2019-07-12 - Controlled Environment

The Club House, or so the Gilford House has come to be called, has been set up for a little bit of experimentation this evening. Most of the furniture has been cleared out of the living room. There's a fire extinguisher nearby. There are drinks, some snacks, and there's a hose ready in the garden just in case something messy happens. One never knows with these things. Tobin let everyone know the door was open and to just come on in.

The tell tale sound of a bike's engine pulling up along the curb herald's Geoff's arrival, the man strolling into the house and calling out "Yo Tobin I'm here." even if his friend is right there in the living room. Tonight he's dressed for the occasion, a pair of faded grey jeans, heavy motorcycle boots and a tank top that reads 'The things you own end up owning you - Fight Club'. Cracking his knuckle he asks with a grin "So are we testing what we can do on each other, or is it more we're lining soda cans up in the back yard and plinking at them."

Lilith has been an avoidant shit recently, afraid to bring the disaster that she was the last week down on the ones closest to her. She looks a little bruised and battered on the bared limbs with a large gauze pad over her thigh (downgraded from bandage wrap) that's visible where she's wearing casual and short denim cut offs. She's wearing a tank top that's hot pink and summery, which exposes some bruising edges fanning up from her diaphragm from impact and there's a healing and bruised gash knock over a brow. She doesn't look great, but she's animated and lively and moving somehow, ready to be active and doing this from her demeanor on walk-in.

Byron is hard to hide from in a couple of different ways, however, and he knows she looks world's better this evening despite the battering that's still healing. None of the malaise that sunk and hollowed her eyes and wore her from the inside out for a week has come back since he noted it's absence the evening before.

Lilith pretends like she's unmarked and fine, immediately going for Tobin and Geoff's cheek. She had to ride with Byron, he's probably already had his giddy cheek kisses of 'hello'. Someone's excited. Oh dear. "I have no clue how this works, but I know it can only be beneficial to know about each other for when it's time to band together." She leaves out the part about not even being sure what all she's capable of, herself. "Really, this can't be too different than how we used to play, though, right?"

There was no need for a suit and tie at the Club House, even if Byron sometimes showed up in one to Tobin's place. His expensive and luxurious Wraith is parked outside, even if he stepped out of it wearing a plain gray T-shirt and some jeans. This was more Byron of old, despite the city-boy hairstyle and facial trimmings. He'd arrived earlier since he doesn't live very far and as their friends start to filter in, he's standing there with a bottle of beer in hand. Just mingling and talking to Lilith and Tobin in the process.

He knows that they'd scheduled this thing a while back and they had some semblance of free time now. However, it's still too close to when Lilith was known as Calamity Jane for Byron's liking, but he'll be keeping a careful eye out on her.

Geoff's arrival is hard to miss, so to greet his former-con friend, he tosses the guy a beer from a safe enough distance, "Catch! It might not be the smartest thing to be drinking with what we're planning on doing, but... yeah. Something like that."

Tobin is almost perpetually in jeans and a t-shirt, save for when it's cold, then there's probably another layer or two added on depending on the depth and dampness of the cold. He sits on the arm of the couch nearby, his own beer in hand and lofts it to Geoff in salute when he arrives. The cheek kisses are received with a grin, and returned to Lilith in kind. "Nothing about what we're doing, or trying to do, is safe. So, having a drink to ease the nerves before hand isn't going to make it any worse, I figure." He glances around to each of them and says, "So.. not sure where to start, really.."

Geoff catches the beer easily enough and cracks it open, careful not to spill it when he's receiving his share of the giddy cheek kisses "Oh man, it's gonna be fun watching you baby ducklings learn to swim." walking over to the couch he drops down onto it correcting Lilith minutely "Not entirely beneficial, I hear that /they/ are drawn to excess use of glimmer like moths to a flame. So while you're learning to get better you're also making a target of yourself." to Byron he adds "Oh and since last night was a terrible time to mention it, you do know your tenant probably got caught up in a dream and didn't make it right? No amount of security is going to prevent that."

You know those things you say in passing that you don't really want to be right? Lilith shoots a look at Byron that's almost partially nose screwed with unease after Geoff's advising theory about the murder. She finishes that first beer in pretty short order and the draining kind of coincides with both that and the bit about them potentially making themselves targets while trying to use and work this kind of stuff out with their own comfort and control and curiosity measures. And when it's drained, she goes to crack into another one with wandering toward the kitchen, coming back out with hip bumping lean against the frame of the open separation between rooms.

"Here's the thing. I think we mostly know what we're inclined to -react- with when danger comes, and we lash out. I make fire. I rip into things to make blood and try to break them like junk from the inside. You see those results, and I need to learn to control them better. But when Tobin had something flying at him, I... -did- something I can't quite explain and don't know how to replicate without the panic of the moment. In a controlled environment, maybe more of those things can come out like tactic instead of a panic switch."

