2019-07-07 - A Pitying of Turtledoves

Ignacio comes ambling from inside the Pour house, right leg doing the work pulling the rest of him with such practice that his natural lump has become a sort of strut.

You can break his leg, but you can't break the swagger apparently. Force of will goes far, and it's that force of will that keeps his calm intact when he escapes the group table under the erstwhile guise of checking on Finch as she talks to her grandmother on the phone.

He's not stealthy in the slightest. There's an upnod to her as he lands against the building at a polite distance. Close enough to keep an eye out for trouble, far enough to not eavesdrop.

Finch is just finishing up her phone call with Gran, and she taps her phone off after an, "I love you too." She tucks the device back into her purse and gives Ignacio a tight smile. "Hey," she greets. "Sorry I, just needed to get our of there for a bit." She moves to lean beside him, folding her arms over her chest and propping one combat-booted food against the wall with a grimace.

Ignacio follows her with a glance as she comes to park on the wall next to him content to stay silent and let her break the silence. Both eyebrows rise casually and a shrug follows as his thumbs hang in his belt loops. "Yeah, I get it. Thought I'd see how you were doing. No rush. I mean... Big week. Big topic. It's a lot to digest at once. I feel ya."

Dark eyes squint and that summer extend wetter he is aware of not, trying to understand and put shape to her feelings right now.

There is the tiniest bit of existential dread wafting off Finch before she shuts it up tightly and Ignacio can't suss out the rest of her feelings. "Yeah it's just...Bad shit happens in my family. Really bad shit. And the whole town knows about it, or thinks they do. I did everything I could to seem normal when I was in high school, and it didn't help. I was always the girl with the family members in the nuthouse."

Ignacio watches with some sort of passive preternatural patience. Instead of drawing attention to the situation he works, the way he does, to downplay it as much to commonplace casual as he can, but leaves his focus invested in what's happening with it. His head tilts to the side considering the words chosen and what scant stray bits of impression are garnished. "Yeah... families are a hell of a thing sometimes." Then there's that small town talk. Oh yeah, he forgot about it. He flinches slightly, "Oof, yeah, ya knoooooow... People always think they fuckin know everythin. I mean I ain't lived in a small town, but I've met Facebook. People see and hear somethin and they're all in it for the gossip and entertainment of that shit." He shakes his head letting the back of his head rest against the brick of the building. "Anyone different? They loco like it's their fault and the person talkin?" That half grin tiredly reaches his eyes looking to her with a fond commiseration, "They always gotta make it about them. They ain't even involved. I dunno, Finch."

He falls silent for a longer moment and in the pause admits in one of those rare moments of honesty, less to get it out, and more as an olive branch. "Eeeeh, ya know, when everything changed and I landed in... the hospital... seven years ago? Three people asked me what happened. What I didn't know is they already decided for me what happened and I try to correct em? Naaaah, Ignacio, Tu está mintiendo- you lyin! " He shrugs, "Learned a while back no one wants the truth, Finch. They want their truth cause it entertains em, let's em sleep at night, whatever ya know? So... I stopped trying to correct them." With the most casual of bold faced lies does he state in a very matter-of-fact educational tone, "Did you know I was attacked by a shark in a surfing competition?" He nods in some casual agreement looking mildly surprised mid-farce, "I don't even surf, so imagine my surprise finding that out."

The expression breaks with a small smile of sympathy, "Soooo I guess I'm saying that sucks, aaaaaand if you do wanna talk about it ever, ya know, I'm down for listenin cause it sounds like the people you grew up with ain't so good at it, and that sounds honestly? Pretty fuckin rough for a kid to grow up with."

Finch grimaces but the surfing thing gets a snorted laugh out of her. Then she nods at Ignacio and pushes her hair behind her ears. "Yeah it was rough. But it's not like I'm the first to go through it." She looks at him with narrowed, curious eyes. "My last name, Celaeno, do you know the origin of it?" she asks him.

Ignacio seems satisfied to get the snort of a laugh out of her. Mischief managed. She's talking and that seems to be the goal. Instead of a victory lap he answers curiously listening, "Oh, yeah. Named after the bird that eats a shit ton of celery. Explains the green colour. Lives in the Alps and skis on weekends." No, Finch. No clue, though he is sticking around for the answer.

"Remind me to never play Balderdash with you. You'd win every time," Finch notes with a smirk. "It's Greek, and it means the dark one. It was the name of one of the Harpies in mythology. The half-bird, half-women creatures that killed men. We think the family name is the source of our curse." Curse? There's a curse? Her dark eyes watch him intently for his reaction to that morsel of information.

