2020-02-11 - Pillow Fort for the Not Yet Dead

The weather outside is miserable, but the windows at the back of the house make the day seem a bit brighter than it is, what scant sunlight makes it past the heavy clouds reflecting off the thin layer of fresh-fallen snow. Sure, it casts a faint glare on the television from some angles, but who cares. The couch back here has been fashioned into a makeshift pillow fort, piled high with cushions and blankets, an assortment of snacks--some store-bought and others Corey-made--near at hand. Stardust is playing, but it's hard to know if Sparrow's paying any attention for the way the bleach blonde keeps her attention on her phone while she hunkers down in one corner, her half-bright pajamas hidden beneath a quilt. This is about as social as she's feeling today, classes skipped to instead hide away from the world with some of her favorite people.

Grant spent the night at 7 Oak. Sadly he did not fall asleep but at least he got some rest, caught up on movies and seeming entirely content watching a movie about people having space go through them rather than them go through space. To say this is Bax at a low is a bit mild. His phone's with him and he checks it long enough to say, tiredly and with more than a little bit of sugar and sedation, "The people who don't wanna be my cousins wrote. They had the dream too." Taking a deep breath and for once not eating he watches Tristian learn to dance on the screen and muses, "You ever wonder if Star Fox is of the stars or IS a star?"

There's a lot of things Gigi is doing: drinking, smoking a lot of pot, and popping enough xanax to sedate a donkey, but one of those things is decidedly /not/ sleeping.. It's been almost thirty hours now, by one of her three watches digital date indicator and rather than daring to close her eyes, she's walking through a snow storm. Shivering, freezing, probably intoxicated on god knows what.

Giada Blackthorne, this is your life.

As is often the case, however, she ends up on Oak when things get to their lowest. A slobbering idiot stumbling up the steps of the porch leading to #7 to bang her head sideways against the door so she doesn't have to pull her frozen hands out of her equally wet and frozen jacket. "Fuck you..." Blood shot eyes staring back through red rimmed sockets at /what the fuck ever/ is following her. Something is definitely there...

That or she's high.

Head against the door again.

"Pretty sure that if he's the latter, he's also the former." Sparrow finds the second thought easier to answer, going with both as is her natural habit. It's not until after that second thud against the front door--the first one regarded with a curious, still silence like whatever's on the other side might just wander off if she doesn't move--that she tries her hand at the first. "I learned a thing or three about oneirogenics over the weekend, and I might have some thoughts starting about how to handle some of this dream bullshit if you wanna go all psychonaut with me." All this said as she unburies herself, as she drops her phone among the snacks and gets to her feet.

"Don't think that's any of mine?" sounds uncertain, but she's not gonna know until she gets to the door, peeking out through the window beside it at... uh... well, a becoated figure slumped against the door. Huh. She's careful in opening it, slow enough to not just pull Giada's support out from in front of her. "Gigi?" Frowning down at her friend, she offers, "Do you need cookies?"

Grant hmmmmms quietly at the explain. He's eating a cookie all the way around the outside more like a mouse than just stuffing it into his face. There are more but then he'd have to reach for it and sometimes it's just nice to appreciate the damn flavour. Pausing he looks up when his pillow-person moves and draws his attention there. "Woooooah Gigi. Get in here. be warm." The cold wind pulls the heat from the room a moment and a face with it that is all a scowl of disappointment as he can manage. How dare you, heat. How dare you betray us.

There's a fundamental amount of necessary leaning invested in Sparrow's door, it is true.

There's just no more spoons, she's out of them, whether she sold them or lost them or threw them at whatever has been following her, the spoons are gone. So she's a lump of barely cognitive flesh with unfocused eyes staring at the sidewalk daring it to keep advancing at her. "I fucking dare you..."

Yet, there she was sitting on the porch by, certain nobody was home, but not really certain of anything really. It's all super insane in her head. Which is full of literal and figurative snakes... When the door opens, Gigi spills backwards into the opening and stares up at Sparrow from the floor. "Yes.. I really want a cookie.." She answers. Turning eyes to the sidewalk, then back to her friend, she rolls and crawls inside like an army soldier beneath barbed wire on an obstacle course. "I think I'm dead.. I don't want to be dead."

