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Eugene's apartment is a one bedroom affair in a decent part of town, quite likely well within the reach of the salary of a good psychologist, even when that psychologist operates on a sliding scale with a lot of clients who don't have much money to offer.
They open the door when the knock comes and stand aside so Zoya can come in. They're in a black jeans and a black v-neck today, once again showing off the tattooing on their arms. "Come on in. My partner's out for the time being or I'd introduce you," they say.
"Hey!" Zoya says as a suddenly cheerful smile springs forth. She offers a hug as she steps inside, as though she and Eugene are old friends and not people who met by chance at a diner a couple of days ago. "Thanks for inviting me over. Should I take off my shoes? I'm sure I'll meet your partner some time."
Once the door is closed behind Zoya, Eugene accepts the hug gladly and confirms the query's answer with a nod. "Please do. I've got a pot of coffee brewed, if you'd like some. I could make some tea, too." They move away from the door and toward the kitchen.
Zoya slips her shoes off and leaves them haphazardly by the door before she follows Eugene further into the apartment. "Coffee please!" She spends a moment studying Eugene as they walk that short distance. "I don't understand why it doesn't seem to be standard everywhere to take your shoes off when you come inside," she says with her slight Russian accent. "Before you ask, I take it black."
Eugene gets out a couple of assorted coffee mugs. One says "Powered by Coffee" and the other says "I get psyched for psychology!" above and below a picture of a brain. They pour a mug for each of them, offer the first to Zoya, and get out cream for themself, all while continuing the conversation. "I don't either. It seems to be something that Americans are passionate about in either one direction or the other, and I don't get it, but people can do what they want in their own homes, I suppose?"
The coffee mug makes Zoya laugh. "It's accurate!" she exclaims. "I feel like you know me so well already. Are you doing your brain-study thing on me or something?" Lacking utterly in seriousness, there's no implication she thinks that's actually going on. "Should we sit somewhere? I wish I could say this was a purely social call, but it's not. I have some important information to pass on, and you're my only contact to do so through."
"That's a bit alarming." Eugene pauses in the process of putting the carton of cream back and looks at Zoya, then they finish what they were doing and nod toward the living room. "Let's go sit out there, where it's more comfortable, and you can catch me up on whatever it is."
"You got it!" Zoya's springing strides lose some of their spring to ensure that coffee stays in the mug, and not on the floor, and she sits down carefully before she takes a sip. She treats the first sip like a sacrament, and her eyes close as she savors the flavor of the coffee on her tongue, but when it's done she starts getting down to business. "You probably won't be surprised to hear that I pay a lot of attention to social media trends, given what you know about me, right? Have you heard anythinga bout this MelBeepsASMR channel that's becoming popular? _Don't_ visit it and watch the videos, first of all."
Eugene follows with a more sedate manner, as is their custom, and sits down with their legs crossed. "That doesn't surprise me," they confirm with a trace of a smile that appears and vanishes like a stray wisp of smoke. "Scoping out the competition, or staying on top of trends so that you can keep your own content relevant? I could imagine other reasons, as well." They shrug as they sip carefully at their own coffee, without the same ritual of it. They give the impression they're used to sipping drinks while watching someone else and listening to what they have to say, which of course is true.
One of Zoya's hands stops cradling the coffee mug to make see-sawing gesture. "There's a little bit of a lot of different reasons for it. All of those and more." She takes a sip and shifts so that she can tuck one of her sock feet underneath herself. "Someone's working magic through the videos, and it's a sort that looks a lot like the magical signatures I see on people like you. Strong magic. I'm not sure what their goal is, but the magic alters the programming on devices that view it, maintaining itself a lot like a computer virus might, but with a clearly supernatural component. It's doing something that's trying to influence people's minds, some kind of compulsion, which might be accounting for its popularity, but I don't know if that's all it's about. It seems to bounce off of me, like it's not a Mage it's looking for, and it doesn't want to hook too big a fish. I get the feeling it might be trying to spread the magical "virus" through people, so to speak." She uses one hand to make air quotes around the virus part.
Eugene has an alarmingly good poker face. Through all this they simply sip their coffee and show no reaction at all to any of it, like they would if this was something they knew about already and none of it was news. Or like they're just used to covering up all of their own reactions when people are talking about problems, so that their own perceptions of a situation don't color people's reactions.
The listening and sipping only changes when Zoya is done providing details. "A magical signature? You have some way of identifying the source of supernatural effects, then? That would be incredibly useful." They take another sip and then lean forward to put the mug down on a coaster on the coffee table. "The signature looks like a Changeling one, too?" They look across the room thoughtfully. "Do you want me to remain your only point of contact about this? I'm going to pass the information on to others, but if there are questions do you want them to come through me, or can people reach out to you directly?"
"I can," Zoya confirms after a second, with a nod. "You probably understand if I don't want to go into a lot of details about my capabilities, though. Using them to keep people safe? That I'm absolutely on board to do. Providing you others with the details of how they work is sort of." Another see-saw gesture. "It's frowned upon. I can say the signature looks similar to what I can see on you, but it's not the same, which suggests to me it's not you who made it. I didn't expect it would be." She downs a gulp of the coffee. "You can put people in touch with me, if you think it's necessary. If I'm going to be visiting Maddy's from time to time, the fact that I'm a person of extraordinary capabilities is no secret, right? I'll help if there's other information I can dig up, which there probably is, but I'll be honest. I've got a lot going on right now. I just moved to this country! I don't even have a place to live, yet. I'm really hoping I can hand this problem off to your people, and only help peripherally."
"This is well outside my area of expertise. I don't know the first thing about computers. I'll certainly be letting people know, and making sure the information gets out to people who will be able to do more with it," Eugene explains patiently. "I'm glad you brought it to me, too. There are people among us who I have no doubt will chase this down as eagerly as they can. I just needed to know if they could talk to you if they have questions, instead of hoping I can pass things on accurately, which you've answered." They lean forward to pick the coffee mug up again. "Thank you for letting me know about this problem."
"It's almost precisely my area of expertise, except for the whole Changeling magic thing," Zoya laughs. "I don't know how to handle your magic, and a lot of my tricks probably won't work on it. I have some ideas for things I might be able to do to track down whoever is setting all of this up, and if you all need to help with the problem I can offer it, but unless someone reaches out to me I'm going to label it a curiosity and trust you all to deal with the situation."
"Well. Thank you for bringing me the info, and being willing to help if we have other questions." Eugene sips coffee and then lets that topic be drifted away from, the worry they're actually feeling not showing on their face. "You've only been here for a few days, and you're already this heavily involved in situations? You don't waste time, do you?"
A soft laugh bubbles up from Zoya and she says, "not if I can help it, no. I already started the process of buying a home here, in fact. On Saturday. One of the things I got involved in popped up in my inbox before I had even gotten my luggage up to my hotel room, though. That one I didn't go hunting down, it came to me!" The last part sounds like she's defending herself, but she's laughing as she does it.
"So you're saying you're a trouble magnet." Eugene's face doesn't reveal much but a suggestion of a smile, but their own soft echo of the laugh says enough about the fact that they're playing along with the joke. "Buying a house is pretty serious, though. I imagine that means you plan to stay for a while, and this isn't a stop over on some world tour?"
"Oh, I most definitely am a trouble magnet. I draw it to me, and also end up drawn to it. It works as a metaphor, I think." Zoya finishes her coffee and places it on a coaster, following Eugene's example. "I don't plan on leaving any time soon. Going back to Russia isn't going to be safe for me, at least not for the foreseeable future. Some of my people are here, ones I love and am glad to be close to again. I'm sure I'll travel, but this is going to be home for a while."
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