2020-05-09 - Geese are Bitches (our bitches)

It's a Saturday, Byron's been working his ass off and Lilith has been very quiet and well-behaved and self-occupying in the meantime. She lets him come in and relax chatter-free after generally having something ready for dinner, she keeps herself occupied with other things while he gets calls, she lets him sleep at night. But come the weekend, when Byron gets back from his run early in the morning, Lilith gets up to shower with him and tells him they're going to the zoo.

So that's where they end up around afternoon after a stop for lunch and a few other small running errands while they're out. In fact, Lilith is very insisting about stopping by the drug store for a certain flavor of bubblegum that reminds her of afternoons at their lackluster little zoo to kill time as kids. She also picks up a prescription while she's in there, but she doesn't say that part, it just goes in her purse, outside wrapper and all, right along with the gum. Strawberry-watermelon bubblegum cubes obtained, she also has some packages to drop off at the post, but she swears, that's it afterwards.

Once inside the gate of the zoo, Lilith immediately goes for cotton candy in a stand, even though she prepared with the gum (and apparently forgot about it for now). While in line, she comments aside to Byron with a click of her tongue, eyes wandering, "It looks so much smaller now, doesn't it? Not that we ever had disillusions about how our zoo wasn't quite a zoo, but still. Been forever. You?"

Look who's not wearing a suit today. Byron Thorne. That's who. And while it being the weekend never stops him from wearing a suit, or at the very least, a tie, today he had no professional obligations and thus allowed himself to be dragged off to the local zoo of all things. It's been a while since he'd been there, so he doesn't seem to mind, even if he'll rib Lilith about wanting to see the sad animals in their pathetically small enclosures. Whatever animals there may be here at Gray Harbor's zoo.

He's wearing a thin long sleeved white shirt with a dark grey hoodie thrown over and a comfortable pair of jeans while his feet are tucked into a pair of Timberland boots. Of course, the sky is overcast, so he has his shades folded and tucked away to hang on his shirt collar. Lunch was enjoyable enough and he had some errands to run himself, though with his line of work, it's easy enough for him to do such things over the course of a work day. It's nice being your own boss.

Now that they were here with Lilith commenting just how small the place was, Byron offers his agreement, "Then again, whenever I felt the need to hit the zoo-- which is never, by the way, but when I first moved to L.A., some friends and I eventually visited the San Diego zoo. Wonderful place." Ordering a large Coke for himself instead of the cotton candy, he'll lean over and take stealthy play bites of the fluffy confection, but eventually takes an actual bite of it once it gets too close. "Tastes like sweet sweet air. Just like I remember."

Thinking back on the rumors of this place, he asks her as they wander down one of the paths. "Remember," it's a word he just used before starting this sentence. "when we used to tell each other that strange things happened here at night. And now that we're adults, we learn those things to be true. Well," There's a lift of his shoulders, "Along with other Gray Harbor craziness."

Lilith may be casual enough for the zoo, but she's wearing chunky fawn colored ankle boots all the same and is looking pretty cute. Her dark skinny jeans are high waisted with a little white tuck-in shirt. It's set off by her shearling coat with fawn trim to match her boots, darling with tailored lines. While tennis shoes may have been an attractive option, it's not like there's a lot of ground to cover around here. Her cotton candy in hand seriously doesn't match, but she looks so happy about having the kind that's a cloud on a stick, instead of the bagged cop-out kind to carry around and pinch at. When Byron successfully nabs bites, she makes a small faux baring of her teeth at him, despite her kind of wavering the thing his way so he doesn't actually have to work too hard to steal.

"Miami zoo is pretty neat. And I'm glad the cotton candy still gets spun on sticks, it tastes better this way." Lilith looks along the path, then at the surrounding avian cages with little chirping, hopping birds to sing for the walking way, "Mm. Of course I remember. I think we used to talk about a demon bird too? Honestly, I'm admittedly a little skeezed we actually swam in the pond knowing as we know now, all those stories from before are probably semi-legitimate."

