There was a polite knock on Campion's door that didn't sound like the innkeepers, who were loud, boisterous people that thought knocking in general was useless and if their tenants wanted somewhere that people knocked they could very well leave thank you very much. The other thing that may have tipped Campion off was the rather strong field that he could feel from inside the room.

Domitian coughed and knocked again. In truth, he didn't specifically want to be here at all. If only he didn't have such a kind heart! And that Cecilia woman was quite pretty-- that hadn't helped, either. Dom was generally a pushover when it came to beautiful women. Even human ones. Even ones that he payed for. It was, he believed, one of his greatest flaws. And Dom didn't think he had many.

"Er...Sir? Mister uh...Campion?" He called awkwardly and knocked on the door again. As he waited he polished his glasses, more out of habit than out of need. "If I'm at the wrong door I'm dreadfully sorry!"

Campion blinked as he heard the voice and felt the field, wondering why on earth a galdori he didn't recognize was paying a visit to this particular inn and he wondered for a few moments if it wasn't somebody his father worked with, or perhaps a member of the SPE come to knock some senses into a wayward pseudo reporter.

"Y-yes, I'll be with you in just a moment," he said, hastily rebuttoning his shirt cuffs and collar and shrugging on the wasitcoat that lay crumpled on the floor so as to seem fit enough to receive galdori company. He then kicked a large pile of shirts and undergarments under the bed, hid the well thumbed sheets of drawings under his pillow and sloppily pulled down his bedspread just in case would have to ask the gentleman into the room. There was nothing to be done about the smell, however.

"I regret to inform you that I am he. Unfortunatley" he said pulling the door open just a little and bowing to the bespectacled gentleman in front of him. He smiled politely but nonetheless blinked at an unfamiliar face, still none the wiser of the reasons behind this visit, "You'll have to forgive me, sir, I don't think I recognize you. I don't think I owe you any money?" he grinned, as this was the only reason he could think of why a galdori would possibly ever step foot inside the inn.

"Nothing of the sort, no!" Dom was quick to assure him, grinning abashedly after bowing. "Ah-- Actually I'm rather embarrassed to admit-- Well it's a sort of-- delicate matter that I'd like to discuss..." He cleared his throat and ran his hand through his brown hair, rather nervously. "And you are Campion? I do hope I have the right one otherwise this might all come to be a very...uncomfortable misunderstanding."

Domitian looked as about as unkempt as Campion did. Perhaps it was something about the bachelor life that made all of their clothes permanently unironed and misbuttoned.

"That is to say I've been...raised not to speak of such things but ah... Sometimes we must um. How does the saying go-- Err in the line of duty? Something like that?" He put his glasses back on and smiled rather bleakly. How was he to...say something...without saying it? He had never been good at subtleties. He usually left those to his mother.

"Splendid. Splendid. I have been ah...informed through a personal acquaintance that you once had a serving maid named Daisy?"

"Yes that's right," he said earnestly, "not many of us about called Campion- not a very common name I've found. Why anyone would decide to name their son after a particularly effeminate looking flower has always escaped me."

Beaming Campion bowed again, "Did she send you here? Daisy I mean," he began to gush, feeling a strange wave of relief "You must come in- I'll apologize for my lodgings, one rather gets what one pays for in the stacks. I must confess I was worried- I rather thought she hated me," Campion flushed red thinking of his past improprieties and the long stretch of silence from a woman he had come to care about and rely on.

"I'd send for some tea, but this isn't the place for room service really. I rather think we'd have boiling water thrown in our faces for even daring to consider it," sitting on the bed, he dragged the moth bitten chair from a broken desk closer and patted the cushion, a large dust cloud rising from it.

"Please," he smiled, "Your delicate matter...I can assure you that in comparison to your average galdori gent I'm not easily shocked. By all means go ahead."

"A flower? Really? I'm not much of a botanist, I thought perhaps they'd misspelled Champion on your birth certificate." Dom was ushered in, and he felt a haze of confusion settle over him. Wait. What? He sat down, and then stood up, and then sat down, unsure what he should do with himself now.

