2020-03-08 - Cleanup Crew: Phase One

Afternoon (because no way James is waking up early to deal with this godsforsaken house) and James is sitting on the porch with Diana. They're bundled up, because it's cold af out, but James was pretty insistent that it was preferable to wait outside than in there despite that. He's got his usual threads on with the jeans and hoodie, which seem insufficient for the chill, but he's also got his magic coat, made of nice, expensive wool, several sizes too big for him, and enchanted by the Yule Cat to always keep the wearer warm, because at least one good thing had to come out of all his misadventures. A nice, ill-fitting, magically warm cloak. Thanks, Grey Harbor. Totally makes up for all the life-risking and sanity-detroying shenanigans.

"Pretty sure they'll be here in a minute or two.", James tells Diana, smiling sheepishly. "We'll go inside if they haven't shown up in another five, ok? Just... y'know. Don't really wanna be in there any longer than I have to."

"I'm fine to wait as long as it takes," Diana insists, and leans over to kiss his shoulder. Or, you know, his ill-fitting Yule coat. Whichevs. "I can't blame you for not wanting to go in there early, given givens. If frostbite starts to be an issue, maybe we'll drive somewhere warm to wait, and text them or something. But honestly, it's not too bad." She holds up her gloved hands. "See? I'm protected." She grins. She's dressed pretty warmly, no doubt with one of her silly geeky sweaters, but it's hidden beneath a warm red coat for now. Her legs, from what can be seen past the longish coat, are wearing their usual high-waisted pants with patterned leggings underneath-- this time with images of the original series' Enterprise. "But if you get too cold, warn me, okay?"

Tobin shows up after not too long in his little nondescript grey four door sedan that's a good ten or twelve years old. He parks off to one side of the street and comes bearing a backpack with some supplies in it. He's dressed in jeans, work boots, and a grey hoodie, and brought gloves, and what looks like one of those long-distance grabber things that people use to get things down off of shelves with. Look, there's no telling what's in there and he's coming prepared for eventualities. "Hey," he says to Diana and James when he arrives.

The sight of a familiar Rolls Royce Wraith pulling up into the driveway marks Byron Thorne's arrival. Like always, he looks like a man who's been up all morning, living that productive life and still having the energy to show up today all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Dressed casually for the task, he wears a fitted gray sweater and jeans. Sturdy black boots protect his feet. Wrapped around his neck is a neutral patterned scarf, something which he'll probably shed once they get to work. While he's wearing those black leather driving gloves (what!), which he'll most likely also remove, he has a wool cap tucked into his back pants pocket. His hair falls naturally into his eyes.

Like always, he comes bearing gifts and in his hands are bags of extra-large mocha lattes. There's way more people here for a mere 4 cup carton! He's also brought some whiskey to spike them with if anyone's so inclined. And of course, with him, is Lilith Winslow, who he would help out of the passenger side of the car if his hands weren't full. "What are you all waiting outside f--" He's about to ask, before he cracks a smile with a shake of his head, "Nevermind. I've set foot in there once before. I don't blame you."

Sometimes Lilith comes along casual and easy, sometimes she comes to greet and bubble with smiles. Other times she comes in like a fucking steamroller and today is one of those days. She's smiling fine, though, when she pops out of the passenger side of Byron's car-- in fact, she's almost overbearing with the smile because she's excited about getting to wade through junk. The thing is, though, she doesn't even really say hello, she goes straight to the trunk and starts arming herself and giving directives.

"Sooooooo!!" She has a bag that's filled with rolls of trash bag and cans of Raid she pulls out for arming everyone, as well as another bag that has a nice crate box as support in the bottom of it, repurposing one of those nice shopping handle bags to be a white, standout place to put certain things, "This is the bag for things that can be repaired and sold to make money and I wanted it to stand out from cardboard boxes and trash bags. I hired guys that will be here later to haul trash with proceeds from the antique mirror I found and repaired last time. We push things onto the porch, they take it. And eventually they'll move the fridge out too when we have a hole. But listen!"

She tails Byron with his much tastier carry ammo, "Anything that looks... weird or useful or repairable, show it to me before you throw it away! We'll fund this cleanup and restoration from the inside, I have ways, okay. Also... if the roaches combine into one giant roach to fight, I'm running." A pause as she bounces a little in her running shoes and leggings, all bundled up at the porch, "Also hi."

James smiles at Diana's offer of waiting in the car instead of the house. "... dangit how are you constantly the best?", he says, and leans in to kiss her cheek just as Tobin's arriving. "Hey! Glad you could make it, Tobin- have you met Diana?", he says, waving to Tobin and slipping an arm around Diana's waist affectionately as he mentions her. And then Byron and Lilith are arriving, and he smiles a bit wider, chuckling at Byron's comment. "Yo! Is that coffee? You're the best, man." As Lilith comes up right after in full sergeant mode, he stands up straight and salutes. "Sir, yes, sir!"

