2019-11-27 - Before They Were Pies

The house is very much not quiet on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, bluetooth speakers picking up a playlist possibly better suited to the older Joneses, cycling through Loreena McKennitt, Dead Can Dance and other appropriately odd and ambient music in preparation for the parental visit tomorrow. Sparrow has been cleaning, nevermind that the place was already pretty damned tidy to begin with. Now? She ventures into the kitchen in pursuit of something to drink, ready to flop down and take a break.

The kitchen is definitely not tidy. Corey has been spending his off hours preparing things for the weekend. Pies can be baked and frozen, and so he's busy rolling out pastry and preparing fillings, humming along to the music Sparrow has been playing. "Hey Phil," he greets as she meanders on in. "There's a jug of rhubarb gin mixed with vanilla coke in the fridge." Because he's been drinking. Not to the point of drunk, but to where he's all relaxed and not stressing over family visiting.

"Tempting." Sparrow pauses with the fridge door open to consider her options, but she goes for pink lemonade instead. This time. She really just needs to rehydrate. Glass poured and pitcher put back into the fridge, she finds a free bit of countertop that looks reasonably out of the way to perch and watch and leave herself available should her twin want any help. "This is gonna be amazing, C. I can't wait. Told Zelie she's staying over again when she likes it or not." As if she wouldn't like it. "But... that might narrow our window for talking about some things. I was able to catch up with the warlock. You want me to save that for after?"

"Now is good," Corey replies with a shake of his head as he begins cutting out pastry to fit the pans he has, frowning as one doesn't quite fit. Goddamnit. Rolls the pastry back up into a dough ball again and gives it a thorough kneading. "What did he have for you?"

"Words," Sparrow answers with wide eyes, as if she'd been handed a dictionary outright. "Like how glimmer is what lets us do the weird stuff we can do and how there are thin spots between Gray Harbor and The Veil which is a world that sits kinda on top of ours and you can't really tell you're in it right away all the time. And how he thinks the weird dreams are different, that they take place somewhere deeper, beyond the Veil, I guess, cuz you can't just open a gate into them or stumble in on your own." Beat. "And he said he can open gates into the Veil. And out of it. But not out of dreams. And that he can see the, uh, tears or whatever, where you could turn a corner and just be somewhere else." She pauses there, basic rundown done, and takes a pull from her lemonade.

The kneading slows, eventually stops, as Corey pays more and more attention to what Sparrow is saying. Yes, it's more important than baking. Make a note on the calendar. "...huh. That.. sounds really right," he murmurs, turning slightly to look at his twin. "How do you feel about all that, Mena?" he asks, more softly, blue eyes finding brown.

"Better than I did before I had any words for any of it?" Sparrow quirks a small smile Corey's way, gaze brightening a bit more as she adds, "And he said that people who don't glimmer at all--" Which isn't too hard to catch with a little bit of looking. "--are in less danger than those of us who do, so..." That means their family's safe, right? Safer? Which might explain why she's not really a knotted up ball of angst about it at the moment. Now, she only has to worry about, oh, ya know, the ridiculously high murder rate when it comes to her little sister's safety. "Good knowing that we've got someone we can talk with about all of this."

There's a slow nod from the boytwin, and he resumes the kneading with a little less force. "Okay, that's good. Really good. We just need to not have crazy shit happen while they're staying here. So no using the glimmer stuff," is his suggestion. "Then hopefully we can fly under the radar for a couple days."

"Right," Sparrow agrees firmly on the point of a glimmer-free weekend. "I've been, uh. Ya know. Not. For the most part. With a couple exceptions." Which gets a little roll of her eyes, but no further explanation. "Been mostly good so far, though, mm. Did have another of those weird movie dreams last week. Fucked me up." That thought has her falling quiet for a long moment, gazing off at nothing. When she looks up, back to her brother, she says, "Don't know that I'll be seeing the detective again."

Another nod as Corey agrees, "Mostly me too. Not done anything with it for ages. I've kinda been to busy to experiment, and I don't wanna end up.. you know." Crazy, or dead, or both. "Yeah? No good in the sack, or..?" he then enquires with respect to - he presumes - Gabe.

