Summary:With the recent attack on the Asgardian embassy, Agent Koa Turner follows a lead from a spirit Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Koa wears a lot of hats. Not literally of course. SHIELD regulations only permit one hat at a time and most their uniforms don't include one so most of the time it is zero literal hats. But in terms of the things he does: Keep an eye on the artifact trade, work with local magi to deal with occult or interdimensional events, assist civillians with troublesome hauntings or spirits and when there's time in the day try to keep the database of magical entities in the city up to date.
That last one is almost a fools errand but WAND makes a valliant effort of it anyway. Koa has been looking for some 'thing' that allegedly stalks the Upper East Side, moving amid people's plants and flower beds. Granted the being that told him this was a spirit and not a very smart one so 'thing' here could mean anything from person to sanity threatening spawn of a dimensional horror. He did get that the spirit in question was greatly unsettled by whatever this 'thing' was but, well, they get unsettled by a lot.
After fruitlessly searching for much of the afternoon, the tall and somewhat broad WAND Agent decided to ask a tree. Well, one of the older trees in this district, and the only one he knows of that's home to a dryad. He's just about coaxed her awake with a small offering of honey poured out, standing on the edge of the property. He looks, yeah he looks a bit odd.
Wait… that bike chained up on the sidewalk looks a bit familiar…
Keiko straightens from the fencing she's fixing and stretches. She's lost track of how long she's been working at this. The fencing had needed repairing - replacing parts of it, straightening other bits - and she'd been working fairly solidly for several hours.
As Koa coaxes the dryad awake, her tattooes begin to tingle, causing her to rub her arms and look around.
"…You!" she accuses the WAND agent. "You are following me."
You know, gardens require a lot of work. At least a couple times a week to maintain pristineness, right? At least, that's what some rich people believe, even if plants don't really grow that fast. (UNless you're Eve. Then they grow as fast as she wants.
But thats' why so much time going back and forth to various estates every day to 'make sure they're spritzed with just the right combination of minerals and so on.. Of course, none of that matters given that she uses a mild amount of her power to ensure they stay the way they're 'supposed' to. It's a really easy job for which she's paid an exoribtant amount compared to the actual work she does. This is why she likes it. Presently, she's driving between sites in a black minivan, her various implements in the back. To the right senses, she'd definitely give off the OH HOLY HELL WHAT IS THAAAAAAAAAAT impression, yes. It's certainly a real thing.
"I swear to various gods, I'm really not…" Koa mutters. It WOULD be her. This seems to happen quite frequently but then coincidence is often in his experience the universe's way of sending a message. What the message is here is unclear. Keiko is clearly not whatever sent the spirits into a panic.
She'll probably feel, in her tattoos, what's coming up the street though. That black van. The driver is… yeah Koa can see a lot of power there. A lot of power. And it's of the flavor that likely would spook the locals.
If she isn't already stopping, the Agent waves to her to try and flag her down. He certainly LOOKs a bit out of place. It's mostly the fact that he was clearly pouring out a cup of something vicous onto the roots of a tree. Eve has been gardening long enough to see a fair few fads but THAT one? Probably not.
"Hang ten there, Keiko. Feel that?" Ahem. "Miss?!"
That last is to the driver of that black minivan.
"You swear to the various gods you're really not…" Keiko says snarkily, mimicking the WAND Agent, rubbing her arm a little more vigorously as the van approaches. She can't see magic, all she can do is sense the magic is around. It's annoying really, her tattooes never tell where the magic is coming from.
"If you aren't following me, what are you doing here?" She can't miss the cup of something he's pouring, after all.
"Feel what, exactly?" Is she playing coy, or does she really not know. "Be careful, Miss. Somethings afoot…"
Oh, hey. Someone flagging her down. They must need help.
Eve slows her roll. New York traffic is ever so slow and she thusly has plenty of time to notice. The blue-haired goth sticks her head out the window.
"Something I can help you with?" she asks, all curious.
Super-duper Goth. That's Eve.