Diana positively beams at the kiss, replying, "It's a heavy burden, but someone has to do it." She smirks and adds more quietly, "Besides: no, you." One can probably even spot the text speak in voice. She turns to follow Tobin's car with her gaze as it arrives, and she offers a wave as he gets out-- and another after they're introduced. "Hey, nice to meet you, Tobin!" She rises when James does, grinning to Lilith and salutes as well, though far more casually. "Coffee is lifeblood," she agrees with James, and adds to the two of them, "It's nice to see you again!"

"Also hi," Tobin says when Lilith arrives with gear and instructions, and he listens to her with a quirk of a smile on his lips as she takes the position of drill sergeant for the time being. "Hi Diana," he says to Diana as he steps up toward James and Diana where they are on the porch. "This requires coffee, and Byron always brings the best coffee. Probably also booze." Because most of these cleanups also require booze. He pulls a pair of gloves out of his backpack for his hands. "So.. take me to your disaster!"

It's hard to mistake what's in those bags for anything other than coffee. Even if the cups are safely closed to prevent spillage, the bag that it comes with lingers with a heavy dose of eye-opening coffee fragrance. "I got your pick-me-up right here." Byron says, lifting his gloved hand carrying the bags of hot drink within. "And another little pick-me-up if you know what I mean." Using his free gloved hand, he removes a bottle of whiskey out from its trappings to present to the gathered. Those dark eyes looking across the way at Tobin, giving his best bud a knowing wink.

He seems content that Lilith is issuing these orders and has things prepared. If it were up to him, most of these items would be dumped with the rare possible find being kept to maybe get appraised by, well, Lilith. "After both fueling and warming up some, we can go ahead and get started." He's all prepared to set the bags down so that they can get their coffee on. Moving with the others to break on pass the threshold, his brows lift showing his lack of enthusiasm, "Can't wait to begin." That comes out as a murmur.

Tobin doesn't have to wait for James to show him in because she's already barreling into the house to put her things down and start stripping down out of her coat, scarf, and hat and gloves which... gets put in a box and pushed onto the front porch once she's collected Byron and Tobin's outerwear too to shove outside in a safe out of the way place so it won't get moved by the help. It's weird, but she briefly explains, "Don't want to pick up hitchhikers while riling them all up..." Ah-hah, roach precautions.

One she's down to tank and tied pink and black flannel shirt with her leggings, she rolls up her sleeves and starts snapping on plastic gloves from her prep bag, prompted by Tobin's glove put on. She puts cans of Raid near where everyone is set up, though she's not snapping orders yet and letting everyone look around, drink coffee, and warm up. She also makes an envious noise in her throat regarding the grabber-thing when it's showed out, "... Byron. I want a junk grabber for our six month anniversary. Assuming it hasn't been six months already, I guess I should count and pay attention. Or just order one on Amazon."

She does tarry to drink coffee before spraying or digging herself, though, casting a smile at Diana, the less familiar of the bunch, "I like you already, you know. You've got mettle to be so chill and ready for this. Which means you also really like our boy here, probably." She grins a little at James over her cup edge.

James grins at Diana as he notices her salute as well, and smiles ruefully at Tobin. "Well, you asked for it, I suppose." As everyone starts getting ready to enter the Junk Lair, he turns, and looks at the door. He takes a slow breath steeling himself, but just before he reaches for the door, Lilith barges in, and he blinks. ".. right, then. Inside we go."

Inside, is the same junkscape that Byron and Lilith have seen before: a hoarder's nightmare-slash-dream, practically every surface is loaded with piles and mounds of... stuff. Things. Objects. Junk. Most of it inorganic, at least. Most. Small, treacherous paths have been carved through the piles, requiring a DC15 Dex roll to navigate safely. Or at least that's how James describes them as he leads them inside. "Roll at disadvantage if it gets dark." Coffee's handed out, and he eagerly doctors his with some of the whiskey Byron brought as everyone doffs their heavier coats, and blinks, blushing faintly as he catches that comment from Lilith to Diana, then looking away, mildly embarrassed.

Diana does flat-out beam at Lilith's comments, and she agrees, "I like you, too. And honestly, anyone coming here to help today gets kudos. It's one thing to say you're a friend. ...it's another to prove it when it counts." She smiles warmly before adding, "And yeah, he's pretty okay." It's clearly a massive understatement. She glances over to him, that warm smile still evident, and takes off her coat when the others do. Beneath, she's wearing a black sweatshirt featuring a cartoon displeased cat and the words, "SCHRODINGER'S CAT IS" above the letters 'ALIVE' in white, which leaves the black between those white letters to read, 'DEAD.' https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2653/5656/products/HO-M-_-BLK-SD4890_800x.jpg?v=1516289581 Anyone who guessed she'd be in high-waisted pants gets ten points. To Byron, she then says, "Thank you so much for the coffee. My machine was misbehaving today, so it's extra appreciated." That said, she has a nice long drink of hers. For her part, she doesn't add any booze just yet.

Tobin grins a little bit as he watches the back and forth between Diana and Lilith, and James' embarassment. There's something fond there, and perhaps a little wistful, too. But he shakes it off a bit and then looks at the mess that is the interior. "Well, guess we just uh, start going to it, eh?" He takes a sip of his mocha that has been definitely doctored for fortification before the cleaning begins. He lofts his grabber and makes it go pinchy-pinchy in demonstration. "This.. is in case I find anything that I can't bring myself to touch with gloves." He hooks that on his belt for the time being. With garbage bags in hand, and coffee finished, he wades on in to the first room inside the door and just starts with the first pile that he encounters.

