Presenter: Milly LeCrique

[Laraqua]

"C'mon, talk to me," says the irritating man. "C'mon... You're a pretty lady, let's go do something ... nice...."

The man in the hoody gets up slowly from his chair, settles his baseball cap on his head, and turns to go.

[Milly LeCrique]

Without looking at the man, Milly says in her iciest tone (just loudly enough for the barman to hear): "If you don't stop annoying me right now, I will ask the barman to call a police officer. Go away."

[Laraqua]

"Aww, what the fuck?" he snarls, turns and heads out.

[Milly LeCrique]

Milly waits for a long moment, listening intently for the fellow's possible return. Then she lets her pent-up breath slowly escape. She drains the remains of her drink and pushes the empty glass across the bar.

"Give me a ginger ale over ice in a highball glass with three cherries," she says in a voice that warns him not to smirk. She takes the concoction to a corner booth where she can watch the lobby, but no one can approach without her seeing.

A gulp of the sweet drink floods her with comfort and memories of being treated "like a grown-up" at cocktail parties before her parents' relationship began to founder when she was about twelve.

Where the hell is Tim?

[Laraqua]

She gets a text message from Tim.

Going back to Ophidian.
Something about an attack on Tash could happen.

[Milly LeCrique]

Milly texts back: Come by Malz to pick me up?

[Laraqua]

I want to see if this dude is for real first.

The man in the hoody orders another drink, throws it back, and starts playing with a set of rosary beads.

[Milly LeCrique]

<ooc - I thought he had left: "The man in the hoody gets up slowly from his chair, settles his baseball cap on his head, and turns to go." I guess he just went to the men's room. >

Milly keeps an eye on the guy as she texts back: "keep me in loop."

She reaches into her bag and uncaps a Bic pen, holding it on the seat beside her in her right fist, point up.

[Laraqua]

ooc - he turned to leave but never actually left.

The man in the hoody stands there and throws back the drink.

[Milly LeCrique]

Milly keeps an eye on the guy, the pen in her right hand, her phone in her left.

[Laraqua]

The man then does turn and leave, zipping up his hoody. Her phone hits her back with a text message.

Yeah, we're going to Ophidian now.
I'd suggest you go find a taxi though.
Explain later.

[Milly LeCrique]

"see you there" Milly texts back. Then she walks out of the bar and across to the front desk (her pen clutched in her fist at her side).

At the desk, she asks the clerk to call her a cab. She waits at the desk until it arrives.

[Laraqua]

The taxi cab soon arrives.

[Milly LeCrique]

Seeing the taxi through the front doors, Milly walks briskly out and gets into the vehicle. She doesn't give the address until the taxi door is closed and the driver is pulling away from the curb.

[Laraqua]

"Yeah, yeah," says the taxi driver, mistaking her irritation as being directed at him. He drives along in silence, no chatty driver speak for her.

[Milly LeCrique]

no chatty driver speak for her.

<ooc - Yay!!>

[Milly LeCrique]

Milly sits back in a corner of the cab. She reviews the last couple of days' events, trying to make sense of all of it. Or any of it.

[Laraqua]

Milly can make some sense of the previous few days though not in any way that should make sense. Her old friends disappeared inside a hotel room without any noise, as though they weren't there at all, bringing to mind images of old ghost stories she had once heard. But that didn't make sense in and of itself, as that Scottish fellow seemed to have been brought home by her friend. Had they kissed? How do you kiss a ghost? Also, if she'd died, surely Milly would have heard about it... But the phone calls, the disappearance, it didn't seem quite natural. Perhaps it wasn't a ghost. Perhaps something was going on there but that was hard to believe. Her show studied such strange occurrences all the time, though, surely there should be some techniques or people there who could figure it out?

Then there were the kidnappings. She had no idea what that was about.

[Milly LeCrique]

As she ponders, Milly lets Berlin wash past the taxi, waiting until it arrives at Ophidian.

[Laraqua]

It soon does, pulling into the taxi rank just before the giant building, where two other women are climbing out of a cab. She recognizes Natasha Chaikovskaya, from the museum, as one of them.

If you want to go speak to them,please join [b]Francesca Morletti's[/b] thread.