Now on her hands and knees, crawling towars the pillow fort because that is really all she needs now that she really thinks about it... "Why didn't I think of a pillow fort..." It's depressing her now. "I didn't have to... this is bullshit.. Hey Bax."

Sparrow's face falls all soft as she looks down at Giada and promises quietly, "You're not dead," like this maybe isn't the first time she's had to offer this reminder to someone in the last twelve hours. "You have crawled across my threshold, but it is a barrier between Alone and Not Alone. And in the Not Alone place, there are cookies." Some of the cookies have even been shaped into cups and filled with wobbly panna cotta. Really, the other Jones twin is a stinking genius.

As Giada makes her way into the warmth of the pillow fort at the center of Cookieville, Sparrow peeks out at the sidewalk to... well, probably not to make sure whatever was following her friend is gone. She doesn't know about that, right? But she does look all the same before she closes the door and shoves the cold back onto the other side of it, sealing all the warmth and Not Alone inside the house where it belongs. "You need some pajamas?" Cuz that cold wet coat is probably not ideal cuddlepuddle attire.

Grant definitely tunes in when Sparrow promises to be the authority of who is and isn't dead. "What if she's a medium?" He watches and offers one partially eaten cookie in offering. For his friend he shall both sit up AND lean to acquire... A NEW COOKIE! Really this amount of effort could be trumpet worthy. He lets the PJ question go before asking, "Who were you talking to? Was it the trees or the too-bright moon stalking you?" With a flip of his hand he pats the couch-u-lar area. "Come. camp. Vampires and shadows can't get in without an invite."

Like a snake, Gigi sheds clothing as she moves. First her beanie and goggles, fuck'em they're gone.. Then her jacket which is dragging her down with how heavy it is from sludge rain. It doesn't give her new skin and it doesn't make her feel renewed with a firm vigor of life, but it is less cold. At the pillow fort, she pulls at her sweater, tugging it and yanking and trying all the things to get it off. "Pajamas?" Hands all bundled up in 2 sizes too big sweater and her eyes as big as saucers, she says that one word as if it's all the things she could possibly want, plus a cookie.

"Please?" Truly, she's frozen back to childhood.

On her butt, she pulls off her sneakers and almost falls over from shivering while doing ''stuff''. "The trees tried to eat me." Eyes wide, shoulders quivering, "When they couldn't eat me.. they followed me.." Right into the pillows, reaching tenitively for a cookie with both hands, quivering fingers grabbing for the Holy Grail.

There are two unique things about Corey in this scenario. One, yes he is a stinking genius in the baking department, thank you. The other is, he's not suffering with gremlins, be they of the mental or veil-related variety. So it is when he comes through to the lounge area, he's fitting into the role of House Mom, bringing more cookies, and what looks suspiciously like a big thermos and some mugs. "Anyone for hot chocolate?" His halo is surely going to appear any time now. "It's got spiced whiskey in." Okay, maybe not quite a whole halo. Half a one maybe.

"Not a medium." Sparrow sounds certain of this. "I've only ever encountered one ghost, and I never got to see her, but I'm pretty sure she was as upset as I was about the state of her dinette set as it tried to escape the basement." Seeing as how none of the furniture is trying to skitter off and there's no stomping about coming from upstairs? Chances are, this is currently a Ghost Free Zone. "And we've got a very competent gardener with a very imposing pair of shears a couple doors down if the trees get any ideas."

As Corey comes in with the spiked cocoa, she traces back down the hall to pluck up Giada's shed layers, chirping her own, "Please," to her twin as she goes to hang stuff up where it can all dry above a mat beside the door. Then she's off! Gone! Up the stairs in pursuit of pajamas. She'll only be a moment.

Grant is more than willing to take Corey's half-halo and dunk it into the cocoa and eat that too. It's likely made up of donut right? "Cooooorey, I love you man. I don't say that lightly. Yoooou are absolutely the best of us." He reaches and passes one to Gigi and shakes his head in commiseration, "Man, fuck trees. They're bastards. They ripped me out of the ground last night." He sighs and catches Corey up. "Like a nightmare but it wasn't. Happened to my don't-wanna-be-my-cousin too." He pauses and looks to Sparrow, "I should call my dad when it's daylight. See if he's okay." There's a sigh and a sip of something good. "This is why I told your boss duder like you are a gift, Corey. Sit down. Come kick it a while. Don't die or get eaten."