Ah, with coffee to be had, it doesn't take long for Byron to take a sip of his own doctored brew. The warmth of the perfect blend of hot coffee and booze does it's job to keep him warmed up and invigorated. Which helps a lot now that they are out of their outerwear. Not that they won't break a sweat once they really start digging into the mess that is James' Uncle's place. "It really sucks when you can't get the coffee machine running. That's the most important thing that you own when it comes to dealing with mornings."

Just as with Tobin, Byron catches the little banter between Lilith and Diana as well. Something which brings both an amused and probably fond smile to his lips. There is a point when his gaze shifts to Tobin, just randomly, and he's standing there watching his friend in idle silence. That's eventually broken when he brings his cup to his lips for another sip.

The idea of buying one of those long-armed grabbers makes him smirk, a scoffing sound escaping his lips. "Fine, I'll make sure to add that to my gift list." He doesn't have one probably. "Sometimes it's easy to forget that people also enjoy the simple things in life."

Lilith is drinking coffee and eyeing things after beaming a smile at Diana's response and chuffing a little nerdy I-get-it chuffle at the other female's sweatshirt when the text is revealed. She pushes some gloves over onto Byron, the latex medical kind from the drug store to match hers, then leaves the box out for Diana and James to get at as they want since Tobin's already equipped and in the heap.

After pressing a shameless open-mouthed and brief kiss onto Byron with reach and tug down on his sweater, she plays it like she's going off to war, "I'm going in. Remember me fondly and wait for me if I go MIA." She's apparently got a track in mind with something she sees and when she goes off, she edges by Tobin with warning, "Be careful, baby doll, this stuff will bury you. Just yell medic or something if you go down. And keep your Raid close!"

Whatever she's going for, she takes a trash bag and can of bug spray as ammo and starts to throw the useless things away to clear a path there, but she's going RIGHT down the middle of the room and knocks a small heap of newspapers onto her head with an automatic 'ow' even though it didn't actually hurt. Then she carries on, but... there's a domino effect in the rest of the trash she doesn't quite notice, which might cause problems for certain others.

James was never very good at dominoes.

Newspapers crash onto a pile of carboard boxes filled with buttons which were holding up a pile of kitchenware that tumbles on against an already wobbling stack of books that crashes right onto a stack of old PC keyboards which slide and clack and knock over a stack of plastic chairs that wobbles and galls and knocks over... another pile of newspapers. It's the Circle of Junk. James had been too busy enjoying a nice leisurely sip of his coffee, so he notices the oncoming trashstorm a bit too late and isn't able to escape in time, ending up on the floor and buried under the newspapers.

"Ack!", James cries as he goes under, but quickly digs his way back up. "I'm ok, I'm ok, didn't even spill... my... coff-", he starts to say as he lifts his cup triumphantly- and then stops as he sees two very large roaches sitting right on the lid, watching him. ".... AAAAAAA!"

Diana fingerguns at Tobin's 'in case anything is too gross for gloves' comment, smiling. "Wise." She pauses, though, and steps beside James to say in the quietest whisper she can manage and still be heard at all, "You know this isn't you, right? You didn't do any of this. It shouldn't have been yours to clean up in the first place." And she reaches out to lightly squeeze his hand. That done, she inches back over to the gloves, removing her outside-weather ones and tossing them into the box outside before slipping on the medical ones in their place. "Let's do thi-- oh!" she starts to say and cuts off as poor James gets buried. Maybe she should've stayed near him! She sets her own coffee down (an action she will no doubt regret in mere moments) before starting to wade toward James, attempting to help dig him out. "We'll have you out of there in no-time," she assures him, while sounding worried about him anyway.

Byron was already wearing leather gloves. He's even holding a coffee cup within the grasp of one of them. However, when Lilith slaps a pair of latex gloves into his leather gloved hand, he just has to groan. Peeling off one pair of gloves, that's about the moment where he feels a tug at his sweater, forcing him into a forward lean as he's about to tuck the leather gloves into his jeans pocket. The kiss brings out a bright smile still, the edges of his eyes crinkling. Her announcement that she was heading in gets him to retort, "Don't wander off to far, alright?" Yes, he knows that this was just James' house, but people can disappear with just a blink of an eye.

He's in no real rush, working those latex gloves onto his hands now before reaching for another sip of his coffee to help give him the strength to make his way through this junk. While he'd like to keep an eye on Lilith through all of this, Byron is also trying to gauge whether he can see anything of interest from this safety of these outskirts. It's only when he's at mid-sip does he watch a pile (who piles trash up that high?? In the middle of the room too!) of trash lean and suddenly collapse atop James. "Jesus.." He practically coughs out, taken by surprise by how quickly that accident occurred.

