Summary:Chasing demons through the park can connect many people Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Meditating is difficult when you're 19. Koa is not normally 19, and he expects that he will be not 19 again shortly. It's annoying. And distracting. And his clothes don't quite fit properly. Which is even MORE annoying and distracting.
Still, he's here in Central Park trying to center himself. That's been increasingly difficult of late and it's important that he be able to do that before he fills himself up with magic and goes to meet a sorceress and an ex-cultist.
It'd be nice to not be 19 when that happens, too…
Something making a noise that's a cross between a shriek and a cackle runs across the green in front of where he is seated. Koa cracks an eye and peers. It's… got mottled red skin and is about the size of a large ish dog and is wearing something's skull. Something's skull that clearly wasn't human to begin with.
Two seconds later, a second such creature wearing a second such dripping, messy skull crosses his line of sight.
"The hell?" Koa mutters to himself as he rises and picks up the chain laying next to him.
Illyana Rasputina doesn't wear heels. She wears big, kick-your-ass boots. Because sometimes, you need to run and running in heels is stupid. And hard. But mostly stupid.
"When I catch you I'm gonna rip your throats out. WITH MY TEETH!" The blonde heavy metal reject comes sprinting across the green after the two demons, looking *pissed*.
The sudden storm that rolled through the Park has faded, and Illyana is running Really Damned Late to meet up with Piotr and Kitty thanks to said freakish timestorm and the demons are making her even later.
Hell, indeed.
In another part of the park…
"What is difference between frozen custard and ice cream?" comes Piotr's question to Kitty as they stand at the Granite Slab Custard Stand, trying to figure out which one is trying to order, while frowning thoughtfully. "Do you think Illyana would want some?" Because clearly that's the best way to summon his sister.
As they stand there talking, one of the creatures bursts through the bushes, causing people to scream.
"BOISHE MOI!" Piotr exclaims, turning as he faces the creature, and goes full-armored. "You will not harm these people or ice cream!"
There's no reason for Keiko to have followed Illyana and there's no reason for her to be at all. But here she is, just trying to get trying to get home. To a shower - maybe the water will be hot today - and to somewhere she can eat.
She's got more work lined up this afternoon and she can't afford another bad review on her profiles.
That's when the demons scurry past her - she must have gone a different direction to the blonde - right in front of her bike.
Kitty walks along with Piotr, resting a hand on his arm as they reach the stand. "Well, they are both sweet liquids before they are frozen, but they have different ingredients," Kitty tells him. "Custard has… ah… probably eggs? And ice cream has cream and salt and sugar. I… um… you know this is a question for mom. She's made both before," Kitty says.
She's just about to suggest she could call Theresa Pryde back in Deerfield, when the creature comes rushing out of the bush. "Oh crap," she says. Kitty moves back behind Piotr, letting him deal with the creature while she focuses on the people nearby. She moves close to them, ready to phase them should the demon breath fire, spit acid, or do something truly nasty. Like launch a glitter bomb at them.
The second demon isn't very far behind the first and the sight of Piotr armored up makes both balk a little bit and turn opposite ways across one another's paths which causes them to bump into eachother. That costs them just a little bit of time as they turn to split up.
The one that had originally crossed Keiko's path doubles back on it's self, slowing the in-need-of-shower handiman even more and bumping her bike though not much. It looks up at the bike and then tries to clamber up onto it. This while trying to keep the skull it is presently using as an oversized hat. A series of growls and hisses come from it and it points. Is it… demanding Keiko serve as getaway biker?
The other one gets caught by a chain that comes flying out of left field - hurled by a rather well dressed young man - that wraps around it and causes it to stumble. That one loses it's hat which goes rolling toward Piotr and Kitty and stops about five feet short. Ugh… that's disgusting.
Of course there is only one chain and there are TWO demons. The second gets more insistent in its attempts to compel her to be its trusty steed.
Is that a blonde sorceress shouting very nearby?
Illyana Rasputina skids to a stop as the pair take off in two directions and groans. "Oh come *on*. Leashes. Next time, *leashes*."
It's pretty hard not to notice the suddenly seven-foot-tall mountain of organic steel and Illyana winces internally. Ah, hell. She makes the turn to chase after the one that's *not* headed towards her brother and best friend, because they can take care of that demon. Not because she's avoiding them. Not at all.
