2019-08-01 - Cleaning House (AKA Intervention)

Word had spread like wildfire around the sleepy town of Gray Harbor about an incident that occurred at the stone bridge close to a week or so ago. Two men were found dead, their bodies hung from that bridge. One of them was Jack Michaels III, the other may be more familiar to some of the group present here today. Hank Winslow, town drunk, owner of Harbor Mist Pawn Shop and father to Lilith Winslow.

While not much information was spread regarding the incident at the bridge, those who knew the individuals involved may have heard tales of a cursed ring that led up to that moment. For reasons, part of that cursed ring saga occurred here, at the Harbor Mist Pawnshop which was broken into. Not that any police report was filed on this matter.

Byron Thorne had contacted a few friends, knowing the extent of some of the damage that was done to both the shop's office and upstairs loft. From what he recalled, the main floor of the shop was left untouched, but it seems that something had gone awry and there were bits and pieces of pawned items that had found themselves onto the shop floor. He could just be misremembering. He asks the temp if Lilith was upstairs, but from what he can hear coming from the loft, she most certainly is.

He's dressed for the occasion, having thrown on a simple black T-shirt, a pair of jeans and boots. There may be a lot of glass and flour and sugar and things of that nature that could be stepped on. Looking towards the others who answered his call, he says as he leads them towards the back and the entryway to the loft. He lifts his chin to stare up at the doorway at the top of the stairs. "I was hoping that she'd want to stay at one of our homes until we could get her place sorted out." He tells the others, before proceeding forward to knock on her door. For some reason, his eyes settle on the door as it looks newly repaired. Lilith magic most likely. His knuckles rap at the door, "Lil, it's Byron. And some others. I told you earlier that we'd be stopping by to help you clean up?"

Tobin had been pretty upset about the fact that he'd been unable to do anything to help the situation, so when the call came for cleanup duty despite having had some plans with Rafael for the day. Somehow, the plans got changed around to include stopping by the pawn shop to help with cleanup, and then dinner, and the promise of making it up to him later, and so the two of them turn up at the apartment. Brief introductions are made, "Hey guys, this is Rafael, Raf, this is.. everyone." And he does go through and tell him all of their names, before he lets out a low whistle, looking around at the mess before following Byron up.

Harper arrives as Harper tends to arrive: bearing a container of baked goods -- in this case devil's food cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing -- and an optimistic-yet-solemn expression suitable to such a mournful occasion. Atop the container is a book of Neruda's poetry atop the container (because Neruda spans all occasions, of course he does). She's dressed today in a hat, a white tee tied modestly at her waist and a long black summer skirt and sneakers in case of broken, strewn things, given Byron's information. ( https://www.pinterest.com/pin/493073859203792196/ ) Aside from bringing balms for the stomach and soul, Harper arrives ready to help with pick up or anything else that might be needed for the high school friend. After picking her way through the mess in the shop, she finds Byron there, among others, and nods. "Whatever she needs, of course." A smile and quiet greeting to the faces she knows. "Tobin, I'm glad you're here." Tobin has always been a center for the group of kids-now-adults who went to school together. "Nice to meet you, Rafael."

Kevin is here early, and of course he's dressed for the occasion, because that's how he almost always dresses: jeans and a gray t-shirt that shows one AT-AT mounting another. He arrives with a cloth shopping bag in hand, smelling of pizza, even if the bag is not nearly the right size or shape to be an actual pizza. "Thanks for tagging me in, Byron. I know it's been too long." He looks back as Tobin and Rafael arrive, brightening, "Hey! Tobin!" He steps up to offer a grin and even a back-slapping hug, "Nice to meet you, Rafael." Harper's arrival causes him to blink, then offer up a smile and a wave, "Hey Harps."

There's always a bit of awkwardness when being introduced to a whole slew of strangers, especially in a situation that is, well, less than ideal. So he offers a casual wave and something of a smile at the introduction. At least whatever their plans were didn't seem to be anything fancy, as he's dressed in jeans and a plain, pale green button down. Kevin's tee shirt gets something of a raised eyebrow and a slight grin, before his attention turns to the staircase.

Tagging along with the group is Vivian, dressed for the job ahead in jeans, Converse and a t-shirt with her hair pulled back. When Rafael is introduced she offers him a smile and a nod, but for the most part seems to be rocking it with the quiet lingering while they wait on the door to be answered.

So this is exciting. There's music blasting from the other side of the door at the top of the loft stairs (which has been fixed to unmolested with ammo fire since Byron last saw it) and it sounds like the fucking club. It's some Atomic Blonde movie remix of the song Sweet Dreams at current. Maybe she's using that as cleaning fuel! Except... well, things keep falling and breaking downstairs, much to the confusion of the poor temp that's trying to keep the shop floor in order. It had been pretty clean compared to the office and her loft, so at some point, Lilith decided to call in someone to open shop for her to pretend things are perfectly fine.

Let's talk about perfectly fine, though. Lilith answers the door in relative underwear, a pair of black boyshorts and a half-tank that's maybe used for a sports bra or running under other circumstances. She seems to have forgot about the people thing. Her hair is kind of mussed lopsided like she's been laying on it at length one way at some point. She's using the door frame for support with both of her hands, there's vodka bottles and wine bottles on the counter across a big slew of pitched around mess in the loft apartment. She's made very little to no progress, therefore it still looks a lot like it did when it was violently pitched and tossed in a state of frustration.

When the door opens, it doesn't just look like someone broke in to search, it seriously looks like a wrecking ball hit the place in a crime of passion that was bent to undo everything from order. Even her flour and sugar and things are dumped out on the kitchen floor. There's things -everywhere- and while Lilith did take some time initially to pick up the bricks of cash and rare jewelry to tuck away while still sober on first arrival with the company she eventually made go home, they're still occasionally littered piecemeal in places. There's rare antiques and oddities pulled from storage and closet that she's hoarded, so it really just makes the mess look even more cacaphony.

Someone's been bringing her food, too, apparently, because there's some empty korean food containers fallen over by the bottle collection on the kitchen counter, who actually ate the food, though, is anyone's guess because she looks like she's been drinking most calories in general since she got home. She stares at Byron, then the group before backing up with slow blinking steps and going, "Oh yeah. Hello." Pause, "I'm Lilith. This is my house. I live here." Her finger points around with tick here and there while stating the drunken obvious to let them file in, apparently thrown into introduction mode by an unfamiliar face or two.

She's clearly having a little trouble fathoming this turnout for a minute, but eventually, she turns, trips over something while letting them in and goes to pitch things around while looking for a robe, "Shhh, don't look at my butt."

"Hey, Kevin," Harper greets the journalist with an amiable smile. "Good of you to be here." Vivian receives a half-familiar, interested sort of smile from the librarian. Tobin earns himself a shoulder bump. And then there's Lilith herself opening up that door. It's only the presence of a group of other people that keeps Harper from flying inside and meddling and care-taking from minute one. "My goodness. Hi, Lily. Don't worry about us. We're not looking at your butt. We'll help with anything you need."

For one idle moment, Byron's hand, the one that's still bandaged at the wrist, touches fingertips upon the door where at least one of the locking mechanisms can be found. He seems to be lost in thought, his daydream broken once the door swings open to allow them entrance. The place is as he'd remembered it. Though, in truth, there's part of him that barely remembers a thing that happened that evening. The scenario, however, looked the same, but this time seen in the light of day rather than the shadows of the evening.

When his gaze first lands on Lilith, it's not hard to tell that she may have forgotten that he was coming over. With a group of mostly familiar faces. Stepping inside so as to not block the narrow entry way, he first spies the kitchen in all its chaotic glory. If there was anything that could be dumped out (or, used as a container to hide something within), it was overturned and discarded onto the floor. "Harper brought Harper goods." He explains. That could mean a lot of different things. "Smells real good too. And... Kevin brought microwave pizza rolls." Yeah, he remembers those from times gone by! "Looks like we'll all be eating well tonight."

"Rafael and Vivian came to help as well." The elusive Rafael, one who Byron now sort of smiles to, "Welcome to the mess that is Gray Harbor." He smiles, and it's a broad one, but there's this flicker in his eyes that may tell another tale. This was no place for anyone to come home to.

A late arrival joins the group with tired, dragging footsteps of an overworked single mom who really wishes Magnolia could find a better babysitter than the awesome Korean ladies who run the nail salon next door to her office. She tried to convince herself that she is just giving Lark an opportunity to become multilingual, but who is she kidding? She tries to look innocuous as she joins the little gaggle, dressed in tired jeans and a tired t-shirt that is the cover art to Nirvana's Nevermind. She's also in those converse sneakers, her hair up in a messy twist, and she has a My Little Pony's sticker on her forehead she's probably forgotten about.

She beams an easy, quiet smile as she joins the group, and Tobin gets a knuckle-punch in the shoulder. "Dude." It's an affectionate greeting. Everyone else gets an upnod, though Kevin does get a lingering glance, particularly the t-shirt. She resists rolling her eyes. She starts to shoulder out of her messenger bag, finding a place to set it down.

Kevin looks at Lilith's butt. It's not his fault, really, she said not to look at her butt, while she was turned away. Quickly looking away, he eyes Byron, whispering, "She's totally drunk, isn't she?" And then he turns a blazing smile around again, "Yeah, we're totally here to help, Lilith. I'm sorry we haven't run into each other more now that we're all back in town." To Harper, he adds, "Lilith and Byron and Tobin and I all used to play D&D back in the day." Grinning over to the others, he covers his mouth, "That wasn't a secret, was it?" Magnolia's arrival gets her a grin, and he bites his lips a moment, then holds up one finger, steps forward, and reaches for the sticker on her forehead, "You've got a little... pony on you."

Lilith finds a robe, finally and gets into it, kind of, listening to Byron before she looks at the both old and familiar and unfamiliar in hazy turns. She seems to be having a little bit of trouble actually focusing on people. Then something he says at the introduction point just makes her laugh, and it's horribly disjointed sounding and hollow before she turns to go find her bottle like a needed accessory. It's capped on the rumpled bed with a stuffed husky next to it. Her phone is there too and she turns down the music, thankfully, to a dull low backdrone noise to shuffle through various club mixes of things.

Then she drops into a sit on bed edge and notes that Harper is carrying something excitingly delicious and she hasn't seen the other woman in ages. Then Mags is there to focus on and she looks at the pizza rolls in Kevin's hand. After being real quiet to uncap the bottle and take a long swig, she just starts to let a bunch of observations out in a tumble that's close to slur, "What the fuck, Kevin grew up hot! No one told me that! Tobin, your date is hot too. So is Byron's. This is weird. Can I have a cuddle pile, Mags? I didn't mean to almost kill you, that's like. Scout's honor. Hey Harper. Harper. You're pretty, you can come!" Her arms just open suddenly as she re-caps the bottle and chunks it onto the bed.

At least it's better than her setting everyone on fire with Lilith-style shutdown aggression warding.

Tobin leans over to smell the bag that Kevin brought. "Are those pizza-rolls?" Because of course they are. He gives Harper a little one-armed hug, and a slug to Magnolia's shoulder. However, when Lilith comes to open the door and he sees the disaster inside the loft itself, and her current state, he raises both brows. This wasn't what he was expecting when they'd talked about a little post break-in cleanup. "Okay, so... first things first.. we should get some garbage bags and just start.. dumping all the broken stuff in." Because that's what Tobin does, looks at a situation, finds a place to start... and just starts digging in.. He does grin over at Kevin and says, "No, that wasn't a secret. Raf knows I was a nerd." He glances over toward Rafael and murmurs very quietly, "Sorry.. I thought we were just picking up around the shop." His expression is quietly apologetic as he glances around to find some garbage bags.

Harper moves toward the kitchen and grabs a dishtowel to wipe clean a spot for her cupcakes and possibly some pizza rolls as well. "Hi Magnolia. Nice to see you again?" Her effervescent demeanor is dialed back a notch which mostly simply changes her volume and slightly muffles the mirthful side of the Librarian. She gets straight to work on piles of flour and sugar, and other things to pick up and put away in the kitchen, only pausing when Lilith comes back into view. She stops what she's doing and makes a bee-line for Lilith to offer her a warm hug. "We're here now, Lily. Everything will be alright." In a town where nothing is ever really alright. She doesn't presume to continue to take up Lilith's space for long unless further hugs are requested or seem necessary.

Taking in the entire mess of the place, and Lilith's obvious state of drunkness, causes Vivian to make a decision. Evidently one that Tobin has made as well, because she moves in, "I'll start looking for the garbage bags." She offers, a hand moving to pat Byron on the arm as she eases her way intot he loft.

"Hello officially, Lilith." Vivian offers, a hand lifting in a wave towards her, but she doesn't interfer with the group of friends handling the food and Lilith herself. Instead she starts hunting for garbage bags, and a broom. Things to help with cleaning up the physical space.

Rafael, surprisingly, doesn't look bothered at all by the scene that appears before him in the apartment. Nope, might as well be clean and organized for all the attention he gives to the mess. He just hooks his thumbs in the belt loops of his jeans and follows Tobin inside the apartment, taking a long, slow-blinking look around the place. "No, I knew about the D&D, I was just a different type of nerd, it's fine." Though he does raise his eyebrow again at the hot comment from Lilith, his voice slipping to a low whisper. "Honestly, it's not the worst drunken rampage mess I've ever seen.." He rubs at his jaw, then shrugs.

Does Byron Thorne actually look like someone who would play D&D? Maybe as a kid he did. Not that he's wearing his suit and tie today either. An amused grin on his lips, looking just a touch sheepish, "I kinda miss those days. Rolling dice as a stress reliever." He crouches down to pick up a notable piece of glass from one a random jar that had shattered. From this lowered position, the shard in hand, he murmurs, "Sorry Lilith." It's quietly spoken, most likely to himself.

The state of this loft and the office downstairs would make anyone feel as if their life were violated. After picking up a few more pieces of glass, he slowly rises, "You know, I'm always there for a good cuddle pile." Hey, maybe they were warmly affectionate friends back in the day. "As good as all of that smells, I'd like to say maybe we should eat first, but..." He gives the place another good survey, "We'll be here all day." And the next day, probably, "If we took breaks. So eating and working is the ideal plan." And one that he's used to.

Setting the shards of glass into a bin so that no one will cut themselves on it, he then turns eyes to Lilith, "You've doing okay?" It was odd to him to find her here alone and in this state.

"What do you mean, I have--" But then Kevin is taking that bit of pony off her forehead, and she blinks at it. "Oh." She takes the pony, looking at it. "It's Bubblebutt." That is not the Pony's name. But then she is looking to Lilith and her smile slips into place with a bit of a wrinkling at the corners of her eyes. "Uh, you don't gotta worry, Lil. I'm sorry, too. You're looking chipper though." Then she saunters forward at the encouragement, and she leans in to give Lilith a big hug. Look, she doesn't even limp! Now she's taking in everyone who is here. Oh, look. It's her therapist. Lovely. But Harper gets a smile all the same and a slight nod of her chin. "Hey Harps. Good seeing you." She confirms it! It is good. Now she looks back around the space. "I see we've already cleaned up." Always a kidder. Then she glances back over to Byron. "All I heard was cupcakes and pizza rolls. Where's the orange soda?"

Kevin nods to Tobin, offering out the bag for a smell, "Tastee Rolles brand and everything." Mmmm... generic cheap stuff. He's just snap-pointed at the man for the garbage bag suggestion when Lilith's description of him sinks in and he freezes, his eyes widening behind his glasses. He starts to go red, his shoulders shrinking in a little, "Um, same to you, Lil. Yup." Wait, there was something about almost killing, and Kevin looks quickly between Magnolia and Lilith, opening his mouth and closing it. Byron provides an ideal distraction, and Kevin offers, "I can always start up another campaign." The name of the pony gets a blink, and then he shrugs, sticking the sticker straight to his butt. "Bubblebutt it is." He heads over toward the kitchen to take out a couple of Tupperware containers of pizza rolls, "Orange soda? What do I look like, Hardison?" Because of course he knows Leverage. There's a pause, "That actually sounds like a great idea." But he's headed out to start righting things that have fallen over but not shattered.

Tobin smiles a little bit in relief, some of that worry evaporating when Rafael doesn't seem to be upset, and smiles a little lopsidedly when he says it's not the worst mess he's seen. With Vivian in search of garbage bags, he says "May as well start in the kitchen, so there's a place to eat, and work our way out?" This to Raf. He heads in there, and once bags have been found, begins to pick up whatever is empty/broken/etc and begins to throw it away, working to clean up space that can then be wiped down and washed off. "You should run another campaign," Tobin tells Kevin with a sidelong grin. "I'd play."

