Susan from Billing

Erich Storm's Teeth

It is well after business hours, so at least there's that. Still doubtlessly there are people Working Late in Eva's law offices despite that it is 1) Saturday and 2) Saturday night. So perhaps the young savage emerging from the emergency stairwell from somewhere above-stairs still manages to draw a glance or two as he makes his way through the halls, past the partners' offices with their nice oaken doors and nice mahogany furniture, past the cubicle farm where the lessers sit, all the way to the tiny little mecca of the kitchen.

There is a Keurig machine there, and lots of those little K-cup packs tucked up in the cupboard above. Erich has long since discovered the stash. He pops a nice Tully's French Roast in, then raids the fridge for pastries. Maybe they have apple turnovers. Or if not, maybe he can at least make himself a PB&J.

Éva Illésházy

This time of year there are always pastries. A constant supply of them baked by the staff or brought in by clients or vendors as holiday gifts. Never forget the breadbox full of bagels and the tiny little packets of peanut butter in individual containers, the sort one usually finds on the breakfast buffets in medium-rate hotels, the sort with a waffle machine and a tiny fridge full of tiny yogurt containers and the saddest selection of Red Delicious apples you'll see this side of Wal-Mart.

There is also - somewhere in that fridge - a tuna sandwich named Kevin.

The door to the kitchen opens behind Erich while the Keurig is still warming up. It drifts off to sleep when left unattended over the weekend, so he has an extra minute or two to spend perusing the contents of the fridge before it is time to pop in the Tully's.

"You've made yourself at home." A woman's voice, mildly ironic but without asperity. "I trust you've found everything you require?"

Lola Hawkes

This time of night Lola would typically be back around The Homestead by now, bringing in a final armful of wood for the furnace or trying to teach Hector to speak Spanish while he, in return, tried to teach her how to pluck chords out on a guitar. She'd been in the city visiting her cousin, though, sharing a cup of something warm while she forced information about the Nation and their current events down the reluctant relative's throat. As she was driving back home a thought occurred to her, a snap decision was made, and the rusted 1980-something truck ventured to the heart of the city rather than making its way to the freeway.

Some twenty minutes later, Lola had convinced the front security man (thankfully a Kinfolk) to let her in even though she didn't have a key card to badge her way through the doors. Somehow, she'd also gotten him to help her check the cameras and figure out approximately Erich had been most recently, as the Uktena was hunting for him specifically and was unwilling to go trolling an entire skyscraper looking for him.

The Kinsman assisted by checking cameras with a reluctant frown on his face, but was able to pinpoint a broad-shouldered blond-headed figure cutting across a screen in the last ten minutes and directed Lola which floor to go to. She thanked him gruffly (although there was nothing personal about it) and was on her way.

This is how she ends up making her way through the entrance of the law firm that Eva worked at, looking some mix between cautious and very self assured, but clearly unprepared for how large the office that she'd stepped into was. Desks, workspaces, offices, computers.... It seemed a maze to her. So, slow and with a frown etched into her face, Lola's hands went into the pockets of her open coat and she started to stalk along the perimeter of the office with half the lights turned off that she'd found her way into, not saying a word and hunting with her eyes and ears instead.

Erich Storm's Teeth

Erich yelps.

He not only yelps, he fumbles with the two K-cups he has in hand, because obviously he's decided to brew himself not one but two cups of Eva's firm's coffee. Also he has a little paper plate stacked with two apple turnovers, a lemon bar, and two brownie bites.

So yes. He's made himself at home. And found everything requires. Once the fumbling is under control and the K-cups are picked up off the floor, he turns to Eva.

"You scared the crap out of me! I thought Susan from Billing, who said she was going to call security next time she saw me stealing food. I mean, sharing food."

Erich Storm's Teeth

[I FORGOT ERICH ONLY EATS MEAT. his plate is actually stacked with those hillshire farm sausages and stuff.]

Erich Storm's Teeth

[fuck my life. i meant HICKORY farms.]

Éva Illésházy

"Susan from Billing has no reason to be here after dark on a Saturday night. I'm sure she has a date with a Lifetime Original Movie and a bowl of popcorn tonight, and has to be up early for mass in the morning."