When the demon tries to commandeer Keiko and her bike, it gives Illyana a good opportunity to seven-league-step, teleporting across the distance. When she emerges from the stepping disk in front of Keiko's bike, she's got her Soulstaff in both hands and brings it solidly down on Jumbo's head. knocking him to the ground.
His frog-skull armor saved him from being discorporated by the Staff.
Stepping forward, there's a sickening crunch as a metallic foot covered in boot crushes down on the frog's skull, and Piotr's anger is palatable. Why?
Because in all of this, when he changed, he crushed his ice cream cone. And now there is strawberry custard on his hand. He flicks down the small pile of ruined frozen custard on the grass as Koa gets a full, front row seat to that Rasputin anger as it's unleashed.
Because it looks like for all intents and purposes, unless someone stops him, he's going to crush the poor demon with those piledriver hands of his.
And of course there's a demon. It's been that sort of day hasn't it? "Get off…" Keiko should know better than that but right now, all she wants is to get home.
Not that she needs to worry, Illyana's there in a flash and the demon falls to the ground. "Twice in one day, Miss Raputina." The peruvian says dryly. It's probably notabel she doesn't meet the blondes eyes.
"Was that all of them?" She'd only seen two back there, after all.
Kitty Pryde spots Illyana, and if she had any doubts whose demons these are, they evaporate before the sight of the blond who could have stepped from a heavy metal video. Kitty reaches over, hands gently gripping Piotr's arm to try to tug him away from the demon. Not that she'll have much luck. "Colossus, it's ok, Magik is here," she says, avoiding using his normal name now that he's revealed his self in public. "You don't have to kill it."
Kitty looks down at the demon and contemplates reaching down to… she doesn't even know what she was going to do with it. Probably not pet it. Instead she just stays there and grabs a napkin from the custard stand. "Here," she says, trying to push it into Piotr's hand, as much distraction as anything.
The young man extends a hand and one of the chain flies into it, lengthening as it does. Then he yanks, sliding the bound demon away from Piotr. Not for any particular reasons of sentimentality but because he's not really sure how Illyana would react to having something that's 'hers' broken. Even by her brother.
Speaking of, Piotr MIGHT recognize the young man. Or he might not. It's not like they've interacted much and he is literally a decade younger than he was when they last spoke.
"It's alright sir, I think it's in hand now." Magik is here, yes. The man with the chain nods to Kitty. He hasn't met her before but hey, demon wrangling is no excuse not to be polite.
"Keiko are you okay?" Oh wow. Illyana clocked that demon something fierce. It just looks up at her and… well, cringes actually. It's stunned. And it seems to know it might be in some trouble.
Once it becomes evident that there are no more of the things coming out of the woodwork Koa relaxes a little.
"So… what's this and what was it wearing on it's head?"
That's a general question to everyone though he expects only one person will have the answer.
Illyana Rasputina smirks over at Keiko and jokes: "You've gotta leave if you want me to miss you."
Looking down at the demon, Illyana opens a portal and the pair disappear. At the same time, a stepping disk opens beneath the other demon and Koa will want to get his chain back before it gets clipped or Koa's drug into Limbo after the demon.
A moment later, Illyana appears near her so-very-angry brother and Kitty and plasters on a smile. It's obviously fake, because Illyana never smiles like that. "Hey! Sorry I'm late… There was a little, uh, incident…" She gestures back towards the park where the timeportal was a bit ago. Pause. "Oh! Ice cream. Awesome." Totally nothing wrong here.
"Zloy dukh-iskusitel'." Piotr responds to Illyana as she approaches. It doesn't take a genius for someone to realize that he's saying 'demon' in Russian. "I think it was misplaced." But at least Kitty seems to have disarmed him, and he's wiping the ice cream off his hand as he moves to stand a little closer to Kitty - even if he hasn't reverted back to flesh yet.
"They are handled then?" he asks, grinding his foot slightly, just to crush that skull a little bit more.
"I'm fine." Keiko answers Koa. He's still 19 go figure. The effects from that artifact haven't worn off. "And you?"
With the demon gone, it's an easy enough thing for her to get moving.
She might recognise Piotr in his metallic form, Kitty she has no idea about at all. Anger. Probably best to avoid that. She'll just wheel her bike past the others.
Kitty Pryde gives Piotr a few soft pats of her hand. She looks over to Illyana and says, "Looks like it." She isn't upset like Piotr is, just shakes her head in a 'go figures' sort of way, then grins at her best friend. "Come on, frozen custard is on me," she says.
