2020-05-15 - Less Than Cordial Relations

It's a Friday Afternoon in Gray Harbor, and Spring has Sprung. Trees and plants have mostly turned into assholes, and that's what Finch works with all day. So on her lunch break, she takes a break away from any and all flora, to walk down the rocky beach of the bay, with her camera and field notebook to do some bird watching. Mostly seagulls, but the occasional cormorant or pelican is there for some added interest.

The young woman is in jeans and a t-shirt under a hoodie, her dark hair mussed by the shore breeze, and her dark eyes fixed on a particularly large white pelican as she sits on the rocks and jots down some notes.

He's been doing really well on the not smoking thing....but even Joe slips. And whatever work he's been doing on the boat, it's time for a break. So he's come walking down the length of the dock from where Surprise is berthed, already tapping a cigarette out of the pack.

His hands have new tattoos on the fingers: the phrase HOLD FAST done in black and ocean blue, an old-style sailor tattoo font. There's still the shiny slick of some kind of ink aftercare, and he handles lighter and cigarette carefully. The birdwatcher gets a polite nod, and he settles downwind of her.

Finch glances up at the man, squinting a bit in the afternoon sun. "That's not good for you, or for the birds," she points out. She was just shy of her Masters in Ornithology from Cornell. Stupid family curse. Stupid Gray Harbor. She gestures with the end of a pencil towards the pelican.

"Pelecanus erythrorhynchos. The American White Pelican. Rare to spot them on this side of the country, but not unheard of," she notes. She tips her chin at the big bird, with a 9 foot wingspan. "See the bump on top of his bill? He only has that during breeding season, so I'm guessing he has a girlfriend around somewhere and they've started nesting. So the smoke might do bad things to any offspring if he breathes in too much."

That has him eyeing her, nonplussed. "I don't make a habit of goin' around and stickin' cigarettes in the beaks of baby birds," Joe's voice is mild. "Nor of adult ones, for that matter. I'll try not to breathe on 'em, and I don't ever leave butts on the ground. Workin' on quittin', for that matter." He looks at the pelican. "I used to see those down on the Gulf Coast a lot," he adds, after a moment.

Finch smirks, and there's something familiar in her expression, in her dark eyes, that Joe might feel a weird sense of Deja Vu when she looks at him. "Well if you figure out the secret to quitting after a lifetime, let me know, and I'll try it on my father. He smokes like a chimney. I visit and come home smelling like I was tackled by the Marlboro Man." She shakes her head a little, lifting the camera to snap a few more shots. "You from down south then?"

"Savannah, Georgia, 'riginally. We don't get those guys there, but I was stationed in Pensacola and Houston a while, and I got here by sailin' around the Gulf from Savannah." He gestures a little with those long, inked fingers. "I was doin' okay. Made it about a week 'fore I gave in."

"I'd say try those vape things, but that shit is outright killing people without the long, torturous cancer battles and whatnot. Try the gum? Or the patches?" Finch stands and brushes herself off, shoving the camera into her hoodie pocket. "What brought you to this pueblo de mierda?" She asks, curiously.

She shines....and he barely does. A last few shining threads of the Art, as August terms it. "Yeah, I don't think inhalin' anything is good for you, and vaping doesn't seem like a solution. I got some gum, it's mostly been workin'," Joe allows.

At her question, he tips his head at a little sailboat. "If I'm bein' literal - the wind did. If you're asking my purpose, well...." He shrugs. "Followin' a feelin'. Stopped when I got here, and that was midwinter and me tired of fightin' the Pacific swell, so I stayed. There's enough to do here that I stuck....I'm retired, so got nowhere to be in particular."

When Joseph mentions being brought here by the wind and a feeling, Finch squints harder at him, and the hair-thin filaments of silver Spirit Glimmer, only visible to her, curl out from her fingertips and move to wrap around and into Joe, measuring his Glimmer and his Aspects. He has the Gift, a little of everything though more towards the side of Itzhak, her best friend. He has the Mental gift too, like her father, not quite as strong as hers, he bequeathed to her. But he's being suppressed, that is clear, by something. "A feeling, huh?" she asks with a smirk. "Not the same feeling that keeps people here, whether they want to be or not? That feeling from Them?"

