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 Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:54 pm
(After Christmas, before the volcano raid.)
When she was seven, she had fallen out of a tree on her parents' property and hit her head on one of the gnarled roots. The impact had left her dizzy and sick, but she was fine in the morning and soon forgot all about it.
Now it had been a week and Nadja was still plagued by headaches, unable to focus for long. Her leg and her wounds weren't what kept her here; it was the way the floor buckled under her feet when she tried to stand and the darkness that swam at the edge of her vision.
It comes back, they told her. This is normal. It happens. The brain heals slowly. You'll recover with time.
She had plenty of that. Work was beyond her and thinking a strain. She'd taken to sleeping, finding refuge in unconsciousness from the fear. It nibbled and gnawed at the edge of her thoughts. She would beat it away with little things like counting Moloch's hairs by touch, but it would find a way back - again and again.
You might never be as you were, it would whisper, and how would you know? All you'd have is a vague sense of loss until this is the way it always was, and the previous you was no more than a dream.
Her days were long and formless.
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Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:34 pm
When Nadja was in the infirmary, Nyx had visited her a few times. Not nearly as much as she had, Mau, but enough to make sure her favorite superior was being taken care of properly, and also to let the Elite know how her pokemon were doing. Nyx was honored with the job of taking care of Nadja's team while she was laid up, after all.
But now, Miss Nadja was out of the infirmary and not yet back to work, which Nyx knew could be a maddening experience. Nyx had a brilliant idea, though, and decided to visit the Elite in her room to maybe alleviate some of her boredom.
Nyx was prepared, and knocked on the door to Nadja's room, a plate of cookies in one hand and a DVD tucked under her arm, and something tiny and blue lounging across her shoulders. Finally, Miss Nadja would have time to bond with her loyal minion.
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Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:06 pm
"Yes?" It came a little too quickly as she rose from her chair, and then her balance rebelled. Nyx would find Nadja leaning against a worried Moloch when she came in, a hand to her head and another in the dog's mane while she cursed at the way the world worked - or didn't - right now. She was in one of the soft, loose-necked sweaters and leggings that marked her days off, likely an outfit her subordinate had never seen before. Nadja was a private person, but her injury was making inroads on her solitude.
Moloch whuffed and his tail waved faster while his ears perked up, but he was a good dog and didn't move. He made up for his stillness by snorfing loudly at the air for the scent of cookie. The elite glanced up at her visitor, and her expression faded slightly. "Ah," she murmured, though it had tones of 'oh.'
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Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:49 pm
Nyx grinned as she opened the door and stepped in, her expression changing quickly to a worried frown, and then just as quickly back to a wide grin. "Did you get up too fast, Miss Nadja?" She certainly looked like she had, though the other expression had been lost on the Agent. "I came to keep you company!" Nyx's enthusiasm was earnest and further accentuated when she held up the plate of cookies like a waiter, and waved the DVD box.
The Agent was also happy to see Moloch, who was no longer something to be feared because it would eat her at any moment, even though he certainly could, it was never what was on Nyx's mind when she saw him. Now he was a giant, fluffy, friendly dog who Seth couldn't stand. Just like Nyx.
This was going to be the best evening ever.
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Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:43 pm
"..yes," Nadja agreed. "The concussion gives me headaches." It was, after all, true, and after a moment her gaze dropped from the door. The cookies and the DVD got a blank look for a second, and then the redhead's mouth moved in a tired smile - the sort you wear when you've just finished moving in and the neighborhood welcome committee rings your doorbell, armed with fruit baskets. "That's.. kind of you."
From here she could make out the DVD box was brightly colored, with airbrushed cartoon figures and a title in flowing, logo-like script. There was a distinct suggestion of sparkles, possibly magical.
Nadja furrowed her brow, wondering if her post-concussion eyesight was worse than she thought.
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Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:09 pm
Nyx frowned a little, "Ah... That makes sense. At least the doctor gave you pain relievers, right?" She stood inside the room, holding the two offerings and looking around. It would be rude if she came in and just started... doing things. The Elite's eye-sight wasn't wrong, though. There were sparkles, a poofy dress, cartoon characters, and... some monster in a suit on the font of the DVD.
"... Lucky for you, I brought fresh cookies, which I think are better at aiding recovery than chicken soup." If Miss Nadja had requested chicken soup, though, Nyx would have gladly brought some of that too. "And I brought a movie to watch." She hoped Miss Nadja would like it, and also that Miss Nadja would never ever tell anyone about it. Especially Seth. Not that she knew if the two of them were talking again. "Where would you like me to put things, Miss Nadja?"
