2020-09-03 - That Is Not Normal

Lilith could probably do with the fake grocery store aloe vera, a sunburn is just a sunburn, no matter how nasty it is, for the most part. At least, she tells herself that. The problem is, it's starting to itch and burn while her skin is a state of parched healing, and she just can't handle both of those things on top of everything else. Then there's the matter of her hand, Byron's hand, the matching oval sear marks like an omen of what might be to come, to whatever ends.

Lilith fucking hates it. It's like the town and all the shit that comes with it has rubbed off. She was mildly hopeful it's just a mark made that will be taken just as easily, but now she's not so certain. She could try to mend Byron's right up, sure. But then she'd have to listen to him about doing it while she's still maimed. She missed her window in bed to be sneaky about it, but she wasn't in a mind to quite think that way then. She was being FAIR and CONSIDERATE and PATIENT and all those things she just is not on the car ride over to Branch and Bole when the couple is able to sync times with the botanist.

The woman isn't acting on any of those feelings that have been gradually stress intensifying with paranoid worry (and unwitting images). Mostly, she's just been ungodly quiet and absorbed or distracted by anything and everything. It's not really a good sign, but then, she's being perfectly docile to the point of sweetness too, so is it worth poking at her about?

Probably not. Byron knows exactly how many things are going on in their life right now, few of them are remotely good. It might be a wonder Lilith isn't just waking up angry and destructive about the state of affairs on principle. When they walk into August's shop for an aloe plant and a palm-reading, so to speak, she's pretty latched onto the dark-haired guy in her state of relative subdue, but gives him more space in favor of greeting the shop's owner when they find him.

It's not that the mark hasn't been bothering Byron through all of this. For one thing, it's difficult to ignore. It wasn't only a mark, it tingled, it stung. It not only called attention to itself, but it reminded him of their excursion through the dry salt pans and everything that had to do with that moment. Perhaps this was a way to reach out to someone else and share with them the couple's misery. Of course, they are here for an aloe plant in the hopes to soothe the burns, as well as for some insight from an outside party.

Still driving around in that rented Lincoln, the couple arrive at the plant shop, with Lilith occupying one of Byron's jacket sleeved arms. Before they enter the store proper, he takes one good look down at his hand, before he calls out, "Roen? We have something that we want you to take a look at and... see what your recommend for it."

August is stocking a rack with some fall planting options--it's about that time--using one arm. Not because his semi-recent injury is bothering him, but because the other arm and shoulder are occupied by a pair of kittens. They're small, maybe only six weeks at best, and both are mackeral tabbies; the one on his shoulder is a light gray and the other a darker, gray-brown shade. They're silent, eyes wide and staring at things as August places them. When he turns to greet Lilith and Byron, their attention ratchets up a few notches. Strangers come and go daily for these two, and all are regarded with intense wariness until proven trustworthy.

August blinks at them, surprised out of a smile by the sunburns. "Wow. You guys fall asleep on the deck?" He's inviting them to reassure him that yes, this is just normal almost-skin-cancer burn, not one induced by the Veil. (If he's recalling his text conversation with Isabella correctly, Lilith is already dealing with that.)

He's in denim jeans, a dark purple, slub tee, and heavy hikers. He might have snuck in some work today. There's a wedding band on his ring finger now, spalted maple and titanium and gold, and the rest (such as it is...) of a wedding weekend seems to have done him a world of good.

Lilith is very surprised and accidentally excited by kitties. Not cats, kitties, not one, but two. She downright gasps before looking up at Byron to pretend like she just did not gasp over little bitty kitties, commenting, "... why'd we pick up some stankface alley cat again? We could have had kitties." Hell, if Smaug/Smog gets back onto the streets or down to Ms. Whitmore's persian kicking it on the terrace below, they might end up responsible for some kitties, he's just that kind of tom, "... I wonder what he even looked like when he was little. Same face, smaller body?"

Focus, Lilith. Focus. And focus she does, right on August's hand where the wedding band is now placed with another gasp, "Oh, hell, was that-- full congratulations ordered and due now. We couldn't quite get away." She even manages a genuine slant of smile before letting Byron take over while they're really there, her own marked palm and hand folding with her arms over her tank top she has paired with a little striped sailor skirt of cotton. She tucks it away like a dirty shame mark she's dreading showing out.

It's kind of odd, feeling that way about it. How many times has August healed her?

(Maybe it's other shame and guilt from the images that keep pinging her mind, unwitting, unbidden.)

"Where'd you get the baby cats?" Byron asks, even though he knows of several places one can get kittens at. He's more inquiring about these two! Watching with amusement as Lilith gushes over the furballs, he reminds her, "That's the one we saw first, but if you want to replace Smog with a kitten on top of a dog, well, it's something to think about. I'm sure he'll make a great pet to whoever mans your shop, right?" Now that he's being reminded about something, he's quick to add, "Right, about that. I need to drive him to the vet and get him neutered. I'm sure he'll appreciate that in the long run." His words are spoken dryly.

To go along with Lilith's congratulatory words, Byron offers the man a smile, "Do you feel like a changed man? Is this what I have to look forward to when it's my turn to the take the plunge?" He gestures with his burned hand, indicating the fact that August has two kittens on him. "Anyway, Congratulations. Both you and Eleanor are some of the most prominent figures in town," Being popular shop owners, "Eleanor especially, because we rely on her for our coffee fixes. We're all happy for the both of you."

With that out of the way, his gaze lowers to eye at the palm of his hand once more, before he reaches out to gently take Lilith's wrist with his other hand. "We... got these marks after touching a few stones. Well, one stone a piece, that melted into? Disappeared into? our palm? Yes, this is no ordinary sun burn, but I'm sure you know this by now." He considers what to say next, "We were in a Dream or something," He shakes his head, "Where we lost our names. Those white crows were there. Anyway, we lost our names and we gained them back after touching these stones. This is what we have to show for all of that."

August snorts a laugh about Smaug, which gets a tiny, annoyed mew out of the kitten on his shoulder. "I found these two, and another one, out by the river. Someone had dumped them." He makes a face about that. "Figured, one for the cabin, these two for here. Ellie named the one at the cabin Latte. She's kind of brown-colored." He points at the kitten on his shoulder, "Xylem," now he holds his arm up, raising the darker one curled against his chest, "and Phloem. Which everyone hates, but I don't care." Phloem mews in agreement? Dissent? Maybe a hello for Byron and Lilith. Who can say.

"Shop cats," he adds. "Which we can use, since people still think this," he wiggles his ring finger, "didn't happen." A shake of his head at them not being able to go. "It's fine. Long as you enjoyed the stag party and bridal shower last week. We're gonna do a town reception in a few days, for everyone who missed either." He grins at Byron, saying, "Changed, sort of--the whole ceremony was..." He stops, shakes his head. "Ah, I'll show you pictures, later. Or email them. Anyways."

He frowns, leans in to look at their hands. Phloem gets up and walks out on his arm a bit, sniffing towards the two. "Well that looks second-degree alright." He straightens, nods at the office. "Let's head in there, I can put these two in their playpen." As he turns to go that way, he says over his shoulder, "Have you tried aloe, for the burns? Not sure if it'll help, since it's from a Dream, but..."

"... we'll see if he's nicer without nuts." Lilith murmurs to Byron, and she actually seems to be considering before guilt-attachment (and maybe a little fondness for the cat's rageface) kicks in. She'll bitch about that cat all day, even yell at the cat itself while it meows back or stares, but every time it came to that whole Born Free test she had planned in the shop to see if he was an actual keeper, she kept making excuses and kept the cat at the penthouse. Go figure.

