Summary:Ice Cream in M-Town and a strange woman appears. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
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M-Town is a site of particular concern for WAND but that isn't why Koa Turner is in it today. Today, Koa is just coming out of a shop whose rather dirty window is simply labeled 'Consultations' and tucking an envelope into a satchel. It's a nice day out, at the moment. There's not a whole lot of street traffic, or foot traffic. There tends not to be around here. It's not a place a lot of people go to on purpose.
The sound of ringing bells comes down the street at him. A man with a push cart is calling out 'Ice Cream! Italian ice! Rocket pops! Get 'em here!' He's got a small crowd and he's in the direction that Koa is headed. Just off to the side of him, in a sort of empty paved area that's a make shift plaza, a woman is dancing.
Koa blinks. That's hula. Well, okay, it'a auana since there's modern music playing but the woman dancing it looks quite good at it. Odd. That's not something you see every day here.
Hrm… does he want an italian ice…
Illyana Rasputina and Sam Guthrie are coming out of the Mutant Town Makerspace that Doug set up and that Illyana lives above. The blonde sorceress's arm linked with the tall hayseed's and she has to tilt her head up to look at him. Because she's trying to wheedle him, with an awful imitation of puppy dog eyes and plaintive tone. Puppy dog eyes work better when you don't have eyes a cold as a Siberian winter.
"I thought I could get it to do the gardening! How was I supposed to know it still needed to eat… I mean, Doug bought all this gardening stuff because he thought I wanted to learn how to do it and I didn't want it to go to waste." She might have felt a bit guilty. Maybe. Almost. OK not really.
Keiko has been in working in M-Town again. Repair and maintenance work is never scarce. Koa will see her bike before he sees her, it's secured to a lightpole not far from that plaza.
Today, it's weeding the edge along that paved area and at the sound of the bells, she stands and stretches. Yes. Ice Cream does sound nice.
Oh look, it's Illyana. Maybe she doesn't need ice cream that much.
Sam Guthrie shakes his head, "Everything needs to eat, Illy. Well, most everything. I dunno about, like, Juggernaut. He might eat, but I don't know if he needs it or nothin',' he says.
"But I don't mind helpin' out. I got a little bit of a green thumb, I helped plenty in Mama's garden back home. You don't have to make that face at me. I'm happy to show ya how to do it. But that's just it - I'm gonna show you, so you know how to do it. Then you only need me once," he grins.
Koa does indeed spot Keiko's telltale bike. He smirks. Of course she's here. Though he hasn't run into her in a couple days, it's interesting how he tends to when he's out attending arcane business and not mundane business. Perhaps she's drawn to spots like this. Or maybe they just break and need a handiman more often. A question for later, to be sure.
Koa motions to Keiko, and toward the cart, asking if she'd like one. Least he can do for all he's put her through. By the time he's near it - and her - he's also nearing Illyana. Curiously it's her voice he picks up before he sees her.
"Hello Miss Rasputina. Thought you could make what garden now? Hello sir…"
Koa recognizes Sam. He's run into the man once before in this area but he had to leave rather quickly and the WAND Agent never got his name.
Behind Keiko there's applause and the rather slight, darker skinned woman who had been dancing bows to her audience and then begins to ALSO make her way over toward the icy treats cart.
"Whew." Keiko hears the woman say and she grins at the tattoo bearer in a friendly fashion. "Gettin a bit warm out here."
Which it is. And quite humid. By island standards, anyway.
Well that backfired *spectacularly*. Illyana gives up the wheedling and pouts. If pouting also involves a scowl. It certainly has elements of grumpy. Still, now it's become too late for her to say she just wanted him to be OK with the demon she pressed into gardening having keeled over because she forgot it was there and couldn't leave because of the Wards. It also didn't manage to make anything grow, so it was sort of a loose-loose situation.
"But if you *did* it, then it would make sure that you came by to visit Doug and I regularly." Illyana tries to persuade the taller mutant. "You know he loves it when you visit. He used to follow you around all the time at school." She might be exaggerating a bit. Maybe.
Catching sight of Koa and Keiko, the blonde woman raises a brow. "Tell me you're not here for another missing kid." Every time she sees those two…
Sam Guthrie smiles, "I'm more than happy to visit you guys without any ulterior motives. I'm your friend," he says. "He's tryin' to help me get an in at SHIELD so I can work there. He knows I been wantin' to do the law enforcement thing. I had meant to go FBI, but SHIELD would be good, too. I guess I shouldn't think twice about it, I just…I wanna make sure I earn it on my own, not just cause my friend got me in, y'know?"
He nods at the greeting, "Sam Guthrie," he says, offering his hand to make official introductions.