Apparently oblivious to what she's doing - not even a twitch. Still numb, perhaps, after Megan. Gifted, and that gift crippled. "Somethin' like that," he concedes. "This place is what it is, I'm learnin'." Joe takes a deep drag from his cigarette, exhales from the corner of his mouth. "I'm Joe, by the way. Joe Cavanaugh. I'd shake your hand but these tattoos're still pretty raw and I got goo all over 'em."

"Someone fucked with your Gift," the young woman points out, bluntly. She and her father are both sort of blunt instruments. They don't dance around things. They either spit it out or shut up about it entirely. "Finch Celaeno. Though I guess I could go by my father's last name if I felt like it. I dunno, if you figure out who your father is late in life, can you use their name or do they have to adopt you or something?"

He can't help himself. "Celaeno?" he asks, eyes widening. "Like the harpy?" So much for all that PR and public speaking training NASA crammed into him, back in the day. "And honestly, why would you? The ones who raised you are your family, biology's not so much a determinant." Another drag, another wip of smoke. "I mean, you can name yourself whatever you please, if you got the money to have it legally changed, but...." The sailor shrugs. "What would be the point?"

The recognition of the name makes Finch frown and that, that right there, is when she most resembles her pops. "Yeah, like the Harpy, Only that bitch actually exists and she cursed my family. As for why? See the aforementioned curse, and add in that my mother tried to kill me when I was thirteen so, yeah, fuck her last name. I love my Gran but, it's nice to have dad in my life. Even if it's weird to find out in your mid-20s that you're half-Mexican. I dunno how Finch de la Vega sounds, though." She looks over at Joe, wizened old sailor that he is, for his opinion.

"You know you're mythology, that's pretty cool. You a professor or something?" she adds as an afterthought.

Maybe it's the revelation about the curse. Maybe it's the name. But for whatever reason, Joe's inhaling right as she drops those twin bombshells, and then he's spitting out the cigarette and pounding his chest with his fist, trying to regain his breath.

It takes him a good few moments, and he ends up wiping streaming eyes with the back of his hand and peering at her. "A'right," he says, and now his tone is almost accusing. "What? Number one, what do you mean the harpy's real? Number two, how the fuck are you Javier de la Vega's daughter? I've known him for twenty seven years, which is longer'n you been alive, and as far as I know, he only had one child, a son."

Finch moves to pound Joe on the back until the coughing stops. "You know my father? And he didn't tell you about me? Well that makes me feel just wonderful," she says with a snort. She steps back and sighs. "It's a long story. I didn't know who my father was, and Javier didn't know I existed until late last year. He was in Seattle or something one night with the Marines before shipping out, at a bar, my mother was there, they were drunk, yadda yadda. She never told him, or anyone, who the father was. No one knew until we found a photo from the night they met."

She eyes Joe though. "Funny, he's never mentioned you either, and he's known you for longer than I've been alive? I know about his wife and my half brother. Really wish I could have known them."

(TXT to Ruiz) Joseph : Javier, what the actual fuck.

"I have been in this town for almost four months, and no, he didn't say a goddamned thing." Joe takes a last deep drag from his cigarette, exhales through his nostrils like a dragon, and then stubs it out. True to his word, he doesn't just flick the butt off somewhere, but vanishes it into a mint tin pressed into service as a pocket ashtray.

Then he's pulling a phone from his pocket and texting, clearly angry. "Goddamn that man," he says. "Well, I was his dirty secret until about a few months ago. I knew him when I was a Navy officer and he was an enlisted Marine. I don't know if you know military culture at all, but fraternization between officers and enlisted is forbidden. Illegal, in fact. Nonetheless, we had an affair for about ten years. I knew about his wife, but I never met her. 's a shotgun wedding, he married her 'cause he knocked her up."

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : Are you cheating on Itzhak? What the fuck Dad? Who is this old dude with the sailboat?!

"Wait, you and my father fucked?" Finch asks with repeated blinking. "Are you still fucking? Because he's like dating my best friend in the universe and if he's cheating on Itzhak I'm gonna kick his fucking ass." She pulls her phone out and starts texting away too.

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : What? What old dude with the oh, Cavanaugh?

