2019-06-23 - Name Game

The diner is interesting as far as decor goes, naturally, given the owner. But Lilith sitting at the counter with her food has some strange company or decor of her own seated right nearby on the other stool. It's a taxidermy raccoon with its little claws up in 'rawr' gesture and the eyes have been replaced with glossy red stones to make it suitably demonic. Why she's sitting with it having lunch is anyone's guess, but at least she's not talking to it. It's just there.

Dressed in a little purple flare skirt with silver lacing sandals and a couple of layered tanktops with white on top of darker yellow, she's lightly made up and colorful today to suit the summer weather and counter some of the overcast, casual pretty for her leisure day off and away from work. As she eats, a foot swings and she seems a little lost in her own thoughts.

Tyler meanders into the diner, making his way to a stool at the counter, where Lilith is also sitting. He is eating alone, so he's not at all bothered by being at the counter with others. He sits beside the odd stuffed raccoon that is on the stool next to Lilith, and he smirks a little. He looks at the raccoon, then eyes forward once more. Finally, he smiles fully, a boyish grin, and he turns to Lilith. "Okay, so, I have to ask." And he glances at the raccoon, then back at Lilith, not actually putting into words the obvious question at hand of what's the deal with the raccoon.

"Ask me out or ask about the raccoon?" Lilith wonders of Tyler after picking her fork up to indicate his face with a loose gesture of point, punctuating her question and then comment with a bite of pancake and a little slant of her lips with amusement while chewing, "Because we're both eating alone and goodness, that grin." It's a bit of a dry tease, though, turns out, because she drops her fork to adjust the napkin in her lap before putting a hand over atop the taxidermy raccoon's head for explanation.

"I brought it over for Gina. She's the owner, went to high school with her. Figured she could use a trash bear in the bear diner and I adjusted it to be right up her creeptastic alley. I saw it online and decided it needed to be here."

Elias wanders on into the diner and makes his way toward the counter. He doesn't even bat an eyelash as he settles down on the other side of Lilith from the raccon and leans forward, arms folded on the counter, "I'm pretty sure that Frankie has one of those, a chicken, or rooster, with the eyes replaced with red stones... I'm pretty sure Gina gave it to her." He grins. "I didn't realize it was bring your demon-eyed critter to lunch day or I would have brought my cousin." He glances between Lilith and Tyler for a moment, and then orders himself a cup of coffee.

Tyler tilts his head a bit at Lilith after the compliment, "I... Um... Thanks? I think?" He holds that smile, and looks the raccoon over for a moment. "This trash panda is certainly ugly." Then he turns to Elias, "There's... more... of these things?" He laughs a little, "This town is so weird."

"Ahhh, the murderchicken, mmhmm. That was my 'Lilith's home' gift for Frankie's shop because she was talking about rounding up the trailer park chickens to use as props around there. I imagine a taxidermy heathen demon is the next best thing. She seemed pretty pleased with him." Lilith breathes out a sudden laugh at Elias' pipe in with arrival. As she picks up her own coffee to drink from, she makes a noise in her throat at the commentary on town being weird that's kind of drably humored agreement, probably not because she's passing out weird taxidermy.

"There's only two. This and Frankie's chicken. And well, the zombie gnome that Geoff bet-won from me might count, he's kicking around out there somewhere. I own a pawn shop and there's trade and sell sites between brokers. One of them specializes in taxidermy. And some things just need suitable homes." The brunette fesses up to being the source of the odd items kicking around town with reasoning that sounds perfectly logical, at least to her. After smiling with quick flash at Tyler and eyeing him during lowering of her coffee cup, she looks at Elias more closely and says, "Okay, pretty smile, I can't place. But you... familiar, familiar. I can't name you. Help me out."

"Oh honey," Elias says, which, if he were a southern belle would likely be followed with a 'bless your heart', but instead he just chuckles. "Demonic taxidermy is probably one of the less weird things in this town." He smiles gratefully when his coffee is brought over and pours some creamer into it, stirring idly with a spoon. "We went to school together," he points out to Lilith with a bit of a chuckle, "We all did.." He gestures in a general circle, indicating all three, "but you were a couple of years ahead of me," he says to Lilith. "Elias Weber," he says, of the weird Webers. In the early days of the town they were rumored to be witches. Now, just eccentric. "I run the bookstore downtown."

Tyler turns to the waitress, ordering a Diet Coke, and notes to Lilith's moniker for him about the pretty smile, "I've been called worse..." He lets her and Elias reminisce for the moment, and then nods at Elias, "Bookstores are hot right now. Very trendy." Maybe he's joking? And then he's back to the raccoon. "Where are its eyes?" Back to Elias, then, he asks, "What made you decide to open a bookstore? That's not exactly exciting work."

