2020-03-25 - Market Meetings and Massive Melons

They've moved the aisles around at Safeway again, as tends to happen, so no one should be in the business of getting comfortable about where things are for a quick in and out. There's an exasperated Lilith in the aisle next to the produce section with her mostly empty cart (apparently she's just starting) and she's talking to a teenage stockboy about whether or not they still carry fresh thyme anywhere in the produce section. He doesn't even know what thyme is, and when she tells him it's an herb seasoning, he starts trying to walk her with point toward an aisle with salt and jars of stuff.

Lilith apparently finds that annoying. She doesn't like grocery shopping because of things like this, she always finds the layout inefficient and the help clueless, and she can't ever make it a quick run in and out. Then she always forgets something! It's pretty time tested routine. Usually Byron goes because she finds a way to slip it into his texts between meetings, therefore allowing him to feel helpful while she avoids getting cranky.

Today, though, she's in need of things that would be hard to explain to Byron, and it's not the thyme, seems. After making a scoffing huff of noise at the stockboy's wandering off back, she leans forward over her cart and hollers, "Nevermind Benjamin! I got this. You don't. It's cool. Go play phone games or vape in the bathroom or something." With a roll of her eyes she whips her cart into produce and starts loading the thing up with... a lot of cantaloupes and the few imported watermelons they have in stock. It's kind of weird.

And around the corner to the produce aisle wanders a stoned-looking James, who's got one of those little handbaskets, several bags of chips and a large bottle of soda already in it. "... the fuck did they move the cheese?", he's muttering to himself, before he pauses and sees Lilith's melons.

Yeah I saw it as soon as I typed it but fuck it I'm leaving it in. "... fruit salad?"

Even cops have to grocery shop eventually, though they don't have to look happy about it. The ball cap, scruffy beard and battered old bomber jacket thrown over a tee shirt and dark jeans would appear to belong to none other than Gray Harbour's one and only police captain, Javier de la Vega. Who, as it turns out, is also shopping for, "Thyme. It's right here." He's holding a package of the fresh stuff, and waggles it a few feet away from where Lilith's poking around. "Also, what the fuck do you need with twelve cantaloupes?" Inquiring minds want to know, okay? He seems to recognise the approaching James, but can't think where from. Which results in him sort of staring at the guy thoughtfully for a while.

"Hey, you!" Lilith chimes to James in sudden recognition greeting, no longer speaking with her dry jerk ass tone for Benjamin the Teenage Stockboy and all his annoying uselessness. The good thing about Lilith in a state of irritation, as James well knows, is that she can swap scowl for smile in the same two minutes and damn well mean both. "I was actually going to text you today, but got busy and forgot. Then remembered I needed things from here." Things indeed! She's continuing to pile the biggest fruits (melons) in the place into her basket, along with some leftover winter gourds and a few pumpkins available.

While doing that, she eventually makes explanation, lips slanting off to one side, "They're for explosions." Oh, okay. Then after she's got a good load, she straightens up to lean on her cart with the small of her back, knocking a hand back through her hair, "You know, you look pleasantly stoned. I think I'm jealous. It makes me want to get out a hoodie and throw down. But ah, things to finish today." Still no elaboration on exploding fruit. And she's definitely not wearing something that goes with a hoodie today. Apparently getting the jump on spring, she's wearing a bubblegum pink fit and flare skirt with black heels and lace trimmed black camisole. Of course, the weather could be better, so she's also wearing a charcoal coat of length that goes beyond her skirt hem, currently open and unbelted outerwear.

Then she thinks she hears 'thyme' suddenly and blinks a couple of times, distracted from whatever other explanations on explosions and fruit most definitely now, "Oh, hey thanks for-- Oh HEY!" Grinning some with recognition, the ballcap apparently throwing her a couple of heartbeats prior, she steps toward the Captain to make snag for the fresh herbs, "This is how protect and serve should always go down, I'm impressed." Then she repeats the explanation she gave to James nearby, gesturing the other guy's way, "Exploding. Maybe you know the best places to do that without causing a ruckus, actually." Her head tilts a bit, then she carries on, wondering if she needs to introduce, "Captain, you know James Hecker? And vice versa?"

Luckily for James, he's wearing his 'I AM NOT A CRIMINAL' hoodie. Although, to be fair, it would probably be more convincing if the background of the letters wasn't made of marijuana leaves. "Hey Lil. I am, in fact, pleasantly stoned. Hence..", he says, and motions to his basket full o' munchies. And then she's explaining about the purpose of the fruit, and he blinks, once. "... I hate how reasonable that sounds in this town." He looks around Lilith as she starts her introductions. "... yo.", he says, focusing over on Ruiz and giving a lazy wave and a grin.

"Protect and serve?" The package of herbs is plucked from his hand, and de la Vega goes rummaging about for whatever he was looking for in the first place. Which turns out to be basil. "Sounds excessive. Are you sure about that?" He tosses something resembling the basil in his basket, then sidesteps to start pawing at a bin of mandarin oranges. His gaze ticks back to James at the quasi-introduction, then cuts back to Lilith once he belatedly realises what she's asked. "Did you just say exploding?" And then James with that hoodie, and the cop has a look on his face. Like, really? Do we have to do this today? "Yeah, I think we met once." While they were trying to rescue Lilith from killer dolls or some shit, he means.

