8385/Family Matters: The Village

Family Matters: The Village
Date of Scene:	18 July 2019
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Skye investigates her mother's village finding few answers but comes home with leads...and a cat.
Cast of Characters:	Hawkeye (Barton), Quake

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Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
All the details were in the computer. The location of Skye's mother's village in the Tibetan Himilayas, the details from Clint's cursory inspection, and the report of the team that followed up. A small village set on an isolated mountain top, they estimated it housed about a couple hundred people at most. The trash recovered suggested there had been contact with the outside world, pizza boxes, etc, but there's no foot path down the mountain or any way to reach the spot except by plane or helicopter. There were no supplies for either except for those left by Hydra.

In short it was a mystery. One just coming into view as Skye flies her quinjet over the mountains. The flat top of the mountain providing ample space to land outsides the bounds of the village proper.

Quake has posed:
Skye was pretty sure she was cleared for the quinjet. After all, nobody stopped her, right? To he knowledge she wasn't being chased by anyone demanding that she cease and desist, turn the quinjet around and turn back home..

The flight to the village was fairly uneventful, and Skye handled the piloting well enough. She had better - after all, there was no way in hell May would have let Skye at the controls of the bus if she couldn't handle the quinjet. That was still a mystery to the young woman: why had May let her pilot? May was singularly controlling of that one thing, and, like Coulson's car, nobody touched the controls of the bus May.

Until Skye had.

It was still a mystery.

Skye settles the quinjet in for a landing, making sure all spaces and systems are clear. Nothing throwing up warnings. Nothing she can sense, though at this height, and with all the vibrations around her, focusing in on anything specific would be a monumental task in and of itself. Still, it was good practice to remember that once she hit the ground running she could, and should, employ those methods. It wasn't like they were trackable. At least not while they were passive.

Once landed, Skye powers the systems down one by one, doing the post-flight check and making sure everything will be ready again when she needs to return home.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
It's all quiet at the village, save for a skirling wind blowing through the empty buildings. Landed, Skye can get a better feel for the place, the village is built in an Asian style, old, but well-cared for. The red paint on the archways down the central path looks fresh as if it had been painted within the last year.

There are also signs of Hydra's presence as well, the equipment piled by their former landing site, and on the buildings of the village itself there are signs of battle damage from when Zola and his people stormed the place.

The map in the files lays the village out, buildings marked with, hut, dormitory, office, medical centre, holding, and so on, places to start on her exploration.

Quake has posed:
Even though Skye knew that the place would be empty, or imagined it would be, to find it this eerily quiet but for the swirls and eddies of wind was still both disappointing and unsettling. To someone who can hear all the sound around her, the wind was mournful and overly loud in this place with nothing else to disturb it.

And though she's seen the maps, and knows the layout, and there are buildings that would make more sense from a SHIELD perspective to investigate first.. Skye heads for the building she knows was her mother's. She might need to look everywhere else after, to justify this outing to SHIELD, but this first stop was for her and her alone.

Heart beating and threatening to escape the calmness she keeps drawing herself to, Skye heads for that building.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The building Skye seeks is near the centre of town. Marked A1 on the map, a small description given: single office and living quarters, central location suggests belonging to group leadership.

Off the official record, Clint had told Skye that was where he'd found the photo album.

Arriving there, the sliding door is slightly ajar and inside, Skye can see a once elegant office, tossed over, likely by Hydra personnel, spilling papers and keepsakes on the floor in the search for loot.

There is a heavy wooden desk, several book cases, and a door at the back leading to the living area.

Though despite the disorder its easy to imagine what it was like when it was used, well-ordered and comfortable, several scrolls of Chinese characters on the wall, shelves full of books all around.

Quake has posed:
Skye is frozen for a time, standing in that space, just drinking it all in. Looking at things without touching, absolutely afraid of breaking the spell of the space, as though her mother's essense were somehow here and would be banished if she were too loud or too sudden.

Mostly, she's not sure where to start. Surely Hydra would have taken everything and anything of value?

Slowly, Skye forces herself to move and she starts searching the room. Oddly, she straightens things as she goes. Putting things back where she can, as she imagines they once were. The broken bits nothing she can help, sadly, but those, even, she tries to make neat by piling them in a single space. Hoping that as she goes she might find something overlooked, or deemed unuseful that could give her clues.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
As she tidies she gets a better feel for the place and a sense of the woman who lived there, she draws closer to her mother.

