The apartment stays dim and close, all lamp glow and old wallpaper. The AC/DC record drops its needle, and the room fills with scratchy guitar and a steady drumbeat.
Sally settles in with the new record, letting the music take up some of the silence. Devlan eases into the cramped space with the careful relief of a man who finally gets to stop scanning every corner.
He lifts a small bag of weed from his coat pocket and gives it a dry little look, like he is half amused by how normal it feels to have it here.
Devlan Mitchel
Figured we could make the evening a little less haunted.
He grins, then glances toward the turntable as the song swells. Outside, Portland traffic murmurs faintly through the window, distant and harmless.
Devlan Mitchel
You picked a good one. Want me to roll this, or are we just letting the record do the heavy lifting?
The apartment feels warmer now, less like a hideout and more like a place people can actually sit down in. For the first time in a while, the night seems willing to let them breathe.
+ New Item Acquired
Small bag of weed
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn more about Devlyn while smoking with him
“I nod and gesture for him to roll it, asking what he did before he started tracking me.”
SUCCESS (Good Persuasion, rolled +3)
Sally
Sally gives him a small nod and a quick hand motion toward the weed, then asks what he did before he started tracking her.
Devlan snorts softly, already reaching for the rolling paper. The question lands on him with a real pause, like he is checking whether the answer belongs in the room.
Devlan Mitchel
Before this, I was a cop, then a private investigator, then the guy everyone calls when a case gets too strange or too quiet.
Devlan Mitchel
I left the police when the job turned into paperwork for people with better friends. Missing persons, superhero messes, witness protection failures, that became my lane.
He starts rolling the joint with practiced hands, the record crackling under his words. For a second, the apartment feels like an actual kitchen table conversation instead of a hideout.
Devlan Mitchel
Then one day a woman asked me to look into a girl with no file I could trust. That was you. The trail was ugly, but it was there, so I followed it.
Devlan Mitchel
He finishes the roll and taps it once against the table. "You want the honest version, I started because somebody needed to be hard to scare off."
Quest Complete
Learn more about Devlyn while smoking with him
“I take the joint, light it up, and keep talking”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +2)
Sally takes the joint from Devlan, and when she leans in to light it, a sharp tap ticks from the wall behind the couch.
Devlan stills with the lighter in hand, his eyes flicking to the sound. The record keeps turning, but the room feels narrower now.
Sally lights the joint. The first ember glows, small and stubborn, while the tapping comes again, slow and deliberate.
Devlan Mitchel
Tell me you heard that too.
He sets the lighter down and reaches past the evidence folders, pressing two fingers to the baseboard seam. Something there shifts with a tiny metallic click.
Devlan Mitchel
That is not plumbing.
A thin black lens sits half-hidden in the molding, aimed straight into the room.
Devlan Mitchel
Looks like your quiet apartment has been watched for a while.
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the bug in the apartment
“While continuing to smoke the joint, I use my energy to fry the electronics inside the wall.”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Energy Manipulation, rolled +1)
Sally keeps the joint between her fingers and lets a thin thread of red light slip from her hand into the baseboard seam. The ember flares once, then the hidden lens gives a tiny pop, its little eye going dark.
Sally
The lens is dead.
A sharp, burnt smell leaks out of the molding. The record keeps spinning, but the apartment feels abruptly less private, like the walls themselves are holding their breath.
Devlan Mitchel
Well. That answers it.
Devlan straightens from the baseboard with a quick wince, rubbing the heel of his hand where the panel has heated under his touch. A black fleck of melted casing sticks to the paint near his fingers.
Devlan Mitchel
You fried the camera, but somebody’s still got the feed if this thing was live.
The joint smolders brighter in Sally’s hand, and a faint click answers from somewhere deeper in the wall, as if the apartment has noticed the damage.
Quest Complete
Expose the bug in the apartment
Skill Upgrade: Energy Manipulation Mediocre→Fair