Reports and rounds

When you arrive at work the next day, you talk to Edward about what happened, and he sends you to see Rachel. Apparently there’s been a rash of this sort of thing happening, and she’s the one investigating it, or at least leading the investigation. When you get to her office, and explain what happened, she sighs and shakes her head.

“I’m sorry that this happened, Brian. No one was hurt, I hope?”

You shake your head. “No, it was just a window and a mildly insulting note. They did ruin our dinner, though.”

Rachel smiles. “Well, that’s unfortunate, for sure. We’ve seen quite a bit of this happening lately, especially since the cafe opened. It seems like the success of that has raised the tension a bit.”

You lean forward, a bit anxious. “Has there been trouble at the cafe? The girls haven’t said anything, and I’ll admit that I’ve been a bit distracted lately.”

She laughs. “Yes, the cute manticore girl, right? I heard you two hit things off. No, it’s actually been surprisingly quiet at the cafe, even the protesters have given up. But we’ve seen a lot of vandalism and petty harassment against monster girls and their sponsors.”

You relax slightly. “Nothing serious, I hope?”

Rachel shakes her head. “Just minor property damage, really. Whoever is doing it seems content to just annoy, for now. But we want to find out who it is before they get bolder.”

You nod. “Makes sense. Sorry I can’t be more help. We called around to friendly neighbors, but no one saw anything.”

She smiles. “I appreciate it, but it’s fine. Just be careful, and try to avoid letting the girls travel alone, especially Mazzy and Ellie. They’re small, and if someone decided to go after one of your group, I doubt they’d pick Kenna.”

You laugh. “That would be a poor choice. Fortunately, it’s just a window, and we already have the construction crew there, so they can replace it for us while they do everything else.”

Rachel nods. “Good. And I’m sure Sirona is excited to join you. Take care of her, she’s a good person.”

You smile. “I’m just as excited, and so are the girls. Ellie especially.”

With that, you say goodbye, and head back to work. You’ve gotten rave reviews from Edward so far, to the point that you conduct interviews on your own now, though the two of you still work together on home visits. You don’t mind, as he seems to have a good eye for detail, and you learn a lot watching him do his inspections. It’s a testament to the rigorous background checks that you seem to only see happy groups, despite the horror stories he tells you. Those are quite rare, it seems.

Today, the two of you are making the rounds of home visits, mostly second and third check ups. These tend to be more thorough, since the first visit is usually the day after matching up a girl with a sponsor, so they’re a bit…distracted. Coming back later gets a better idea of how the sponsor is treating the monster girls, and how she’s adapting to the new situation.

You pull up to the final visit for today, a follow up visit to a place that you didn’t go to the first time. As Edward pulls in, he hands you the info packet. It appears that the sponsor is a man in his late 20s, named Bradley. He’s sponsoring a dog girl, named Carly, who is listed as being quiet and nervous. The first visit went as expected, with the two of them distracted by each other, though there’s a note from Edward about his concerns. It seems that Bradley was rather curt and dismissive, not paying much attention. On its own, it could be nothing, but something to watch for on this visit.

Edward smiles at you. “Ready? Let’s see if this is yet another happy couple.”