2019-11-01 - So, This is Your Mind

Kevin's babysitting, giving Magnolia a long stretch of time to visit with Easton. This is the first time that she's been called in to poke around in someone's head, but honestly -- there's weirder stuff she's been asked to do. But this definitely ranks up there in the top five of weird stuff she's been asked to do. She comes up to Easton's door and gives it a series of knocks before she hooks both hands around the strap of her leather messenger bag. She turns around, squinting around the exterior of his stoop and only when he opens the door -- or asks her to come in -- does she turn back around.

Easton answers the door soon after the knocks and pulls it open for her, "Come on in." He has a glass of brown liquor in his hand and is dressed down for the occasion. He has on gray jogger sweat pants and a faded black tee shirt. He lets out a brief exhale, close to a sigh and says, "I appreciate you doing this. I'm not the greatest and doing these things but Isabella showed me a little bit and hopefully that's enough for you to take a poke around and give me an all clear?" He walks towards the couch, one of the only pieces of furniture in the otherwise sparse and extremely organized living room. There are some clear touches of Bennie in the apartment, a colorful throw, some bright pillows, but otherwise it still looks like a sparse, modern bachelor pad.

Magnolia steps inside, shouldering back the messenger bag as she does. She flashes him a tight smile that tries very hard to be casual and fails miserably in the process. "Hey there, crazy pants." It's an affectionate term. Really. She steps toward him, nodding slightly as he gives her a quick intro. She shoulders out of her bag and sets it down. "Okay, but I'm going to need one of those, too." She points at the glass. "You need to know, Easton -- this is whole new terrain for me. But, I'll do my best."

At being called crazy pants Easton laughs ruefully, "Nice." but obviously doesn't take any offense at it. He nods towards the kitchen where the booze is still out. There's more than one hard liquor on the counter and plenty more in the cabinets. "Help yourself. Beer in the fridge, or some mixers? Maybe." He mostly stocks those type of things for Bennie. And if she looks in the fridge there is a moderate amount of actual food in there now that Bennie lives there and understands more about how to grocery shop like a human being. Before it was all just meal prepped meals in reused takeout containers, a slight step up from MREs but just barely. Easton takes a seat on the couch and says, "One of the things to be aware of with this is I think it's a two way street. So opening up to me, means opening up. Pretty sure I can focus us in on just my side of the bridge, but wanted to give you fair warning that it's not just a one way thing."

"Beer is the food of the gods, man." Magnolia pads toward the fridge to herself a beer and a bottle opener. She pops it, and then closes the door. She makes no judgement about the contents of anyone's fridge, for good or for ill. She steps back out into the main room to sit down on the couch beside Easton. She rolls the beer bottle between her hands. Then she chuckles a bit. "Two-way street," she repeats, and then nods slightly. "Hey, you're just going to find that I'm an awesome person, that's cool." It's a defensive mechanism, and it works... most of the time. Here? She just looks a bit nervous. So, she sets the beer bottle down with a little clank, and then rubs her hands on her jeans. "Okay. So, how do we do this? Vulcan mind-meld fingers or something?"

"I promise, I'm not trying to peak at you naked. Literally or metaphysically." Easton grins, and can tell she's joking due to nerves. That's a nerve racking thought, opening yourself up to someone, especially someone you don't know all that well. There's an intimacy to the link that Easton tries not to think too much about. He feels like Isbaella and he are now old friends that have known each other for years, and that has to be because of the link. And it's not a bad thing per say, it's just a bit much. He shakes his head and sits on the couch facing her. "No, we don't need to actually touch. We're just going to use our abilities to open the door when the other person knocks. It's weird at first, but I'll help you get your bearings."

And with that he takes one last sip of his drink, closes his eyes. The mental bridge is at first exactly that a connection that has neither of their minds visible, but it gives the sense of the two of them standing in a black open space between two amorphous things. Easton is dressed not in his casual clothes but in his fatigues, camo pants tucked in boots with olive green tee-shirt and camo hat, no jacket. He nods at her and waits a moment before saying <<When you're ready.>>

"Dude, I look great naked." Just to set the record straight. Then Magnolia takes in a breath, turning more toward him. "Makes sense." She bobs her head a bit, licking at her lips in a nervous little tic. Then she takes another breath -- this one deep and meditative. She works her fingers together a bit, and then closes her own eyes. He knocks, she answers, and there she is in that mental headspace. He's in fatigues and she's in jeans and a Foo Fighters' t-shirt; she's wearing those beaten-up Converse sneakers that sport muddled marker drawings on the toecaps. It's Magnolia. There's some parts of who she is she just never covers up. <<Ready, G.I. Joe.>> She steps forward, and perhaps instinctually, she takes his hand.