"So what you're trying to say is," Byron starts, his words interrupted by a drink from his bottle, "That you're an expert in, whatever it is you do." Then adding, "Because prison life has hardened you up?" Thorne's just making merry and teasing, though his eyes look between both Geoff and Lilith now. "I think that you both have similar abilities. I'd say, let's see what you can do, but from what Lilith tells me, what you can do is pretty OP."

Oh, Byron wasn't about to talk work issues here, but Geoff brings that mess up. "It came to mind, yes. But why do you believe that is the case? Because the deceased is an Addington?" Another swig of beer, "Or because we're living in Gray Harbor? Either way my security cams are on the fritz and I'll be calling in an expert to take a look at them."

Then Lilith starts going on about what she can do and here he says with this wide grin, "See, that's pretty damn OP right there. But she's right. There are some things that others have done with a similar power set to me that... I never thought I could do."

Tobin raises a brow and glances over toward Geoff, "I know exactly what I can do. I always have. My mother was just pretty adamant about me hiding it. In part because of those reasons.. using it draws attention, and not the kind that you really want." He doesn't seem to be in any particular hurry with his beer, nursing it as they talk. He glances over toward Lilith and says, "Yeah, see, that's not the way it is for me. But that's why I'm here to help, if you want to practice and see what you can do while focusing on it."

Geoff snorts with amusement "That is is exactly what I'm saying, I had eight years to fuck around on my own time and learn these things with not a lot more pressing to. I finished fights with them, and I fucked with corrections officers to hone them with more finesse." tipping his beer back he takes a long sip from it "And as for the death, the way it happened, the fact that it was an Addington and I bet she glimmer'd, and the fact there is nothing pointing anywhere else. I've been in a few freaky ones, it makes it seem pretty believable."

With a wry grin towards Tobin he comments "Man, there was no one to hide it from in prison as no one else could sense what I was doing....Seriously for the longest time I thought I was the only one with super power and it was beyond confusing."

Lilith is ready for action, it seems because while she stands there gradually draining her next beer and thinking for a long moment as the others talk, she's focusing her eyes on Tobin. And those blue eyes are both keen and sharp while she's all racked up in her own thoughts or memory, and simultaneously far away for a moment that isn't now with him as a catalyst or focal point.

Eventually, though, she speaks up again and knocks a hand back through her hair before looking around the room at what's available, then at Byron and Geoff. After those few moments have passed, she straightens out of her hip bumped lean and comments, "That's good then. We're all in our own places with this and it's better than us all being the same level of unfamiliar or clueless." Her wrist rolls some then as she holds the beer and she suggests, "Someone throw something at Tobin." Does she mean literally throw? Maybe. Maybe not. But a small start might not be a -bad- start.

"No one in prison shined? Really?" Byron asks, considering that possibility. "I mean, when I was in L.A. no one shined there either. Or I just didn't notice. There was a lot of things that I had slipped my mind after I left Gray Harbor. The darkness and shadows. The oddities that come with living here? Even Tobin's mo--" He starts to say, not feeling comfortable about finishing that last word. "It's as if I'd forgotten that people just disappeared. Remember Isidore Reede? I... almost didn't when I lived in L.A. He'd disappeared the same year." Tilting his head back, he slowly drains his bottle, before wiping at his lips with the back of a hand, "I wonder why then. Why that year. The year of our graduation."

The rest of what Geoff says regarding Susan Lewis nee Addington's death gets a nod. "Still, that won't appease the rest of the tenants living in the building. And probably some of the police force. I'm also still barred from the crime scene. Once they clear out, I might do some investigating of my own." And when he says this, it's clear that he means as a mentalist.

It looks like Lilith is up first with a suggestion. The only thing that he has in hand right now is what is left of his bottle of beer and he wasn't about to go throwing that at Tobin. Wandering over to the couch, he takes up one of the cushions there. "Looks like this'll have to do. My apologies if whatever anyone is trying to do doesn't work." And with those words, he flings the thing at his best buddy.

"I'm surprised you could still do it in prison, but then, I've never left Gray Harbor, so I'm not sure what I'd be able to do if I wasn't here," Tobin says. That /is/ the one part that he is uncertain about. "Everything that I have done and learned has been here. I did have the benefit though of someone teaching me who understood what was going on." He glances over at Lilith when she suggests that someone throw something at him, a brow creeping upward.

He shakes his head, regarding Isidore Reede, "No idea. I mean, people disappear from time to time. I don't think there were any more or less who did the year that we graduated." He considers for a moment or two, and then there's a cushion hurtling at him and he lifts a hand, palm up, but he doesn't catch it. He doesn't need to, because it stops halfway across the room and just hovers there in mid-air, slowly rotating over and over as though tumbling but going nowhere.

Geoff laughs easily enough "I'm waiting for the police to drag me down to the station for questioning. Lord knows I've been in and out of your building enough and my rap sheet should make me a glaring target for their efforts." leaning back he watches with morbid interest as that bottle gets chucked at Tobin, offering the sage advice of "If you an dodge a bottle, you can't dodge a ball." though as it comes to a stop he adds rather dryly "You were supposed to dodge, not cheat."

