2019-05-27 - So Many Things Unsaid

After the events on the last tour, Tobin's decided to take a little bit of time off for himself, and so he hasn't been at the Boat Tours, letting his staff run them, instead. He's been going in briefly to check and make sure things are in order, but otherwise he's been doing other things. Today, he's at home. He'd been working a bit on his mom's garden. It looks a little more cleared-out, but with the steady rain, he hasn't been working on it today.

The luxury apartments were just further down the road, though in truth, Bayside was a long stretch of road. Nevertheless, in this weather, Byron's decided to drive on over. So at this very moment, there's a very expensive Rolls Royce Wraith parked outside of the Gilford cottage door. Not that it's unusual anymore, what with Byron having lived in town again for a few years now.

He'd texted Tobin ahead of time to let his friend that know Byron was stopping by, so rather than knock, he just lets himself in. The first thing he does is close his umbrella, shaking it off a bit to get rid of some of the rainwater. Then he tosses it into the umbrella stand, "You know... today was not the best day for my client and his family to go on that boat tour. I can't say the wife was thrilled, though the kids were. I'd need to check back with him," the client, "in a few. I'd just driven them to the apartment I'm having them stay in for the weekend, to see what his impression is of the town." Removing his heavy coat, he lets out a heavy sigh, "I have a feeling that it's not great, but I'm really going to have to sell him on the 'spooky small town' angle, since he's trying to write a detective novel in his spare time."

As he's hanging this up in the coat closet, he turns towards the main room, "How about you, what were up to all day?"

It's always a little weird to see that car parked out in front of the small modest cottage with its little garden and semi-obstructed view of the beach -- very oddly out of place. But then, Gray Harbor is kind of an odd place on a good day. There's a pot of coffee on and Tobin's voice comes from the kitchen where he's already poured himself a cup. "You want coffee? Or something else?"

He waits until Byron's actually in view before saying, "Yeah, the weather's been a bit crap. Good thing there's a warm cabin on the boat, but the view's not as good as it is on a sunny day on the deck. But hey, you could totally spin it that this weather is the perfect ambience for his writing, even if it's not ideal for boating." He smiles amusedly, lips tugging up just a bit at the corners.

"Today? Not a lot. I just needed a break. I've been doing nothing but work for a while. That whole debacle just made me realize I needed to take a well-earned week off and just.. binge watch some Netflix, go out and get coffee, work on mom's garden.. except today because it's a soggy mess. How are you doing?"

"While he might drop by several times a year, especially if he has business in Seattle, the family, and his wife especially, will probably only be here during the summer for a bit. Unless they decide to stay at one of his other vacation homes." Byron says, making his way into the home with a shrug, "I'm basically trying to lure him in, but we'll see."

Smelling that rich coffee aroma, to the offer, he laughs, "When do I ever turn down coffee. In fact, I made sure to stop by Java Jive before the boat tour. figured, with this rain, we were all going to need a huge dose of coffee. Or tea." He's already making his way into the kitchen for that cup o'Joe. "Me? I'm besides feeling like a bedraggled wharf rat, I'm doing great. Do you remember Chloe Rose? She didn't really hang out here all that often, but anyway, she just returned back to town and is opening up her own private clinic in... I think her childhood home. We just finalized the paperwork for her rental agreement, so. Yeah, I've got a new tenant."

Tobin nods, listening as Byron talks about his latest prospective client, and pours out a mug of coffee for him, making it the way that he usually likes it, and passing it over. "How often do you really lose anyone that you really put effort into luring?" he asks with one arched brow, knowing full well Byron's persuasive capabilities. "I sort of remember Chloe. The name is familiar, anyway." He leans back against the counter and takes a sip from his mug of coffee, warming his hands around it.

