undergrounds | 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."

Threaded | Flat

Eames is no stranger to the feeling of being followed, it sort of comes with the territory when one's a career criminal. Even moreso when that career has lasted several hundred years. He leads his tail all over the place to confirm his hunch, adding legitimacy by stopping to talk to local ne'er-do-wells - nobodies, but obviously the kind of street level element he'd have connections with.

It's when he manages to lead the way to a quiet area that he stops and pulls out his phone because he's the kind of guy who can't ever do anything normally. "You know there are easier ways to find out about a person," he says, addressing seemingly no one in particular. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if he was just paranoid and not being followed at all. "Asking them out for a drink, for instance."

Faolan drops down in the chair opposite of her without waiting for an invitation or any other such word of response from the younger hunter and leans forward across the table at her, cradling a coffee in between his hands. It isn't the first time that he's caught her in a position like this, with a laptop in front of her, hard at work. But before she had been at the library, and before, she had been a lot more friendly towards him than he gets the feeling she's about to be now. And part of that, he's assuming, is his fault. If he only understood what it was that he was supposed to have done though.

"Why do I get the feeling that you're avoiding me?" he asks, not bothering to beat about the bush. He's finally found her in a position where she hasn't had the opportunity to run away before he's gotten to her, and he's not about to let the opportunity pass him by.

Annie wasn't necessarily the sort to snoop. She knew she would hate anyone going through her things, and couldn't bare doing that to anyone else. Unless, of course, she was after pertinent information. Currently, she had no information to look for, and thusly, Ringer's apartment was safe from prying eyes while she was there.

Annie, for her part, was also not very used to girl's nights. Like Ringer, she'd seen them on TV, but had never really been privvy to them. But she was excited to give it a shot. and so she arrived at the time specified, a bottle of wine in one hand, because that's what you did when people asked you over. You got them a bottle of wine. This one just happened to be a particularly nice white wine.

"Hi! Uhm, thanks for, ah, for inviting me. I brought you this- I don't know if you like white or red, but this is one of my favorites. So I thought maybe you'd like it?" Already she was cringing at her attempted greetings. Well done, Annie. Off to a good start.

James' secretary was a human in an office space filled with other supernatural beings. Granted, there were just as many humans - in fact one was the head honcho herself - but that still didn't mean that there were much bigger fish here than herself.

Still, you wouldn't know it by her attitude. She looked frazzled, but generally suspicious - potentially too detailed oriented to fall for the lie.

"Mr. Memon is at a lunch. If you leave your name I'll tell him you dropped by," her smile was incredibly insincere and she might have been telling the truth - had James not then left his office walking directly past her desk.

"Amanda I need to go to the cou -," He looked up from his phone when he noticed someone standing at her desk and smiled as politely as he knew how.

"Cousin."

No he's never going to let that die.