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Nenet gives a nod at Zev's promise to text her, and then promptly places him out of her mind. It's some hours later, the staff in the food court eyeing her somewhat suspiciously, before she finally gathers up all of her scratch paper. Tidying it into a neat pile, her next stop is the Observatory, during which she re-attunes her observation equipment for the new calculations and sets them on their way.
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She's standing in the kitchen finishing off her dinner over the sink when her phone buzzes. Rinsing her hands and then getting herself a glass of water, she sips at her drink while unlocking her phone. Her eyebrow arches, suddenly remembering Zev promised to text later in the evening, and then a playful smile touches her lips.
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Checking the current time - not too late, really - she replies with the following:
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Nenet places her glass in the kitchen sink before sauntering off to unlock the front door.

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Nenet does not answer until she has finished her present line of thinking, and what could pass for an uncomfortable silence of a good 10 seconds fills the air before she finally looks up. She blinks once, glancing from his mostly empty to plate, to his phone, and then finally seems to parse the words he's spoken.
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"Oh," she murmurs. Then, seeming a touch relieved of all things, "More than, good luck with the contract." She tacks on, just barely refraining from going back to her equations, "Let's try again sometime."
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Whether lunch or something else is rather ambiguous, but she nonetheless flashes Zev a warm smile and then ducks her head back down to continue rapidly explaining the steps in the impending test she intends to run with a telescope.

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Taking absent bites of her sushi as she continues to scrawl out equations, Nenet's eyes narrow subtly all of a sudden. She pages between her work, beginning to compare one set of equations to another before pulling out an fresh sheet of paper to continue on her current train of thought.
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Somewhere, quite distant to her attention, she hears the buzz of an email; it isn't hers as it doesn't set off her near-Pavlovian response to check her phone.
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"Hmm? It's fine," Nenet mumbles, her hand absently waving towards Zev as if to dismiss the idea of her being upset. She taps her chopsticks against her last piece of sushi as she writes out an entirely new equation, a pleased hum sounding from her throat at this apparent line of thinking.

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With a little wave of her hand, Nenet assures Zev with, "Not really. Give them some colourful pictures and something hands-on to play with and they're usually pretty invested. We keep a model here that lets them move the Pokémon around and the water levels react to the positioning." She chuckles, the sound mirthful and low. "Usually we're breaking up fights more than anything."
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Setting her tray down as they take a seat, her head tilts as she listens to Zev. "It's a good job getting dunked for publicity then," she teases lowly. As she speaks, she pulls out the set of balsa wood chopsticks provided and snaps them apart.
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Her lips then purse thoughtfully, her gaze flicking towards the window, and thus the dome beyond. "Well," she murmurs, the lull before the storm. Pouring out a bit of soy sauce onto a dish, she launches into an entirely too invested, technically detailed explanation about velocity, trajectory, and acceleration with what she likely considers deeply interesting tidbits such as colour output, size, and comparisons between the meteoroid and Minior she studies.
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It is either a vastly engaging or vastly dry one-sided discussion, depending on your point of view. By the time she has finished, three sheets of paper have been pulled from her briefcase to illustrate her points, each laden with mathematical equations, graphs, and illustrated figures.

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Shuffling her notes into a neat and tidy stack, Nenet looks up at the sound of a familiar voice, a slow smile curling over her lips at the sight of Zev. "Hey," she greets in turn. "They were mostly interested in the influence of Solrock and Lunetone migrations and how they influence the tides," she asserts, a playful wink offered.
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"Mostly."
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She stashes the rest of her papers into an unassuming briefcase and snaps the locks closed. With a little nod to herself she then announces, "Let's get lunch."
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It isn't a question of asking Zev where they are going, so much as Nenet leads them through the museum to a rather whimsical food stall selling pokemon-themed dishes - she orders the Gyarados dragon rolls. Fishing through her purse for her wallet to pay, Nenet asks conversationally, "How's the bar?"

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"Sure," Nenet replies, her hand slipped away. Golden eyes scour over Caleb's face momentarily, as if attempting to find some bit of Zev in the younger man's features. "Something like an astronomer." Maybe this is why Zev never spoke of the man.
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She then makes an absent little motion with her hand, laughing as she does so. "Oh, you know. At a bar." Snorting, she adds with deep sarcasm as her gaze cuts over to Zev, "It was very romantic." It wasn't, but Caleb certainly doesn't need to know the details of their continued hook-ups until they settled into something resembling a routine and relationship.
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For emphasis, her hand reaches out and she lightly pats Zev's face. "I'm getting that drink," she informs the pair. "You're either with me, or against me." Winking, she then turns towards the bar in question to retrieve another glass of champagne.

