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ax_mainAs a part of 'Operation Sister Friender,' Jester and Nott interview Illyana to find out what she knows about her estranged brother, Piotr. It goes... They're new at this, okay?
Jester peered around the corner, then retreated back behind the safety of the doorway leading into the cafeteria. "Target acquired, Nott!" she said in an excited whisper. "Operation Sister Friender is a go!" And then, dropping out of code, "Illyana is sitting on her own. Shall I go first? Or you? And then the other can join in all casual?"
"But what are we even going to say to her?!" Nott hissed back in her own shushed screech of uncertainty. "...You should go first. You actually do just walk up to people out of the blue and say strange things," Nott pointed out, oddly comforted by having that as an excuse.
Jester frowned at her friend. "I say very normal things, Nott." But then she grinned, stood up straight, nodded to herself, and launched herself into the fray!
Or, well, walked into the cafeteria, anyway. She piled things on her tray, casually, chatted a little with the lunch ladies, casually, then turned to look around the room and see who she might sit with, casually.
Oh hey, look at that, that pretty blonde girl was sitting on her own!
Jester walked right over and smiled at Illyana. "Illyana, right? Caleb says you're a demon sorceress, that sounds pretty cool! Do you mind if I sit with you for lunch?"
Very normal things.
Wait, why did they need to go in separately? Nott asked herself that about thirty seconds after Jester went into the cafeteria, and thought that it might be even more suspicious to do it how they'd planned. But they had planned it - sort of - so she made herself wait a few more minutes before scurrying in after them. She made a very determined approach to the lunch line, trying not to rush as she collected her food but sort of peeking over her shoulder at The Target and Jester as her stuff got piled on her plates (there were definitely more than one) and put onto her tray.
Illyana's eyebrows climbed as the blue girl (with horns, that was new) babbled, wondering just what Caleb had said that made being a demon sorceress sound cool. "Umm, sure?" she replied awkwardly gesturing for her to take a seat. "You're a friend of Caleb's, then?" She knew he was friends with that little green girl, but she didn't think he'd ever said anything about a blue one.
"Yes!" Jester confirmed with a bright smile, and took a seat across from Illyana. "I am roommates with Nott, and she and Caleb go way back, so we all ended up friends!"
"OH, HELLO JESTER," Nott piped up maybe just a bit too enthusiastically, telling herself to reel it in as she trundled over to Illyana's table with a tray full of fried chicken and biscuits and mixed veggies and mashed potatoes drowned in gravy. She wasn't even very hungry, but no one said detective work would be easy. She looked between her roommate and the blonde, taking a moment to search for some kind of family resemblance with the big guy. "Who's this? Are you gonna introduce us?"
"I'm Illyana. And you're Nott, right?" It wasn't as if there were that many kid-sized green girls around, after all - Illyana figured she was pretty safe guessing. Besides, she'd seen her around with Caleb.
"Hi Nott!" Jester greeted her, super enthusiastically. "Yes, this is Illyana that Caleb told us about!" Super casual. Supes caj. "We were just going to get to know each other."
"You're THAT girl, with the demons?" Nott tried to look surprised, or impressed, or something, not realizing she was saying pretty much what Jester had said already. Was that a surprised look? Her eyes were big, it was hard to tell sometimes, but she made her eyebrows do the thing as she shoved her tray onto the table next to the other girls. "He says you can use your magic to travel and all kinds of things!"
Wow, Caleb talked about her a whole lot more than she'd ever realized. Illyana blinked at the girls' enthusiasm, then offered a crooked smile. "I teleport," she clarified. "To another dimension, and back again. What about you two, what do you do? Some kind of magic, right?" Because honestly, if Caleb had ever said, she didn't remember, but there was a definite magical aura to Nott, at least. Maybe that was why they were so excited.
Or maybe it was because with the horns and teeth and everything, they both looked kind of demonic and figured she wouldn't care. One or the other.
"I don't know if it's magic I do," Jester replied with a thoughtful nose wrinkle. "It looks like it, but all of our powers do, don't they! Nott can totally do magic, though!"