Before glancing at Piotr wiping off his hand. "That which isn't on Colossus already," she adds, teasing the big Russian even as she flashes a loving smile to him to make up for poking the Russian bear. Kitty turns back to the stand, ordering three frozen custards for them, and passing them around after she's paid for them. "So, you know… we could get you a regular dog," she suggests to Illyana, glancing at the demons. Kitty looks up, giving Keiko and Koa a nod of her head in appreciation for their help.
Koa unhooks the chain from the demon as it tumbles back in and coils it back up. "Well as you can see my situation is not especially improved. I am still rather fresh faced, getting past security at work is a pain in the ass and I might get arrested if I went to get a drink for having a fake ID." Despite the fact that his ID is quite real.
As Keiko wheels by, Koa subtly redirects her toward the two Russians and Kitty. "In a hurry, are you?" He asks the Japanese looking woman. When he touches her arm there's a tingle of energy that her tattoos may well react to. Its the same sort of temporal shennanigans that grabbed affected her in the first place, but much weaker.
"Mister Rasputin, fancy seeing you here." The much younger Koa greets Colossus. It's the voice that gives him away. It's rather distinctive, even if Koa hadn't met him several times before. "I take it, Illyana, something went a bit awry?"
Kitty gets a polite not quite bow. One of those head nod-slightly inclined shoulders things folks sometimes do. "Pleased to meet you Miss. Koa Turner. This is Keiko Kurita."
The smile that Kitty gets for the frozen custard is one of Illyana's real ones, along with a nod of thanks. Turning to Piotr the smile turns a bit wan and nods. "Yeaah, sorry. There was this giant frog-creature that tried to eat me, and filling its' mouth with demons instead of me seemed like a good idea at the time. But apparently they were more interested in sniffing around here than listening to me."
Koa gets an odd look from Illyana, and when he introduces himself her brows wing upwards. "Koa?" She steps forward to poke at him a bit, as though that might impart some important kowledge. "What happened?"
Finally, it is in some confusion that Colossus reverts back to his flesh form. "You.. look younger than the last time I saw you, Agent Turner. What has happened?" he asks, and then Piotr ohs. "This is Katya.. Katherine Pryde. She just graduated Oxford at 18." There's pride in that comment as he settles his hand on the center of the brunette's back. "She is computer… genius?" he looks to Illyana and Kitty, to see if he said that right.
Kitty's nod is returned. Not that Keiko did much. Just let a demon climb on her bike and watched Illyana wallop it.
"I want a shower before I have to go out to my next job. There was … trouble … as Miss Rasputina says." she mutters to Koa, eyes dropping to his hand on her arm. Interesting. "You're looking good at least. Maybe I should offer to take you out for ice cream. Or treats." He's not that young but still, she can tease.
"Nice to meet you, Ms Pryde." Keiko's accent is south american, just nothing that anyone can really pin down to a region.
Piotr is offered a small smile. "Mister Rasputin. Nice to meet you again."
Kitty Pryde smiles back to Illyana, though otherwise stays quiet for the moment as she tries to catch on to what has been going on. The mention of Agent Turner causes one of Kitty's eyebrows to rise slightly. "Hello, nice to meet you," she says in a warm enough voice. Kitty glances to Piotr as he brings up her educational achievement. "Thank you Piotr, but… well, thank you," she tells him, smiling up softly at the big Russian, and then a touch of color coming into her cheeks.
She looks back over to Illyana to say, "So the danger is past now then? Sorry we weren't here earlier to help you with it," she says before licking her frozen custard which she got in a cone.
"You want to buy me an ice cream? Because…" Koa gestures to the fact that they are indeed next to ice cream. Well, frozen custard but close enough. And he would not turn down frozen treats right now. Might as well take advantage of that metabolism while he has it.
"Hey, no teasing now." The Agent snorts with a grin. "Or I might tell them what happened to YOU Miss Pigtails and a Dora shirt."
It only happened to her for, like, two minutes but still.
"Congratulations, Miss Pryde. That's quite an accompli-oof!" That's him getting poked in the chest.
"I don't really pass for thirty like this, I suppose, do I?" He says wryly to the people asking about his new apparent age. "Keiko here found something that stored time - God only knows how - and it got stuck on her hand. When we finally got it fixed, it sort of… sprayed extra days everywhere. She got over what it did to her a lot faster than I seem to be doing though."
