[Adriana Katoracov]

Location: Bucharest, Romania • Date: 3 January, 1977

There was a very long list of things that Adriana Katoracov was not supposed to be doing.

At the very top of that list: taking the train from into the capital city, far from her magical community and far from her home, to a place filled with non-magical people who wanted to impose strict rules and regulations, to dangerous government workers, and most importantly to a place where she could not use her wand.

Adriana did not mind. She was clever, and she was meeting a friend.

Plus, Bucharest was fun. It was always busy, and there were so many stores and markets. She was just going for the day, anyway; her father was out of town for work for several days and she knew she had time.

Which is how Adriana found herself sighing happily as she walked through the streets of the Old Town, trying to decide where she wanted a bite to eat while she waited for her friend.

She couldn't wait to be done with school.

[Radu Georgescu]

Romania was different but it was also the same. They were Communists but they were not Soviets. They spoke Romanian like Radu did but everything was written in an alphabet Radu only recognized because he grew up reading very old books. A latin alphabet is what someone had told them. The Soviets made them use a Cyrillic one now. He had vague recollections of being told about how different Romanians were from Moldovan. They are not the same. He remembered being told that in a lesson. Why someone had thought that was an important thing to teach children he did not know.

He walked around the Old Town with his hands shoved in his pockets as his eyes darted around taking in the sights. He was doing a bad job of actually observing things, which was what he was supposed to be doing, but it was difficult with all the new things. Different things. He was so distracted he ran right into a girl.

"Îmi pare rău," he apologized a bit sheepishly. He normally did not run into people. This was embarrassing.

[Adriana Katoracov]

"Hei!" Adriana gasped as she nearly toppled over; as much as she loved being in the city the crowd was a nice reminder of the fact that she was not supposed to be there. She wasn't used to it, at least not in this environment. Tourists in Sighisoara, maybe. But bustling city people... not so much.

As soon as she looked at who it was, though, her expression softened. It was just some kid, probably around her age.

He looked super awkward.

"It's fine," Adriana shrugged, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "No harm done. Are you okay?"

[Radu Georgescu]

"Da," he answered back in Russian. He was just used to telling Vanya he was fine when he was not. He was fine this time though. He finally got a good look at the person he ran into and was taken aback to see a girl roughly around his age. He had not really met many girls his age. There were not that many girls at the orphanage and he was secluded from pretty much everyone except Vanya now.

He blushed inadvertently.

"Are you?" he switched back to Romanian with no effort at all.

[Adriana Katoracov]

He was blushing. It was kind of cute.

Too bad she had a boyfriend. Who she still hadn't seen that day. They were supposed to be meeting up with her friend together, but she hadn't seen him yet. Were the others even coming?

"Yeah, I'm fine," she shrugged, wondering if he was from outside the city.

"That place over there has pretty good ciorba," she offered, nodding to a rather old looking restaurant. "If you're looking for somewhere."

[Radu Georgescu]

He glanced over to the restaurant she was talking about.

"Thanks," he replied. He had a limited amount of money to spend during his day in Romania and he sure as hell was not going to spend it on ciorba, "is there a market or something nearby?"

He wanted a new pair of gloves.

[Adriana Katoracov]

"Oh, um," Adriana rocked back and forth on her heels for a moment. She didn't know Bucharest that well, and if Darius and Marcel would ever show up she knew one of them might know where a market was. But maybe...

"Are you looking for, like... food? Or souvenirs? Or...?"

[Radu Georgescu]

"Gloves," Radu answered back without thinking. After, he awkwardly shoved his hands deeper into his pockets.

[Adriana Katoracov]

"Oh," Adriana's eyes followed his movements. He must have been one of those people that didn't have a lot. That was how things were with the non-magical people, with the government the way it was. She didn't really know a lot of magical people who didn't have a lot, but that just seemed to be the company her family kept.

"There's, um..." she turned her head to get a better look. "Down there, at Unirii, there's some shops. Where the plaza is, you know?"

[Radu Georgescu]

"Yes," he answered with a nod. He was pretty sure he knew where she was talking about.

"Do you know how far Sighisoara is from here?" he asked. He had all day. If it was close enough he could maybe take a bus, or a train, and visit. He had read about it in an old book once. It sounded like the village his mom always told him to story about. He knew her story was a fairy tale, make believe, but he still wanted to see it.

[Adriana Katoracov]

Marcel had told her once that there were people who were supposed to inform on other people, that it was all some big conspiracy outside of their world. Her mother told her they didn't like shopping and spending money unless it was needed. Adriana didn't really understand any of this, but now as this boy was asking her strange questions she suddenly felt nervous about all of it. He wasn't one of them, was he? She wasn't going to get in trouble?

And where were Marcel and Darius? What if she ended up here alone?

She just needed to seem confident. Adult. She was going to be on her own soon, anyway.

"About five hours," she answered, "...I think, anyway. You'll want to take the train."

[Radu Georgescu]

Radu scowled, the disappointment clear on his face. There was no way he could get there and back in time, not if he wanted to actually see the place anyway. And he might never get the chance again. He was not going to be following Vanya around forever and he would have less freedom to do things like this. He go where he was told to go and maybe they would never tell him to go here. He did not even think they had told Vanya to go here.

"Right. Thanks," he mumbled, hugging his elbows to his sides and walking off in the direct opposite direction of Unirii.

[Adriana Katoracov]

Well, maybe he wasn't a weird informer. He seemed legitimately bummed.

And directionally challenged.

"Tovarăș," she called out awkwardly. "It's the other way, if you want gloves."

[Radu Georgescu]

Radu stopped and hung his head down as he sighed. Of course it was. He swung around and started walking back toward her, and in the right direction.

He better find himself a good pair of gloves when he finally got there.

[Darius Ardelean]

"There you are, Ada!" the Ardelean boy exclaimed when he found his girlfriend. He ran up to her, though he spotted short when he noticed the other boy walking toward her.

"Who's this?"