2019-09-11 - Just One Of The Guys

Julia makes her way into the arbory, clutching a tupperware bin in her hands. For a few minutes she wanders around, checking out the plants and whatnot. But soon enough she's asking after Finch, looking slightly nervous but also determined. The tupperware is held like an amulet, something she has put all of her hopes into.

Thoma gives a little unpleasant nose wrinkle at the request to see Finch. She's so far kept her mouth shut to August about the reputation of the Celaeno family, because Roen seems to have taken the girl under his wing, and she'd like to keep her job. She gestures towards the far side of the building, where they park the trucks they use for tree trimming. "I think she's unloading equipment."

Sure enough, there is a flash of blue hair visible through a window, and Finch can be seen hauling gear off one of the smaller ladder trucks. She has a couple of scratches and abrasions, so clearly at least one tree tried to kill her today. She's in olive drab coveralls, but has a rainbow-striped, long-sleeved shirt beneath, and her boots. Her goggles are in place atop her head, serving as safety glasses in the field.

"Thanks." Julia has a smile for the guy as she passes by him; it never hurts to be pleasant in the service industry, whether it's to salespeople or servers. She heads back out into the daylight and winds her way over to where Finch is working. There's no sneaking here; Julia is not interested in startling Finch while she's handling lumber. But if the lady with the brightly colored hair doesn't notice her coming, she'll wait until Finch is in a safe position to have her attention drawn away.

"Finch, hey." Julia greets, smile a shade less 'be nice to service people' and more 'you are a good person that I know'. "Do you have a break coming up? I wanted to drop these by for you, see what you're up to. Have you ever had Cuban sugar cookies?"

Finch glances over, a bundle of ropes looped around one shoulder, and offers Julia a small, tired smile. Life has been a bit topsy turvy lately, between nightmares, suicidal birds, being pulled into the Dream, and healing/caring for Ignacio and his addiction problem daily. She's using a lot of her power, both glimmer and brain-wise, and it's slowly but surely exhausting her.

"Haven't had them before, no? What's in them?" She asks Julia curiously, moving to put the ropes in a lockable bin. "I'm about to go on break now."

The fact that Julia isn't offering to help isn't because she's being lazy or feeling torturous. What Finch does is what Finch knows how to do, and Julia doesn't. Sometimes the best way to be helpful is to not. But Julia does recognize the tiredness in that smile, and has appreciation for back tired work.

"They're typical sugar cookies, but with a little twist. Cuban sugar cookies have zest in them. These are lime cookies. Just in time, it looks like you could use a sugar rush. Can I join you on your break?"

Finch makes an 'ooh!' face at the lime in the cookies. "Now that sounds delicious. Sure yeah, I was gonna sit out under one of the trees over there," she gestures to a large one on the property. "There's a western blue bird nest and I've been studying them for my thesis. Might have to wait a while to get back to school, but it doesn't cost me anything to get my observations done while I'm home."

She locks up the equipment bin and beckons Julia after her. There are a couple of old lawn chairs under said tree, which Finch set up a while back so she could relax out there and take notes on the birds. She sinks into one of them bonelessly. "How's business?" she asks with a small smile.

"Business is good," Julia admits, though her expression is somewhat wry. She follows Finch to the lawn chairs and makes herself comfortable once the other woman does. "The fish shack isn't where I thought I'd end up, but hopefully my situation will change in the next year or two and I can...I don't know. Stay, open up my own place. Or head back out of town and work for one of the Michelin star places. I don't know if that's going to happen, though. There's just too much going on here, and too much to do about it. You know?"

"Maybe you could open a food truck down on the boardwalk? I think those would do really well. Especially if you are a trained chef. I'd say get out of town and work for a big fancy chef but, well, no matter how far or fast we run, we wind up back here in Gray Harbor before too long." Finch smirks at that, and reaches into the tupperware container for a cookie. She takes a bite and makes a sound of approval. "Oh my God so good!"

"Honestly? I want to get a Michelin star before I'm thirty-five." Julia admits, adding, "I don't think I can do that with a food truck. August is letting me have some of his larder though, and I love that kind of thing. Quail and pigeon and truffles and veg from his garden." Julia sounds almost dreamy when she talks about it, like an adolescent girl discussing the latest It Boy.

"Oh, you like it?" Julia perks visibly, and it's accompanied by a visible relief. "I kind of figured - you know, I realize I kind of imposed myself on the group, and I hadn't made any effort to get to know you. So this is me, doing that. The cookies are an unabashed friendship bribe."

Finch arches a brow at Julia's admission and looks at the cookie, then at the woman. "Good bribe, but just so you know, it's probably a really terrible idea to be friends with me. I'm kind of destined to go insane and kill a pile of people per a family curse." She shrugs as if that's no big deal, but her eyes are worried. "Haven't been great at making friends or anything else because of that for a long time. Trying to now though, so thanks."

