"I'm Inaaya Khadpo. These are my associates, Joan Kramer and Anchisa Sirikhan."

"Nice to meet you, Miss..." he makes a solid effort at pronouncing Khadpo. If he focuses enough on this it will distract them from his not having a name.

"And you are?"

"Michael Taylor."

"Lovely name."

Joan eats her food with the determination of a person who is uncertain when a nice meal will happen next.

"I don't think Mariam met you last week, did she?"

"No, just the others."

"What is your involvement in the research? I'm a-- hm-- site specialist myself. Joan here does security, and Anchisa-- Anchisa is our funder's niece."

"Ugh, I don't want to talk about archaeology. Inaaya, why do you always want to talk about archaeology. Are you from New York?"

"--I am. Have you been?"

"No. We went to America but it was REALLY BORING and there were not ANY skyscrapers at ALL." Anchisa sounds personally offended. "It wasn't like the movies even one bit. I thought there was going to be a cute cowboy but there was NOT."

"Oh, where in America was this? It's a pretty big place." With some amusement: "Even the skyscrapers and cowboys are in very different parts."

"Where was it? There was a cave."

"South Dakota."

"Right."

"Oh, I've never been to the Dakotas. Opposite side of the country from New York. Was it a noteworthy cave, at least?"

"I bet New York is much better. I'd love to hear all about it."

Well. He does not actually have to bluff his way through archaeology talk if he's telling Anchisa about New York.

He has no idea what Anchisa batting her eyes and biting her lip at him could possibly mean. He has never flirted with a random stranger in his life. As can perhaps be deduced from how all his stories in which exciting things happen seem to be cribbed from other people (his sister, he's cribbing them from his sister).

"As lovely as it would be for Anchisa to hear about New York," Inaaya says, "I would really like to hear about your research. I myself am a specialist in prehistoric pagan deities."

🙄

"Prehistoric, huh? Ever run into anything on the, uh, what was it, the Hyperborean Age? I've got a friend who's into that stuff. Had no idea about half of what happened in North America before he told me about it."

"Indeed. I find the Hyperborean Age to be a terribly interesting topic. By legend it was the time of greatest sorcery."

"Oh, sure. So much has been lost."

"In sorcery?"