Ever since their rather gruesome outing together, Isabel had been seeing an awful lot of Allison. Maybe it was just her imagination and she was simply noticing the other young woman around the Sanctuary more often than she had before after spending several hours in her company. But then again maybe it wasn't, seeing as they had spent a large chunk of time together in that horrible dream and it hadn't done much to affect the current interactions between the two. In any case, no matter where Isabel settled herself she seemed to at least catch a glimpse of the other girl wandering by, if not being outright accosted by her for another inane conversation.

Friendship was not something Isabel was overly familiar with. She had very few friends and even then she rarely sought their company for extended periods of time. Allison would be the first in recent memory that actively sought her out. She tried to understand why, but any time she thought to ask she was roped into a discussion about one thing or another and Allison rambled on animatedly until Isabel had quite forgotten the question she'd meant to ask. It had been somewhat amusing at first, though it was getting gradually more irritating in her failure to understand the reasoning behind it.

After dawdling in her room for a few hours since rolling out of bed on a day that Zephyr had actually allowed her to sleep in, she finally got bored of trying to find entertainment there had had wandered down to the rec room. There she could flip on the television if nothing else, though she carefully avoided the news. Lisa had not been happy with her after her latest tantrum had destroyed the previous screen.

And as if on cue as soon as Isabel had usurped the most comfortable chair from a more timid resident, a familiar flurry of mostly red hair caught her eyes. She sighed as subtly as she could manage and affected a smile as she wondered what strange topic would be chosen for their latest discussion. The smile faltered, however, and was replaced by a look of mild confusion when her gaze fell on what was in the other young woman's hand.

"You the newest girl scout or do you just have a serious sweet tooth?" There was no way one person could eat all those cookies.

"Both, of course. Can't you see the uniform?" Allison perched on the arm of Isabel's chair and balanced the plate of cookies on Isabel's lap before grabbing one. She, of course, was not wearing a uniform, or anything that could be mistaken for one; the shirt was too loose and far too casual (even if any company had included bright blue uniforms), and the jeans were just barely short of having holes worn in them. They probably did already, for that matter, if you happened to have a magnifying glass to look with. Maybe if she worked in some sort of alternative clothing shop they could be passed off as fitting... she wasn't sure 'wear fashionable clothes that can be bought here' counted as a uniform, though. Maybe a dress code.

The cookies were chocolate chip, and the chips were still half melted. Technically, this was due to their being reheated, but they'd only been baked the day before so it wasn't much difference. They still tasted the same, anyway.

There was probably already chocolate and cookie crumbs around Allison's mouth by the time she got around to talking, instead of giving Isabel pointed looks to eat the cookies. How pointed they were considering Allison was simultaneously occupied with eating a hand-sized cookie was unclear, but they were intended to be pointed. "What music do you listen to?"

Isabel sat silently in confusion as Allison answered her smartass remark incredibly casually before proceeding to perch herself on the arm of the chair. She wriggled over toward the opposite arm as the young woman sat, unsure about how such a seating arrangement was supposed to work, though before she could ponder it too much a warm plate was placed in her lap.

Her hands raised to shoulder height to keep out of the plate's way and remained there as it settled, her eyes going slightly wide in her bewilderment over the passing of the sweets. Isabel wasn't so experiences in such interactions. It wasn't often that people cozied up to mass murderers and tired to feed them baked goods. She was at something of a loss about what to do.

After several pointed looks from the redhead, Isabel finally got the hint that she was at least supposed to help herself to one of the cookies and obliged by picking one up, though it never made it to her mouth. She left it hanging in her hand in her continued state of confusion, maneuvering her fingers around the treat's edge to avoid sticking them in any particularly gooey bits of chocolate.

"Uh, I dunno... whatever's on the radio I guess?" she replied uncertainly, her gaze occasionally flickering between Alison and the cooling plate. Polite conversation was not something she was practiced in. "Uh, what about you?"

Isabel... really needed to socialize more. Seriously, who didn't know what to do with cookies? It wasn't exactly difficult to figure out. Allison was pretty sure Isabel still needed to eat. She rolled her eyes--only slightly, but she felt justified in that, and Isabel could deal with it--and took another bite of her cookie before commenting. "It's a cookie. You're supposed to eat it."

...Really needed to socialize more. Seriously. Didn't Isabel at least have a computer or something? Allison wasn't sure they even made actual radios anymore, except in cars. Either way, it didn't even take socializing to enjoy music.

