magician's apprentice | we've come a long way from where we began (rp for the_death_card)

[onebehind]

The place Miranda picks for their lunch date is meant to be neutral ground, Dylan is sure. She has them come out to Chicago, and while she is doing a show here, sometime this weekend, if her website is to be believed, it's still not home, not for either of them. It's also not one of the dozen places around town that might have required a reservation and no escape, if either of them thinks this is going south. No, it's just a diner, a literal hole in the wall, in a strip mall between a chiropractor and -- something else, Dylan's not sure, as he misses the sign, etched into the wall as they head in, but either way, the effort all adds up to a massive relief. He's not sure this will go badly, that he needs to think in terms of advantages and disadvantages as if he was playing chess, considering he's changed in the last twenty years, twenty months, twenty weeks, but still. He lets out a breath of relief, as they step into the building and he takes a look around.

It's a little less reminiscent of a dive bar, inside, even if the floors are bare, the ceiling open, and Dylan takes a certain amount of comfort in that, too. He glances to Jack briefly, to gauge his impression of all of this, and then steps up to the hostess's station as he looks out over the tables, trying to spot Miranda in the dwindling late-lunch crowd. When he doesn't see her, he's not surprised (she never could be on time for anything), and so he gets them a table for three, by the window, and settles into a chair. He expects Jack will take up his side of the table, too, and that's fine with him.

Once he's settled, Dylan pauses a beat, before, "Have I mentioned the part where she'd be late for her own funeral?"

Comments

[the_death_card]

Jack may be just as nervous about this as Dylan and not for entirely different reasons. Meeting Fuller was one thing: Dylan had told him things about Fuller before they actually met, of course, and Jack had some pre-formed opinions of the other man based on that and on the fact that he was another Fed, but he had had other priorities at the time of their actual meeting, considering how sick Dylan had been at the time and what he had learned through the course of the evening. Dylan's told him about Miranda, too, but Jack knew her already - or of her, at least, and he's equally nervous about meeting a famous magician as he is meeting another of Dylan's friends. He's trying to keep hidden the fact that he is nervous, trying to bury it under some aloofness that all sixteen-year-olds think is necessary, but Dylan definitely knows him well enough at this point that he won't be fooling anybody.

He's been looking around as they made their way here from where the Eye's network let out, and he keeps up the curiosity when they get to the diner. So far, he's still pretty sure he prefers New York, but he's not going to try and claim that he isn't biased.

He does take the chair closer to Dylan, settling in - and then snorts at Dylan's comment. "Famous people thing, maybe? Make everybody else wait on you?"