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Iouri Spekter had always suspected there might be hazards to letting your dog decide where to go on your afternoon jog, he had just never thought that winding up ten blocks from home, sweaty and dehydrated was one of them. However, Laika was insistent that they needed to stop at this sidewalk cafe, and none other would be satisfactory. And despite the rat terrier only weighing about fifteen pounds, her full-grown human companion was slave to her every whim.

It only took Iouri a few moments at the counter to order a gatorade, a bottle of water, and a paper bowl, but Laika had already moved on to bigger and better things, dragging her owner towards the seating area. She moved between tables, sniffing ankles and handbags, before parking herself in front of a pretty young woman.

Iouri was not far behind - he was, after all, stuck holding her leash.

"I'm sorry," he said bashfully as he tried to reel his wayward dog in. "I hope she didn't disturb you."

"Oh, no," laughed Iouri, beginning to ease into the situation. They would have both known instantly if Laika meant any harm - she was more than capable of expressing her displeasure with furniture, mailmen, and acquaintances through teeth, growls, and claws. Sometimes urine, as well. Whatever reason the dog had for insisting on this spot and only this spot was a total mystery, except for the fact that she clearly did not mean any harm.

"May we sit here?" asked Iouri, motioning to an empty chair. He gave Laika's leash an experimental tug, and she stayed put. "Not that I think she is very much inclined to sit anywhere else."

As if confirming this notion, Laika settled onto her belly and began to pant happily. Iouri shrugged haplessly at the woman. "See what I mean?" he asked, pulling the chair out and sitting down. Laika barked a single, sharp yap, as if to say mission accomplished! Iouri replied to this with a stern glare. "Hush, Laika."

He gave the woman another helpless smile, perfectly aware that he had just interrupted what was probably a quiet and relaxing afternoon coffee, and said, "I'm sorry, I'm Iouri Spekter. And you..."

His brow crinkled in concentration. It took him a moment to place where she looked familiar from, but when he figured it out, he broke into a wide grin. "You're the woman from the evening news! It's nine PM, do you know where your children are?"

"Yes! That's it!" smiled Iouri, cracking the cap off the bottle of water. He emptied it into a paper bowl and set it on the ground for the dog. Laika gave him a long look before drinking, but if she thought she was getting anything better than glorified tap water, she was sorely mistaken. Give your dog one sip of Perrier, and they were basically spoiled for life.

"Anyways," he said, straightening up and now turning his attention to the bottle of gatorade, "I suspect kids will be out geting into trouble deep in the night regardless of what the evening news tells them."

Iouri personally had spent many a summer evening in his youth launching model rockets, and he had the burns to show for it.

"Although," he added, "I have seen your show, and what they're up to these days... does seem quite a bit more dangerous than what I was getting up to as a kid, low grade explosives aside." If he had just painted himself a communist spy so be it.

Iouri, who had first gotten drunk under the careful guidance of his favorite uncle at a family gathering at the age of fifteen, had to think for a moment before replying to Betty's statement. "I tend to think it is less so much the teenaged drinking, as it is the teenaged drinking combined with the teenaged driving," he said. "But I do agree that adding superpowers to the mix is just a complete... Recipe for disaster, is it?"

He swigged from the Gatorade bottle and thought it over. He had so far avoided any trouble with the terrorists, but that could be as much attributed to keeping his head down and purposely staying out of it as it could be to anything else. He didn't presume to know about it, nor did he have any teenaged relatives to worry about getting involved. The kids who volunteered at the museum said they didn't know anything about it, but then, he supposed, they'd say that even if they did know.

"I think my parents are glad I'm not a teenager now because it would put a serious damper on their semi-retired South Beach lifestyle."

In fact, the closest his parents came to parenting these days was to make vague allegations at possible reasons why Iouri wasn't married yet, and to demand grandchildren sometime in the near future. Neither looked very close to happening.

"But you're the expert!" he added brightly. "Do you have any scintillating discoveries planned for next season?"

"Oh," chuckled Iouri. "I guess I should know better than to ask for spoilers!" He'd just have to watch and find out, wouldn't he? You knew you lived in Destiny City when... the evening news amounted to exciting entertainment. Mostly because of the monsters.

Laika chose that moment to bark at the labrador chilling two tables over. Iouri tugged gently on her leash and hissed, "Laika, shh!"

Laika gave him a look (as well as a dog could, at least) and paced around his chair legs. Iouri smiled feebly at Betty. "As you can see, she has a strong personality. Anyways, if you ever want to do a local color sort of story, call ahead and I'd be happy to give you a tour of the museum."

Iouri's face lit up: now she was speaking his language! He beamed at Betty, his enthusiasm suddenly undeniably genuine. Where he may have been forcing himself (a little) to care about the news, the museum was something he could rattle on about for hours. "We've got almost nothing but new exhibits!" he said happily. This was a bit of an exaggeration, as the second floor was in sore need of new signage, but the downstairs had been completely redone.

"In fact!" Iouri pulled out his wallet, rifled through it, and passed Betty a business card. "The museum website is listed on there," he said helpfully. "We're finishing up a total overhaul of our planetarium! Very high-tech stuff. It'll be opening in a few weeks, and we'll be playing a murder mystery game to celebrate!"

"No real murder, of course," he assured her after a moment. "Sort of... think of it as Clue but with live actors, yes?" The rules actually weren't like Clue at all, but it seemed to get the point across. "And we have an Apollo capsule, and one of the largest meteorites on the east coast!" he added. The meteorite was not the largest, but it seemed to get people more excited when you didn't specify its exact place in the lineup.

"My number is on there as well, if you decide you want at tour."

"Roughly like that," smiled Iouri. He finished his sport drink and tapped the empty bottle lightly against the table. Down on the ground, Laika began to nose around her plastic bowl in boredom and Iouri gave her leash a gentle tug.

"Looks like someone is getting antsy," he grimaced, giving Betty a sympathetic look as he gathered up his trash. Laika danced nervously around the chair in that manner most dogs have when they sense they were about to be going somewhere.

"Anyways," he said as he stripped the labels off the bottles for recycling, "Don't hesitate to call if you decide you want to look around, or come to the opening - Anything, really! And best of luck with the show."

Laika was making an effort in earnest to drag him away now, but Iouri was determined to at least make it through parting niceties. You never knew when it would be useful to know Betty Graver.