She got her peace and quiet, and her nice ambience... for about 5 minutes. She had finished her treat, and was working on her coffee, when she looked across the café, and saw that a meeting was happening.

Looked like a business meeting of sorts, between two men in suits. It looked like they were having a very serious discussion, and neither looked particularly impressed over it.

She looked away, and sighed to herself, wondering if she should just leave... before she heard a yelp, and a crash.

When she looked back, she saw that one of them had shoved the other back with such force, that they had fallen over in their chair. And the one that had initiated it had now leaped over, and was pummeling their chest as they pinned them down.

Which was when other people got involved, pulling the first man off... which then resulted in him flailing his fists around, slamming them into whomever was unlucky enough to be close to him.

Someone started arguing with the one that had hit her in the lower back, and another argument had started. Then, just as Erica was starting to get most feeling back, and started to crawl away, she saw it.

Everything had melded together, again.

It was an all-out brawl. Again.

Though there were more than a few people hiding and crying.

Basically, things were breaking down VERY quickly in the place.

As she walked away, she saw that the brawl was getting worse in some areas, but other that had managed to escape seemed to be faring a little better with their emotions... but only slightly.

It was frustrating for her, and also doggedly confusing.

And again, she heard the police sirens. Headed towards the café where she had just been.

It was at that point, a on-duty police officer stopped her.

"Are you all right, Miss?" he asked. "You appear to be walking with a noticeable limp."

"..." the cop was silent, before looking towards the café, and the ensuing brawl, as his eyes narrowed.

"Well, you take care, then." he told her.

"Time to enforce some order." he muttered under his breath, before running in the direction of it.

And Erica could tell... he'd seemed kind and caring at first, but now it seemed like he was spoiling for a fight... especially since he hadn't called for backup, or didn't look like he was going to observe any protocol.

He was going there to join in.

As she approached the building she worked at... she sighed. She knew she wouldn't be able to get inside. Not past the security checkpoint, anyway. But that was fine, in this instance. She didn't actually WANT inside. She wanted to speak with a specific member of security, and given when she knew about the current schedule, she would find them working right now.

She stopped at the front doors, and when she stepped through them, not only did she see the one she was looking for... what looked to be a quite-young girl sitting at the security desk, but she also saw her friend, Azazel.

The latter looked over and waved.

"Oh, hey Erica." he greeted her.

Azazel raised an eyebrow as he heard the conversation, before Erica turned to him.

"Az, you're here, you see anything off?" she asked him.

"Eh?" Azazel mumbled, looking at her arm.

"...seems a little... squirmier than usual. Maybe a smidgen more writhing, but... nothing out of the ordinary." he told her with a shrug.

"Why?" he asked.

"Something going on with you?"

Azazel brought his hand to his chin, and thought for a moment.

"Hmmm." he mumbled. "That DOES sound like curse shenanigans." he admitted.

"Yup." Erica agreed.

"...but I don't see or feel your curse acting up." Azazel told her.

"Seriously. It seems like it's fine. Well... yeah, fine. Normal. More or less." he went on.

"Bottom line, does NOT seem like it's flaring up."

Azazel was quiet as he pondered all this, thinking about what Erica had said, and how her arm hadn't been acting up, despite the occurrences leading to the conclusion that it HAD been.

"Hmmm." he mumbled.

"I'll see if anyone in my information channels know about about such an event." he told her. "Or anything similar, anyway." he added.

"In the meantime, even if it doesn't seem to be acting up, want me to take in a bit of your curse mana?" he asked. "Take it down to a little bit lower levels? Maybe you just have a more potent spike happening." he suggested.

"If nothing else, my taking in some of the mana will confirm or deny that." he then reasoned.

"All right." Azazel responded with a nod. He then stepped forward and extended his hand towards her. When she accepted it, taking it in her own, she felt some of the mana from the curse be sucked out of her. It wasn't an awful lot, and even though she wasn't feeling necessarily 'bad' before, she had to admit, she felt better.

They then released the grip as Azazel stepped back, paused a moment, and shrugged.

"Nope. Not more potent or anything." he confirmed. "At least, not that I could sense." he said.

"So whatever's happening, I'm reasonably sure it's not your curse mana." he told her. "Or, at the very least, it's not OVERTLY your curse mana." he then clarified.

"...granted, that makes these happenings a little more confusing, admittedly... maybe there's something bigger at play, and you happened to be unlucky, being in the wrong place at the wrong time." he suggested.

"Regardless, I'll look into it."

"Which is the frustrating part." Azazel sighed. "Like I said, if this IS your curse mana at work, then it's doing so in a way that... well, given what myself and the demonic world knows of it... shouldn't be possible." he told her.

"Your markings and such aren't THAT nuanced and elegant, hell-wise speaking." he said. "So I am 99.9% sure that this IS NOT your curse at play." he stated, trying to comfort her.

"But... yeah, as you have said, it begs a lot of questions." he lamented. "The big one being 'If you aren't causing this... who or what IS?'..." he went on, shaking his head again.

"I'll go through the contacts and info network I have to see if ANY answers pop up." he finished, before looking at Izea.

"I assume things have been... well, the same here?" he asked. "Bad, but not getting worse?" he asked further. "Or, to get more to the point, think I'll need to step in within the next... day or so?" he then inquired.