Lilith doesn't really know exactly what she's trying to do, she waits for it to click with the memories of watching Tobin as a target in a terrifying split second moment well at hand. The consequences aren't so dire now, reproduced like this. She's slow about her mental process and before she does anything at all, the target has turned the ammo into a non-threat mid-sail. It makes her huff with a sudden laugh of surprise, but then suddenly she widens her eyes as if realizing what she was -trying- to do. After fishing her keys from her pocket, she stands a moment, stares at Geoff instead of Tobin, then chunks her keys with unexpected ping his way.

She's not a baseball player, they aren't impossible to dodge, but once they're sailing she flashes with shimmer and the moment changes a little bit. What was a straight throw is suddenly askew and a little easier to dodge. She changed the physics of the moment to give an edge to Geoff's dodge or make the impact less ouchie. Funny that, the way it happens. Almost seems like luck of the throw on his behalf, even though she pinged right at him and aimed in the small space.

"If I have to go downtown to vouch for you," Byron says to Geoff as he's watching the cushion sail through the air. He, honestly, expects it to hit Tobin in all it's plushness, but instead it suddenly stops. This gets a blink from Thorne, his eyes then following the trail when said cushion descends and falls to the floor almost silently. "I... how did you do that?" Byron primarily focused on one aspect and one alone. It's always a surprise to learn that others possess more than one power set that they can do. There's this keen look in his eyes now, questioning, "Is it something that... we," Mentalists, "Can do?" No, he's seen others with telekinesis and he didn't feel as strong a connection with them as he does with other mentalists.

"Isabella Reede is back in town," Isidore's sister. "We did some catching up and that topic came up. But unlike how careful you've been, Isidore was more... open about his abilities. He practically flaunted them. Not gonna say I wasn't jealous." Byron was jealous. Isidore shone like a bright light, just like half of the people in this room. His attention is then drawn to LIlith who chucks her keys at Geoff. If Geoff can do that too... Byron purses his lips, watching in anticipation.

"Hey, there were no rules presented before the hurling of things at me," Tobin points out. "How I choose to deal with it is my business." He grins, though, as the cushion plops to the ground. Glancing over toward Byron he shakes his head and says, "No.. this is telekinesis.. I can do a bit of everything. I'm strongest with feelings, illusions, that sort of thing. But I can also do this, and some of the things that Lilith and Geoff can do.. with the mending and breaking." The topic of Isabella Reede is momentarily put on hold though as suddenly Lilith chucks her keys at Geoff and he waits to see what Geoff will do.

Geoff watches Lilith size him up and offers her a roguish grin as if daring her to do it. In fact he starts working his mojo before the keys have left her hand, the keys decaying and becoming brittle even as they fly through the air. So when he swats them away as they draw close they break, and shatter again when they hit the floor "See the problem with your attack there was that you gave me time to identify it and act before you threw it." looking down at the scraps of keys he studies them with a disinterest, the shards of metal thin and covered in corrosion.

Cracking his knuckle he mentions "I used our ability to slice to disarm a copy in a dream the other night. The important thing with it is that while you might not be able to cut a dude in half with it, you don't need to go very deep to slit his wrists or blind him. Then from there it should be fairly easy to turn the fight on your own terms."

"Look, I've gotta admit, that I have absolutely no idea how any of these powers come about." Byron says, his eyes primarily focused on Tobin. "It just happens. I don't know when it all started with me, just that it was early enough to drive my father mad." Or so he was told. "Is there a way to learn new abilities and power sets? Like... how did figure out the other things? What Lilith can do or what Geoff can do?" Though, both kinda do similar things.

Then... Geoff just destroys Lilith's keys. "Geoff, man... those were her keys. Not just some random keys, but keys that she actually uses." He moves in closer to take a better look at what is left of those keys. "Jesus..." He gives Lilith this /look/ as if saying: Can you even fix this shit?

Then he's drawn back into the conversation, though he's still standing near the bits of key fragments on the floor. "You fought a copy of yourself?" His booted foot extends to, perhaps, push some of the key bits around, but he stops himself, in case something could be done about it.

Though Lilith seems damn keen on standing and listening to the given advice about tactically using the gifts of pain and destruction she shares with Geoff, she isn't really worried about her attack skills deep down, but ex-con advice of where to aim is probably pretty useful. Instead, she steps back after throwing to kind of watch how the keys shift just so, practically right into swat range of Geoff's quick and (goddamnit) destructive hand. Then she abruptly grins like she understands one thing or another.

Of course, then she also looks at her keys shattered into metal pieces all over the floor and decides that kind of sucks. She didn't think about what to use as ammo very hard, she probably shouldn't be throwing around things she actually needs. So while she's distracted with a bat of lashes over Tobin's way while he makes explanation of his ways and understandings to Byron, clearly surprised by this, mostly she's kind of sulking about having to take a time out to clean up.

