random encounter!

who: kayos and nemo
where: diner
when: late day

It was a crisp November morning when Nemo wandered down the main street. This new town felt different, smelt different. He wasn't quite sure how he got there, but something seemed to draw him. Still, no matter, if it turned out that he didn't like it then he could just move on.

His mouth quirked slightly as he remembered a book once read to him. “I am the cat who walks by myself, and all places are alike to me,” he murmured under his breath. The sentence is complete rubbish, since cats are usually territorial by nature and as such all places are definitely not alike. But still, it sounded good and it fit into the romanticised legend of himself that some humans seemed to enjoy hearing.

Now all he needed to do was find someone to talk to, work out the lay of the land around here and where he could fit for as long as he wanted to stay. That shouldn't be too hard. Plastering a friendly, open grin on his face, Nemo headed for a diner. He had twenty dollars ('borrowed' from a very late season camper) in his jeans pocket and a hunger for something sweet and warm in his belly, and maybe while he was in there he'd be able to find a friend.

Kayos happened to be wandering around. She'd left Babylon, and was still kind of trying to find a building she wanted to set up shop in. Figuratively, anyways. She didn't actually want to have a shop. Though it might be fun. She just didn't know what she'd sell. Maybe she'd think about that, and entirely dismiss the idea upon really deciding it was insane. She also had the idea Nemo did, and was heading for foodstuffs. She'd only had a bagel that morning before she'd headed out of the safehouse, and having a couple of drinks at Babylon hadn't exactly been the wisest of ideas while on a mostly empty stomach. So, food it was. As she got to the door, some other dude was on his way in so she just leaned her back on the door and let it fall inwards along with herself, so she essentially opened it for him. She gave him a bright, friendly smile as well. "After you." she invited.

Nemo returned her smile. He was a little nervous inside, but knew if someone smiled at you it was usually a good idea to smile back. "Ladies first," he replied, holding the door so she could turn and go in first. Sometimes that approach backfired, but it worked more times than not. Whatever they were cooking in the diner smelt really good, and he frowned a little as his stomach growled audibly. "Pretty ladies even more first." Giving her an even broader grin, he moved to follow her in, enjoying the warmth of the diner's interior. Coffee would be good, and pie. Somewhere warm to sleep could wait for a few hours. And who knew? Maybe an opportunity would present itself. Maybe the pretty blonde lady would present an opportunity, even?

She laughed a little bit. "Aww, flattery will get you everywhere." she said, walking inside and she paused to take her mittens off. Shoving them into her jacket pockets, she glanced around. "What's good in this place?" she asked him, totally unaware he was just as new in the place as she was. She spotted an empty expance of counter, and went to drop down on a stool, turning to expectantly eye the guy she'd come up with for his answer.

Nemo decided she had a pretty laugh too. Slightly emboldened by success, he replied "Anything hot and sweet, as far as I'm concerned. I'm Nemo, and I've never been in here before." He took a stool next to her, still smiling. "I just got into town."

Pulling off his coat, he pushed it underneath him, to both pad his seat a little more and hold it in place. The diner was warm enough that he debated tugging off his plaid overshirt too, but he decided against it. Better to get toasty first. And the Hawaii'an shirt underneath needed a wash.

She smirked faintly as he sat down, and she propped her cheek on her hand. "No shit, new here too, huh? Well, I guess it's time to experiment. You get something, and I'll get something else, and we can compare notes." she told him jovially. "And your name is Nemo? Seriously? Can I tell people I'm following you because I am following my fishie because my fishie knows where to go?"

He stared at her for a moment, not sure how to respond to the talk of following fishies. He didn't look like a fishy, did he? And Nemo was the name of the submarine captain... So confusing. "Comparing notes sounds good," he replied finally, with a broad grin. "I'm getting coffee, or maybe hot chocolate? Should I get hot chocolate? I think I should get hot chocolate. And pie. What's your name?"

