2019-08-07 - HotAshHell69

Who knows where the rest of the house is, some might be in their room, work, annoying the good citizens of Gray Harbor. It's always a crap shoot on what might be happening with the group. But Ash is home, music turned up loud enough to drown out quiet conversation, if there was any. Today is cleaning day, Ash style.

Do people just drop by on each other without so much as a text in warning these days? Evidently, Sparrow does. The music is a good sign someone's home, and that's all she needs. The knock is solid, tripled, nothing tentative about it. Outside, a next door neighbor waits with hands shoved comfortably into the pockets of her cut-off shorts, pushing up the edges of the baggy grey tanktop she wears. She hasn't bothered with shoes for the walk over, and... is that a splotch of mud on her left shoulder? It dried some time ago. Really, she could've tidied herself up a bit, but her make-up game's still on point, eyes lined, muted hue on her nearly perpetually smiling lips.

That knock almost gets lost under the sound of the music, but Ash still swings the door open, standing there in a tank top and shorts, with a broom in her hand that has a face drawn on the surface of the wood handle. "Hey!" She greets when she spots the person at the door, then she leans out, looking in the direction of Sparrow's house to see if there is anyone else following before she steps to the side, "If the music is too loud, sorry. If you're after a cup of sugar I don't think we have any....and I don't think Runa is here."

Hand pulled from pocket, Sparrow gives Ash an entirely unnecessary wave, befitting her cheerful smile. She, too, looks back to her house, but... nope, nothing unusual there. Wherever the other residents are, they have not followed. Invited in, she accepts, giving the place a look around even as Ash runs down a list of reasons she might be here. At the conclusion, she turns her smile back around and starts at the top. "First, the music will never be too loud. I mean, that's what noise-cancelling headphones are for. And if you ever hit rave-level bass, well. I mean. You best be holding a fucking rave and inviting the rest of us." She actually sounds almost serious about that. "Second, I know better than to do any cooking in that kitchen." Her smile sharpens a little, impish glint in her eyes, there and gone. "But you got it in three. Really, really looking forward to catching up with her. And to making sure you remembered to tell her and Jens about the cookout that my brother forgot to tell me about?"

"I told everyone." Ash pushes the door closed behind Sparrow, "And then a mud fight happened, so there's a pretty good chance that not a single person remembers it. But I did tell them about it." She moves to promp the broom against the wall, then goes to her phone to turn the music down enough that conversation can happen without either one of them yelling, "Marius and I were going to go meat shopping for it, and Astrid said she'd be willing to man the grill...I wasn't sure if in addition to cake making that your brother wanted to do all that. Want a drink?"

"Already one up on my--" Sparrow starts, catching how loud that last word is, a second taken to adjust her own internal volume control before she continues. "On my roommates. Gonna give 'em credit for being distracted with C getting a job and Alfie..." She lifts a hand in a paused gesture that eventually concludes with a little wave that doesn't really say anything much. "I'd love a drink. And... I'd check with Corey. He can get kinda stabby about sharing cooking duties? But, I mean. You two are already engaging in baking projects together, so..." Why, yes, she is implying that this is significant.

"Not really." Ash heads towards the kitchen to get down a glass, then she starts randomly pouring alcohol into it. This is why she ends up pouring drinks most of the time, evidently. She's not a stingy pour. "He's baking, I'm just putting the garden on top. Which'll be really great, nothing could go wrong at all."

There is some serious confidence happening on this, which might hint that everything will go wrong. "Did he tell you about the idea to put a gate in the fence?" She moves back into the living room, holding out the glass to Sparrow.

"Uh huh," is the entirety of Sparrow's commentary on the baking project. One might guess she's heard a very similar line from the other half of the contributor list. She didn't buy it the first time either. She lingers at a comfortable conversational space while Ash pours, watching without caring too much about what this magical concoction becomes. Dark brows go up when the drink's handed over, but it seems more in response to the words. "Whose idea?" she wonders before taking a taste.

"I don't even remember. But it'll make it easier to go back and forth, right?" No. It's the same distance. But less out in the open on the street. "I'm sorry that he didn't tell you about the cookout idea, though. Maybe we should just set up a system where like...." She pauses, thinking about it, "I guess just a giant group text would be easiest."

"Uh..." Sparrow narrows her eyes slightly like she might actually be approaching this as a math problem. It's not adding up. But she doesn't point that out, easily directed onward. "I mean, it's not like I wouldn't have noticed. But yeah, if you want to give me the capacity to annoy everyone you live with, I am so very okay with that. I can even be used tactically, for the right price." Sip.