On one side of the bridge lays Easton's mental landscape, it's visibly a military camp in a warzone. The other side of the bridge and still quite visible is Magnolia's however that's represented. Easton's is heavily fortified with walls, reinforced with bags of dirt, razor wire strung across the top and literal guards patrolling. The marines are all either moving too quickly or in shadows to actually see their faces, which are blurred if you manage to even get a close look. The compound is sizable and extremely well ordered. There's no chaos, only men following orders and doing what needs to get done. Magnolia has seen more of Easton's serious side than many so this might not be as much of a shock to her as to the people who know him as the loud often naked heavily drinking bar owner.

Easton takes her hand and says <<Nice shirt.>> with a genuine smile. It's always a bit of a surprise to see people as they are in their own minds. He leads her into the compound, the Marines along the way stopping to salute and acknowledge that they belong. He says <<I can't explore on my own. It doesn't seem to work like that, so we're currently using your abilities and I'm just a guide. I only mention it because you're doing the heavy lifting now. You need a break, that's fine.>>

Magnolia takes Easton's fortified warzone and raises him one bedroom. It has a girl's fourposter bed with that gauzy netting that was really big in the late nineties. There's band posters on the walls -- some old school grunge like Bush and Soundgarden, but also some post-grunge. The corners of the room are dark though -- deeply shadowed. There's a sense of movement in each corner, like things are being held right at the edges of the room. The solitary window looks out into blackness save for the occasional movements that might be a storm. Compared to Easton which is all fortified and tightly guarded, Magnolia's has this sense of waiting, ready, and unafraid what's unseen in those dark corners. On the bed is a cardboard file box, and, in sharpie, the words on the box's content's list simply reads: THINGS UNANSWERED.

Magnolia doesn't look behind her to take note of that space, but instead is focused on Easton and his own mind. Mags looks up at Easton, still holding his hand, and she flashes him an easy smile. "Alright, dude. Guide away. I've got this." Her jaw sets a bit, and she does. She's got this.

<<When Gohl was here, it wasn't him. It was like my men.>> Here he gives her a shrug that tries to express, yes it's weird to describe his inner thoughts as 'his men' but he can't explain it. <<There were groups out to kill. So we're looking for murder squads basically.>> He doesn't explain how he knows that or saw that considering he just said he can't explore his own mind.

If Easton catches any of the imagery from Magnolia's side of the link he does a damn good job of not showing it. In fact though he regiments himself into only looking on his side of the link. He doesn't know what can come up in terms of memories or what and he doesn't want to pry.

As he leads her into the first of a series of buildings, something shifts in the scenery, things suddenly become clearer and crisp in a way that's new. And there in the room is yet another version of Easton, but younger and clean shaven. He's laughing and joking with fellow Marines including one particularly tall blond marine in the middle of a particularly raunchy story. Actual Easton stops and stares for a moment as if transfixed. After a few seconds he remembers himself and that Magnolia's there and he winces. <<Fuck. Shit. Hold on>> And something happens where the memory fades and the room goes back to a less well defined state, empty again except for the two of them. He lets out breath, one that sounds both annoyed and saddened before putting on a smile and saying, <<Sorry, lots of ground to cover yet. I don't know how to avoid memories though. So uh, hopefully I don't think about Thailand?>>

Magnolia's expression tightens at the mention of Gohl. Her eyes flicker over toward him briefly, and then back to the landscape of Easton's mind. <<A murder squad.>> There's no dubious tone, or even slight of wryness. She's serious, and her expression has changed from the usual flippant casualness to something serious.

She follows Easton's lead, but her brain has shifted from casual observer to something sharper, more honed. She's taking in the details. Her eyes slide over the younger Easton, and her brows arch a bit. Then she smirks at Easton at the wince. <<Hey, I don't kinksha-- >> But her thoughts cut short when he asks her to hold on, and she shifts slightly back behind him, but does not let her eyes drift away from that spot of undefined space. Then she looks up at Easton. <<Don't avoid them. I mean, don't be bothered if they slip through. You don't know what I've seen in my life, dude. I got it.>> And she does. Her eyes flicker back around them, and she loosens her hand a bit from around his fingers. <<Think about Gohl. If this is a case I'm trying to solve, I need you think about where it all started -- and it started with Gohl.>>

Easton remains steady as he explains the manifestation that he saw before. <<I tried to show Bennie. It didn't go well, but I knew something was off.>> He just nods and confirms <<Yup. Kill squad gone rogue.>> He doesn't know how any of this works, what it means that his mind manifests as a fortified military camp in a desert. What he does know is that something was wrong before and he needs to be 100% sure that it's no longer the case.

