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Riley arrives from the Second Floor Elevator Lounge.
Riley has arrived.
Niko has half a sandwich on a plate at his elbow, along with crumbs that attest
to the former presence of the other half. As you enter, he tucks away the
comm headset with a roll of his eyes. "Okay, maybe I'm back to kicking them
again," he says, by way of greeting. "G'afternoon."
Riley pads in, snagging messages and a seat on Anya's desk so he can hijack a
datapad. "You're more than welcome to do so in my book. Most of them could
use a good kicking." He looks a great deal more alert than he did the day
before.
Niko grins cheerfully at that. "So if I do it and bring down the wrath of the powers that be, I can use 'Riley said I could' as an excuse?"
Riley starts scrawling in a report onto the datapad, nodding with a wry grin,
"Sure, go ahead. I don't think that would do you any good mind, but you can
give it a try."
Niko eyes the comm, and almost looks like he's considering it for a moment, then shakes his head. "Bad idea, just now," he murmurs. See, this is what working fewer hours is going to do--it'll give him more time to consider mischief and such. It'll be a matter of days til he's trying to make it down the stairs on his skates. "I'll remember it for later, though, thanks." And with that, and a quick drink from his blue can, he turns back to the paperwork for a moment. "Oh," he adds. "Got in that order for the radios, and they said that they should get 'em here in the next several days."
Riley hands the data pad back towards Anya, murmuring, "File that with the
assassination attempts, would you?" He nods to that, grinning, "Yay, enough
radios at last, or at least danged close. I appreciate you covering that for
me."
Niko's head bobs in a brief nod, with a murmured, "No problem," though his ears
have perked up at the a-word. No, not attempts. "Who was it this time?" he
inquires, with a gesture after the data pad.
Riley tugs his legs up to cross them, tapping himself lightly on the chest.
"Me. Rather a bizarre experience, I wonder if I should feel loved? Does this
put me on level with the fourth floor fluffies?"
Niko's brows arch sharply at that. "Uh, no, hardly, somehow I think you're kind
of above that. But what happened? Are you all right?" He gives you a long
look, as if trying to find some sort of injury.
You faintly hear a chime mark the hour.
Riley gestures dismissively at the look, "I'm fine, all parts present and
accounted for. It was an attempted poisoning, so it's not like I've got any
random holes in me that weren't there before. I just don't know when it
happened, or how."
Niko, for a moment, looks very much like he'd like to snag the report and read it--that'd be the quickest way to get the details. But he has some self-restraint, so he only asks, "Do you know who, at least? And how'd you catch it?" This is likely a bad time to do so, all things considered, but he picks up the remainder of his sandwich and munches on it as he listens.
Riley gesturs to your computer at the look, "It'll be filed with your stuff." He shakes his head, "No idea of who or anything. Clara spotted it, and I was just rather lucky, it wasn't something there was an antidote for. Not a bang-up job obviously on their part, it didn't work for beans. I just figured I was feeling bad because I was sick, presumably their intention, whoever they are." He pauses, "Standard needs a nuetral gender pronoun."
Niko nods at the mention of the report, looking maybe a bit puzzled. But he
doesn't press for further answers--he'll get them from the report, so he'll
get them. That's what matters. "Neutral-gender, yeah. That'd be nice. Are you
okay, though? Is Clara?"
Riley nods to both questions, settling the messages aside. "Fine on both
counts. In my case better than I was before I got poisoned actually, which is
an altogether weird thing to be saying, I know. Heck, it might not have even
been intentional, I might just have gotten into something underground I ought
not have."
Niko gives you a rather exasperated look. "Riley, when I shooed you out of here, it was to go home, not to go running about the underground. I swear."
Riley shakes his head quickly, "I didn't, I went right on home. Honest. Running around in the Underground had been earlier. That's why I was feeling so rough, the whatever the heck the chemical was. I can't recall the name just yet, I was a little out of it when it was mentioned."
Niko inquires, raking a hand through his hair, "Was it not potent stuff, or
something? Thought you said that there wasn't an antidote, but... well,
you're -here- and all."
Riley nods to the question, "It was kind of a one shot deal I guess. It hits, and it's sneaky, but if it doesn't kill you off quickly enough, well it gets filtered out, that being what kidneys are for and all."