"A little," Nott sort-of, kind-of agreed as she climbed up into a seat. "It works different from Caleb's magic, and I'm not as good as him, but sometimes we can share spells. I'm not totally sure what the difference between powers and magic is, other than 'magic' seems to let you do more weird things."
"Magic..." Illyana paused, considering, then shrugged. "Cal says it's a mutation, but I'm not so sure. Magic is there. I can feel it, kind of - it's hard to describe. So do Caleb and Felix, and Billy did when he was here. I had to learn how to use it, and I don't do it as well as Caleb does outside of Limbo, but I think that's because mine is kind of linked to Limbo."
"What's Limbo?" Jester asked. If Caleb had mentioned it, she couldn't remember, and either way, they were here to learn stuff.
"Limbo's a dimension. Or, well, my dimension," she clarified as she pushed her chicken around her plate. "I grew up there."
"Your dimension?" Did she mean like Mojoworld, where everything around them was different, and they didn't even notice while they were in it? That could be really important. Maybe that was why Piotr didn't remember her!
Nott shared a glance with Jester as she leaned in closer, scribbling furiously and underlining everything on the notepad in her little green noggin. "What was it like? Were there other people?"
"A couple. They're not there anymore, though. But yeah, it's mine." Illyana frowned and looked at them curiously. "If you're worried about me taking Caleb there, I've only done it with his permission. And he should be safe enough."
"There's no one else there?" Jester asked with raised eyebrows, completely ignoring that last part about Caleb. Caleb could go to any dimension he wanted - although Jester was a little jealous now and wanted to come along. To another dimension! Mojoworld had been fun enough. "What about your family?"
"I wasn't," Nott muttered to herself, momentarily distracted from the case by the possibility of Illyana whisking Caleb off to another dimension at any time. Was that something she had to start worrying about? Caleb was so smart and powerful, if he wanted to jump between places like that, it was probably okay...if he had a way back...but...
"Haven't seen them in years," Illyana lied, pushing aside the memory of her one, more recent meeting with her parents. It wasn't anything she wanted to talk about, especially not with a couple of kids she'd just met. "Belasco - he was my ma- my mentor," she corrected, "stole me off to Limbo when I was little. I was there until I came here." She said it casually, and shrugged. It was pretty much public knowledge at this point anyway. Or close enough.
"He stole you?" Jester echoed with wide eyes, and shared a look with Nott. Belasco didn't sound like a mentor. He sounded like a bad dude.
Nott had stopped with a big forkful of mashed potatoes halfway to her face at the child theft thing, jaw hanging for a beat until she snapped it back up and put her fork back down. "You were stolen off to another dimension as a baby and then you just popped out here?!" There had to be some middle stuff. "But...what happened? How did you get away from him?"
Illyana blinked at first one, then the other. "First off, I wasn't a baby - I was about six. And I got away because my mutant powers manifested and I teleported. Not here, but close enough that the Professor found me." She shrugged, feeling awkward. "It really wasn't that big a deal."
It really was that big a deal, if you asked Jester, and she had to bite on her lip not to say so. When she released it, she only said, "I'm really glad the Professor found you." She paused, then forged ahead, asking in a small, concerned voice, "Do you remember your family at all?"
"A little?" Or more than a little, really, but there wasn't much she wanted to talk about. "I remember my parents. I had an older brother - well, two, but one died before I was born. I don't really remember Piotr," she admitted. "My father always said he called me his little snowflake, but he died when I was just a baby. Some kind of accident with a tractor, if I remember right."
Six years old was practically a baby, but Nott wasn't gonna point that out. Especially not when this was a family-reunion-detective-work JACKPOT. She flicked a glance at Jester. "O-oh, that's... How hard that must have been for them. Bad stuff happening to all of the kids. But also, for you, coming back from being stolen and your family being distant."
Illyana shrugged. "It is what it is," she said flatly, hoping the kids would drop the subject. She didn't want to talk about her parents.
Jester looked at Nott right back, briefly but a little wide-eyed. "Snowflake, though, that's such a pretty thing to call you," she said, focusing back on Illyana. She paused, letting that (hopefully) sink in, how wonderful Piotr must be, or have been, from Illyana's perspective. "Illyana..." she added then, softly. "Have you been in touch with your parents since you escaped?"