Kayos winked at him. "It was a Neil Gaiman reference." she explained since he looked blank for a second there. "Well if you get hot chocolate, I'll get coffee. Anything hot works for me at the moment. My insides need to really stop being about ten degrees cooler than usual. I'm pretty sure that's not healthy, really, so let's go for hot-liquids at least. So go for it. Hot chocolate. And pie is always good. You can't go wrong, with pie, really." she said thoughtfully. "And my name's Kayos. I give you my word I am not an anthropomorphic personification."

Nemo carefully filed away the knowledge that she was not an anthropomorphywhatchamacallawhosits. Whatever that was. "Hello, Kayos," he said cheerily, sticking out his hand to shake. "I like apple pie; I think I'll have apple pie. Or cherry. Maybe both." He pulled out his twenty dollars and frowned at the menu, trying to work out the mathematics. Maths had never been his strong point. "Slice of cherry pie, slice of apple pie, mug of hot chocolate, I have enough, I think."

"Nice to meet you too." Kayos leaned over to look at his menu after shaking his hand, ticking her gaze over prices. "Yeah, you've got it. Though if you're short for some reason, I can spot you." she offered. Then she looked at things, and thought she was going to eat something that wasn't entirely made of sugar. "And I'm having a burger, with ridiculous amounts of cheese on it, and fries. Possibly also with cheese, just because." she decided, and when the waitress wandered over, she put in said order.

"Oh, french fries!" Nemo exclaimed. Giving the waitress one of his best flirty grins, he put in his own order for fries (with cheese), two slices of pie (one with cream, the other with ice cream) and a mug of hot chocolate. "I'm hungry," he explained to Kayos. "Haven't been in a town for a while. So you're new here as well?" Interesting. He wondered if she knew of any places to stay; if it came down to barns and sleeping rough two bodies would keep warmer than one.

"Yes sir." Kayos said, sitting back again. "Got here today. I've been kind of looking around town. Pretty, small, everyone kind of smiles it seems." she assessed for him. "You've been traveling a lot then? Where have you been staying? You know it's way too cold to sleep somewhere not-heated around here, right?" she asked, since he'd said he hadn't been in a town. But maybe he was one of those crazed extreme camping dudes or something. Weirder things had happened.

"I travel all over and sleep wherever I find myself," Nemo replied, grinning at her. Quixotic answers had worked for him in the past, and 'I have an in-built furcoat I can just transform into' usually took a lot of explaining. And usually a little screaming.

"A warm place to stay would be welcome though, if you've come across anywhere that doesn't charge much?" He raised his eyebrows questioningly. "I do like a warm hearth."

"Not sure I know of any spare hearths just lying around. Ya know, people don't have nearly enough of them to spare these days but damnit, I think they should." she said, punctuating the statement with a light little fist to the counter. "But hm. Cheap. You running low on funds? I could probably help you out. I wasn't entirely positive where I was staying tonight, I could just get two rooms wherever." she suggested. She was a generous person by nature, and being a hacker who could just kind of produce the funds when she needed them? She could afford to be.

Nemo put his twenty dollars on the counter. "I have this, minus dinner," he said with a frown. "But help would be good, thankyou." For a brief moment he wondered whether to offer to share one room, but then decided against it. Humans had strange ideas about sharing rooms. Though... he might have missed the signals. "I don't mind sharing a room, if you want to save money," he added seriously. "It's warmer too."

Kayos eyed the twenty, then arched a brow. "Yeah, sweetie, that's so not getting you a hotel room." she told him. "So, right. Room-type things, on me." she decided. Then she smiled a bit. "It's fine, don't worry about it, and it's only warmer if you're all snuggled up and generally speaking, I like to get to know people before serious snuggling gets done. I mean, no offense, or anything." she said honestly. "You're kinda cute, and you don't give me a crazed serial killer vibe, but yeah. Can't be too careful sometimes. So, I'll get us our own rooms. But hey, think about it this way. With your own room, you can jump on the bed as much as you want and no one will complain. Oh! And you can rent all the porn you want and it won't make anyone else wicked-uncomfortable." she added with a grin.