With that mug in hand, Byron relishes in the strong coffee scent, feeling the warmth of the steam washing over his chilled face from the cold outside. There's this kinda-grin that Tobin's questions brings out, "The lengths that I used to go to get people to put trust and invest in me. I have my ways, but," Here, he pauses to take a testing sip from the mug, gauging the temperature and needing that caffeine boost, "There are things that I will no longer due to draw a potential client or investor in." Tobin might know that he's talking about a certain incident with Easton back in the day.

On that note, peering out at his friend from over the rim of the mug and through the steam, he adds, "There are times, yes. More so out of the business arena, however." Another more casual sip before the mug is finally lowered, "Can't say I've not been slapped a few times. Oh, are we talking about in general or just pulling in clients?" There's a laugh here when he asks what is most likely a rhetorical question.

In a quiet note, he decides to add, "And unsurprisingly, she has a spark within her. A really strong one." He speaks of Chloe again.

Tobin pushes himself up onto the counter and sits on it, something his mother would likely have scolded him for if she were around. He grabs his mugs and holds it in his hands in front of him. He gives his head a little bobble one way and then the other when Byron mentions the things he used to do to get people to invest in him, and then a nod as he recalls the incident. "Point," he agrees easily enough.

He gives a slight smirk and a shake of his head with a little bit of a laugh, not answering the rhetorical question at all. Instead, he nods and says, "Lots who come back do, it seems." Now that the cat is out of the bag about all of their Glimmer, he talks about it a little more freely. "I've noticed." His own is particularly strong.

"Yeah..." Is Byron's quick, but drawn out response. There's a lift of his brow when he says this. "So... are you surprised by Lily?" He has to come out to ask, that dark gaze of his lifting once more to meet with that of Tobin, on that counter there. "Now we know why she's withdrawn herself from us, even though, I don't really understand the reasoning myself, but I'd had to have experienced it." The mug raised again, he looks like he's about to take another sip, before a thought crosses his mind. "She seems like the same old Lilith, I suppose. And I'm glad to know that she's safe. Even though she was drawn back here again, like some of the rest of us."

Tobin glances up from his mug at the question about Lily, brows knitting for a moment, and then he shakes his head, "No, I'm not surprised. And I think I get what she was talking about, too. Did you guys talk about it more after I crashed? Sorry, I was just.. wiped out, and still really hurting." He didn't like just abandoning them but, it was that or pass out on the couch. "I haven't seen her since then, but yeah, she seemed the same -- different, but the same." He gives a slight shrug of his shoulders. "I figured I'd talk to her more about it after she got settled in. I just wanted her to know that whatever she had to go through to get back to here, we were going to be alright; I wasn't pissed at her for pulling away. Sometimes shit happens."

"We spoke a little." Byron says in response, "But there was still a lot unsaid." Here he begins to pace forward a few steps, before he leaning against the edge of the counter, just near Tobin. "She acts like nothing's changed between all of us. Almost makes me feel like we're, I don't know, kids again." This is soon followed by, "Which isn't a bad thing! Of course." Drawing in a deep breath, he stares out idly into the living room, "We were so close before, but now, as adults, we've grown up. We're different people, but not. It's odd to think of just picking up where you left off after all this time." This would be a weird statement if it were about mere friendship, but Tobin's been around the pair in their youth.

"There's always been a lot unsaid," Tobin says, "Even then." He watches Byron come over and settle nearby, studying his profile while Byron looks out into the living room. "You've both grown up, both changed. At the core of all of us, there's a lot that's the same, but we've accumulated layers over the years, depth, I guess. We're all still who we were then, but we're also more, now, and I don't know if any of us can be exactly as we were then but.. there's no reason you can't pick up from here, with that as a foundation, and go forward exploring all those layers that came between." He asks, "What do /you/ want?"

As to this talk of things being unsaid, Byron must concede, that grin still on his lips, "No, you're right. Imagine what it would be like if we talked about all of this. These abilities. The darkness..." Though here, his attention is drawn back to Tobin, chin lifted, "I know why you'd been mum about it. So we never went in depth much." There's no placing blame found in his tone either.