Lilith doesn't just hug, she mauls when Harper comes into the fold with readiness and makes a little squee-noise into it while trying to pull the woman back with collapse on the bed with her. Then Mags is there and she's reaching to do the same while trying to get either woman on both sides of her with respective tugging and hugging arm-wrangling, "Anyone can come into the pile! We're all like... friends! 'cause you're helpers. I can't get over the Kevin-hot, are you smashing that, Mags? You should totally smash that. I'd smash that. I'd smash Tobin's date too, 'cept I think I got the wrong plumbing."

Okay, Lilith is trying to roll in company now that she's went wrangling, but she does eventually let them up to try and sit herself for another bottle reach on the way. She kind of answers Byron's question before yelling at everyone, "Uh huh, I'm free. I think Carver fed me, I don't know if it was a dream, though. You should get wine! I have it! It's not even broken! Are we gonna play D&D? I forgot how."

Once garbage bags are found Vivian moves to hand out a few to people, so that there are multiple bags going at one time. "Play what?" She wonders curiously, glancing between the ones talking about playing. Then the answer comes in the form of 'D&D' from Lilith and her brows lift upwards just a bit, "As in dragons and elves and thieves and bards?" Just to make sure that she's keeping on the right track, though, she doesn't slow down long and returns to starting to sweep up some of the smaller things. Like sugar and flour, omg.

"I've always wanted to try D&D, I got beat up enough in high school without joining that club." Raf smirks as he heads into the kitchen himself, grabbing a bag. He leans in to whisper something into Tobin's ear, his grin almost devilish as he does so. Obviously, it must have been some sort of joke, because he chuckles cheerily as he moves aside to start dumping things into the trash bag he's collected, shards of glass and pottery being tossed away casually.

Harper is pulled by Lilith into a pile on her bed with a little exhalation, mildly checking for any injuries from the up-close-and-personal position of demanded hugs. "Good, you ate. Do you want a cupcake?" Something to go into the stomach other than alcohol. She brushes a cheek to Lily's cheek and pets her hair, willing to be a stuffed companion for as long as the old friend desires it to be so.

Wait, is someone complaining that there's no orange soda to be found? Magnolia... Byron flashes her a smile, "Let me pull up Grubhub and see if any of our fine local establishments will deliver." Is he really gonna do that for orange soda? He whips out his phone. I mean, sure, there's some good booze around for them to partake in, Lilith even volunteers, but he views her on the bed from above the top of his phone. She didn't need any more liquor in her.

"Carver, huh? I wonder where he went off to this whole time." When they neede-- No, they never needed him.

"Right. That game." Byron says to Vivian, phone still in hand. "It's been a while since I last played." He was probably 12 to be exact. "But once things die down, I'm sure we could find some time to do just that. He was never a nerd himself! Putting in an order from a nearby location for orange soda and other food stuffs, the phone is slipped back into his pocket, his eyes on Rafael, "How do you like the town so far?" Besides the weird dreams, the murder, cursed rings.

Tobin glances over toward Lilith as she makes her proclamations about Rafael and he shakes his head, chuckling, though it's Kevin's blushing about the compliments that makes him laugh. "I think we might wait on the D&D until after we can find the floor, doll. You relax over there a bit while we get things a bit straightened out." He nods over toward Vivian, "Just like that." He dumps some more broken things and empty bottles into the bag that Rafael's got. Though when Raf whispers in his ear, he smiles amusedly at that devilish look and then nods over in Byron's direction, apparently in answer to whatever was asked.

Kevin nods to Harper, "Yup! Bubblebutt." Apparently. At least that's the lie that Magnolia told them all. At all the support for starting another campaign, he starts to nod, "Maybe I could do th -- " There goes Lilith again, and he blushes bright again, glancing to Magnolia and then announcing loudly, "I'll go work on the other room." Any other room.

Rafael's eyes shift over in Kevin's direction then back to Tobin, raising a little towards his hairline. Obviously, not the answer he expected. "I mean it's nice. I'm from New York so weird dreams and murder is pretty par for the course. Cursed rings are new, but less used syringes and other questionable little all over the sidewalk is a nice upgrade. Less people and noise, too. It's always a trade off." He shrugs as he inspects a mason jar and sets it aside, apparently determining it to be fine.

"And what did you play, Byron? Elf?" Vivian wonders, dumping a bunch of the flour and sugar into the trash bag that she's claimed as her own. Then she looks around, "Actually, what did everyone play that played?" It seems like a very nice, very safe conversation that has nothing to do with cursed rings and terrible dream. Or murders. So many murders.

"Hey Byron," Harper calls, once he's off the phone. "Could you collect some of the bottles in here?" She tries to keep Lilith occupied as someone, she hopes, picks up on her suggestion to remove the entire liquor cabinet from where it is strewn about the room in easier reach of Lilith. "How are you doing, sweetness?" the librarian inquires as her fingers lift to start braiding a strand of Lilith's hair. Distraction. Gentle touches. Lilith's commentary about their classmates and friends draws a curving, familiar smile to Harper's lips. "I'm impressed," she tells Lily. "None of that got past you, huh?"

"I played elves, mostly, rangers, rogues," Tobin says when Vivian asked what they played when they'd played D&D back in the day. Then he glances after Kevin and back to Rafael with a chuckle, leaning in to murmur something to him before he calls out to Harper, "I'll come grab a few." He then wanders out to the living area and picks up a few of the full bottles of alcohol, or partially full ones, and takes them back toward the kitchen.

Byron is on the job, feeling that exact say way, Harper. "Maybe I should've ordered out for coffee." His drink of choice. And it's sobering enough. Making his way around the room, only stopping to pick up some random bottle of alcohol to get them out of the way and out o Lilith's grasp, working in tandem with Tobin, he considers Vivian's question, "Humans were the best, in /my/ opinion." Still a bit embarrassed by it all, there's this wide grin that tugs at the edges of his lips, "I tended to lean towards knights and paladins. Usually."

Despite the cursed ring being gone, the darkness wasn't gone. And Byron may have brought that up. He still might. Despite Lilith's state. To Rafael, he nods, "New York City is it's own monster. I'd be surprised that the place didn't have the same darkness as Gray Harbor."

Lilith had a very special doctor or nurse or something at the hospital, it seems, as Harper gives her the lookover. With the robe open still, she's sans any bullet marking and the noose marking is gone from around her neck. Her finger is unbandaged and has even regenerated in a way it just shouldn't have at this point, though it's black and blue all over still from the sheer extent of the injury and stuck out stiff. It's also her middle finger, so every time she goes bottle wrangling, it's a little like she's accidentally flipping everyone off.

"I'm drunk, Harper, like so drunk. Did you say cupcake? Yes. Holy yes. I'mma get up and help in just a minute 'cause I think there's naughty things laid out somewhere 'cept I can't find them." Maybe it's a good thing Kevin takes the cue to go to clean up the bathroom before she can yell anything embarrassing his way again. Or maybe he's about to find embarrassing things, who knows. Then she tells Vivian, "Byron was always like... the paladin or something? No wait. Tobin was like..." She squints and tries to visually find Tobin, "Yessss. I always wanted to be a motherfucking wizard. But I only got to play sometimes." While rolling in a lot of Harper in favor of drinking, now, she abandons the bottle and grabs for the stuffed dog instead, "This is Dog. I'm going to get a real dog someday."

Jesus christ, yes, someone get the bottles and get some food in this woman.

When she runs across a bottle she tosses it, because Vivian is also on board with this idea of cleaning up the bottles themselves. "So elves for Tobin that were rangers and rogues?" She is going to repeat is all back, which means that Byron hears it for a third time. "And Byron was a human that was a paladin or a knight." Then she gestures in Lilith's direction, "And Lilith wanted to be a wizard, but never got the chance. So what would you two want to be?"

You two. Harper and Rafael.

Harper is reluctant to leave Lilith as the distraction and TLC seem to have a nice effect. However, Lilith is clearly a super-happy drunk-in-mourning at this point. "I'll bet Tobin or Rafael will bring us some cupcakes. Is there something out you want me to find and put away, Lily?" And of course Harper greets the stuffed dog, whether a plush animal or taxidermied. "Hello, Dog. When did you get home from the hospital, Lils?" She catches at the wrist of the hand with the injured finger and looks it over carefully. "That probably really hurt. Are you taking anything for the pain?" Because it's good to find out what drug interactions might be going on with copious alcohol consumption.

In response to Vivian, Harper calls, "The chaotic-good Librarian." Because that makes sense for old D&D games.

"What's the one that plays music and seduces everything? Bard?" Raf responds with a tilt of the head as something else finds it's way into the bag just as he deems it heavy and full enough to tie up and set aside. He picks up a bottle of liquor to begin his next bag of trash, turning it over in his hands for a moment before setting it aside to open the newer bag. "I mean, it sounds vaguely amusing to just try to get through a whole story by just being too friendly with the baddies."

It's a plush doggo. It's cute. Then she grins suddenly at Harper and leans her head into the dote-braiding some before her wrist is caught. And that suddenly makes her all kinds of show and tell and confessions as she drops her voice, "He threw the battery boyfriend drawer and I can't find where they went 'cause um. I dunno, like percocet? It's not hurty. You wanna see what it USED to look like!? Guys. Guys. Guys..." Oh fuck. This is about to be a good gory time, suddenly.

Lilith sits up from Harper with a sudden excitement to compare her finger now to what it used to be and ready to show off. (Poor everyone.) She crawl-drags herself across the bed to where her pills and a baggie of things from the hospital is with a high definition picture of a really gross, up close finger degloving with bits of bone showing the way the skin and meat has been sheared off. Apparently, she asked for a picture to come home with and the hospital complied. She sits up to show it to the room like this is drunk and morbid show and tell, suddenly, "I didn't have no skin and I have skin now! I'm glad I have skin 'cept... I wanted to remember NOT to wear bad things again."

"Yeah, Bard," Tobin says to Rafael with a grin. He picks up a couple of cupcakes and finds a clean plate and a couple of napkins. He brings all of this over to Harper and passes it to her just in time for Lilith to flash the high def image of her skinned finger RIGHT in front of him. The cupcakes are HURRIEDLY pushed into Harper's hands and he immediately goes green, cold, clammy, and stumbles over to a wall on the opposite side of the room to slump against it, bending over and putting his head down near his knees so he doesn't puke.

"Is that a character type they have?" Vivian has honestly no idea, but she somehow doubts that Librarian is a character class. The answer of a bard gets a nod, and then anything else that might be discussed about it is cut off when Lilith shows off the picture. There is an upwards sweep of her brow, and she stares maybe a few seconds too long before she turns her attention away, "If we run across anything that requires batteries I'm sure that we'll treat it was the utmost respect it deserves for the rude dumping on the floor it got." Nope. Not a word about the picture.

If Byron were a huge rules person for games of this nature, he may have called out 'You can't just play a librarian! That's not even a class!' But he's not a stickler to the rules and he never took the game seriously anyway, "And you'd make a damn good Librarian too." The huge amount of alcohol was one thing, there was still the huge mess left all over. "A Bard's good. Always a fun class." He then flashes a glance over at Vivian, "Viv'd be some evil mastermind who would betray the part in the end." It's a joke!

That's when he hears this animated excitement coming from Lilith's direction, one that makes him take pause, because she's practically excited about showing them the injury that she'd been trying to hide from him this whole time. A slow look is given the group as a whole, before he steps up to view the image. He was dying to know and yet, didn't want to.

What he sees is far worse than he could ever imagine. He never saw the extent of Alexander's injury either, but this. This degloving of a hand just to get a cursed ring removed from it, all without touching said ring? There's this tightening of his jaw, dark eyes peering up at Lilith, "I'm glad that you've got skin too, Lil." That must have caused that excrutiating scream he'd heard before he blacked out.

Tobin's shock is then heard, blinking over at his best pal and buddy. "Tobs" I mean, it was pretty darn gross, so he can't fault Gilford for reacting that way. One last look is shot over to the image as he goes over to help keep his friend steady. "The whole thing was pretty bad." He didn't go into much details when telling anyone about it, obviously.

Rafael looks over just in time to get a look at the picture. And while he turns a little green at the sight, he flicks his eyes away with a visual shudder. Then his concern shifts completely over to Tobin. He searches the kitches for a glass and fills it from the tap, making his way over to where Tobin leans against the wall and proferring the water silently.

Harper pets plush doggo. She pauses her braiding to listen about the Special Drawer and she's about to ask about the room when the photograph is shown around. "Oh Lily. That looks like it was excruciating. I'm glad it's getting better. Harper looks from the photo to the finger and swallows. "I'm glad you have skin again. You'll remember what not to wear, I promi--" Tobin shoves the plate at her and Harper sits all the way up, grabbing it, but not in time before luck has them rolling off and onto the bedspread. "Uh oh. Bed-cakes. Now you have to eat some, Lily. Thanks, Tobin. I even bought them instead of making them myself. I thought I remembered you like chocolate cake." Devil's food, more specifically. She tries to scoop up the cupcakes before too much icing smears on the bedding. "Which one do you want to start with?" She casts a look over her shoulder in Byron's direction and smiles an amused smile at his support of her non-canonical class choice. "Thanks, By." Still holding the cupcakes, she glances around the toppled and strewn room to see if she can find embarrassing items to hide away for Lily's piece of mind later. "So I'm guessing there was something on your finger other than skin, huh?" She looks pointedly to Byron as he approaches the picture and the bed.

"I would not!" Vivian protests, ceasing the sweeping to make this point, "I would not betray the party at the end." She lifts her chin upwards into the air, sniffing very faintly, "I would convince you all to instead join my side, see reason, and then we could all complete my evil plan together." She then turns her attention back to cleaning up things, going back to sweeping. The rest of the conversation she lets roll on past her, half-listening to what story it is that Harper might get for all this.

"Uh huh. Bad ring. Ummm. I think I broke Tobin. Tobin. Tobin. Hey. Hey. Think! Lovely! Thoughts! Or drink!" Lilith flips the picture over on the bed because there's cupcakes now and she squints a little at Byron's face up close after Tobin goes sailing to cope. Then she focuses on Harper right there again being lovely with cupcakes and she automatically reaches for chocolate and lets the woman free to look around for some of the more embarrassing things. Some of her general drunk and pill slosh high starts to wear down like ebb and tide, though, when she adjusts to sit and takes the cupcake to eat.

She watches Vivian for a moment, then Rafael, then the others in hazy turns while fingering off icing to eat little by little, then gives the actual cake part a kind of impressive run. It's possible those Korean food containers really didn't get a lot into her stomach and company probably made sure it didn't go to waste. "It was a bad month. I gotta put Hank in dirt tomorrow. I'm gonna need sooooo much coffee." She's quiet again before subject changing to ask Rafael, "What was your name again? I think it was a Ninja Turtle name, right?"

From somewhere in the back of the pawnshop, where Magnolia is working, a call comes that, "He better be named Raf or Mikey, or I'm out!"

Tobin looks like he really wishes people would stop talking about fingers and lack of skin, because he only gets more green the more everyone keeps mentioning it. His eyes close, as he takes a fe deep breaths. There's a glance to Byron when he steadies him, and it seems to help keep him upright. When Rafael brings over the glass of water he looks grateful and murmurs, "Thanks." He doesn't drink it right away, not quite ready to straighten up yet. Taking a couple of deep breaths, he finally lifts up enough to take a sip. Color slowly begins to return to his face once people start talking about things other than the finger, and Magnolia's distant voice actually causes him to laugh, just a little.

Even from his position near the sickened Tobin, Byron can't help but shoot Lilith a glance. She was drunk. He's not sure whether she would've shared this information with them otherwise, but despite the gruesomeness of it all and the fact that he hated to think that she experienced going through /that/, he's glad that he'd seen it. He recalls who all was there and the stories that we were told surrounding the removal of the ring, much of it was unknown to and unwitnessed by him at that point. His gaze follows the path that Magnolia had taken, probably to help Kevin in the other room.

Then Harper inquires on their ordeal and once more he gives Lilith this careful look. "A cursed ring was brought into the pawn shop one day, two weeks ago or so? I mean, I say cursed because Lil was plagued by a series of bad luck, one involving her getting into a car wreck. Anyway, "There was a point where I tried to help her find a way to break this curse, brought in an archeologist friend. You remember Isabella Reede? Her brother was Isidore Reede..." The guy that vanished like Tobin's mum. "Well, on this second viewing things got crazy and soon there was ring fever among a few of us. We needed to get the ring from Lilith. Like it was an obsession."

It's a good thing that Lilith is drunk, so some of the banter is light.

"Rafael, but with an F instead of a P-H." Raf responds, his attention still mostly on Tobin, a hand going to the other man's shoulder. "Though I usually go by Raf." He smirks slightly as he looks over at the others, then back to Tobin. "You okay? The... uh.." He looks over towards the bed. "The offending content is now hidden." He takes in the story with a relatively calm expression, not blinking too much or looking at all skeptical like some might reasonably accept.

