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(OOM (Canon): In which Cecil uses his show to work through personal questions.)

The front door bursts open.

One Cecil Palmer, radio host, practically pirouettes through the room, ending up leaning against the Bar with a ridiculous smile on his face.

"The next round's on me, alright?" He asks her, before ordering his usual mug of coffee - because clearly what this man needs is a pick-me-up.

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Sinric is just coming down from his room when Cecil dances in. "You seem in high spirits, my friend?"

"Sinric!" Cecil somehow, miraculously, fails to spill his coffee when he bounces up again from where he was leaning against Bar. "Guess who called this weekend!?"

"By your joyful smile, I'd say the lovely Carlos?" Sinric teases warmly.

"Yes!" Cecil crows gleefully. "He calls and I'm like 'Hello?', like I don't have caller ID..." He replays the conversation again just as he did on his show because this is the BEST THING EVER, and he isn't even close to being over it yet.

"And so I'm doing as Carlos asked and asking if anyone has noticed time not working - I'm very into science - and during my show my phone is just going mad, and just guess who is calling me?"

"Lovely Carlos. My dear friend, I'm so happy to hear it." Sinric beams, "That sounds wonderful."

"Oh, it is." Cecil agrees fervently. "Now, I'll admit I don't really understand everything he said in his messages? But! The upshot is..."

He tries to pause for dramatic emphasis and then fails to really pause in his excitement.

"Carlos and I are going out for coffee tomorrow afternoon!!"

"That sounds like a wonderful place to start. And if you don't understand everything he's said, you can ask him to explain it." Getting people to talk about their passions is always a good place to start.

"And of course now I have to figure out what to wear - I mean, I don't want to be too casual, he's never seen me out of work attire before, but... I don't think being too formal would be good either. I mean, I don't want to scare him off." Cecil dithers, clutching his coffee mug.

"The Bar can be very generous with clothing, if you'd like some help selecting something?" Sinric loves to dress up so he's happy to play.

"That would be amazing. Bar, how accurately can you copy my closet at home?" Cecil asks curiously, and beams when he is presented with the wrist warmers his niece knit for him last year for one of her scouting badges.

Sinric laughs warmly. "How lovely. Bar, would you be so kind as to send Cecil's wardrobe to my room?"

He holds out a hand to Cecil. "Would you care to come up to my room and explore options?"

Edited 2018-10-20 14:24 (UTC)

"...you seem to be in a good mood," Graverobber notes, blinking at the gleeful display as Cecil lands at the bar top. "Find some buried treasure full of gold?"

"Oh no, something much more valuable than mere gold." Cecil crows, showing absolutely no sign of coming down from his gleeful high.

"Oh really?" he asks, sipping his drink and watching Cecil with a sort of bemused curiosity. "What is it, then? Barrel full of diamonds?"

"No," Cecil chuckles, because that is just silly, "I have a date! With Carlos!"

"Ah, nice!" he says with a small grin. "Good on ya. Who's Carlos?"

"Oh, perfect Carlos," Cecil sighs, on cloud nine, "He and his team of scientists came to Night Vale a few months ago - he said that Night Vale is the most scientifically interesting town in America, and he was determined to find out what was going on. And he smiled during his press conference..." Cecil's smile in echoing remembrance is dreamy.

"I fell in love instantly."

"He sounds nice," Graverobber says, watching Cecil as he seems to grow even dreamier with each word. "And nice that he seems to think the same. Where you gonna take him on your date with him?"

"Oh, he doesn't... I mean, he hasn't said... anyway, it is just out for coffee, but... well. Maybe more." He just sounds so ridiculously hopeful.

"Coffee's still a sign of something," he says, grinning a little at Cecil's clear over-the-moon status. "And 'sides, he said yes to it, so clearly he thinks you're worth getting coffee with."

"Do you think so?" Cecil asks, missing 'grown-ass adult' by a country mile and smacking 'lovelorn teenager' right between the eyes.

That impression definitely strikes Graverobber, but, hey, no reason to harsh the guy's buzz, moony or not. "I mean, I don't know him or anything, but if he'd wanted to say no, he coulda said no. But he didn't."