"Eaten by your dreams?" Sparrow fills in, as if that were her biggest worry. "I've still got a couple habits--" Picked up over the last couple of years. "--that I might need to break," but it doesn't sound like she's quite there yet. The question gets a prompt roll of her eyes, and she tells him flat out, "He's fucking fantastic in the sack, thanks," cuz that's what he gets for starting there. "But I dunno. Things have been a little weird since I started seeing Yule, and they just got way weirder after that dream. When he spent time in my body. And..." She makes a face. "Got some insight into my brain chemistry."

Sparrow realizes, a second later, how much she left out. "Freaky Friday bodyswap sorta thing. I got to play detective for a while." Hard to tell how she feels about that.

Yeah okay, Corey deserved that, expression scrunching up as he rolls out the dough again and cuts more carefully this time. "Yeah I can see how that might put you off," he affirms, sounding mildly sympathetic. "So how is shit with Yule anyway? Still living the sugar-baby life?" he adds, teasing to improve the mood. "Zelie was fucking hillarious about it."

Sparrow proves easily distracted, leaving those heavier thoughts behind with a snort of laughter. "All three of you fucking outing me," to their sister, she means, though that smile suggests she's not the least little bit mad about it. "Told her I'd get her a picture," but it clearly hasn't happened yet, and she's expecting to hear more about it soon. "But it's good. Real good. Like..." Her eyes drift closed as she draws in a deep breath. "I think I might be more than a little heartbroken if something happened good. Like... serious good." That earns a peek in Corey's direction, just one eye opening.

Transferring pastry to pan, the boytwin considers Sparrow's expression. "I'm happy for you," he replies, his voice steady, no teasing at all for once. "Is this where I do the protective sibling thing? You know, ask him his intentions and all that shit?" he then enquires, lips tugging into a smile at one corner of his mouth.

With a snort of laughter and eyes opening fully, Sparrow informs her twin, "Nicole took care of that," plainly pleased with this fact. "Marched over to his door and interrogated him. Threatened him bodily harm if he changes me or hurts me." It's not a role she's ever needed anyone to play in her life, but she's clearly delighted now that it's happened rather accidentally. "But he's good to me, C. Pretty sure that's the whole of his intentions. Just keep spending time." Which, given the lift of her lemonade glass as if to toast, may well be the whole of her own designs.

That draws a grin, and Corey murmurs, "She's awesome. And yeah, I'm really glad, Phil. You deserve to be spoiled." Which obviously Yule will do, because that's what sugar daddies are for. "Is he coming to Thanksgiving? It'd be super interesting to see what he makes of mom and dad," he adds, the humour potential way too high.

"Wait till you see my gala dress," comes with a little wiggle of Sparrow's brows, on the point of being spoiled. But she shakes her head for the question. "He's got like..." One eye squints closed as she counts. Twins, Snow, Winter, Nat... Is that all of 'em? "Five siblings?" Her face relaxes. "Spending Thanksgiving with them, but. I, uhm. I have been thinking about how mom and dad might take it. And how he might handle them. I don't think dad will be quite as weirded out, either about the age thing or about me seeing two--" Or more. "--people at once..." But she's less certain about how mom will take it. And... clearly, she has been thinking about introducing him to family. This is serious.

"Huh, big family. How many of those are sisters, and is he the oldest?" Corey wonders curiously, adding some baking beads to the two pie crusts he's prepared, and then shoving them into the oven to begin baking while he peels and chops apples. "Also, I kept a bunch of the pumpkin you guys left me, diced in the freezer. Gonna have the best pumpkin piiiiiie."

"He's the oldest. Three sisters." Sparrow grins crookedly. "You want some introductions?" It's only after that offer is made that she notes, "I haven't met any yet, but. Soon." When Corey starts peeling apples, she sets her drink aside and moves in to help, pretty sure she can get away with this much without getting run out of the kitchen or losing a finger. "I told the Kellys I'd bring something over after. Doesn't have to be pie if we wanna keep all of that for ourselves, but." She's taking something when she goes to see 'em. "You doing okay, C?"

