and wizards have over others." Honoria admitted. "Not only people of our world, but the muggle world as well."
"I know I am said that I am excited to meet others in my department, but I hope we can become friends." She admitted. Honoria hadn't talked to Jasmine for very long, but she hoped they'd be more than just work acquaintances.

Honoria looked down at her nearly empty cup. "Oh, another cup of tea would be delightful. Thank you, Jasmine!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by onceiwasaneagle

"I never know who will take offence to my roots, you know? I do not understand the prejudice that some witches and wizards have over others." Honoria admitted. "Not only people of our world, but the muggle world as well."
"I know I am said that I am excited to meet others in my department, but I hope we can become friends." She admitted. Honoria hadn't talked to Jasmine for very long, but she hoped they'd be more than just work acquaintances.

Honoria looked down at her nearly empty cup. "Oh, another cup of tea would be delightful. Thank you, Jasmine!"

Jasmine nodded and understood what Honoria was saying. "Yeah I do not understand either. I mean why are you having prejudice. I mean I can see if someone screwed you over and they took advantage of your trust. That is something I can see but come on people have the same DNA, eat, breathe and do the same things as you and me." she pointed towards Honoria and her. Jasmine scoffed and said, "Well consider it done because we are gonna be friends don't you worry. I can always help you.." she told her earnestly. Seriously anything she needed she can ask Jasmine for help.

Getting up from her chair, she heard Honoria wanted some more tea. She grinned and took her cup and went over to get it filled. Once she got both of their tea cups filled, she walked back and handed it back to Honoria. "Here you go.." she said handling the cup gently so it won't spill. Once she sat back down in her seat, she waited for her tea to cool down. "Tell me a little something about yourself Honoria. Like what activities do you do?" she was curious to know more about her.

"Well." Honoria took a drink of her tea, and leaned her elbows on the table. "My original major at University was art, before I switched to international studies. I love art, as a hobby. I do a lot of painting." She admitted. "Sometimes, I get up in the morning and all I want to do is paint." She admitted. "Travel is my other love. That's why I know I'll love what I will do for my career." She took a breath, and another drink of tea. "I've spent the last three years doing nothing but traveling, and volunteering. Most of the volunteer work that I have done has been in India. Though, I've traveled almost everywhere." Honoria said. "What about you, what do you like to do?"

Jasmine raised her eyebrows at this new information. No in a bad way of course. She was just impressed. "Woww so I am going to be dealing with an artsy gal over here." she winked. She was teasing a little bit but she always loved the artsy people. They could think creatively and think for themselves. "You know sometimes I think that way too." she agreed with her. "I love to sketch and draw and just have my own time to focus on what I wanna do." She was loving this girl already. Woaahh this girl had an impressive life so far. Jasmine couldn't compare.

Before answering she took a sip of her tea and began to explain, "Well for me my life isn't as grand as yours lemme tell you that. I was born and raised in Scotland and then I originally worked in Environmental Protection for a bit and then I realized I didn't like my job. It wasn't the people it was just my career choice so I switched out into something better." she beamed. "But I have traveled to a lot of fancy people being my mother needs to have a high status and needs to meet the worlds richest people with my father.." she sighed. She never did like those trips. "I think the only good part of the trip was meeting all the hot European boys." she winked. Come on she needed to have some fun while her parents were meeting old people. "Other than that, I haven't volunteered that much and I feel like such a bad person for saying that." she grinned sheepishly.

To describe what she liked to do. "Oh I also like to travel, cook and exercise. I am a huge fitness guru you could say." she beamed. She took pride in her hard work.

Mariel reached into the diaper bag she had sitting on the seat next to her and pulled out the sippy cup of juice, handing it to Regina as she listened to Saxon talk. It seemed like everything was coming together nicely and all falling into place. "That would be a nice plan," she turned a smiled softly at the woman as she spoke of the Patents division.. She did what she could to build up and promote that division, but they remained shorthanded there especially and she wasn't sure what else she could do about it. "Oh I welcome any of you to try them out before this takes place," she nodded. And she didn't think anyone from Patents would have any issues with that. "Then we'll all know exactly what to expect and hopefully not have too many surprises." She was sure it would all go well anyway, but best to be prepared.

Good, they all seemed to be on the same page in regards to how the activities would take place. She did appreciate that as it left less room for misunderstandings. Mariel nodded, agreeing. It seemed like they would have enough pros, especially if there might be more left to confirm. "We might get a better idea of how many we'll need if we have the children register ahead of time as well." There weren't a ton of kids in the daycare, especially as most of the Ministry seemed to be childless teenagers who had just left Hogwarts, but they should know how many to expect, again to be well-prepared.