"Right, Elias. Okay. That takes the nagging feeling off the tip of the tongue." Lilith breathes outward to Elias before picking up fork, edging into a pancake for another bite with wiggling saw motion. Then she pauses to think about Tyler's question visibly before taking the actual bite, "In a little box where I keep stray glass beads and cheap stones and buttons and things that come out of refurbished or broken pieces. I keep them to project with, I guess. Tinkerer by nature. Are you going to tell me -your- name or do I get to just make up a new nickname every time I need to reference you? I'm okay with either."

Then she looks aside at Elias while chewing, curious enough herself as to why-the-books.

Elias's brow ticks up just a little bit at Tyler's comment, but the smile never leaves his lips. He just conceals it behind his mug for a moment as he takes another sip of his coffee. "I didn't. I inherited it. My family opened it in the early 1900s. It's just my turn to mind the shop for a while until I pass it on to the next person." He taps his fingertips against his mug. "I find more than enough excitement in town without having to work for it."

"I think we should try and guess," he suggests to Lilith when she asks if Tyler is going to give his name, making a kind of game out of it unless Tyler decides to share before the guessing can begin.

Tyler accepts the Diet Coke from the waitress and takes a drink before spinning his stool to the side so he's facing the other two. "That's..." Then he tilts his head, remembering something. "Wait... Weber. Like, the witching Webers?" The corner of his mouth ticks up just a bit, "Is it an occult book store?" He smiles fully then, when they suggest guessing his name. "I'm happy to tell you, but, honestly... I'm kind of curious to see what the librarian and the toymaker come up with." He leans on the counter, settling in with a smile.

"Toymaker sounds like a kind of neat job. Especially if I had access to design with... mm. Three. We each get three. I'm leaning toward... Jason, Dakota, or... Chad." Lilith actually takes a moment to speculate on the title that Tyler dubs her with once she's flashed a slant of smile at Elias' idea. Sitting up straighter and dabbing at her mouth with more preparing flair than actual need, though, she comes out of thought to get down to guessing business. Each name is posed with tiny halts between where she takes a beat to look the guy up and down each time, posed there smiling like that.

She takes back the third name, suddenly, head shaking, "No, smile isn't right for a Chad. Those are generally d-bag smiles. I'm flipping it to Nathaniel." Then she looks at Elias like she's got some pretty solid guesses in there and is challenging him to one-up her.

"Mhmn," Elias says to Tyler when he makes the connection, then grins. "We do have an occult section upstairs, actually." It's quite extensive, for a small town in Washington, anyway. When Tyler seems game to let them guess, he glances over to Lilith to see if she has a guess that she's going to try before venturing one of his own. He takes another sip from his coffee. Then he gestures with his mug at Lilith, "Hey, that's four. Fine, you can withdraw Chad." On this, there seems to be agreement.

He then considers Tyler for a few moments before he chooses his three names, "Daniel," is his first guess, and then after a moment or two, "Nick," and then finally, "Wyatt." He glances over at Lilith and says, "Definitely not Chad."

Tyler laughs, "Chad? Ugh. Gross." He lifts his brow a bit at the other guesses. "I could be a Dakota. I like that one. It's... woodsy." That charming smile returns, "Oh, Nick is good, too." He takes another drink of his soda, and as he sits it down, he shrugs, "Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you both, but it's Tyler. Tyler Wellington. No witching. No reading. No..." he glances at the raccoon, "...stuffing. Just a simple fireman." He shrugs once more, "Kind of boring, really."

Lilith really looks like she wishes she'd gone for 'Wyatt' when Elias says it, giving a little hiss of noise like he has maybe one upped her. But then Tyler's confirming his like of Dakota and that's close enough to right for her, from the looks of it. She starts eating again with a nod of her head, then suddenly laughs with a hand coming up over her mouth mid-chew, "Tyler fits fine, but you hitting the oh-so-humble fireman angle with the introduction is adorable. You know they make whole calendars out of you bastards, right? I think you fit that bill."

She drops her fork and pushes her plate away while trailing off the short laugh and bluntly playful words, seeming a bit serious and dryly exasperated when she tacks, "That said, I apologize for any calls related to drunk Daddy Hank in or around the trailer park or town in general... in advance."

Elias laughs at the reaction to Chad, "Yeah, Chad is just universally a bad idea." Though when Tyler's name is finally revealed, he leans back and looks him up and down, then nods. "Yeah, I can see that. Tyler fits." Not that anyone required his approval, but he gives it anyway. "I don't know," he says as he holds out his mug to be refilled by the passing waitress, "Fireman are hot. Figuratively, as well as on occasion literally. Saving kittens from trees and people from burning buildings. Far more exciting than selling books, anyway." He chuckles when Lilith mentions entire calendars, gesturing with his mug in her direction in agreement. "She is not wrong."

