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Foundation Scions     The city of Paris, in the year 1912, is a sight to behold. Wide boulevards, lined with trees just-now touched by the colors and breezes of autumn, are traversed by busy pedestrians, as a mixture of horse-drawn busses and newfangled automobiles pass overtop cobblestones.

    In the bright, clear mid-morning, cart-stands sell bouquets of fall-blooming flowers, or newspapers- the headlines, which cane-holding men read by small parks, read variations of 'War in the Balkans', strongly condemned; in similar streetsides, hawkers call crowds to gather and view innovations of extraordinary engineering, clockwork animals capable of small tricks, or mechanical unicycles.

    It's hard to imagine that only short months ago, the same Storm that wiped away the era of 1929, ushered-in this era of 1912, everyone in their own lives, with their own histories, brought-up from who knows where, to the world's stage. None of them know the better.

. . .

    The warpgate that Matilda Bouanich informs others of, in her invitation, is that of a closed-down Métro entrance stairway, from a still-active station- the warpgate's existence, she mentions, was most-conveniently discovered in 1929, and recently was determined to have stayed in existence. Unknowing bystanders give strange looks to those who arrive by it- and strange looks are common, for many of the invitees.

    She's requested that people join her at the Café de la Paix (https://i.imgur.com/SKFjXbZ.png), an old, busy, and highly renowned café oft-visited by the socialites, the literary minds, and the someones, of Paris- "Though he has not-yet, the likes of Ernest Hemmingway himself, will have dined, and talked-amongst peers, in these very rooms and terraces!", Matilda has informed, as a convincing-point.

    Wicker chairs under awnings line the street outside, but inside, white columns and exquisite wallpapers are served by busy wait-staff, with well dressed denizens seated.

    Matilda has acquired (demarcated, wrongly, as 'Reserved for the guests of Madame Bouanich', not mademoiselle,) a private room. Especially as the invite was open, most of the visitors are sure to be, of eccentric types, and no doubt part of the arcanist's party; so they're shown to the room without even having to mention who they're here for. The wait-staff, they can tell.

    "So!" is Matilda's first statement, after an 'ah-hem' and a fork-tap to the side of a crystal juice-glass, "Bienvenue dans la Ville Lumière! I trust, that the hustle, and the bustle, on the way, was pleasing? It is nothing to how it compares in the evening, but..." A little sigh, "Well! That is not when I have maneuvered to procure such time-off, from duties! So! Enjoy it later while I cannot!"

    Quieter, to herself, "Est-ce que Sonetto va arriver?"

    Espresso is already placed at the seats of a very-large round table, and a waiter, who Matilda quickly calls over, stands by the private room's doorway, at-post.

    "Garçon! Je sais que ce n'est pas au menu, mais le chef accepterait sûrement de préparer un steak à la tartare, n'est-ce pas? Merci." Ordering steak-tartare off menu, gets Matilda a slightly-bothered glare from the waiter!

    "I'll see if it can be done, for the mademoiselle Bouanich. And, for the others..?" Though voiced to her, he looks to the other attendees! With the trend set to order off-menu, no holds are barred. Good luck, garçon.
Hy Izlan Reformers EARLIER

    "So... what's brunch?" Kara asks, hands on the back of Ethan's seat and leaning over his shoulder to peek at the datapad.
    "It sounds like branch," Ethan says unhelpfully.
    "So we're invited to go to a planet called Paris to eat weird branches in the streets? That can't be right."
    "Hey don't look at me I'm just reading what it says."
    "It's breakfast and lunch," Homen says, from the other end of the cockpit, pulling his hands off the controls to relax.
    "Huh?" "How do you..."
    Homen stares blankly. "Everyone knows that?"
    "Huh..." "I don't think... *everyone* does? But, I guess you should go, then. I have to head out with the margrave."
    "Oh yeah?"
    "Some small lead. Nothing dangerous. So you two go!"

    Kara merrily hops towards Homen's seat, grabs him by the arm, and starts dragging him to stand up. "Well you heard him! Come on! Brunch!"
    "Huh?! Let me dock us first! Kara!!"

NOW

    Kara and Homen... will probably be sticking out just a bit.

    If Kara looks like your normal 5'3" 18-year-old, brown hair in a side-tail, silver eyes and world's most doesn't-stand-out-in-a-crowd build, except for the fact she's wearing a short kimono in Paris, Homen, the 6'2" space rabbit wearing a very long dark cloak over deep red robes, barefoot and all, probably sticks out just a bit more than average here.

    He also looks bafflingly grave, like he's been dragged into an incredible dangerous mission he knows nothing about.

    Kara, though, is making a stop every two buildings.

    "Homen look! Look at all the clothes in the window!"
    "... yeah. It's another store alright."
    "And this one's got baked goods! And cakes!"
    "We're going to be late..."
    "Homen that cake looks like you!"

    Homen stares at the rabbit-shaped cake in the window, judging it intensely and harshly. "T-That..."

SLIGHTLY MORE NOW

    When Kara and Homen arrive, Kara is carrying a bag from a bakery, which clearly contains a box that is approximately bunny-cake-sized. She is also smiling wide. She passes by the newspapers stand.

    She cannot read that.
    Neither can Homen.

    "... I'm glad we got given currency for these kinds of worlds, but finding our way is... erm..."
    "Oh chin up! I'm sure it's this way!"

"Bienvenue dans la Ville Lumière!"

    And, in fact, it IS that way!

    "Oh! Here! Homen here! I recognize Matilda's voice from the radio!" They didn't speak though? Matilda's just got one of those voices, and Kara's been listening a bunch. "I'm sorry we're late! I'm Lah Kara, and this is Homen, we're Chevaliers and... no, that's not why we're late, we're late because Homen bought me this cake, see?"

    Kara lifts the bag in demonstration.
    The glimmer of a metallic cylinder presumably hanging off her belt under the kimono shines briefly, only barely sticking out from her kimono and contrasting with her darker shorts.
    Homen just raises a clawed hand to wave silently.
Foundation Scions     For the occasion, Matilda has dressed up a little bit! A smart, teal-and-white dress, with moderately era-inappropriate length, two simple aquamarine-studded necklaces, wrist-length frilly gloves, and the same adventuresome beige brimmed hat she likes to wear, for adventures! It's a springtimey color-set more than a falltime ensemble, and the leg warmers she has with loafers, are themselves still anachronistic, but quite cute! Her hair is kept in two adorable braided tails, with teal accent ribbons. It's a teal day! Sometimes you need a teal day. Rather than a clutch purse, she has brought her orbuculum, in a large bag for it! It sits besides her at the table.

    She must have looked quite funny rushing across the Foundation dressed up like that, to get through the Laplace warpgate, to get here, first, on a limited timeframe! Good luck, Matilda!
Foundation Scions 'I recognize Matilda's voice from the radio!'

    "Hello- ah-hem, bonjour, I mean to say! My voice is quite recognizable!" Then, despite this not being Matilda's current hairstyle- "Ah! You are an advocate, for the side pony-tail way of wearing hair! Good job! It is quite an excellent method!"

    "Why do I not recognize your name, or your voice? Did we meet? Surely, we must have- unless, you are prescient to matters important, such as a chance to meet none-other than the marvelous Matilda Bouanich? Tell me! Are you, too, a diviner? Is that a wand, that you have on your person?" To Homen, Matilda offers a tiny little wave! He's quiet! He probably just wants a wave!
Regulus Regulus isn't willing to wear a long skirt so she's bound to look pretty anachronistic herself but she has wrapped herself in a longcoat over her usual outfit to make up for it in an attempt to not cause too much of a commotion by showing up. The giant space rabbit might indicate that she shouldn't have bothered, but look if they stare at the giant rabbit that's fine so long as she doesn't come across as the giant rabbit, fashionwise. She's wearing that same red star patterned beret she usually does, though.

Regulus came because this is not a cafe that Regulus could ever go to if she wasn't a guest of Madame Bouanich and this is a chance to get a taste of what the elite (lower case) of Paris are into. Food wise. An opportunity!

''I trust that the hustle, and the bustle, on the way, was pleasing?''

"Was alright. Not used to this kind of treatment. Thanks for the invitation though." She blinks quietly upon realizing that maybe she should probably have said 'oh yeah walking across the street was AWESOME' but she feels like she would come across as kind of weird if she just said something like that just because she was prompted to. "Hope Sonetto can make it. She's been real busy with all the catchup work." She adds, moving on in. She takes a look at the menue and admits, "Never had steak tartare before and--" She frowns looking over the menu. "I don't see this on here, Matilda love."

''I'll see if it can be done, for the mademoiselle Bouanich''

Regulus grimaces from second hand embarrassment. Oh no! The fact that this place is POSH is infiltrating her sensibilities! Should she throw a fork to the floor to fend it off?? No it's fine. She didn't even comment on the giant rabbit.

"Uh, you're footing the bill, right Matilda? Most of this stuff is out of my price range." She looks back down to the menu. "Some of this stuff doesn't even have a price, what?" She has never eaten fancy in her life.

She looks towards Homen and Kara, "Oh coworkers! That makes sense. Hey, coworkers. I'm Regulus, I'm not coworker." She looks to the Deserts and sees that pricing. "Matilda, the french onion soup costs like dinner money, um, what..what do you think I should get?" She pauses and then clarifies. "Something on menu, I mean, ahah..."

Oh god the waiter is so grumpy she thought this would be fun.
Forest Ladies It had given Druvis III some pause to consider the now-apparent truth. Regulus had come from a farther-forward year, and Regulus had been found and with the Timekeeper for a certain stretch of time. Then, her era, her life, her 'ten years' of friendship and the story of her family all had taken place so clearly to her but in truth had slipped in as back-fill for a history washed away.

She had met Sotheby as a young girl, in the twilight of her family's motions, and all of that, all of her moonlit walks and forest-held motions and the sounds she followed and memories were things constructed or spun from some spool of 'truth' that felt as real as solid ground and ran as swiftly as rainfall away from an objective reading of the situation.

She had lived her years in the tiny span between Regulus' era and her own's appearance. A breaching raft of time, emergence from a deep lake like rotting lumber before it collapsed down, and upon it she was refugee.

Now, here, were she to have slipped beneath the wave, would she be returned? Would her family, dead, be shifted, twisted, or restored? Would she be 'restored'? Re-used?

It was a walk for thinking, deep and away from her own reflection in the glass. A refined and distant lady, suited for the surrounds in the austere fashion of the disaffectedly present, she would seem almost Parisian herself but for her English tongue and the glide of her America-blinded green eyes.

It was a walk for thinking, or would be, were she not accompanied by the little lady Sotheby herself, the wonder-trotting young woman bright eyed as she skips every other step and flutter-floats her attention from before her back to Druvis as if to bring the disaffected druid's eyes onto the latest happening:

Look, look! A store with a hat like Sotheby's!
Look, look! A cake as big as a table!
Look, look! They've got *every* kind of doll!
Look, look! Have you ever seen so many clocks?

And so, denied the idle melancholies of thoughtfulness, Druvis is dragged from her shaded reverences of contemplations to wrangle the baby as she zips off and must be restrained before every store.

Still, Druvis and Sotheby find their way to the cafe despite Sotheby's (and due to Druvis') best efforts, the druid having learned how to palm guide Sotheby by turning her attention physically to different things and keeping her on track by using wand as croup stick.

"Hell-o! What a marvelous cafe you've brought us to! Why, I've never *been* to a real Parisian cafe before! There were so *many* things to see and do on the way, how ever did you choose just this?" Sotheby begins, bouncing up to grip hands to back of chair. Druvis joins, slower and with some doubt in her that Sotheby would stay attached to the situation still after the last fifteen minutes of walking.

"Investigator. I-" Druvis begins, taking in breath and beginning slowly before eyes gutter in their periphery at little Sotheby, and then rise with a thin smile. "-we," She corrects. "appreciate your invitation."

Seeing as there was a waiter there, Druvis barely has time to consider before lamely declaring: "The... soup, please?" With a bit of a 'what even do I say? this is in French'.

Sotheby, on the other hand, has a clear vision as usual: "I've heard some incredible tales of sandwiches which were formed into incredible shapes -- triangles!! I would *love* some triangle sandwich!" She proudly requests, not knowing that all the sandwiches here came as triangles.
Odette Raskins After going through figurative and also-figurative hell twice in the same month, Odette is in dire need of a mental break. Having heard about how Paris was once a historical romantic site in centuries past, Matilda's invitation is the perfect excuse for her to kill two birds with one stone by visiting the place!

Dressed in a pale yellow jacket with a long blue dress underneath it, Odette has her hair loosely tied up in a high ponytail rather than her usual curly mess or neater braids. Coming out of the warpgate with a long cane in her right hand and a purse hanging off her left shoulder, she's tempted successfully by the various distractions on the way to the cafe.

None of it costs any money, at least, and but she does cut it a little closer than she'd like to showing up on time. Still, she does (barely) and she gives the wait-staff polite nods on the way into the private room. Her eyes light up a bit more once she sees a familiar face inside, raising her free hand up in a quick wave towards Matilda.

"Hello, Matilda! Aah, yes, this city's really something else. It's nothing at all like the stations or America, that's for sure." She comments in clear approval, pursing her lips and nodding sympathetically when Matilda mentions her time-off. "Oh, they only gave you a half-day... Don't worry. I'll take plenty of pictures to show you later."

Kara and Homen get some curious looks and a polite bow of Odette's head in greeting while she takes her jacket off and drapes it over one of the chair backs. "Hello! Lah Kara and Homen... A cake?" Odette asks with a curious glint in her eyes, looking up at Homen and lifting her hand in a matching little wave before settling into her seat.

"Oh, my name's Odette. Raskins. I'm a paramedic with the Company. It's good to meet you both!" She introduces simply, stumbling a little while settling into her seat and sliding the cane under her seat. She blinks slowly in mild confusion at first as Matilda addresses the waiter in French, needing a moment to translate back and forth mentally a few times to make sure she actually does order the right way.

<"Good afternoon. May I eat croissants and French onion soup?"> She asks in stilted French, sounding like someone who's only picked up the bare bones from books and having learned pronunciation from someone who is definitely not from France. <"Oh. Two croissants, if you please."> She adds after hearing Regulus mention her own interest in the soup, turning to her with a little thumbs-up of 'I got you'.

Hearing Sotheby before seeing her and Druvis, Odette's mind starts to drift a little, both from kind of gawking at Druvis and also wondering about what other kinds of sandwiches would be sufficiently French. <"Could we also order the... Croissant, egg, and cheese triangle sandwiches?"> She adds again, speaking a little more boldly to feign confidence that she doesn't have. With any luck, this might help her look cooler and reliabler!
Penelope Usher     Being an open invite, Penelope doesn't even have to invite herself along. She's already invited! Like, implicitly, but that's good enough and she's strolling through the streets of Paris like she was born to be here.

    Top to bottom, Penelope's outfit is nearly all white, with a loose-knit sweater off one shoulder, a pale mint green scarf, and a knee-length skirt that perfectly brushes the tops of knee-height boots. She's got a semi-period-appropriate hat on, tied with a simple silk ribbon that matches her scarf and contrasts sharply with her eyes.

    Despite being just a regular old human, her color scheme is still striking to the point that the host at the restaurant clocks her as part of Matilda's party. Most regular attendees don't have a 'color scheme'!

    "Paris is just *gorgeous*, huh! Especially at this time of, time. You're a darling for the invite, Matilda~"

    Penelope confidently slings her purse (white, also, but with gold-brown embroidery, plush diamond texture, and a gold clasp to still be 'fall') on a wall hook she assumes is for just that, then takes a seat. "Nighttime, though... wouldn't that be something? You're, like, so French; this is where you grew up, isn't it?"

"I recognize Matilda's voice from the radio!"

    "Oh, but I don't recognize yours!" Penelope pops right back up out of her chair to orbit around and greet the people she hasn't met in person before, which is, like, most of them. "Penelope Usher, pleased to introduce you to me and me to you! We're all Chevaliers, so we've already got a bunch in common."

    Penelope leans over to peer through the plastic covering over the cake when it's mentioned. She inspects the cake, then inspects Homen, and murmurs, impressed about nothing at all, "Bunny cake... wow...."

"Why, I've never *been* to a real Parisian cafe before!"

    "Oh my goodness, just look at that *hat*! You must be a very important young lady." Sotheby's energy is just automatically fascinating, and after the comment, Penelope glances over to Druvis. "Is she yours?"

"And, for the others..?"