"I know, I'm getting spoiled, living the fancy pampered life over around Bayside lately, excuse my unrealistic expectations. Next thing you know, I'll end up voting conservative and golfing. It's a gradual transition to being a Stepford Wife, I think. There's a brainwashing process. It's very transitional over time." Lilith tells de la Vega with a self-admonishing click of her tongue to go with his and her commentary on his duties or something like it. And though her humored words are spoken pretty deadpan, there's amusement laden in her eyes and twitching her lips. Especially once she notices what hoodie James actually has on while looking between the two on re-intro.

"Oh, right, when I was... you were both there, I remember bits and pieces and Byron told me later." The brunette woman loses her easy, off the cuff and dry branded kind of humor to breathe out a more genuine noise that's part sigh for the general situation, part gratitude again after the fact, "Thanks again for that. You know if you're in trouble, either of you, I'm more than game to play rough and tussle on your behalf, especially after that." Her flushed rose-glossed lips press into a flat line for a moment before she looks aside at her cart and turns to gesture to it abruptly, "Anyway. Yes. I'm buying these to explode with gunfire and small explosives."

Does she explain why right away? No. Instead, she grins some at James like she knows he'll think it sounds badass, then she looks at the Captain with consideration (and general shamelessness) before posing forward question, "Are any parts of the woods or town outskirts less likely to see stray visitors? I have a semi-secluded place in mind, but I don't know if it's on hunting trails. Like is there a place where people purposefully dump dead bodies because it's more off-trail?"

"Oh! Right!", James says, as Ruiz mentions them having met. "Dope." He gives a thumbs up with his free hand. He tilts his head at that smile from Lilith, and blinks at her response to Ruiz. "The woods is a terrible place to try and dispose of a body. Really, you want to give yourself at least 24 to 48 hours, and get some steel drums- 55 gallons of course, and, oh, about a hundred pounds of caustic soda." He pauses. "I did the research." Writers, man.

Ruiz tosses a few oranges into his basket, then pauses to consider the watermelons. Since Lilith's haul has given him a sudden craving for them. "He asked me to look into a couple things, by the way," he murmurs to the woman, hefting one of the melons into a big hand, and giving it an experimental toss before setting it, too, into his basket. "Thorne, I mean. If you could let him know that I'm working on them." A glance, and then a double-take when she mentions it's the melons she wants to explode. And then asks something about dumping dead bodies, and James is talking about steel drums and caustic soda and..

"You two do realise I am actually a fucking cop, yeah?" You know, in case they forgot. Certainly the f-bomb helps his credibility.

"He has to research to write screwy stuff. And I'm only asking because I don't want anyone to get hurt." Lilith tells the Captain after an appreciative look at James' pondering aloud on solutions regarding dead bodies, "That reminds me, I still need another book copy to send out, one of the brokers I deal with online would eat your stuff up. You might get an outright fan." The woman finally moves her cart over a few feet to start picking out things for fresh salads and maybe an actual fruit salad at home too. She only gets one pineapple to go with her strawberries and bananas.

Then, breathing out a gusty sigh, she looks over her shoulder with her lashes batting a few times at Ruiz while she picks tomatoes, going serious and dropping her voice a little afterwards, "I promise, no one is dying and I'm not trying to hide a body. I just..." Her lips purse a bit to one side in brief, thinking of how to explain, "When everything gets overwhelming inside, I want to let it out and there's been... some trying things lately I don't think I'm fully letting in and through, you know?" Quietly, "I have so much power that wants to act. But if I destroy things to let agitation out my way, I'm a flashing beacon to Them ." Her breath draws in and she puts on a little smile, "So I'm going to go where no one can run into me and use boomstuff and pow pow accessories to destroy fruit."

Then she finally turns to put the selection in the basket, eyeing the two guys with question, "... how do you two let out aggression and stress?"

"Oh, come on, do either of us look like the kind of person who would murder someone?", James protests, then looks to Lilith, and winces as he catches her giving him that appreciative look. "OK, do I look like someone who-" He catches sight of his weirdo beardo serial-killer-looking self in one of those mirrors they put at the end of the aisles to deter shoplifters, and he winces again. "... ok, nevermind. Fair." Another pause. "I'm a writer." He has no excuse for Lilith tho. He blinks at her. "You want to give someone a copy of my book? What'd they do to make you hate them that much?" But then he shrugs. "I've got some copies in the trunk of my car, mostly as emergency supplies. They make great kindling." He then starts looking around for the cheeses as Lilith explains a bit of what's going on with her to Ruiz. When she asks him that question, though, he blinks, and thinks a moment. "Fifteen minutes of mindfulness meditation every morning, some primo and entirely medicinal, officer weed, and Netflix.", he replies, glancing at Ruiz, and then shrugs back at Lilith. "Stress, I got. Aggression? Not so much. Not gonna claim I'm a lover, but I sure as hell ain't a fighter."

