2019-12-22 - Holidays and Home Renovations

Justin had invited Hyacinth over with the intent of talking about the house, and recent projects, and catching up with her before the holidays when the snow had really begun to come down. He hadn't expected her to show up, but there she was, just as the snow was getting pretty bad.

He opens the front door to let her in and says, "Man, this storm is crazy. I didn't believe them when they said that it was going to snow at all, let alone like this."

Hyacinth is always excited to talk about the things she can do and those small quality of life improvements to the world that can be made both important and superficial. Then again if it's superficial she might interpret that as ''easy fix'' and ''why haven't people stopped doing this already?!'' Ah well. Honestly it's been a nice solace talking with someone else of an entrepreneurial mind. There are never too many.

Looking at the sky through the window as the world starts to drift on heaps of white she says simply, "Stop." She blinks. It was a very decisive directive issues. The sky, however, seems to persist in being entirely disinterested with complying. She looks to Justin and relents, "Well that didn't work." Valiant effort! "When does it ever snow in Washington?!" There's a pause and she looks around carefully and leans a half inch closer in case. "At least it's pretty. This happened with an ash cloud once. THroughly unscenic. A lot of people lost a bunch." Pausing there's a quieter note of concern, "I hope people's power doesn't go out. That could be problematic."

Justin can't help but smile a little in amusement over at Hyacinth when she orders the snow to stop, one brow lifting as he glances from her, to the sky, and back again. "No, it doesn't appear that it did. Excellent assertiveness, however." He then glances back toward the snow and says, "I'll definitely take snow over ash any day. Want me to make some coffee? Cocoa? Either with booze in it?" He then begins to head in the direction of the kitchen where the hot beverage making appliances live. "Well, if the power goes out here, at least we have the fireplace and some wood for that. We'll be warm for a while." Caleb, who has gotten quite a bit bigger over the intervening months since his adoption, lifts his head when Hyacinth comes in and watches her but remains where he is, lazily laying on a warm patch of carpet created by the sunbeams pouring in through the back windows.

Hyacinth grins a bit and says with a bit of pride, "Noooo it didn't but it would have been fantastic if it did pause." That glossed grin goes wide. Her attention goes back to the window curiously, "All odd things seem to be just fantastic enough to put up with it a moment longer. You notice that?" Her brain chewed on that one a bit.

The mention of coffee and cocoa and 'stuff' snaps her attention too, "Oooh Cocoa with creme de mint sounds kinda amazing right now doesn't it?" She turns and follows pausing to acknowledge Caleb "I'd say you look too comfy right now but good for you." The conversation is quiet for a bit longer discussing important things like marshallows or no, but she does ask, "How're you doing right now?" She's making the face where concerned sounding words come out rather than the demand for answers.

Caleb yawns in Hyacinth's general direction as though in agreement and lets his head rest back down, enjoying his warmth for now. Justin gets down the makings of cocoa and nods in the direction of the bottle of creme de menthe for Hyacinth to fetch while he gets the milk warming on the stove. He's no master chef, but he can make some things. Cocoa is one of them. When she asks how he's doing, he glances over at her and sees that she's making the face, the face that shows actual concern, perhaps. "I'm fine," he says with a slight rise and fall of his shoulders. "Lots going on. Keeping busy as usual. Plenty of work to do. Filming in the spring in Seattle. Work to do on the house." His lips tick upward a little bit and then he asks her, "Remember how we used to break into Addington House when we were kids?" Not he and Hyacinth specifically, but he and some of the other guys he used to hang out with when he was up for the summers.

Hyacinth speaks fluent hand flappy. At the very least if it's not a fundraiser if she asks good money is on she wants to know. There's questions interjected with a roll of her hand.. "Well an industry isn't going oto run itself." She amends with a pause, "Properly." There. better. She pauses and perks up, not at the he's going to be in a thing but the He's going to work on the hosue part. "Ooooh, I volunteer as tribute!" There's another pause and she tells Caleb, "You didn't jsut see that happen."

Wandering over the green bottle is presented, set on the counter and then nudge nudge nudged closer. "You knooooooow... someone who knows you should have a hand in that so it turns out right."

