2019-11-26 - First Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, in Thew's house it may not be extravagant, but he's been baking a turkey since five in the morning, potatoes, cornbread, snap beans and so on. Working clearly like he isn't used to more than a quick cook turkey roll, and a bottle of wine for one, his small table is set, a folding out for food, and the three places at his table have been prepared with extra care when the bird comes out.
"Luh... Li... Liam. You... cut? I'm... I..." nervous, his anxiety has been ramping and so he simply motions to the bird at last, a two tined fork, and a razor keen knife. Moving, and twitching, to draw a chair out for Jade.

"Oh, sure," Liam is quick to take the honor - rather than regarding it as a favor - as he steps over towards the turkey, taking the utensils deftly in hand. The tines pierce the juicy flesh of the turkey, and the blade's keen edge slices into it as he begins to carve.
"Damn, good job," he compliments the host with a flashed smile before re-focusing on his work, "Me, anything that's more complicated than a pot on the stove-top or a microwave oven's beyond my cooking skills, I'm afraid. Although I do decorate a hell of a cookie."

By comparison, Jade is about as relaxed as one can get, having watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade from the big skooshy chair, then flipping around until she can find some kind of horror flick... finally landing on Syfy and lucking into one of their older movies. Bats: Human Harvest. Idly doing research and chatting with both Liam and Thewlis, the latter getting a hug ever hour or so since he's doing all the cooking. When its time, however, she hops up and heads over to the table, smiling at Thew for the gentlemanly act before taking her seat and grinning at Liam. "That's right, butcher the bird. I want a drumstick with some breast meat and skin, though!" Then she's looking to Thewlis and giving a nod, "He -does- decorate one Hell of a cookie..."

"Have.. fixins. Could bake some... if you... Want that. To. For. To dessert." Thew nods as he moves to lean and give Jade a quick kiss at the temple before he takes his seat. "You learn to... when you live alone. Cook... Or you don't... No middle." pouring glasses of wine. "Glad you... both wanted to... join here." flushing and rubbing the back of his neck and taking a long swig of liquid courage.

"I miss the old Godzilla marathons they used to have on Thanksgiving," Liam laments as he finishes slicing the turkey, pulling off a drumstick and setting it to one side of the platter with a smirk for Jade and a brow's raise as if inquiring after its evaluation. "Back when it was just the Sci-Fi Channel without the stupid extra y's in it," he adds, "And hey, thanks for letting us join you, and cooking, and shit."

Reaching across the table, Jade take Thewlis by the hand and gives it a small squeeze, smiling towards him encouragingly. Leaving her hand in his, she turns towards Liam and grins, "Mom used to hate us watching it, but Dad always overruled because he liked it better than those Hallmark movies mom wanted to watch." She looks back to Thew and offers, "Of course we want to be here with you. Where else would we go? You're the closest to family we have here, Thew. Couldn't leave you alone on Thanksgiving." The drumstick is eyed critically before she gives a nod of approval towards Liam, watching him slice the turkey with practiced ease. "Ugh, don't get me started on the changes in Sy-Fy..."

"It's... barely watchable... Schlock is... quality. Better compared to." Thew looks to Jade's hand, eyes closing as he takes a breath. "I haven't had thanksgiving with anyone since... Nineteen... I was. It." worrying his lower lip and motioning towards the turkey breast, giving Liam a silent 'please' to avoid having to speak for a moment while he gathers his wits.

"It's all CGI these days on that channel, too," Liam says with a shake of his head, using his position as turkey-carver to start doling out some slices to one, the leg to the other, "I've always been a practical effects kinda guy. Just feels like cheating, and man, I don't demand too much creativity, but-- at least stop beating Sharknado with a club."