When Byron reaches to pull her hand by the wrist for showing out matching marks between the couple on the meat of their palms, her other hand reaches out to poke fingertip toward one of the cats... the one with the cough and hack phlegm name. She lets it sniff while soberly nodding a little agreement to Byron's explanation summary, then prepares to follow after August, "Well, yes. For the sunburn, at least-- but you wouldn't like it on principle. It's shamefully neon green gel or the blue kind with lidocaine I got at the pharmacy... with probably about one point five percent actual aloe and ninety-two percent alcohol. It's only really soothing for about five seconds because I put them in the fridge."

While walking, she looks aside at Byron, explaining to August with a bit of hesitant all-cards-on-the-table, "... at least we think we got what was our names. I would have mended Byron already, but since we match in marks and misery, it seemed a bit unfair at the time. Then when I thought about it later, I figured we could figure out whether or not we're ritualistically scarred... together?" She pauses, "Also, he'd yell at me, I think. So..."

Lilith doesn't look up, but she does put her head in against Byron's side while walking again. To be fair, Byron rarely yells about anything, even when it's time to go right back at her when she's yelling at him, so it's a bit of a joke. But not fully so. She suspects 'pissed and exasperated' would be the better phrase.

"Xylem and Phloem?" It's almost as if August were speaking some foreign language or just uttered the names of Fantasy characters in a novel. "Latte, however? That's a name that I fully approve on." If anything, he'll smile at the cats, but he refrains from reaching out to them with either his good hand or burned hand. "I always wondered whether people with cat allergies would bitch at any shop that had a shop cat. Not that I'd ever heard, but you hear them making excuses up all the time on why they can't adopt a cat. It's a thought. I mean, it makes me wonder how many have threatened to sue over that."

The botanist brings up aloe and Byron is quick to state, "And that's why we're here today. To get a little aloe vera plant and to get some sort of opinion on what these markings mean, if anything. Like whether you see something odd about them, sort of like... the..." The man doesn't want to say tumor, "The abnormality found in Lilith's scans." Lilith's. Not his.

If anything, he'll wait for Roen to lock those felines up in their play pen before he has to continue to juggle the kittens as he and Lilith take up more of the man's time. Eventually, one of his arms reaches to wrap around Lilith's shoulder, keeping her close. The Winslow might say that he'll bitch her out about any sort of magical healing, but August probably knows that he's uneasy about it...so relies on the botanist for such favors!

Phloem, who is typically called 'Phlo' by the rest of the employees, leans out on unsteady legs to sniff at Lil's offered hand. She licks it, experimentally, mews. It might be an approval, it might be a condemnation for not being readily edible. Maybe some of both. Of the names, August says, "Those are the transport systems in a plant."

Xylem mews as well, mostly annoyed at being ignored. Ignored. "Yeah yeah," August murmurs, rubbing the kitten's head, which gets his hand gnawed on. He shrugs aside the notion of people who are allergic. "They can shop somewhere else." August, not a businessman.

The 'playpen' is a simple, ringed pen which is now taking up a chunk of the office floor. One of the filing cabinets has been shifted to make room, as has August's desk. There's one of those fancy, self-cleaning litter boxes in one corner (Thoma's contribution), a pair of cat food bowls, a water dish, and NUNMEROUS toys. As soon as August sets them down the two launch onto a knit stuffed dog and begin to savage it.

"They love that thing," August says, sounding confused and uncertain. He shakes his head, turns to Byron and Lilith and wrinkles his nose. Yes, store brand aloe: he's not a fan. "I have plenty of aloe plants. And I can give you the website of someone I know who makes some salves by hand, they're not cheap but they're a lot better than alcohol and lidocaine in the long run." He sits on the edge of his desk, frowns at Byron. "So you said you lost your names...but got them back." He shifts a little, clearly uncomfortable at the idea. "Yeah, I can have a look. Especially if..." He pauses, eyes squinting. "If they fucked with your minds a bit." He hates saying it that way, but they do have a town of people claiming August broke up with the woman he just married and Itzhak and Joe are Russian spies and that's to say nothing of what Lilith is getting flung at her. It's not unreasonable to think something similar might happen to the people with the Art too.

He holds out a hand. "One at a time," he suggests. "Whoever wants to go first."

"I can't look at myself..." Lilith is quick to explain to Byron, she's ready to put her hand out after watching the cats and listening to the pair of men talk in relative silence now. It doesn't really matter how mildly shameful or hesitant she was to broach the topic and show the mark before, it's logical for her to go first. She's already looked at Byron, but with her so distracted and singularly talented, she's not sure she'd know the difference between a 'mark' and a 'Mark'. In fact, the only reason she probably was able to diagnose Isabella with the leavings that stuck from the Vivisectionist is because she had a map of where to look and what to look for based on her own issues.

... Actually, she'd forgotten entirely about the fact that she's possibly compromised, already, in some way.

Anyway, the way Lilith sees and the way August sees will never be quite comparable, there's leanings with talents that have nothing to do with power capacity, certain finesses and methods that stem from knowing the body's capabilities in a medical sense better to compare with. That and he's not just a mender, he has the mind mojo too, does that matter? She has no clue, "I've looked at Byron a few times, but usually while distracted or trying to pretend I'm not staring into his cellular innards. And to me it just flares like... pain that's hard to source, unlike the burn all over."

Trailing behind the man to distantly watch as August places the kittens in their pen, Byron murmurs when he's schooled on science, "Of course, that's what they were named after. That was at the tip of my tongue. Typical names for pets." Yeah, his words are oozing with sarcasm. "Though these are cats, I'm pretty sure they can climb their way out of there." Now that the kittens are safely put away for later and they discuss healing procedures and such, the businessman nods, "I'll be happy to give them a call. Where are they located? I mean, even if they are pricey, if they get the job done." He lifts his shoulders.

The whole losing his name things has made Byron slightly paranoid about what he does remember or what he thinks he knows. Maybe it's what the trio of fox riders had said or things that he'd witnessed once touching the stone. Either way, he slowly nods, "There was a point where I thought I was..." he pauses. Something about what he's about to say bothers him. He knows that it would be upsetting for Lilith to hear, but there's something else. In fact, his eyes look to Lilith for a moment and he decides to change the course of what he had planned on saying, "We were tricked into believing some of the rumors going on around town...But we /know/ who we are now. So everything should be good, right?"

August offers to look at one of their hands at a time and the eyes that were on Lilith earlier return to her. He makes no move to allow the botanist to see his hand. He wants to know if there was anything wrong with Lilith's marking more than his own. "You did what?" There's surprise (though he shouldn't be) and some amusement in his voice when told that she was pretending not to stare at his cellular innards. "And how do I look in there?" If Lilith didn't find anything out of the ordinary, though, maybe that means that she's fine too.

August weathers Byron's sarcasm with the fakest charming smile he can muster, and while it's not a Byron Thorne level fake charm, it's not half bad. It's no doubt what he used when talking to tourists during his USFS career. He drops it for a more serious topic: the salves. "They're out in the San Juans--they tend to send their stuff inland, to various shops. They're happy to set up shipments for individual customers, though. They've got a little goat and honey farm. Moonrise Valley."

He lets Lilith rest her hand on his, though he doesn't look at her hand, instead staring off to one side. He makes a low sound to indicate he's listened to what Byron said despite his thousand yard stare. The kittens continue to romp around in their pen, tackling one another and various toys by turns. Customers mill around in the shop and outside. One of the bucket trucks pulls up, diesel engine churning until its shut off.

