Sharing of Logic

Talon took several sips from his butterbeer as he listened to Michael begin to talk about dragons, taking several mental notes about to who to talk to should he want a dragon. George Weasley? He had heard the name before, but when he kept trying to think about it, it only caused to draw a blank from the back of his mind. He set his mug down and said "I'm not sure a pygmy puff would be good for a guy like me, although they do sound interesting. Maybe I'll talk to her once I get a woman in my life or something." Talon's love life though wasn't exactly an on-rails sorta thing though, and he knew it would take a lot of work before he got anywhere near that travesty.

Talon raised a brow as Michael began to talk about his...coat rack? He would've been surprised, but Michael already had several footstools that behaved like cocker spaniels in front of him. At this point, he wouldn't be surprised if his toaster thought his name was 'Tim' and had a thirst for human blood. "Your coat rack?" Talon inquired "sounds like a lovely...decoration." Granted, now he wanted to see this coat rack, but he would need to remember to keep his hat on him at all times around his place. "How does a coat rack play poker?" Talon chuckled "although his poker face must be really solid!"

Talon was curious about Michael's friend. Was he as...different as Michael here? Judging by how Michael had been reacted, interesting things must've been following him around for a while now. "Yeah, it's always good to make a new friend!" Talon said with a smile, downing the last of his butterbeer. It had been too long since he had one of those beverages, and it felt good to get out of his studying routines every now and then.

"Oh, you're not thinking, Lad," Michael laughed. "You're forgetting how much ladies like sensitivity and how they fawn over things they can nurture. You get yourself a pygmy puff that is as cute as a bug's ear, and you'll end up with girls hanging off of you. Think, Son."

"My coat rack. I call him Snidely. I don't know why, but he seems to like it. He plays poker like a madman. and gin rummy. I'm working on teaching him to play euchre--him and the two captains chairs from the dining room table. I frequently lose because of that whole poker face issue. Or I used to. It seems that as much as my poker face works with other humans, the furniture seems to be able to read my language better than I can read them."

"Mikey!" he heard a voice behind him. A familiar voice. Michael's face broke into a grin.

"Ah, and here he comes after all," Michael grinned at Talon. He turned to see Robert Lupin coming up to the table. "You're late!"

"So I am," Robert said. "Tom! How about a pint of stout?" The bartender nodded and went to pull the pint for him. Robert joined a place at the table.

"Talon," Michael said. "I'd like you to meet my best friend on the face of this earth--This is Robert Lupin. Robert, my new friend, Talon Marlowe."

"Talon--nice to meet you," Robert smiled, extending a hand to Talon. "Any friend of Michael's is a friend of mine."

Talon took a moment to reflect at what Michael said, and realized how backwards he was about it. What he said made sense, and Talon was one to go with what made sense. "I haven't been successful with women yet," he said, knowing that was partially a lie "rather, I haven't had a committed relationship. I figure it's not the end of the world for someone my age though." With the explanation of the coat rack, and other pieces of furniture that apparently was sentient, Talon remarked "I think you have one of those houses they would use for a set on 'Beauty and the Beast' or something."

Talon turned when he heard Michael's name being called, possibly a sign that it was his friend who had been held up. He noticed that the two must've been good friends, and Talon smiled to know that he was in good company. He hadn't had an outing like this before...well, not in a while at least. As the man sat down, Talon smiled brightly, trying to give a good first impression. He learned that the man's name was Robert Lupin, and seemed to be of the same type of group Michael was associated in. When Robert extended his hand, Talon returned the gesture saying "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"I hadn't considered that," Michael laughed when Talon said it could be used as a movie set. "But I suppose they could have used it for that. I wasn't thinking I was going to want to live in a place where everything thinks for itself. Honestly, the only thing I was used to having that did that was my rope. I have a rope that does that, but I had that before I rented the house. I was going to undo the spell that had gone wrong, but then I started to like the company. "

When Robert joined them and had been introduced to Talon he said. "My apologies for beiing late," Robert said. "Have you ordered?"

