Welcome to Gaia! ::

As the senior research anthropologist at the museum one of Adel's duties, one he'd found he was rather good at, was presenting lectures both broad and focused on various aspects of his doctorate. Today he was talking to an introductory class about the various fields of anthropology they could pursue hereafter. These he thought maybe he liked the most. Eager students filled with high expectations and numerous questions Adel was more than happy to answer. If he could point them down a path of continued learning and the pursuit of knowledge then he'd done his job well.

He was early, as per usual for these sorts of lectures. Parking, even for guests, wasn't the easiest to procure, and he liked to make sure he had time enough to locate the lecture hall he was speaking in, as well as going over his notes again. This time parking had been unusually easy to find, and it was close to the building he needed to be at. One he'd actually spoken at earlier in the year. Which meant he had plenty of time to kill.

Or so he'd thought, until a feminine voice spoke up behind him, to him, and he paused in his walk from the parking lot to glance back at the speaker. It was a petite blonde woman in a blue coat waving a wallet at him and asking if he'd misplaced his own, which prompted a quick check by way of a pat over his back pocket.

Smiling down at her he shook his head. "No, not mine. Where did you find it?" His voice was soft, carrying a slight accent that rolled a little around the edges.

He was quite sure it didn't belong to him, but he reached around to check his back pocket a second time, just to be reassuring. "I'm sorry, but no." It would have been the simplest solution to the predicament the poor woman had now found herself in, and he could appreciate he was inadvertently complicating things by having all his possessions accounted for.

Glancing past her shoulder he could see the spot on the side of the path where she'd picked it up from by how disturbed the freshly fallen snow was. If it belonged to someone that had been leaving for the day that poor soul was in for a stressful evening, and right in time for the approaching holidays. Adel sympathized, even if he couldn't relate.

Finding the lost and found would be the best solution. "I believe there's a lost and found at the campus safety office." Half turning, he gestured between a couple of lecture halls towards a squat, wide little building that looked like it sat more or less at the center of the campus.

His head tilted as she walked up to him, dark features gone pleasantly thoughtful as he tried to recall why it was she looked so familiar to him, and it wasn't until she was asking if he'd mind showing her where campus safety was situated on the campus that he realized where it was he'd seen her before. She'd present at the con before Ayesha'd gone up to demonstrate her belly dancing. Her name was Suri.

"It's not far from here, I'd be happy to show you." He'd been there numerous times already that year, so he was very familiar with the layout of the campus. "I've got some time to kill before the lecture I'm presenting."

He gestured with an arm down the path they'd both been walking along, smiling down at her. "Are you here for the discussion lecture on the new spectrophotometer in the life sciences building?" It seemed the most reasonable reason for her to be here, given what she'd been presenting on at the con. Though he supposed he certainly couldn't rule out that she was here for some other interest. Perhaps even in anthropology, though it would have been surprising.

He met that furrowed brow with a bright, good-natueed grin and at her question on if they'd met before he gave a very small shake of his head. "Not officially no." He knew her name, but she didn't know his, no introductions had been made.

But she figured it out, as he'd suspected she would, and the smile turned up a notch. "That's right. You gave a memorable presentation, and I really do think the technology could be utilized in a scientific manner. If not for archeology or anthropology, perhaps forensics." How was an entirely different beast to wrangle, and certainly not in Adel's wheel house.

He offered his hand to her as they walked, but would slow to a temporary stop of she reached to take it, grip assured but not overly tight. "I'm Adel el-Kadar, I work at the natural history museum."

He smiled back down at her, warm and welcoming and utterly genuine. "Nice to formally meet you, Ms Ellis?" He added a lit to the end to make it a question, long legs making it it easy for him to keep up with her and though she had a bit of a head start he'd pull even as they reached the covered walkway that lead to the building their were headed to.

At her question he shook his head, hands retreating into the warmth of his coat pockets. "Not me personally. I work mainly in identification and cataloging, however there are people I work closely with at the museum that use similar technology for composition and dating for the purpose of verification." Similar enough for Adel to recognize what the thing was and it's intended uses.

"Do you attend lectures here often?" If she did he'd find it surprising that their paths hadn't crossed before now.

He had moved to open the door for her but she beat him to it and he let his hand fall back with an unconcerned smile. Adel was always polite, but not to the point he had to battle for the privileged to pay a kindness to someone, not if they were just as keen to extend same same courtesy. Suri holding the door for him wasn't a blow to his masculine pride.

Once inside there was the slightest pause as he tried to recall just where the office they were looking for was located, but Suri was already on the move and he had to lengthen his stride to catch up with her as she walked purposefully forward. And for good reason if she was trying to drop the wallet off with time enough to get back across campus for the start of the lecture. "It's not much farther, you should be able to get back in time."

He gestured down a side hall as they approached. The office they were looking for was at the end near a stairwell. "I do, but more often than not I'm one of the presenters. I speak often for the Anthropology courses."