2019-09-21 - Ghouls, Jewels and Pizza

It's been an exhaustive day for Byron Thorne. It didn't help that he got yelled at during his time at City Hall, then to watch the same happen to Isabella. Before he even started up his car, he sent a text to Magnolia to check in on the case that he hired to look into. That's when she let him know that she was on her way for some pizza, being granted what little free time that she has. While he's not overly hungry, pizza didn't sound terrible, so he drives up over to the place and parks.

It's almost 5:30pm when he enters the establishment to find his pocket P.I., he's still dressed in a business suit and... oddly is covered in some heavy vintage perfume. Perhaps Chanel No 9. Or something that smells similar to that. Maybe that's why he looks so weary.

So, Magnolia is here with Kevin, because there might have been a half-attempt at a date squeezed between when Magnolia finished up some work and then was supposed to get home to relieve the babysitter. She let Byron know where to find her, telling Kevin that this wasn't going to be much of a date after all. Instead, they would grab some pies and talk to Byron about this case that she has nothing on. Nothing. It's the worst. When Byron enters, the two are seated at a booth, and Magnolia is already half-way through a beer. She waves to Byron, inviting him over with that simple gesture.

Kevin is ensconced in a big round booth with Magnolia, wearing a gray t-shirt with the Darkwing Duck logo on it and khaki cargo pants. He's got a pint of beer in front of him, enjoying some Lark-with-a-babysitter-time. But there are more important things than date night, at least sort of, so he's eyeing the door, expecting familiar faces as he adds, "I always figured that someone on the production team pissed off a network exec. Why else would you only get thirteen episodes -- especially after the network monkeyed with the release order." He looks up as she waves, offering his own half-wave, half-salute, and then beckoning Byron over too. "Oh... right." Because Magnolia just did that herself.

Alexander has just come from a run, and is on his way back home. Since running has burned quite a few calories - not that he really needs it, since for a man staring 40 in the eyes, he's surprisingly lean and rangy - it's time to get those back by having an indulgent pizza. His University of Oregon t-shirt is a bit damp with sweat, and his sweats aren't in much better condition, but he's got a haircut that, even also damp with sweat, looks considerably less like a hobo. If you ignore the habit of staring creepily at things and his cringy, always-guilty sort of body language, he could be any guy just trying to keep in shape. Either way, he's a guy who wants a pizza. He walks up to the counter, orders a personal surpreme and a very large soda, pays. As he's going to go fill the cup at the fountain, he scans the restaurant and sees Byron, then Magnolia and Kevin. Look who's going to be creepy and come over, taking a sip of soda as he goes, even though he wasn't beckoned at all.

If anything, Thorne looks pleased that he doesn't have to wander far or that he wasn't stood up after having driven here from, well, City Hall's not that far. A familiar easy smile forming on his lips, he waves a hand in greeting right before settling in at their booth to join the pair, "You could've told me that I might be interrupting something." He tells Jones, "I may have still come anyway but.." He'll just let that hang there. Remembering a conversation they had earlier, a mildly curious look given the menu, he asks the pair, "Made any progress on that paintball thing? If not, I might just steal that idea."

With his eyes on the menu, he doesn't notice Alexander at first, but since the man is approaching their table, he'll at least offer a nod and an acknowledging, "Clayton."

Magnolia's eyes are narrowed at Kevin. "We're talking about a show that was cancelled like sixteen years ago. Sixteen, Kevin. I think it's time, babe." She pats gently at his hand, but there's plenty of patronizing in there, too. Now she's leaning back in her seat, smiling as she welcomes Byron to the nightmare that is Kevin talking about Firefly. "You're saving me, Byron. Sit, before he starts telling me how Law and Order has been on the air for so long because it's political propaganda and subterfuge." Then she looks up toward Alexander, and it actually takes her a moment to recognize him. But then she snaps, points, and says, "Hey. It's the Aston Martin guy."

Kevin starts to sit up to offer Byron his hand, but then remembers that he's sitting in a booth, and settles back down, letting his hand drop and offering up a sheepish grin instead, "Naw. Way too much going on right now." Which is never an excuse for Byron, he always finds room for another entrepreneurial opportunity. But Kevin is definitely not Byron. "We've mostly been working on the Mimic thing. And, you know, work and dates and life and stuff." And there's Alexander, and his brows lift, "Hey... from the, the Pourhouse." He gestures toward himself, "Kevin. Kevin Walters." And then to Alexander again, "Clayton?" But he has to respond to Magnolia, "No. Law & Order is clearly due to really good focus-group-testing, and product placement."

"Thorne," Alexander returns, tonelessly. He studies Byron for a moment, before turning his attention to Magnolia and Kevin. A tilt of his head at Magnolia's declaration. "Not...usually. Dr. Glass was kind enough to let me borrow her car for that evening. It's good to see you under less," a pause, "trying circumstances, Miss Jones." A flick of the eyes to Kevin. "Alexander Clayton. Yes. I've seen your name in the paper. You write for them." A longer pause. "Hi."

"Firefly huh? Still going on about that one? Not that I blame you." Did Byron used to watch it? Probably. Sometimes. He'll go on about the paint gun project, "The best place to hold a paint gun war corporate bonding event would be the Firefly Forest and I've got a feeling that certain Addingtons might not approve, it being too close for comfort to their abandoned saw mill." His shoulders lift, "It's still a decent enough idea." Even /he/ can smell that stench of Chanel on him, making him undo his suit jacket for removal and to set it down beside him, "Sorry about that. Just, uh, walked into a cloud of the stuff when I was at City Hall." Once City Hall is mentioned, his own gaze lifts to observe Alexander now.

Then the topic of Vivian's car comes up, but Clayton does well enough to make the correction. "Mimic thing? What's that? I mean, I hear there may be a copycat murder, but a mimic?"

Magnolia takes a drink from her pint glass, tilting her head slightly between Kevin and the others. She snorts at his response about Law and Order, and then she shrugs in mute agreement. He's not wrong. She looks over toward Alexander now, and she nods soberly. "Good to see you the same, Mr. Clayton." She now looks to Byron, and she shakes her head. "Different thing. We apparently crossed the Veil a few weeks ago and were given a quest by a Mimic. Some D&D thing. Oh, and it's about the ring that we flicked into the pond. So, I'm stoked that, that's been brought back up again." Then she sighs out a breath. "Um. But, about the Gohl murders... I think that if this is really who you think it is, Ron, that he's changed his MO. Or at least, varied it."

