There are more open windows in the alley!

One of them has a long scarf hanging from it that super smells of Megi. It just didn't have a trail going up to it from outside.

Oh, well, then.  Up she goes!

Into an apartment that smells strongly of someone unfamiliar, faintly of Megi, and faintly of sex.

Megi is there, reading a scroll on an armchair! Not in disguise!

"Ah, you found me after all! Got distracted~?"

"I helped find a lost cat, and made a friend.  One with a library card.  Which means that if my hunch about Tirran pans out I might be able to actually really learn how magic works."

"Oh, that's wonderful- Sounds like you know your plans for the next while. I was getting worried I was boring you. Or possibly inappropriately mothering you."

"Nah, if you were inappropriately mothering me, I don't think I could keep my fox instincts from trying to bite you.  Had enough of that the first time.  And you're not boring!  You know things about some of the most important powers!"

"Mmm... I'll pet you if you want to come here. By the way, I'll probably be staying with Mr. Gao Tinsculpt for a few days, this is his apartment and there's something I need to do now that I've heard about it that I shouldn't spread around too freely. Well, I can give a few details. Mostly trying to see if something a few peoples' kids are getting involved in is just teenagers being teenagers or an actually sketchy cult."

Yes, she would generally always like more pets.

"...In the sense that the information itself is dangerous to know, or merely in the sense of keeping things quiet so that nobody gets ideas?  ...And 'cult' in the sense of 'worshipping something dangerous' or in the sense of 'highly coercive social environment that cultivates dependence and obedience to its leadership under threat of loss of support', for that matter...?  Probably the former if it's teenagers, I didn't exactly have a rebellious phase when I was that age but to the best of my knowledge teenagers getting involved in reckless shit is genetic.  Either way, if I can help at all..."

"Well, I guess I'll keep an ear open, either way.  Are there specific sorts of things...?"

Time for petting! "Mmm... More the second thing, and some of both. Hard to tell without me checking on things more."

"Well, damn.  I am not going to think too hard about infohazards lest the examples I encountered in works of fiction turn out to be a bit more real than I'd like."

"I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way, but sure. It's probably and hopefully just teenagers seeking outlets. But there's just enough worry there to justify a little bit of checking."

"Yeah, I should hope.  My brain hasn't melted out of my ears as I turn into the puppet of a self-perpetuating cognitohazardous antimeme yet, at least.

"And yeah - even if it was just the social-pressure kind of threat of cultishness, I'd worry more than enough to want to check."

"...The cat I helped track down today had a collar with a tracker in it that wasn't working for some reason, though his owner, or one of his owners - this absolutely adorable - university? - student, just, a lovely girl - figured it was probably because he got into a lab building, but I don't know what's useful information vis-a-vis cults," she adds, after a moment.  "And, the more you know, I guess."

"I suppose I have heard that wizards' places are often warded a lot. Was there any visible groove or gemstone? I mean, probably not, you hide those so people don't pry them up..."

They can chat idly for a while, relaxing. Eventually Megi asks where Alicia was thinking about sleeping; She was planning to go get an inn room as soon as this apartment's tenant comes back with information.

"I was hoping I might also sleep in your inn room."

"That's fine. You'd also be welcome at shrines and temples, if it comes to that."

"...That's... Good.  To know."

She doesn't at all manage to conceal that that sure did bring up some Feelings™.  ...They're good feelings, she thinks.  There's just a lot of them, for some reason.

Pet pet pet. Scritch scritch scritch.

They both hear footsteps in the hall at just about exactly the same time, ears twitching in sync.

"That your contact?  ...Should I clear out?"

"Probably, and no need unless you are severely allergic to awkwardness. You can say hi. Or jump out the window and I'll meet you down there in a few minutes."

"I'll stick around.  I'm kind of invested at this point.  Even if I am rather horribly allergic to awkwardness, really."

The contact looks like a pretty unremarkable slightly fat dude, wearing circular brass-rimmed glasses. He holds himself awkwardly even as he reports the address of the place his teenage son and two other teens from this street have reportedly been malingering near. With the additional information that someone named Boris said he's seen them going into and out of the place at night, doing a bad job of being furtive.

"I know I'm probably worried over nothing, it's just- He doesn't tell me things anymore, and well, teenagers, but a father does worry- Especially since his mother is gone. Years ago, horse attack." He shrugs.

Megi pats him on the shoulder. "I'll do my best to figure it out. Which is all you really can do if you want him to be happy. Be there, and try to be kind."

...Parenting advice...

She feels like she should have some.

"...I would offer my own advice, but I was a horribly unrebellious teenager my last go 'round, and I've certainly never parented one.  But as far as generic advice goes, things I've heard...

"Sometimes you need to let kids make mistakes.  It's an important life skill.

"I would've hoped it would just be ...awkward... romantic decisions and not cults, but...

"You have to let your kid grow up, sometime.

"...That's not to say you shouldn't be concerned about this, it is objectively concerning - just that at some point it stops being your job as a parent to keep your kid from making mistakes, because they'll need help recovering from them the first few dozen utter disasters they crash into."

He just takes that advice in as blankfaced as he did Megi's, responding with a vague 'thank you'.

... "We should be going then, I think," Megi says. She pulls her hood up. "I'll let you know what I find out. It really is probably fine. But rather I check on 'probably fine' than, say, the outer district guard."