Laying Low

Mathilda had made it to New York a few months ago and it became quite clear that she couldn't afford a place to stay, as Everything was so expensive. So, she had to resort to some, less than legal methods of acquiring cash. Knocking over ATMs and compensated dating. The later was only dinner and a movie.

She got enough money to scrape by with a single room apartment. She Had gotten a job flipping burgers at a fast food join, but it wasn't giving her the hours. She Needed to make more money somehow, but she couldn't go crazy either, as it Will draw the eyes of her Umbra sisters, and that was the Last thing she wanted.

"You know, you could always go into business with me, making and sellin weapons." Rodin says as he holds his thumb to his cigar, which burns with a purple flame "Or, you could come and work for me at the Gates of Hell. A cute little witch like you would certainly bring in the customers." he chuckles to himself.

Mathilda looks over to him "Rodin, what are you doing here? Is there something wrong?" she asks, a little nervous. Rodin sometimes showed up to warn her, or to remind her that when she dies, her soul is his, and sometimes just for shits and giggles. He, sometimes, creeped Mathilda out.

The demon shakes his head "Na. Nothing like that." he takes a draw of his smoke "I seen you were hurtin for money and thought I'd offer some advice." he says "You know, you really should get out of this tiny Hell hole and enjoy your time here while you can." he says.

*And There it is...* she thinks to herself "I'll, take your advice under consideration. For now, I should get some sleep. I have an early shift." she says.

Rodin chuckles "Alright, darlin. I can take a hint." he says as he starts towards the front door "Either way, I'll see what I can do to help you with your money situation. Until next time, Tilda." he says as he heads out.

Mathilda sighs as she locks the door. Tilda is what Rodin had taken to calling her. It kinda irritated her, but there Really wasn't anything she could do about it. So instead, she changed into her night shirt and crawls into bed.

Morning comes rolling around and Mathilda grabs her showing supplies and head to the bathroom on this floor. There were two others on this floor, one was a crack head and the other was call girl who had frequent visitors at night, keeping Hilda up.

After a quick shower, because the hot water heater for this building was small and she needed to save some for everyone else, she gets dressed in her uniform, looks herself over in the mirror and sighs *As always, this is as good as it's apparently going to be getting.* she thinks to herself as she heads out, locking up as she goes. This wasn't the very best neighborhood in New York, after all.

Devin wasn't sure why his business had started picking up but he was grateful for it even if he wasn't entirely sure what changed. Besides that, the only thing notable had been Tracy taking in a kid that had become something of a mini mascot, untentionally of course.

Today he was off work, so as long as nobody metaphorically burned Last Maiden down he didn't think too much of it. He wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do for the day but he figure it out on the walk, he always did.

While on her way to work, Mathilda could Feel the forces of darkness all around her, but she wasn't sure if it was her that they were looking for or not. She could also feel the forces of light searching for her kind, so that they may be rid of them.

She knew she was more than a match for, uh, some of the angels that may come for her. But the bigger ones would be a problem, that's one of the reasons she was keeping a low profile.

Devin saw the young Umbra Witch, of course without sensing or anything else, he just saw a attractive young woman and didn't give it much mind. Even if he did, it wasn't like he had any problems or personal beef, even if he didn't think the power trade off was worth messing with.

He usually hid his wings under his coat, but not this time as he just didn't feel like it. He just got mistaken for a Mystic or something most of the time.

As Mathilda walks on past, she stops as she sees some kind of glyph form over head. It was gone in a second, but Mathilda Knew what it was.

While others couldn't see them, Mathilda could see that the Angels had come for her!

She needed to open a gateway to purgatorio and handle this matter before things got out of hand.

There were still some people around, so she heads to an alley and waves her hand as a Strange Symbol appears before her, she quickly looks around before stepping in. The symbol disappears shortly after.

What the hell?

Devin had noticed something, it just of course wasn't what he had been expecting at the end of the day was symbols. Those were the stuff used by the Umbra Withces weren't they? Either way they were gone at the moment so he would try not to think too much about it.

He guessed it wasn't his issue at the moment anyway for now.

Mathilda finished with the angels for now and jumps back into normal space. But, she was covered in blood and angel bits at the moment. Luckily she made it back to her apartment. She Needed a shower. But, that would mean she would be late for work... that's the second time in a row. One more time and she would be fired.

She grabs a quick shower *Blood is So hard to wash out...* she thinks as she finishes up, heads back to her room, dries off, gets dressed in her spare uniform, and books it back to work " I am gonna be So late!" she says as she makes her way past the crowds.

