<strong>Lilith Van Stratten, Entering the Lobby</strong><br/><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/a/a3/Lilith1.jpg)</div>Lilith entered the lobby, slowly looking about, gazing with detached fascination as she made her way towards the front desk. She remained silent, choosing instead to watch the various people milling about the lobby area, chatting and engaging in social interactions.<br/><br/>The rituals of introduction fascinated Lilith. She wasn't used them. Then again, she also wasn't used to people.<br/><br/>From a pouch sewn into one of her sleeves, she extracted a small copper wand, very thin and about six inches long. Small blue lights blinked at its tip.  She pressed a button on its side, and watched a panel slide away. Behind the tiny panel of the wand were several small gauges, measuring the approximately levels of temperature, humidity, and male and female pheromones in the air. Lilith studied the readings carefully, then tucked the wand back in her sleeve.<br/><br/>Lilith took a pad and a fountain pen out of a small leather purse that was slung over her shoulder. She jotted down some calculations, read them, frowned, and checked her figures. "Forgot to carry the seven," she muttered, nodding as she scratched out certain figures and scribbled down some more.<br/><br/>Satisfied with her new figures, she put away her pen and paper, and instead took out a small bottle of perfume from her purse, which she dabbed lightly on her wrists and her neck. The perfume smelled marvelous, like the lightest hint of roses ... if those roses grew in the Garden of Eden. The perfume was optimized for all of the given variables in the Lobby. And Lilith wanted to be at her best - if she intended for her studies of social interaction to be at their best, she knew she needed to present herself at maximum efficiency, particularly if she wished to engage in coitus. Which she most assuredly did.<br/><br/>Lilith took the small wand out of her sleeve again. She pressed a different button on its side, and its flashing blue lights turned red. She pressed the button a second time, and for a brief moment the light of the wand burned with the fury of a dying star.<br/><br/>The Lobby doors swung open. A mechanical man, dressed in the finest fashions that Paris had to offer, stepped heavily into the Lobby. The mechanical man carried multiple suitcases with ease in one hand, along with a heavy wooden crate in the other.<br/><br/>Lilith smiled thinly as she saw her new favorite automaton approach. Omega was her latest design, and her newest. She hadn't gotten the chance to properly give the clockwork android a trial run before coming to the Pleasure Dome. But, alas, there wasn't time, and she'd finally worn out the previous model - and her previous favorite - Omicron, just days before she needed to begin her travels. She briefly debated bringing Theta, one of her tried and tested earlier clockwork android models, to the Dome instead, but, well ... Theta wasn't quite as well-equipped as Omega.<br/><br/>Lilith clapped her gloved hands together. "Omega, come," she commanded.<br/><br/>Taking her time, Lilith moved up to the front desk, letting her clockwork android servant catch up to her. She gave the man behind the desk the briefest of smiles, but said nothing to him, politely letting him check in the others ahead of her before making proper introductions. It would be the polite thing to do, after all, and all the books that Lilith had read about etiquette indicated that politeness generally yielded positive results.