Also? Whatever was on the radio tended to be pop. The idea of Isabel enjoying boy bands, or the sort of flirty boy-obsessed women that were allowed into mainstream popularity was... disturbing, and made Allison distinctly suspect mind control. Clearly this needed to be fixed.

It was Allison's turn to hold her cookie suspended in the air (though she made no attempt to avoid getting her fingers in chocolate) while she finished the most recent bite, and began singing. "It's not the time, it's not the place, I'm just another--pretty faces, so don't come any closer~ You're not the first, you're not the last, how many more? Don't even ask! You're one more dead composer~ Do I need you? Yes and no. Do I want you? Maybe so. You're getting warm, you're getting warm, you're getting warmer~oh. Did you plan this--all along? Did you care if--it was wrong? Who's getting warmer now, that I'm gone?"

She was not sitting right. Allison straightened. It didn't make much difference visibly, but it made singing easier. "Misery loves company, and company loves more; more loves everybody else, but hell is others~ Misery loves company, and company loves more; more loves everybody else, but hell is others~" Taking another bite of cookie was tempting, but would ruin her ability to sing.

"I'm not for you, you're not for me, I'll kill you first, you wait and see; devil undercover~ You're not a prince, you're not a friend, you're just a child, and in the end, you're one more selfish lover~

"Do I need you? Yes and no. Do I want you? Maybe so. You're getting warm, you're getting warm, you're getting warmer~ oh. Did you plan this--all along? Did you care if--it was wrong? Who's getting warmer now, that I'm gone?"


((Can't link to the song due to swearing, but it's by Emilie Autumn.))

“Lisa, good afternoon, have you seen Isabel by any chance?”

Despite the polite smile on his face, Zephyr could help the slight sense of unease as he traded idle talk with Sanctuary’s only receptionist. He’d been associated with the Order and thus Sanctuary, for nearly half a decade now and in that time Lisa had been one of the few, if not only constant in the organization over the years and he’d never seen her away from her desk.

He’d actually tried once, arranging calls in the middle of the night, stopping be when she was meant to be occupied with giving tours. He’d even tried to have her schedule some form of nonsense meeting with Lenna on one of the rare occasions the building had caught fire. Each time though, without fail, Lisa had simply given him a beaming false smile and parroted off the same politely inane response she always did.

The woman was a machine. A mutant machine he was fairly sure though he’d not yet found himself quite bored enough to try and prove it.

That being said, ever present receptionist knew more about Sanctuary and its various residents than anyone else the elemental had yet encountered and so he made it a point to try and speak with her at least once every other week if not more, and though she’d been intentionally sparse with details in the beginning, that had changed once she’d notice the correlation between reports on Isabel’s poor behavior and the sudden decrease in violence and property damage that tended to follow.

After having exchanged the usual benign palaver, Lisa at last told him that she’s last seen Duskmoor heading towards the Rec room

As he wandered down the cluttered hallways just a few minutes later Zephyr found himself reflecting that his rapport with Lisa was likely one of the more valuable relationships he’d managed to foster over the past few months. A belief that had only been enforced when she’d told him that Duskmoor had last been seen near the Rec room only a few moments after they’d finished exchanging the usual benign palaver and she’d thank him very much if he’d make sure to remind the girl that the place wasn’t made out of TV’s.

Networking at its finest, truly.

As had become his habit Zephyr allowed his thoughts to drift towards his other senses, briefly sweeping the area as he closed in on the Rec room. It wasn’t that didn’t trust Lisa, the woman tended to be right nine times out of ten, but if she wasn’t in her room Isabel rarely stayed in one place for long and he didn’t want to waste time hunting her down if he could avoid it.

That being said, the scene his senses were describing made the elemental doubt himself , even after he scanned the area again. It wasn’t until he actually entered the Rec room and saw that yes, there was in fact another girl almost sitting in Isabel’s lap, a redhead from what little he could make out with his side on view. A redhead who was encouraging the bone wielder to eat one of the apparently freshly baked cookies from the plate currently resting in her lap.

The look of utter bewilderment on Isabel’s face would have been funny if the whole thing hadn’t been so surreal.

Despite that though he couldn’t deny he was somewhat curious, from everything he knew Duskmoor had, at best two (or eight depending on how you counted one of them) people who could be described as close friends, neither of whom looked anything like the redheaded enigma sitting almost on top of her.

Tempted as he was to just sit on the sidelines to see how Isabel handled being social, a part of him knew that it would likely only take one wrong word to changes the brunettes confusion into anger, and he had implied to Lisa that he’d make sure the soubrette wouldn’t damage anything. Better to interrupt really
“Ah Isa-”

He didn’t manage two words before the singing started.