    Oh, yeah, she does actually have to order! Penelope thumbs through the menu with too short of a time to actually read it, before declaring, "I'll have the duck confit, s'il vous plait-- oh, and I'm gluten-sensitive, so I'd appreciate if the chef used fresh utensils, merci." Her French pronounciation is good, and yet, completely unwarranted due to her ordering in English.
Hy Izlan Reformers "Ah! You are an advocate, for the side pony-tail way of wearing hair!"

    "Mhm! I don't like hiding my hair in the back, this keeps it in view, right? And yours is braided! I've always wanted to try but it's so time-consuming to learn." A little bit.
    In truth she barely ever went out before, let alone met enough people to have a fancy for changing her hairstyle or dressing up. This is new! She's got to try stuff. She's GOT to, eventually.

"Why do I not recognize your name, or your voice?"

    "We're new! New... ish? We've talked with Mrs. Rooks, Lady Tamamo, there was Ru Li... everyone's been so welcoming! Ah, no, no, we're not diviners or anything like that." She looks at Homen.
    "... maybe a little bit?"
    "In a roundabout way! It's not like we're fortune-tellers, right? It's a bit complicated and to be honest I don't really totally get it yet myself. I was kind of awful at it until recently."

"Is that a wand, that you have on your person?"

    "!"
    Homen, who hadn't noticed Kara's lightsaber was exposed, suddenly looks alarmed. Kara does not! In fact she takes the bladeless weapon off her belt and twirls it in one hand.

    "KIND OF?"
    Why does Kara seem so excited at the idea?
    She'd never thought about it like that before!

    "Kara! We aren't supposed to-- there's *people* here-- what if--"
    "I think they would've warned us. Come on! This isn't our galaxy! There's no one looking for these here, right?" Kara, blinking, dampens her enthusiasm as she looks at Matilda. "... right?"

"I'm Regulus, I'm not coworker."

    "Hello! I'm Lah Kara," Kara repeats. "Homen," he adds, this time. "WE are crewmates! So a bit like coworkers. You um... you can read these, right?" Kara indicates the menu, which Regulus has clearly already been consuming. "We're not familiar with the local alphabet, so we might need... a hand, with ordering? Would you mind?"

"Hell-o! What a marvelous cafe you've brought us to!"

    That is a CHILD. Kara lights up, absorbing Sotheby's enthusiasm and almost hopping in place for a moment. "I *love* your dress! Are you a noble, then?" A bit presumptive, but she has a caretaker and all.

"Oh, my name's Odette. Raskins. I'm a paramedic with the Company."

    "Knowing a medic could come in handy."
    "Come ooooon! You can't reduce people to what they can do for you! I'm sorry, Homen's a bit... he's..."
    "I don't know about a 'Company' so there's nothing else to comment on."
    "Just say hi!" "Hello."

"Oh, but I don't recognize yours!"

    Kara demonstrates, to Homen.
    "HEL-LO, Penelope! I'm so happy to meet another Chevalier!"
    Her silver eyes are drawn to the scarf and matching ribbon. "Oh now I miss my poncho. I really should've grabbed that. I hope it didn't burn." Wait that's wildly offtopic? Kara shakes her head, and smiles again. "Bunny cake! I saw it in a shop window and he was grumpy about it, but then he wanted to buy it for me. Isn't he so sweet? You'd never guess it."
    "K-Kara!"
    "The *sweet*-*est*. Don't mind his stare."
Foundation Scions 'I don't see this on here, Matilda love.'

    "Hmph! And yet, it is that which I want- I awoke this morning, fresh from my night-time dreamings, with the certainty, that should I do anything but try steak tartare, here-" She's also never had it, "-then the omens, they would bode very ill!"

'How ever did you choose just this?'

    "It is a classic arrangement, to 'brunch' with compatriots, as a social occasion! Of course- there is so much to do, in the quite-clear winner for the best city," no qualifications to narrow that, "Such as to visit the famous museums, and libraries, and cathedrals, and the parks... However, er, this many visitors, it would make it difficult to feed swans, ducks, and geese, at quaint ponds, without scaring them off!"

    "My invitations, they are always to be appreciated! I am quite popular and well-respected," She says, believing it, in part, because anyone at a private table in a fancy storied cafe, can feel that way. "Er, I suppose, the trees here, while pretty, may not be of the sorts that make you happy to view..? Perhaps, you would prefer le Bois de Vinciennes, Ms. Druvis?"

'I would *love* some triangle sandwich!'

    "Des sandwiches... 'triangulaire'. Of course. 'Pomme vert, emmenthal, et jambon italien' will suffice, for the young miss?"

'The... soup, please?'

    Though the waiter simply nods, it's visible in his shoulders that a simple ordering is a relief! Merci beaucoup, Druvis!

'Uh, you're footing the bill, right Matilda?'

    Very slightly withersome, "Yes! Of course! I, am good for the cost!" Quieter, "Surely, the exchange-rates over the decades, they will be quite favorable for me. Ah, but it is a very-large group..."
Symbiote Duo      One of Flash's first outings and it's a hang out in Paris with that one French girl and god knows who else. Great. His mind is already making it sound worse than it already is, especially when he was kind of excited at first to actually meet some of the Multiverse's locals face to face. He needs somebody- "Heeey~"- he needs somebody other than Venom to help ground him a little. Luckily he knows somebody perfect for the job. He just hopes he can convince her to tag along, but he's pretty sure he can convince her if he offers to pay.

     "Jeez. I didn't think you were this much of a baby."
     "Listen. I don't trust myself to not bungle this somehow, they already think I'm schizophrenic and racist. You're young and sociable, so you can help cover up my weakness."
     "You can't be serious."
     "Of course I'm serious! Think of it like training your coach. I taught you how to do the whole vigilante thing, and now you're teaching me how to be hip with the kids."
     "Oh my God. Alright."

     Flash and Andi make their way down the streets of Paris and towards the cafe, doing their best to keep a low profile once they realize how out of place their modern attire is. Sure they could've changed to match at any time once they realized, but doing that in public and not in an alleyway is just going to draw even more attention, and Andi would rather die than compromise her aesthetic.

     Thankfully other than the occasional staring, they arrive uneventfully. Andi reaches to open the door for Flash, though she is beaten by him by just a few seconds. He doesn't say it as he waits for her to go in, but Andi knows Flash is thinking 'Ladies first', which causes her to sigh and roll her eyes.

    

     "I trust, that the hustle, and the bustle, on the way, was pleasing?"

     "It's no New York, but it was pretty nice. Bit of a walk though, but they don't call me Flash for nothing."
     "Eh. It was fine."

     Andi's already taken a seat and cracked open a menu, though Flash takes a bit longer as he finds a place to hang up his cane, and pauses for a moment as he almost does the same for his jacket before quietly remembering something and keeping it on instead. As he joins Andi and looks over her shoulder to peer at the menu, his face turns a bit pale. Oh shit. It's all French. Which, he can sort of read now, but that doesn't mean he knows what half of these food items are.
Lilian Rook     The first few times Lilian went to the cities outside the Foundation and LSCC campus, she'd carefully researched every aspect of how she might appropriately dress to blend in with the times, as her standard professional conduct demanedd. All three attempts were baffling non-successes; inexplicable at the time, groan-worthy in retrospect, not helped by the fact that the one time that worked out fine was her disguising herself as a Manus Vindictae hopeful alongside Vertin. Once she'd completely given up and constructed a self-indulgent 'uniform' (two different ones, actually) for the long haul at the St. Pavlov Foundation, she had thought the problem well and truly obviated, if not solved.

    Now she finds herself wishing that she thought to do this sort of thing for the new era as well. Or perhaps fill up an entire second wardrobe with appropriate clothing to mix-and-match, or at least rush order from a basis of. The best she's got on short order is a much more delicate, white silk blouse (sans checkers, plus button-line embroidery and sleeve ruffle) to wear in exactly the same way with a slightly longer skirt, tights, and expensive fall-fashion boots, as far as successfully telling herself 'this is Foundation stuff' and 'this is a social outing with an employee' at the same time.

    This does result in still looking like she's on-call, but that's fine, since she brought a tablet computer she is barely pretending is a clipboard by using a stylus on, and she simply refuses not to openly wear her sword (fancy-fitted scabbard, superficially peacebonded) now, for some reason.

    Hearing 'Madame' Bouanich makes her roll her eyes with a quiet laugh in a way that may cause service staff either to commiserate with her or to wonder why she isn't doing anything about it. Her French, despite not being listed when she describes the languages she speaks, is fine. It's barely improved since six years ago, because she doesn't care that much, but it's good enough for Lilian to not feel embarrassed speaking it. The 'triangles' are, finally, behaving. Or rather, she can keep them still and out of the way, substituting for the fabric tie that'd normally give the sleeves shape when pinched around her upper arms, resembling a few loose strings of magnetite adornments.

    'Bienvenue dans la Ville Lumière! I trust, that the hustle, and the bustle, on the way, was pleasing?'

    "I'm managing." Lilian says, faint smile in place, welcoming herself into the room as if the reason she isn't asked for her name is because she's just famous. "I'm shocked you managed to get the time after already taking three days for the training retreat. Did you just happen to file it far in advance? Or . . . ?" She's looking Matilda up and down a little. For bruises.

    'I'll see if it can be done, for the mademoiselle Bouanich. And, for the others..?'

    Christ. Dire. Lilian wonders whether tipping was a thing 'back then', decides it probably wasn't, and says, "The dark roast, please." She considers being a little more adventuresome, but decides to be polite and--

    'Some of this stuff doesn't even have a price, what?'
    'I would *love* some triangle sandwich!'

    Lilian. Lilian you don't get to press your fingertips against your eyes and rub your nose like that. Not at the behaviour of fellow arcanists. Lilian stop. Stop looking so preemptively exasperated. They don't know what you've been through. "I don't suppose you have cognac?" she groans, without looking at the menu. "No, please, just the coffee for now."
Penelope Usher "Matilda, the french onion soup costs like dinner money, um, what..what do you think I should get?"

    Penelope knows Regulus, and is sitting next to her, and so that gives Penelope full manifest right to dictate Regulus's experience. She reads the menu over Regulus's shoulder, drawing out a hmm~ right beside her head.

    "Those are seasonal prices! You're either supposed to memorize the ranges, or not care no matter what the bill says. It's a high-level restaurant technique, intimidating to novice food-eaters."

"Of course! I, am good for the cost!"

    "Oh, you are? Awww, that's so sweet! Everyone say 'thank you, Matilda'," After conductor-echoing this among the others, she turns to Regulus, "Veal cordon-bleu? But you're a pirate... salmon meuniere?"

"In a roundabout way! It's not like we're fortune-tellers, right?"

    Penelope laces her fingers together and plomps her chin on top of them, seat rocking from her kicking her feet excitedly under the table. "Ah ha~? Then what kind are you? Is it related to that kind-of-wand? Don't be shy, don't be shy, you're in good company," Having absolutely no reason to be sure about anyone's attitude besides her own.

"The *sweet*-*est*. Don't mind his stare."

    "Cute! So, how'd you two meet? Oh--" Penelope twists her hand, rotating her fingers to cover her mouth while glancing between them. "The workplace, was it? Or, did the egg come before the chicken here?"

    Penelope cups her hand beside her mouth, as if hiding whispering. However, she's not sitting at the same side of the table as Kara, so her voice is stage-whispered to the same volume, and she clicks her tongue sympathetically.

    "Those tall, silent types... hiding his soft side, is he? I hope he always holds the door for you, at least."
Regulus ''That should I do anything but try steak tartare here...''

"Oh if that's what the omens say, then yeah." Regulus thinks this over and then adds, "IS it ... good?" Regulus may not have the COURAGE stat to order an item off menu at a place like this actually even if it's a stat that has been buffed recently, her roar is louder than her bite. She is, however, assuming Matilda had it before.

''Yes! Of course! I, am good for the cost!''

Regulus gets the vibe from Matilda that she should feel free to order but maybe she should just avoid ordering caviar.

She is grateful for Flash's presence because if Venom is inside him right now and says pretty much anything, she'll look better by comparision. She's hoping.

''You um... you can read these, right?''

"I can get the vibe for some of them, but--like--Matilda is right there, I'd say her French is a billion times better than mine but my French is so low level it'd still not really compare, so maybe let's go with like a trillion times better and maybe we'll hit the ballpark." She pauses, and then realizes there may be a reason they didn't just ask Matilda. "Matilda's nice, she'd be happy to help out."

She, of course, is trying to surreptitiously use her phone under the table to translate some of the dish names herself though.

''Druvis, Sotheby''

"Oh my lovely lovely friends." Regulus smiles, periodically glancing down at her lap. "Glad you could make it. Karson's got a radio for you now, just so you know, Gwen." Surely a waiter will be understanding of Sotheby ordering triangular sandwiches.

"Okay, I'll have the french onion soup, never had french onion soup in France before so feels like I gotta and... oh wonderful you've got seafood. The smoked salmon. Annnd... a coffee, yeah."

She offers the menu back after she's ordered out of habit before looking back to Matilda. "Is there a special occassion, Matilda or is it just 'cause you managed to get time off?"

''Those are seasonal prices!''

"Oh, well, consider me a novice food eater." She smiles at Penelope. "Thank you, Matilda!" She raises her voice to say that because she isn't just saying it because Penelope said to! She's genuinely grateful! She tries not to think about numbers. If they gotta, she'll help everybody dash this dine.

She waves bigly at Lilian, destroying the possibility that they may just be strangers who just happened to both be invited. "Lilian! You made it! Marvy!"
Symbiote Duo      Chocolate! Shut up. Chocolaaate! We're not doing this. C'moooon! Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate! I haven't even had dinn- Chocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolatechocolate!

     Flash rubs his temple in frustration as his thoughts are currently being flooded. He can't read like this. But it's fine, he has a plan. He'll just wait for Andi to place her order and copy her.

     "I'll have a gateau au chocolat"
     "I'll have what she's having-"

     Wait. Flash pauses for a moment, running those words through his head in a translator. Isn't that... As if sensing the reason why Flash paused, Andi just smirks a little and confirms Flash's fear.

     "It's chocolate cake."

     FUCK! YEEEEEEEEEEEEES!
Lilian Rook     People crowding in is a mixed blessing. The room is big enough for all of them, but the feeling of exclusivity was buoying to Lilian's self-esteem. Now she has to be seen here with Regulus (very unfair to hold against her), Sotheby (no hard feelings but she is kind of an adventure hook with a hat), the pair of guys she was desperately hoping wasn't one ex-marine doing a funny voice and wearing blackface yesterday (thank god they weren't), a girl she knows nothing about (and she desperately hopes isn't his SO, for a change), a six foot tall dark-robed space rabbit (he's nice but still), Druvis (let's try to drive quietly for a while), and Odette (Odette).

    '-we, appreciate your invitation.'

    "A pleasure to see you again, Miss Weyerhauser." Lilian says, this certainly being the first time that isn't related to the Walden or the Storm, and thus posessed of a kind of nervous, quietly understated peril (in her mind) not wholly dissimilar of seeing a coworker the next day after an incredibly unethical one-night stand you both regret. "I'm certain Miss Bouanich will be happy to recommend anything." i.e. Read The Menu For You "But I'll give it a shot if you need." Why is she intentionally making her wedding band so visible by how she reaches out to unfold hers?

    'Uh, you're footing the bill, right Matilda? Most of this stuff is out of my price range.'

    "Have some manners, Regulus." Lilian sighs. "If you don't know who's paying and you don't have any money then you shouldn't show up out of the blue."

    'I'm sorry we're late! I'm Lah Kara, and this is Homen, we're Chevaliers and... no, that's not why we're late, we're late because Homen bought me this cake, see?'

    "Then I hope you've thanked him." Lilian says, autopiloting on her sense of The Energy that's going on here, before even really processing the two. "Oh my. Has anyone told you that outfit is adorable? Simple, but . . . You're not cold, are you?"

    'Kara! We aren't supposed to-- there's *people* here-- what if--'

    Picking up on a very different energy, Lilian shoots Homen a look that is one part confusing, two parts interest, eight parts commiserative sympathy, and four parts 'just follow my lead'. "Come now. This room is already so busy with Miss Bouanich's 'extended social circle' that it's a lost cause to expect anything else. Have a seat, mind your manners, and just try to let it wash over you." She gestures to one pretty close to her, actually!
Foundation Scions 'It's no New York, but it was pretty nice.'

    Shaking her head somberly, "American men, they have no concept of tastefulness..."

'This is where you grew up, isn't it?'

    "Yes! Though, not this neighborhood! One quieter, and its streets felt very different than here," and quieter, when the waiter is distracted, "And 'now', of course. But! Paris, it is a city that is in many ways, timeless and immortal! It will surely always stand here, grand and beautiful! Ahh..."

