2019-07-28 - Risk and Reward

Stefano and Justin are lounging around the pool. There's a open pizza box with a slice still left in it and a fair number of empty beer bottles. Stefano's got a towel wrapped around his waist and is in one of the comfy lounge chairs. "...dehydrated on pipes, sometimes embalmed, sometimes sealed in glass cabinets. The monks would charge families for the privilege of storing their dead that way but as soon as they stopped paying, the bodies would get moved to temporary storage till they paid again. Is it any wonder the wall between worlds is thing there? And my family lived there for centuries."

"That makes sense, I guess. So these thin spots are in more places than just here. I bet a lot of those spots that are rumored to be haunted or have weird happenings are probably thin spots as well," Justin says, their voices can be easily heard with the glass doors open between the patio and the living area. He takes a sip from his bottle, similarly clad in a towel on one of the nearby lounge chairs.

It was late. In fact, ever since that girl's night with Genevieve Dahlia had been staying out late, coming back at odd hours of the early morning or not at all. Though, usually if she had no plans to come home on a certain night she'd be curteous enough to let Justin know. Everyone had their own ways of coping and Dahlia's ways included avoiding talking about the problems until she absolutely, positively couldn't avoid it anymore. It was sort of up in the air if she'd actually told Justin she was starting some part time work at the strip club because it had happened so quickly. It's a ridiculously late hour when Dahlia lets herself into 11 Bayside. Moving a little carefully, clad in a pair of denim shorts and a white tank top. Hair tousseled and a satisfied little grin on her lips as she started heading towards the kitchen.

That's when she spots the pool lights on. She wanders towards the sliding glass door and opens it up, peeking her head out and looking towards the two men. Gaze lingering briefly on exposed torso because, why not. Then she seems to remember herself and blinked. Offering up a more proper smile. "You two are up late. Not having too much fun I hope?" A little teasing. She takes a step out on to the back patio, closing the sliding glass door.

"All over." Stefano agrees. "I don't know how many or where but they're usually in places where there's been a lot of death, whether it was natural or not. A storage place for mummies counts but if Auschwitz was /not/ one, I'd be shocked. So what happened here in the past to make it happen?" As Dahlia speaks up, he half turns to look then nods a greeting with a smile. "Not yet. But the night's young."

Justin catches the movement ouf of the corner of his eye when Dahlia comes to the sliding glass door and peeks out. He glances over his shoulder as she steps out onto the patio and answers Stefano first, "Here? I don't know. I guess there were a lot of deaths at the old Saw Mill, but I'll be honest, I was never really too interested in getting too deep into the history of the town." Then he grins over at Dahlia and says, "Is there really such a thing as /too much/ fun? How was your night?" He knew about the strip club, and that tonight was the opening night. "How'd the opening go?"

Dahlia leaned against the sliding glass door for a moment, looking a little curious at what they might be talking about. "Well, people've been dropping like flies all over this town recently it seems." She waited a beat before walking over to claim one of the other chairs. She runs a hand through her hair, trying to make it somewhat presentable. "Opening night when great. My private after party went even better." She mused. "But I'm looking forward to a hot soak and sleeping in. What're you guys chatting about?"

"So I've heard. I think there's a slice of pizza left if you want it." Stefano uses his beer bottle to point in the general direction of the pizza box. "Do they have any male strippers?" he asks curiously. "We were talking about how the barrier between this world and the next can get thin which is why weird shit happens, like the place we got sucked into the other night. And as I warned Justin, what happens to you there is just as real as here. If you die, you're dead so be very careful."

"Turns out that Stefano knows quite a bit more about this weird stuff than I do," Justin says to Dahlia when she asks about what they were talking about. Though he does grina nd say, "Personal after party huh? Good for you." He nudges the pizza box in her direction before saying, "Apparently there's a whole lot more to it than I'd have ever guessed. So much weird stuff has been happening so fast."

"No male strippers. Not yet anyway. Bossman might be open to something like a male revue or whatever if there's enough interest. I know I wouldn't mind watching the eye candy." Dahlia chuckled. Her nose wrinkled at the talk of strange places and thin points before exhaling softly. "I...don't even know how to process it all." She thought for a moment. "My girl's night with Eve turned into a nightmare with a wolf..." She points to the faded scar on her right arm. Likely the reason she was wearing gloves the other night at the Dinner. "This bite..." She pointed to her shoulder and then paused. Shaking her head. "None of it makes sense..." Then she pulled another little smile. "So yeah. A lotta weird stuff, real fast. I get that."

"I know very little." Stefano assures them. "I only know family lore, passed down from one person to another and sometimes if someone wasn't born with the gift while one was alive, it wouldn't be handed down and then had to be learned again. Anyway, I doubt it's recent. I think it takes either a long time to thin out or something major happening all of a sudden. Otherwise you'd have a thin spot every time there was a serial killer."

Justin raises a brow and says, "Damn. You alright?" He frowns and asks, "Is that why you were wearing gloves the other night?" They really haven't been crossing paths much and conversations have been super brief and quick notes lately, but his concern is genuine. "I think we need to learn a bit more about this stuff, if only because it's getting way too dangerous not to." He snaps his fingers then and says, "There was that serial killer, Billy the Ghoul.. who supposedly killed over a hundred people in the late 1800s."