Squatting carefully down after draining the rest of her second bottle, she scoop gathers the pieces of metal (most of them) into a pile and stares at them for a passing moment. Lilith manipulates things in the shop all the time and she knows what her keys are supposed to be down to every fine jagged edge that works the tumbler. She knows it because they're hers, she knows it because this is what she's beautiful at, it's what she does, it's what she has joy in doing.

There's movement. There's sound like metal rattling, then tiny ticks of it all starting to snap together like magnets until there's an actual set of keys there whole again. There's still a stray piece by Byron's foot indicating she didn't even -need- all the pieces, she somehow replicated what was missing and extended the matter of other bits to suit. He's never really seen her -work- before. No wonder everything in that shop looks so nice for a Pawn. There's no telling what condition it -actually- arrives in.

Tobin winces a little bit when Lilith's keys are shattered before they even hit the floor. "Hope you had a copy of those," he says, "Unless you want to try a shot at fixing them." He glances over at her.

To Byron, he says, "I don't really know how they come about. I have some theories that they might run in some families, but I don't think they need to, either. For some folks, they seem to start from trauma, as well.. which kind of makes sense.. since it's all that negative stuff that seems to just become a cycle." When asked how he figured out the other things he says, "When I was young, I just started getting an innate sense of things. My mom helped guide me through figuring out various different things, experimenting a little. That was before my dad left."

Then Lilith is putting the keys back together again and he grins a bit, nodding. There it is. "Nice," he comments.

While Byron sometimes hangs out at Lilith's shop, he doesn't often get the chance to observe what she does and nothing that he'd witnessed was in such bad a shape as these keys are now. "I can go look for the number of a good locksmith." He says, trying to be helpful. Even as he does this, he watches her gather some of the key parts in hand, though at this point, he still thinks it's a lost cause.

"During times of trauma, these abilities definitely could work as a defense mechanism. Something that just kicks in, but at the same time," Byron says, speaking from experience, "They can make things far worse. Until you start to master what you can do." His last words are said in a much colder tone. Before, his entire demeanor warms up again, moving from surprised to incredibly amused and quite proud of Lilith's accomplishment. "That's pretty amazing. Those keys were shattered to all hell and back and right now? They look good as new." He steps forward to get a better look and in turn kicks the final piece of the puzzle, sending it skittering a short distance from where he stands. Realizing that she missed a part, he goes to pick it up, then looks over at the perfectly recreated set of keys, "Do you even need this at all?"

Geoff begins to pick himself up from the couch and brush himself off after a series of texts "Hey guys, I should probably get going. Looks like we have more Addington deaths and I should probably be there for Erin." tilting back his beer he drains the rest of it and tells the group "You guy take care, okay? We should go drinking soon."

Lilith isn't sulking anymore while working those keys back together, no. She may have sulked about having to stop throwing things in order to take a squat that hurts her leg to do the fixing, but once she's down there, it's not just the expected sheen that flares up about her in other ways that manifests like a light. Despite her battered state, she's practically glowing with a shift of delight there because she's so damn expressive sometimes, even when quiet. She really likes to do the hard fixes and unless she deliberately breaks something herself, she doesn't get to do them a lot.

Turning to look at the missing piece, her head shakes as she rises and repockets the keys with a grin between company, "No. I don't. Stable matter has patterns for me. It locks in lattices and I can complete the patterns and extend the matter on a lower level." Nerd. Figures she has some explanation like that just like Geoff has intense con stories to explain how he works.

Straightened, she looks between Byron and Tobin, "Byron needs to do something impressive now." Then she sobers as Geoff goes and wanders over to give him a hug on the way out, "Hey. We should. Be good."

Tobin frowns a little bit when there is mention of more Addington deaths. He hadn't yet herad that there was another one, and it troubles him. "Yeah, we should definitely get togther for drinks." He gets up to walk Geoff out, giving him a pat on the shoulder and wishing him safe travels before wandering back into the room with Byron and Lilith, settling back onto the arm of the sofa. He glances over toward Byron and says, "What is the extent of what you know you can do, mentally?"

When Lilith gives them all a science lesson, Byron just slowly nods and takes a dramatic step back as if to visibly show that he was backing away from the nerd. "That's interesting. I can't say I paid much attention to that class in school." Despite his good grades! "I guess that means not needing to call a locksmith, huh?" He really does look that damn impressed though. "I'll remember to bring over anything I break to your shop. Not pawn, but for repairs."

When he's told that it's his turn to do something impressive, he flashes this smug grin to the room, "I'm always impressive, but I don't think I can beat Geoff... or you when it comes to making a spectacle of yourself." It's true, mentalists have more subtle powers, usually.

Then Geoff drops the bomb on all of them with news of more Addington deaths. At first, he's wondering if something happened to Erin, but if something ever did, Geoff wouldn't be this calm. To be honest, he just hopes that these deaths happened far away from the Bayside Apartments. He doesn't need any more of those kinds of issues right now. "That's unfortunate. But yeah, take care of Erin. I'll most likely give her a call later to express my condolences." Again.