"Jumping and porn, got it," he replied with a solemn nod. Snuggling seemed preferable, but he knew from experience that pushing that issue rarely ended well (it occasionally ended with being thrown out on the street by male humans. Not a good option.) "I assure you, I'm not a serial killer. Avoiding the cops all the time seems like it would be a lot of work. If you change your mind about the snuggling you'll know where I am though." He grinned at her playfully, making sure it was both jokey and flirty at the same time.

She grinned. "I'll keep it in mind, just in case I get an attack of lack-of-snuggles in the night." she promised, grabbing her coffee when it was placed in front of her. She also grabbed a spoon, and reached over to nab a dollop of the whipped cream on the top of the hot chocolate that he'd just gotten so she could put it in her coffee. She did so without asking and a quite innocent looking smile. "You sticking around in town at all? Like are you settling here for a bit, or just passing through?"

He gave the waitress a dazzling smile as she left the table again - in his experience it was usually a good idea to suck up to food-place staff - then returned his attention to Kayos. "Depends on what I find here. If it seems like a good place to stay I'll stay for as long as it's good. If it doesn't seem like a good place I'll move on. It would be nice to stay somewhere for the winter though. Usually I head south this time of year, I got distracted this time." A sip of his hot chocolate left whipped cream on his nose, it was a moment before he wiped it off.

"Well, do you work? Like, can you do any fixing of anything, or sort of carpentry bullshit?" she asked. Kayos wasn't someone who passed up opportunities to help people. After all, if she hadn't been helped when she was a kid? She probably wouldn't have seen nine years old. But Doc had taken her in, and here she was. So, she tended towards finding ways of helping people, even if it was by way of hiring them so she had excuses to give them money.

"I paint," Nemo replied, taking another sip of hot chocolate. "I'm an artist." That statement usually brought varying reactions, in his experience. He was curious as to what Kayos' response would be. "Other people do practical, I'm a wandering painter." He gave her a mischievous grin. "No good at carpentry, I keep bashing my fingers with the hammer."

"That's never the way to go." Kayos said sagely about the hammer thing. "The wandering artist. Interesting. Maybe you can do a mural or something for me when I figure out the building I want to buy and renovate." she suggested, thinking she didn't actually have much use for an artist, but she could find one. She didn't need any murals, but whatever. She could have one, maybe. It might be pretty, or interesting, or something. She was happy to give it a shot, at any rate.

"You're buying a building?" Nemo asked curiously. He had to admit to himself, he may have fallen on his feet here. The very first person he met in a new town and she was already offering him a bed for the night and potential employment. This was a nice place. Of course, there was the little detail that she was new too, the actual locals might be a completely different story. He smiled at the waitress again as their food arrived, and started tucking into cheese covered fries. "Help yourself to some pie."

"Thanks, I might. I have to see if I explode first from burgery things." Kayos said, sounding genuinely pleased with his offer, anyhow. "But yeah, I'm thinking about it. It's sort of the plan. I hadn't really meant to, but then the place I was staying kind of fell out from under me, and I'm not going anywhere, so I thought I might as well just go with it, buy someplace interesting, fix it up. There are a few cool buildings I've seen that were sort of abandoned looking." she explained. "One was interesting and had arch windows and doors and it's practically on top of the lake, so...pretty."

Abandoned buildings always interested Nemo anyway, since they could be a serviceable shelter if he couldn't insinuate himself into a more preferable sleeping place. "Whereabouts are they? I'll have to go look," he said, quirking an eyebrow. "I like old buildings," he added as explanation. "The one near the lake would probably be cold though, and a bit damp, wouldn't it? Some windows and a big fireplace could fix that." He might be a little fixated on fireplaces, but he does love to find one that's his size.

"Eh, I don't care. Things can be done to combat that." Kayos said, shrugging one shoulder. "And this one's kind of by itself, down by this cute little park. So, that was a plus too. Tire swings totally being available any time I want, just a short distance away? That equals love for me." Even if technically she didn't need that. She could teleport. Nothing was far away from her. "Plus, sweetie, if you haven't noticed the like million feet of snow around here, it's going to be cold everywhere." she finished with a wink. "Though I wouldn't say no to a huge fireplace."

