Threats and Theories

Summary:
January 15, 2015: Kate and Bobbi discuss the mission, before it devolves into talking about Clint.

Maui Base Camp

Cabanas. Woo.


Characters

NPCs

  • None

Mood Music:
None


Hawaii is a magical place.

At least, it's warm and sunny, and in January, that's kind of good enough for magic. Kate's been doing her thing, which is a not exactly professional but earnestly intent, and…tends to somehow get results. Of a sort. There's training and technique, and then there's just raw charm. Kate tends to skate by on the latter.

After another day of working through brand new contacts, she's headed back to the cabanas she managed to upgrade the group to, searching something on her phone as she steps into the cabana that's become a sort of mission headquarters.

Mockingbird is settled in the mission hub, pouring over results from the lab tests she ran at the University on the blood and tissue of the affected natives of Maui. She's still in the outfit she wore to the campus, a black pencil skirt, pale blue silk blouse, and white labcoat, and her hair is pulled back in a tight, clean, bun. She's wearing black-rimmed glasses, her real ones, since they worked in this situation. It's very hot librarian. She's paging through computer screens of results with a scowl.

"Hey, Bobbi," Kate greets lightly as she steps inside, pulling a chair over next to the agent. "Do you do plants, too? Or mostly medical stuff?" It really is almost as good as working with Clint. In short shorts, flip flops, and a halter top, she's clearly working the not quite spring break look.

"Hm?" Bobbi asks, snapping out of her staring-match with a laptop. "Biochemistry," she replies. "From what I can tell, the three affected men were suffering from non-protein nitrogen poisoning, but to a degree you usually see in livestock. Humans don't usually turn the color they are. And none of them are working with livestock. They work in the lumber industry. We might need to get Hill to approve a roadtrip to whatever part of the island they're cutting down."

Kate pauses at that, head tilting as she works through a few things. "Nitrogen's used for fertilizer, isn't it? Or something related to that? I remember some diagram from school. There were peanuts." This is how Kate's brain works. "And lumber." A grin flashes as she turns the chair around, straddling it and crossing her arms over the back. "Funny you should mention field trips. From what people are saying, there's a lot of superstitious chatter about angry volcano spirits in the forest. And there was a florist who said there's a lot of plant life in the forests getting killed off by something. But nitrogen is supposed to be good for plants, right?"

"This is more of the ammonia variety," Bobbi clarifies. "Like a cat pissing to mark its territory. Kills the grass," she points out, in what might be a small dig at the girl. "Either way, we won't know much more without going to the lumber sites." She pushes the glasses up on her nose a bit.

If there's a dig, Kate doesn't seem to notice it. Or else she's unfazed. Considering. "So…if things are dying off in the forest, and these guys were working with lumber, could it be a contact thing? The first group was coming in from altitude, but anyone going up high here is probably doing a nature hike thing." She pulls out her phone again, punching something in on the browser. "Is there a relationship between volcanos and nitrogen? Or ammonia? Don't volcanos give off poisonous gasses? Like maybe ammonia?"

"Some, but nothing in enough concentration to affect these people before the carbon dioxide would. Plus, there are no active volcanos on Maui, Miss Bishop," Bobbi points out. "Unless someone is trying to activate one through artificial means, I'd have a hard time believing that's what's happening here. Who knows though, AIM and HYDRA have done dumber things."

"Or it could be a meta of some sort," Kate shrugs. "Like that girl on the red team. Magma? If you could do that sort of thing, move earth, pull up magma, make your own mini volcanoes, I bet you could open up gas pockets. And if you were, say, an angry native who didn't much care of people tromping around in your sacred forests and cutting things down, it'd be a hell of a way to scare people off." A beat. "Very Scooby Doo."

"Or it could be Pele herself, angry at the tree cutting. I mean, Thor turned out to be real, why not the Hawaiian pantheon?" Bobbi mutters, and rubs a temple. "I can deal with hard science, if this is going the way of metas or magic, we'll need bigger guns." Thus far, she's carefully avoided the topic of Clint. She's very professional at least.

"Pfft." Kate waves a hand. "We don't need bigger guns. Just better plans. I wouldn't mind meeting a Hawaiian goddess, though. That'd be cool." She sets her chin down on her folded arms, turning a sidelong glance on Bobbi as she falls silent for a moment. "Do we…need to do the talk thing?" she finally asks. "I was going to try to catch you after the mission briefing, but you were already out. And I think you're way too cool for me to want this to get…weird."

Bobbi grimaces, then she pulls off the glasses and undoes her bun, before turning to face Kate. "Here's the thing. I love Clint. I always have and I always will. And loving someone means being all right with them being happy and moving on once you've let them go. However," and at this she leans forward, somewhat menacingly. "If you hurt him, there won't be enough of you left for them to ID the body, are we clear?"

"Apparently there's going to be a line," Kate drawls. "Make sure you get in the right one, though. There's one for beating him up, and there's one for beating me up." Taking a deep breath, she straightens in the chair, chin rising. "Look. I've got no intentions of hurting him, and he's got no intentions of hurting me. But the bottom line? It could happen. That's life. We go into things with the best intentions, and something they still go to shit. But we're both adults. Yeah, yeah," she adds quickly. "I'm younger than he is. I get it. I know. But if anyone gets hurt, it's going to be between me and him. Just like anything that doesn't hurt is also going to be between me and him." She pauses again, then wrinkles her nose. "Besides, I just spent the last year putting him back together. I'm not letting all that go to waste by busting him up again."

"You seem to have an expectation of privacy and privilege that doesn't exist where Clint Barton is concerned. He's a package deal, kiddo. I'll always be in his life and there to defend or avenge him. So will Romanoff. Either you get used to that idea, and the fact that neither I, nor she, are entirely rational in this subject, or you bail early before anyone gets too attached. The fact he hasn't up and married you already is a pretty good indicator he's not that attached yet." Bobbi smirks, and then she stands. "Now, I have work to do. This is a mission, not the halls in high school. Save it til we're done here." She turns on a heel and heads off.

"You're the one throwing threats about your ex," Kate mutters as Bobbi heads out. "And I'm the high schooler?" There might be something else. It's possible. But then, she wasn't lying about how she actually feels about Bobbi. Awkward: your one idol is pissed at you for dating your other idol.


Back to: RP Logs

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License