When he brings up breaking into one of her family homes there's a wry grin and a distant fond memory that creeps up in her eyes, "Ooooh I remember convincing my brother not to tell when I snuck out of the house and waited for you guys to do so. Man, where did summer go?" Folding her arms on teh counter to add her cooking expertise (the helpful art of not trying to help) she murmurs, "I might have done that just before Thanksgiving. I'm really kind of over what Great Auntie has to say of that."

The dog seems entirely uninterested in the conversation. He knows which ones of Justin's friends are excited to see him, and which ones aren't as much, and he usually only runs over and loves on a couple of them. So Hya's undignified volunteering goes entirely unremarked by the lazy canine. Justin chuckles and says, "The house is beautiful, but it's not me. It came furnished like this, and with these colors and this whole .. look. I want to make it a little more like home, since I seem to be staying for the foreseeable future."

He takes the bottle when she brings it over and sets it to the side for the moment, to be added once the cocoa is finished. "That's what I was thinking, you know, that someone who does excellent work in that area would make a valuable consultant for the project. You in?" He grins over at her sidelong.

"Well, we did it again the other night. Just like old times," Justin tells Hyacinth with a sidelong grin. "Went in to try a key in a door or two to see what happened. Ended up on the other side in a really and truly surreal situation. There was a hail of gumdrops. It wasn't pretty."

Sometimes a fella just knows the right words to say to a gal to make her light up like he just gave her the moon like a blank canvas. "I've always wanted to work with high end modern. I never get to, and I think it's a great idea for a new project iiiiif... the family is going to be unsupportive of my talent? Well maybe I need to start thinking about a new business. And I'd love to build you," Looking around now the question is how, why, and what does one do with the canvas. Distantly she confeses, "I've been thinking about starting my own business aside of the Addington label. I have the name, I can sell that for easy publicity in our circles. The portfolio stands..."

Words drift off in favor of his sharing that they broke into Addington property again and the curious, excited grin halts to worry, "You didn't break into the sawmill did you? There are... things on the other side of reality there." Her lips press together unfavorably. "Hail of gumdrops?" Her hand is already fussing in exploratory manner looking for- oooh he didn't say gum. Good. "Justin, can I ask you a question about that? In all the years visiting Gray Harbor have you ever noticed it's a little... different?"

"You should," Justin says, when she mentions that she's been thinking about starting her own business. "You're skilled. You have a long list of accomplishments and a full portfolio. And the name won't hurt even if you're not working for the family anymore. But more importantly, you would then have the freedom to choose the projects and the work that you want to do, and branch out into new areas. The sky is the limit once you aren't fitting into a box anymore." After all, that's why he devoted so much time and energy into building his own company doing something he was passionate about rather than just staying in the box that his mother had made for him, and had found a way to balance both in his life.

"No, not the Sawmill. Into Addington House itself," Justin grins a little at her sidelong, "And there were things on the other side there, too. Not quite where we thought we were going to end up, either." He pours the hot chocolate into a pair of mugs and doctors both with a bit of creme de menthe before adding some marshmallows, and a bit of whipped cream on top for good measure. He hands her a mug and nods when she asks if she can ask him a question. "Yeah," Justin says. "Though, I didn't notice it as much over the years visiting. Going back to L.A., it kind of faded every time. But since I've been back, I've learned a lot, seen a lot, and remembered some things."

Hya considers this world of possibility. If anyone understood it'd be Justin and unlike Byron likely wouldn't request a consultant fee. Still there's the talk of veil jaunts into her family property and she hesitates asking in pure curiosity, "You ever try to reach out to it and push back?" She takes the mug from him; fingers glancing his a moment with a smile that stays put. Her eyes ever alert flick to the pane of glass to the outside as it is starting to gather and drift. Huh. Pretty. And her attention focuses back on Justin. Prettier she decides. "A lot of people think it's something there, or there' s something special about the people who work with it." She pauses and blinks, "That's bullshit you know. I mean like art or acting or anything with skill there's people that just ... suck at it but it's a skill with a medium ya know?" She sighs and says "Like doing your own stunts or working with fiberglass it can be neat or really dangerous. Promise me you'll be careful. Okay?" More curious her head tilts with a faint grin, "Has... any one ever really...talked to you about it before?"