The sense of August examining first the palm injury, then the burn, is a gentle tingle; he pokes and prods here and there, surveying the damage, sorting out the what as best he can. Then he urges a little of it to heal to check the reaction; sunburn first, which is fairly normal. So, aloe is probably the best bet there.

The mark on her hand is another thing. He nudges the burn, trying to encourage some new tissue growth, and something happens. It twinges, not in Lilith's hand, but in her head, like a spike behind her eyes.

Byron, rent apart, dead, on the floor of the Penthouse, his blood on her han--

It only lasts a split second, because August jerks his hand back like he's the one getting burned, sliding off the desk to pull away. "Fuck," he says, blinking back tears. "Ah, okay. That's not...normal. At all." It takes him a second to get his breath. "The sunburn is, though," he says, covering for how he has to grab a tissue from the box on his desk and dab at his eyes.

"You look like a champion." Lilith tells Byron firmly, like it's the only real answer to give about the man's cellular innards. There may well be a reason she's not seeing all she needs or wants to see, in truth, maybe because she's under whatever effects were left with them. She does note the man trailing off what he was going to explain, but she has her own unwitting images and feelings she doesn't want to explain, so she makes a point of not looking at him while he looks at her with consideration and concern.

Drawing in a huge breath then with a last glance at Byron, she continues to hold her hand out in rest atop August's hand while he takes a 'look' at that marking on her palm and gives it a prod to see the nature of what healing would do. She seems a bit afraid to look at his face while he does it, and her free hand comes up to absently rub at her neck and collarbone under her hair while she watches kitties.

It's probably better to watch kitties. And given the face and reaction August has after a few moments, Lilith should be glad she's watching kitties, maybe that's what helps her not fly off of the handle when her own body and mind reacts. In fact, she doesn't even pull her eyes away from where they're pouncing away at play, even though they suddenly go wide with unfocused horror, the free hand shifting quickly to push the heel of her palm against her brow. Her skin flushes red with terrible shame or rage at what happens, she's suddenly terrified that she did kill Byron, even though he's standing RIGHT THERE.

Hissing, her eyes squint closed and she pulls her maimed and marked hand away just as quickly to help get it away from August, just in case something wipes off on him. Then with her jaw set, she drops both arms to push against her diaphragm, palms flat. It's a bit as if she's trying to keep her reflex reaction all inside her guts, and hell, maybe that combined with the kitty view and her bids for organized, measured breathing prevent that in actuality.

Nothing breaks. She doesn't say anything, at least not initially. But after that silent freak out and visceral reaction to what came to pass when August gave her hand a go, she finally murmurs to Byron.

"... I didn't eat. I'm dizzy. I think I need to go to the car and get a Midol too."

Ok wait. First of all, they ate breakfast TOGETHER. And not to TMI here, but given Lilith's IUD and lady issues therefore not being much of a thing...

Byron knows that's a dumbass lie.

The first thing that comes to Byron's mind when August tells him about the people who make these special salves are: Damn Hippies. But it's not something he says aloud and he seems intrigued, if anything, about this operation that they are running. But the man knows and trusts him, so who is he to question that, right?

Of course, Byron doesn't expect much to come from the sunburn. He remembers being out that hot, scorching day without any protection from the punishing heat... being dragged along with both his writs and ankles shackled. He'd let Lilith volunteer first and watches with an observant eye on both her reaction and the botanist's reaction to this physical scan of the woman. He, himself, has no idea that August may have tried to attempt to heal the burn on Lilith's hand, but the way which the big guy quickly withdraws from it is more than telling. "What do you mean not normal? What did you see?" He just assumed that August scanned her for injuries only, so his thoughts now to go what the other man may have found.

Not only is there an extreme reaction from August, but Lilith starts to ramble about things that made no sense at all. When /she/ tries to retreat, he reaches to stop her before she gets too far, "Did you want to sit down? I can get you some water." He doesn't bring up all of her lies, but he knows that she's lying.

The kittens stop what they're doing when August pulls back, started by his sudden movement and ready for action. They stare at Lilith next. Phloem (the darker one) trundles over to the edge of the pen and mews. "It's okay, guys," he murmurs. Xylem tackles Phloem, and they proceed to wrestle.

"Water I can do." August seizes in the chance to distract himself by getting Lilith a cup of water from the filtered pitcher in the minifridge. When he turns to face them, he has a bit of his composure back. "I saw..." He looks at Lilith's hand; at the mark, which he can't see just now, but knows is there, "...you. Torn apart, like a, bear had, gotten you." He looks from Byron to Lilith and back. "Did that happen in the Dream?"

Lilith works her bottom lip with hard trap and pinch between capture of teeth and stands for another still moment as Byron reaches out hand to stay her from doing that 'midol' run. After a little mumble of 'okay' at water and sitting instead, she turns and finds a place to prop her ass with an agitated rake of fingers through her dark hair. Then she makes a point of looking at the kitties again. It's kind of ridiculous to use literal kittens as a focal point to NOT set the world on fire, but here she is with kitties to stare at and it seems to be working.

She's more withdrawn than anything, occasionally eyeing August while he goes for the water to make sure he's not otherwise hurt or affected just from poking around at her in that special way of testing the hand-mark out. She doesn't really look at Byron much, but it probably becomes obvious why that is and why she was lame-ass lying with utter BS just to step outside and find something to blow up. Also it's not pleasant to tell your fiancé you just saw them ripped to pieces, possibly understandable response, even though the lie was crap and transparent.

So when August explains when he saw, Lilith finally stops looking at kitties. Her teeth bare in a tiny semblance of wince as she reaches to take the water from him afterwards, then she looks hard at nothing off to one side before drinking. Finally, she says, "I just saw that too." And finally, she looks at Byron with stark concern, big blue eyes utterly sober, "It didn't happen in the Dream, though. In the Dream, I had him shacked in a salt desert plain as 'Bryan' believing he killed Byron. I was taking him to sell into slavery to suffer until we got some wits back and met with those riders to go to the Eye Pool and Tree."

Byron doesn't want to boss Lilith into remaining here if she felt uncomfortable, but there's got to be something that she's not saying. I mean, look at August's reaction. Otherwise, he would have followed her out and possibly driven her home. Now, August's description of what he'd seen is a surprising one, "...What?" And from Lilith's own expression and then her admission, he learns this to be true. Not the event, but that they both had seen that vision. "I mean... as long as it's not a prediction of the future, I'm," Here he sighs, "Almost fine with it." How can anyone be fine with people seeing visions of his gruesome murder that did not happen.

Once Lilith is settled down, Byron reaches for his phone and sends out a message to Isabella and Alexander. He's not sure whether either of them are.

(TXT to Isabella Alexander) Byron : I need to speak to the both of you. Come to the Branch and Bole as soon as you can.

There. Text sent. Byron's gaze then wanders back to Lilith when she tells August what happened in this Dream that they'd shared. "I.. I thought I was Bryan at the time. Or I knew." He corrects himself, "Believed that Lilith killed my brother and she was planning on doing worse to me next. But that was resolved. We couldn't remember our own names until the very end when we touched the stones which held them." He stands close to his fiancee, placing a reassuring hand, the burned one... on her shoulder.

(TXT to Isabella Alexander) Byron : No. Unless you have one of those feathers. The white ones. But it's not necessary.

(TXT to Isabella Alexander) Byron : Yes. It's about those damned crows who call out people's names.