The blue thing around Nyx's neck peeked out from under her fluff of white hair and looked around. It was the red-headed lady again. The one with the punchy fluffy thing that he had been that one night with the dancing. And the dog who wouldn't dance. What was going on?
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 8:27 pm
"Ah.." The elite leaned into her Arcanine, and for a moment she looked uncertain. There was some truth in Nyx resembling a dog - a puppy, more like, excited and happy and eager to please. Subordinate, her mind reminded her, but the whole complex relationship of workplace and home life in the same building was beyond her, overshadowed by the fact that she badly needed something to occupy her mind, and here it was knocking on her door. Literally.
There was probably something wrong about this situation, but everything had been wrong lately, so it was a wrong thing in a wrong world and would pass by unnoticed.
"Over there," Nadja relented, a soft sleeve half-covering her hand as she indicated the low sofa that had been part of the furniture when she'd moved in. All she'd done was move it so it diagonally occupied a corner. "My computer will play it." Some deeply ingrained sense of manners prompted her to ask, "Would you like something to drink?
"Bwurh?" Moloch tilted an ear quizzically at the blue thing poking out from Nyx's hair.
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 8:49 pm
Nyx grinned and trotted over to the sofa, placing the plate of cookies on the table occupied by the computer Nadja had mentioned. She fiddled around with it until she figured out how to open the CD tray on the laptop and put the disc in. She would take full advantage of this wrong thing in the wrong world, and it would be wonderful. "Oh- Yes, please, Miss Nadja. Do you have tea?"
The scientist walked over and hovered near the elite; It would be rude to sit down and have a concussed woman wait on her. "How have you been, besides the headaches and, I'm assuming, dizziness?" Normally, Nyx would have worried about leaving cookies unattended with a pokemon on the loose, but Moloch was well trained.
The tiny blue thing ducked back under Nyx's hair and started to crawl down her back, which the human seemed unaffected by, where he peeked around the side of the fluffy headed woman, trying to get a better and sneakier look at the giant canine. It certainly was larger when he wasn't taking the shape of some giant fuzzy creature. "Mew?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 9:22 pm
The computer had been sleeping, the only sign of power a blinking blue light. Now it woke up and started to whirr, and a password protected screen popped up.
"A better question is 'what kind,'" Nadja murmured. There were crutches, leaning against the chair she'd been sitting in; she handled them into position now, carefully, and moved for the small kitchen area afforded an elite's living quarters. Her carefully flat expression hinted that she suffered some indignity at being seen in any state less than 'fully capable,' but Moloch's bulk hid her in any case as he followed closely behind his trainer, making little 'bwur' noises of concern.
Things rattled in the cupboards; Moloch was leaned on again during this process. "Resting," came Nadja's answer as water poured into a kettle and the stove clicked on. "Really, just resting, despite my best efforts otherwise. How's Allen?"
There was a blue thing floating in his vision. Moloch's blue eyes slid from left to right as he followed the creature, unmoving otherwise while Nadja spooned dry leaves into a strainer. "Aurrh.."
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Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2011 10:21 pm
Darwin zipped behind the kitchenette counter, hiding from the Arcanine's view. He was a ninja. The ninja-mew scurried across the floor and floated up to peak up over the counter, checking the surroundings, and what the red head was doing. "Mwrr?"
Nyx sighed, the subject of tea and the question of what kind brought up the memory of a certain recent event that culminated in tea. "Ah... He's being Allen. Cutting a swathe of bitter and sudden rise to power through the labs." The old man was determined to make his time as ruler of the labs as memorable and unique from Nadja's way as possible. "Besides that, things are fine in the labs."
She smiled at Nadja, "I think you'll like this movie, Miss Nadja. At least, I hope you will!" Hopefully the Elite didn't turn the movie off after seeing what it was and laugh her loyal minion out of Team Rocket.
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Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 1:19 pm
Another door opened; a bottle of pills rattled. Nadja counted out two ibuprofen while she listened to Nyx, and her shoulders moved in a sigh. "Of course," the woman commented, as if by engaging in the best practices of tyrannical despots through the ages Allen was living up to expectations. A part of her - a small part, the part that had been knotted in frustration over being off duty and injured for weeks - looked forward to reclaiming her place and seeing the man led away by kind people before he could do more damage. More of her wondered, "How is work getting done?"