    "It has been quite some time since I have had an excuse, to spend the time to travel here! So! Celebrations, are a necessity!" Matilda raises up her cute little espresso cup, in a little toast! She's so cute!

'We're all Chevaliers, so we've already got a bunch in common.'

    "Yes! Oui! Exactement!" How exciting! "Co-workership, it should often be, a path to close social-groups! I think such frequently!" This comes with a slight little Glance at the knowingly-Watch affiliated elites present.

'It's nothing at all like the stations or America, that's for sure.'

    "Of course it is not akin to either-" though she's only heard as much about stations as Odette spoke of during the training retreat- likely a bunch on the contrast, to the out-of-doors. "And! Are you recovering-well, from your very-many bruises and strains?" Girl you're asking a medic! She's probably medic'd herself!

'KIND OF?'

    "Hein? What does 'kind of' mean? Beyond its definition- what kind of wand is it? Or is it only a little bit of a wand, such as how you, are a 'little bit' of a diviner? Please, tell me!"

'Did you just happen to file it far in advance? Or . . . ?'

    "Ah! There is a funny answer as to that," She says, and then quiets-up a bit, "You see- I fore-saw, that today's duties, would be ones unsupervised, and hardly-checked, and for the most part, doable in-advance! For as far as the SPDM ought know, I am hard at work in the libary's storage-annex in the tunnels below the school."

    A little giggly, "I made plans, and a deal, with the SPDM's bus driver, to assist! So, I cannot linger over-long!" How nefarious!

    Lilian- and anyone, can see that for the bare skin of Matilda's arms, from the cute little short puff-sleeves of her dress, to her gloves, is, actually, quite riddled with bruises, mostly in the stages of fading yellow bilirubin, but still some purple splotchier lines, and rough healed-scabby scrapes. Matilda Bouanich doesn't heal *that* fast.

'I'm gluten-sensitive,'

    The waiter looks very confused at that- he calls another waiter over, to whisper to, and then, with a slightly-strained polite smile, offers Penelope an assurange that he will "Speak to the kitchen staff," which could mean anything.

    'I don't suppose you have cognac?'

    "But of course. Would you like it served, avec des glaçons? Or perhaps you would prefer I deliver the bottle itself?" What is he assuming!!

' Awww, that's so sweet! Everyone say 'thank you, Matilda','

    Squeaky, "Hein? Er- yes! Everyone, please say this! Yes!" After a moment, she even shuffles a bit to stand at her place of the table, to receive what must certainly be an inflowing of praise and adoration!

    This will cost so much.
Lilian Rook     'Nighttime, though... wouldn't that be something? You're, like, so French; this is where you grew up, isn't it?'

    For some reason, 'You're so French' makes Lilian crack up, forcing her to snicker into the back of her hand behind the menu to get it out of her system. "Miss Usher as well. A pleasure to see you as well." Yes! Someone mostly normal! Except the mouse thing! "And we aren't even climbing a mountain this time." Her arm works!

    'Is she yours?'

    Lilian drops her head and snickers much more loudly.

    'Knowing a medic could come in handy.'
    'Come ooooon! You can't reduce people to what they can do for you! I'm sorry, Homen's a bit... he's...'

    "He communicates his charms simply enough." Lilian says, eyeing the Big Obscuring Robe. "Besides. It's nice to be praised for having talent, isn't it?" Which isn't at all what happened, but, this is a Language she speaks.

    '-then the omens, they would bode very ill!'

    "Oh I'll be using that excuse from now on. Thank you very much."

    'Such as to visit the famous museums, and libraries, and cathedrals, and the parks...'

    "Choose a day and I'll bring Tamamo along." Lilian says, with a fanit smile. "I'll take a sick day. Because of my 'condition'."

    'It's no New York, but it was pretty nice.'

    Lilian scoffs, first because of America, then because in 1912 New York really is no Paris. "Thank God for that."
Forest Ladies 'I think they would've warned us. Come on! This isn't our galaxy! There's no one looking for these here, right?'

While getting settled, Druvis cannot help but perceive the highly animated Japanese (?) woman next to her pulling out Mysterious Cylinders and twirling them around proudly. The topic of their contention, between Kara and Homen, faintly confuses Druvis.

"... Wands?" The wandmaker asks. "There was an Arcanist store on the way here that we passed. Have you come from a place of witch-hunting?" Druvis' voice bleeds a certain sort of concern - sympathy, a drop of dark comraderie.

'I *love* your dress! Are you a noble, then?'

"I'm a Sotheby!" Sotheby declares, percolating in her happiness. "Lady Gwendolyn Vera Sotheby, to be precise!" She's definitely in a noble state of mind. "And *this* is..."

"Druvis."
"Miss Weyerhaeuser III!"

... "Druvis." The druid repeats, dry. She might not be 'the help'.

'Yes! Of course! I, am good for the cost!'

Sotheby, giggling, smiles to Matilda. "Oh yes! And, ah, for my portion, here, this should be enough!" Sotheby declares while rummaging around in her glass-clinking bag and producing. . . a vial! Of solid metallic gold. Passing the cold vial over to Matilda, the cigar of gold loose and clear from the glass it is settled in, she has the air of sliding the diviner a tenner for a casual meal, despite the actual real value of a cigar of chemically pure gold.

'Everyone say 'thank you, Matilda','

"Hooray!" Sotheby declares, immediately after handing Matilda gold. "Thank you, Matilda!"

'Glad you could make it. Karson's got a radio for you now, just so you know, Gwen.'

"To which it was placed in Mr. Karson's room, as Miss Sotheby is not allowed radio at all hours of the day. Several of the available channels require minding." Druvis explains, while Sotheby is still favoring Matilda as her Favorite Person (Current Second). "But I appreciate less of a cause to lock my own door. It seems an ill sign, as I am not there, nor does an empty room require privacy."

'Is she yours?'

Druvis gets the same 'I think I need a cognac' look when asked this question, emerald eyes tracking to Penelope.

"No. She is a Sotheby, and an alchemist. I am a druid. We are of different blood. We are simply both acquainted with miss Bouanich."
Odette Raskins "We're all Chevaliers, so we've already got a bunch in common."

Oh no. Did Odette come to the wrong place? She glances around while avoiding eye contact with Penelope briefly, relaxing once she remembers that Druvis, Sotheby, and Regulus are all most certainly not Chevaliers.

"Penelope... Ah, nice to meet you! Oh, you know real French...? Neat!" She comments with an inquisitive glint in her eyes. "Did you learn it from around here, or from somewhere else?"

"I've always wanted to try but it's so time-consuming to learn."
"They're definitely worth it if you've got the time to put them together." Odette asserts with a firm nod, ignoring the fact that her hair is not braided today. "It's better for your hair and face, and there's even ways to do it that aren't too rough on your hands, either. If you want, I could even show you how I do it later?"

"There's no one looking for these here, right?"

Odette's eyes go wide at Kara displaying her lightsaber, and she watches each side with a held breath before realizing that she and Homen are talking about it like it might be a hush-hush thing. Clearing her throat, Odette shakes her head quickly to try and reassure the two. "O-oh, right. No, nobody here would be looking for them, I don't think. Maybe someone at home would be more worried, but..."

A pause, and then she leans in to whisper all conspiratorial like. "That's a hard light katana, right?"

"I'm sorry, Homen's a bit... he's..."

Giggling lightly at Kara's reaction, Odette waves a hand dismissively while puffing up in her seat proudly. Just a little puffery, but it's clear she's soaking up that acknowledgment. "It's okay. That's how plenty of people start by getting to know each other, right? Like being 'the smart one' 'or 'the cool one' or 'the strong one', something like that." She reassures, then glances between Kara and Homen curiously. "What do you two do, come to think of it? Um. Besides Chevali-ing?"

"should I do anything but try steak tartare . . . omens, they would bode very ill!"

"What a specific vision... Huh. That'd make ordering lunch a lot easier each day, at least. No more menu paralysis." Odette murmurs, nodding slowly in thoughtful appreciation.

"they don't call me Flash for nothing."
"Eh. It was fine."

More new faces! Wait, are they with Matilda, too? When did Matilda meet THAT guy? Odette's just kind of staring at Flash for several long seconds, definitely too long to not make things a little awkward if anyone catches her. Once he and Andi are sitting, though, she finally snaps out of that and gives them both a quick little wave in greeting while taking a few moments to mentally translate what Andi had just ordered.

Lilian's arrival is met with a cheerful, yet politely reserved wave from the seated Odette. "Oh, Missus Rook, hi! Is cognac something that comes from this area, too? I didn't order anything to drink yet, so..."

Pursing her lips, Odette considers the wisdom of ordering cognac versus something less likely to get her messed up. Considering she's around friends, though, she opts to order a simpler coffee with milk and sugar. She does start wondering if that's a misstep the moment she puts in the order, but it's too late to pull that back now.
Odette Raskins "Are you recovering-well, from your very-many bruises and strains?"

"Mhm! Well, from the retreat, anyway." She replies with a reassuringly firm nod, followed by a somewhat less reassuring and more waffling addition at the end. "There's been some other stuff going on that's a lot rougher, but everything should be good as almost-new by the end of the month." She adds, having wisely chosen to wear a long sleeved jacket to hide all the healing bruises that aren't on her face.

There's plenty of them, but she hides it decently well between her hair, the jacket itself being yellow, and also plenty of bandages. "Speaking of... How are you holding up? It still feels like a dream to me even now, so... Have you seen anything in your dreams about that?"
Lilian Rook     'It's a high-level restaurant technique, intimidating to novice food-eaters.'
    'Oh, well, consider me a novice food eater.'

    "Fortunately, I've been eating food my entire life."

    'Ah ha~? Then what kind are you? Is it related to that kind-of-wand? Don't be shy, don't be shy, you're in good company'

    "Oh absolutely. Do go on." This is the only test the poor service lad will get from her. "The Madamoiselle Bouanich is a great lover of divinatory arcanum and tradition. You'll keep her entertained for hours."

    'The workplace, was it? Or, did the egg come before the chicken here?'

    She tries to make a 'Shh!' noise, but cracks up halfway through. Yeah okay she was considering warning Kara, but . . .

    'IS it ... good?'

    "To a Brit?" Lilian says, Britishly, in English. "It might not be for you."

    'American men, they have no concept of tastefulness...'

    "Well, give him credit for trying to educate himself." Lilian says, now staring at Andi. "So? Monsieur 'Flash'. Do you plan to introduce the young lady?"

    'And! Are you recovering-well, from your very-many bruises and strains?'

    "I'd meant to ask you the same, actually. You were working harder than I've ever seen you."

    'You see- I fore-saw, that today's duties, would be ones unsupervised, and hardly-checked, and for the most part, doable in-advance! For as far as the SPDM ought know, I am hard at work in the libary's storage-annex in the tunnels below the school.'

    Lilian's eyes widen. "Matilda, I am surprised." she says. "A mere three days away from that place and you've already become so much wiser!" She laughs, then. "Such sharpness of mind and instinct, recovered in so short a time in your natural habitat. My my, the Bouanich girls are exceptional indeed." Thinking about the driver, she says, "I'll send some curative talismans back with you. Don't use them until tonight, obviously."

    'There was an Arcanist store on the way here that we passed. Have you come from a place of witch-hunting?'

    "Who hasn't?" Lilian says. A moment later, she realizes she is already slipping into her For-Druvis tone, and tries to reel it back. "They're from a more secluded community than this." Of arcanists, implicitly. "Anyone would feel uncertain of how much is polite to 'show' when coming to the city for the first time."

    'Several of the available channels require minding.'

    "As much as we all adore Miss Sotheby, I'll thank you for that."
Hy Izlan Reformers "Ah ha~? Then what kind are you?"

    Kara, slightly less tongue-tied than when this came up on the Paladins band, at least has an idea of how to answer this time. "It's more... feeling the flow of things? Closing your eyes, and knowing which way fate flows, like it's a river and you're along for the ride?" Less active than divination. "The saber," she says of a bladeless, round hilt still twirling in her hand, "Is a symbol. It isn't used to connect to the Force, but I think it's simultaneously inseparable from who we are, and yet a whole different thing too. It's like..."

    She stops twirling it, lifting it to look at it as if she'd never inspected the partially leather bound cylinder before. "It's like..."

    Kara pouts, after a few more attempts. "Ugh. The margrave would know exactly what to say about it. So would..."
    Her glance drops. The arm holding the weapon, too.

"Hein? What does 'kind of' mean? Beyond its definition-"

    If Kara cannot answer, Homen will be 'happy' to. "It's new to me, as well. But to explain it, you'd have to imagine people growing up, on stories of knights and their legendary swords, led by and sensitive to the energy that binds all things - your 'fate' or 'destiny'. The Force. These... they're weapons, but they're also part of the story. They are guidance, and a reminder. They are purpose given physicality."

    Kara looks at Homen, blinking, a bit surprised at his insight, but clearly a bit struck by it too.
    "... ahah... you've thought about this a lot, huh?"

"The workplace, was it?"

    "Oh he tried to kill me. And Ethan."
    "H-Hey!"
    "But it was fake, so it was fine! So, that's how we met."
    Yeah. Fake. Homen rumbles, just a little bit, but appreciates that Kara calls it that. He's still not proud of it.
    "I do. Hold the door. It's easiest for me."
    He fails to see how it's relevant though!

"Oh my. Has anyone told you that outfit is adorable?"

    Lilian's voice makes the both of them spin so very suddenly. Homen's stance almost straightens, but Kara just looks much more at ease now. "A little bit, but, it's pretty cold where I grew up too! I'm used to it. It's so nice to meet you! ... what's with the knot, on your blade?"

    It isn't as though lightsabers can be peace-bonded, but her father's shown her how to wrap cloth and leather around the hilt before, and to make fancy knots. Lilian's just seems like it would get in the way?

"Come now. This room is already so busy with Miss Bouanich's 'extended social circle' that it's a lost cause to expect anything else."

    "A-Ah... y-yes..."

    Homen sits, because what else is he going to do, when Lilian ushers him over close by. Even then he's a head above everyone, and probably the thickest dressed at the table, Sotheby's fancy dress aside.

    "I hadn't expected..."
    His glance avoids Lilian, like one avoids intentionally over-staring at someone they hold in high esteem.
    "It must be hard to clear up time for this with your schedule."

"He communicates his charms simply enough."

    "Doesn't he just? But he's really got to learn to say hi!"
    Homen huffs.

"I'll have a gateau au chocolat."

    "Can I have that too? That sounds really good.

    Flash and Andi are probably the most normal looking people at this table? That is in itself attention-grabbing, and Kara's very curious. "Flash is kind of a cool name. Are you two Chevaliers too?"
Regulus ''Have some manners, Regulus.''

"Well I was invited..." Regulus's shoulders droop as she guiltily wiggles a soup spoon around betwixt her fingers. "I didn't realize how fancy-priced everything would be." She did expect it to be more expensive but this much more expensive is really eye opening. But it's fine, Matilda's a gazillionaire, Sotheby can literally make gold, and if it comes down to it she did bring SOME liquid cash to help and if it REALLY COMES DOWN TO IT, she can offer to help clean dishes or run away! Everything will be fine if she believes in her heart and everybody else's bank accounts. Though she's not gonna bring that last part anymore because Lilian told her she was being rude. Then again, maybe Lilian appreciates the chance to show off but isn't gonna admit it? That's also possible. Good job Regulus, you gave Lilian an opportunity to show how cultured she is. You're so considerate!

''Hooray!''

"Hooray!" Regulus repeats automatically as is her tendency when Sotheby shouts Hooray!

"Ah, glad I could help, Druvis." Regulus manages, though really it was more meant to be a gift for Sotheby than for Druvis but well if it's a gift for Druvis too that's fine by her. She feels like every time she asks Druvis how she's doing she gets an incredibly esoteric answer so instead she says, "Glad you could make it. You ever been to a restaurant this nice, lately?"

She HAS noticed that a lot of people showed up bruised and carrying canes and the like. Man, Regulus thinks, for a second she was jealous she didn't join in on the training herself. Ah, who is she kidding, it must've been a once in a lifetime experience if they got beat up that bad and STILL gush over it.

''I've been eating food my entire life.''

"Um, I also ... have been eating food my entire life." Regulus knows it's a joke but she feels like she has to clarify this sort of thing lately. "Just maybe not food like this." Well actually she has had french onion soup before and also salmon before but a majority of the menu? She has definitely never had.
Foundation Scions     It's by a small fleet of wait-staff that everyone's food arrives, mostly as they ordered it. A lot of it comes, even, on cute, small, silver cloches, on a couple small rolling carts! How quaint! Coffees are replaced with new ones, almost a matter of course. This is a coffeehouse, despite the quite-fancy food also on offering (and not on offering).