Gesturing with the cotton candy, she indicates the path ahead, "I'm telling you right now, though. If this zoo gets all crazy on us, I don't want any part of mutant animals and I am running. Some things are just a little too sacred, tch. But..." Her hand pats down against the crossbody purse she has slung at diagonal to wear against her hip, voice dropping conspiringly, "I brought bread for the ducks and geese and things because I'm a rebel. I figure if they mutate, it'll work just as well."

"Anyway. How's things with work?"

While cotton candy might be a childish treat, Byron savors the quickly melting fluff in his mouth before he drowns it with a sip of Coke, his lips pursed tightly around the straw. He even beams brightly at her cute snarling face, sticking his tongue out at her, but by then, any remnant of pink stuff is gone. "That's actually some good stuff. Simple and sweet. Now, I won't say it's satisfying. And you've seen those videos of some tricksy bastards giving cotton candy to raccoons who then promptly go to wash it only to find that their food has disappeared in the water. Now that's satisfying, seeing the confusion on those critter's faces."

Since they're here, he'll give the various enclosures a glance here and there to remind himself of everything that the zoo here has to offer... which isn't overly much. "Oh yeah? How big is Miami Zoo? When I think Florida, I think Sea World in Orlando. Hell, San Diego also has one of those and like with zoos, people like to bitch about keeping these poor animals in captivity." He does give some of these enclosures a good looking at, "Well, okay, I can understand when it's small spaces like this, but c'mon, some of these zoos are huge and I'm sure that the animals are being taken care of."

Looking at birds is a nice past time, especially with the variety of exotic ones found here. "You mean the peacock? Yeah. People had a run in last year with it as far as I've heard." Turning to glance over his shoulder in the direction of 'The Pond', Byron laughs, "Yeah." He then faces forward again, eyes flickering over at Lilith, "Why didn't they take us then?" Thinking back on their childhood, it's been fairly normal, despite, at some point, having knowledge that they were gifted. Or for Byron, that he was gifted alongside others like Isabella and Isidore. Magnolia too used to show off her stuff.

"Look, I'm sure if we get pulled into a Dream here, what we'd be killing wouldn't be the actual animals. And if we did kill them, uh... we'll come up with some good excuse." Following this avian trail, eyes forward again, he considers the question, "Everything's fine. The... Grand Opening is coming up and I was thinking of hiring some musician or two to spruce things up but I sort of think that it'd be difficult to hear anything over the bells and whistles of the slots." That's when he slowly looks over at Lilith, finishing up a sip of soda, "What about you? Oh right, who did you meet at the beach the other day?"

"The Miami zoo is the only subtropical zoo in the United states and as such, gets the unique mix of species from the hotter continents. I went a lot. If you read all the plaques, it's actually fairly educational. Zoos don't make me sad unless they're on some janky hillbilly farm to turn a drive-through buck with caged tigers and emus. Very much a thing in the middle of the US, you know, especially off of county highways." Lilith comments with back and forth alongside Byron while moseying the pathways, stealing bites of her cotton candy with distracted play swipes of her tongue to make bites stick, slowly dissolving sweetly in her mouth.

In fact, that's what Lilith keeps doing when she considers Byron's next theoretical question on why-now and not-then? After a tiny, clueless shake of her head, she starts to scan some of the trees in a big fence lined open area near the pathways when things branch in separate ways, "I don't know how little lemur monkeys and things could turn scary on us, but I'm sure with enough creative license... mm." After a moment more of walking, she steps somewhat off of the path to look more closely through the fence enclosure to see where some of the monkey-things are posted up.

After a nod of her head at Byron's answer, Lilith advises, "You can use live bands in the bar areas where you have room. At least one of them should have a stage and a dance floor semi-circle between bar tables. Your most central one, probably, it's pretty standard casino layout to have something of the ilk, the music will bleed out onto the floor and possibly get more drinks moving too. It won't permeate the whole casino, no, but it's an entertainment option lure in a quadrant area or so, if you want to go that route."

Lilith passes the fluffy remains of the cotton candy off to Byron freeing her hands to dig in her purse like a heathen, eventually coming out with a piece of bread after a fair amount of rustling around at her hip. While she does that, she explains, "Oh. Just August and some older guy I've seen around town. Joseph Cavanaugh? Mm, apparently he had a nasty run in with the actress Megan Keene, which I believe is the one we left standing during the play-debacle. I don't know the actual details, though. Something about her promising him lost memories, which sounds like garbage."

