Violet, seated at a table near a window, is sipping chai tea, nibbling at some kind of pastry, relaxing, and generally being glad the weekend is over. She had to spend it at her parents' place, and while she loves them, she prefers to do so from far away where they can't look over her shoulder and question everything she does.
She's dressed much as usual - a plain t-shirt and jeans. A scarf is wrapped loosely around her neck against the cold weather for when she has to go back outside. Her coat is draped over the back of her chair, being used as a sort of pillow as she slouches in her seat in an attempt at being comfortable.
She could stay here forever.

Jonas wraps his hooves in cold weather. Otherwise, he gets chilled from the bottom up, and it's unpleasant. Thus, they make a muffled thumping sound on the floor of the coffee shop, rather than their usual sharp click-click.

His wearing jeans that drage the ground and a thick coat. His hair is dark and curls a bit, his skin is made no paler by the lack of summer sun. He's quite striking, especially if you like older men.

He orders a cappucino and looks around the room. His gaze is arrested by a young lady reading a book.

... she looks awfully familiar.

Coffee in hand, he approaches her table.

"Excuse me, but I feel I know you from somewhere."

Violet blinks up at him, and shrinks back just a little. She's not used to being approached by - well, any stranger, really. Slowly, with her too-dark eyes never leaving his face as if she expects him to attack, she shakes her head.

"I don't think we've met..?" Vi says cautiously.
He's familiar in a way that bothers her a little, because she can't think why he should be familiar at all. She's sure she would remember having met this man before. He's... striking. Really he is.

He smiles. His teeth are very white, in his olive face.

"You probably don't frequent bars. Maybe I've just seen you around?"

But she's terribly terribly familiar. Maybe he doesn't know her, maybe...

"Perhaps I know one of your relations."

"Um... I don't know."
She takes a moment to bite on her lower lip and consider, because she's not going to be unfair and tell him that, no, she has never seen him before in her life, thank you. That would be a bit rude.
"I don't... I don't really have many relations." She's not sure if she has any beyond her parents and grandparents, actually. "...Some people say I take after my mother?"
It's something about her face, really. Besides that, they don't look much alike.

"Mmm..."

He sips his drink and frowns.

... oh.

"Patrizia Skouros?"

Her eyes widen a little, and she blinks down at her tea to hide it and recover.

"Um. Actually, it's Patricia. But yes."
She takes a tiny sip of her tea, and looks up to offer Jonas a smile. Mustn't be rude to people who might know her parents and be able to report back to them.
"Small world, huh? Where do you know her from?"

He shrugs uncomfortably.

"When I knew her, it was Patrizia." Wry smile. "Then again, when I knew her, we were... well, not exactly married, but we lived together for about four years."

He tilts his head.

"I'm sorry. I'm Jonas Pace."

Did she ever mention me?

"...Nice to meet you," Vi replies meekly. Her mother has not in fact mentioned him, so she continues with, "I'm Violet."
She assumes he knows her last name, somehow.
"Um,... if you don't mind my asking,...when did you know her?"
It would had to have been before Violet was born, but she still feels like she ought to know.

Jonas's smile is rather sad.

"It's been twenty years, eight months, and thirteen days since she walked out on me." Pause.

"I know, I know, I'm pathetic. She left on our son's third birthday, so at least it isn't as if I count for its own sake."

He scuffs a hoof on the floor.

"She never mentioned me at all?"

He looks so sad that Violet would like to tell he's been mentioned, that Patricia - Patrizia? - talks about him all the time. Unfortunately, she can't.

"I - You...really?"
That her mother was seriously with someone before her father? That's new. And it would be easy to accuse Jonas of making it all up. It's just so... out-of-the-blue.
"She never said anything..." Violet shakes her head, eyes never straying from his face - why would anyone go to the trouble of inventing something like this? "...Wait, you had a son? With her?"

No. Freaking. Way.

"Yes. Matteo."

He tilts his head.

"May I sit down?"

He has, after all, been standing this whole time.

"I - oh. Yes. By all means."
She nods quickly to the chair opposite her.

"Are you sure it's the same person? I mean,...my mom's not - she never mentioned anything about you, or having a son."
The name Matteo sounds familiar. Just wait, it'll come to her in a minute.
"I can't believe she'd do that."

"I can."

He takes a seat.

"Her maiden name is Skouros, she is a little shorter than I am, with brown curly hair and green eyes, she always has her nails done, and she loves to be right." He shrugs.

"I'm not... entirely... surprised that she never mentioned us."

Of course she'd be ashamed of her dalliance with a faun. he's half animal, for god's sake.

Vi's jaw drops. The description he gives is still amazingly accurate. She hasn't changed much, even after twenty years.
Of course he could just be a crazy stalker, too. But Violet likes to believe in the good in people.

"I didn't think she could be so,... It's hard to think that I didn't know any of this," Violet falters, frowning. "Oh,... you said your son's name is Matteo, didn't you? I met a guy name Matteo, once,... but he can't be the same person."
For one thing, Matteo was a faun. And Jonas is-
...
Wearing really long pants.
Hm.

"Really? I wish you'd kept in touch. He doesn't have enough friends."

Read, he doesn't have enough female friends, also I think he needs a girlfriend. But he's shy.