Joe is.....furious. Not that he's going to start cursing and flailing like Donald Duck, tempted as he might be. But there're the fever spots of an anger flush on the high cheekbones. He takes a deep breath, nostrils flaring. "We certainly did, all over the world," he says, biting off the words. "And yes, we are. Itzhak's your friend, huh? No, he's not cheating on Itzhak. Itzhak knows and consents." He has just enough control not to blurt out anything about the occasional menage a trois.

(TXT to Itzhak) Joseph : So, de la Vega's daughter is your BFF, huh?

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : Yeah Cavanaugh. What the actual fuck? You didn't love your wife? You just married her because you knocked her up? You wanted to be with this other dude? (so many angry emojis)

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : Is he fucking talking to you? Don't you what the fuck me, young lady. That's none of your fucking business.

"Holy fuck I don't want to know this!" Finch hollers, flailing angrily. As she does so, a few rocks lift up from the beach and go sailing in random directions. Oh shit, that's new. She never had that flavor of Gift before this. "It's bad enough I have to know Itzy and Dad fuck. OH MY GOD ARE YOU A THRUPPLE?!" Flail, flail.

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : The FUCK it isn't my business, DAD. You're my FATHER! I don't want you to be in my life because of some sense of stupid ass obligation! I want you there because you want to be GODDAMMIT! (More emojis) And don't you dare tell Joe to take my phone away!

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : Who the fuck said anything about obligation? The hell is your problem all of a sudden?

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : You've known him for 27 years! He's been here four months, and he didn't know I even exist?! Are you ashamed of me!? I was just talking about maybe taking your last name!!!!

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : I hadn't gotten around to it! God. No, I'm not fucking ashamed of you. For fuck's sake, we'll go out for a fucking coffee with him and I'll buy you one of those shitty overpriced lattes with the.. what the shit is it that you drink? Fuck's sake.

(TXT to Joseph) Ruiz : Not you too. You want to tell me why Finch is losing her shit at me?

"Well, tell me about it. I mean, I know he's close-mouthed, but this is goddamned ridiculous," Joe says, clearly exasperated. "Hey, dial it back," he says. "Last thing I need is to catch a rock to the head 'cause you're havin' an Akira-style freakout." A beat, and he asks, "What's a thrup- are we a trio? Uh. It's....sorta like that. I mean, Itzhak knows about me, he's okay with it. I'm not datin' Rosencrantz too, though."

(TXT to Ruiz) Joseph : Well, I damn near swallowed the cigarette I was smoking when she let fall the little bombshell that she's your love child. I might've been a little angry that you didn't choose to share that with me after four months. I mean, you got any other kids I don't know about? Maybe another wife stored away somewhere? Hell, go for broke, you got any bodies buried out back in the woods?

Finch's teeth are grating against one another during her flurry of texting to her father back and forth. Tears are sparking in her dark eyes. Those dark angry eyes which make her CLEARLY Javier de la Vega's kid. The rocks keep lifting up off the beach and flying into the water, but she doesn't seem to realize she's the cause of it. "I can't fucking believe this. I know we were keeping it quiet for the most part but from someone he's FUCKING!?" She eyes Joe at the note Itzhak is ok with that and doesn't look terribly convinces. She also clearly knows Itzhak well.

Did August sleep on the beach? ...no, but he did get up at first light and go out for a walk after lying in bed Not Sleeping most of the night. He's in cargo shorts, so the edge of the tattoo on his left leg is just visible, and barefoot. Hiking boots with socks stuffed in them dangle from his shoulder, tied at the laces, and he's got a plain black tee on, with a red and white plaid flannel over it.

He feels that bit of Glimmer and angles that way, drawn by the Art as always. Two people he knows! That should make it interesting. And interesting it is, to go by the looks on their faces and the furious phone swiping. "This looks like the most contentious match of Words With Friends ever played," he comments.

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : White Chocolate, 2 pumps, double espresso shot, old man. And a cookie. Goddammit.

Joseph looks over at August, and his expression is fierce, hawkish, before it eases into grudging laughter. "Roen. Did you know this young lady is de la Vega's daughter? Because I sure didn't." Oh, god, he's angry.

Then back to Finch, and he says, with a distinct edge, "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Many men don't bother to confide much to the piece on the side."

Finch looks at Roen too, and the Harpy is behind her eyes today for sure. Her Glimmer is sizzling around her, fire and ozone on the air, and stones rattling near her feet before the shoot off towards the horizon. "Did you know my dad is fucking this guy? And Itzhak is ok with it?" She's still protective as hell of Rosencrantz.

