2019-09-20 - Why Is It Rubbery?

Elias had decided to drive, since he was the one who knew where they were going. It wasn't a terribly long drive, but it was a little way out of town and up the coast to a small restaurant that overlooked the water that was open late. It had a screened in patio so that the warmth of the night air could be enjoyed but the bugs were largely kept out. There was a bar along one side of the deck, and then tables along the outside, facing the water. It wasn't a super fancy place. People were there in t-shirts and jeans. But the food smelled good -- a mixture of seafood dishes of various ethnicities.

Elias settled into a chair and nabbed a menu, handing one over to Tyler and saying, "I'm glad you happened to have tonight off. Not that we couldn't have gone another night but.. sometimes it's fun to be spontaneous."

Tyler laughs a little, "You are nothing if not spontaneous, Eli." He takes the menu and starts to look it over. His brow narrows just a little as he looks through the different options. "Hrm..." he mumbles. Then he folds the menu and sits it down. "You pick."

Elias raises both of his brows, "Nothing looks good? We can go somewhere else if you don't see anything that you like." He nods a bit further up the coast, "There's another place I like a little further up north, too." He doesn't immediately close the menu or move though, instead just studying Tyler's expression curiously.

Tyler quickly shakes his head, "No no no nononono, that's... That's TOTALLY not what I meant. I just..." He sighs, but offers a really warm smile to Elias. "I don't really know what a lot of that stuff is. When I was growin' up, 'fancy' was Chef Boyardee. I cook a lot of pastas, and chicken and stuff. Seafood is sort of beyond my firefighter cooking skills. So," he shrugs, and happily offers, "You pick. I trust you."

"Oh," Elias says as Tyler explains, not having considered that. "Well.. is there any seafood that you know that you don't like? Or know that you like? I can pick a couple of things and we can share and try them, and see which ones you like best. There's a bunch of appetizer and small plate stuff, so I could just pick a few things?" Elias makes that suggestion, glancing back down at the menu to survey the selection once more.

Tyler laughs again, "Sure, that's good. I um... I like Long John Silvers? Does that help?" He is still smiling. "So, is this a place you come to often? I love being here on the water.The company's pretty alright, too."

Elias grins at Tyler and says, "Alright. I can work with that." When the server comes over, he puts in their oder for a few different appetizer and small plates and then orders himself a coke to go along with it. Once they are alone again, he looks back over at Tyler and says, "Every once in a while, yeah. I like it out here. But it's kind of random. Sometimes I just want to go somewhere different." He grins a little, "Yeah, you're pretty alright, too."

Tyler leans forward, places his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands, watching Elias fondly. "Tell me some of the places you've been. You know, that are different. I don't go many places."

"I mean, I haven't gone many places outside of Gray Harbor.. just as far as Seattle really, though there's some places between here and there that I've been that I liked. No, I guess I also went to Oregon. I've been to Crater Lake, that was pretty nice. What sort of places?" Elias asks, studying Tyler when he leans forward, eyes finding his and lingering there, a little smile touchiing his lips. "You should go more places with me.. once in a while. I'd like to show you stuff."

Tyler chuckles, "Aren't you showing me something right now. Like, this place? Anyway, I've honestly never really left town. I mean, I go out to the bay to surf, but, that's about it." He sniffs, thinking a moment. "I've always wanted to see Utah." Really? Utah? He seems quite serious about it.

"Well, yes, but more stuff, different stuff," Elias says, lifting a hand and gesturing vaguely to encompass something more than just the restaurant. He smiles curiously when Tyler mentions Utah and asks "What's in Utah that you're interested in seeing?" No judgment at all. He seems to be genuinely interested in what Tyler might want to visit in Utah, as he only knows of a few things there, himself, including some national parks.

"Dinosaurs," answers Tyler. "Lots of dinosaurs." He looks off at the water, "Yeah, like... when I was a kid... I always thought maybe one day when I grew up, I'd be a archeologist and dig for dinos."

"Kind of like Isabella," Elias says with a little bit of a smile as he watches Tyler's profile. "We should find out if you could go see one of her digs sometime. I bet I could convince her. We're cousins, after all." He smiles then and says "We should go to Utah sometime and see the dinosaurs. Do they have actual digs out there? Or museums? Or just natural parks with bones preserved or something? I bet we could find something."

Tyler shrugs, "I'm honestly not really sure. I know they have a few big national parks there where they do the digs. I would think there's museums for it. Could prolly ask Siri." He takes a drink of his Diet Coke. "We don't have to go. I mean, that was a long time ago. I was a kid, you know? That was all before..." He inhales, leaning back in his seat. "Did you always want to be a writer?"

