(Untitled)

[isaysimplewords]

Cal's neighborhood has quite a few dog owners. Seeing them out and about has reminded him of his plans to get a dog once he'd moved. He's been meaning to take care of some other things first, but - it's all been bewildering, a little (or a lot), and he feels like he's going in circles just trying to find a place to start

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[jane_becomes]

Jane has just finished her book and is enjoying her tea when she spots Cal's book and tries to turn her head to read the title properly.

[isaysimplewords]

Cal, not being much of a reader, does not have a reader's sixth sense for when someone is trying to check the title of his book.

He does, however, have a high enough level of distraction for the motion of her head to catch his eye. He helpfully holds the book up straighter so she can see the cover. The title is something generic about dogs and dogtraining because the mun doesn't feel like trawling Amazon.

[jane_becomes]

She blushes slightly,

"Thank you, sir, I was simply curious."

[isaysimplewords]

Cal smiles.

"Not a problem, miss," he says, automatically mimicking her style of address. "I'm looking to get a dog, and it's good to know what I'll be getting into."

[a1enzo]

"Hey, Cal! Whatcha readin'?"

[isaysimplewords]

Cal looks up, smiling.

"Hi, Enzo!" He holds the book up for Enzo to see. The title is something about dogs and dogtraining. The cover has a dog.

Enzo is free to speculate about the book's contents.

[a1enzo]

It is clearly a history of Viennese architecture!

"Oh, yeah! You said you were gonna get one!"

[isaysimplewords]

Cal grins.

"Yep! Got a lot to learn first, though, it looks like."

It is, at least, a more manageable amount of information than what he's been trying to get into so far.

[nurse_espinosa]

Carla comes in through the front door, balancing a small pile of patient charts in her right hand and holding a sealed jar of what looks horribly like urine in her left.

She's also kind of in need of a distraction, though her first inclination, as she heads to the bar, is something that will make up for skipping lunch.

[isaysimplewords]

Cal looks cheerful as he looks up and spots a face he hasn't seen since running its owner through the Milliways Introduction.

- he looks slightly less cheerful as he spots the jar and concludes that, Carla being a nurse, his guess as to its contents is probably accurate, but he remains undaunted.

"Hi, Carla," he says as she passes.

[nurse_espinosa]

She glances up, slightly surprised, when she hears her name, but smiles at Cal when she spots him.

"Hi," Carla answers, sounding perfectly cheerful.

"Sorry, it's been kind of a -"

Her eyes go to the jar, and while looking totally unabashed, her smile does become a little wry, "- long day."

[isaysimplewords]

"That's all right," Cal says, "that happens.

"Care to have a seat?" he asks, gesturing to a chair at his table. The extra residual politeness from talking to Jane Austen hasn't worn off yet.

He is, in fact, so polite right now that he will totally share his table with Carla's jar of urine. As long as it doesn't order anything.

[othercaptjack]

Well, it may not be ideal, but one of Jack's key qualities has always been being distracting.

He was striding past, coat aswirl, but pauses when he sees Cal.

"Hey," he says," half-smiling. "It was Cal, right? Figure I should remember my double, but something about that day was muddling."

[isaysimplewords]

. . . oh, he has got to be kidding with that shit. Cal knows perfectly well that his name came up when Bela met Jack. "Forgetting" someone's name is an old trick.

Cal's expression, marshalled instantly into pleasant neutrality the second he heard Jack's voice, reflects none of this.

"Yeah," he says lightly, "Cal Chandler. Nice to see you again, John." His tone indicates that he is clearly teasing. Clearly.

[othercaptjack]

Jack raises an eyebrow at him.

Weirded out by similarity or not, the guy is odd.

"Well, the Chandler I knew, but my god there are a lot of variations on names beginning with C in some places. Good to know I had half, at least."

[isaysimplewords]

Yes, Cal understands that it is very difficult to keep track of all those C-names belonging to the millions of doppelgangers they've got running around.

His skepticism continues not to show on his face.

"Close enough for government work," he says. "I would know."