"Thanks for coming out with me, Vaggie," Claire commented as she crossed another name off the list in her hand. This wasn't a particularly bad part of the city, but there weren't any particularly good parts of the city in general and it was nice to have a walking buddy that glowered as successfully at everything as Vaggie did. "Sorry it hasn't been more exciting. Three no-shows and a couple of door slams pretty much sums up how this always goes," she sighed.
"I'm just surprised you asked me to go with you instead of Alastor," Vaggie replied, scowling at a man walking by who quickly crossed the street despite a fist fight breaking out on the corner there, "Though I guess he would've just voodoo'd everything up, given the chance." She added with a roll of her eyes.
"Oh, he is definitely not interest in this kind of thing," Claire said distractedly, double checking the number of the next address on the list and the ones on the buildings they were passing. "And it's not vodou."
"What?" Vaggie asked, blinking at her.
Claire stopped in front of a townhouse with a broken front window and climbed the handful of steps up towards the door, "Hoodoo, possibly, but both are too positive for what Alastor does." She flipped a page, cross checking the name with the address, "Maybe like how sinners manifest their lives in their appearance, magic does the same thing-it looks and acts how you think it should."
She knocked sharply three times on the door, taking a step back in case the owner brandished a weapon. It'd happened before. "For some that's sparkly fireworks," she continued conversationally as they waited on the stoop, "and for others its weird symbols and insensitive, cultural appropriated imagery. Which, considering this is Hell, I'm frankly surprised we don't see more of everywhere."
Vaggie stared at her before saying flatly, "…you sure have given this a lot of thought."
"You haven't?" Claire replied with surprised amusement, giving her a quick look right before the door opened a crack. A pair of beady red eyes stared out from behind a pair of thick glasses.
"Whatever you're selling I don't want any," he said succinctly as he went to close the door again.
"Wait!" Claire exclaimed, holding up a hand and sticking the toe of her boot in the sliver of opening left to keep the door from closing completely, "We're not selling anything! We were told Fern lived here?"
The shift was instant, and the door was pulled open, "Fern? You know Fern?" the man both sounded and looked worried. He was short and round, more mole than man except for the fact he was the size of a child, "Have you seen her?"
"…we haven't," Vaggie exchanged a look with Claire, "…which is…why we're here. Did something happen?"
"Something must've!" The man said, clutching his head, "She hasn't been home in days! Hasn't been to work—it's not like her. I've been worried sick but she's not picking up her phone—"
"When was the last time you saw her?" Claire interrupted gently, "Do you know where she was supposed to be before she went missing?"
The man nodded several times, reaching back to pull out his wallet, "She works at one of the clubs downtown—Pour Decisions. Here's a recent picture." He handed a wallet sized photo to Claire of a pretty looking young woman who had tufts of pink woolen fur pulled back into puffy pigtails that were creatively wrapped around two curved horns.
"I know that place," Vaggie piped up, "It's not too far from here."
"We'll check in and see if we can't figure out what happened, okay?" Claire tucked the picture into her notebook and gave him a smile. "And let you know either way."
"Thank you, thank you!" the man exclaimed, tears welling up in his eyes, "I'm just so worried—please do let me know, whatever you find."
As the door closed behind them, Vaggie and Claire headed back down the street. "There are a million ways to vanish or get killed around here," Vaggie pointed out once they were out of hearing distance, "Why do you even care about this? I thought you were looking into that dead overlord."
"I've been surprised by a lot of things since I got here," Claire explained, "Like how everyone just seems to go with it when so many things don't make sense." She slipped the picture out of the notebook and looked at it once more, "But what's surprised me the most is that there's love here. Real love. I didn't expect that," she glanced to the red sky thoughtfully, "He obviously cares about Fern. She's on the list, so I don't mind looking in to it since I need to talk to her anyway."
"…why all the sudden talk of love?" Vaggie asked suspiciously, with a slightly disgusted expression.
"It's just something I've been thinking about lately," Claire replied, putting the picture into her jacket pocket.
Vaggie grimaced and looked away, as if reliving a bad, recent memory.
"Anyway, I love a good puzzle," Claire continued cheerfully, "Gathering evidence, rearranging all the pieces together until they click, and of course there's the thrill of the hunt itself!"
"I see why Charlie relates to you so much," The tension in Vaggie's shoulders faded as did her grimace, replaced with an approving smile, "You're both really passionate about your pet projects. But we've got a lot of ground to cover before it gets dark so—"
"Actually, let's head back," Claire interrupted, stopping and turning back towards the hotel, "You just gave me a way better idea."
Once back at the hotel, Claire headed straight for the roof and set the picture of Fern down on the ledge, "This is what she looks like," she told the four hellcrows that gathered around, "Hades and Styx, I thought you could take the area around Pour Decisions. Acheron and Kokytus, a wider perimeter, but that general area."
"We used to spy for our mother and now you're sending us out to spy for you?" Hades looked away with a ruffle of feathers.
"It's not spying," Claire pointed out, giving him a look, "it's finding a missing person. And I asked. You don't have to go if you don't want to."
"I want to!" Styx said immediately, flaring his wings proudly.
"Anything for you, Claire!" Acheron piped up.
"Happy to help reunite two people in love," Kokytus agreed, lifting his beak in Hades' direction.
Hades eyed the three of them and sniffed, "…what a bunch of kiss-ups." Though as soon as the other three lifted off he was quick to follow.
"I really appreciate this, guys!" Claire called out, waving after them, "Don't talk to strangers and please be careful!"
She watched until she couldn't see them anymore, leaning both arms on the ledge. It was sort of a gamble, she didn't love sending them out into the city when a stray word could get them in trouble, but they could definitely cover a lot more ground than she would've been able to with Vaggie. Since this was a needle in a haystack situation anyway, it made sense to have them make a general first pass. Besides, she thought as she pushed away from the edge, this gave her a bit more time to prep for breakfast tomorrow.