"That's because you're smart." Nemo nodded. "Huge fireplaces are always good." He could cope with the cold, but warmth was preferable. He ate another couple of fries. "I've never really understood the fascination with tire swings," Nemo admitted. He spent that whole chunk of his childhood as a kitten, far from people and tires. "Trees though, trees are good."

"I like trees. And hey! You're in luck! This whole place is chock full of them!" Kayos said brightly. After all, the U.P. was like ninety-nine percent woods. "And hmm. The joy of tire swings. It's to do with the ability to spin around and around and around on them, and yet still be going back and forth too. Plus, if you get someone to push you, you can go around in circles on that, while going in a bigger circle. It's just awesome, trust me on this." she told him. "It's about having fun and letting go for a minute, letting a force of nature take hold and have it's sway, without being in much of a position to stop it, but if you really really wanted to, you could try." Then she laughed as she munched on her food. "And that was another edition of 'Kayos' Sage Bullshit Corner', brought to you by our local sponsors. Tune in tomorrow for yet more interesting, philosophical if entirely irrelevant crap."

He shrugged and smiled at her. "Maybe I'll have to try it some time, the tire swings I mean. I've never been on one." He grabbed some more fries and ate hungrily, wondering if he should have gotten a burger. "Having a force of nature take hold of me doesn't sound like that much fun though, or maybe I'm too accustomed to it from living rough occasionally." He took another drink of hot chocolate. "The fries are good, especially with the cheese, what's the burger like?" They did agree to compare notes, and it would be good to know for next time he found himself with money, an empty belly, and near this diner. Really he should have thought to get something with meat in it. "The amount of trees does make this place nice," he added, thoughtfully.

"Pretty damn good." Kayos observed. "I'm happy. I deem this place a good diner." Of course, she was kind of used to eating shit out of military supply bags as opposed to anything like this. So this? yeah she was a fan. It was hot and not freeze-dried. All was well. "I'm a fan of the fries as well. And yeah, I like trees. I mean, as far as things I'm a fan of go, they make the list." she said with a firm nod. "They're cool with everyone, you never see trees on the news, yelling at their neighbors or whatever. They don't show up on cop shows. Really, they're pretty snazzy."

"I add my seal of approval to the hot chocolate," Nemo said as he finished his fries and picked up a spoon. "Now to test the pie." He wasn't really picky as long as food was hot. Cooked meals had been something of a revelation for him when he first came out of the woods. And sweet? His cat form couldn't taste sweet. If hot meals had been a revelation, sweet had been a miracle. He wondered whether to say something about trees, but to be honest he was a little confused by her talk of cops shows and yelling at neightbours. "So, trees, this diner, tyre swings... what else are you a fan of, Kayos?"

"A lot of things. Mostly the little things in life really blow my skirt up. It's all about the little things." she said. And from a girl who'd come from a world that had been spiraling the drain? That meant everything. It was the little things in her head. The things you missed. Someone's smile. The way the basement smelled back at the old house, which was a mixture of Basement and Downy. Things that make up memories and the good things in life. She was fighting for the bigger picture but for her, the cause was the little things.

"Little things," he echoed, taking a bite of cherry pie. "Mmm, this is good, you should try some." Settling himself more carefully on his seat, he asked. "So what brought you to this town? I just wandered until I found myself here, did you do that or did you have a plan?" He was curious about her. Being offered a room on a first meeting was nice but also fairly unusual.

"I had a friend here. My partner." Kayos said. "I hadn't seen him in a while...figured I'd remedy that." Technically, in her world he'd been dead for a while. Though not as dead as she'd been here, apparently. "I figure it's best if I just stick around. It's not good to let people in your life drop by the wayside if they're important."

"A partner?" Now there was a word that he knew could mean many things, and generally the complexities eluded him. He stretched his spine out, luxuriously, and possibly just a little more feline than he should have risked. "I don't think I've ever come across someone important enough to stop me wandering. Though, I suppose I could go back and find Mel..." He looked into middle distance for a moment. The woman who'd found him lost and confused was still special in his memories.

