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Investigating a Missing Fae in Two Parts

[Part 1 - Sirius and Evie]

He'd started at the shop. Seemed like the most obvious place. Trying to see if he could smell anything or find any leads as to why this Fae was gone. Not left, just gone. It definitely seemed odd, and weird things with Fae seemed to be happening all over, or at least, more than usual.

To continue with unusual things, Sirius was keeping to human form. Typically, he kept to his dog form for stuff like this. It was normal for a dog to go around sniffing things, not so much for a human. But he figured this was safer in case he needed to talk his way out of a situation, or needed to dig for more information.

Finding a promising smell, he followed it, making his way down the street until he found a park. He paused on the edge of it, seemingly appraising the dinosaur structures and glad that no one was using the park. Though he got the feeling he wasn't entirely alone.

[Part 2 - Reporting back to Eames.]

After the successful interrogation of the imp, it was time to report back to Eames.

"So, uh, do you want to take the lead on this or shall I?" Sirius asks.

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The fae had last been seen in the park, which was where Evie was going to start. She'd arrived in the park, keeping her nose peeled for any scent of fae. The trouble was that Nemed's scent had faded some, and there were always new visitors to the park.

Frowning slightly, she kept to the shadows, getting the lay of the land.

Which, funny. Some shifter seemed to be doing the same- she could smell him.

Taking a step out of the shadow of a tree, Evie raised a hand in greeting. "Good afternoon for a trip to the park, isn't it?"

A further sniff of the air proved his initial suspicions to be true. He could smell a vampire around, and was immediately wary. More from force of habit than anything else, given that things had largely stabilized. Perhaps she was on the same trail as him?

He glanced up as she stepped out from the tree and waved back. Friendly, so far so good. The scent was definitely a familiar one, even if he couldn't quite place it.

"Very much so. The weather's lovely."

"It is. Nice to see the sun out for a change," she says, fully aware of the irony coloring her words. He knew what she was.

That being said, she knew she cut an imposing figure.

"I mean you no harm, so long as you feel the same way." She approaches the dinosaurs, her eyes looking at them far more than at Sirius.

The way she looked at the playset confirmed that question. Seems like they were here for the same thing, and competing was just going to be silly at this point.

"Well, I'm not here to cause any trouble. I suppose you're following up on a missing persons case as well? Guy who just up and disappeared?"

She pauses, looking the man over.

"Yes- I am. I don't suppose you've heard of any witnesses?"

"None so far, but a couple of scents led me here, so I was hoping I might find someone. I'm assuming you're in the same boat?"

He glances over at the dinosaurs and points.

"Haven't searched them thoroughly though. The fae's trail ends there, but there's a few others still hanging about."

Sirius gets a curt nod.

"Let's get searching, then. See if there are anyone here that may have noticed something that day. I'll leave it up to you to decide which you'd rather- I don't exactly have the friendliest first appearance." Vampires + Fae = Tasty Snack.

Sirius nods, considering the structures for a moment.

"How about I take the tyranosaurus, and you take the triceratops and, whoever finishes first can take the stegosaurus and we'll move on from there."

He sounds fairly impressed with himself, both for taking charge and remembering the names of the dinosaurs. Without really waiting for agreement, he heads off towards his chosen dinosaur, finding steps up the back that lead to a slide.

"Sounds like quite the plan to me." She says with a nod. It was a perfectly reasonable plan. The only problem was that, unfortunately, her dinosaur knowledge was a little... rusty, let's say.

So she hesitates, waiting to see which one Sirius moves to, before attending to the triceratops.

One of the first things she noticed when she arrived at the dinosaur was that there was a distinctly thick sweet scent in the air. Fae- she knew it anywhere, her nose practically twitching. Delicious- but not food. Not a chance- she refused to partake in fae blood. Especially not if it was unwillingly given.

No, the scent seems to move away from the triceratops, moving closer toward the stegosaurus, and the edge of the woods. "Hullo?" she called out quietly, hoping to keep any outsiders from hearing.

It doesn't take long for Sirius to inspect the slide, finding nothing but only the faint scent of fae, leading back towards the other structures. He ignores the brief urge to go down the slide, in favour of moving towards the stegosaurus (if only because the more rational side of him spoke up, pointing out that there would be a rather likely chance for him to get stuck. Which, if nothing else, would be horrifically embarrasing.)

The scent is stronger over here, Sirius notes as he approaches the tail. Stronger, and slightly different, with something mixed it. Ignoring the fact that he'll look completely strange to outsiders, he leans in to get a stronger whiff while Evie calls out. Something that was hiding under the dinosaur stiffens, so Sirius figures it's his turn.

"Is someone there?"

Whatever was hiding under the dinosaur takes off towards the woods with a yelp.

