[Slovenia] Spomini Slovenija [Open To Anyone]

[Roderich Edelstein]

With a raised eyebrow, Roderich took back the honey and lemon, giving them to the herbalist to add for his delivery that evening. Far be it from his place to insist that she take care of the scars if she felt so strongly about them. Something was bound to happen to his own crew that would make them useful, though he was sorry to be so sure of it.

He pulled out his pocketwatch from his waistcoat pocket and checked it. "Hm, it does seem to be lunchtime."

As they stepped out of the shop, away from the prying eyes of the herbalist, he told her softly, "If you'd prefer, I can leave you here. But I thought it would be best to leave without much fuss."

It was no use telling a near-perfect stranger that he felt compelled to watch over her, both because he worried she might hurt someone, or herself and because...well he didn't know. But it was easier somehow lecturing her than leaving. Despite how uncomfortable he felt.

[Slovenia]

Danica stepped out of the shop quietly. It looked like it was about to rain, but regardless of the dreadful gray clouds covering the sky, Slovenia still had a certain radiance to it. It was a small country for sure, about two million people lived here, but it was absolutely a calming, friendly, and welcome place. So, what on earth happened to it's personification?

Danica turned to Roderich. "I have no qualms with you, after all, I did invite you to lunch." She blinked. "But you are free to leave whenever you wish."

Scarily, she didn't want him to leave.

She peered over to the architecture surrounding them. Influenced by Italian and Austrian design.... She blinked. Another bit of information that she shouldn't know.

"Say, Roderich. Have you ever...encountered a place that you feel you have been to before, even if you have not? A place that you seem to know information about that you shouldn't? Somewhere...that you are drawn to?" She turned to him again. "I feel that this country is...important to me somehow. And I want to know why."

[Roderich Edelstein]

They were wandering without any particular destination, more following their noses and the hustle and bustle of the passers-by than anything else. It was time for lunch and that would be enough to find a place.

It was a pretty town, Roderich thought. Reminded him of home, somewhat, though not quite. He was musing on an archway when Danica's question surprised him out of his thoughts.

The first person to have similar feelings to me and I'm rather worried she may be clinically insane. What does that say about me?

"I..." he paused, trying to decide the best way to word his response. "That's an interesting question. I imagine you aren't talking about mere deja-vu. I can't say I've ever felt it with a place. Well, certain places seem nicer to me, certainly. I'm more at ease abroad than I ever was home in Austria, though I miss it. But I seem to have the most extraordinary luck with people lately. It's as though I'm meeting them again and I have all these preconceived notions which come from nowhere. I try to ignore them for the new acquaintance's sake but it seems more often than not I'm right. Strange, isn't it?"

A fat drop of rain fell on his head and he gave the sky a scowl. No matter, they would likely find a place to stop soon. "Perhaps we ought to put more stock in that odd Indian belief of reincarnation!" he laughed, but somehow it felt forced and wrong to do so.

[Slovenia]

Danica stared at him. So, he had similar experiences like she did? Unexpected, but somehow it made sense. Whoever Roderich was, she knew that he was similar to her, even if he didn't want to admit it. But, it wasn't just the doctoring.

"Reincarnation, hm?" His tone and laugh was very out of place, and it bothered her. For some reason, the concept of reincarnation was... touchy. Not because she was religious, but something entirely different. It wasn't like Roderich to make a joke like that, she reasoned. "If that were true," She unconsciously touched her neck, the same spot that had been gutted by a fork in her previous life. "I wonder how I died?"

That made Slovenia cease crying out. Indeed...how did Austria feel when she committed suicide? Deaths related to Germany and his side were not hidden, and Hungary would have told him. She never considered how he felt...she never considered how anyone would feel, as long as Germany felt guilt about it. And that was the only reason she did it. And in such a horrible way too!

I'm so sorry Austria.

Danica stopped in front of a quaint restaurant. "How about here?"

[Roderich Edelstein]

Roderich cringed just then and twisted his shoulder around to get at a place on his back where the muscles had cramped to rub away the pain.

“On your knees, Austria. And put your hands behind your head.”
“Gladly, in a moment. Let me finish, if you please.”
Gunshots. Three times.

His memories were nowhere near enough to the surface as Danica's for him to remember what his body was trying to tell him. It just hurt. More than it should have.

"Well, they say it's the ones with unfinished business that return, don't they? If you prefer perhaps we should pretend that we both died old and peacefully surrounded by loved ones and are just back to cause some mischief." Why did that feel like a lie?

He followed her lead into the small restaurant. Dozens of tables crammed close together and absolutely packed with locals babbling in Slovenian with such speed and enthusiasm that Roderich immediately felt as though he shouldn't have bothered studying his phrasebook that morning.

A bit of pantomime and some broken Slovenian on his side with even more pantomime and a few German words on the part of the waitress, however, got them to a small secluded booth in the back away from the worst of the hustle and bustle.

Thank goodness she learned some of my language, after all.