Harper leaves the second cupcake propped gently atop one of Lilith's thighs and rolls off the bed more easily than one might suspect she might in a skirt, to start picking items up from the floor in the sleeping area of the loft. If she comes across anything of the battery-boyfriend type, she secrets it away for Lily. "That was some curse, huh?" Harper replies, her amiable nature still there, but something steely rests beneath. "I think so. Isabella .. hmm." Harper echoes Byron, "Ring fever." An obsession. "That doesn't sound creepy or bothersome at all." But there's sympathy in her brown eyes. While she's at it, Harper moves the ziploc of items including photo and meds from the hospital to the nearest surface. Not within reach, but easily findable. Her voice is quieter, hushed when she murmurs, "I'm so sorry, Byron. I can't imagine what that must have been like for all of you. Who was with you?" As she moves around the space, she stops now and again to brush a hand over Lily's shoulder, keeping the proximity of her friends and their support in the front of their friend's brain. In response to putting Hank 'in the dirt', Harper murmurs, "We'll be here for as much of that as you want us for, Lily. I make acceptable coffee. It gets the job done."

There's a hard smash of Lilith's lips into flat line after she's done with the cupcake, crumbs all over her lap and the bed. Everyone being up cleaning suddenly seems to sink in with her and she lets Byron do the explaining in full while pulling herself off of the bed with haul. After putting her arms out for balance and trying on a sloppy little smile for one of Harper's touches, she goes over to where one of the lamps has fallen into pieces. Abruptly dropping cross-legged, she sits on some bills and printed out projections that were apparently paperwork laying around when the place was went through. Then she starts to sweep colored glass into a pile and sets the lamp frame upright like she's self-occupying.

In a matter of moments, all the glass pieces of the lovely lamp start to snap together after she has a pile of glass in her hands she finds suitable. There's gaps. Then after Lilith tilts her head and touches spaces that are left by the pieces she didn't find... the existing glass seems to shift and coalesce with warping until she suddenly has a lovely antique stained glass lamp again.

Tobin reaches up and puts his hand over Rafael's on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "Yeah, I'll be okay. That was.. uh.. yeah." He has no words exactly. Yes, Lilith, you broke Tobin. He slowly straightens up to standing and then takes another sip of the water. He reaches out with his free hand to give Raphael's arm a little squeeze again in thanks. He's too distracted to really watch what Lilith is doing with the lamp, though he does notice that it is fixed when it is over, and glances around the room. He knows what Lilith can do with objects, but is unsure what others can, as well, not used to such.. public displays in front of so many people. He's still in the habit of mostly hiding what he can do.

Cupcakes aren't the healthiest thing Lilith can eat. Nor are those pizza rolls, but at least she's eating. He didn't want to admit this to anyone, still feeling ashamed by the whole thing, but Byron breaks clean to lift the heavy weight from off his consciousness. "This mess? And the one in the office?" A sobering expression comes over his features now, "That was me. I had a need to find that ring and this was the result of it. The frustration that the ring wasn't here."

He said it, he admitted his guilt, though he'd never mentioned it officially. With Lilith eating and Tobin being tended to, Byron starts to clear away some of the other fallen items. His eyes fall on Dog for a brief moment, before he watches Lilith's magic show. He /knows/ who is doing it, I mean, Lilith swept all the pieces together. But he only catches the merest flicker of light from her as she does this.

Harper moves over to the now-nearer Byron and rests a hand on his shoulder. If he lets her, she'll give him a brief hug and a squeeze before resuming her pick-up duties in the nearly-now picked up bed area. "Lily, I'm getting a bag. You holler if you want something more to eat or drink." She then heads toward where Vivian left the bags she was handing out.

Vivian looks up from what she was cleaning, brows furrowing a moment as she looks around, and ends up looking at Lilith. She stares for just a moment, then she just shakes her head and turns her attention back to at least finishing getting most of the stuff she can sweep up swept. When Byron takes the blame for the mess she rubs the back of her wrist against her forehead, "I don't think anyone can be blamed for what they did while under this ring and it's curse. I can't imagine anyone will carry a grudge, right?"

Lilith oh-so-carefully puts the lamp back up onto the table next to the couch after it's fixed, then starts to crawl the messy floor behind the couch back's line to get to the other end table mess. Then she does it again, kind of sideeyeing Byron and his confession to the others while telling Harper, "Okay, maybe inna minute." Her voice is still semi-slurred and partially withdrawn instead of no-filter blurts or downright hollers here and there while trying to get everyone's attention. She has to stop and squint some while collecting enough pieces this time once she's settled. Apparently, she's just playing in glimmer now for the sake of feeling better and fixing things, not even stopping to really think that there's people in here that might not be familiar with such things.

As the other living room matching lamp pieces together, she tells Tobin out of the middle of nowhere, "I didn't wanna mark you too on accident. 'cause your house is good memories."

Raf seems to engrossed in tending to Tobin to notice the display with the lamp, or if he did notice it he's doing a damn good job of pretending he didn't. Nothing to see there, nothing at all. He's pretty much completely quiet as the conversation goes on around him, instead rubbing gently at Tobin's back until he seems like he's finally regaining his composure.

Harper nods to Lilith. "We've got all the time in the world, sweetness." Then she's heading for bags. "Aptly said," Harper murmurs in Vivian's direction with utter sincerity, as she shakes out a trash bag near the kitchen. and heads back toward the sleeping area to start scooping broken things into it. Harper has missed the Glimmer uses so far. When Lilith addresses Tobin, Harper straightens and looks toward him from across the loft.

Byron accepts Harper's reassuring hug, returning one in kind. Some Paladin he grew up to be. He affords her a small smile, before they both get back to work. "Isabella and I were the only ones affected by the ring's influence." He means, besides Lilith, but he won't mention her in this. "I thwarted Isabella's attempts to even get the ring, ensuring that Alexander Clayton of all people kept a close eye on her to get her out of my hair."

Though he hates to admit some of this, he continues, "Thank god that Clayton," That's the part that he hates to admit saying, "And Magnolia were on our trail and were then able to stop us. We all ended up in the hospital following it." A look is then given one of the windows in the loft. He was still waiting on a decent supply of orange soda after all. While he nods in Vivian's direction, promising someone that they'd forget about all of this, that everything was forgiven, it still bothers him to some extent.

"But that's all over and done with," Even if they may be living with the emotional scars to go along with the incident. "And now I just have to worry about that the fact that I have a serial killer murdering my tenants... and then some." This is all said rather dryly really, but it's what he's back to dealing with again.

"You trashed the place," Tobin says, remembering what Byron had said about the ring, and puts all their conversations together. He shakes his head slowly and then says, "Alright well.. we're still all going to claen it up. We're sure that thing is gone now?" He'd already asked Byron that once before, and the answer he got wasn't entirely clear. He looks over at Lilith, "After they uh, got it off? It's gone?" This seems to be his biggest concern at the moment. He does smile a little faintly and says, "I appreciate that, Lil. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to help you guys somehow." He turns to Rafael then, smiling at him gratefully and leans in to press a kiss to his cheek, finally seeming to be in better shape, recovered from his loss of composure.

"If you guys drove less conspicuous cars, it would have at least taken me another thirty minutes to find you guys," Magnolia calls from the back of the pawnshop. Then she pops into sight, holding a vinyl record. "Lilith, dude... you have a copy of 'Lounder than Love.' On vinyl. How much?" That would be Soundgarden. Then she looks at the others with that serious blue gaze. "Byron, you're still having that going on?" Then she is poking her head back into whatever she's digging into. "You need some help?"

At the mention of Alexander's name, Harper is crouching down to pick at pieces of something. She pauses and glances sidelong to Byron, a brow arching. "Did he know what was going on?" Harper somehow has missed the recent news. "Annnnd you have a serial killer murdering your tenants." A flat statement rather than a query. "Probably not good for business, Byron." As if Byron has some way of flicking a stop- or go-switch on said serial killer. Tobin speaks up and asks the questions Harper was wondering regarding whether the ring is truly gone or if there should be further cautions taken against it. "Byron, I'm glad you have Vivian here." There's empathy in the Librarian's body language for what her classmate is going through. "Good work, Magnolia," she calls across the loft. "Seriously."

"Uh huh. It might have magically imploded. Maybe." Lilith stops playing in pieces and putting things back together by psychic will and manipulative force while holding the lamp a moment after Tobin's question. Her brows draw together and she puts the lamp on the floor before just laying out right where she is and staring at the ceiling, 'cause suddenly, she looks a little ill and dizzy and lost in some kind of reverie of haziness, drunk aside. It's unclear if she's really hearing the conversation or commotion around suddenly because she doesn't answer other questions or commentary.

"I keep seeing it from the sky when... everything goes out black and not black anymore. I see me. I see everyone. I see what I did." Lilith brings her hands up to rub against her face while flopped out limp recounting in a way that's making sense to her, and maybe some of the others, in a way, "I hurt everyone so bad. There was shadow in me. It came out. It was in Magnolia's shoe, a little bit of shadow. It was in Byron's chest. Came out too. Went down, down down. Mine was slow. But it got there too. Then there was more slippin' from anywhere, everywhere 'til it all came together like whoop. So mad. So mad. Soooo mad. Then it all went deep and there was light. Then no more. 'cause we're free."

"Byron's car is flashier than mine." Vivian points out as she sets aside her cleaning to wipe her hands off on her jeans, deciding that she deserves a bit of a break. "But I'm glad that they were flashy enough for you to spot them and keep..." She gestures in Lilith's direction, leaving the rest unspoken. When Harper mentions her name she glances over, offering the woman a smile, "I'm glad that everyone seems to have each other to rely on, honestly."

God, now Tobin is talking about it. Byron slowly nods in his friend's direction. He remembers what he'd told Tobin the day of the break-in. What he'd messaged everyone. "Yeah. I came here looking for the ring. As you can see, I tore the place apart." Yet left the actual shop part of the building untouched. Anything done there wasn't his doing! Or to that front window!

Byron himself has no idea where the ring went after it and Lilith's flesh was torn off of Lilith. If anyone would know... his gaze turns to Magnolia now, "I didn't even see Maggie there the whole time, but she got the ring off of Lilith's hand." That picture that Lilith shared? That was all Magnolia...

He would address some of the other things asked, like say.. the serial killer, but Lilith begins to speak. He had not known any of this. That's when he turns to Magnolia again, "You were tainted by it too?" At least a little, it would seem.

Crouched and scooping ruined and trashed bits of this and that into the bag she's holding, Harper lifts her gaze to watch Lilith lie down and stare at the ceiling. She doesn't move over to her side, because it sounds as if the musing is good, letting out some of the steam, as it were. She drops the bag, pushes up to stand and heads into the kitchen to look for the makings for coffee. Talk of shadows has the always-cheerful Librarian to look unusually solemn, a flash of something in her eyes, as if she could step into the recounting and undo the darkness from her friends, from all of them. Harper nods a little to Vivian at the comment about reliance among friends. The coffee maker starts to percolate and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee starts to permeate the loft. Her attention isn't on any one person, but she's hyper-attentive to all that's being said and keeping track of Lilith's state of mind and position. No, she won't interrupt this catharsis.

"Lily, sweetness," Harper calls, "How do you take your coffee?" She looks over to Byron. "What about you, Thorne?" Harper finds some intact mugs and sets them in a line on the counter.

Tobin watches as Rafael heads off to help Kevin in one of the other rooms, and then he goes about finishing work in the kitchen on his own, getting everything put away, or thrown away, and then going about washing and scrubbing until the entire place may be cleaner than it was before the trashing occurred. He's quiet through the process, though, lost a little bit in his own thoughts.

Eventually, Lilith sits up and puts her back against the couch to steady herself for a while after all that ruminating and reverie sharing aloud, however it might have come out. She watches the others with her brows gradually knitting, then after a time, the coffee smell seems to get her. Maybe the general sugar of the cupcake is kind of stabilizing the overbearing effect of booze and pills when put with all the company and commotion she keeps trying real hard to focus on.

After swallowing down thickly and fighting off the urge of drunk-haze to turn a completely opposite way from what it was when everyone first filed in, the tousled and semi-robed brunette starts to tussle herself off of the floor to wander toward the smell of the coffee and Harper's inquiry, "Blackblackblack." But before she gets there, she gets to Tobin and latches in hugging interruptive hold for a long, long moment before releasing to let him be so she can actually manage coffee. She kind of gives Byron a wide berth on the way.

"I..." She pauses, trying to work out what to say while leaning on the counter for support when there, "Um." She looks at the Korean food containers and suddenly frowns, "Did... anyone see Carver? I don't know if he was real."

When coffee is offered, Byron flashes Harper a smile, "I could definitely use some." Even when he says this, the image of Lilith's mangled hand is still in his mind. He'd seen it bandaged up, noticed the odd way her finger looked. He wasn't prepared for what he'd seen. And to think Magnolia Jones did it. All of that was, well, hard to shake off. "You heard about the serial killer right? The Addington deaths among others. Dr. Faust was nearly killed. Her brother found murdered." He then frowns as he leans over to pick up more shards of broken things. "Isabella's mother as well recently. We're looking into it," The ring and now this? "From what I can determine though, our killer... isn't reaching out to his victims by usual means. Which means, I have no idea how anyone's going to stop him."

When Lilith gets up and administers hugs, Byron notices the distance that she keeps from him. Perhaps an unconscious observation on his part. When Carver is brought up, Byron could care less where the guy is, but he comes out to say, "No. Hadn't seen him since the day the ring arrived here." In the shop. "Hadn't heard from him since... since his sister visited."

Harper hides her frown by accomodatingly pouring coffee. "I don't know a Carver. But no one came out when we came in," she offers simply. If Byron accepts coffee, she pours him some and will doctor it however he asks. Except sugar. There may not be any available sugar left just now. An inquiring glance is shot to Vivian and Tobin who are the only two she can see from where she stands. A mug is offered to Lilith. "No tongue burning. It's bad luck." Is that a joke from the Librarian? Right now? Hard to say. To Byron, "Did this Carver fellow have something to do with the ring?" she asks mildly.

When Lilith comes over and hugs him, he puts both arms around her and gives her a reassuring squeeze. He kisses the top of her head and says, "It's going to be okay, Lil." Things are definitely not okay, but he always has that hope, that hope that things will get better and be okay again. He then lets her go so that she can get coffee and he can keep cleaning. When Harper shoots that inquiring glance, he shrugs his shoulders, not having any idea.

Lilith seems to soak in that comfort from Tobin up close and that combined with the coffee that Harper delivers and the sobering conversation of murders from Byron seems to kind of center her to some degrees. She's clearly still a spinny and hazy sort of irrational drunk, but she's also getting to be Lilith enough at the core somewhere that... it's visible she's trying to convince herself she's less un-operational with some semblance of will and combined embarrassment of the actual situation settling in.

Leaned on the counter, she carefully blows down into and sips from the coffee after Harper's warning and makes a little noise in her throat like it's sudden ambrosia that's long overdue. Then she answers the question about Carver and the ring, kind of, "Watcher. He knows bad things. He was pretty nopenopenope. Now we know bad things. S'like... learning to ride a bike, maybe. Gotta get all skinned up t'know how to pedal away right."

"I don't believe I even know who that is." Vivian offers with a shake of her head, looking almost apologetic to Harper for not having a more ready answer. "But I'm sure that if someone has his phone number they could try calling him?"

"You can't always run from your problems," Byron says of Carver, more than a little annoyed by the Brit. "Especially when friends are involved." He then shoots Vivian this look. He has Carver's number. He is not calling Carver. As no one seems to have more inquiries of him regarding the serial killing, he will say nothing more. Merely sipping at his coffee with a touch of disdain on his features. "And no. He barely had anything to do with the ring. The ring being gone from our lives? No thanks to him."

Magnolia has reappeared once more, this time with two vinyls tucked under her arm. She rejoins the group with that natural ease of someone innocuous and supposed to be here. She doesn't catch much about Carver except for a couple casual mentions, but for the most part, she's just tilting her head a bit. "Who're we talking about?" The question is asked easily enough without the little pressure of that investigative tone.

Harper takes in the convoluted description of this Carver fellow, unable to determine if he is a protagonist or antagonist in the series of events that has occurred. "So he thought the whole thing was a learning experience? Do you feel like you learned something important from it?" Harper asks, her gaze starting on Lilith then turning to Byron. Everyone who wanted coffee receives some from Harper, then she puts the caraffe back into the maker so it is there when and if more is required. She doesn't, herself, take any. Harper has plenty of questions about the serial killings, but it's difficult to care for the pair of traumatized friends while tangling the two horror stories together. "So he made things worse? Or just didn't help?" Inquiring Harpers want to know. If she meets this fellow, or needs to run interference, a status of sorts would be helpful. Clearly he seems important to Lily in some way.