'Have you come from a place of witch-hunting?'

    Glancing between the lightsaber, her own orbuculum, Druvis, Sotheby, Lilian, Regulus, then Penelope, and her own orbuculum again, Matilda adds, "I would very-much hope not! That would be a tragedy- er, and, Ms. Druvis, what store was it? Perhaps I can find more time, somewhere, than my plan afforded, if it looked sufficiently nice..."

'Anyone would feel uncertain of how much is polite to 'show' when coming to the city for the first time.'

    "Everything that I have to show, the city, especially this-city, should be all the brighter for it! Hm!" To herself a little, "Mademoiselle Bouanich, she is to be such a sparkling gem, no? Surely, even, to outshine the Madame Bouanich! Look out, Paris! Matilda is here!" That earns a quiet snicker from a waiter.

'Oh, you know real French...? Neat!'

    "Hey!! I also know 'real' French!"

'Oh I'll be using that excuse from now on. Thank you very much.'

    "It is no excuse, but- you are welcome, regardless!" Her expression is really serious, save for how she keeps looking down to the puck of raw meat in front of her, and then back to Lilian, "My dreams were quite distressing! There was blood within them, and stomach-aches, which is rare for a dream to have! Surely, the omens would be dire, if I avoid listening!"

    She takes a forkful of her food, ignoring the tartar sauce it is served with, and says, muffled due to chewing, "Well! I hope it provesh ushefuwl!" She's really digging into that dish! It's Not That Big!

>A vial! Of solid metallic gold.

    Matilda's eyes bug out. "A-ah. Yes! This, should, do the trick!" She looks to Druvis, wide-eyed, a little frightened, for implicit permission to accept Sotheby's humongously-valuable cigar. Even touching it makes Matilda a little nervous!

'Such sharpness of mind and instinct, recovered in so short a time in your natural habitat.'

    Matild nods, before even really thinking too much as to 'her natural environment'. "And, of course- I was so very sharp before! Those three days..." Chasing that thought about running around in the wilderness with a large forkful of literally just seasoned raw beef, is quite a pairing, and the way it seems to set her at weird ease to chew on, again, raw beef, is another. "Ah! Garçon! Another, s'il vous plait!"
Lilian Rook     'Oh, Missus Rook, hi! Is cognac something that comes from this area, too? I didn't order anything to drink yet, so...'

    "Charente, actually, if memory serves." Lilian says. Mostly 'memory of the era'. "It's a drink they'll only give to working adults with a rough day ahead of them." she adds, chidingly, as if this isn't already Odette.

    'Speaking of... How are you holding up? It still feels like a dream to me even now'

    Lilian's kirakira sparkles increase by another ten percent. "Well, for a Bouanich, they might make an exception."

    'But of course. Would you like it served, avec des glaçons? Or perhaps you would prefer I deliver the bottle itself?'

    Lilian wants to frown a little more, but it is early in the morning. "I appreciate the offer, but I'll get through this without need of the bottle, thank you."
Symbiote Duo      'Uh, you're footing the bill, right Matilda? Most of this stuff is out of my price range.'

     "I can cover some of your bill if that's a problem. Just don't order anything too expensive, I'm not made of money myself."

     "American men, they have no concept of tastefulness..."
'Thank God for that.'

     Flash shrugs. "What can I say? I love my concrete jungles and overcrowded public transport." Love might be a strong word, but it is definitely where he feels the most safe and at home.

     'Everyone say 'thank you, Matilda'

     "Thanks ma'am."
     "Thanks Matilda!"
     "Thanks Matilda!"

     The last thank you causes Flash to sit up and grip the front of his jacket as if he's grabbing the scruff of a dog's neck that just got into the trash, before realizing how odd that looks and sitting back down like nothing happened.

     Not gonna beat the mentally ill allegations, bro if you're gonna freak out over a thank you! Yeah. Well. We're in public right now, no need to spook people with talking goo. OH! THE TALKING GOO IS TOO MUCH BUT THE TRIX FUCKING RABBIT IS A-OK. YEAH, SURE BUDDY, MAKING TOTAL SENSE. Trix rabbit? What are you-

     Flash then realizes Homen is there.

     Oh shit. That is a whole ass rabbit. I TOLD YOU!
Hy Izlan Reformers "Anyone would feel uncertain of how much is polite to 'show' when coming to the city for the first time."
"There was an Arcanist store on the way here that we passed. Have you come from a place of witch-hunting?"

    "Of a sort. To have a lightsaber... I'm sorry, a 'wand', is enough to end in the sights of some very powerful, and usually very jealous and greedy, people. Concealing them just makes sense. And, besides..." Homen looks around, at the restaurant and the crowd.

    "... it's a blade. One shouldn't wave it around carelessly."

"Lady Gwendolyn Vera Sotheby, to be precise!"

    "Well it is *wonderful* to meet you, Lady Gwendolyn Vera Sotheby, and Druvis," Kara picks up on the proper address pretty quickly, and then, having already asked for cake, looks at the two, then Homen, then the two again. "This is our first time here, on Paris," She didn't catch this isn't a single-biome (single-theme) planet yet. "Is there something we absolutely have to try while we're here?"

    "Steak sounds nice and fine," Homen says, echoing Matilda's desire.

"That's a hard light katana, right?"

    "What's a katana?" Asks the swordsmith's daughter.
    "... that one I don't know."
    "It *is* light though, yes! It's kind of hard sometimes. And kind of not sometimes too? It's very..."

    Kara makes a 'vwooom, vwooosh, shwoooo' sound sequence with her mouth that single-handedly explains the matter.

"Like being 'the smart one' 'or 'the cool one' or 'the strong one', something like that."

    "Ahahah! True! So which one are you? I guess I'm the new one, and Homen's the tall and silent one." A bit!

"Well, for a Bouanich, they might make an exception."

    Out of context that sounds like...
    "Wait! Wait, wait, hold on! Is Matilda royalty? Is she like, the ruler of this planet? Margrave? Princess? Queen?"
    "I don't think..."
    "The queen of Paris!"
Foundation Scions 'Closing your eyes, and knowing which way fate flows, like it's a river and you're along for the ride?'

    Matilda pouts! "Ms. Kara! That sounds very-much as a manner of divination, based-upon your intuition of the signs and circumstances on the world; to understand and observe the flow of pneuma!" Close! In fact, Matilda is just going to assume the Force is pneuma.

'The saber,'

    "Ah! My sword, it is also a wand!" A little humming-pause, to try and finish Kara's words, from a place of just guessing, "It is a marker of tradition, and craft, or heritage? As well as a tool to use?" Matilda's orbuculum is sitting besides her, and earns this time, not a glance, but a pat!

'Speaking of... How are you holding up?'

    "Have you, too, begun to, still feel restless, in early-mornings and evenings..? I have been noticing it much-so, of late!" That's a little strange!
Odette Raskins "I'd meant to ask you the same, actually. You were working harder than I've ever seen you."
"Really? Oh! Um. Y-yeah, I..." Odette's caught off guard a little at first, and the surprised look soon gives way to a more bashful grin while she's nodding quickly. "I've had to take it easy for longer than I was expecting to, but my managers were pretty understanding once they looked at my face."

What she doesn't realize, of course, is that they were actually looking at her file and the rapidly growing list of redactions in there, but that's not the subject of today's outing.

"... It really was some hard work, but it was all worth it. Everything feels a lot more... Reachable now, you know? And without having to turn my arms into more of these." She adds, gesturing at the earpiece on the right side of her head. It's cracked in several places, but there's fresh-ish glue holding it all together!

"Hey!! I also know 'real' French!"

More giggles, courtesy of Matilda's reaction to Odette. "Sorry, sorry! I just meant that now I've got two people I can ask about that." She corrects herself, glancing between Matilda and Penelope a few tiems before digging into her food.

First, dippiong the croissant in the French onion soup. She's having a little trouble balancing the cheese and croutons on it, but the flavor hits her like a truck and has her whimpering in good-food noises.

"Charente, actually . . . a drink they'll only give to working adults"

"Darn it." Odette snaps her fingers lightly with an exaggerated little harumphing noise, holding in a snicker as her hand goes to her ID. "I don't think I need something that strong yet, but it's not like I'm still a..."

She pauses, looking at her ID and just staring at it in mild shellshock. More specifically, she's looking at her starting date with the Company from 2024. "... Has it really been three years already? And now..." She looks up from the card to Lilian, blinking a few times like she's trying not to even remotely start tearing up again. "Huh. Everything's really changed a lot since then. Gosh, I can't even imagine how different things'll be in another three or four..."

"vwooom, vwooosh, shwoooo"

Now it's Odette's turn to be confused by Kara! Extra curious, too, but confused. "Is that what they sound like in real life...? Huh. Do you think we could see it later? Er. If that's okay, and away from..."

She pasuses, looking up and around at the cafe's interior to make sure there's no cameras recording what's going on in 1912. "... Prying eyes. Or listening walls. Ears."

"So which one are you?"

"Me? O-oh, probably none of those. I mean, I'm the medic? But." Laughing lightly, she suddenly gets a little rmore bashful and self-conscious about even thinking how to describe herself. "I mean, I used to be the new one, but that was years ago, and you're definitely the new one here. Now, I just... Er. Hmm. I can't be the smart one, because that's Missus Rook. Gwen's really smart with her potions, too! I can't be the cool one, because that's Missus Rook and Miss Druvis and Regulus. And I can't be the strong one, because that's..."

She just kind of gestures all around, but especially at Lilian and Druvis, then at Flash with a slight wiggle of her hand. "I haven't seen him before, but... I mean. Look at him." She asserts, pausing again to just kind of stare at Flash.
Foundation Scions 'Everything feels a lot more... Reachable now, you know?'

    Matilda makes a little 'Hm!' noise. "C'est bien! You could always do with at least some more confidence, Odette! Just look at how it is, that I achieve things!"

'Wait! Wait, wait, hold on! Is Matilda royalty? Is she like, the ruler of this planet? Margrave? Princess? Queen?'

    So soon after a big helping of 'thank you's and praise, Matilda can't really do anything but fluster-stammer a little, "Well- no, that would not be correct to say, but in a few ways, it would not be the most in-correct thing to say?"

     "The Bouanich family, it is of highly-respected diviners, and merchants of only the best, and highest-quality of crystals, for arcane, and mundane, usages! Maman-" her mom, "She is as-if the 'queen' of diviners, not Paris- Paris does not have royals any-longer -so! In a way, I could be as the princess of diviners!" She's getting lost in the sauce of raw meat and attention!!!!!!!!!
Lilian Rook     'A little bit, but, it's pretty cold where I grew up too! I'm used to it. It's so nice to meet you! ... what's with the knot, on your blade?'

    "A pleasure as well. You three--" She glances around for the third. Ah. "--made a bit of an impression, so I've been idly hoping to get the opportunity." She knows perfectly well what Kara is talking about, but glances down in curiosity anyways. "It's a peacebond. Theoretically, it's meant to prevent drawing the sword, and thus demonstrates that you have peaceful intentions even while carrying it. Of course something like this wouldn't actually get in my way at all, but it's only polite to set others at ease." It'd set them more at ease if you just glamered it as jewellery again! Come on!

    'But to explain it, you'd have to imagine people growing up, on stories of knights and their legendary swords, led by and sensitive to the energy that binds all things--'

    "Oh, perfect!" Lilian says, snapping a finger by habit. "I was just teaching a pack of hopefuls about that for half of this week!" She's so pleased!

    '... ahah... you've thought about this a lot, huh?'

    "Ah, but still . . ." Lilian's eyes drift right back to the weird little metal cylinder. "That's a weapon? I'd already struggled to imagine 'spiritual implement'; I've never seen anything particularly like it. What an unusual shape . . ." Ah, artifact appraisal time now. "Ray-skin? And . . . brushed steel? No, that almost looks more like titanium, but surely not."

    'Oh he tried to kill me. And Ethan.'
    'H-Hey!'

    "Ah, that sort of thing." Lilian nods, sagely self-referential.

    'I hadn't expected... It must be hard to clear up time for this with your schedule.'

    §Cute cute cute cute cute--§

    "Oh my schedule's been a right nightmare lately, you're absolutely correct." Lilian says, smoothly adding a singular sugar to her coffe, then blowing on it twice. "But I'm always careful to never let my work encroach into the time I've purposefully set aside to rest. If you don't take time to let it sink in, no amount of hard work is ever going to teach you anything." she says, pausing to raise the cup to her lips and savour it. "Oh that's actually not bad at all." Why does she sound surprised? It's Paris. "To answer the question you must be dying to ask, however, Miss Bouanich has recently become a student of mine; and I always have my early Sundays free."

    'Well I was invited...'

    "Come now Regulus. If you keep insisting, it'll be an insult to Matilda's fine tastes."
Regulus ''I love my concrete jungles and overcrowded public transport.''

"Likewise, but you know." Regulus says. "When in Paris you oughta appreciate the culture." She looks over to Flash. "Good to meet you you, by the way. Glad you could make it. Who is your friend, though?" She has no idea who Flash came along with.

Regulus is accustomed to crowds so she's not really struggling to keep track of everything but some of the conversations going on are a bit confusing. Like a 'lightsaber'.

"Yeah you probably shouldn't wave a sword around carelessly. That's how you get an unexpected harecut." She is trying to be nice and not say something more gloomy.

''Have you, too, begun to, still feel restless--''

"I mostly feel restless in the evening, in the morning I'm raring to go like crazy." She was worried about Matilda a lot during her sickness but she seems all better now so there's nothing to worry about.

''The Bouanich family, it is of highly-respected diviners...''

"I may've asked this before, but is your family connected to the Foundation?" Regulus asks. "I'm guessing since they're such a big family, they don't have any trouble finding shelter." She assumes they didn't get Reversed!! Because that would be SO SAD. "Princess Matildaaaa..." She says, drawling out the name as she tests it in her mouth. "Yeah it's cute."

''Come now Regulus. If you keep insisting, it'll be an insult to Matilda's fine tastes''

"Mrhgrhr." Regulus covers her mouth. She takes a breath. Then she drops her hands and says, "Well it's very generous." in an attempt to be properly polite in this joint.
Foundation Scions 'I was just teaching a pack of hopefuls about that for half of this week!'

    "Yes! I was one-such 'hopeful'- though, something about that term, it sits poorly in my mouth? Is there a better one, more implicit-of having found quite a bit of success?" Greedy! Greedy greedy greedy! A little sad, "Ah... I should have brought Connaître les Papillons. But, that would have been an inconvenient stop upon the way here."

    Complainy, now, "Mrs. Rook? Could I ask you, some-time, for a letter of reccomendation, that the Foundation's Dormitory Regulation representative for my building, concede to allowing-me to keep the sword on-premises? He has been quite against the notion!"
Lilian Rook     'Everything that I have to show, the city, especially this-city, should be all the brighter for it! Hm!'

    "That's the spirit." Lilian says, over her coffee, trying very hard to not snicker along with the waiter. That'd mean-snickering! Not Matilda-Is-So-Cute snickering! "Is your mother's name well-known, here?" she glances sideways.

    'My dreams were quite distressing! There was blood within them, and stomach-aches, which is rare for a dream to have!'

    Lilian opens her mouth, closes it, blatantly mouths something with 'plus twelve' in it, and then decides to say "I suppose the cravings might just be due to the demands of the style." instead. "I've never come across a better explanation why serum iron is always the enemy." There is at least a kilo of 'iron', from inside her body, outside her body right now. "If they persist, I'll share some of my tricks." Like having Petra feeding you jerky in the van.

    Watching Matilda demolish multiple rounds raw meat while gushing about the mental health benefits of abandoning civilization to swing a sword out in the rain and wind and implicitly cuddle half-naked with your crush every night doesn't even make Lilian blink. That's normal. That's so normal that it makes her smile fondly just to see that someone else finally gets it. Everyone probably gets it now. They'd all be like her if they stuck with it.

    'I can cover some of your bill if that's a problem. Just don't order anything too expensive, I'm not made of money myself.'

    Lilian changes to her cognac, and pours a tiny bit into her coffee. "Goodness. How responsible."

    Within thirty seconds she is grimace staring at Flash. With a certain amount of difficulty, she says "Could you please take care not to act the very stereotype while you're here? I don't want to be escorting anyone out of here."
Lilian Rook     '... it's a blade. One shouldn't wave it around carelessly.'

    "Ah, well, I wasn't going to say it, but . . ."

    'What's a katana?'

    "It's a word everyone uses to mean 'high-quality sword' even though it doesn't mean that." she says, bitterly.

    'The queen of Paris!'

    "If she were, then don't you think you'd be acting very inappropriately right now?" Lilian says, eyebrow quirked, making 'lower the volume and sit down' gestures with her free hand.

