Table for One? {Costin}

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Lorelei narrowed her eyes and looked across the eatery. Technically she was looking through the window, if you really want to get into details. But it was still across the eatery, and that's what mattered most to Lorelei at this point in time. She was doublechecking her notebook with the person she saw in there, sitting at a table all by himself. He looked imposing and all but... "Not very... fangy," Lorelei muttered, unable to quite keep the disappointment from his voice. Then again, maybe the child of Dracula would be more stealthy about his whole vampire... thing.

Right?

Only one way to find out. Lorelei closed the notebook and smoothed out her skirt. For once, it almost looked like Lorelei had won a victory in her longstanding feud with her closet. The denim skirt and black tights looked downright fashionable, and the flowing peasant top only looked a little out of place. Yes, she hadn't done anything to her hair (and there might have been some leftover snack food in there, or a pencil, probably a pencil), but she still looked halfway decent. Not much like a Princess of the Summer country, but that took way more work than Lorelei was willing to do.

She entered. "Yeah, it's okay. I'm with him," she said, pointing across the room before following her gesture, plopping down across from who she was pretty sure was Costin. "Shouldn't you be surrounded by women in a castle or something?" she asked, leaning on the table to look at him. "Or maybe tormenting children? That's a thing you do, right? Tormenting?"

[Costin Dracula]

Occasionally, Costin liked to go out and treat himself to a nice meal. Despite the fact that he loathed his home situation and the way his fathers carried on pretending as if he wasn't suffering endlessly at their neglectful disregard for his pathetic mortal state, he sometimes missed the finery he had grown accustomed to in his life. Going out to eat, even if he was by himself, let him forget that for an hour or two.

Carrying himself with all the nobility of his birth adoption, he made his way to his table and sat down, ordering a glass of the nicest wine they had (not that nice, but still, it would suffice). He was basking in his solitude before he was even presented with a menu, and once he started that, well, the pretentiousness really set in. Costin had pretentiousness down to an art. He could scoff at things with the best of them, and today, he was feeling quite disdainful towards the meager selections he saw on this menu. He was almost about to ask the waiter if he could find any other choices when his whole situation was disrupted by a new arrival.

So unaccustomed was Costin to unsolicited company that when Lorelei showed up at his table, it took him a good minute or two to figure out what was going on. At first, he thought she'd made a terrible mistake, that she'd mistaken him for someone else, someone who actually wanted to talk to her. Then he realized that no, she was actually talking to him.

"I beg your pardon," he said, barely managing to keep his composure. "Tormenting chil-...tormenting?" So maybe he wasn't really keeping his composure. He met her eyes evenly, raising one eyebrow. "Have we met? Or am I enduring some terrible nightmare?"

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Lorelei kept her attention laser focused on the poor guy. He just looked so incredibly thrilled to have someone to sit with him, probably so he didn't look as much like a loner, though now that Lorelei stopped to think about it, it was entirely possible that he wanted to look like a mysterious loner and that Lorelei was ruining that image. She made a mental note to ask.

"I don't think we've met yet, no," offered Lorelei, shrugging. "That's kind of what we're doing right now,' she gestured between them, wiggling her hand back and forth. "Meeting. Though this could be some kind of nightmare or something. Do you often dream about people that you haven't met yet? Is that a thing?" Lorelei practically twitched, ready to get out her notebook and start taking notes. "I really don't think it's a nightmare, logically speaking. Unless destiny's intervening, it's very unlikely that we're having a shared dream experience. That would probably require some sort of strange, deep connection, like soul mates or some special warning system or something," Lorelei drummed her fingers. "Unless you're part of my dream, but that's not really something that's happened to me all that often." Lorelei's brow furrowed. "Wait, where did we land on the tormenting children thing? Because that does seem like something that we should sort of set as a baseline, right? I might actually count for one of those, depending on your definition of a child..."

Really, at this point you had to wonder if Costin was strictly necessary for this conversation.

[Costin Dracula]

This had to be a prank, Costin decided. Mordred must have put her up to this, he must be truly dedicated to getting Costin to do all the things he'd never done with women, and he'd sent this girl here to get the ball rolling. That was really the only explanation. It was that or Mordred had decided to prank him. Well, two could play at that game, Costin thought, setting his menu down.

"You know, I've just remembered, I've been dreaming of this moment my entire life," he said, deadpan. "I'm a bit insulted that you haven't, to tell the truth. I don't know what to do with myself now. It's like everything I've ever been looking forward to has been thrown into chaos. I'm not even sure about my order anymore. I was going to get the filet, but now you've made me think I might want the salmon instead. Do you know how rare it is for me to change my dinner order once I've made up my mind?"

He shook his head and pursed his lips, making a tsk tsk noise. "I'm not here to torment children," he circled back, "but if you had a child in mind, I could be convinced, after I've eaten. I'm Costin, by the way, and if all the nightmares have been correct, you must be Catherine. If you don't know about the dreams, you might not be Catherine, but I suppose I can try to call you something else if that is not in fact your name." He extended a hand across the table towards her. "Either way, it is excruciating to meet you."

