2020-02-23 - The New Generation

(TXT to Isabella) Katy : So totally weird random question. Sorry if this is creepy but I totally stole your number off my boyfriend's phone but are you friends with someone named Anne or Clayton? My Uncle Patrick mentioned you and them and I wanted to talk.

(TXT to Katy) Isabella : Uh.

(TXT to Katy) Isabella : So you're a niece of Patrick Addington? Who's your boyfriend? And yes, I'm friends with Anne and Alexander Clayton's my...paramour. Do they still say that?

(TXT to Isabella) Katy : I'm Katherine. Jonathan Wallgren's my boyfriend. I'm technically Patrick's cousin's daughter, but niece is totally much simpler. He's the only family that treats me like family around here.

(TXT to Katy) Isabella : I don't know Patrick all that well, except that he's a lawyer and went to a rival university. I pelted him with snowballs once....and set his pants on fire once...but one was a game, and the other one was completely by accident, I promise. He and Alexander were schoolmates when they were in high school and I think they're...sort of...friends now? It's weird with those two. Anne and he are dating and-- oh, so you're Katy! Yeah, I heard Jono got a girlfriend now.

(TXT to Katy) Isabella : You wanted to talk to me about something? We could always meet up at my place.

(TXT to Isabella) Katy : OH. I didn't know Uncle Pat had anyone. Huh. Yes, I'm Katy. Jon and I just got back together when I moved to Gray Harbor after the holidays. And if you're free today, I would love to chat. I could bring pizza if you're into that.

(TXT to Katy) Isabella : Well, your Uncle Pat and maybe your future Auntie Anne (god don't tell them I said that though) are kind of complicated, but yeah. I knew he had a thing for someone before, but I had no idea it was you! It's nice to meet you, even if the circumstances are probably really weird otherwise you wouldn't be stealing my phone number from Jono's cell. But pizza sounds good. I have beer...and whiskey...and scotch...whatever you want, I probably have. My address is Dock 47, the Surprise.

(TXT to Isabella) Katy : They won't hear a thing from me. And yes, weird circumstances, lots of questions. I hope you don't think this is weird. I just don't know who else to ask and I saw your name in Jon's phone and wanted to see if you were the same Isabella. Yeah gonna stop rambling like a dork. I'll see you soon.

(TXT to Katy) Isabella : Well, it's a little weird. But that's alright. I'm coming to learn pretty quickly that I like it despite myself. Anyway, come on over, I'll be here.

The Surprise is a completely modernized and refurbished motorized, two-deck catamaran painted a gleaming white that soaks up the richer colors of the day. In spite of the bitter cold that has stubbornly clung to Gray Harbor over the winter months, the sunset is particularly beautiful - an unmistakable sign that the darkest months of the year are at an end. The parking lot is sparsely occupied by vehicles of those who live in the houseboats that remain on the docks.

When the door opens and Isabella greets her, Katherine Addington would find a woman not much older than herself - dark-haired and slim, with a lightly suntanned expression and glittering green eyes flecked with gold that remains keen and alert despite her absurdly exhausted appearance - they look a little bloodshot, but considering she has had notice that she was going to be entertaining not just a visitor, but one unknown to her before, she has at least attempted to make herself look presentable. A comfortable, off-shouldered sweater dons her today, over a pair of warm black leggings and matching warmers. A moonstone pendant scatters iridescent motes of light in the front, and there's a dandelion charm bracelet on her left wrist. She's unable to help herself, though, when the curvy, attractive blonde arrives - her gaze moves past her head to the dockside, a faint hint of disappointment there - along with the glimpse of the sharper tones of bone-deep longing - when she realizes that Alexander's not in his usual place.

But this is brief. There's a smile towards Katy that banishes, temporarily, her slightly-haggard state. "Isabella Reede. Nice to meet you, Katy Addington." She will try to relieve the younger woman of her pizza so she can extend a hand for a proper shake. "Come on in, make yourself at home. Want anything to drink? I've got pop, water, coffee, tea....and a lot of alcohol." Especially the last few days.

Katy spends the quickest time driving, finding the location of the dock, and The Surprise in particular. She has pizza in the back seat, a safe pepperoni pizza, as well as a bottle of cheap red wine, because apparently that's what one brings to a host as a present? She isn't entirely sure but she brings it anyway. When she finally arrives at Dock 47, she takes a moment to admire the beautiful catamaran's exterior and the sunset in the background before she knocks on the door to see Isabella, unsure of what or who to expect. But when she meets a brunette close in age to her, she smiles, dressed in her pink cardigan and skinny jeans and black leather boots, her black leather jacket complimenting the outfit. "The pleasure's mine, as...unusual as the circumstances are," Katy replies with a polite smile of her own, the pizza in one hand and the bottle of red wine in another. "A pair of tokens of my appreciation." She places the bottle of wine nearby on whatever counter surface she can find as Isabella takes the pizza. "Let's start off with water. I've never had alcohol before but I've been looking to pick up a new vice."

