12 Eversham Square
Lilith's Apartment, Bay City
Early Summer
Sundown

It was an eventful evening already, involving four out of five of the loosely-connected associates (only Vincent hadn't appeared yet, but he was... strange... and often vanished for weeks at a time on some personal crusade).

And even with great need, only two of the company were free and available to meet. George was (for the moment at least) unreachable. And Tessa was embroiled in something personal.

And so it fell to Lilith and Twiddle to meet, to come together, and to discuss what was happening. And why. And what to do next.

OOC: Lilith, please tell us a little about where your apartment is, and what it's like. Make sure to tell us at least one problem or disadvantage or difficulty you experience here.

OOC 2: Twiddle, what does it cost you to cross this much of the city and come so far from where you're safe?

The car pulled up, blocks from Lilith's apartment. Twiddle got out, knowing the lay lines would start effecting the mortal driver he has used to get here.

"You have my thanks for the transport via your conveyance, Mo Mo." He said as he stepped out.

Mo Mo, real name of Marabella, was a girl Omar had grown up with on his block. Unlike Omar, she had been trying to get further schooling. Omar needed money right away of his mother's care, which meant drug dealing.

"Omar, what is wrong with you?" Mo Mo said, laughing. "You talk like you all BBC America channel and shit. You start watching masterpiece theater? You too good to be hanging out with us poor folk?" She snickered.

Twiddle gave her a theatrical bow. "My dear Lady Mo Mo. To me you are the sterling example of grace, poise, and dignity that I could only hope to aspire to."

She giggled. "Boy, you high on your own supply! When you start smoking your own shit? Telling lies like that..."

"I never lie!" Twiddle said, touching his chest as if some great offense has been uttered. "That is a scandalous statement!" Although he grinned as he said it.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Next time you drive your own car over here...Sir Omar." She laughed again as she drove away.

He waved, and headed for Lilth's apartment. Truth be told he could have driven over here...or found a less natural means. The thing was, when he left the ley lines around Omar's apartment, he could be tracked by the Wlyd Hunt. However, when taken someplace by a human, his energies where concealed. Due to the human natural presence in thier human native world.

Granted Twiddle was concealed by Omar's flesh, but his fae nature 'leaked' out into the world. It was this body that anchored him. It had been his plan to stay after all.

Besides, Mo Mo would forget driving him here. The Ley Line he had set up Lilith's apartment on concealed it's presence from mundane minds. Granted because Lilith lived there the Wlyd Hunt would not be fooled. However, they where not looking for her...
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:38, Mon 21 June 2021.

The apartment is located about 10 minutes away (by car) from Lilith's office. In a building where most of the condos are lent, Lilith is one of the few ones who actually own the apartment. In the area, there are a lot of poor people. Seeing someone selling drugs at the corner is not a surprise to anybody, nor the hookers who appear on the streets when the night falls. From time to time, you can spot a very expensive car stopping in the middle of the street, sometimes people climb in or out of the cars. Poor people, especially women in their 20s, with trashy clothes and ruined makeup. It's a good place to hunt desperate people who would do almost anything for a few bucks.

Going out after midnight is not a safe thing to do. There were nights when Lilith had to run or hide from mindless people waving a gun in front of her. She could easily kill them, but she doesn't want to become a cold-blooded murderer. Sometimes a police car goes by, but they turn an eye and continue their rounds. Once a month they stop to collect money for their silence. Before the assassination of Sulejmani, this used to be a pretty peaceful area. But now, police are hand in hand with the pimps and the drug lords. Everyone has access to guns and drugs, but not everyone lives to see another day. When the morning comes, on the dark alleys between the blocks you can find syringes, used condoms, and from time to time a lifeless body waiting to be picked up by the police. No one asks questions, no one cares, and when they do, they contact Lilith instead of going to the corrupted police.

The apartment is not a big one. A two room modest condo, with black and red finishes, with more like victorian era furniture which really doesn't match with the modern appliances. The curtains are always closed and it's pretty dark inside. Turning the lights on, from the entrance, the living room can be seen, as an open space area with the kitchen on a side. Lilith is on the sofa, browsing her notes and waiting for Twiddle. On the coffee table, there is a glass of blood and an ashtray full of buds. The tension from outside can be smelled in the air that is coming from an open window. Lilith has a feeling that one more body will be found tomorrow morning.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:39, Mon 21 June 2021.