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COLOGNE:

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ORDER DETAILS: A robust bottle of black glass with sleek and elegant lines, slender font print in silver announces this cologne to be none other than Pour Un Homme de CARON Le Soir. Breaking the seal allows the bold scent of oakwood extract mingled with sensual lavender tones to filter upon the air; sweeter notes of tonka bean and spicy frankincense complete the fragrance, one well known to its recipient. [break][break]
TO: Zev Harcourt[break][break]
CARD: "See you tonight, Zev."

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"I - alright then." Her expression somewhat masked as her hand is taken to kiss instead of shaken, Nenet hums a bewildered note at the action.
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"Caleb," she then repeats, her eyebrow clearly arched with curiosity beneath her mask as she glances over her shoulder to Zev. Her date's confirmation of his relationship to this unknown man is somewhat surprising, though not wholly. If Nenet is being honest, she only sort-of remembers Zev mentioning his family, once, when he happened upon her Minior studies some months ago.
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Truth be told she thought Zev's family were all dead. Maybe she ought to start paying more attention to their personal conversations.
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Nonetheless, Nenet flashes a barely-there smile. "What sort of service," she asks. Her timbre takes on a teasing tone when she asserts hopefully, "Are you in the business of telescope acquisition?"

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Her gait barely discernable as unsteady to the untrained eye, it's readily apparent to her date that Nenet is well-past tipsy and fully into drunk territory; she uses Zev to stabilize her, her arm laced with his. At the question posed she hums in turn, her golden eyes bright.
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"It's very stifling," she confirms, her timbre low and accent heavy. Her hands lifting, she curls her fingers into Zev's tie and tugs him forwards, his phone momentarily batted out of the way. Satisfied he's finally close enough, her nose lightly brushes against his before a decidedly unchaste kiss is pressed to his lips.
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Nenet then reaches over to tap the screen, calling the taxi to their location.
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"You should have brought something to teleport," she scolds him languidly, her arms haphazardly wrapping around Zev's shoulders as she speaks. Allowing her voice to drop to nary a whisper, she murmurs something in Zev's ear before she leans back and arches an eyebrow, her expression one of challenge.
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It's only a few moments before the swirl of air is the first indicator of their approaching taxi, and the pair are soon secreted away into its depths to return home.

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"Mm, I suppose you're right," Nenet muses, her gaze casting downwards to Zev's pocket where the pokeballs are. "I bet later tonight we can find space in one of the gardens for her to play fetch and dig up some rosebushes," the woman teases lowly, a low chuckle spilling from her throat.

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She stops all of a sudden when they are accosted by Caleb Harcourt, her eyes blinking rapidly in surprise. Brow arching at Zev's suggestion she introduce herself, she casts him a demandingly curious look that he will be explaining himself one way or another tonight before she returns her attention back to Caleb.

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"Neffatari Nzingha, Astrobiologist and Senior Astronomical Observer of Mossdeep Observatory." There's an authority to her voice, her golden gaze fixated upon Caleb with an air of self-assurance few possess. As she speaks she offers her hand to the unknown man, her timbre lilting as she asks pointedly, "And you are?"

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Her golden eyes bright as she eyed the surrounding exhibits, Nenet slips her hand through Zev's arm when he rejoins her; she casts a momentarily curious glance to his newly acquired drink before her attention is once more held by the extraterrestrial rocks.
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There's a subtly devious look in her gaze at Zev's question, and as her eyes never leave the samples, she admits, "No, not yet." Leaning nearer, she whispers playfully into Zev's ear, "Do you think I could steal one when no one's looking?" Her eyebrow arches with her words, and something swims deep behind her eyes that hints her joke is only moments away from being carried out.
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Thankfully - or perhaps sadly, depending on the point of view - the call for dinner is announced. Reluctantly Nenet peels herself away from the nearest exhibit, something akin to a pout touching her lips before her eyes brighten with mischief.
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"Let's go sit with your brother," she all but demands.
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