The smell coming from the pizza box makes Isabella's stomach growl audibly, reminded that not only has she not been eating much in the last few days, but she has done her level best to find sustenance in poison (see: booze). "I think we'll get along just fine," she says through a laugh. "Thanks, you can sit anywhere you would like, let me get some plates." She moves so she can take two out of her cupboard, as well as a wine opener. Brows lift when she's informed that Katy has yet to take her first drink. "My mentor in Oxford used to tell me that I wasn't going to survive Academia if I couldn't drink like a man. Completely outdated comment, I thought, but it's England, and they're all old over there on campus." She waves a hand, but she procures a glass of water for Katy and a wine glass for herself. She even passes out some napkins, how hospitable!

"How's Jono been?" she asks. "I ran into him my first week back in town and he told me he was staying here so he could recuperate from hockey injuries. Is he getting better?"

Katy looks relaxed and easygoing as she finds an available to chair to sit at. She was going to be comfortable but not too comfortable. She observes as Isabella begins to play the hostess and notices the lifting eyebrows when she mentions not having had drinks before. "I was a code monkey, academia was never really in the books for me," she explains with a chuckle. She pauses to take a drink of the offered glass of water before answering Isabella's question about Jonathan. "He's in the best shape I've seen him since Detroit. I think he's finally starting to come to terms with the fact that it's too dangerous to continue his hockey career." There was a pause. "How do you guys know each other?"

Word that Jonathan seems to be well on the mend has Isabella relaxing with a faint smile - a piece of good news, at least, for this week. She eases with her wine near Katy, and proceeds to dole out slices of pizza, though at the moment she seems more interested in her wine. "He wasn't very specific about the severity of his injuries, but I'm glad he decided on what's good for him. Any idea what he's going to do now that he's officially retired from hockey?" The last question turns blatantly teasing, though, with the grin playing on her lips. "Wondering if Jono and I ever dated?" she asks, because she's not above poking good-naturedly at someone she's just met. "No, never. Jono and I're the same age, but since I started school early, I was in the year above him in high school. We were in similar circles - he was an athlete, even then, and so was I. Different teams, though." There's a curious tilt of her head. "A code monkey? You're a programmer?"

"He says he's interested in looking for some sort of management position, but he's also really amazing with food. I think he should go to culinary school but he's trying to be sensible, it seems." There was a pause as Isabella teased Katy about her reasons behind her questioning the connection between Jonathan and Isabella. "I might have been curious. I know there was some time we didn't really talk. And I didn't grow up in Gray Harbor so I got curious." The explanation was punctuated with a shrug. "I do website coding specifically, and web design. I considered going more in depth into web development, but I think I've gone as far as I can go...I love what I do but it's not what I would spend my life studying. Plus, the work pays the bills." Katy chuckles as she decides to find herself a class to partake in the wine as well.

"I hear these days culinary school is very competitive, but if he's interested in learning, there's a master patissere in town - the owner of Vydal's. Management sounds good, though. He could always work at city hall to get his feet wet, too." Isabella takes a quiet sip of her wine, though her curiosity towards her new acquaintance intensifies at her confession. "An Addington who wasn't raised in Gray Harbor? That's unusual," she remarks. "I heard your Uncle Pat left and stayed gone for a while because he wanted to get away, but I didn't realize that you spent your childhood elsewhere. What brought you here? Other than the family?"

Her practical outlook towards her work earns her a grin. "Well, code monkeys can get hired anyway, at least you'll always be able to pay the bills." She reaches for the pizza, now, and how quickly it disappears after a few bites is almost embarrassing. She must've been hungry. Wiping her fingers with a napkin, green-and-gold eyes fall back to Katy. "Anyway, I'm sorry, you came to ask questions and here I am, poking at you. I can't help it - in many ways, my field of study is focused on how people lived before, and I've never met you until today. You said you had weird questions?"

The tip about City Hall makes Katy smile. "I'll be sure to let Jonathan know about the opportunities at City Hall when I get home." She watches Isabella eat and drink as she adds, "My father, George, he left and never came back. He never told me anything about what it was like here in Gray Harbor until my weird mind tricks started happening accidentally. And he sent me here to learn from his Aunt Margaret and get some answers. I've been here every summer since 2008, and every holiday season too. And truthfully, it wasn't even really family that brought me here, it was Jonathan." There was a pause as she took a sip of her red wine. It wasn't too bad. "Don't apologise. It's the least I can do for stealing your number off Jon's phone and randomly just contacting you. I just...I saw a sawmill in my dream, and people chopping up a body. I wanted to know if maybe there's anything there to help figure out what happened to my grand uncle so I thought I would investigate."

