[ Spoiler ]
@Waywalker, I think Con will be more appropriate than Etiquette, but anyway, it does not matter that much here...
Realizing her "faux pas", the old lady face suddenly turned to panic mode. It took all of Waywalker composure to keeps his own face straight as her were flushed, become redder than a tomato. She turned to her husband for the support, but the old man, grinning slightly, fainted to look somewhere else, with a stern expression on his face clearly stating to her - "this is a mess of your own making. Deal with it."
"Ohh, I'm so sorry, sir...We ... We should have mention we were, here... We should have, right, Henri ?"The old man, still grinning, did not even gave his wife a sentence, but just a nod. Still quite embarrassed, the old lady then bend toward dog, to pet it, trying to rewrite the history of her snarky comment.
"Ohh, what a lovely and good doggy..."As her nose got closed to the dog, the smell suddenly struck her. Rex did spent time cleaning up the dog, but there a physical limit on how much one can clean or remove when an animal has lived in the wild for weeks. Just to say that the dog, while looking cleaned up, had still a certain ... stench to it, if you got to close to it.
The old lady, feeling suddenly nauseous, straight herself back, and stopped talking - clearly afraid of puking. Henri her husband looked toward Waywalker and winked at him. The old man had not bought Waywalker's bullshit, but obviously appreciated it. Waywalker turned his face away from her, as he too, could not refrain to smile.
In the meantime, in the nearby astral space, Rex's projected self rushed toward the astral barrier surrounding the fancy restaurant and attempt to push through it...
[ Spoiler ]
... and that was a close call! Rex felt, for an instant, that the barrier was going to push him back, but fortunately, he managed to pass his entire astral form before this happens. Shaking his (astral) head, he paused for a moment, before noticing the dark, almost invisible shape of the elevator cage moving in front of him. He flied right back into it, to rejoin the familiar astral form of his partner.
The elevator cabin arrived at a restaurant barely seconds after Waywalker pulled his little stun on the old woman. A very fancy "maitre d'" was waiting at the door to place them. The old couple were obviously used to come here often as he said right way: "Ah, Monsieur and Madame de la Rochefoucauld! C'est un plaisir de vous revoir". Waiving to Waywalker, quite rudely, to stay there, he placed them first before coming back, with a stern expression on his face.
"Well, Sir, do you happen to have a reservation ? And I hope you know, we don't service pet here..." - the maitre d' was clearly dubious that Waywalker belonged here. However, the minute he mentioned the lawyer's name, he is all body expression to warmness and deference.
"Oh, but, of course my good Sir. Let me take you there right away". Gesturing to a young, but very well dressed, waitress, he said:
"Giselle, go fetch some water for the poor creature here. And maybe some leftover."Apparently, Rex's stunt double status has been upgraded to "guest of honor". Corbitt's lawyer had some pull around here.
Following the waiter, Waywalker arrived at the very end of the restaurant, a nice little table, just next to the window, with an unforgettable view on Paris skyline. The rigger has never seen so perfectly the city of light's Aztechnology pyramid. The lawyer was already at the table reading a printed newspaper and wearing a very nice, but some what old fashioned. Waywalker knew there was still some people getting newspapers in their printed format, but he never had seen one, so the most surprising thing to him was the noise it made when the man fold it and put it away.
The lawyer, a french man in his early 60's, looked perfectly the part. A tall, slim man, with receding hairline, and a (too much) honest face. As the rigger arrived at the table, the man stood up to greet him.
"Ah, Monsieur Waywalker I assume ? What a pleasure to finally meet you. Please, please, be seated. Is you partner on the way ?" - looking at the dog, he continued, " or should I assume he is already here ?"After Waywalker replied and got seated, the man jump straight into it.
"I took the liberty to order my favor dish for you to try, so we can directly jump into it. What did you learn and where are you in Mr Corbitt mysterious investigation?"