The Lore

First Impressions

“My first impression of Justin was that he was very handsome, very polite - he asked a ton of questions - and he was verrrry formal. Like a robot butler.”

— Caroline

Caroline and Justin met in the romantic land of online dating. In their first messages, they discussed Caroline’s paranormal past, and Justin’s love of bubblegum pop music.

“TEENSY.”

— Justin

For their second date, Justin and Caroline attended The Moth, a live storytelling event. It was over the course of this evening that they discovered they had a shared hobby: the high art of merciless cultural critique in the form of righteous rants.

This shared lifestyle would occupy nearly all of their time together over the next several years.

On their fifth date, Caroline and Justin set out on a several-hour hike through the woods of Virginia - an activity that would remain a favorite. Nervous and overthinking, Caroline decided the forest would be the ideal place to confront Justin about his intentions (read: nowhere to run).

Moments before she could execute her interrogation, however, Justin turned to her on the trail, surprising her with a small gift and a handwritten card expressing how much he enjoyed her company.

Alas, in the quiet heart of the woods, the two found themselves in a Mexican standoff of romantic intent.

For their first date, they shared a drink at Archipelago - a DC tiki bar that has since closed upon realizing that it could never host a better first date than theirs.