"I don't know... how much choice I ever really had once.." Lilith shrugs a little at the inquiry like questions are hard, then she lets out a little self-deprecating laugh, "He knew what I was capable of. More than anyone, prolly. Can't fault a man for a little self-preservation." Then she pauses and thinks for a moment before looking around the loft. After a little set of her teeth on edge, she drinks long from the coffee, "I think he's sick. I don't know. His veins were... and Mels, I think she..."

Her head shakes suddenly, and she stops trying to make sense of blotto memory pieces while far from sober. Most of these people don't know Carver any damn ways, or Melissa and she clams up to suddenly turn and pick up some collected plate pieces from a sink pile to start arranging like puzzle pieces on the counter while others sweep and bag and pick up. Apparently moving around too much is troublesome for her so she focuses on what she can do, or what she wants to do for the moment, "... I'm messy. I'm sorry. You guys are like... yeah." She might want a subject change but can't find one. She's staring real hard at what she's doing.

Tobin may have questions about the serial killings, but for the moment, he seems to be focused on cleaning up the current mess. This one, he feels like he has some ability to do something about, and so his entire focus seems to be on that for the time being, now that he's regained his composure. He does pass by Byron though, and reaches out to give his shoulder a squeeze, and to study him for a moment, eyes flickering over his expression in some wordless expression of sympathy and support. He also doesn't know Carver, so while he listens, he adds nothing to that conversation for the time being. To Byron, he says quietly, "Let me know if there's anything that I can do.. about that.. if anything new has been figured out."

When no one answers Magnolia's question, she lapses into curious silence. She glances between those present before she tucks her new vinyls-- she will pay for them-- up higher under her arm. She shoves her hands into the pockets of her jeans, and just... looks between everyone.

Harper tries to follow Lilith's lines of thought as they cross and wind around one another. She nods faintly in response to talk of self-preservation, though the empathy isn't quite there for that one. Veins and sickness, that's not so clear. When Lily turns her attention to plate pieces, Harper lifts her gaze over to Magnolia. "You okay, Magnolia?" She holds a coffee mug up in a separate, silent query. Tobin's moment with Byron is noted, appreciated.

Kevin peeks his head out of the bathroom, "I've got good news and bad news." Looking around the group, he blinks and backs off from whatever he was going to say, "Oh. We're in the serious talk. Sorry." Apparently he can read a room, if belatedly. "Is this uncomfortable discussions about jewelry," he flicks a glance to the folks who weren't in the hospital, trying to stay circumspect to some degree, and then looks to Byron, "or about tenants? Entirely off the record, that is." Kevin might be able to inconspicuous sometimes, but... uh... often he's a little hard to ignore these days, quite unlike high school.

Someone's ears have been burning. Someone's ears have been burning for a while now. There's a noise from one of the doors downstairs, the one leading back into the alleyway behind the store. That'd definitely be the sound of a key. A lock turning. A man, coughing.

When Lilith makes excuses for Carver's protecting himself by staying out of, as far as he knows, this whole ring situation, Byron keeps this steady on her. He's not all that happy about the response. There's a twitch of his jaw almost as if he might be about to bring something up, but he keeps that inside and simply turns away. Even as he's sipping at coffee, there's a knock at door. Must be the delivery guy. "Good. Orange soda for Magnolia." His features light up, whatever annoyance was on his mind seems gone. Or he's good at pretending that it is. "Looks like your order arrived, Mags." Yeah, there's coffee going around, but now there's orange soda /AND/ coffee.

Heading over to the door, he takes the package in hand and pays the kid.

"Orange soda, still chilled." He touches at the case, "And some popcorn shrimp for all."To go with the cupcakes and pizza rolls. Seems like he placed an order at Julia's Fried Fish place. When Kevin re-emerges, Byron says, "Definitely the ring. But, we're moving on from that. It's been dealt with."

The sound of a door unlocking downstairs catches his attention. Then again, he's right at the doorway and he can see the office door from here. "Are you expecting anyone, Lilith?" He asks.

"Oh, you know... I yanked a friend off a bridge by the noose around her neck, pinned her hand to the ground by a cursed ring, and then ripped it off her finger-- skin andall-- all before she broke my leg with her scary ass Glimmering." Magnolia cuts a glance to Lilith. "Still forgive you, Lil." Then she looks back to Harper. "Oh, and before all that I had to leave Lark with Kevin and Bennie because I was either vomiting or plagued with bad luck, and was worried I was going to hurt my kid." She gives a casual shrug of her shoulder with a similarly casual lopsided smile while waving her hands dismissively. "So, you know... all in a normal week of living in Gray Harbor. No one mysteriously disappeared, and we're all alive." Save for Hank. "My personal thinking is that we're all good and ready for the next shitty episode. I just hope this time we get saved by the Winchesters, because those boys just keep getting hotter and hotter each season."

Now Magnolia is glancing toward the sounds of someone incoming, and she also catches sight of Kevin. She gives him a casual upnod before she glances back to Byron. "Ooh, orange soda!" She bounces forward to get a can. "Dude, I haven't had this since that one time we spilled an entire two-liter on the floor." She puts on airs while she is also curious about the visitor, shifting her feet slightly.

Tobin starts to pale again a little as Magnolia goes about describing what happened, again, and he slowly withdraws to find Rafael, giving him a hand cleaning up wherever he's gotten to and leaving the others to their conversation.

Magnolia may not have gotten an answer and Lilith may have been too drunk to really focus on backpedaling to answer herself, but.. might well be that she's going to get the introduction at some point here soon. Because Lilith looks over when Byron asks the question, up from the plates, then she has to think before shrugging a little uncertainly because honestly, she couldn't say, "I uh. Dunno. Maybe?" It might not be a far fetched thing. She seems to just want things some semblance of normal and Kevin popping out and Mags piping in with a summary has her twisting her lips off to one side and re-focusing on plates.

Gradually, the plates start to come whole again on the counter, more slowmotion than quick snap pieces like the lamp after a pause for a long coffee drink. Then she smells food and that's distracting to make her look over, "Hey. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Food. We should all like... do that." She clearly doesn't tune into what a couple of the others are tuned into.

Harper watches Magnolia as the woman speaks the words that cap off the visit so far. The woman crosses one foot in front of the other where she stands behind the sink and folds her arms across her slim chest as she listens, otherwise showing no reaction to the terrible words. "Were you able to go back home to your little girl?" AKA Did Magnolia get better? Harper eventually comes to the conclusion that Magnolia is fine, given the way her story resolves. Kevin's announcement draws at Harper's attention and she simply looks at him with a bemused expression. And then there is the sound of a key, someone on the stairs other than the delivery of soda and shrimp. "You expecting company, Lily?" she inquires softly.

Carver looks like reheated leftovers. Okay, that's not true, his clothes? Fabulous. Everything about his charcoal three piece seems to have been made to measure that very morning, and he's even go so far as to polish up the leather of his dark shoes. Unfortunately, it clashes slightly with the paler-than-usual pallor of his skin, the absolute kerfuffle that is his hair (Trimmed a couple of inches shorter than the last time Byron saw him, in fact), and bags under the eyes that seem to be a shade too dark to solely be from a lack of sleep.

Of course, unless anyone is actually IN the office, he's unseen as of yet, just stepping through the door from the alley. The accented call of "LILY? PLEASE TELL ME YOU'VE GOT YOUR TITS PUT AWAY THIS TIME." can totally be heard, though. Probably from next door, too.

At the shouting Vivian reappears from where every she'd wandered off for a phone call, tucking her cellphone away in her back pocket. There is a slight upwards twitch of one brow before she glances in Lilith's direction. Then she moves in Magnolia's direction to stand next to her, "How are you doing, Miss Jones?"

"Yeah." Magnolia exhales a sharper breath, this time some of that hard exterior slothing off to reveal the tired and worried woman beneath. "She gets it. She's smart, and that's not even Mom Bragging." She licks at her lips. "I worry that she actually gets it a lot more than she should." Then someone is shouting about tits, and Mags casts a glance toward Lilith and then to Byron and then she has a Vivian at her elbow, and she clears her throat almost sheepishly. "Um. I'm doing great. Fabulous." This is not a closed-door session, but Vivian would note the awkward way she shifts her feet in those marker-colored Converse sneakers. She offers a little smile. "Just tired." Because Magnolia doesn't often sleep.

You don't have to see Carver in order to know it's Carver. Especially for those who have met him. Byron just lingers at the top of the stairs where the group is gathered within Lilith's loft. Rather than leave the loft door open for the man, he shuts it closed. He's not a jerk to lock it though.

"Sounds like Carver." He comes out and says, setting the soda down on the counter with the other goodies. "And if I remember correctly, it was you, Maggie, who accidentally knocked the liter over." He has to consider this now, "I remember thinking that you may have disliked orange soda at that time and just wanted to be rid of it." Adding in, "Don't make me stand guard over the soda. We've got enough to clean here already."

Too many directions for Harper's attention to go at once. So it's the faceless call that has Harper watching Lilith closely. She remains still, arms crossed, ankles crossed and doesn't yet interfere in a setting that clearly has a precedent.

Lilith has to think real hard about that yell from downstairs and honestly, she does take a moment to double check herself with a frown like she's suddenly unsure. In fact, she's visibly trying to remember if tits were an actual thing or if she's being fucked with right now given the familiar-to-her voice source. Either is maybe entirely possible considering the state she was found in when she opened the door. After that yell echoes up, she just drinks a long draining drink from the coffee cup and holds it out at Harper hopefully like she's not going to think about it too much. Now. 'cause shit. Were tits a thing?

Instead of yelling back, after she slides the cup to Harper for fixing up as the woman is no doubt keen to do, she slumps over the counter and murmurs, "So that's Carver. I think he's been feeding me kor-- I smell shrimps. Are they the baby shrimps?" Byron knows she likes the baby shrimps, goddamnit, they better be baby shrimps, AKA popcorn shrimp. Immediately, once she notices bag proximity, she pushes up to start looting to ignore the tits thing in favor of letting him see her tits up a different way-- it kind of looks like an intervention in here once Carver hits the top of the stairs and gets in. 'cause that's no doubt coming.

"So, usual Gray Harbor. Got it. And I'm not that bad as a babysitter." There might actually be a little surprise in Kevin's voice. The shout from below causes Kevin to raise his brows, "Do I need a stun gun? I totally don't have a stun gun." He gestures back over to Magnolia, "Also, Lark's awesome. And totally smart." He heads over to the popcorn shrimp, gathering up a couple and popping one in before he beckons for the orange soda, "The good news, by the way, is that the toilet isn't plugged by something nasty. Just cereal." Beat pause, "Bad news... it's definitely plugged by cereal. In the tank."

"No. You totally bumped into the bleachers, Byron. You were busy waving at Charlice or whatever her name was. You know, that cheerleader who was trying to become head cheerleader like all of senior year." Look, Magnolia remembers everything about high school-- except apparently Kevin. That'll come up at some point, won't it? She is now turning slowly toward Carver and she takes him in from head to toe with the attention of someone who does enjoy the details. Then she leans to Harper to whisper, "Ever get the feeling that you're always under-dressed by about a half-a-million dollars, or so?" Then she straightens back up in time to hear Kevin's good news and bad news and she smirks. "What kind of cereal, Kevin?"

It takes more than a hot minute for the loft door to open, letting Carver step through with all the casual saunter of a guy twice his health status. Right into the financial appraisal of Magnolia, and the other occupants of the room who instantly make him think IT (Part 2) just got a major recasting. He pauses.

He somehow pauses MORE when Byron's there, too. "Hi. Also, the hell."

Harper takes the cup that Lilith slides her, unfolding arms and uncrossing ankles to swing around and grab the coffee caraffe to fill Lily's cup once again. "Okay, so ... we're all here. You say it, we jump." The words are thrummed low and quick to Lilith as the caraffe of fresh coffee is drawn back. Whatever Lilith wants, the Librarian implies. Everything is five by five. Kevin's news earns him a sidelong look of the 'Really?' sort that ends with an uptipping of her lips before Harper turns to replace said coffee caraffe in its warmer. The door admits Carver and Harper's brown gaze slides over him assessingly, perhaps with preconceived ideation. Someone take a picture. Harper doesn't often wear this look.

"I'm sure that everyone is a little tired right now. It's been rather rought." Vivian doesn't offer great comfort, she's not being paid for it right now. But she offers something, right? The news of the cereal causes her to look at Kevin, then she nopes right out of offering to clean that up. Instead she looks at the new arrival, lifting a hand to wave in his direction.

Byron is at the counter, removing one of the bottles of orange soda to hand off to Magnolia, "It seems like we're both remembering two different things." Though he also clearly remembers the time that Magnolia brings up, but he won't say anything more about it! "Here, you go. Bottoms up." To Lilith's excited curiosity about whether he'd gotten her baby shrimps or not, that's who he goes to next, making some kind of short-distance delivery. "Thought they'd make you feel better."

Kevin's delivery of good news and bad news just gets a blank stare. That couldn't have been him. Unless there were cereal on some bathroom counter for him to knock over and into the bowl... But gross.

It's Carver's entrance that only gains the other man a brief look, out of the corner of his eyes, really, before his attention wanders elsewhere. Probably back to Lilith, when he speaks up, "Nice of you to join us."

Lilith looks a little impressed by Kevin's announcement and totally chips in for Magnolia, "Maybe wheat chex." Did she do that instead of Byron? Who knows. She's making real busy bag rifling and sipping from the coffee once Harper repours, like she's hellbent to eat and coffee plow the dizziness and everything away. Or just ignore the fact that everyone heard she might or might not had her tits out for entering company.

Once he's in, though, she stops all that and looks Carver over at length, like she's trying to snap pieces into place with a vaguely distant expression. After putting some semblance of food in her mouth and chewing, she seems to mentally seize on one thing or another that sobers her right out of the meager smile she finally manages for Byron because yes, he got her baby shrimps.

After waving invitation for everyone to start eating and drinking, the woman starts moving around the counter toward the Brit with a shrug at the 'what the hell' expression and uh. She goes to silently latch onto him with hug after kind of weaving and veering that way. It might be confusing all around, even for him, but apparently she's okay with him being here. At least while still drunk.

While close she mumbles, "Mels. Really?" She seems to be legitimately asking him what's real when she looks up in that strange latch on.

"Now, I'm a little out of practice," Kevin responds to Magnolia, pointing over to Lilith and nodding, "Yup! Pretty sure it was wheat chex." He pauses a moment, then adds, "It could have been chex mix, actually. It all swelled up so far it was hard to tell." Brightening up, he continues, "But it's cleaned out now. And I need another garbage bag." In the meantime, however, he pops a few more shrimp and then gets some orange soda, "I don't know, Byron, you could have totally been checking out..." he peers at Magnolia, "Wait, Charlice? Didn't she get pregnant senior year? Trying to be popular?"

Harper refolds one arm across her chest and rests the other elbow atop it so she can settle her chin against her knuckles while watching everyone over by the entry. Byron and his averted attention. The much-anticipated, self-preserving Carver-in-a-suit. And most importantly, the way Lilith reacts to his arrival. Something smooths in the line across her shoulders and she leans a hip against the counter beside the sink while she stares unapologetically. Harper tips her ear toward Magnolia at the whisper. "All. The. Time." Harper agrees. "So that's Mr. Self-Preservation?" Magnolia goes back to her volley with Kevin and Harper continues to stare, waiting for something to clarify from the tale of the evening, one way or another.

"If I knew there was gonna be food, I wouldn't have eaten earlier." Carver returns to Byron, glancing off aside to throw a little finger wave in Vivian's direction. It's then panned across the rest of the group, pausing with a little flourish at Harper's description, then moving on until he actually takes in a proper glimpse of Kevin, mid-sentence espousal of victory over breakfast food and toilet sieges. "Christ, you're a specimen, mate."

Carver is terrible at 'Hello's.

Which is great, because he doesn't have to make any more, as there's a Lilith latching around him. He actually winces for a second, either at a painful side effect of the pressure, or fear of being set alight again in some kind of weird, drunken immolation revenge. When no fire occurs, she's held right back, a low whisper of "Pretty sure, yeah." immediately followed by his head snapping around at Kevin. "Wait, someone got pregnant to be popular? Fuck me I thought they only did that back home."