"Tactically? Like....Marius requires annoying and I slip you a five?" Ash wonders with a laugh, moving to dig out a small notebook that has the start of a grocery list on it. Then she flips to an unused page to begin writing down peoples phone numbers, "We're all pretty good about terrorizing each other, but I'm certainly not going to stand in the way of someone annoying the boys. That's just good fun."

Sparrow, smiling ear-to-ear with her eyes happily half-lidded, nodnodnods. "I can be relentless," she promises. As the notebook comes out, she takes a bigger swig of the mixed drink while fishing her phone out with her other hand so that she can provide Alfie's number in addition to her own. "Oh. Shit, right. So. AJ and I had a question for you, the, uh... big unresolved something from the other morning." Without yet elucidating, she takes another sip, leaving potential awkwardness to hang for a second or three before she asks, "What bar?"

"That Astrid and I work at?" Ash glances up, tearing the numbers off to pass them over before she writes down any numbers Sparrow shares, "Two if by Sea. It's down near the Boardwalk." She waves in the general direction of it, "Not bad, has an outdoor spot that lets you look out on the ocean, which is really nice when the weather is good." She leans a hip against the counter, idly chewing on the end of her pen, "You guys should totally stop by sometime, though."

Sparrow tucks the torn page away in the same pocket her phone fits in, to be added to the gadget later. "Yeah?" Her gaze unfocuses as if maybe she's trying to picture the place or figure out if she's been there before. Or passed by it, at least. "Yeah," sounds resolved but soft, a little like part of it got snagged on some other thought. She flashes Ash a small smile and continues less distractedly, "We might. Soon. While the weather's still warm." She drifts a little, starting to wander the unfamiliar space while they talk.

"You should. Because we're awesome, and we have booze." Like every other bar. "I think Ast is working tonight, but not sure if she is. I forgot to check if she was since today is my day off." Which means she's mostly blocked out any and all thought of work and things. "You guys settling in, though?"

"Is it somewhere you'd go on your nights off?" Sparrow wonders, angling a half-grin back at Ash as she continues drifting, checking out other people's stuff all nosy-like. She gives her glass a little wobble on the settling in question. "We need furniture. Or to accept that there will just be vast swaths of empty space. Like, I don't think I noticed how big the place really is until we moved our stuff in and realized how little space it actually takes up. And finding cheap couches which don't come pre-equipped with their own questionable stains is hard." Turning back to Ash with a single-shoulder shrug. "That aside?" Her smile's easy, earnest. "Yeah. I like it a lot. And Corey's so fucking happy with it. Spent half the day out back planting veggies. It's nice." Beat. "How long have you all been in this place?"

"Ast and me have been here like three years? More?" Ash shakes her head, "A few years, at least. Long enough that there's probably old bills lost behind furniture, and questionable amounts of unused sports equipment in a closet." She then waves a hand over her head, "But they all moved in more recently, because the other roommate we had moved off for grad school finally, and we needed help with the rent." She tilts her head, "There's a resale shop that's pretty good, usually they don't take stuff that's visibly stained."

"We're hoping to find a fourth to take up the last bedroom. We'll be alright without it, but..." Sparrow's sure Ash already knows how high their rent must run. When directed to the resale shop, she makes a face, brows drawn down as her nose scrunches a little. She almost looks guilty, like she's been called out. "Okay, but... do they have a very distracting lamp selection? Cuz if I'm being entirely honest? I, uh. Might have gotten distracted while Alfie and I were out thrifting. But wait until you see our rave Jesus lamp. He's magnificent."

"They might...their inventory tends to change a whole bunch, so I'm not entirely sure, honestly." Ash blinks, then pauses, "Wait. Rave Jesus lamp? What the hell does that look like?" She shoves the notebook and pen back into the drawer, looking like she's picturing all kinds of very crazy things that this lamp could look like.

Sparrow smiles goes delightedly wide as she reaches back into her pocket for her phone and moves closer to Ash. Glass set down she starts searching her phone for a picture. "We found the most ridiculous lamp, sent the picture off to Corey. He was rightfully horrified." She holds her phone out, a very very strange ceramic Jesus lamp on display. "I mean, we had to bring him home. He needed a good home. And a makeover. Desperately. Nothing a stop by the craft store and a few beers couldn't fix."