The kittens are now trying to play tug of war with a chunk of rope almost as big as they are, which means they're mostly just rolling around with it. August resettles on the edge of the old oak desk, folds his arms. "Ah, okay." He listens to the description of the Dream, growing more unsettled by the moment. "So, that--memory, that people have here, in the real, you were...living it out, there." His expression tightens, pained. Is he thinking about being forced to live out the memory inflicted on him and Eleanor? Probably.

"Well. That's pretty fucking nasty even for them." He leans forward, hands on his knees. "I was trying to heal it. The burn on your hand. I don't think it was gonna give. I'd recommend not letting anyone else try." He raises his eyebrows, swallows. "It felt...real." He cuts a glance at Byron. "You might...want to have Alexander look at the two of you." He taps a temple, meaning their minds, not their hands. "I could, but he's stronger."

It doesn't take all that long for Isabella and Alexander to answer the summons put forth by Byron Thorne. Considering how urgent his text messages and responses are, the two weren't inclined to wait. So after a few minutes, the familiar cherry-red Jeep the archaeologist drives pulls up in front of Branch and Bole, before the door to the establishment swings open.

Her familiar form emerges from the threshold. "August? Guys?" she calls out, dressed in casual summer wear - an Oxford hoodie tied around her waist, jeans shorts, sandals and a tanktop. There's a pair of sunglasses pushed over her head and her moonstone pendant and dandelion bracelet. Too warm out to leave her coils of dark brown hair loose, she has them twisted up in a messy 'do and pinned to the back of her head.

Alexander looks very underslept, but about the happiest Alexander ever gets. He's got a serial killer, and a new game, and an Isabella, and those are all very good things. Well, maybe not the serial killer. He's wearing a worn t-shirt and jeans, and is trailing Isabella, watching her from behind with that peculiar, focused look that he gets when he's trying to engrave something on his memory. "We're here," he calls out behind her, just in case someone might think that Isabella lost him along the way.

Lilith looks aside at Byron's hand on her shoulder, she knows it's the marked one, even with palm down. For a moment, she hesitates with lift of hand, then very gingerly presses her own marked hand at the back of his. Wetting her lips, she watches Byron text, then she looks back at August with a thick swallow, nodding a couple of times with realization, "... I guess they did, yes."

She's tempted to give a small, reassuring smile to August when his face becomes stricken, especially since he has his own 'rumors' going around he damn sure doesn't want to believe to be true. She kind of wants to do it while touching Byron to say silently, hey, look at us though, we're okay, it's probably fine. The expression doesn't quite make it onto her sober features, though. Hell, are they fine? If she's seeing... and he's seeing...

The woman loses just a touch of coloring and presses her lips flat before saying anything else. But she doesn't really have to say anything anyway because Izzy and Alexander are sweeping in with announcing of presence. Lilith blows a long breath of air over her lips before murmuring to Byron about the suggestion made, "... it's fine if he looks at me."

"Something like that." Byron murmurs with affirmation to August's words about their living out those rumors in a Dream, "The world itself was... fantastical. We were wandering through a vast salt pan with the heat bearing down on us." Which is why they were sunburned. "There was a point where we believed the stories told about the other, but we didn't even know our own names. More so for Lilith." Because Byron believed he was Bryan for a time. "Until the very end."

Is there uneasiness when August tells them that maybe Alexander should 'look' at the two of them? A little, but he makes no outward protest about it. He'd just send out a message to Isabella and Alexander and was expecting their presence at any moment. The group were situated in an office of sorts with a play pen for kittens that's full of kittens. Looking to Lilith briefly, he returns his attention back to the August, "So you got all of that when you tried to heal her? That never happens right? It almost feels like a few powers combined to give you that reaction." And knowing that August has multiple Aspects, that could be the case.

With the arrival of the other two love birds, Byron calls out, "We're back here." When the group is finally gathered, he is quick to bring up, "I'm sure you remember what I'd told you before about the white crows and everything. I mean, have either of you had any other experiences with them?"

August grunts at Byron. "It was just a glimpse, I think. I cut free before it could...do more." He rubs his arms. "In as much as anything we do is normal, no, I've never had that happen before. It was like the wound wasn't just a...wound."

Thoma waves Isabella and Alexander into the back office, where he's easy enough to see August, Lilith, and Byron inside through the window. ("HI MR. A!" someone calls from within the shop.) Then they're safely ensconced in the office, away from prying eyes.

Some of the furniture has been shuffled about, the reason for which is why upon coming into the office: there's a round playpen set up, with two 7-8 week old kittens in it. They're playing with total abandon, pouncing one another and any of their various toys by turns. Both are mackeral tabbies; one is dark gray-brown, the other lighter gray.

"Hey you two," August says, not quite able to muster up a smile for Isabella and Alexander. "Glad you could join us." He gestures at the chairs around the employee lunch table, one of which has Lilith with her water.

Alexander's focused look is a familiar one, though as it seems directed upon her, there's a puzzled smile directed his way. "What?" she asks. "Broccoli in my teeth?" It's clearly a joke, but she can't help but tease him.

With Byron calling them to the back, sandaled feet step closer, looking between her childhood friend and a quiet-looking Lilith. Concern filters through her sunkissed mien, though she doesn't ask questions yet; they're clearly in her green-gold eyes however, and she turns her attention August's way with brows lifted in an attempt to prompt her fellow researcher for some edification. Still, she answers Byron's questions first: "Not since Alexander told me about you possibly having come across Baba Yaga, or whatever inspired Baba Yaga," Isabella says simply. "And a while back, I tracked the trail of feathers to the Boardwalk. They vanished there and chances are, there'd probably be more if I opened a Door there. I just haven't yet because I try not to go alone unless I absolutely have to."

She ventures towards the kittens, cooing softly when she reaches down to scritch them. "I thought the next step was children after marriage, not cats," she teases August.

"No. You're beautiful," Alexander tells Isabella, simply but sincerely. He doesn't dwell on it, as they enter the office - it's a mark of his general good cheer that the 'Mr.A' gets a twitch but not a glare in that direction. Just a duck of his head to avoid looking in that direction. He takes a deep breath, and smiles at the people in the office - a smile that grows into a brighter, wider one when he sees the playpen and what's inside. "Kittens." He peers over to see the kittens playing and his whole face softens.

His attention turns back to the other three. "More crows? I haven't seen them in a while."

"The night we got home from the party, we saw one on the terrace rail. It cawed names at us and took off. For the next few days, we were..." Lilith shakes her head here and looks aside at Byron, wasting little time with explanation, especially after her brow ticks upward at Isabella's detailing of where feathers are otherwise. Carrying on, she focuses back on the kittens as Isabella gets some pets in, head tilting a bit as if she's going both disturbed and reflective during the recollection.

"Dreaming. We were dreaming the same dream, not a Dream-Dream, I don't think, but it almost felt like... something between, I don't know." She wets her lips automatically with pause for the next bit, it was totally unpleasant, "We were unable to drink enough. Always thirsty. Every time we went to sleep, we'd think, is this the night it becomes dangerous, and we got little sleep. We were both walking on a dead salt plain when we finally slept, over and over for... what, four nights? I can't even tell."

Lilith looks at Byron with those sober eyes and uncharacteristically quiet calm about all of this in relating all the fuckery, "We knew it meant something bad. Finally, it took us there. And we..." She gives up here, letting Byron take over with a glance at their hands, then August.