Setting his cup aside, he leaps into action after Diana to wade his way through the sea of unnecessary items so he can help dig James out. It's not just a pile of newspapers or anything either. There's clutter of all sorts that collapsed onto James Hecker. Some of it heavy. "You alright under there?" Shooting a look over at Diana first, he then peers out beyond the pile to see how Lilith is faring, "Lil, everything alright over there?"

And then there is that avalanche of trash, and some of it near him topples over, threatening to fall on him, but Tobin is nimble enough to dodge it, a bunch of paper and random detritus ending up on the floor next to him instead of on top of him. With a sigh, he just begins with the pile on the floor instead, but only after he blinks and looks up to see if James is okay. But Byron is checking on him, and he seems okay, minus the roaches. Ew, that coffee is going to be no good to anyone. He then begins shoveling the garbage on the floor into his trash bag with one hand, carefully picking it up, making sure there's no hidden horrors within each small pile as he does so.

Lilith isn't quite aware of the domino effect her little spill had on the rest of the room and forges on, rather happy as a lark. She hears the tumble and James of course, though, but it doesn't really distract her from where she's trying to go, these things are just kind of inevitable until they get a portion of the room cleared out, it's fine! She leans aside to check on Tobin's little mishap briefly, though, out of habit, then calls to Byron, "I'm good, just newspaper. I'm clearing a path carefully instead of just pulling the neat stuff this time." And she is admittedly being good and doing that, filling her bag with plastic gloved hands on the way.

Then she decides to turn on music from her phone to fill the air space and make a bit of a party out of things during work. She eyes the playlist a beat, though, as if considering something before settling on some rousing and popular alternative rock playlist from multiple year collection for everyone to enjoy. However, while she's standing in the mess and pocketing the phone, it seems they aren't the only ones enjoying the sudden air-filler. A few roaches pop out of the trash, she's armed with Raid, she fires it off, it's fine.

Suddenly, though, instead of an attack, it's more like a flushing. Two dozen roaches fly into the air and skitter on the ground in multiple directions like a disturbed wave, fanning out toward the others. She squeaks and flails a little with overspray, filling the room with a cloud of Raid, but at least she doesn't panic and knock everything down, "... it's fine!"

... yeah, fine. Skitterskitterskitter.

James just barely keeps himself from tossing the tainted brew at Diana and Byron when they arrive to help him, instead managing to shoo the roaches off and groaning as he's helped to his feet. "... have I mentioned how much I hate this place yet? Because I do. I really, really do.", he mutters to both of them, but gives a weak smile to each of them in turn. "I'm fine, really, guess I need to throw this out now, though." He starts looking around to see where he can toss the coffee, because he wouldn't want to accidentally add any more trash to the, uh, trash. And that's when he sees the whole mess 'o roaches headed his way thanks to Lilith over there, and he panics, instinctively lashing out with his still barely-controlled Glimmer in a psychic scream of get away from me... or, err, more like a psychic squeak. The roaches seem to pause at that pulse from James, tilting their hideous little roach heads to the side- before three of them LAUNCH themselves right at his goddamn face.

As roaches do.

"AHH NOO NOT THE FACE AAAA!", he yelps, flailing about to try and dislodge his filthy attackers, and, well, there goes the coffee, sailing, lid popping, precious liquid arcing through the air.

"You've never mentioned that before," Diana lies teasingly, "But I'll take it under advisement." She smiles at him, adding, "Hopefully you'll hate it less after today." And then he's getting launched at, and she freezes, nearly knocked over by the flailing but just barely managing to keep her footing. Her pants are a lost cause, though, as some of the coffee ends up coating one leg. Her eyes widen and she slap-flails at poor James, assuring him in not her calmest tone of voice, "It'll be okay, it'll be okay." There's no way she believes that in this moment of time.

Hearing Lilith's reassuring voice from who knows where brings Byron some relief. He'll make sure to call out, "Watch where you're stepping. Hecker met an untimely burial beneath a stack of trash." The music playing is a nice touch to help motivate the group as they work. Right now though, they are just doing their best to drag James out from beneath the avalanche. This look of disgust crosses his features when he spots those two large roaches that were hanging out on top of James' coffee cup lid. "Just remove the lid, I'm sure it'll be fine. But if you really want, I could call Eleanor to get an Espresso Yourself delivery. Probably at some point after most of us have finished our own--"

Byron's words are cut off when out of the trash scatter a huge swarm of roaches. It wouldn't be so bad if those little buggers kept to a respectful distance, but some of these were making their approach. Hell, a few of them even fly towards them, making him swat wildly at it with a hand. "Son of a bitch." He curses beneath his breath before he makes a grab for one of the cans of RAID kept nearby. When one of those grotesque insects actually flies close enough that he can feel it brushing against his hair, a shiver runs down his spine and in a panic, he fills the air with a wet cloud of the bug killer, letting it rain down to the floor.

Luckily for him, he catches James panicked clumsiness from out of the corner of his eyes and immediately pauses in his assault to move out of the way of the spilled hot drink making a long arc in the air. He's not wearing one of his fancy suits, but the last thing he wants (aside from having a bug crawling anywhere on him) is to be drenched by hot coffee for the rest of the day. "Watch it, Hecker!"