"I'll make something for them," Corey decides. Then clarifies, "The Kellys." Not the siblings. "No, no introductions needed. I tried having a sugar mama. Got an awesome gift, then she turned batshit crazy." No prizes for guessing who he's talking about. "Yeah, I'm good. Been thinking about things, mostly. Not sure I have enough time in my schedule for making sure the ladies of Gray Harbor have plenty of lovin'."

Sparrow snorts a laugh and points out, "Don't think the rest of the family's quite so well off. Pretty sure most of 'em are piled into one trailer. His oldest sister manages the trailer park, I guess?" She doesn't seem quite clear on that detail. "Yeah," she breathes out for the scheduling. "Pretty sure your schedule's somehow crazier than mine, and I've been needing to trim a bit lately. Damned shame for the ladies of Gray Harbor, though." She passes over a couple peeled apples, letting him handle the chopping. "You catch up with Garrett's friend yet?"

"No, not yet," Corey responds, graciously letting Sparrow get involved with peeling apples as he chops them, and even holds off on critiquing her peeling technique. Clearly gin is good for him. "I mean, I'm sorta.. I'unno. Thinking about Ash more, I guess." He lifts one shoulder in a shrug, fully expecting to get the third degree from his girltwin.

Sparrow stills in her apple-peeling to turn to her brother and stare delightedly wide-eyed at him. "Is that what you've been thinking about?" Rhetorical, probably, given that there's only a heartbeat of time before she continues. "This something you talk with her about yet? I mean. Sorry, wait. What do you mean?"

Making a face at the pile of apple chunks in front of him, Corey reaches out for the next apple, only for it to be as yet not fully peeled. He gives Sparrow a sideways glance, one brow raised. "Keep going, Phil." He busies himself weighing out some sugar and measuring out some water, mulling his thoughts over before admitting, "I don't even know what I mean."

Sparrow lets out a little, "Oh," and an, "Uh," followed finally by a, "Sorry," as she gets back to work, peeling while she talks. "Well." It holds space while she does some thinking of her own. "First. Yeah. I've kinda been wranling some what-do-I-even-want sorta feels myself and keep coming back to some advice that someone super-awesome gave me, so maybe I should pass it on?" An eyebrow quirked, she looks askance at Corey and says, "Don't think too hard, yeah?" turning his advice to her back on him. "But maybe talk with her?" Which would be her second point, uncounted here. "We talked a little while back and sounded like she was maybe worried about, I dunno. Equitable allocation of time?" Way to make it confusing, Phil! She passes another adequately peeled apple over. "Might be good to have a relationship talk."

"I mean, I don't know if I want exclusive," Corey replies quietly, taking the apple when she's done with it and chopping it up deftly, then deciding that's enough apples. A pot goes onto the stove, water and sugar added, and then when it's almost boiling, he scoops the apple chunks in. "But I.. I dunno. What do you mean, equitable allocation of time?" he then asks, slanting another sidelong glance at his twin.

"Right," comes for the first, like that much was obvious. Who even does that these days? Certainly not Sparrow. Nevermind that she might have been thinking something close to that. With no more apples for her to peel, she moves to rinse off her hands and... No. No, she can't start tidying. If she did, she wouldn't be able to stop. There's just too much tidying to do. "She asked whether you were seeing anyone else. And, I mean. I hadn't gotten an update in a while, so kinda figured you might still be up to something. Told her not to worry. Cuz it sounded like she was. Worried. That maybe you were missing her while she was spending time elsewhere."

There's a thoughtful nod from the boytwin, and he absent-mindedly stirs the boiling apple and sugar mix for a bit, reaching for cinnamon and nutmeg to add when the apples begin to soften. "Maybe I should talk to her. I mean, she probably doesn't want exclusive either. But she said she was always happy to stay over. So." He mulls this over a little bit as he checks the pie crust, taking it out to begin cooling.

"Definitely should talk with her," Sparrow confirms as she reclaims her half-empty lemonade and settles into her earlier perch. "She's amazing and worth keeping around in your life, and I definitely don't think that's gotta mean exclusivity? But." She's quiet for a moment, trying to find the words for what she means to say before just letting them come spilling out like normal. "I know that casual isn't working for me lately. Kinda really happy with all these big messy feelings." It sounds like there should be more, but she just nods to herself and stops there, sipping her drink.