"Right. Baba Yaga." Byron had that 'Dream' so many months ago that he would've forgotten all about it if he wasn't reminded about it during his most recent Dream. "The Boardwalk though? Hmm." For now, he quiets down, lets Lilith explain everything that happened, leading up to their most recent incident.

"The old woman told me about them, she called those birds..." What was the exact term she used? "Name bearers. Said that they'd keep coming back until it's progenitor was handled? Dealt with?" It's been a while, but something which the crone had done has burned much of this information into his mind. "So we lost our names. They were stolen and the only memories that we had at the time was the rumors floating around town currently." They should know which one that is for this particular couple. "Once we realized the truth, that the rumors weren't true, we were stuck without having a name. I wasn't Bryan, but I wasn't Byron either. That was lost to me. And do you know how maddening that can be, realizing that you have no name and no identity?"

Drawing in a deep breath, he murmurs, "We found a trio of helpful travelers who took us to a pool where we would find this Eye, a being who kept trying to trick us . I'm not 100% sure if we went about things the correct way, but we found the stones which possessed our names and picked them up." He then shows the couple his burned palm, there's a clear stone shaped mark there, "We got our names and identities back with this to show for it."

August winces, holds up his hands. "Hey, I've been married for three days, I think we can wait at least a year before the babies happen." He looks down into the pen. "Call this a trial run," he adds, cutting Isabella a small smile. "These two are for the shop. We have another at the cabin. That one Ellie named Latte." The darker kitten accepts scritches happily; the lighter one gets jealous and pounces Isabella's hand. "These two are Xylem and Phloem." Because of course, left to his own devices, that's what he named them.

He's about to add a comment regarding the hand injuries, probably to add a comment on what just happened when be attempted to heal Lilith's, when Ully appears at the office window and knocks, tawny face tight with apology. August raises his eyebrows, Ully jerks his head out towards the patio. August sighs, runs a hand over his face. "Right. The Foursquare is here for their flowers." He heads towards the door. "Back in a bit. There's cider and water in the minifridge, and coffee and tea on top, help yourselves."

Alexander's soft and simple remark earns him a brief press of her lips at the corner of his mouth, before the door to the office shuts and she's wandered over to play with the kittens. The pouncing one is ensnared by the sudden tilt of her hand to capture its leaping self, playfully tilting the little one onto its back so she could tickle her finger on the soft, fuzzy underbelly. All the while, the archaeologist listens to both Byron and Lilith's encounters with the name stealers and the pool.

"It's strange, what you described. A dream that isn't a Dream, but something in the middle. I don't think I've ever experienced that myself unless it's a dream-not-Dream about Sid," Isabella muses to her fellow brunette with an absent look that she doesn't direct to anyone else, the memory of it tightening coils of iron around her chest in remembrance. It's unusual, but something familiar to her from her perspective, at least, reminded of the grave-that-isn't and the alabaster stairs that lead down into the darkness...

Easing away from the kitten, she strides on over to take a closer look at Byron's hand. "What else can you tell us about it?" A glance to August, curiosity there at the look he wears; as if he might add something, but he gets called away. Something to circle back to later.

Alexander's smile widens at the names of the kittens. "You're a nerd," he tells August, in the sublime confidence that only comes from someone who is also a nerd recognizing a fellow member of the tribe. He doesn't reach down to play with the kittens, but watches them and Isabella out of the corner of his eyes, even as the topic turns to less pleasant things. "...the salt plain. And the pond. And the beast with the stolen name? I've seen those places. I went there once. I didn't give him my name." He frowns at Lilith. "Do you think the crow...took your names?"

"Honestly... it could have been my perception, especially feeling like I had no identity, really, but... it was like being in a storybook, like a dream within a Dream, even after we were really there. I don't know." Lilith wets her lips and continues, looking a little relieved that Isabella knows maybe exactly what she means with her prior words, a dream that isn't a Dream, but it's too real (and shared?) not to be something a little like a pre-cursor to a snare or something otherwise deeper with meaning or origin. After Byron is done speaking and shows his hand out, she puts hers out too to show the matching sear of oval rock-shaped mark where their names supposedly slipped back into place on grasp.

Then she nods along to what he's said and picks up where he left off, giving a bit of a rueful slip of something like a smile when August has to deal with customers and mundane right in the middle of weird-talk. She'll wait for him to explain about what happened when he poked at her hand to see what was what, she doesn't want to say it, but she has other things to say anyway, "Right. But the riders warned us there might be a taint on there because of the crows. The Eye was supposedly a place of renewal and rebirth, once? They didn't tell us exactly what the Eye was, but when we got there..."

She gestures, as if laying out the detailed visual for them and the oddities, "They took us to a place and couldn't step in themselves. All the salt plain veined into red dirt where it all started, and when we stepped past that boundary... it went for as far as the eye could see in any direction. There was a raging desert storm behind us that kept coming, which... I mean, we had to act and decide." She's not sure they did the right thing, but it's what they could and did do under the circumstances and THAT she does not regret either way, because who knows what else could have happened?

Her head shakes and she carries on, "Anyway, there was a dead white tree with like ten crows perched on it, surrounded by a dark pool of water with all these stones in it and they were... glowing and bewitching us to reach into the water and take them. I saw... things that weren't real and was moved by them pretty badly, but before that, I got a good... look at the place. You know. In my way?" Pause, "It was oddly... dead and possibly alive at the same time, it was organic in a different way and wasn't... what it seemed. The dirt was red with blood and the tree was bone and marrow and the water was... something. Something conductive. So we worked with that and I figured it was the actual Eye."

Then she asks Alexander, "Is that what you saw?"

"I think we're experiencing those more and more. Dreams that are not Dreams but somewhere in the middle." Byron says almost gravely in response to Isabella's statement. Several incidents come to mind. "It's difficult to determine, sometimes, when the Dream starts and in those cases, you just feel like you're still in our world, but it's different." His own experiences with that sort of feeling often surrounds his House, so he quickly dismisses it with a shake of his head.

"I honestly don't know what role the crows play in all of this. They caw out names of people, knowing that it would get out some reaction from us. Or that it would affect us deeply. The old woman called them the Name Bearers." It's been a while since he'd had this experience after reading that feather. so he takes a moment to try and remember some of the details. "Back at the hospital, when Alexander was laid up there, one of those birds was tapping on the window. Lilith... killed it, but before it died it lashed out in retaliation and Lilith freaked out. While I had no idea what just happened, she really believed that the drying crow plucked one of her eyes out." It's a gruesome things to say and he doesn't like uttering any of this right in front of Lilith in the case that it might trigger her in some way. He makes sure to rub a hand along her shoulder and along her arm in a comforting manner. "Well, I saw the world from that crow's point of view. When it visited the crone. When it tapped on the hospital window..." There's a deep crease within his brow, his lips pursing in near disgust or displeasure, "It was asking for help. Or that's the sense that I got."

With that out of the way, he feels this sudden pain in his head the more he tries to go back to that day and remember everything that was said and everything he'd seen. "She said that I could seek her out if I wanted more information. Told me that there were others who could help me find her..." His head shakes quickly because this is far too much information for him to process, "And she showed me several rocks or stones with runes on them. If you like, I can project it to all of you. I probably should have done this far sooner but we were caught up in a lot of shit and... I was hoping that this all would go away."