After that winds down with a dry and drab kind of tone, she hits a lighter note, "Mm. Also. The other day getting coffee, I ran into Graham, which I don't know if you know who that is or not, but... his girlfriend was surprisingly cool. I think we're going to meet up and do yoga in the strip mall together. She bought a couple thing and can't get him to go and invited me to take his spot so I could see if yoga makes me zen or whatever. Her name's Elise."

"And here I was planning on driving us out to some hillbilly roadside attraction just so you could take a picture with a genuine bear." Byron says with sarcastic teasing in his tone. It actually does bother him... no, perhaps bother isn't the right word, but he is definitely curious about why /now/. He lived in Gray Harbor his low life and never encountered anything like these Dreams. Not to the degree that they've presented themselves now.

"Monkeys are right bastards. They get you in numbers and annoying cling." He continues on, "And I'm sure if they mutate or become crazed, that'll up their strength somewhat." Once Lilith comes to a pause near one of the signs, he studies it, then looks off into the distance in the direction of the monkey creatures.

"Yeah, there's venues for them. I just need to figure out the who. Speaking of, I mentioned the restaurant with the piano bar right? Seems like one of my tenants, the Author, Dante Taylor, will be performing there. He also has stakes in that place." Once the remainder of pink fluff goodness is passed to him, he peels some of them off to pop into his mouth and immediately feels it melting away. "Cavanaugh? Yeah, I know him." He then states, "As in, he came in to sign a rental agreement a few months back." However, when the actress from the theater troupe is mentioned, he blinks. "So she is back. Which means Alice might be back too?" There's a crease in his brow. "Why was she picking on Cavanaugh though?" The whole memory loss thing has him quirking a brow, but he nods slowly. "If she's here though, that could be bad news."

To the rest, he nods once more. He knows Graham, alright. But he only brings up, "Yeah, he's the guy... during the flood." The sewers is not something that either of them like to acknowledge happened. "Works at the Firefly if I recall." He probably has heard of Elise somewhere. It's a small town. They went to the same High School. She was a nurse or something. "Elise, huh? Sounds familiar. So... you're going to do yoga with her at the strip mall? I mean, why not, I suppose. It's a form of exercise and isn't unlike what I do to help blow off steam." Which is probably run.

"I don't know. August seems to know more about it all, we were trying to talk of lighter things, I think. Didn't seem right to pry entirely so much as verbally put the pieces together for him to confirm." Lilith knocks one hand back through her hair while idling still in one place to look at the creatures hopping around, birds and little monkeys. If they keep walking, they'll hit the geese and ducks, which is what the bread is really for. But while eyeing the creatures, she starts to roll up a pinched off piece of bread into a ball, then starts to look around surreptitiously while talking.

Lilith also takes a moment to eye Byron sidelong during that survey and makes a tiny 'mm' of noise before shrugging a little, "Probably won't do the trick, but can't hurt. Could use the company and body conditioning, though, I guess." After working her tongue in press against one of her canine teeth, she mentions, "I went to the hospital for three scans this past week or so. After a few more, I guess I'll bundle them all up with the first ones and compare with company."

For just a moment, it looks like Lilith is going to feed the monkeys that ball of bread, but she does a bit of a double take at a guy sitting on a bench eating ice cream with a spatula from a cup. He's light-skinned and Puerto Rican by appearance, but he's also big and broad even just sitting there, like an ex-marine. Looking back forward, she knits her brows a moment, then starts to walk again, out toward the water, "... let's go throw bread at ducks and watch the geese try to punk them for it."

When she starts to walk, the man rises to go toss his cup of ice cream in the trash.

Byron might not be as inquisitive as Alexander Clayton is, but this was important stuff if the sole survivor of that theater troupe was back in town. "Might speak with him then." He doesn't say whether he's talking about August or Cavanaugh. He does follow along when Lilith leads them towards the ducks and geese. Geese have a bad reputation, but so far, none of these fowl friends were attacking them, so he lets them be.