Nott silently sucked in a breath. Shitshitshitshit. Was that coming on too strong?! It felt like it came on too strong. They weren't supposed to tell her about Piotr, or not yet... But Jester had an angle, right? "They must've been so worried, they must have missed you so much," Nott blurted, aiming for helpful agreement. "Of course, they must've wanted to reunite with you more than anything after all of that."
Illyana's lips thinned and she got to her feet. "Actually? They thought it was a huge, cruel joke. Because time in Limbo doesn't move at the same speed it does here, and I was seven years older than I should've been. Is that enough info for you both? Because I think I'm done here." Honestly, what the hell was the matter with these kids? And why the hell did they want to know, anyway?
"No, wait!" Jester cried out as something shiny began to form under Illyana's feet.
"We're sorry! It's a- Just, ah, a project! About magic! We're trying to figure it out, if - if magic is hereditary or what," Nott tried, not sure how else to make sense of their questions in the moment.
Did that even make sense? Yana didn't know, and really didn't care. "Talk to Felix," she suggested, and the circle closed, taking her with it. It wasn't until she was in her room in Limbo that she let the tears fall. Because her parents? Hadn't wanted her at all.
Jester watched Illyana disappear with a stricken expression, then looked down at her tray of food. And up at Nott. "That didn't go too badly?"
"Or maybe we're not very good at the questioning part of an investigation yet," Nott heaved a sigh. She followed Jester's look back down at her tray, which... Oh yeah. Her own food was going cold. Not that she cared if it was cold, she'd eat it anyway. She'd mostly forgotten about lunch though.
"So much for supes caj," Nott lamented, reaching for a big 'ol hunk of gravy-soggy biscuit piled with veggies from her tray to take some of the sting out of their fail. "But, you know... We did learn some useful things."
"We really did!" Jester agreed emphatically, and shoved a fry into her mouth. "All the important information. It was just... more sensitive information than we expected!" She abandoned her food again, to turn to Nott and drop her voice a little. "And I think she'll be really happy to be reunited with Piotr! She wouldn't have gotten so angry if it didn't hurt to be alone."
"The Big Guy isn't going to like it if he finds out we pissed her off," Nott pointed out with a dim view from where she gnawed on a chicken breast, soft bones and thick cartilage crunching under hard, sharp fangs as easily as potato chips. "I don't think we're going to get a do-over for our interview. We'd better try some less direct methods."
"I mean we already have a lot to tell him though," Jester pointed out, worry shining at the back of her eyes at the thought of failing Piotr. "We can just - you know. Say she didn't appreciate sharing," she said those last few words in a hurry, then switched to a singsong, victorious tone, "but here's everything we found out! It will be fine!"
"All of what you just said is totally true," Nott agreed that far. ...Except maybe for everything being fine. But she didn't want to be all negative when Jester was threatening to make the sad puppy eyes. "So why don't you start putting together everything we've figured out so far, from what he's told you and what she just said, the candid pictures we took and her class schedule and stuff, and I can talk to my super secret informant," meaning, obviously, Caleb, "to check out that other lead." Meaning, because they'd talked about it already - finding out what Illyana had in her room.
Jester nodded. "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you? I'm really good at being sneaky! Not as good as you, but..."
"You really are! But that could be too many people," Nott's bone-crunching turned almost apologetic. "I'm going to need Ca- my super secret informant to help get by whatever magical wards or alarm spells she could have set up in her room," she dropped her voice to a scratchy whisper.
It was possible that Illyana didn't have any magical security in place. But Nott knew Caleb, so she was going to play it safe and assume that all the higher-order magic types were using their magic to fuel their paranoia how he did.
"If you're certain..." Jester said, sounding everything but, herself. When she noticed, she pasted on a smile and a nod, and went on in her usual enthusiastic tone (but still hushed on account of the subject matter). "I will put together all of our findings! When are you and your informant going in?"