That was really the mood killer. Tobin's question is a distraction, but it's hard to simply forget that more Addingtons were killed following an Addington death. "The extent of my powers? I mostly try to pick up on people's emotions. That's the primary use of my abilities-- other than gauging memories from items and things of that nature." Finally, finishing up the rest of his beer, he moves to the kitchen to recycle the bottle, "There's the electricity thing, but I've yet to figure out how send it out as a projectile, the way you do." Returning back to the main room, he then says, "Clayton," he's talking about Alexander, "once input a vision or a scene within my mind. Well, men and the docent at the Addington House Museum. Showing up a vision of the old mortuary being burned down a long time ago. Now that. That I have no idea how he did it and honestly, it was jarring to have someone put shit like that in your head."

Lilith looks at the door after Geoff is gone, then knits her brows some while listening between Tobin and Byron, a bit thick with her quiet. She's not always talkative, it tends to come in spells, so it's not a big deal or anything, but it's clear she's somewhat bothered there, even if she's not likely to know the victim or anyone close to them. After a moment, she focuses on how Byron has answered in regards to what Alexander did, chewing in brief at her bottom lip.

"Do you know what I just did when I threw the keys? He probably would have hit them anyway, but I -was- aiming for his head and it wasn't a far shot. Somehow they ended up right in front of his hand for the easy slap down. I did that too." She knits her brows, "I changed the moment just a little to his benefit. I willed it slightly to the left. I didn't -move- it. I just made it... less of a threat." Her eyes swap to Tobin, "I felt so bad because I couldn't stop that -thing- from hitting you. But had it not shifted that little bit..." Maybe he would have died on the spot. Again, she tries to think how to explain, "A bullet only needs a fraction of an inch to avoid or hit the right place. If I can pick apart the variables of the moment like I can an object, I think I can influence the moment for better or worse. It's hard to explain, but it makes sense when I do it, now, without panic. Words are inefficient for this. Sometimes you just have to try. So..."

Lilith nods suddenly at Tobin, like he's meant to encourage Byron along when she steps forward to place her hands into the dark-haired man's own hands, eyes locking upward onto him, "Try. I'm here. Get inside me and try. It's okay."

"Yeah," Tobin says as he listens to Lilith, "I can't explain things in quite the terms that you do, though I think that's part of it. How each of us experiences these things is a little bit different. How we manipulate things around us is a little bit different, because it's based in our perception. You seem to in general, take things apart and put them back together again, inherently seeking out how things work, dissecting them in a sense, and then manipulating those things. What I feel, is .. more of a feeling. Everything I do is kind of intuitive, like I just know and feel certain ways about things, and then I use that to I guess, willfully change them. If that makes any sense."

"You should be able to transmit an image to either one of us," Tobin says. "I can do that, though I don't, usually. I don't like to get into people's heads and put things there unless it's an emergency sort of situation, or it's something that they've consented to. Doing it without permission seems.. really invasive."

There's some confusion on Byron's features when Lilith tries her darndest to explain what just happened with those keys. "You aimed for his head but it was altered to appear in front of his hand? Rather than you aiming it for his hand?" He'd ask why she didn't aim for his hand, but then she probably throws like a girl! "If I had any sort of telekinesis, it probably would've kicked in by now with the various falling objects trying to crush Lilith because of one ring."

He then quiets, listening to the pair. As a child and then as a teenager, Byron was often the optimistic sort. Or so he seemed. Adventurous, when it wouldn't get him into any trouble, and he was willing to try anything without a show of fear if he could help it. That was often a cover for his own insecurities and as an adult, having matured and grown, that adventurous part of him seems to have faded somewhat.

"I like to get into people's heads." He states openly. While he's facing the both of them, he's looking at neither at the moment, "Sway their opinion." Those words are said in a firm manner, before he takes on a more dismissive tone, "Something, which I'd learned, I didn't need powers for. But perhaps that's where mine stems from." Though even he knows better than that, having time to contemplate on everything and guessing how and when his powers began to manifest.

Then Lilith takes his hand within her own, his dark gaze peering deeply into her eyes. That easy-going Byron was no longer easy-going. There was tension his shoulders and the set of his jaw. Perhaps, he was having a difficult time deciding what image to transfer over. Or maybe, he thought this whole thing was silly. It very well could be the latter, "This is si--" He starts, this smile being forced onto his lips, his eyes shutting as he shakes his head. "Alright. Let's see what I can do." Taking in a deep breath, he's thinking of dozens of different thoughts and memories, trying to find one to settle on. That was a difficult task. For this, he has to clear his mind, picking and choosing just what he wishes to show.

The image being broadcast is like a snapshot in time-- one not that long ago. He's only testing this out, uncertain as to how useful something like this is. It's an image of a stuffed husky puppy, wearing a pretty lavender bra atop its head like a hat. The room, for those familiar with it, looks like Lilith's loft upstairs from the shop. That pup has it's felt tongue hanging out of its stitched mouth.

If any of them were to take a moment and sit and think about the way Tobin's just explained the way he operates in the realm of feeling and the way Lilith operates by picking things apart, it's maybe expected that things would be that way. He's always been the more calm and sensitive one that was attuned to their upsets and knew how to navigate them by personality and nature, it wasn't just his mom and house that served as port in a storm. Good at people.