Kevin leans forward just a moment as he catches the first whiff of the perfume, then abruptly sits back in his seat again with a disgusted look on his face, "Daaamn, dude. Did you hug your way through a receiving line of grandmothers?" He nods to Alexander, "Yeah. I write as much as the editor and the paper's corporate sponsors allow." There's another grimace behind that, but he looks back to Byron, "Browncoats forever, Byron. That's all I'm gonna say on that one. And, um..." he opens his mouth as Magnolia just goes right out with it, looking to Alexander and closing it again, looking confused behind his thick glasses. "Pretty sure it was a Unique Mimic, actually. It had minibosses. Or minions. They claimed to be minibosses." He grimaces a little at the mention of the Gohl murders, shifting on the notepad in his back pocket, but not digging it out.

Alexander sniffs the air. At first, he glances towards Magnolia, but then his attention turns to Byron. "Which City Hall? Isabella said you were going to do something ill-advised. How'd it go?" Another sniff. "Or do I need to ask?" His brow furrows as Magnolia and Kevin continue - not at the Veil or at quests, but at..."D&D? That's a," a pause, "fantasy roleplaying game, isn't it? Linked to Satanic Panic in the 80s, although without any corroborating evidence. I remember reading some books on it." A thoughtful pause. "It's not any stranger than Gilligan's Island, I suppose. I'm glad you're all right." The mention of the Gohl murders draws his attention back to Magnolia. He doesn't ask the obvious question. Just sort of stares at her. And takes a sip of his soda.

"Look, someone came in showering themselves with perfume. I was just there." Byron says in a faux defensive manner, while he's here, he'll flag a waitress down for cup of his own and to bring the table a large pitcher of beer and an X-large pizza pie. Hey, whether they already ate or not, he was eating and he was buying, so they have all the toppings. It's great to have a friend like Byron show up at a restaurant when he's so willing to pay. Once his order is placed, he sends off a text, eyes lifted to Alexander when he asks a similar question to what the text sender inquires about. "The Veil City Hall." A pause, "About that. Do you think that the Collector would be able to," His un-jacketed shoulders shrug, "Keep Gohl and Addington out of any trouble if we donated Addington to him?" That's quite a question!

A mimic could be anything, but once Kevin mentions it's the D&D mimic, Thorne has that 'huh' expression, "Really? That's... this place, the Veil really caters to each of us." Though once the ring is brought up, his eyes narrow, "You've got to be freakin' kidding me. Let's just forget about the ring. No good will come of that one."

The Gohl murder thing though, Byron gives this some thought, "I don't know. You're right, this isn't how Gohl handles his victims. So we figured," whoever he spoke to about it, "That it was a copycat. Or, that's what came up."

The moment the words Linked to Satanic Panic in the 80s comes tumbling out of Alexander's mouth, Magnolia is looking at Alexander and then to Kevin, and then to Byron, and she gives him a smile that he would know all-too-well. This is gonna be GOOD. Then she's sobering up a bit to try to take this whole thing seriously despite the glee at hearing what Kevin has to say, after he nerds out a bit more about D&D. But Byron says something that has her holding up her hands with a sudden flash of bewilderment. "Wait, wait. Back that all up. The Collector? Did we already tell you about the Collector? That's who wants that ring -- uh, The Lover's Jewel." Then she frowns. "You want to give the Collector a person?" She will get back to the Gohl thing in a second. Really.

"Yeah. Mazes and Monsters and some really bad Chick Tracts," Kevin responds to Alexander, "And it's totally not anything like that. It's a whole lot of fun. When you've got a good DM, and a good group. Otherwise it kind of sucks. Almost enough to make you ponder Satanism." He points over to Byron, shaking his head, "Nope. Have to get way close to someone to pick up that much perfume." You probably don't. Kevin doesn't know, except from grandmothers. But the rest of Byron's words cause him to sit up sharply, and he nods with Magnolia, matching her "Wait, Wait." He goes silent then, letting her talk, then adds, "Yeah, that's who the Mimics were talking about. They showed us the first row of the collection... the remains of a couple of people who stole the Lover's Jewel, and the place that the Jewel used to be. I mean it might not be the ringfluenza ring, but... the Lover's Jewel, all super-purple, and tainted by the people who stole -- I mean 'borrowed' it." He glances to Magnolia, then shrugs, "I mean, it sounds like the Collector might be able to keep some killer off the street." Finally, he looks back up to Alexander, "Dude, you're giving me a neck-ache. Have a seat?"

Alexander gives Byron a look. "We're not 'donating' a human being to anything over there," he says, bluntly. The and shame on you for suggesting it is more implied than stated, but still pretty clear. The mention of the possible copycat brings his attention back to something other than judgy judgement, though. "The police seem to have evidence that have moved them back towards believing the body in the harbor is a legitimate Gohl attack, although I don't know the details." He turns back to Magnolia and Kevin with interest as the Collector is mentioned. "...that makes sense, really. Bones of a serial killer, cursed ring. Sounds like things a Collector would collect." A pause. "Although you'd need a diver to get the ring, I imagine. If what I remember is correct. I was trying not to pay attention to it."

He nods, amiably enough, to Kevin's explanation. "I'm not sure I understand the point of it," he tells Kevin, although sounding genuinely baffled rather than mocking. He frowns at the final remark, sort of stiffens, and looks to the other two. "If...I wouldn't be imposing." Because standing there and interrupting their conversation isn't imposing at all. But if Byron scoots, then Alexander will fold himself gingerly into the seat beside him, with an apologetic grimace.

Nope, Byron's not going to say anything about the connection between D&D and Satanism. He knows how worked up Kevin can get. "See, that was the option presented me. Give them William Gohl AND Thomas Addington. It was supposed to be in exchange for Gohl's bones, but without the both of them being part of some Collection, I figure there would be no more murders here. And hey, how do we know that the Collector doesn't treat his..." Pets? "Things well. Better than the Aslyum." He doesn't know which Veil place would treat them Addington kinder. "So our Collector wants the ring as well? Or it was already theirs?" Interesting."

When Kevin offers Alexander a seat at their round table, there's a moment when Byron waits to see whether Alexander goes to sit near Magnolia or... alright. He slowly scoots over towards Kevin, dragging his perfume covered jacket with him. This probably starts some chain reaction of booth scooting. He'll ignore the chastisement and starts to pour himself some beer when the pitcher and glass are set down before him. "Wait, so... the cops think it's Goh-- I mean, the cops who believe in ghostly serial killers think it's Gohl? Well then." That's when he looks to Magnolia in case she's found anything else that may say the same thing. "I just wanted to find out whether the victim was a Baxter or Addington."

