On an average day, most of the time he's awake Nick pays attention with half a brain, trying to grab one of the incoming summons. He's finally the first one to respond about halfway through a recording of some old TV show.
Coffeeshop! It is near some other buildings and it's not obvious from the air what function each of them serves, so Daphne points it out. "Pictures aren't the same. Virtual reality might be, I don't know."
"It's still not quite the same, but a lot closer than pictures or video."
He lands, relatively stealthily, and walks toward the coffeeshop. Hopefully his wings won't attract too much attention.
Oddly enough, for some reason they attract less attention when they notice he's with Daphne. Her predilection for attracting odd things is well-known.
The coffee shop is rich with the scent of roasting beans, and has a luxurious pastry cabinet containing things like chocolate chip cookies as thick as a sandwich. The menu boad lists most normal coffee additives, and a handful of less-normal ones like peanut butter.
Nick has a little money, pressed on him by various professors, but doesn't object if Daphne moves to pay. He orders a 'surprise me' because, what the hell, novelty is fun.
Daphne will totally pay! She has more money than him, for now, and she's arguably his host in this universe; it's only hospitable.
Nick gets something with cinnamon sugar and nutmeg; Daphne orders a white mocha.
It's tasty. "Ahh, precious caffeine, where would we be without you. Except groggy or asleep, presumably."
Heh. "Plants come up with a lot of useful stuff, actually. Medicine and so on. Some make less than useful stuff, I'm looking at you castor beans and nightshade, but still."
"Ooh, best not get me started on that subject, we're taking a break from intense science nerding."
"Right, sorry." He takes a careful sip. "There's something about coffee. Even though it's not tasty by itself. Good stuff."
"Mm, yes. Now, if you could figure out a way to bottle the way coffee smells, you'd make a real fortune."
"I think that exists, actually... No, away nerdy thoughts! What won't send me back to science... Are you a fan of comedy shows? They're about as unscientific as you can get."
"I have acutally seen some of Monty Python's work. It's still a classic a hundred eighty years later. Do you know the hiding spot skit?"
"I think it was actually called 'how not to be seen'? Eh, nevermind. The Holy Grail was fun, too."
"Oh, yes. I think my favorite moment was either when the witch tried by absolutely ludicrous means goes, 'It's a fair cop' or the bit at the end where everyone gets arrested."
He does something halfway between a laugh and a giggle. "I liked the bridge keeper's inconsistent questions a lot, too."
"You kind of have to wonder what would happen if someone actually got a question wrong. Would the keeper even know? All the people who got thrown into the chasm displayed ignorance, not inaccuracy."
"Alas. Although--the creators are still alive in this world, we could write a letter and ask if we really wanted to, or maybe someone already has and we could find that."
"Hm. I almost feel like the fact that nobody got anything wrong is part of the joke, though. Their stuff can be layered like that if you think about it long enough."
"I see your point...unless you count the time that one knight stumbled over his own favorite color, I suppose."