    'Have you, too, begun to, still feel restless, in early-mornings and evenings..? I have been noticing it much-so, of late!'

    "Oh I have a tip for that too. But--" Lilian second-guesses this one. "Remind me later."

    '... It really was some hard work, but it was all worth it. Everything feels a lot more... Reachable now, you know?'

    "One day, everyone will have had the formative spiritual experience that makes my words and actions make sense."

    'Yeah you probably shouldn't wave a sword around carelessly. That's how you get an unexpected harecut.'

    "Anyone who touches my hair disappears under mysterious circumstances." More cognac now.

    'Yes! I was one-such 'hopeful'- though, something about that term, it sits poorly in my mouth? Is there a better one, more implicit-of having found quite a bit of success?"'

    Oh she could squeal for joy! It's weird that she can hear her own heartbeat accelerating like this, but Lilian keeps it down long enough to say "Apprentice, perhaps? Sonetto may not appreciate 'disciple'."

    'Mrs. Rook? Could I ask you, some-time, for a letter of reccomendation, that the Foundation's Dormitory Regulation representative for my building, concede to allowing-me to keep the sword on-premises?'

    "Consider it done." Oh that excitement-bullet grazed so close that the fake-jewellery on her sleeve-binds just rattled.
Hy Izlan Reformers "It is a marker of tradition, and craft, or heritage? As well as a tool to use?"

    Kara's expression displays such a clear, positive ! at Matilda grasping the meaning so very immediately. Homen nods in confirmation.

    "Like a blacksmith's hammer! A blacksmith can make things and perform his craft without a hammer, even if it's surely so much harder. But when you see the hammer in the smith's hand, you just... know, right?"

    Of course it would be her go-to.
    Homen has a different one, courtesy of Lilian.

    "Or a knight-errant's blade. Can the knight save others without the blade? Of course. Can the knight follow his calling without ever holding the blade? We all have. But once you hold it... especially, growing up having idealized it... it aligns things. It reinforces who you are."

    Homen reaches under his robes, to produce his own. It's a bit larger, the emitter part wider than the rest of the hilt, but the makes of their blades are obviously the same, the leather binding being so similar as to obviously come from the same smith.

    "I suppose you could say holding one of these made me fully understand what it is I want to be."
    Kara, whose relationship with the blade is so very different, hangs her head just a bit. "Same. Mostly."

"The Bouanich family, it is of highly-respected diviners, and merchants of only the best, and highest-quality of crystals, for arcane, and mundane, usages! Maman-"

    But Kara's head will not stay hung darkly for long, because Matilda mentions CRYSTALS, you see. "Really?! That's so cool! I-- you know, I grew up mining for rare crystals? We have... had... these big harpoon-trebuchets, and if you set them up right, you could launch them all the way into space! Hy Izlan, it has this ring full of really valuable ores, and metals, and crystals, and miners on the planets only care for the ores, for commerce, but I was looking for the crystals, for dad. He used them to make these!"
    She indicates the lightsaber in her hand, still.

    "But still! A princess of diviners..."
    Kara's eyes sparkle in Matilda's direction.

"It's a peacebond. Theoretically, it's meant to prevent drawing the sword, and thus demonstrates that you have peaceful intentions even while carrying it."

    "Oh that makes so much sense. I wonder if we could apply that principle to lightsabers?"
    "It'd be symbolic at best."
    "But it'd be cute."
    "Sure. But a blaster with a ribbon on it can still shoot you. It's not very reassuring."
    Kara sticks her tongue out at the space bunny that is completely missing the point of the gesture.

"Ray-skin? And . . . brushed steel? No, that almost looks more like titanium, but surely not."

    "You know... I never asked what metals he made them out of. I think it's not regular steel though, these things are *so* sturdy it's kind of insane? Once I saw dad swing his hammer as hard as he could at one, and it didn't even dent the shape even a little bit."

    Kara, lifting the hilt up for Lilian to examine closer if she wants, offers: "Would you like to see it? I don't know if here's a good place though, people might not like their brunch interrupted by... like..."
    She goes vwoooom psshhhht again.

    This also answers Odette's question about getting to see it.
Hy Izlan Reformers "To answer the question you must be dying to ask, however, Miss Bouanich has recently become a student of mine; and I always have my early Sundays free."

    "Not resting can drive one to madness. I've seen it. But to only have one morning free doesn't sound like that much rest."

    Not that Homen rests much more than that.
    His downtime is more like travel time. There's only so much you can do between destinations, so it's a bit enforced.

    "It must be quite the honor to be trained by you. How many students are there in total? You've mentioned Trideag isn't 'an order' proper, but it still sounded like more than just a handful."

"I haven't seen him before, but... I mean. Look at him."

    "He DOES kind of give off the strong one vibe, huh?"
Penelope Usher "For as far as the SPDM ought know, I am hard at work in the libary's storage-annex in the tunnels below the school."

    "Oh,hohoho! *Devious*!" Penelope's faux-scandalization is nothing but praise, when she wiggles in her chair. "Let's make the most of the time, then!"

    Penelope, also, has somewhere she should be! On her schedule is a meeting with a professor on campus, which would be just terrible to miss, and so she doesn't! But now she's thinking about that so-helpful bus driver, as well as the herself that's not getting to have a nice meal with everyone, and feels suddenly very sympathetic.

    "You know Paris, right, Matilda? How about we swing by a chocolatier after brunch, and I'll buy you a box to bring back and share with him. It should be like a mini-vacation to come here, right?"

"And we aren't even climbing a mountain this time."

    "Only navigating the exciting chaos of Paris~ Hi, Lilian! I'm so glad you've healed, too."

"Penelope... Ah, nice to meet you! Oh, you know real French...? Neat!"

    "Odette! So what's with that training camp you and Matilda were gossiping about? Lilian's?" Being beat up a little bit is a sign of something exciting, and probably significant, happening. You don't get bruised up from doing nothing!

    Penelope waves her hand, leaning back in her chair so that the waiter can place coffee in front of her. "I don't speak it well at all. I just had to learn it after Latin, as part of my education. There's a few interesting texts that were originally only in French."

"Closing your eyes, and knowing which way fate flows, like it's a river and you're along for the ride?"

    Penelope is perfectly attentive to Kara's explanation, a little giddy about the esoteric (space!) magic. "So it's intuitive, instead of something you invoke? The 'Force'? For the 'flow'..." Penelope waggles her finger up and down, miming currents. "What does it want you to do? What directions does it want you to go?"

"It's new to me, as well. But to explain it, you'd have to imagine people growing up, on stories of knights and their legendary swords, led by and sensitive to the energy that binds all things - your 'fate' or 'destiny'."

    "Oh!! So it's your *heroic instinct*?! That's so cute!" She murmurs, a little bit fascinated, "So you're drawn, always, to the things you'll care about, and the places you can make a difference?"

"Oh he tried to kill me. And Ethan."

    "That sounds like more of a story than that! Maybe not a restaurant-type story, though, ahahaha."

"Mademoiselle Bouanich, she is to be such a sparkling gem, no? Surely, even, to outshine the Madame Bouanich!"

    "Ah! Your family legacy! What is it?" Penelope leans behind Regulus to cross her over in Matilda's direction, propping up her elbow on the back of Regulus's chair. "So is your mom some kinda bigshot? The Usher line's basically totally dependent on me by now; if you ever want advice about securing that bag."

"Ah! Garcon! Another, s'il vous plait!"

    That's incredible. Matilda's eating like, quite literally, a wild animal! Penelope, chipping away at her duck, applauds lightly for her ordering a second pile of raw beef, because that's perhaps the strangest way anyone has ever spent a surreptitious sneaking-away-from-school type afternoon.
Hy Izlan Reformers "So it's intuitive, instead of something you invoke?"

    Kara nods, because it's certainly the easiest way she can think of to explain it. "It's a bit like having... not a voice, exactly, but a presence, that looks in the same direction you do. And sometimes it'll gently tap your shoulder, or reassure the decision you made. I think it'd be really cool to be able to 'see' the future, but also a bit scary, right?"
    "It feels like it'd be cheating."
    "Cheating?"
    "Taking the agency out of your hands."
    Kara ahs, and chews on that for a bit.

    Because neither her nor Homen can answer Penelope's other question, about what direction the Force *wants* them to go.

"So you're drawn, always, to the things you'll care about, and the places you can make a difference?"

    "By fate or chance. It's hard to tell which sometimes."
    "Like how I found this place!"
    "It was reckless not to bring a map."

"That sounds like more of a story than that! Maybe not a restaurant-type story, though, ahahaha."

    "It's kind of surprisingly short?" Kara laughs, which makes Homen sweat, and she catches the hint. "Buuuut it's probably true it's not the kind of discussion to have over such nice food. And, besides, he turned around. Look at him now! All behaved and enjoying nice a breaklunch on Paris."

    "I really need to insist I didn't hurt anyone. Also, brunch."
    "You kicked Ethan a bit."
    "His skull can take it."
Regulus ''Anyone who touches my hair--''

Regulus nods along. She would probably not actually kill someone for cutting her hair but she WOULD throw a FIT.

It still feels a little weird to Regulus that SHE went up a mountain. It was a walk more than a climb but that's still a multi hour walk. She wiggles her feet within her boots to make sure she doesn't have any lingering blisters.

Regulus quiets down a bit as she enjoys her own meal.

"Okay," She admits. "This is the best french onion soup I've ever had in my life." Considering how fast she devoured it, she practically drank it. Still, she's pretty much minding her table manners incidentally rather than intentionally--the food she ordered isn't exactly food you shove into your mouth with your hand, but she did use the wrong spoon for soup like an IDIOT because she figured she'd get more soup in that way.

"Okay." She sighs. "This is also the best salmon I've ever had." Don't say you still prefer fish and chips.

"So, uh, how is it, Matilda? The steak tartare?"
Symbiote Duo      'When in Paris you oughta appreciate the culture.'

     "I am! I was gonna show up in a beret in everything originally but-"

'Who is your friend, though?"'

     "That's Andi. She's my sidekick. Andi, this is Reg-"
     "Yeah. I got a radio too, you don't need to introduce her to me."
     "Right."

     'I mean. Look at him.'

     "Huh? Wha-" She's saying we're strong as hell! "Oh! Uh... Yeah, I work out I guess???" Good work. Now flex your muscles to show them we mean business.

     Flash ignores that and instead impatiently stares at the passing waiters. If he can get his cake maybe that'll shut Venom up for a moment.

     'Could you please take care not to act the very stereotype while you're here?'

     "S-Sorry. Guess my nerves a bit shot from-"
     "I don't think she's worried about your lover's spat with Venom, I think she's annoyed you're acting too American."

     Damn. Kinda embarassing you didn't pick that up yourself, Flash. Lover's spat!? That's what it is. Well. Not gonna pretend my pride isn't hurt a litle by that, but that is kinda why I brought her. Yeah man, gotta be kept humble by one of the top three coolest people I know! Three? Who's the other two- FUCK YOU, YOU THINK THE RABBIT IS LESS WEIRD THAN ME! YOU DON'T GET MY WATCH MOJO'S TIER LIST! Fair enough.
Forest Ladies 'As much as we all adore Miss Sotheby, I'll thank you for that.'

"The radio is not always appropriate for her, and for her own growth we have agreed to limit her access. She is the type of flower to not take direct sunlight." Druvis explains slowly, the way of explaining the matter bringing her a faint smile. Sotheby often wanted to use the radio, and it was a kind gift, but sometimes people were shouting about lesbian sex cults and beefing with obscenities or whenever Hell Biker talked. And that was too much!

'Glad you could make it. You ever been to a restaurant this nice, lately?'

Druvis is the exact sort of not quite socialized, not quite built for small talk sort that doesn't really have a normal response to 'are you doing okay?'. If anything, she has a very deliberate thoughtfulness on if she's well, especially considering how she now fully admits that she was not before.

And so, Regulus learns to meet Druvis in the middle, and Druvis has a different answer than her normal esoterica and raw introspective feeling:

"Lately? No. Once I fell into the Walden's care, I myself lacked any ability to pay for things outside of the commission I could charge for wandmaking." She explains, slow yet not distressedly. It was a memory over coffee and conversation, not some festering wound of the past. "When I was a child, our family dined in certain luxuries. It was something I ran away from, at the time, for I found myself unsuited for them. Now..."

Another faint little smile, and her eyes roll towards the cheery Sotheby and then back. "I have cause, now and then."

'I would very-much hope not! That would be a tragedy- er, and, Ms. Druvis, what store was it? Perhaps I can find more time, somewhere, than my plan afforded, if it looked sufficiently nice...'

"It would seem that places with witches have witch-hunters, as call and response. Unfortunate, as it ever is, for the witch, and at times, for the hunter." She pauses, and then looks back.

"Sotheby pulled me down a side-street down the street there. There was a particular living garland on the door - I could find it again, but I could not tell you the store's name."

> A vial! Of solid metallic gold.

Druvis shrugs lightly when she's looked to, and Sotheby, of course, has completely forgotten about the gold slug. It's gold! She's done with it.

Food!

Sotheby receives her SANDWICHES, TRIANGULAR exactly as requested (they all come in triangles, it's the style), and immediately daintily -- begins to apply her fork and knife to the sandwich!!!

She is wearing long gloves and pearls! Of course she's not jamming her whole hand around that thang.

Meanwhile, Druvis receives her own French Onion Soup and stares confusedly at the cooked cheese dome over the top, almost intimidated by the richness that would kill an orphan child.

As an orphan adult, she bravely took up knife and spoon, held with some trepidation.
Penelope Usher "I love my concrete jungles and overcrowded public transport."

    "N-Y-C's not *bad*." Penelope, the only other American here, wobbles her head back and forth indecisively. "But I just like the quiet dignity of old ivy-covered streets too much to ever be there forever... like Boston has, or Paris. It's sure exciting, though."

"Thanks Matilda!"

    Penelope's eyes saccade over to Flash as if they leave a red trail behind them. She smiles, so sweetly but showing teeth-- which should look perfectly innocent, coming off a normal girl!-- and probes, "So, who's your friend?"

"... it's a blade. One shouldn't wave it around carelessly."

    "Lightsaber..." Penelope rolls the sound around in her mouth, fondly appreciating it. Then, impossible to tell how much she's joking, she nods solemnly and adds, "You really shouldn't. That's why I've got mine in my purse."

"And I can't be the strong one, because that's..."

    "You have to have something!" Odette's deflection of all possibly positive traits, that she herself listed out, makes Penelope want to go over and start aggressively wobbling her until she spits out better answers. Instead she brandishes her (flatware) knife, pointing it across the table at her.

    "List out your good qualities! Are you *really* not the smart one, or are you just saying that? Or maybe there's another thing you're leaving out? *I'm* the charming and cute one, for example."

"You could always do with at least some more confidence, Odette!"

    Only knowing ten percent of the context, Penelope nods along supportively with Matilda saying this, because it happens to support her own point.

"In a way, I could be as the princess of diviners!"

    "All hail~!" Penelope raises up her coffee, then downs it in a toast, giggly.

"We have... had... these big harpoon-trebuchets, and if you set them up right, you could launch them all the way into space!"

    "What?! That's so cool!" She ogles the two lightsabers, a little too intently for comfort. "So they've got a crystal inside, that must be how they... refract light?"

"Taking the agency out of your hands."

    Penelope hasn't mentioned being a haruspex, but she just sort of assumes that it's presumptive. The atmosphere of the brunch, with the Jedi, Lilian, Matilda, and herself, feels like pretty much everyone is either a diviner or an adjacent branch of occultism. "I don't think of it like that. Knowing's the way I make sure it's in my hands, rather than not. Is it cheating to check the weather and dress appropriately?"

"Like how I found this place!"

    That's *so* cute, actually! "Then this must be a fated meeting~! Behold your companions in destiny, Chevaliers! When you raise your flag in need, I will be there to answer!"

"And, besides, he turned around. Look at him now!"

    "Ehehehe. See, boys can learn! I'm really happy to hear that it wasn't anything horrible, though. You two both seem so nice."
Lilian Rook     'Like a blacksmith's hammer!'
    'Or a knight-errant's blade.'

    Ah. Thank god. This all makes perfect sense. Finally. Finally . . .

    Lilian slowly closes her eyes, breathes deep of the cognac-and-coffee she's still holding nearly to her lips, and quietly says "It's because I've been so good. It's because I've worked so hard. My prayers have been answered and things are changing for the better."

    'I suppose you could say holding one of these made me fully understand what it is I want to be.'

    "At this rate, you'll convince me that a 'knight-errant' shouldn't even touch the blade until they've cultivated a worthy mindstate." Lilian says, as if she is at all averse to the idea.