Koa shakes his head. "Don't worry though, Illyana. I should be good for the appointment we have to keep."
He pauses. "I take it, Miss Pryde that you know the Rasputins well, then?" He had caught the way Piotr spoke of her and Illyana seems more comfortable around the both of them than anyone. He's seen her do that with Piotr before - and the fact is that Piotr's fairly personable, as he's sure Keiko would agree. But the number of people he HAS seen her do that with is… well, he can count 'em on one hand so far.
"Oh, he's definitely younger." Illyana agrees, poking with one hand while licking her cone with the others. Her gaze drops down and she pokes him in the abs then. Hmm. "Kitty's more just your garden variety genius-genius, with extra helpings for computer stuff." Though the blonde thinks most people are computer geniuses because she's lucky if they work after they've been around her for a few weeks. Maybe she's not just part demon, but also part gremlin…
Illyana looks up from poking Koa's abs as Keiko talks about buying Koa treats and smirks at him. "Careful. She'll try to keep you." That seems to amuse the blonde to no end. Kitty's concern gets waved off. "I wasn't *planning* to be there. This weird portal jerked my teleport or something and dumped me and Dani in the middle of the mess. There were some other folks there that Dani seemed to know and Khaleesi and her dragon so we were good."
Koa's mention of their appointment has her sobering a bit. She even stops feeling him up—err, poking his ribs.
"Well it's that or boiled candy isn't it?" How Keiko can keep a straight face as she says that but ice cream is a favourite of hers. "You've been a good boy though … And at least I wasn't caught like that for long." It won't take her long to buy some for them both.
"I'm not Khaleesi." She says to Illyana, frowning now where Koa's touching her. "Koa. Move your hand…" she says lowly.
It's too late. Bella manifests in the middle of the group. At least a chibi version of the glowing blue appears. A flash of pain crossing Keiko's face when she does.
Kitty Pryde smiles over to Koa and nods her head. "Yes, I've known Piotr for, what, nearly 6 years now. And Illyana not too much less," she says, smiling over at Piotr warmly first, before extending the look to take in the blonde Russian. The brunette doesn't respond to the comments about her computer, just humbly stays quiet until the topic moves on.
"Oh, is Dani ok then?" Kitty asks, though her expression isn't overly worried. As if thinking Illyana would have mentioned if it was otherwise, perhaps. She licks her cone a bit more as she watches the exchange between Keiko and Koa, her expression had been more than a little curious at some of the earlier explanation, though she doesn't ask more details.
"That's okay. We're still working on getting you to keep her." Koa deadpans to Illyana.
"And you - thank you -" That's for the custard Keiko gives him. "… are totally Khaleesi, Keiko. Do you see anyone else where who can have a dragon on command?"
As close to an actual dragon as anyone is likely to see, no less.
"What… are you doing?" The Agent asks as the blonde as she pokes at his abs. Yes. He has them. They're there. Hard to compare to his fully aged self but this might not be quite as good. Though, if so it's not by much.
"Six years. Quite a long time then. Especially by her standards…" Koa seems to know at least parts of the blondes story and is mentally fitting what Kitty tells him to give him a picture of what the brunette has known about the blonde.
That might have been a difficult six years, some of it.
He's about to ask who Dani is when Keiko's spirit just manifests on his own. A cute little glowing wolf with a too-big head. Koa just stares.
"Keiko. What happened to your wolf?"
And why does it look like it's from a cartoon?
Illyana Rasputina plucks at Koa's shirt, as though she's trying to lift it high enough to see. And compare. It's for science! Good thing Piotr wandered off to take a call. "Oh yeah, Dani's fine. *Dani* didn't fall a dozen feet and hit the ground. Ow." She'll probably have bruises later. She might have some *now*, but her heavy metal outfit hides most of her skin.
"Yeah, for all my friends it was like, a long summer away. Biiiit longer for me." Illyana mutters darkly. But then the oh-so-cute Bella appears. Illyana blinks at the glowing wolf and then looks to Kitty. "I want one. You said you'd get me a dog." She did. Just minutes ago.
"I'm more like Lessa or Sorcha, I thought" Keiko shoots back. Koa probably won't get that reference. "But you might be right." She'll wait for Illyana to lift the shirt. She wants to compare as well.
"Bella!" The wolf really is cute and it wanders over to Kitty, wagging it's tail - it's body really - and licking her hand before sauntering over to Illyana and sitting on her feet.