Wait, what right did he have to comment on "her" education? No, he couldn't have meant the waitress... He buried these thoughts and focused on Danica. He had assumed that she wouldn't want to deal with either the hassle of finding a seat or to be seated so near everyone else. But now he needed help. "I don't suppose you can read any of what they have to eat here, can you?"

[Slovenia]

Danica chuckled sadly. "Perhaps you did. But I doubt that I died 'surrounded by loved ones'." Nope. You died with your jugular spurting blood out of it like a faucet as you twitched on the cold jail cell. Not even close.

She watched Roderich struggle with the waitress. Funny, Danica felt she could kind of grasp what the waitress was saying. In fact, the fast jumble of background noise was somewhat understandable for her. Which should be impossible. She'd never studied Slovene, never set foot in this country....well as far as she knew. Just another piece to this mystery.

They were placed at the very back of the restaurant, which was a relief to her since they were away from the loud and bustling customers. She blinked when Roderich handed her a menu and asked her if she could read it. Well. She could.

"...I can." She said, almost in disbelief. She recognized not only the words, but also what exactly are in each dish listed. "What do you want?"

The waitress trotted her way back to their table, intent on getting their drink order. She asked this is Slovene, and again, Danica understood. Why?

"I'll have a glass of red wine, dear." She said in English. The waitress nodded and wrote it down. "Oh, yes. I forgot to say, most Slovenian's speak English." She grinned. "My apologies."

[Roderich Edelstein]

Roderich shot Danica a mock-scowl. "So you enjoy watching me stammer about in other languages for your amusement?"

"Red wine for me as well, thank you," he said to the waitress, then mumbled to himself, "Kinder diesen tagen, keine manieren."

He considered. "Perhaps you were exposed to the language as a child? I've heard that if a nurse or family member speaks the language, sometimes a baby can remember it subconsciously..."

The menu looked rather baffling to him. He was suddenly glad that the people would speak English, because he wasn't sure he could make heads or tails of it. Sloven was definitely not Germanic, that much he could tell. But he didn't want to bother the waitress for a word-by-word translation of the menu.

"It's a bit cool out, is there some sort of soup or stew? Perhaps with beef?"

[Slovenia]

Danica raised an amused eyebrow. "Would it surprise you if I said I do?" She chuckled, surprisingly almost friendly-like. It was strange how Roderich put her at ease so easily, like they were close friends for a long time. Danica had never experienced a long term friendship before- it was arguable that she had ever experienced a short term one- so it was rather confusing for the broken doctor.

She snorted. "Kinder? I can't be that much younger than you." It should be noted that Danica spoke both English and German [and Slovene but that was still a mystery to her]. As she was raised in that orphanage to speak both, due to her caretaker being American. She was quite adamant of spreading her language to the next European generation.

She blinked at what he had said next. Exposed as a baby....?

"Roderich...." She breathed. "You're brilliant." Quite possibly the highest compliment she had ever given someone else, but at the moment her head was spinning. Of course. Of course! Her family must be Slovenian! There was no other explanation. "Why didn't I think of that?"

She was silent for a few moments. "Well, now I know where I should go after lunch. I still need....physical proof." She grinned a him, another expression she wasn't very acquainted with. "You are welcome to join me, if you wish."

She blinked at the menu. "Your best choice for beef stew is the Bograč. It has beef, pork and venison. You'd best like paprika."

The waitress returned with both glasses of wine. Danica took her glass, closed her eyes, and smelled the wine before she took a sip. A bit of a habit of hers; she loved wine. And this wine was exceptional. Also again, very very familiar. What...did she drink wine as a baby...? Or perhaps, she had unknowingly drunk a Slovenian wine.

She chose the latter, if only to convince herself that her parents weren't complete idiots.

[Roderich Edelstein]

"You don't have to be younger than me to act childish," Roderich told her, mock-scowling. And no fair her knowing German and Slovene.

He blinked at her several times in confusion. "Are you saying you were adopted? I suppose that would make a good deal of sense, your knowing the language and the overall feeling of familiarity but not knowing where you are."

When the waitress came back he decided to take her advice. "I would like the Bograč please." He took a slow sip of his wine, letting it rest in his mouth to savor the flavor. Very, very good.

"Do you mean to go and track down birth records and find your name, then?"

[Slovenia]

She chuckled. "Sie haben Recht. Aber ärgern wird zu viel Spaß."

It had been a while since she spoke German. She mostly spoke English now, as other languages such as German were not allowed to be spoken on The Metal Sunflower. It was either English or Russian, and she didn't speak a word of Russian, not for lack of learning.

Her grin faded. "Ah. Not exactly. I was never adopted." People never wanted broken kids. "I spent time in an orphanage but...well." She left it at that. "Spent time" in an orphanage was an understatement; she spent about half her life in one.

She looked at the waitress. "I will have the Gobja Juha." The waitress nodded and made her way to the kitchen.

