Summary:There's been werewolf sightings outside the Zone. Plans are made Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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"Isis? I'm back!" Nick calls out as he shoulders open the door, balancing two pizzas. This is lunch. He's got a large and a medium. The large is for Isis. If he's lucky, he'll get about half the medium to himself.
It's been another long day but they've been working on enough paying work that they can afford luxuries like lunch out. Regularly.
Hopefully the work keeps coming. Nick doesn't think Isis is going to want to go back to noodles.
Isis had been down in M-Town this morning checking up on Morlocks. She'd met Mikhail and had lunch … well second breakfast. Maybe elevensy's. Nicks just bought lunch, so it couldn't be that!
"Here Nick!" She's in his office and comes wandering out at his call with a box - a pastry box of sorts. "I got the muffins I tried to last time I was in M-Town." A dozen of them.
Nick shouldn't worry about only getting half a pizza - well, maybe he should. Isis will keep him slim, right?
"Oh. Muffins and pizza. Perfect." That Nick manages to say that with a smile is a testament to how long he has been working with Isis. And yes. She tends to keep him running around. Which tends to keep him slim.
"Where were you by the way. I got your note but you wrote it in sharpie and it looks like it got damp. You didn't lick it, did you?" Isis IS good with modern conveniences but… well, she's also a bit scatterbrained. Or is that… catter brained?
"Well I didn't know you were getting Pizza's did I?" Isis answers and puts the muffins in the middle of the table. The box has been opened - does Nick want to guess how many out of the dozen that were purchased are left?
"In M-Town. I just said. I went to see Gisselle to see if she's heard from Neville. She hasn't and now she's worried. I think she should be…"
She blinks "It ran? Oh um … I might have split a glass of water …. " Meaning she might have knocked the glass off the table. "I thought it might be alright …" So no, she didn't lick it.
"Where were you, cause you weren't here when I left."
Two. Nick thinks there are two left. One for him, and one for her for later when she gets hungry. This is Isis idea of sharing. Which is to say, sharing in the most technical of senses.
Nick frowns when Isis says her friend - or the friend of her friend - hasn't turned up. They talked about that before. Folks sort of wander off all the time but the fact that no one has heard back is worrying, especially with everything that's been going on.
"I went to see Detective Gibbs over at the Precinct. He'd called me regarding 'werewolf sightings'. Wanted to know if it was us. It wasn't, but I wanted to get from him where the calls were from."
Nick walks over to a laminated map and draws two more X's on it. One in the Bowery and the other in the Bronx.
"We're seeing these outside of the Disaster Zone now. Could be coincidence but… I don't think so."
He pauses. "Is… did you draw Hello Kitty on my map?"
There's more than two left. At least six! Maybe more. Isis did actually eat before leaving M-Town and she's been trying to practice self-restraint. A bit.
"Detective Gibbs? He doesn't share his donuts." That, in the felines books is grevious crime. "How many more sightings have there be—-"
If Isis had a tail, it would be flicking. A lot. "That's not Hello Kitty. That's Hello Isis."
"No he doesn't. That's because they're his doughnuts." Nick smiles slightly and looks down at the Hello Isis. It LOOKS a lot like a Hello Kitty. It looks, in fact, almost exactly like them. Except the shirt is too big. Sort of like she's wearing Nick's shirt.
Which Isis does frequently.
"Five total, but in these two areas. So they're focused at the moment. Maybe they're hunting something or someone. I'm not sure."
It is totally Hello Isis. Nick just needs to squint a little. "You tell me I have to share my doughnuts." That's because Nick buys them to share and not just for Isis but, you know, cat. Isis takes one of the boxes and sits on a table, legs crossed, before starting to eat.
Hopefully that wasn't the pizza Nick had bought for himself. She didn't ask.
"So five more sightings, all outside the Zone." She looks a bit worried about that. "That … looks like a pattern? Right there. What you've drawn." She can't be sure. Maybe she's just trying to distract Nick from the Hello Isis.
"It's a cluster definitely. I'm not sure if it's a pattern yet." It's not linear that's for sure, so they're not tracking something that's actively moving, yet. It's not clear to Nick if they're looking for one person or a handful or anything they can find. The fact that they're outside the zone is worrying enough.