And she? She took apart everything quite literally, the more parts the better, just to see what they did. In fact, they had to stop her from taking apart one of the video game systems, once, because not everything she took apart got put back together again in the same way and wouldn't that have just sucked? She was the kid that asked 'how' and 'why' so damn much. Good at things.

Byron, though. Behind all that friendly charm he could whip out, he was will. He was decisive doing. He had aims. And damned if anyone was going to stop his drive, even young. Is it a surprise he's confessing that he likes to use his powers on people to see those things he wants through? Probably not. So when he sets his mind to task, despite claiming not to have a clue as to what he's doing prior to that... when it's over, Lilith isn't stunned or thrown at all, she's ready for it, he's going to do it. But it doesn't stop the sudden gasp of delight that follows when she's hit with the image, nor does it stop her from losing a bit of focus on his face with rapidfire blinks with her eyes going to haze of seeing what he wants her to see.

Abruptly, she starts to giggle. Yes. Giggle. It's been some years and she feels like a moron the second the noise is out like that, but she's so amused suddenly, she can't help it. That's what he chose out of anything at all. Dog.

Tobin can't help but chuckle at the image that suddenly enters his mind. "Why is that dog wearing a bra on its head?" he asks with some amusement after the image flashes in his mind. He glances from Byron to Lilith and then back again, brows arched. Then he just chuckles. "See, you can do it." He says it as though he knew in his bones that Byron could do it, and perhaps he did. That's sort of the way that he knows things.

It's sometimes hard to determine when Byron is joking. There's this edge to him, sometimes, and his jokes can come off as dark to some. But then, he'll often follow up with something more Byron-like and light-hearted, just for laughs. So his mention of this enjoyment of manipulating people could just be that, though someone like Tobin may have better insight on his best friend. He is an empath.

He plays it all off with a straight face, very much the way he did on Lilith's first spotting of Dog in her own apartment, but once people start to crack up and laugh, his own stony-faced facade melts into a smile of his own. "You had to have been there, Tobes." He starts in this explanation of the dog with the bra on its head. "I got Lilith this stuffed husky as a get well gift... and for protection." That part is laced with humor as well, "And it just can't help getting itself into all kinds of trouble. It also has a fascination with her bras. But who can blame it right?"

But it worked. While he may be skeptical and despite his boastfulness, somewhat insecure. This actually worked. Now he has to wonder what else he can do.

With her hand still within his, he looks on her with warmth in his eyes. "All of you should be lucky that I have a decent amount of self-control, so when I have those urges to send ridiculous or embarrassing images." Not of himself, of course, "You should have that peace of mind that I won't be transmitting any of it to you. Unless, I'm just trying to be an asshole. That happens from time to time."

"... you realize you have just told me essentially that it won't be you screwing with me, until it is you screwing with me, right? You're kind of awful at assurances sometimes, Byron." Lilith tells Byron with eyes sparking humor, tugging a pull of his hand still holding hers to bite at one of his knuckles once her giggles trail off and explanation is made to Tobin. It doesn't really matter what was confessed about his tendencies with people. She's not the morality police or anything and she doesn't really imagine that he does anything of the like to her, so it's really not her concern. He's just Byron for her.

After biting her admonishment affectionately, she tells Tobin, "It's a gender confused dog. We call it Dog." Then she looks at Byron more closely and considers something for a moment, then Tobin again, "What happens if you didn't use that moment to put something inside me and read what was inside instead? What's that even like with a whole person? Do we just... echo at you while you try to find what you want to know?" It seems overwhelming, to her, as a concept. She'd been wondering since Alexander. She knows how people are made physically, but... different. That's structured chaos. The mind and emotions? Not so much. It's where the real life is on a human.

"I do realize this, yes. But if I'd ended it with anything other than my confession, you'd know I was bullshitting then anyway." Byron says, looking very confident in his words; that smile never fading from his lips while his eyes watch Lilith bite down playfully at his knuckle, even if it's her own gaze that he's really looking at now.

Speaking of Dog, he is quick to pipe up, "I wouldn't say gender confused. He's young, getting into his teen years. Which teenaged boy has never worn a bra on his head?" Is this some sort of admission from him? "It's a stupid guy thing. You see it a lot on college campuses too." He murmurs, "But at that point, it's called hazing."

Byron has tried what Lilith asks about now. Most likely with some random woman during his college years, though he'd probably done it more than once. There's a flicker of his eyes that seek out Tobin now, but with Tobes being preoccupied with cleaning up some, he decides it's his job to answer this question. "It can be overwhelming, but that's how it is with almost anything that we do that involves empathy and the reading of memories and emotional residue." With their hands still connected by touch, he asks her straight out, "Do you want me to try?" He remembers Alexander having done so at the hospital and was curious as to what Clayton had seen or felt or experienced. "That would leave you completely open, like an open book. And... if there's anything you're wanting to hide, I'm not sure that you'll be able to." He then makes sure to add, "Then again, it might not work. These abilities are fickle some times."