"Physically? I'm fine. Mentally? Who the hell knows anymore." Dahlia says with a wry smile. "Learning more isn't ever a bad thing I don't think. And you certainly know more than we do Stefano." Dahlia offered him a smile. Though her brow rose at Justin. "Wasn't there something in the paper about that guy recently? Like this is the worst case of murders popping up since him?" Quirking a brow as she tried to think it over. Shaking her head. "We should all be on gaurd too then. If there's some kinda copycat or whatever. Who knows who the next target's gonna be..."

Over a hundred murders? "That... might do it." Stefano decides. "I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was. And this one doing the killings, I'd bet he belongs to the dark ones. Which would mean there's a point to it, it's not random or just revenge for something."

Justin gets up from his seat and goes over to Dahlia, leaning down to put an arm around her shoulders and kiss the top of her head briefly, "Well, you're not alone." He then asks her, "Do you want something to drink?" He moves then to pick up a few of the beer bottles and carry them just over to the recycle bin, before asking Stefano "You?" apparently going for refills. He does pause first though to say to Stefano, "But what purpose? To terrify the whole town? If what you say is right, and that's what they feed off of.. then that'd be one way to turn the whole place into an all you can eat buffet."

Dahlia leaned into the gesture for a moment, reaching up to give his other arm a gentle squeeze. "I'll take a beer if there's any left, yeah." She had been good all night and only had one shot of tequila.So a beer wouldn't hurt anything. Then her attention slid back to Steafno, nodding along with Justin's pondering. "Are they attracted to Gray Harbor because it's...thin? Is it easier for them to move around here?" It all sounded so weird. To be talking about stuff like this like it was normal. It belonged in some kind of movie...not in reality.

"Sure, I'll have another." Stefano's been drinking steadily without pause but paced enough to maintain a mild buzz without getting shit faced. Dahlia gets a nod. "Yes, exactly. But they don't move around here. They only exist on the other side. It does make it easier for them to influence us though so easier to feed. Or so I'm told. I never lived in Palermo so anything I know is what my grandfather told me."

Justin's been drinking slowly, and while he has a bit of a buzz, he's not drunk. He returns with three beers and holds one out to Dahlia, and then one to Stefano before he retakes his seat. Then he looks over at Dahlia and asks, "Remember the.. weird feelings we were talking about before, briefly?" They never really discussed it very deeply. "Are there.. things you can do that other people can't?" It's a super vague question, but he doesn't really have the language to be too much more specific about it. "Like when Hyacinth electrocuted the reflection thing, and Vyv made the knives fly through the air?"

Dahlia made a thoughtful noise. "Interesting...I always thought something was weird with this town but I could never really place it. You know?" Accepting the bottle of beer from Justin. "Thanks, hun." Taking a sip ad relaxing a little more in her seat. "Honestly? I don't know. I mean...I have these feelings. Like there's something that wants to happen. But it can never quite get there. You know?" Frowning a touch and taking another sip. "...What about you? Can you do stuff like that? Or you, Stefano?" Seeming curious.

Stefano takes the beer, twists off the cap then takes a sip. Setting the bottle aside, he stands up and walks over to Dahlia. "Let me see that bite you mentioned. I had a little medical training before I decided being a doctor wasn't for me."

Justin shakes his head to Dahlia and says, "I can sense when people are doing something. I can feel it, that energy, and it's different when people do different things, but I didn't really connect the two things until it happened when Vyv and Hyacinth were doing things the other night." He watches Stefano as he gets up and moves over toward Dahlia, glancing between them with interest.

There are two bites, technically. The one on her right forearm is shallow but healing. It looks like she might've gotten caught by a dog or something. The second is on her left shoulder. It's a couple weeks older than the one on her arm. There were stitches, but the bite marks looked vaguely human. She shifts a little so he can see them both. "I had a weird dream. About my mom being a zombie...and then I woke up and I had this bite." There was a light frown on her features. "It seemed so real but. I dunno. Hard to believe it is..." Dahlia looked back over to Justin. "Really? I...I mean, I could feel when Eve did something...she sent me images of an argument with Eli..." She shook her head. 'Something toe xplore maybe..."

"It wasn't a dream and it was very real." Stefano says as he looks over the two bites. "We can call them dreams for lack of a better term but you can be awake or asleep. We actually cross over to the other side and experience whatever it is at the time. When it ends, we end up back exactly where we were. I'm told it's possible to cross over without being in a dream but I don't know how." Placing a hand on the dog bite, he says "Let's see if I can do anything about this..."

"Why would you /want/ to?" Justin asks Stefano, regarding crossing over without being in a dream, his brow furrowing slightly, as though the idea seemed pretty unpleasant. He does, however, watch wahtever it is that Stefano is doing, and then he nods to himself, as though confirming something for himself when he can feel what Stefano did. He shakes his head, tipping back his beer and taking another swig.