"Push back.. the Veil?" Justin asks with both brows raised, lifting his cup and taking a sip from it before answering. "No, I mean, I'm not even sure how that would work. I can do a wide variety of little things, but then, you know something about that." He'd watched her bug-zapper that creature that came after them at the charity dinner, after all. Though when she goes on to describe his abilities like doing his own stunts or working with fiberglass, he can't help but grin a little bit at her over the edge of his cup. "I promise. I've been practicing just a little bit, but not a lot. Just to figure out what I can do." Then he nods, "Stefano told Dahlia and I a bit about it after the whole.. charity dinner, thing. He helped me to understand a bit about what was going on before he went back to New York."

Hyacinth wobbles her head and blows across the top of her cocoa taking that minty smell in before she takes a drink. Man she hoes in on those words like radar with a smile, "Well, if the snow keeps on we might have plenty of time to experiment with a lot of things." OH that grin lingers when she loves knowing stuff! There is that pause though where she clarifies, "No one got hurt? Are you okay?" Which is either a question of personal concern or property insurance liabilities.

There is that pause and really Justin is one of the very few people who have ever existed to get past her being 'on' all the damn time to let her have a very human moment without judgement. Really he's an actor from LA. He's overly use to people underneath their high drama personas. Silence for a pause but a comfortable one. "I'm glad you had him while you did at least. But... we're not alone. It's been a rough year," You know her her grandfather murdering her father and Justin's breakup and snow driving up the humidity making hair fuzzy, "but I think it's all going to sort out. So... what did you boys discover while I was out, hmmm?"

"Everyone's fine," Justin assures her. "Everything was left exactly as we found it, too." For property insurance liability's sake. Then he chuckles and says, "Experiment with a lot of things, hm?" One brow arches a little bit, and he takes another sip from his cup. Though he nods at her comment about Stefano, his expression sobering a bit. He takes in a breath and then lets it out slowly, "Me too. We had a good time. And he came into my life when I needed someone to explain some things to me, and he did. I'm glad that he was here while he was." Which doesn't mean he's not disappointed that he's gone, but that goes kind of without saying. "Oh, we found an asylum full of fairytale villains being uh.. tortured, pretty much, and sacrificed. It was fucked up and creepy. But then the gumdrops started falling and busting everything up so we ran for it."

Hyacinth frowns listening, "Who determined these people are villains? I mean did anyone get their qualifications? I'm not sure anyone who lives in a cupcake gets to judge the behavior of others, Justin." She has feelings on this! All the feelings. She has, however, no pretenses about her self as one shiny nail goes up, "Declaring someone a villian is super judgy. I know this. I'm a judger and I excel at it, mmhmm!"

She sips again and squints at him. "I was a cartoon Judy Jetson before. It was pretty swell. Eleanor and I were trying to protect his goats." She pauses and wrinkles the bridge of her nose admitting to him, "I...might have..." There's teh wince, "I kissed a goat and tried to adopt it. It was the craziest dream." Her hand reaches out to pull a stray hair from his shirt and asks, "So what did you learn about you is what I want to know." Looking over her shoulder she extends a hand to him flapping it in the gimmegimme gesture to take his hand and pull him back to the living room.

"No, I mean they were literally the characters out of fairytales," Justin says with a slight shake of his head, "Though in this particular scenario, they were the ones who were the victims. It was.. very wrong, all around." His brows raise, however, as she tells the story of the goats, and how she tried to adopt one. "Did you end up adopting a goat?" he asks, but something in his tone suggests that he very much doubts that actually happened outside of the dream. He does, however, let her take his hand and lead him into the living room and over toward the couch, where he settles. "About me? That I seem to be a generalist of sorts when it comes to abilities. I can do a variety of things, at a low level, it seems."

Hyacinth looks a bit impressed and slightly concerned in that way she does that's hard to tell if she's worried about safety or competition. She sips her cocoa as there's no immediate risk to either. Then he asks about the goat and a small grim forms and her head hangs down, "I might have before I calculated what it'd do to my floors and my duvet. They're at August Roen's place. He's the one who helped us deal with the Baxter Ghost that was killing my family and ruined Minerva's 1892 inlaid oak floor." Unforgivable.

She settles back and watches him fascinated really, and charmed at the unique perspective he always seems to have. Maybe one of the many reasons she can never entirely quit him. "C'mon dish. Tell me how did you find out? Was it here?" There's a pause and her eyes get a little bigger, "Oh I hope it didn't happen on a shoot."