"That is true." Cecil agrees, still baffled by his good luck but certainly in no mood to deny it. "So I have until tomorrow to figure out what to wear."

Such difficulties.

"What type of clothes you thinking of?" he asks. He's not actually sure what people wear on coffee dates. His relationships are less 'meeting for coffee' than they are 'screwing in alleyways'.

"Well, I was thinking I should wear the lime green fuzzy miniskirt because frankly, I look amazing in it, and maybe the sequined shirt I picked up last year, but that might be too formal." Cecil frets, clutching his coffee mug.

He makes a sort of 'hmmmm' noise because on the one hand he's never been on a coffee date, but on the other hand...he thinks coffee dates don't usually involve clothes like that. "That...that might be a little formal," he agrees. "I mean, maybe save it for a second date somewhere else."

Cecil looks a little stary-eyed at the idea of a second date, but does his damndest to keep it together.

"Oh, yes. Sure. Something more... casual. Laid-back. Relaxed."

All the things Cecil isn't about this situation.

"Exactly," he says. "You know, classy but relaxed." He has no idea what he's saying, but he think it's relatively on the money. "And then when you go somewhere more fancy you can break out the big guns."

Cecil pauses, trying to parse that and... well. No. Huh.

"Why would I need to break out the guns? I mean, there is 'Lox, Stock, and Bagels', the combined deli and shooting range, but they've been struggling since the ban on wheat and wheat byproducts."

"...it's a figure of speech," he says, forcing back a question about the combined deli and what. "Just means save all your really fancy clothes for where it'll be more appropriate, I guess. Though, I should probably mention that I have no fancy clothes, so my advice is not entirely an expert opinion."

"Oh, I see." Cecil nods, wondering if this particular saying had its start with the NRA. Sounds like something they'd put on their bumper stickers. "Well, it is just coffee, so I don't need to wear a tux."

Right?

...

Riiiight.

"Yeah, I don't think you gotta go that far," he says. "I mean, unless it's like...the fanciest coffee in the world or something. Otherwise, you're probably fine with a little more casual stuff."

"Oh, I don't know about the world. Possibly not even Night Vale, I mean, Marcus Vanston probably has much fancier coffee regularly. But it's better than what's in the Barista District." Cecil has survival drink orders for the Barista District, just in case he gets surrounded. It's only good planning.

"I guess that's good, then," he says, before daring to ask: "What's the Barista District?"

"Well... the baristas, mostly. I mean, some other people decide to live there? But there's only so many mochas and lattes you can drink in a lifetime, and they get... restless, without something to keep them busy." Cecil points out, because clearly this is common knowledge.

"Ah...okay," he says, still not entirely getting it. "And what happens when they're restless?"

"They are not... known to be malevolent." Cecil allows, but the tone is doubting. "But is it ever truly wise to rile a barista?"

"...I don't know," he says after a second. "I mean, granted, I've never done it, or tried to, so I guess I wouldn't have any idea."

Cecil immediately looks worried, fiddling with his coffee mug.

"See, this is why community radio is so important, all of these things would just be known." He frets, shaking his head.

"I guess so," he agrees mildly, because he's really not sure what to say, or how to react to any of the words being said, but Cecil was nice enough so he had no reason to sweat any of it. "That the sort of stuff you talk about on your show?"

"Oh, some of it, certainly, the news is always pertinent. Well. Almost always. But there's also the community calendar, and traffic, and the weather... all sorts of things, really. I particularly enjoy the Children's Fun Fact Science Corner. I'm really into science." He reports cheerfully.

"I can tell," he says, teasing only slightly as he says it. "So just normal small-town stuff, then."

"Exactly! But it keeps everyone together, hearing about everything regularly." Cecil explains, because as far as he's concerned, Night Vale is the epitome of small-town America.

...

He's not exactly wrong...

In many ways, Cecil is totally right!

"All right. Sounds pretty nice," he says. "I live in a big city so we don't really have that. Sounds nice."

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