arboreal_priestess | Sarah's Deluxe Penthouse Suite, The Ivy Hotel, Friday Afternoon,

The disapproving eyes of the concierge tracked the two of them across the lobby of the Ivy Hotel, a five-star establishment whose suites cost more per night than Verity made in a month of bartending for Eric. It was the sort of place where they'd film movies, if the management didn't consider Hollywood film crews too déclassé to trust near their marble floors. Even the air tasted like money, a delicate blend of expensive perfumes and unobtrusive all-natural cleaning products.

Verity	"Good to know that no matter how often I visit, I always feel inferior," Verity mumbled to Liam, stopping in front of the elevators. She smiled at the operator—yes, the real, live elevator operator—responsible for keeping the buttons from soiling a patron's dainty fingertips. Or even a patron's distressingly lower-class guests. “The Tower, please. Sarah's expecting us.” It wasn't entirely a lie. She hadn't call ahead, but once a cuckoo was telepathically attuned to someone, they could 'hear' them coming a quarter of a mile away. Verity hadn't been able to sneak up on Sarah since they were eleven. "By the way, please pass on to your friend how much Sarah adores it here. It's entirely possible that she might never leave."
Liam	"Renee'll be glad to hear it. She loves being right," Liam said, a faint smirk crossing his features.
Verity	"I have no idea what that's like," Verity said airily, the doors closing behind them. As per usual, she felt grubby visiting Sarah's expensive hotel, though if Sarah stayed long enough the hotel staff would barely bat an eye if she swanned through half-naked and dripping blood on the floor. She was there to visit Sarah Zellaby and that would be enough for them, no matter how much her clothes set her distinctly apart from their normal class of clientele. "By the way, how much have I told you about Sarah?" Her eyes flicked to conductor as a reminder they weren't alone. "I mentioned she's adopted, right? But from the, ahh, same place my Grandma's from."
Liam	"I remember," Liam said with a nod. "We talked a little bit about her talents that night we all went clubbing." Well, hunting, technically, but it had been at a club, so... sort of, right?
Verity	Perfect, and the grin she shot him said so. "Yeah, well, she's a lot more than a math geek," she told him. The elevator dinged and the operator opened the door for them. Verity gave him a nod of thanks and slipped him a ten--probably less than he was used to, but she wasn't exactly rolling in cash here. She waited for the elevator door to close before continuing. "The proper name for her species is Jorhlac, though when we're at home, we just call them cuckoos."
Sarah	"If there's ever been a race of cryptids that came close to justifying the Covenant’s shoot on sight attitude, it's the Johrlac," Sarah intoned, opening her door. "The perfect ambush predator, capable of blending into crowds anywhere in the world without leaving so much as a ripple to track them by. They look human on the outside, and the only ways to see a cuckoo clearly are for the cuckoo to decide you're allowed, or for the cuckoo to die."
Verity	"Thank you, Captain Drama Queen," Verity snorted. "Hey, Liam and I dropped by to say hello. Got some time?"
Sarah	"That's her patented 'I want something from you' face," Sarah told Liam. "Learn it well."
Liam	"Is that what that is?" Liam said, shooting Verity a teasing grin. "Good to know. And for what it's worth, they were anthropologists more than predators, but you also just more or less described the Kimera- my father's species," he added to Sarah.
Verity	"Yeah, well, she didn't get into the fun parts," Verity said, tugging on Liam's hand to bring him inside. She flopped on the nearest couch, certainly without due consideration for what was probably a five- or even six-figure price tag. "From everything you've told me about the Kimera, they're nothing like the Jorhlac."
Sarah	"If cuckoos were just mimics, we wouldn't be a problem," Sarah admitted, closing the door to her penthouse. "There are lots of cryptids that specialize in pretending to be human, and for the most part, they make pretty decent neighbors." She sat on the matching loveseat, head cocked towards Liam. "You know I'm a telepath. We all are--receptive and projective both. Starts in utero. And the problem with being a receptive telepathic fetus if your mother is a projective sociopath? So are you, from the moment you're born." Sarah's eyes skittered away from Liam's, looking a little haunted. "Took Angela a lot of work to teach me to play nicely with the others."
Verity	"My grandma," Verity explained. "She is a projective telepath, not a receptive one. So she didn't get any of her mother's thoughts while in the womb and so was born fairly sane. That helped her integrate into human society and when she found Sarah, still young and malleable--"
Sarah	"She decided to see if she could fix me," Sarah said, nonchalantly. "And presumably had a contingency plan if she couldn't." She didn't sound upset about that. She was a receptive telepath. She knew what cuckoos were like. Killing a little girl would have been the safest option for the rest of her family.
Liam	Someday, Verity, Liam might tell you about the Kaluuet. But not today. "Nobody knew what to expect when I was born," he replied, flopping down next to Verity on the couch. "I don't know what they would've done if I hadn't come out looking as human as I did." Or if he'd taken after his human father in personality, because talk about sociopaths. "But," he shrugged. "We're not here to discuss that."
Verity	"Or charming 'this is how I was deprogrammed as a preteen' childhood stories," Verity agreed. "We're here to ask a favor."
Sarah	"What did I tell you?" Sarah said, slanting a look to Liam.