Oh bloody hell, roach swarm. Tobin Gilford, fasted can of RAID in the west is on it as soon as those roaches start flying through the air and he just hoses the shit out of that swarm with RAID. There is such a cloud of RAID in the air that anyone breathing near him can feel the strange almost minty cold tingle on their tongue of having inhaled way too much bug spray (don't ask the player how he knows what inhaling too much RAID tastes like). "Fuck, fuck fuck.. oh god.. they fly. Why do they fly?" Because crawling roaches are bad enough. Flying roaches are just the worst. The WORST.

Taylor Swift is a curse and a blessing, honestly. Lilith is determined to keep her mood high despite falling trash and roach swarms and not being able to get to whatever that thing is that she's spotted for closer investigation. She times it with song change, though, and wonders aloud (total bullshit because she touched her phone on the sly), "How'd this get in the playlist...?" Then, instead of changing it, she does the thing you're supposed to do after backing up some steps to check on Tobin and Byron and James and Diana with a cough at the spray chemical clouds kicked up.

Seeing they're all alive and okay, she turns it up and dances her ass back to work. She shakes it off, determined to stay on her junk high and get to where she's going. And see, Lilith is a good and enthusiastic dancer, all the commotion seems to send the roaches back into hiding as she throws trash away and gets into it, doing the shoulders and the hips and hands at opposite times to the beat. But when she's close to where she wants to be, she just has to do a little spin hop and that's bad. It sends stuff crashing over onto her and her target area with clatter and crash for her to slump and make a whine noise in.

However. Because Taylor Swift is playing, she doesn't temper up when she realizes she's not only buried and having to crawl out of who knows what. She complains briefly, then picks up the lyrics helplessly while getting free.

"I lost the thing I saw!" Pause and beat drop with slight lyric change in humored deprecation, "... I shouldn't have been gettin' down to this. sick. beat..."

James has Diana clinging to him trying to reassure him, he's got three roaches that have decided he's the end boss in the video game of their lives, he's spilled coffee on the woman he loves, and Byron and Tobin have declared chemical warfare on his house. All things considered, this is going better than he expected. "Stupid.. roaches.. get.. off!", he sputters, finally managing to dislodge the attacking insects and coughing at the bugspray in the air. He tugs at Diana as he backs away towards the door, waving at the bugspray in the air. Even through it all, though, he's moving carefully, trying to brush up against as little as possible and thanking his lucky stars that the pile that fell on top of him before didn't trigger his powers. He does smile weakly at Diana. "S'okay. See? All good. We're alive."

Thankfully for James, Diana doesn't decide to bug spray anywhere in the vicinity of the ones near his face-- in fact, she doesn't use her Raid at all. Instead, she just tries to keep a firm hold on him, hopefully helping him steady himself. She, too, coughs at the 'mist' in the air, but manages her own weak smile in return to James. "We got this," she assures him, and adds, "And I saw what looked like a like, hand-carved sturdy rocking chair. It'll be awesome when I see it again. For now, I think maybe I'll just pick up obvious trash." Her smile lifts, and she adds, "It's gonna be okay. And as we work on it, there'll be less and less to deal with. It doesn't seem any better yet because of the fallen piles. But we're throwing stuff away already!" Which she gets down to, starting to shovel things that couldn't possibly have much value into her bag.

"They're probably from the Veil!" Byron calls out to his best bud as they both pollute the air with poisonous chemicals in an attempt to destroy the horde. That said, Byron's seen flying roaches before in much warmer climates which makes him fully believe that these things? They are not normal! Any time that he sees one of those buggers flying anywhere near him, he'll lift his spray can to douse it with Raid.

The switch in music doesn't set his mind at ease nor does Lilith's dancing about. It might not be his jam, but he has nothing against pop music, so has no real complaints.

Now that James is free, he trudges on towards her, spraying the air every so often when he perceives one of those fuckers to come flying near. Some of it is actually just nerves, being a bit jumpy and trigger happy due to the unwanted bug attention he'd gotten just earlier. Even as the roaches seem to disappear. The can of Raid is kept close, held beneath his arm as he slowly works his way in Lilith's direction, shoving trash into a large plastic bag that he's toting around.

Then there's that crash, which semi-startles him. These piles of rubbish could collapse on any of them at any moment. And they could unearth even more flying fiends. However, realizing that this time it's Lilith buried beneath something that she may or may not have kicked, he quickly picks up the pace to trudge in her direction to lend her a hand, "I told you to be careful." His words almost come out as scolding, though there's evident concern that can be heard in his tone. "We just had one accident happening over there. Unless we lessen these piles, they're going to continue being a hazard."

She's still singing though, so she can't be that hurt. Byron works to help dig her out of the mess before lending a hand to help her up.

Lilith sighs a little at herself while digging out with Byron's help and getting to stand to brush herself off. She turns down the music to a more ambient level as the playlist from before swaps back on to passively rock alternative fill the airspace with the shuffling and stacking and packing and trashing sounds. "I'm alright, there's no pretty way to do this, the way it's all been heaped and stacked. But I shouldn't be so damned giddy about it, you're right. I just thought I saw a box with flatware marking, but it's buried now."

