nishka//loki (nishka) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2017-07-31 08:59:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | belobog, loki |
and the Furies that I feared
Who: Thomas and Nish
What: There’s nasty critters causing a ruckus at Nish’s place, and Thomas aims to help his friend safeguard her home from the troublesome beasties.
Where: Nish’s apartment, #502
When: July 8th, mid-afternoon
He didn’t know what exactly was going on at this place, but it was quickly turning into a wild ride. Whatever the snake creatures were that he’d seen a few times--only a glance, almost nothing more than a shadow as he came and went from his apartment--Thomas hadn’t tried to fully discover them. Not yet.
And by heading over to Nish’s to help her check for any possible ways into her apartment other than the front door, well, he didn’t want to directly confront whatever was causing a ruckus in her kitchen. Thomas wasn’t a complete stranger in dealing with wild animals; there were certainly plenty of them at the ENC, though they were generally taken care of by employees who specialized in matters of animal husbandry. He didn’t mind lending a helping hand if it was needed, however, the same as he was doing right now.
His knock on Nish’s door was urgent, blond brows squishing together in both thought and worry. The snake creatures hadn’t bothered trying to come into his apartment, but could they have ventured down several floors in the meantime? If it came down to it, Thomas didn’t truly know how he and Nish would handle reptiles of that size, other than calling Animal Control.
But he’d save most of his worries for a rainy day. Surely Nish wouldn’t have a snake creature in her arms when she answered the door, and he only needed to help her secure the premises.
Nish had been attempting to tidy up her kitchen from whatever had happened in it the night before. The knock on the door came as she was sweeping up a broken plate on the floor, and a shard of it had just managed to slice the tip of her thumb. With a grunt of frustration she left the mess on the floor and headed to the door, sucking on her thumb as she went, brushing a lock of hair out of her face that had come free from her ponytail.
“Hey,” she said when she opened the door, “Whatever the hell it was, it was here last night,” she complained, inspecting her thumb and noting that it was only a minor scratch.
“Howdy again, Miss Nish! No signs of the critter itself?” Thomas asked, entering the apartment and casting a look of concern at his neighbor. “I reckon we can buy traps at the store if necessary, but I’d like to think it won’t be. ‘Course, the things slitherin’ around upstairs haven’t found a way into my place yet, so I reckon ya might feel a bit different about confrontin’ these things head on.” He crossed his arms, surveying what he could of Nish’s place, looking for anything that looked completely amiss. Other than the small disaster in the kitchen, her place didn’t look wholly different from the last time he’d visited. But that didn’t mean much when he’d read accounts by other Pax residents about strange things happening in their homes, too. Thomas steeled himself for the possibility of anything whatsoever having invaded the complex, giving Nish a look of solid determination.
“Where do ya want to get started first? There’s no tellin’ what these things are, mongoose or sewer rats, but we oughta batten down the hatches ASAP.”
Nish nodded and looked around her. “Well, we might as well start at the scene of the crime,” she sighed, leading him towards the kitchen. Bear was sitting on the kitchen counter, tensed as if waiting for something to pop out at him and attack. When he saw them coming he lept off the counter and hovered in the space between the kitchen and the dining room.
The broken plate was in a pile next to the dust pan, and a garbage bag was nearby full with the remains of a brand new celery, cauliflower, leaf lettuce and empty branches of grapes that had littered the floor.
“It’s like...something comes in here at night, pulls the fridge open and eats my food, leaving the mess on the floor for me to clean up in the morning.” She looked around her at the bits and pieces still on the floor she hadn’t managed to get to before Thomas showed up. “I’m almost at the point of giving up on making my own food and just...ordering takeout every day until whatever it is is caught.” What she didn’t say was she had lived like that not long ago, and that her new attempts at cooking were a combination of wanting to please Jen, wanting to impress Rafe, and actually feeling good about herself for once.
His eyes widened with surprise when they arrived in the kitchen. Breaking a plate could happen to just about anyone at any given moment--it was the kind of accident that weighed on the same level as a paper cut in Thomas’ mind. But the mess of devoured fruits and vegetables filling the top of her trash, along with the bits on the floor, were certainly out of place.
