It's the Romance of the Thing (Finished)

[VICTORIA FRANKENSTEIN]

There was a gramophone. Her father only owned ten or fifteen records, most of which he just played on his turntable, but it remained a permanent installment in the library. So, homesick for Geneva, Victoria quickly found herself looking up record stores near the university. She had frequently passed them, but rarely did she ever consider actually entering one.

When she was three, she broke it; the gramophone that is. She was trying to see how it worked; trying to understand how the black disc made its music. As punishment, her father didn't fix it for a few months, partially because he was much to busy, but also because he knew how it would grate on his daughter's nerves to have a quiet library. One afternoon, on a bright summer day, father and daughter spent the whole of the day inside. Talking on in German, occasionally switching to Dutch, fixing the gramophone as they went. Even Alphonse felt that the library had gone on much too silently much too long. Victoria first learned all the parts of a turntable in Dutch, and she rarely ever referred to them any other way, but it had been a long time since she'd had the chance to do so.

Which must be why she currently found herself in a record shop in lower Manhattan. She walked up and down the aisles, thinking more than looking. There were artists she recognized, and ones she didn't, but she paged through each rack regardless. She was rather absorbed in her task as the music in the library of her childhood played on in her head.

[GREGORY LESTRADE]

 Lestrade was a traditional man. He liked marriage, disliked texting and still listened to vinyl records. He wasn't an uptight-rule-nazi-Catholic as he'd been raised to be, especially seeing as he most definitely had indulged in human intimacy for more reasons than just to have children, had nearly shot himself down the throat several times in a row, rarely went to church and quite decidedly enjoyed the presence of genders other than female. Still, he didn't have an ipod, only had a cell phone because his job forced him to have one, and preferred the hum of the radio rather than the television (though not that god-awful pop 'music' that was played constantly on the radio, heaven forbid).

Unfortunately, records were getting increasingly less common to find in any given market place. He had a cassette and disk player in his house, yes, but what he truly enjoyed was the good old, slightly-sped up tunes that were ticked out by a needle (and wasn't that fascinating?). He listened to older tunes, yes, but they were good tunes. Call him cliché or perhaps slightly feminine, but his favourite band had always been The Beatles. His first record had been Let It Be, a fancy new gift from McCourt that he'd listened to so much it didn't play anymore. Still, the fact that it'd had two sides and the music was so amazing made Lestrade happier than anything. He himself didn't have a record player, but he would listen to it all night at McCourt's house. Good old McCourt.

He visited different record-specific stores often. He didn't always buy them - he didn't really collect records just to collect them - but if he liked the song or band, he'd buy it without a second thought. It annoyed Lestrade that record stores these days sold cassettes, CD, and sometimes even DVDs as well! He understood times were hard, but it still ticked him off. Which was why when he saw this store even sold video games, he disapproved tremendously.

However he still wanted to look around, so set to flipping through boxes of paper-slipped disks, mentally noting a few of them. He made his way down the line of boxes until his found himself next to a girl of perhaps her mid-twenties, intent of finding her own records. Glancing over, Lestrade one of the records under her fingers, a Fleetwood Mac record. "That's good," he noted to her friendlily.

[VICTORIA FRANKENSTEIN]

She had been rather contently humming along to the tune in her head, and she really had been considering leaving soon when a pleasantly baritone voice interrupted her train of thought.

"That's good,"

She looked up to the owner, only briefly, but then back down the the record she had been currently holding. She hadn't actually known what she had in her hands, and the name was foreign to her. Most all of her father's records were of classical music, and there were one or two that her father hoarded in his study, and very in frequently the music leaked out into the foyer.

"Fleetwood Mac, hmm?" She looked back up to the owner of the voice, and found a rather pleasant set of eyes to accompany the voice. An early to mid-forty-something, from the clues on his face, looked back and he looked like someone who'd know a thing or two about records. She smiled and held out the record for his inspection.

"I haven't held one of these in a few years, I'm not to sure I could make heads or tails of the artists." She found that the memories helped the smiles come more easily. Passing off the record to the stranger, she turned her attention back to the row.

"Frankenstein, Victoria."

[GREGORY LESTRADE]

_{OOC: I actually know next to nothing on older music, so I apologise if what Lestrade's saying makes no sense whatsoever XD.}

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"Fleetwood Mac, hmm?" The girl looked up at him, smiling and holding the record out for him to see. Lestrade could see it was the band's album Bare Trees.

