2020-01-29 - Burgers, Fries, and Video Games

(TXT to Jaime) Kelsey : Have anything going on tonight?

(TXT to Kelsey) Jaime : Nothing. You?

(TXT to Jaime) Kelsey : Not a thing. Feel like coming over? You could see my collection of weirdness.

(TXT to Kelsey) Jaime : Sounds like a plan. When?

(TXT to Jaime) Kelsey : Give me a couple hours? I'll make burgers and fries

(TXT to Kelsey) Jaime : Sounds good. I'll bring some beer.

A thumbs up emoji had been sent in response to the offer of bringing beer and then Kelsey went to work. A quick trip to Safeway to pick up some things and then she started cooking, It didn't take long for the smells of southwestern style burger and homemade french fries to filly the tiny house, which results in Wishbone sticking to Kelsey like glue to try and get some scraps. He doesn't succeed just yet.

The front door is open to allow some cooler air into the house and prevent the fire alarm from going off. She's wearing a pair of stylized torn jeans and a long-sleeved 'Welcome to the Jungle' shirt. Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail so it can stay out of the way while she makes the final touches on the food.

Jaime shows up with a six pack of Blue Moon in a pair of jeans and work boots that are his standard fare, and a light sweater in an olive green that is not far off from the color of his eyes. He gives a knock on the door and says, "Heya Kels," as he lets himself in. There's a grin for Wishbone and a couple of skritches when he gets close enough before he tucks the beer into the fridge. "Smells good," he says. "There's an entire fleet of neighborhood dogs in your yard." He's kidding, but it could happen.

Kelsey flashed a grin towards Jaime, who was immediately bombarded with dog-greetings from Wishbone in the form of a couple barks and licks of the hand. "Heya. Glad you could come." She laughed at the mention of the fleet of dogs, though does peer around him to make sure that he is indeed joking. "Just a couple minutes left. Do you want veggies on it? Lettuce, tomato, onion?" A brow is quirked as she moves to get down some plates. "How've you been?

He is. There is no slavering horde of canines hoping for burgers out there. "All of the above sounds good," he says as he leans up against the counter, making himself comfortable while the burgers finish cooking. "Pretty good. Been spending some time with Jess and taking care of some stuff around the house that needs doing. Joey got in a bit of an accident, so, spent some time at the hospital with him. He's going to be okay, though."

Kelsey moved to the fridge to pull out said things and also a jar of pickles too. Setting to work cutting a few slices of each. She winced a bit when he said Joey was hurt. "Yeah. I was there when it happened, didn't get a chance to see him after. I'm glad he'll be okay is he still in the hospital or did they let him go?" She asked as she arranged the buns on the plates and then moved to take the burgers out of the oven. There were 5. 2 of each of them and 1 for Wishbone. Because of course she wasn't actually going to leave him out of the food situation!

The burgers were plated and she gave him another smile. "Alright, dress 'em up however you like." Also getting out mayo, ketchup, and mustard.

"I think he's being released or has been released," Jaime says when she asks about Joey, "The worst of it was already taken care of by the time that I got there." He reaches for the mayo and the mustard, putting a bit of each on his burger and then dressing it up with some veggies. "Man, these smell fantastic." He settles down and picks one up to bite into it and signs in contentment. "So what about you? What have you been up to?"

"Good to hear. I know being laid up in the hospital is zero fun." Kelsey mused as she put her own burgers together and then plated up fries for both of them. "Same old same really. I kind of liked your suggestion about haunted theaters so I'm working on researching the locations of some and eventually will get an article or something together about it. Submitted the article I was working on during our road trip so that's all good." The final thing is cutting up the 5th burger and putting it in Wishbone's food bowl before motioning for Jaime to follow her to the living room so they could eat in there.

"I'm glad you like 'em." Flashing a grin. "Figured it felt like a burger and fry kind of day." Kelsey nodded. "Might try and see if there's any good places to ice skate." The coffee table has been cleared off more or less. Enough room for their plates to sit comfortably and also the beer bottles - which she goes to retrieve once her plate is sat down. The living room, of course, is also where the weird is. A few taxidermied, odd looking animals. Posters, full bookshelves, newspaper clippings about weird going ons.