"Uhhhhh, I should check on that. But the sooner the better." Now that Illyana knew somebody was really interested in her and her family, she might use extra spells or something. Nott didn't want to give her too much time to think about it and cast any really involved ritual stuff.
"Tonight, when she's having dinner," Jester agreed with a sage nod.
"Tonight?!" Nott glanced furtively around them. Satisfied enough that no one was paying attention to them, she pulled her arms inside of her hoodie, got the flask from the small of her back where it was stuck into her waistband, and opened it so she could take a drink from the loose sleeve of her hoodie without anyone seeing exactly what she was doing. For courage. "Well...I guess? If I can get you-know-who to help. And if her roommate is out, then... Yeah, okay. Tonight," she agreed as the taste of alcohol promised she wouldn't feel anxious about it in another few swallows.
Jester frowned in concern. "Is that not all right? You don't have to do it, you know. We already have a lot to report to Piotr."
"No, no - Wait, I mean - It's fine," Nott warble-croaked brightly back. Mostly she was concerned with what would happen if Caleb wasn't willing to help, or if Illyana and the girl with the bear what's-her-name decided to stay in tonight. She really wanted to do their first real detective case right, and she felt kind of bad about how she'd... But if Jester hadn't figured it out yet, Nott definitely wasn't saying anything. "You're right, it's better to do it right away, and seeing the inside of her room could tell us a lot."
Jester looked skeptical, but in the end she slowly nodded. "All right. But if it doesn't look good - just get out of there, okay?"
Nott snuck one more gulp from her flask before she did her under-the-hoodie sleight of hand in reverse, putting the flask back and replacing her arm through her sleeve with a twiddle of her small fingers. "Absolutely. You have to be a living detective before you can be the BEST detective. ...S. Detectives," she stressed, smiling crookedly back at Jester. "You know what I meant."
"I know," Jester confirmed quietly. She reached out and squeezed Nott's hand. "And I couldn't have a better partner."
"...Awww." Nott's vaguely criminal expression softened into something warmer and gentler, her little fist wadding up snug under Jester's hand. She was gonna finish her food, booze up, get Caleb, invade the crap out of blondie's privacy, and they were going to put those siblings back together and everyone was going to be better off for it.
Best. Detectives.
Jester peered around the corner, then retreated back behind the safety of the doorway leading into the cafeteria. "Target acquired, Nott!" she said in an excited whisper. "Operation Sister Friender is a go!" And then, dropping out of code, "Illyana is sitting on her own. Shall I go first? Or you? And then the other can join in all casual?"
"But what are we even going to say to her?!" Nott hissed back in her own shushed screech of uncertainty. "...You should go first. You actually do just walk up to people out of the blue and say strange things," Nott pointed out, oddly comforted by having that as an excuse.
Jester frowned at her friend. "I say very normal things, Nott." But then she grinned, stood up straight, nodded to herself, and launched herself into the fray!
Or, well, walked into the cafeteria, anyway. She piled things on her tray, casually, chatted a little with the lunch ladies, casually, then turned to look around the room and see who she might sit with, casually.
Oh hey, look at that, that pretty blonde girl was sitting on her own!
Jester walked right over and smiled at Illyana. "Illyana, right? Caleb says you're a demon sorceress, that sounds pretty cool! Do you mind if I sit with you for lunch?"
Very normal things.
Wait, why did they need to go in separately? Nott asked herself that about thirty seconds after Jester went into the cafeteria, and thought that it might be even more suspicious to do it how they'd planned. But they had planned it - sort of - so she made herself wait a few more minutes before scurrying in after them. She made a very determined approach to the lunch line, trying not to rush as she collected her food but sort of peeking over her shoulder at The Target and Jester as her stuff got piled on her plates (there were definitely more than one) and put onto her tray.
Illyana's eyebrows climbed as the blue girl (with horns, that was new) babbled, wondering just what Caleb had said that made being a demon sorceress sound cool. "Umm, sure?" she replied awkwardly gesturing for her to take a seat. "You're a friend of Caleb's, then?" She knew he was friends with that little green girl, but she didn't think he'd ever said anything about a blue one.