* *

She Finally gets to work "You're late, Again! Tilda. That's Two times in a Row. What's your excuse This time?" her supervisor asks. Some prissy college guy "A bus crash? Mugging? Maybe you got lost? This isn't jolly ol' London, after all." he says in a smarmy tone.

Mathilda So wanted to Punch his lights out, but she needed this job "No, sir. Nothing like that." she says. He didn't have to bring up her accent or where she was born. That was just hurtful *I wonder if I can call HR about that?* she thinks as she signs her wright up, puts her apron on and gets to work. She was on the fryer today. Her Least favorite work station. She liked cashiering. She could talk men into buying Anything she suggested, and even some women as well...

Maybe today would be a bit better then some of the other crappy days he had or not, it was a coin flip. He ended up going to one of the nearest fast foods, which was the standard; but what he didn't expect was to see the Same chick from before. It was odd one of their kind was working here where they could make bank with their skills elsewhere. So something was up or they were keeping a low profile.

Regardless, wasn't his place to judge or pry. "I'll have the number one and that's about it thanks." He tried to be polite to everyone but espeically service workers, too many people treated them bad because it wasn't a "real job" whatever the hell that meant.

Mathilda noticed the man with the wings from before. She admitted, she was nice looking. The wings threw her off a bit, but she knew from experience that he wasn't an angel, well, at least not the ones she just dealt with. They looked weird and were really aggressive towards one of her kind "Tilda! Pay attention to what you're doing! You're burning the fries!" the supervisor barks at the witch!

This brings her back to reality and her job. They were a bit on the Too golden brown side, but they could be salvaged *I can fix this!* she thinks as she pulls the fries, dumps them in the strainer and goes for the salt. However, the Fates had other plans for those poor fries, as the lid to the salt shaker pops off and dumps the Whole thing all over the fries!

"What the hell, Tilda? All you had to do was lightly salt them, not dump the whole shaker on them!" the super says as he muscles the young witch outta the way "Move! I'll fix this mess! Just, go clean the bathrooms or something!" he barks.

Mathilda sighs, dejected. She guessed she would go clean the bathrooms. She wanders out of the kitchen, taking her apron off as she heads to the cleaning closet, which was just outside of the restrooms.

Devin was eating but thanks to his enhanced hearing heard the poor young woman being yelled at. Sure he understood stuff but he didn't feel like yelling unless it was something really grevious helped much with those you worked under you.

After some mulling it over, he made a decision after noticing them dejected and heading to the cleaning closet. "Excuse me, sorry to bother you I won't hold you for long. But I noticed you don't seem as happy working here. If you're interested in a job change, here's my card. You can sleep on it." He handed them his Last Maiden business card, but but whether they ended up accepting or politely declining was fine with him, at least he tried. He was just a sucker for helping people when they got like this and it was in his power to do something.

Mathilda sees the angel guy moving towards her. She didn't think he was a threat, at least, not to her, and when he offered her a business card, she was thinking that he was some kind of shady businessman, looking to hire her for a movie or something.

But as it turned out, he was a detective *Interesting...* she thinks as she takes the business card "Um, thank you. I'll give it a look." she says. She could see her supervisor eyeing her 'I, uh, had best be getting back to work. But thank you for your concern." she says.

Devin nodded a bit. "No rush and no biggy if you decline. You take care of yourself." He wasn't sure why the supervisor seemed to had their panties in a knot, maybe they were unhappy or had little man syndrome. It didn't matter.

Hopefully they did since they didn't seem to be treated that well here, plus he wouldn't mind a Umbra Wich on their mix matched family. Interview would be more to get a better deal of her character and he thought himself pretty good at those.

After a Long day of work, Mathilda Finally gets back to her apartment and flops down on her bed. She smelled like French fries and cleaning solution. She needed a mad shower, but someone else was in there at the moment, so she would have to wait.

She pulls the card that this 'Devin Lavouche' (sounded French) had given her. At least, she Assumed that was Devin. He didn't give his name.

She boots up her laptop, turns the wifi on her phone on and jumps online to do a little research on this 'Last Maiden Detective Agency'. It seemed they had a website, not very well done, but it got the point across.

They specialized in Non-Human and Paranormal matters. She would have to check them out in person and if she got a good feeling from them, she would see about taking that man up on his offer... It surely beat working at a fast food place.

Around the next day, Devin had gotten to his office extremely early which meant he beat most people unless it was Ava or something who came in because of something she was working on. Depending how things went it could be a boring day or interesting.