Ok, Saxon had some good ideas about advertising as well. "Great.." She smiled at Saxon then glanced at their PR person, Amelia. "I trust you can handle getting the word out, maybe get some posters around?" They could put things in the actual daycare too, like the signup sheet. "My husband does still work for the Prophet... I'm sure having an article in there would be no problem.."

"My mother is an incredible artist. When my sisters and I were growing up, our house was full of art, my mom always had us drawing, painting, or creating in some way. When my parent's got divorced, I went to live with my father. I had to be about fourteen. I kept painting, and sketching. Now, his house is full of my painting. He can't seem to get rid of them. It's kind of embarrassing going back home and seeing my work everywhere.... I wish he'd let me sell some of them." Honoria took a drink of her tea. "I've got some of my sketches in my book, if you'd like to see..."

"You like to travel as well?" She beamed in excitement. "Where have you been? Where were your favorite places?"

Jasmine nodded and smiled warmly. "I can understand that. I mean I cringe seeing my artwork. Everyone says it looks good but us as the artist can always find something to pick at." Is she right? Let's see if Honoria can agree with her. "I think it is a parent thing because they always love to hang up our ugly artwork. Especially us in kindergarten or preschool." she grinned sheepishly and laughed at flash backing at all the artwork she made when she was little. Also a side note, "It is good you spend time with both of your parents though. When my parents got divorced my mom just wanted me only. She wanted to claim me and my dad was less involved in my life because she was controlling." she shrugged.

Oh man she had sketches? Jasmine beamed and was excited to see them. "Yeah please I would love to see!" she was squealing with delight. "Yeah I love to travel a lot!" Oh she was a questioner too? She chuckled and nodded, "Well erm I have been to Scotland obviously, London, Pureto Rico, Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Grand Turk, Mexico and the Bahamas." She didn't mean to brag but she loved going on cruises. "My favorite place I had been to is Bermuda because I loved snorkeling with the fishes." She would never forget it.

Honoria dug through her bag, and found her sketchbook. "Sorry, some pages have been just thrown in there." She handed the book to Jasmine. Most of the sketches were of people she had seen on her commute, and on the train when she was moving. Her favorite was of a young girl with very curly hair, sleeping on the train, next to her father. It made her miss her father. "I do hope that you like them."
"Mexico was beautiful." Honoria admitted. "Brazil was very nice. I really love Portugal and Spain. My grandfather is from Portugal, which explains my last name: Borges." Honoria drank a bit of her tea. "Snorkeling is very fun. " She agreed. "I do love the ocean."

Jasmine saw Honoria handing her sketchbook and was pleased to have seen it. Some artists feel their art is too personal to share and are hesitant of sharing. "Thanks Honoria.." she smiled and began to flip through the sketchbook. She nodded in impressment and raised her eyebrows in amazement at one piece. She flipped her sketchbook to show her and said, "Wow girl this is amazing.." she was referring to the one of a young girl with curly hair. "I more than like them..I love them.." she said turning the sketchbook back and started flipping through some more.

Aaahh so Honoria is from Portugal. That made sense why her name was unique. I mean Jasmine's was kind of unique too right? She nodded and took a sip of her tea before it got too cold. "Snorkeling is very fun indeed. I mean there is a whole world down there you never got to see. You wonder what you have been missing.." she grinned and now had the urge to pee since she had been drinking a lot. "If you would excuse me I gotta use the restroom.." she said and made her exit for a minute or so. After coming back a few minutes later, she took her seat and began to relax. "Do you have any siblings by the way or are you an only child?"

"Thanks." Honoria blushed, when Jasmine said that had liked her work.
Honoria took the book back, and put it safetly in her bag, as Jasmine went to the restroom.
"I have two sisters. Amora and Valencia. Valencia is the eldest. She's an accomplished writer. She's got a few books out in the muggle world. Amora is my little sister. She's still at University; reading History. She's going for her doctorate. Takes after my dad. He's a professor of History at St. Andrews in Scotland, which is where I attended, and both my sisters as well." Honoria answered, and then finished off her tea. "What about you, you said that you have siblings; what are they like?" She was eager to learn more about Jasmine.

Jasmine saw Honoria blush and Jasmine had to add this little comment in, "Don't be so shy and embarrassed about your work by the way. It is truly amazing. Take pride girl.." she grinned trying to make her feel more confident. When Jazz heard Honoria talk about her sisters, they seemed to be top notch. Going to college and their father being a Professor at a university too. Like no pressure or anything. "Oh me? No no I don't have any siblings actually. I am just an only child. I only have my friends as siblings basically." she grinned sheepishly. She didn't see anything wrong with that. Jazz took another sip of her tea and didn't mind talking about her family. "Yeah my parents could only deal raising one kid and apparently I am a disappointment to my mother.." she trailed off and began to read her newspaper.