"Yeah, and for him especially not," Jaime chuckles. "I told him he went through an awful lot of trouble to get Nicole to put on a nurse's outfit for him. Pretty sure he could have just asked." Jaime flashes a grin in her direction and then settles down in the livingroom with his plate. Some salt is sprinkled on the fries, and that's it. They are otherwise unadulterated. He grabs one of those and says, "Man, this is good. Definitely a burger and fry kind of day." Then he nods about the article and asks "Yeah? Where can I read it once it's published?" He looks over the oddities that are there while they eat.

"That is a round about way to get someone to wear a nurse outfit." Kelsey agreed with a laugh as she settled back down with their drinks. She took a bite of her burger and sighed happily. "Mmm.." More of a thoughtful noise when he asked about reading it. Swallow, "Not sure yet. I freelance, so they just kinda end up to the highest bidder. I have a few companies I consistently work with though. I'll shoot you the link when it's ready and out there." Kelsey promised before another bite is taken. Noting him checking out some of the 'decor', Kelsey offers up - "I started collecting things a little before I moved here. Mostly the newspaper clippings. Then, well, weird stuff happens here all the time, so it made it easier to collect."

Jaime nods his head and says, "Yeah, definitely shoot me the link so that I can take a read once it's published." He grins a little, "I want to hear about what other haunted theatres you happen to find, too." He nods when she mentions the things that she'd started collecting. "So where did you get some of these?" He nods toward some of the taxidermied strange animals first. The clippings he can figure out easily enough. Those are somewhat self-explanatory.

"Of course. Once I have a more solid idea I'm gonna put some on my list for you. So.if you end up going thier way I'll tag along again." Kelsey chuckled, eating a few fries as she considered the animals. "I've found them over my time here. Already dead of course. In Firefly forest. " there aren't a lot. Only 3. "It was gross but also I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I know someone in Seattle that does taxidermy and doesn't ask a lot of questions. So I got them done there." There's a beat of pause before looking over at Jaime. "I think they slipped through. From the other place. "

"Sounds like a plan to me," Jaime agrees with a nod. "I'm always down for singing to ghosts in empty theatres." He chuckles. "They're not bad as far as audiences go." He eats the rest of his fries first, since they're best when they're the hottest. He nods his head when she mentions where she found some of the critters. "I'm surprised that you were able to do that at all. Did they think they were just made up?" Because the Veil protects itself, and it's odd that they didn't just get misplaced, or vanish or something else of that nature, leaving Gray Harbor.

"Like I said, they don't ask a lotta questions. I also incentivized not asking questions." Kelsey shrugged as she ate a couple more fries herself. "I could be wrong. Maybe they're just actual freaks of nature you know?" Kelsey mused. "Either way. They're neat. Nice little addition to the collection you know?" She sets her plate back on the coffee table and takes a long sip of beer. "That forest is weird and creepy even without the supernatural stuff." She pushes a few strands of hair back. "As for serenading the ghosts - I'm sure they'll love it. Always fun listening to you sing."

"Yeah, I mean, they're pretty interesting, regardless of where exactly they came from," Jaime says with a grin and a shrug of his shoulders. "Little creepy, but neat. That one's lookin' at me." He gives one of them a sidelong glance and pulls his burger closer. "Yeah, it is. Though I like hanging out in it." He takes another bite or two of his burger, finishing off the first one and then grabbing the second. "Thanks," he says, "I like to sing most of the time."

Kelsey chuckled a bit again. "Definitely don't want it stealing your burger." She teased. Speaking of burger stealers, Wishbone came trotting over, the not-a-lap dog trying his best anyway. which ends up with his head and one paw in Kelsey's lap as she started scratching at his ears. "You goofball." She murmured affectionately to the dog before relaxing again. "Joey end up getting a dog yet? Or the whole injury thing probably messed with that huh?"

"Definitely not, these burgers are too good to fall into the wrong hands, or mouths, or stomachs," Jaime says with a sage nod before he digs into his second one. He chuckles when Wishbone comes over to be lovable in an attempt to glean more burger goodness. Jaime grins. "Beggar." It's said, good naturedly, to the dog. He nods then when she asks about the dog. "Yeah, he got one a bit ago. A rescue." He doesn't know the whole story of the dog, just that it had been injured and Joey'd gotten it taken care of and then kept it.

