tampered | Log: Complete

He didn't have to, saying that he'd been Warden was enough to make Tosh look impressed. She had a respect for government and military that came from both her upbringing and her work.

"Really? What was it like? Challenging, I'd suppose, in a place like this."

She smiled brightly when the food was placed on the table, nodding quickly in agreement. "Smells delicious. Thank you again, for asking me here. It's fantastic."

"Like you wouldn't believe," Charming laughed again. "You see Commander Vimes and I were tied during election, so we both managed the position. Unfortunately the City gave him the boot back to his homeworld--"

When he understood how possibly suspicious that sounded, Charming paused in his meal eating.

"And I do mean that in all serious. His portrait appeared in the Hall of the Missing. That's how we knew he was gone for good. I held the position alone after that," nodded the prince.

It was probably not a good thing that Tosh hadn't even thought about there being a suspicious angle to the story until Charming brought it up. He did her a favor, though, by reminding her that she needed to be more wary.

"The Hall of the Missing? Does everyone who leaves the City for good have their picture appear there?"

She leaned forward, looking quite intent. It could be a way for her to be sure Owen was still around.

He nodded while eating, then set his setting down to sip his wine.

"Yes, the Hall of the Missing. Well that's the theory. Many people who've left and returned to their homeworlds have appeared there, but some others haven't. It's not one hundred percent accurate," Charming shook his head. Toshiko had to like numbers, he presumed. "However, a friend of ours is there after we specifically attempted to send him back. He followed Vincent's trail," he said seriously.

Both Mowgli and Bigby Wolf were there. Bigby's return to Fabletown was a ray of hope for them all. They wouldn't be able to stand up to the Adversary without him, but they likely couldn't do that without Charming, Blue, and Ambrose either.

The Hall of the Missing just got moved up to the top of Tosh's list of places to visit, asap.

She did indeed prefer numbers over vague descriptions, and nodded appreciatively for Charming's attention to that detail in his explanation. "So if a person had been sent home, their picture's relatively likely to be there, but if they're just lost somewhere in the City, it wouldn't be."

Owen would be happier back at home, she thought, even if she'd be happier to have him stay with the rest of them. But it would be a relief to know one way or the other.

"That's right," he smiled, "it's a high probability in any case."

Tosh nodded again, then settled back into her chair, and picked up her wine glass.

"Sorry, didn't mean to give you the third degree, there. You were telling me about the challenges of being Warden?"

"Think nothing of it, Toshiko," he said in a cool manner. Yes he was thinking of making her repay the gesture elsewhere--ahem, Charming hoped she wasn't a mindreader.

"Oh you must've read the network posts. Governance in a lawless city and all its ilk," said the brunette while swirling his wine. He sipped again then smiled. "It's also less exciting than hunting aliens, I imagine."

Not except for that one time with Mary's alien pendant, she wasn't. Although she wasn't exactly harboring any delusions about Charming's intentions, either.

"Oh, I don't know. I've seen some of the folks living here, I bet they can get up to some real mischief. Although...hunting aliens does have its exciting moments."

"Oh you've seen one criminal you've seen them all," he conceded with a near lazy sigh. For Charming, the exoticism of some of the individuals living in the City disappeared whenever they decided to cause massive property damage or knife one another over a card game. Not to mention the case of molestation between a homunculus and a flower.

He smiled again then. "It's far more rare here to meet an individual with a semblance of subtlety."

With a little shrug, Tosh smiled. "I guess I can see that point of view. If your job is just to deal with the unpleasant, nasty side of something, you don't get to see enough of the part that's...good. Like hunting aliens. They aren't all destructive and dangerous, but we almost never see the ones that aren't. So you start thinking of them all that way. Makes it something more amazing, though, when you come across one that's just as innocent as the humans you're supposed to be protecting from them."

She blushed and ducked her head. "Or, maybe that's just me, and aliens. My experience in dealing with people rather than computers has been very specifically limited."

"I would never have guessed," Charming said with a brilliant smile. Perhaps he was only complimenting Toshiko with ulterior motives, but he did appreciate how she seemed aware of his 'reputation' and still agreed to see him. He half owed it to the words she'd just shared, about giving 'aliens' the benefit of the doubt.

"You have a way with words, Toshiko," he remarked.

"I...have a habit of not knowing when to stop once I get going," Tosh replied, turning a little redder but smiling at the compliment. It was almost like with Mary, the urge to just spill out all the things she thought about her work that she couldn't get any of the others to understand.

"So, you did say it wasn't entirely just criminals you've met here. Some of them have been interesting in their own rights?"

If Charming had been referring to her with his remark about individuals with subtlety, Tosh hadn't caught on.

Oh he was, and he owed it to Toshiko's own brand of subtlety for not referring to it. Even if it wasn't intentional per se, Charming rather found it endearing. She was either shrewd or naive, and he was more than happy to accept one or the other. He finished his meal and set his silverware aside once more, folded his napkin in the manner of a polished gentleman. Now he had only his wine to nurse, wine and conversation.

"No please, don't stop on my account," Charming smiled.

"I did say that," he nodded then tapped his chin in thought, "there's Seras Victoria, our current Warden. She's a vampire, and a very polite one." He wouldn't deny his involvement in helping her to get elected. "Rue of the Opera House, she's a dancer," and a crow which made the prince believe she could be related to the Crow Brothers, "and Christopher Styles. You may have met."

Tosh was just finishing up as well, but felt no particular rush to end the evening. She grinned self-consciously at Charming's words, and shook her head a little. "You might learn to regret saying that," she warned, half-jokingly.

