She's Got a Cat

Participants:

danielle_icon.gif kain_icon.gif zoe_icon.gif

Also Featuring:

manny_icon.gif

Scene Title She's Got a Cat
Synopsis Contrary to what Kain believes, Zoe has an actual life. She's even got a cat!
Date October 14, 2008

Linderman Building


As ever, the archive, while not a gloomy place, is certainly not a sunny one. No, there's a distinct lack of windows to help assure climate control, all the various shelves, cabinets, and secure storage laid out in neat rows, save for some display cases to break up the monotony. Here there's a collection of weapons, there's some Mendez art work, still elsewhere is a soldier's banner from feudal Japan. At the moment, Zoe is in her familiar comfy chair (no one expects the comfy chair!) and she's got something resting carefully in her lap — it looks like a silk dress, or perhaps a kimono decorated in cherry blossoms. As can be expected, she's staring straight ahead, her eyes washed over in a silver sheen.

With a quiet beep and a click, the door to the archive opens, and with it comes the sounds of conversations. "Do Ah look like Ah've got an idea what it looks like? We'll just ask Space Cadet where it is." Shaking his head as he steps through the security door, Kain Zarek is followed closely behind by one of his paired bodyguards, Manny. While Zarek is a tall man, Manny makes him look child-like in comparison, the near seven foot tall, bald-headed man steps in with more poise and grace than Zarek, sliding his circular-lensed sunglasses up the bridge of his nose.

"We could jus' go back up, maybe ask?" Manny offers, sliding his hands into his pockets as he takes a quiet look around at the storage shelves, then to the redhead seated in a chair on the opposite side of the room. In the florescent light of the archive, Manny's light skin takes on an unnaturally pallid tone with a slight blue hue to it.

"Whole lot've help you are, Frankenstein." Kain mutters, looking over to the redhead with his head quirked to the side. "Mmnh," He sees that glassed-over expression, something Kain's never become comfortable with, and approaches Zoe like someone would an unfamiliar dog, worried it might jump up and bite at any moment.

As most of the employees know, there's three ways to get Zoe out of one of her trances. Take the item out of her hands (a silk kimono might be dangerous to try and remove), a pain stimulus, or a pleasure stimulus. A pinch of course, ought to do just fine, one might think. Her head tilts to the side as Kain approaches, almost as if she knew someone was there. The effect is perhaps, kinda creepy.

Kain gets to within arm's reach, then just stands there blankly. He looks over to Manny, shrugging his shoulders and gesticulating exasperatedly with a silent plea of help spread across his mostly unshaven face. Manny just raises one brow, staring at Kain for a moment, and shrugs with a shake of his head. Straining a sigh, Zarek looks back to the seated redhead, breathing in a deep breath before hesitantly reaching forward, then withdraws his hand awkwardly, looking around with a click of his tongue. "Manny." He whispers in a sharp hiss, and Manny looks away, trying to pretend he didn't hear Kain. "Manny get your meaty palms over here an' wake her up."

Across the room, Manny just shakes his head and points at Kain, mouthing a silent 'you do it.' Neither of them look particularly forward to waking up the object-reader when she's in the middle of her work, especially for what they plan on disturbing her for. Kain reaches out again, towards her ear, then stops, turning around and throwing his arms up into the air as he paces away, trying to figure out the best way of going at this. He is completely out of his element in this situation.

The door opens again, and in walks Danielle. Her intent is to see Zoe, but seeing Kain there just causes a faint smirk. "Well, well. Here for more community service?" She starts to walk past, heading for Zoe. As if Kain were not of import.

Zoe absently licks her lips, still staring off into — well, whatever space it would seem that leads her off into space. None of them are acknowledged, though the redhead's glasses are resting now somewhat awkwardly on her nose, making her look like a spinster schoolmarm out of a Laura Ingalls Wilder novel.

At the sound of the door opening, Manny looks intently at who might be entering. When he sees Danielle though, his expression pales and he looks away, fidgeting nervously where he stands. Kain turns to the sound of the door, maybe it's someone who can disturb Zoe so he won't have to. But upon seeing Danielle, his lips purse into a distasteful expression that slowly drops into a frown as he listens to her. The frown turns into a scowl as she talks, and his eyes narrow, watching her side-long as she walks right past him, "Fancy runnin' inta you down here," Kain's eyes close as he breathes in a slow and steady breath to calm himself, walking away from where Zoe and Danielle are, "You come here to see our little librarian?" He turns to look over his shoulder, hands tucking into the pockets of his slacks as he tries to regain his footing mentally.

The brunette smirks. "Yes, imagine that. Some of us around here can actually be busy. Or need information. As opposed to trying to think with other parts our our anatomy." She walks right up to Zoe, and there's a few sharp taps as she slaps her open palm up against the curator's cheek. It's short, quick movements, meant to sting rather than to just wail on her.

Zoe's chin jerks just a touch, there's a rapid series of blinks, and the silver washes away to reveal hazel eyes. She focuses on the face in front of her. "Oh, hi Danielle!" she says brightly, and starts to rise from the chair. Turning, she sees the two men. "Mr. Zarek. Manny. Did Uncle Daniel send you down here to check something out?" She walks to one of her tables, neatly draping the kimono on it.

