The clock on her nightstand had read 7:17 AM when she'd dragged out of bed and wandered down the stairs in pursuit of something cold to drink. Eve wasn't sure how she'd managed to sleep after the ups and downs of the previous day (especially without the use of medication), but it had its effects; she'd had the weirdest dreams. She couldn't recall exactly, but one of them had involved herself and Evan, and oddly enough, the twin girls she'd met before at Arion's semi-sanctuary being chased by wolves - and wolves with glowing green eyes on top of that. The start from that one had been the catalyst for getting her out of bed, really.

Barefoot, hair sleep tumbled and her eyelids still heavy, she made it to the fridge and fished around for anything cold to drink. The shirt she wore was a black button-down, left open low at the collar and rolled up a bit at the cuffs. It was comfortably big on her, particularly though the shoulders, but fell to mid-thigh. Tipping her head back, she downed most of a bottle of apple juice without pause; anything to quench the odd, feverish heat thrumming through her.

There was a note - several in fact - left for Eve from Jara, to let her know she'd had to make a few early morning runs, and swing by the PSD to check up on Evan. There were also some forms left for her to fill out before she saw Dr. Hanson for her appointment. There was even a message from Dr. Maxwell for her annual checkup at Stonebridge - if she decided to follow through, and not skip any of the messages. Other than that, Steele's abode was pretty much the same as it was in previous versions, but nothing mentioned Jared, nor were there any pictures of him. It was like he never existed.

Eve actually listened to the messages and looked at the forms; to her credit, she even picked them up like she intended to fill them out. Idly, another juice bottle in her free hand, she'd wandered through the rooms, taking another look at everything. It seemed so...normal. Quiet, but normal. Nothing pointed to the missing Jared; had his existence simply been wiped from this Reality altogether? It looked as if Jara had replaced him ...

Deciding to take advantage of the quiet, she found a pen and settled herself down in front of the TV in the media room, turning it on one of the morning news programs, and even started to fill out the forms. She figured it was relaxed enough now that running around in one of Steele's shirts with complete bedhead was permissible. At least until she finished some of the paperwork.

A scanner-like device began beeping, displaying a message that was also sent to Jara on about a possible paranormal event. When she wasn't eating for four or sliding off hoods of cars, the woman came off as a no-nonsense agent. It rattled off the specs and locations across the monitor, she was headed to the downtown district, to a Gothic bookstore called The Dragon's Lair.

The beeping startled her out of the near-doze she'd settled back into, and she'd had to have a look at the device and the monitor. The Dragon's Lair? It had to be busted, didn't it? Straightening, Eve stared at it for a second, then turned around and darted up the stairs to do a very quick change. At least she knew the location pretty well; it wasn't even that far away. She was soon outside, fully dressed, and dialing Jara on her cell *just* to make sure she wasn't batty and had read it right ... and be sure the other woman was heading that way, too.

"Hey, if it isn't sleeping beauty! What's up, Elf?"

Elf. Great, she was calling her that, too. "Heey ... where are you headed?" Yeah, it was a bit unusual for her to be up that early, but Eve could be full of surprises!

"Oh, some book shop downtown. Dragon's Lair. Heh, it reminds me of those '80's arcade games. First in laser disc technology, that and Space Ace ..." Uh-oh, Jara was going off on one of those tangents.

Eve had to blink, and even pulled the cell back for a second to look at it. "Jara ... Jara! What the hell are you talking about? Okay, nevermind. I'm gonna meet you there."

"No can do, kiddo. You're not cleared. What's up?"

Damn. She'd forgotten about that! Eve stopped, brows drawing together in a scowl. "... I've been there, done that. No guarantees, but the guy that ran it before was a big, nasty sucker. Kinda psycho too, I think." Her fingers flexed as she tried to think of a way around that, and kept coming up with dead ends. Funny, it felt like she spent more time in psychiatrist's office than anywhere else.

"Um, okay, Elf. I'll be sure to ask Kanvas about that when I see her. Was this a vision of yours?"

Sighing, she dropped her head back. "No, it's ... I ... there was this whole little ordeal there when I first met Steele, before the Reality Shifts started. I don't know that it holds now, but be really careful, okay? Who's Kanvas?"

"Kanvas Aron. She's the new owner of Dragon's Lair."

"Okay, new one on me. Whatever. Just be careful. I guess I'll go to the PSD and check on Evan and Steele. Maybe even finish my paperwork and get the stupid evaluation over with so I can be reinstated." Until the next time things went odd, and she had to have *another* one.

"Will do, Elf. Later days!" And off Jara went.

... Wait, did she say *new* owner? Was Mortimus the previous owner, depending on the right Reality?

Things promised to get, and probably stay, confusing if she let them. Eve only hoped the 'new' owner was more trustworthy than ol' Morty had been, and that the little store wasn't full of critters waiting to injure her friend. The idea made her nervous, but Eve finally sighed and snapped the phone shut, and changed direction and destination. Luckily, that nervous energy had filled her, so it didn't take her long to get there. She was headed for Evan first, hoping he'd calmed down and that maybe his disposition had improved a bit.

Entering the PSD made for a pleasant change of pace - and things were pretty much normal there. She wasn't looked upon as a freak, and was on good terms
with everyone there. And there was Dr. Stacy Hanson, who was from Evan's Reality, and was exactly how she'd been before - period. This time however, she couldn't get in to see Evan. "Sorry, Eve. Doctor's orders."