"Yes!" Jester confirmed with a bright smile, and took a seat across from Illyana. "I am roommates with Nott, and she and Caleb go way back, so we all ended up friends!"
"OH, HELLO JESTER," Nott piped up maybe just a bit too enthusiastically, telling herself to reel it in as she trundled over to Illyana's table with a tray full of fried chicken and biscuits and mixed veggies and mashed potatoes drowned in gravy. She wasn't even very hungry, but no one said detective work would be easy. She looked between her roommate and the blonde, taking a moment to search for some kind of family resemblance with the big guy. "Who's this? Are you gonna introduce us?"
"I'm Illyana. And you're Nott, right?" It wasn't as if there were that many kid-sized green girls around, after all - Illyana figured she was pretty safe guessing. Besides, she'd seen her around with Caleb.
"Hi Nott!" Jester greeted her, super enthusiastically. "Yes, this is Illyana that Caleb told us about!" Super casual. Supes caj. "We were just going to get to know each other."
"You're THAT girl, with the demons?" Nott tried to look surprised, or impressed, or something, not realizing she was saying pretty much what Jester had said already. Was that a surprised look? Her eyes were big, it was hard to tell sometimes, but she made her eyebrows do the thing as she shoved her tray onto the table next to the other girls. "He says you can use your magic to travel and all kinds of things!"
Wow, Caleb talked about her a whole lot more than she'd ever realized. Illyana blinked at the girls' enthusiasm, then offered a crooked smile. "I teleport," she clarified. "To another dimension, and back again. What about you two, what do you do? Some kind of magic, right?" Because honestly, if Caleb had ever said, she didn't remember, but there was a definite magical aura to Nott, at least. Maybe that was why they were so excited.
Or maybe it was because with the horns and teeth and everything, they both looked kind of demonic and figured she wouldn't care. One or the other.
"I don't know if it's magic I do," Jester replied with a thoughtful nose wrinkle. "It looks like it, but all of our powers do, don't they! Nott can totally do magic, though!"
"A little," Nott sort-of, kind-of agreed as she climbed up into a seat. "It works different from Caleb's magic, and I'm not as good as him, but sometimes we can share spells. I'm not totally sure what the difference between powers and magic is, other than 'magic' seems to let you do more weird things."
"Magic..." Illyana paused, considering, then shrugged. "Cal says it's a mutation, but I'm not so sure. Magic is there. I can feel it, kind of - it's hard to describe. So do Caleb and Felix, and Billy did when he was here. I had to learn how to use it, and I don't do it as well as Caleb does outside of Limbo, but I think that's because mine is kind of linked to Limbo."
"What's Limbo?" Jester asked. If Caleb had mentioned it, she couldn't remember, and either way, they were here to learn stuff.
"Limbo's a dimension. Or, well, my dimension," she clarified as she pushed her chicken around her plate. "I grew up there."
"Your dimension?" Did she mean like Mojoworld, where everything around them was different, and they didn't even notice while they were in it? That could be really important. Maybe that was why Piotr didn't remember her!
Nott shared a glance with Jester as she leaned in closer, scribbling furiously and underlining everything on the notepad in her little green noggin. "What was it like? Were there other people?"
"A couple. They're not there anymore, though. But yeah, it's mine." Illyana frowned and looked at them curiously. "If you're worried about me taking Caleb there, I've only done it with his permission. And he should be safe enough."
"There's no one else there?" Jester asked with raised eyebrows, completely ignoring that last part about Caleb. Caleb could go to any dimension he wanted - although Jester was a little jealous now and wanted to come along. To another dimension! Mojoworld had been fun enough. "What about your family?"
"I wasn't," Nott muttered to herself, momentarily distracted from the case by the possibility of Illyana whisking Caleb off to another dimension at any time. Was that something she had to start worrying about? Caleb was so smart and powerful, if he wanted to jump between places like that, it was probably okay...if he had a way back...but...
"Haven't seen them in years," Illyana lied, pushing aside the memory of her one, more recent meeting with her parents. It wasn't anything she wanted to talk about, especially not with a couple of kids she'd just met. "Belasco - he was my ma- my mentor," she corrected, "stole me off to Limbo when I was little. I was there until I came here." She said it casually, and shrugged. It was pretty much public knowledge at this point anyway. Or close enough.