"I haven't held one of these in a few years, I'm not to sure I could make heads or tails of the artists," the girl continued, and handed the record off to Lestrade, who held it slightly awkwardly, not quite sure why he was holding it.

"Frankenstein, Victoria." It took Lestrade a second to realise that the girl was introducing herself. Wow, it had been a while since he'd heard anyone that young introduce them self so formally. The girl had a nice voice, pretty, elegant.

"Lestrade," he replied, placing the record gently on top of one of the boxes and holding out his hand to shake. If the girl was formal, he could certainly appreciate formal. "Gregory Lestrade. Nice to meet you," he smiled. "So what're you looking for here? I can't imagine there's all that much modern music here." Though, he had heard a lot of bands were going back to vinyl, which was… interesting. A bit weird, but interesting.

[VICTORIA FRANKENSTEIN]

{OOC: Yeah, me neither. Onlookers, pardon our naiveté. }

Then it was Victoria's turn to feel awkward. She hadn't really come for any real reason, and she managed to find the only person who actually knew anything proper about records. Though, considering that she was in a records shop, she felt as though she had walked into that one. She introduced herself, trying to alleviate a bit of the awkwardness.

"Lestrade, Gregory Lestrade. Nice to meet you."

The beat between her introduction and his response told her that she had caught him a bit off-guard. He hadn't expected her to introduce herself so formally. Not many people did. Victoria turned to face him and smiled as she shook his hand. She saw the Fleetwood Mac record sitting atop of the others, and recalling how awkwardly he had taken it from her in the first place, she took it back, re-filing it assuming that he wasn't much more interested than her. She turned back as he started talking again.

"So what're you looking for here? I can't imagine there's all that much modern music here."

Victoria thought for a moment, looking to the side, "Nostalgia?" she responded a bit questioningly. "My father had this gramophone in the library, it never properly worked, but he also had a turntable and would play whatever record he had on hand in our library." Victoria sighed a bit, looking at the rows of records. "It was lovely really, and I have to say, 6000 kilometers is quite a ways."

[GREGORY LESTRADE]

As soon as the term 'modern music' was out of his mouth, Lestrade inwardly cringed at the way he'd spoken. He sounded too old; he'd not meant it like that. It'd come out too... annoyed. Like he resented modernness. Ah, well, he couldn't take it back now.

"Nostalgia?" Frankenstein replied, a question lingering at the end of her words. "My father had this gramophone in the library, it never properly worked, but he also had a turntable and would play whatever record he had on hand in our library. It was lovely really, and I have to say, 6000 kilometers is quite a ways."

"'Tis," Lestrade agreed, smiling ever so slightly. So the girl was foreign-born, or at least grew up in a different country. All the way across America was not that many kilometers away. Lestrade glanced down at where the girl had re-placed the Fleetwood Mac record in its proper place; another quality he immediately liked about the girl. She appreciated order, and hadn't been taken in my that horrible pop music, as far as he could tell. It was a shame they weren't closer in age.

"So what kind of music are you looking for, here?" He asked curiously. "I'd say, it's not that easy to browse if you don't know much what you want."

[VICTORIA FRANKENSTEIN]

"'Tis."

VIctoria smiled back at Lestrade, after the "modern music" quip, she was a bit interested in what age he actually was. She hadn't yet gotten a good look at him, and if she had learned anything from New York yet, such an attitude would be just as at home on a 20-something as a 40 or 60-something.

She could tell he wasn't dull enough to not pick up that she wasn't a native, but he hadn't remarked about it. Was it a sympathy play? The way he had replied seemed to have a bit of genuine knowing in the tone, and she couldn't help but search his face through her own happy facade.

Not that she wasn't actually happy, but as it turns out, people don't particularly enjoy having their secrets read off their faces. So it's generally best to make yourself rather discreet when searching someone's face. Many years of practice told Victoria that Lestrade was in his early forties, though, a stressful job had put a few years on a face, that with proper care could've looked thirty-something instead. With the response to her first question, she couldn't imagine that he was an NYC native but it was really only the ghost of an accent she heard that gave her a "something British" feeling. Not an appearances guy, but his job demanded it, and he delivered: strong-willed, but quiet.

"So what kind of music are you looking for, here? I'd say, it's not that easy to browse if you don't know much what you want."

Victoria scrunched up her face a bit and thought for a moment before replying, "I suppose I've been looking for home."