Koa pulls out the leather holder for his ID card which serves as his 'Badge'. Koa Turner, it says. Agent of WAND. It's also got several glyphs on it to prevent easy duplication. One can never be too careful about identity theft.
Or… you know, creatures capable of looking like your ID card while they lay in wait to eat you.
"Hello Miss. Koa Turner. WAND. Do you have a few minutes to talk?"
Nice and pleasant. Yes Koa can see the fairly nasty flavored power rolling off the woman but he's discovered that 'Do you have a few minutes to talk' usually gets better results than 'I need to talk to you.' One just… sounds more ominous.
"I think she IS what's afoot, Keiko."
That aside is to a sort of Asian looking woman with a tool belt who was clearly fixing the fence here. Given that Koa didn't introduce her, she's probably not an agent herself. Unless agents have a handyman side business?
"I'm looking for someone or something that's been spooking the… locals." He gestures back, not to the house but to the TREE. "I think they may possibly have been talking about you."
A tool belt and an open tool kit at her feet. "And just what does this have to do with me? And why you are following me about." The asiatic looking woman rolls her eyes at the blue haired woman. That's different and not what she expected.
"Sorry. He seems to take his job very seriously. I was just here, you know, fixing the fence."
Now she's closer, Eve can see the ink on Keiko's arms. Tattooed animals, very detailed and lifelike, cover them - a wolf, a dragon, a black dog maybe? There's a few more too.
"I'm Keiko and I don't work with him." It seems important that people know that.
"…what, /again/? Don't you people keep your records straight?" Eve sighs.
She holds a finger up as if to say 'one moment', and then puts her car in reverse to pull into a parking spot and then, well… parks.
She stays in the car, though. She doesn't want to get blasted with a portable flamethrower someone brought 'just in case'.
That shit hurts.
Koa smiles apologetically. Well, mildly. It's a government smile if ever Eve saw one. The good news is there doesn't seem to be a flamethrower. The bad news is that if Koa knows what she is odds are good he knows some magic and he might just have a 'woosh' spell.
He doesn't, but she doesn't know that.
"Sorry. Everyone's a bit on edge at the moment. There was a magical attack on the Asgardian Embassy the other day and due to the nature everyone is sort of on the look out for beings whose nature screams 'darkness'. Not meaning to put too fine a point on it but yours seems to. Not that we think it's your fault!" Koa hastens to add. "And if we've interviewed you before I'm sure you'll have a file somewhere. But uh, since I'm here, would you mind telling me what's up with the spooky aura? A curse of some kind? Or maybe an enchantment?"
He's kind of being polite. If that were a curse it'd be a hell of a curse.
Eve way wonder, as might Keiko despite having been there, who is bold enough to magically attack the Asgardian Freaking Embassy.
If it was a 'darknessed' based attack no wonder WAND is beating the bushes, so to speak.
Koa might not have the flamethrower but Keiko might have something like it. Something slightly more sentient and able to operate on its own.
"Again?" she looks at Eve, with a sort of apologetic look on her face, before looking accusingly *again* at Koa. "Don't you even check your own records?" Keiko knows little about WAND, or SHIELD for that matter, but she knows the rumours that are whispered in the shadows.
"That attack the other day? That the Asgardians defeated so easily? Surely that was just some prank…"
Still, the question to Eve, has her interest.
"…yeah, all of that," says Eve, waving a hand dismissively at it. "I mean, more or less. What difference does it make? It's not like I can do anything about upsetting 'the locals'. What was it this time?" she asks, with the tone of someone who's been through this entire thing many, many, many times before.
She rubs an eye. "Of /course/ it's not my fault. Just look in your files for 'Eve'. Or ask your bosses about it. I'm pretty sure they'll know who I am." She is, after all, a known quantity! Too known for her own liking. "Or just ask Stephen Strange," she mutters, darkly.
He's a jerk.
"Well I got the report from a spirit so it was a bit vague. To be honest they made you out to be something like a spawn of the elder gods or something." That's not a deliberate phrasing on Koa's part he's just picking the most ridiculously frightening thing he can think of for effect. "But something about 'a great shade stalking through the gardens, pouring power into the plants and awaiting the time of the great Sundering.'"