Magnolia settles for just enjoying some orange soda. She glances toward Vivian briefly, and then back to the others while she twists off a cap, and takes a sip from the bottle of fake orange goodness. She slips into something far more observant for now. Her eyes do tick toward Kevin particularly at Carver's approval. She starts to nod slowly, thoughtfully. "I mean... could be worse... we didn't have the preggo cult that, that one school in Texas did." Then she is back to giving Carver a quick look over. "You're not a bad specimen yourself, Mr. Suits."

With a little packet of popcorn shrimp in hand, Byron pops one into his mouth, chewing politely as he turns to regard Carver with his fully attention for the moment. Especially, as everyone else's eyes look that way. "Maybe if you were known to be more helpful, I would've given you a call beforehand." He's not going to say about the whole cleaning up thing. He knows whose fault that is. Popping another cute curled up shrimp into his mouth, he nods in Kevin's direction, "That's the one. I mean, her family did well enough." Yeah, yeah, he liked to kiss-up for investors even at that age. He had his sights on someone else in senior year.

When Kevin's physique is called out again, he buries his face in orange soda, his shoulders shrinking in as he does. "Mmmhmm." Swallowing, he manages to nod to Magnolia and add in, "I don't think the pregnant was part of the plan. I think it was just the stuff that came before." He chuckles at Byron, pointing across to the slick man, "Yes! Right. Hey, you dodged a bullet though, didn't you?"

There might be something approaching a sparkle of amusement behind Harper's brown eyes. Though to which of several observations is not readily apparent. Finally, she stirs to push away from the counter and walks up to the embracing duo only to gently take the cup of coffee from Lilith's hand. "I'll just take that for you, sweetness." Harper returns to the kitchen spot somewhat near Magnolia and sets Lilith's mug down on the counter beside her hip. Another lean. Magnolia's statement drags a bit more of that amusement forward in Harper's eyes. But there's Byron's reaction to take into account as well. "There were bullets, too?" Harper inquires dryly.

There's an upwards lifted brow for Magnolia at her look, but otherwise Vivian is mostly just listening to everyone talking about small town life. One hand slides into a pocket, pulling out a piece of candy that she carefully unwraps, tucking it into her mouth. Right up until Kevin suggests Byron dodge a bullet and she chokes on the piece of candy, coughing.

"D'you like it, pet?" Carver looks around the clasping form of Lilith to admire his own outfit for a moment, holding out the one arm not wrapped around someone's side to show the cut of it off. All for Magnolia's benefit, totally. His smile beams wide. "Bought it for my funeral. Figured I might as well get some use out of it before that, too. And maybe If I looked a little more like a dressed-up Byron here-" Did he just get a wink?

He just got a wink. "-Someone wouldn't set my coat on fire. Again." You get three guesses. The first two don't count.

Lilith chews on her bottom lip, lets Harper take the cup, and stands like that against Carver for a moment before nodding small and pulsing a little with the arm squeeze that's sans any fire or drunken fury. Then the guy is preening and playing cute with pose, making her lips twitch just a touch on drawback because... okay, she kind of remembers lighting him on fire and he clearly didn't take it personally. Hell if she's going to fess up or explain that to the others, though.

After a time, she's unlatching to start back to the food like a siren song with the smell in the air and everyone else starting to dig into things now too. She honestly seems a little relieved that everyone is staring at the new entry or focused on introductions and she takes to trying to get herself propped into sit on an actual chair someone has righted at the kitchen counter so she can drag her box of shrimp close to start eating between drinks of coffee.

Lilith kind of sucked at the whole high school thing, she was largely shut off and withdrawn and black clothing at that point, so she really doesn't have a lot to add as far as that goes. That or she's trying to focus on purging some of the alcohol with calories and caffeine. Her brows are kind of knit with consternation or general overwhelm or something else. Then out of nowhere, she says with side-eye at what Byron's wearing, "I've admittedly never set Byron on fire, maybe it is the suits." Ok, she fessed.

"You would have made a lovely corpse," Magnolia says with a slight uplift of her bottle of soda before she takes a sip. Then she is settling against a counter, arm crossed along her stomach. She cuts a little glance toward Kevin, and then back toward Byron. "I'm sure we can find someone to set you on fire, Ron. I'll make inquiries." Then she takes another sip of her soda.

Only once Lilith has disengaged from the dapper Brit does Harper return the woman's coffee to the counter-top beside the bucket of newly arrived shrimp. She speaks in low tones to Lilith. "If you want some privacy, say the word, and I'll untangle everyone you're not wanting in your hair out of it, myself included. We're a bit of a crowd and I have a feeling you're going to be sobering enough, soon, to feel a bit like the air is tight with us all breathing it in your place. On the other hand, you ask me to stay the night and make calls for preparations for you, I'm on it, Lily." Magnolia's commentary earns a sidelong curving smile even as she awaits Lilith's pleasure.

Byron was here to clean up the mess he'd made, so while he's not wearing a three-piece or a blazer or sports jacket, he is wearing a plain t-shirt and jeans ensemble, because he's not afraid of hard work. Even if he is standing around eating popcorn shrimp. With some of the conversation going on around him, even some that has to do with him, he begins to walk around the loft, to grab something or other after he'd taken another bite of fried goodness. "Dodging a bullet means-" He starts to say, his eyes settled on Harper, "Sure. There were lots of bullets. Lots and lots of bullets." High school was like that, alright! "And I'd dodged all of them." Whether she catches on or not, he doesn't clarify. "Though in truth, it's not all bad to be struck by one."

That's where this conversation about people being set on fire is brought up, from his space in the room, his eyes look to Carver. It looks as if he might say something, then he stops, then decides to state, "Are you planning on dying anytime soon?" Is that hope in his voice? If it is, he's probably just being an ass. Then when Magnolia chimes in, he just gives her this almost blank loo, before the edge of his mouth twitches upward into a smirk. "We have our own resident firestarter here. If there's anyone who should set me on fire, it's her." These words probably hold a lot of meaning.

"Surprisingly few bullets. Literal ones, at least." Kevin points over to Lilith, "And surprisingly many people on fire. I mean, not like that, but, you know." He nods to Magnolia, setting down his soda and starting to pat down his pockets, "I've got a lighter somewhere." He shakes his head, "But that's totally just feeding into the hands of the menswear conglomerates that want suits to be flammable so you have to buy new ones."

Carver give's Lilith's shoulder a parting pat as she beelines for the food. Because of course, food, c'mon. The man himself doesn't even attempt to partake, staying by the door, settling himself against the wall, and taking in the general conversation of a group of long-time friends that he's met a whole two of. Not a little bit out of place, this guy, nope.

Magnolia gets a second smile. "Still will. I figure it'll actually take on the second go." Eye dart to Byron. Still smiling. Hell. There's a damned thumbs up. "Figure I've got maybe a week or so, Buy-Rite. Two, if you're unlucky."

Kevin gets a final nod. "Seriously, he's not kidding. I'm pretty sure there's a label on this jacket somewhere that says 'Kindling'."

Vivian coughs once more before she gets the choking thing under control, mostly. A hand lifts up, knuckle sliding against her eye before she checks the other eye, then points out, "I don't think anyone should be lit on fire...burning flesh smells very bad. Like pork though." She then pauses before adding, "Burning hair is worse."

Magnolia casts a disbelieving look at Kevin. "They-- nope. Not gonna ask." She takes another sip from her orange soda. She continues to consider Carver with those seriously inquisitive blue eyes. "Let's not test that theory," she says simply to Kevin before she pivots a curious look to Vivian. "Um, that's very revealing, Doc. I think I'm going to not ask any questions." Then she takes a longer pull from her orange soda bottle.

Kevin's about to be real proud of Lilith. After eating and staring at Byron for a distracted moment, she just murmurs with video game mimickry, "Hadooooken." Oh yeah. That's exposure to his place growing up, she sure didn't have the video game systems. Then she tilts her head to listen to Harper and stops eating to reach a lace around the neck and shoulders of the woman because she's apparently still drunk-cuddly to degrees and someone has become her go-to, murmuring response, "It's a lot. But s'okay, 'cause food." She doesn't say the other part about starting to get overwhelmed the more sober she gets. It's starting to get a little obvious with her lapsing into more and more quiet.

Then she unlaces to tell everyone, "Thank you. I'm being weird and I don't wanna be weird, and it's not how I wanted to meet people I haven't even met before... but everything is weird and... thank you." She even looks at Carver with that thank you despite him just showing. I mean shit, she apparently lit the guy on fire at some point, yet here he is with bells on. She totally misses the thumbs up shot at Byron, though.

"Look," Kevin grins at Magnolia, "Everything is a conglomerate. And nothing is built to last anymore. Come on, haven't you noticed that? You know that Nestle, Lockheed Martin, Quanta Computer, Inbev, Pfitzer, Pearson, ICBC, Monsanto, Disney, and Alphabet Inc -- that's the company that owns Google -- own like... a third of the companies in the world, right? I mean, companies over a certain value." Kevin is distracted from this, however, by Lilith's Street Fighter move, and he grins, shoving his palms at her and echoing, "Hadoooooken!"

Harper's smile curves and her brown eyes warm as Lilith wavers on the cusp between drunk-cuddly and needing her space. "Don't make me figure it out for you, sweetness. I'll make all sorts of mistakes if we go there." Harper steps back as Lilith expresses her gratitude, and she grabs one of the devil's food cupcakes she brought with her to circle around behind Lilith to grab a broom, takes a bite of the cupcake, then sets the sweet back down on the counter and goes about beginning a final sweep of the main sitting area. The group at large did a significant amount of cleaning over a short time.

"I'm sorry. I don't think we've been properly introduced." Vivian seems to realize something when Lilith mentions meeting people she doesn't know, "Doctor Vivian Glass." This doesn't actually seem to be directed towards Lilith, though, since Byron introduced them earlier. It seems more directed towards Harper, and Carver. "I'm very sorry about my manners, I should have done this sooner." Which, she then glances at Magnolia, lifting her shoulders faintly, "Medical school.."

Without even looking back to Carver and simply rummaging through various things to help clear more of the floor, at least, Byron will say in a clear enough tone, "I'll hold you to that promise." If it looks as if he's glancing in Carver's direction, it's a mere coincidence as he pauses in his work, "One that you probably won't keep." Does it sound as if he's annoyed by the man? Perhaps a little. He then goes off to say, "Hey, if the man wants to test it out." How flammable the suit is, "I say give him what he wants."

They sure did a lot of work in this room, nevermind that the downstairs office in just as bad a state.

He'll continue to go about his business as everyone gets acquainted with the new guy.

"Medical school," Magnolia echoes. Then she glances slightly toward Byron, and she frowns slightly as she considers him with a tip of her head. Then she's looking at Vivian, and then she's looking back to Byron. Then she even angles a glance toward Lilith. Done with all that observing, she settles back into her lean against the counter. "Um. Dr. Glass, I meant to ask you... whose gun do I have in my gun safe back at the office?"

Carver can't help but stifle a short laugh at the words 'Everything is weird.' He actually has to choke it down. There's a tiny bout of coughing and everything, hand coming up to cover his mouth, closing in to a fist once he's done, and then tucking neatly behind his back as he re-settles against the wall.

Byron's ignored. Noticeably. Doubly-noticeably by how hard Carver's head turns to Vivian. "Alistair Carver. Yes, that's my real name, no, I didn't pick it. Nice to meet you all." A slight pause. "The fuck is a hadouken?"

Oh. Introductions. Magnolia lifts her fingers in a little wave. "Magnolia Jones, P.I. and Bryon's secret-keeper." Which isn't at all true. Or is it? (It isn't.)

"Hadouken. From Street Fighter. It's what Ryu says when he throws a bright blue fireball." Oh, people are introducing themselves. "Kevin Walters. Gray Harbor Gazette. And DM of the Gray Harbor Adventurer's Guild." Since he's in G-HAG company. "What's wrong with Alistair Carver as a name?"

From where she sweeps, Harper looks up to Vivian and replies. "We met over a box of bones, but it's nice to have a name with the face, Doctor Glass. Harper Price. Friend from high school and local Librarian." But then Vivian might remember the latter bit of information from the stressful events involved. Harper flickers a look over at Carver as he introduces himself as well and there might be the faintest smile lingering there before she returns to sweeping the remaining detritus into a small pile. Then it's off to find the dust-pan. "Nice to meet you both."

"You've a gun in...Right." Vivian lifts a hand upwards, finger up, "I'll let them know we've got it still. I'd completely forgotten I asked you to recover it." She pulls out her phone, unlocking it to send a very quick message or three, then she tucks it back into her pocket, "If you'd like you can just bring it by the penthouse tomorrow, and I'll take posession of it. Get it out of your hair."

With that thought in mind, Vivian moves from where she'd been standing towards Byron, leaning in to murmur something quietly to him, a hand settling on his arm for a moment. Then she turns her attention back to Carver, "Mister Alistair." Harper gets a nod, "Yes, that we did. Sadly terrible situation for introductions, Ms. Price. It's a pleasure to get a name as well."

"No sweat. I love keeping other people's guns. I'm trying to collect them all. It will make the day I go criminal mastermind all the easier." Then she hesitates before Magnolia goes over those words, and then she adds weakly, "Just kidding." She takes another swig from her orange soda bottle. She then glances over Carver now that she has a name. "Could be worse... he could be Alister Crowley." That's two Supernatural references, guys. Someone has started to catch up on some of her long-missed television shows. Maybe soon she'll get caught-up on Archer, and finally watch Dr. Horrible. No promises, though.

Lilith sneaks a grin at Kevin that's close to an echo of her as a kid at the gesture, then nods a little at Harper before she takes to eating, then picking... then just drinking coffee without many looks at much of anyone other than food and drink. Eventually she creeps down to remove herself to couch, looking at the improved mess with mass group effort worked upon it.

"I don't... think I can do all the leaning and bending yet 'cause I'm kinda whoo-hoo still, so just kinda... I'm like... grateful. I am. But I need some air soon and you guys have given me... a big kickstart." Dropping down on the fixed cushions, the tousled lady-of-the-loft huddles into the arm of the sofa and finally gets the wits to pull her robe over underwear to tie some, then takes to rubbing one of her eyes with one hand. She may not be kicking everyone out, but she does seem overwhelmed with the mix and sheer bulk of helping company now that everything boozy and sobering is starting to play catch up with her body and mind. It's all real vulnerable feeling from the look of her, maybe understandably so considering a few angles.

"Simply Harper will do, Doctor," Harper answers with an apparent double-standard. "I was never much a fan of formality." Now she's crouched in her skirt, sweeping everything into the dust-pan. Rising, Harper carries the pan over to one of the many trash bags scattered around the loft to carefully empty it. "I'll just check one last thing in your sleeping area," she tells Lilith with a light touch to her shoulder as she passes by. "Make sure everything's where it should be." Nothing to see here, folks. Magnolia's initial statement draws a roll of quiet laughter from the Librarian as she swings around into the sleeping area. From the area where Lil's bed is, Harper calls, "That's the signal people. Time to clear out." Subtle Harper is not. At least not in this case. "Everyone take a bag or two of trash." She's still not quite in view as she does whatever it is she was doing near the bed portion of the loft.

Byron nods slowly to Vivian's whisper, this whole discussion about a gun, an actual gun, not one that fires pregnancy bullets, had him curious. However, it's when Harper mentions the bones that bring his attention to her now. "You were there as well? Interesting. Unfortunately, since then," The dream where they found the bones, "we didn't know what to do or how to handle those bones. It's being dealt with."This change in conversation is enough to distract him from what irritates him at the moment, thus is enough to finally still him in this work that he's been doing as the rest of them conversed.

His brows lift as some expression of exasperation to this much needed new topic, "These murders are linked to that, but it's being dealt with." He'll leave it at that. "Not as quickly as I'd like." Oh look, now Harper is trying to usher people out! He then gives the rest of the room a look over. There was still work to be done, but he does say to Lilith, "You don't have to do anything, alright. Just sit there, let us do the rest."

"Poke-pistols, Lia?" Kevin chuckles at his own joke, then whistles softly at the Crowly reference, nodding as he does. Moving over to the bags, he starts to gather a pair up. "Oh, and you don't have to worry, Byron, nothing big's going to hit the paper about those." He clears his throat, "Uh... not my doing, just... it's how things are going right now. Because of the Addington connection."

"Right. Videogames. Yeah." Carver totally knows what they're talking about. Absolutely. His face says as much. Actually, his face mostly says 'Oh great, they're talking about the name again." but sometimes it can be hard to read the guy. At least the topic diversions give him the chance to settle back as the group start talking among themselves, casual conversation slipping over the room in such a way that Carver can almost envision it draping over the group, settling a little heavier on some individuals, barely grazing the shoulder of others.

So, naturally, he burps. Quietly. Ish. "But mooooom, I just got here!" he throws to the call of Harper's voice. "And I already did three! One was on fire!"