"No, not yet. Talon, you will join us for some fish and chips, right?" Michael asked.

"Your pint, Minister," Tom said, delivering Robert his pint of beer.

"Three orders of fish and chips, please," Robert said.

"On the Ministry account or your personal account?" Tom asked.

"Personal," Robert said. Tom nodded and left. Robert looked at the puppies still playing on the pub table. One of them took the end of Robert's tie in his teeth and began to tug on it. "Hey, You," Robert laughed. He took out a small notebook out of his pocket and took out a satin ribbon bookmark and laid it on the table. "Here. Somebody play with him. He cannot eat my suit. Talon, you look like a reasonable young man. How on earth did you get mixed up with such a happy little oddball like Michael here?"

"Well at least you did get the happy part right," Michael laughed.

Talon nodded and said "Sure, that sounds great." As Talon listened to Robert order, two words piqued Talon's interest. Ministry and Minister. Was this guy the Minister of Magic? "Pardon me," he said trying to sound polite "but are you the Minister of Magic?" if so, this was a first for Talon. He had never actually met anyone of importance within the system until today. When Robert asked his question, Talon shrugged and said "Well I was just studying over there and I heard barking coming from Michael's messenger bag, so I just had to ask." It was funny how he came here to study and it all led to him possibly meeting the Minister of Magic. "If you don't mind me asking of course, how did you two end up meeting?"

When Talon asked the questions, Tom had returned with their food, Talon thanking him politely as he set the plate onto the table. Taking one bite from the fish, he realized it was really good! He himself had never browsed most pubs here in London, but he had to admit, this was the best fish he ever tasted. "Wow, these are really good," he said, taking another bite from the fish.

"I am," Robert laughed. "One responsibility of many. MIchael, put the puppies away before they eat our fish and chips."

"Oh. Forgot. Sorry. Hiss, round up the puppies, please," he called into the bag. The end of climbing rope slithered slowly out of the bag.

"Hello, Hiss," Robert smiled. The end of the rope seemed to wave at Robert, paused as if it were eyeing Talon and then looked at Michael. "He's a friend," Robert reassured the rope. The rope proceeded to curl around each puppy gently one at a time and place them back in the bag. "Thank you, Hiss," Robert said. He returned his attentions to Talon and his question. "How did we meet? We were in Gryffindor together back in the day. We met as first years because our beds were side by side upstairs off the common room. I suppose we sort of grew up together."

When the fish arrived, Robert sprinkled malt vinegar over the fish and the chips and picked up a piece of fish. "They've got the best fish and chips in Diagon Alley," Robert said. "If I want to treat myself, I come here for lunch especially for the fish and chips.

Talon had been eating a little bit more of his fish when he first noticed Hiss, the rope that was alive. At this point however, he wasn't even surprised, if not more curious about to what other things Michael had around with him. Talon himself wondered how a home invasion would go if he invaded Michael's home. He figured the objects themselves would ban together and throw the guy out of the house- perfect security system too! "Hello Hiss," Talon smiled, watching the rope begin to curl around the pups and pull them back into the back. "I never get tired of seeing stuff like that," he remarked.

Gryffindors? It was almost obvious that they had been, yet it was a nice surprise, considering most of the people he met had been Hufflepuffs or even Ravenclaws. Talon continued to eat more of his fish and said after swallowing "I gotta come here more often. This fish is sublime." He had to find a recipe like this one later on in life so he could make it for himself at some point.

The rope seemed to look at Talon and when Robert explained that Talon was a friend, the rope waved at Talon.

"He likes you," Robert laughed. "Hiss has been with Michael a long time. Since....when was that, MIchael?"

"Since Bangladesh," Michael said. "Hiss was a gift from a friend many years ago when my friend passed away."

"If you like that sort of thing," Robert said, "then you just need to hang around Michael a bit. He's got more than a wee bit of it...."