Niko sips at his soda, expression rather brooding. "Guess you got lucky, then."
Looking up, he inquires, "You going to make a stab at finding out the source
of the poison?"
"I'd like to give it a shot, but I don't even know where to start," Riley
comments, "And there's a lot of other stuff that needs doing. I figure though
I'll scan the list of folks who've been in and out lately that we know deal
with banned substances, maybe something will jump out and bite me on the
nose."
Niko offers, leaning back in his chair, "If you can get me the name of the drug, I can try to hunt down who might have access to it, if it's not a common one. Even if it is, for that matter. Heck, it'll be a break from the daily routine, sounds good to me." Besides, he's hardly going to let this go untraced. Maybe it's Guido. (He's been told about Guido, right? Or has he?)
Riley looks a bit sheepish, but nods, "I'll have to ask Clara what it was, or perhaps you can if you see her before I do. As I said, I was a bit out of it."
Niko nods agreeably to that. "No worries. I'll track her down later, see what
she has to say. It didn't work, that's what's key."
Riley nods amiably, snagging another couple of messages. "Everything turned out fine in the end. I'm terribly hard to kill, see. Too danged stubborn."
Niko grins crookedly at that. "Only stubborn person in the Complex, yup, that's
you."
Riley cannot resist the urge to roll his eyes at that, "Would that that were true. I'm surrounded by stubborn, immovable, lunatics."
Niko offers an overdone smile of innocence. "I hope you don't mean -me- when
you say that, Riley."
Riley just affixes you with a -look- as he slides down off the desk, "Iolytus Nikolaos Casymed, you're as stubborn, immovable, and looney as they come."
Aha! Niko gets the response for which he was hoping. He reaches into a drawer
of his desk and comes up with one of those foam disc guns, firing off a few
discs at you. "Thank you," he says cheerfully.
Riley attempts to duck the disks, snickering as he goes to commando roll into
his office. He has to do that occasionally to keep his license. And to show
off that -he- can manage the trick without breaking himself. Foam disks fire
from his office in return.
Niko scoops up his those of his foam discs that he can reach, and yours as
well. Muffling a snicker, he fires off another disc, then ducks around Anya's
desk, moving to one side of the office door. This is a guy who really
-needed- brothers, growing up. He does not, though, try any commando rolls.
The last thing he needs is to explain to Clara how he broke himself while
trying to shoot Riley.
Ka-ching, ka-ching, Riley is careful of his ammunition, taking shots only as
bits of Niko are visible. He has the advantae, he -did- have brother growing
up, and is well aware of their evil. In a daring strategic move he moves back
from the office door, diving behind the couch and pushing it forward, moving
it as a barrier and shield towards the door.
Niko makes a strangled ack-ing sound as one of the shots catches him, and
enacts a very brief death scene, which is why he misses the couch being
pushed into place. As he spots it, though, he grins, and fires a few shots
over the top of the couch, after a brief peek over its top to attempt to
locate Riley.
See, Riley may be running low on foam disks, but now he has a new form of ammunition. A small stuffed penguin is lobbed grenade-like over the couch, Niko-wards. It's accompanied by an ack as he's pelted with foam.
He's surrendering the penguins? "Hostages!" Niko announces, with a muffled snicker as the penguin smacks him on the head. It gets tucked into a desk drawer. "Surrender, and nobody gets hurt!" Of course, he's laughing, so the words don't carry any menace. He shifts to the other side of the door, peering around it before firing off another disc. That done, he pauses to reload with the ammo that he's managed to get from the floor.
"Not hostages," Riley calls as he hurls a pillow out over the couch as well. "Spies into the enemy camp!" There's a ka-ching, although no foam disk goes flying. "Now that takes talent," he murmurs, "I think I just shot myself."
Niko ducks the pillow. It gets Kaycen instead. The poor guy just shakes his
head, looking a bit amused, then goes back to his work. "And you got an
innocent bystander, as well," Niko retorts. Then, with a grin, he announces,
"Charge!" Yup, he goes -over- the couch, landing passably well, and fires off
a disc--only one, as his ammo is dwindling.
"If they're in Security, they aren't innocent," Riley calls back by way of reply, although he acks as you come over the wall, pelting you with pillows, and penguins, a ball point pen, and of course, foam disks.