Ignacio listens and for all the shit he's not good at keeping his cool seems to be up in his wheelhouse. Though now it dawns on him, eyes going wider, "Sooo because of some harpy you all have to have bird names?" Wrong curse deSantos!!! He considers this and asks about the elephant in the room, "That why that old ratty thing caught on fire?"

Finch laughs again and socks him lightly in the arm. "NO asshole. That's a family tradition, not a curse." Then she sighs. "My uncle, Merlin, did a bunch of family research after Auntie Starling's incident. She murdered every male Celaeno of her generation. As did her grandmother before her, and her great aunt before her, and so on. Every other generation. As far back as we can trace."

Finch pushes off the wall and begins to pace back and forth in front of Ignacio, wringing her hands. "When he told my mother, who got knocked up by accident in college in a one night stand, she freaked out. When I was born a girl, she freaked out more. I'm the next in line to go cuckoo. But it was ok until I was about 13. Because there were no cousins. Then the twins were born."

Ignacio doesn't meet someone every day that tells him their Tia goes all children of the corn on the rest of her male siblings. Really there's very little that startles him and while he doesn't freak out both eyebrows go up. ''Shiiiiit''. Wow. Well.. that's a lot to process there. He asks, concerned, "One, remind me to call Marcella later and tell her I love her face. Two? Uh, yeah, I can see where you'd be pretty fucking concerned. Like... I dunno ..." He pauses and takes a deep breath, "I dunno I believe in curses, but hereditary mental illness or even like brain tumors and stuff? Shit can happen to fuck with wiring. Inherited health conditions are pretty fuckin freaky. I'm a give you that one." His head follows her, quiet for a moment and asks finally, "Soooo kinda a big deal, offerin to go talk o teh family."

He watches and unhooks his thumb from his beltloop extending an arm out in an offer. "Commere. You're punishin the pavement doin that."

Finch snorts and gives him a dull look. "Even bigger deal than that. When the twins were born? My mother decided she needed to end the curse. By killing me. She tried to stab me to death, I broke her arm. It was the first time I ever glimmered. She got locked up and Gran has taken care of me since." She kicks at a stone with a booted toe. "It's why I don't date and shit. Don't want to marry someone someday and wind up killing them and sure as hell don't want to get knocked up and pass this shit on." That explains the crazy hair and outfits. They keep people at arms length.

Ignacio leaves the arm sticking out giving her an even retort, "Still pretty sure hugs won't get me pregnant. I tested this out, soooo..." If he comes out of this meeting only getting punched twice he'll call it a win. Still having heard she was nearly murdered at thirteen by her mom and this mess? No wonder shit's so fucked up. He's not laughing. While the words carry his usual delivery, he's far from unaffected. If he's scared it ain't for himself. He pushes off the wall and gives her a hug. "His might get punched. He's had worse. "Your grandma's pretty awesome. She's a strange old lady, but she's pretty damn awesome."

Finch folds her tiny self into his hug and sighs. "She's seen her sister kill her husband and her brothers and brother in laws. She then watched her daughter try and murder her granddaughter. The fact she's still going strong is a miracle. I'm trying my best not to worry her."

Ignacio ain't ever known exactly for being the strong guy, the brave guy, or even the guy that shuts up once in a while. He's reliable for always being consistantly Ignacio for better or worse and he doesn't budge letting the world stand still a moment. "Well, she seems a pretty good role model. And she seems to care about you a lot. So... yeah... this? This is some shit, lil bird, but I'm glad you got that." he pauses and adds in effort to be helpful, "And I ain't goin anywhere. I mean I could be taken out by a goose." He cracks a faint grin poking fun at himself, "Doesn't even have to be a fast goose and they're actually mean so... ya know, thanks. For tellin me. we'll figure stuff out or... we won't and we'll do a lot of looking anyways and it'll be a hell of an adventure."

Finch wipes at an eye with one hand and sniffles. "Thanks Iggy. You're the best. You really are." She lets him go and folds her arms again. "Can you take me home? Even talking about that shit wipes me out."

Ignacio lets her go and looks around and back to her with a nod. "Sure, lemme let It-Z and Roen know what's up so they don't worry. Gimme a sec." He turns to head inside, right leg really dragging the rest of him, but with practiced efficiency. He's gone a couple minutes and returns with a to-go cup, lid, and straw in it and hands her her soda. "Para ti." /for you/. That said he fishes his brother's keys out of his pocket and heads to the car.

Finch takes the soda with a grateful look to Ignacio, and she follows him to the car to head home.