The night of 18 December 2011
1am
A fancy high-rise near London, the home of youthful musical phenom Vanessa Carson
The balcony

He wouldn't have been up here in the cold and wet if he hadn't already booked the gig before Kurby Bagnold paid him a visit a few days ago.[1] All he wanted to do was lay low; boring was better when you were stuck between a rock, a hard place, and an asshole. But reputation was everything in the middling crime community, and 'Hermes' had a solid one to maintain. There was no cancelling and no fecking about.

As he worked on the protection charms, he hummed one of Vanessa Carson's songs. She was always heavily featured in his favorite trash mag, the Witch Weekly, and the WWN played her music in the kitchen at his day job. It was catchy.

"Unlock my heart," he mumbled, "my heart my heart mmhmm..." Then foosh - a faint glimmer seemed to lift from the door. He'd dismissed the enchantment and the lock was his to breach. To easy.

He crept inside. The light of the night flowed through floor to cieling picture windows overlooking twinkling London. Chic furniture, tasteful sculptures, lush throw pillows, and a state-of-the-art magical record player. So this was how celebrities lived. Vanessa was due to be at a press event for the night. He'd have plenty of time to find what he was meant to steal.

Or rather, steal back.

1.	14 Dec 2011 - Cracking Skulls

Red carpet events were one of Vanessa's favourite parts of the celebrity life, with the excuse it brought with them to dress up fancy, but they weren't something for the weak hearted. After a whirlwind night of flashing cameras and paparazzi, Vanessa wanted nothing more than to curl up in her bed and hibernate for the next few years. She was guilty to leaving early, but in all fairness Vanessa had had a busy day in town the day before and a late night at that.

Vanessa stepped out of the elevator, taking keys out of her purse to unlock the door. In the silence of the building the sound of keys turning in a lock was crystal clear. The door swung open silently and Vanessa entered, kicking her heels off as she did so. Thanks to her angel of a stylist, all her heels were charmed to be easier on the feet and all her dresses to keep her warm but nothing was perfect and Vanessa was in dire need of a change of clothes.

She meandered through the apartment, reaching a table bearing decorative plants, a record player and a framed photo of her and her parents before the divorce. Vanessa's eyes drifted to the photo and a small smile pulled at her lips. In light of a recent offer from someone she'd went to school with, Vanessa's parents were no longer first and foremost on her list of problems to deal with, though she doubted they'd ever leave it. Completely unaware of the other presence in her penthouse, she busied herself putting a beatles record on.

Music burst to life and Vanessa had soon joined in, occasionally mixing up the melody a bit to add some harmonies. She unclipped her earrings as she sang, running a hand through curled hair and pulling it out of her face. But barely ten seconds had passed before Vanessa could have sword she heard something behind her. A frown pulling at painted lips, she glanced over her shoulder, but there was nothing to see.

Clearly the lack of food was getting to her. Vanessa wandered into the kitchen, leaving her clutch with her wand inside it by the record player.

Nate was upstairs when he heard the front door open and music start playing. He hissed an oath and ducked down against the bedroom wall. She was back. Why was she back! He'd underestimated how long Vanessa Carson would be gone, probably an oversight brought on by the stress of Bagnold's pinch and the damned shoe. Not good, not good, not good.  In a moment, however, he steadied his breathing and forced a calm over himself. He'd handled a situation like this before. It wasn't clean, but he'd got the job done.

So far, he had yet to find what he was looking for, but he suspected it would be here in the bedroom. There was no telling when Carson would come up, or how long it would take to find, so the question was what to sort out first. He opted to speed up his search - avoiding contact was key. Eye-witnesses, even properly confunded, were his greatest risk.

Fast as he could he cast his Ransacking Charm. All the drawers, closets, wardrobes, and boxes opened and all the contents levitated into the air at eye level. He began shoving things out of of the way as he looked for the bracelet. It was a silver cuff bangle engraved with moons, stars, and ravens, and it was encrusted in lapis lazuli enamel. Damn, Carson had a lot of shit.

mature language

Vanessa sat at the kitchen island, one hand holding a half eaten apple and the other drumming on the marble countertop in time to the music. She could see the city through the sliding glass doors, little pinpricks of light winking at her. The building closest to her sported strings and strings of fairy lights, dotted with the occasional sprig of holly across their windows. A very festive sight.

Glancing around her, Vanessa frowned at the lack of Christmas decorations. When everyone else had been hurrying around collecting baubles, lights and trees, Vanessa had stayed home, not wanting to think about Christmas and how she was going to deal with her family, but now that that was no longer an issue- well Vanessa didn't like being upstaged. Especially not by some muggle heiress or whoever lived in the building a few streets down. She'd had to go buy some decorations as soon as possible.

She finished her apple, dropped it into a bin and left the kitchen, climbing up spiral stairs to the first floor landing. Vanessa needed to get out of her dress.

And so she turned to the left, hand resting on the doorknob to her bedroom. Still humming under her breath, Vanessa twisted it and pushed the door open, just about ready to curl up and go to sleep. Except for instead of finding her bedroom neat and tidy, bed made by the cleaning staff and pajamas laid out ready for her return, everything was floating. And who was that man standing there, shoving through all her flying stuff?

"What the hell? Who are you? How did you get in? What the fuck are you doing?!"

Vanessa reached for her wand, only to remember that 1. her dress had no pockets and 2. she'd left her wand downstairs. Shit.

Not fast enough! Vanessa Carson had walked in and seen him standing there plain as day. It was still dark, but the light from the city dissolved his most concealing shadows. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy!

He whipped his wand at her, and everything floating in the air feel to the floor. "[i]Confundo![/i]" Then, Briggs dove at the jewelry scattered by a bureau. "Accio bracelet!"

About a dozen jumped towards them, including the heavy silver bangle with the lapis lazuli. His employer didn't tell him how the celebrity had acquired it, only that it was theirs and that they wanted it back.

The man spun around, wand out, and before Vanessa could so much as scream, his spell had hit her square on. Vanessa half expected to go flying across the room, or for a great big cut to open up, staining her dress red, but instead she felt... nothing? If anything, the spell served to calm her. Wait, why hadn't she been calm in the first place again?

Vanessa took in the sight in front of her again, blue eyes unfocused. In her dazed state, everything was slightly blurry. She didn't really register the man standing there with his wand out, having forgotten her panic five seconds ago, only really seeing the mess on the floor.

"Oh," Vanessa frowned to herself. And she bent down, picking up the closest thing to her, which happened to be a lace dress. Vanessa held it up to reveal a tear in the skirt, presumably from one of the sharper items that were now dotted across the floor. "Oh dear," She continued.

She stood up, dress still in hand, and wandered across the room, going about picking up items and completely ignoring the man in her room, asides from a muttered 'scuse me' when she had to grab something beside his feet.

Nate moved back when Vanessa moved close to him. She had a glassy expression on her face. A little confused but she seemed suddenly oblivious to him, her wrath at the invasion vanished. He watched warily as she wandered away, properly Confunded. He sighed with relief and ran his hand through his hair. That was too close. He was at least glad that he hadn't had to harm her, like he had with that Bevans kid. Assault was heat he didn't need. And besides it was Vanessa Carson. She was a darling. He smirked; he almost felt bad at breaking in. Almost.

With the wards broken and the bracelet in hand, he took a few more steps away before Apparating out with a sharp crack!.