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Lorelei's eyes widened as he stated, quite seriously, that he'd been waiting to meet her the entire life. "Well, I would've gotten here sooner, but there was this magical wibbly wobbly time thing going on that kind of makes things unusual. Also, kudos on the whole deadpan snarker thing you got going on. Bet that goes great with your demographic," Lorelei made a clicking noise with the side of her mouth, giving him a wink as he did, before settling in.

He introduced himself, along with dismissing the idea of tormenting children (which would've been fun). "Uh, you might be confusing me with one of my many siblings? Our mom was like this crazy sex machine, so about half the school is, like, related to me. There's charts. But I'm actually Lorelei," she extended the hand to take his. "And really, excruciating? I mean, nice burn and all, but c'mon," she smiled, raising a brow.

[Costin Dracula]

"Yes, well, it's alright," Costin said dismissively. "I'm used to disappointment, sadly. What's one more added to the pile." Just because she'd called him out on his snark didn't mean he was going to drop it; if anything, it was a challenge to double down. "I am sure I don't know what demographic you're referring to, though." He motioned for the waiter, who was taking an annoyingly long time to come back over to take his order.

Pranks aside, he was still trying to figure out why she was actually sitting at his table. Did she just...do this? Invite herself to dine with strangers? And did she have no concept of how to judge whether a person actually wanted to be spoken to?

"Ah, a slip of the tongue, my apologies," he said, shaking her hand. "I meant to say it is enthralling to meet you, Catherine. Sorry - Lorelei. Delighted." He let go of her hand and picked his menu back up. "Are you eating?" He offered her the menu. "I'm sure you have time to look over the options, I don't think the waiter is coming back until next year." It had really only been a few minutes since the waiter had checked in with him, but patience had never been one of Costin's strengths.

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"You do look like someone who's been disappointed a lot," said Lorelei. "And you totally know exactly what demographic I'm talking about, you savvy fiend you," she gave him another over-exaggerated wink, the sort that was probably noticed a few tables over and having people shift slightly away from her.

It did occur to Lorelei around now that there was actually this menu thing. She picked it up, scanned for a few moments, seemed to select something almost at random, and set it back down. "Pretty sure you meant excruciating, since you think I'm hyper annoying and too dim to recognize when you're being all weird and stuff," Lorelei paused for a moments, looking around. "You know we could probably get service? Like," she started to stand up and start waving. Because Lorelei hadn't already drawn enough attention to herself.

[Costin Dracula]

Costin met her eyes evenly, trying to decide what she was getting at. She'd come in here, invited herself to his table, and now she thought she had him all figured out, did she? Well. He was better than that, and...what was that wink she was giving him? How unsettling. He shifted in his chair, reaching for his glass of water and taking a sip of it.

"I don't care about that demographic," he said flatly. "Also, I find absolutely everyone annoying, but I'm not sure how I'm being weird. I'm not the one who invited myself to someone else's dinner." Then she was standing up, and Costin felt his cheeks color with embarrassment.

"What are you doing?" he hissed. "Sit down, you ridiculous girl. This is a respectable dining establishment. I'll buy you dinner if you sit down and stop acting like you're trying out for the part of village idiot."

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Lorelei just giggled at the mention of the demographic. She did flush slightly at the accusation about just inviting herself to dinner. 'not like you would've invited me,' she mumbled, which seemed like reason enough for her to have just invited herself. How else was she supposed to get to know these people if she didn't just show up in their lives? That was how this thing worked. It was either that or Lorelei try to arrange those meet-cutes, and that just kept backfiring. A lot.

"I'm getting us service," Lorelei replied, frowning down at Costin. "Like, you've been---hey," she leaned forward, "how do you know I'm not the village idiot, huh? I walked up and was all 'hey guy who I strongly suspect has vampire blood, I'm gonna just sit down and eat with you, even when I'm a tantalizing bit of girlflesh just waiting for nibbles.' Also I'm--" she looked down, realizing that for once, she wasn't dressed like she'd gone three rounds with a thrift store and lost each time. "And--- oh hey," the server had by now arrived, because that's what you did when you saw someone standing up.

Lorelei plopped down, smiling as she adjusted the menu, feeling quite pleased with herself.

[Costin Dracula]

Costin took the opportunity to send a quick text as Lorelei was...cheerleading, or whatever she was doing trying to get the wait staff's attention. And then she was talking about vampire blood, and he dropped his whole act, because it was clear she knew more about him than he did about her, so he was going to have to re-strategize here.

"I'm sorry," he said, affecting what he hoped was a suitably apologetic air. "I was-" He stopped then, only because the waiter came over, and he was glad for the momentary pause. "I'm going to have the filet. Rare, please. And a glass of...whatever cabernet you'd recommend with that." He glanced over at Lorelei.

"Why don't you take a look at the menu for a moment or two? I'm going to visit the washroom, but you have my word I'll come back and then I'll...answer your questions about vampires, or whatever it is you wanted to talk about."