Well it probably wasn't a plant spirit that spoke to her like that. They like her. Right?
Or do they?
"The attack the other day was quite serious, Keiko. Even if it wasn't in the end powerful enough the fact that someone would do that using remote, magical means and do it publically is a BIG deal."
And since they didn't catch anyone it could well happen again, but worse.
"Eve…" Koa writes down the name. Stephen Strange? Interesting that she knows the Sorcerer Supreme… she doesn't sound like she likes him.
"Got it. Okay, this one's a bit… well, do you think you might be in any way at risk in the event that there's cultic activity? We're a bit concerned that beings with dark 'flavored' powers might find themselves coerced into moving against the Asgardians."
This… well, this might not be a concern for Eve. She feels powerful. But Koa asks it anyway. Sometimes powerful creatures can be compelled. And sometimes they don't have a choice but to take certain actions if requested the right way.
"Do you just say things to get a reaction?" Keiko hisses at Koa. Spawn of the elder gods, is this guy for real? Who's one of those? "I think you've been smoking some of that wacky weed…" Poor Koa has his work cut out for him with the small, dark skinned, woman. Why does that phrasing he used make her twitchy.
"But he's right. Something attacked the Asgardian embassy yesterday and tried to steal the light. There was who wielded the light as a weapon and it went right for him." Surely it was just a prank, right?
"Don't look at me, when you say 'we'. I've got nothing to do with it. I've told you, Agent Turner, I just want to keep my head down."
"…oh, so you /have/ read my file?" asks Eve, fluttering her eyelashes at Koa.
"In all seriousness, I get it. While I'm never going to watch the Usual Suspects ever again, becasue ew Spacey, I am familiar withth e phrase from which the movie originates and why someone might want to poke their nose to assure that I'm not up to anything. Look, I am going to my work site. Where I work. Where I grow plants for old rich white people with too much money and too little time. Are we all good with that? Becasue I'm good with that." She gives Keiko a weird look.
"If you're not with him, why are you, you know… woith him?" she asks.
That gets Koa to… blink. Oh. Spawn of an… he's gonna have to go read that file. Carefully. And then go make sure there isn't anything encoded in it that he needs an enchanter to read. Because they do that sometimes.
"I'm good with that yes. Sorry for delaying you." He does produce a card though, offering it out between two fingers for the woman with the terrifying aura to take if she would like.
"Feel free to give me a call though, if you ever need help with anything."
Because, you know, sometimes it's handy to have a WAND agent around. Okay often times it's NOT. Keiko can vouch for that. But with this weirdness with the Asgardians going on, and people invoking artifacts attuned to death deities, he figured it was only polite.
"When I say 'we' Keiko I mean WAND. Not you."
That has Keiko blinking as well. Who the hell is this and what is she into? A veil of polite indifference drops over her face. No, she just really wants to keep her head down.
Right?
"Why am I with him? I was here, fixing this fence like I'm getting paid to do and he shows up. He's a habit of doing that, I'm finding. Just arrives and then makes all sorts assertations."
"If that's all, Agent Turner, Eve, I'll get back to my job. If I want to eat this week, I need to finish it."
With a nod, she turns back to the fence and the tool box on the ground. Just keeping her head down, isn't she?
"…uh, okay," says Eve. Keiko just gets a weird look from Eve. "You.. fix that fence." Carefuly neutral tones, there. Then she's nodding at Koa before rolling her window back up to drive off.
Because, honestly, it's just gonna be one of those days. She'll probaly get stopped again in a few hours.
"Keep mending that fence there Keiko." Koa says watching Eve drive off. He heads to his own car. "I'm sure running into you like this is all just a massive coincidence."
Coincidence. Like running into Eve on the street that he randomly stopped on to ask a tree for directions.
If coincidences are the universe's way of telling you something, what is the message when the coincidence is 'spawn of an elder god?'
And with that disturbing thought filling his head, Koa starts his car and takes off.