Liam	"Noted and catalogued for future reference," Liam replied dutifully. "But as for that favor," he continued. "Our 'friend'," and although he didn't make an accompanying hand motion, there were definitely some verbal air quotes, "from the Covenant seems to think there may be a dragon somewhere under the city."
Sarah	Sarah stared at them.
Verity	"If he's right, it's probably asleep, since I haven't heard any reports of Godzilla's scary older brother rampaging through Central Park," Verity offered with an attempt at a smile.
Sarah	Sarah continued to stare, inhumanly frozen.
Liam	"We met a Madhura who said there have been disappearances in the local cryptid community," Liam added. "Legitimate disappearances, not just people leaving in an effort to avoid De Luca's attention. All female, all unattached."
Sarah	That got Sarah to start thinking again. She broke her unnatural stillness and finally blinked. It was the little details like those that proved no matter what Sarah looked like, she was not actually human. "Implying all virgins, if you're an archaic prick," said Sarah, beginning to nod slowly. "Have you called Uncle Kevin?"
Verity	"Not yet--that's my next stop. I wanted to see if you could do a scan for subterranean hostiles," Verity said, suddenly very glad they'd left Dominic out of this. "See if we're about to have the world's biggest iguana come out and start eating people."
Sarah	"You realize that in a city this size, you're basically asking me to buy two first-class tickets on the Migraine Express, right?" Sarah asked, looking dubious. "I've got class tonight. Liam, you're a telepath aren't you?"
Liam	"Not... exactly?" Liam said. "I could tap in to the Taelon Commonality, when it still existed, and if you ever find yourself trapped in your own mind, I could probably pull you out, but- I can't scan for other minds, not the way Verity tells me you can."
Verity	"Not to mention, if I'm going down into the sewers, I'd like backup and if my options are you, the asshole from the Covenant, or Liam..." Verity shrugged. "I'd like the person I can trust to watch my back and is capable of it."
Sarah	"And I'm a mathematician, not a fighter," Sarah said with a sigh. "As well as knowing whether or not you're gonna get eaten. Fine." Sarah dug a cell phone out of the pocket of her jeans. "Hi, Professor Hines, this is Sarah. I just wanted to call and let you know that I ate some bad sushi, and I won't be able to make it to tonight's review session. I'm really sorry, and I'll make sure to get Tanya's notes before next week's class." She hung up. "There. I can now incapacitate myself for your pleasure."
Verity	"Anything you can find will be a big help, Sarah, really," Verity said, patting Sarah on the hand.
Sarah	"Fine, but you owe me a proper milkshake and Liam owes me a conversation on telepathic ethics," Sarah declared, relaxing back into her seat and looking up at the ceiling. "It'll be interesting to talk to someone who didn't get theirs from ~~meta for~~ Babylon 5." As soon as she finished speaking, she went limp, eyes staring sightlessly upwards. Her breathing got shallower and shallower as she continued to stare, eyes wide and startled-seeming. She didn’t blink. After about thirty seconds, her irises began to glaze over, going from icy blue to a milky, cracked-ice white.
Liam	"Is that- supposed to happen?" Liam checked, glancing over at Verity. She didn't seem terribly concerned, so he figured the answer was yes, but you never knew.
Verity	"Yeah," Verity said, nodding slightly. "Freaked us out the first time she did it when we were teens. This is a reason I didn't invite Dominic along for this visit, too. Little scans like at the club are different--she can still talk, even if she's distracted, you know? This, though, she's completely defenseless. It's the one time cuckoos are vulnerable, even though this is exactly what they're made to do."
Liam	"And considering at best he'd probably be complaining about this being 'unnatural' right about now, solid choice," Liam said.
Sarah	Verity's noise of disgust was interrupted by Sarah. "There's something there," she said in a remote, utterly disconnected tone. "It's big. It's old. And it's hungry."
Verity	"Where is it, Sarah?" Verity asked, keeping her voice level. Most telepaths responded better when people didn't sound concerned by the fact that they'd fallen into a fugue state. Verity didn't understand the psychology behind it, but then, she wasn't the telepath.
Sarah	"I don't know. Close. There's too much earth between here and there, and the subway system is in the way--I can't see it clearly. But it's big." She hesitated. "Did I say it was big?"
Liam	"You did," Liam confirmed, his tone soothing. "How big is big? Bigger than a bulldozer?"
Sarah	"It thinks big thoughts. It dreams big dreams." Sarah twitched. "It's asleep. It's been asleep for a long time. I think...I think it's hibernating. Waiting for something to change before it wakes up again."
Verity	"Is it really a dragon?" Verity asked, almost in disbelief.
Sarah	"I don't know," said Sarah, a note of peevish irritation creeping into her voice. "What does a dragon think like? You tell me, and I'll ask it."
Verity	"She can't really do that," Verity said, before Liam could say anything. "Sarah, is there anything you can give us as a pointer? What direction do we need to go?"
Sarah	"Down." Sarah blinked, the blue returning to her eyes as she sat up in the chair and looked at them gravely. "You need to go way, way down, Very."
Liam	There wasn't really a lot of 'down' when it came to the city, which meant... Liam let out a long breath, not quite a sigh. "She means the sewers, doesn't she?"
Sarah	"Absolutely I do," Sarah said, raising her hands to massage her aching head. "And you need to go now, because I think somebody's trying to wake it up."