2019-06-05 - Awkward Tea

It is safe to say that the antique & rare books shop is not exactly the best place to host a tea party. For one, it is a cluttered mess in here; there are things everywhere, and it is a literal maze of bookshelves and vintage furnishings in order to get around the shop. But tucked in the very very back is a very very tall counter, and behind the counter is the back door. Wedged somewhere between these two things? Is a card table. It's going to be a cozy afternoon.

But Violet is here, her frizzy hair pulled back into a frizzy bun. Unlike Alice, who managed to make even asylum wear fashionable, Violet's got a.. unique style, something between granny and librarian chic - a floral pencil skirt and a Peter Pan collared blouse, over which is worn a fuzzy cardigan. She also wears an antique pendant watch around her neck. And while she waits for Hannah and Julia, she finishes with the tea seat, artfully arranging it on a doilies.

When Julia shows up she's in a summer dress and a floppy hat, and she's got a sealed tupperware bowl tucked in the crook of her arm. As ever, when she's out and about, her lips are done up in glossy crimson. "Hola," she greets, managing at least a semblance of a smile. "I come bearing gifts." She presents the tupperware. Inside are what look like thumbprint cookies, with the fruity gels in the middle orange and green respectively.

Hannah has no claim to high fashion herself, but her dark-colors no-frills style makes her own faux-pas less obvious. She slips in the door just after Julia and threads her way back towards the counter and therefore the tea table with a little decorative box tucked under one arm. The sling is gone. "And I brought teacakes." A faint smile is offered, as is the box. "Don't worry, I bought them."

Violet doesn't necessarily jump all the way out of her skin when Julia comes through the door, but she does bounce a little on the tips of her toes. "Oh," she breathes out, like she was just standing here at random and not actively expecting guests. But she remembers her manners and twerks her lips upwards into a faint smile. "Hello Julia. Err. Hola, Julia," she speaks Spanish like a standard white person trying to learn Spanish off audiotapes: Oh-LA. At least she's trying. And then Hannah appears and Violet offers her a faint wiggle of fingers. "Hello Hannah. I'm.. very glad to see the both of you. Please, uhm, make yourself comfortable. I'm sorry, this probably isn't really the best place to host tea, all things considered, but my favorite coffee place is being remodeled and I don't really think it needed to be remodeled but it's closed and.." breathe, Violet. That was a lot of unnecessary information. ".. Anyway, this is my store."

"It's charming." Julia assures Violet, gently amused at the other woman's efforts. "I hope you like guava and lime." she says, perhaps lending a clue to the contents of the tupperware. And then, "Hannah." the name is said warmly, and Julia goes to give the petite techie a hug.

Hannah looks around the little shop, something she didn't bother to do on the way in. "I like it. Good atmosphere. Hi Julia." She sets her teacakes down and returns the hug with only a very small measure of awkwardness, then manages to wedge herself in a chair. "Mmm, guava."

"Oh," Violet, who is not very used to compliments, looks about her shop with owlishly wide eyes. "Thank you both. I like it too," she admits with a small smile, touching her hand to the antique watch as she shuffles over to the table. "It's my very favorite place to be. Well, second favorite, now, actually. I spend a lot of time out in the garden now at Alex's. He has a pergola," she briefly lights up at the talk. "I love guava. And lime. And teacakes too," she waves a hand at the teapot. "I hope you both like tea," she says awkwardly.

"Of course." Julia smiles tightly at the mention of Violet's boyfriend and offers no comment on his pergola. Instead, she looks for a place to sit. "It's very comforting. Especially considering." Considering the topic at hand.

Hannah shimmies her chair around a bit in an attempt to not have her knees banging into one of the legs of the card table; the chair makes some unpleasant screechy noises against the floor and she winces an apology at the others. "What's a tea party without tea?" She reaches for the box of tea cakes to open it, eyebrows arching at Julia's reaction to the a-word. Or the p-word. Pergola.