"I like how Clayton calls it 'donating.'" Magnolia gives Byron a steely look. Then she's taking another drink from the beer glass. She takes in a breath, shrugs her shoulders then as they continue to talk about Gohl. "Alright, so here's what I know... Marker lived over on Elm, but the search through his house came up with bupkiss. The only real thing that connects this to Gohl is being water-dumped, but Gohl favored shooting people instead of throat-slitting them... and we all know that guns are stupid easy to find... this might be a change in MO or a copycat, or... I don't know... maybe ghosts get bored after a while and want to branch out." She takes another drink from her pint glass before she is being crowded up by Kevin because Alexander has sat down. She shoots Byron a look. "Hey now -- you keep your Rich Granny Stinking self over there." Then she sighs. "I don't think he's either a Baxter or Addington, but I'm still digging."

"Yeah, already theirs." Kevin scoots up closer to Magnolia, trying to leave a little space between himself and Byron's scent-ual assault. "Borrowed. Totally forgot to ask the names of the people who were doing the borrowing. I... I might have had a concussion at the time. And just been chewed on by a mimic." He glances to Billy, adding, "in treasure chest form. Of course." He frowns a little between Byron and Magnolia, pressing his lips together, "Now, I know Lia's way tougher than me, and I'm supposed to be way past over-protective bullshit, but shouldn't... I don't know..." He grimaces, "Shit. I was just about to suggest that the cops should handle this. Me." Apparently, he doesn't have a whole lot of faith in the police as a singular entity. He looks a little green, but still adds in, "You need someone else looking into things?" In fact, he looks like he might get sick just suggesting it, for all that he takes a slug of his beer, lets out a breath, then looks back to Alexander, latching onto a much happier topic, "People play D&D for the escapism. To be able to be someone and something that they aren't. Because you can do things you'd never do in real life, either because you couldn't do them, or because you couldn't get away with them. Some people do it to solve puzzles, some people do it to tell stories, some people do it in a vain attempt to 'win,'" he actually does air quotes, "but everybody does it because it's fun."

"These days, Gohl favors cutting over shooting. Throats are a favorite," Alexander says, with no noticeable emotion at all, except for the way his hand skitters like a nervous spider up to one side of his face and rubs at his neck. It's not like there's anything to see there, though. Maybe he's just itchy. "I suppose he could mimic the effects of a gunshot, but it doesn't seem to be his preference." A pause. "Detective Johnson spoke to Marker's ex-wife in Portland, found nothing of use, and no obvious connection to either the Addingtons or Baxters. He could have just been someone in the wrong place at the wrong time. A target of opportunity."

He quiets for a moment as Kevin explains D&D, staring at the younger man with dark eyes and a blank sort of expression. "I see," he says, at last, in that tone that suggests that he really, really doesn't. Still, after visibly groping for a moment or two in his deficient well of social responses, he offers, "It sounds like you enjoy it. I'm sure it's fun."

At some point conveniently timed after beer arrival and with food arrival, Lilith walks into the place to look around for a beat once inside. She's wearing a navy-blue shirt dress that's button up, belted with a silver chain belt to give it form, the slack of the two decorative linked cinch chains dangling at a hip. Low-wedge ankle boots of black accessorize with a black tote bag and her hair is twisted up to tumble down in part while bound, stuck through with vintage shell combs to make it stay. She's also wearing a touch of accenting cosmetics, mostly because she's spent time covering the residual bruising at her temple, so she had to put on some form of makeup to make things less obvious. Mostly, she has focused on her eyes with some smoked out liner and mascara on to intensify.

She looks quite nice in that casual chic and pretty way, but honestly, her posture is a little drag ass and lazy as she saunters up with a yawn once the familiar table of faces strikes her. Lilith lifts a hand to cover it, then fans at her face in brief when her eyes start to mist up with watering as a result of that yawn, "I absolutely cannot stop yawning, my gosh, someone wake me up with beer." Then she puts on a little smile in slant, "Hello people."

With his own glass newly filled, he pushes the pitcher closer to Kevin and Magnolia's side of the table, not expecting Alexander to want some beer. "Drink up. I won't be able to finish the whole thing." Well, he could, but it would take all night. Nursing his beer, he does come out to say, "I hope whoever got the ring into our world paid the paid the price for it. I hope that those were their remains." Magnolia is then given this look, it's a thoughtful look. "Clayton is right. The past few murders have all been blade related. People were stabbed to death or had their throats slit. However." He looks to Alexander now, "Doctor Marshall from the asylum... he didn't have his throat slit or anything of that sort. He could have been shot, but Vivian didn't see anyone else there who could've done it. And this was in the Veil... Someone killed Marshall to keep him from telling Vivian about Gohl."

He will then come out and say, "And what about the person who broke my rib cage? If Gohl isn't following any guideline, then him being my attacker is still on the table." He takes another sip from his drink, "Except I'm still alive." Not that there were no other Gohl survivors, but the only other one almost died. It's when Kevin talks about the benefits of D&D that makes Thorne fall quiet. Some of what is said used to relate to him after all.

It's a good thing Lilith shows up to keep his mind off of that. "Hey, Lil. Uh, you might want to sit with Magnolia. Or we can scoot down even further and possibly push her off the booth on her end."

Magnolia squints slightly at everyone at the table -- before Lilith joins, of course. "Are we sure this is William Gohl? I know that we've hit the point in our lives that we accept The Weird Shit at first blush, but maybe there's something else going on here." Then Lilith arrives, and Magnolia is slumping back into the booth with a thoughtful expression. She almost misses Byron suggesting Lilith sit beside her, and then she's flipping shit at Byron because this is Magnolia. "Look here, Mrs. Doubtfire... I'm still not even sure it's safe for you to be sandwiched between Clayton and Kevin, and I'm worried that the longer you nestle there, the less likely I am to get my boyfriend to not smell like the Nordstrom beauty section."

Then she sighs, slumping back into her seat again. "I'm telling you... there's a reason that the MO isn't matching. Let's think about this rationally for a second here... you're a ghost, and you spent a large portion of your living days murdering people. You die, and you literally rot for decades until you're given a chance to resume your spree. Why change your MO? You're a ghost. You don't give a shit if someone is figuring out its you. That's why you change an MO, to throw people off the scent, but has Gohl given any indication that he cares if anyone knows its him?"