Honoria continued to blush at the flattery. "Thank you so much."
"If you were my child, I wouldn't think you were a disappointment. I mean; you've got a job at the Ministry of Magic! There are worse things that you could be doing." She wanted to trail off with a list of awful things. "I haven't known you for very long, but you're an incredible person. I can tell. Sometimes you have to consider more than just blood to be family."

For today's lunch break, Penelope had decided the cafe outside the Ministry in Muggle London was a good choice. She hadn't been to it in awhile, so it'd be a great change of pace. After ordering a sandwich, a couple scones, and a coffee, she'd taken her food outside to sit at a table there. Though it was a nice clear day, it was still pretty chilly, so the coffee would help. Wasn't like she was gonna be there long anyway since she could eat relatively fast when she had no company.

Once she was finished, she considered sitting there for a bit longer to finish her coffee, but it'd probably be better to go on back to get a head start on some paperwork she had to do before training later that day. Penelope stood to throw away her trash - a little too quickly and paying too little attention to the people walking the sidewalk because she bumped right into someone. The lid on her coffee was knocked off in the process, spilling its now-lukewarm contents all over herself and the other person.

"Oh Mer- crud," she corrected herself quickly. "Sorry 'bout that."

Lysander was merely walking -- just innocently walking as a responsible, productive member of society! -- when disaster struck. At least, disaster to Lysander. He was once again wearing his signature attire: a dark gray tailored suit with a stark white dress shirt peeking out from beneath a rich emerald tie fastened determinedly about his neck. On his feet were a smart pair of black dress shoes, so polished they almost reflected a pure picture of the crisp afternoon street before him with each step. Polished and reflective and beautiful, that was, until very suddenly he found himself colliding with an unknown blur of brown hair and coffee. Lysander let out a surprised, "Ugh!" as he turned to see the culprit. He had just opened his mouth to complain when he saw it: his beautiful shoes and the cuffs of his pants now doused in lukewarm brown coffee.

"NO," he said out loud in misery, still staring at his shoes in quiet agony. HONESTLY. Did no one have any respect for correct attire these days!? He hadn't even looked at the blur who had attacked him yet, merely leaning down to one knee to mourn his beautiful shoes, his elbow coming to rest on his bent knee in a moment of shocked lamenting for the lost beauty. UGH. This only lasted a moment though, as in the next second he was preparing for the kill, his large green eyes slanted in vicious anger as he looked up to meet the eyes of whatever awful human had done this injustice to him and his shoes.

This scenario would surely make young Lysander absolutely explode with insults, steam practically coming out of his ears. The young man had anger management problems in general, when someone merely spoke to him regularly! But this!? A blatant attack on him and his wardrobe and everything he stood for!? Oh this person was going to geeeet it. Just wait, oh he's gonna explode, it's gonna be nuts. Whoa. Just...Just any...any second now...Lysander is definitely gonna..he's gonna.. get mad? ...Lysander?

Oh no.

Young Lysander had glanced up from his shoes, still kneeling on one bent knee, with every intention of giving the culprit a piece of his mind, when...when...? Well it's really difficult to tell what happened. He glanced up at the stranger with vicious slanted eyes, mouth open and ready to give a long string of expletives to his new nemesis: "YOU DOLT, you absolute ---" but it was then that his eyes actually met this nemesis and words seemed to fall out of his brain entirely, his dark green eyes widening ever so slightly beneath his thick black glasses frames. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. She looked like a bunny and a deer and a fresh spring day and all things sugary and sparkly and nice combined into one petite human being that was now staring at him as he stared so blatantly at her, his normally clenched jaw now released as he kneeled before her, leaving his mouth just slightly open in what can only be described as awe. She was like a rainbow come to life. His direct opposite, a being he should have every reason to despise, and yet inexplicably Lysander could feel his heart warming up at the sight of her -- a reaction that immediately made his stunned, blank expression fall into one of confusion and disgust. Ohhhh nooooo. What on earth was this awful, warm and fuzzy feeling in the pit of his dark, cold chest? What was this!? Ew, it felt awful and vulnerable and unfamiliar and also wondrously exciting.

...Gross.

Lysander immediately stood up, brushing his pants off in silence as he cleared his throat, staring wide eyed at the ground as he attempted to figure out what on earth was happening to him.

By the time they reached the cafe, he had figured it out.

