TO: chuuni-the-hedgehog@gracenote.com
FROM: mauvelous@foxmail.com

SUBJECT: Re: dungeon philosophy

Coffee is absolutely on the table! I had to google your email to figure out what it meant but now I'm giggling so thanks for that. When's good for you? I have some favourite coffee shops but you could definitely convince me to try a new one.

It turns out they share a semi-regular haunt!  One that's quiet and cozy with private enough corners that they don't stand too much of a chance of being overheard if they find themselves swapping nature facts again.  If that sounds good to her?

Cozy coffee is the best! She's in.

He vaguely considers getting there early so he can be lounging smugly at their table when she walks in but he feels like that would be a little... something.  Possibly a little several different things.  He does not make any especial effort to arrive early.

Then Kimberly will be there about two minutes early and might get in ahead of him!

She squeaks in ahead of him, yeah.  He waves and holds up one finger and gestures toward the counter to indicate he is going to get himself a drink first, and gets himself a drink first, and then cozies into the booth across from her.  "Hey."

She has an overly elaborate hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles, and bounces happily when he sits down. "Hi!! How've you been? I told Lenore about the wall and she won't stop dramatically proclaiming," she puts on a semi-reasonable impression of Lenore dramatically proclaiming, "'Walls are a social construct even in dungeons!'"

Oh her hot chocolate order is very cute.  Oh her happy body language is so cute.  Oh he can just think thoughts like that now that he is not interacting with her in a professional capacity and also backlashed to hell.  He giggles.  "I'm so curious about how she has opportunities to always be saying walls are a social construct."

"I think it started as one of those late-night conversations where everything's funnier than it should be, and then it got to be a meme."

"Aha, that makes sense."  He stirs his drink, idly, slowly, one finger gently pushing the stirrer in circles along the ring of the mug.  "So you told her about the wall, huh."

"And about the spray paint. I'm never gonna live that one down."

"Coolest thing I've ever seen a dungeon victim do."

"It's terrible, how am I gonna maintain my self-image as generally kinda bad at everything now that I've been caught doing something cool?"

"You've got no hope.  I have you cornered."

Hee hee hee.

He takes a sip.  "So I guess we were talking about dungeon philosophy at one point, and trading animal facts at another, either of which sound fun to me."

"Lenore pointed out after we went home that you probably heard me triumphantly announcing that I hadn't brought up duck penises."

"I was.  Not gonna bring that up.  But.  Yeah."

"Well we are not in a dungeon anymore so I can embarrass myself without interferin' with a rescue operation."

"Is it more or less embarrassing if I explicitly invite you to share any duck penis facts you feel moved to share?"

"It's way less embarrassing to talk about duck penises if you're fine with it! The embarrassing part is bringing up duck penises to somebody who's not fine with it!"

"Yeah I guess that makes a lot more sense than the reverse.  Tell me about duck penises."

"It's been a couple of years since I learned this one so I don't remember if it's all ducks or some specific kind of duck but apparently they're, like," she gestures expansively, "wildly long. I mean, compared to the duck, at any rate. And squiggly. Something about girl ducks going all labyrinth on them so they need to have all those squiggles to keep up? Nature is beautiful and also very silly sometimes."

"I'm picturing... I'm not sure what I'm picturing.  I'm gonna stop picturing it.  ...I distantly recall hearing that the barnacle has the largest ratio of penis size to body size of any animal."

"Good for barnacles! If they're into that sort of thing."