After finishing off the rest of the cotton candy, he discards the stick and what's left of his soda. Wiping his hands, he sticks one of them into his pocket while the other swings beside him as he walks. "Was there anything strange in those scans at all?" Byron's not even sure what they are looking for. Only knowing that they were told to get her scanned. So he's curious.

Unlike Lilith, Byron pays the man no mind. He doesn't stand out even as Thorne makes a sweep of the area. He has his guards tailing them if need be. He's always prepared. "Sure. Let's get a bird battle royale all up in here."

Lilith works her bottom lip hard between her teeth and just starts slugging bread pieces in bits toward the water, watching the frenzy of ducks and bigger birds go at the floating and expanding white bread, "Heh. Should have made a wager..." But she's been practically a nun lately, in comparison, so whatever bet was about to potentially be on the table... well, it doesn't happen anyway. There's a lot of ducks and they're quicker than the mean geese coming to lay pecks down for water sloshing tactics. Also, she's distracted, but it's taking her a while to actually figure out why.

Then, after handing over Byron some bread, her eyes close for a moment before she exhales slowly, "We're about to be approached. I think I know who it is and it's not beyond him to come in hot, so you just be ready to swing." And sure enough, as soon as she gives that warning, the man that was eating ice cream pushes the shades up onto his head to really look at the couple before making some ground eating strides their way where they are benignly feeding ducks.

As children, they used to fight over who got to throw the breadcrumbs. Or maybe it was who got to throw most of the breadcrumbs. Either way, as adults, Byron is content to watch Lilith feed the birds. Though, in a way, he was content to watch her do the same as children if he wasn't being such a brat himself. So he stands there just behind her, his hand withdrawn from his pocket, so that his arms cross over his chest as he watches the rush of feathered friends hurry over to the bits of bread dropped just so the pair could watch chaos ensue.

"I would've put my bed on the geese and by the looks of it, I would've lost." All that he can do is shake his head in a slow, exaggerated motion, "It's a good thing that my business sense is a lot better than... whatever this is." His arms unfold briefly just so he can gesture at the squabble. Now he's handed some bread and he picks strategic places where he knows that the birds will come into conflict. It's at that moment that Lilith tells him that they're about to have company, perhaps indicating the sunglasses wearer on his approach.

Byron takes the time to size the guy up, all while tossing bread crumbs his way in a rather lazy manner. He's not making it look like he's throwing the bread at the guy, but those crumbs definitely land in the turf along the path to them. He doesn't say anything just yet, in case the guy wasn't actually coming for them, though he keeps watch.

Lilith looks at Byron turning to survey the man she's warned about and starts to casually dig out another piece of bread on her own keep-it-cool terms. But then there's a goose, and she notices that running at them to make her jump backwards with a sudden laugh of a squeal, because it wasn't the attack she was expecting! But then she realizes the actual threat going for her tall, dark, and handsome company in the good old fashioned slugging kind of way. Her reflexes kick in, she tries to make the moment work to one man's favor and the other's detriment so that the charging man can at least be cuffed away or blocked.

Lilith also remembers in full who this man is now, and she looks extremely confused, a bread bag with a heel of a loaf in it dangling from her hand. The goose comes over to start pecking at that, then pulling on the plastic, which geese probably aren't supposed to have. So now the woman is suddenly finding herself in a tug of war with a goose while Byron figures out what to do about the big, broad fellow with a stick up his ass.

Well, if the guy isn't going to say something the closer he got, Byron will. "Can I help you with," he starts to ask, tossing another handful of crumbs in the guy's path, especially when the other man kicks at the goose like an asshole. It's then that the guy takes a swing at him that Byron ducks, still holding onto his bag of breadcrumbs, calling out, "Lil, move!" If anything, he didn't want her to be accidentally struck in the fisticuffs. Even worse, that the guy was going to make a grab for her when Byron was distracted.

His own security team should be rushing this way at any moment, more than likely having seen what's going on. When the guy takes a swing, Byron ducks and does, indeed, block the blow with a raised hand. At this point, he's staring at the man's face, trying to see through those sunglasses. Uncertain as to what Lilith is doing, he calls out for some help from their foul fowl friends, enraging them in a sense, as he focuses his sights on the aggressor at the zoo.