"I mean. I..." Lilith doesn't exactly hesitate where she might have just days ago, terrified by the idea of Byron picking up on how scared and unhinged and afraid and broken she was starting to get, the chaos of her mind the day Alexander read her, the resentment and hurt she felt in the middle of it all, completely unrelated and thrown into high gear by stress. But they mostly hashed that out. And she's better now, by far, than she was physically or mentally that particular day she opened herself to a relative stranger. Instead, she stops to consider if she really even has anything left to hide at this point, "Think you're pretty caught up on the mess that is me."

She looks back over her shoulder at Tobin going to the kitchen with beer bottles and then swaps her eyes back to Byron, intent, "Do you -want- to know me like that? If you do..." Lilith's head nods small and solid, fingers tightening with pulse on his hands of permissive reassurance after that question for consideration on his part. She's curious. And...

Hell. Part of her just wants the one that knew everything about her once to know her through again. How do you make up for almost fifteen years of walls and distance? Maybe, just maybe, a little bit of that making up happens just like this.

Byron probably would've wanted to feel the chaos of her mind when she was plagued by one catastrophe after another, even if one could easily see how frazzled she was without needing to peek into her mind. He knew how much she was hurting, but there was some envy on his part, watching Alexander reach out to open up her mind and drink in her emotions. If he had that to do over, he would've taken the opportunity instead.

Things were much calmer now. Not only was Lilith looking better, but she was also feeling better. This should mean that he would receive a much clearer read on her emotions. Gone was the distress of the moment and the raw negative emotions that came with it. Still, he was being given this opportunity to delve deep into her being and there was something about what he saw in her eyes that makes his decision for him. He saw that she wanted him to know, opening herself up to him this way.

There's a brief look given to Tobin, not feeling comfortable to go ahead with this until his friend had passed. Only then does he squeeze gently at Lilith's hand, his eyes looking deeply within hers. There's no verbal response from him, but she'd be able to tell by that glassy look that he gets in his eyes, that he's mentally reaching out to her.

Oh, Lilith. She's perfectly calm standing here looking at Byron with her heart aflutter in her chest, clueless as to what it is Byron is about to see. Her breathing picks up a little shallowly to match when he steals that glance toward where Tobin is, because that's the cue, he's going to, he wants to know. She knows why he shot that glance, she shot the same glance before offering. It's intimate. It feels a little like the time they kissed in Tobin's bathroom on the sly after the first time two days prior made them want to steal a moment to explore and try it again. It's almost exciting in the same way too, them taking this moment they don't want to be caught in right in the middle of his living room while he's in the kitchen cleaning up.

That's what's there about the time Byron gets a read on Lilith, right at the forefront, her feeling the intimacy and excitement in a strange way she can't really pinpoint. He gets a flash of that bathroom moment, preteen fumbling and exploration in a rush before someone got suspicious about where they disappeared to in the house together. It chains out, though, naturally into a burn of guilt and regret that's years and years old, a thing that lingers and never dies. This isn't new, she's attested to as much. But feeling it as she feels it... different. It's like a scab she keeps picking to bleed because she can't leave it alone.

Just like in life, Lilith is very animated inside, even standing still, but he's forefront, he can't reach her contradictions and complexities without digging harder. The image of their interlinked hands there at the forefront balms the burn that came with that flash of bittersweet young memory. She can't help but think of him, even though it might seem like she's trying not to.

Byron knows she loves him, but like this, that love is incredibly thick-- it's not the sweet adoration of a child or a woman's love for a man. It's something that exists and runs deep and isn't one way or another. It's a lot like feeling a kaleidoscope of all the ways a person can love, spinning around and around. It's almost frustrating and confusing, which is no doubt familiar to him, because sometimes that's just what caring for Lilith makes a person feel too. She loves him like a friend. She loves him like family. Those are platonic. She adores him like a superhero, she loves him with the sweetness of a child. Those are innocent. She's attracted to him as a man too just as well, the right now, and she clings to the love that might have been because it has its own powerful image. That one spins fastest. She doesn't know where to land with it. She can't feed it. She can't let it go. It's just stuck spinning in the middle of all that other affection, muddling things up.

Lilith is -thinking- of Byron, but her memories of recent times are on creep. There's another man. The cop. He sees him feeding her, protecting her with an arm, carrying her to bed, tucking her in and she's receptive to all of it because... because... he's doing a lot of the things only Byron would think to do or dare to try while she's compromised. That's her subconscious. She isn't wittingly comparing them or realizing it, but... he knows Mike is hitting every trigger response she has that Byron forged a path for.

Everything starts to kind of slip and crowd together. She's so ungodly willing and trusting in him, but she's getting nervous standing still. He gets Dog, set up with faux imagery to hump a couch pillow in a flash, like she's throwing it at him as a test before it ends. Maybe it's a good thing he didn't get in there too deep.

