It was beneficial, really, that the circus was in town, and moreover that it'd fallen on the weekend it had. That was how a lot of things had been playing out recently — fortunate accidents and coincidences aligning properly to make this evening come to pass. It'd been on a whim that she'd called Lancer back during the week when he'd turned out to be unconscious; it'd been serendipity that Hiccup had wanted to come back to Goldenrod for the circus just in time to coincide with this particular invitation. Granted, if you asked her, Carmen would always say that she was never one to believe in good or bad luck either way, but whatever one wanted to call it, things had worked out neatly in producing the circumstances that brought her here tonight, and here she was.

...And Lancer had beaten her to the restaurant. Hardly surprising, but it was something she turned out to be glad for, because it gave her the opportunity to look him over a bit from a distance before heading over to make her presence known.

He'd looked disoriented and ragged over the Gears; tonight, he'd cleaned up a little better in appearance, but it was fairly obvious that the time since their last discussion hadn't done much to ease his spiritual agitation any. Hopefully, dinner and a little conversation would change that.

Without preamble, she lightly dissuaded the hostess and instead strode deliberately over to where Lancer was looking out the window, sliding into her seat across from him without being invited — or going out of her way to make her presence known. Not that she thought he'd fail to notice her, of course; his intuition and awareness of his surroundings was likely too good for that. But there was something of a game in it, and it amused her, so she did it.

"Evening, stranger," she said pleasantly. "Fancy meeting you here."