There was one person at the office this early and it was Han. He was reading the paper when Devin walks in "Good morning." he says "I have a fresh pot of coffee ready for anyone who comes on in needing a pick-me-up." he says.

Han usually watched the office at night, just incase they get some late night calls or visits asking about their services. He holds up a piece of paper "We had One call last night. A missing person's case." he says. The piece of paper had the name and contact information.

Devin didn't get any new emails for applications or anything, but to be fair it wasn't super common. The only person that might come up was the Umbra Witch if the young woman decided to show up.

"Hm. Interesting. I'll take a look.." Devin went to his desk to look at the paper for case information before giving the person a call.

Han shrugs "It sounds like it's not going to be very fun case to take on." he says "But, if you need any help with it, feel free to let me know."

The door opens and Danny wanders in, coffee in one hand, a paper in the other "What's up everyone..." he mumbles, sounding dead tired.

Devin would have to wait for said person to hit them back for a appointment before he could really say anything further. "I'll let you know when time comes. and hey Danny." He wasn't always a morning person so it wasn't too much of a surprise he was in the state he was currently in.

Danny waves, half heartedly "Hmm..." he mumbles as he takes a seat "Got a meeting today." he says, as if that explains why he's here so early.

Han looks at his watch "That's fantastic. You let us know how your meeting with the publisher goes." he says, as if it wasn't any secret whom Danny was gonna see, he's only been talking about it for a week "I have some things I need to take care of, so I'll see you all later." he waves as he heads off.

Devin wondered what it was but maybe necro business? Either way he shrugged it off. "So what time do you have to get your meeting stuff done?"

Danny shakes his head "It's a lunch meeting, so I don't need to be going for some time." he says as he stifles a yawn "The commercial we shot last week isn't tracking as well as we thought, not with the time slot we want to put it at. So we have to think of something else." he says.

The front door opens and a young woman in a WcDonald's uniform comes walking in. Danny could tell who, and what, she was instantly. She smelled of brimstone, gun powder, and gun oil. At least to his senses.

Mathilda looks around and spots a werewolf right off the bat, but not only that, it was a Hylian werewolf. She also found out that this Devin fellow wasn't an angel of any kind, but rather, he was a Ralphim from a place called Noreal. Supposedly another planet.

She walks over to Devin "Hello. I've decided to take you up on your offer for a job, if it's still open." she says. Danny took note of her slight British accent, along with everything else.

Devin considered the young woman very attractive but he tries to be a gentlman and no one wanted a creep. Besides it was being professional, he offered the young woman a job so she could get out of something she obviously wasn't happy in and he intended to probably do that. He felt this would be her getting a feel of him as much as he was, since the people you worked with made or broke a job.

"Thank you for coming, and yes its still open. Come into my office and we'll talk." Devin went into his office room, unlocking it and closing the door before getting himself comfortable. "First, I want to properly introduce myself my name is Devin Lavouche and its nice to meet you. Tell me a little about yourself what you're comfortable with and why you think you'd be a good fit."

It was pretty much the generic with job interviews, but there was a reason; it worked. It wasn't just what they said, but it was also just getting a feel of someone as a person on both ends.

Mathilda looks over to Danny, then back to Devin "My name's Mathilda, pleasure. Um, can we talk in private?" she asks "What I have to say, I don't want others to be privy to>' she mumbles to Devin.

Danny get up, coffee in hand "You know, I could use some real breakfast. Coffee's good any all, but it's not very filling." he says as he heads out.

Mathilda looks back to Devin, after watching Danny leave "I apologize for that, but I don't know him and truthfully, I don't really know you either." she points out "But, I guess that's why we're having this interview..." she realizes that she's rambling and takes a breath.

"Okay, the first thing you need to know, is that I'm hiding from some... people, who are none to thrilled with me..." she starts, just laying it out there "They seem to think I have a habit of breaking the rules, when, in fact, I just put what they were teaching me and my sisters into practice." she says.

The last part was a bit of a concern for Devin. "I'll be be honest, the last part is a cause of concern. These people that are after you are they ruthless? Would they for example use some of the people here to get to you? I just want to know a bit of what we might be getting into if we sign you on and they find you." It was doubly important because of what she was.

As loathe as he was to admit it, he wasn't a match for even the weaker Umbra Witches, Sage's or anything that likely be after her.

Mathilda thinks for a moment "I, honestly can't say. After I had escaped from them, because they wanted to seal me away for a Hundred years, I only saw them a handful of times, but lately, not even so much as hint of them in the air." she says "But no, I don't believe they would hurt anyone else, other than myself that is."