"He stole you?" Jester echoed with wide eyes, and shared a look with Nott. Belasco didn't sound like a mentor. He sounded like a bad dude.
Nott had stopped with a big forkful of mashed potatoes halfway to her face at the child theft thing, jaw hanging for a beat until she snapped it back up and put her fork back down. "You were stolen off to another dimension as a baby and then you just popped out here?!" There had to be some middle stuff. "But...what happened? How did you get away from him?"
Illyana blinked at first one, then the other. "First off, I wasn't a baby - I was about six. And I got away because my mutant powers manifested and I teleported. Not here, but close enough that the Professor found me." She shrugged, feeling awkward. "It really wasn't that big a deal."
It really was that big a deal, if you asked Jester, and she had to bite on her lip not to say so. When she released it, she only said, "I'm really glad the Professor found you." She paused, then forged ahead, asking in a small, concerned voice, "Do you remember your family at all?"
"A little?" Or more than a little, really, but there wasn't much she wanted to talk about. "I remember my parents. I had an older brother - well, two, but one died before I was born. I don't really remember Piotr," she admitted. "My father always said he called me his little snowflake, but he died when I was just a baby. Some kind of accident with a tractor, if I remember right."
Six years old was practically a baby, but Nott wasn't gonna point that out. Especially not when this was a family-reunion-detective-work JACKPOT. She flicked a glance at Jester. "O-oh, that's... How hard that must have been for them. Bad stuff happening to all of the kids. But also, for you, coming back from being stolen and your family being distant."
Illyana shrugged. "It is what it is," she said flatly, hoping the kids would drop the subject. She didn't want to talk about her parents.
Jester looked at Nott right back, briefly but a little wide-eyed. "Snowflake, though, that's such a pretty thing to call you," she said, focusing back on Illyana. She paused, letting that (hopefully) sink in, how wonderful Piotr must be, or have been, from Illyana's perspective. "Illyana..." she added then, softly. "Have you been in touch with your parents since you escaped?"
Nott silently sucked in a breath. Shitshitshitshit. Was that coming on too strong?! It felt like it came on too strong. They weren't supposed to tell her about Piotr, or not yet... But Jester had an angle, right? "They must've been so worried, they must have missed you so much," Nott blurted, aiming for helpful agreement. "Of course, they must've wanted to reunite with you more than anything after all of that."
Illyana's lips thinned and she got to her feet. "Actually? They thought it was a huge, cruel joke. Because time in Limbo doesn't move at the same speed it does here, and I was seven years older than I should've been. Is that enough info for you both? Because I think I'm done here." Honestly, what the hell was the matter with these kids? And why the hell did they want to know, anyway?
"No, wait!" Jester cried out as something shiny began to form under Illyana's feet.
"We're sorry! It's a- Just, ah, a project! About magic! We're trying to figure it out, if - if magic is hereditary or what," Nott tried, not sure how else to make sense of their questions in the moment.
Did that even make sense? Yana didn't know, and really didn't care. "Talk to Felix," she suggested, and the circle closed, taking her with it. It wasn't until she was in her room in Limbo that she let the tears fall. Because her parents? Hadn't wanted her at all.
Jester watched Illyana disappear with a stricken expression, then looked down at her tray of food. And up at Nott. "That didn't go too badly?"
"Or maybe we're not very good at the questioning part of an investigation yet," Nott heaved a sigh. She followed Jester's look back down at her tray, which... Oh yeah. Her own food was going cold. Not that she cared if it was cold, she'd eat it anyway. She'd mostly forgotten about lunch though.
"So much for supes caj," Nott lamented, reaching for a big 'ol hunk of gravy-soggy biscuit piled with veggies from her tray to take some of the sting out of their fail. "But, you know... We did learn some useful things."
"We really did!" Jester agreed emphatically, and shoved a fry into her mouth. "All the important information. It was just... more sensitive information than we expected!" She abandoned her food again, to turn to Nott and drop her voice a little. "And I think she'll be really happy to be reunited with Piotr! She wouldn't have gotten so angry if it didn't hurt to be alone."