“Messy buggers, aren’t they?” Thomas mused, brows furrowed together. He briefly touched his chin in thought, shaking his head at the waste of food. “Ya’d almost think they hadn’t been taught a lick of sense at home.” He cast an apologetic look at Bear. “I reckon Bear is scared stiff, elsewise he woulda taken care of the pests. But I gotta say, Nish, there’s no reason ya should be kicked outta your own kitchen.”
As if proving his point, Thomas stepped gingerly around the small shards of glass still littering her kitchen floor. He bent down and started picking up the stray pieces of fruit and vegetables, leaves and stems forming a tiny mountain in the palm of his opposite hand. “Matter of fact, resortin’ to takeout should be reserved for a fun Friday night, not every night of the week, if ya don’t mind me sayin’.” He smiled at his neighbor, depositing the remains of her fresh produce into the trash bag.
Nish smirked to herself at his observation. She wondered what he’d say if he knew that she’d been surviving on mostly takeout (albeit the most nutritious takeout she could find) since college. “I’m just glad that whatever it is hasn’t attacked Bear,” she said, looking over at the cat in question, who seemed to be guarding the kitchen from more intruders. She picked up the nearby broom and began sweeping up the shards of glass and other debris on the floor. She noticed a shard had slid under the cupboard and sighed, crouching so she could sweep under it.
“Huhh!” she exclaimed once she pulled her broom out from under it. A large feather, blue-grey and iridescent, was now lying in the middle of the collected dirt on the floor. She looked up at Thomas, surprised. “I guess now we know why Bear is so nuts about being in here,” she said, picking it up by the stem. “Does it look like any bird you know of?” She looked up, now scanning all the high spots in her kitchen and surrounding apartment, which she hadn’t thought to do before then.
He’d been about to ask Nish if she wanted him to run the nearly full trash bag outside (ignoring his urge to talk to her about the benefits of recycling and composting, especially in such an urban area), when she discovered the feather. Given that she didn’t own a bird, or otherwise Bear might have eaten it, Thomas’ eyes widened for the second time in his visit.
“That’s awful unusual,” he offered in a slow drawl, moving closer to inspect the feather in question. Thomas dusted off his hands on his pants, as if in preparation to touch the feather--but that wasn’t likely without gloves, considering the amount of trouble its owner had caused. “No tellin’ what kinda diseases that might be carryin’, but how do you reckon it found its way inside?” His gaze narrowed at the feather, trying to place the pattern of colors with a bird he had either come into personal contact with during his travels, or perhaps a rehabilitated bird at the ENC.
After a few moments, he shook his head no, disappointed. “Looks almost like a vulture’s feathers,” Thomas suggested, gaze moving upwards, too--as if a bird as large as a vulture would be able to subtly hide on top of the kitchen cabinets, or the fridge. “But I don’t reckon they’d take a likin’ to livin’ indoors. Maybe we oughta call animal control after all, or notify the folks that run this place, unless ya think Bear can get his claws in the bird.”
Nish was still distracted by looking around when she shook her head, her eyes falling once again on the feather in her hand. “It looks too big to be from a vulture, though they get to be pretty big, don’t they?” she asked him, never having seen one up close before. “And I think...whatever it is has scared Bear pretty good,” she added, glancing sadly at her poor cat. He had been looking anxious for the past week or so.
She sighed and set the feather on the shelf next to her. “I don’t know...do you think a trap would help? I’d be too concerned of it catching Bear by accident,” she added, picking up the broom and starting to again sweep the shards and other debris on the floor.
“Seein’ as how Bear is plumb terrified,” Thomas began carefully, looking with sympathy at the feline in question, “it might do him some good to be free of this bird. Not to mention I reckon ya could get a bit more rest and relaxation without something muckin’ up your kitchen.” He paced a bit along the kitchen floor, looking across the counters and cupboards, as if a perfect place for a bird trap would magically appear.
Naturally, it didn’t, and Thomas had more than an inkling that realistically, there was no safe place to put any kind of trap that wouldn’t subsequently endanger Bear as well--let alone Nish, should the bird become aggressive in its fear. Frowning, he halted in his steps, before marginally brightening with a new, better idea.
