Mostyn finishes his cup of tea, and scribbles down a few more observations in his notebook. He looks around, and then leans over towards Roxiel's table. "I apologize if I'm interrupting, but...would it be a terrible imposition if I asked you a few questions related to a research project I'm working on?"

Roxiel flashes that smile again...wow, that's bright...and her eyes flits over him. Then she flourishes to the chair across from her. "Please?"

Mostyn moves over to sit in front of Roxiel, bringing his empty teacup with him. His notebook snaps open on the table, a pen appearing in one hand as he offers a polite smile. "Would I be correct in assuming that you'd consider yourself fond of coffee?"

Roxiel chuckles, a low sound. "Quite."

Mostyn flips to another page. "Marvelous! You see, I'm looking into the matter of the perfect cup of coffee. However, not being much of a connoisseur of the beverage myself, I can't readily identify the aspects of coffee that exemplify its true nature. So what would you call the true nature of the ideal cup of coffee?"

Roxiel purses her lips, eyes going up and to the left. "Welllll......that depends on what you want. Alhambran coffee is full of aroma, flavour, and warmth. Begman coffee, on the other hand, is full of scalding heat, perkiness, and you almost have to chew it." Her eyes snap back down to look at Mostyn. They're lit with a touch of mischief. "It all depends on what you're in the mood for, really."

Mostyn smiles faintly, as he writes. "Perhaps there is no single ideal of coffee, though I would settle for one of many. Can you tell me more about Begman coffee? I've asked about Alhambran coffee before."

Roxiel nods. "That's the problem with coffee. It'd be hard to put it all together in one cup...although I suppose you could make Alhambran coffee taffy, which would incorporate the chewiness of Begman coffee...but then Begman coffee is black as night, and bitter, and slaps you awake as it assaults your senses..."

Mostyn looks dubious as he writes. "And being metaphorically assaulted by a beverage is considered a positive attribute?"

Roxiel grins. Perhaps a bit too widely. "It's all in the approach. Begman coffee is designed for alertness and productivity. Alhambran for relaxation."

Mostyn makes a note of this as well. "Is Alhambran coffee adjusted such that it doesn't keep people awake at night?"

Roxiel purses her lips again, looks off to the right. "Good question. I don't....know." She looks back, apologetic this time. "I don't sleep much."


Mostyn shrugs with a faint smile. "Well, it was worth asking. I hope I'm not bothering you too much with all of this... It's just that, well, how can one resist the chance to create the perfect cup of coffee?"

Roxiel's smile has not been anything resembly faint this evening. "Oh, not at all! Perfection is an admirable goal! Always aim PAST the finish line, my track matron used to say at St. Thymes!"

Mostyn sits up straighter. "St. Thymes? Is that in Begma, by any chance?"

Roxiel's grin widens. That might scare some. "Some would say it is the REASON for Begma."

Mostyn flips to a different page in his notebook. "I've only been to Begma a few times, but I /do/ like the place. It's sort of nation that really understands and appreciates the utility of peer-reviewed journals for various scientific disciplines, I've always thought."

Roxiel's posture was relatively straight to begin with, but she manages to raise another inch or so. "Oh, yes! Quite. Take away that, and you might as well take away the air, there!"

Mostyn nods quickly. "I really do wish more places were like Begma, in that regard. Too many nations fail to understand the real power of properly filed forms and paperwork." His hand brushes across a folded set of papers in one coat pocket.

Roxiel says, "Most of them, in fact. If Kitezh wasn't so damned FUN, it'd be a dismal place!"

Mostyn says, "I wouldn't characterize my one trip to Kitezh as one of /fun/, but it is a nation with certain aspects to recommend itself as well, if not very paperwork-based ones." He blinks, and looks down into his teacup. "And I appear to have wandered entirely off the topic of coffee."

Roxiel waves a hand, idly. "I have that affect on people. Conversations ramble. Technically, it's not efficient, but it's like sifting for gold, you never know where things are going to wind up, what floats through the chaff."

Mostyn says as if it's an apology, "I try for conversationally efficiency, but somehow I never quite manage to achieve it. I did try to graph out some tendencies in an attempt to counteract them, but all I ended up with were very pretty charts about word frequency and the nature of explanatory clauses to add to conversational drift."

Roxiel bats her eyelashes a few times...or maybe she's just blinking as she processes. Then the grin appears again, quite wide. "You're cute," she says, apparently quite serious and up front about it, as if stating that chocolate is an excellent choice for dessert.

Mostyn's ears turn pink. "...uh. Thank you?" He peers studiously into his notebook. "You've been very helpful with the matter of coffee. It's the best explanation of the quintessential nature of Begman coffee that I've received yet."

Roxiel has slumped slightly with the handwave, as one often does, but now perks back up in that overly-friendly way some people take a compliment. "Well, I aim past the finish line! I'm Roxy Lovelace, by the way...."