Lilith rises on her toes in her running shoes and kisses at Byron's sweater before ticking her face up to catch him under the goateed chin with another, "Help me carefully get there? Probably safer to catch what tumbles and run defense for each other so we don't get hurt when things fall. And I can't even reach to start from the top of some of these stacks."

"Don't even joke about that shit, Byron!", James calls, as his friend says the roaches might be from the Veil, and James shudders a bit at the thought. He lets Byron and Lilith go on their hunt on their side of the room, and coughs once more as the bug spray dissipates. He looks to Diana as she mentions the rocking chair, and gives a weak smile. "You're right. It's all downhill from- ROACH!", he shouts, as another of the flying beasties comes at the two of them. He tries to pulls Diana way from it, but ends up jabbing his own side with the handle of an umbrella that's poking out of a nearby pile. "Ouch!", he says, and winces, then shakes his head. "S-so... rocking chair. Where'd you see it again?", he asks Diana, trying to ignore the insectoid attacks.

For Diana's part, she gasps at the appearance of the roach, backing up quickly and nearly knocking over another stack. She freezes, and the stack stops swaying-- for now. She takes several deep, calming breaths, and then points toward the western end of the room. "Over there-- it was nearish the corner, so that should help, right?" She briefly touches her gloved hand to his, and then nods firmly before starting back up with the bagging of the trash, trying to make her way toward that corner without bumping into more piles.

"Why would you think that I was joking?" Byron asks with a creased brow, those too dark eyes of his shooting across the way at James now. "They probably really are." This last part is muttered, not liking the idea himself.

"This place is infested." He states the obvious. "And there's trash a piled up a mile high. I don't think I ever saw a situation this bad." Not that Byron associates with hoarders much. Byron's sweater was only misted by bug spray. A light misting, mostly from the fall out, so it's probably fine when she kisses him there. Despite not enjoying his time spent here and the fact that he was attacked by roaches, the kiss to his bristled chin lightens his mood enough to bring out a fond smile on his lips, eyes lowered to stare down at her, "I don't mind that you're giddy. It's infectious and helps light this place up." That and just how bright her inner light is in his eyes.

"I'll try to pull some of this shit down before they topple over. Carefully. This is like trash Jenga right here." As he promised, he tries to clear the pile by working from the top and dragging everything down into his awaiting bag. The cry of roach has him automatically reaching for the spray can again. He's not sure if it's just the one or twenty-four of them. This hinders his work entirely, feeling the paranoia that whatever they move, it might disturb some Veil Roach.

"You guys doing alright over there?" Lilith calls through the room, her view of Diana and James blocked by the way the mazed paths are with cleared holes. She didn't hear about the rocking chair and luckily isn't tumbling over their way for a new exciting view. Instead, she sings along to Sour Girl by Stone Temple Pilots and smiles a little bit about some of the lyrics over at Byron as they clean. Initially, it's fine, there's some clatter from both sides and some quicksave pushes on each other's behalf, which unleashes a roach. But no more come out. At least not til they're toward the bottom of where she's aiming.

Pausing suddenly, Lilith spies an edge of the box she was looking for before it got buried with other things, speaking over her shoulder to Byron with point at it. Unfortunately, the stuff around is hemming it in, including stacks of magazines that love to house roaches, "... babe, this is the thing that might buy James a new fridge if it's actual silver. The box looks..." Well, she sounds hopeful, but also unsure, afraid to get her hopes up.

Then four roaches pop out at some point together like a strike team. But at least they found the thing? Kind of.

"Starting to think we shoulda maybe tried to fumigate the place before cleaning, honestly. Bad enough there's roaches, even worse when they're freakin' aggressive!", James calls out over to Byron and Lilith. "But I think we're fine for now!" As Lilith and Byron begin their faceoff with the Fearful Four, he turns to keep moving with Diana until they get to where she might have spotted that chair, and looks around. "Right. Trash." He takes a deep breath. "I can do this. He pulls on a pair of those latex gloves in hopes that they'll keep him from triggering any visions, and gingerly begins to toss trash into the bag, hoping to clear a way towards Diana's find. As soon as they clear enough to reveal the rocking chair, and those carvings, he recoils instinctively. "OK. That looks like it might have been important to someone. No way in hell I'm touching it."

"Fumigate, shmumigaaaaaaaah!" Timely roach intervention. Diana frowns and throws more trash into her bag, saying, "Besides, the fumigators might've gotten squished by stuff. We can handle it. At least until we make these piles more safe, anyway. Speaking of..." They're nearing the rocking chair, and she grins broadly as it's revealed after a few moments of digging. She nods to James' concerns, saying, "Yeah, that's probably wise. I'll start taking this toward Lilith, or at least further in, but I'll make sure not to touch you with it, okay? You can help me clear the path? I can set it down, clear a space, set it down, et cetera." She smiles brightly over at him.