"There's a much more direct way for me to find out if this is truly where I was born. I just need to look at some old newspapers." She smiled, looking distant. The fire would have made it to the news for sure. Again, Roderich found out something new about her so quickly. She would have to be careful, lest she reveal her whole damned life story to him. Though...he could know about the fire. That would be...alright. She just wouldn't tell him directly.

[Roderich Edelstein]

Roderich nodded in sympathy. He'd been a doted on, an only child of affluent parents. He couldn't imagine living in an orphanage for any measure of time. But if she just needed to find some newspapers to determine if she was from this town, then whatever the circumstances in which she lost her parents were had been major. A murder perhaps, a fire, a boating accident - the sort of thing that would appear in the papers.

Best not to pry.

He felt somewhat uncomfortable as they waited for their food. He honestly didn't know what he was doing here. Truth be told it wasn't a bad thing he was going around with her - it wasn't as though he was neglecting his duties, but he couldn't figure out why he was just going along with this woman as though his mere presence would stop her from doing something horrible. The police would have been better. Who was he to have any influence over a wayward countr-woman?

The food arrived and it smelled delicious. Roderich still felt at a loss of what to say. It all seemed deeply personal and he wasn't sure where to start. Finally he settled on, "I imagine the archives should be easy enough to find. How is your food?"

[Slovenia]

The silence that followed as they waited for their lunch was very awkward. Danica was, at the moment, distracted. She peered into the distance, absorbing the details of her surroundings. Even a person like her could appreciate it's serene and calm mood, and she had to admit it was beautiful. Yes, even the posters on that wall didn't damage the over all-

Oh. Oh dear.

She spotted a certain poster on the wall almost behind her. It was a wanted poster, with a...surprisingly accurate drawing. Of her. Wanted for murder and arson.

Well, only one part of that was true. Not that it mattered much.

She subtly shifted her position, blocking Roderich's view from that wall. She wanted to avoid that scenario, if possible. He didn't seem to notice it, as he was distracted by their lunch arriving. She nodded at the waitress, and picked up her spoon filled with hot and herb-filled mushroom soup. It tasted...familiar. And delicious, of course.

"Yes, it should be very easy. Decade old newspapers are kept safe in the Ljubijana library and are accessible to the public." She smiled, and for the first time ever, there was no hint of hesitation in it, or malice. Her smile, for a few seconds, was real. It was Slovenia. "So, you'll be joining me then?" The warmness of her smile vanished. "It tastes familiar."

[Roderich Edelstein]

Roderich was indeed completely distracted by the arrival of hot tasty food. He broke off a bit of the crusty bread that had arrived with the soups and dipped it in the broth between bites. Delicious.

Any arson or murder posters, familiar or otherwise, went unnoticed. Whether or not the rest of the patrons would be as equally oblivious was yet to be seen.

"I can come with you," he said once he had carefully chewed and swallowed his current mouthful. "My ship isn't coming back to get me until tomorrow morning and truth be told I could think of far worse ways to spend an afternoon than reading up on the history of a new place."

He frowned at Danica's change in facial expression. "Are you upset that it taste's familiar? I'd have thought you would be happy."

[Slovenia]

"It is very difficult to make me happy." She said flatly. What was happiness anyway? Good family, lively surroundings, delicious food? Or was it personal success? Money? How do you achieve happiness? Danica wanted to know those answers. "I am....merely curious about my past. I just want to know why this place draws me in so much. My lack of happiness is inconsequential." What was sad was that she did believe that.

She continued to eat her soup, the warmness and relaxing flavor wasted on her. She finished it shortly after, and she concentrated on the fine wine. There were very few things Danica liked, her research being the number one, but solitude and wine were amongst the top as well. Normally she worked late into the night on The Metal Sunflower, adding new information to her notes and writing the day's work into her personal log. Yes, with nothing but candle light and old wine, that was her favorite part of the day. Her crew knew about her liking to the delicious drink, but she hardly let the knowledge usher her into unwanted social situations. Very few of her crew interested her.

The waitress returned with the bill. Danica rummaged through her bag and gave her enough money to pay for both of their meals. "Keep the change." The waitress smiled and nodded, scurrying away to help with other orders. Danica silently waited for Roderich to finish, then it will be off to the library.

[Roderich Edelstein]

Masculine pride somewhat hurt by Danica's hasty payment of the bill, Roderich was about to open his mouth in protest when he saw her looking at him expectantly. Evidently she wanted to be gone, and quickly. He hastily mopped up the last of the broth with a crust of bread and downed the remainder of the wine.It felt wrong to be so quick about a meal, and particularly about wine. Slovenia would have admonished Austria, who never would have considered committing such a crime anyway. As it was, Roderich was left once again feeling ill-at-ease about Danica.As he stood up from the table, collecting his coat, the wall of posters came into his view and he found himself momentarily distracted by the jarring colors in contrast to the rest of the tavern's decor.

Wait, was that...?

He kept his expression as neutral as he could manage, and addressed his companion.

"Well, shall we?"

I'll just get a better look at that on the way out...