Welcome to Gaia! ::

Anna wrapped her scarf more snuggly around her face as she made her way through the parking lot to the botanical gardens where she would be meeting Quinn for a more outside date. Sure it was cold but that only meant they would eat inside at a restaurant afterwards. It was her pick this time and she chose a nice traditional Cantonese restaurant. Since it was fairly early, she figured she could introduce Quinn to the wonders of Dim Sum if he hadn't tried it already. Her stomach growled when she thought of the delicious shu mai and shrimp dumplings they would be enjoying later. As she got closer to the entrance, a frown appeared on her face despite seeing Quinn standing there patiently.

Why did the trees look so…Weird?

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It was chilly. Winter was well and truly here, then again the end of the year was right around the corner. Soon there would be the company party, the family party, and then the quiet period between the 25th and New Year’s day where no real work got done. He typically would spend this entire time with his family but this year was going to be a little different for several reasons. One of those reasons was making her way across the parking lot towards him.

Honestly Quinn didn’t expect to fall into a… relationship? It wasn’t a fling, at least not to him. They just didn’t have any defined boundaries or titles. He didn’t know what to call it but he still didn’t expect it. He enjoyed spending time with Annalise, enjoyed surprising her, and enjoyed randomly receiving her texts. It made him smile. He hadn’t smiled like this in a long while.

The man, bundled in a heavy wool coat, stepped forward to meet up with his date only to tilt his head slightly in confusion. “What’s wrong?” There was a frown on her face… why?

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Anna blinked for a bit, “O-Oh! Do the trees look…Off to you? They seem funny to me.”

The crystals looked pretty indeed but she's never seen anything like this in New York, and they looked heavy. A part of her wondered what would happen if one of them drops but she supposed whomever was under the tree at the time would have to dodge fairly quickly. Either way, she would try to make sure her and Quinn did not arrive under something so ominous, going on her tiptoes to place a small kiss on his nose. “Shall we?” She grabbed his hand, looking forward to their walk.

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Quinn glanced over at the trees, trying to see what she was talking about but with it being dark out it wasn’t very easy for him to really tell. It wasn’t until a passing car’s headlights hitting the trees made his eyes widen slightly. They shined in the dark like they were wet, or covered in ice. It wasn’t something you saw every day. “Yeah… yeah that's odd. I wonder if maybe the conservatory is doing something?” He was reaching and he knew it but there wasn’t really an explanation other than human hands deliberately icing the trees. It was definitely cold out enough to do it. The question was…. WHY? Why do it? Didn’t it kill the trees?

“Yes, let's.” With that, he linked his fingers with hers and started to walk. They didn’t talk about anything at first, just enjoying the night air. But he still couldn’t help but eye the trees as they passed them. What bizarre Destiny City crap was going on? And why? Finally he decided to break the silence by asking about her day. “How did it go today? Any issues?”

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Anna was taking in the sights as they walked, admiring just how differently things looked at night, even if it was the morning. There was a pretty blue flower that caught her eye just as she heard Quinn ask about her day. “It was….Interesting. One of my employees called out which is fine, but for some odd reason, the rest of the day was just….Difficult. I had to stop several thieves, prevent children from breaking some expensive display items…" It was like almost everything that could go wrong did. “Just actually stressful for once.” She looked up at him, “How was YOUR day Mr Quinn?” She just liked teasing him by placing Mr. in front of Quinn.

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Quinn quickly stuck his tongue out at her while making a face, she only called him ‘Mr. Quinn’ when she was being overly cheeky. Not that he minded really but it still required making a face or teasing her back. “Mostly just meetings after meetings. Everyone is trying to get everything done before the general holiday wind-down. It sounds like you had a much more stressful day than I did though.” He explained what he had been doing for the last several hours before getting kicked out of his office and told to go relax. “Is your employee ok? Not sick or anything are they? Tis the season after all,” He made a face and mimed coughing into his elbow. He knew just how fast illness could spread in a building and it was even worse in a more tactile environment like Annalise’s store.

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Anna tried not to think about how cute Quinn looked at that moment, feeling the heat of a blush on her cheeks. Even though she had her ups and downs, she couldn't really imagine being the CEO of a company as big and old as Quinns. “They're fine, his child had caught a small cold and he decided to take precautions.” She had him test as well just in case she needed to give him paid leave, happy that it was negative.

She pulled out her phone to take a picture of one of the crystallized trees, dodging to the side with a yelp when one of the heavy looking crystals fell.

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“That's good. I hope his kid gets better soon and he stays healthy as well,” Quinn responded. He was actually glad that her employee was ok, and while the mention of the child being sick made him wonder about his own son, he was also glad the kid wasn’t fairing all that bad as well. He did make a mental note to text Patty though and see if MJ needed anything. Things were still kind of… uneasy between the three of them but they were slowly working through things. Afterall having your one night drunken stand show up after like seven years can throw anyone for a loop.

He was distracted for a split second. One damn second. That's all it took for a branch that was covered in icy looking crystals cracked and fell. Anna was already dodging but Quinn still reached out to yank her further away. After a moment of his heart trying to thud its way out of his chest he quietly remarked, “Maybe taking this particular walk isn’t the best idea. How about we cut it short and head to dinner?” He felt skittish now. Jumpy really. Something was out there… it had to be. This was Destiny ‘I’m going to magically kill you’ City. Of course there was some magic BS that was screwing with trees, and right then he didn’t want to stick around to see if maybe, just maybe, it was more malicious then just crystallizing plant life.

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Anna frowned at the sudden change, “Well, we could just head to dinner yeah?” She tried not to look a little disappointed since there were so many other plants that she wanted to see, however she could just come by on her own time, clearly something spooked Quinn and while that crystal could have done some damage, she was aware and pulled herself out of the way to keep from being injured. She took one last picture, allowing Quinn to take her hand so they could leave the garden.