All will be well, even after all the promises you've broken to yourself...

[techniclybrill]

It's a warm, pleasant evening, which has plenty of people outside enjoying the not entirely fresh city air. No one wanted to be out earlier in the day, but now that it's cooled off a little... there are people abroad. Well, depending on your definition of people.

Tosh is out of the Kashtta for the first time since Torchwood arrived there - after a

Comments

[cherubstempter]

Mathias really needs to not smoke inside. It's not considerate. Though, of course... ex-demon. There are some things he really cannot be arsed about. So he's walking around smoking. Because... he can.

"I spy a very sexy receptionist behind that desk," he calls as he catches sight of them. "Oh, and Gwen, hey, honey."

Yes, Sam, he's an asshole. Deal with it.

[torchwoodsheart]

Sam glances up briefly at Mathias, looking patently unimpressed, and then looks down again to make a note on one of the papers. "Does he usually flirt right in front of you?" he asks Gwen.

She smiles slightly and shakes her head a little, though not necessarily in response to Sam's question. "Hi, sweetheart." She notices the cigarette, snaps her fingers, and points at him admonishingly. "Put that out or go outside."

[cherubstempter]

Mathias raises an eyebrow and takes a very pointed drag off his cigarette. "You mean this is a non-smoking building? I don't see any signs..."

Don't push it, Mathias, or you won't get sex tonight. Or this week. Or possibly this month.

[torchwoodsheart]

Gwen quirks an eyebrow at him in a do you really want to push this? kind of way. She is a little amused, but letting Mathias know that is never good. "It's a building where we live and work. You smoke outside."

Sam glances up again briefly, from Gwen to Mathias, and he doesn't bother hiding a slight smile. Mathias, Sam wouldn't bet on your chances of winning this argument.

[nowinprint]

Here, Tosh, have a Surprise Attack Dmitri who arrives at your table carrying a piña colada in one hand and a raspberry daquiri in the other. She's not exactly a stalker, really. More... persistent and motivated in the pursuit and stalking engagement of those she considers her sources.

"Wabash and Lake," she says, with the air of one who's discovered pirate treasure. "Like the Matrix."

[techniclybrill]

Tosh starts a little. Surprise Attack Dmitri is indeed surprising, or maybe Tosh is just on edge and hasn't had enough to drink yet. She blinks at Dmitri for a second, down at the papers, and then smiles in a slightly confused kind of way. "Is it? I hadn't noticed."

She shuffles a few of the papers, making room for Dmitri if she wants to sit down.

[nowinprint]

Dmitri looks at Tosh, looks from drink to drink, ponders.... then pushes both of them across the table at her. "There was a bridge there in the Matrix," she says. "But note how they carefully didn't establish what city they were in. Clever of them."

She drops into the chair, smiling.

"Having a good week, moy kotyonok?"

[techniclybrill]

"It's a couple blocks away in this universe," Tosh says with a slight smile, considers the drinks for a moment, and then takes the daiquiri. "Thank you. It's been... alright. Busy." Mostly setting up security systems and PA systems and the occasional briefing that reduced her to giggles... Alright, there was only one of those.

Tosh considers asking whether Dmitri's following her, or whether there's just a high probability of running into Dmitri in bars. Instead, she just asks with a grin, "Found anyone interesting to interrogate lately?" Interrogate probably isn't the word Dmitri would use, and Tosh knows it, but "interview" doesn't quite seem to cut it.

[der_weevilkonig]

Owen has obtained several somethings through underhanded means.

Oddly enough, for Owen, the means were actually much more underhanded than the things themselves, which consist of stethescopes, laser levellers, and a small handheld camcorder. In the sort of plain brown bag one might carry sex toys home in.

He's got them tucked under his elbow as he comes in, spies Gwen and Sam doing something official and no doubt deadly dull, and makes for the stairs hoping that neither of them will notice him. Because it's easy to ignore someone crossing the biggest, emptiest lobby in all Chicago, right.

[torchwoodsheart]

They both notice, alright. Sam, like most people who've met Owen before, decides not to question half the things he does. Gwen, however, considers him for a moment, and allows him to get almost to the stairs before she asks, "Nice to see you, Owen. What's in the bag?"

Well, if he's going to look so suspicious about it, he's practically asking for her to question it.

[der_weevilkonig]

Owen jumps. A little. Glances around, shifting his grip on the bag.

"Nothing," he says, just a tad too definitively. "Equipment. ...some equipment we didn't seem to have lying around. This place is rubbish at any sort of supply cupboard, you realise that?"

[torchwoodsheart]

It looks, Gwen notes, like quite a bit of something to be nothing. "Well, considering it was completely empty when we moved in... So why were you trying to sneak by like it's a bag full of sex toys?"