"You see that?" Michael said in a low voice. He gave a slight head nod to a pair of teens at the bar who seemed to be working in tandem to pickpocket an old wizard who had had a couple of drinks. The old wizard was clearly not wealthy in the first place. "Excuse me," Michael said, getting up. He walked up to the young men and laid one hand on each of the boys' shoulders, with such an iron grip they both winced. Robert gave a slight glance to Michael and decided there were times he just didn't need to know what Michael was doing.

Michael whispered something into each boy's ear. They each looked at him as if their eyes were going to roll out of their heads. He withdrew his hands off their shoulders. He watched the boys slowly return the man's meager belongings to him. The old wizard was eternally grateful and shook Michael's hand vigorously in gratitude. Michael dismissed the boys who went running out of the pub. Michael returned to the table and sat down.

"Why didn't you get their names?" Robert asked unhappily.

"Because they'll be back," Michael laughed. He opened his jacket and laid two wands on the pub table and two wallets and two, well, muggle cell phones.

"And contraband too?" Robert laughed. "They never saw you coming, did they? I think I'll keep those phones."

"Wait for it," MIchael laughed. "The best is yet to come. Wait till they have to justify to the Minister of Magic how it is that they have muggle cell phones when muggle devices are forbidden." Robert looked at Talon and smiled.

"Michael is a man of many talents," Robert said simply.

[OoC: Sorry about the wait, had some problems around the house.]

Talon only sat in utter bewilderment as the last minute passed. Michael had stopped a theft in progress, and then stole their things? Obviously, Talon's first impressions as to who Michael was in the beginning was definitely shifting towards a little bit more of a shady past now. There was something they weren't telling Talon, but maybe it was just because he hadn't asked. "Okay, umm...what just happened?" Talon asked, the subtle bewilderment in his tone "How did you manage to do that?". Michael was definitely good if he could steal so many things in just one sitting like that, and frankly Talon admired that. He himself had taken a couple of things in the past, but if he tried anything like what Michael had just done, he would've been arrested long ago.

Going back onto the subject of the kids though, Talon said "Do you happen to know those guys? I haven't seen them around." It wasn't a possibility for muggles to get into the Leaky Cauldron, since it appeared to be a broken down shop on the outside, so chances were they had to have gone to Hogwarts. Maybe they were Slytherins or something since they liked doing stuff like this. Then again, Talon was almost exactly like that and managed to get into Ravenclaw.

"Well," Robert said, "Michael works for me, on a mission by mission basis. He handles rather sensitive matters of intelligence..."

"Stop the bullcrap, Robert," Michael laughed. "Don't cover for me. I am who I am." He looked at Talon. "I"m a professional catburglar. I don't steal for myself. Not typically. I work for the ministry when I'm needed."

"Just like Robin Hood," Robert laughed, taking a drink of his pint. Michael rolled his eyes at that. He didn't see himself as anything near the Robin Hood type.

"At any rate," Michael said. "Those young men are most likely either Slytherins or Ravenclaws. Depends on what their true motivation is, and I didn't take the time to find out. However, that old man didn't have the cash to be pilfered by them. They were both from wealthy homes. I saw their clothes and their jewelry. He barely had the cash to pay for the pint he bought. And--they're already breaking wizarding law and risking the safety of our world by having muggle cell phones. Wizards are forbidden to use muggle technology because devices like cell phones allow muggles to trace the owner's whereabouts. It makes it massively more dangerous for all of us when someone is stupid enough to own one. It has the potential of leading muggles right to us. And those are top of the line cell phones. They're not cheap. Those lads have to have access to not only wizard monies but either muggle cash or some connection to get their galleons exchanged for pounds. And that still isn't cheap."

"Bottom line is that Michael and I don't approve of spoiled little rich kids shaking down poor elderly people," Robert said. "But..thats not to say that there aren't times when you dont' have to take back what's yours. Or to take something to help protect the greater good. That's a different thing, as far as I can see it. Now--have we confused you?"