There's a very long pause when Katy mentions the saw mill dream, and something twists faintly in her expression. Isabella takes a long swallow of her wine, almost drains it, really, before topping hers off. "You're definitely going to need to start drinking even just a little if you're going to be poking around that bear," she tells her, faintly resigned. "I never had a chance to meet your grand uncle, Thomas, until the last summer. He spent the last half-century keeping the spirit of a murderous serial killer at bay by sharing a body with him." Her eyes lift to meet Katy's own. "That's why he's dead....or at least, one of the reasons why he's dead, and the only reason why I know of his current status, really, is because of your cousin, Hyacinth. Sure you don't want anything stronger than wine? I can tell you the story, if you would like to hear it - if your other family members haven't read you in just yet as to that entire situation."

She toys with her glass. "As for the saw mill....that one's steeped in some interesting history, also. But first, may I ask you to tell me about your dream in detail? What did you see, exactly? Did all of your other relatives have the same dream?"

Katy shrugs. "I don't know about the others but my dream had a group of people chopping up a body at the sawmill. That's what I remember." The story about her grand uncle Thomas causes her to raise one eyebrow. It all seems so strange but she's not entirely surprised by the idea that he might have been sharing his body with a serial killer. Gray Harbor was weird, and she was starting to truly understand to what extent. "I...I probably should have talked to Hyacinth to get more of the story in more detail but...I'm not really close to most of the family." She pauses, considering Isabella's offer of something stronger. "The wine's fine for now. I'll let you know if I change my mind." She pours herself a bit more wine, realising that it's only a matter of time before she is having to resort to stronger alcohol after the wine is fully consumed.

"Hyacinth was involved in that entire situation, and so was your cousin, Erin," Isabella tells Katy gently. "That summer was rough on your family, and mine. It was inevitable that members of both groups would be pulled into it one way or another." She takes another sip of her wine. "The gist of the story is that a man named William Gohl killed a lot of people in the early 1900s. He was captured by your family, and then sent away because he was a danger to himself and others. When he died in the place he was held, he was interred - but someone disturbed his grave, and dug up his bones and considering how murderous he was even in death, your grand-uncle decided to do something about it. That's how he ended up living in Thomas' body for half a century....but he was getting older, and whatever he was doing to keep him at bay was starting to weaken. William ended up using your grandfather to continue his murders, and later killed some of the members of your family and mine because of that. A group of concerned citizens, your cousins Hyacinth and Erin included, banded together to stop it and it involved burying William all over again using the remains of his bones, and certain sacrifices on our parts....but things started becoming strange again after Thomas died. Your dreams, my dreams, the fact that we were feeling off one morning and William's grave mysteriously vanishing from where he was buried - they all happened too quickly around the same time for that not to be a coincidence."

Or where they all thought he was buried anyway.

"I think members of my family were chopped up in your family's saw mill," is the blunt conclusion. "The morning it happened, I went there myself, to feel around and see if there were any Doors in the area. I was pulled into the Dream I had again, on repeat, so I recommend not using your gifts around that area." She pauses, eyes hooding in thought when she re-assesses her conclusions based on this new information. "...but since your Dream's point of view is different, probably because you're an Addington and not a Baxter, it might work differently for the members of the family who once owned it. You won't know unless you try - just don't go alone, if you intend to."

There was so much information thrown at her but the first thing that comes out of her mouth is, "Aunt Susan..." It's a soft quiet murmur before she moves past the murders and focuses on the next bit about the dream and the sawmill itself. "I wasn't the one doing the chopping or anything like that, I was just an outside third party to it. Maybe you're right. I never planned to go in alone. I spoke to the family first, to see who would help me investigate. My Dad's cousins are coming along, I think. Enzo. Kyle? I don't remember." She shrugs and stops speaking to allow her brain the extra time to process the new information. "Empty grave, dreams, things changing...I don't think it's a coincidence either. I need to know what the dream means and why I saw what I saw."

"Who else was there, in your dream?" Isabella wonders curiously - it's the way Katy said it, 'third party', that prompts her to ask the question. Reaching for another slice of her pizza, she continues, "I know your cousin, Enzo. He's gone with us in a couple of excursions to the other side - which might be a necessary trip if the rest of you decide to poke and prod at the saw mill. Hopefully your quest will go a lot better than my own cursory assessment in the area." Her mouth lifts in a smile. "I don't know him well, Enzo, but he seems like an adventurous guy. Not surprised that he'd want to go. I don't know your cousin Kyle, though."