Justin grins a little at that and says, "Well, glad to hear that the goats found a good home." He settles into the couch and lets one arm drape across the back of it as he lifts his cup of cocoa. He nods when she mentions Gohl again. He had heard some of what had been going on from her and from Easton, but had never been really involved in any of it at all aside from as a detached bystander. Though when she seems excited to hear about his ventures into the weirdness that is Grey Harbor, he said, "Well ever since I got back, I've been remembering things, strange things from the past -- just little flashes here and there. Then I had this dream that I was a kid again, and Easton and I were sneaking into the Addington boat house, but this time some guy with a fish hook attacked us, and we were running through the woods in the rain. Then, suddenly, we were just standing there, in the middle of the night in the woods, us again, not teenagers, just .. as we are today. I didn't even know he was back in town, too, until then." He rubs a little at the back of his neck. "Then there was the charity dinner that you were at with us.. where those invisible things were after us." He says, "After all that, I noticed that I could sense things all around me. I could sense when people were around, in a way that I couldn't before -- even if I didn't hear or see them. I could sense when something could be repaired, or healed, and the physical things around me. It was like I just became more aware of the world, in a surreal kind of way. It was like being on a bit of a permanent trip."

Hyacinth seems very curious on the Easton front considering all manner of things. "I think I met him... only once and he said something rather off-mark about my family when we were investigating my Aunt's passing and he kept staring at me." She squints as that is still one of life's great mysteries to her. Her head tilts taking in the details, "That sounds weird, but I won't lie, kind of awesome." And then teh chairty dinner and her nose wrinkles, "Ooooh yeah. The one where Vyv threw all the knives." There's a pause and a look it tilted to him and while the words I'm sorry are a foreign language she admits, "You know it didn't occur to me that that might not be somehow abnormal for you. I'd have asked but Stefano seemed a hurry to get you out of there and Dahlia." She shakes her head, "She'd been through enough." She might not be expressive in any classic sense but there are things she's aware of. Regrets? She has one to a few.

As he talks about his sensory perceptions her eyes just widen, "Ooooh you're a Reader" NOW her hands flap! well teh one. She will not spill her cocoa. "Oh gosh a shaper and a mover? Oh, baby you must be so damn confused." There's a sigh, but the smile holds. "I am super proud of you you're like, handling this so well. Really though if you have questions? Reading things, picturing things, protecting your light bulbs? I am happy to help or direct. I won't push you. Oh wow." This might give her something to be fascinated with for hours . Settling sideways on the couch she agrees quietly, "Yeaaaah it does get weirdly 'quiet' out of town. It's why I tell people trickery doesn't substitute hard work. What if you get a commission elsewhere? These things matter."

"Well, it turns out that Stefano knew a bit about the Veil and Glimmer from his grandfather, who taught him quite a bit. I guess his people are from Palermo, where there is a thin spot in the Veil as well. He hadn't really experienced much of it first hand until he got here, but he helped Dahlia and I to understand a bit of what was going on, and he was a bit of a healer. He helped us to recognize some of what we were experiencing," Justin says with a faint smile. "Yeah, that was definitely not normal for either of us. But I think Dahlia had been through a lot in a really short time." He smiles a little crookedly when she exclaims about how confused he must be. "To be honest, it was kind of a gradual understanding of awareness that then grew to being able to move things. That was one of the first things I figured out how to do consciously. Then, a little bit more at a time as I went along." He smiles, though, and asks, "Protecting my lightbulbs?"

Hyacinth listens with interest and intent about Italy. To no one's surprise her hand is flapping at him even if she has his full attention, but there it is taptaptapping his knee. We need to go there seems to be the look that matches the intent. Like a very fancy spoiled cat that doesn't shed.

Her hand lifts up almost as if pulling an apple off a tree causing a bit of a drain on the lights, then stop. looking back she tries to summarize how she learned. "There are... different schools of thought. In one path like there's that energy that's just... everywhere. There's no written fancy name for anything. No right way but there's readers. You can use that gift to read minds, feelings, impression, aaaaaah people! Whole... seas of people." Her nose wrinkles, "Trust me, do that sparingly. But there's also electricians that can feel that physical energy, draw it out, ball it up, and send it on. Also Projectors. Put your images, feelings, thoughts elsewhere. That's... that's what I learned. "

"From a matter standpoint? well there's healers and then there's some who are purely repair. There's that one gal and August that are all plants. I... I don't..." She pauses and frows shaking her head, "I've no aptitude for it. But, the last is something I've been working with and maybe if you are any gooood at it you can help me figure out how to do more than hold trim in place while I fasten it properly. Honestly I use it to hold my straight edge down."