"Matteo isn't a very common name, I shouldn't think."

"I only got to talk to him for a few minutes," Vi admits, blushing a little at the memory of the circumstances under which she met the faun. "I think he's actually a... a friend of my boyfriend's, but I don't see him around much."
She wouldn't put it past Matteo to hide when he sees her coming, though. He did seem awfully shy.
"...If it's not being too nosy,... why'd she break up with you?"

"Tell the truth? I'm not sure. I suppose it had something to do with race." Species, rather, but he doesn't know if Patrizia has mentioned anything about the world besides the human world.

It would be like her to pretend that they had never existed.

"Or something."

"Oh, I see..."
Does he mean what she thinks he means?
"Um. Matteo was,... kind of different," she fumbles, and deliberately tosses a look at the floor, at where Jonas' feet ought to be. "That's something from your side of the family, I guess...?"

He reaches up and lifts his hair off one of his horns.

"You could say that. It certainly didn't come from Patrizia." Grimace. "I didn't have a problem with her wanting her own kind. The problem was the way she went about it."

And if he may say, he isn't actually so horrible in bed that you'd have to flee to find something better.

Violet stares for a few moments.
"Oh."

Her mother had a child with a faun.

Excuse her while she sits here, shocked, for a while.

He looks contrite.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to turn your world inside-out." At least the part of it that includes her mother, anyway.

Pause.

"If you tell her you saw me, please don't mention that I know the exact count of days since she left."

Faintly, she replies, "...Okay. I won't."
She doesn't plan on mentioning this at all. Obviously her mother has done her best to keep this buried.

"...I just,...this is,... god. It's a lot to take in."

"Again, I'm sorry."

He is very contrite, and rather sheepish.

"Shall I go?"

He's warmed up a bit, after all.

"...Nnno. That's okay."
He can't go yet. She has more questins!

...Well, she will when she snaps out of this stunned state.

"All right."

He sips at his coffee.

And if the goddess decides to get at him for this, he shall point out that he is in no way flirting. That would be icky - she could easily have been his daughter, under other circumstances.

Violet stares into her tea for a while, absorbing the new information.
Here's the big one; her mother had a whole family before her, and it was never mentioned.
Her mother left said family.
Oh, and Violet has a half-brother who is a faun.

"This is too weird," she mumbles, shaking her head. "I can't believe she'd just...I mean, I never even thought for a second..."

Jonas smiles a little.

"I believe she was ashamed, whether because I am not the sort of... man to go climbing the social and business ladder, or because of my race, or some combination, I do not know."

He has a bit of an accent, rather like Matteo's. It strengthens when he's stressed, as he is at the moment.

"Or perhaps because we did not every actually say vows." They just lived together. For rather a while.

Oh, but - I,..." She blinks into her tea. "...I'm sorry."

It's not her fault, but sometimes saying sorry helps.

"She never even,... God. In an extreme kind of way, it does sound like something she would do."

He sighs, shrugs.

"So... you're her daughter. You do look like her, in the face and around the eyes." Low chuckle. "Although I don't remember her ever dying her hair purple."

She was more the sophisticated type.

Violet grins, looking quite pleased with herself.

"Yeah, I don't think she's ever dyed her hair at all. She wasn't very pleased to see what I've done with mine."
It's only temporary dye, and it's just a thin little streak, but it's the principle of the thing that gets on Parizia's nerves. Which, besides the fact that she likes the effect, is the reason Violet did it.

"It suits you, rather."

This is better. This is much less awkward.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters? Besides 'Teo, I mean."

"Thank you."

Yay, someone that her mother doesn't like approves what she's done with her hair.
It's sort of... validating, in a way.

"Um, no. None," Vi smirks. "I don't think they - my parents, I mean - planned on having more than one kid."
The idea that she is related to that Matteo fellow is at once pleasing and slightly disconcerting. She's glad that when she met him, she thought he was just pat-on-the-head cute, and not interesting-boy cute. That would just be so wrong.

Jonas nods.

"Do you live here in town?" In other words, is he suddenly likely to encounter Patriz--Patricia again?

"Or are you just going to school here?"

"I just go to school here," she shrugs. "I don't go home all that often - home's a couple of hours away."

...If she wanted to go home often, she could.
But she really doesn't want to.

"Ah."

He's just curious - she could have been his daughter, you know - including the human bit, actually, as the faun genetics are attached to the male genes.

"How are you liking that?"

"Oh, it's pretty good," Vi says lightly, sloshing her tea around in its paper cup.
She's far enough away that she can easily ignore phone calls, which is good enough for her.
"What about you? ...Do you live around here?"

"Yes." Small smile.

"I'm a massage therapist on my own time and a personal trainer at one of the gyms."

It's a sporadic living, but he survives. Almost against all odds, he survives.

"Oh, cool." She grins. "Is that fun?"

She thinks it sounds fun.
(It's not something she'd choose for a living, but it sounds fun.)

Violet has decided - yes, consciously - that she would like to get to know Jonas a bit better. He seems nice enough, and well, they're practically related. Sort of.

"I enjoy it."

He grins.

"It's the same as any other job, I guess. I've been doing it since high school, so I really couldn't say."

It seemed a natural outlet for him, since performance wouldn't be an option.