Gigi pops her head up out of blankets at the mention of cocoa with spiced whiskey and she looks about as happy as a person on zero sleep can look. "Ooo bless you..." Plus a cookie. It is gripped in both hands and held in her mouth like a chipmonk with an acorn. It is precisely what she needed and didn't know it.

"I was trying to get away .. I think I was dreaming, but I couldn't wake up. Ember was there too, she didn't believe we were dreaming even though I told her we were." Nibble nibble, tiny little bite, yummy cookie making everything alright. Eyes closed, breathing it in, she chews with her /whole/ mouth and it definitely doesn't require that.

"Then they started talking and... I really didn't like what they were saying at all." Because trees /ARE/ bastards. "This is a save spot before a boss battle.." Agreeing with Grant, "I think cookies and cocoa count as extra med kits..." No sleep and lots of drugs, clearly.

Cookies are dished out, doctored cocoa is poured and distributed, and then Corey finds himself a corner of couch or something to flop into, his mom-duties done for now. "Phil, while you're up there, grab some of dad's quilts?" he calls in the direction of the stairs - they have quite a collection, some probably in a storage chest up there somewhere. "Hope you like frogs and beaches and Shia La Bouf's face." Because dad has some varied ideas about how to theme his quilts, though thankfully those are three different ones.

Sparrow returns from upstairs with a bundle of brightly colored pajama pants and a navy blue tee shirt, a complementary set that pairs well with the sunshine-and-black that she's rocking this morning. And a few weird blankets to add to the architecture. Really, the sun's up back there on the other side of the pillow fort. It's just hard to find behind the piles of warmth and softness keeping the crew hidden from the outside world today. When she hunkers back down in the couch-centered fort with her own mug of whiskey-spiced cocoa, she asks Grant, "Do you think it's related? Her trees and yours and Alexander's?"

Even with cocoa and a cookie, despite her best wishes and intentions, Gigi still looks worse for wear. With legs up against her chest with a blanket over her head, she's totally E.T.ing it with her arms wrapped around her shins but with one hand up chewing on the nail of her thumb. "I don't want to go back in the woods. I don't know what the fuck was going on in the woods, but I know I don't want to go back.. not right now. There was so many whispers... I thought it was bugs or birds or.. the fucking clouds, I don't know." Her head bends foreward to rest on her knees now, "Ughh.. I do not approve. Whatever's going on can die in a fire."

"So don't go back in the woods," is Corey's reasonable agreement. He snags one of the quilts, rising long enough to drape it about his shoulders and then tugging it closed like a padded cloak, then curling his legs up under it. Clearly he's had plenty of practice at self-cocooning. "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we kick ass." Firm nod, sip of cocoa.

Sparrow nods in firm agreement with her brother's advice. "Garrett told me about a time he and his friend were out in the woods and suddenly there was this wood chipper out of nowhere that mangled her arm, so." Yeah, no, she's not down for that. Looking to Giada with brows pitched upward, she tells her, "Though. If you do venture back that way? He's a ranger and kinda sorta a little familiar with this bullshit. Good company to keep out there. Or someone worth alerting if shit goes weird. I'll give you his number." Later. Cuz she's not reaching for her phone now, happily a member of the cocoaed and cocooned club.

Usually one to answer the call for ass-kicking pretty emphatically, she doesn't this time, instead regarding her brother thoughtfully before venturing, "I've really been thinking about it. Not that anything I'm thinking right now should be considered an even remotely okay idea, but. There are plants. Oneirogenic plants. That are specifically good for lucid dreaming, for guiding dreams, and I'm wondering if we can maybe. I dunno. Go in with purpose. Together. With a little more control." To what ends? She hasn't gotten that far, alright? But the itch is there all the same.

"You make it sound pretty easy." Gigi answers Corey's cry to rational thought with her own muffled voice where her face is pressed into blanket and knees. She's usually a pretty tough nut, Giada. Hard to crack, not very good, but here we are. A card carrying member of the cocoa and cocoon club. "Kicking ass would be nice, I felt really useless standing around with my dick in my hand not doing shit while trees tried to eat me." That's the worst part, clearly. Gee pops her head up and looks around, "How do you kick ass against ficus or whatever? I sucked at biology.. or what cosmotology? What is it where you know plant stuff?"

