Doodleniks/Zyaz Collab<br/>The door to the Stalker base opened in front of Magpie fortunately quickly, and she shuffled through into mildly warmer climes. With a slight huff, she began to loosen the tightly wound scarves and coats she had wrapped around her frame. She had no intent to remove them- stray pieces of clothing got scooped up quickly in the endless quest for warmth, and she’d snatched a few coats from other people. She wasn’t exactly about to give anyone else the opportunity. Still, though, it was nice not to be so tightly packed for a while. Tiny immediately began sniffing the ground and furniture surrounding the door. She grabbed a handful of fur and skin and guided the huge dog further away from the entrance, intending to clear out and maybe find something to drink.<br/><br/>However, she was distracted by one of the Stalkers addressing her. She wasn’t entirely sure he was talking to her, and she was briefly distracted by his alarmingly saggy face. It made it very difficult to discern facial expressions, but she eventually judged it as expectant. Magpie decided that he wanted an answer from her. “Magpie Krupin,” she said in response to his question. “Yours?” She offered a hand to shake. Might as well be friendly to the people that lived here, even if it looked like their skin was about to slide off their bones. it would be nice not to driven out by a lynch mob again.<br/><br/>The mutant man smiled, or at least the skin of his face shifted to some semblance of the facial expression. If he had noticed the split pause it had taken Magpie to register his appearance, he gave no indication of it. He extended a three fingered hand to take hers, shaking it earnestly. “Nikita. What brings you here? Beautiful dog, by the way.” Behind him, Napoleon padded over to the couch to investigate the new, larger dog with a sniff.<br/><br/>Magpie gestured vaguely over her shoulder where other members of her traveling party might be. “I’m with the big group that just came in. We all sort of ran into each other while we were traveling, and Viktor brought us here.” She scratched her nose. “It’s a long story. That doesn’t make too much sense. Hopefully things will calm down now that we’re here, though. I tend to doubt it though.” At the compliment given to Tiny, she had to smile. “Yeah, he’s all right. Your dog’s not too bad either.” She watched the two dogs exchange dubious sniffs. She was glad her dog wasn’t overly aggressive, except when it came to her being hurt- he would be nigh impossible to manage if he ever decided to become more destructive.<br/><br/>Nikita nodded. Ah, Viktor was back from his bear hunt, and alive. The Stalker made a mental note to cash in his 2000 ruble bet with his pal Dimitry as soon as he got the chance. “You have to tell me what happened. Considering how long he’s been out, it sounds like quite an adventure.”<br/><br/>“Oh, and that’s Napoleon,” he said, indicating the overly large husky. It was hard to tell from his face, but the tone of his voice carried a bit of pride. “Very strong, very smart. He’s been with me for many years.”<br/><br/>He looked at the two dogs for a moment, and then turned back to Magpie. “Tell you what, how about we grab some food from the pantry, and you tell me about your journey as we eat?”<br/><br/>At his interest in the story, Magpie snorted. She wasn’t too sure she could tell Nikita exactly what had happened- most of it was fairly convoluted and she had only seen bits and pieces of it here and there, if she was being honest. “Sure, I’ll give it a shot.” She offered her hand to Napoleon for the dog to sniff it, looking at it with a soft smile that was a little incongruous with the rest of expression set. “Napoleon, eh. Good to meet you. This is Tiny.” Tiny barked at the mention of his name. “Named for his brain size than anything else, but he’s a good dog. Saved my ass more than a couple of times.”<br/><br/>At the offer of food, she grinned. “Well, I’ll never turn down free food. Lead the way.”<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>A meal and a story later, Nikita sat across from Magpie at a table.. They’d picked up Snowball along the way, and the white dog was underneath the table with Tiny and Napoleon, the three happily munching on scraps of meat being slipped to them. A few other Stalkers had pulled up chairs to listen to Magpie’s retelling of her journey with much interest, and at some point someone had brought out a couple of drinks.<br/><br/>Nikita sipped his drink and leaned back, thoroughly impressed. “Quite a story, “ he remarked. “You’ve been through a lot.”<br/><br/>Magpie shrugged, picking a stray piece of food out of her tooth with her fingernail. She hadn’t had to embellish too much to keep her audience’s attention- and the free food and booze- so that said something about the story. “Yeah. Can’t decide if I want it to keep up or not. It’s pretty exciting, but not really worth the trouble.” She flecked the food away and took another sip. “I guess it can’t get much crazier after this.”<br/><br/>Of course, as soon as she said this, there was a rather large amount of noise coming from somewhere in the base. She couldn’t even work up the energy to be concerned like those in her audience. Still, Magpie was curious, so took a final swig and stood up. “Well, that’s probably us, so if anyone’s interested in a show, we can go see what’s happening now. Where do you think that noise was, Nikita?”<br/><br/>“Sounds like the medical room,” the Stalker said, sounding vaguely concerned. There was an<span style="font-style: italic">awful</span>lot of shouting. Nikita finished his drink and got up. “This way.”<br/><br/>With a few other Stalkers and the dogs following at their heels, they rounded a few corners and headed back in the direction they had come, before Nikita led them in an abrupt turn towards Stefan’s office. He squeezed past the huge man covered in furs (Rock Hammer, if he recalled correctly from Magpie’s story), to behold a pretty blond girl trying to force a vial of fluid down Darren’s throat.<br/><br/>Magpie also slid past Rock Hammer. “Scuse me, big guy,” she muttered, patting a vague part of him without checking if it was actually skin, or fur, or some meat slab. She’d decided it was best to just ignore the weirder aspects of the man- which she supposed was just all of him- and just sort of hope it would work out.<br/><br/>She edged into the room just in time to watch Liliana twist Darren’s nipple for an apparent medical reason. A slow grin spread in a slow growing crack across her face as Liliana forced whatever fluid that was down the poor man’s throat and left him to heave in a bucket. Seemed like the woman.<br/><br/>“Holy Christ,” Magpie said without inflection. “That was a magical moment, right there.”<br/><br/>Eyes fixed on Darren spitting out blood, Nikita gave a laugh that was part amusement, part fear. “It really was.”<br/><br/>Viktor sure had picked an interesting bunch.