He smirks as she assures him that she won't shame him. <<Oh I have no shame about my kinks. I just don't need to take you on a trip down memory lane here.>> He makes light of it but there's a touch of sensitivity about it. He doesn't want to open up his whole past in this process, like everyone he's made of the painful and sweet memories that fill a life. And as much as he might trust Magnolia to not take it lightly, he still would prefer to keep them private. <<Don't worry I'm not doing that to spare you. I'd just rather keep my memories to myself.>> At her direction though he nods and the walls around them shift, they are now standing in a hanger bay of sorts with rows of men at attention. He smirks as she pulls her hand away, and he takes his back as well, not having realized they were still holding hands, which strikes him as funny.

<<Don't know why it didn't occur to me to get them in formation. Have them stand for inspection.>>

And that's where his thoughts and emotions are now, lined up in perfect rows, standing at attention. There's no distinguishing of memories from thoughts from emotions from urges though. They all look like basic marines with blurred faces, standing in their proper places. Easton starts walking through the lines and says <<I wasn't there when they pulled Gohl out of Thomas. And no one realized it hadn't gone as smoothly as they thought. It didn't start for me until I nearly killed a chinese delivery driver. I mean sure he was super late, but normally I'd just tip less, ya know?>>

<<That's a rational way for your brain to make sense of an attack.>> Magnolia's hands slip into the rear pockets of her jeans, and she continues along with Easton in a casual stride. But it's a distraction from how her gaze cuts around, taking in all the details. <<I know, Eee. I'm teasing you. We're good.>>

Then she's watching the formation of thoughts, emotions, the way they come together in that perfect column upon column. She steps up to one column, and then tilts her head just enough so that the column cascades itself in her perspective all the way to the end. It's amuses her a moment. But then she's following Easton, the column of marines between them. <<My memories cannot be this organized.>> They aren't, but there's that box -- and the boxes under the bed and in the closet. There's hundreds of them that she could pull out of the darkness, even if some would rather stay in the shadows.

Her eyes turn to the lines of marines, and she's trying to find the ones that don't fit... one of these things are not like the other; one of these things do not belong.

<<Alright. So how did you get connected to Gohl?>>

<<Do we know each other well enough to tease?>> Easton shoulder bumps her as they walk through the mindscape, a playful smile on his lips as he jokingly checks their relationship status.

The orderliness of the lines and the 'men' that make them up is indeed quite different. There is a control and precision to it that is not visible in his outward demeanor. When she jokes that her mind isn't that organized he just smirks, <<It's only cause I'm sober. I bet more than half these men would be running around naked wiping each other with towels after half a bottle of jack.>> But the lines also mean there isn't anything hidden, one particularly sinister looking man, who gives off a vibe of darkness does stand out, but he stands right alongside the other men. When they approach a memory begins to play out in the firmament above as if in a surround television.

The vision is clearly from someone's POV like a first person shooter, obviously in this case from Easton. It's a bloody fight with his opponent bleeding heavily as they trade blows. Easton, or the mental representation of him at least watches it play out before asiding, <<That's just a memory. That's all me.>> He doesn't sound terribly proud of it as the memory concludes with what looks like Easton stumbling away from the fight and being pulled into a cab by some friends.

<<My fucking uncle.>> Easton's answer to her question is nearly spat, even mentally, in disgust. <<He worked at the asylum where Gohl was taken. He helped dig up the bones. Somehow I started having dreams about that after Uncle Monty died.>>

Individual men throughout the formation turn to face the pair when Uncle Monty is mentioned. All of them have a similar sinister air about them, a general unpleasantness that would make most people want to avert their gaze. Easton approaches one as if to examine it with her. <<I think these are just memories of what an asshat he was...>>

<<Are you asking if we're going steady?>> There's a hint of amusement that turns into a low, laughing smirk at his comeback about his organized mind. <<Note to self: don't get Easton drunk.>> Then she's spotting the dark figure in the columns. Her footsteps slow just for a heartbeat before Easton starts to fill in the missing pieces, while also giving her a POV of something that makes her look away quickly. Only with a breath does she look back, watching the offered snapshot.

