Varyx Glimpses

[Varyx]

Lush, wine coloured rooms. Carpets the colour of melting honey. A wide window looking out over the city, adjacent to a modern-looking gas fireplace.

Yes, Varyx thought, I could stand to spend some time here.

The money was exchanged, and within a week, the apartment was hers. She had few earthly possessions, but what she did have was of impeccable quality and taste. Curled up on the large, over-stuffed wingback chair, she watched the city lights blinking to life as the sun went down, a glass of wine in one hand and a well-read, dog-eared book on the other. On the table next to her, her phone vibrated once - a message from a "friend" who was to aid her with moving her particular business from San Francisco into a new city.

"To new beginnings," she murmured, lifting her glass as if to toast to the whole city, laid out before her in sparkling lights.

Yes, she could do very well here.

[Varyx]

People assume sex work is... well, sexy. Sometimes, it was. Most of the time, it was a lot of paperwork. Checking, double checking, signing on the dotted line. Making sure the right people got paid to keep their pretty mouths shut about the semi-legality of what she was doing.

The girls weren't a problem. You wouldn't think it, but ladies looking to make some money doing something that came naturally to them were a dime a dozen, and more than a few found themselves unbothered by the questionable legality of the activities. It helped that Varyx was a woman herself. Accurate or not, they tended to look at men as pimps, but a madam was one of them. And it was true, in any case, at least with Varyx.

No, the long process was finding and vetting clients. Clients who weren't going to sell them out to a cop looking to make a name for him- (or her-) self. Clients who actually had the money they claimed to. Clients who didn't have a violent or cruel streak. If one of them ever laid a hand on her girls, there would be hell to pay, but she tended to try to prevent that from happening in the first place. Revenge only meant so much to heal trauma.

Her office was in a modern high-rise, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a beautiful view of the city. Her assistant, a cute little red-head named Marcy, was sitting outside wearing a headset. Everything was brushed steel and glass. It looked like the office of a stockbroker or maybe a corporate consultant, rather than an escort. A middle-aged man wearing a tailored suit that Varyx noted probably cost more than most cars stepped into her office, and she smiled genially, standing and taking his hand in a firm shake.

"Mr. Andrews," she greeted, her tone pleasant, calm and welcoming.

His aura was subdued, mostly a deep burgundy colour, with streaks of dark blue here and there. He was nervous, he'd never done this before, but excited and more than a little aroused by the idea of what he was about to do. And he was concerned about whether or not the girls would actually like him. Even if he was paying for sex, he didn't like the idea of the woman in question hating every moment of it.

Varyx's smile grew imperceptibly wider. She'd go through the motions of interviewing him, making sure he knew the rules, etc. She'd hum and haw and pretend to consider his responses carefully. But she didn't need to. She already knew he'd make a fine client.

Ah, the benefits of being able to "cheat."

[Varyx]

When Miach had said the Sanctum had a library, she hadn't actually expected it to be the size of an actual library. Well, a small one, anyway. Point was, there were more books here than she had expected. She'd gone looking for information on the Lex Magica, thinking it'd be a quick affair. But here she was, a few hours later, a fresh cup of coffee sitting on the table next to her, a pile of books around her. She'd gathered a blanket over her shoulders to ward off the evening chill, and was curled up in a chair, an ancient-looking book open in her lap as she gleaned through the various verdicts of the Sacramento Consilium up to this point. There wasn't a chance in hell she was going to be able to memorize all of it, but having a familiarity was something she needed to have. Because, like Avis had said, the Path needed to be prepared for the possibility of their Councilor's death. Especially given that she was also First Talon and one of only two Talons in the city. Like it or not, she lived a dangerous life. And while Varyx hoped to whatever other gods might be listening that there wasn't a bullet out there in some Banisher's gun with Avis' name on it, they had to be prepared for the possibility.

Because, as she'd said herself, hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

[Varyx]

One of the things that Varyx appreciated most about her job was the excuse to enjoy herself. Like any other business owner, she had meetings and had to spend time in an office, but that was only half of what she did. The other half was all satin and fine wine. Tonight was such a night.

She barely even recalled what the gala was for - some kind of fundraiser for schools, or something like that. It gave the people in their fine clothes and sipping their expensive alcohol an excuse to feel good about themselves while they did so. Not that she was judging - oh no. Some might say that the money spent on a fancy evening like this might have been better spent if it all went to the schools, but Varyx wasn't so foolish as to think that would be true. No - too many people would pass on their charity if it meant they couldn't enjoy it. By her own estimates, at least half of the people in the room were only here because they wanted to be seen here, and another third on top of that, despite their best intentions, probably wouldn't have given nearly as much if others weren't around to watch. The only reason to numbers for the charity auction had gone so high was so the people who purchased the items could be seen being generous.