Tyler's cheeks actually flush when they both declare he's adorable and hot. He glances away, wiping his mouth, before looking down at his glass of soda. "It's not- I mean, I just..." He sighs, "We can't all be rocket scientists, is all I meant." He runs his hand through his hair, and then clears his throat, looking back at the two. "The trailer park, eh? Huckleberry? I grew up there. Well, until I was a teenager, anyway." To Elias, he offers, "I've never saved a cat. I did rescue a ferret once. It bit me." He chuckles, "So, yeah. Not a fan of ferrets..."

Lilith makes a sound that sounds companionably apologetic when Tyler says he grew up in the trailers, "Mm, yeah, good times." Probably an indicator with her father mentioned there that she did too. She gets a coffee refill when the waitress comes to take her plate and fishes out a bill from her hanging bag to send along for payment too. Then settling back with one leg in sweep of cross over the other, she looks at Elias to comment wryly, "We're about one and a half compliments away from getting a full on fluster and case of the stutters out of him. The blush is already there. Are we pause or go?"

Then she shakes her head briskly and sweeps a hand back through it after small halting gesture, looking back at Tyler with an expectant bat of her lashes and a drift of lopsided smile, "No wait, we have to be pause. I want to hear the ferret story. Because seriously, who calls the fire department over a ferret? And how do you even catch one?" She sips from her coffee after the hand falls from her hair.

"Which just goes to show that no good deed goes unpunished," Elias says when Tyler admits that the ferret bit him, grinning a little and finding the flustered reaction only more adorable. He can't stop grinning with amusement. "Oh, I definitely want to see the fluster," he says to Lilith sidelong. But then his phone goes off and he pulls it from his pocket, glancing down at it. A faint sigh escapes his lips and he takes out some cash -- more than enough for the coffee and a generous tip. Getting to his feet, he says to Lilith, "I entrust you with the task of getting a full on stutter. I will expect a report when next we meet." He leans over and pats the demon raccoon on the head. "You, don't bite Tyler. He's been traumatized enough." Lilith might not talk to it, but he certainly does. Tyler just gets a wink, and then he's tucking his phone away and heading for the door.

Tyler furrows his brow just a little, his expression something between confused and slightly offended. "I'm not blushing," he says, firmly. He totally was blushing. His eyes follow Elias as he sets to depart, lips pursing just a little in thought. He doesn't say whatever it was he was thinking, instead, he returns his focus on Lilith as he offers, "Be good, Elias."

"Honestly, it's not that interesting of a story," Tyler confesses. "It got loose, and the varmint gnawed its way into the attic and chewed on the wires for the attic fan. They smelled burning rubber, couldn't find it, and called us out." He holds up his left hand, showing a little scar on his ring finger. "Little bugger left a mark."

Lilith huffs out a little half-laugh at the protest from Tyler and at Elias' parting words, speaking in protest with little turn in place on her stool perch, "Aw, it's harder without you. But I'll see you around, Elias." Then with a tiny shake of her head she screws her nose up a touch at Tyler's explanation on how it actually went down and how he has a scar from it, tongue clicking once, "That was nice of you. Sounds like a job for pest control at a certain point instead of something for the taxpayer dollar, but I guess if no one was currently burning or dying in the meantime, eh."

Then she looks at Tyler with a vague tilt of her head in curious and assessing fashion, sipping from her coffee again while taking a more natural conversational turn instead of attempt to fluster him, "How long have you been a firefighter? You look a fair bit young, which is maybe why I don't recognize you from the trailer park or school. Then again, I was good at wearing blinders back when too, depending what years we're thinking back on."

Tyler smirks, "I'm not that young. I've been on the squad for about three years." He notes, as if he's telling her he's forty, "I'm 22." Right about then, the waitress brings him the white paper bag with the to go order he had called in. He hands her some cash, and then smiles at Lilith. "You say that like you're some old lady. You're not much older than I am." He hops off the stool, taking his sack and offering her one last look at that dimply smile. "You've certainly aged better than Rocky, here," he notes, gesturing at the raccoon. "It was nice to meet you, Lilith. You be good." And he begins to leave.

If Lilith was going to go giving up her own age while comparing, she changes her mind about it with a mere twitch of her lips up with mild humor. Then she drops the dry wit and muted expressions of smile or humor, putting on a genuine pretty flash of smiling sunshine for her own part, "Thanks for letting me pick on you and showing interest in my silly gifts projects. Be safe, hero."