Twiddle uses the elevator, which in this building was an act of bravery. Granted he could use the stairs-the safer option, but the state of disrepair made even that trying climb a questionable act. Besides, Omar's body got tired after that much activity. He was in good shape, but nothing out of human norms.

Twiddle knocked politely, but he liked the sound so much that it sounded like a musical effort rather than just a request for entry. He of course forgot about the button to signal someone was waiting for entry. As if by magic...but not real magic...Twiddle produces a bottle of red liquid in a wine bottle. He knew it was not wine, but 'donations' from various clients he gathered for Lilith's particular diet.
This message was last updated by the GM at 15:39, Mon 21 June 2021.

Hearing the familiar style of knocking, Lilith rushes to the door. She looks through the door sight, just to make sure that this is Twiddle. Then she unlocks and opens the door.

"Please, come in! Quickly! I know you're cautious, but I hope no one followed you here." she then locks the door and peeps through the door sight for a couple of seconds. "Twiddle, so nice to see you!" She sees the bottle Twiddle has brought. "Oh! How thoughtful! Thank you!" From charming smile, her face turned to serious business. "Come, let's take a seat. There is shit going around..." She points to the red velvet sofa. On the coffee table, Twiddle can easily spot pictures with Tessa and Lilith's notes from earlier. The text on the notes is not cursive only. There are names written with capital letters, words underlined or bolded, doodles and a mug stain. In one of the corners there is Aaron's name with a lot of exclamation marks and under it, an eight digits weird phone number and some other notes:
"!!! AARON !!!
phone no: [8 digits weird number] for real???
strange guy - TESSA !!!
KNOWS TWIDDLE / Omar !!!"

Next to the glass and the ashtray, there is a bowl with some of Twiddle's favourite snacks/treats.

"Have you discussed with Tessa today? She's supposed to come here too, but she has to finish some family stuff first."

OOC: Does Twiddle eat snacks or something? Lilith likes treating her guests.
@MC: Is it fine if we assume that Lilith has a camera in her office for safety reasons? Or if not in her office, at least on the hallway, near the door. Lilith would like to show Aarons face to Twiddle and Tessa.

In reply to Lilith Voss (msg # 5):

Twiddle comes in and hands over the bottle with a wide smile. He proceeds to take any number of baked goods Lilith has prepared, putting some in pockets for later. Of course he stuffs a few of them in his mouth for right now.

"Ooooh! Brown sugar! Very nice!" Twiddle enjoyed baking very much. He often sent his friends recipes. However, some of them seemed so sugary as to cause near instant diabetes and fatal heart attacks within seconds of eating them.

Then there was the...unspoken concern of eating anything a fae created. The stories go, the small child eats fae food...and then owes said fae a favor. A favor widely out of proportion for a tasty snack. There was some truth to it, but Twiddle did not seem to collect debts in this manner. Most of the time anyways.

"I did contact Tessa about someone asking about her. A very odd mage, seemingly hell bent to talk to her...and he seems to not know about modren odor control. That what happens when you live your whole life in a library." He tsked.

He looks at the coffee table, all the notes and clues jumbled togeather. "Are you going to go all Kenndy assassination on me, and have one of those big whiteboards with push pins and pictures with string leading to each one?" He smirked while rasing an eyebrow.

"Because you are too fabulous to spend all your time obsessing about that! I shan't hear of it!" he covered his ears in mock horror.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:07, Tue 22 June 2021.

Lilith smiles seeing Twiddle enjoying himself with the sugar. "No need to rush, I have some more in my Haven. I will also store the bottle in there. It seems like a nice mix, perfect for a good occasion. Thank you, again!"

Between the living and kitchen areas, near the windows, Lilith has a cork-board with pictures, cut-outs from newspapers and strings in between from an old case. She looks at it. "You're right." she chuckles, "I should update that. But see, as much as you would love the idea, I'm not hunting you down. Otherwise we would fight now instead of talk."

"A new client came to my office today..." she points to her notes, where in the corner she wrote Aaron's name. "It was a white man in his 25-30s. He was a bit too overdressed for the heat outside. He told me that he is looking for his cousin, our Tessa! But Tessa told me she has no cousin named Aaron. He said that she is missing and he and her parents are worried and stuff. He asked for my privacy, of course. But Tessa is not missing from home and as you know, she's with her family right now. He knows about Tessa's... visions or sort of... He called them hallucinations, delusions. Then he showed me these pictures with Tessa. Before that, I thought he's a real client, with a real concern... But when I saw Tessa in the pictures... I've told him that having a person missing for one month is not a good sign, and I don't want to give him hopes, but I'll do my best to find some leads. Of course, I had to play dumb... Then I wanted to see what he knows about Tessa and he mentioned your name, as Omar. He knows that you two know each other. Then we exchanged numbers. I can tell you this number is not from around here. When I called him, no phone rang. I thought maybe he keeps his phone on silent, but when I asked him if he 'got that', he muttered something, then reached into the inside pocket of his jacket, at which point there was a ringing sound and he pulled out an older style flip phone... I'm wondering if there was some hocus-pocus involved..." Lilith sights and takes a sip from the glass, as her throat got dry from talking so much. "You said a wizard asked you about Tessa too? Why are people looking for her? Any idea?"