The kinswoman's attire is decidedly more evening than weekend tonight. She wears a bodyskimming little black dress with a cashmere wrap thrown over her bare arms against the office chill. The deep, blooded red of Mozambique garnets at her ears and her throat. She's barefoot, though.

Must have kicked off her somewhere in her office.

"I will make you a deal, though. If you confine your commissary raids to the opposite of ordinary work hours, I will endeavour to ensure that whatever you require is available, when you require it.

"And, Erich?" The brief, dark grace of her eyes on his profile. The slicing edge of an incipient - something. Call it a smile. "You're a Shadow Lord. I refuse to believe that I frightened you."

Lola Hawkes

Somewhere past a few rows of flimsy temporary walls and desks lined with drab pictures of marriages and children and pets, voices start to leak their way into the hallway. Lola's steps aren't loud, she's wearing simple soft-soled white sneakers instead of heavy boots today. Boots are best for hiking, for traversing the terrain, but on pavement and sidewalks and tiled floors sneakers were just the better option all around.

Eva's expressing that she doesn't believe she frightened Erich when Lola wraps her way around into the open doorway of the kitchenette. She has no business being here, and it would be no doubt startling for either of the Shadow Lords to see the vaugely familiar face there. All the same, Lola stands in the doorway like she has every right to be there, one hand on the door frame and the other resting in the pocket of the simple open black jacket that she was wearing. Under that she had a white T-shirt with a screenprint image of something colorful or another on the front of it, and the shirt was tucked into the high waistband of a navy blue cotton skirt that she wore, which was stitched in a way to flow out from the body without being drastic, and the hem stopped at the middle of her shins.

Jeans weren't cutting it for her these days-- she only had one pair left that would button up in any comfortable way, and even then leaning or bending while wearing them was uncomfortable. Her dense mass of black hair was in a knot at the nape of her neck, and her cheeks and nose were still just a touch reddened from the cool outside.

Her expression was only the tiniest bit surprised-- for some reason she hadn't quite expected to see Eva there. But all the same, she jerks her chin up in greeting to the both of them.

"Evenin'."

Erich Storm's Teeth

"Yeah well," Erich looks a little uncomfortable, "I guess I'm not a very good Shadow Lord. Anyway, you didn't scare me. The apparition of Susan from Billing scared me." He scans her for a beat, and then his brain-mouth filter fails again: "Why are you dressed like that, anyway? Or well. Why are you here, dressed like that?"

Lola appears. If she looks surprised, Erich looks doubly so. Then Erich looks sort of disgruntled.

"Hi," he says, a little stiffly.

Éva Illésházy

"I'm here because Congressman Wildborn's nephew was arrested for DUI and possession with intent to distribute and I intend to have him out before sunrise."

A quiet huff.

"I'm dressed like this - "

Whatever she was going to say (she is a Shadow Lord, she was going to say nothing) is forestalled, as Lola appears in the dark offices, in the hall outside the kitchen. The floor is virtually empty at this hour, though a few industrious, foolhardy, or masochistic associates are no doubt holed up in their offices. Those with a hope of reaching 2000 billable hours for the year, anyway. The rest have given up.

A brief, winging look from Erich to Lola, and back again. Her finely arched brows rise in an elegant curl of query.

"Good evening. May I help you?"

Lola Hawkes

[[ Sorry about that! Man got home and had to check some stuff. Typing now! ]]

Lola Hawkes

Lola had clearly surprised the pair of them, although for one the expression of surprise is clear and for the other it's more felt, assumed, figured than anything else. Erich's greeting was stiff, naturally, and Eva asked if she needed some sort of help from her. Lola's dark eyes cast from Kinfolk to Garou. She didn't smile to either of them, but greeted the pair of them none the less.

First, to Eva: "No, thanks though. I'm here huntin' for him--" She nodded her head toward Erich when she said this, then continued-- "though I wasn't sure if you ever heard 'bout what happened with that Nina gal or not?

Second, to Erich: "Ya got a minute?"

Erich Storm's Teeth

"I hope his uncle's paying you really well for coming to save his ass instead of enjoying whatever it is you dressed up for."

He glances at Lola again. And, heart-on-sleeve creature that he is, he frowns again. At least he doesn't yell NO and run off somewhere, though. He just gathers up his yummies and his coffee.