There's a shake of the head from the marginally younger Jones twin. "It's not easy, but we do it anyway," Corey responds, then undoes all his hard cocoon-building work by lurching to his feet, cup in hand, draping the frog-themed quilt over his sibling and announcing, "Gotta go turn the pies." And then he's off towards the kitchen. Zoom.

"Botany." That's the easiest of Giada's questions to address, so that's the one Sparrow goes for. "Pretty sure fire works." But that's a much bigger conversation, how to carry fire with you in your heart and unleash it on enemy trees in the middle of unexpected dreams. She opts not to get into it, instead just sipping at her cocoa and sinking lower into her own blankets with her eyes absently pointed toward the television. Hard to tell just how much of it she's catching, gaze slightly unfocused like her thoughts are elsewhere. "You can stay here. For a bit. If you need. Both of you."

Grant has been eating and thus quiet. It's important! He considers the kicking of ass and such and looks to Sparrow, "Greggo used to talk about Oneirogenic plants and like... we got these horcha seeds from the Other Side. Maaaan fuuuuucked us up. Daisy made em grow though. I think we still have some. Should let you poke at em." He watches Corey wandering back and announces helpfully, "I know you aren't charging me for these but I'm totally willing to, like, go back into the heroing business." Quietly he admits, "I got my goggles in the mail for it and never got to use em yet."

"Botany, right that's it." Also fire. Gigi leans into the eating of cookie and breaths a little easier the longer she's wearing her blanket hood, away from the rain and the cold, "I'd try it." Perking up and looking at Sparrow, "Oreganogenic plants, I mean.. I'd definitely try it. If it would help. I just fucking stood there while the trees tried to eat us..." She shakes her head and blows out a snorting sigh, "So I'd go over there and bust some tree ass.. or die.. whatever, guinea pig me, I'm good with it."

"Did he... stop?" Sparrow wonders of Greg who used to talk about these things. Did something happen to him? Did this adventure end poorly for him? Her reflexive response toward the thought of poking at seeds from Over There is to shake her head, to issue a quick and easy to understand nope, nah, no thank you. But what actually comes out when she opens her mouth is, "Maybe. To. Uh. Check their chemical structure and see if I can compare them to anything similar. Totally not willing to get fucked up on that stuff." Yet. There's definitely a subtle implication of yet in her tone. With a nod toward Giada, she confirms, "I'll see what I can find us. And we'll wanna." Her eyes go a little wider. "I dunno. Find something pretty tame and tepid for our first excursion, I think. Just see if we can all purposefully end up the same place and get back out, ya know? Experiment number one." Fuck. This idea is actually taking shape...

Grant shakes his head and says, "Heeee is busy doing stuff for his boss." And that's all Grant says or wants to know about that. Munching the cookie like it is salvation and a life-ring dunked in cocoa he says offhandedly, "I mean I can take us whenever we want. I go all the time. Just like..." He pauses considering curiously, "Wonder if..." he considers something else but looks at his phone and flashes off a text. "Poor TIm man. He's having Gray Harbor like denial and stuff." Resting his head back and looking up at Giada he watches with some concern. "Were they scared? The trees."

Some of the conversatin sails right over Gigi's head, whether by design or complete omission on her part. She's focused on her knees, sometimes on Grant and Sparrow, but mostly on her knees. Huddling them up close to her chest with her chin resting on the curved bundle around which she's wrapped her arms now. "I've gotten pretty good at controlling myself on shrooms, but I don't think that's enough for lucid dreaming." Brief pause, eyes looking down, then back up, "Except the little kid in the fridge.. I guess that kind of counts as dreaming, but I'm pretty sure I was awake for that." Her tongue darts in across the inside of her bottom lip, dry as fuck.. So she needs cocoa, that's how the systematic course of events works in her head right now. Both hands, singular purpose, guzzling cocoa. "Ahhhhh..."

She licks at her lips absently and blinks a few times, "Scared? They were fucking pissed. I didn't even realize it was happening. I think Ember did, but I was so fucked from the dream I think I willfully ignored it until they were god damned near grabbing me.." Her expression goes blank, staring, breathing shallow, "But they were really pissed off. I didn't want to scare her more than she already was, but when I really started listening to what they were saying .. the fucking angst coming out of those woods?" Another long breath, blown suddenly and forcefully, "I'm pretty sure they were done with my shit."