Okay, talk of slitting throats and shooting people is plenty to get Kevin less excited about even D&D, so when he says, "It's totally awesome, if it's done right," he's less than convincing. Lilith's arrival gets a wavery smile and a nod from Kevin, "Hey." He drains off the last of his beer, then pours another from the pitcher, refilling Magnolia's too. "Um... I think one of the Borrowers was like, burned to bits. And one was smashed? Or, their bones were? Something like that. I might have tried to block it out." He swallows hard, but still notes, "It, um, it sounds like Gohl's got a minion. Maybe an understudy or something? Someone who isn't as picky?" He points over to Byron as the other man mentions sitting by Magnolia, "Plus..." oh there's Magnolia with the mention of the Nordstrom beauty section, "Yeah, you probably want to be as far away as possible from Mr. Smelly, here." But he brightens slightly, and he adds, "Hey! You said boyfriend." And he nods to himself, grinning a little goofily -- and then it's gone again, because Magnolia is talking about murdering ghosts again, "Shit. Yeah. So what if the accomplice is someone who knows blades, but not guns? So they're doing what they know?"

"Miss Winslow. Hello. Are you well?" Alexander gives her a look. Then looks embarrassed as seating arrangements are discussed. He scrambles out of the booth, gesturing at the place beside Byron, now abandoned. "Please. Sit. I can sit elsewhere. I'm sorry." He side-eyes Magnolia, and sort of sidles in that direction, sitting down at the very edge of that side of the booth. Like she might bite him or something. He turns his eyes to his soda, sipping before saying, "I spoke to him. At a seance. I am reasonably certain it was him, in so far as any ghost can be said to 'be' its living counterpart. I leave spiritual matters to others. But it feels it is him, its mind sees itself as him." His shoulders hunch. "His MO has changed because he's using healer abilities to kill. It's easier to visualize a straight cut for the vital organs than to replicate a gunshot. Needless complexity. He used a gun when he was alive because it was simple and effective. Now, a phantom knife, because it is simple and effective. And Dr. Glass never saw the wounds that were inflicted, but I suspect if she had, they would have resembled cuts or stabs." A flick of the eyes towards Byron. "I remain unconvinced your injuries were from Gohl. But I can't offer another reasonable theory at this time."

At the mention of Gohl's 'apprentice', Alexander stares at his soda even harder. It's a fascinating drink. JUST FASCINATING. He does say, with a quick, sidelong look at Kevin, "So...trying to steal from the Collector's collection is a bad idea, then. Noted."

Lilith gives a smile to Mags and Kevin, then Alexander and she doesn't seem to know who Mister Smelly is, so when Alexander gets up before she crams in scoot of booty next to Mags, she leans to sling her little tote shoulder bag under the table by where her feet go before sitting. But when she scoots in to seat herself, she figures out who it is and stops her response to the man across the way, "I'm good, considering..." The woman kind of waves her hand vaguely at the conversation happening and the subject matter with a rueful hint of smile, "you know, where and how I live. Glad to see table conversation is lively to go with--"

She inhales once seated with scoot near Byron's other side where the place was vacated, then looks at him like she's not sure what to actually say or do. Abruptly, though, she reaches for the pitcher to pour into a mug and just wonders a bit slowly, "Why do you smell like a rich divorcee that hires gigolos when her new husband is out of town on business?"

At Magnolia's outburst, Byron offers her this shit-eating grin as he reclines against the booth's cushion, "We can all play musical chairs again and I can sit next to you instead. Your choice, Maggie." But with how everything is already set up, shifting and moving would be awkward. Well, except that Alexander offers to stand up again. On this more serious topic, however, he'll once more nod for what Alexander says. "Right. We're holding an exorcism soon in an attempt to separate Gohl's ghost from the person he is using as his unwilling puppet who has been going around committing these murders for Gohl." Clayton might be shy to name names, but Byron just comes out and says, "That is Thomas Addington who is being used. He has the healers ability to slice people open." He isn't going to bring up that time on the bridge and what Lilith did to Alexander's leg.

The pizza finally arrives, guys. It takes a while. Several plates are set in front of everyone. This is X-Large with the works! "Healers also break bones." He'll come out and say. "Like I said, it doesn't need to be /Gohl/. It could be the Addingtons." That, in itself, could be paranoia talking. With Lilith sidling up to his side of the table, he gives her this playful smug little grin, "I think someone was trying too hard to impress. I had the biggest headache when I left the building, I swear."

Kevin earns the longest, most serious stares from Magnolia. Then she puts voice to that look by saying, "Holy shit, Kevin. You made a break in the case. Yeah. An apprentice. That... makes a whole lot of sense. I mean, doesn't explain all the other shit like possessing that Addington guy." SEE HOW LITTLE MAGNOLIA CARES ABOUT YOUR ADDINGTONS? But there's Alexander, kicking that puppy. "Or Clayton can point that all out." Now she sighs, and folds her arms in front of her while she tries to parse that through everything else she's learned, or hasn't learned. She lets the other tidbits of conversation flow around her a moment as she thinks. But then Byron snaps her out of it, and she hits him with a glare. "I will end you, Byron Thorne." That's all she has until she is looking at Lilith, and then pointing dramatically at Byron. "Ha! Even Lilith thinks you stink, and Lilith is the sweetest person at this table." She now turns slightly toward the woman beside her with a brimming smile for her. "Hey, Lil. Sorry. I actually came here for pizza and beer, and thought Byron wouldn't use his P.I. Summoning Spell. And yet." She gestures in a grand sweep. Then she smiles again, this time with dimples.

Oh hey, pizza guy. Magnolia gets herself a plate and a slice of pizza. "You ever wonder if it's both... Gohl and his apprentice. Maybe he's possessed someone that wants to help him complete his work. Whatever his work was."

Kevin blinks at Alexander, staring at him at the mention of seances and ghosts, his eyes wide behind thick lenses. "Oooooookay." He looks around the table, clearly several steps behind the rest of the group. The mention of breaking bones, however, causes him to look over at Magnolia a little wide-eyed. Getting over that takes him a moment, he sighs heavily, "Okay. This is just... there's way too much going on. This is like, crazy. And it wasn't stealing from the Collector. Apparently the Collector's people don't think that you can do that, only borrow." He blinks at Magnolia, shifting under her stare, "Wait, really? I mean... if one person isn't doing things like they usually do... it's usually because there's someone else doing it, right?" He reaches out for a plate and pizza too, picking a few of the 'everything' pieces off and setting them aside, blowing on his fingers as he does. "Killing people?" That's his suggestion on what Gohl's work was.