Magnolia starts to drift at the signals that it's time to go. She is twisting the cap back on her orange soda, and she flicks a glance toward Kevin. "Shhh, Walters. You're giving away all my secrets." Then she is stepping toward the door, only to then remember something! She tracks backwards to the counter, digs out her wallet, and drops two twenties on the counter for the two vinyls she's running away with.

"You're exempt, Alistair. Unless Lily tells me otherwise. You weren't part of the cleaning crew." The sobering crew. The dog plushie crew. The coffee making crew. The food-bringing crew. Harper apparently is going for informal with the self-preserver. Whatever Harper's doing over near the bed, it sounds like she's crawling around on the floor. In that skirt of hers.

"She was, yes." Vivian replies when Byron catches that Harper was there as well, which she glances in the direction she went, "If you're certain, we'll go. Otherwise we can continue to help." She glances at Byron, "Or discuss murders, evidently." She doesn't seem to be too terribly bothered by the idea that they might start talking about murders and bones. When Magnolia begins her exit sit reminds, "Come by tomorrow, bring any outstanding bills as well."

Lilith may be inebriated, but she knows the chances of Byron walking away from a mess he made and feels guilty about are probably slim to nil so she doesn't bother arguing. She lets Harper do the thing instead and slides down against the arm of the couch while angled on a hip with legs drawing curl, totally letting Magnolia take some cool shit without realizing what the money is for later.

After putting a thumbnail up between her teeth, she studies Carver more closely, not so much the suit as much as things like his neck, the veins, maybe even lapsing into the alternate way she sees people and their general state of health or lackthereof, the way her eyes go distant for a moment. Harper finds something pretty ergonomically Swedish and charger operated while crawling, so hey, getting down and dirty in a skirt in the name of trying to preserve some of Lilith's dignity wasn't without fruits of labor.

She doesn't quite seem to really totally focus on who's leaving, but her arm comes up with flop of wave as people start to trail out, calling after lamely, "... thanks. See you later, guys. Thanks. Thanks." It's about all she can get out, over and over, the more she seems to realize on a sober front she was inundated with helpers.

Harper calls out from the sleeping area, her voice partly muffled, "We made arrangements to have them cremated. I will be very put out if that didn't happen and people are dying because of them. It wasn't --" Grunt. Thump. "-- an easy task." There's a muffled, "A-hah! Got you, you --" The rest is inaudible. Drawers shut and open.

If there's ever an unamused look that Byron could Kevin, it's the one Thorne gives him now. There's even an arch of his brow to go with it, "The majority of the murders did /not/ happen in my building." He'll make sure to bring up. As far as I can tell, they are all connected." A pause, when he murmurs as if realizing something, "Related..." He's obviously thinking really hard on something now, putting pieces together from another event he'd just witnessed, experienced? Attended.

If Harper is trying to shoo them out, Byron doesn't look as if he's about to budge. Unless asked personally. Though when Vivian brings up the murder discussion, Byron says nothing.

"Wait, I thought I was giving away all of my secrets," Kevin shoots back to Magnolia as he heads for the door with the pair of trash bags. "If you want to talk through it, Byron, let me know. It'll never make it through the editor even if I wrote it." And then he's out the door, hefting the bags on the way.

Carver's just watching them leave. Like an ass. He even crosses his arms at one point, furrowing his brow as he does an impromptu nail-inspection. He's got at least three hangnails too many right now. The only things that seem to attract his interest are trying to sneak a peek at what vinyl Magnolia is absconding with, and the fact that Kevin could totally take like, eight bags at once.

When Harper brings up this burning the bones bit, Byron just sort of looks at her with this curious look. "Isabella Reede burned her set of bones." Why did she have a set? Who else has a set? "Just the other day in fact. Right before her mother was murdered." Popping that last curl of shrimp into his mouth, chewing mostly politely, he then adds, "The night that she did, Alexander Clayton felt like his was lit on fire. All the fragments of bones from that skeleton, everything that was burned, he felt it on his own person. So perhaps cremating them isn't the best option." He then adds in, "We've found a way to deal with them, but... that's not going to stop things."

Vivian pulls a piece of candy from her pocket again, hopefully this time to not choke on it, "Baxters, Carrs and Addingtons, correct?" She wonders, in relation to the murders. The wrapper is carefully undone, and she tucks the peppermint into her mouth, tucking the wrapper into her pocket. There is a curious look towards Byron, then her attention turns towards the others to check their reactions to that news.

Harper eventually reappears, tugging at her knotted Tee and smoothing at her skirt. She grabs the hat she wore that she left beside the cupcakes and dons it with a little run of fingertip and thumb around the brim. After that, the Librarian moves over to where Lilith has collapsed into a curl on the sofa and crouches down. "I'm leaving the cupcakes. You are under orders to eat at least two more. And you will call me if you can't sleep and want someone else around, or you want help with the Arrangements, someone to drive you to commitments, anything really. Got it, sweetness?" Only when she gets some sort of agreement does Harper push to stand and herself grabs one particularly full bag of detritus. She walks over to Byron. "I don't know if we're talking about the same bones. But we spoke with <Crematorium person's name who I cannot remember at the moment> and were given certain informal assurances. I'm not kicking you out, Thorne. You were in this together. She grabs her purse and slings it across her torso and walks up to Carver, "Or you, Alistair. Same apparent reason." As if Harper had any power over anyone leaving Lilith's place. Still, she looks measuringly up at Carver, then seems to see what she was looking for and heads, bag over her shoulder to the door they entered through some hours previous. "You've got my number." This is either called out to Lily or to Byron.

Byron is quick to add, "I intercepted that cremation. Why cremate before examining them? It's better to learn more about them before we destroyed them entirely. Now I wonder what would've happened to Clayton if they were cremated." It's an amusing thought! That's all that he will say about that, before adding, "Thanks for showing up, Harper. And for the cupcakes."

"I din't do nuffin, Harper." That's a good point. Carver should totally make himself busy. Which he does with a cleaning gusto that borders on 'minimum-wage-motivated' if you happened to lid your eyes and squint through one corner of them. On a dark night. In a field. It's general bin-bagging, although the team had done a mighty-fine job of it before he bothered to show up, so it's a matter of seconds before he's working an arm under and around the sofa, muttering something too low for anyone not currently curled up upon it.

Harper slowly turns around to stare, open-mouthed at Byron, dropping the bag at her feet. "Why?" she asks, her voice dropping to near inaudibility as she speaks it. "Because they were malevolent and wanted to be out and around in this world. Byron ... how could you ..." Harper just stares at the man. "And now look what's happened. They got what they want. Or the beginnings of it."

When Harper says that Byron and Carver are exempt there is a slight upwards arch of a brow, "I guess that means I'm supposed to be leaving." This is Vivian not leaving, though. Instead she just shakes her head, her arms crossing over her chest, "I'd imagine that he'd have felt all of the bones burning. I'd worry, however...if that much at one time wouldn't kill him." She lifts one hand up, fingertips rubbing slightly at her chin in thought, then she drops her hand, her attention shifting back to Harper, "There's a lot more going on than that...and there is no proof burning them would or would not have changed things."

"What did happen?" Byron has to ask his eyes on Harper. "Once whoever decided to take them out from wherever they were, which is probably what started it all. But what did happen?" No one knows. "I spoke to someone who... has accepted William Gohl's bones, aside from the few that Isabella burned." He then shoots a look at Carver, considering, before he adds, "But what's done is done and we are now set on the correct path on how to actually deal with the murderer. If those bones would have been cremated earlier, we wouldn't have had them to use to buy our answers."

His shoulders shrug, "That's all that I'll say about it for now. If you want to learn more, you can get in touch. The rest of you brought the bones into this reality and dropped them off to be cremated without another thought. They are here now and burning them isn't going to do a thing."

Harper gets a bit of a smile and nod from Lilith after she stops eyeing people and rubbing at her forehead to try and make either stress or the dizzies stop now that she's somewhat down for the count, "Two cupcakes, at least. Promise. You're still so lovely. S'good to keep that, y'know. It's hard here." Then she takes to rubbing her head again and doesn't seem to be too focused or bothered by the whole weirdness or morbidity of the conversation around her. At least it's not centered on her or anything else concerning her, and that seems to be some kind of win. But she's clearly struggling a little with one thing or another too while letting people talk.

After a moment, while Carver is down digging by the couch, Lilith gusts out a huge sigh to herself, then shifts with angling to look at Byron for a moment with bleary eyes, utterly withdrawn after a good few heartbeats of that. She rolls again, rubbing at her head, "Can finish this later. S'fine, Byron. Really. You can go."

Harper briefly registers Carver's words to her before her gaze flicks to Vivian. There's a bit of to and fro as the brown-eyed gaze flickers between the pair. "Everyone nearly ran away except Rebecca and Vyv and myself." She shakes her head slowly. "You wanted that evil on your hands, you got it." Harper sounds extremely ... disappointed. Perhaps a bit disturbed as well. "I hope you got exceptionally good answers, and that the price was worth the payout." She takes a slow breath and exhales. Another. "I'm certain you must know far more than I do about it all. I haven't known you to be a rash man, Byron." Harper reaches down to lift the bag that is nearly too heavy for her to carry. Time for all good Librarians to come to the aid of their country. Or something.

Vivian lifts a hand upwards, "I ran away." She has no shame in mentioning this. "But that incident was my very first experience with any of this, and I hadn't a clue what was going on. I'm working to find answers now." She drops her hand back down, finger rubbing lightly against her elbow before she glances at Byron, "Whenever you're ready."

There is something under the damn sofa. Feels like a bottle? Feels like a wet bottle. A wet, squishy bottle.

Carver's face scrunches up in mild disgust, which only increases when he leans in and down far enough to press his face to the floor. Gotta get that extra couple mil of finger reach, y'know? "God. Reminds me of when I used to own a dog." That's said to nobody in particular. Gosh, it's almost like he's deliberately ignoring talk of bones and burning or something.

"I find it even more rash to burn something that you know nothing about." Byron says to the departing librarian, "Where's the knowledge in that?" With everything that Byron knows right /now/, he kinda has a feeling that he's in the right in this. "I'd say you all shouldn't have brought it back to begin with, but," Even he knows that things happen, "Someone was evidently looking for it and would have eventually found people to bring it back."

He's been through a lot. Ring possessed, walked into Wonderland for a second time. And people were still dropping like flies. He would actually discuss some of this with Lilith if she weren't drunk out of her mind. And nevermind that Carver is here. "It's no problem." He says rather stubbornly now, "I have nowhere else to be." He lies.

Lilith doesn't break anything. She doesn't say a word. She's extremely still for a long moment while curled up and dropping her hand from rub at her forehead. Then she pushes up with some effort and goes straight into the bathroom with the door closing kind of hard behind herself. She doesn't immediately retch, but eventually, that noise makes it to the other side of the door while Carver is doing his digging at whatever that is and the other two are in the room with Byron stubbornly digging in and Vivian nearby.

Hopefully she's doing it in the sink or bathtub given the announcement about the toilet earlier. Which probably isn't the best place either, but whatyagonnado. She's got a lot of booze residual in her behind all that food she just smashed in, on top of whatever upset is on her now.

"Leave, you bloody idiots."

Carver's still got his arm up to the shoulder as he talks, using the sound of the closing bathroom door as a cue. It probably doesn't really help that he's not facing either of the other two remaining in the room, so he can't throw the full facial expression of 'Really' that's littered all across his features.

Which is good, because there are totally crumbs stuck to his cheek.

"It's not about you having anywhere better to be, Byron. Sometimes people need their space." Vivian points out to Byron, glancing after Lilith when she heads to the bathroom, then she reaches for his arm to try and push him towards the door, "I doubt she really wants an audience right now, call her tomorrow. Or better yet, show up to the funeral." She didn't miss the earlier comment about putting someone in the ground.

Why would Byron ever listen to Carver after what had happened with the ring? In fact, hearing Lilith's retching on the other side of the bathroom has him automatically moving in the direction a hand reaching for the knob as if to test it to see whether it's locked. Unlike others, he doesn't leave his friends. "Lil. Are you alright?" He does test the door and if it's unlocked, he'll leave the door closed for now.

That's when Vivian speaks up and if Byron was annoyed earlier, what she says makes him even more annoyed now. "Sure, I could give her some space if she doesn't already sound like she's ill. I am not leaving her like this." He then adds, reaching into his pocket for his car keys. These he tosses in Vivian's direction, "I'll call if when I'm done, alright?"

Carver's eyes roll, even if nobody quite manages to see it. "Fine, at least I can't be blamed for what comes next this time." He mutters, right before his face lights up in success.

He retreats from the sofa, prize in hand. And confusion on his face. That's a sock. An alcohol soaked sock. With a pool ball in it.

What.

Lilith admittedly forgot to lock the door, but thankfully it remains closed. Nothing's breaking, what a champ. In response to the question, there's silence, a whole lot of it, then water running. Then another retch. Is she coming out? Nah. But eventually there's a mumble of, "... s'just gotta come out. I'm fine."

When the keys are tossed in her direction there is a small, brief moment where Vivian's jaw clenches, "Fine." It's spoken as calmly as possible as she takes the keys, "Mister Alistair." She then turns to head towards the door, calling in the direction of the bathroom, "I hope you feel better, Miss Winslow." Once she hits the door she's got her phone out, texting someone as she absently jingles Byron's keys in her hand.

Exit. Stage right.

Sensing that the door is unlocked does set Byron at ease. He doesn't swing the door open or anything and instead leans his back against the door frame beside it. "Just let me know if you need anything." She obviously didn't need a glass of water to wash any sick down, if she does throw up, but his mind wanders the room to find something to help soothe her. Catching Vivian wander off with his keys in hand, his gaze trails behind her before they seek out Carver now, his hands now tucking into jeans pocket. Carver's the well-dressed one in the room today.

"Do you think I would ever just leave her here?" He asks the other man.

"Not even a little." Carver replies, a finger-wave to the departing Vivian ending at the same time the weird-ass pool ball falls to the floor with a slightly over-echoing whud. He was looking at the woman as she left, and sure, maybe he's seen a shrink or two in his time, but he's most certainly seen someone of high social standing when they're pissed and trying to maintain decorum.

That might be why he's smiling. "But you'd obviously do a lot of things I wouldn't. Such is life."

Lilith kind of groans to herself as she hears Vivian addressing her by formal title and last name on her way out and on the other side of the door, if anyone had x-ray vision, she's taking a moment to lean her forehead against the cool edge of the sink. Yep. She knows that's the kind of impression she was railroaded into making for their introduction due to badly timed circumstance and it's just icing on a deal-with-that-later-cake at this point.

She goes quiet to listen to the men on the other side of the door after running more water and is clearly hiding to let them snipe it out. At some point that becomes obvious because all the water and retching has stopped. But at some point she gets the idea to plunge her toilet, they can hear that. She downright takes a moment to break and repair the tank mechanism, though, to flush things down and through at a base level. It's messy on the floor when there's some overflow, but it works. Eventually they hear a real flush.

Byron knows what Vivian is capable of. He'd been in an on-again, off-again relationships with her for years. Sometimes there are reasons for that off-again. Either way, Vivian is the least of his concerns right now. Lilith was ill and for whatever reason, no one had stopped her from drinking until she reached that point. His eyes still on Carver, though more than likely, they are staring idly out at nothing, he then calls out, "If you need me to get anything for you, let me know. Because if you're not feeling well, I could crash here."

He then hears the sound of a plunger at work, he turns in her direction to make sure that he's hearing things correctly. She didn't need to do /that/ on her own while she's feeling ill.

There are gonna be stains on Carver's jacket. Not because of the floor, although that certainly didn't help. It's because he helps himself to the abandoned soda, picking at a nail as he settles in to the warmth of where Lilith curled herself up a few minutes ago. Then there's a shimmy. Actually, there's three, working his way up to rest his head on the arm of the thing, offering a little scratch to where his shirt collar rubs a little uncomfortably against his neck.

"So..." His tongue clicks once Byron's made his offer. "Is bein' this willfully ignorant a learned trait, or were you naturally born with it?" That's right, he slid that far up the chair just so he could look at Byron upside-down. Which he totally does, looking at the back of the man's head while the plunger goes to work. "'Because bloody hell, mate, it's fucking impressive, lemme tell you."

Okay. So here's a secret. Lilith was sticking her finger down her throat to have an excuse to hide and purge and distract herself from not breaking anything on the other side of that door. But Byron's concern once he hears the toilet going plunge and flush after force break wash down the pipes might actually be warranted. Fixing the toilet was a bad idea because it overflows with bloated pieces of Chex cereal and that's just nasty. It triggers her like the fucking exorcist the second she's got the toilet working and at least it's working, because this time... whew.