Sparrow just stares at Grant for a while. Right through his comment about Tim. Right through his question to Giada. Right through her thoughts on shrooms and lucid dreaming and angsty trees. The furrow building between her brows suggests that whatever wants to come out isn't entirely nice, but she's not so far gone into her own little dark place as to just let that all out. No, she's fine just burying herself in her cocoa for a moment and keeping entirely quiet, eyes back on the TV to watch the movie absently.

Grant watches, and then watches Gi, and then Sparrow. He reaches over and draaaaaaags her an inch closer, and lays down with his head on her leg murmuring, "I'm not going there right now, and i'm not going to space today." Her knee gets a smooch and the man gets his lazy on. He considers and says as if he missed it the first time, "You're with my cousin?? Shiiiit..." he pauses and looks up to Sparrow hesitant to agree, "Might've been related."

Giada lays her head on her own knees and flips the blanket up and over her like a tent. There is warmth and protection and a promise that no vampire or shadow can enter without invitation. For now that'll be enough. "Does someone have a phone charger?" Muffled, "My phone died yesterday and I should probably tell Kai where I am... or that I'm not in a ditch.. or back in the woods, god. Then she'll go looking for me and .. ugh. I'm bad at adult."

Sparrow drops a hand from her mug, fingers all toasty warm, to pet at Grant's head as she mutters, "I know," though it hardly seems to alleviate whatever it is itching at the back of her brain. "Are you serious, though? That you can go where you want? And take other people with you? Like. On purpose?" She looks skeptical... but she's easily distracted. Picking her hand up to point toward the door to the basement. "Should be some chargers there." Cuz when you mean to set yourself up as a party house, you make sure to stay prepared. "We're all kinda shit adults right now. It's alright. Bad adults. But good at not being dead." Beat. "And there's pie." Not quite yet, but she can smell it, the apples and spices wafting over from the kitchen. This is how the Joneses fix problems: with too much food and too many blankets. It may well be the very best way.

Gigi throws the blanket off herself like a stripper coming out of an person sized cake and looks over in the direction of the party house charging station. She lacks the adultness to stand up, so, as is good and proper, crawls towards the basement door to plug her phone up. Part of her mentally realizes that the crawl back isn't an expressly long one, but rather than make it, she curls up on the floor beside the door and covers her head with the blanket in a Gigiball.

Grant closes his eyes halfway and enjoys the non-terrible moment. He squirms and tries to get comfier if this is a thing, squirming and burrowing a hole to hide; to rest for rest that denies him. He yawns and nods his head under fingers. "Yeah. Kinda like... dropping through a hole in the sky in a way. Or like Hotel California. Tryin to get better at it. Easier... in the forest. It likes visitors but it's had a bad run with like people and stuff." He looks up to Sparrow curiously, "You never did that before? Man I'll teach you how to knock on a door if you want."

Opening the basement door might offer a glimpse of the mural down below, the light from above just barely illuminating the big Welcome to Gray Harbor painted at the bottom of the stairs. It's only a little creepy. Blessedly, the charging station is easy to reach, though. When the Gigiball plants over there, Sparrow starts planning relief missions, cookie delivery services and the like. Planning. Not yet acting upon. "Pretty sure the forest is a no right now," she points out to Grant, brows pitching upward to remind him of Giada's recent run in. "And no. Every one of these stupid things I've been in has been against my will and outside of my control." It looks like she might say more, but she just stops and makes a face.

"No woods." Gigiball says from her rolled up position on the floor. She saw that mural. It, for reasons she doesn't quite understand, made her feel even more unnerved about the whole experience. A Gigi hand peels out from her blanket shell to disappear her phone inside to see if maybe she has enough charge to turn it on. It's one of those free Gov'ment phones they gave out like four years ago, though... "ugh..." It is spit back out like bones from a sarlaac pit. "I mean if we /really/ have to go to the woods I'll put on my big girl panties, but... I'm /going/ to whine about it."

Grant looks over to Giada, but where he is he just gets a great view of some sweatshirtage. "Not right now. Not ready to go back to being a ghost Gigi. Someday." He pauses, "When the world is day and not too bright... if it ever comes. Then we go But right now? I'm sorry lady we have ennui." Looking back his finger flicks a circle at teh screen. "I tell you, Phii, I met a star once? Gigi was with me. We helped get Peter back to his sky. It was so beautiful.I was like... I dunno jealous but I felt better for him at least."