"Alex has a very big pergola. The biggest one I've ever seen," Violet gushes just a little. She just ~loves~ Alex's pergola. This is totally not a euphemism. Perhaps she doesn't notice the tightness of Julia's smile, but she does go to seat herself on the edge of a chair, perching primly. "It's earl grey. Which is, I think, very standard for a tea party so it might seem.. uninspired? But actually, this is some of the best tea I've ever had, so I figured we could share," she reaches to start pouring tea - for Julia, then Hannah, and finally for herself. "Alice doesn't really like tea. She's a coffee person. Is there good coffee.. there?" she frowns.

Julia takes a very pause, eyes darting to Hannah before answering. "The only good things there were what you could make for yourself. And what little we had, we had because of each other."

Hannah just looks at Violet with those big brown eyes of hers and nods politely at all that talk of Alex's pergola. "It sounds lovely," she murmurs, fixing her tea to her liking and taking a sip. Violet's question brings forth a tiny little choking noise, though it's short of a true spit-take. "I'm afraid not." She cuts a look at Julia and nods, venturing another sip of earl grey.

"It is," Violet murmurs to Hannah, before she curls her hands around her tea-cup. The reaction of her question makes her frown deepen, and she drops a look into her tea. "I'm sorry. I don't really know how to talk about.. it. Up there. I don't.." she starts, stops, and shakes her frizzy hair. "I'm very very sorry. I can't even begin to imagine, and .." her bottom lip trembles. But dammit, she's not going to cry! "I'm glad the two of you are safe and free."

"Anything we tell you is going to be hard to hear." Julia says with frankness, though she offers it in as delicate a tone as possible. "It isn't a good place. And I can't speak for Hannah, but I was torn over leaving Alice behind. It was hard enough for each other to lean on, and it's equally hard to remember things about the place. But I think the important thing is, if you do want to talk about her, you can talk to us and we won't think you're loco en la cabesa."

Hannah reaches for a napkin to dab at her nose a little bit. "It's okay. No one really knows how to talk about it. Most people don't even want to try, so..." She perks a half smile and reaches for a thumbprint cookie. Guava, obvs. The smile, such at it was, fades. "It eats at me, sometimes. A lot of times. But yeah, anything you want to know, we'll tell you. What we can remember, anyway. I think some of the things they did to us-" She points at her temple and shrugs.

Violet bites at her bottom lip as she volleys glances between the two women, though she rarely settles on one or the other. It's a sort of anxious gesture, and her fingers start to tap on the teacup. Then, quite without warning, she blurts out: "Actually Alice and I talk all the time." Then she immediately bites down hard on her bottom lip, eyes wide open. It's by the grace of God that she didn't split her lip with her teeth.

Julia does indeed give Violet the hairy eyeball. "I'd be interested in knowing how you manage that. We didn't get letters, or phone calls. At least, I didn't, but that might have been the staff."

"Hey," Hannah says, as Violet spills her secret and endangers her face. "It's okay. Here." A tea cake is pushed in the woman's direction. The confession doesn't seem to come as a huge shocker...maybe a middling shocker and Hannah's just super chill, but she nods at Julia and notes grimly, "Pretty sure it's the staff."

Violet doesn't look at the women again, although she catches sight of the teacake headed her way. She sniffles, taking the cake with a quiet murmur of thanks. "We didn't.. through letters or phone calls, my father said I couldn't even go see her, but.." she licks at her beaten lips, and picks off a piece of the cake. "We .. we always had a connection. Even when we were little, w-we could be in two totally different places but hear each other. It was little things, at first. Feelings or.. or images.. or.." she swallows. "Little phrases. But when we were older, we could just.. talk. And it never went away. But.." and this is when the tears start to tumble down her cheeks. "She hasn't talked to me in weeks. Weeks. We talked every day, sometimes for hours. I can still feel her, I know she's there, but she just.. she won't say anything."

For some reason, Violet's tears seem to irritate Julia, but she cinches her expression until she can push it down. Her tone determinedly remains kind, though she makes no move to try and hug or otherwise comfort Violet. "That makes sense. Does she feel any different? I mean...they would drug us. Among other things. Are you able to tell when she's drugged?"

"I think that's common with twins...a connection like that. Well, not precisely like that but some sort of shared communication imperceptible to outsiders. I'm not surprised that yours is...especially strong." Hannah wraps her hands around her tea cup; she's not a hugger of strangers by nature but she does seem geninely concerned. "Yeah, they kept us out of it a lot."