    'Really?! That's so cool! I-- you know, I grew up mining for rare crystals?'

    "Oh she has a job too! Wonderful!" Lilian half-whispers, evidently enthused by the calibre of stranger she's getting, aligning to her precise biases. "Ah, crystals? So when Tamamo said 'magic swords', she was being more-or-less literal?"

    'Oh that makes so much sense. I wonder if we could apply that principle to lightsabers?'
    'It'd be symbolic at best.'

    "How do you draw it?" Lilian says, tilting her head. "Though, Homen is correct. If people aren't familiar with what it is or how it works, they won't necessarily understand the meaning of the gesture."

    'Once I saw dad swing his hammer as hard as he could at one, and it didn't even dent the shape even a little bit.'

    Magic sword! Magic sword! Special hereditarily inherited magic sword meant for ancient mystic knights! Yes! Yes! Yes! It all fits! "My my, he certainly knows what he's doing, then. I suppose you come from a long line of swordsmiths, then?" Lilian says, barely veiling her excitement at all.

    'Would you like to see it? I don't know if here's a good place though, people might not like their brunch interrupted by... like...'

    "Oh? May I?" Even more excited! Both times she went to the sword pavillions, Lilian was coincidentally unable to do things at the time! "I'm not entirely certain what you mean, but I'd like to think you don't expect me to start swinging a sword around in a restaurant."

    'Not resting can drive one to madness. I've seen it. But to only have one morning free doesn't sound like that much rest.'

    Lilian laughs. "Not to worry. I find my time here and there. Occasions like these are an important balancing influence."

    'It must be quite the honor to be trained by you.'

    Yeah. Lilian likes this guy now. It's that easy. "The degree to which Trídéag members receive personal instruction from me is highly contingent on a variety of factors. Right now, I suppose that I'd say I have twelve fully-initiated 'proper' students, plus twice that many still in early training." Lilian warmly knocks back the last of her coffee, and glances again at the steak. "Enough to tempt my wife into indulging her curiosity and finally giving it a try~" Is there anything more romantic? No. Obviously not!

    'Only navigating the exciting chaos of Paris~ Hi, Lilian! I'm so glad you've healed, too.'

    "And so we are but pilgrims again, walking the thirty-thousand steps with Regulus in tow, ascending the Louvre." Lilian sighs theatrically. "Believe me; I'm glad too. Being down a hand is so tiresome."
Foundation Scions 'How about we swing by a chocolatier after brunch, and I'll buy you a box to bring back and share with him.'

    "Ah! Yes! That is an excellent idea, Ms. Usher! Perhaps, Devauve & Gallais? Their small chocolate soldiers are so very charming! I wonder if they have them this year... Mr. Lambert, he will love them, of this I am sure! You, I like your ideas!"

    "It may not be on the way back, but, it surely will not take so-long to visit... It is much like a vacation, and returning home empty-handed, would not do!" And that's a cute little extension of a brunch, with a new friendly face! Yay!

'Is your mother's name well-known, here?'

    "Of course!" Holding her juice-glass, while the waiters are briefly gone, and there isn't a new plate of steak tartare to tar-tear through, Matilda leans a bit closer across the table- which leaves her about exactly as far away as she was, but. "Maman, she is always quick to re-establish many ties, as so-prominent, sought-out, and talented a diviner, as the Bouanich family produces! As-such, among socialites, the name is quite often whispered! The family, it has talent, and mystique, and fine goods! There is much to speak of!" No wonder the family name is a known factor here.

'So is your mom some kinda bigshot?'

    "Oui- as am I, of course! The Bouanich family, it will one-day, of course, be headed by me! I am sure I will make it rise to new heights of fame and fortune- but, if you have advice..." She clears her throat, "Please tell me it. It is best to be prepared!"

'I could find it again, but I could not tell you the store's name.'

    "Hrmmm... Perhaps, two post-brunch diversions, could fit within the time-frame..."

'I suppose the cravings might just be due to the demands of the style.'

    "Ah?! Is that so! I wonder why that is the case... If it persists, then, it is re-assuring to know that there are methods for it to be handled! Perhaps, in a way, it is a positive omen of other things..?"

    Yay! Lilian looking unconcerned, is a good point of reason to be less concerned! She's the one who knows the 'demands of the style' best!

'Oh I have a tip for that too. But--'

    "Hein? Yes! I will do so, then!" Oh god she probably will remind her later.

    'Apprentice, perhaps? Sonetto may not appreciate 'disciple'.'

    "Oh! But, if she does-appreciate it, could that be the term? To be disciples, or, perhaps, apprentices... Comme c'est romantique..." Well, maybe a little! "Ah-hem! I am, myself, partial to disciple, however! It has a certain tone!"

'Consider it done.'

    "I have now considered it, so! Merci, Mrs. Rook!"
Lilian Rook     'Oh!! So it's your *heroic instinct*?! That's so cute!'

    Lilian opens her eyes wide and glances around as if suddenly roused from a daydream. "What? That's so cute. I'm stealing that!"

    'And sometimes it'll gently tap your shoulder, or reassure the decision you made.'

    Lilian, inexplicably, glances down at her right upper arm and mutters "I wouldn't complain you know."

    'I am! I was gonna show up in a beret in everything originally but-'

    "Thank god you didn't."

    'Yeah. I got a radio too, you don't need to introduce her to me.'

    "I'm sorry? Sidekick?" Lilian blinks. "You're just going to take that?"

    'I don't think she's worried about your lover's spat with Venom,'

    Lilian tries not to look too worried, because Venom is an arcanist kind of name, but, "So he is real?"

    'She is the type of flower to not take direct sunlight.'

    Lilian groans. "I've been trying to explain that concept to Regulus, but she really just swears up and down that her wax wings are made of diamond!"

    'Lately? No. Once I fell into the Walden's care'

    §Ah. So we're talking about that now? Okay. Noted.§

    'But I just like the quiet dignity of old ivy-covered streets too much to ever be there forever...'

    Lilian faintly nods, without realizing she's done so. One of the good ones.

    'You really shouldn't. That's why I've got mine in my purse.'

    "Now now, don't go declaring that or they'll all want to have a look." Lilian scoff-laughs. "People are ever so nosy about what women do with their blades. You can't be too careful."

    'List out your good qualities!'

    Lilian absentmindedly snaps her fingers. "Raskins. Three good qualities. Now."
Hy Izlan Reformers "At this rate, you'll convince me that a 'knight-errant' shouldn't even touch the blade until they've cultivated a worthy mindstate."

    Somewhere else...
    "So... is this the place?" Ethan asks the older man at his side.
    ...
    ...
    "Margrave?"
    "Hm?"
    "Is everything alright?"
    "Oh. Ha. Yes. Just had the strongest feeling I'm missing out on *quite* the meal and conversation."
    "Brunch?"
    "I'm sorry?"
Foundation Scions 'I grew up mining for rare crystals?'

    Matilda was excited at the prospect, but a planet with rings of crystals, that has her mouth agape. "What did the sky look like, in the evenings? Did the rings twinkle like stars?"

    "So, the crystal, is it a specific-type, or does the type alter function, in the same way a crystal's inclusions alter a divined vision? How does it work? I, too, utilize crystals for the functioning of wands, when I have to use other than my orbuculum! They are quite pretty and handy!" She likes crystals!!!!!

'I think it'd be really cool to be able to 'see' the future, but also a bit scary, right?'

    "Not only can it be a bit scary, but it can be quite dangerous! It is a difficult field to master so quickly, as I have! Though, what you describe, is not dis-similar to the craft at all! If honed, that manner of intuition, it is exactly that which makes a diviner! To feel what truths-to-come, or the outcome of actions ahead of time!"

'It feels like it'd be cheating.'

    Matilda just actually sticks her tongue out. "Non! It is anything-but! It is not cheating, to form clear expectations on that which could happen, and plan responsibly! It is a talent!" Huffy still, "No-one decides Matilda Bouanich's fate, but herself- and she decides it very well! Despite this, she is destined for greatness!"

'Knowing's the way I make sure it's in my hands, rather than not. Is it cheating to check the weather and dress appropriately?'

    "You, you understand! It is exactly-like that!" Additional points to Penelope! Matilda actually points a finger her way, as she says this.

'Would you like to see it?'

    "I, shall ask the waiters to close the door? Excusez-moi, garçons?" They do-so, and Matilda says, redundant, "I also am very curious, to see it drawn! What does it look like? Does it glitter and shine like a torch put up-against a large gemstone?"
Odette Raskins "What's a katana?"

Realizing she didn't answer that before, Odette chimes in after Lilian! "It's a kind of sword, but thin. Like..." She holds a hand up, then pinches her fingers together in a way that would be offensive to certain demographics. "This thin? Seems like it'd be really easy to break, but that's what Missus Dwarf uses, so they're cool."

"List out your good qualities!"
"Just look at how it is, that I achieve things!"
"Raskins. Three good qualities. Now."

"Grk... T-teaming up now?" Slumping in exaggerated defeat, Odette can't help but giggle again before nodding appreciatively at Matilda, Penelope, and Lilian. She takes a deep breath, then smacks her cheeks firmly to psyche herself right up!

She's also tearing up some because her face still hurts from all the bruises and that double-slap is probably audible outside of the private room if the sound insulation isn't that great. "O.. Okay! Got it. Uh. I'm not the slow-" Wait. That's just saying she's not the worst. She inhales deeply, scrunches her face up to refocus herself, then...

Calmly pats her cheeks. "I'm faster than most regular people. I'm stronger than most regular people. And I know a lot about medical stuff, so that means... The smart one at keeping people from dying! Sometimes!"

She looks between the three for validation of her answers, then locks onto Matilda in particular. "But don't go selling yourself short, either, Matilda! I mean, when I saw how you were putting so much work into toughing it out, I couldn't just... NOT try to keep up, you know? Especially since neither of us are really built like most everyone else that was there. Next to Miss Sonetto, Riku, or Princess Sarracenia..."

And then a more prideful puff up of her chest again. "We still pulled through! Heck, maybe that make us the grit ones. Er. Gritty ones."

"I was just teaching a pack of hopefuls"
"Yes! I was one-such 'hopeful'"

Odette doesn't speak up when she hears that, but her grin does get a little wider and a little dumber in the satisfaction of being part of that group. She's so easy to read.

Homen shows his saber
"Would you like to see it?"

Continuing in her easy-to-readness of the day, Odette's bounces a little in her seat while nodding quickly at Kara and peering between her and Homen's sabers. "Huh, they both look pretty similar aside from the size... Ah? If it's not any trouble, sure! If that isn't a problem for anyone else here?" She glances around quickly, definitely not hoping that nobody speaks up on the contrary there.

"So what's with that training camp you and Matilda were gossiping about? Lilian's?"

"Oh! Yes, Lilian's training camp. We learned..." She closes her eyes for a moment, just letting her mind drift back to all the hard work, the pain, the days of struggle, the rituals each night, and that overwhelming sense of accomplishment and light-headedness that came at the end of all of it.

"... We learned so much about ourselves during all that, and each other. How to fight with each other, how to fight besides each other, running into our limits and going at it for so long we couldn't even walk straight for hours." She sighs fondly and stares at the sky for a bit, then gestures lightly at the cane under her seat. "Heck, I'm still having trouble walking right now, with as hard as that all was."
Odette Raskins "I just had to learn it after Latin, as part of my education."

"The religion language? Wow, I didn't expect you to be a priest, too..." Odette murmurs in awe at getting the wrong idea about Penelope's education. "And your French sounds a lot more natural than mine, that's for sure. I only used to use it for handling orders back home. Um. For the haulers, and all the people that were just there as muscle to get stuff loaded and unloaded."

"Oh! Uh... Yeah, I work out I guess???"

"I can see... Er. It. Y-yeah!" Oh god, oh hell, he actually noticed her saying that. Did he notice her staring, too? Odette quickly looks away to show how much she wasn't just ogling Flash, only letting her eyes flicker to Andi to see if she's upset about that. Or if she noticed at all.
Regulus ''She is the type of flower to not take direct sunlight.''

"I'm glad everyone's watching out for her." Regulus admits because she knows that she's not really the sort to be particularly cautious but she is not utterly unconcious of Sotheby being young and, also, being Sotheby. She sharply recalls the dickweed incident.

Regulus nods as Druvis explains her shift in circumstances. Even if it was in that 'history' that never was, it must have been a little bit like being hit by the Storm even before The Storm. A world being totally taken away and taken somewhere new, a shelter, but without that which was so important. And then again when she joined the Suitcase. But if she had stayed with the Manus, how would the changing of the eras impacted her then?

Her gaze turns to Sotheby as Druvis's does. "Seems like you two really hit it off." Regulus smiles. "Sotheby's as endearing as all out. To be honest, it feels unsuited to me too, but... Well, maybe I can learn to handle it."

''Stares confusedly at the cooked cheese dome''

"That's normal for french onion soup," Regulus explains. "It can be real hot though, if you don't like the cheese though you can pretty easily scoop it out. The soup's still good without it!"

''But I just like the quiet dignity--''

"Hey, everybody has where they're most comfortable, but you should try and enjoy and appreciate experiences out from your comfy normal, right?"

Regulus does get an answer about Maman at least, and she supposes that if she's so important that explains anybody closely tied to Maman here. Maybe she should try and get her for a Radio APPLe interview sometime, if she's so famous!

"She's pretty understanding if she's that well connected and doesn't mind you doing dangerous work for the Foundation."

''It is not cheating, to form clear expectations--''

"I feel like if you think it's cheating, you probably won't ever be a diviner." Regulus remarks, thoughtfully, electing to not remark on her being both destined and also in charge of her own fate. "So what's the next big thing for Princess Matilda?"

r
Hy Izlan Reformers "You really shouldn't. That's why I've got mine in my purse."

    "Can I--"

"Now now, don't go declaring that or they'll all want to have a look."

    "-- see?"

"So they've got a crystal inside, that must be how they... refract light?"
"I, too, utilize crystals for the functioning of wands, when I have to use other than my orbuculum! They are quite pretty and handy!"
"Ah, crystals? So when Tamamo said 'magic swords', she was being more-or-less literal?"

    "That's right! ... but I couldn't tell you how it works. No one but dad could. He wasn't teaching me to be a blacksmith or anything. He said the crystals can see into your heart, though."

"I suppose you come from a long line of swordsmiths, then?"

    "Just him, I think? He... never spoke of his past. Like, ever. Him and the margrave went 'way back' and that's all I ever caught."

"Is it cheating to check the weather and dress appropriately?"
"Non! It is anything-but!"

    "That's true. Imagine not being able to tell when it's raining!"
    "That's prediction, not divination."
    "Isn't that kind of the same thing? What if you divined the weather instead of predicting it?"
    Homen, unsure, simply sighs and concedes.

"When you raise your flag in need, I will be there to answer!"
"Ehehehe. See, boys can learn! I'm really happy to hear that it wasn't anything horrible, though. You two both seem so nice."

    "Aheh... thank you."
    "We'll need allies, sooner or later. The margrave'll be happy to know we made some."
    "Friends! Not strictly allies!"

"What did the sky look like, in the evenings? Did the rings twinkle like stars?"

    "Sometimes, yes! Most of the crystals are inside rocks, but, the ones that do stick out, they glimmer in the ring, and you can spot them. The sunset... I used to love sitting on the roof and watching it, when the rings overlap with it, there's that deep blue twinkle that seems to spread from them. It's gorgeous. I miss it a bit."
    "We've only been away for a few weeks."
    "... yeah, well, it's been a long few weeks."
Hy Izlan Reformers "How do you draw it?"
"I'm not entirely certain what you mean, but I'd like to think you don't expect me to start swinging a sword around in a restaurant."
"I, shall ask the waiters to close the door? Excusez-moi, garçons?"

    Well, no excuse not to now.

    And Kara doesn't have the years and years of hiding her identity as a Jedi to make her hesitate, like Homen would.

    Kara pushes her chair back and gets up, grasping the hilt of her blade in both of her hands forward, aimed away from anyone.

    Deep breath.

    "You draw it by pressing the button. That's um. That's about it? I guess you do have to be a bit careful."

    With a push, and a foot going forward to reinforce her position almost by instinct, Kara turns her lightsaber on, which extends out as a bright green blade of light, with a pure white core. It hums, even when idle, and almost whistles at the slightest movement. There's less light coming from it than you'd expect, but still enough to cast Kara in a green hue.

    There's a warmth, but not a heat. Even being a fraction of an inch away from the blade wouldn't burn you.