Alexander's lips twitch in a sudden fit of amusement as he stares at Byron for a moment. "I have to ask. Did you have to kiss the Archivist before the end of the meeting? Is that how you got doused in perfume?" A shake of his head at Magnolia. "There's no...apprentice. Just Gohl, existing in two worlds, imperfectly imprisoned by Thomas Addington's mind." Since Byron's going to just go ahead and say the name. He looks like he might go on, but then sort of withers under Kevin's stare. The word 'crazy' makes him visibly flinch. "I think my pizza's ready," he mumbles, as the extra large is delivered to the table. He scrambles back up to his feet and retreats to the counter to stare at the poor counterperson until they finish up the box with his individual supreme pizza.

"... interesting sounding meeting. But highly understandable." Lilith says with a bit of a squint at Byron, though her lips twitch subtle before she drinks from the beer mug once it's poured and she's made the dry drawl of commentary. Then she snorts a little bit after the drink to point across the table at Magnolia, telling everyone at the table, "I just want that on the record that I'm the sweetest person at the table, Mags said so." She preens a touch before reaching to grab a slice without reserve, lips twisting a bit at the conversation of Byron's attack in differing and the cause or motivations, perhaps.

The woman doesn't look too outwardly bothered or comment on it right away, though, she looks at Alexander and his question instead of Byron before her twitch of a smile from earlier grows with vague amusement of psuedo-understanding all of a sudden. Then she sobers up a little bit and suggests to all and sundry with a side look at Byron, "I kind of think the old lady just got a grudge on him for realizing he was meddling and... mm. The man executing warning or consequence might have been a little more Thomas than Gohl at the time. I imagine it's very hard to define separate lines after so many years. Being possessed is mm, hard to explain, and I've only had a taste of it in comparison to that."

She keeps her voice pretty quiet while saying so, though, then when the guy gets up to leave the table and get his to-go order, she calls after, "Oh, are you running off already?"

"No, but I had to kiss Bella. You can go ahead and ask her: What do you smell like?" Because that's not creepy at all. Byron's making light of all of this, he'll even smile here and there, but there's this serious intensity within his dark eyes that may say otherwise when he believes no one is looking or when he's drifting into a quiet, light-headed contemplation. Maybe that perfume really is getting to him. For now, he'll take a large of slice of pizza and drops it into a plate once Lilith snatches a slice for herself. At this little banter between the women, well, where he's been inserted, he'll look at each face at the table, "I suppose I can see that. At this particular table, sure. You're the sweetest and gentlest,"He almost pushes it too far, perhaps about to add something personal to that statement, but he stills his tongue.

Winslow says what he sort of believes, making sure to add in, "From something Erin had said, sometimes her brother's chosen victims are just someone Margaret Addington is upset about. Not that.. I had done anything to upset her that I know of, of course." He will bring this up one last time, "So I suppose we're vetoing donated Addington to the Collector. I mean, if that option was still on the table, there would be quite a few people to message in order to keep them from separating the two. Since the Collector wants both Gohl and Addington."

Magnolia sighs heavily at Kevin, giving him a look. "Yes, Kevin. I believe his work was 'killing people,' but I think shouting those words in a public restaurant gets us politely shown the door." Then she is stretching slightly, giving a sigh to the ceiling as she thinks. Too many cases are in her head and she feels overwhelmed. She's at least interrupted by Lilith's comment, and she winks at her. She's about to get back to it when her phone buzzes, and she sighs at it. "I gotta take this. Babysitter," she tells Kevin. Then she's scooting out, climbing over whoever she needs to climb over. "Ten bucks says Lark convinced her to go get ice cream." It's actually Lark having a panic attack, and so Magnolia will be gone for a long while. But she leaves Kevin in good hands. Be gentle with him, guys! As she gets up, she tells Byron that, "We're not donating people to a collection." Beat. "But I'm okay with a ghost." Then she's heading off to take the call.

Kevin looks down as Alexander contradicts Magnolia's suggestion, and he blushes just a little, "Well hey, I'm just getting started on this." The visible flinch from Alexander causes him to shrug apologetically, but he can't say anything more before the other man is scrambling away to get his own pizza. Glancing over to Lilith, he shrugs, "I mean... she thinks I'm awesome, so I'm pretty sure her judgment is cracked." Magnolia gets a little grin, although it falters as she gets the call, worry flickering around his eyes, "Everything..." and there she's explaining, so he nods a little, "No bet." Byron gets more air quotes, along with, "'Had to.' Damn, Byron." There's a little wonder and maybe some jealousy in his voice, but it goes away again, because they're still totally talking about murder and killer ghosts. "So, um. I got the idea that the Collector doesn't much like not getting what it wants. Like, scary-lots-of-doesn't-much-like." He points after Magnolia, "But yeah. On general principles, I'm with Lia on donating ghosts and not people if possible."

Alexander gets his pizza, and drifts back towards the table, although he doesn't sit down. He shakes his head at Lilith. "Doesn't make sense. Thorne was less confrontational than Isabella, or even myself. Why attack him and not us?" Then he shrugs. "But I don't have another suspect." At Byron's response, his lips quirk upwards. "Isabella," he says, emphasis on the full and proper version of her name, "is a good kisser, so I'm sure that was enjoyable, even if obligatory." He doesn't seem to have any jealousy about the prospect, or any opinion about who the sweetest person at the table is, just says, "We are definitely vetoing donating anyone to the Collector." He stares after Magnolia for a moment, then blinks at the rest of the table. "I should get home. It's a fair walk." A flick of his eyes towards Lilith and Byron. "Don't die." Poor Kevin apparently gets left out of the traditional parting, and Alexander slouches his way towards the exit after collecting his soda from the table.

"Mm, exciting sounding day." Lilith hums at Byron passively before looking at Kevin's words while chewing and wiping her hands off on a napkin. She seems to have missed that part of the conversation, because she looks at him like she's trying to piece out where donating a whole person is coming from. Then Alexander says much the same with his own parting words and she gives a little squint of her lashes before shrugging a bit late at the motive thing, "I don't know, his festival was the pretense, don't have to break everyone to make a point. But... I don't know. I just know I gut dislike the old lady with things I've heard." From Erin directly, some of it. But she doesn't say that part, at least.