"Now what do I want?" He says this in an almost amused tone, just before giving himself time to respond by sipping more of that caffeine. "I can't say. It's a little awkward, because I can still see her as that 13, 14 year old who left our lives. That was the last we really saw of her. Now she's back, twirling about in her usual Lily giddiness. It's a breath of fresh air. Odd still. But it shows that she's still retained that part of her, despite what she'd gone through." There's a pause, "It could definitely be hiding a greater pain."

"I don't know what it would have been like, but it would have been different. Not sure if that would have been better or not," Tobin says as he considers, staring at some point on the floor in front of him as he mulls it over in his head. "Yeah, mom was afraid for me. She told me from the time I was little not to let anyone see or know. She was afraid the Dark Men would come for me. She knew my abilities were strong. And dad couldn't cope with it. It's why he left. Couldn't cope with it, or her, or her disappearing." He shakes his head a bit and then says, "No point in hiding it now, though. We've all got it, and stuff like that, what happened out on the water? It happens all the time. It's the slipping between realities. It's where she is, somewhere." He shakes his head a bit to himself then seems to come back to the conversation at hand.

"Yeah," he says. "I can see that. There's a big gap of disconnect between then and now. I guess.. give it time? Get to know each other again? Share what's underneath as you're ready and see what happens? We've all got pain, the stuff we talk about and the stuff we don't. That's just part of growing up. And let's be honest, we're all better equipped to deal with that sort of pain, at least a little bit, than we were when we were that young."

"I don't blame your mother for wanting to protect you." Byron says, his own gaze now staring into the dark depths of his cup. "But, have you ever used these powers as a child? Or did you ever notice it's effects on people or animals even when you didn't realize you were doing anything at all?" He doesn't return to look on Tobin for his answer, but he does fall quiet to allow for such.

"It's happened a few times with me. Or, so I think. With my father." He doesn't let the mention of his father sit there, it's a bitter topic, so he quickly moves on, "I can't say that I haven't dipped into it, once I knew it was a thing." Maybe that's why people tend to take him up on his offers... "Even though you barely understood how it all worked. And you had a terrible suspicion of the consequences of it all."

The Lilith discussion gets a slow nod from him, "You're right. I just... It just got me thinking about it. That's all." He leaves it all vague. However, moving onto darker things, he says, "Now that we have an idea that there's a threat out there, it might be time to look into honing our skil--" Then he pauses, unable to stop laughing at the absurdity of it all, "Honing our skills. It's like we're discussing being superheroes here. Not that Lilith doesn't already think that we are."

"Yeah," Tobin says, "I did. I mean, I could sense what people felt, like my mom could. I could tell when people were lying, even if I didn't call them on it. I'd get flashes, sometimes, when I touched things." He says, "That was all before I really learned that what I was doing wasn't normal." He takes a breath and then lets it out slowly before saying, "But that.. on the beach.. with the electricity? I've only ever done that once before.. and only in self-defense."

He tilts his head a bit and he feels that vagueness and then asks, "Got you thinking about what? Speaking of things unspoken." He gives a little half-smile and leans over to nudge Byron's shoulder a bit. He does laugh a bit and runs his fingers through his hair, "Well, maybe not superheroes but.. we've got to be able to do this stuff for a reason. If having it makes us targets, we should probably learn how to use it better to defend ourselves, even if we're not going to throw on spandex and go fight crime."

There were a lot of things that Byron used to lie about as a kid. His home situation was one of them. It was something he'd hid for a long time, though it's not as if little hints never slipped out about never wanting to go home no matter what time of night it was or that lack of mourning period after his father had died. He's reminded of that now, his head turned slightly in his friend's direction, but he decides not to bring it up.

"Do you know how much of a pain in the ass it is to pick something up and then getting this image or emotion bound to that thing. Well, I know that you know." He says that smile on his lips as he shakes his head, "It's disruptive when you're left there with this unwanted, invasive sensation. I feel I have more control over it at times, but it used to happen randomly more often than not before."