Violet sniffles again, lifting her hand to wipe her cheeks. She finally lifts her gaze to the women, her glasses a little misty from all that crying. "It feels.. so strange. To talk to people who knew her. Who.. who love her like I do. She always told me we .. we can't trust anybody but each other. I-I don't think she's right. Because I have Alex. And she had you both. But.." she sniffles again. "Yes. I knew. She'd be quiet when they gave her the drugs, but right around.. mm. Midnight? One? She'd be lucid. She'd keep me up all night sometimes," and there was something wistful in her voice. "Then sometimes during the day. But not often. I.. I would read to her. Romance books," Alice ~loves~ romance books. She might've shared stories with Hannah or Julia. "Not really my cup of tea but.. she said you guys didn't get any books there."

"No," Julia admits. "We'd tell each other stories instead. Well, mostly Alice would tell us stories." Her lips purse tightly. "Does she feel like she's drugged? Or maybe she's worried they can somehow trace back to you and she wants to keep you safe?" She shakes her head. "I can never remember exactly where the asylum is. Bellingham, maybe? Seattle? I don't know. We need to get her out."

"I've heard some places have libraries, but we didn't." Any expression made by the mention of Captain Pergola is hidden in a long drink of tea. "We had to trust each other. There wasn't anyone else. Even our families-" Hannah lets out a sharp little sigh. "Well, they thought they were doing the right thing. I can't remember the name of the place, either. I just know it's...north?" She scuffs a hand through her hair. "Your Alex is very perceptive."

Violet traces her fingers over the face of the clock on her pendant, and she shakes her head. "I.. I don't know. I can just tell she's.. she's here. I wasn't really ever able to tell when she was drugged, I just knew that she was. She would tell me," she explains that a little better. "I .. I don't know where they took her. My father, he.. he never told me. He just always said she went 'upstate'. And we.. don't talk, anymore," her brows furrow as she talks about that. But her expression seems to brighten just a bit at the mention of Alex. "He's a very good doctor. He.. was worried about you, to be honest," she says to Hannah.

Julia lets out a delicate snort. "He shows his worry by offering unsolicited medical advice?" The question might be rhetorical, as she notes, "My family seems to have lost all of my paperwork from when they committed me. And that's what they call it. Upstate."

Hannah ticks her fingernails on the side of her cup. "Maybe they're doing some new kind of treatment." Even trying to make it sound not that bad...it sounds bad. To cover, sort of, she lifts her left arm a little; sure she's wearing long sleeves but there are no bulky bandages visible beneath. "I do appreciate the concern but's healed up just fine. I'm fit as a fiddle." Who even uses that expression?

"I mean I think it's only natural when you're a doctor to give somebody medical advice when they claim to have slipped on the ground but actually got shot in the arm, and ... oh," Violet claps her hand over her mouth, eyes wide. "I'm sorry, Hannah, I..I shouldn't have said that."

"I still think your boyfriend is an ass." Julia finishes her tea. "But your sister is awesome, so that's something. Maybe if we put our heads together, we can figure out a way to get to her. But for now...this is a start. Don't worry about the tupperware, okay?"

Hannah sets her teacup carefully on the table and reaches for another of Julia's cookies. "It's a lot to explain in front of a whole bunch of strangers, is all." And since it seems churlish to undo all the progress they've made so far, she drops the subject.

"I-I understand. I'm sorry. He.. he can help you. If you .. ever get hurt. And you don't want to see a doctor," Violet offers to Hannah, before she turns her frown to Julia. The word 'boyfriend' makes her blush, but Violet is a very ugly blusher - her cheeks get red and splotchy in various places, including a spot on her forehead. "Alex is a good man. And he's.. very good to me, Julia. I know he didn't make a good first impression, but neither did you." And that was probably the most direct thing Violet's ever said. "He's a good person," again, firmly. "And he deserves to be treated with respect. Please." Then she picks up her teacup. "Besides. I know how he feels, and.. well. Any friend of mine, will be a friend of his. So.. to friends," she decides, and lifts her teacup. Cheers, ladies!