"Rufff"
"Uh. Glydril wasn't affected … but … my tattooes tingled when you touched them. Maybe that's what it is …"
The verdict is… Adult Koa is more defined. But not by a hole lot. And young Koa is still quite solid. He looks like he might have been trying out for some kind of serious collegiate sports. Or maybe just a gym rat, possibly? Certainly, somewhere along the way he learned how to take care of himself because Adult Koa… hasn't let himself go.
"I hope you're both finding that entertaining." Koa says with a small smile. Truth is he is as well. It's not that he doesn't like the attention, really. It's just that there are a number of factors that mean it doesn't go beyond that.
"She even sounds like she's from an anime…" Koa notes of Bella.
As Kitty wanders off after Piotr, Koa watches them go for a moment. "I wonder if your spirits didn't soak in that extra time, Keiko. So…"
Koa licks his own ice cream and looks the two women over. "Do they know?" Do they know what Illyana is planning to do, along with the other two present? And do they know how dangerous it is?
Illyana Rasputina's pale blue gaze glitters with amusement, smirk curving her lips at his almost bashful smile. "Oh, well if you're volunteering to entertain us, I have a list."
The blonde waves to Kitty as the pair get called away, and Illyana tilts her head side to side a bit before sitting down and offering her cone to the cub to share. Like Illyana is worried about spiritwolfcooties.She's survived on what passes for food in Limbo.
"I let them know in general terms. Piotr wanted to try to take my place. After what happened to me when I was younger…" She lets out a long, slow sigh. "He carries a lot of guilt, for not being able to save me." It's not helped by the fact he was a hero in Russia as well. Something that in Koa's research he probably ran across, since he was state-sponsored and all.
"Mmhmmm. You were a jock at school, weren't you? How'd you become Indiana Jones?" Keiko looks. If there's anything wrong with that, she doesn't seem to realise. Communal living probably has had an effect.
Waving to Kitty as she walks off, Keiko squints once again at Bella. "She better not stay like that … that would be unfortunate. And not all of them did, Age—- Koa. Glydril came out just fine, nice and fearsome. Which is good, because she had to roast a pterdactyl."
Or something.
Bella waddles over and plonks herself in Illyana's lap, rolling over to expose her belly, 'ruffing' again before licking the cone. Keiko just sighs. "Traitor."
"Mister Rasputin was a hero? He can't take your place, though, can he. Is there anything he might be able to help?"
"Do you now?" Have a list that is. "And what kind of things are on it?" He should probably not ask that. Perhaps being 19 has compromised his judgement just a little bit. It's made it easier to identify when he's turning red, that's for damn sure.
"I imagine he does. If something like that had happened to a sister of mine, I'm not sure how well I'd cope. And he was someone who was 'supposed' to be able to save you. Hero of the people and all that." Yes, Koa's research did run across that. "He has to know that wouldn't work though, does he not?"
Because Koa doubts very much Piotr can pull off either half of the 'evil sorcerer' trope.
"Uh, well Keiko I did try out for sports and played for a year. But, funny thing, I went on a dig - to impress someone naturally - and discovered I really liked it. So I switched majors to antiquities, went on the next dig that summer, and the dig after that and well, you know how it goes. Go on enough digs and you'll eventually get trapped in a labyrinth with a minotaur hunting you."
That's… not really how it goes, but you know.
"Why would Glydril come out fine but not Bella, I wonder…"
"Because dragons have hugely longer lifespans? Run them back a decade, and it's nothing. Run a *wolf* back a decade?" Illyana nods to the glowing cub in her lap as she sits on the ground and shares her frozen treat with Bella. At least she's not starting to undress Koa anymore, right?
Piotr trying to pull of being Darque gets one of those long sighs from Illyana. "No. He can't pull it off. He doesn't even know what he doesn't know. And while he *can* be frightening when he's angry, he has a good heart." Illyana says, her manner subdued. She doesn't bother to say that Piotr could never pull off being what she is.
Trying to regain some of the levity of earlier, she gives a short chuckle as Koa asks about her List. "From my extensive knowledge of New York laws, I can tell you a lot of them can't be done out here in public." She smirks, the blush like a flag before the bull.
"I wouldn't ask if I were you…" Keiko warns, rolling her eyes as Illyana takes the bait Koa offers. "You'll need to get a room."