Door held open for Auror James, he eyed her with curiosity. "So.....how many questions do I get?"

Because if there was a limit, he was going to start counting. And then it would be a matter of framing questions in non-question like ways.

"Also, what's good here? My stomach has a rather delicate sensitivity to bad food." Not that he was suggesting all the food here was bad. But there was bad food wherever one could go. It was just a given. Like where there was sun there was shade. Where there were dogs, there were usually cats. So on and so forth. Good food, and bad food, went together. Hand in hand down the street. Or perhaps on the table.

Even in asking questions about questions, Blackhold was persistent in his questions. He was basically just a full grown toddler, in love with the word 'Why'. Genevieve slipped past him into the restaurant and found a table near the window. Better for keeping watch.

"You get... enough until I get tired of answering them. It could be four. It could be a thousand. The further apart they are, the better off you'll be. There isn't a set number, really." Because she was making this up as she went, and because she didn't want him to think she was an endless font of knowledge.

"Everything is good, actually. I'll order for us both, and you can just learn to trust me, okay?" She would even wait in line for him at the counter.

Rhydian realized he was making a face by the time she had finished insisting that she was going to order a surprise meal for them. Why was it, that all the women he ran into, seemed interested in giving undisputable orders? Was it the hat? Could have been the hat.

Wasn't giving it up though.

"Remind me, never to play a game with you." He was pretty sure the woman would make up the rules as she went. Probably knew how to charm the rulebook as she went. Though, it would make for an interesting time, but for now, he'd stick with the question games.

As for the food. "I'll trust the motto of YOLO." Even so, he plucked up a menu and had a peruse through the contents. Had to try everything at least once, right? Including potentially bad food deemed good by another person's tastebuds. Perhaps since meeting Lex, his gut had lost some of its sensitivity.

But, there was another tickling question, born from the number of items on the list and the single word 'everything'. He dropped the menu. "How many times have you eaten here? And is 'everything' referring to the fact you have tried everything, or are you using it as a general term?"

To him, they were important details. To her, he might be at his question maximum.

Usually encounters like this went one of two ways as far as Penelope knew - either the person was decent and realized this kinda thing was an accident or they threw a temper tantrum, and it looked like this one might be heading toward the second one. So she readied herself to throw whatever insults this person had right back at them...

...but then he was just....staring at her...? Um...???

She raised an eyebrow, suddenly confused and a bit weirded out. Was this guy okay? She considered looking behind her - because maybe there was something really strange back in that direction? - but then he was finally standing and looking down at the ground, soooo.....??

"Right, well...sorry again. M'sure it'll come out though." Not that she had any tips on how to do that exactly, other than spells like Scourgify, but was this guy a wizard or a Muggle? She didn't know. "Here's some napkins that might help though I guess," she continued, grabbing a couple unused paper napkins from the table and offering them to him.

Lysander was still desperately attempting to understand how these butterflies made their way into his stomach when the girl before him started speaking, apologizing again and promising it would most likely come out. All of his instincts told him he should be yelling at this person who had wronged him, throwing some kind of temper tantrum, and yet the butterflies in his cold little grinch heart were telling him to...what was that? Be nice!? Oh ew.

The poor young man was deeply torn, but before he had much time to think about it, the unknown kryptonite-girl handed him some napkins, which he took from her on instinct. Their hands accidentally brushed and his large green eyes widened once more as the butterflies went nuts. Oh dear Merlin. He hated this so much and yet his sharp green eyes couldn't seem to leave the petite brunette before him. "Thank you," he found himself saying before he realized he was saying it. It was then that he seemed to realize she would probably now turn and walk away, as was logical. His dark grumpy loner side let out a sigh of relief at the prospect of being released form this unfamiliar, uncomfortable feeling and yet this new, rainbow-filled side demanded he keep the conversation going.

Before he had even made the choice, the rainbows quickly won over. "I'm Lysander Norman Ryle," he said quickly, his deep voice shaking just slightly -- something extremely unusual for the young man who was often known for his even cadence and smooth speaking voice. WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO HIM!?

"Who are you?" he asked out of curiosity, but it sounded more like he was wondering aloud what force on earth could have reduced him to this butterfly-filled state.

Busy day was busy but one should always have time for their best friend! What best way to spend needed time with them than over lunch! Too bad Sophie couldn't cook this time; she would've enjoyed that.

Speaking of that, they should decide what kind of food was going to be served on Ella's wedding daaayyyyy!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEP ELLAWASGETTINGMARRIED KSJFNDKJFNSKLJN!!

...

What was she doing aga- oh, right. She needed a table. She'd wait for Ella before she ordered her food.