undergrounds | To hide away, hide away

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To hide away, hide away

1. SPY TACTICS [OPEN]
Ringer realized not long ago how objectively little she knew about the various factions she was dealing with. While Reznik had taught her the basic tidbits of each, their strengths and weaknesses, their loose affiliations, there were disputes and alliances forming that she found herself tragically ignorant to and often surprised by. For these reasons, she made the choice to set her more aggressive protective hunting aside for the moment to instead begin spying on people.

It didn't matter so much what significance the person held in their respective faction. She was trying to learn relationships between factions, who belonged to which, and so on. Sometimes it meant accidentally following a human who wasn't involved in any way. Most of the time, however, it meant following people she knew to be witches, werewolves, fae, and so on. Anyone who might be interesting.

The girl wasn't deliberately provocative in her pursuits, but she wasn't meticulously careful either. After all, she had no training for this kind of thing specifically. Ringer lurked in shadows and tried to follow a block or so behind, tried to appear distracted and caught up in her own world, and simply hoped that was enough. It was only a matter of time before someone caught on.

2. CAFE RESEARCH [OPEN]
Along with following people at night and in between her studies at uni, Ringer spent her free time studying. After the library became a tomb of isolation, she opted instead of the noisier and more oblivious patrons at the cafe. She turned up almost every day to grab a table in the corner or near to, ordering a tea and occasionally a scone or the like, laptop open on one half of the space in front of her while the other was filled with a book, or two, or three. For the casual observer, it would look like research for a paper, perhaps for a class on mythology or media. For those in the know, it might be obvious, but that only helped her to begin making more allies - or enemies.

3. GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN [CLOSED to Annie, early Feb]
All work and no play makes Ringer a dull girl. After a pleasant, albeit short, chat with Annie in the street, Ringer had done something rather un-Ringer-like and invited the girl over to hang out. She ordered some food from the Indian place down the lane, had a couple bottles of wine on standby, and had even ensured her television was prepared to play movies that they could rent if they chose. She didn't really know how things like this worked, but had heard enough stories and seen enough films to have an idea.

When the time approached, Ringer double-checked that her apartment was clean and that no signs of her real name were about for casual consumption. It wouldn't be hard to find if Annie went digging, but Ringer was hoping she wasn't that kind of acquaintance. The risk wasn't great enough for her to be concerned. After the final sweep, she settled in with awkward anticipation, waiting for Annie to arrive.

4. 'I LOVE DOGS' [CLOSED to James, mid Feb]
Ringer drank tea every day, like any good Brit should. She took it where she could get it, for the most part, and it never occurred to her to question why the one she drank this morning tasted any differently than the usual beyond trying a new cafe. Even when she began to notice that she was feeling off and some of her thoughts seemed new and not entirely justified, it never entered her mind that she might have been cursed or poisoned - or simply consumed a love potion.

She didn't know exactly why she felt compelled to visit James Memon at work. Objectively, it seemed like a terrible idea. There was no way of knowing how many of his colleagues were also members of the supernatural and it wasn't as if she had any special relationship with the man to merit her appearance, despite her one-time claim of being family. So when the secretary asked why she wished to see Mr. Memon, she said the first thing that popped into her head: "He's been talking to me about a case. He should be expecting me."

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Ringer's lips tighten at the woman's effective dismissal of her claims and her mind is already at work on what to say next or how else to get a hold of the man when he interrupts her train of thought completely. The girl's lips twitch in the hint of a smile at his greeting, ignoring the secretary's clear disapproval of Ringer having any sort of familiarity with the man.

"I'll ride with you," she offers, assuming he was meaning to say courthouse. It's not like she has anywhere to be. Right now, whatever it takes to get the time to talk to him about things. Important things. It's not like she's just trying to be around him. No, not at all. Ringer's trying to build an alliance with an important werewolf and sway him to humanity's cause. It has nothing to do with how attractive he is and that stupid smile and- shit.

"Uh, sure." James seemed a little confused as to why she would want to ride with him but he could at least walk to the garage with her before parting ways.

As he kept walking, James threw over his shoulder back at his secretary: "You can go home when you're finished with that Amanda."

After this he was going to go home and sleep for a week before Lupercalia had to happen. There was a lot he needed to get straight before then.

"What can I help you with today?" He sounded less exasperated talking to her than he did to his secretary. Clearly that was a good thing.

Ringer focused on their path as she considered her words, an unusually passive gesture for the girl. It wasn't that she was intentionally avoiding looking at him so much as she knew she was confused and was trying to focus in order to think straight. She was also irrationally cognizant of how little time she had with him, even less if she couldn't engage him in a conversation worth his while.

"What do you want?" She asked finally, practically blurting out the words in a less than graceful fashion. Ringer tried to regain her usual neutrality as she quickly continued. "Everyone has their own agenda and endgame. Knowing what you are didn't help as much as I thought it would. I don't understand what you want."

Honestly, he wasn't expecting that. And the truth of his reaction is easy to see as he can't help but smile in bemusement. Ringer was direct, yes; but she had yet to just say something without trying to be clever.

"Uhh," James starts, caught off guard. "Well. I want to help my pack."