"The Big Guy isn't going to like it if he finds out we pissed her off," Nott pointed out with a dim view from where she gnawed on a chicken breast, soft bones and thick cartilage crunching under hard, sharp fangs as easily as potato chips. "I don't think we're going to get a do-over for our interview. We'd better try some less direct methods."
"I mean we already have a lot to tell him though," Jester pointed out, worry shining at the back of her eyes at the thought of failing Piotr. "We can just - you know. Say she didn't appreciate sharing," she said those last few words in a hurry, then switched to a singsong, victorious tone, "but here's everything we found out! It will be fine!"
"All of what you just said is totally true," Nott agreed that far. ...Except maybe for everything being fine. But she didn't want to be all negative when Jester was threatening to make the sad puppy eyes. "So why don't you start putting together everything we've figured out so far, from what he's told you and what she just said, the candid pictures we took and her class schedule and stuff, and I can talk to my super secret informant," meaning, obviously, Caleb, "to check out that other lead." Meaning, because they'd talked about it already - finding out what Illyana had in her room.
Jester nodded. "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you? I'm really good at being sneaky! Not as good as you, but..."
"You really are! But that could be too many people," Nott's bone-crunching turned almost apologetic. "I'm going to need Ca- my super secret informant to help get by whatever magical wards or alarm spells she could have set up in her room," she dropped her voice to a scratchy whisper.
It was possible that Illyana didn't have any magical security in place. But Nott knew Caleb, so she was going to play it safe and assume that all the higher-order magic types were using their magic to fuel their paranoia how he did.
"If you're certain..." Jester said, sounding everything but, herself. When she noticed, she pasted on a smile and a nod, and went on in her usual enthusiastic tone (but still hushed on account of the subject matter). "I will put together all of our findings! When are you and your informant going in?"
"Uhhhhh, I should check on that. But the sooner the better." Now that Illyana knew somebody was really interested in her and her family, she might use extra spells or something. Nott didn't want to give her too much time to think about it and cast any really involved ritual stuff.
"Tonight, when she's having dinner," Jester agreed with a sage nod.
"Tonight?!" Nott glanced furtively around them. Satisfied enough that no one was paying attention to them, she pulled her arms inside of her hoodie, got the flask from the small of her back where it was stuck into her waistband, and opened it so she could take a drink from the loose sleeve of her hoodie without anyone seeing exactly what she was doing. For courage. "Well...I guess? If I can get you-know-who to help. And if her roommate is out, then... Yeah, okay. Tonight," she agreed as the taste of alcohol promised she wouldn't feel anxious about it in another few swallows.
Jester frowned in concern. "Is that not all right? You don't have to do it, you know. We already have a lot to report to Piotr."
"No, no - Wait, I mean - It's fine," Nott warble-croaked brightly back. Mostly she was concerned with what would happen if Caleb wasn't willing to help, or if Illyana and the girl with the bear what's-her-name decided to stay in tonight. She really wanted to do their first real detective case right, and she felt kind of bad about how she'd... But if Jester hadn't figured it out yet, Nott definitely wasn't saying anything. "You're right, it's better to do it right away, and seeing the inside of her room could tell us a lot."
Jester looked skeptical, but in the end she slowly nodded. "All right. But if it doesn't look good - just get out of there, okay?"
Nott snuck one more gulp from her flask before she did her under-the-hoodie sleight of hand in reverse, putting the flask back and replacing her arm through her sleeve with a twiddle of her small fingers. "Absolutely. You have to be a living detective before you can be the BEST detective. ...S. Detectives," she stressed, smiling crookedly back at Jester. "You know what I meant."
"I know," Jester confirmed quietly. She reached out and squeezed Nott's hand. "And I couldn't have a better partner."
"...Awww." Nott's vaguely criminal expression softened into something warmer and gentler, her little fist wadding up snug under Jester's hand. She was gonna finish her food, booze up, get Caleb, invade the crap out of blondie's privacy, and they were going to put those siblings back together and everyone was going to be better off for it.
Best. Detectives.