Sam considers commenting in answer to that question, decides against it, and settles on a smirk. That seems to be one of two possible approaches to dealing with Owen - the other involves an overwhelming desire to smash his head into the nearest hard surface, which isn't something Sam tends to do often. (There are other people around perfectly willing to do that for him.)

[talkbackwards]

Ronnie Thorne hasn't been in Chicago since she gave Tosh the drugs- more precisely, she split town the minute she got that one journal message. She intended to go back down to Columbia for a bit, chat up some friends, but the current situation in South America made that something of a pipe dream and she wound up in Vegas.

Vegas is not a good place for anyone, least of all anyone who catches the eye of a certain Neqa'el demon.

And now, because he's soon to be in town, she's back in town and badder than ever, and she just so happens to be lurking in a certain bar, because occasionally the universe is not nice to certain people. She finds this to be terribly amusing, considering it's her first day back in town.

So Tosh, heeeeere's Ronnie.

More specifically, here's Ronnie leaning over the back of Tosh's booth in a manner that is decidedly creepy to whisper in her ear. "Miss me, baby?"

[techniclybrill]

Tosh had not been expecting that in the least. You don't really expect someone whispering in your ear out of the blue, much less someone with a voice that recognizable. She yelps and jerks back, just missing spilling her drink. A few papers scatter to the floor as she spins around to face her.

"Ronnie! What..." She swallows back several questions, and for a moment her expression flickers between a familiar smile and suspicion, mistrust. "Hello," she says at last, reserved and formal.

[talkbackwards]

Awwww Tosh. Why the mistrust? Don't worry, Ronnie'll fix that right up. Aw come on, doll. You can trust me. Always could.

Ronnie just grins and saunters around to the other side of the table, picking up the discarded papers with a quick sweep of her hand and putting them back onto the table before sliding into position in the seat opposite Tosh without being asked. Asking is for other people.

"I go away for a couple months and that's the reception I get," she pouts a little, snapping her fingers at the waitress for attention and ordering a draft beer. "I'm trying to decide whether I should be insulted or not."

Vegas did not do Ronnie well- well, if you're a demon, you'd say it did her a world of good. Not so much if you're any human who has to come in contact with her.

[techniclybrill]

A little of the mistrust eases away as Ronnie sits down - some people are more susceptible to emotional manipulation than others, and Tosh is probably near the top of the list. She eyes Ronnie for a moment, working her lower lip between her teeth, and finally says a bit more sharply than usual or necessary, "Well, you did give me drugs the last time I saw you."

She studies Ronnie's face for a moment, and then looks away, across the bar. It's hard, looking at her - Tosh can't quite sort out what she's supposed to be feeling.

[armedandangelic]

It's very rare to see Mitsuki out of her business clothes- she typically hunts alone where no one can see her, but considering that's probably not going to be likely in this particular situation, she's getting used to the idea of wandering around the city in casual clothes (all black, of course, which probably nets her a few weird looks from the locals given it's the middle of July). She doesn't really want to make this a habit, but it has been awhile since she hunted and she does need to do it occasionally. Damn archangel instincts.

She notices Georgia and Martin as she comes out of an alley and easily falls into step a few feet to their left. "Now kids, you keep playing like that and someone's going to lose an eye, and then you'll have to wear an eyepatch, and I will call you 'Patchy' and mock you forever."

[astrongerbeacon]

Neither of them start at the sound of Mitsuki's voice - they sensed an angel nearby, and Georgia grins, seeing it's Mitsuki. She likes Mitsuki, even if she is weirdly controlled for an archangel. Then again, Georgia's the type who enjoys the killing things part of her job far too much, so...

Martin inclines his head to one side, considering, and then says, "Would it be terribly childish to say she started it? Because... she did."i

[armedandangelic]

Good kids. She loves it when you can sneak up on them and they don't even bat an eye. She rolls her eyes in Martin's general direction.

"And I'll get you a parrot and teach it to say things like, 'Martin Raske is a pretty, pretty princess' just so you can't even look like a badass pirate." She's teasing, of course. She only does it out of love.

And then she's quickly all-business. "Are you having any luck or did the demons hear us coming in the goddamned van and retreat to their holes to mock us in silence?"

[aboveandbelowme]

Martin snorts and gives Mitsuki one of those adorable smiles of his before blowing her a kiss. "Really feeling the love here."

Georgia spins around to walk backwards in front of Mitsuki, shrugging a little and spreading her arms. "We weren't exactly riding in style. Or subtle, when you look at it. If they had anyone keeping an eye on the Conrad, no one's gonna miss a van full of kids with you and Vincent at the wheel, and if they had any common sense or self-preservation, they'd have run for the hills then."

Which, if you want to summarize, means no, they haven't had any luck, and the demons are probably hiding.