Ash leans forward to look at the picture, "Oh my god...That's the wildest thing I think I've seen in a really long time." She shakes her head, laughing, "So after your trip to the craft store what are you going to do to him? Please tell me you'll be blinging his little chest clock thing out."

"Mmhmm," Sparrow hums happily as she shoves her phone away again. "Just like Flava Flav. Saint and Sinner face tattoos. Whole lot more color." Beat. "Glitter." Which might be a weapon of spite, the way she tacks it on like that. "Got some other things to paint, too, but nothing half as exciting. Though I've been wondering if I might be able to get away with doing the walls. In the basement, at least. Need to reread the lease. All the muted eggshell is getting me down."

"You can temporarily wallpaper the walls with fabric. I heard that somewhere, but I have no actual idea how to do it." Ash glances around, checking the walls in the house, which are at least standard off white down here. "I can't remember what our lease says...we just keep resigning it every year."

Sparrow's eyes go wide at the idea, instantly unfocused as thoughts turn inward, trying to imagine how that might be done, how it could look. "Huh," sounds like it might be a very condensed way of saying 'that merits experimentation.' "I just signed ours a couple weeks ago, but I hadn't been thinking too hard about those details, ya know? Kinda fell in love with a bathtub and the rest didn't much matter after that." Hyperbole, to be sure, but delivered like it was fact. "Who's got the master suite here?"

"I think Astrid does." She should know this, honestly. "Unless..." She glances upwards, like she's trying to remember who did get what room, "You know, Marius might have ended up with it, because that's the room the last roommate had before she moved out. And I don't actually remember Astrid changing rooms."

Sparrow just stares at Ash for a second like she doesn't comprehend something that's being said. But then that look's gone, and she's moving on. "I offered the boys whatever room they wanted. Corey only laid claim to the kitchen and Alfie said he didn't care, so." She shrugs helplessly. Nothing to be done about it. Obviously, she had to take the master suite. "Jealous now that he's seen the tub. Neither of 'em even looked to see what they were giving up." And she couldn't be happier about that.

Ash laughs, "Well, their loss." She shrugs her shoulders, "That's why you should always check the rooms before agreeing to take one. Or I guess, not take one." She points towards part of the ceiling, "My room...very plain, very boring. But it is my very own fortress of solitude."

"Why?" Sparrow asks directly but without any edge of judgment. She sounds curious. It's out there for a second before she realizes how ambiguous it is and clarifies, "Why plain? And why describe it as boring?" With a leftward quirk of her lips, she adds, "And why indulge me if you like your solitude?"

Ash laughs at the questions, "False modesty for the purpose of levity. My room is fucking amazing...I've got a big canopy bed with curtains that block out the light. I can lay around in it like I'm a princess. And I'm totally not into solitude, I love people and visitors."

Sparrow answers with her own laughter when the ruse is revealed, genuinely pleased. "Knew I liked you," she croons. With a cant of her head, she studies Ash for a second like there was more judgment to render, more details to pick out. "While I've gotcha being honest--" A little waggle of her hand allows that this might not actually be the case. "--how're things going with my brother?"

"Is it cool that I said all that?" What's that? It's coming from upstairs. "Is it chill that'cher in my head?" Oh, it's just Jens.

In his briefs. Again. He's got his phone and big noise-cancelling headphones on as he skips down the stairs, singing. "'Cuz I know that it's de-li-cate." He does not have a bad voice, all things considered. He does sing the song a few keys... deeper than it's written, but (practically) a capella he's not off-key.

"Things are going..." Ash starts, only to have her response cut off when Jens turns up in his underwear singing Taylor Swift, a brow raising for a moment. But then she just laughs, shaking her head before she moves towards the newest arrival to try and take the headphones off, shouting towards him because that will work, "We have company!?"

Sparrow doesn't look right away, a slow (and untroubled) smirk forming as Ash is inadvertently rescued from what was probably going to be only a very casual interrogation. "Mmhmm." She turns to look as Jens makes it down the stairs, her smile going wide, interrupted only so that she can take a sip of her drink. Like an audience member at an unexpectedly entertaining show.

"Huh?" Jens blinks when Ash yanks his headphones off and yells in his ear. "Ow." He lifts his pinky to his ear and wiggles it in there a bit. "Jesus, okay. What do you want me to do about it?" He glances over, finally, to Sparrow, and brightens. "Hey, Phil." He tilts his chin up. "Sup?" No indication he realizes he's in his underwear in front of a guest. Or he doesn't care.