Elias furrows his brow and says, "Why does it matter if it was something that you wanted to do when you were a kid? It's no less of a cool thing to do and see now than it was then, and you'll probably remember more of it and appreciate it even more, now." Elias reaches over and brushes his fingertips along Tyler's forearm, from wrist to elbow. "We don't have to do anything. I want to go with you." Though when Tyler leans back, Elias folds his arms on the table, resting against it and watching him. "No, at first I wanted to be a marine biologist. THen I realized I'd have to dissect things and I couldn't do it. Writing came later, when I was in high school and started reading a lot more, and wanting to come up with my own stories."

Smiling widely, Tyler tilts his head as he listens to Elias. "You couldn't dissect anything? That's adorable." He runs his hand through his spikey hair. "What's a marine biologist study, anyway? Marine, so, that's like, fish right? So, what was the first thing you ever wrote?"

Elias smiles, and though he rarely has any shame at all, he might actually blush just a little bit as he toys with the silverware on top of his paper napkin. "Yeah, I uh, skipped biology entirely in high school because I couldn't bear to dissect the fetal pig or frog or anything. I took advanced Physics and Chemistry instead in order to get away from it. So much for my childhood dream of studying seal migrations and orcas and stuff like that." He smiles a little lopsidedly. When Tyler asks what he first wrote he laughs and says "Outside of class assignments? Reams and reams of tragic emo poetry."

Tyler laughs, clapping his hands together merrily. "Poetry? REALLY? That's wonderful!" He seems quite amused by that. "Tragic emo poetry, no less. Goodness." He chews on his lower lip deviously as he watches Elias. "Do you remember any?"

Elias chuckles a little at Tyler's delight at his admission of being tragically emo in high school, at least writing-wise. He wasn't the sort to be actually emo. More than like, he and Frankie were more hellions than anything else -- good natured hellions, at least. When Tyler asks if he remembers any, Elias laughs. "God, no. Though I'll let you read some of my poetry books sometime. I used to write them in blank books during class. I still have them."

Tyler smiles widely once more. "Does it like, hurt, to be so damned creative? I can't even imagine what it must be like to have a brain that just fills with wanting to come up with things and the ability to do that."

"Not really. I mean.. I don't know. It doesn't feel like anything, really. I just make stuff up. It's what I do. I start thinknig about a character and soon this whole person just comes out, with a history, and thoughts, and motivations.. and I don't even really have to think about it all that hard," Elias admits, pondering his writing process. "The stories are just.. there, as though they were always there and I'm just kind of blowing the dust off the cover."

"Like dinosaur bones." Tyler smiles, and he takes another drink of his soda. "The only thing I ever make up is lost time. When I'm late, I mean." He shrugs, rubbing his forearm. "I wish I had talent like you. That's really amazing. My brain just doesn't work like that. There just isn't anything there. I don't know. I'm weird." He smiles, "Sorry."

Elias shakes his head and says, "Don't apologize. All the best people are weird. We're just weird in different ways. I like your weird." Then, the server returns with a bunch of small plates, setting them down and describing the contents: mini crab cakes, stuffed clams, broiled scallops wrapped in bacon, hush puppies, parmasean garlic fries. Elias takes one of each thing, leaving plenty for Tyler to try whatever he might like and have seconds of any favorites.

Tyler is immediately drawn to the scallops. "Oh my god," he says, giggling like a kid in a cafeteria, poking the scallop with his finger. "What. Is. That." He laughs, "I mean, it's bacon, but what is it wrapped around? Is that like, fish sausage? Eww." He pokes it again. "It's rubbery. Is it supposed to be rubbery? Why is it rubbery?"

"Those are scallops.. they are not fish sausages," Elias laughs. "They're not rubbery. If they're cooked right they shouldn't be rubbery, anyway. They should be tender. They are broiled with bacon wrapped around them and they're delicious." He chuckles. "Just try a bite. They're only rubbery if you overcook them."

Tyler eyes Elias with a rather great deal of suspicion. "Is this a trick?" He smiles just a little, "There's no such thing as a scallop fish. Look, I may not have went to college, but I'm not dumb. What is it? I mean, really?"

"A scallop is a shellfish," Elias says and he pulls out his phone and pulls up a picture of what a scallop shell looks like. "This is what is in that. You know how clams come out of shells? Scallops come out of shells, too. It's totally not a trick." He then grabs one for himself, cuts it in half, and pops half in his mouth, chewing happily. "If you don't like them, there's plenty of other things to try. I'll eat them all myself."

Tyler laughs, "Okay okay..." He grabs his fork and he stabs the other half of the scallop off Elias' plate. "Bottoms up..." He lops it into his mouth. As he chews, there's some uncertainty, and his brow crinkles just a little, before he slowly starts to nod. "Mmm, okay... thish ishnt completly grosh..."