She may have been okay with listening and distracting herself for a while there, maybe even relishing in how combative Carver is being himself, but after she's finished this time, she just kind of stumbles out from what's overflowed on the floor in her robe with a whole lot of NOPE right into Byron while getting out of the wet-hemmed, dragging garment to sling out at the floor, "Oh god, mop, that was a bad idea." She dry-heaves a little to one side. Chex looks very wrong floating in water.

"If you're talking about this need to be supportive." Byron is pretty sure that's not what Carver means at the moment, but he says this anyway, his shoulders shrug. "I do what I have to. Always have." That could mean many things when it comes to Byron Thorne. Does he blame himself for Lilith's current drunken state? Probably. If he'd been here...

That thought is cut off once the door swings open and Lilith practically walks into him. It does get him to push off from where he was leaning, feeling the grossness of wet robe against him. He leans down to scoop it up in hand before taking a quick glance inside of the bathroom to see what damage had been done. Keven should've fixed that. All that Byron can do is shake his head and move in search of a mop. "Settle down, get some rest. Let me take care of things."

"Neat." Carver does not sound like it's neat. Which, really, is a little weird. This is the neatest Carver's ever been in this town. "I've been doing supportive by not bringing a horde of people, including strangers to come witness someone's lowest point when they're angry, confused and afraid they can't control lashing out. Fuck me, Mr. Thorne." His hands clap together as he swivels around on the sofa, planting his feet on the floor and watching for the door with a beaming, bright smile. "If we'd had you back in Wrexham we coulda doubled the fuckin' casualty rate. It woulda been-"

Oh god. Lilith is right. That shit looks WRONG. "Nope." The Brit's eyes blink shut as Byron heads smartly for a mop. The water, that is to say, the main mass of it, pools together on the floor. It's a slow motion, like someone put the building on a slightly canted axis.

And then the water continues to pool. No longer on the floor. It naturally settles together in an almost perfect sphere, this slightly jiggling mass of incredibly gross-looking water that then shlorps down into the bowl with a sound that can definitely be heard from the main room. And probably won't do anything great for Lilith's current state. For good measure? The rest of that water is absolutely guided down the pipe. The plumbing rattles. Just a touch.

By the time that Byron returns with the mop, most of the damage has already been cleared away, leaving him not looking entirely pleased by it all. But he supposes, at least he doesn't have much to absorb. The mop is set down in where the mass of overflowing water had once collected, being allowed to soak up what is left. He'll leave it there for now, in a half-assed job to do the remainder of the work. He'll most likely return, but for now, his eyes are on Lilith. He isn't sure WHICH of them did the deed, but he doesn't seem to care.

Instead, as he crosses the room to close the distance between Carver and himself, he does relay, "We are her friends. We've been together through thick and thin for much of our childhood. It's not just a horde of people, it's a horde of people who /care/ about her. Maybe that's not something that you're used to." Turing now, his attention to Lilith as that's who he's here for, he adds on, "I'd spoken to her the evening before. She sounded well enough, so when we showed up... I can't say that her state was what we'd expected. And when the others saw her, their need to be supportive and caring kicked in. Because Lilith is one of us."

Byron getting a hold of the wetted robe and going for a mop has Lilith launching herself toward the couch in a ready to sprawl moment, glad to take the lie down advice, but Carver's there, which slows her. And it slows her more once he's exerted and her other senses catch onto that. She kind of steps back in barefoot confusion and looks around the room before she sees the water pick itself up and fixing the need for the mop with downward slosh into the right place. And she's too fascinated to retch immediately again, eyes wide. But when it's down, she does unwittingly kind of make a noise in her throat somewhere between, "Neat." and "Gross."

Then she retches with liquidy spit-up right on the floor because it's just that kind of day. But it comes with a bright side. After Lilith holds her hand over her mouth, she decides to mumble, "... I think I'm empty now." Maybe just a towel is okay with this mess. She spins a little aimlessly in place with sway to try and sight one and starts toward the laundry closet's sliding doors all boyshorts and tank bra again like that's a perfectly natural state to be in right now while Byron and Carver talk around her, "... I got this. Hang on. Don't-- don't-- I wanna do it. S'mine." Yes. That's your puke puddle, Lilith. But her cheeks and ears are suddenly blazing and she's working her bottom lip hard between her teeth while fighting back words or some other reaction.

Carver's lips purse up only a touch at 'Their need', but, remarkably, any response he has is let go. Set free to the wind. He tried to free up a spot on the sofa when Lilith came over, but alas. It was too late for the surprise comet of vomit, the sight of it causing some epathetic retching of his own. It's a soft noise, back of the throat, lasts about twenty seconds, and doesn't taste of bourbon. So, really, it's the best experience he's had with that in months.

"Alright, pet." Is all he says when she claims her ownership of the newest puddle. "She who... spelt it, dealt it?" A frown. "Ugh. Nope."

Even if Carver doesn't say anything, Byron is quick to add, "And besides, if we hadn't shown up, she'd still be drinking and doing who knows what else." Why was she without someone watching over her! That's what's been on Thorne's mind when he first saw the state she was in and the first annoyance of the day.

But by now he's already standing and watching Lilith do her thing. It's not at all graceful or elegant, but it's difficult to be either when you're filled with that much booze. This is why the intervention was necessary. Or so he believes. He's not as close to her as Carver is, even if he's lingering near them both, but just the sound and... the mess isn't something one can ignore and go about their business. He tries to do just that, however, his own lips now pursed, after taking in a deep breath through the mouth, followed by a heavy swallow.

Perhaps on reflex, he already starts to the kitchen to reach for some dirty towel to dampen, but Lilith is a brave girl, who is also very ill, and insists that she cleans it up herself. This makes him stop. If he has any doubts that she's able to do this, it's because of the state she is in currently, her mind still addled by alcohol. He doesn't move a muscle from where he's paused, allowing her this time to do what she feels needs to be done. "I'm right here for you." Though he does shoot a bit of thin-lined almost frown at Carver for that last bit.

Lilith finds a towel. Lilith cleans up her own mess. But her hand is shaking. She can't take it once Byron says he's there for her. Because she feels betrayed. But she finishes cleaning up her mess. She folds the towel. She picks it up and carries it to the washer. Then once she's there, leaned with her hands gripping, both lamps she fixed prior suddenly shatter into shards of colorful glass with explosion.

Shit. Lilith has been drunk enough to be good and play along, but she can't anymore, she can't. She whips around like a tempest and just unleashes barbs that cut as much as the glass that's flying.

"Were you so scared I was going to try to kiss you again for being alive? Needed to make sure the wires weren't all crossed up, huh? Prove something? Hide behind something instead of talking about it? Fuck you. Fuck. You. Maybe I had it coming, but FUCK you. You and Tobin brought FUCKING DATES to observe and introduce them to Messy Fucking Lilith and her fucked up life. I would NEVER in a MILLION YEARS drag a man after you kissed ME into your HOME unannounced to see you when your whole world is SHATTERED! NEVER! HOW DARE YOU!" Her teeth grit and she's left breathing in furious gasps and huffs. A lightbulb goes in the kitchen, like punctuation.

See, Lilith kind of hazily recalls pretending she was fine and agreeing to the childhood gang with Magnolia included so she could hug on a sorry. But some of those people clearly blindsided her in a vulnerable position. And one of said surprises has clearly wounded her into eyes that are blazing with betrayal.

Lilith's unleashing takes Byron aback. He believed that he was doing right by her and his concern for her is WHAT brought everyone here this day. More often than not, he's calm and collected when women go crazy on him with their hysterics. Now however, after all his worries and all of his concerns. If there's something that snapped inside of her, there's something that snaps inside of him too. Perhaps at the same time that her tantrum destroys the lamps she had fixed.

While this look of being betrayed is not seen in his eyes, he's not about to stand here and listen to her after rant without speaking out himself. "Dates? DATES? We came here to help you. I called you ahead of time to tell you that we'd be over, because we really needed to catch up and everyone was worried about you. How was I supposed to know that you no one was going to be here to make sure that you weren't drunk out of your mind by the time we got here? If you didn't want us to come, you should have TOLD ME on the phone. I told you that the gang was coming. That we'd make a day out of it. This wasn't a fucking surprise."

Then she brings up Vivian and this whole thing about him using her for... who the fuck knows what! "Scared?" Here he stops himself, even though his tone is terse, a deep heavy breath released from his nostrils. No, he wasn't scared. "I'm here with you right now instead of with her." Does this hint where his loyalties lie? "I didn't bring her to parade around you or to flaunt her or ANYTHING like that. I brought her because she was willing to HELP. It's not like we were going to fucking make out in your god damn house and I'm sure that wasn't Tobin's intention either."

"Speakin' of third parties, I'm pretty sure she's doing about 170 down Route 101 right now." Carver mentions, shifting to prop his feet up on the sofa once again as the argument goes on. He's not looking at either of them with any amount of intensity, instead choosing to focus his energy on picking out what appears to be a piece of blackened lettuce from between two teeth.

Lilith stares at Byron like he's lost his goddamn mind. And she continues to stare at him like that before she turns the stare on Carver like she's trying to figure out what he's talking about because she can't figure out what to actually let out at this moment. She honestly seems stunned. Then she just goes bitter cold instead of furious in a heartbeat. Her shoulders drop and she paces to the bathroom to slam the door and THIS time, she does the lock.

Because see. That's Lilith. Lilith shuts people out. It's honestly kind of amazing, in retrospect (thanks vodka) that she agreed to letting anyone in. It might explain why someone else hasn't been around and Carver's been the one picking up the slack, at risk of literal en fuego as addled and drunk as she was for most of it. It's hard for her to let people in. Her very life has been carefully crafted walls.

But she tried. She tried. Just like Byron tried. That's kind of the problem with perception and people being on the same pages in the middle of a whole lot of screwy stress and grief and problems-- it's hard and nothing guarantees good intentions will have good results. Were there any right paths to make sure things go smoothly? Would this have been any better had she been sober?

Clearly, it went off the rails at some point and she held all of that back until now. She doesn't know honestly what the fuck she agreed to on the phone at this point. Nothing breaks when she's in the bathroom. It's just dead silence.

Byron believed he was doing the right thing. Gathering friends, new and old alike, to touch base with someone who was incredibly close to him at one time. A time that now feels so long ago, yet the wounds from it all still felt fresh. Especially now, but this time, rather than just avoiding him and cutting him off, Lilith erupted into an explosion of fury. Before retreating back into the bathroom. Byron hated her for it back then. He's just as angered by it now.

In his mind, he wanted to bring everyone into the fold. Working together made the team stronger. That's what was on his mind. If the others had taken notices, during the ring incident, would it have ended things earlier than it did naturally? He's not sure, but this was the first step in ensuring that everyone else was kept up-to-date. That everyone else realized what had happened to them. Their friends.

Yes, there's still anger within him. This quiet anger and then she pulled away from him yet again.

A look is then given to Carver, it's not a kind look, but he does come out and say, "And this is where you gloat." He ignores the mention of Vivian and his car. Vivian is so far away in his mind right now.

Pulling himself out of the chair in relative silence, Carver does a twofer. Part the first: Checking where most of the remains of the two colorful lamps he can find have gone, checking for colorful glass and a dustpan. Two? While he's doing that, looking for replacement light bulbs. Cupboards open and close, some leftovers are pinched, and the socket is turned off because you just know that deep in his heart he wants to stick a finger across the filament to feel alive. Not that he has issues, or anything.

"Nah, mate." He finally speaks up, his head ducking under the sink in the rare case that might be where the hell the lightbulbs are kept. It's Lilith, maybe she just upcycles everything? "You fucked up, but people fuck up all the time. Misread situations, figure other folks would react to things how they themselves would, so on, so forth. It's a LEARNING experience." His voice sounds more than a little tinny. Thanks, cupboard. You were a good friend, but Carver must abandon you now to rest his arms atop the counter and pull himself up with more than a little exertion. "Hell knows I'm not exempt. Just try being a friend for her, not for what you've got planned."

His entire body feels racked by tension, leaving his neck and shoulders aching as he plays through in his mind everything that Lilith had just said to him. Byron's eyes are on the door once more, staring at that knob just as Carver begins to speak. For that instance, it pulls his attention away from the door to stare those dark eyes out on the Brit. He really expected the guy to be an asshole. And he probably is, but he'll fall silent to listen to what the man says at least.

Those dark eyes return to the door once more, "You don't think I was a friend for her when I set this up?" Vivian was a mistake, but he wasn't about to separate his friends and those closest to him and put them into neat boxes. "Where I failed was not stopping her from taking the bottle to begin with and I don't intend to make that mistake again." There's this urge to dump out all of Lilith's booze, seeing as they were neatly collected by the group to store away and to keep out of her reach. Byron's had his experience with drunks. He doesn't much care for them.

The muscles in his lean frame feel coiled and ready to spring, that's how tense he is. He was ready to take action, but what was there to do? He could continue watching the bathroom door like a hawk, the way he is doing now. In fact, he could probably do this all day. But instead, he moves, taking the difficult effort of tearing his eyes from that door. He knows where the alcohol was collected.

There's time for Byron to reply to Carver. At some point something does break, but it sounds kind of small and manual and like something tiny instead of a whole mirror or glimmer rage. It might be a little sulky, but the door is in the way to block that view away. Then the lack of noise turns into teeth brushing and water running, then plain gargling and spitting before Lilith comes out with her breath held.

She looks at Carver. She looks at Byron. She lets them finish saying what they're going to say. At some point in there she brushed her hair. She's still pretty bleary eyed and not real steady on her bare feet, but sobering topics, time passed without drink or pills with food and coffee instead, and all that getting sick at least has her looking some form of coherent and steady enough where it counts.

After a press of her lips, she wanders over to crawl onto the bed and she grabs Dog. She's not bitter and cold or angry anymore. She's just kind of resigned and softened and all worn down after that tempest rage of letting all the hurt out. She addresses Carver first once she's curled around the plush thing to eye him where he stands, "You look nice today. Very handsome. Please don't die. I like you." Then her visual attention swaps to Byron and she's quiet a long moment before she tacks on, still talking to the Brit despite where her eyes go, "I think we need a little bit of time, me and him. Call you?"

Carver's mouth is half open to reply when Lilith re-enters the room. Not when she breaks something. No, that's ignored. That's a noise you can get used to over twenty years. "I am nice today, Lily. And I tried that dying thing once before, remember? I'm finding it quite hard to get it to stick these days. " Any opinion of how she's looking, or the fact he's next on the chopping block is both hidden and clearly revealed by the slight change in dialect. The accent's just as strong as ever, mind you.

Just like that, he pad-pad-pads his way to the loft door, throwing the two remaining occupants (Three, if you include Dog) a quick, lazy salute. "Find your phone, first. If you send that peach emoji thing icon I'll treat it as high priority."

Byron, apparently, got all the words he was gonna get.

Once the door opens, Byron's attention drifts in that direction, but that doesn't stop him bottle collecting and doing more tidying up. It was a good thing that the gang was here today, because as a group, they got a lot done. There was still more to do and then there was the office, but Byron doesn't believe he'll call on the troupes for that task. Not after today.

Whatever was broken in the bathroom does spark his curiosity, but in this semi-annoyed mood of his, he doesn't care enough to check at the moment. In case, it angers her further. Nevermind, that she's already crawling onto bed. Each of his movements are done with thoughtful care and he says nothing, allowing the pair to speak and he keeps his body and mind busy with things.

There's a little twitch of Lilith's lips as she looks at the door closing behind Carver with that ending commentary, and she calls after him, "Maybe I'm all eggplants, you dunno my panties." She thinks. She kind of hopes. She'd remember losing those around him, right? Probably. Maybe. Hmm. She looks at the door a little longer after it's closed, then she takes to watching Byron moving around.

After a long moment, she exhales a hard puff of air and reaches to pat the bed, "C'mere?"

Byron has placed most of the alcohol in the apartment into a neat little bundle. It's pretty heavy too, but he'll deal with that when the time comes. While there's still some bitterness that can be seen more within his eyes than his features, he does take note of just how she looks after having wandered out from the bathroom. There's a moment where he doesn't say anything and simply watches her in this silent observance.

Then he takes a first step, followed by another, leaving the collected bottles of alcohol behind. Now that Carver was gone, he had no real reason to be here. Especially now that Lilith's found her way into bed to rest off the whole mess that was today. "How are you feeling?" He tries to add warmth to his tone, but it comes out strained.

When he reaches the bed, he stands there rather than taking an immediate seat. The laid-back Byron was replaced by someone more wound up. Or perhaps that's who he'd grown to become or who Byron always was. His eyes remain locked on her before he turns to seat himself down in the indicated space. His back is rigid though he leans forward, resting his elbows on his thighs. He's not much of an apologizer, but he does come out to say, "I'm sorry that I fucked things up today." His eyes are cast forward, staring straight ahead, in fact. "That wasn't my intention."