"Well obviously I want you to dance around the house half-naked." Ash points out before she hands the headphones back to Jens, a hand smacking him on the ass, "Dance monkey, dance." To help her case out she starts to rapidly move out of the way, reaching into the pocket of her shorts to dig out a dollar, "We were just talking about Rave Jesus', are they cool. Please circle y or n."

Sparrow's free hand lifts to waggle a friendly--and certainly amused and vaguely flirtatious--wave in answer to Jens' greeting. Phil. That's her. "Just came by to borrow a cup of sugar," she lies, though the little swish of her glass at least makes it sound like she's alluding to the surely sweet liquor within. She tips a nod to Ash, agreement with the encouragement for the show to continue. "Don't forget the singing. I'm a sucker for pretty boys singing T Swizzle." That expectant look, though? That might be for his answer to the impromptu poll. Serious business.

"The fuck is a Rave Jesus? Does he turn gummi bears to Molly and walk on ... well, actually, I guess water, so--" Jens trails off in his thought process, trying to figure out what the fuck a Rave Jesus is. His phone is already way past the end of 'Delicate' and the chords of 'I Knew You Were Trouble' start up and Jens yanks the headphone chord out of his phone, making the speakers blare it, and breaks out into the whitest dance either of them have ever seen, in his underwear.

"Once upon time, a few mistakes ago, I was in your sights!" He points at Ash, inching towards her hips first. At least he's in good shape because anyone who isn't would not look great doing this half-naked. "You got me alone--" hop turn to Sparrow "--you found me--" hop turn to Ash, "--you found me--" back to Sparrow, "--you found meeee!" Down to his knees for the big finish.

"I'll let her explain." Rave Jesus at least. She'll let Sparrow explain that little glorious thing. What she can do, though, is lift the dollar up into the air, waving it around when he starts to dance, "Woooo!" She's at least not telling him to take it off, because reality is. He might. "Go baby, go!"

Sparrow is going to explain. Really. Promise. Probably. It's just, well, there's no time. There's a show. And she's not going to distract from that glorious performance. As soon as his hips start wiggling Ash's way, she bursts out laughing, half-concerned for his unfortunate choreography and half-ecstatic at the magnificent ridiculousness of the situation. Her eyes go wide when he hops her way, her smile easily ear to ear. But she doesn't take out any cash to coax him over or out of anything. Neither is there any applause when he finishes, just that delighted look angled down at him and a soft, teasing murmur of, "Have you been drinking, Mr. Andersson?" Really, she'll get to Rave Jesus eventually. Maybe.

Eventually Jens does just rise up to his feet again, turning the music on his phone off and flashing Sparrow a grin. "Drinking? Nah. I mean, probably, but not recently. He whips the chord of his headphones out to smack Ash in the butt and then wanders to the kitchen. "Bout to start though." He opens the fridge and bends over to rummage all the way in the back. "Some stout in the back here somewhere..."

He has, evidently, completely forgotten about Rave Jesus.

"OW!" Ash calls after him in response to getting smacked with that headphone cord, shoving her dollar back into her pocket before she turns her attention to Sparrow, "I'd love to say this was unusual, but this is what life is like over here. It's Ah. May. Zing."

"Pity," Sparrow declares when Jens admits to no current intoxication. She stifles a laugh at the smack-and-ow, not entirely successfully, a little snort getting out before she gets it all contained. "I have no doubt," seems wholly sincere as she flicks a look from Ash toward the kitchen then back her way gain. "I remember this party. Junior year?" She doesn't seem sure. "Jens lost... like, literally lost every single article of clothing he was wearing when he got there. Fucking swear he coaxed a girl right out of her dress and went home in that. Looks damned fine in electric blue."

"I still have that dress," Jens says, head popping back up from behind a fridge. "Fit's a little tight now, cuz, well," he closes the fridge door. He's got a bit more back to him than in high school and he definitely has more arms; but it's his torso that he probably means: he was a skinny skinny kid in Junior year. Five years changes a lot at this age. He pops the stout open and takes a drink.

"Color me unsurprised at all." Ash points out to the story, laughing before she moves to drop onto the couch, legs crossing as she makes herself comfortable, "I think I'd be way more shocked if you told me that Jens went to a party, kept his clothes on and didn't talk some chick out of her clothes."