"Doesn't sound like they're alright. They got roaches." Byron is quick to say, shooting a glance James and Diana's way. If there's roaches over yonder, it can only mean... For now, Lilith's singing distracts him from all of that, even if he's still on edge, scanning the area, air and... ground, I guess, for any signs of those fuckers. Working their way to clear up some of these piles and create this little walkspace so that Lilith can reach her bounty, when she finally believes she's located this box of silverware, he'll crouch down to offer up help if she needs to lift it or drag it out from another more trash.

When the initial roach comes out, Byron is quick to crush it beneath his already heavy bag. Or he'll assume he crushed it, those things are sneaky bastards. "Let's hurry and nab it. Then we can get the hell out of here." It's at that moment, due to some shifting of magazines and papers that bring out four more of those filthy creatures, only once he'd distracted by the buried treasure.

"Shit! We've got company." Letting go of his hold on the heavy bag that he's been dragging and filling up, Byron reaches for the can of Raid again and sprays wildly at the flying fiends, coating the air with poison. They really are crafty little monsters, dodging his attempts while forcing him back into a partially cleared pile, sending the contents to spill and possibly set their progress back a little now that they'll need to work harder to get to reburied box again.

Lilith takes a moment while she crouches to look at the box and avoid some of the spray can cloud kicked up to some degree, weighing whether or not it's really worth dislodging right now or saving for later. There's some scrollwork in gold leaf patterning as decor on the edge of the flat and wide wooden box, though, and that's her eventual decider. After moving a few key items carefully with relative haste, she ninjas the box free without toppling more of the heap or setting off more roach attacks of alarm.

Then, after straightening up with it, she leaves her filled trash bag and reaches for Byron's arm with her other hand, looking at him like a hero for spraying those chemicals around, "... I think you kept them from going straight toward my hair, at least. And I have the box, besides." She coughs again, though, and starts to wind her way out to see what the others found, "I think it's break time, let's give this spot air and have the guys come get the bags. I need my coffee and we might even need a nip of whiskey at this point.

James chuckles slightly at Diana, then nods. "Ok, ok, that sounds like a plan." And so they set to it, James doing his best to clear a path as Diana focuses on moving the chair- and it even works, for a while. But every time the chair comes near to him, he winces just a little, until just as they get it to a spot where Lilith might be able to actually see it, he finally grits his teeth. "Love? I... I think I need a break. I'm getting a headache just being close to that thing. I'll be in the bedroom for a bit, clear my head, yeah? It's the only safe place here.", he says, and reaches to take her hand and squeeze it before making his careful way to the door to the bedroom nearby. Inside as he opens the door, it's clear to see that room is entirely bare and neutral, bare walls and floor, a cheap futon on the floor and a milk crate with some necessities nearby. Other than that, however, the room is completely bare and null, a sanctuary from the constant gloom James feels in the rest of the house. "Be right back!", he calls to Lil and Byron, kisses Diana's cheek, and plops down on the futon, cross-legged, to breathe and try to shake off the psychic residue of the rooms outside.

Diana looks up in surprise as James catches her attention, and looks weirdly touched for whatever reason as he goes on, and squeezes her hand. She pauses to set down the chair, quickly moving just close enough to give him a peck on the cheek. "You did really well," she whispers, and then adds in a more normal tone of voice, "We can hold down the fort." She gives him a soft smile, watching as he goes. Hopefully she's not attacked by roaches right then, because she's not paying attention to anything but James right now, whatsoever. She frowns in concern as she gets that glimpse into his room, and then looks down at her feet before starting to add more to the trash pile. She's quiet for a few moments, lost in thought, before she says to Lilith, "Hopefully it's worth anything like what it looks like. And if not, it could make a nice chair for anybody here. Seems antique-y though, to me. Not that I'd know an antique from a hole in my head."

Byron is far too preoccupied by trying his best to keep those roaches off of him that he doesn't even notice what all Lilith is doing. Above her head, she can hear the Raid spray going off, saturating the air. If that fails, he even waves a hand to chase them off. At some point even attempting to smash the can into them if the fog doesn't take them out, the physical force will.

"That's good to know." He says in response, still trying to bat those bastards away and out of his face. "Because these fuckers are all over me." Yes, he sounds annoyed. Yes, he's choking on bug spray. And those roaches don't seem to take a hint. "God damnit. I say we call it a day and fumigate this fucking place." There, that's his call! "Pack up and head out. My treat." One of those things probably landed in his hair at some point in the chaos and he can't help but feel creeped out about the whole thing.

"So you got the box?" He asks, trying to wave both bugs and fumes away. "Let's get the hell out of here." James might want to meditate in his room, though despite it being cleaned out, Byron has doubts that the roaches are kept out of that place. Now, Byron's not afraid of roaches. Normally. But these things? Veil roaches flying at him in such numbers? That would freak anyone out.

"C'mere. I got it. Let me look at you. This is why I put our coats and things outside, we'll go get them and take a break, see how long fumigation takes and how much it costs while we're at it." Lilith hears the spraying behind her and once she's out of the heap, she does something very un-Lilith for a moment. She forgets about neat junk! She's picked up in the agitation in Byron's voice, well-warranted, and she plants the box aside on a surface to remove her gloves and turn back toward the man, watching James move through to take a moment, himself. Reaching bare hands toward Byron's sweater and hair to check him over in doting fashion, she does reassurance sweep for any clinging, pesky bugs once he's near enough and out of the immediate bug spray cloud.