"Whatever you wanna say to me, you can say in front of my tribeswoman." Well isn't he just the Thunder loyalist tonight. "Let's go back upstairs, though. C'mon, if we take the stairs it's quicker than walking all the way to the elevators and waiting."

Milton Kegler

"No need to get up!" He says passing security. "I got this!" In this world there are doers, and there are... Not doers! Milton is one of the first, and in this case what he was DOING was walking and he sure as fuck didn't need some security guard telling him how to walk! This was his life and he would live it his way without the man telling him how to live it!

Soon enough he was onto the elevator and headed up, up, up to... Well, see who might be around. Someone's around right? This place wasn't exactly the kinda place you could abandon, not with the great white tentacle living far below them! Nope, this place was an active threat that required a garou presence so... Milton figured he'd find an army in the section set away for the garou. However, there was a hint of surprise on his face when he found the place empty.

"Uhm... Hello?" He calls out softly as he steps off the elevator and begins wandering around. Clearly this was not a Glasswalker operation, shit would have been handled, organized, and there would be teams up here even now planning the next set of steps for the folks in this city. Hmm... Children of Gaia are running the show maybe? It's hard to say, but Milton wasn't gonna give up that easy, there had to be someone around here tonight!

Éva Illésházy

"His uncle is not paying me overmuch." Erich's tribeswoman replies, her voice low and quite nearly instructive. Cool, assuredly, quite as cool as her glance when Lola allows that she has found her way into the offices of Éva's law firm because she was looking for Erich.

A glance then, at the Ahroun's profile, as he frowns so openly, a plate of smoked sausages and a double-mug of Keurig coffee in hand.

"But he will owe me."

Some things, after all, are more valuable than money.

Family. One's good name.

Favors, assuredly.

"The back stairwell is around the corner."

That instruction is for Lola. Éva's reasons for accompanying the duo are her own, but accompany them she does: out the door of the kitchen, to the back stairs, echoing and industrial. And up and up and up.

Lola Hawkes

Erich explains that anything Lola needs to say to him can be said in front of Eva, and that they should head upstairs. Lola glanced to the plate of smoked and dried meats and the two cups of coffee that Erich was managing to balance and raised one expressive eyebrow just a little, but her attention was pulled away by the older Kinswoman who explained they could use the back stairwell that was that-a-way, around the corner.

Lola shrugged one shoulder and stepped back out of the doorway, and would wait for the pair to pass before bringing up the rear and following to the stairwell.

She doesn't wait to start talking. Apparently she was completely comfortable with having her conversation with Eva around. If there was one thing that Lola was unfamiliar with (up until very recent events, at least), it was a solid sense of shame.

"I was gonna wait 'till the moon was thinner, but I was in town already," she begins explaining, and catches the door from whoever passed before her when they enter into the stairwell and start making their way upstairs. "I owe you an apology, man. I shouldn't have pushed ya like I did."

Erich Storm's Teeth

Well, color Erich surprised. Not so surprised that he drops his coffee and sausage plate down the stairs, but -- surprised enough that, marching up ahead of the kinswomen, he turns and kind of just ... looks surprisedly at Lola.

"Wow." He sounds genuinely impressed. And maybe Eva, who thinks in terms of what people owe her and what those favors could amount to in the future, also thinks Erich is totally wasting a chance to hold this over Lola for some future gain, but -- "That was pretty cool how you just owned that. I respect the guts that took.

"And well. I'm pretty sure I had a part in escalating that too. Like I'm pretty sure I jumped down your throat a couple times. So. I'm sorry I didn't even try to make peace or anything."

Éva Illésházy

They walk that brief stretch of hall to the stairwell. Éva opens the door, Lola is bringing up the rear. But before the security door snaps closed behind them, the eerie, almost rather angular sound of a phone ringing in a silent office. Just the rush of forced air from the furnace, the hum of the electronics. The whirr of some machinery, somewhere far away.

Still, that ring. Éva snaps her head up, pauses on the rough, concrete stairs, a narrow frown knit between her brows.

"It sounds like the two of you can work this out own your own." Mildly spoken, all told. "If you'll excuse me, I do have to get that. Good night."