"I don't know who they are," Katy admits quietly, "They were just using the sawmill to cut up someone's dead body and it smelt awful." She looks confused, wanting so desperately to understand the dream and why her. She sighs, opting to finish her glass of wine at this point. "It's good to know I'll be in safe hands, I suppose." And she quietly stuffs her face with pizza, contemplating something important that she does not immediately share.

"I'm sorry you had to look at that," Isabella tells Katy; it's gentle, but also spiced with the faint hint of resignation that suggests that there's no helping it, so long as Katy stays within the city limits. "But some families have very deep roots in this city, the Baxters and Addingtons most of all." She reaches out to pour more wine for her guest after she has drained the rest of the glass. "Considering how this place is, it's no wonder it tends to affect people like you and me in strange ways." She watches the contemplative expression on the younger woman's face, lifting her brows in an inquiring fashion. "What is it?"

Katy find herself looking at Isabella, someone Jonathan had known from his school years, someone he'd grown up with, and for a moment she considers that maybe she could tell Isabella about how she was feeling and how worried she was that Jonathan would find out what she was doing and would try to insert himself into danger for her sake. Instead she simply asks, "When was the last time you spent any time with Jon? You guys are friends, maybe you should catch up."

There's a long look from the archaeologist, brows lifting higher towards her hairline - suggestive enough to everyone in the room that Isabella has managed to caught on the white lie, and set with too emotive of a face to hide it. Considering the state she's presently in, she doesn't even bother to do so. However, she doesn't pry - she reacts enough to make sure Katy knows that she knows she's lying, before she responds, truthfully, "I last saw him at TIBS before summer ended, he shared a table with me and....Alexander." She's able to keep her voice quiet, but level at the intonation of her difficult lover's name. "Though it isn't because I'm avoiding him. We just run in different circles these days, is all, but like I said - I'm glad to know he's getting better, and looking for work. If I hear anything on that end, I could always toss him a line." She picks up another slice of pizza. "Is there anything else you would like to know about your strange situation that I might be able to answer?"

"Honestly? I want to know just how dangerous the situation can get. I want to know what can and will go wrong once I'm there, no mincing words," Katy admits quietly, "I might also want you to potentially distract Jonathan and keep him out of the way while I do this stupid thing so he doesn't try to stop me or join me?"

At Katy's quiet words, she takes another bite out of her pizza. "Poking at that specific bear - that is whatever old bones that Gray Harbor has been built upon - is incredibly dangerous," Isabella tells her straightforwardly, and seriously. "It's cost me a twin, a parent, and more injuries that I've ever sustained from the hundred-plus dives I've ever done in my life in deep ocean. But to warn anyone off of that particular sordid enterprise would paint me a hypocrite, though in the end, that would never really stop me. If you're unsure about doing that, I'd hope that you decide on just leaving it be, but if not, don't go alone, try to collect as much information as you can, and try to be as careful as you can." She takes another swallow of her wine. "And take it from someone who has had plenty of disagreements about that with her own boyfriend - if you don't tell him before you go, and he finds out later after something happens to you, he'll probably be incensed that you said nothing. If you tell him before you go, and he insists on coming with you, and you try to stop him, that's another fight, which will lead you into haring off by yourself with your relatives, necessitating a confrontation with him when you come back, if you come back, to resolve it, or taking him with you where you can suffer together, which will assuredly provoke a hefty degree of guilt in your part. I can't tell you what to do, I don't even really know how to advise you on that...but I think if you want this thing with you and Jono to work, you have to trust one another to be able to handle what you're set on handling."

"On the point of finding more information, where would you as an academic suggest I look?" Katy speaks a little quickly, trying to delay processing the entirety of what Isabella had just told her. She's gotten as far as finding information and the danger involved.

It isn't until after Isabella makes her recommendations that the relationship advice really sinks in, but Katy continues to focus on whatever wisdom and knowledge Isabella can impart.

"Talk to the people who've been there," Isabella tells her with a small smile. "Which you're already doing. That's always a good start. Talk to your more knowledgeable cousins, like Hyacinth and Enzo. Ask them questions. And whatever you get from those meetings? Go from there. Don't be afraid to ask for advice, either, and even if you don't listen to half of them, at least remember them. Might save your life later."

"Thanks for hearing me out, I know it was a weird random text but...I had to talk to someone, and I'm finding myself struggling to approach Hyacinth. I guess I'll be talking to Enzo next." She pauses then adds, "I hope you enjoy the pizza. I just had the one slice. Not really hungry."