Bella lolls happily on her back, holding Illyana's hand between her paws and licking the cone. "You know that's not doing anything for you, right?" The asiatic woman grumbles at the chibi-wolf. "You might be right though, Glydril was already old when I bound her, it's probably not possible to tell she was younger. And she wasn't out long enough to tell if she was behaving like a teen."
They could test with the others, but Keiko's not inclined to. Bella's antics are enough to make her sigh.
"So what you're saying is… we'd need to go to New Jersey." Koa is happy to tease back - Keiko already said they'd need to get a room - but he isn't quite prepared to push it THAT far in front of two women he knows for a fact will only be too happy to take any bait he throws out there and run with it to places that'll make that blush much, much worse.
"Good point on the dragon though. Well Keiko, I think your bargaining position just improved. You might be able to parley a puppy into some big favors if you were inclined to switch over from you-know-who." That's a joke, more or less. "What is a teenage dragon LIKE anyway?"
The idle thoughts that occur to him sometimes.
"You'd do a lot to spare him… what this is going to be, wouldn't you. Spare him what you've already been through." It's perceptive though perhaps not the most perceptive thing in the world. It doesn't take much watching to tell that Illyana loves her brother, and Koa is VERY good at watching and remembering. It's a big part of what he does and how he stays alive.
"Do you remember anything of your family, Keiko? Was there ever anyone like that for you?" He wonders if she understands the conclusions he's come to.
"I've never spent a lot of time in New Jersey. I'd need to look over it's laws to see." Illyana says dryly as she play-wrestles with the cub for the mostly-gone frozen treat. Her hands and Bella's face are kind of a sticky mess. "But that's OK. I have another border we can cross where nothing's off the table. How I love volunteers…" Guess asking questions equates to volunteering.
The teasing fades away and Illyana nods. "I've never gone into detail on what happened. It's not like he could change anything. It'd only make him feel worse. So he doesn't know… everything. He doesn't understand what he's offering."
There's the cutesy growling sound coming from Bella as Illyana wrestles with her. The paws just clinging more tightly to her hands. Keiko just rolls her eyes but not before some sort of look crosses them.
No ones seen her animals respond like to her.
"Jersey? No, the laws there won't let you …" she peters off and changes the subject "Teenage dragons are terrible. You see them on a bad hair day."
"Remember my biological family, you mean? Not particularly. Just … impressions, really. Sometimes a smell will bring back a happy thought but that's about it." The Nightfall had managed to beat much of that out of them. As to anyone like that for her? She shakes her head again "Just my … animals really."
Illyana has seen how Keiko responds to her pets being harmed.
"You should give him a task though. Let him feel like he's helping. You know… like a … pleckabo." She means placebo.
Koa had suggested at some point that perhaps she was discouraged from forming friendships with her bound spirits as a means of control, or for some other reason the cult had in mind. But that's a recent suggestion and seeing that look on her face he does pat her shoulder.
Carefully. Lest he accidentally cause another spirit to manifest.
"Placebo you mean? Perhaps." Illyana would know best on that. As for Keiko… only having her animals is… a bit sad. Maybe that's why she leans so hard on Plokta. "Maybe you should play with them, sometimes." He means her animals. "Even on bad hair days."
"You know how I love volunteering, anyway…" Koa says dryly. Which isn't a 'no', not that he thinks at the moment to say that. His head is elsewhere. He might regret that later, possibly.
"You know you don't have to do this either, right? I mean, I know it does concern you in a way, but this isn't anything you signed up for." Not like Koa who literally DID sign up for this, or Keiko who is intimately involved with the people who are doing it.
Illyana Rasputina nudges Bella off of her lap so she can stand up, moving over to one of the nearby waterfountains so she can rinse her hands off. "What's the saying? Something about good men doing nothing?" The blonde shakes her head. "I'm trying to keep what's left of my humanity, thank you very much."
The suggestion of giving Piotr some sort of busywork gets a thoughtful look. "If I think of anything. I'm not going to lie to him and have him do something meaningless just to stay out of my way."
Koa's noncommittal (or is that nonnegatory?) answer gets a brief chuckle from Illyana. "You're as bad as Keiko." She observes. Only for Keiko it's being stubborn as a bull.
"In my experience, it was best to keep the others in my sibko busy." That might have been so they didn't cause trouble for her later but the theory stands. "Mister Rasputin was a hero you said and I saw his … metal skin just now. Sending him against Plokta is a bad move but maybe he can cause a distraction. We still have the Nightfall pendants, don't we Agent… I mean Koa?"