Unlike with objects where when he touches an item, Byron is thrust into the sensations, emotions and the very experience of living in that one moment of memory, when reading a person, it's not as overwhelming an experience. That is unless the person being read had a mind full of disturbing thoughts. Then there are moments like this, perhaps it's because he's right there in front of her now, and though their eyes had met right before he started this read, there's a glassy countenance to his eyes now as he takes in the visions that are presented before him now.

The bathroom brings back a lot of memories and though these are not his thoughts, he can feel the heat at the back of his neck and that reddening flush at his cheeks as he now finds himself standing face to face with a young Lilith. The footsteps and voices of the other children can be heard just outside, making the moment even more awkward than it already was. He remembers flashing her this nervous smile, his heart was beating so quickly within his chest with the thrill of being caught looming excitedly over them.

Through the kaleidoscope of memories of him, he plays witness to all the ways which Lilith feels affection for him. While this may make him slightly uncomfortable as he is at its focus, there's still some fascination to be found through all of it. It stirs up memories of his own as he relives some of their past through this touch alone. Then comes the present and he gets a glimpse of the day spent with this Officer O'Malley. Maybe in truth, this is what he was seeking; his own curiosity having gotten the better of him.

Then there is Dog. Looking like he's about to hump a pillow.

After a moment of this, he finally blinks awake. There's so many questions that he could ask or words that he could say. And yet, he starts out with, "That damn Dog gets up to a lot." It's his initial reaction, probably because it's the final vision that he sees. What do you s ay once you've invaded someone's thoughts, tapping into the emotions where much of it was focused on you? There's a part of him that wishes he was back there again, in Tobin's bathroom.

He swallows quietly, giving him time to think of a good response. "What do you feel when I tap into you like that? Do you have any sense at all of what I could be seeing right then and there?"

There's a sudden grin cracked as Byron's focus snaps back to natural and he makes the comment on the dog. At least the woman knows he's reading true form as claimed-- she mentally crafted Dog imagery for kicks just to see if he'd see it. "No. I don't know what you see. I was trying not to think. But..." But. Lilith knew he was doing it and she was watching him very aware the whole time Byron's eyes were far away and glassy, lost in her. Had he been able to go deeper, he might realize why. Lilith really doesn't have mental abilities so much as she's just really receptive and kind of ticked open for people like him, making it easier for them to get in. So maybe it's because of that, or maybe it's just how senses feel when someone's aware and expecting such a thing.

She stops to consider, "When Alexander did it, it was a little tingly, but not in a physical way. Like a draft from an open door, or the way I imagine whispers feel instead of sound. When you did it..." She pauses, "It felt like butterfly kisses. Like you had a tiny straw in my nectar." She pauses again, "Bare, but there. I know that sounds odd."

"That I had a tiny straw in your nectar?" Byron says that hint of amusement can be heard in his tone. "That's an interesting way to put it. Though I don't think tiny is the most flattering word you can use for a man." He knows what she means, so he's already laughing when he says this. "I've actually never been read myself. So it's rather eye-opening when hearing what people say about it."

This is the time where he stops to take a look around, but it looks like Tobin's cleared out most everything. Including any stray key fragment that wasn't collected and merged with Lilith's newly forged keyring. "Looks like I gave you that reading at the right time. Tobin's done a good job cleaning up that there's nothing left to do."

His mind can't help but think back on the visions he'd been granted, playing them all in his own mind, from what he was able to cling onto. "Thank you for that." He's not speaking for all of the visions collectively, but that glimmer of a single memory. "We really had some good times." He almost let slip about that time in the bathroom, but for his own reasons, he decides to keep it to himself.

"After I help Tobin push his furniture back into place, did you have anywhere that you wanted to be dropped off at? I have a few things that I need to get done." He'll start with working to help Tobin drag the couch back where it belongs.

"We did. And nah. I wish I had thought to ask Geoff to make me a little less sore and a lot more pretty before he left, but..." Lilith seems a bit relieved when Byron catches on to the way she's trying to explain the reading felt while she was standing there watching and aware and mentally receptive, besides. It's hard to make these things make sense with words, there's a reason feeling is feeling. Some of it doesn't have words at all. Something about what he says kind of confuses, her, though, but while she was rampantly curious before, she suddenly seems... wary about asking him outright what he saw, especially with him needing to do things and Tobin kicking around.

They'd had words before this evening that were kind of complicated. Lilith's a little worried about that, though neither of them seems to have let that set the tone for the day. It's easy to do with each other, to repress the 'grr' that crops up here and there until it's just plain time to have it out in full. Maybe there's nothing to have out at all. She has no -clue- what he caught up top.

Lilith has lots of regrets and worries. But she doesn't regret opening herself to him, no matter what he saw. The woman doesn't know a lot of things for the moment, but feeling secure in what she's given steals any related insecurity as to what he actually got. After a bare moment to recover from thought, she tells Byron with wander to go throw herself on the couch to make it harder to move on purpose, wearing a lopsided grin, "Nah. Nowhere to go. Heave ho, boys. We'll set things on fire next time."