Coffee Date

After some discussion, the group decided to head back to more familiar territory in search of someplace to get some coffee or something more substantial to eat, and wound up at a little diner across the border into Rhenea, down near the Castalia, called The Calico Cat Cafe.  Minx, the diner's mascot perked up its ears from the little cushion where she rested, lifting up her head for pettings which Denise, at least, obligingly bestowed.  It was still early for the dinner crowd, so they were able to get a comfortable booth, Denise seated beside her date and across from Mireva.

"Ooh!" She exclaimed, settling in to examine the menu, scanning the pictured items quickly before focusing on the words, "they have ice cream!"

"Ice cream?" Argent comment from his vantage next to Mireva. "Do you have fire for blood or something? I'm trying one of their specialty coffees, maybe the 'Blackhope Brew'." He handled the small card of seasonal specials, pointing the options out.

"They call it that because they say it can raise the dead," Enver said with a smirk. "Very popular with the Castalia students, especially around exam time. You'll probably be up all night if you have that."

"Sounds fine to me," Mireva added with a grin. "But then, you're probably up all night most nights anyway, right Argent?"

"It's true that Tit's makes me a night owl, but I don't mind," Argent replied. "Late nights can make for the most interesting times... although I do wonder if I will be able to recognize the sun. It's that bright round thing in the sky I think... or is that the moon?"

"Well," Denise said, considering the list of sandwiches, "if you go blind starrin', then it's the sun. I ain't been seein' much of it either though."

Mireva flipped the menu over to look at desserts. "I guess I'm the only person here who has a regular day job. Ironic, really."

"Are you worried you're going to be up too late, ironic lady?" Argent teased her.

"Oh, I can probably manage one late night," she said with a smile. "Do we have to finish up in time for you to go to work later, or are you off tonight?" She included Denise and Enver in the question with a glance, but it was pretty clearly mainly directed at Argent.

"I don't know about those two, but I swapped shifts to get the night off," Argent replied. "Seemed simpler that way, since I didn't know what we would end up to, other than a movie."

"I mean drinks and stuff like this afterward, "he quickly added, realizing the possible additional interpretations.

"So are you two back on the job after this or have you been freed for the evening?" He posed to Denise and Enver.

"Oh, yeah, Ander said he wouldn't worry 'bout it if I didn't show up, so I'm okay. Unless we're out real *real* late though, I may go in after just to see how things are. Plus maybe they'll have the car!"

"You get to drive a car?" Enver said, impressed. "Sweet, we should borrow it and go cruising around all swanky sometime."

Denise grinned. "Well, I gotta learn how first, then we'll see - probably I ain't gonna be allowed to just take it wherever, but it is still super cool!"

"What, no road trips to Ariege?" Mireva said with a smirk. "That's no fun."

Denise grinned "If I tried that, I wouldn't have to worry 'bout no guy with a metal arm, 'cause Ander'd kill me himself!"

"Why are you worried about a guy with a metal arm? Why is there a guy with a metal arm?" Argent asked surprised. "I seem to be missing some important details."

"Oh, uh - I don't know why he got a metal arm. Lost his in the war I guess, an' then the government gave 'im a new one that's mental and like, shoots fire an' stuff." She scowled, keeping her voice low. "Now he goes around murderin' folks. I guess he didn't like having Ander look up on 'im, so he an' his lady friend tried to get the jump on us outside the Cellar."

Argent keeps his voice low as well. "You got into a fight? Smashed him good didn't ya. Serves him right, since from what you're saying he sounds like a deserving fellow."

"Waiters, we miss all the exciting stuff," he said bringing his voice back to the normal conversation level. "I have to seek excitement outside of my employ."

Denise nudged Mireva under the table with a smirk which she then turned on Argent. "Aww well - guess it's a good thing you got friends!"

Enver nodded. "If you get bored, we can always go exploring sometime again. 'Specially if we have Denise to protect us, right?" he added with a playful smile to her.

Denise's smirk reformed into a full-fledged grin. "Aw yeah, we've so gotta do that again! I'll take good care of ya."

Enver blushed a little, smiling back at her. "That'd be really cool. Uh, you know, whenever you have time. I know lots of weird stuff to see..."

Mireva resisted the urge to say something lewd - she did have to admit that they were pretty adorable together. "Are you guys talking about wandering around in the sewers? You sure won't convince me to go down there."

Denise shrugged, still too excited at the idea herself. "Aww, it's super cool down there! And it ain't all sewers, there's other tunnels and stuff too! An' like - I heard there's underground rivers and stuff in some places, but I dunno if you can actually see them?" She looked to Enver for confirmation one way or another.

Enver nodded. "Yeah, well, more like streams - they're not as big as the Ousel or anything, but there's quite a few of them that feed into it. The Strelovit, the Alev, the Bezdan..." He trailed off, as if maybe realizing he wasn't supposed to talk about these things in public. "Those are the old names for a few of them, anyway. Probably upstream they have other names, but I ain't been outside the city too much to know about all that."

"It's not as bad as you imagine, Mireva," Argent added, "its dark, you'll get dirty, and it can smell, for sure, but nothing that you can't manage. It may not be your kinda thing, and that's perfectly fine to me. Trips are half about the location and the other half is the company you have on them. I know I'd enjoy a tour of the Shade just as much as a trip underground."

Mireva smiled. "Well, there's some interesting stuff in the Shade too, I guess. Maybe not as fascinating as the sewers... but I can provide the fun company, at least."