Victoria laughed a bit at herself, "What about you? You don't sound like you're from around here."

[GREGORY LESTRADE]

"I suppose I've been looking for home," Frankenstein said thoughtfully, and Lestrade didn't realize that the woman was joking until she laughed at her own joke. Lestrade chuckled along a little awkwardly. The girl certainly was formal. "What about you? You don't sound like you're from around here," Frankenstein said, and Lestrade ducked his head humbly, his small giggle returning.

"Well, I suppose not," he said to his feet, dramatizing his accent for amusement and smiling. He realized, Frankenstein probably wanted the same respects she was giving him returned, and so he looked back up at her, making eye contact as was polite; it felt a bit different, considering he was really only followed social rules this closely when he was at work. "Ireland. Dublin."

He looked around at the shop, breaking eye contact. Yeah, he couldn't really do that very well outside of work. He looked back at Victoria after a moment, shrugging a little, even though the movement was predominantly pointless. "And you?" He asked. "You're not from here either."

_{OOC: I SAW FRANKENSTEIN IN THEATRES FROM THE NATIONAL THEATRE TODAY WOW IT WAS AMAZING.}

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[VICTORIA FRANKENSTEIN]

{OOC: I know, I could've seen it yesterday too, but I couldn't get down to the theatre to see it. I was really sad because it was a wonderful production. I was in love with this book from the first paragraph, and it was too good when I heard there would be an encore screening. //sadrant over. }

She could tell that the formalities that she had started the conversation with as a crutch weren't helping Greg much. She saw that the formality was stiffening and interrupting his movements. She tried to relax her own posture and language. She didn't have to do formal, she could be most anything you wanted. Victoria just knew that it was much easier to dress-down a conversation than to dress it up after a terrible first impression.

"Well, I suppose not. Ireland. Dublin."

And there it is. She heard more clearly his accent and she needn't have had him tell her where exactly he had come from, but in her experience, people like to talk. You should let them.

Dublin. Henrietta was in Ireland, wasn't she? It had been a long time since she had seen her good friend. Henri had gotten accepted to some fancy program, and she and been ridiculously busy for the last six months. Her initially weekly letters became more biweekly, and biweekly became monthly, and now she hadn't properly heard from her in almost three months. She should go see Henrietta this summer, well, she should, but she probably wouldn't. She really needed to work on her graduate studies and having her visa edited would be a ridiculous hassle.

"And you?" He asked. "You're not from here either."

She focused on relaxing her words before replying, she wanted to make Greg feel as comfortable as possible.

"No, I'm on an education visa right now. I was born and raised in Geneva, Switzerland."

[GREGORY LESTRADE]

OOC: Damn, it was really, really amazing, I'm sorry you weren't able to go!

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The girl seemed to soften here gait a little, and Lestrade managed not to show his small amount of relief. It wasn't as if the formalities weren't a welcome rarity, but it was a bit awkward, considering they were simply having a polite conversation and not in a meeting or the like. Lestrade also hoped that he hadn't made her feel awkward before; perhaps the reason she had been so stiff was because he was annoying her or making her nervous? Oh dear, he hadn't thought of that before. He hoped this was a sign that she wasn't too annoyed with him anymore.

"No, I'm on an education visa right now. I was born and raised in Geneva, Switzerland," she said.

Geneva? Oh, Elliot had been there before on vacation, he's shown Lestrade the pictures. It was lovely, so much blue, blue ocean and elegant architecture and that large geyser thing Elliot had talked about. What was it? The jet due or something. Whatever it was, it looked wonderful. Lestrade remembered thinking it looked a bit like Greece.

"My brother's been there, it looks amazing," Lestrade said, smiling. "I'd love to go someday." He paused, then asked, "So what are you studying over here?"

[VICTORIA FRANKENSTEIN]

She saw Lestrade relax slightly and hoped that her more relaxed attitude was making it a bit easier for him to continue the conversation with her. Lestrade was, to say the very least, interesting.

"My brother's been there, it looks amazing, I'd love to go someday. So what are you studying over here?"

"I'm working towards a PhD in Biochemical Engineering. I'm about three years work into my thesis."

Victoria tried to pad the statement with her tone as well as she could. Not to insult Greg's intelligence, but the subject matter she dealt with flew over most everyone's head. She hoped a bit that it could be left at that, seeing the delicate ethical nature work that she did, but she wasn't going to be as rude as to rush past his inquiries.