“Why don’t ya keep Bear safe for a few days more, and I’ll ask at work if anyone has a clue about birds actin’ like this around these parts. See what kinda help they could offer ya. In the meantime, I’ll give the old landlord a call, let him know he’s got a righteous pest problem in here, and on my floor, too.”
Nish was brushing the debris into the dustpan while he spoke and dumped it in the trash, but looked up at his last comment. “You too? Is it more bird...things?” she asked, not exactly sure about what it was she was dealing with here, but sympathetic that he apparently had the same problem. “I’d love to bring a class action suit against the building management about all this,” she said petulantly, “but there’s little to no evidence that anything but the residents did this. Even the feather is circumstantial,” she said with a pout. Ohh how she’d love to nail them for all the weird things that have happened here over the past year, but they seemed to be very good about cleaning up evidence.
Thomas nodded, crossing his arms and thinking of the sights he’d seen up on the ninth floor. A light bulb clicked on somewhere in his mind, and his mood continued to improve as he spoke to his friend. “Not birds, ‘course if they made their way down here, they just might take care of your bird problem. See, they’re snakes, I reckon, though they’re big fellers. I don’t mind them much, but I keep my distance. They like slitherin’ down the hallways.”
A smile that was beginning to emerge faded slightly at Nish’s legal jargon and subsequent reasoning. “I don’t know about you, Miss Nish, but I keep a clean enough home to detract from pests and the like. I reckon our neighbors do the same, given this is a…” he fumbled for the right set of words, attempting to be as non-offensive as possible, “...reasonably well-kept neighborhood. Sure is nice around here and all, ya think people’d want to keep it that way.”
Nish chuckled, “yeah, if only the management would keep the pests under control,” she said, finishing up with sweeping the floor and looking around her in satisfaction. Bear seemed happier with it too, and he crept back into the kitchen, though his tail was down and he was looking around for threats as he did. He sniffed the garbage bag curiously as Nish watched. “I guess I’m going to have to just buy the food I need every day so that...whatever it is won’t raid my fridge anymore. At least until we figure out what’s doing it,” she said, looking over at him hopefully.
“I think I’ll keep Bear in my office with his litter box and his toys and food while I’m out. Which...after this...I’m going out for dinner,” she added with an exasperated laugh. “Care to join me?” It was the farthest thing from a ‘date’, but she thought the idea of sitting in a restaurant alone kind of pathetic.
“Can’t be too careful with your food or furry companion,” Thomas nodded in agreement, feeling relieved that Nish would at least be able to keep Bear safe. She didn’t seem entirely frightened for her own safety, but then, why would she? Unless the bird actually was resting somewhere in her apartment, he felt that she’d likely be fine.
Except if the bird became frightened and thus dangerous, but Thomas certainly didn’t want to entertain thoughts that involved sour possibilities. Not when they had a plan of action to combat the feathered visitor. “We’ll get to the bottom of this predicament, don’t ya worry,” Thomas said cheerfully. He smiled at his friend’s suggestion, good mood returning within a heartbeat. “I could eat the north end of a south-bound polecat, now that ya mention it; could be on account of seein’ all this poor food havin’ gone to waste. Ya got a place in mind that perchance might have vegan options?”
“Of course you’re vegan,” Nish laughed. “I’m very much a carnivore, but I’ll do vegan for one night...how about you pick the restaurant then?” she suggested, crossing to the sink to wash her hands and towelling them off as she spoke. “You can introduce me to how the hell you get enough protein without meat or dairy,” she said good-naturedly.
Thomas grinned merrily, not offended in the slightest by his friend’s comment. He’d heard much worse than that, and besides, he knew there was no use in forcing someone to go vegan--or even vegetarian.
“Gladly, Miss Nish.” He took his phone out of his back pocket, pulling up a list of places he’d either visited already since moving, or planned to visit in the future. Scrolling through the restaurants, he chose one which promised alternative options for meat eaters, rather than vice versa. “But ya best be wary, ‘cause I’ve a mind to show you the finer side of lentils.”