It's relief that she doesn't share. Isabella's lips press in a grim line especially at August's remarks - that the birds will keep coming if the progenitor isn't handled or dealt with. "What do you think the old woman meant when she said progenitor, Byron?" she asks, turning her green-and-gold eyes to her childhood friend. "Do you think it may have been whoever may have been sending them, or....the people whose names the avians carry?" The distinction is important; this could mean a quest to find whoever's been stealing names and stop them, or end them, once and for all, or something more complicated....namely to deal with the loss or the past that these birds represent in some real, significant way.

And to a young woman who still feels the hollow weight of someone who has been attached to her since birth, it might be a tall order of a thing to ask.

She sighs and pulls her fingers through her hair. "Well," she begins. "You already know what I would say to that. I never really believe accepting invitations from otherworldly entities is a good idea, but I go anyway because I just can't help myself from the urge to ask questions directly," she replies in a tone that's both dry and self-deprecating. "So you all already know what course of action I favor undertaking." Puzzle out the clues, and then seek out Baba Yaga. "Ronnie, I'd like to see the projection since you're willing to show us."

Alexander rubs at his forehead. "It's...been a while. It was after the hospital. I read the dead crow Isabella left in the freezer, and I was taken away to a place a lot like you described. I found the pool, and the white tree, and the crow. But there was a beast there. It was sort of avian, but it was mostly...a monster. Its name had been stolen, and it asked me to help it. I looked into the pond and I think it almost /stole/ my name." He shakes his head. "I told it that it couldn't have my name, and we had a," he clears his throat, "bit of a scuffle. I retreated and the Dream ended before it could kill me. I don't have the ability to see things the way you do - it was just a /place/ to me, although the crows were tormenting the beast. But, at the same time, he seemed to be sending them out? Maybe?" A huff of breath. "It was confusing. I'm not a mythology sort of person."

Still, he nods in agreement to Isabella's request. "I, too, would like to see what we're dealing with. Or another part of it, I suppose. Especially if these things have escalated in actively robbing us of our identities." He looks with worry at Byron and Lilith. "How...how are you two holding up?" Because, and his face clearly reflects the knowledge of this, Alexander would be a complete wreck.

"I heard Byron this time on the terrace, not the first names it cawed at me in the hospital. The first was trying to rile me, I absolutely know that, and maybe the second was too, but... it could be when they got my 'eye' they learned my true fear with my name or... you know." Lilith grazes her bottom lip with her teeth and looks aside at Byron with leaning into his slung arm from where she sits, hands absently rubbing against her bare knees.

Then she stops fidgeting because she's sunburnt, her hand hurts, and the rubbing is honestly starting to make her sunburn itch and nope. Itching is just the last thing, she can't handle that one, it's the piece of straw floating toward a camel's back. Sometimes it's a little funny what's apt to actually set her off once stress builds.

"I used to get terrorized by dreams of killing Byron a hundred different ways. It's why I started hiding from him in 9th grade. I was scared it'd come true and I didn't understand the powers and breaking and... tch. It used that. It's... still using that." At least she has talking and thinking to focus on, though, and in this case, it distract from the creeping itch, "I think it means the crow's progenitor, honestly, especially with what Alexander now says he saw at that place. That's... a strange relationship between the monster and the crows, though. It might be notable if... we can find the beast."

As for the question to how they're holding up, Lilith looks at the door leading to the main part of the shop and drinks long from her water after reaching for it, withdrawn again, "... it's confusing. August... well. I'll let him explain when he gets back. Byron, go ahead and show the runes?"

"Those crows some time call out Vivian's name. That's what was uttered the first time. Now they've changed their tune," As he's relaying this information, Byron starts to regret opening up about any of this as he has to come out and say, "They started calling out my father's name." Just thinking about his father makes him feel sick to his stomach, but he does his best not to look bothered by it. Lilith's bringing up of her childhood fear, has Byron quieting down. It's been a huge sore spot for the both of them for many, many years and something what was remedied recently. But has it really?

"We didn't see a monster, but I suppose the Eye could be called a monster. And for all we knew, the entire pool was the Eye." He then brings up, "When I... shut down the Eye's power, or tried to, because I was tired of it using trickery to lure us into doing whatever it wanted, I saw an image of a crow-like Harpy. Once that faded, there was a figure hovering over the pool. Instead of a head it had some sort of glowing power source? It's hard to describe. I figured that was the Eye, but who can tell right?"

Now that he has everyone's attention, Byron takes this moment to refresh his memory, digging deep into his own mind to find the information that the old woman practically forced upon him so that he would never forget it. That brought on the pain. Pain he felt just as the crow his conscience was piggybacking on was leaving the woman's cottage.

She saves her assumptions for now as the images are viewed under the lens of her degree, and broadened by tangential disciplines; archaeology has a close tie with symbology and iconography, and luckily, she's enough of an academic to both realize and remember what she has learned in the last ten years. "Nothing I can recognize specifically," Isabella tells them finally after squinting at the projections. "But I can hazard a few guesses based on some cultural and historical principles. That one for example." She points a finger on the rose with the eye in its center. "Suggests that it's a thing that can't see its own beauty. The letter is a message, or implies a messenger - or a recipient of the message. The tree with the crystal roots and mind-branches might suggest the growth of someone's mind."

Watching the symbols for another spell, she furrows her brows and gestures to the anchor; she's met Joe Cavanaugh a few times. "Joe Cavanaugh has something like this tattooed on him," she tells them. "So if this symbol does point to him, then these symbols might then allude to people we know who might know something regarding this entire situation. Did he tell you anything about coming across some strange birds, Alexander?"

After another moment's contemplation, she looks over at Lilith. "Your description of the pool almost sounds like looking at one of those damned things in the eye."

Alexander is far more comfortable with the arcane but grounded languages of toxicology and autopsy reports than he is with things that touch on mythologies and interpretive imagery. For all his intelligence, and his exposure to the genuinely supernatural, his own issues mean he's not always comfortable with symbolism and imagery. Which, basically, means he looks blankly at the images and shakes his head, having no idea how to interpret them until Isabella elaborates. His sidelong look carries his heart in his eyes, and his little sigh is, in a word, besotted. Although when she gets to the eye part, he twitches. "Wait. So. We might have been walking around on a giant, terrible eyeball?"

The man who regularly examines dead bodies and experiences murders with glee wrinkles his nose. "Ew."

Lilith opens her mouth and stops after Isabella assessing some potential meaning of the markings that Byron displays with his abilities. She blinks a few times, looks at Alexander going 'ew' and surprisingly doubles that sentiment, despite the fact she's been literally bathed in blood multiple times in her life, "... an EYEball? Ew." Batting her lashes a few times, she looks up and aside at Byron with a pull of her head, "... that actually makes sense, though, given how I saw the place, doesn't it? Which doesn't make me feel much better about standing on a giant eyeball and digging in eyejuice for rocks, but..."

Then she mentions with a clear of her throat and a highly pensive expression, suddenly focusing on the idea that these might be symbolic for... people? These images are... Lilith starts to say one thing, then closes with another, "I don't know if it's relevant, but the name stone I picked up... I looked for it on the internet, it was a bloodstone. Byron, what was your-- Oh. Oh. Uh." Pause, "My middle name is Rose. Unsure if that's..."

Byron lets the images hover in the air for a moment longer, allowing Isabella and anyone else who may be interested to take notes, look things up, whatever their nerd minds might want to do. Everything mentioned in the beginning is still rather cryptic. A thing that can't see its own beauty? A messenger? In fact, he might have dismissed them all as being some sort of scavenger hunt that they'd have to go on in order to locate something that best represents these images. However, when she brings up the anchor, his brow lifts, "Joe Cavanaugh? The astronaut?" When Isabella questions Alexander about Cavanaugh's potential involvement, the businessman's dark eyes settle on the detective.