Clenching his right hand into a fist, Byron looks ready to attempt to slug the guy, though he waits to see just how the man handles this mad flock. Out of wariness, though, he turns to look over his shoulder to ensure that there's no other thug out there trying to abduct Lilith while his back is turned... only to find her in her own battle with a goose. "You o--kay?"

"... I'm fine." Lilith immediately insists after she gets caught in her own moment of melee in much less graceful or badass fashion. For whatever reason, she felt compelled to keep the goose from running off to eat through plastic, even in the middle of all that. But look, when a goose comes at you, you either handle the SOB or run away, that's about the only way things come to a good end. Once she's yanked up the bread, she hurries to dump the bag to occupy the goose and steps up against Byron's side to watch the guy run off.

After a contemplative moment, she murmurs, "... that was bold to do in public. I imagine there was some tactic to it, but..."

Lilith's head turns to look around the space warily, but the zoo isn't that crowded and most of the people left nearby are staring and chuckling or just plain murmuring about how the sign says not to feed the ducks because this is clearly what happens. Nothing threatening or out of sorts like that guy.

"His name is Ricardo." Suddenly, she looks up and aside at Byron's face, "He didn't get you, did he?"

Just as this Ricardo scurries off with a quartet of water birds in tow, that's when Byron's men show up. They aren't in uniform, but Lilith might be able to recognize some of their faces. Two of them keep an eye on the fleeing man while one makes sure that the couple are doing fine.

"Where were you moments ago?" Byron practically hisses at them, seeing as he had to defend himself. "We're fine." His words firm, though he looks to Lilith to confirm this. "Keep eyes on him now that you know what he looks like. See what vehicle he drives." They also got a name now too. The dark haired business man is able to give them a detailed description of the guy and they also have a name now too. "This Ricardo got a last name?"

No one asks any questions about how things went a-fowl. Then again, these security guys are probably used to some weirdness. And geese are assholes.

"Tactic? All he did was draw attention to himself. So we know what we're looking for. At least, when it comes to him." Byron lets Lilith look him over and if the guy did strike him, he definitely would be more pissed about it. "I'm fine. I was able to block the blow." This is when he gives a sharp look at his security team, because he shouldn't have had to block the blow.

"What does this Ricardo do? In Miami?"

"I don't know his last name. He... moonlighted as a bartender sometimes, but mostly, he was one of Grant's drivers or security tag-alongs or whatever you want to call them. Of course..." Lilith stops to think for a moment, her words slowing to contemplative levels, as if something about the whole affair isn't sitting right with her, "Why send him? As far as I could ever tell, he was more meat than brains and liked to stare too much. Unless he's worked his way up and become more valuable, or is trying to appear that way, assuming Collins really did skip out."

"I feel like he might have been told to do that. But..." The woman blinks a few times and moves her head into a tiny bothered shake, looking at the security team with a shit-happens kind of shrug. They know better than to make her feel cramped or tailed in general because it makes her pissy here and there. Occasionally they get a knock on the window at the supermarket and a warning point not to follow her all weirdly like secret service. So it might be a little her fault they were so far back away from the couple of them.

"... I can tell you what bars he used to work at before he worked for Turner full time, or the likely places he'd turn up when Turner goes abroad. Someone's probably able to tell me his last name if I make some calls." Lilith lowers her lashes and wads up the plastic bag in her hand with agitation before wandering over to put it in the trash like a good local citizen. "I also wonder if we had been followed if I had stuck to the original plan of surprise for you."

The security lead in this team takes mental notes of everything Byron and Lilith says. Ricardo. Bartender, chauffeur and bodyguard. By now, the other two were gone, spying on the other man to check on his ride or whether he was able to lose the birds or not.

Byron, however, is used to his security team being around, even if they have a difficult time keeping up with everything he does. Which is why many of them are probably pleased that he's been busy with the casino for quite a while now. "But why?" He thinks aloud. What purpose would it serve to have this guy show up all brash and attacking us out in the open like that?" There definitely were witnesses, but for all they know, some buffoon pissed off some geese (And ducks). "I wonder if he's just one of many, but with Turner acting out like this, he must really be losing his shit."

