2019-10-21 - An Unorthodox Fishing Expedition

It's morning and drizzling and Lilith should be home packing for her trip, maybe, as it's happening later in the day, but she has something to fit in and she already kind of packed anyway. There's been a plan detailed to her by Isabella, which her and Magnolia talked about briefly in texts to arrange and get the plan underway. And that involves showing up here on this gray and wet day right at the pond side, not on the actual bridge. They're off and away a bit around a bend at the edge of the water where they agreed to meet up, and Lilith has a bag of accessories for using, though what those things are is yet unclear.

Either way, the point that they're on a bit of a strange mission there in the weather at the water, out of pedestrian view, more or less, it indicates they're up to something, and it certainly isn't fishing. Or is it? There's an absence of poles, but really, that's a little bit what they're about to play at-- fishing.

Lilith waves to Magnolia arriving not long behind her, wearing a pair of jeans and lace up boots with a pink and blue flannel tied over a navy tanktop, then there's a smoky rain shell jacket around that, hair up in a ponytail with no real cosmetics. She dressed for wet outdoors, and the bag she's carrying is plastic with handles, like one of those shopping totes. She rattles the contents before letting it slump on the ground, "I brought tackle! Are you excited?"

Neither of them really should be that excited, but Lilith is making the best of it despite the anxiety that flares knowing why they're doing this tactical run of unorthodox fishing practice. But this, this is just practice, so... damnit, they can make that part kind of fun, at least. Maybe.

There's something about this all that has Magnolia wondering if you can actually set a pond on fire. Spiritualists can do that, right? Burn it all to the ground. But that would mean that they wouldn't get that stupid purple jewel back to the Collector, and then all Magnolia wants to do is lay down.

So, when Lilith arrives with her cheerful rattling back, she squints at it like it's offending her sensibilities. Then she looks up at Lilith from her spot on the grass, dressed in battered jeans, those characteristic Chucks and a light sweater that has a sticker on its shoulder that Magnolia hasn't noticed yet. "This is my over-the-moon face," Magnolia gestures dramatically around her rather stoic expression.

Then she cracks into a slight smile. "Thanks for helping me out, Lil. I know you probably would like to be a million leagues from this thing."

"You're not wrong, it's hard to even want to talk about the thing to people. But part of that is because I know it's still out there, and you and Kevin shouldn't be left holding the bag and stuck with it. Besides, if we can get it without touching it and setting off another nasty chain reaction and get it back to the Collector, it's gone forever and won't do anything to anyone else. In theory. So..." Lilith snorts a little through her nose with huff of partial laugh noise at Magnolia's over-the-moon face before starting to dig through her bag to get out a junk jewelry ring that's pretty comparable in size and weight to display to the other woman while talking.

After she trails off, she pitches that junk-metal and stone ring off into the water with as big of a throw as she can muster without warning, because knowing exactly where things are will not be a thing when the 'thing' happens, might as well start that way. Her throwing arm kind of sucks, but it's unsure how deep that level is. Probably more shallow than the ring, so her lame arm maybe makes a good place to start, "Yeah. Bigger pictures than me, you know?"

Then she gets out a box connected to fishing line just in case, comparable to size of the real box, offering it to Mags to throw where she wants it, this time, "Your turn. How'd you two get stuck with it anyway? Were you like... summoned? I know you had the meeting where they explained it was stolen and wanted it, but how'd you get to that point?"

"If I didn't worry about what will happen if we don't actually get it back to the Collector, I'd leave the little fucker down there." Magnolia huffs out a breath. "But then I start worrying what happens if like some kid goes diving for junk and picks it up, and then my heart panics." She sounds almost... resigned to this. She's going to have to go Physical-diving for a stupid ring and then give it to some THING that collects stuff, like human bones and cursed gems.

Her eyes flicker up to Lilith briefly and then she nods soberly. "Yeah. Kevin and I were coming back from a date, and we opened the door to the office and then... walked into the Veil. And it was the Veil, I'm sure of it. I know what a Dream feels like, and this wasn't a Dream. And there were like these things that were guarding this building that was like breathing and these mimic guards showed us to their head-honcho that gave us this quest to retrieve the Lover's Jewel." The PI sounds a bit grumpy. "The second he described it to us, I knew what it was. I wanted to punch someone, because it's like they knew I had chucked it in the pond and so put it on my shoulders to get it back."

"Same. It's kind of a damned either way situation, so honestly, the way is just going to have to be as little damned as possible, knowing what we know." Lilith clicks her tongue and leans to shake the fishing line attached box to Mags for throwing out into the water close to where she 'thinks' the junk jewelry ring is that was shown out before tossed into the pond by the brunette prior. It's part of that locating 'stuff' thing, isn't it? Lilith isn't real sure how that all works, honestly, she just knows about the moving, so after she's given the box over to the blonde as a replication of the one that will be used, she seems to be watching a little closely, explaining, "But that seriously sucks. And I left the line on, just so you don't have to worry about locating two things down in the water, so much. Maybe tugging it around will help, I don't know."