Her search of the office finds nothing of note, as she passes by her mother's living quarters she can hear a faint vibration within. Something alive with power, faint and muffled. All other power sources in the village are dead, the reports saying Hydra had destroyed the generators before pulling out.

Quake has posed:
It's not cheating, is it, to use your abilities to hunt something down. Whatever it is has a vibrational signal, and that is how she does it, feeling for that vibration and seeking it out. It's kind of like her own personal geiger counter going on.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The vibrations are inside Skye's mother's room. Unlike the office it had been largely untouched, clothes had been tossed from a wardrobe, mostly, simple clothes of the local style, well-kept.

There were a few keepsakes, some simple jewelry, but the vibration leads to none of this, but instead the bed, or rather under it. Something below humms with a faint amount of power.

Quake has posed:
Well, that was oversight on their part, wasn't it? then again, Skye had no idea what it might be she was about to find. For all she knew Hydra had slipped a pressure plate land mine under the bed and Skye was about to trip it. Then again, the room looked untouched..

But why would you trash the place and leave an entire room.. alone.

Skye wondered if maybe they'd been interrupted. She knew SHIELD wouldn't ignore a bedroom just because it were a bedroom.

All that aside, she carefully moved the bed, to take a look at what is underneath it, expecting that whatever it is may be buried.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
When Skye moves the bed she finds...floor. Appearing to be solid floor, but Skye is sure she feels the vibration coming frome beneath a section of it.

Quake has posed:
If she can feel the vibrations from it, one of two things: there's an outside access, or, more likely, there's a way to pry the flooring up.

Using both her hands, and by sending vibrations along the space where she feels the energy emanating from, Skye feels for the edges of what she imagines will be a box or hollowed out area beneath. And at the edges of that she imagines she'll be able to run her fingers along the flooring and find a space where it can be lifted up from.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
She was right, the floor can be pryed up. The grooves are fine and hard to find purchase on, but with some effort and tools found from the compound or the quinjet it can be pried up, revealing box about a foot long and six inches deep made of a silvery metal.

The source of the hum.

Quake has posed:
Pfffft, compound? Quinjet? Skye always has a small toolkit on her for computers, and there's always a fine screwdriver in there. That, coupled with some nudging with her powers, and it's pryable..

The box, however, leaves Skye, well, confused. Other than there's a niggling suspicion that within it are the very crystals that turned her into what she was, and would allow others become Inhuman. It made sense. Jaiying holding out against her own child? Hoping to grant Gifts to another Inhuman? Keep the crystals out of Hydra hands? Even other Inhumans who might not be ready for such a gift..

However, there is only one way to know, and that is to open the box. Which is why, stupid thought it may be, Skye sits on her mother's bed and checks it out.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The box hums when Skye touches it, thin lines on the metal becoming visible as they illuminate briefly, then go still, the box clicks open.

When Skye moves to the bed, it sinks lightly under her weight then, setting the box down to open it, she can peer inside. She was partially right, there are crystals inside, two of them, like the ones she found in Hunan, run through with that metal that was deadly to anyone but Inhumans.

Though that wasn't the only thing in the box, there was an envelope with one word written on it: Daisy

Quake has posed:
That.. that nearly breaks her heart. Though that doesn't seem so hard to do these days. And if she wanted proof that her mother didn't know of her change yet.. then again, maybe these were for her children. A thought that has Skye's lips turning upward in a rueful manner. She and Clint had had that talk already. Still...

Skye picks up the envelope, and runs her fingertip around the edge of it, and then the edge of the flap on the back, delaying opening it. Except the only way to find out what it says inside is to actually look at the letter her mother has so veyr obviously left her.

Closing the box, and keeping it on her lap, Skye opens the envelope.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The letter is all too brief:

Daughter,

I hoped you would find this and that it finds you well. There is so much to say and so little time, know that I love you and I am proud of what you have become. I hope there will be a time we can meet, but, with SHIELD and Hydra involved, the timing of our reunion will be difficult to predict. Do not trust those who would use you for your powers, and most especially our people from Attilan. They would make you nothing more than a cog in the machine of their society, you are meant for more.