"It hurt. It's not... easy for me to let others in. But I was trying. Because I thought it would just be people that have seen the mess I came from in the first place. It's not easy to look at your life and other people's lives and... open the mess I have to compare. It's not how I want to meet new people. Not as broken Lilith. I want to be strong Lilith, together Lilith for that, and I was never going to be that today in this mess you made."

She has to pause briefly and her eyes wander off of the man to look beyond him, at the door, recalling in a near whisper, "You shot the door to hell. That scared me. It showed me how far apart it ripped us. I never saw you shoot me, but I saw that. And I... you brought her. I couldn't handle that as a surprise or a first meeting. Not after what I..." Lilith presses her lips flat and has to stop and swallow down a little thickly before continuing, watching Byron's posture for a moment before her eyes close.

She feels silly hugging the hell out of that little plush Dog husky, but it's what she has and what she's willing to latch onto at the moment because... she has more to say and she's afraid to touch him now after what she did. Not what she did in here. It's no secret that Lilith gets angry and slams doors and breaks things. It is progress, though, that she's opted to come back out and talk when it's done. She can't stop thinking about how she messed up at the hospital. And that probably explains a large amount of her confused and accusatory rage that came out when it did. But she trails that off that subject.

"You meant well. You wanted to show me people cared so I wouldn't pull away. I know that too. It's honestly why I agreed. But I guess I got confused by what you meant by 'the gang'. I just... I mean... Byron... you hate even being seen wrinkled. And I was laid bare. And you know I've... lived my life very different for a long time to avoid that. So I reacted. But deep down I... think I know where your heart was."

"Why can't you be strong Lilith? Even here, in this mess?" Byron asks quickly, his tone almost sharp, but he's still in that brooding mode despite the apology. He really was not expecting her to react the way she did, so he's still rather put off. The Byron she had known would always pretend to that he didn't care, that nothing bothered him. Unless something did, but it was rare for him to show it. He was good at hiding his pains and his anger.

This Byron was strained, stressed with so many things on his plate outside of the incident with the ring. And yet, that particular incident continues to haunt him in more ways than one.

"You know what you're capable of. You survived through te hell that ring put you through. If you needed more time." His words come out quickly, before he pauses. He finally turns to look on her from out of the corner of his eyes. "I would've canceled it. And you know that it's not about meeting the new faces. Or else you wouldn't have drunk all that vodka." There's some accusation there, but he follows this up with a sighs. This whole thing was a mistake and he knew that it was /his/ fault.

She mentions the gun, his gaze looking out towards the door now, only vaguely remembering that evening. He wasn't in control of himself, but he sort-of remembered doing just that. It's why when he encountered that very same door again, he knew that something was missing as if he had been repaired.

Then there is good ol' Vivian his eyes remaining focused forward again, but after a few seconds his posture straightens, hands still resting on his lap. At the time, he didn't see it as a problem. They were a group of friends going to merrily repair the shit out of this loft. Like you see in the movies. It was supposed to be a great day of getting to know one another, exchanging stories, and having those not involved realize the terrible ordeal that they've both had to go through. Among other terrible ordeals that continue to plague him even now. The ring was just a small part of it. The murders happened at that exact same time and have never stopped happening.

"I would never use Vivian in that way. As a shield to protect myself against you?" He only quarter turns now, but he's looking in her direction from out of his edges of his eyes. "What happened at the hospital. It wasn't just you. I could've stopped you, earlier but I didn't. It just felt... right. And yet I wasn't even sure if you were reacting strictly off of your stress and everything we've been through." There's a thoughtful pause, when he says, his own tone quieter, "Even if it were..." He leaves it at that.

"I thought I'd given you enough of a warning that..." That they'd see the put-together Lilith? That she wouldn't be laid bare when they showed up? Because he would never put himself in that situation. Byron was always put-together. Hiding his emotions. He doesn't finish the sentence, "I made a mistake." There's a twitch at his shoulders now. He wants to say more, but that would be a mistake as well. And he knows it. So instead, he goes with, "I wasn't thinking that you weren't ready for any of this. But I also didn't want to put off cleaning the mess /I/ made here any longer. When we do the office, I'm not inviting anyone."

Lilith is quiet and clearly has opinions about what happened in the hospital, or explanation. But she leaves it. Maybe that's a mistake in the long run. But she leaves it. Instead she scoots some to grab a pillow to put under her cheek with Byron's continued taut posture.

"I've made a lot of mistakes too. I wanted to be strong. But I was scared to let people in too. I thought it'd make me brave or at least make me... not care." Lilith pauses, "I killed Hank, Byron. What I did killed him. I have to bury the only family I ever had tomorrow and it's my fault. I could have told that man to go, we didn't have to open that box. And I know... you don't understand. You've always had people. You're never alone. I--"

The woman breathes out a quiet sigh to herself and watches Byron's posture a little longer, "I'm always alone, Byron. I made it that way. I did it. I still do. But it was less lonely... 'cause he needed me. And as long as someone needs you... you're not really ever fully alone. Even if you hate them for needing you. Now I'm... I don't even know who I am, Byron, if I'm not..." Cleaning up Hank's messes. Those kept her solid when she was flying apart. It's conditioning, it's may not make any sense to much of anyone, but that was her baseline, that was her normal. And it's fucked up, yes, but it was hers.

Hank's fuckups made her feel together. Now she's the fuckup in his wake. And the wake of so much else.

"What you did? You didn't do anything, Lil?" If Byron had retained that sense of strain all throughout their private conversation earlier, his tone coming out even and cold with each word uttered, no matter how he tried to mask it, his words now sound lively, animated. Appalled that she would even think that. Shifting his seat to better face her now, there's this crease in his brow when he seeks her gaze out directly. "We told each other that we wouldn't put blame on ourselves for what we did to each other. The same goes for Hank, Lilith. You didn't do anything. If anyone's to blame it was Jack Michaels for dragging us into this mess."

He then blinks when she tells him that he always had people. "I chose to never be alone because if I were, I'd dwell on how shitty my life was. So I surrounded myself people by befriending the kindest, most generous kid in school who had the best mom in the world. Kids would flock to her. I would never be alone then." Byron takes this personally because his parents were never there for him and his father was something else. After Stephen Thorne died, however, Byron used his strongest coping mechanism to be just like Tobin, but different. More charismatic, a smooth talker. This is what worked for him.

These are things Byron would never admit to as a child. He was that shining Paladin, perfect in every way, even when his life was less than ideal.

Shaking his head slowly, he breathes in deeply through flared nostrils as he bites down at his bottom lip. "I never understood why you cared so much about Hank. Even as a kid, I could see that he was going to keep holding you down. It frustrated me seeing him around town, drunk as a skunk. Especially, after you'd pulled away and I'd still see /him/ around." Those eyes begin to lower, idly focused on the dog, though in truth, he's watching her. Her hands, her arms. Something.

"It's time to make a new life for yourself without Hank, Lil. A far better life that he'd ever given you. You're without baggage now. The way that I lost my own baggage when /my/ father died. You're free now, Lilith, even if it feels like it hurts now." Byron was never hurt by his father's death. These are not the warm, supporting words that most would have ever said to Lilith. But in his mind, this almost mirrors his own young life and he remembers how light he felt to finally be free.

"You'll see now that the burden is lifted." HIs gaze lifts once more, "We'll work to get you out of this mess that you're in." With Felix. "Find a way out so that you can finally, truly, move on."

"Where do I go when I move on, Byron? You always looked forward. I don't know if I... know how to do that after dead-ending myself so long." Lilith sounds miserable and lost when she speaks, though she takes a long time to listen to Byron. Her arms keep grip on the stuffed Dog even after she scoots gradually to give him space while he's tense and faced away because that's... foreign for her, to a lot of degrees.

In fact, it's almost like she's trying to distance herself from the chill of it all before he picks up with animation. But even that doesn't relax her quite because she huddles more in curl around the stupid ass stuffed animal she's holding like a child.

She did that too. She made that happen inside him. She made the fear to reach for him. She's keenly aware.

"I don't want to be alone." Her chin nuzzles down on the fuzzy husky's head while she watches Byron all curled up on her side with the thing, cheek against a pillow with previous arranging. Then she asks, "Will you get me a real dog? I want it to come from you too."

Where do I go when I move on, Byron? Byron knows the answer to this one. It's so clear to him that he doesn't hesitate to respond once it's asked, "Anywhere away from here, of course." A strange smile forms on his lips, as something begins to dawn on him. Hank was no longer tying her to this place. She was, in fact, truly free. Unlike some of the others with family here or a purpose. "Once we fix things with you and Monaghan, I want you to leave and to never look back." He doesn't mean that last part. Well, in a way, he does. No good ever comes from Gray Harbor.

Though she was angry with him for treating her like a child, her antics now, with Dog almost proves his point in some way. But of course, he won't say it. It's he, who reaches out to touch upon her arm, feeling her skin and the synthetic fibers of the stuffed husky's fur all beneath his fingertips. "You can be whatever you want to, Lil. There's no one to send money back to. You'll be working for yourself and only yourself now."

That is, except when she requests something of him. "I ran into a dog typing on an old-fashioned typewriter when I went to city hall last. I thought he looked exactly like Dog on first sight. Too bad, I couldn't go back there and fetch that one, huh?" That's a sentient dog. "He told me that he forgave me, when I warned the rest that..." This is when what Harper said earlier comes into play, "That what if we could've prevented these murders if we just burned those bones."

A dog. A real dog, right. He won't bring up the question on whether she'd be afraid to hurt it in any way. That had come to mind before. What he does say is, "I'll see what I can do." Adding in, "Dog's going to be pretty jealous about it though."

"I won't be free for a while yet. You know it's not that easy, don't you?" Lilith stares at Byron for a long and distant moment when he tells her to leave here, anywhere but here. Away from him. She looks at his fingertips on her arm and she loosens the hold on the stuffed dog as she's taken with sudden goosebumps and new nausea she tries to hide.

Secretly, she suddenly wants to throw the dog away from herself, inexplicably. She doesn't seem to have many other words. Especially once he starts talking about a dog on a typewriter, is he fucking with her right now? Like right now? She's actually kind of unclear, mentally, about how that goes down, despite the strange improbable she's downright LIVED through.

At least it's a distraction. And it does come with the added reality of bones attached to the tidbit, so okay, maybe Byron's not fucking with her.

Lilith's face kind of runs a gauntlet from stare, to nausea, to mild confusion to resignation all over again. Eventually she says, "He'll get over it. Things change."

And she's going to get over him. Things change.

Do they?

Yes, Byron knew that it would be easy for her to just leave. And yet, just the prospect excited him, because he really wanted her to break loose from what shackles her to this town. Though he does remember that Lilith offered to help Tobin find his mother and this makes the smile fade slightly. It's what he'd promised to help with as well. "I know. But if you continue to do good work and pay off what Hank owed him--" He has that bad habit where he wants to tell her that he'll pay the debt, but he knows full well that she'd much prefer to handle those things on her own.

"Just... Just don't tell me that there's an Addington or a Baxter somewhere in your bloodline." By the sound of it, he's had his fill with the calamities that befall both families. But then again, what else could go wrong right?

When she doesn't look to believe his story of the dog typist, he doesn't expect her to fully grasp it. He doesn't go on to mention the other creatures that he'd seen in that place. Not all of them are as pleasant as an anthropomorphic husky.

When a touch of paleness returns to her features, Byron is afraid that he must have kept her up longer than she ought be. She was supposed to be resting. Or is the fact that she 'll be burying Hank tomorrow. He knows what he'd said about that matter and perhaps now that he's looking back on it in hindsight, his words may have seemed a little harsh. "I'll... be there to pay respects tomorrow."

Giving the place a wary look, he asks, "I'll clean up all the food stuff and order more later if you want to stay." Carver wasn't here and while he was annoyed by the man's presence, he'd feel guilty leaving her alone. No matter what she'd prefer. He extends a hand towards her, an invitation to a hug, his features softened, "It's going to be okay, Lil. You've been through more than anyone can ever imagine. It's going to be okay." He hopes to god that his words hold any truth now.

"I have no clue who my mother is. Who knows." Lilith tells Byron, ungodly quiet other than that for a long, long time. She lets him talk. She lets him look around. She lets him plan. And all the while inside she's chaos while the outside of her is so very, carefully still, lashes downcast to look at nothing at all. She doesn't want to be anyone's task or guilt. She knows he rationally wants the best for her. But he doesn't know what outside this place was like for her the first time she tried to be free, either, not really.

It wasn't his intention.

Don't look back.

But it's like a thousand cuts all over again reminding her what she ruined so long ago and ruined all over again. It's very hard not to feel that right now. But she's had enough, enough, enough breakdown and sheer stubborn will has her mechanism motion forward into the hug with shifting to reach into it after casting the dog aside now that she doesn't have to grip something inanimate to replace human contact.

"Please call for a ride, Byron. It'll all be here tomorrow. I love you. Go home."

Lilith's never really said that to anyone, really. There were hearts, there were giggly semblances of it in different ways, maybe, once. But she says it now, flat out and quiet while holding close to Byron with her eyes closed. And it sounds so very much like goodbye. Maybe because she wants him to leave her to return to the life he made and earned and is trying to impart that. Maybe it's something else.

Byron takes comfort in their embrace, holding her tightly within his arms with his cheek pressed against the top of her head. It's only here that he fully realizes how bad things really got earlier in the day. They were both angry at one another. And though he felt that he was doing what was best, he always forgets how she had shut him out. He thought she was getting better, but he was mistaken in that assumption. He felt like such a fool, the man with such well laid out plans.

He'd dug his heels in earlier, not allowing anyone, especially not Carver... or Vivian, for that matter, tell him when to leave. This was Lilith now. A mostly sober Lilith too. But then when those words leave her lips, it does take him by surprise. There's a quiet swallow, she may be able to feel that movement in his throat. "I love you too, Lil. I've never stopped." He doesn't think, despite eventually having moved on with his life at some point. At a time where he was slowly developing into the person he felt, he was meant to be.

Finally, he releases her, after placing a kiss upon her crown, a hand slowly grazing down the side of her arm as he holds her there for a moment to get a good look at her. There was sadness in her eyes, or so he thought. He rarely uses his powers on his friends, but there's this part of him that wants to use it right now. Instead, he graces her with a quiet smile and moves to stand, releasing her now in full. Yet, he's reluctant to leave, despite it all. Even if it were her wishes. "I'll see you tomorrow," Before the funeral, "Take care of yourself, Lily. And I'm always just a phone call away."

With that he finally turns, moving pass the cupcakes and what is left of the pizza rolls and baby shrimp. He feels like he should stop and turn back, but hasn't he done enough to upset her already? He continues to play back the events of the day in his mind and rather than call for Vivian to come and pick him up, he'll use this time, in this summer heat, to walk his way home. Gray Harbor isn't that large a town after all.

Lilith feels everything about that hug with Byron and she commits it all to memory because she doesn't know, really, what happens from here, what sticks, what festers, what bitters and breaks, what slams together like a tempest only to fall apart again because the odds and damages are stacked. She feels the swallow, she feels the warmth after all that tension and chill before, she smells his cologne and his very skin because she knows that now too, adjusted to life as a man instead of a boy.

They've had their platonic overnights more than a few nights now, no matter how innocent or not innocent their actual thoughts were during those times, and there's been room for her to grow accustomed and adjust with him wrapped around her in bed. She relearned the way he sleeps and she realized it was kind of the same as he slept when they shared sleeping bag or blankets next to each other so many times when younger. So his breathing catching a little with surprise or emotion there with his own confessing, god, she feels that too.

The kiss, the stroking touch, her eyes, they are sad. Horribly so. But she smiles some at him anyway. And she means it when her lips turn upward. She's given him tomorrow, afterall. She's not shutting him out. But she's probably trying to come to terms with one thing or another and right now, that means space to be Lilith in her own damn mess. (Yeah, okay, his mess too, but that's not the mess she's focused on.)

Then after she reaches a hand to thumb touch against the corner of his mouth with graze of bristle at his facial hair, she drops it and lets Byron stand to leave. The door closing is quiet, why does it seem so loud?

Lilith makes a distressed noise at the door after Byron actually goes. But this is the one single time she didn't expect an argument from him. She went and pulled out the big guns and she doesn't get to call him back. It just had to be said. They almost killed each other. And they're probably still killing each other slowly in ways they can't help. It's just the way things are. And that's why she had to say it. One day might be too late, the way they've been living lately.

Love hurts. That's how you know it's there, according to Lilith. And no one will ever understand the weight of what she just said like Byron Thorne can.