While doing this, she also takes a moment to look over with Diana's commentary, making a pleased and distracted noise while explaining, "Oh, hey, a chair. I can't tell what it's worth from glance, given the condition, the type of wood also matters, but that's a nice find that will sell even if it's nothing special. I can definitely refurbish it, though, I know that. You ready for a break too, Diana? This is the hardest part, starting it all and stirring things up that haven't been moved for ages. It gets easier."

Batting her lashes a few times, Lilith wonders of Byron after making a suggestion, "James could stay in the loft or even the trailer if he has to entirely vacate for a while. Did you see anything I might fancy while doing battle with the room?"

"I could do a break, sure. It makes sense that this part would be so hard, honestly. The piles guaranteed it. But hey, we're getting things un-piled, so that's a start! And hey, free chair!" Diana smiles brightly, and then pauses before offering, "I'll go get James?" She starts that way gingerly before hearing an answer, but she'll stop if someone else says they'd rather do that.

Still coughing due to being choked by the insecticide, Byron murmurs once he's gotten that under control, "It's a good thing this isn't Elm. Or those jackets would be long gone by now." He's most likely joking even if he says this is a deadpan, well, rather irritated tone as he struggles to breathe. Once he's out of the initial smoke screen that he'd put up, he keeps a vigilant watch on his surroundings. Taking a stand amid the trash, looking ready to spray down any roach that even looks like it might try to attack him.

Lilith's distraction is much needed and when she reaches out to him, she can feel the tension of those muscles in his tall frame. Partially watching her as she inspects him for any stray roach that may have found its way on his person, he continues to give the room a long, hard look for any flyers. Despite him being on this constant lookout for the bugs, this little bit of time together is enough to start to set his mind at ease. Even though, he'll never fully relax until they are out of this place. Or those roaches are dead. Whichever comes first.

At least they are out of that mess that they'd left behind. And Byron would spit on the floor in disgust behind him if this wasn't James' place.

A passing curiosity brings him closer to the chair once the women are discussing it. He doesn't have an eye for antiques, himself, and most of his belongings are pretty modern in design with some expensively traditional elements. So old objects don't hold his interest, unless say, they were a masterpiece or a status symbol.

Once they are where he'd left his coffee, which is already cooling, he flips the lid to pour in even more whiskey. He's rattled for the time, but being away from the large room with the roaches and trash is, despite still being a part of this place, somewhat comforting. If only because they've got coffee here. With one hand on his cup, the other continues to hold the can of bug spray. He'd left his trash bag somewhere in that mess when he'd made his escape. He's only slightly listening to what is said, his mind wandering off elsewhere. Something about the trailer or loft? He just nods. Though when he's asked whether he'd noticed anything, the first thing he mentions is, "You mean, besides the army of roaches?" He takes another much needed drink from his spiked brew. "I don't know what to tell you. Half of this stuff looks broken and worthless. The other half are newspapers and fire hazards."

His mind is still frazzled by the onslaught of roaches, but he tries to focus, remembering if he'd even seen anything of interest through the haze. This takes a while to sort out, because they were surrounded by piles of things that all blended together. "I thought I saw something near the fireplace, but... can't really say. At one point, I was thinking of heading that way to check it out, but then we had unwanted guests. And avalanches. I mean, it's probably nothing and right now, I just want to get an estimate on what it will take to fumigate this place."

"We'll have the trash guys come in and clear some obvious trash too, while waiting on the fumigation to happen, get in and take a look over at the fireplace area once they've made better paths." Lilith says with a quick bob of her head to Diana when she goes to fetch James for their break and re-strategy planning, speaking to both the other woman and Byron. She rubs at his back with reassuring 'all clear' as he relieves with coffee and a nip, ticking her head toward the door, "Let's go steal a stress smoke out there and bundle up while she lets James know what's going on. We can ruin our lungs and purge ourselves in the burning cold air. You can even double nip yourself and let me drive, mmm?"

The woman nudges with arm wrap of partial hug teasing while looking up at Byron with a bat of her lashes to suit the suggestion. It's a WRAITH. Also she knows Byron isn't going to drink enough to inhibit driving, so she kind of has to up the ante. After planting that seed, though, she lets him go to think about it so they can head out.

Lilith does retrieve the flatware box to open for inspection in full before bringing it into the car, though. She even shakes it out on the porch to double check. And in passing on the way to the door, she looks off toward the fireplace as if setting herself a reminder of where exactly to look later (even if she has to sneak in to sate her curiousity). But she can't see anything NOW to fuel her excitable impatience, so maybe she won't be tempted to take on this place on the sly. It's not like they've had a good run of things for kickoff to find encouragement for that, after all.

At some point when they're all out and she's had some time to really weigh the box, count the pieces, and do some mental math, she lets everyone know the good news so far.

The hard-sought flatware is buying James a fridge to replace what's going to be hauled out when it's time.