When Tobin breaches the topic of what Byron was trying to move past, he simply reaches for his phone and rather than telling, he prefers showing. Finding the message in question, he lifts the phone, his form half-turned so that Tobin can get a good look at what it says.

(TXT to Byron) Geoff: Hey buddy I know it's been like over a decade since I last told you this, but really I want you to know it's still true man.
(TXT to Byron) Geoff: If you hurt Lily or make her cry, I will break you.
(TXT to Geoff) Byron: I'll make sure to keep that in mind, but thanks for the reminder!
(TXT to Byron) Geoff: Right? I had to give you the reminder, but I'll treat you to a beer sometime.

Byron waits until the phone is handed back to him and he slips it into his pocket. "When we first saw Lily on the beach, or I did, a lot of old memories came back to me. Then when we gathered here after the madness. But it was that message that made me think. I mean, were we going back to that again? When Lil and I were so close?" He then shakes his head, "It doesn't matter, I don't think. I'll just bring it up with her, I mean, I still don't know what she's done since leaving town. I could be wasting my time even thinking about this."

Right now, the talk of superheroes is a far more comfortable one that discussion on his personal life. "A few days after the boat thing, I spoke to Erin Addington about how she was doing. I mean, I know that you don't mind, but I invited her to come join us here the next time we discuss serious matters. She's a little new to all of this, the dreams especially. But now that she knows that they are a thing, she's been wanting to find better ways in which to protect herself and I offered and said that we'd help." Yes, all of them. As a group.

Tobin knew. Tobin wasn't dumb, and what he didn't know outright, he guessed, and his mom wasn't good at hiding things from him anymore than he was good at hiding things from her. He nods and says, "It used to happen completely at random when I was a kid, but then after a while, all I did was try to suppress it and control it so I got really good at just not using it." He then leans over to glance at the phone and the text messages that go back and forth between Geoff. He smirks just a bit and says as he hands the phone back, "When I told him I was taking a week off, he texted me saying I needed the time to ask Lily out before you did first." That seems to entertain him. Then he nods when Bryon tells him about all those thoughts, and what might or might not have happened with Lily in the intervening time. "I don't know, but she certainly seemed happy to see you. I have a feeling you wouldn't be wasting your time. And I say that /not/ having tired to get a read off her emotions. You can just see it, man, even without abilities."

But mentioning Erin makes him chuckle a little bit, "I guess she and Geoff have a date. Figure if that's going to be a thing, she'll likely be around anyway. But sure, no reason not to help her out. We're all dealing with this stuff. Better we all help each other out, instead of all trying to deal with it separately alone."

"I was never good at controlling my powers." Byron starts to say, staring down beyond his coffee mug, to an invisible space on the floor. "Even now they are accidentally set off at times. It's fine when you're doing nothing of import and are in a private setting. Not so much when you're in the middle of a crowd and someone just handed you something that contained an incredible strong emotional... signature." He's not even sure what it is that he's experiencing.

With Geoff being their light-hearted topic of choice, Byron uses the time for another taste of pure coffee. "Are you going to take his advice or what? I hear she's pretty wild." He says, before interrupting his statement with a sip from his cup, "She's even considering getting a tattoo. It's a good thing that we have Geoff. I'm sure those needles are pretty damn unsanitary in a lot of places." Then that mood evens itself out and there's this thoughtful look in his eyes, "She's happy to see all of us. I mean, c'mon. I was happy to see you when I first showed up again. It's been a while. Same with Lil."

Though when told of Erin's death with Geoff, there's this lift of a brow, "Is it Geoff that's training her in self-defense? I mean, I'm sure that there are some classes and instructors around, but" He shrugs, "So what where do we go from here? I mean, there's two individuals of some interest in my mind currently. One is Alexander Clayton. He seems to have a lot of information under his belt, but Geoff thinks that he collects information on /everything/. And I tend to agree. Real or not, useful or not." He then clears his throat some, "Then there's this Carver who visited Lilith that one evening. The Brit with the ghost."