She looks a little awkward while turning eyes out onto the pond's surface, awaiting the aimed throw to try and get the junk closed in the box from below. After a tilt of her head, she hums to herself, then looks at Mags more closely, "Maybe if I take some of the variables out and put luck on your side, make sure it doesn't get snagged and avoids plants and sticks, whatever else is down there... you can have a clearer shot." Then her features set with focus and general stubbornness as if she's just making it so while shining with brief flash of exertion, focus on Magnolia herself. And maybe, on some subtle level there after, things might feel a little like... things won't get in the way just because Lilith wants it that way to put luck on the blonde's side.

"You ever wonder about moving away, starting up a new life in Reno with a dog named Buck and a new guy named Chuck, and you can sell knitted pillows on Etsy while also making ends meet by throwing cards at the Egyptian-themed casino down the street?" Magnolia looks at Lilith with a slightly arched look, but at least there's a tiny smile at the edges of her lips. Then she sighs out a breath, and rubs slightly at the length of her thighs. Then she's scooting toward the edge of the pond as Lilith shaking out the line and giving her the box. She takes a breath, and draws her legs under her as she sits on her heels. "Alright. I mean... how many ways could this go wrong?"

Magnolia hurls the open box into the water, and it bobs just for a few moments before it sinks, down and down into the pond. Only once the line Lilith is holding gets a bit of slack does the blonde edge out to the edge of the pond while she reaches out her hand. First step? Locate the ring. So, she glows as she lets the Glimmer in and twists it up. She senses it, and then uses that honed focus to slowly pick up the ring from the tiny layer of muck it's settled into.

"Got it," she says. "Now to just..." Get it in the damn box.

"Yeah. But I moved away ten years and honestly, it was just a different kind of shitshow where I didn't really have anyone around to help with the shitshow, so... I don't know. Trade off. Can't really leave even if I wanted to, Hank owed when he died and you know. Debts are inherited, generally. That and I said I'd pay it to keep him from getting whacked in the first place, kind of hard to re-neg that even though he's..." Lilith kind of waves her hand some and her features and eyes go a little bit far away with what she's not saying as far as details and the current state of Hank and why he's in that dead state. Mostly, though, she focuses on the water and what Magnolia is doing, head tilting some with the anticipation and waiting of the moment.

While holding the line wound on reel, she leaves the box utterly be as the fake-gemmed heavy junk jewelry ring they're using for practice is apparently honed in on under the water with Magnolia's focus and claim, bringing a sudden twitch of the brunette's lips up. Maybe it isn't so hopeless and no one will be in danger afterall! But as soon as her expression starts to light up with a little hope, she holds it and waits to squint at the water, though she obviously can't see what's going on beneath, "Maybe this isn't as... impossible to do without exposure as we thought..."

"So, what you're telling me is that it's time to move to the moon. I bet there's no weird thin points in the Veil up there." Now Magnolia is listening a bit more earnestly to Lilith's story, looking aside to her as she lets her focus drift between the other woman and the junk ring she's got her Glimmer tied up around. She grimaces at the mention of debts being inherited, and she nods slightly. "Yeah. I know about that one. It's a common thing that people come to me about. I usually am just there to give them bad news."

Then she takes a breath as she eases the ring forward, letting it move in tumbles across the pond floor until it clinks against the box and she feels a bit of resistance it turbulence. Then she continues to let it tumble and clank against the box with some growing frustration. "This is worse than handling a marble with oven mitts." She then shakes her head, but it's a self-deprecating moment that subsides. "It's definitely going to take some practice."

"Most anything worth doing, it does take practice." Lilith encourages in a calm murmur over to Magnolia as she finally turns eyes from the water, over to the woman to watch her level of concentration. She thinks about going quiet so the other woman can focus, but she knows sometimes, just running off at the mouth while she's working with her hands or otherwise, it helps too, at least in the way of mitigating power, force, and overfocus. She works on things a lot at the shop and some of the electronics are tiny and delicate pieces of broken she has to concentrate on to see the way they should actually be functioning down to the little bits and wire connections and filaments.

Then to get Magnolia mindlessly chatting in a way that doesn't take thought or recollection given it's such a hefty day-to-day piece of her life, Lilith wonders while shifting weight between hips and watching the water again, "How old is your daughter? What's she like?"

Magnolia tips an amused look at Lilith. "That was so cheerleadery, it was almost cute." Her focus drifts back to the pond, and there's the occasional rippling motion of the Glimmer beneath the water. She can feel the ring clatter around the edge of the box, almost tipping against it with a near-graze along the top edge. Then she's taking a moment to rein in her focus, and she glances aside toward Lilith again.