Lola Hawkes

Lola had just let go of the door to let it smack closed behind her when Eva declared that she needed to go get the ringing door. Erich was already partway up the first half-flight of stairs. So, the Uktena snatched the door by its handle and held it back open for Eva, and waited until the woman had passed through before letting it close again. She provided Eva with an off-handed kind of: "Goodnight, then," before the heavy security door thwacked back into place in its frame and the pair born under the Full Moon were left to ascend the staircase as a duo instead.

Erich was clearly surprised by what Lola had to say. Perhaps he thought she was seeking round two, or that she was going to try and better define the ground that she was trying to stand on when they'd gotten into their argument a week ago. He says that the's impressed with her and apologizes as well. Lola just looked up at him evenly, but didn't offer any smiles.

Rather, she began that climb up the staircase and nodded her head to urge him to come along as well, though he was probably starting the journey himself already. "Ain't your place to be making peace," she said dismissively. She kept close to the right and let her hand trail along the railing to help along the way up. Lola was a solid creature, built to last and weather the worst of storms, but her body was forever exhausted these days and after three flights she's slowed, is taking her time with her steps, but refuses to pant or break a sweat. She was a proud thing, after all.

She'll be waiting for his guidance as to which floor they're stopping at, and so stays a few steps behind him.

"I don't think we're gonna agree on what we were fighting about, so I ain't even gonna try with that subject again. But... I know what your Kinswoman was gonna say before I... 'eh... left. Wanna set that straight, at least. That I don't hide behind bein' a Kinfolk, and that wasn't what I was tryin' ta say." That thread of pride gleams bright, and there's a disgruntled edge to her words. "But I figure that's a conversation for her and not you."

It seems Lola had a number of full and pseudo apologies to make following her actions last weekend.

Milton Kegler

Milton was seated in the hallway at this point, with a smile on his face as he wandered around the building's internal security system curiously on his iPad. How the iPad was interfacing with the local security system would be anyone's guess, but Milton seemed to be having a blast peeking around and seeing what this building had in the way of defenses. It was surprisingly easy for the new moon to lose all interest in what he was doing and find himself sucked into something else.

Erich Storm's Teeth

"Night, Eva," Erich calls after the departing kinswoman who is, he supposes, sort of his ward. Or something. Weird thinking about her like that. Weird and somewhat ill-fitting, especially since Erich is fairly sure Eva has more money, connections, resources and wiles than he ever will. So it's not like she exactly needs to be looked after. "You should come visit upstairs sometime. I mean, you were half the reason our showdown with the Beloved Horror was even the semi-success it was. So. Yeah."

Then she's gone, and it's just him and Lola. And they're trudging up the stairs, and after three flights Erich is obliged to stop because Lola was clearly winded. "Just four more," he assures her, which might not be all that assuring because four more ffs.

"Melantha's not my kinswoman," he adds, almost reflexively. "She's my packmate, but she doesn't belong to anyone but herself. Anyway, yeah. I didn't think you were hiding behind being a kinfolk. At all. I mean I sort of thought you maybe ... should a little more almost? 'Cause dude, challenging full-moons to throw down on a full moon is gonna get you beat up or killed someday. 'Cause some of us have totems that tell us we can't refuse a challenge, you know? Plus, tempers."

He starts climbing again. Four stories. Five. Six. He pauses again:

"Anyway what I'm saying is: I know you weren't hiding behind that. But yeah, that's probably something you and her should talk out. You guys might actually have some common ground. A lot of differences too though.

"C'mon," he says. "One more flight."

Up at the top, an unremarkable steel door opening into the hallway of the ex-Sept. Erich has been camping out there for a while now, and while he doesn't sleep here often, and doesn't even come here every single day, he's here often enough that his scent lingers in the air. Some of his stuff can be found lying around -- a cellphone here, a bag of chips there -- particularly near what used to be the challenge circle.

They don't get that far, though, before they run into Milton. Who is a stranger to Erich. Which instantly prompts the young Ahroun to call, "Hey! Who are you?"

Éva Illésházy

If Éva understood that Erich thought of her as, sort of, his ward, the look she flashes him before the security door swings shut would be considerably cooler and rather more guarded. Instead, there's a quiet beat of her steady regard, the mild twist of the beginning of an ironic little something that reacts not-at-all to the compliment, so much as the invitation.

"I will."

Is all she says, then. There are no other farewells.