<<Gohl targets families,>> Magnolia says this while she glances toward Easton. <<That's why it was you, Easton. He targets families of those who wronged him, or those who fit some other messed up criteria he has in his head.>> Her lips tighten a moment before she looks at one of those darker soldiers. She narrows her eyes slightly. <<I don't know...>> She steps closer. <<Maybe.>>

<<Call me old fashioned but I like to have had hot dirty sex in public with someone before I go steady.>> Easton smirks and then looks at her in mock confusion <<Really? That's the lesson you took away from that?>> As if it weren't a perfectly reasonable conclusion to come to.

Gohl targets families

Huh. Easton stops and looks at her as if she just told him the most profound truth. <<That actually makes perfect sense.>> He figured it was connected to his uncle but somehow he just assumed it was because Uncle Monty was a giant bag of dicks. But that's just his own bias showing through, the real issue is that Gohl loves hacking away at family trees.

The closer she gets to any one of the men, a memory will begin to play again on the big screen of the sky. They are all very closely related, times when Easton was young and a heavily inebriated Uncle Monty is over for dinner at their place telling horrific stories about the inmates and what they used to do at the asylum. They are all meant to scare the crap out of Easton which only causes Uncle Monty to laugh. As the memories progress in age, Easton's emotional state goes from fear to anger.

<<Gross.>>

Then Magnolia is glancing back to Easton, and she smirks as she gestures at herself. <<I did my research.>> Duh. Now she's looking back at the man she's targeted, honed in on, and she's glancing up at the sky to watch this memory unfold. Magnolia looks disquieted, but it's locked behind a stoic expression. She recognizes some of this; she knows what this is.

Far, far at the end of this mindfield that belongs to Easton is Magnolia's own psyche, and there are shadows moving there. They tighten around the bedroom, beginning to blur the edges of her posters. This far into Easton's mind, it is impossible to make sense of the voices except that they are sneering and cruel. The shadows start to take shape, but Magnolia's nose flares and they shrink back a bit.

<<He's a dick.>> Then she glances toward Easton. <<But he's the reason we're here.>>

Easton looks duly impressed with Magnolia and her research. One of the things he definitely does not excel at and it's starting to really become an issue.

As the memories play out while she inspects the men Easton just shakes his head. <<Fuck, I should just let that go.>> He's dismayed to see how much of an impact those stories had on him, to see how much of his mental space gets dedicated to it. But there's nothing he's going to do about it now, and besides he'd rather not let on about that.

<<He's a dick>> Easton repeats back in confirmation.

<<Why?>> Magnolia's turning a glance behind her toward Easton. <<The memories fucking suck, and your uncle is a dick, but you strip away all those memories, and you actually lose a lot of who you are, dude. You take the shadows, you live with them, and you just make sure they never snuff out the light.>>

Almost knowingly, she glances back at her own mind.

Now she takes a breath, looking at the men. <<You wanted me to make sure that there's nothing in your head that has been left behind by Gohl, right?>> She glances aside to him. <<To make sure that your psyche is still -- yours?>> She looks at the men. <<I think you're still you, Easton.>>

<<Because he's dead. And I don't want to waste any more time or energy on him.>> Which is partially why he was so pissed when Hailey showed up at the bar with a key that used to belong to Uncle Monty to give to Easton all mysteriously. That very memory starts to play out across the sky. Easton gruffly questioning Hailey while she evasively tries to give him this key and get the hell out of his bar and his life. He doesn't bother trying to stop it. He just shakes his head at Magnolia and says <<To bad he still manages to be an ass even in death.>>

Now that he's not quite so worried about his own mental state, he follows her gaze back to her own. He agrees, <<We all got shadows. I just don't need to carry baggage around for a dead uncle I never liked.>> Even if Monty protests that he always liked Easton, that means very little to the man himself.

Looking around at the men all lined up as she does and then back to Magnolia. He nods, <<Yea, I think this is all me.>> He can't be sure. But it doesn't feel like before and if everyone else thinks they're clean he has no reason to assume he's the one hold out.

Letting go of her mind Easton lets himself drift back into the real world. With a voice that's a little rough, almost like when you first wake up, he says quietly, "Thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time Mags." He takes a big gulp of whiskey and unfolds his legs from the couch.