"You ever need an excuse to slip back into it..." Sparrow offers so very benevolently, plainly willing to provide, no self-interest here at all. Her gaze follows Ash, though, going rather thoughtful, scrunched brow and all, as she gives that some thought. "I mean, I can think of at least one where he didn't manage all of those." Given the hint of a grin that forms, there's still a story all the same, but she doesn't see fit to share that one.

One 3/4 naked Viking brother is awesome, two 3/4 naked Viking brothers is Ah. May. Zing. Marius comes rumbling down the stairs in a pair of boxers, rubbing idly at his chest as he ducks his head down to call out, "Hey! Is the washer fixed yet?" He blinks as he spots Sparrow in the house, then just shrugs to himself, "Hey. Was that the strip poker party? Or the nude modeling party?" Because like Ash says, there were a lot of parties where a lot of people got naked.

"No, I fucking won the strip poker party, that was disappointing. I left Nookie's house with ALL my clothes on, it was lame. I kept getting good hands." He saunters--yes, saunters--past Sparrow and then drops on the couch with his beer, feet swinging up on Ash's lap.

"You all had way too much fun in high school. I am shocked none of you guys ended up in jail or pregnant. Well, impregnanting." Since only one person in the room can physically do it. "Or dead." When Jens swings his feet up onto her lap she reaches down, grabbing at his toes to wiggle them, "Are you really alive, Jens?" Ash lifts her other hand up to wave towards Marius, "I had nothing but boring parties where we drank tea and discussed fine literature."

Sparrow gives the second near-naked viking the same amused, maybe flirtatious finger-waggling wave when he heads down. With a lazy little swish of her half-empty glass, she points out, "Your brother's descent came complete with a very enticing song and dance," like maybe Marius needs to step up his game. She snorts for Jens' unfortunate good luck and makes a show of checking him out as he saunters by, hands kept to herself while her eyes do all the work. "It's not like there weren't any condoms in 2015," covers one third of those potential outcomes. How they remained alive and unincarcerated may remain a great mystery of the universe. Eyeing Ash, she asks, "Like your bedroom?" with a quirk of one thick eyebrow.

"I'm super alive, baby," Jens says, taking another drink. "And," he adds, pointing his beer bottle at Ash, "you have no way of knowing I was never tossed in jail, I was probably under eighteen and my record has been sealed." He smiles. "Potentially." He shrugs. "If I had been." Sparrow gets an eyebrow back at the mention of Ash's bedroom, and he looks between the two. "Stout in the fridge," he tells Marius, off-hand.

"Um... dumbass... you know it's easy to lose at poker, right? You just fold the good hands and play the bad ones." Marius chuckles as he shakes his head, coming the rest of the way down the stairs and giving Ash a bright grin -- and then meandering over to give her scalp a scritch with the fingers of his left hand. "That's because Jens needs the attention." He returns Sparrow's little wave with a broader one, his hand snapping out from his temple. "I was the boring one," Marius points out. "I just did the sketching for the nude modeling party." He pauses, "I think I was studying upstairs for the strip poker one." Or maybe he just didn't play until he was too drunk to remember. He points to Sparrow at her comment about condoms, then upnods to Jens and heads toward the kitchen for beer. Because... well... beer.

"Did they?!" Ash lifts her hands up to her mouth, covering it before she drops her hands, "Maybe. But I've known a real skeezy girl or two that could take care of the condoms preventing pregnancy thing. And I mean really skeezy. Like...ew. Pretty sure they're on like kid five by five baby daddies." There is a slight tilt of her head into the scritching, but then she straightens back up when Marius moves on. "And yes, exactly like my very boring, very plain bedroom." She smacks a hand down on Jens' leg, "I'm sure you were the prettiest one there."

Sparrow laughs, loud and easy, for Ash's overacted reaction to her oh so helpful insight on life in the distant past of four whole years ago. She corrects gently, "Deserves," of Marius' wording in regards to the stuff which makes Jens go. "Pretty sure the paint on the curtains was at least a little bit my fault," finally providing some evidence of her own attendance at these parties as something more than witness to other people's mischief. Even that is almost coyly delivered, head tilted slightly down, in case they might be able to catch a glimpse of the halo atop her head, angel that she is. Nevermind the small, sly smile she turns toward Ash, pleased with the insight.

"I know how to play poker and how to lose, I just didn't want to lose on purpose, there's no fun in that," Jens tells his brother with a roll of his eyes. He snorts at Ash and Sparrow. "Look, we had colorful adolescenses, okay? But we're serious, law-abiding adults now." He burps.