"Doesn't stop you with the guys." Julia points out with a practical air. "So I don't see why I can't make the list. I can take care of myself, and worse comes to worse, you can look to all of us to stop you. Assuming, you know, that predestination is a thing. I'd like to think it isn't. Except with tarot cards because I like being told I'm going to meet a tall, dark stranger."

"Yeah, the guys weren't intentional at all they just sort of...happened. Got a job with Roen, Iggy got hired, he lived in NY and was friends there with Itzhak." Finch waves a hand dismissively. "All people not from here, people without intimate knowledge of my family history. They're determined to break the curse. I dunno if it's breakable or if it's just genetic cuckoo stuff." She grimaces. "It's happened like clockwork every other generation. My Great Aunt was the last. I'm next in line."

Julia regards her levelly. "And what exactly is gonna happen, querida?' The inquiry is genuine, and gently made. "I mean, they thought I was crazy for a long time. What is it that's gonna make you do whatever it is you're destined to eventually do?" She then adds, "I'm Ignacio's friend and boss, and whatever weird thing Itzhak and I are, which is also friends, at least. And August, too. Man, August for life. He brought me grouse. Can you believe it? Grouse." She smacks her lips.

"Well, once we have a 'next generation' of Celaenos, apparently I'll lose my fucking mind and slaughter all the Celaeno men of my generation, by blood or marriage. Great Auntie Starling killed uh, her husband, her sister's husband, two cousins, and her brother She's locked up in the loony bin with my mom." Finch recites it as if she's had to do so a billion times before. Every last townie has probably cornered her with questions at some point in her life.

"Oh." Julia blinks. "Fun." Not really, from the look on her face. "You sound like me when I explain to people I was locked up in an asylum that actually wasn't an asylum. It sucks that you have this hanging over your head, Finch. But you know, curses - my abuelita, she says the thing about them is that there's always a way to break them. " She grins. "So. I you know Ignacio has decided he wants to throw me a quinces? I was going to have be one of the escortes, but I don't want him to feel awkward about dancing. So you'll go with him, right?"

"Yeah he already asked me. I told him of course I'd go." Finch frowns about the Asylum. Fortunately, Starling and Wren are in a regular old nuthouse. I need to go up and talk to Auntie Starling soon. Just get some basic information from her. And I might need to talk to my mother. I don't want to. She tried to kill me when I was thirteen." Yes, her life is just that fucked up. "But I want to find my father. It was a one night stand at a party when mom was in college. She won't talk about it."

"That's a lot." Julia says, eyes wide as teacups. "Have you tried doing one of those genetic tests? You never know, maybe you can find your dad that way. And if there's a family curse, there might be documents that help you figure the story there as well."

"Huh, I didn't think about one of those spit tests. I guess I could try it. Between that and a chat with the crazies in the family, I might at least get some leads," Finch murmurs. "So, this Asylum Over There. What all was it like?"

"Oh, good. About you and Ig, not about your mom, or your tia." Julia studies Finch a moment. "So...aside from the heavy shit - and hermana, you got some heavy shit - what do you want to do? Because now you have a girl friend. I mean, not a girlfriend, even though I'm way hot, but your girl who's a friend. What kind of things do you want to do with a friend who's a girl?" Is she steering the topic away? Maybe a little bit, but sometimes you need to let yourself indulge in a little pleasure. Like lime cookies.

Finch blinks owlishly at Julia. "Oh, er....I'm not really sure. I don't really have a lot of money right now. I'm saving up to pay off my back tuition at Cornell. But I guess maybe we could window shop or something?" She is pretty horrible at this friends thing. When the hard stuff comes around, she's aces at protecting and caring for people, but just plain old fun? "I was going to go back into the Forest to see if I could find those UtahRaptors from the Veil. I would so love one as a pet even though I know that's not happening. But I think maybe they need to be led back to the Other Side before some idiot over here hurts them, or gets hurt by them. I think Itzhak wanted to help too."

Julia lets out a laugh. "Not everything in the world has to be something that costs money. But say...have you ever had a mani-pedi? It's okay to say no if you're really meh about it, but if you've never had one, it makes you feel very pampered and relaxed. My treat, it would be fun. What do you say?" She adds as an after-thought, "They're not going to stick acrylic claws on your fingers or anything. I work with my hands too, it's not all like an episode of Claws."

Finch flashes her brightly painted nails. "I usually just do my own but I guess I can do a mani- pedi, get the summer off my feet or whatever," she admits.

Julia beams. "Awesome. Or if there's something else you'd rather do, we can do that instead. It's about what you want to do, we'll do something I pick another time. The point is...we're okay, right? To at least give it a try?"

"As long as you don't expect me to play dress up and turn into a girly girl. I'm mostly one of the guys. It's just who I am," Finch declares with a faint smile.