(TXT to Joseph) Itzhak : ...am I in trouble? this sounds like I'm in trouble

(TXT to Joseph) Ruiz : She's not my fucking lovechild. I don't have any other kids, unless you want to start fucking ragging me for the one that died. You going to go there?

(TXT to Finch) Ruiz : White chocolate is not fucking chocolate

(TXT to August) Itzhak : Cavanaugh is yelling at me about Finch, oy gevalt why wake up alive

August stops dead in his tracks. Blinks with exaggerated slowness, first at Joe, then at Finch. He coughs, debates the merits of turning around and walking right back down the beach in the opposite direction from whence he came. There are no good answers here. This is what he gets for not sleeping: ambushed into interpersonal drama. This is where he always tells Itzhak, 'Hey have I mentioned this is why I'm not poly anymore?'

He stuffs his hands in his pockets. "I was there when we found out," August explains to Joe. Then, to Finch, "As far as he's told me, yes." His expression tightens a bit, like he's about to say something he knows Finch won't like to hear. "But it's not totally our business either way." He cuts a look at Joe, including him in that for some reason or another.

(TXT to Ruiz) Joseph : Well, you sure didn't marry her mother, did you? So yes, yes, she is. It's a nicer term than 'bastard', isn't it?

(TXT to Joseph) Ruiz : You keep that up, I'll fucking wreck the other side of your face, too

"OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" Finch shouts that to the heavens after reading a text, then looks back at August. "My dad doesn't believe white chocolate is chocolate. And it is my business since he's in a relationship with my best friend!"

(TXT to Itzhak) Finch : Are you really ok with my dad screwing this old dude named Joe that none of you fucking told me about and who didn't know I existed!?

(TXT to Itzhak) August : I am here watching it all go down. she seems to think you might not have known they were schtupping. I'm trying to explain to her that it's not our business, not really, but she's an angry 20-something so it might not take.

(TXT to Ruiz) August : white chocolate is chocolate, don't be a culinary snob, it's all from the same plant.

(TXT to August) Itzhak : are you fucking joking me, Roen, what did I do to deserve this

(TXT to Ruiz) Finch : It is SO chocolate, it comes from the same damned plant!

(TXT to August) Ruiz : Who the fuck asked you, Roen

Furious texting from Joe, too. Poor Javier is getting it from both sides, it seems. He gives August a look at that, brow going up. Trying to calm down, at least a little....especially since Finch is clearly not.

(TXT to Ruiz) Joseph : flirt with me later, Javier, I'm mad at you.

(TXT to Finch) Itzhak : look, it's a long story, and yes I'm okay with it. please don't set me on fire I like having hair

(TXT to Itzhak) August : hey this is why I'm not poly. (getting that out of the way.) this is more a case of, uh, people being entitled to information. or thinking they are. expectation management has clearly failed in a spectacular fashion here.

(TXT to August) Itzhak : yeah. yeah I'm seeing the wisdom of the whole not being poly thing right about now

(TXT to Itzhak) Finch : You're SURE? You're not just being all dopey over my dad and not willing to stand up for yourself, Itzy? Because I will totally kick his ass for you if he hurts you. You know that right?

August's phone pings, and he tugs it out of his pocket. He snorts a laugh, swipes a response. He glances up at Finch, frowns. "Oh for fuck's sake, just because it doesn't have liquer in it doesn't mean it's not chocolate." He swipes another text, probably something pithy. A few more, then he glances at Joe, starts to say something, seems to think better of whatever it was. Instead, he says, "I don't think he was hiding her from you. I think it's a thing he's working on, and easing into." Another glance at Finch to include her. "Cut the guy some slack, maybe."

(TXT to Ruiz) August : finch informed me of your ignorance and I figured I could distract you from how your phone is probably on fire from the way these two are swiping at theirs. I'm attempting some damage control, but I haven't slept much in the last couple days so no promises.

(TXT to Finch) Itzhak : ...I, what, look I can do my own de la Vega ass kicking.

(TXT to August) Ruiz : yeah well I don't need your help. Or your wrong opinions on chocolate. You should go get some sleep though.