"Always bring your own," is Marius's response to Ash's skeez-report, the words filtering easily from the kitchen. He pops the bottle cap off with the edge of the counter, then comes wandering back out sucking on the neck of the beer bottle. He swallows once the stout is no longer threatening to overflow, then assures Sparrow, "Needs." He has a brother's keen (biased) eye for such things. He stops in the doorway between living room and kitchen, pointing toward Sparrow's drink, "You need a refill? I'm assuming it's OJ and whatever was mostly-empty." Otherwise known as an Ash Special. "Ash doesn't have a boring bedroom, by the way." He carefully doesn't look to the blonde as he settles down onto the floor in front of the couch, leaning back somewhere between Jens and Ash, "All the Beiber and Timberlake posters on the wall, and the sex toy racks instead of bedside tables." As Jens labels them 'serious, law-abiding adults,' Marius does air-quotes three times running.

"Please, what is this...2005?" Ash shakes her head at Marius' description of her room, "I do not have Justin anything posters on my walls, thank you." She reaches down to flick at Marius ear when he's within reach. "And Jens both needs and deserves the attention. Both good and bad. Plus..." She sounds excited about this next part, "We should totally play poker one night. Both houses."

"I really gotta do my hair again," Sparrow mutters to herself on the wake of Jens' assessment of then-and-now, like she needs that color back in her life again. Or, at least, some overt advertisement that it's still there. Marius steals all of her attention at his offer, save for the little look she spares for what's left in her glass. What was left in her glass, suddenly disappearing in a single purposeful swig. "Seems bad manners to say no." She offers her empty glass out, but doesn't seem inclined to follow those instructions of OJ-and-whatever herself. Her index finger extends from her glass to point to Ash. "JT is still relevant in 2019 and hot as fuck, thank you." Beat. "And that's a terrible idea. For the rest of you. All the tits and ass for me--" Cuz they're not paying for cash, right? "--while I sit pretty atop my pile of honestly won clothes." Which is to say, yes, yes, fuck yes, she's in.

Jens rollllls his eyes. "Oh, right, god forbid Philemina take her top off." He snickers a bit and wiggles his toes at Ash. "I mean at this point I'm pretty sure we can just declare a persistent house party across both houses, yeah?" He glances at all involved. "I'll vote for Astrid since she isn't here." He grins. "Except for finals week." Because. Yeah.

And Marius probably shouldn't have sat down again. Not only did it put him in reach of Ash's ear-flicking, "Ow!" But he has to haul himself back up to refill Sparrow's drink, which he does readily enough. He collects the glass and heads back to the kitchen, "Poker's good. Just consider this," he gestures between himself and Jens, "A preview of what you'll never see on poker night." It doesn't take long for him to refill the drink, during which time he calls to Ash, "Didn't you hear? He brought the sexy back." Returning, he hands off the drink, "I thought the Anderssens had each others' proxies and Ashtrid had their proxies... but I'm pretty sure that one's going to be unanimous -- except finals week."

"I'd willingly declare it pantless day any day of the week." Ash points out with a shake of her head, kicking her feet up on the coffee table, one leg crossing over the other. "But yeah, poker is good. Maybe we can be wild and crazy and start naked, and get dressed for every hand we win...Then we'll see who really wants to win, versus who just wants to win at poker."

"These tits are glorious, Jens," Sparrow tells him Very Seriously. "Like, I cannot handle the responsibility of all the damage they could do if they ever got out." She lets that look of Dire Warning linger for a whole heartbeat before it drops entirely as she grins after Marius. "Aww. Aren't you adorable." That bravado holds even when she accepts her refill, when she should be saying thank you. It at least seems playful. Finally, she follows toward the seating, finding herself somewhere to settle since she's here for at least another drink. "See. The problem with that is that it guarantees that my brother and I will be naked in the same room together, and that's just, like..." She doesn't look disgusted at the prospect, more annoyed, like it's an inconvenience that just sours the whole thing.

Jens stares at Sparrow, then he looks at Marius, who is basically in the same state of undress as he is, and then he looks back at Sparrow, blinking. He takes a drink. Blink, blink. It's almost like he fails to see her point.

"Wait, Pirts-poker? Reverse strip-poker?" Marius shakes his head slowly, settling down in front of the couch again, with Jens's legs behind him and Ash's off to one side of him, "That... I think that only works if money's involved too, or else nobody'll want to lose." He flashes a grin to Sparrow, "Careful. You throw too many compliments at yourself and I'll start charging flashes for drink service." He shrugs helplessly at Sparrow's concern, pointing over his shoulder to Jens, then upstairs, theoretically toward Runa, but maybe Astrid, "I just don't look. Eye control's important."