As he ticked off the list of people he considered worthy of note, Tosh listened with interest, but made a wry face at his suggestion at the end. "Don't think I've met any of them, actually. Jack probably has dealt with the Warden -- she's really a vampire? A real one, not...okay, I was going to say an alien with vampire-like habits, but that's not any more likely, is it? Haven't been to the Opera House either. And I'm afraid if I do know anyone named Christopher Styles, he must have introduced himself under a different name."

"I've many years left yet, I'm sure I could manage," he joked in response to her warning.

"She is, with fangs and minor shadow magic. It's beneficial to her in such a position," Charming nodded. His only advantage against assassination was the fact that Prince Charming couldn't die as long as the mundies believed his stories, or as long as he remained outside of the Homelands. That wouldn't last long. His volume went down just a bit, to limit the conversation to their table only, unless Tosh was wearing a wire.

"I have heard tale of vampires who were created through genetic engineering," Charming admitted. When she mentioned Styles his volume increased back to its comfort zone, "I believe he's from Washington, D.C. You may have computers and government secrecy in common." He phrased it as a joke, but really, it wasn't.

Tosh leaned closer, instinctively, when Charming dropped his voice, her natural curiosity caught by mentions of things like shadow magic and genetic engineering, and her mind already working at ways to reconcile such disparate ideas. But she had to shake her head and smile when presented with the details about Christopher Styles.

"We don't deal with any organizations outside the one that provides oversight, and they're actually a branch of the U.N. Torchwood is technically outside of any government regulations, we have to be in order to maintain neutral control over the technology and intelligence we come into contact with. UNIT maintains oversight, as I said, and Jack occasionally has to meet with the Prime Minister, but we're essentially independent."

"That's very particular," Charming remarked. He could empathize, to some extent. Fabletown existed in Manhattan of all places, and not one mundy knew. Those that did were dealt with swiftly. Fabletown had envoys in Europe and the Middle East as well. The similarities were there despite the different motives of their organizations. He raised his wine once more, sipping with a look to Tosh out the corner of his blue eye. There was a slight gleam to it.

"And you called it alien hunting," he smiled.

"It's a unique arrangement," Tosh agreed, with a soft laugh. "Definitely not what I thought I'd be doing when I finished university."

She considered Charming for a moment, turning over possibilities in her mind as to why he was interested in her 'alien hunting' stories, and deciding that there was no conceivable threat to Torchwood that she could imagine. So maybe, just maybe, he actually was simple interested.

"That's an oversimplification, really," she explained, after a sip of her wine. "It's more of a combination of guarding the Rift, managing harmless aliens who just happen by, and tracking down and dealing with the less harmless ones. Or sometimes cleaning up after the damage they do, investigating sightings or deaths, confiscating alien technology, and all of it ultimately to protect Earth from enemy alien incursion."

[ooc: Oh Tosh, so easily manipulated. XD]

"It's a little exciting too, not being born into a position," like a prince, he grinned.

He wouldn't dare admit it, especially not to Blue, but part of Charming's resentment over not being made king subsided when he became one of the leaders of Fabletown. He found excitement in climbing to the top and forcing the path towards reclaiming their homes. In other words, he was in it for the fame, fortune, and glory, to make something of his empty royalty.

As for Tosh's elaboration on Torchwood... well a little information never hurt anybody. She walked and talked like a mundy, and seemed to have no affiliation with Empire. That was good enough for Charming.

"I'm sure somewhere there's a world where the superheroes guard the multiverse, and they have to police the other superheroes at the same time," said Charming.

[ooc: PC says who me?]

"Well, there was a family tradition of military service, but I think my parents got past most of their disappointment. And they think I work for British Intelligence anyway, now."

One of the lies that had been necessary when Tosh was recruited by Torchwood, but an easy one, because in a way she felt that it made them safer than if they'd known the truth.

"But yeah, it is an exciting job. It's terrifying sometimes, and...you don't ever leave a job like this one. But it's worth it. To know we're helping. I have to say, though, that I'm glad mine isn't one of those places where we have to deal with aliens and other 'superheroes'. The aliens are plenty of work, thank you."

"In mine as well," nodded Charming. He was a prince after all, and quite the campaigner in his day.

He waved his hand with a laugh. "I'm joking, Toshiko. That sort's the stuff of comic books," Charming grinned, regarding superheroes and aliens. But not fables, never fables, they just hid in plain sight that well. "Mm, comic books and the City," he amended before pleasantly finishing his wine. He was picking up that check, no doubt about it.

"I suppose that makes sense," Tosh agreed, grinning back. "Except that until I came here, I was certain that stories of vampires and demons were just superstitious rationalizations to explain alien activity. And I met a woman today who believes Metropolis is a real place. So, I'm not convinced anymore that aren't places where superheroes live alongside aliens. Outside of the City."

This was definitely, she decided, one of her better decisions. She hadn't enjoyed an evening out like this in a long time.

"I don't doubt that there are scientific ways to explain such phenomena. The melding of magic and technology, really."

Charming fully supported that. He was planning to bring mundy artillery to their war. Magicians couldn't do very much with their limbs decimated, but that wasn't polite dinner conversation. Neither was mentioning how his inspiration came from a man who hooked an IV to a fairy to keep her alive and drain her magic. Not polite at all. With the bill paid for he turned his blue gaze to her.

"Why don't we walk through the gardens," he suggested.

"It's definitely a thought that bears investigation," Tosh agreed. Although one that she approached from a slightly different angle, from the view of explaining the mystical through a more advanced understanding of science.

But she'd have also agreed with the idea that experimental science and warcraft weren't really appropriate dinner topics.

With a bright smile, she agreed to Charming's suggestion, retrieving her bag from under her chair. "I'd like that."

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