The pat on her shoulder gets her looking at his hand and then up to his face. "You don't play with them. They will think you're their equal then." It's a very, very old school of animal training. Spare the rod and spoil the animal.
It's not a popular school of thought anymore.
Bella growls a little, in a cutesy sort of way, rolls to her feet and wiggles. "Ruff Ruff" she bounds over to Koa as Illyana goes to wash, planting her sticky feet right on his knees.
"Why's he as bad as me?"
"Do you want servants or friends, Keiko? We have them under lock and key yes. But hopefully what we're about to do will obviate any need for something like that." Koa suddenly winces and seems to age before their eyes. Slowly but quickly enough that the passage of months can be seen over the course of minutes. This kind of hurts it seems but he concentrates and tries gamely.
Until Bella is messing up his pants. "Oh. Hey there. Why don't we just…"
He picks her up. Like she's one of those purse dogs.
"Better."
Where was he? Oh yes. "I think Illyana's more worried about risks to him… spiritually than physically, for lack of a better word." He looks at the blonde for confirmation. "The idea is that… making him get his hands dirty might cost him something that she values in him. His fundamental goodness."
The comment that he's as bad as she is gets a slight smirk and a snort, even through the pain of reaging. He doesn't go far though. To… maybe 21 or 22 if they had to guess. Slightly more defined.
"What? You're going to drop in on me anyway, are you not?"
"Mmmmmaybe." Illyana says with only a hint of a smirk. "Those I like, I just suggest I'll do terrible things to them, but don't actually follow through." Of course, she didn't say if she actually liked him. Looking over to Keiko, Illyana explains: "You and your stubbornness. How you just *have* to resist me. That's him, not *quite* telling me no. Giving me tacit permission to mess with him."
"Well, I could tell turn my brother and his friends loose on a Nightfall compound if you y'know, had one lying around we could drop a merry band of mutants on." Illyana's powered and lives in Mutant Town. Her housemate and brother are also on the record of mutants. It's probably not a surprise that she knows a team of them.
"Probably not in New York, not now. But what if we could find one? With those pendant there's a … sympathetic connection, isn't there?" It would mean they'd have to have a way to get there and Keiko's not sure it's such a good idea. She looks to Koa.
The other byplay she doesn't comment on, just keeps her eyes down. She knows where Koa's office is and that's it. No one really knows where she lives either. Not that Illyana couldn't find her now if she wanted.
"I don't have to resist you." is what she says stubbornly instead.
"Looks like it's wearing off, Agent… Koa." Bella yips as he picks her up and immediately turns on her back. belly rub nao
Koa did note that she didn't say whether or not she liked him. And whether or not she'd follow through. "You already have my pen, traces of my blood and you've been to my house." The still youthful looking agent says with a short, slightly sharp laugh. "I figured we were past the 'permission' stage of things."
In truth he figured that she would do as she wanted, and that she would do so to establish her authority. Dominance, if one wants to use a canine metaphor. And because she hadn't tried, you know, filling his house with demons or hurting him yet, he had been okay with letting that continue.
Which is why he still hasn't said 'no'. Not that he's really thinking of it? In part it's instinct. The predator in him knows how to deal with predators and is comfortable doing so.
Keiko saying 'I don't have to resist you' almost has Koa giggling. "You're rather contrarian aren't you? Is it your instinct to just refute what she says?"
He glances down at his arm. "It is wearing off. And if you wanted to target one of their strongholds and they haven't taken the precaution of severing those connections already… couldn't hurt to look. We've got some diviners at WAND."
Something flickers across Illyana's face. Something that's almost… pain. It's followed by a sigh. "Don't… tempt me. It's harder to resist my nature to take and keep things like a dragon where people are shiny baubles that I can lay claim to because they interest me." She laughs then, bitterly as she shakes her head, realizing she's damned either way. Because the flipside is Keiko and her stubbornness, that then entices Illyana to try to breaker her *because* of that.
"I should go. Have a good evening, the pair of you." Illyana says, dipping her head as she turns to walk away. Because even if you can teleport, sometimes you just need to do some ambulatory meditation.
Koa looks down at the squeaky wolf in his arm and then hands it to Keiko. "Play fetch with her." That's less a request than an instruction. Well, okay. It's a suggestion.
He's going to go back to meditating while she hopefully follows that instruction. This conversation has given him… additional things to think about.