    Kara, of course, cannot help herself but show off a bit. Four-Nines isn't here to take shots at her, so she'll settle for a few spins - and a backflip that lands her on another table behind her, with careful footwork that avoids knocking anything off it. No mess! But then she grins, shuts the blade off, tosses it up so that it flips, and then catches it again.

    "See? Just be careful where it's pointed when you turn it on."

    Without further warning, she gently tosses it towards Lilian, whom she has exactly zero reason to mistrust.

    This makes Homen flinch, but not out of mistrust, just out of the raw maneuver of Kara handing her blade out so easily.
Lilian Rook     'So, the crystal, is it a specific-type, or does the type alter function, in the same way a crystal's inclusions alter a divined vision? How does it work?'

    Warm memories. Of asinine attempts at rebuffing Matilda's interest that turned into meaningful conversations which Lilian got to have in their place. They go well with good coffee.

    'Despite this, she is destined for greatness!'


    "She has such an energy." Lilian murmurs, to no one in particular. "That sort of shamelessness is admirable."

    'I'm faster than most regular people. I'm stronger than most regular people. And I know a lot about medical stuff, so that means... The smart one at keeping people from dying! Sometimes!'

    "We'll work on it." Lilian concludes, at Odette's best attempt ever, which is still sort of pathetic. "The grit is indeed to be commended, at least."

    'and going at it for so long we couldn't even walk straight for hours.'

    Lilian abruptly near-chokes on her coffee.
Symbiote Duo      'You're just going to take that?'

     "Eh. I'll take sidekick over 'protege' or 'disciple' like he used early on. Also we're superheroes, it's got a different connotation. Like damn, I'm the War Machine to his Iron Man? That suuuure sucks as a relationship comparison."

     'So he is real?'

     "Yeah. He's real. Given his earlier reaction, he's probably larping as a jacket right now." She grabs and pulls on the back of Flash's jacket for emphasis, causing him to scoot away a bit and laugh.

     My cover is blown! HOW DID SHE KNOW!? She went from cool to scary again Flash! IT'S GOTTA BE SATAN! OR MY LAME ASS CLONE! I'M RUINING MYSELF AGAIN FLASH, WE GOTTA TALK TO THAT GUY!

     Flash simply ignores Venom, mostly because he doesn't wish to break his heart by saying he's pretty predictable in what he chooses to disguise himself as, as his attention turns to Penelope.

     'It's sure exciting, though.'

     "Yeah! Well. It's more calming for me, but it's not like I don't get the appeal of places like this. I think I'm just wired a little incorrectly."

     So, who's your friend?"

     "Huh? Oh, I can introduce her again. That's And-"I think she's talking about me. There's no way... "Uh, you're asking about Andi, right?

     Flash really wishes there was a way to ask that question without immediately sounding suspect, but well... She's an Elite too, so if she did find out it's probably fine.
Penelope Usher "This is also the best salmon I've ever had."

    Aha! So it was worth it!" With Matilda having said that she'd pay for it, Penelope has pretty much put that entirely out of her mind. Not that she was concerned about the cost for her own wallet, but Regulus, poor, broke little Regulus, had anxiety about it! So it's good that she can relax and enjoy it now.

"I'm not entirely certain what you mean, but I'd like to think you don't expect me to start swinging a sword around in a restaurant."

    Penelope looks over to where Matilda's already asking the waiters to close the doors for privacy, and decides that it's perfectly acceptable to lean wholly into it. She whistles, encouraging grabby-hands towards Kara and Homen. "Take it out!!! This is a safe space for magic swords! It's what I'm here for!"

"Can I--"

    Immediately!!! Of course! She could hardly ask them to show their swords off without whipping hers out to compare! It's really a certain kind of image, for Penelope to unclasp her purse and then draw out an iridescent-sheened sharpened antler from within it. It's both crude and refined, with an incredibly simplistic and ancient design, nothing but wrapped leather for a grip, but polished to a perfect finish.

    Penelope whips it around her finger to show off. "Velvet! A gift from my good buddy, to my family centuries ago. I suppose, if you think about it a certain way, she also symbolizes 'destiny' to me."

"Mr. Lambert, he will love them, of this I am sure! You, I like your ideas!"

    Preening, Penelope giggles. "Leave it to the princess diviner to have objective taste~ I wanna grab something to bring back too, as a treat."

"Perhaps, two post-brunch diversions, could fit within the time-frame..."

    "Count me in tooooo! I'm not on a tight schedule."

"Apprentice, perhaps? Sonetto may not appreciate 'disciple'."

    "What's wrong with disciple, by the way? Too... entangled?"

"I'm faster than most regular people. I'm stronger than most regular people. And I know a lot about medical stuff, so that means... The smart one at keeping people from dying!"

    "Good, good! That's the spirit!" Penelope cheers, which makes it seem retroactively like she was totally sincere in her demand towards Odette, rather than just bullying her. "All love to healthcare workers, you know? It's, like, some of the most important work there is, to keep people from dying."

"... We learned so much about ourselves during all that, and each other. How to fight with each other, how to fight besides each other, running into our limits and going at it for so long we couldn't even walk straight for hours."

    Having gathered the actual context from osmosis by now, Penelope is unphased by the euphemism, and instead perfect parries it into a counterattack. "How daring... I'd ask if Lilian had you use protection, but judging from looking at you, it seems like the point was to go without it."

"The religion language?"

    "Basically! That was way bigger in the olden days, but that's what all the texts are, really. But I'm an occultist, not a priest." Despite being almost the polar opposite of a 'priest', it's kind of close enough to not even warrant correction? Kimaris wouldn't even object to her calling herself a priestess. "Where's home for you?"
Regulus ''Lightsaber!''

"Oh damn." Regulus says. "That's pretty cool. And also really scary. Kind of looks toy-esque though." She leans forward to examine which, to her, is a device before it is a weapon. "How do you keep the light in that shape?" She wonders aloud. "An emitter isn't too difficult, but... Kinda want to take it apart and see how it works. But I'm guessing that's... maybe rude?"

''Kara does a backflip!''

Is this really appropriate for a fancy cafe, Regulus wonders, but it's kind of too cool for her to bring that up. And she's not standing on HER table.

"Nice backflip." One day she will do a backflip and not land on her head, she swears it. She thinks she'd be satisfied with just one though.

''Aha! So it was worth it!''

"Yeah, it was worth it. I'm big on seafood, actually, and crab.'

She smiles broadly at Penelope and is about to say something else when Penelope draws a weapon too!

Regulus leans back in her chair, deciding to stop worrying about being appropriate at the table because, look, she's not backflipping on tables and drawing blades. She's being normal. "Good buddy? Did they make it themselves?"
Lilian Rook     'He said the crystals can see into your heart, though.'

    Lilian doesn't take this the slightest bit seriously. "My."

    'Just him, I think? He... never spoke of his past. Like, ever. Him and the margrave went 'way back' and that's all I ever caught.'

    That raises an eyebrow, though. "Really? It doesn't sound as if it's something anyone could just figure out on their own. If he didn't speak of it, then isn't it much more likely that there are certain reasons he can't disclose his connection to the tradition until you're older?" Of course, Lilian believes every word of that, but it's less her deductive reasoning that drives her to say them, and much more a certain sense of 'no no no, you must be mistaken, we're all pure-blooded arcanists of lineage here' that she doesn't have a name for.

    'We'll need allies, sooner or later. The margrave'll be happy to know we made some.'

    "I'll reserve my final judgement until I meet him, of course." Lilian says, lightly enough to only be teasing the two of them for being mildly presumptuous. "But you certainly have my interest. I have a feeling that there's a great deal we can discuss."

    'We've only been away for a few weeks.'

    "Homesickness follows a curve." Lilian says, first automatically, then with a delayed wince.

    'How daring... I'd ask if Lilian had you use protection, but judging from looking at you, it seems like the point was to go without it.'

    Distracting! When it's not Odette saying it, it hits differently. Penelope totally gets it and is just being kind of a funny shitter; that's the energy Lilian gets from her. But also Matilda is right there and so is Sotheby which is nerve-wracking for a different reason and all these strangers make it kind of embarrassing and she still says "Of course not. You won't know your limits if there isn't a little danger." anyways on British autopilot.

    'Take it out!!! This is a safe space for magic swords! It's what I'm here for!'

    That pushes her into barely-subdued cackling. "I know what you are! Calm down!" Nope, still laughing.

    'I suppose, if you think about it a certain way, she also symbolizes 'destiny' to me.'

    "What a coincidence!" she says, still snickering. Does she even have to explain that?

    'Eh. I'll take sidekick over 'protege' or 'disciple' like he used early on. Also we're superheroes, it's got a different connotation'

    "Seriously? As in, that's the genre you've committed to?" She pauses, wielding power blindly in her confusion. "Because I happen to know Tony Stark, and I think he'd used 'sidekick' to be demeaning."

    'What's wrong with disciple, by the way? Too... entangled?'

    "Religious." Lilian says. "I think Sonetto rather likes being entangled, much to my chagrin."
Penelope Usher "You draw it by pressing the button. That's um. That's about it? I guess you do have to be a bit careful."

    Yes!!!!! Yes!!!! Penelope giggles and whistles when Kara jumps up on the table, in a way not too dissimilar from cheering on a stripper. "Woo! Wow, it's so pretty! Lemme see, lemme see closer."

    Once it's tossed over to Lilian (wow!), Penelope gets up from her chair to slither around and inspect it while Lilian fiddles with it. She makes a softly impressed noise when it lights up again. The intense green glow, from so close-up, washes out the filtered sunlight from the windows, and reflects off her red eyes as near-black.

    "It's so cool... you can almost see right through it. I want to drop something on it. It's gotta be, like, super sharp, I bet."

"That sort of shamelessness is admirable."

    "Oh, it's adorable. I wanna see her do her best."

"I think I'm just wired a little incorrectly."

    "Aww, I think you're wired just fine." Now Penelope feels kind of bad for being a little down on New York! Even though it's an objectively worse city than Boston is! "It's sort of sweet that you find all that energy calming, actually?"

"Uh, you're asking about Andi, right?"

    "Hmmm~?" Teasingly drawing it out, Penelope absolutely was not asking about Andi! But, to allow Flash to keep his bit going, she turns and waggles her fingers at Andi. "It's nice to meet you, Andi! Sorry I missed saying it earlier."

"But I'm guessing that's... maybe rude?"

    Returning back to the lightsaber, which is where Penelope wants to be. "Kara said she didn't know how to put them together, didn't she? Maybe you could learn something, but maybe it'd be like one of those pens that are way more complicated than you thought before taking them apart."

"Good buddy? Did they make it themselves?"

    She hasn't put Velvet away since taking it out, so she waggles the antler-knife hanging down from her fingers towards Regulus. "You could say that; right out of their head. Oh, but the bladecraft itself was done by an ancestor of mine! I mentioned Kimaris around you, didn't I? I thought I had, but I'm not sure."

"What a coincidence!"

    Penelope's draped over the back of her chair at this point to spectate Lilian's handling of the lightsaber-- and earlier, Kara's. She props her chin on the wooden back, cheerfully gnawing on the tines of her fork now that she's pretty much cleaned off her plate. "Coincidence? Maybe it's no coincidence at all, that our fated blades all drew us to this same place!"
Odette Raskins Kara's lightsaber display, perhaps predictably, gets Odette to go wide-eyed. How could she not be awed? It's a freaking laser sword, and the sounds it makes, along with tehe talk of it involving rare crystals and other stuff such has the paramedic hanging onto what she's hearing from Kara rather closely. "To think you could make something this impressive with rare stones... I never would've imagined anyone at home being able to put something like this together."

The spins are especially gawk-worthy, and Odette claps excitedly at the backflip that involves no broken tableware! "Poggers... And you've never been in this cafe before? And you still pulled off that flip like it was nothing..."

Visibly and audibly impressed by that neat show, she lets out a relieved exhale before finally digging into her food again. She's quite pleased with the French onion soup, but dunking the croissant into it isn't repeated. She also puts in an order for a glass of charente, mostly mimicking the way Lilian pronounced it earlier and hoping she doesn't mangle it enough that she needs to try (mis)spelling it.

"The grit is indeed to be commended, at least."
"It's, like, some of the most important work there is, to keep people from dying."

The self-confidence boost Odette's getting today is truly immeasurable. Unable to hide the growing but still sheepish grin on her face, she just laughs lightly before finishing her second croissant and wiping her hands. "I-I mean, I don't want to brag or anything, but there's definitely a whole bunch of people around today that might not be if I didn't get to them. And..."

The smile settles down a bit in smugness, although it's still no less wide as she absentmindedly curls her fingers into the shape of the sword she had gotten so accustomed to without actually having it on her. "... Because of that retreat, I think... No. I know there'll be plenty more that I can save now, and those people'll have more than just me to thank for it. All my friends that got me where I am-" She looks towards Lilian and Regulus at that. "-and all the new friends I've made in... er. During that." She adds, looking over at Matilda.

"I'd ask if Lilian had you use protection,"
"You won't know your limits if there isn't a little danger."

"That's right, mhm. No protection, just raw... Us? Us." She confirms, clapping her hands together with a firm slapping noise and walking right into the next euphemism without realizing a single thing. "It really helped to see all of each other bare like that, since... I mean, we wouldn't have really learned everything about each others' bodies and the little tells about what did and didn't work if we couldn't see it all, you know? And just feeling the impacts straight on taught me plenty about making sure not to take it again."

"But I'm an occultist, not a priest."

"Occultism? Oh, like... Zombie rituals and stuff?" She asks, a little warier as she continues. "You don't.. There's nothing involving ghosts or anything like that, right?"

"Where's home for you?"

"Home? Oh, over in 20242." Odette answers Penelope casually at first, pauses as she remembers she's not talking to someone from work, then points up at the sky. "Er. Mining Colony 20242. Over by... Saturn? The planet with the big rings. It's kind of far from here, but... Er. Have you ever been off planet before?"
Hy Izlan Reformers "It's so cool... you can almost see right through it. I want to drop something on it. It's gotta be, like, super sharp, I bet."

    "I think sharp is the wrong word? It does cut, but it's like... heat, right? ... when I was younger I'd take one outside and try all kinds of different ores to see how they react to the blade. Most of them just get red-hot and melt or get cut, but I think it's *so* important to have played around like that. It's got a bit of mass and weight to it, but you really have to anticipate how it'll react with whatever it's about to hit. Some things you have to actually strike slowly to cut, because they don't conduct heat fast enough. Others it's clean through."

    Homen almost looks like he's taking mental notes.
    He's only had his blade for a few weeks!

"Velvet! A gift from my good buddy, to my family centuries ago. I suppose, if you think about it a certain way, she also symbolizes 'destiny' to me."

    "Oh wow... she's so well-made! You don't see stuff like that often." Correction: she hasn't. And, truthfully, neither has Homen. "So Velvet is a bit like a person, to you? Like a... companion, or friend? Or is the name and form of address just a little touch?"

"An emitter isn't too difficult, but... Kinda want to take it apart and see how it works. But I'm guessing that's... maybe rude?"

"Um... well if you break it, I... don't know anyone who can fix it. Like, at all? Not until we..."

    Ah. Right back to that.

    It's okay. It's fine. He's alive.
    They're working on getting leads.

    "Sorry. When the situation improves I'm sure it'd be fine if you went poking into one of them, but right now we kind of really need them. We've got spares, but it'd be really bad if something bad happened to one. We're kind of, looking for worthy wielders for them, right?

    ... right?
    Kara looks to Homen, to confirm.
    This puts him on the spot.

    "The margrave keeps his plans close to his heart, but I have no doubt he really does want to bring back the Order. And we can't do that without more Jedi."

"If he didn't speak of it, then isn't it much more likely that there are certain reasons he can't disclose his connection to the tradition until you're older?"

    "I really couldn't say. The margrave hasn't really been inclined to tell me how he met my father, either. And I guess I'm not that pressed about it I feel the need to... well, press! The margrave is practically my uncle. He was there for me when dad was holed up in his workshop for days, and he brought us food, and toys for me... and Four-Nines! ... I should have brought Four-Nines, you'd have loved him."

    "And I've also known the margrave for a long time. He's no liar, so there's no need to force an answer out of him. It must be a deeply personal story. Maybe a sad one. If they go 'way back'... then they must have known each other already when the Jedi Order collapsed, and the margrave returned to Hy Izlan."

"Homesickness follows a curve."

    That seems to hit a bit. Kara hops off the table she was still shamelessly standing on, crosses her arms with a drawn out and exaggerated sigh. "So I'm learning. I always thought the world beyond my home must be so big and wonderful, and it *is*, but knowing there's no home to return to... it's sad."

    Homen gets up from his seat, and actually puts a hand on Kara's shoulder. He really is nice, underneath the gruff-looking exterior.

