New Beginnings

[Calvin]

Calvin smiled. He liked Thalia. She had the kind of personality that just drew people in. Her accent was kind of catchy too. "A painting of wolves. I like wolves - they are my favorite animal. There's something about them that I just connect with. I know that sounds strange, but they are really intriguing animals."


Calvin took another sip of his tea. "I'm a mechanic. Right now anyways. I want to go into law enforcement though."
The thought of the change made Calvin happy. He was beginning to feel more like that was the direction he wanted to go in.

[Thalia]

Wolves often worked their way into her doodlings, though she could claim no great affinity. She was more of a cat person. Or maybe that was the other way around, since it was them who seemed to like her so much. Still, for some reason it sent a prickle across her skin, like ill feeling, there then gone. She was long used to ignoring such things.

"Spirit animal? That's not strange to some people."
Still munching on bites of muffin, she reached down one handed to rummage in the satchel at her feet, pulling out a small sketchbook and pencil. The book was more than half full, and she skimmed her way quickly to the end. No great works were within, just musings and scribbles. Ideas. Or the accents to thoughts. She liked to keep busy.

"Mechanic, huh. Always handy people to know. Law enforcement is quite a career change, though. Any reason? Not to pry, of course."
Another easy grin. The pencil idled, free and ponderous strokes that lacked concentration. With the other hand she took a sip of tea.

[Calvin]

Thalia seemed very cheerful. It wasn't unlike her doppelganger, but yet it was still different. The woman took out a sketch pad and began to scribble. Calvin really hoped he wasn't boring her.

Spirit animal. It was like something his mother would have said. As Calvin thought about it,it was kind of true, but at the same time wasn't. He could speak with wolves and shared some wolflike abilities, but did they guide him? Calvin smiled. In a way they kind of did. Especially right now.

The career shift. It was as drastic change, but he knew change was needed. "Have you ever felt like you just needed to start over? Like you needed a new beginning?"
Calvin paused for a moment, trying to think of how to word what was in his head. "Things have been rough lately and I'm sort of in need of a new beginning. A career change is a step in that direcion. To be honest, I've always been interested in law enforcement, but the opportunity has never presented itself."
Until now, well at least soon. He still had to take care of his record.

[Thalia]

Had she ever needed to start over? She grinned at that like it stoked some bright affinity. New beginnings were something she had great sympathy for. Cutting ties with the past, forging ahead freely on some new and unexplored path. For that reason she didn't ask about the tough time he'd been having, not so much out of disinterest as a wholehearted desire to push ahead with that new beginning. "Then we won't talk of the past. Only the future."


The lines and shading in her sketchbook coalesced into the forms of wolves, some outlines abandoned half-finished, like she searched for the right minds-eye image, though she only paid the distraction half attention. To her it was no different as if she sat there tapping her fingers or bobbing her knee. It wasn't meant to be rude, though she supposed it didn't matter to her a whole lot if that's the way it was perceived. "So was leaving America a part of this whole new beginning too? Seems all paths converge on Moscow these days."
She was an immigrant herself, and there was no accusation in the way she said it, just benign amusement.

[Calvin]

Calvin watched Thalia sketch, seeing the images coalesce into the shapes of wolves. Thalia was good at what she did. She seemed to do it with very little effort; it seemed as if the young woman found her calling. He was impressed.

"You are very talented."
Calvin said.

The reason he left the States. He always thought that it was because the wolves had told him to. But he wasn't so sure that was the only reason anymore. Life in the States had sort of lost it's meaning to him after his family died. He had begun to accept that he was trying to escape, but what was done was done.

"You could say that."
Calvin said with a smile, his tone matching hers. "What about you - you said you were British, what brings you to the heart of the CCD?"

[Thalia]

"Thanks."
She accepted the compliment with a quirk of her lips. It had never felt much of a talent, more of a ... necessity, a compulsion that seemed to require very little effort on her part. Sometimes the praise felt ill deserved, but mostly she accepted it breezily, as now.

She tore the page of wolves from the sketchbook and handed it over. In lieu of a business card, she'd scribbled her name and number in the corner. "University originally. Though that didn't go so well."
She grinned, washing the memories away without much thought. "My sister lives here, she works at the Guardian. So I stayed. I like it here, though. Lots of interesting folk."

[Calvin]

Thalia handed over the drawing, scrawling her contact information on it. It had to be the most personal business card he had ever received. Calvin looked at the drawing for a few moments, admiring how well done it was.

He turned to her and finished his tea, noting the time on the wall. "Thank you very much for the company and the drawing. When I can, I'll contact you about a painting.
He gave her a smile. "I must get going, however. Work calls."


He did indeed have to work at the garage that day. Truth be told, he felt glad to have met someone new. Even though he was sure that Nimeda and Thalia were connected. It would be interesting to discover how.