"Someone or something that can't see their own beauty. A messenger..." He's trying to put description to face, but this is a difficult task. "A deer antler with feathers...Sounds tribal."

Unlike some of the others, Byron isn't overly disturbed to have been walking on something's eye. It was something that he still has a difficult time visualizing really and it's not like the pool blinked or anythng, right? And unlike Lilith, Byron didn't immediately go and Google what stone was his from the Dream. "Uh... " Here is where he pulls out his phone to do just that, "It was dark. Maybe black or dark blue with specks all over. Reminded me of a starry night."

As he types, he decides to say, "Anyway, the Eye, the one that was the p--." He just sighs heavily here, realizing that the Eye was not in the pool but everything was the Eye, "It tried to lure us into picking up these stones. It felt like a trap. These things have a difficult time swaying me." Anything that deals with his father will drive him away rather than lure him into do anything, "But I saw that Lilith was entranced or tricked by something. She looked lost in a daydream as she reached for her stone, so I grabbed her out of the way and shut the whole operation down. As far as I know."

"Your middle name is Rose?" Isabella wonders of Lilith, surprised to hear this because this is the first time she's heard it mentioned, but her expression softens visibly. "That's lovely." And she means it, judging by the softened tone and the expression on her features. "If the rose refers to you, it would make sense - you're already involved." And she remembers the first time the group ever encountered these crows - they were in Alexander's hospital room and she had exploded one of them.

She purses her lips. "The deer antler with feathers might be August," she murmurs as she ruminates quietly. "The growing mind might be Alexander, given he unlocked another level in his talents not all that long ago. But that could mean Javier, also. I"m not certain who the letter would represent."

There's a quiet sigh, before she moves and eases down on a chair. "I wonder what would happen if you tried to pick up a stone." Because of course she would wonder, and she would probably test it, not all that opposed to sacrificing her body in the name of knowledge as she has proven repeatedly; whatever the Vivisectionist had done to her has made that tendency even worse, and she says this without even thinking about it. After a moment, she shakes her head. "Regardless, it sounds like we're just going to have to try and go back there. I know which Door we ought to go through, but as for the symbols, I can only guess at them unfortunately."

"I think that if you pick up one of the stones, you lose your name. I could feel it trying to take mine when I thought about reaching into the pool - but that might have been because the beast was there?" Alexander shudders. "I feel bad about the creature, whatever it was. But not bad enough to give up my Self." He looks intrigued by Isabella's suggestions towards the symbols. "None of those seem unlikely, to me." He looks a touch wary about the idea of going back over there, but since Isabella is clearly going, he definitely isn't going to sit it out.

"Lily Rose, mhm." Lilith explains to Isabella with a bit of a smile after listening to Byron ruminate at length, though her features fall when she realizes the awkwardness of it possibly implying she's a rose with low self-esteem. Which... it's hit or miss some days still, honestly. Better lately, but there's pieces of her that she doesn't like and it paints different colors of herself in the mirror sometimes. She doesn't say that, though, she just kind of looks at Byron's phone while he googles what his stone was.

Lilith shows her hand and the oval sear marking then, head shaking as she looks between Isabella and Alexander, "I don't know what happens when the pool is charged, but this happened while it was shut down. We were supposedly reclaiming them when we took a stone, the names, not losing them. But... it might have been a trap and worked in reverse. In the Dream we truly had no concept of who we were. I thought Byron called me some Frenchie baguette name at some point and got very confused."

Byron falls silent, listening to the others, especially Isabella, try to link each image to a person whom they all know. The one mentioned outside of their 'usual' crew is Cavanaugh. Looking to Alexander, he confirms a few things, "So you read a crow's corpse and was taken to the Eye. I read a feather and saw the world through that particular crow and was drawn into the old woman's cottage. This incident with Lilith and myself took place over the course of a few days. We saw the crows on the evening of my party and had suffered the effects of wandering aimless through the salt plains ever since... until the point that we were pulled into that Dream together." He then considers, "The runes or carvings, these are supposed to be people who can help me find the woman again for further information. At first, I'd assumed that these individuals would know the way, but if it could be any one of you, then I'm not sure if that's the case." A pause, "Unless it comes to everyone as a group once we're all collected together, but who's to say that we'd have the right combination of individuals?"

His eyes turn to Lilith when she gives a retelling of their story, "Right. We had already lost our names and the only way to retrieve them would be at the pool. There was... something. The Eye was affecting our thoughts, our minds and making us see things which, in turn, I believe, was trying to force us to reach into the pool and pick up our stone. Every stone in that pool, I figure, belongs to an individual, and we were shown ours. For some reason, I had a bad feeling about reaching into the water, but... I'm not sure what Lilith was seeing to lure her to reach in for her stone, but I was dissuaded from taking the same route when I'd heard my father's voice."

He then continues, quickly tossing out an, "Anyway," Before clearing his throat, "I felt uneasy about the whole stone thing, so when I saw Lilith trying to picks hers up out of the pool, I grabbed her and used my powers to shut the powers of the Eye down. Things became clearer then." When he says this, there's a creasing of his brow, "I think. But whatever enchantment was over us was gone and our stones no longer called out to us. They looked like normal stones. There was a harpy-thing. A woman who was part crow? Then she faded and a man with a glowing head, like it was some energy source took her place and told us to pick up our stones and leave."

Staring down at his own palm with a similar marking on it as Lilith, he adds in a few other things that he remembers, "We were greeted by a trio of travelers who showed us the way to the Eye. They had the same burn marks on their palms as well, having reclaimed their own names in the past. And there was one more thing... right. I... electrified the pool at one point and then everything went to hell then. I might not recommend doing that. Ever." That's when some of the bad things started...

Lilith's smile is returned quickly by Isabella, though this fades when she elaborates, and Byron continues the tale. She scrubs the side of her face for a moment, before lips press into the heel of her palm and she glances sideways, lashes lowered in absent thought. "So if we do go in, we're going to have to be careful because it sounds like there's an influencing area of effect in a location of interest - I have a feeling that we're going to need to investigate that area if we want to know more, and obviously we can't do that without clear heads. If anything, at least Byron figured out a way to neutralize it, and right. No electrifying the pool." She winks at the career investor. "I'll turn you to my method of research yet." It's clearly a jest; she hardly expects Byron out of anyone to experiment recklessly the way she does.

The mention of the travelers does intrigue here. "Might be we need to find them, also, and ask questions - though if they're there after they reclaimed their names, the very act of reclamation might've kept them trapped there. Either way, we won't know unless we round up the people implied by the symbols and see what's up." A curious look is angled towards Byron and Lilith. "Is there anything else you guys can remember before we break? We'd have to find the people in the 'list' first, obviously - or at least...identify them correctly. Seems the first logical step is talking to Joe Cavanaugh and figuring out just what his connection is to everything."

Alexander nods, slowly. "It does seem like those symbols were meant to guide you towards a solution. And if Joseph has seen the birds, then it will be a good sign that he's tangled up in all of this somehow, since I don't think anyone has discussed it with him. I haven't, at least. Maybe Javier has, but," he sighs and shrugs, "I don't think Javier discusses anything with anyone unless you pry it out of him with a crowbar. So. Odds are good that he's an untrained witness of the events, if they've taken place for him." A sidelong look at Isabella mentioning her method of research, but it's as fond as it is concerned - the way she leaps forward into things is one of the things that fascinates him endlessly about her, after all.