"So far the police don't have anything solid. Just calls and stories." And by the time the police DO have something solid it's very likely that something will have gone wrong.
"You have to share your doughnuts because when I buy them I want some for me too." Nick says, looking up and sticking his tongue out.
"The ones up by the Bronx all seem to be near Colonial Park…"
"I share with you. I bought you muffins!" Isis notes, wrinkling her nose at her werewolf friend but looking at the map and considering. "What if it's just like the ones we found and they're moving around in an area? Nothing more than sightings at the moment? No one missing or bitten?" beat "Was there a full moon lately?"
She's being cute.
"Colonial Park … where's that and why do you think that's telling?"
Nick chuckles. Yes. She brought muffins. Half a box, which is more than he would have normally expected. He was expecting one.
"That's entirely possible. They might be casing things. They might be looking for someone. Hell they might just be out for a walk. But where they go I expect trouble to follow…"
Isis question gets a smile. That's a good question. "Because it's overgrown and/or ruined enough that there will be cover and it's close enough to the disaster zone that it's easy to retreat. But if there's cover for them that also means cover for us. Might be a good spot for us to watch."
"They're not just out for a walk, you know that." Isis answers. "They had a purpose in the Zone and they'll have it out there. They wanted you, when we fought them." They haven't discussed that bit. "They didn't really try to do more than hurt you, did they?"
It's a bit hazy for the slim feline-like mutant - she was a just a *little* bit angry at the end. Just a little bit. Like murderously so.
"You're suggesting we go out, aren't you? What's it called in the movies? A stake out! Do we get to have donuts as well?"
"No, they didn't…" Nick notes. He'd been trying not to think too much about that. He gets it. He's a werewolf so he can be useful and given this group's preference for animal-like mutants, that has to cut down their recruiting potential a lot. So they could probably use everyone they can get.
And that is ALSO a disturbing thought.
"A stakeout, yes. And maaaaaybe we could get doughnuts if we don't have to hide outdoors. If we are in the park itself, they'll smell it."
Please, oh please, Isis do not hit on the idea of using food as bait.
Isis looks up at Nick, feeling his mood change and slides the pizza box to the table beside her. Padding over to him, she rubs her ears against his arm. "I won't let them hurt you, Nick. I didn't and I won't. They didn't hurt my ears with their sounds, did they?"
Which reminds her. "Oh, Mikhail said he would get you some earplugs. That might help with the sounds, don't you think?" Who's Mikhail? The high pitched sounds hadn't affected Isis anywhere near as much because her hearing extends a lot higher than Nicks.
"If they smell it … the doughnuts, they'll come looking and …" yes, Isis had hit on the idea that Nick hadn't wanted her too. "… we could trap them. But that means I'd have to share with strangers that I don't like."
That doesn't seem to get any favour from the feline.
"Who said what now?" No, Nick doesn't know Mikhail but earplugs are a good idea. It'd just be good if somehow they could filter out the high registers and leave him still able to hear things like people talking. Because if he deafens himself to defend himself is he really any better off?
"You don't share food that you're using for bait that's why it's bait." Nick says, face palming a little bit. "Do you have anything coming up in the next couple of nights? Because we probably will have to do this at night."
"Mikhail. Piotrs brother. Older brother but he's not older anymore." It's complicated right? "He said he'd ask a scientist at the Institute. I wonder if he meant Hank, I didn't ask." Which means they might be a little more than just standard earplugs, too.
"But it's all my food, Nick." Isis looks earnest when she says that and rubs her ears against his arm again. "Nothing. I just need to … you know … eat from dreams a bit."
"Can you eat from mine?" At least he knows to expect her. But he also knows that Isis likes to wander and look for interesting dreams. What makes them interesting she has never said. Maybe she'll go to Hank's dreams. Or Catseye's dreams. Or, heaven help her, Scott Summers' dreams.
That man DOES have dreams right? Nick chuckles a little at the thought. Young Scott. Still young but doing very different things than Nick remembers.
"Piotr has an older-not-older brother? Is that anything like his younger-not-younger sister?" Nick remembers Illyana a little bit and Piotr a lot more. Piotr, after all, helped rescue Isis.