"Is that what it's called?" Ash wonders with a nod, reaching for Marius' beer to try and steal it from him, "But...right, money. We can play for pennies, because that's all I'm sure any of us can afford to actually lose at poker." She glances over at Sparrow, pausing in her poker planning, "I agree, just don't look? Otherwise even regular strip poker is never going to work because of the possibility."

Sparrow answers Marius' grin with one of her own and takes a big swig of her drink, like she might be working toward another refill purely to call that bluff. Catching the looks between the brothers, her brow starts to furrow. With a shake of her head, she starts to open her mouth... and then has the good sense to close it before saying whatever was gonna come out. Instead, she lifts her glass, figuring that's maybe a better way to occupy her mouth, but the drink doesn't get there in time. Looking between Jens and Marius, she asks, "You two ever watch porn together?" And then takes a drink.

"Only in passing," Jens replies, immediately, with no sense of shame or decency. He isn't even like, smiling a sly smile or anything; it just comes out super honest and forthright. "Like sometimes one of us will be watching porn and the other won't knock or something --like this one time I just walked right into Marius's room and he was watching some and the dude and chick in it were like, in this super weird position, it was fascinating, we both stared for a bit, and then I just left." He nods a bit. "Fun times." He takes a drink. "But if you're asking if we sit there staring at porn together and jerkin' it, no. Never did that."

"I don't know, I was just making it up." Marius casts the words over his shoulder, toward Ash, only to have her stead his drink. In retaliation, he shifts to lean his head against her thigh, both Anderssen brothers now overlapping her. "Naw, I'm good with playing for clothes. Then people have time to get tipsy before they have to lose anything important." Sparrow's question causes him to look over his other shoulder, to Jens, "I mean... not on purpose. But... yeah." He nods at the story his brother tells, "I think it was called Glowing Juniper or something like that." Grinning crookedly, even as a faint flush touches his cheeks, Marius confirms Jens's words, "Not together." Because it's funny to joke about jerking it in mixed company, right?

"Glowing Juniper...what the ever loving fuck are you two watching?" Ash is just floored by this, not that they'd accidentally watched porn together. But the name. She rolls her eyes faintly, taking a swig off the stolen beer before she holds it back out to Marius, "Fine. Play for clothes, I'll make the drinks...we can get one of those dimmer lights...Or no, a red light, and it can be a great time."

"I am so not used to being the prude in the room," Sparrow croons in the wake of the brothers' answer, so profoundly pleased with this newfound genuinely angelic status. She basks in that strangeness for all of three seconds before her eyes scan all the skin on display, all that terrible, corrupting influence, and settle on Ash as she asks, "Is this before or after the cookout?"

Jens snorts at Ash. "Marius won't watch porn on PonrHub. He downloads the entire movie, right? Because, you know, the plot." He takes a drink again and then rolls his eyes at Sparrow, "Bitch, please, you could be wearing a habit in the middle of an orgy and still not be the prude in the room."

"The position, not the porno," Marius clarifies for Ash. "I looked it up." His head whips back over to Jens, and he reaches for his beer, finds it stolen, and looks back to Ash again, glowering as he reclaims the held-out bottle and takes a swig. "The plot's important. Just watching someone stick Tab A in Slot B repeatedly doesn't do it for me. I want to know who and why." He nods at Jens, then gestures across to Sparrow, "It might depend on what was under the habit though."

"Wait. You're a prude? Damn." Ash shakes her head sadly at Sparrow, then she frowns at Marius, narrowing her eyes at him suspiciously. Which leads her to digging out her cellphone to look up this glowing juniper position. Which, lo. It is real. She tilts her head, first left, then right, then nods, "I've done that one before. I didn't realize it had a name." She turns her phone off before she reaches over to tap it on top of Marius' head.

"You could let me have my moment," Sparrow counters conversationally to Jens, like she's somehow earned this moment of imagined purity. To Ash, she confirms, "Virginal," with a remarkably straight face. To Marius, she replies dryly, "Another habit." And then proceeds to ask him, "You've seen Pirates, right? Old, I know, but like... totally the standard for porn-with-plot. Almost worth watching without the fucking."