Only foolish idealists would judge these people, and it would make them hypocritical, because the foolish idealist is guilty of the same crime themselves, if in a different way. Virtue-signalling is more important than actual virtue. The truly virtuous know this, and they allow others an opportunity to do actual good with their preening and attention-seeking. Of course, the greatest irony of it all is that the schools are probably Seer controlled, and the idealist and attention-seeker both are buying into their own ignorance of the Truth.

One can bemoan the fact that this is human nature, if one so desires, but that won't change the fact that it's still human nature. Idealists want to change humanity. Realists like to work with the tools they have to do what good they can. Varyx liked to think of herself as a realist.

Tonight, she was here to sell a service. There were, naturally, several of the city's more prominent politicians in attendance. Varyx had done her research - one was recently divorced, one was trapped in a loveless marriage, and one had simply never been married to begin with. All men and all, undoubtedly, with certain needs that Varyx's girls were particularly adept at meeting.

Favour for a favour?

[Varyx]

Home, alone, with a glass of wine and a dog-eared book. Some silly supernatural romance that she'd read a million times - the irony of a mage reading such a thing appealed to her in some way, she supposed. Once, this had been her life. Her magic existed to make her life easier. She had no firm goals, beyond a desire to insulate herself from the fate that had befallen her mother. She didn't know what life was for, and she didn't care. Her life had been a quest for greater comfort. It was the pinnacle of consumerism and commercialism. A Kardashian without the cameras. Shallow, monied, unattached.

Sacramento had changed things. She, with her trust issues, had been forced to depend on people. She couldn't survive alone here, but if she expected to be helped when she needed it, then she needed to help the community in turn. She had to become someone valuable to them, so they'd value her enough to care if she needed them. Her instincts said that this wasn't what she'd wanted. That she missed her old, simple life. Sometimes, she caught herself wondering why she didn't just leave. Go to Los Angeles, maybe. Find somewhere that she could settle down, run her business in peace and pursue her shallow comforts. That was who she was.

But if that was true, then why was she so much happier?

[Varyx]

A smile to the right person can get you all sorts of interesting information, and into all sorts of interesting places.

A smile to the night guard as he made his rounds in the records room did all that was necessary to ensure he wasn't looking at the books in front of her. She'd said she was here looking into some of the city's old architecture, despite the fact that there were personnel files sitting on the desk.

A smile to a harried intern, and an offer to help carry some of the files that went flying when some busy man bumped into the poor girl, was all it took to see her exchanging "harmless" gossip as they walked together to her boss' office.

A smile to the bored-looking security contractor standing in front of the door, alongside a fetching blush and a quiet apology for forgetting her card, saw him waving off her apology with a smile of his own and letting her in with the promise that she be quick, because she wasn't supposed to be in there with idea.

A smile could be a weapon all it's own. No one ever thought that the price paid for a pretty smile from a pretty girl was too bad. And indeed, it wasn't. There wasn't any such thing as a single fact that would change everything. No single smile was going to bring down the Banisher influence in City Hall. Instead, it was a little whisper here, a little reading there, in exchange for smile after smile, that painted a picture.

  15 successes over 7 rolls to find out about Peter Dick

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-04-25 12:02:22		[07] Varyx rolls 8 to Looking into Peter Dick (Wits+Investigation+Spec+Contacts) (10 Again)		7, 5, 5, 1, 2, 10, 8, 4, 7		2 successes
2016-04-25 12:02:22		[06] Varyx rolls 8 to Looking into Peter Dick (Wits+Investigation+Spec+Contacts) (10 Again)		6, 2, 5, 1, 6, 5, 4, 9		1 success
2016-04-25 12:02:22		[05] Varyx rolls 8 to Looking into Peter Dick (Wits+Investigation+Spec+Contacts) (10 Again)		5, 9, 4, 9, 9, 3, 5, 6		3 successes
2016-04-25 12:02:22		[04] Varyx rolls 8 to Looking into Peter Dick (Wits+Investigation+Spec+Contacts) (10 Again)		7, 8, 2, 9, 5, 7, 6, 9		3 successes
2016-04-25 12:02:22		[03] Varyx rolls 8 to Looking into Peter Dick (Wits+Investigation+Spec+Contacts) (10 Again)		5, 1, 2, 2, 4, 9, 7, 9		2 successes
2016-04-25 12:02:22		[02] Varyx rolls 8 to Looking into Peter Dick (Wits+Investigation+Spec+Contacts) (10 Again)		2, 10, 2, 7, 3, 1, 2, 2, 9		2 successes
2016-04-25 12:02:22		[01] Varyx rolls 8 to Looking into Peter Dick (Wits+Investigation+Spec+Contacts) (10 Again)		3, 1, 7, 2, 10, 2, 6, 8, 3		2 successes