Of course, it was a red pen, uncapped, and it catches Niko across one cheek,
leaving a lovely red line. "Aiee," he announces, at the barrage. "I am
wounded!" Flopping to the ground, in part because of his own snickering, he
fires off his final three discs.
Riley fires off his last shot as well, not bothering to duck the barrage of
three, sinking back against the couch, snickering helplessly. "Teach you to
abduct the penguins of your elders."
Niko remains sprawled on the ground, shaking his head. "Abuct? You -threw- it
at me! How can I be accused of swiping it?" He grumbles a good-natured
complaint about so-called elders, who can't remember what they did five
minutes ago.
"That's why we're elders, so we can be senile," Riley explains, snickering
quietly.
Niko finally sits up. "Yeah, sure, senile," Niko replies, starting to track down his ammo. "That's exactly what you are." He murmurs something about getting another holster made, then grins. "That was an adventure."
Riley climbs to his feet, tugging the couch back into place, nodding. "You
started it," he snickers.
Niko scrambles up after you, moving to assist in couch moving. "But you used my
first name," he replies, with a grin. "I'm trying to keep people from doing
that, see, because it's evil."
Riley then heads into the main office area, in search of penguinage. "So anytime anybody uses your first name a pitched battle shall ensue?"
Niko scrambles off after, the better to avoid the finding of said penguinage.
"Uh. Maybe. Depends on who uses it. Like the Maestro, he's fond of it, but I
can hardly shoot -him-."
Riley is actually crawling under desks and looking now, "Heeeeere Edward,
where'd you go?" He hmphs softly, "Oh, but you can shoot -me- can you, see
how loved I feel?" He snickers before resuming his oenguin calling and under
desk crawling.
Niko goes to perch on his desk, his legs directly in front of the desk drawer
that holds Edward. "Yeah, well, it won't annoy anybody if I shoot you--er,
with foam, that is. Besides, he doesn't have a gun of his own. It isn't right
to shoot him if he can't shoot back."
Riley is now looking under just about everything, moving chairs, the poor dog,
"Eeeeeedward..." He hmms, "Resolution to arm the complex with foam guns. It'd
cheer things up certainly."
Niko inquires, "Can Edward talk? He going to answer you? And that'd be great,
yeah. I could just shoot the fluffies--that'd be a lot less likely to get me
in trouble than kicking them would."
Riley sits back cross-legged, looking around, "I guess not." He does however
once again set about searching for the toy. "Yeah, they're less likely to
kick -you- that way."
Niko nods at that. "Not getting kicked is a plus, yeah." He watches the hunting
for a moment longer, then shifts to sit in his chair, taking up his keyboard.
Might as well work, after all. Of course, he still follows the progress of
the man--er, penguinhunt. If you listen hard enough, maybe you can hear
Edward calling for help. The poor penguin, stuffed in with all those pens and
pencils and forms.
Riley starts moving boxes of stacked forms, still searching. He of course would
never think to look in a drawer, nobody would be so mean and vicious as to
abduct one of his penguins after all. "As a rule I have found this to be
true. I'm not big on random kickings." Just then his comm beeps and he gives
it a mournful look. "Hells, Nick, if you see Edward, would you snag him?" He
scrambles up from the floor and into the office.
Lassiter, a random SecOff who witnessed the whole endeavor snickers and
suggests to Niko, "Now you should take pictures of the thing tied up in
string or something, send a ransom note."
Riley walks towards the Chief Addison's Office.
Riley has left.
Niko -said- he was taking Edward as a hostage, how could Riley have missed
that? At Lassiter's comment, his expression shifts from a hint of guilty
amusement, and he snickers. "Y'know, that's tempting." He adopts that really
bad Hellenic-German accent, adding, "Ve haf your penguin. Turn over the
meeecrofilm."
But see Riley trusts Niko. Niko would never do anything mean or evil like steal poor Edward. Lassiter nods, snickering. "Cut out letters, real traditional."
Niko didn't steal Edward! He... borrowed him. Yeah. "Little penguin blindfold,"
he murmurs, with a brief laugh. "Yeah, after I get off shift, maybe I'll do
it. Ela'll know what to do."
Lassiter nods to that, returning to his work.
Edward just hides in the drawer, sniffling sadly. Lonely unhappy little
penguin, trapped.
Niko is oblivious to the poor, sniffling penguin. He works.