"Look, man, I get it, plot's important. I mean, I don't collect Horacio Altuna's work for nothin'." Jens shrugs at his brother. "Even if now a days it's a little less than savory." He tilts his head side to side and then shrugs. "Pirates was okay."

"Everything has a name, Ash." Marius snorts, "Just no one knows them unless you look them -- ow!" He rolls his head back on top of Ash's thigh to scowl at her, "What's with all the hitting and stealing, damn it? You're not my sister. You're supposed to flirt with me, not abuse me." But then Sparrow is calling out Pirates, and he brightens, nodding and pointing at Sparrow, "Yes! Yes! You see, she gets me. It doesn't have to be a full movie, but just a story behind the in-and-out."

"Kama Sutra. A looooove story." Ash sing-songs, then she leans down to wrap her arms around Marius' head, squeezing, "Aww, I still love you. I'm sorry." She releases him so that she can start petting his hair, "S'ok. Shhhh." Then she glances at Jens, rolling her eyes at him, "Didn't he used to do like...cartoons for Playboy?" She glances at Sparrow, "Playboy is seriously boring as far as porn goes."

"It was fucking grand," Sparrow disagrees with Jens. "In scope. Ridiculousness. Camp." When her attention strays back to Marius, she offers an apologetic smile and admits, "But I never got off to it." A flicker of mischief in her eyes, grin tugging at her lips, she appends, "Cuz that'd go against my vows. Obviously." As Ash's arms descend around him to dote and soothe, Sparrow breathes a quiet laugh, smile still holding strong when she looks up at Ash with her most innocent expression--which, really, isn't passing muster at the moment, drink and a half into the night--and asks, "What would you recommend, sensei?"

"Look, everyone needs money work. I collected his comic books, not the Playboy stuff. Anyway, it was mostly, you know... art thing. I was too young to do the nude model thing, so." Jens shrugs.

"Much bett -- " Marius's commentary descends into muffled incoherence even if Ash's arms aren't actually cutting off his mouth. He chuckles at the petting, leaning back again to take a slug of his beer, "Your vows to only get off with another consenting adult?" He points back to Ash again, "And yes. Airbrushing can suck it. Where it is something -- anything -- unsavory and sweaty. I can't believe that it still sells for anything but the articles." Marius pauses, then admits, "Which are actually pretty good sometimes. And when are you going to start drawing Playboy cartoons, Jens? I want a stake of that big Playboy paycheck." He's clearly joking, since, well... the cartoonists probably get paid for crap, and he wouldn't get any anyhow.

"What, porn?" Ash stares at Sparrow for a moment, "Well obviously my amature stuff that's up on pornhub. Duh." She keeps petting at Marius' hair for a little while before she stops, and she starts to reach for Jens' beer this time to steal it. Equal opportunity beer thief.

"I would never," Sparrow lies so very naturally, even when she knows it won't sell. She curls a lazy grin Marius' way, but doesn't linger there. She watches Jens with muted curiosity, the edges of that interest softened by her drink, by its inevitable brevity. She can't not look at Ash after a comment like that, after all, a smile flashed her way. "Obviously." With a glance down at her glass, she finishes what's left and seems, for a moment, to seriously consider asking Marius for more. But it would be cruel to deprive him of pettings, so she gets up instead. "I should get back. Let us know when things are happening. I've got... something I need to schedule, so." Knowing when she should be here instead will help. She looks to Jens again, some thought nagging at her, but it doesn't find voice. "Thanks for my momentary holiness," is addressed to all.

Jens smacks Ash's hand with his beer and then swings his legs off her lap so she can cuddle with Marius without his feet in the way. He finishes the beer and rises, winking at Sparrow. "We'll let'cha know." He ambles for the kitchen to throw the bottle away. "I gotta go finish a commission. Dude wants a print and he's on my ass to get it for him by tomorrow." He stretches, then starts for the stairs. "Lemme know when dinner's ready!" They won't. He'll end up eating a PB&J at two in the morning.

"It's HashtagAshtag," Marius supplies without any knowledge of such things. "Also known as HotAshHell69. She almost went in with Astrid on the group account." He is absolutely making this up as he goes along. When Sparrow makes her excuses, he lifts his bottle in salute, "Running out of weeks of summer left. We'll make it work." When Jens denies Ash his beer, Marius offers his up, and then reaches for her hand to return it to his hair. Nope, not done yet, blonde female human. "Deadlines suck," he commiserates with his brother, then just settles back, "How the hell did you not hear about Glowing Juniper? I assumed Jens had told the story already."