Elias props his chin on one hand as he watches Tyler reach over and stab the other half of his scallop, not seeming to mind at all, a little smile playing across his lips as he waits for the verict -- good or ill. His amusement only seems to grow with the shifting expression on Tyler's face. "I wouldn't make you eat anything gross," he promises. "Something you might not like as much as I do, maybe.. but nothing outright gross."

Tyler laughs, "You mean like Frankie?" He seems to think he made a funny there, and starts laughing quite heartily. It takes him a minute to settle down, "Okay, well. What else to we have here?" He shoves his fork into something else. "What's this, Eli?"

Elias nearly chokes on his water that he had lifted to his lips to take a drink from, coughing and putting a hand in front of his mouth before he reaches for a napkin. "Wow, Tyler.." he laughs. "Pretty sure I didn't make you do anything there," he smirks slightly, regaining his composure. Though he does look over to see what Tyler's poking. "Those are stuffed clams. It's a seafood stuffing, with bits of clam in it, stuffed into a clam shell. You just scoop it out. Though you can put a bit of lemon juice on it if you like." He pauses though, after, and looks thoughtful, his eyes shifting to the food on his own plate.

Tyler braves it and tastes the stuffing. "Okay, this is better," he says after he swallows it. "I don't think it needs lemon. I'm not really a lemon guy." He shrugs, "I think I'll take that over the scallops. Those were maybe just weird for me." He smiles, "Have you ever had snails?"

Elias seems to be shaken out of his reverie by the question and says, "No, never had snails. I don't think I could get past the fact that they were snails. I dunno. Maybe I'd try them once." He smiles a little faintly and then says, "You don't have to put lemon on it. Some people do." Then he gestures toward the crab cakes. "If you like the stuffed clams, try the crab cakes. Those are good, too." He sits back in his seat a little bit and then says, "I'm sorry.. about things with Frankie."

Tyler laughs, "Okay, gimme a crab cake then." His face frowns a little at the last, "Wait, huh?" He quickly shakes his head, "No no... Please, really... Don't apologize. I mean, she's beautiful. You didn't force me to do anything, so stop." He reaches out and takes Elias' hand. "Don't be sorry."

Elias does pass a crab cake voer to Tyler, setting it on his plate. He lets Tyler take his hand, and glances over to him, giving Tyler's hand a little squeeze, "Okay. I just.. don't ever want you to feel uncomfortable. I know.. when we first met.. Frankie and I can be kind of a lot when we get together, and we were kind of over the top. But, as long as you're okay."

Tyler smiles, "I never feel uncomfortable," he offers. Then he goes about cutting and taking a few bites of the crab cake. "So, have you done any more looking into opening up a way into the Dream? I feel like you've got this amazing new super power thing and we're just sittin' on it. We need to figure it out."

Elias seems to relax a little bit at that, and settles back into his chair, watching as Tyler digs in the crab cake. When he asks about opening a way into the Dream, Elias nods. "I know how to do it. I just need to go out and try it. I'm willing to go and give it a try if you want to go with me. I'll admit I've just been a little nervous about trying to explore it on my own. I mean, I've had some interesting experiences that weren't all bad but.. I've had a couple that weren't great, too, and I'm not sure which it's going to be."

Tyler chews another bite, swallows it, and shrugs. "Well, we should try it. Absolutely. So, let's figure out a day and time and let's see what happens. You don't need to be nervous. What's the worst that could happen? I mean, I think we'll be fine."

"We could die," Elias points out. "Or we could bring something terrible back into this world only to realize after the fact what a horrible mistake we made." Not that he hasn't already done that once, nope, not him. If only he knew. "But, I mean, we could also run into the cool little sloth dude that I met with the museum. He was pretty chill."

Tyler rolls his eyes, "We could die right here. I could choke on one of those scallop thingies. You could get hit by a car as we walk out." Tyler really doesn't seem at all worried. "We can always die. That's easy. But DOING things, that's really the challenge. It's the point of life, right? Doing something."

"I wouldn't let you choke on a scallop," Elias points out with a little bit of an amused smile. "But just to be sure," he says, tugging the plate of scallops closer to himself, he snags another one, and eats it, for Tyler's protection, of course. "Alright, then we'll do things. When is your next day off from the station? We'll do it then."

Tyler smiles when he eats that scallop. "My hero," he swoons, playfully. "So, I was off today, so tomorrow I start 3 twelves. Then I'm off again." He smiles, "So, in three days, we'll go play dream walkers."

"Alright, it's a deal, then," Elias says, nodding his head in agreement. "Three days. Then we'll see what kind of trouble we can get ourselves into, and hopefully get ourselves out of again." He smiles a little bit wryly.

Tyler nods. "Three days." He then finishes off that crab cake, bouncing his head happily as he chews it up.