The redhead closed her eyes, waiting for the teakettle's whistle, but she cracked one open when Moloch's whuff ended in a confused 'bwrr.' A little blue creature was spying on her. The elite canted her head to the side slightly, a movement that said 'I see you.'
"It's a children's film?" she guessed as the water began to boil. There was a note of reluctance there - cartoons meant color and light and noise, and while her tolerance to them was returning to normal levels, it wasn't there yet.
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Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 1:32 pm
"Mostly secretly." Nyx scratched her head and chuckled quietly, "We have to do work in the short times when Allen isn't constantly looking over our shoulders telling us exactly what he thinks we should be doing." It was impossible to do anything with Allen around in the state he was in, if he didn't think the work you were doing was being done right, he would take over, and no one could ever do anything right. Nyx kept the little tidbit that she'd been avoiding/kicked out of the labs to herself. She didn't take well to his meddling, and he didn't take well to criticism, especially when, during a heated discussion about his trying to take over one of her experiments, she may or may not have called him Seth.
Her head sunk down into her shoulders when Nadja brought up the dvd and whether it was a children's film or not. "Noo..." Nyx stared at the Elite, trying to think up an excuse for why it wasn't and she should watch it, but she was drawing a blank. Their wonderful evening would be cut short before it even got going, she knew it.
Darwin ducked back down below the counter horizon and floated to the other side, the tail in the air betraying his position. He peeked his head over the top again, then ducked down and reached a tiny paw up onto the counter. The little creature began groping around for something interesting to thief. "Mwrr..."
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Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 6:00 pm
"Hah," smirked Nadja, darkly amused by the report. That was Allen all right. The whistling stopped when she lifted the kettle and poured a stream of water into the teapot. "He's going to have a mutiny on his hands at this rate."
"Bwurf," went Moloch. He'd spotted the blue thing again, and it was going for the jar of long-handled stirring spoons, ladles and tongs on the counter. The Arcanine wasn't sure exactly what blue things could and could not do, but he knew that touching his person's things was a definite 'cannot do' for just about anyone. But he was occupied at the moment, so he let out a warning whuff while his tail waved and fluttered a memo stuck to the fridge.
"Yeees," the redhead countered, drawing out the word in a mimicry of Nyx's denial. The steaming teapot went on a heat pad, which went on a tray along with two mugs and a small, rough ceramic pot of honey. "Take this." She smirked. "And get your Mew out of my cooking things."
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Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 7:19 pm
"I think we've planned one for Tuesday, with rope and everything." Nyx smiled at the thought of throwing Allen into one of the empty pokemon cages and just leaving him there until Nadja came back to work.
Nyx looked sheepishly at Nadja's mimicked reply, she certainly could not lie at all. Her embarrassment at being caught was short lived when Miss Nadja told her to take the tray and her Mew. "Darwin. Get out of that, come here." She picked up the tray and carried it over to the table, setting it next to the computer. "Mwuur..." Darwin whined and floated across the room and landed on the back of the little sofa. Maybe there would be things to play with over there, like the giant dog.
She waited for Nadja to come over and unlock the laptop so they could start the movie. When the movie started and the blue screen and white castle logo popped up, a high pitched 'eeee' started coming from the scientist. They were really going to do this!
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Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2011 7:42 pm
Visions of chanting savages in loincloths and tattered labcoats chanting toting a hogtied Allen to a sacrificial fume hood danced briefly through Nadja's head as she made her way back to the sofa. "What a thing to miss." Carefully, by means of crutch, the redhead found a seat on the sofa and entered a password with swift keystrokes before making a beeline for the tea. Two cups were poured, one going toward the disappearance of the ibuprofen, while Moloch - who recognized movie night when he saw it - flumphed down and sprawled out on the carpet, turning his nose upward to sniff curiously at Darwin.
"Here." With some effort, Nadja leaned over and retrieved something from under the table - a colorful mass of tubes and cords that squished and jingled, perfect for a toddler or reasonably intelligent Pokemon. "Burya won't mind." She set it on the back of the sofa by the Mew, had another sip of her tea..
..and paused, because she'd left the kettle on the stove by the sound of it. "What- oh." Nyx got a nonplussed look, while Moloch laid his ears back and whuffed.
"Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shining castle."
"..I've seen this," the elite murmured, eyes on the screen while she reached for a cookie.
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