It wasn’t bad, that was perhaps the most charitable he could be. The redhead certainly had a pair lungs there was no denying that and her voice didn’t grate on him in the way some singers did, but the actual song she was singing just… maybe it was just lacking some form of instrumental accompaniment, but the words and underlying rhythm by themselves just seemed, odd.

Since he didn’t have any real desire to shout or otherwise interrupt and possibly offend the odd redhead Zephyr leaned his shoulder against the rooms entrance and contented himself with watching Isabel’s perplexed expression as he waited for the song to finish. When it did he brought his hands together in a subdued yet polite set of claps as he adopted one of his more social facades, his British brogue becoming stronger as he finally spoke.

“That was quite a performance,” He gave the redhead a kind smile before he shifted his attention back to the buxom brunette. “Whose your friend Isabel? She seems like quite the singer.”

Singing. Allison was singing. What on earth was Isabel supposed to do about someone singing to her? All she'd asked was what kind of music the other girl liked, and that was only because she'd been asked first. If she'd known such an innocent question could turn into this, she'd have kept her mouth shut, or maybe she'd have shoved the cookie into her mouth to escape having to speak.

And the words of that song were so terrible. Was she actually serenading her with a love song? Didn't Allison already have a girlfriend? What was she supposed to say back to that? No amount of movies she'd watched had properly equipped her with the knowledge about rebuffing musical advances. Girls in movies always swooned. But this wasn't cute. This was horrifying.

To make matters worse, before she had a minute to sit in shocked silence, someone started clapping and caused her to jump. Her face immediately heated up when her head swiveled around and she caught sight of Zephyr. If he thought something was going on, he'd never let her live it down. Hell, even if he realized nothing was going on he might still not let her live it down. This was awful.

She looked between Zephyr and Allison when she was asked for an introduction. "She's not... I mean we're, uh.." Her knee jerk reaction was to deny that the other girl was a friend of hers, but at the same time she knew that it probably wasn't a good idea to do so. Allison had had a habit of cozying up to Isabel in future situations to prove a point. She did not need that kind of attention right now. "Allison."

Isabel's expression... was hilarious.

Granted, apparently Allison wasn't doing much to convince her not to listen to sappy pop music. That was a bit disappointing. But Allison's personality wouldn't even be recognizable if she didn't enjoy bewildering people, and Isabel was hardly exempt. Aura might be, on some topics... not all, though.

The applause was unexpected. Allison was comfortable in Sanctuary, though, so she turned and took another bite of cookie (waiting while she sang was frustrating enough, and why she stopped partway through) instead of spinning to see who it was.

Who it was turned out to be sort of expected, and sort of not. Allison had started following Isabel around to begin with because it seemed to be the only way to find Zephyr, but it had taken long enough she hadn't really been expecting him to appear now. He did have amusing timing though; Isabel's stammering was one of the funnier things she'd heard recently. That was probably why she deliberately misunderstood, and leaned over so her shoulder was just barely touching Isabel's arm. "Yes?" She gave an idle wave to Zephyr while she did, but paid more attention to Isabel. Unless he was drastically weaker now, she'd need to surprise him to kill him; paying too much attention to him would be a good way to ruin that.

Well now, wasn’t this interesting?

People that Isabel would tolerate were few and far between, those that she actually let close to her, metaphorically or otherwise, were even rarer still. It had taken the elemental months to earn even a grudging level of trust from the buxom bonemancer, yet the tattooed redhead, Allison, had somehow managed to gain something similar without coming to his notice.

He’d need to have a few words with Lisa.

Still, if Isabel’s crimson features were any indication this wasn’t truly any cause for concern. The brunette was embarrassed yes, but she wasn’t scared; if she thought she’d done something wrong the ingénue would have been pale and shaking by now, instead she was blushing and stammering like a schoolgirl caught on a first date.

In fact, now that he thought about it the hessian couldn’t help but smirk as he tilted his head slightly to reconsider the scene before him, replaying the lyrics of Allison’s song in the back of his mind. He’d not really given it much thought at first, but really, who was he to turn down such a golden opportunity?

“A pleasure to meet you Allison.” He inclined his head slightly towards the redhead who waved and promptly leaned in closer to Isabel. “I’m not interrupting am I?” The question carried amusement rather than concern as he arched an eyebrow at the girls. “The pair of you seem quite cozy together. I can always come back later if need be, let you enjoy some quality time.”

“Would you like that Isabel?”