It takes off, and Evie's fast. She's dealt with fleeing people before. "Stay here!" Evie tells Sirius, before taking off after the whatever it is. Fae.

"We just want to talk to you! I promise, neither of us are going to hurt you!" Evie calls as she runs after the thing. It doesn't take much to overcome it. The imp is small, and Evie has long legs and vampire strength on her side. Her hand closes over it's arm.

"We'd like to ask you a few questions, imp. If you'll come along with me and my associate, I'm sure I can reward you for your patience."

This seems to change the imp's mind, and in a few moments, Evie and her new friend come walking out of the woods. She glances at Sirius and nods.

"I'm guessing this is who we were looking for?"

It's a rhetorical question, unless they were completely wrong. But nothing smelled fishy, so Sirius figured they were on the right track.

Of course, what would be the best way to start off this interrogation?

"So, what were you doing here?"

"I live there," the imp says, crossing his arms. "What are you doing sniffing around my house?" he demands to know.

Evie listens, nodding. But she doesn't dare speak.

Sirius resists making any comments about the "house", but he doesn't answer right away. He has to focus on this, word his question right.

"We're looking for someone. A fae, goes by the name of Nemed, I think?" He glances at Evie for confirmation. "Word is, he was last seen around here."

Evie nods, yes, that's correct.

the imp, meanwhile, recognizes the name. "Nemed- yeah, yeah, haven't seen him in some time. Last I saw him here, he was right on top of my house!" The stegosaurus.

"Was he now? Did you happen to talk with him, or see where he went?"

Any sort of lead would be helpful at this point, with the trail having gone cold.

"I haven't seen him since!" The imp said irritatedly, placing his hands on his hips. "He just POOF! into thin air!"

Evie looks at Sirius.

"He was summoned."

Well, that would explain why the trail suddenly goes cold. And why he can't get a lead.

"Summoned? By who?"

"Hell if I know!" Says the Imp.

Evie, meanwhile, keeps her look on Sirius. "All they need to summon is a name. It could be anyone." Could be Samantha.

Sirius nods, suppressing a shiver. Hadn't that been something he'd been doing recently. Collecting names? He was pretty sure Nemed wasn't one of them, but who's to say he wasn't the only one doing it. He didn't feel all that great about it, but he wasn't going to mention it in this crowd.

"There's no way of telling? Guess that ends that. Thanks," he says to the Imp.

"Thank you," Evie tells the imp, before reaching into her pocket. There's a quick moment of movement, and she pulls out a few bills and hands them to him. "We're sorry to have interrupted your afternoon. It won't happen again."

From them, at least.

The imp takes the money and disappears, back into the forest. Better to wait until these trespassers left.

With the imp out of the way, Evie turns to Sirius. "What are the chances it's a witch?"

"I'm willing to assume pretty high? They seem to have been poking around in fae populated areas recently."

To say nothing of his involvement in Bromley.

"I think it's a safe bet to make."

"Fuck." Evie swears low. She tries not to swear, but now is as good time as ever.

"So anyone anywhere could have him." She presses her lips together.

"Looks that way."

Sirius doesn't blame her. It's frustrating, knowing that the trail's gone cold and picking it up again is definitely not going to be easy. And certainly not fun.

"Guess I better go report this. I don't know what else there is to do."

It's beyond his level of skill, that much is certain to Sirius.

"Of course." She nods. She's got some research to do, though undoubtedly there'd be little information available.

"Thank you. For your assistance."

"No problem. Glad I was able to be of some help."

And it had probably taken less time than if he'd been on his own. Negotiations had never been his strong suit after all.

He could have the two of them at his house, he has a lovely office for this sort of thing (and a delightful dog,) but too many people knows where he lives as it is.

There's a nice club in Bromley though, somewhere that looks more like a dance hall from New York in the 40s than modern London, but there's private booths upstairs and the drinks are very good. Eames occupies one upstairs and someone will show Sirius to it if he asks, casually flirting with one of the women who work here while he waits. A fae whose skin glitters when the light catches it just right, for the curious, and she'll ask for any drink orders and leave once it's obviously time for business.

Oh, but dog. Evie loves a good dog. Everyone loves a good dog. Dog.

She understands- she's only ever had Natasha over to her home. She intends to keep it that way, much preferring to use her Assassin safe-house to have guests. That house could be burned. SHe'd rather not burn her private residence. As such, she understood Eames' hesitations.

Evie's already sitting next to Eames when Sirius arrives, having met him at the door. She seems perfectly at home in the old decor. 1940s New York had been quite an experience. She has a drink in one hand, and is talking casually to Eames- something about her girlfriend, truthfully- when he arrives. It signals the shift in their meeting, no longer just social. "Welcome."