"Lark will be six in about two weeks." Her expression lightens, some of that usual harsh and quippy exterior melting away to show the warm center of a woman who really loves her daughter. "She's frankly the most amazing person on the planet. Smart, funny, totally able to keep pace with most adults. She's a great kid, and I thinks he's going to do amazing things. You know. One day."

"I'm sure she's a regular riot, being your spawn. Not surprised she can keep up with the adult line." Lilith comments to Magnolia with a quiet bit of a chuckle, hands coming up to tug on and tighten her damp ponytail of hair while she stands watching and holding the slack line. It has plenty of room to float and wiggle around and occasionally it twitches with knocks against the box under the water while the blonde woman tries to navigate the junk jewelry into it, instead of against it. It's a bit like watching a fish bite and buzz the line and there for the first few times, Lilith really has to resist the reflex to draw it back in like she's actually fishing, "I hope catfish don't like shiny junk jewelry like it's a lure, wiggling it around down in the muck like you are. Admittedly, though, that'd be funny."

Then, after a subtle pull of breath, and though it may not be the best subject for focus the same way mindless affectionate child explaining is, the brunette can't help but be curious. After a spell of watching again, she wonders, "... do you want her to inherit abilities? Can you tell if she's going to?"

Magnolia bursts out into easy laughter, and that totally breaks her focus from the ring and the box tethered to the line. She turns her head toward Lilith, and she starts to nod. "Yeah, she's definitely that... but in her own way. She's definitely not in hot competition with her Momma, but she has her own way of getting people all riled up." Then she turns her eyes back down toward the pond, and she takes a breath as she refocuses her attention on the ring beneath the water -- not that ring. Not yet.

There's a sudden clarity in her movements, and the ring lifts smoothly in the water as if she had picked it up with her bare fingers and set it gently into the box. There's an almost audible clank. Her smile lifts slightly, and then she looks toward Lilith. "Oh no. Catfish like unsuspecting and usually emotionally fragile individuals with something to lose." Beat. "Oh, not those catfish." She quirks a smile toward Lil before she gives a little gesture, and with that gesture, the box's lid thuds shut with a watery thunk. It's well-timed, because Lilith asks that question and Magnolia's shoulders tighten.

"No." There's no second guessing. "I don't want her to. I want her to live a normal life without worrying about her dreams, or scary things trying to eat her, or anything like that." But then Lilith's other question is met with a tighter frown. "No. I don't know." She rubs slightly at the edge of her lip. "But we Joneses..." The words kind of taper off a bit. "My dad had a really strong Glimmer. He was like you, but really powerful. Really strong. His dad was all into it, thought that the Jones family was blessed to protect Gray Harbor, or some kind of superhero bullshit. Dad bought into it for a while, until he had kids. Then, I don't know... guess he realized that it was all bad, all the time."

"Yeah. I get that." Lilith says after a little snort-noise of humor at the quip, and she almost misses the shift on the line and the triumph on Magnolia's face when it happens in full, the catch of tossed shiny junk-jewelry bait there right in the underwater box like it's the catfish. She goes serious a few moments, though, remembering that the woman's father... well. She focuses on the kid part, commenting, "It's hard, I imagine. Hank wasn't much of anything, but the way he told it about the Winslows and their ways with luck, the old man might have been. He died before I was born, though, by a few years, so I don't really know. And Hank never talked much about things worth a damn that I should know about my general life or family."

Lilith makes a scoff noise through her teeth with 'tch' before she starts to tug the line back for reeling, eventually getting a box that drags up a lot of weeds with it, and it's closed and leaking water once it's ashore, "I never really think about kids, so much, myself, so I was just curious what the sentiment actually is when it's an inheritance kind of deal. Never really been in a steady enough relationship of any kind to... put my mind there, I guess." After stepping forward to bend, she opens the box to look at the jewelry wet inside and muddy, then flashes it out to Magnolia like it's a proposal, "Look. At. You. Want me to throw it again?"

"You never really know what's best when you're a parent. You want to, but I can't think of a single person who knows the best answers when it comes to all this kind of intricate, multilayered bullshirt." Yes. She just said bullshirt. She looks down at the water for a long moment, watching the line get tugged and the box reeled up. She let's Lilith take the lead on picking up the mucky box, but it does make her think -- "You think that you're going to be more sensitive to the ring, even if its in the box? I want to think that being exposed maybe inoculates you, but knowing our luck, it just makes you want it more."

Then she is leaning over, and grinning down at the interior of the box with a nod. "Hey, look at that. Just a few more key story moments and I'll be a regular Smegol with The One Ring." She flashes Lilith up a quick grin before she rubs her hands down along her thighs. When Lilith offers to throw it in again, she takes a thoughtful pause before she nods. "Yeah, let's keep this up. You throw the ring though without me watching. I want to see if I can get the box closer to the ring once I sense it with the Glimmer. That's what we're going to need to do, after all."