"No? Never got close enough to anyone, or you never felt the need to keep someone in your life like that?" Kayos asked, curious. Different points of view were always interesting to her, so she wanted to know. "And who's Mel?" Since apparently that was someone who rated importance. She was happy to find out about that as well.

"Bit of both," he replied, cocking his head. "I might settle down under the right circumstances, but I haven't found them yet." The pie was good, he chased a bit of ice cream around the plate with his fork, making patterns. "Mel was... a good friend." A source of food and warmth and comfort when he'd needed it. "We had a misunderstanding."

Kayos reached over to snag a bite of pie. "Oo. this is good." she remarked, thinking she'd have to come back for pie at a regular interval. Maybe she'd meet Nemo for it. "Hmm...a good friend that there were snuggles with?" she asked, since he'd hesitated on the wording there. "What kind of misunderstanding?" she asked, propping her chin on her hand as she focused her attention on the guy.

Nemo knew from past experience that the explanation 'I accidentally locked myself in the bathroom on a new moon night and Melanie didn't know that cougar was me' didn't usually end well, so he smiled winningly as a distraction. "Mistaken identity, wanting different things out of the relationship, you know, that kind of thing. There were snuggles." There had been a lot of cuddles. It hadn't gone any further than hugs, but Nemo was working with a different value of 'snuggles' to the one Kayos was implying.

She nodded. "Well, that sucks that things didn't go well." she said. "But maybe you could look her up again. Y'know, if you didn't do something like misunderstand that sleeping with her sister in her bed while she was sick with the flu downstairs wasn't the way to go or something." she added. "How long ago was that?" she asked. "A long time, or is it all still fresh?"

"Long time ago," Nemo said. "I was a teenager." He frowned for a moment. "I don't think she had the flu." Taking another bite of pie, he added "I suppose I could look her up again, I never gave it much thought before. I don't even know if she'd be in the same place..."

Kayos arched a brow. "....kinda a literal guy, aren't you?" she asked rhetorically. "I didn't mean it like that, just...if you were going to do something shitty to someone that would be high on the list." she explained. "And really? You never thought about it before? She couldn't be that important then, all things considered. Maybe she's best off in the past, if you don't have that drive to see her." she suggested.

"I can't drive," he pointed out, a little confused. "I've not really been near where she lives, otherwise I might have thought about it more. I'm not sure she'd even want to see me, we only knew each other for a few days." He shrugged slightly and ate another bite of cherry pie. "She hit me with a broom." If he had been an actual cougar trapped in her bathroom Melanie might have come out of it with some serious injuries, as it stood it was Nemo's pride that had taken the beating. "Maybe I'll go down that way next, find out for certain."

"You can't drive?" Kayos asked. "Huh. That's kinda crazy. Most people do. How'd you avoid that?" she asked. "And she hit you with a broom...that's usually a sign of people not really dealing with things in a way that's productive. So either you really pissed her off bad, or...ya know, I just don't have a second option there. But if you want to go find out for sure, you do that." she said, finishing off her burger as she absently swung one leg back and forth beneath her.

"Just never learned," he replied with a shrug. "Didn't come up when I was a kid." He stared into space for a contemplative moment. "I think I scared her, when she hit me with the broom. Startled her I mean. I don't think she'd have hit me if she'd known it was me. Don't know though, it was a long time ago. She probably doesn't even remember me." Taking another deep drink of hot chocolate, he pushed his apple pie between them. "Pie?"

Kayos grabbed a forkfull and nibbled on it. "Well, most people who illicit a strong reaction like hitting someone with a broom, they'd remember." she offered thoughtfully. "Though...why wouldn't she have known it was you?" she asked. "If she didn't, then maybe she doesn't know it was you, and she's just thought you bugged out for no reason a long time ago and might miss you, but then again, she could be pissed because you bugged out before, and...it could be complicated." she decided.

"People are complicated," Nemo sighed, as if this was some strange punishment the world had inflicted upon him alone. "You know where you stand with animals. People say one thing and do another, or act in the strangest ways to something perfectly natural." He shifted on his chair. "Like snuggles. It's natural to want to stay warm, it's pleasant to touch each other, but snuggles are out of the question because of complication. Don't worry, I'm not going to push the issue, it just confuses me."