Oh no, not the smirk. She knew that jerk was going to tease her mercilessly once he'd had a minute to take in the sight of her and her companion. This was so not fair. Why had Zephyr decided to show up now of all times? Because he sucked, that was why. He was always showing up at the least convenient times. Isabel was sure he did it on purpose.

And of course Allison had to go and make things worse by wriggling just that much closer so that they were actually touching. Isabel squirmed uncomfortably in her seat under the curious gaze of the young man and Allison's cheerful one. How was she going to get herself out of this one? It was bad enough that she'd had that girl Rhythm after her in the past, but now to have a second young woman seemingly trying to woo her was too much. She was in hell.

"But we're not..." she began, not exactly sure what she could say about the situation without making it worse somehow. "I mean, I was by myself and she... I didn't... I'm not.." If she could have she would have punched Zephyr right in his smug face, but seeing as that option was off the table she was in a bit of a predicament. Punching Allison wasn't really a choice, either. "She brought cookies," was the only plea for understanding that she could manage.

That... was not what Allison had expected. Apparently Zephyr was one of the ones who didn't remember the future... or who had just assumed that the Amazons were a giant lesbian orgy, instead of having relationships. Allison had never decided which was stupider; those rumors, or the rumors about the Amazons kidnapping men because they weren't lesbians. Or that both were true.... Both was probably stupidest, just by virtue of math, but really they all reached a level of stupidity beyond measure.

Oh well. Unless he actually said something, forgetting was probably the most likely option. He certainly wasn't acting like he knew Allison, which would be helpful. Not many people expected her to be able to do anything useful. Now if he would just get closer, Allison could deal with him.

He wasn't, though, and in the meantime, Isabel's stammering was even more amusing. Allison mostly suppressed a giggle, grabbed a cookie, and sat up to offer it to Zephyr. "I'm sure you've already interrupted as much as you can. They are good cookies though, want one?" Her grin might have been a bit larger than offering cookies to strange men justified, but that was entirely due to the laughter she was still suppressing. Isabel probably wouldn't react well to being laughed at. Granted she'd probably just sulk off to her room, but still; that could ruin this opportunity, and would certainly make any more unlikely.

This was far more entertaining than it had any right to be.

He really didn’t see this side of Isabel often enough, she was so antisocial most of the time that an opportunity to tease her like this almost never came up. It was refreshing really, to see her do something other than scowl all the time. He’d had no idea she could pull off the lost puppy look so well, on anyone else he would have said it was cute, on Isabel though…

It was simply priceless.

“Cookies, really?” The elemental made a brief show of letting his gaze drop to the plate in question as he fought down a chuckle. “So a little sugar is all it takes to make you sweeter? I wish I’d known sooner.”

He was going to regret that line later he knew, for now though it was worth it just to see Duskmoor skin gain another several shades of red as her mouth dropped open. Perhaps the best part however was that a few weeks ago he knew she likely would have missed the innuendo entirely, just one look at her face now though it was clear all too aware of the double entendre.

Allison meanwhile appeared to be having just as much fun at Isabel’s expense as he was. The redhead was clearly fighting a losing battle to hide her amusement even as she tried to shift attention away from her bone wielding friend in an effort to buy the blushing brunette a chance to calm down. It was honestly a rather kind gesture he wouldn’t have expected from someone Isabel called a friend… or someone she associated with at least.


Regardless though, there was no reason to ignore the redheads offer, odd tattoos and singing aside, the girl was honestly starting to look like she might just be a good influence on city’s resident cop killer and in Sanctuary that was practically unheard of. He could afford to play polite if it meant finding someone else who could watch Duskmoor from time to time.

Still smirking slightly Zephyr returned Allison’s rather, enthusiastic smile, with an urbane grin of his own. as he held out his hand “Well, with Isabel’s glowing seal of approval how could I possibly say no?” He held out his hand to the redhead motioning for her to throw the cookie as he continued, as he held out his hand “Please, pass it up.”

It was a minor relief when the pair's attention was drawn away from Isabel and toward each other. It left her a little room to wriggle further back into the chair and away from the redhead, though she was already pressed far enough into the chair back that she didn't have very far to go before she wouldn't be able to wriggle around anymore. At least Allison hadn't opted for feeding whatever ideas Zephyr may have been trying to press onto the situation he'd walked in on.

Then again, she wasn't so sure that the two of them getting friendly with each other was all that much better. Zephyr certainly didn't need an accomplice when it came to trying to ruin her life and Allison didn't need any encouragement in finding her and trapping her in the strangest conversations she'd ever been involved in. She would much rather be left to her own devices and between her pair of annoyances it wasn't likely to happen.