    "We'll do something about it."
Hy Izlan Reformers "Poggers... And you've never been in this cafe before? And you still pulled off that flip like it was nothing..."

    Kara blinks, like she's confused by what Odette just said. Did she do something that weird? Or unusual?
    It was just a flip?

    "Aheh... thanks I guess. I do practice a lot."
    Girl that was spatial awareness not just practice.
Foundation Scions 'He... never spoke of his past. Like, ever. Him and the margrave went 'way back' and that's all I ever caught.'

    "That is no small shame... History, and heritage, and tradition, are most important things to not let go un-stated, and thus forgotten!" There's probably a lot of reasons to not say things! Matilda disagrees that any are worth it, and also just isn't thinking too deep about it! "I hope you get to ask, pressingly, some-time."

'It's gorgeous. I miss it a bit.'

    "I can imagine," Matilda says, softly, a hand just kind of going to her orbuculum. The mists swirl a little inside, but don't depict anything. "Places so-spectacular, they are easy to miss, even after a short while! And a particularly clear night's sky, that is easy to miss, even if you have gone no-where. Ah," she sighs. "I bet there are so-many shooting stars!"

'Over by... Saturn?'

    "Ah!!! You, too, must miss the skies, no?" Well, Odette probably goes back frequently enough! Matilda's just forgotten this!

'Of course not. You won't know your limits if there isn't a little danger.'

    Thinking a little differently, and a little wrongly, about things has Matilda both snicker, and dreamily murmur "There could have been a little more danger, and less protection..."

'You draw it by pressing the button'

    On the predominately white walls, and curtains, of the room- and thanks to wall-mounted mirrors, the green glow truly lights up the already quite well lit private room. Matilda 'Ooh's- "The light, it is so much more solid-looking, than I would have expected! And so vibrant, like a highly-sought emerald! Comme c'est brillant..." At the acrobatics, rather than ooh, Matilda 'Aah's!

'Nice backflip.'

    "Ah! C'est vrai! That was a nice backflip!"

    Of course, then tossing the lightsaber to Lilian, has Matilda's attention- "How heavy is it?" is her first question, but otherwise, she's just so interested to see what Lilian does with it! She's good at inspecting swords and wands, probably!

'Velvet! A gift from my good buddy, to my family centuries ago.'

    "And, the good buddy is still around? That must be quite the storied... antler-knife! And so well-shined? Is it at all fossilized? How unique!" Grumblier, "J'aurais dû apporter Papillon. Hmph."

'No protection, just raw... Us?'

    "Ah- where did the waiter go? I should order once-more, I think." Really? Matilda! There's only so much raw steak you should eat at once!! That's scary!
Regulus ''Home? Oh, over in 20242.''

Regulus turns her head and coughs a BUNCH as some water goes down wrong in her throat. "Five digits...??" What the hell!!

''Kara said she didn't know how to put them together, didn't she? Maybe you could learn something--''

"I'm pretty confident in my ability to figure stuff out." Regulus says to Penelope. "But uh, that does feel like a lot to ask someone who doesn't know how to put 'em together herself, yeah. Especially since we just met." Also it is sort of a weapon so, you know, outside of the joy of figuring it out, it's not like she'd make one for herself one day.

''Sorry. When the situation improves I'm sure it'd be fine--''

"Yeah I don't want to break it and, oops, turns out I don't know how to put it back together aw shucks." Regulus says. "I bet I could do it though. Like 99 percent. But it's too important for a ninety nine percent right?"

There's also a lot of sharp objects around today but she's starting to think maybe she should just be comfortable with that if she's gonna be BFFs with Lilian. Also, like, Schneider shoved a gun in her face. This is a much better way to meet new friends. "I think you have, though I don't have perfect memory or anything." Regulus assures her. "Though I don't remember the 'right out of their head' part. You ever have an interest in--this sort of artisan work? Like getting into it yourself?"
Lilian Rook     'You draw it by pressing the button. That's um. That's about it? I guess you do have to be a bit careful.'

    But pretty shortly, Kara has her full attention again. The look of 'that's it?' is brief on her her face; it takes Lilian only a split second to remind herself that 'pulling the trigger' on Winter Crow isn't quite as egalitarian as it sounds in its simplicity. She's already fully sold on the idea of this being an arcane implement considered sacred to an order of ancient warriors she'd like to know quite a bit about, by now, and . . .

    There's something about Homen's reaction to Kara being continuously too open and forward about it all for his vicarious comfort.

    'See?'

    "I'll admit. I wasn't sure what I expected." Lilian says, barely getting through a handful of words before trailing off in thoughtful hyperfocus. The reflected light agrees with her eyes, even when she leans forward. "It's a little noisy, isn't it? But oddly soothing at the same time. I've always sort of thought that bright-polished steel must have felt just this dramatic to look upon, back when hardly anyone would ever see it."

    She softly gasps when Kara backflips up onto the table. For a split second, the nature of the place and time, and the nature of the girl with the sword, clash in a way that spikes her cortisol secondhand. Then the door is closed and the company is wonderful and the perverts are chomping at the bit anyways, so Lilian allows herself an only-slightly worried smile, and asks "I'm fascinated. Doesn't it feel odd with all the weight being in the hilt? Or is there physical feedback of sorts?" even as she's being handed the thing.

    She can't say a single thing about Penelope's attitude now. From the second she catches it, Lilian is completely enraptured by everything she can gather through her sense of touch. Even the smell of the warm metal is immediately striking. "I thought there'd be more of a trace of ozone." she says, in the midst of meticulously texting the texture of the wraps with her fingertips, until she finally notices what she's doing when she's process Homen's flinch.

    "Ah, well, with your pardon, then." Lilian says, standing just for the space, only to then immediately settle into a relaxed posture in alignment with the 'wolf' stance that Matilda and Odette know.

    The switch-flick hiss-flash moment between 'holding a tool' and 'wielding a blade' takes Lilian herself by surprise. The entire act of 'a draw' being contained within the literal flick of a switch feels simultaneously perverse and sublimed; a more absolute divide than even the fastest clearance of steel from sheath, rendered strangely foreign by the trappings of mechanical precision. That's what she's obsessed with for even a short while after the magenta light hits her. A lifetime with Night Mist amounts to a significantly longer, broader blade than Kara's, superficially 'pointed' by trace instability.

    "Oh. Were you not . . . ? I wonder . . ." Lilian goes on, losing words to the more important exercise of reverently proceding through the motions of checking non-existent edge geometry by sightlight, carefully testing the balance with alternating loose holds on the extremes of the hilt, and showing distressingly little worry of slicing her fingers off when raising and lowering it through the other four postures. "No, you definitely have something special here. I have no doubts at all." she says, strangely loath to put it away now.
Lilian Rook     'It's so cool... you can almost see right through it. I want to drop something on it. It's gotta be, like, super sharp, I bet.'

    "Don't do that." Lilian huffs very slightly. "That's disrespectful to the sword. And we'll look like a pack of gawking savages as well."

    'Kinda want to take it apart and see how it works. But I'm guessing that's... maybe rude?'

    "Don't do that either! It's a sword, not a device!" Lilian says, defending the Honour of the Lightsaber. "Show some restraint! Or I'll have to send you on a whole spirit quest to learn it!"

    'You could say that; right out of their head.'

    Lilian, who barely has the story at all, says "Cheeky." and briefly sticks the tip of her tongue out.

    'Coincidence? Maybe it's no coincidence at all, that our fated blades all drew us to this same place!'

    Slightly mesmerized by the lines she can draw by moving a blade of light, precisely recording the physical constants that define the last-second history of the blade in a way she will be chewing on for weeks, Lilian says, "Mhm. We should touch tips about it. Form a sacred bond."

    'Occultism? Oh, like... Zombie rituals and stuff?'

    "Christ almighty I'm going to have to begin an arcanist sensitivity course aren't I?" Lilian sighs. She forgot.

    'It's got a bit of mass and weight to it, but you really have to anticipate how it'll react with whatever it's about to hit. Some things you have to actually strike slowly to cut, because they don't conduct heat fast enough. Others it's clean through'

    "Ahhhh sto~p! You're going to make me want to keep it!" Lilian laugh-whines. "I'm already going to be thinking about this for days!" Months. "Goodness, this might even be just the inspiration I need to make a few finishing touches to a couple more techniques."

    'The margrave keeps his plans close to his heart, but I have no doubt he really does want to bring back the Order.'

    "Well, like I've said: 'When I meet him'." Lilian says to fast forward through her own dialogue. "But I'm intrigued."

    'I really couldn't say. The margrave hasn't really been inclined to tell me how he met my father, either. And I guess I'm not that pressed about it I feel the need to... well, press!'

    Well then! That seems clear cut! One of us! Welcome to the club, Kara! That even seems to be what Lilian's smile is saying. "There'll be all the time in the world for it once everything is settled. Believe me, though; I've got more experience with these sorts of things than anyone here, and I know heritage when I see it. This wasn't the work of a mere dabbler nor a pining revivalist." It just has that feeling to it. An amateur, an island, a metalworker, cannot make a beautiful sword. This is a firmly held core belief.
Odette Raskins "I do practice a lot."

Odette nods quickly at Kara, taking mental notes on what she needs to do next: Practice backflips.
This will in no way end terribly for her by month's end.

"You, too, must miss the skies, no?"

"A little. Between work for the Company and Trideag, I've only been able to visit my folks. twice this year." She admits to Matilda with a light sigh, the homesickness kicking in a little harder now that she's thinking about that. "How about you, Matilda? Are you from this part of Paris, or is there another area you and your mom... Um. Madame Bouanich?"

She's trying so hard to pronounce that correctly. "... That you're from?"

"Five digits...??"

"Huh? O-oh, yeah... There's a lot of bases all over the place, because the Company has a lot of materials it wants." Odette explains to Regulus with a chuckle that gets a little discomforted once she reminds herself that she's still part of The Problem she joined the Watch to fix in the first place. "Way too many, but that's just how much power they have, and where mom and dad and everyone are."

Lilian with the lightsaber

Perking up a little when Lilian settles into that familiar stance, Odette takes a sip of her Charente and oohs at the lightsaber's color being noticeably different from when Kara had been holding it earlier. She stops in mid-ooh as she glances at the glass, then sets it aside hastily to watch Lilian's assessment of the gleaming blade.

"Gosh, how pretty! Does the color change whenever you hit the button?" She asks while glancing from Lilian to Kara and Homen, then back to Lilian as she leans sideways to get a different angled look at the lightsaber. "I don't see other buttons on it..."
Lilian Rook     'That is no small shame... History, and heritage, and tradition, are most important things to not let go un-stated, and thus forgotten!'

    "I'm glad to hear you agree." Lilian says, as if Matilda had literally even spoken differently even once. She's just paying more attention to it now, because it's implicitly about her. "Let's make it a side project, shall we?" Behind 'rescuing Kara's father in the first place'.

    'There could have been a little more danger, and less protection...'

    Lilian exhales a single syllable of incredulous laughter. "Really now? I'll keep that in mind." she says, eventually followed by, "But you won't get a smaller tent. The rest is up to you."

    'How heavy is it?'

    "Oh not at all; just a fraction of Night Mist. But it doesn't feel imbalanced at all? It's less like a weight and more like a counter-pressure in the other direction from the tip when you move it. It's terribly easy to flick, in a way that'd make a tournament judge shriek in frustration, but it doesn't seem as if it'd easily overshoot. It's almost eerie; but I can imagine getting comfortable with it all the same. The fascinating little inverse-curve between acceleration and decelleration, on a smooth gradient as it extends from the hilt . . ."

    'Ah- where did the waiter go? I should order once-more, I think.'

    "Oh leave the poor boy alone." Lilian sighs. She snaps her fingers, says "Láithreach." off-handed, and drops a thick bag of permium jerky into Matilda's grubby little fingers, missing that doing so makes the lightsaber-blade blueshift. "Take that from my bag, and pace yourself over an hour. If you're still hungry, don't go for more steak; switch to fish."
Symbiote Duo      'Seriously? As in, that's the genre you've committed to?'

     "Yeah." She debates following that up with a bit more. Like, really, what prospects do you have in life when you're blessed by Satan and a host to an alien being? It's either that, villainy, or burying her head in the sand and pretending everything is normal. And sadly, the multiple voices in her head make it pretty clear things are NOT normal.

     'Because I happen to know Tony Stark, and I think he'd used 'sidekick' to be demeaning.'

     "Well, he's not a billionaire womanizing philantropist, so I don't think he's Tony Stark. I don't want it to sound like I don't appreciate the concern though, so thanks."
     "Maybe I should just use partner then? NOW that's a term that can't have any other meaning other than mutual respect!"
     "...We'll workshop it later dude."

     'Aww, I think you're wired just fine. It's sort of sweet that you find all that energy calming, actually?'

     "Well. Shucks. Don't know what to really say to that other than thanks?" He scratches the back of his head, trying to find more words, but both his and Andi's chocolate cake is finally delivered. Fuck. If he doesn't start eating it now, Venom's going to try and puppet him, and he doesn't want another awkward moment. So instead he just leaves it there and eats in silence.

     'It's nice to meet you, Andi! Sorry I missed saying it earlier.'

     "It's fine. Not like I've been the most sociable person anyway. Nice meeting you too."
Hy Izlan Reformers "It's a little noisy, isn't it? But oddly soothing at the same time."

    "Is it? I guess I'm used to it, like the cold! I kind of like the hum. Reminds me of trying to sleep while dad is working on one." Which is a very specific mood for her, so probably not relatable by Lilian.

    Lilian gets her hands-on answers, of course. The hilt is a few pounds, but when the blade is on, it's a few more. It's much, much lighter than a physical blade, obviously, but not as weightless as one would imagine. Moving it does require a bit more intent than just a flick.

    But it's an almost effortless weapon to wield, either way.
    An immediate translation of intent into action.
    And surely one that could lead to grievous self-injury too.

    But it's magenta, not green.
    It leans closer to red than Homen's.

    "I wasn't expecting that color..."
    "So we are similar...?"

    It isn't red, though. And so Kara can rest easy enough.
    Homen, though, is smiling contently.

"No, you definitely have something special here. I have no doubts at all."

    "Of course. It's my father's finest work! Even if it were broken, I'd think of it as the most special thing I own. The shape is really different with yours though! I wonder if it feels different to swing like that? Oh, there's a dial to manually adjust the length, if you want, though that looks like it matches your current sword just fine?"

"Goodness, this might even be just the inspiration I need to make a few finishing touches to a couple more techniques."

    "If it isn't too presumptuous... might we ask to see, once you've developed the techniques?"

"Gosh, how pretty! Does the color change whenever you hit the button?"

    "No press needed. I'm really not sure how they do it. Something about the Force, your connection to it, your heart... however it works, the blade is a reflection of your self."

    She omits to explain what the colors mean.
    Or the red-leaning stigma.

    But seeing it shift closer to purple reassures her even further.
Lilian Rook     'Maybe I should just use partner then? NOW that's a term that can't have any other meaning other than mutual respect!'
    '...We'll workshop it later dude.'

    Lilian snorts. "Is he like this on purpose or did you just find a man with the exact right sort of well-meaning malleability to do this on his own?"

    'Is it? I guess I'm used to it, like the cold! I kind of like the hum. Reminds me of trying to sleep while dad is working on one.'

    "That's so unbearably sweet." Lilian coos. "Oh who knows; perhaps you were born for this?"

    'I wasn't expecting that color...'
    'So we are similar...?'

    "Hm?" Lilian blinks, waiting for elaboration in bright-toned suspense. "Is there a traditional sort of symbolism to it?" Dumbass question. It was redder when she was enraptured by the beauty of the blade and bluer when she was fussing over Matilda. "Ah! Beg pardon, I've been holding yours forever! I'll give it back now."

    Lilian switches off the lightsaber and hands it back over (with a thoughtless-showy flourish to flip the hilt towards Kara overhand, even though there's no blade to cut her) with as much blushing haste as she can manage while still kinda wanting to keep it.

    'Oh, there's a dial to manually adjust the length, if you want, though that looks like it matches your current sword just fine?'

    "Night Mist is a bit unsual in its own way, when it comes to swords; though somewhat in the opposite direction. I wouldn't know what to do with something much smaller." she says, laughing lightly. "Your father must really be something. Just as I expected."

    'If it isn't too presumptuous... might we ask to see, once you've developed the techniques?'

    "Mh?" Twice in a row?! Yippee! "Oh my goodness! Absolutely! You're fellow swordsmen after all! And Chevaliers!" She's eager.

    'Something about the Force, your connection to it, your heart... however it works, the blade is a reflection of your self.'

    Hm. Worrying.