Following Lilith to the trash can, Byron is tailed by his own security guard to do the same. The wealthy entrepreneur is paying their checks and he knows they fucked up today.

"You don't need to..." Byron murmurs, reaching out a hand to take Lilith's in his grasp, "contact them, if you don't want to." He didn't really want her drudging up her past unless she felt comfortable doing so. He then cracks a smile, "If we were followed, then he probably was getting pretty pissy and impatient with all the errands you had to run." Himself included, but Lilith had the bulk of those errands!

By now, the security guy has snuck off. He's undercover, so it was better that he observed the pair from a distance. To what Lilith says last, however, Byron tilts his head to the side, "What kind of surprise are we talking about here?"

Lilith is not happy, her face is that passive distraction of withdrawal instead of furious tantrum form as she goes to throw the bag away, shoulders dropped instead of tense. When Byron takes her hand to make assurances on what she doesn't have to do, she breathes out a soft sigh and counters, "No. I need to. It's just calls. Whatever helps or works. It's my issue to deal with and it's not going to stop the way I hoped it would." The woman spends a moment while speaking with her lashes downcast, looking at their joined hands. Then after a little 'heh' of noise, she works her free one back through her hair to look around at the pond with the ducks slowly returning to float instead of furiously fight and feed on bread.

"Let's just go. I can't... win for losing, lately. I give up. I'm sure you have things to do, I can find things to do." Lilith works her bottom lip between her teeth and starts to walk toward the path and gate after dropping her hand from her hair to adjust her purse strap. Last time she tried to put intimacy back and surprise him, she got covered with blood, now her outing turned into this, and the hopes of... feeling right and relaxed and happy enough to... it all died and turned into simmering, festering upset again, as it has been quietly all week or so while she maintains the good girlfriend status quo otherwise.

While walking, though, there's a tiny wistful slip of sad smile, "It was a luxury car show in Olympia near their boardwalk. Didn't think you'd be able to go that far on short notice, though, or want to much, because of bullshit like this." Her head shakes and the fleeting expression goes, leaving her with too much passive on her face while they start to pass through the birds chirping again, changing subject on the way out, "People that keep birds in their houses are nuts. This would get annoying."

Byron isn't please, himself. First their vehicles were bugged. Then that altercation in Hoquiam. Now this attack so brazenly out in the open. The guy went after him, but was he really the target? Then again, he won't put it pass Turner to want him out of the way... Injured. Humiliated, possibly.

He won't fight over whether he thinks that it's a good idea for Lilith to call a few faces from the past, so he nods in light agreement. "Maybe," He starts to say, then continuing after a brief pause, "Maybe they have some information that they can pass on to you regarding Turner. He must've been back there," In Miami, but even possibly to their old haunt there, "at some point. But... if your friends are in league with Turner, don't trust them."

Another look is given the direction in which Ricardo fled the zoo, before he does a visual sweep of the place as a whole. The man could have recovered by now. He could be on his way back, either using the exit he took or another entrance. He won't let that stop him and quickly walks alongside Lilith as she starts to move, wrapping an arm around her in a protective motion.

"A luxury car show huh?" He looks intrigued, though they both know that his luxurious lifestyle does little to make their trips out anywhere near incognito. He considers her reasons for not going that route and they are entirely valid. In fact, it's something that's been on his mind for a while. This is why he is hoping to meet them (any of Grant Turner's people) in Gray Harbor. This place, the magic surrounding it, this was Byron and Lilith's turf. Pulling her in close against his side, he turns to lean forward and kiss her hair. "Maybe next time. Sounds intriguing and you know how much I like a little flash." Even if that flash comes in the form of far too expensive cars. Hell, a rather expensive lifestyle sometimes.

To the bird comment, he just has to laugh, "You can ask Alexander how he does it and tell him exactly how you feel about it all. For now, we'll take time to unwind, maybe catch a movie on the couch. I'm sure we can come up with a few ideas on how to spend the rest of the evening." His words are rather suggestive.