"It is really interesting work, terribly complicated, but endlessly fascinating."

She waited to see if he wanted to ask any questions, while secretly hoping he didn't, she really enjoyed talking about her work and all the new advancements in her field. her passion for project was what so frequently brought her to the Columbia campus. She had made quite a few acquaintances on both the NYU and Columbia campus, and the more than often provided her with the scientific intellectual match she frequently craved. Having spent so much time only on the campuses, she occasionally found it a bit difficult to talk about much else.

[GREGORY LESTRADE]

"I'm working towards a PhD in Biochemical Engineering. I'm about three years work into my thesis," Frankenstein said casually, and Lestrade found it a little amusing because if there were studies that were definitely not casual, he was pretty sure biochemical engineering was one of them. And a PhD? At her age? That was impressive.

"It is really interesting work, terribly complicated, but endlessly fascinating," Frankenstein added, and she seemed genuine in her interest. Well... good for her. She was a young woman who knew what she wanted to do in her life, even if what she was choosing to do was beyond most peoples' metal capabilities. He'd gotten a taste of the math-science spectrum of the world during his three years at Trinity, when he'd poured his brains over document after document, number after number. It was interesting, but he couldn't do it. It was too... dull. Numbers were endlessly interesting on an academic spectrum, but he wanted more stimulus, he wanted to do things. Mathematics and quantum physics didn't let a man run, so he ran away.

"It is. Fascinating, I mean," he smiled. "I studied maths and science in uni as well," he acknowledged, so his opinion didn't seem like a sugarcoated automatic response. "But, er, not anymore. Just wasn't my thing. I'm with the police now. So, uh, where do you go to college?"

[VICTORIA FRANKENSTEIN]

"It is. Fascinating, I mean. I studied maths and science in uni as well,"

Victoria watched Greg with interest. She hadn't imagined that Greg had ever studied mathematics or science. Now that she was properly looking at him, she could see how Greg might have had such a past, but this revelation only affirmed her belief of Greg being more the up an' at 'em type, he certainly had the build to prove it.

Greg also seemed to be the sort that wanted to credible, if not overly. As much as he seemed like a, "I do what I want" kind of guy, he also seemed that he was consistently looking for ways to validate himself.

"But, er, not anymore. Just wasn't my thing. I'm with the police now. So, uh, where do you go to college?"

Victoria briefly wondered if Greg knew Peter, she hadn't seen him since the party and she'd been meaning to keep in touch. Victoria laughed a bit at herself, she was getting well acquainted with the law enforcement here in New York.

"I'm attending NYU. Though I tend to visit the Columbia campus more often than not." She paused before continuing. "It really is a lovely university, and while New York is nothing like Zurich, New York really is a lovely town. I'm glad I came here."

She smiled after the last sentence, hoping to finally put Greg at ease in her presence.

[GREGORY LESTRADE]

"I'm attending NYU," Victoria said. "Though I tend to visit the Columbia campus more often than not... It really is a lovely university, and while New York is nothing like Zurich, New York really is a lovely town. I'm glad I came here." She finished with a smile, and Lestrade got the feeling that she really enjoyed school.

"Yeah," Lestrade agreed, nodding his head a bit. "It is a great place to live." She smiled briefly, before re-positioning himself to cross his arms comfortably. "So uh, how long have you been over here, then? I've lived here about a year meself."

Wow, almost a year. He'd moved here early autumn, and now it was summer, and how had the days gotten away from him so quickly? Nine months since he'd left SanFran, gotten on a plane and left his baby without him. He'd seen her six months ago. Six more to go until he could see her again. She was a patient girl, wasn't she? Readjusting so easily for her selfish father.

[VICTORIA FRANKENSTEIN]

"Yeah, It is a great place to live."

Victoria glanced briefly down at her watch and seeing that she needed to start heading back to her apartment rather soon, she turned her attention back to Greg.

"So uh, how long have you been over here, then? I've lived here about a year meself."

"Oh, I've been here for about three years now." Victoria looked around to see if she had left anything amiss. "I just noticed that I need to be heading home now, I have to get ready for some afternoon classes."

Victoria felt incredibly rude, she really should have kept better track of her time.

"Would you care to join me on the metro?"

She invited Greg, hoping that she could still salvage the situation.

{OOC: You can take this whatever direction you want. A change in location might provoke better conversation? Or we could just end the thread in the next few posts, whatever you like.}