"Yes, excellent." He said about nothing in particular, looking more nervous by the minute, "I'm sorry did you say-- Well I was rather under the impression that she was with you..."

He stared at Campion helplessly and then fished out a letter from his pocket. "Her sister told me she might have...er...run away with you." He blushed, embarrassed at the admission. He hadn't really thought it was true, but he'd offered to take the letter anyway. Domitian was some kind of fool.

"Hrm. Oh. Well this is rather unfortunate. She's been missing for weeks, you know. This was was for her. I suppose you can have it, if you like." He offered him a folded letter, and then felt the need to clarify, "Er-- I wrote it for her of course. Cecilia doesn't... can't write."



"I took the liberty of correcting some grammar errors as well." He added, blushing a little more. He waited for the questions to come. Why was he with a human? when did he have time to write this? Why did he care? Etc etc. Domitian was literally wincing away from Campion, almost as if he expected the other man to hit him.

Campion was lucky he was sitting down, or else he felt certain that his legs would have buckled. "Gods," he murmured, reading the letter. "I haven't- I haven't seen her for weeks." I'd written her off Campion thought, and felt thoroughly sickened with himself, his body shaking with self loathing. He had felt, something for Daisy, enough to kiss her- and then, after a few weeks he was here. Had he thought of the human at all while teasing pretty blonde passives? The question had an answer he didn't even want to admit to himself. There was something morally degenerate about him, Campion realized, flitting frivilously from lower race to lower race, taking advantage and-

He stood up abruptly and pulled his trunk from the corner, began flinging in dirty unfolded clothes haphazardly. "I'm going back to Vienda, I'll have to- we could-" Could what? Campion realized, sitting heavily on his trunk. If he had money, he could have paid someone to look for her, but he didn't- because he was useless and luckless and alioe knew the seventen wouldn't care about a human servant.

He looked up and remembered himself and the other man in the room. "I'm not a big drinker," he said trying to smile, "though it's a hobby a few other members of my family have down to a fine art. I found this," he went to a draw and pulled out a whiskey bottle, "In the room. No glasses I'm afraid," his hands shook as he pulled it out, taking a deep glug. The alcohol burned down him like red hot shame.

"She didn't run away with me," he said trying to sound measured, together, galdori "She'd never leave Vienda, not with me- I'm a golly for Alioe's sake. It isn't- isn't normal. But-" he cut himself off abruptly, stared at Domitan and sighed rubbing his head, "and they have no idea where she could have gone?"

Where would she have gone? He tried to think of her favorite places, anywhere she thought of running away to, any clues that meant she was alive and not like her sister had feared- dead. And found he didn't know.

"Thank you for this," he said quietly to Domitan, though he clearly wished that Domitan had never come to his door, "It was very kind of you to take this letter to me. It is comforting to know that there are at least some decent galdori men around." Campion did not count himself among their numbers any more.

Dom became more and more uneasy as Campion fretted about the fate of this girl. Was she...truly that important? He liked the lower races, he really did. They were very..accommodating. Not stuffy. He liked that about them. Practical. Dom wasn't always practical but he liked that they were practical. Campion's feelings seemed to go deeper than that. Or-- it looked like that, from the way he was drinking the alcohol. Dom shifted in his chair uneasily. The good fellow really did seem quite distressed.

"To be completely honest I didn't think she had either..." The brunette said helplessly, "But her sister seemed quite convinced she was er...thoroughly in love with you." His voice sounded apologetic. He didn't want to offend the other man by insinuating anything. Although it seemed as if some of his current assumptions might have...more grounding than he originally thought.

"Oh..." Better correct that right off the bat. "I'm afraid I'm really quite the opposite. The only reason I know about this is because Daisy's sister is a...uh...a mistress of the night?" Domitan's face was incredibly red now. "And I'm really quite terrible about saying no to a pretty face. Even a human one, if you'll believe it. Either way, if your Daisy was half as pretty as Cecilia you've found yourself quite a catch... or er... you had found yourself...a catch.. erm..."