"I don't mind CGI, and really, its almost necessary in a lot of instances.. but it needs to be done well. If I can see the pixellation of the CGi every time the monster moves... that's some pretty shit CGI. I could work up something better," Jade gives a nod towards Liam before looking back Thewlis. "Thank you for sharing your home and food and company with us, Thew. We really appreciate it." She smiles briefly then looks to Liam again, "But we've had this conversation a LOT. And thankfully, practical effects seem to be making at least a small comeback."

"Both are equally important and an essential part of the medium. CGI for a ten second sequence for a character alone can take upwards of sixty hours plus render time. Dismissing it as a cheat is as offensive as when people told Bakshi he couldn't make a decent film using rotoscope and he brought us American Pop among other films. It's an extremely young aspect of an also young industry. A lot of hard work goes into CGI, even bad CGI..." Thew keeps his head down, and then proceeds to take another gulp of wine.

"Okay, yeah, some is fine-- it's a useful tool and can be used to great effect, but," Liam drops down into a chair with a shake of his head, picking up a fork and twirling it before pointing it at the two, "As the primary FX model it'll never stand up to practical."

Chuckling softly, Jade lifts her hands at Liam, "You know my thoughts on the matter. Practical effects are, especially from a master of the craft.. but there are some things you just can't 'practical'." She looks back to Thewlis and smiles softly, squeezing his hand once more. "You really are the sweetest." With the food ready and parceled out, Jade looks between the men and lifts a brow, "Anyone want to say grace, or do we just offer silent thanks and start eating?"

"If... you want. Can say grace." Thew starts stumbling again now that he isn't talking film. "I..." ducking his head again, "Ath..." chewing his lip, "At.. Secular." Brow knitting together as he looks to each of them, keeping eye contact for a few moments. "I'm thankful though. Both of you. Nice to have friends."

"I've never been big on church myself," admits Liam with a shrug of one shoulder, "So thankful for friends it is. May we always have them when we need them, eh?" A smile tugs up at the corner of his lips, gaze sweeping between the pair.

"I'll take them even when I don't need them. Friends are good all the time," Jade responds with a warm smile for them both. She looks towards Liam and grins, "So. You were out kinda late last night. Find anyone interesting?" Perhaps teasing him a bit now that the serious is out of the way. Her eyes slip to Thewlis and she offers, "Liam here was out half the night last night. Only noticed when he got home cause I had to use the bathroom."

"Mrmmm... Maybe found... Place. Watering hole... Preference... Place." Thew is out half the night himself some nights, but then it's for far less social, or interesting things. "Lot of weird... town. Stuff in. Weird in. Town." he looks back to Jade, giving a small smile and then back to them both at the same time. "Jade has seen some... major weird. Worse. Already."

Liam's eyes roll in his head at the teasing. "Just doing some scouting. This town is definitely... weird," he admits, pausing to take a mouthful of turkey, chewing and swallowing before gesturing with the fork, "A lot of secrets. And apparently some people - or things - interested in keeping them secrets. At the same time, nobody minds their own business, either."

"Hey now. Some of that weird has been very good, I'll have you know." Jade responds in a teasing tone, grinning briefly at Thewlis before it fades and she nods to Liam. "He's right though. There's some MASSIVELY weird stuff. Like... creepy weird. There's this house? We saw a talking skeleton with a corpse and then someone set the couch on fire and... I don't know. The whole thing was just weird." She shakes her head a little, then looks up to Liam, "Well of course not. Its a small town. Nobody ever minds their own business." Pause. "Except you, Thew. But you're too good for this place."

"Every town has people... that... mind their own." Thew nods. "You were... coming to town for ghosts... or debunk ghosts... You won't debunk... here." working on his turkey breast, using it to swirl up potatoes and dunking in gravy. No individual flavors here, apparently only stew for Thew. He looks back to Jade and after a moment ponders aloud, "Should I show him?"

At the mention of a house, Liam's gaze raises sharply from the turkey and stuffing on his plate, fork pausing in mid-air with a bit of gravy-soaked meat on the tines. "The Murray House? I was warned away from that place," he asks, and admits at once, a frown creasing both expression and forehead. "They said that..." Then he's considering Thew, taking that mouthful of turkey and chewing, swallowing before asking bluntly, "You have weird super-powers too?"