Until we meet face to face.

Your mother,

Jaiying

Inside the envelope along with the letter are three chinese coins, round, brass, with square holes in the centre, tied together with red cord.

(OOC: The coins https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRhpoDH0VgsM6Jx8QUzM4R0BQQcWWndJPnmcyaIv-wcuau30mD7)

Quake has posed:
"Great," Skye says softly to herself, "where was this warning like weeks ago?" Had it only been weeks? Everything felt like time was both too long and too short all at once. Only serving to drive home the fact that Skye had been working nearly non-stop for well over a year now. Her best sense of time was what mission was currently on her plate.

That, too, felt weird, not having a mission on her plate. Unless you counted Sebastian, and well, technically Skye was supposed to be on a leave of absence. Then again, there was no way she was leaving Hank Pym alone with their cyborgian guest, regardless of how fun he'd been to text with.

The letter, though, created more questions than answers. More specifically it left Skye in the awkward position of having already made overtures to those very people with absolutely no clues as to how to find her mother. And then the crystals. Just what did her mother expect her to do with them? Why hadn't she taken them with her when she'd fled.

"A clue would have been more helpful," Skye laughs, the sound pitched to go nowhere. "And why didn't you come to me? If you saw me.. if you knew.."

The letter she tucks away on her person, and the box she secures. "Welp, since you borrowed the quinjet, I guess now you see if there's anything SHIELD can use since you're here. Maybe someone left a map." Totally a joke, but dry, sardonic humour was a defence, and Skye had just been dealt a blow.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
There's no answers from the empty room. And few answers from the village itself, it has been picked clean by Hydra and SHIELD. Though walking through the empty village there is a sense of what life was like there. Communal dining areas, small but comfortable rooms, stunning views and space for meditation. It was a home.

While the village has been picked clean of valuables, amoung the scattered effects of the former residents, there are clues left behind, pictures, some of them faces of Inhumans recovered by SHIELD in Cuba and in Austria. One of the ones recovered in Austria, Alex Douglas, appears often with various Inhumans, and images including Jaiying. Perhaps a member of their leadership?

Quake has posed:
It's a line to pursue, that's for certain. And a shame about the village..

It's not that Skye expects her mother, or anyone really, to return, but as her fingers touch the coins and cord that now reside in her pocket, Skye is driven by an idea to leave a message behind, and scours the village, and nearby, for daisies, intending on leaving some on her mother's pillow.

It might be trite, or cliche, or something - Skye never really got which was which - but she felt like she had to do something to say she'd been here, even if her mother would know by the absence of the box.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
She does find daisies in the village, plenty of them as it turns out and when they're laid out on her mother's pillow there is a black blur of movement and suddenly there's a black cat on the bed staring up at her quizzically with lamp yellow eyes and offering a curious meow.

As signs go it's a mixed one, a black cat appearing out of nowhere but at the same time it's a sign of life in a place otherwise devoid of it.

Quake has posed:
"Great. Everyone hightails it but the cat." Skye pats the daisies, giving the cat stink-eye. "Don't think these are for you. They're a message."

Yeah, as far as messages went, maybe it was a bit overboard. Maybe she should have gone with one instead of a bouquet. At least she'd stopped herself from making a daisy chain of the things - if only because she didn't know how to make daisy chains.

"Shoo. Go back to wherever you came from." And now I'm talking to dumb animals, she chides herself. Giving the place a last once over in case she's missed something, or if there's something to grab to remind herself of her mother.. the slight weight of the coins in her pocket says she won't, and doesn't need to anyway. Skye reluctantly turning away from the bed, and her mother's room, and making her way to leave the village altogether.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The cat offers a meow in respose to Skye's words and when she turns to leave, the cat jumps down off the bed to follow her out of the room. Once it catches up, it sticks close by her legs, weaving in and out even as she tries to walk.

Quake has posed:
"Ha!" Skye gives a laughing complaint, "I see your evil plot now. But if you trip me we're both likely to get hurt. I might not look heavy, but.." Skye stops and shakes her head at the cat. "You should go back home, kitty. I don't live here. Just visiting, get it?"

