Comfort Food

Dorien chuckled.

"Well, I guess at least that's a step up from the kind of guys she hits on at the coat check. Who did you hook Cassie up with, a duke or something?"

Aubrienne grinned.

"I like to think she was treated nobly enough."

She stopped and took a conspicuously long drink of soda.

"She seemed content at breakfast, at least."

Dorien raised an eyebrow , considerably confused  for a good several seconds until the sleep-rusted gears in his head clicked over.

"Oh." he said, "Ooooooh. You really are a magician. Still, I can't say I'm not disappointed I wasn't invited. One of these days you'll have to teach me your secret."

"I'm not sure it can be taught," Aubrienne teased. "But I'm happy to put it to good use. We should go out sometime, take your mind off things. You know, sometime you're not sitting at home, handling your test tubes."

Dorien smiled, but Aubrienne's suggestion reminded him of just how spectacularly his night out with Gen had failed only the night before.

"Maybe..." he said, "Truth be told I'm not really that great with... that kind of thing."

Aubrienne's smiled quickly turned to a frown of concern.

"You know I'm here for you, right? We'll find something more your speed. Whatever you need. Well," Aubrienne raised an eyebrow. "Maybe not everything, but I can, you know, outsource."

"That's very generous of you," Dorien said with a laugh, "I don't think it would fix anything, but it might be a pleasant distraction, I guess. Maybe one of these days."

"Maybe distraction is what you need right now," Aubrienne mused. "For all you spend most of your time in a nightclub, I don't really see you, you know, relax."

"I... relax." Dorien said somewhat defensively between bites of chicken, "I'm a fun guy. I do fun things. Chemistry is fun."

"Well, the results are certainly fun," Aubrienne replied with a smirk. "If this is genuinely what makes you feel better, more power to you. I just worry that you end up cooped up here because you don't think you have much alternative."

"Maybe..." Dorien said, noncommittally, "I guess I just feel like it's better if i stay out of people's hair for the most part. Lately i feel like bad things tend to happen around me."

"I think bad things are just happening in general right now,"Aubrienne said in a strained attempt at comfort. "It's not you, Dorien."

She looked away, her face worried.

"It feels like something's coming."

Dorien looked up, his curiosity piqued.

"What do you mean? What's coming?"

"I hope I'm just being paranoid after everything at the club last month," Aubrienne replied, unsure. "It's just...a few weeks ago, one of the priests from Sirris's church, Tristan, visited the Temple of Vrag in the Shade, and he had a kind of...episode during the service. He talked about something forgotten, trying to break through walls...it was strange. Apparently he has these visions from time to time, often before important events."

She gave an apologetic look and shrugged.

"Like I said, I'm probably just being weird," she said, giving a weak smile.

"Sounds like some screwy religious nut speaking in tongues to me. Doesn't seem like the kind of thing that would normally freak you out that much. Is that all that's got you worried?

"You mean besides you getting attacked by a creature from another plane, two different accidents that would have killed lots of people if someone hadn't noticed them ahead of time, and someone actually getting murdered in a crowded room full of people, including ourselves?"

Aubrienne frowned, genuinely upset.

"All of that is bothering me, and that was before Tristan's episode."

Her expression grew somewhat sulky.

"Divination is a thing, Dorien. Just because you can't do it doesn't mean it doesn't work."

Dorien shrugged.

"I know it is. Trust me, I've seen plenty of real divining. I just also know that not everyone who claims to have visions is really having them. And even when they are, they may not be coming from anywhere but their own brain. You of all people should know there's more than one way to see things. And even the shit I can make doesn't hold a candle to good old fashioned crazy. Just take it with a grain of salt, is all I'm saying."

He leaned back with a sigh.

"And I'm still not convinced that all that other stuff is necessarily related. And even if it is, what does it mean? We don't have sufficient data to hypothesize anything."

"Well, I'm keeping my hypothesis pretty general," Aubrienne replied with a sarcastic but conciliatory look. "I'm just saying, I feel like something bad is coming. You just told me you think bad things happen around you, specifically. Don't tell me there's not something to be said for intuition."

She sighed.

"Tristan said the same thing you did, though. That his visions could be nothing. And I get that. I just feel like...well, like we're sitting in the audience, waiting for the reveal."

"Well... let's just hope it's a burlesque show and not a tragedy," Dorien said with a smirk, "In the meantime we'll keep an eye out for anything that might let us peek behind the curtain."