"Yeah, that's kind of a bitch," Tobin says and then glances over at Byron sidelong. "Particularly when I'd touch something at someone else's house, and see and feel things that were way more than I was ready to handle." He says, "It's not as crazy now as it was, then. Mom helped." He chuckles a little. "With all her.. meditate in the garden, and crazy Mr. Miyagi stuff."

"Take his advice and what? Ask Lil out? No." Tobin pauses and then says, "I'm not into girls. I never have been." Just one more thing that had gone unsaid. But none of them had ever seen Tobin date anyone, or ever express any interest. He does chuckle then and says, "Well if I were going to get a tattoo, there's no one else in this town I'd trust to do it other than Geoff."

"I don't know what they're doing. I told him I didn't even know he was into her, and all he said was that he's a man of many mysteries." That seems to amuse him, as he laughs a little bit and shakes his head. "Alexander's always known a lot of things, though I have a hard time figuring out how much of it is actual interaction with sliding in between, and how much might just be stark raving bonkers, but I've always kind of liked the guy. And yeah, then there's the Carver guy. We find anything more out about him?"

With his cup held idly in hand, Byron takes on a neutral expression, blinking just once, when he says in a deadpan fashion, "Then it's a good thing that we hang out at your place more often than not. You don't want to go rummaging through my things." That is punctuated with a quiet sip of coffee. "Though," He adds, "I should take a page from your mother. Maybe meditation is helpful for something. Hell, I can even start planting my own rooftop garden." He more than likely won't do any of these things.

With Tobin's revelation about girls and the like, Byron may have already known. I mean, he's been around the guy all his life Tobin's never pointed out a girl of interest to his best pal. Even though Byron's had many interests himself, especially a few years after Lilith had left their lives. He won't put focus on it, only saying, wearing this slick, humored grin, "Looks like I've got no competition then. Well, except maybe Geoff." Despite the text message convo.

On the topic of Alexander, the smirk fades from Byron's lips, but not in an annoyed way. "My father used to pick him up by the collar and escort him out of a crime season when Clayton was a kid. And the discussions we'd had, he's always trying to expose me to corpses and the like." That's when he remembers something, "Oh by the way, he got a tip when I saw him last that there were a few dead bodies found at the harbor. Believed it was crime related, so keep an eye out for that." The Carver thing though, he shakes his head, "Not yet or, Lily didn't give me his business card yet. I was going to do some investigation of my own." Most likely of the mentalist kind. "Like I'd said before, she, strangely puts trust in him. Even though he's haunted. And a drunk."

Tobin laughs, "I bet she'd find that funny, you planting a rooftop garden on the top of the apartment building." He smirks over at Byron and says, "Yeah I'm sure there are plenty of your things I don't want to touch," though he's clearly teasing, good-naturedly. "Not from me, anyway. Besides, I think I might actually have a date. Maybe." Tobin's dating took place mostly after Byron had already left town, and consisted of brief flings with summer tourists every once in a while, but nothing that lasted more than a summer, or was significant enough to mention.

"Huh. He's never tried to expose me to corpses. He just comes on the boat and tells all kinds of weird stories about the place to the tourists. Thing is, most of the tourists eat it up and actually give those tours good reviews so.. who am I to stop him?" He does frown at the mention of bodies found on the harbor. "That's.. not good. What sort of crime?" He raises a brow a bit and says, "Does she get feelings about people like we do?"

There's this quiet look of fondness, Byron's thoughts returning back to Tobin's mother and just how she would react if he did create such a garden. He misses her, that much is certain, but just talking about her brings back this guilt that he'd left town shortly after she vanished. He then blinks himself awake, a curious brow arching, "You. Tobin Gilford. Has a date?" Though he sounds incredibly surprised by that, the way in which he utters those words hint that he's teasing. "When am I going to be able to meet this guy? And don't worry, I'll try not to be too judgmental." He's not the father with a shotgun sort of fella.