Possibly it's that the arcane messes with things that Keiko can fix. Or maybe it's just that that's where the work is. Even with the payments from SHIELD, she still needs the income. And truth be told, this is often easier. Often, not always.
Seeing Koa though, Keiko waves, nods and makes her way over. The dancer gets a look when she talks to the tattoo bearer "I guess it is. Not as hot as some places I've worked." It's not friendly but she's not shutting the woman down, exactly.
"No, Miss Rasputina…" Keiko's accent is a heinz variety. Lots of different ones but nothing easy to identify. "I'm not. I'm here to work to day, good honest work."
As if working for Koa isn't!
She quiets as Sam introduces himself to Koa. Noting the name and just how tall the mutant is.
Koa gives Illyana a rather wan smile. It would be funny of course, if it weren't quite so serious. "Not this time, thankfully. I needed a second opinion on an old document. There's a woman here in M-Town whose expertise I trust."
When Sam offers his hand, the broad, well built man whom Illyana had been addressing shakes it. "Koa Turner, WAND. Pleased to meet you Mister Guthrie. You're a friend of Miss Rasputina's I take it? And was that something about SHIELD I heard? Oh sorry. Did you two want…?" An ice cream?
He turns to the vendor. "Two lemon ices." One for him, one for Keiko. He hands Keiko's over when she gets close. "Oh, this is Keiko Kurita, by the way. Another leaky faucet, Keiko?" No she is not his sidekick. Or minion. Or lackey. But those are all very good words if he wants to annoy her. He doesn't. Yet.
"Oh my. Someone's big and strong…" That's the dancer. She grins as she gets an ice cream from the cart. "Do you dance, Mister Guthrie? It's not every day one sees a strapping young man like you and two absolutely enchanting young ladies…"
The way she says ENCHANTING has Koa side eyeing her.
"I could get you *in* to SHIELD. Getting *out* might be more exciting." Illyana jokes in a dry manner. She pats Sam's arm that she's got linked through her own. "And don't worry about a friend helping you in the door. Proving you're someone that they want to keep? That'll all be on you and that's way more important."
As Koa picks up on their conversation about SHIELD, she nods to her tall companion. "Sam's looking to join. I'm surprised you didn't want to go for SWORD with your obsession with Sci-Fi." The conversation looses her focus though as Koa is offering up the goodness that is ice cream. "Something chocolate." She'll let him surprise her.
When the dancer joins the conversation the blonde sorceress looks over to Koa with a quirked brow. Friend of his?
Sam Guthrie nods to Keiko, "Pleasure, ma'am," he says. "As Illyana so…delicately put it, yeah, I'm interested in signing up. I've been doing a bit of college work, but I'm kinda itchin' to go ahead and get the ol' career started. Also, if you know Illyana, then I'm guessin' you probably figure I'm a mutant and I can put my talents to good use. So, I think I got a nice resume, but I just wanna m ake sure I do things by the book. I ain't one to cut corners, sir."
At the mention of dancing, he raises an eyebrow, "I may have cut a rug or two in my time, although most of my experience is line dancin' an' mosh pits, outside o' the occasional junior prom."
"Gardening today, Agent Turner." Always that. Never Koa. "Good honest work in the sun." She accepts the lemon ice and takes tentative taste. Oh, that's good.
"Mister Guthrie. It's a pleasure to meet you as well." She can be polite when she wants to be.
The dancer gets another look. The tattooed woman has picked up the inflection. Not to mention that she's put herself into the conversation. "I'm sorry. Have we met?"
Koa shakes his head to Illyana. No that's no friend of his. Not that he knows of anyway. And she seems much less interested in him than she does in the other three.
"Forward me the resume. Or give it to Miss Rasputina, she's got my phone number. I don't do recruiting and I doubt you'd want WAND, but I can send it down to the recruiters office and if they're interested they'll definitely give you call and set something up."
Koa indicates a chocolate/chocolate drumstick which is given over to the blonde.
The woman grins. "Sorry I get carried away. You can call me Ke'ala. I teach dance here sometimes. Not everyone is interested but hey, the people here need something to take their mind off things sometimes. I'm good at that. You four look like you could use it…"
She looks at Keiko. "You especially."
And then at Illyana and Sam. "You know she just wants you to come around more. Maybe kine tell her it's okay to have forgotten that kai'moni yeah?"
How could she possibly know that?
Keiko gets a second look. "You know that they would listen more if you treated them more like helpers and less like tools, yeah?" Okay, that gets Koa to stare a little.
"You don't even need to get him drunk to do it either." Illyana notes of Sam and dancing as she unwraps her ice cream. "Most guys idea of dancing when they're sober is standing there and maybe wiggling a bit. It's kinda laughable."