"Hi," Sirius says. Hardly the most formal greeting but it's been a while since he's been in a place like this. And he's hardly in a position to swan in and act like he owned the place. Something in the back of his mind suggested that would be a bad idea.

"Might as well get right down to business then, right?"

And he takes a seat. He'll worry about a drink later.

Edited 2017-05-02 04:38 (UTC)

It's a shame Natasha and Evie are both officially unavailable, but Eames is happy for them so it's a nice conversation to pass the time until Sirius arrives. He greets Sirius with a smile and takes a sip of his drink as he leans forward, elbows on the table. Time to get to business.

"What did you find?"

"Honestly? Not a whole lot. I started at the shop, followed the trail to a park. That's where I ran into her," and he indicates Evie with a nod. "We searched a bit, found an imp under a stegosaurus, his house apparently. Imp said he'd see the missing guy and that he'd disappeared right in front of his eyes. Summoned, was the conclusion we came to."

Sirius pauses there, running over everything in his head, making sure he didn't miss any details, though he supposed Evie could always fill in if he did.

"Which means it's going to be near impossible to find him on that information alone. All you need is a name, which I'm sure you know." She gestures at Eames. She really only said it out-loud to make a point to Sirius, unsure how much he knew.

"It's a dead end." They knew it was a witch, obviously. But there was no full proving it.

Eames frowns, "Nemed's a braggart who thinks aliases are for people who're ashamed of themselves." Which is to say, his name's not exactly difficult to get. Honestly the fact that he's never been summoned before (not to Eames' knowledge anyway) comes as a bit of a surprise, now he's said that out loud.

He takes a liberal sip of his drink, it could be literally any witch in the world. Maybe he'd luck out (for a relative degree of luck anyway) and Nemed's in the same place as the fae Finnick was tracking, but Eames can't bank on that. He's going to have to put feelers out elsewhere.

"I don't suppose you found anything else that stood out?"

"Don't think so. It was pretty open and shut, honestly."

Hearing this fact about Nemed did make Sirius feel a little better though. Even if he couldn't remember if that was a name he'd gotten (he's fairly sure he wasn't the one). That probably wasn't the best way to be thinking though. Certainly not the nicest.

"I wish something had," she says with a heavy sigh. It's always frustrating, coming up empty handed, especially when it was Eames she was reporting to. She'd developed a bit of a soft spot for the man in recent months.

Jacob would say she was going soft.

"Worst part is the whole thing's in front of our noses, but we can't connect the dots."

"I've had intel from someone else; a relatively well-known fae was captured by Daybreak." He says it mostly for Evie's benefit, since she's nosing around for her own interest in stopping Daybreak than because she's being paid, but he addresses them both equally, "it could be a coincidence, but it also might not be."

"I'm willing to bet on the not, in all honesty."

Sirius wouldn't be surprised, given the rumours he'd heard, that Daybreak was behind it. Especially if another fae hadn't been taken by them. It just seemed too close together.

Evie nods. "I've been in this business a long time, long enough to know that there's no such thing as a coincidence." She leans forward.

"Especially in this climate."

"I'm thinking not too, but I'll keep feelers out elsewhere too, just in case." Honestly though, if Nemed's got himself summoned by an unrelated witch, it's pretty low on Eames' list of concerns. He was only interested because of it being so soon after Bromley anyway.

But there's no reason to get into all that, and he takes an envelope out of his inside pocket an slides it across the table to Sirius; the agreed fee. Plus a tiny bag of gourmet dog treats because Eames is hilarious.

"Thank you for your effort."

Sirius gives Eames a look that clearly says "really?", before taking the envelope and the dog food. He shouldn't let something like that go to waste, even if he won't eat it himself. The line has to be drawn somewhere after all.

"Of course. I suppose if I hear anything else, I'll pass it along. And you know where to find me, should you need me again."

He gets up, tucking the envelope away and looks at Evie.

"Thanks again for the help. I guess I'll be going now."

He pauses briefly, just in case there was anything else.

It's funny, honestly, Evie has to laugh even though she shouldn't. She'd been filled in later, about the exact nature of Sirius' shifting abilities, so the joke was not lost on her.

Gosh, no wonder everyone hated vampires. She was the worst.

"No, thank you, Sirius," she says, moving to stand to wish him farewell. She glances back at Eames, in case he wants her to leave, too, or if he was apt to call an end to their meeting right then and there.

Eames smiles, ostensibly totally serious about the treats and not at all slipping in a dumb joke. He contemplates some additional parting comment, but the business is concluded, and even if it's not their fault he is a little disappointed.

But there's no reason to give Sirius shit for that, so he just offers a parting wave as he stands to leave instead.

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Investigating a Missing Fae in Two Parts

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