"All the ennui," Sparrow agrees. That is easy. She's steeped in it. Can feel it down to the very pit of her soooooul. It's awful. Being that aware of one's own soul and its sense of bleh. She flops her head back as she continues petting Grant so long as he remains there. "This world needs stars, too, Bax. I get the homesickness, but we need you, too." Huffing a sigh into the air, she allows, "But yeah. Another time. Later. And maybe without any trees nearby. I have ideas about that. Between your experience and my expertise... But not now. Now. I like... I know where I'd go. If it's at all like LSD. Get what you give. And I don't want that, so." No, not now. Not right into the ennui.

"Sam Elliot hit me with a giant burrito." This is Gigi's addition to what Grant has confessed about Stars and returning them to the sky. She does not unblanket from her Gigipolli shell. Except to check her phone again. Sweatershirtarm pulls it back in, then spits it back out. Every couple minutes. It will be a very long night. "Promise there's no trees." Rolli Polli Gioli requests.

Grant turns to lay on his back. His hand hesitates but reaches up and rests on the side of Sparrow's face and promises with a tired smile, "Whatever I have to do I promise to haunt you." He pauses and while it's hard he looks up at his best friend worried. "Don't cry. Alexander said I'm not done here. I can't leave yet until you're done." this makes sense in his mind of minds. To Gigi his expression, tired and only a bit lucid reaches his eyes, "No real trees in Stardust. This isn't that kinda movie. Just stay here with us. Yooooou are done for a bit, traveler."

"You're not a ghost, Grant Baxter," Sparrow reminds as she tilts into that touch, turning her head just enough to brush her lips against his fingers in a shallow kiss. Looking across at the ball of girl over by the basement, she adds, "And neither are you, Giada Blackthorne." Then, back down to Bax, "None of us are done yet." Except... well... there's some inkling of resignation and exhaustion in there which might imply that she's very close to done, a tired bird ready to just burrow and hide and never be seen again. "Think I'mma need to get us some, like. RC cars. Rig up cookie delivery systems for days like these." So that Gigi doesn't have to move to be resupplied with sweets.

Gigi reaches out for her phone and, after a few seconds, "Access Granted!" She's quiet while it boots, then moves quickly through her contacts to send off one text, and spits the phone back out so it can properly charge. Now that ''that'' is taken care of, she flops over in the direction of the primary AO surrounding the pillow fort and slithers like a blanket snake back in the direction of Grant, Sparrow, and cookies. Once she's there, she curls up, grabs a cookie, and lays her head on Grant's knee. "I can't die until my step dad does. Which, I keep praying, is soon. Further proof that god is a lie and there's no good left in the world."

Grant brushes Sparrow's cheek with his hand and then reaches to wrap around GIada's head as she uses him as a pillow wondering out loud, "You have to outlive your step-dad. He's an asshole and assholes can't win. it's in the Comics Code." It isn't but the concept that it is clearly makes this entirely official. "I think maybe we shousd stay inside and tomorrow? We should talk to Elias. I'm working on drawings for his book on basics. He might have like... some story of something happening before. I think it'll help. He's a helper." With a sigh he murmurs, "Mr. Rogers would be proud of him."

There might be a whole lot of mope to Sparrow at the moment, but there's undeniably something nice about the interconnectedness she shares with a couple of her oldest friends once Giada sneaks back into the makeshift fort with them. It has her leaning into the Bax-in-the-middle with an arm stretched across his lap to join in the Gigi-petting. Staying inside sounds like maybe the best idea ever. And, really, it's smelling even better as those apple pies Corey's working on start filling the house with their spiced scent. "If I end up doing anything with this oneirogenic research, figure Mr. Warlock. Uh. Elias. Will be my primary check-in to make sure the project's, like. Grounded and sound. Maybe keep watch? Or go with us." She peeks past Grant to look down at Giada and explain, in case she's somehow missed a run-in with the incomparable Elias Weber, "Warlock down the street. Lives in the big patchwork house and owns Likely Stories. Knows a good bit about all the spooky shit. And he's just as chill as he is hot. Which is a lot. On both counts." With a grin teasing at her lips, she asks, "Speaking of. You and Kai?"