"Also, let me show you this Aaron guy." She unlocks her laptop and accesses the office recordings. "Here! Do you recognise him?"
This message was last edited by the player at 09:18, Wed 23 June 2021.

Twiddle does recognize the face. A few months back he had been invited to a sort of party downtown. Some kind of showing for one of those indie photographers so underground that everyone knew about them. Twiddle had been asked to attend so he could provide "party favours."

This guy, it seemed he was one of the patrons of the gallery, and it seemed like he was mostly responsible for organizing the showing. Certainly the famous-underground photographer basically fawned over him.

Twiddle thought his name was something like Cadmon, but it was clear enough to anyone willing to look. He was a Wizard. A Hermetic type. The Hegemony had just made their first real grab for power and it seemed he had gotten a bit of a promotion in the shuffle.

OOC: Twiddle, you can mark Power.

In reply to System (msg # 8):

"Indeed. I do know him. Please dont take this the wrong way, but in order to tell you about him, this has to be a formal favor. Because It involves something other than the mundane." He sighs.

"It is the way of my people, you understand. However, because we are friends, I can use any debt you owe me to fuel my magics to help you. It's the reason I have to be so annoying about oaths all the time. It allows me to keep one step ahead of all predators in this world.

That being said, I can assist you as part of the debt for my service. If you like, I can owe you a debt for you keeping my face intact in case of future threats. I do like to keep it on my head..." He smiles at her sheepishly.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:19, Wed 30 June 2021.

OOC but In-Game:  A small alert occurs on Twiddle's phone, whether a chime or a buzz.  Someone has activated the tracking.  An alert like this is likely a good idea when the tracker happens to be a Wolf.  As usual, there is no text to accompany it.

This message was deleted by the player at 19:39, Wed 30 June 2021.

"A debt you say? Yes please! I don't want to hear you moaning again about that time when you blowed that fairy dust over my door, to make this apartment hidden from my... 'followers'. I'm down to two now and I'm all ears." Lilith smiles back and takes a sip from her glass.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:34, Wed 30 June 2021.

"Please! I can't help what other people do with their free time! And I said I was sorry about the...mess." Twiddle said as if emotionally wounded, but clearly overacting for effect.

Suddenly, his phone buzzes, and a picture of a puppy appears on the device. "Oh bloody hells." Twiddle says as his phone vibrates. "One second, George has sent me a warning..." He starts typing, wondering if George used the phone Twiddle got for him. Of course, George might not be in the right frame of mind to actually pick up and use said phone. "Actually, I think George is in trouble."

"How about this? You help me with whatever trouble George is in, and I tell you all about your new hobby Aaron? That way we both owe each other a service, and it evens out!"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:44, Wed 30 June 2021.

Lilith scoffs. "You have your way of... making me owe you stuff. But not today!" she rolls her eyes. "You know what? You know I have not forgave George for what he did to me... If you want my help with George, you either make him owe me another debt, either you owe me one on this. And about the guy, Aaron, your ass is on the line too! He came to me, asking about Tessa and mentioning your name too. I'm trying to cover your asses, not mine!! And that would cost you, personally, a debt. Sooo... we can balance things out if you want, with what I owe you."

Twiddle threw up his hands. "Fine, fine. I will take George's debt on this one. Happy? Can we go now?" Twiddle checks his phone and gets up to leave, clearly waiting for Lilith to join him.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:00, Wed 30 June 2021.

Lilith packs her things as quick as she can then she finishes her glass in one big gulp while looking at Twiddle "What? I'm not gonna waste my meal!" she rushes to the door, keys in hand, looks behind, then "Wait! What about Tessa?" She looks at her phone. Still no sign from her. "Fine, let's go. I'll send her a message on the way."

"Hey dear! Had an emergency and I'm no longer at my place. Let me know when you're done with your personal stuff. Kisses!"