Magnolia's eyes lift to the TV In The Sky, and her head tilts slightly as she watches the memory unfold. But then she's looking back toward her own corner of her mind. Her hands hook lazily into the pockets of her jeans. <<Yeah.>> The shadows in the back of Magnolia's mind start to take shape, take a darker form. Hands reach, stretching, but then Easton is letting go of her mind and she settles into her own mind with its own shadows.

She straightens up, clearing her own throat with a castaway look. She reaches for her own drink, but taking a drink seems to be an afterthought. Instead, she rolls it between her palms. She sits up straight only to then sink back into her seat. "I've always wondered what it would be like inside Easton's mind. It truly keeps me up at night, wondering, imagining -- " The sarcasm falls away as she clears her throat again. "You seem okay... you know... yourself... if there's something in there, I couldn't see it." She flickers a gaze over to him.

"Yes, I'm sure you were just dying to know exactly what my mind was like." Easton scoffs and takes another sip, this time much smaller, less needy, from his glass. He nods at the assessment and says, "Yea, as much as we can see, I think I'm in the clear. Too bad there's no ghost serial killer MRI you can just have done." He then looks off to the side at the thought of 'what if they do that at the asylum?' before looking back to her with a fixed grin. It's a joke, smile.

"And on the plus side now you have a brand new way of overwhelming someone on a first date. Why just tell them everything about yourself in excruciating detail when you could just open up your head and show them literally every horror show that is your life to this point?" For that joke, he actually does have a big grin on his face at how miserably awkward and insane that would be to do to someone on a first date.

"This is Gray Harbor, dude. I'm just lucky Kevin's pretty normal... you know, when you get past the crazy conspiracy theories and a penchant for being a total and utter nerd." Magnolia rambles that all of her tongue before she takes a sip from the beer. She presses her lips together briefly before she glances back over to Easton. "Look, you ever want me to poke around your head, I won't even charge you... except for a beer. And with the American healthcare system, that's super cheap." She tips the beer toward Easton in a casual salute.

Now she rubs at the beer bottle as her expression settles into something more serious. "My ex-husband was abusive." She takes a few heartbeats before she adds, "I sometimes wonder if something in Gray Harbor did it to him... made him that way." She glances aside to Easton now. "Gray Harbor does things to people -- it fucks them up. But if I can do anything to stop those I care about, or those adjacent to those I care about, from becoming as dark and fucked up as the shit we have to deal with, then I'm going to do it." She glances over toward Easton. "You're a good guy, Easton. So, yeah."

She hesitates, and then chokes a bit of laughter as she looks away. "I just made this super serious. Sorry. Not my usual MO."

Easton looks a little skeptical when she calls Kevin normal, but relents with a shrugging nod when she adds some disclaimers to that statement. He pulls a slight face at the offer and says, "No, I'm hoping this is a one time deal. I don't plan on needing regular head checkups."

Easton doesn't even blink when she starts to talk about her own past. He just takes a sip of the whiskey and nods. "Gray Harbor is fucked up. But so are people everywhere else." He doesn't know her ex obviously and he's not exactly one to talk about bring at fault or not for being abusive, but he also hates the idea of passing blame off. He shakes his head and says, "I don't know about that" being a good guy "but I hear you about wanting to do what we can to stop this place from dragging people down with it."

His smile returns as she laughs at herself, "Seriously. Way to bring down the mood of a looking for a serial killer ghost in the recesses of my mind party. We were having a good time here Jones."

"Damn. I was hoping to score regular beer deposits."

Now Magnolia snorts, and squints a look at him. "You know that every person who says that they don't think they're a good person is actually a good person because not good people think they are good people. So, you're psychologically right on track." She takes another drink from the bottle.

There's another snort, but this time with some laughter. "I know. It's why I get invited to all the parties." She looks down at the beer, picking at the label a bit. "I'm glad you don't have some Gohl chunk festering in your head, dude. They don't make a hallmark card for that, so..." She gives his shoulder a light punch of her knuckles. "I should get out of here before this gets really mushy. But, um... next time we can get together without the weird. I bet Bennie would love it if I said the words 'double date.'"

"Eh, I'm a big fan of believing what people tell you about themselves." Easton counters the argument about not being a good person, but understands the sentiment behind it.

"Agreed. I think Bennie'd only be more excited if she thought there was a chance I'd end up making out with Kevin." He shrugs, not really explaining (as if he could) why Bennie is so invested in finding him a man to makeout with.

"And you're always welcome to stop by for a beer, no head trips necessary."