Melina looks a little odd entering a cybercafe in her blue and gray flowered 1950's style dress. She calmly walks up to the counter and orders a tea, and pays for that and an hour at one of the computers.

Computers are not her forte. She knows just enough to check her email and the little bit of html her Poetry Journal, Spider Webs, requires. But checking her email and planning her next issue are a treat for her. She selects a terminal by the window and happily settles in to work.

 The crowd is quite diverse, from business professionals to gamer kids. They all seem preoccupied with their own information, their own small crisis. The tired looking girl at the counter barely keeping up with the sales. They had recently had to cut back their staff due to dwindling sales in the night shift and now they only focused on the day crowd.

There are a few oddities that seem to be hanging around, a bag lady with a cup of coffee seems to be chanting to herself in the corner while one of Sanfield's finest appears to be chatting up an underaged teen in a remote corner.

This place was once a very top end gaming site and you can still see the remnants, but it appears to be shifting into some other market now and you are hard pressed to make a guess as to whether it will survive the change.

Melina checks her email and carefully copies out a few poems that were sent to her. She respond to one of the poets, a local university student, asking about a lunch meeting.

Once she's done her business, she makes an effort to listen in on the bag lady's mumblings. You never can tell what wisdom the mad possess.

(2009-02-28 18:47:09 Melina Petrova rolls 6 dice to Perception + alertness 10,9,4,4,10,7 (4 successes))

 Her musings range from the mundane to the downright bizarre. She seems intent upon ranting about the local government, but the mayor himself is the target. She seems to drone on about a girl of innocence afterward, but it is unclear as to exactly what she is referring to perhaps her own youth far gone now. She chatters about ravens and omens of various degree suggesting that something is coming, something that shall herald a change.

The locals all seem to ignore her and continue on with their normal affairs. The waitstaff seem unperturbed as well, obviously she must be a regular here as they pay her no mind at all.

Her ramblings about a girl of innocence catch Melina's attention. Realizing that it's probably the verbal wanderings of a mad woman, but knowing that the threads of the Dan weave in odd directions, she pulls out her journal and opens to the page she started with Dermot's descrïption of his dream girl.

She takes a sip of her tea, stands up, smooths her dress and walks over to the woman. "Pardon me, Madam. Do you have a name?"

 She appears bewildered by anyone's actual attention, she is often just plainly ignored entirely.

"Why, yes my pretty, Chastity is her name and she dwells within the house of cards. A fortress to protect herself from those that despoil the world with lies and slander. She is herself lost, wandering the streets as we all must, surviving on the kindness of strangers. Why do you want her?"

She begins to have a keen eye upon you as if she suspects you are yet another that would attempt to uncover her secrets.

Melina smiles reassuringly "I seek your wisdom, my dear lady. You see, I have a mystery I'm trying to unravel. I don't suppose you know a girl with hair that.." she reads from her journal "'flowed as sparkling gold falling down the mountainside.' And eyes like 'emeralds plucked from the crowns of lords.'?"

She watches the woman's face, hoping to catch sight of reaction, even if madness or paranoia keeps the woman from answering.

(2009-03-08 16:44:23 Melina Petrova rolls 6 dice to Perception + Empathy 5,5,3,4,2,7 (1 success))

 She shakes her head, though from the look in her eyes you would guess she certainly had a glimmer of recognition. Her shoulders start to hunch together while she draws in her neck and head trying to appear quiet.

"No, never seen her. I'm just a silly old woman why would I know those things?"

She seems to strain her mouth closed, trying to keep it shut.

"Red, its red, just to tell you though," as she starts gathering her things in a manner of an obsessive compulsive.

(Give me a Perc.+ Kenning roll diff.6)

Melina hopes that displaying calm will sooth the old lady, "Red? Why thank you. I knew you could help me. Is there someplace you'd be more comfortable talking? Or may I buy you something to eat or drink? It would be lovely if you'd elaborate."

She's is not sure if the woman's comment was symbolic, literal, or of no worth. But there's something about the lady that makes Melina think she may know more then she's letting on.

(2009-03-10 22:46:48 Melina Petrova rolls 5 dice to Perception + kenning 5,3,10,8,8 (3 successes))

 As she continues gathering her things your sharp eyes spot what appears to be some sort of dross that is slightly visible from one of her front pockets. You can only see the very top, but you are certain whatever it is it belongs to the dreaming. It looks like a card or leaf, being very thin and is translucent.

"No thanks, hon. I really need to be goin'. I gots them cats that need tendin to and I ain't never seen no lady, specially a pretty one with no green eyes or weared pretty dresses. No, no, I ain't seen no one matched that 'scrïption."

Patience is a virtue, Melina remind herself. She smiles at the woman, "Thank you for you time, Ma'am. I hope some other time you'll drop by Mistrals, and I can buy you tea and a pastry. We can speak about the lady with green eyes and lovely dresses, whom you don't know, and about that lovely item you have in your pocket which I have no interest in. When you do, I will bring some tuna for your cats."

Melina rises and walks back over to her computer. She sits and records everything she can about the lady and the encounter in her journal under Dermot's descrïption.