Skye waves off in the direction of the quinjet, "I'm going that way. And you..." She points back at the village. "You go back.. there I guess." There have to be mice or something for it to eat, she tells herself, trying not to feel guilty about this cat that obviously got left behind in the exodus.

"I do not need a cat. We do not need a cat. We can barely take care of ourselves." Which seemed ridiculous for a spy of her calibre to be stating, but yeah, she and Clint had long ago accepted that they were mighty fine at their respective jobs, and not so great at the adulting.

Thinking she can lose the thing if she goes faster, Skye quickens her pace towards the quinjet.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The cat just looks up at Skye expectantly while she talks to it answering with: "Meow?"

Though when she walks faster, it follows, trotting along beside her tail raised.

Looking at the icy tops of the taller peaks nearby, odds are good the only reason the cat has survived this long is that it's summer.

Quake has posed:
All the way to the quinjet is the constant companion of the cat. A cat who looks at her very patiently when she stops to asses the jet, and then the cat, giving Skye a look that says as much as, 'Well, when are we leaving. I'm tired of this place already' and settles into cleaning itself lazily while the human debates with her inner demons and inevitably will give in. Because cat, right?

"Ugh," Skye sighs at the black creature. "Why me? I am not the animal person in my household. If I bring you home, Clint will have a fit. Then he'll want to get a dog. We are nto grown up enough for.. and you're not going to make it out here, are you. Some stupid bigger thing is going to eat you for an appetizer."

And, because she is just that supid, Skye hunkers down, and extends a hand, ostensibly to see if the thing has a collar or tags. All of which is too much to hope for but it's the first step in justifying in her mind what she already knows in her heart she's going to do: take the cat onboard the quinjet.

No, she's not quite made it to bringing the cat home, but clearly she can't leave it here.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
The cat pauses it's cleaning a moment to stare at the hand as if deciding if wants to be touched. Ultimately, it uncurls from the strange contorted stance it took to bathe and licks Skye's fingers lightly with the rough sandpaper of its tongue.

In the brief moment it stays put, there's no collar or tags visible, but then bolts away, skittering up the ramp to the quinjet.

It appears the cat has decided to handle the justifications itself. After all leaving a cat behind is one thing, throwing it out of the jet to an uncertain fate is another.

Quake has posed:
"Wait! You can't.. oh god. May is going to kill me.. maybe." It was the bus May worried about most. As long as teh quinjet came back in one piece she should still be okay, right? A little back cat fur wouldn't be a problem, would it?

"Fine. You can come with. But once we get back, you're going to a shelter. Stupid cat licking my fingers like that's going to fix everything.."

Yep, a certain amount of complaint is necessary. But apparently Skye now had a quinjet kitty. "And don't think this means we're okay," she tells the.. where'd it go anyway? Somewhere on the quinjet was a cat. "Stupic cat. Don't even have a name, and I swear to god if you touch the controls and we go down in the ocean I'm just going to let the plane go down."

No, not really, but like people go through stages of mourning, and hit bargaining? this was like that. Skye was at the complaining and denial stage of pet ownership. You know, the part where you still think you have a choice in the matter and can still say no? Yeah. There.

Still muttering to herself, Skye settles in the cckpit and starts the pre-flight check.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Where is the cat? Sitting up in the pilot's seat naturally. As if it somehow knew it would be the one place it could not be missed.

When Skye arrives, he looks back over his shoulder to meow as if to ask, "Oh? You wanted to sit here?"

There's a moment of hesitation as if considering before it jumps down and moves to co-pilot seat where it returns to its earlier bathing.

Once the pre-flight check is done, the quinjet is ready to fly back home, short on answers but heavy one cat and some leads to follow.

Quake has posed:
Skye can't help but laugh. Because, really, where else did she expect the cat to be. "Fine. You can come home, but I meant it about the shelter. I'm a busy person. You should have a family. Besides, I told my partner no kids or dogs." She might even have said no pets, but she wasn't sure.

"You need a name, though, if you're going to be my co-pilot." then it hits her, and oh, he'd kill her, but still, it's the perfect name. Because damn but that cat had that self-same smug look on its face. "Pawgent Grant Ward." Oh yeah, she'd pay for that if it were ever found out. But the cat now had a name. And, at least for the flight home, Skye had a co-pilot.