"But he's the most adorable beggar." Kelsey leaned down to nudge her nose against Wishbone's and then leaned over to eat the last of her fries. "Cute. Next time I walk Wishbone down that way I'll have to see if he's around so the dogs can say hi." She chuckled. There's another bite and swallow of her burger before, "Can I ask a potentially awkward question? "

"He is pretty adorable," Jaime concedes and reaches over to give the pup a pet with the hand he's not using to finish up his burger. "Sure, though you may want to check with Joey before doing that. I know the dog was abused and I'm not sure how it does with other people and other dogs." He shrugs his shoulders. "I'm sure he can tell you if it's a good idea or not." He then lifts his bottle of beer and takes a swig. Both brows raise a bit and he says, "Sure."

"Oh no, I meant like, make sure Joey is there. Yeah messing with a stranger dog is probably not a great idea without the owner being there." Kelsey laughed. Wishbone wagged his tail happily at the attention though, once he realized he was not getting any more burger, he wandered to the recliner and climbed up into it. Kelsey watched him and then turned a bit so she was facing Jaime better. She rested her elbow on the back of the couch and her head in her hand. "I wanna preface this with I'm not looking to like. Lock anyone down or whatever you call it these days. I just, was wondering." A slight flush to her cheeks, maybe from the beer as she took another sip, or maybe from what she was going to ask. "Was what happened on the road trip a one time thing? Totallyyy okay if it was. Really. I just wanted to know where you were at on it."

"Right, I just meant, talk to him and see if it's a good idea," Jaime says with a grin and a shrug of his shoulders. It's not his dog and he certainly can't say whether doggie play dates are something that Joey would go for or not. He finishes off the remainder of his burger and sets the plate down on the coffee table, lifting his bottle of beer to take another swig from it. One brow goes up when the preface begins. A preamble is almost never a good sign. Though when the question does eventually come, it's perhaps not as worrisome as he was concerned it might be. "It was fun, and I wouldn't say it had to be a one time thing. But I'm also not looking for a relationship right now, either."

Kelsey nodded, relaxing some. "Good. I mean. I'm glad we're on the same page about it." She smiled. "It was fun and I'd be perfectly fine with it happening again some time. But yeah, relationships are...definitely not in my cards these days." She turned again to eat the last bite of her burger. "You wanna watch something? I can set my laptop up in here. Or we could play a bit on the consoles if you wanted?" Not seeming to want to dwell on the topic too long, satisfied with his answer.

Jaime smiles easily when she seems to relax, and gives her a nod before taking another swig from his bottle. "Then it sounds like we're definitely on the same page, there." He also seems just fine with the switch in topics. "I think you were going to kick my ass at something or another when we started talking about it a while back. Why don't we play a bit? Now that I'm fortified with burgers and fries, I'm ready to get my game on."

"I totally will." Kelsey flashed him a grin as she stood up and collected the plates." We'll grab a couple more beers and retreat to the game room!" Once the plates were in the sink and beers retrieved, the game room was really just her office but opposite the computer set up was a nice television set up with a couple comfy looking beanbag chairs, a couple different consoles, and a small bookshelf when her games on it. "I thinkkk a fighting game is probably what we want." As she starts getting the Xbox turned on. "I won't go too hard on ya."

Jaime pulls himself to his feet and finishes off his first beer before moving to join her, taking the second that she brings into the room before he settles himself in front of the console. "Not a bad little setup," he says as he settles into the beanbag, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Sure, we can go for that. I used to play Street Fighter a bit. Chun Li is my girl." He gives her a grin. "I'll try to take my defeat gracefully."

Kelsey hands him a controller and then settled in beside him. "Street Fighter is fun. I tend towards Mortal Kombat myself when I get the itch." She mused . She navigated into a version of Mortal Kombat and the select screen. "It's totally possible you might win. Beginner's luck and all that." She teased. "I'll even let you get first pick. First match up totally won't count. Getting us both used to the controls."

"Challenge accepted," Jaime says, and they settle in for a few rounds of Mortal Kombat, that turns into a few more rounds, which turns into several more beers. Who actually won becomes hazy somewhere during the night, and it isn't until late that Jaime eventually stumbles home to the Kelly House. It's probably a good thing that it's right down the street and he walked.