Watching Thewlis with a faint smile, his sudden question has her brows jumping up. She looks towards Liam consideringly, only to mention both the house AND the super-powers. Her eyes narrow and Jade murmurs, "You really have been getting around, haven't you?" Watching Liam for another moment, she lets out a breath and nods to Thew, "Might as well, since it looks like someone else gave him the sunglasses already."

"Hah!" Thewlis actually barks laughter at the Piper reference... "Guess... he's... albino Keith David then." still chuckling as he drags a finger across the cheap old table, drawing a line of fire in it. Waving his hand slowly to cause it to pull towards the center and become a small ball in the midst of the scorch before it flows to a little drop of water where it sizzles out. "Tada..."

"What can I say, I've got one of those faces, people like to talk to me," Liam replies with a bit of a smirk as Jade gives him that look. Then he's leaning back in case whatever Thewlis does is too dramatic, one arm draping over the back of the chair. The line of flame is observed with a fascinated look, eyebrows raising, "Shit. I suppose you're going to say 'no' if I ask you to do that on camera."

"Really? I guess that makes me the half-black, half-hispanic Piper?" Jade looks towards Thewlis with an amused expression as he notes Liam's 'character'. Then he's doing his thing and she smiles softly towards him, reaching over to squeeze his hand. Liam gets a LOOK from jade and she murmurs, "We don't make sideshow attractions of our friends. Right?" That LOOK continues for another beat before she softens and looks towards Thewlis and murmurs, "He doesn't care for crowds, and I'm not going to make him do anything he's not comfortable with."

"Someone... else. Glasses... Made him put on. Glasses. Jade" head ducking down "This... town. The. It." looking to Liam, "Even I did... Town keeps its... it keeps. Secrets it. Keeps." he resumes eating, one hand casually wiping away the fire damage... and as he does the tabletop loses its decades of wear, restored to brand new, even if the legs are still old and beat up looking.

"Hey, I asked, I didn't demand," defends Liam, hands coming up a bit in a gesture of surrender before delving into the mashed potatos-- one eye on where the fire was, and faded. A bite, a swallow, and he shakes his head, "I hope I'm not Armitage though. Then again, nobody really made it through that movie alive... not going to leave things alone, though. Not with Nate still out there."

"Does it -keep- secrets or -eat- them? Because right now I'm kinda leaning towards the altter..." Jade asks of Thewlis with one brow lifted before taking a few bites of gravy-laced stuffing and turkey. She eschews the mashed potatoes. Pausing only briefly, she turns back to the They Live references and grins at Thewlis, "Well if he's Keith David, that makes me Roddy Piper, which makes YOU the girl working with the aliens." She winks at him then looks to Liam and gives a nod, "I haven't found anyone that really seems to have known him."

"Hide them... eat them..." Thew nods to himself. "I need to. More. I have. Look. More. Search." lips pursing, Thew looks down into his meal. "Will redouble." he frowns deeper, "No burial... No. Records. I haven't buried." a breath is taken, "Juh-jay-juha-ay." mouth setting in a line, eyes closed, Thewlis's face is momentarily only anger before he sucks in a long breath. "Jade... Believe. Doesn't believe... But the town. Brought." brow knitting. "Town brought you here. You both...One reason... Or another." looking between them with a small frown.

"Yeah, well, I don't care if we're in Silent Hill or the Town That Dreaded Sundown," Liam replies, piercing a piece of turkey with the tines of his fork and flashing a quick, determined smile to the pair, eyebrows going up a bit, "I'm going to get to the bottom of what happened to Nate. If this place expects us to roll over for it, it's got another thing coming."

A bite, and he chews a bit before swallowing, "Damn, man. You really know how to cook a turkey."