The blonde sorceress licks at her drumstick as she listens to the conversation and then pauses in mid-lick at the dancers comments. Her eyes narrow with suspicion and some annoyance. Instead of commenting through she takes an exaggerated bite out of the frozen treat while keeping her cold, pale gaze on the unknown woman who obviously knows too much.
Sam Guthrie shrugs, "I had a lot of sisters. Had to be able to be a proper chaperone," he says. "I don't claim to be great at it, but it's fun enough to try," he says. Sam's always been lucky in that he doesn't suffer the sort of anxieties or insecurities that seem to plague so many of his classmates. He's very comfortable in his skin, with who he is, confident even, humbled only by his good nature and his simple upbringing.
"I'll do that, sir," he says to Koa, "Just make sure I have your e-mail if Illy doesn't know it." If he has any commentary on the other things being said, he doesn't show it. Sometimes it's better to keep your mouth shut.
—-
"Ke'ala…" Keiko listens to everything and takes it in. Sometimes she simply doesn't it - context is a thing. This time though. "She a relative of yours, Agent Turner?" She might have done some reading. Picture books, probably. "I don't need my mind taken off anything, but thank you for the offer."
The tattooed woman tenses at the scrutiny.
The rest of the things the woman says has Keiko frowning. What on earth is she saying?
"Why do you want to join SHIELD?" that's directed to Sam. A little blunt, but there's genuine interest and it's not disparaging.
At the mention of siblings, Keiko's face falls a little but it's masked quickly enough. "Treat … you mean my spirits?" Now the woman is getting the eye.
"See. Talent." The woman says at Illyana's coment, and then nods to Keiko. She does mean her spirits. And she can almost feel that eye. "We'll talk again later, I'm sure." Beat. "Secret's in the hips."
That's for Sam. And then she's off and back to her audience leaving Koa rolling his eyes as he reaches for his card to give to Sam.
"No, not that I know of. I mean possibly but…" He shrugs and gives the card over.
"As Keiko said though, why did you want to join? Not a test, just curious. And…"
He glances at Keiko. Had she heard what the two of them were talking about when they came out?
"Sorry, are you learning to garden, Miss Rasputina?" He'd not pegged her for a green thumb.
"You're good enough that I'll drag you with me the next concert I hit up." Illyana tells Sam, still eyeing the dancer as she nibbles on her ice cream drumstick. That pale blue gaze follows after the woman even as she walks way. Someone will be keeping an eye open for that woman.
The bit about Koa's email gets a huff of amusement from the blonde woman. "I'll leave it on his kitchen table. *That* I know." Unlike silly emails. Do these people not know how to write these days? With pens?
here is the barest of a wince, that's turned into a grimace as the gardening bit comes up. "Apparently, I am." She says, sounding a bit grumbly about it. But Sam at least knows that if Illyana was really set against it, it wouldn't matter if Sam did any cajoling. "And speaking of… I should get rid of… the mess that's there if I want to make any use of the space." Stepping away from Sam she waves to the other two. She figures she'll see Sam before he heads back up to the school.
Sam Guthrie smiles, "Ain't nothin' too sinister. I always wanted to do good in the world. I got the trainin' and skills to do well in SHIELD. And I'm a mutant. We need more mutants in importance places in the world, part of it, being with other folks. Especially the folks that tend to do the arrestin'."
He gives Illyana a quick side-hug, squeezing her shoulder, "I'll take ya up on that. I think there's an Unleash the Archers show in Staten Island next week, if we can get tickets."
—-
Keiko had heard and when she finishes giving Ke'ala the eye her attention turns to Illyana. "I … can garden…" She's not sure the blonde really wants her around though.
Ex-cultist that she is and Plokta follower.
The blonde knows how to find her though. On the phone, that she might be able to answer, or other ways.
Sams talking about joining SHIELD has her thinking too. Poor Koa, might have lots of questions from the tattooed woman, later. "Nothing wrong with wanting to do good. Are you still in school though?" School. A novel concept for Keiko.
"Well you can email it to me, or Miss Rasputina will break into my house and leave it on my table. One of those. Actually she might do the second anyway." Koa does actually wave as Illyana leaves, smirking a little bit. Then he looks over to Keiko.
"We should talk. I, um… need some cabinet doors replaced."
Actual regular work from Koa? Will wonders never cease.
"I'll forward your resume when I get it though, Mister Guthrie. And good luck. I don't know if you'll see much of me on the regular side but for what it's worth, I hope you make it."
And with that, it seems, Koa also has other places to be.
And cabinet doors to replace.