"..boom...stuff, and pow pow accessories." Javier sort of deadpans that, and fixes Lilith with a flat, and somewhat bemused look for it. A breath's blown out his nose, and a glance shot James's way when he starts to ask his question.. and wisely aborts. "I hit the range, generally," he tells the woman in belated response to her question. Well, he is a cop, and ex-military to boot. Of course guns are his go to. "Assuming you mean rifles and not explosives, do you, uh. Know how to use one?"

"I'm adorable, I don't need to be a murderer, I can talk people into doing it for me. Rude." Lilith says to James with a play sniff, audible faux hurt given his amending to what a murderer might actually look like when it comes to the two of them standing there. And while that might be true, both of them, and probably de la Vega himself knows that's not her style, so it's fine, she's not murdering or asking anyone to murder. Probably!

Then with a little more wander to get at potatoes and green beans for sacking up and weighing next to put in the cart, she tells James, "I'll grab one when we leave here. You're better at the whole entertaining-with-words thing than you think, you know. Tempted to put some copies on the pawn shop counter to randomly push too. So maybe I'll grab a few. I mean, look at where we live, people might not need or want mundane reading material. Life's ante has been upped for a lot of us, if you think about it."

Leaning a hand on her basket edge once she's got her next selections carted, she looks at the Captain pensively a moment, her brows knit, "I can shoot a hand gun, a rifle, and a shotgun. It's kind of the holy trinity when it comes to shooting versatility. Makes you better to feel the difference between weights and balances while aiming, too, I'd bet. You know more of what your body is doing in brace and it teaches you how to deal with any kickback." Well, well. She doesn't just sell guns at the pawn, she apparently likes them. Maybe not that surprising, though.

Suddenly, she rounds back to something de la Vega mentioned prior, "Oh. And yes. I'll tell him. Which things did he go poking at you to use resources on? Mags stuff?"

".... touche.", James replies, re: Lilith's adorableness, then gives a half-smirk as she praises his writing ability. "Bah, let me hate myself. It's my prerogative as a writer. Practically a requirement." And then the talk turns to guns, and they may as well be talking about sports, because it's all Charlie Brown's teacher-voice to him. Instead, he catches sight of the cheese selection finally, and starts wandering off, still in earshot, to ransack the roquefort, steal the stilton, check out the cheddar, grab some gouda, and munch on some manchego.

Well, that's a relief at least. That she's not talking about grenades or something. The Hispanic cop gives her a bit of side eye when she starts talking about holy trinities of weaponry, and maybe he's thinking about that Dream they shared, for just a moment. The one she showed up in practically naked, armed with a little handgun. It almost makes him smile. Instead he sniffs a little, rubs his knuckles against his nose, and adjusts the brim of his cap slightly. "Well, you make sure you keep them unloaded, unless you want to be slapped with a fine," he advises. "And let me know if you'd like some ideas for a concealed carry, yeah?" Basket of groceries hefted, he looks about to head on his way.

James wanders back a few moments later, basket noticeably heavier with cheeses. "... did you know.", he says, and frowns, "... head cheese is not actually a cheese? Now, that there should be a law about, calling things that aren't cheese, cheese.", he says, and looks up at Ruiz, as if expecting the cop to back him up. Then he shrugs, and looks to Lilith. "I, like, approve of you letting that shit out on some melons with heavy artillery, by the way. I mean, I'm not a gun guy, but it's better than, uh, the other way. That shit just doesn't sit right with me.", he says, and shudders.

"Sure. I'd like to see your collection of preferred handguns, honestly. You use them for utility, you have regular, varied access, and time on your side to form solid opinions and observe the cons. Not all the guns I get in or deal with are collector or antique-- I only get limited looks at what's actually good on the market today, unless I go gun shopping, but generally I just wait to come into a nice one by default loan. Maybe we can gun range sometime." Lilith says to de la Vega with a little forward tip of her head into nod, and it's maybe a good thing she's not a super-mindbanger with a clue on what the Captain's reminded of when it comes to her wearing a gun.

Nope, she's just a super-assripper and flamethrower, she's oblivious. James' comment makes her smile, though, and she settles in as if to finish shopping with him til it's time to go play fetch in the trunk, shoving her cart around a corner. In passing, she reaches to give the Captain's arm a brief pulse of squeeze up high, "Anyway, I'll let the man know you're on his request, whatever it is. Take care of yourself, hey?"

The cop makes a little moue with his mouth when Lilith mentions antiques and collector items, and is about to dig out his phone to show her something.. when he remembers the time. And the fact that he really needs to be going. "Reminds me, I have something I'd like your help finding." A flickered smile, and the crow's feet at the corners of his eyes crease up, and fade slow. "The range sounds good. I can bring a few for you to try." The squeeze to his arm finds a decently bulked up bicep; mark of a man who hits the gym often enough to at least break even on that slight donut belly, anyway. "Te veré por ahí," he murmurs to her, ticks two fingers to his forehead in farewell to James, and off he prowls to go pay for his groceries.