Finch seems to be sloooooowly calming down by half degrees, mostly thanks to confirmations from Itzhak that he is, indeed, all right with things. She eyes Roen though. "Slack? Why would it take this long to tell someone he's known for 27 years, who is clearly important to him, that I'm his kid? He says it's not like that, that he's not ashamed of me, but then why?" She reads a last text, then seems to have her frustration peak. Her phone shatters into a zillion pieces in her hand. She blinks at it, and wipes at the dribble of blood that leaks from one nostril. "Did I do that?"

(TXT to Ruiz) August : I hate to break it to you but you kind of do, Finch appears to have some movement Art now so she's going to start traipsing around Over There all on her own.

(TXT to Ruiz) Itzhak : I had nothing to do with this, do you want to turn our phones off and get breakfast

(TXT to Ruiz) August : (a few seconds later) great news I don't need to take away her phone.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ruiz : great idea.

The sight of her bleeding seems to tamp down Joe's anger immediately. "Oh, honey," he says, in distress. "Yeah. Deep breaths." He's even got a clean hankie in hand as he comes over to her. "You gonna give yourself a stroke."

(TXT to Joseph) Itzhak : not to defend myself or anything but I didn't even tell HIM about her when I found out. this is exactly the kind of thing I fuck up beyond all recognition and I kinda figure everybody would be better off with me not sticking my schnozz in it. okay? okay good talk

(TXT to Itzhak) Joseph : I understand.

"It's not that simple, even when you've known someone--" August stops with whatever diatribe he was going to launch into when Finch's phone breaks and her nose leaks. He sighs heavily, swipes out another text, then pockets his phone. "He wasn't trying to hurt any of you, and he wasn't trying to lie. I promise you that much."

He walks a bit closer to Finch, but leaves Joe plenty of space to be offering the hankie. "Whatever his reasons are for not getting into it, try to remember that...we're not owed everything from other people. Not even the ones we love, and who love us. Some shit, you have to wait for them to talk to you about. Then you can talk about why they didn't want to any sooner. It's even fine to be mad about that, to feel like you weren't trusted, but...think long and hard, before you come at him with both barrels." He raises his eyebrows. "That's not the kind of conversation you can walk back all that easily, if it goes bad."

Finch presses the handkerchief to her nose and mutters, "Another thing I inherited from him." The nose bleeds. And her temper, clearly. She looks hurt, but most of the anger has bled out of her system with the destruction of her phone. She looks at Roen, eyes watery, and shrugs. It's a bit of that sullen loner against the universe attitude that she had when they first met, which she'd done so much work to get past. "I just want to go home."

"Put pressure on it," Joe advises her, gently. Now....now he just looks tired. A look at August, and he nods, resigned. "Sorry to flare up at you," he says, voice low, stepping back to give her some space. Let her pass, if she wants to.

(TXT to Itzhak) August : ps finch just smashed her phone and threw some rocks.

(TXT to August) Itzhak : ...well great. that's all we need, her jumping across the border. okay look I'm turning my phone off and picking de la Vega up, text you in a bit

August sighs, reaches out and sets a hand on Finch's back. "Yeah. I can drive ya home." He nods at Joe, lifts his shoulder in a helpless half-shrug. "Turns out you're all easily riled up." His mouth twitches in a teasing smile, maybe suggesting a combination of 'I know where SHE gets it from' and 'now we know why you're all into each other'.

He tugs out his phone, swipes another message. "Want to get anything from the coffee shop on the way?" He glances at Joe. "Need a ride to Bayside?" From a guy who hasn't slept much in forty-eight hours.

Finch shakes her head slightly, then regrets it due to the burgeoning headache she's gaining from the breakthrough with the Mover Aspect. "No, I just want to go home and lie down. Iggy is at physical therapy."

Joseph waves away the offer. "Nah, it's not so far," he says. "'sides, I think I may go back to the Surprise." And resist the temptation to sail the fuck away from this place. The de la Vega clan isn't the only one with a hell of a temper, for all that Joe's generally fairly mellow. Finch isn't the only one who just wants to lie down.

August nods at Joe. "Okay." Another of those hesitations, where he seems like he's going to say something and then opts not to. He ducks his head, nods, rubs Finch's back. "Come on. Let's get you some Tylenol. Or a joint." He apparently plans to put on his shoes only once they reach the blacktop.