"I almost regret giving Clayton my number. He sends odd messages often. Asked if I wanted to see autopsies from odd deaths from the 1920's. I'd declined at the time. But who knows if any of those photographs or anything else's he's researching will hint at what caused the weirdness in this town. Or how far back it's gone." Though it means nothing to Byron, he decides to relay, "He believes the old Baxter family may be tied into things. The family that was driven out of town?" Though when this murder on the harbor thing is mentioned, he ponders on what Alexander had said, "Don't know really. He said that they were small time criminals, I believe and thinks that it was a pretty mundane thing."

He then has to think back to his conversation with Lilith at Tobin's next question, "I... I don't think so. Not that she'd said. But she can repair things like magic and..." He's still surprised by this, "She can destroy things as well. Which was her reason for staying away from us. She still has dreams, you know, of her abilities breaking us, tearing us to shreds."

Tobin laughs, "He fled the coffee shop right after suggesting it. It was like a hit and run. I think he's even more shy than I am about that sort of thing. I think I'll make sure he doesn't spook first before introducing him around." Though he does smile into his coffee.

"I'm going to be honest, unless it's a threat to us, or has to do with the weirdness, I'm going to leave the small time criminal stuff to the cops. I'm not actually looking to become a superhero, here. I just kind of want to figure out how to live my life, and try to find my mom." He nods when Byron mentions Lilith's powers. "I think she was really afraid that she was going to become a monster, and I'm pretty sure her dreams probably told her that. She didn't want to hurt us. And so she ran away. It makes sense, really. If you continuously dreamed about tearing apart the people you cared about, and you could /actually/ do it, wouldn't that scare the shit out of you, too?"

Byron is envisioning this scene in his mind as he tries to figure out what sort of person is his best friend's type. You'd think, as Tobin's best friend, Byron would know these things! "So he went one step above handing you a note, asking you to check either yes or no, on whether you wanted to go on a date? And when I say one step above, I mean a tiny baby step, because they did flee the scene of the crime." His tone retains this light hearted amusement, "But yeah, feel free to make any introductions whenever you believe he's ready. I wouldn't like to him and tell him that we don't bite, because some of us actually do." And before Tobin jumps to any conclusions, Byron adds in, "I'm talking about Geoff. Geoff is the answer."

He's also fine with Tobin not getting involved in the town's criminal underbelly business. In fact, he's glad that his friend's got not interest, but he does say as a warning, "I know. Just be on the lookout and be careful." Feeling his phone vibrating in his pocket, he reaches inside to take a peek at the message sent him. "Now that you put it that way, I guess I would be scared. Somewhat. But there's a lot things that we do or say that hurt even our own friends. I wouldn't turn them away because I'd be afraid of doing that." That's when he realizes the thoughtlessness of his words, "But, right. That's the not the same as tearing into a friend. I get it." He then pushes off the from his leaning against the counter, "Looks like my client wants to meet. I need to work on my hard sell on the short drive back to the apartments, but thanks for the coffee and the ear."

His gaze meets with Tobin's now, "I'll speak to Lilith and see how she's feeling. I mean there's a lot that we don't know each other still. Like what she's been doing all these years."

"Yes, pretty much like that," Tobin chuckles just a little bit. "I'll let you know how the actual date goes." The thing about Tobin, is that he keeps so much of himself bottled up inside. He's always there for everyone else, just like his mom, but he always turns the questions to everyone else, what they want to talk about, what they need, what's going on with them. It's in his nature. He chuckles a little bit and says, "Don't tell me you don't." But he glances over at the phone and says, "No, it's not really the same, and without really knowing the details, or being in her shoes, it's kind of hard to say what we'd do if the exact same thing happened to us." He nods, "I'll talk to her, too. I figure she and I have a bit to talk about, as well." Grinning he says, "Come on over for coffee anytime. You know you're always welcome. Good luck with the client."