Judith

Waking up is almost unreal for Judith. Wakefulness comes slowly, in stages, and finally, she gets up, swinging her legs off the couch groggily to go begin making toast for two while she enjoys the sensation of simultanously remaining in bed with her eyes closed. As her head clears, though, she realizes something is wrong. She opens her eyes.

And sees herself, lying next to her—feels someone roll over next to her—damnit! Again!? She opens her eyes yet again, and yes, there she was, looking at herself—looking at herself look at herself—

She rolls out of bed to stop having to do that; in the 'kitchen', the sheer oddness of it has nearly made her drop a plate.

Breakfast that morning is an odd affair, with the table and the kitchen being used in shifts. She's slept in, but she won't be too late for work. I can say it's been a stressful couple days, and I won't be stretching the truth at all. The first of her to get up—first part of her?—is also the first to leave, heading for her job as a cashier. It's a relief; two of her in the same flat she'd gotten accustomed to, but three felt crowded, as well as more than a bit weird. Since as it turns out, she didn't make quite enough for herself, she toasts another pair of slices while she gets up. I am, she thinks dryly, Domestic Girl. Capable of making the bed and cooking breakfast at the same time! Whatever else this is doing, I'm getting better at multitasking.

She goes out again, this time for something more exciting (Hah!): the Rainport City Library, to find out more about Balchem's competition. She's not expecting to find information of the sort she really needs, of course, but knowing more about the other corporations—where they were centered, what they specialized in—would help her know where to look next. If she were really lucky, she thinks wryly, the newspaper archives might even have a mention of the thefts, but she doubts it. Alex is probably a better source for that sort of thing.

And at home, she finds herself with nothing much to do. That's all right with her, as she has quite enough on her plate anyway; she settles in. She didn't get calls about missing property very often, since there weren't all that many people nearby who could afford to hire anyone and people who didn't live nearby could rely on the police, but with the new events, she has a feeling crime will either rise sharply... or start falling.

Alex's call, of course, comes in the twenty minutes she took to go grocery shopping. With a mutter about Murphy's Law, Judith decides to wait until 4; better to discuss this in person than over the phone.

Spoiler
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So... I suppose the skill needed for this would be Research? Judith is looking for library information on Jene Co., Lerricks, and Wellside Chemicals. Specifically, she'll browse business encyclopaedias, search for relevant magazine articles from scientific and business magazines, and search through the newspaper archives to see if any of those corporations has been mentioned in the news in the past few years. Research: (1d20+5)[16]

Other: wait for Alex/other callers, have normal life.