There's a pause and a small smile she admits in that point of pride, "Justin I... I figured out how to shut it all off." There's that dreamy look of hope, "Sleep is good again."

Justin smiles a little wryly and says, "I was going to go there.. with Stefano... in the spring if we were still together." But they aren't, and so he wasn't planning on going. "But we could, I suppose." He listens as she explains the various different types of sub-abilities to the ones that he has learned only a little bit about, nodding here and there as he takes in the information. But then his brows arch a little "Turn it all off? Turn.. what all off? Your abilities?"

Hyacinth sits quietly over the moon with this idea of them stowing away to Italy for a while. IT's not about the trip, it's about the company...and the trip. Sipping her coffee she turns and scoots over and stares at his arm until it moves so she can move over. There's snow and a couch and it's just good protocol. Also she's just invasive like a very decorative garden plant.

How to put this. Her lips press together and there is a quiet nod. "Yeah. Yes." The words are quiet and she really thinks about that for a while. , "You know how it feels a bit like sensory deprivation when you fly to LA and what have you? I can make it do that. Like making water solid, but the 'this' equivalent. " Drawing in a deep breath her words trip up a bit admitting in attempt to sound totally casual, "I, um, it helps me sleep. Again. So it's useful knowing nothing can really grab at you."

There wouldn't be any need for stowing away. It's not like Justin doesn't have access to a private jet, or first class on an international flight if they wanted it. He takes a sip of his cocoa and then moves his arm so that when she gets closer she can slide right in, chuckling just a little bit. Invasive, she certainly is, but not in any way that he seems to mind. It's clear that he doesn't exactly understand what she's talking about. "Flying to LA is nothing like sensory deprivation. It's loud, and crowded, and it's very hard to not smell, hear, or be bumped bit literally everyone around you." He tilts his head, "But if you're saying what you can do is like sensory deprivation, that I can imagine."

Hyacinth settles in. It's comfortable in that familiar but never really loses its newness. Her hand circles in the air as one knee is drawn up. Here? Here she can be a human being without judgement at contrast to most, but not all of the world. "Just... the weirdness? The oddity sensory deprivation. I remember when I went to Montreal and Halifax it wasn't like this. The small things. Emotionally like having latex gloves on or, I don't know. Brain condom?" Her eye squints thoughtfully. "Like I know reasonably what I'm used to sensing in the world around me but I just don't feel it as acutely." Blinking she tilts her head up, But it keeps things like giant cats and killer ghosts away so it's worth it." There is a long, long pause and she asks curiously, "I'm not beginning to sound like my mother am I?"

Justin can't help but laugh out loud at the term brain condom, and says, "Yeah, I think I get it." He shakes his head and then lifts his mug to his lips to take another sip from it and finish off his hot chocolate, leaning forward to set the empty mug back onto the coffee table. Justin's brows knit a little bit when she asks if she sounds like her mother. "I don't think I'd ever compare you to your mother."

@emit Her recently widowed mother who has gracefully been enduring and weathering shock and scandal but has been coming apart at the fringes trying to figure out where everything fits and is a woman decidedly of 'opinions'. He leans and, oh look he's being handed things. That one too! Do the things, Justin, she will be so proud! Well she'll be relieved when the world meets her expectations/statute of demands. This is Hya for Please this one too. Thank you.

"Well, I don't know I'd compare you to anything." And that is a genuine comment. There's appreciation there, in her way. Reaching over she pulls his arm back around her to snuggle in and watch the snow. "This is good. In spite of everything this year and how... how hard the holiday was? This is....needed."

Justin takes the mug when she hands it to him and sets hers on the coffee table as well automatically, without even really thinking about it. When he settles back, he lets his arm slip around her again so that she can lean in against his side. "Yeah, sorry that it was a rough holiday for you, and for Vyv, really. I feel a little guilty for things actually being pretty good, and not being all that broken up about things. I mean, it would have been nice to have Stefano here if things had worked out.. but we weren't together that long, and I'm kind of used to not having someone at the holidays, so things have actually been pretty okay for me. That, and with Dahlia and Declan here for Thanksgiving, and my hilarious attempts at cooking, it was actually kind of fun."