"Lovely. What about Steele? He off-limits too?" Well, she was starting to get just a touch annoyed. Eve was *really* hoping that she wouldn't be left with nothing but boring paperwork and mental evaluations. She already knew she was off; didn't need proof of it!

"Steele? No, he's down in the library. Left for there about 20 minutes ago."

"Okay. Thanks." At least she felt relatively *normal* there. Too bad she'd only come across it so relatively recently. Eve headed for the library, hoping she didn't miss him or something.

Books to the left of him, books to the right. In a world where pretty much everything was data, Steele was old school, as well hands on. Books were fun to read. With a pencil firmly between his teeth, he was the model of intense concentration, save for his arm being confined to a cast and sling.

Rather than saying anything right off the bat, she'd quietly walked up, eyeing the books scattered around and the pencil in his teeth. Staying busy, one-armed or not. "Wow. I almost hate to break your concentration by saying hi."

An arch of the eyebrow, followed by a smile, as the pencil was pulled free and put down onto the table. "Just keeping the brain sharp, frail. Good to see you, though. Been looking up something that's been eating at me. Look at all of these books, dated as far back as, well ... as far as books go. No mention of Daemons. " A slight frown, before he shook it off.

Hooking a chair with her foot, Eve pulled it out nimbly and sat down, looking at the books spread on the table. "That's interesting. I can't say it really surprises me, though. They may not be mentioned, but I don't think that really means much." They were still there, but she suspected there were other names put to them - if any at all.

"I'm with you on that one, frail. I'm willing to bet the farm that they stayed within certain Demonic guidelines. Devils. Sucubbi. Incubi, Sirens, just to name a few. I've been doing some cross references in the books, before checking them against the web. How are you doing? Hanson give you the green light?"

"No. Haven't had my appointment with her yet. I was trying to fill out the paperwork for it when I heard something about The Dragon's Lair on that scanner-ish thing in the media room, and I offered to meet Jara there. Needless to say, she nixed that pretty quick." Not that she was happy about it, but it was slightly relieving at the same time.

The name caused him to stop what he was doing. "The what?"

"The Dragon's Lair. Goth bookstore. Was run by a really ugly bugger named Mortimus when ... well ... you took me there to check it out after I met you." She shrugged. "Apparently it has a new owner. Kanvas ... Aron?" Was that the name Jara said?

"Didn't know that it was rebuilt. That's a name for you." He wrote it down like it sounded: Canvas Aron. "Huh. That's ironic. The last name backwards is Nora."

"Neither did I, actually." Folding her arms along the edge of the table, Eve had scooted forward in the chair, watching what he was doing. "Great. My middle name again." Comforting! "Anyway, I hope whomever is running the place is behaving themselves. No weird summonings or Daemon Gates or ... anything else."

"Aww, it's probably nothing - I have a habit of doing that with names. Jara will be fine. They wouldn't send her into a dangerous situation by herself. I hear Evan's not been very social since they Contained him. He won't even turn solid."

"Sometimes habits like that can be useful." It was an interesting little tidbit, if nothing else. "But regardless, I'll be kinda worried until she gets back. That place just wasn't cool."

The mention of Evan sobered her a little, and she nodded, clearing her throat softly. "Yeah. I was going to see him first, but they told me no one was allowed under doctor's orders. I went to see him last night, and he didn't say anything; he even stayed in that spectrum where even I couldn't See him." Eve shrugged gently, stormy gaze focusing on the books, but not really seeing them. "Ultimate anti-social behavior." Softly.

"Don't be shruggin', frail. He's a good kid. I just don't want him becoming one of those vengeful spirits. I can talk to Hanson if you want."

"I don't know if there's anything I can even do or say that can help him. I mean ... he was pretty pissed. And to a point, I think he already *is* one of those vengeful spirits." If what he'd done the day before was any indication, that was. "... But I would still like to see him."

"Just be there. Actions speak louder than words sometimes, frail. And wouldn't *you* be pissed? I'd be pissed. Then again, we've all seen what my *dark* half is capable of."

"Yeah. But at the same time, I think he has to realize he's at that edge, you know? I think he has to *want* to step back from it." She'd do what she could for him, but ultimately, the choice was Evan's. "Well, yeah. But at the same time, I also know that the division was quite literal; I mean, you get nothing but a lot of negativity from *anyone* together and see what it's capable of. I'm not rationalizing it or making excuses, I'm just ... I'm just saying ..."

"You're incredibly cute when you're focused."

A blink, and she looked at him. Oh. Yeah. "Um ... thanks?"

"Maxwell had you pegged that you were mental, but you never cracked, no matter what happened. Hell, if anyone came out of this better than they were before, that's you. And with a handful of us knowing what we do doesn't make it any better."

Eve had to grin a little. "That's true. Try telling most anyone else this stuff, and they really *would* think we're batty. It sucks in a way, though; before everything went Glitchy the last time, Doc and I had even - sorta - made amends. Of course, he'd been brought into the whole paranormal studies thing." A little shrug. "I had a message from him about getting a check-up at Stonebridge, though." So she wasn't sure if that still flew.

"It's kind of weird, but I think all of this stuff has actually *saved* my sanity in some strange way. At least I know I'm not alone in it." And she flashed a smile, small, but bright.

"Okay, since we're both dancing like the stars, when it comes to this, we might as well get it all out into the open, while it's just me and you. And that is ... me and you."