However, she wasn't going to say anything. If she opened her mouth she'd draw their attention right back to her. It was probably too much to hope for that they'd be engaged enough with each other to give her a chance to sneak off, so she'd have to settle with trying to become part of the chair. She shoved a piece of her cookie in her mouth to try and help herself keep quiet.

Allison made a point of rolling her eyes. Technically, sure, she probably could toss it fairly accurately, and he could catch it anyway (or just grab it from her hand, she was sure), but if he didn't remember her, there was no reason to admit she knew that. For that matter, even if he did remember, that didn't necessarily mean she did; plenty of people seemed not to. And when it gave her the perfect opportunity....

Allison hopped off the chair's arm, and walked toward Zephyr. "Really? You don't throw cookies, you don't risk them falling. They're cookies." Cookies were, indeed, too good to risk wasting for most purposes. So Allison let ink pool just beneath the back of her hand as she walked, held it in place as she held the cookie out toward Zephyr, and then pulled it up through her hand, and flung it at Zephyr's face. She couldn't quite aim exactly for the lethal point in the brain, but that was fine; hitting it anywhere would cause enough disruption to give her plenty of time to reach the lethal spots. Having to aim through the front of his face was unfortunate, but trying to sneak the ink around and behind him would have left too much time for him to notice it. Faster was the best chance she had now. Besides, the ink pool was small, no larger than a finger nail; it wouldn't be too easy to see and realize what it was at once.

It had been a while since someone had tried to kill him. No, that wasn’t quite right, on any given week he had a number of tasks which saw him deal with a depressing amount of ignorant or simply suicidal individuals who’d love nothing better than to put him six feet under. Normally though they were lucky if they even saw him considering he could work from a block away or more.

No, he was use to people wanting to kill him, but it had been quite some time since anyone had caught him off guard and gotten close enough to almost pull it off. He couldn’t say he missed the feeling.

Still, when you’re trying to take down mutants, especially versatile ones, almost wasn’t good enough.

Barely an instant after the ink left Allison’s skin and burst through the cookie in her hand Zephyr’s senses began screaming. Nothing natural should have been able to cross the space between them that fast yet a part of him could already see the inks trajectory by the ripple it left in the air as it raced towards his head

It was too close, he couldn’t move out of the way in time and he’d be dead before he even started ghosting. Still he lifted his hand on reflex, sweeping from right to left as he tried to block the tiny dart and was rewarded with a burning pain when the ink hit the skin of his palm and kept going.

Even if it couldn’t stop it though, flesh and blood is still denser than air, the ink slowed even as the elementals arm kept moving and by the time left the back of his hand he’d diverted it to the point that, instead of shooting through his head, the ink cut across his temple as it went out into the corridor.

At the same, as his arm finished its sweeping motion, an unnatural gale surged through the Rec room and crashed into Allison’s side like a linebacker, hauling the redhead off her feet and slamming her into the widescreen TV at the front of the room. Her shoulder went first, crashing into the wall just above the screen with her head following an instant later in a whiplash motion just before her hip collided with the screen, shattering the glass and knocking machine from its frame so that it fell with the girl, landing on top of her when she hit the floor a moment later.

Lisa was not going to be happy.

Isabel was on her feet as soon as she realized what was going on, which was right about the point when Zephyr suddenly made a defensive movement. The plate slid off of her lap as she stood and what was left of the cookie in her hand joined its fellows on the floor, though any sound it made was easily drowned out by Allison's body colliding with the television and the wall followed by the floor.

For a moment she couldn't think to do anything but stare wide-eyed at Zephyr and then at Allison, or what parts of Allison she could see under the television debris. It wasn't hard to miss the spatter of blood that had hit the floor and part of the wall as the young man had moved. His hands had been bloody messes before, often courtesy of Isabel herself and she knew that he was capable of fixing the damage himself. Allison was not quite so lucky.

Not really thinking about how it might look Isabel opted to approach Allison first, quickly lifting the bulk of what was left of the television off of the other young woman and pushing it aside. She was at a bit of a loss for what to do next, though. She specialized in harming people, not helping them. She wasn't foolish enough to think that Zephyr would be any help and that meant she'd probably have to contact the Infirmary and have them move the redhead into the medical ward for repairs.

Well, she'd have to do so if Zephyr let her get away with it. If he saw Allison as a viable threat now, she'd be hard pressed convincing him to get any assistance. He'd want to deal with the ink manipulator himself. And so she was right back at square one, struggling to think of what could be done. The first thing that came to mind was rounding on the young man. "What the hell just happened?"