Then Alexander is leaving and she waves the hand holding the napkin, "I won't die if you don't die, fair's fair. See you." When she looks back to remaining company, she doesn't quite ask what she missed, but she does suddenly pull out her phone after a long drink of beer, murmuring, "That reminds me, though, I went out to do errands earlier and forgot to do the texting I meant to do." Blowing a loose stray of hair from hanging over an eye, she tucks in another bite, wipes her hands again then starts to text on the screen, "Asking where I'll be on standby."

Byron, once again, looks to be in good spirits. There's good beer, decent pizza and he was spending time with old friends. And Alexander Clayton. The conversation, though, really could use a pick me up. "Well, this is basically optional. We need something from the Collector and the only way to get something is through the trade. If we're not going to donate Addington to him to stop the serial killing, then there's option 2." Which he didn't mention before to the rest of the table, "And that's to donate two of my bones instead. Well and one of Isabella's. Which she seems mostly willing to do."

He then turns to Lilith, "Then we get back the rest of Gohl's bones that I donated to the Collector to begin with and we'll have enough for the funeral, hopefully. So no one else will need to sacrifice shit." The way that this is spoken might reflect on this idea that he was actually thinking of going through with this. But Lilith knows him better and giving up any part of him, was not something he was really willing to do.

His gaze follows behind Magnolia when she reaches for her phone and then to Clayton, staring up at the man when he's; given the usual Crazy Clayton 'good-bye'. "Unlike donating Thomas Addington, because the exorcism is tomorrow, I'll have some time to contemplate on this second option."

Kevin upnods to Alexander when he departs. From some people, this would be cool and sagacious. From Kevin it's kind of dorky. He works his way quickly through a second slice of pizza, likewise lightly picked over to remove offensive bits. He nods a little at Lilith, even if he doesn't know exactly what she's talking about, but hey, active listener here. But then Byron is mentioning sacrifice, "Uh... dude. I don't suggest the yakuza route. You kind of need your pinkies to hold things, and your pinky toes to, you know, balance." His leg bounces, "So what if we bring the the Jewel back? Maybe that'd be enough that you didn't have to... ugh... give up bones. that's just creepy as hell."

Okay. Lilith was totally fine through all the bits and pieces of screwy and weird conversation, even when it brought back memories of seeing Byron crushed in his attack. And other stuff came out too and really, she's just sitting there eating and texting busily away with listening and small commentary here and there. She smiles some at Magnolia as she goes to take the call and her head tilts with interest to the general idea of making a trade for the bones.

With his fucking bones! Byron's bones! She stops chewing and sits for a moment before remembering to chew and leaning back against the booth's cushioning to just stare at the man that seems to be entertaining the idea for a moment. Then she mentally just kind of wipes it, he's not that hellbent, is he? Surely not when it comes to offloading bits of himself piecemeal! After a bat of her lashes, she reaches for her beer and drains it with a question on the tail end, "What jewel. It wants a jewel?" Then she pauses and looks between the two with a sudden dread in her eyes, "Uh. The one in the ring?" She almost said my jewel out of habit, she really did, even though she wants no part of it again.

"Someone better find a goddamn diving probe with robot arms to box it up in a warded something before exposing a person. Assuming it can be found."

"Believe me, Kevin. I'm not happy about the idea either." Byron isn't afraid to admit. And with that, he downs the rest of the beer in his glass in one long gulp. "But it's my fault that the Collector is in possession of Gohl's bones to begin with, without realizing that we would need them-- Even though I got a feeling they knew that we'd need them." He'll come out and say that! "And I dunno, Kev. Your thing with the jewel? For this negotiation, they don't want the jewel, that seems to be your thing and," He can't help but frown, especially when Lilith ask about it now, "If you can get out of it. If it's optional, don't do it. Don't go looking for that thing again."

Now that the topic's moved on, though he's sure that Lilith will have more to say about it later, he'll give a slow nod as he chews on a slice of pizza, "Yeah. That one."

"Maybe," Kevin prevaricates for Lilith, "Really purple jewel, borrowed from The Collector and tainted after, called the Lover's Jewel." There's a pause, and then he adds, "I'm thinking lead-lined box. Works for Kryptonite, right?" Is he serious? Probably not, but still, lead's dense. Byron's use of the nickname has Kevin wincing, "Uh... I try not to go by 'Kev' anymore, man. A little... you know, too many memories of high school." And middle school, and elementary school, and the rest of the crappy times that were childhood in Gray's Harbor for C. Kevin Walters. "Pretty sure it's not optional anymore. Pretty sure we're on the hook for it, or we get treated like the borrowers did. Um, burned, crushed, smashed, dead and Collected."

"I can find the box it came in. I left it at the campsite where I dropped it the night of..." Lilith pauses and pulls in a shallow breath while looking at Byron, then Kevin with a tip of her head to a few of the details, the name he's referring to it by... resonating within her with memory of what it felt like to be loved by the gem itself. The brunette pauses for a distracted moment before batting her mascara-thickened dark lashes a few times to clear it and continue with a reach for the pitcher to refill her beer.

"We know that at least contains it enough for short term transport purposes, and storage as long as it's closed. But finding it and getting it there without exposure to the thing itself, is..." Her head moves into a little dire shake, and under the table edge after she puts her phone down a moment to give the texting a break for imparting levity and attention when she speaks... she nudges it to rub at Byron's near knee. It might be a little secret gesture that's just as much for herself as him, remembering such times, "Anyway, I'll get you the box just in case, but... how did you get on the hook for that, Kevin?"

Byron already knew it was same jewel thanks to Magnolia, but he'll let Kevin explain it all to Lilith now. Learning that he just got under Kevin's skin by referring to him using a childhood nickname, he doesn't quite arch a brow at that and there's this 'ahh' that one can imagine him saying when his lips part and he nods twice. "I'll try to remember that. If I recall, Clayton doesn't care for nicknames either." Now when he's informed that this quest isn't optional, his eyes narrow, "Yeah, I'm curious," He looks to Lilith briefly, "How did they rope you into this one? If it deals with the Collector it's not a dream, correct? And it has to do with the Veil?" He's still learning this stuff. "Or are they really one in the same?

"If you /need/ to get it, then yeah. Underwater drones to dive in and find it and then place it in the special box it was in when some rando dropped it off at Lil's shop that one morning." He might rattle all of this off like it's normal, but he will say, and it's something that Kevin probably already knows, "We'll try to offer whatever help and advice that we can. Because, if the Collector is treating you like those thie-- borrowers, then, yeah. We know how that ended for them."