Kayos looked at him for a long stretch of moments there. "You know where you stand with animals? And I suppose keeping warm isn't really an issue all the time. I mean...most of the time people do have someplace warm, and there are blankets." Something was weird here, and she wanted to find out what. "You kind of seem to be missing the emotional aspect of things." she said. "Are you autistic?" The question wasn't a mean one, like asking 'what the hell is wrong with you', she was just asking because that was an explanation that made sense.

"Nope," he replied. The question had come up before, answering in a positive manner usually changed the way people acted around him in a way he didn't like. "Wasn't well socialised as a kid, that's probably it." He nodded, sagely. "I don't always have some place warm either, that's why I like it so much." Explanation given, he returned his attention to getting as much icecream as he could off his plate. He had a feeling licking it clean would not be considered acceptable behaviour. "Will it be a problem for you?" he asked, looking up at her suddenly. If she was getting him a place to sleep tonight he had to keep her happy.

"No." Kayos answered. "It's just strange to deal with, that's all." she said. She didn't say bad to deal with, just odd. And it was, really, but she supposed people occasionally had difficulty dealing with her as well, so she wasn't one to judge. She just noted it and moved forward. "You realize just because you weren't socialized much that doesn't necessarily mean that you lack emotion though, right?" she asked. The connectors didn't seem to be functioning, so far as she could tell. Mostly, though, she didn't know him that well, and therefore was going to wait and see. She wasn't socialized very well as a kid either, that didn't mean she didn't connect the emotional dots. And he looked older than her. So, something was wonky, but she was happy to spend the time figuring out what. He was interesting if nothing else, and he still didn't set off her 'zomg!serialkiller' alerts, so until he did, he could be as weird as he wanted.

"I have emotions," he said, frowning at her. "What makes you think I don't?" He found himself wondering whether he should take her up on the offer of a room, the conversation was taking a turn for the stranger than usual. Maybe she expected him to be acting differently? Well, how? Chewing on his lower lip, he worked through the all the possibilities he could think of. Still a mystery. "I feel happy I've met a new friend, who's offered me a place to stay. I feel a little disappointed she doesn't want to snuggle with me, but not angry or upset about that. I'm not really sure what more you want from me; I'm a painter, not a psychiatrist."

"Sorry, I'm mis-wording." she said. "It's I suppose not that you lack them entirely. Just that they don't seem to be quite the same as other people's. That's why I wondered if you were autistic. People with autism kind of have that same thing going on. Not quite the same connections and all." she answered. "I don't want anything from you, hon. I was just making observations. So...no worries. Nothing's expected of you."

Nemo put his fork down and finished off his hot chocolate. "Well, that's good," he said, wiping his mouth. He gave her a side-long glance. "I'm satisfied and content now, if you're wondering."

Tomorrow he'd go and find a library, and see what he could find out about autism, and how to avoid seeming like he had it. Probably. If he remembered.

"I just don't understand how other people think sometimes. Can't predict their behaviour. I can make a pretty good guess as to how they feel, but how they react to feeling that way doesn't always make sense." He shrugged.

"Oh honey, people are pretty crazy." she told him. "There's a whole lot of times I don't get how people think either. Or, certain people, anyways." What with the way some people seemed to fly right off the deep end on shit and make the world's lousiest decisions. "Though I guess predicting behavior gets easier if you get to know people well. Then you can really gauge how they might react to things. Or, that's how it works with me, anyhow. I can't say that I personally always make the most stellar decisions or react the best way possible. But then I don't think anyone can make that claim." She stole another nibble of pie.

Nemo considered that for a moment. "So what you're saying is it's not me, it's everybody else not acting the way they should? ...That makes me feel better about it all." He nodded enthusiastically, smiling at her. The news was more of a confirmation of what he'd known all along than a revelation, but it was still welcome. "Whew, I'm stuffed," he added, looking at their mostly empty plates.