A non-answer if ever there was one.

"And?" The question came without missing a beat.

She believed that to be true. She also believed that it was an answer that any employee would give about their company, in a sense, and she was searching for his own unique angle. Understand what he wanted and maybe she could help him to achieve it somehow, or to at least understand him better. Ringer wanted to help see him succeed, so long as it wasn't at the cost of human lives.

James' smile was quick but it appeared for a moment. He liked the rapid question back; she was a smart girl.

"Well. Best way to do that is to advance."

It's true it was a non-answer. James seemed to be full of those. Whether he could stop talking like that or not wasn't as clear. But his intentions seemed to be genuine towards the welfare of his pack - whether he wanted to be a werewolf or not, he wanted to take care of them now.

"I can't change anything if I'm simply part of of the pack."

She followed the idea to its logical progression, less concerned with the how for now as with the result. If the effects made sense, perhaps she could join the cause. Ringer pointedly ignored the feeling of her heart pounding with that smile, ignored how charming he was. The two of them couldn't be a thing no matter how hard she tried, even if she tried.

"What do you change when you're the leader?" She continued to walk with him, feeling uncomfortably like a secondary schooler crushing on her teacher. She didn't know how to present as an equal when she very clearly wasn't.

"To be honest I'm not even sure right now. It seems so far away...," he trailed off, thinking at how far he had come and how far he had yet to go.

"I'd like to be a little less closed off though. We're so paranoid about anyone taking advantage of us that we've closed rank and circled the wagons to the point where we don't even control what happens inside our own borders."

Ah. There it was. His talking point. James caught himself as he started on what was by now a practiced tangent and smiled bashfully.

"Sorry."

"Open your borders and take stricter control of what happens inside?" She asked honestly. It sounded disturbingly like some of the old communist nations. Or some of the new ones, for that matter. It made sense though, with what she knew about werewolves and what he'd said before, to want to protect their own.

Ringer's lips quirked with something bordering on a smile in mirror of his own and she shook her head. "Don't be. I asked."

She paused for a moment, dropping her gaze to the ground as she thought, before finally looking up at him again. "I want to help you."

James stops in his tracks to look back at Ringer, as if he isn't quite sure what she's talking about. Or if he eve heard her right to begin with.

"What I--Why do you care? You don't have to be involved in this..."

He didn't choose this. He can't fathom someone else doing it willingly.

Ringer slows and then stops a beat after James does, standing beside him and meeting his expression. Some stupid part of her is excited at the prospect of having surprised him. It's that eagerness that perhaps loosens her lips a little more than usual.

"Because it matters, James. I thought after my father died that the softness inside of me would pass and I'd be able to move on. But it didn't, I wasn't. Humanity doesn't deserve what some of the monsters do to it- to us. The minute we decide one person doesn't matter, they've won." A beat and then, as if stating a fact as obvious as the weather outside, "I won't lose."

James listens in perfect silence as she speaks and it's...endearing to hear her story in whatever slight way he could. He smiles slightly, because he identifies with that determination.

"You're different than I expected."

That surprise was real.

Ringer's lips twitch with the hint of a frown, brow furrowing with concern. She's not entirely certain whether that's a compliment or an insult and her current mood wants to know right now which it is. She tries to squash the feckless desires, knowing logically that it doesn't matter much what he thought of her so long as he thinks well of her in future and it furthers their alliance.

"It's easy to underestimate me," she replies finally. "But I can help."

"Then that's where your talent lies. In being underestimated."

He knew that much too intimately. But it looked like those days were going to be behind him shortly. At least, if he had anything to say about it.

"One of them." A statement of fact. Ringer rarely suffered from modesty, yet was not arrogant either. She was realistic about her abilities and had no reason to discount or exaggerate them. Although the thought did cross her mind, she suspected that he would be more impressed by the truth than any hyperbole.

"Will you let me help?"

He actually liked the confidence. It was less worrisome than someone telling him they weren't all that great and trying to convince him to ally with them.

But Ringer was right about him being more impressed by the truth.

"...I don't have any reason to say no, so: yes."

Ringer's lips pull into a smile. It's a small one, barely there, yet the biggest she's given in years. The expression feels awkward and unfamiliar and drops away not a moment later to something more neutral, as before.

"Thanks. So where we do start?"

"Right now, we wait."

Unfortunately, there was much to do before he could call on Ringer for her assistance.

"In the meantime, keep your eyes and ears open If something bad looks to be coming, you tell me, yeah?"

It's a good way to keep her on the inside and also keep an eye on her. He might have a good friend with Ringer, but that doesn't mean he completely trusts her yet. That way if things go sour, he can pull out of their arrangement without much pain.

"And vice-versa. If you know of something that's going to hurt innocent humans.."

She turns ever-so-slightly as she looks up at him, to give him an appraising and almost judgmental glance. Ringer wants him to know that she takes this seriously. While she'll probably help him regardless, up until he does something to betray her, she wants to keep humanity out of it as often as possible.

Her heart's pounding with the attention, and the boldness of her request, and that stupid smile. She doesn't trust him completely and probably never will, but she likes him and wants to help him for as long as she can.

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