At the last question, he turns to Byron and Lilith, watching them both thoughtfully.

"Yeah. We should probably talk to him. Um. There's one more thing. Or two more, I guess..." Lilith says to Alexander and Isabella while fidgeting with rub of thumb at the inside of one of her wrists. Briefly, her eyes take a meander toward the shop floor where August went to handle some business, "So August took a look and... poked at my hand and the marking and it... made my head hurt really bad and we... well, he... saw what I saw at the same time. Which... was unpleasant, so we're not going to risk healing these marks because... whatever happened wasn't normal."

Lilith looks aside at Byron's hand then, head shaking some, "The thing is, I don't know if it's August's dual abilities that let him notice that. I mean, I didn't heal Byron because he'd say it wasn't fair for me to be marked up, but even just looking at him, I can't see what's... I mean, maybe because we're both affected, I don't know." After wetting her lips, she looks at Alexander, "He suggested reading us, but... I don't know what will happen, if anything, or if Byron even wants to do that, but... you can look at me, if you want to. Just... no pressure. I think we know at least enough to say... this is fucked, whatever happened."

"Well, this isn't something that's only affecting de la Vega. I can understand keeping certain things close to your chest, but.." Byron doesn't continue from there. "But yes, we can meet with Cavanaugh about this and maybe see if de la Vega's had any more incidents regarding the crow or worse, was pulled into a Dream like ours." His eyes look to Isabella, "We'll see if those fox riders turn up again. They said that the regained their names a long time ago. Maybe at the start of all of this?" One shoulder lifts.

The question on whether they had anything more to add before this meeting was through has Byron staring out at nothing in particular. While he may have had an idea in mind, he wasn't about to say. It's Lilith who brings it up, the sound of her voice drawing his attention. He wasn't upset that she mentioned it, believing that it was rather important. "Right. When Roen attempted to heal Lilith's palm, he caught a glimpse of something. Which is odd for healing, I'd assume." It also looks like he's weighing a few thoughts in his mind now. "The fox riders, the trio who we met in the desert, they mentioned consequences that might linger even if our names were returned to us." If anything, he does't look overly pleased about being read or scanned in a mental way. He doesn't openly say anything against, because how suspicious is that? Instead, there's this set of his jaw as if he's steeling himself for it.

Lilith's words are worrisome and she can't help but furrow her brows. "Sounds like we won't be able to do anything for the marks unless we nip whatever caused this out of the bud," Isabella murmurs. "Because that isn't normal."

The description - fox riders - gets a faint furrowing of her brows, but considering Baba Yaga is involved, she isn't all that wholly surprised that some fanciful moniker had been assigned to those who reclaimed their names, but remained in her realm. She was a source of many Eastern European folktales, from what she remembers. "Guess we're just going to have to find them and shake them down for answers," she remarks. "But yeah - Joe, first, and then we can see if we can figure out whoever else needs to come along."

Alexander's eyebrows go up. "You want me to read you?" He's always mildly surprised when someone requests that sort of invasion, even if he tries not to make it too...invasive, generally. But if that would cause surprise anyway, the way Byron isn't immediately leaping to say NO takes it out of the realm of surprise and into actual shock. "Um." He hesitates, giving Byron a long look, before he nods. "I could give it a try. I don't know exactly what to look for - but I can try."

He moves over to hug Isabella, brief and gentle, before he slips over towards Lilith. "I'll start with you. If that's okay." He doesn't try to touch her, and there's really no theatrics at all. His eyes just focus on her, and everyone in the room can feel the stir of power as he reaches out for her mind. He's honest; he has no idea what to look for - which is why he's as surprised as anyone when he finds something that makes him pause, frown, and concentrate. Although normally his touch is light, for just a few heartbeats, Lilith can feel a pressure of some sort on her mind. And then it's gone. "There is something there. It's like...it's like you have two sets of memories of the same event, in some places. Stacked on top of each other in your mind. One is true. One is NOT true. But they're both there." He turns to Byron. "Thorne. I know what to look for, now. I can find it quickly, I think."

Assuming Byron lets him, he can soon confirm: "Yes, you have it, too. I think if you continue to concentrate on the true memory, the other should fade. Eventually. But it keeps coming back. It might continue to come back until we track down the cause of this."

Lilith sits perfectly still, even her fingers stop moving on her wrist while Alexander is studying her and... looking for whatever oddity he might be able to find up top in the depths of her mental signature and capacity. It's not necessary, of course, but much like when you're at the doctor and complying, sometimes perfectly still is the thing to be, so the woman does that. When the other man has explained and tried to verbally suss out what it is he's sensing, she looks aside at Byron and reaches to take gentle hold at his near wrist, eyes sober and comprehending of what she's being told. In fact... it sort of makes sense in a way she can't quite explain with words.

Her mind does feel poked through with thoughts and memories that aren't really true or her own. And if August saw that when he tried to heal her hand... or at least poked around at the idea of trying it... the woman turns her other hand over against her knee to look at the ovular sear marking, nodding serious and small when it's deduced Byron has the same problem. Her lips press flat and she tries to find somewhere to put that so she'll remember it when she needs to remember what's true and real. But with how vivid even the glimpses of unwitting violence on Byron are inside her mind, even just poking at the peripheral and occasionally rising head like a great beast from the waves...

It's a lot easier planned and tried than actually done. But it's better to know, right?

"... Thank you. Yes, we'll... I think we should get out of August's hair and let him work, too. Thank you guys for coming by and listening and helping with this."

<FS3> Byron rolls Mental+2 (8 8 7 6 6 5 4 3 3 3 3 2) vs The Eye Of Deceit (a NPC)'s 10 (6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 2 1)
<FS3> Crushing Victory for Byron. (Rolled by: Byron)

Despite his tensed jaw, Byron takes a more non-chalant approach, trying to look unbothered by the whole ordeal. His dark eyes drift down to his hand once he feels Lilith's touch at his wrist. His own mind remains somewhat guarded as he finds it difficult to simply let his mental guards down willingly. It's just a part of his personality that's difficult to shake. However, after Lilith's diagnosis, he's curious as to how that looks like exactly so once Alexander is done, he attempts to take a peek inside of Lilith's mind as well.

Lilith may feel another tingling sensation in her head as Byron quietly probes her without announcing that he was about to so do. In fact, he's staring at her now, this look of determination in his features. At some point, his eyes begin to narrow into a near scowl and he slowly turns his head away, slowly shaking whatever has him disturbed from out of his mind. He doesn't hide the fact that he intruded into Lilith's mind the way that he might have if this were any other occasion. "Clayton. Did you..." He makes a sound as he clears his throat, then starts again as he tries to put his thoughts into words, "Did you actually see a vision in Lilith's mind of my death?" He asks this because this is probably what he saw, something which threatened to trigger a reaction out of him. "That must be the part that's struggling to be remembered and forcing Lilith to believe that she did the deed." Killed him!

Anyway, he's trying not to think about it and just simply nods, "Anyway, let's reach out to Cavanaugh and see what he says."

Alexander hesitates, then shakes his head at Byron. "Not in her mind." Emphasis on the her. A glance at Lilith. "You don't have our mind abilities, so it's not as clear. I can tell that there are two sets of memories, but not entirely...what they are. Not without being more invasive, and I won't be." He turns back to Byron. "Your memory is more clear. In one you're alive. In the other, you're dead. I'm sorry. But only one of them is true. Just...try not to think about the other? I'll try to come up with another option," he adds, with a frown.