She laughed a little, smiling at him in return. He kind of lit up when he smiled like that, she noticed. "Yeah, I am too. Think we should get ourselves to a hotel, and such?" she asked. "I saw one a street over. Nice place. I'm thinking I want a cool view of the lake and stuff. Plus I promised to get you a room too, so want to head?" she asked, nodding for the check, and she glanced at it, digging her wallet out. She paid for it, and slid Nemo's twenty back in his direction. "All paid for." she told him.

"Thankyou," he replied, pocketing the money. "And yeah, a warm bed sounds real good right about now. I don't really mind what the view looks like." He stood up from the counter and pulled his coat back on. Maybe he could find a Goodwill or something to get some clean clothes, since he still had the twenty. Washing his shirt in the sink was possible, but getting it dry again could be problematic.

"You'e welcome." Kayos said warmly, standing up as well and she pulled her mittens back on. "So, let's head'er. Off to the hotel I passed on the way here! I'll give you my number too, if you want it." she told him as they headed for the door. "Just in case you need me for something sometime." She liked to give people ways of getting ahold of her. It was just the way to go, as far as she was concerned.

"Sure," he replied with a grin. He had a feeling he'd fallen on his feet here. Leaning forwards, he opened the door for her and motioned for her to lead through. "I think I have some paper to write it down on, though I guess the hotel will have notepads if I don't..." He made a show of patting his pockets, finally coming up with a napkin from the diner.

She laughed a bit, then dug in her own pockets, pulling out a little pen and pad. she wrote down her number and handed it to him. "There you go." she said. "If you ever need anything, just call. I'll see what I can do." she promised. Then she started walking in the direction of the hotel. "It's always good to have someone you can look to in a pinch."

"That's true," he said, bouncing after her. He looked around himself curiously. "Do you know what shops there are around here? Have you spotted anywhere to pick up cheap clothes yet?" With a disarming grin, he added "I usually travel pretty light and hit up the local second hand stores when I get to a new place. Saves on looking for laundry places out in the boonies." And carrying around anything other than the bare essentials when travelling in feline form.

"Haven't been here longer than you, remember?" Kayos said. "But I'm sure there's second hand shops around somewhere. Maybe someone at the hotel can direct you." she suggested. "I mean, I didn't see any leaping out at me on the way around town or anything, but they likely exist somewhere!" she said brightly. And he still had his twenty bucks, he'd likely be able to afford a few outfits with that.

Nemo nodded. "Asking at the hotel is a good idea, I'll do that. Washing my shirts out in the bathtub isn't usually much fun." He shrugged. "I thought you'd been here a few hours longer than me; my bad." A pair of slacks or two, a couple of shirts and another sweater would be welcome if he was staying here a while. So he had something to wear while laundering the others. Stripping down to his underwear in the launderette had worked in the past, but it was a little cold here for stunts like that.

She laughed a little. "Maybe I have been, but I haven't got the whole place mapped out in my brain quite yet." she said with a grin. "I'll attempt to remedy that, just for you. And I figure there's laundromats around too, so you probably won't have to wash your clothes in the tub. The hotel might have a laundry service, actually. If it does, tell them to put it on your tab." she offered. She pointed up ahead. "And that's us right there." she told him.

"On my tab," he echoed with a grin. "Looks like a nice place. More upmarket than I'm used to... I usually have to sleep with someone to stay somewhere this posh." Not that he necessarily minded such things. "It's nice of you to pay for me, thankyou." He wondered if room service could also go on the tab, or if that might be pushing his luck. Kayos seemed to be worth keeping happy.

"It's no problem." Kayos said genuinely. "I've got the money. I like helping people out, it's all good." she added. Which really was true. When cash became something that wasn't the only thing accepted places, people like her had such an easy time just moving funds around. When money was electronically taken care of, and you had an electronic familiar and happened to be a hacker...yeppers, Kayos had the money.

"I'm glad I met you then," Nemo replied, grinning at her. "Seems like today is my lucky day." He still wasn't completely convinced that she didn't want something in return, but he'd deal with that when it came up. It might be something minor, or even pleasant. If it was bad he could always quietly vanish, leaving some pawprints in the snow.