In truth, he was a little desperate to get away from the table and see if Mordred had any advice for him in this unexpected situation. He could just be openly hostile to her, but he liked this establishment well enough and didn't want to make a scene. He also didn't know who this girl was, and if she ended up being someone important's nosy child (which would make sense, given that she seemed to have a good idea of who he was), he wasn't interested in stirring up some stupid political fight with a teacher or board member or whatever other thing she might be related to.

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"I already looked," Lorelei said as Costin rose. It did seem a little weird to her that he was just suddenly getting up and deciding now that he had to use the bathroom and all. But maybe that was how the whole vampire thing worked. They had to get a lot of fluids. She shrugged and waved for him to do his thing.

"I'll have the salmon on rice," she told the waiter, "with a white." The waiter probably looked surprised at Lorelei's order, but she just smiled, leaving him to try and figure it out. She was raised in the court of the Summer Country, after all. That did come with a few perks. She'd just have to entertain herself while Costin tried to figure out whatever it was he was figuring out.

Which gave her time to doublecheck her notes. Lorelei set them on her knees, bending down to surreptitiously (obviously) look them over, just to make sure she was asking all the right questions.

[Costin Dracula]

"I'll be right back," Costin assured her, then nearly tripped over his own feet as he rushed off to the bathroom. He wasn't there long, just long enough to exchange a series of texts with Mordred, but it was long enough to send him into a near-crisis of self-doubt. This entire situation was spiraling out of control. Now Mordred had expectations of the situation. Why had he even texted Mordred? He'd just meant to try and feel out whether Mordred had put this girl up to her antics.

He rested both hands on the edge of the sink and stared at his reflection, taking a deep breath. "You can do this, Costin," he said under his breath. "Just...go out there and...be seductive." Seductive. Smooth. You've seen your father do this a hundred times, just channel your inner Dracula. He cleared his throat, jammed his phone into his pocket, and walked back out to the table, where he slid back into his seat and gave Lorelei what he hoped was a winning smile.

"As I was saying," he said, clearing his throat. "I'm sorry if I came off...harshly. I was surprised, that's all." A compliment. This was the time for a compliment. "It's not every day a...beautiful human girl with...eyebrows and hair...joins me at dinner."

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

Let's see... adopted child... rescued...probably super gay... parents were space-faring awesome types... been here a while... very well---

A clear throat dragged Lorelei's attention away from her book. She looked up, seeing Costin sitting there with a smile that was admittedly pretty appealing. Like, even Lorelei could feel her heart do that fun little skipping thing that happened from time to time, and she knew that Costin might have super seduction magic trained into him from his very cool parents or something. He even almost sounded silky smooth when he started talking, like everyone pictured seductive people sounding in all those books that Mom said she could/should read and Dad said that there was no way her daughter was ever reading something like that.

"Really?" Lorelei asked. She twisted. "Huh, I thought I had caught you all alone or something. Besides, like, isn't being surrounded by beautiful women sort of your thing? Or, wait, is it that you'd rather be surrounded by beautiful men, eh? Eh?"

[Costin Dracula]

Costin was fairly well used to people assuming he was gay. That was one of those things that tended to happen when your fathers were legendarily gay with one another. And usually, he didn't bother correcting anyone, because if they thought he wasn't interested in girls they wouldn't try and send girls his way, and Costin, for all his many shining attributes, was not good with women. Not because he didn't find them attractive, but because he just hadn't been around girls his age at almost any point in his life. He could relate to them as people, more or less, but he knew nothing of the intricacies of male-female interaction, whatever that was supposed to look like, aside from the way he'd watched his father prey upon them for food.

So when Costin smiled at Lorelei, and tried to channel the old Dracula family charm, it was more the smile one would expect someone to give to a meal they were about to eat.

"That's a common misconception," he said. The waiter returned with their drinks, and Costin took a slow sip of his before he spoke again. "I'm rarely surrounded by anyone, that's the way I like it." He swirled the wine in his glass. "But...let us just say that there are a number of differences between me and my fathers. Does that answer your question, at least in part?"

[Lorelei Summer-Lac]

"Really?" Lorelei replied, leaning forward again. She hadn't exactly heard confirmation, so this was definitely interested. The bit about being a loner didn't surprise her: he was the spawn of vampires. He probably had the whole sit in the corner and brood alone with his fingers templed and a raven cawing in the background thing down to an art. But it was interesting to hear that he was definitely interested in the fairer sex.

It also opened up whole new lanes of shipping potential. Lorelei was already thinking of her chart, rearranging some lines and reconsidering her options.

"In part, yes," replied Lorelei, nodding. She took a sip of her wine, wrinkling her nose. "Definitely not as good as home," she set it down, before studying Costin again. "You're sort of confirming the whole dark, mysterious loner thing that I pretty well figured you had going for you. It's kind of a standard vampire trope, so at least you got that part down pat. Gotta warn you, definitely going to make all the teenage girls get all swoony and stuff. I bet you've got at least two or three unrequited crushes on you right now. You'll probably end up saving someone's life and telling them how special they are while sparkling in the sunlight any day now."

Lorelei looked around, wondering if this was one of those restaurants that provided free bread. She could really go for some free bread right now, soak up the wine and all. Alcohol went straight to her head; she'd really only ordered it out of familiarity and because Costin was being all snooty.