Growing Wallflowers | Catherine

[Celeste Bertelli]

Celeste didn't know if it was true for everyone or not but for most people, herself included, she thought that rainy days could be a real drag. Granted rain had its benefits as any child of Ceres would be the first to tell you but when the storms got bad and the weather kept you inside she didn't think that was much fun for anyone especially when you got trapped out in it and had to make a mad dash to find cover.

Celeste sighed and turned her attention away from the window she was watching the rain out of and back to the small potted plant that she had been coaxing into bloom using her powers. She knew she probably looked like a drowned rat but she supposed things could be worse. At least she had found a nice coffee shop to duck into when the rain started pouring and while it hadn't kept her from getting drenched at least she could sit here and dry off with a warm drink while she waited for the rain to subside. Besides, helping the little flower out provided some entertainment as well and that served as a nice distraction from just how crowded the tiny shop was getting as other Romans sought refuge from the storm.

For now her window booth was empty aside from her. Celeste had gotten here soon enough that she had been able to grab it before the crowd started to gather. Now however she wondered how much longer she would be able to keep to herself. Hopefully the rain wouldn’t last much longer but at this rate with the storm still raging the likelihood she was going to be able to keep to her wallflower ways was getting less. For the moment though she was warm and getting dry and if forced interaction did come maybe it wouldn’t be too bad. She hadn’t been that unlucky yet after all.

[Catherine Demedici]

Catherine loved sunny days. The warm sunlight that shined in clear skies that made everything chipper and full of life. Today, was not one of those days. It had started that way, at least until a sudden downpour began and she was trapped outside. She had been running errands for her mother all morning and now she was drenched from head to toe and she could barley see her glasses were so fogged up. Needless to say she was miserable. Part of the problem was that all of her Errands had gone wrong. All of her mothers friends had just ruined any good mood she could have had. She hated the prissy society that her mother associated themselves as and she hated the way people looked at her. Like behind their smiles they are waiting to ruin their name or turn others against their family. Connections meant everything to her mother, and Catherine knew that she had to keep it together for her mother.

The closest place had been a cafe, already packed with citizens all wet and dripping. It was a tight space needless to say, everyone was mumbling about, waiting for the worst to past. Catherine just wanted this day to pass. She went over and ordered a large hot chocolate and looked for a place to sit at. One of the booths sat a girl from her cohort and she took her chance before someone else in the crazy filled store could. She walked over and watched as the girl, Celeste, she remembered her name from drills, controlled a plant, willing it back to life. It was spectacular, she always envied ceres children. So much strength but it was all good, never destructive like her own. She realized she was looking too long and snapped out of it "Hey, um, could I sit here?" 10/10 not awkward at all.

[Celeste Bertelli]

As if on cue a voice spoke up behind her causing Celeste to stop what she was doing. That was a bummer but at least she had been expecting it. She hated when people snuck up on her but sneaking was kind of hard in a room full of disgruntled Romans. Slowly Celeste turned to see who had addressed her only to find a somewhat familiar face standing there at her table and looking like she didn’t really know what to say. The girl was drenched from head to toe like most of the other Romans but Celeste could remember her from her cohort and that was comforting. If she was going to have to sit with someone it might as well be someone that she kind of knew even if the situation wasn’t the best.

“Sure, you can have a seat.” Celeste said as she gave the girl a smile that she hoped came across as welcoming friendly. Knowing that the situation was already kind of awkward the least she could do was try and make it less so even if she wasn’t the most social person herself. “umm…Catherine right? Guess you got caught out in the storm too huh?” Granted it wasn’t the best conversation starter, of course she had gotten caught out in the storm why else would she be so wet, but what else was there to talk about besides the weather? At least she hadn’t embarrassed herself. Gods she always worried about that and it wasn’t like it was made any easier by the fact that she knew the girl. If she messed up now Catherine would probably go back and tell all their fellow legionnaires about how weird the Ceres girl was and Celeste didn’t need any more rumors flying around about her.

[Catherine Demedici]

Catherine nodded when the girl approved her sitting with her, slowly sliding into the booth, a small thanks coming out of her mouth, looking around her as she did. She recognized quite a few people from her mothers parties. Which meant they knew her. Fidgeting started then. How she carefully laid out her coffee mug full of her sweet drink, careful to set it as she had been taught all her life. Once she deemed it acceptable she took her extra napkins and started to attempt to fix herself. Everything was wrong though, all her skin had goosebumps. Her mother would be so angry if she found out.

She was snapped out of her fidgeting when Celeste said something to her. So she did know her name, figures since they were in the same cohort, but she had never been known to talk much. Then again neither did Cat, unless she was doing socialite stuff for her mother. After all it was her family duty.

She nodded slightly, wrapping her cold hands around the warm mug. "Yeah. And your Celeste right? We haven't really talk much before have we." her voice was soft, cat trying to be as small she possibly could in this crowded place. "Yeah. Its a awfully bad storm. It came out of no where too. I wish it had at least given us time to get inside but now we all look like Neptune decided to take us all for a dip. At least we made it into a coffee shop, we could have been stuck somewhere boring like the armory or stuck with the Centurion. " shed believe it. Neptune kids always seemed to have a issue with her, she supposed that made sense since her father, but it was completely reasonable to believe he would do such a thing.

[Celeste Bertelli]

Celeste watched as the Catherine set down at the table and began to situate herself. She tried to be polite and ignore the girl’s efforts so as not to make things more awkward but she recognized it for what it was immediately. It was hard to get away from the Roman social etiquette that was drilled into the upper crust of society and no one knew that better than the constant embarrassment to her aunt and uncle, Celeste.

The problem was that her father had never put much emphasis on forcing her into the Roman box. When he died and she went to live with her aunt all of a sudden she had to eat right, talk right, even breathe right, and for Celeste with her wildly colored hair and her reserved nature she quickly became a black sheep of her family. Celeste hoped that Catherine was one of those that could juggle the responsibility better than herself but she did know that it wouldn’t be polite to talk about here so the daughter of Ceres wisely kept her mouth shut and attention averted.

When Catherine spoke up again that was Celeste’s que that it was okay to continue. She glanced back at the other girl as her small smile returned and gave her a little embarrassed nod. “Yeah…Sorry about that. I guess it’s just kind of hard to talk in the barracks sometimes.” Now that it was out in the open Celeste felt a little bad about not making more of an effort to talk to her fellow cohort members. She tried to be a useful team member, tried to make her presence known but so often she fell short. There was nothing she could do about it now of course but she just hoped Catherine wouldn’t hold it against her. Fortunately as the girl continued that didn’t seem to be the case.

“Yeah I guess you’re right.” She said with a giggle at the thought of children of Neptune suddenly deciding to give them all a dunk. “The centurion wouldn’t be able to boss us around even if he was here. At least I don’t think…” Celeste really didn’t want to test that theory. In all likelihood she would probably jump if someone shouted an order right now even if it came while she was having her coffee. “But it doesn’t look like we’ll have to find out.” Casting a glance around just to be sure she relaxed a little. “So uh what brings you to New Rome today?”