Caritas, Saturday Evening

[newroutines]

It was a pretty ordinary night at Caritas. The band was playing some random Pink Floyd-y medley, Tino was being sulky over in a corner, and Mike was behind the counter doodling in a notebook.

He couldn't spend all evening cleaning glasses, you know. It was just a smart move to use some of his work hours on... well, his other work.

[ooc: Open, no ocd! Because I'm lazy. Come drink anyway.]

Comments

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal looked around as he came in, then spotted Mike and came over. "Mr. Lane?"

[newroutines]

"Mr. Lecter?"

Well, Mike only had reason to expect one person he didn't didn't recognize by face to come in and call him by name. He straightened up some.

"Hello! And, uh, welcome to Caritas."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Doctor," Hannibal corrected. "Thank you. Have you got the time to discuss the habitat?" He didn't seem busy, but Hannibal preferred not to assume.

[newroutines]

"Doctor, right." Mike didn't look sheepish but there was some small sliver of discomfort to him there, before he pushed it aside. (Goddammit, he'd even made a mental note of it when he'd listened to the voicemail. He suddenly felt like he should've worn his glasses for this, or something. To look more... pro, somehow.) "Sure, I've got time. Looking like it's gonna be another quiet night around here, anyway."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Excellent." Hannibal nodded and pulled out a folder of pictures. "I've done a bit of research, but I'm open to suggestions as well. I had in mind a paludarium - we've only the frog at the moment, but that would leave it open for fish as well, and be more visually appealing."

He gestured to the ones he'd found so far. "Many of them seem to consist of simple glass tanks, leaving the decorative aspects to the contents. I thought it might be interesting to make the tank a part of the feature as well."

[newroutines]

Mike leaned against the bar, looking over the reference pictures. "So, is there like a particular style you're going for? Like, I dunno where you're thinking of putting this thing, but is it like a room that already has its own thing happening? Or... do you want to like, plop the new habitat in there and then build around that?"

[sharp_as_knives]

"I tend to favor ornate," Hannibal said, "but Jono does not. There is no particular theme in the existing room. I was imagining something to make it look as though the branches and rocks in the tank were forming the outside as well, to blur the edges as it were."

[newroutines]

Mike was nodding along. Even had the presence of mind to jot a few bullet points' worth of things in his notebook. "To make it look a little funky that it doesn't look so much like a tank? Cool. I can dig that. Haven't worked a ton with that kind of thing before, but I definitely think it's doable."

[ooc: Jeez I am the slowest of the slow. Apologies!]

[sharp_as_knives]

"Precisely," Hannibal agreed. He waved off Mike's claim to inexperience. "Feel free to learn and adjust as you go, so long as you don't mind my input. The only thing it needs to do from the start is not leak."


[No worries! :) SP is always good.]

[newroutines]

Mike huffed out a laugh. "No, yeah, I'll accept all the input you wanna give," he assured Hannibal, looking up. "I mean, the business is Custom Designs. I'm all about customer satisfaction."

Funnily enough, that had always been the case, his previous career included.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Very good." Hannibal nodded. "Perhaps you could come up with a few ideas, and we can begin from there? You can visit if you'd like to see the room."

[newroutines]

"That'd probably be a good idea," Mike nodded. "Also I'm gonna obviously need the exact measurements before I start work, too. But I can get started on throwing around some ideas before either, definitely."

He was going to look into the materials he already had back at the mansion, for one thing. Because he had a bunch.

[sharp_as_knives]

"Wonderful." Hannibal took his card and attached it to the papers before sliding them across the bar to Mike.

"I'm available at least part of most days; let me know a time that works for you, and you can see the room and take any measurements you like." He smiled. "I'll even offer you lunch or dinner."