"It's not no nicknames, it's just... that one..." Kevin's nose wrinkles up, but he shakes that off, looking back to Lilith, "If you want to just tell me where it is, instead of getting it yourself? I mean, if it's hard for you or something? I don't know what happened, but it seems like... I don't know. And I totally don't have the cash for underwater drones or anything. I was like, I don't know, figuring on taking some cheap-o scuba lessons and using some really thick gloves and, I don't know. I'm making this up as I go along." He draws in a breath, then lets it out again, "Lia and I were suddenly in a dream, but it wasn't like a Dream, you know? It was like, something else. And then there were these two giant treasure chests out front of this house, so of course they were mimics." This is what happens when you get a DM involved behind the Veil, he knows the metagame. "And they attacked us, and Lia kind of blew one up while I was getting eaten, and then the one eating me retreated and a big shiny one with a monocle came out and showed us the first row of the Collector's collection, which included the empty spot where the Jewel was and also the remains of the Borrowers, and then somehow we were saying that of course we could get the Jewel back, and then it was saying that if we didn't, we'd end up like the Borrowers." All of that comes out in a hushed rush, and then he finishes off his beer, "I should really see how Lia's doing. That call's been going too long."

There's a bit of a twitch of the lips after Lilith has cast a serious look of agreement on Byron and eventually started up with the pizza again while listening to Kevin. But she only really gets another bite in before she's looking at him with a tiny shake of her head, "Seeing it is the problem, moreso than any thick gloves. There was echo effect just from pictures of it back when everything escalated with it before. The box doesn't... scare me. I know right where it is, I just didn't have the mettle or reason to go bringing it back to my place. You should have it just in case, but... I cannot tell you how much that... scares me for you and Mags. It made Byron and I do terrible things to each other. And I almost hung myself without control of what I was doing."

Sweetest thing at the table? Lilith is really good at depressing news! But after a sharp pull of air through her nose when Kevin says he's going to check on the call, she nods one time and decides, "I'll let one or both of you know when I go get the box and we'll set a time for me to bring it by wherever."

Byron's not going to hound Kevin over not wanting to be called 'Kev', so he gets that 'ahh' look again and a single nod this time. He used to hang out with the guy, until he didn't, when he was 12. When he learns exactly how Kevin was planning on finding and collecting the jewel, there's this purse of his lips when he reaches for his phone, "I'll let Isabella know. She's an archeologist here on an actual dig, I guess you can say. That digging is actually in the ocean just off the coast. I'm sure she has some kind of drone or underwater vehicle that you could use. Well, that she could use, most likely, for your sake."

He wipes his phone using hand with a napkin before he starts typing out a message. "We'll both keep in touch, but uh.. thanks for the invite here. Or tell, Magnolia thanks. With everything that we've been up to." He means himself and Lilith, "This was a nice little moment to breathe." He looks up from his phone in time to add in, "Aside from talking about serial killers and possibly ending up as pieces in the Collector's Collections." Or how he may be losing two of his bones.

Kevin nods slowly at Lilith's information, "Oh shit." He blows out a breath, looks from his pint glass to the mostly-drained pitcher, then shakes his head and pushes his glass away, "So... drone would be bad too then. If it can do shit to you from looking even in a picture. So um... shit. This isn't something we can do by feel. Dang it." He nods slowly, looking the way Magnolia went for a moment, "But yeah, um... sounds like we should talk to Isabella. And the box would be appreciated." Smiling a little desperately, he adds, "Oh hey, you heard we're starting a campaign up again? Tobin and Raf and Magnolia and maybe you guys? Let me know if you want in. I should..." he points toward the direction of Magnolia's exit again, and this time actually scoots out of the booth and stands up to follow, digging in his wallet and adding money to the table for his beer and Magnolia's at least, "Thanks." And then he's off.

"Did we just get invited to be adult nerds? Or am I hearing things the way I want to hear them because you broke my ears when you went talking about giving over bones? Because a campaign sounds oddly exciting. But I really like your bones and I selfishly want them intact and a complete set worth." Lilith waves at Kevin and watches him go after he shifts out of the booth, eyes distracted with a far away look before they're on Byron and she's speaking. Leaning against the back of the booth again, she reaches her hand up and starts to pull the vintage little hair combs free and tosses them into her bag under the table.

As her hair comes to tumble down, Lilith takes to playing with it in fidget stroke over a shoulder now that she seems to be done eating and just drinking beer here and there. Then she notes her phone on the table where she left it after she finished texting and got distracted by gem-talk, prompted, "Oh. I talked to the Captain. You and I will be in his office or an interrogation room nearby. We'll meet up with him so he can get us into the building, beforehand, I said I'd text when we were there."

"Maybe Walters needs this form of escapism to get out of the shit that is his life currently." Byron says, pouring himself a refill of beer, nearly emptying the pitcher. While Lilith might be excited about a campaign, Byron has a busy life and he rejected that nerd culture when he came of age. Not that he has anything against it, but there was always other things to do. "I might have time for a one shot, but not an entire campaign." Right now, he's more interested in the beer rather than the food, having suddenly lost his appetite. He did have at least two slices of pizza as it is.

"I like my bones too." He say with a ghost of smile, his eyes alight on her. "This might help..." He looks down at his phone when his ring tone chimes, "It's Isabella." With the phone to his ear, he speaks in a conversational tone, "Hey, Izzy. we might need one of your drones or something to dive into the pond to find that ring. But... whoever is driving the thing can't even look at it." While he's speaking to her, he's also listening to what Lilith has got to say. "Alright then." He has the phone partially lifted from his ear, one hand covering the receiver, "We'll be there."

Back on the phone, he tries to explain: "Magnolia and Kevin Walters, you might remember him from school, they were tasked by the Collector to find the ring. You know which one. If they don't, they end up like the people who "borrowed" the ring from the Collector, their corpses being part of the Collection." The conversation goes on like this for a while, with him giving more in depth information from what Kevin just shared with them.

Lilith moves her head into a small nod at the confirming and finally pulls her hands away from playing with her hair for an absorbing few moments while Byron is on the phone. Her own fine and currently madeup features are pensive and bothered, though she's not quite in the realm of agitated as she kind of side-eyes his body and listens to the phone conversation while reaching to pull and nurse what remains of her beer. Then she finishes that second one off and picks up her phone to presumably confirm in a text with the Captain after the interlude of pause, tossing her phone down toward her bag afterwards.

While Byron is on the phone and she's listening with a vaguely far away expression, she does due diligence for the leftovers and asks for a box from a passing waitress to make the rest take home, then busies herself setting that up while working her bottom lip between her teeth.

