Welcome to Gaia! ::

Arriving at the club she wasn't entirely sure what to expect. It was a posh place; much more upscale than the kind o places they used to haunt in their late teens and early twenties, yet it still had the feel that she generally looked for when it came to evenings out. The atmosphere was amazing, the dress code was perfection and the drinks were divine. At any point they could decide to run a show mid-week if there was a special guest in town... Their quiet night of catching up and chatting could come with entertainment.

It didn't, and she found herself strangely relieved by that.

Flashing her ID at the door, Calliope allowed herself to be lead to a booth after declining an offer of sitting at the bar or being escorted to one of the high top tables. She slid an extra tip to the host after giving him a description of Thomas as clearly as she could recall him from the night before and every other night they'd crossed paths prior to that. "If he knows what's good for him he'll be on time."

"Order? Of course not. I wanted to wait and see if you were actually going to show before placing an order." A smirk touched her lips, curving them just so at the corners as she reached past him for one of the menus that had been left on the edge of the table for their browsing pleasure.

"If you weren't going to show up I would have waited a bit before finding my way over to the bar and the sort of company that would be interested in buying a girl like me a drink." Or two. Not that she really needed to overdo things twice in one week.

"Good to know that you finally remember me, though. Have you been here in DC this whole time?"

"Darling, I don't wonder things like that, I just assume that people will and inevitably I find myself with a drink in my hand." She ignored the 'poor little rich boys' comment this time around, resisting the urge to mention that neither of them were as young as they'd once been which meant that they weren't bound to the same type-casting as they had been when they were children.

Not that they were old, heavens no. Just sophisticated. They were allowed to have taste now beyond the repeating patterns of same s**t, different day.

"Out? Oh -- you mean out. No, I'm afraid that getting into fights with teenagers isn't really my thing, which means until I get a little bit more information on what kind of craziness that all was I'm likely to stash that key at the bottom of a lake."

"Woah, woah. Slow down there, tiger." She brought a hand up, reaching over to rest it lightly on his arm. He was so animated, so excited, but she'd seen movies. Excitement and talking about special things, magical things, landed someone in one of two places: dead or in a loony bin.

"Not too keen on anything that doesn't require consent, so there won't be anyone reaching for my soul and I won't be making any kind of deals with the devil prior to having a drink and enjoying a bit of tonight's band." Even without a show going on the Cat's Paw seemed to employ a talented group of musicians forming a jazz-like ensemble on stage.

"How do you know that kind of s**t is safe to talk about? And how do I know you're not off your rocker?" She spoke while bringing a hand up to signal that they were ready to speak to a waiter about drinks,

"I suppose you look like enough of a nerd to be into RPGs." The smirk that lit her her lips was delightfully devilish, eyes lingering on his face briefly before her full attention was turned to their waitress. She fell naturally into chatting up the other woman, eventually asking for one of the house specialty drinks to be brought over along with the appetizer they often paired it with. The dips were delightful and they made the bread fresh daily, brought straight from the bakery down the street.

When Tom ordered and the waitress departed she returned to the conversation. "There's probably something to do with the armor class that gives you a bonus against being recognized. Nothing about you seemed familiar at all until you swapped back to streetwear." She could use nerd terms for now, at least until their drinks made their way back and they were left with better things to discuss.

"It's only perfect if you keep your voice low and don't draw more attention to yourself. Act sophisticated and you'll blend right in, baby."

"Oh no, no, sweetheart. I don't do parents. No meeting parents or asking parents. That's not really my thing." Once. She had done it once and the end results had not been at all to her advantage. She could schmooze with the best of them, but when it came to parents...

Calliope didn't take rejection very well and parents didn't always like her.

"That sounds complicated. Maybe after a drink or two it won't." Or after a drink or two it wouldn't even matter anymore. They would just reminisce about days gone by, parties they'd been to, whatever they'd been up to while the years had passed. They had so much to catch up on. Magic could be damned.

"And now you've completely lost me," she laughed, shaking her head as she leaned back against the booth. Her hand reached out for her drink once it was brought to the table and for the next hour or so conversation shifted away from the odd back to the familiar. She knew how to be a person with highly social tendencies far better than she knew how to be a sparkling, magical rainbow girl.

The drinks continued to flow until the band finished playing, leaving her rosie-faced and a little wobbly as she rose to her feet once the bill had been taken care of. "Well, Tom, it's been a pleasure... But I think we should be on our way before they issue a last call and tell us that while we don't have to go home we can't stay here."

"Phone number on a napkin? God who even does that anymore?" She laughed as she pulled her mobile out of her clutch, unlocking the screen before sliding it across the table so that he could pull up her contacts and add himself to it.

"While you're at it, handsome, go ahead and send yourself a text so you've got my number -- y'know, in the event anything fun happens around here and you find yourself in need of a plus one."