Dahlia listens quietly as she watches Stefano. Her eyes widening a touch as she watched the healing bite fade away. She could feel it...something happening. To... heal? She looked back up at Stefano slowly. Then to Justin. Then back to Stefano. "...How did you do that?"

Stefano nods to himself as the bite fades underneath his touch. "Because there's probably things to learn there." he tells Justin. "Maybe ways to counter the dark ones." Returning to his chair, he sits back down and takes his beer. "The same way Vyv and Hyacinth did what they did. I can do a little of what Hyacinth can but she's obviously better at it than I am. I can also do a little of what Vyv did. I'm not sure how good he is at it. But I'm best at healing and mending. I can also set things on fire."

"Let's not set anything on fire," Justin suggests with a faint smile, though it's clear that he's mostly just teasing. "I think that.. if we can sense it, we might be able to do something, too. I'm not sure how, but maybe the potential is there, and we just haven't figured out how to.. direct it."

Justin says don't set things on fire, but Dahlia looks a little intrigued by the notion. Then she shakes it off and nods in agreement. "Yeah. Maybe. How do you, uh, do it though Stefano?" She asked. "Like...did you just focus really hard on wanting to heal my arm? If it's about focusing then maybe...we just gotta focus on trying something?" The wheels were turning in her head like she was trying to decide what the best course of action would be for experimenting.

"Knowing you can do it is most of the battle." Stefano says, looking at them both. "There are three different... branches, you could call them, that I know of. Not everyone uses all three though I think being able to gives you an advantage. At the most basic levels, you can either move small things like you saw Vyv do. You can sense what someone is feeling. You can also heal a small scratch or tear in someone or something. But not yourself."

Justin seems to be a little lost in thought, considering it. Dahlia's seen that look, when he's turning over some coding problem in his head, looking at it from different angles, trying to formulate some logical plan of attack. Is thisk something that can even be sorted out with logic? He doesn't know, but he stares off into the pool as he turns it over in his head. "And it's dangerous to do it, because it makes us seem like a tastier snack food to the dark things out there," he muses, finally, recalling that part of the conversation as well.

Dahlia took a long sip from her beer bottle. "Thank you. For doing it." She added to Stefano, studying Justin a beat. "Is it every time you do it? Or just if you do it a lot?" Tapping her chin lightly. "Like, does it hurt to try and practice now and again? Or - will this healing that you did draw any attention?" There were a lot of potential dangers it was seeming like.

"Well, yeah." Stefano admits. "Any use of it could attract their attention. And they'll try to influence your emotions. They can't attack you physically though they could send one of their pawns to do so. Like maybe this serial killer is." He pauses to take another drink then shrugs. "What the odds are, I don't know. Except that the stronger you are, the more attractive you are. I'd guess the more powerful ability you use, the more attractive you are. Could doing even minor shit make you a target? Yeah. But they'll notice you just for having the ability too I think."

Justin nods when Stefano answers Dahlia's question, "I'm guessing that it's kind of like a radar ping. If they're not paying attention to you, the maybe they won't notice -- but you have no idea when they are looking and when they aren't."

Dahlia nodded, finishing off her beer. "...So it sorta sounds like we should just leave things be? Poke around a little to learn more but don't really try anything?" Starting to stand up. "It's a lot to think about...to take in. And I'm running on too little sleep to even try to wrap my head around it." She smiled a touch. "So I'm going to take that soak and try not to fall asleep in the bathtub. You two enjoy the rest of your night." She walked over to Justin and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you again Stefano." Flashing him another smile before she headed back inside.

Stefano nods to Justin. "That's probably right. Whether the gifts are worth taking risking the danger..." He shrugs, nodding toward Dahlia. "Only you can answer that. I think so. You're welcome. Night." Looking back to Justin, he asks "How should we enjoy the rest of then ight?"

Justin watches Dahlia as she heads off and says, "Don't use one of those bath bombs tonight," with a little bit of a chuckle as she disappears off into the house. He then gets up to begin cleaning up the bottles, and grab the empty pizza box. At the question, his lips tick into a bit of a smile and he says, "I'm open to suggestions."

"I'm thinking we can finish our beer, splits the last slice of pizza, have another swim, then head up to your room." Stefano suggests. "Where we can either go to sleep or not. Though to be honest, after all the beer, I wouldn't mind sleep and saving 'not' for the morning."

"I like the sound of that plan," Justin says as he returns, "Except I don't think I can eat any more pizza -- that's all yours." He smiles then and says, "But I was hoping that you'd stay, one way or the other." His eyes flicker to Stefano's as he tips back his bottle.

"Not sure I can manage the whole slice." Stefano decides. "Save it for morning." Tilting his beer back, he drains it then stands up to put the bottle on the table. "Quick swim? Or just want to head upstairs?"

Justin glances toward the pool, as though considering, and finishes off the remainder of his beer, setting the bottle aside. "One more dip, and then upstairs." He slides off of his chair, unwinding the towel from around his waist, and wanders over to the pool's edge before making a smooth dive beneath the surface.

Stefano waits for Justin to dive into the pool so he can watch him. Once the other man disappears into the water, he removes his own towel then goes to dive in. Once they get tired, they'll head upstairs to bed.