"Mmmhmm. But I don't like to eat from yours too much. It makes people tired and grumpy if I do. Or tired and grumpier." She's teasing, a bit. She's not wrong and with a city full of dreamers, it's easy to take small bits from everyone. "When you let me, I like to watch your dreams…"
Maybe it's just the humanity she glimpses in the dream. The unrestrained mind doing what people would rather be doing. Then again - cat. Who can tell?
"He does. I found him in a dream walk and told Piotr and Illyana about him. Illyana took us through a place - I don't know what she called it but she told me not to wander…. I helped rescue him. He'd been lost for seven years in a … rift or something. He was a cosmonaut in Russia."
As usual, the story is disjointed and Isis assumes a lot. But Nick loves her anyway, doesn't he?
Nick probably loves her anyway. He smiles at the story he doesn't fully understand. So Piotr has a brother. That might be interesting later. What must the rest of the X-Men have thought of that? Rasputins are an interesting lot as he recalls.
Though honestly he'll take their company over many others sometimes. At least you always know what you're getting with them.
"You like to watch my dreams?" Nick's dreams are awful. Well not always awful but they revolve around his past a lot. And his past is kind of awful.
He takes some pizza. Just to make sure he gets some.
To be honest, it's a difficult story to relate and Isis' mind doesn't work linearly like others do. But yes, another Rasputin who chides her like a big brother. He's got the Isis seal of approval. Poor thing.
"Some of them, mmmhmm. There's times you dream of running and I like those." The other dreams, not so much but sometimes she can change them and she does.
There's still a whole box of pizza and Isis lets Nick have it. "Sometimes your dreams aren't so nice but I try to help you have better ones, if I can." He knew that right?
"Running huh? You could come and actually run with me." Nick teases. Because he actually does go running. Mutant metabolism or not one does not maintain a physique like his without work.
"How long have you been doing that?" Has it been since he rescued her? Since she came to work with him? He wouldn't actually know every time she's in his head. He knows that. And that makes him wonder… what has she seen? His old subconscious VCR puts on some interesting videos.
"I know and I will… " The problem with Isis is trying to keep her moving forward. Herding cats is a reality when it comes to her. "I like running. And climbing trees and … stuff."
"Ummmm." She has to think about the answer to that question, shrugging a little as she takes some more pizza. "Forever, really. I can't remember, it's just something I do and some of your dreams …"
The bright grey/blue eyes look up at the Werewolf "They're as bad as some of the things that I remember."
Nick hasn't tried a leash yet but that's probably not far off. Maybe one day she'll be able to focus. Right now it seems like her scatterbrained nature is almost a defense. A way to not have to dwell on any one terrible thing for too long.
"I've had a rough life Isis." Nick says quietly. "But it gets better. You'll see."
She can watch it get better. he hopes.
"You never talk on it…" That's said quietly. "Maybe one day you will. I get not wanting too." Maybe Isis' scatterbrained nature is a defense. Maybe too she's experience being a kitten in a way she could never do. Certainly, when the 'terrible things (tm)' come up, Isis finds a way to deflect.
Or scratch and hiss and hurt people.
"It does get better. You and Piotr found me and now I'm here, with you." She has a job and place to live with no one really telling her what to do, really. Nick might not notice but the more responsibility he gives her, the better she gets.
She shakes her head though and nudges the other Pizza box over to Nick. Offering him the rest of hers as well. "What did you want me to focus on this afternoon?"
"I need to make a few calls. If you can get the billing out to Miss Krauss? We closed her case yesterday and she's waiting for the invoice." Nick says giving Isis a squeeze.
"And then we'll go out for dinner when I'm all done with that." Which means that it'll be a few hours.
Isis will be all good with that yes?
"I can do that and Mister Gerard asked for a copy of a few items. I'll run them by you before I send them out." Her ears get rubbed against Nicks arm again.
"Can we … eat in tonight? And watch some Netflix or Prime? I think the Expanse is about to start again." Maybe they could get take out or stop by the store and get … real food.
"Sure…" Nick smiles. It'd be nice to get some down time in. They've been going for a long time, relatively speaking. They can get delivery. They're doing well enough at the moment.
"See you in a few hours for the Expanse then. Don't be late." Nick winks.