At The Precipice Of Something New

Something Wicked

Diamond City
May the 14th, 2288
16:09

A hobby she often felt went underappreciated, the organising, labelling, filing, and printing of materials for Valentine's Detective Agency was one of the most calming activities to the well known detective's secretary.

Humming to herself, she laid the newest version of the agency's business card out on her desk. She then smiled, proud of the almost shiny gold words, nearly calligraphic in script, and so freshly printed onto the cardstock for the boxes she gingerly placed each one in to be warm from the cards being ejected from the printer. Valentine's Detective Agency, Nicholas Julius Valentine and Eleanor Marie Perkins, Diamond City, Massachusetts Commonwealth. Hearing the tinkling sounds of glass and metal brushing against each other on the windchimes of the door to the agency, she looked up, a bit surprised by visitors in the mid afternoon during quite the slow week. Nevertheless, when she saw who entered, she smiled and waved them inside. To no surprise, Piper stepped in first, a look in her eyes that said everything about why she had stopped by. Always wanting to know what Nick's doing, don't you? Can't say I blame you, we wouldn't have gone to the trouble of setting up the long range radio communications system if we weren't going to use it to communicate during his longer cases. No more than a few seconds after her sister, Nat came in too, nearly slamming into the door. Once she reoriented herself, she all but ran over to see if any case files were out. Pulling open some of the file cabinets, Nat's eyes went wide, thumbing through the folders as quickly as possible, looking for something interesting. Seeing one on top of Nick's desk, however, distracted the teenager, and she immediately began paging through it. Too quick for her to argue, her sister plucked the file out of her hands and handed it over to the detective's secretary, barely able to resist her own curiosity.

"I get the feeling losing any pages of this would be...bad to say the very least," Piper said, sending her sister a pointed look when she scowled at her. "Have you heard much from Nick? You know, since you guys set up a working...radio system or something like that? I could have sworn Vadim was –"

"He was one of the ones who fixed it up. He and Emmett, actually, were the ones to get it running. You and Lissy can say what you will about her brother, but he's brilliant," Ellie said, rolling her eyes. "Nick said it wasn't necessary, but I think he's at least accepted we need it after what happened with Skinny. Or, at least, I need it."

"So, you've been talking with Nick?" Nat said, hopping onto a spinning chair and skidding across the floor on it towards her sister and the detective's secretary. "What's he had to say?"

"Not much," Ellie said, reaching for the file and flipping it open and shut. "I suppose the good thing is I know where he is this time, relatively speaking. They had to take shelter in an old subway station around the Cambridge area, College Square I think it was. Nick had been worried about ferals but, surprisingly, the old station there – and the area itself, for the most part – was clean of ferals."

Piper shuddered. "Last time I went to that area, I had to shoot, stomp, and kick my way through some ferals that seemed to just come out of nowhere. Although I have heard the Cambridge area has been creepily quiet lately. How'd they end up there?"

"They're trying track Kellogg by scent, using some of the things the bastard left behind," Ellie said, taking her hair out of its tight bun and letting it flow down to her shoulders. "He wasn't too eager to talk about it, but it sounds like they got lost. He was trying to be very quiet when we were speaking...I think he was trying to let Nora and Cait sleep. But that terrible storm last week? It was why they had to detour and take shelter in the old subway station. If you ask me, I think they got lost because of it."

"Lost?" Nat said, stopping her spinning for a moment. "Are they still lost?"

"I don't really know what to call it, but lost I think suits it best," Ellie shook her head. "From what I understand, they're currently west from there and a bit south, but had...they went through what looked like a small town that's been completely torn to pieces. Nick is convinced at least some of them were killed by Kellogg. The only thing that seems clear is Dogmeat is taking them west. But he seems to keep going north, then south, and then...well, I can't make much sense of it."