When Zoe's eyes shift color, Kain gives a small shivver, shaking his head as he does. Were it not for her chipper demeanor, he'd be positively frightened of the woman, but it's that upbeat attitude that keeps him from treating her more like a monster than a person. Kain looks up to Danielle for a moment, his tongue rolling across the inside of his cheek, "Yeah, Danny sent me down here to pick up some paintings," He glances back to Manny, who just shrugs, then looks over to Zoe again, "Ah left the memo with the catalogue number back in mah office, so Ah need you t'check out the registry for me." His gaze moves to Danielle, narrowing, "You go on an' see if our lil' ace reporter needs anything first though, Ah'd hate t'get in her way."

Danielle waves a hand, dismissing the protest. "No, no. No hurries. I wouldn't want to stop Mr. Zarek from being a prompt errand boy. I've got time." She changes position to stand near Zoe. "What're you working on today?"

"It was a dowry gift from the shogunate period of Japan." Zoe says, patting it fondly. "It was a gift to a woman shortly after she got married. She was very sad — she'd lost a man she might have married and her new husband was very kind. She asked him for the cherry blossom kimono to remember the man who…" she frowns. "He didn't exactly die, but I'm not sure…" she shrugs. "I'll have to spend more time with it." She moves over to the computer. "Which paintings do you need, Mr. Zarek?"

Kain eyes Danielle suspiciously for a moment, then looks back over to Manny, who is busy checking his manicure. Kain lets out an exasperated sigh, and walks back over to where Zoe is seated, "There's five pieces we need to bring up to Danny's office," He looks back over to Dani, briefly, then to Zoe again, one hand coming to rest on the back of the chair as he leans over, giving the spectacled redhead a weak smile, "They're sorted under Brill, Thomas." He motions over to the computer, "Think you could go look up what locker they're stored in?" He arches a brow, looking around the large room, "Otherwise Manny and Ah're probably gonna' be down here a while pawin' through things."

Danielle happily marks away that name in her head. Plus, this way she gets to see Zoe using the computer. Which also is not a bad thing. "Mr. Linderman feel the need to redecorate?" she asks Kain. She doubts she'll get any useful answer…but hey. Never hurts to try. She then looks back to Zoe. "After you finish helping out, you feel hungry? We could snag something." She seems to be friendly towards the librarian-type.

Zoe starts clickety-clacking away quite promptly, and pulls up the Thomas Brill listings. "Show me which lot numbers." she says primly, indicating the screen. And then lightly, "He might be donating them for an exhibit. He does that sometimes. He had some of Takezo Kensei's armor in the Museum of Natural History, but the sword is out in Las Vegas." She looks over her shoulder. "That'd be nice. What are you in the mood for?"

Kain circles around to stand behind the chair, leaning over it as he motions to some of the numbers on the screen, "Those five." He says, pointing to a string of thumbnail-sized images of the paintings labeled TBP004-0014 through TBP004-0019. "Those're the ones he wanted. Orders were to bring them up covered, so if you've got some canvas slips we can throw over them that'd be just peachy, darlin'." Kain glances up at Danielle with narrowed eyes, then looks back to Zoe. "I didn't know they let you outta' your little cage for things like lunch," Kain says in feigned teasing, moving out from behind the chair, but keeping one hand settled on it. "Maybe…" He thinks back to her silvered eyes, and grimaces, "Maybe… uh," Words are reconsidered, "Maybe that's just me… forgettin'… things."

Danielle smiles back to Zoe. "Chinese? But I'm flexible, I could go for just about anything." She looks over at the screen, too. Just so she can see which ones are relevant. And then her eyes narrow at Kain's statement before she puts on a sweet smile. "Oh, you know how it goes. Some of us don't need a 24/7 babysitter." She pointedly looks Manny-wards a moment. "To stop us from making mistakes?" She'll step towards Kain, that last part lower as if conspiratorial. Of course, when she does, she's also going to try and make sure that the heel of her pump ends up on his toes.

Zoe laughs at Kain openly. "Don't be silly. Of course I'm allowed out. I'm my own person, you know, not some crazy living in a loony bin. I have an apartment. I have a cat." Pushing her glasses up her nose and nods to Danielle. "I know this great place for dim sum." She adds just to give a zinger, "I'd invite Mr. Zarek, but you know, he just got the gold star for managing sporks." That's for that little niggle about being some kind of archive troll. On automatic, some of the archive lockers open up, and slide covered canvases forward. "I'll have them delivered." She looks over at Danielle. "Let me just put the kimono away and we can head out."

Kain shifts his eyes over to Manny, mouthing, "She's got a cat." in a teasing sort've manner. But he only manages to end that when a heel is jammed down on his foot. Kain winces, letting out a muffled growl as he gingerly shoves Dani off of his foot and breathes in a slow and composing breath through his nose, trying to keep his composure. "Well, Dani," He wrinkles his nose and looks back to the short woman, "Some mistakes can get you killed after all." He tries to sound friendly, joking, but there's just so much venom there, behind a painted smile. When the lockers open, and Zoe makes the comment about them being delivered, Kain nods over to Manny.

"Stick around and make sure they get upstairs safe," He notices Manny has taken out a file, grooming his nails, "God damnit Manny would you get your head out've your ass for a minute?" Kain lifts one hand up, raking the fingers on one hand through his hair as he tries to calm down from the verbal sparring match with Dani. He turns to look back at the two women, managing as much of a calm and collected smile as he can fake, given his outburst. "Ah…" Kain smiles crookedly, "You… ladies have a good afternoon, a'ight?" Backing up awkwardly, Kain looks over to the locker, "Mister Clean here'll escort them upstairs." He says with a grumble, heading towards the door.


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October 14th: Simon and Sissy-Poo

Previously in this storyline…
Dangerous Waters


Next in this storyline…
Priceless and Significant

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October 14th: Unlikely Housemates
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