Byron is giving Lilith a play by play of what's being said, "She said that people like herself and Easton might be able to locate the thing without even seeing it. A Mover she calls herself." No a Pusher or a TKer, apparently.

To Isabella, he'll continue, the phone no longer muffled and is once more close to his face, "That sounds like great news then. For them. I don't know if there's a deadline, but I'll inquire about it when they get back. I'll go ahead and let them know that you might be able to help." A pause,"We're all going to have our hands busy tomorrow. Lilith said it up so that the both of us, me and her, will be stationed in the interrogation room during the exorcism. All I gotta say is, I hope that this works."

"We learn more about about these varying powers and what others can do with them all the time." It almost looks like he is about to take a sip from his glass, but he leaves his beer alone for now. "Want to package the rest of this?" A look is given towards where Magnolia and Kevin had run off to.

"Mhm, totally wasteful to leave it. Not that it's much better when it sits in a fridge and gets forgotten about, but at least we made the effort on principle." Lilith murmurs to Byron while taking the box the waitress eventually brings to tuck the rest of everything away with a focused diligence. She starts to lean into Byron's side when she's done, then she turns face and sniffs at his shirt and sits up straighter again like it's going to rub off on her. The woman might be exaggerating a bit while he's distracted on the phone and making a bit of a mime show for him because she eventually leans back into his side while picking up her phone once more.

Then he can see her googling, which is either serious or a really morbid way to make light out of fuckery...

what bones do we not need?
what bones can be safely removed?

Oh look, she's link diving now.

When the waitress makes another stop at the table, Byron asks for the check as well as for the rest of the pizza to be packed up. He might not want to talk about it much, but since he'd left City Hall, the one thing on his mind was the fact that he would need to give up two of his bones. He knew that no one would him to donate Thomas Addington to the Archivist or the Collector. That just left the option of bone donation for both himself and Isabella. It wouldn't work if just one of them was willing.

With his suit jacket still resting against his lap, not that his dress shirt was spared from the perfume goodness, he'll lean against her in kind, draping an arm over her shoulders as he waits for the check to arrive. Being somewhat nosy, he does take notice of what she's doing exactly. It wasn't texting or anything like that, she was scouring the web on his behalf. Pretending not to look, what he says, makes it clear that he knows what she's up to, "I was thinking of stopping by the hospital at some point. Make an appointment and speak to an actual doctor or surgeon."

"... it's probably better to ask someone medically certified instead of the internet like me, yes. I was just curious. But why your bones? What can be done with your bones after the fact? That bothers me and you, I'm sure. Other than the idea of..." This is terrible restaurant talk. Actually, it's just terrible normal people talk in general, but there's only so much normal can do sometimes in this particular place where they live. Lilith closes the browser window on her phone and decides she doesn't like what's coming up, even though she is seeing that there are options. It doesn't mean she likes the options, so her link diving is pretty sparse once she gets an idea of matters to sate her morbid curiosity.

The woman's head tilts into Byron at rest when the arm comes to drape around her and she sits that way for a time while he finishes up the call and waits for the check to be brought and things paid and card returned. Though she's calm and cozied there, a small knit remains at her brows while she's resting lax and comfortable against his (whole) body. After the lingering time, she makes a noise in her throat with remembering and loops her handbag under the table with an ankle to put it in lean and snag reach on the cushion next to her for digging as she settles back against Byron.

Eventually, she comes out with a key taped to a bright pink post-it note that's been written on and folded over. It just has an alarm code inside, but on the outside, she's written the word keymaster in slanted cursive and drawn a silly heart with a lock hole shaded in the middle in ink pen. She holds it up at Byron's view while tilting her head up to watch him with her brows finally losing the small frown, lips twitching up a touch.

Listening to Kevin talk about the Collection, while it doesn't raise Byron's unease, it also doesn't set his mind at ease. "I think.. it gets added to the Collection. And if anyone dared tried to steal it, they might get dealt with in the same way that the borrowers, Kevin's words," Veil words, "of the jewel were destroyed, their remains now part of the Collection. So.." He'll start to laugh, it's a rather morbid one, "Just think that my bones, the both of them, will be most well protected-- unless someone does get away with stealing them."

At first, Byron thinks that Lilith may have dropped something, so pays her little squirming no mind. But then he notices her lifting her purse up with a foot, to bring it into grabbing distance. "So talented." His words come out in a light joke, though it's the key and note that are now presented to him that gains all of his attention. "Keymaster, eh?" He says, wearing this slick grin on his face with one of his brows dramatically raised. The waitress stop by with their packed up leftovers and the check, collecting Thorne's credit card as she wanders to the register.

He really can't help but laugh now at the foolishness, leaning his head in close to her to nuzzle through her hair and at her cheek with his nose. "I'll be your keymaster any day."

"Very talented. But, mm... that's oddly sexy to hear aloud. Might be the source, though." Lilith tells Byron with a hum of consideration after the tinging slant of her lips blossoms into full smile at his grinning reaction and commentary. The expression lights the worry away, the previous bit she listened to temporarily forgotten from the subtly glowing look of her... at least for now. Her cheek nuzzles into Byron's nose with countering motion as her lashes fall over her eyes, a purr noise sounding in her throat for effect.

Then for a moment, like they're ridiculous teenagers in a pizza place, she tips her face up to catch his lips with hers for a sweep of kiss until the card is dropped off on the table with a 'thank you' from the waitress. It's a bit like she's worked up longing just in the small space of them sitting together for a while... and she wants kissed to sate that because she can have it.

They probably did a lot of kissing at the pizza parlor once they were of age to take interest in such intimate acts, rather than Byron thinking that Lilith had cooties. He'd stopped thinking that pretty early on, really. The soft nuzzling, turns into a quietly passionate kiss. One that doesn't stop when the check is dropped off, the waitress lingering for a time, pretending not to do so.

Their lives were so full of stress that these strong heated moments of passion come quickly. Byron could be losing two of his bones any day now, otherwise, struggle to find a way to help put Gohl down once and for all. Lilith was playing watch dog for the exorcists tomorrow. Everyone knew that this would be a huge risk and the chance of this going dangerously sideways was great. This moment, shared between the two of them in a pizza parlor is something to be savored. Even now, it was hard for Thorne's mind not to stray and wander into darker territories, but he tries. Oh how he tries.

A hand lifts to tangle fingers within her hair, resting at the side of her face when he breathes in her kiss. His own lips taste like beer and pizza, pressing down on her mouth in earnest. This was their moment. There will be others as the evening goes on.