Oh dear. Was Daisy even a whore? The sinking feeling at the back of his stomach told him he was mistaken.

"Well listen, Campion, I've got an Aunt that works in the Seventen...she got injured recently, so she's off duty but maybe she can help you out with er...maybe trying to find her?"

Campion groaned softly as Dom explained Daisy's sister's notion that Daisy was in love with him. "We were- we are friends," he said quietly, "really that's...she's not mine I mean we never- not like you and Cecilia- that's....it wasn't like that-," he tried painfully and stood up tugging his waistcoat down. "I mean, Daisy was a housekeeper and I certainly don't go in for all of that whoring business...I couldn't afford half a prostitute even if I wanted to." Tactful as ever, even in a crisis.

"Yes, of course I need to try to find her," he owed her that at least, if she was in love with him and he was here, more interested in his passives than anything else. He thought for a minute about saying goodbye to people in Brunnhold, perhaps he'd write to Abe, and then there was Aurelie and...Triston. Alioe, Triston and Daisy both deserved better than him.

"I've long outstayed my welcome in Brunnhold, I think. Your Aunt, I'll need a name and an address, hang on," his hands went to his pocket as he remembered he'd left his favorite ink pen in the jacket he'd given Triston, but luckily he had a spare. Handing the pen and paper to Dom he tried to smile, "Cecilia doesn't need to worry, I'm going to fix this...I will," there were a lot of things he was trying to fix, with the passives and society but they weren't exactly working, "It's all going to be fine."

"...Really? Not even the really cheap ones in the Dives?" Dom actually seemed genuinely worried for Campion and his whoreless prospects. "I suppose I'm quite lucky in that respect. Old money, the Pitt family is."

He took the paper and scrawled out an address, "Although she generally doesn't appreciate house calls. You'd probably find her at the Seventen Headquartres--" He paused, "You know what? I'll write that down for you too." He bent again and began to scribble, speaking what he was writing as he did, "A-sk for Ca-ptain Bri-nny Pitt."

As he handed over the paper he cleared his throat, "Ah...listen, I'm really really sorry about this mess I've caused you. It would probably be ethical for me to mention that Daisy might-- she might--"

Be dead? Be cut up by the killer that Cecilia had told him humans were scared of?

...Minced meat? Was that tactful?

"It's possible she er. Might have run off with someone else. Perhaps her sister was wrong." Dom loosened his collar nervously and called himself an idiot in as many languages as he could think of. "Although she sounded sure... when I spoke to her, that is. It was awhile ago because I had to find you...for someone with such a unique name you're a hard fellow to place on a map!"

Rambling.

Dom cleared his throat. "Well. Good luck. I...Should I-- Do you need-- That is, are you quite alright?"

"Daisy doesn't run off with people," said Campion with heavy conviction. He knew, of course, what else Dom may be referring to but daren't even entertain the idea- not while in company and standing up. With his hight, it was a long way down to the floor.

"And don't be sorry, you've reminded me..." he looked as his feet sadly, "where my loyalty should really lie."

He re-opened his trunk and began to pack again,"Captain Brinny Pitt, right-ho." For a cartoonist i seem to be doing a lot of work outside of my job descritption, first reporter, now detective- and not so much as a shill for either. "Just need to sort a few things out with my room and my items. I'll catch the first carriage this evening. Thank you," he bowed at Dom, throughly wishing the bespectacled man had failed in his mission to find him, as he had come so close to doing- which was a reprehensible wish in itself.

"Also," he forced a grin, "stay away from hookers in the dives, old chap, if the old saying goes 'you get what you pay for' then I'm almost certain you'll be paying for a nasty dose of the clap."

Dom offered him a weak smile and put his hands in his pockets, "Aye, well I learned that the hard way, in the wild days of my youth." He bowed casually. "I'll take my leave. Send my Aunt my greetings, won't you? Good luck."

Dom felt entirely too depressed to make the appointment he'd made with Georgette. It would have to wait for another night.