2020-10-05 - The Danish Guy

It's early morning at the Two if by Sea and during the week that usually means it's dead but there's quite a few signs of life. The construction crew is still here putting in new windows and working on the roof, they start bright and early and manage to disappear by 2 like a very annoying magic trick. But they are not the only ones, in the office with the door shut to try and keep out some of the noise is the newly returned Easton. His wild hair and beard have been trimmed down to mostly stubble, a little more hair on top in classic jarhead fashion. He's dressed for a run in a tee-shirt, long running pants and sneakers. Gunner, the giant English mastiff is also in the office, curled up by Easton's feet. Easton is going through the books, both literal and electronically trying to figure out how the bar's been doing since he's been gone. And maybe a little more about how the financial picture which has always been purposely obscured, has been working in his absence. The last thing he ever wanted was to get Bennie entangled in a new set of underworld financial deals so hopefully that all ran smoothly. There is a pot of coffee on in the kitchen and after emptying his first mug Easton gets up and makes his way towards that glowing red light like a moth, one with a slight limp.

One of the perks of living on a sail boat on a pier pretty much just down the beach from the Twofer is that when you make promises to someone that you'll go breathe down the necks of the repair crew for them, it's not really much of a detour to do so. Ravn Abildgaard heads that way on his morning walk and finds himself lectured on the different qualities of roofing tiles by a somewhat enthusiastic repair crew member who very obviously wants to impress the tall copper blond. There are so many qualities in a man another man could be attracted to; looks, leather jacket of rather good quality, fame, anything -- but what causes Ravn to have a really hard time not laughing out loud is that the fellow in question really wants to sell him on his... combat lobster.

Yes, combat lobster.

As in, apparently, literally a crustacean trained for a combat scenario. Which repairman #3 is trying to ask for training tips for, or sell to Ravn, it's not entirely clear. What is clear, though, to anyone who might care to listen in, is that Gray Harbor hasn't stopped being Gray Harbor in Easton Marshall's absence.

The Dane manages to disentangle himself eventually and heads inside to see how repairs are coming along. The expression on his face when he finds himself face to face with a giant dog is comical. For a moment he looks like he contemplates finding a tree to climb. "Good heavens," he murmurs. "I really, really hope you're friendly."

Coming back out of the kitchen with a mug that says 'Worlds Drunkest Boss' Easton stops and looks at the copper haired man currently staring down the his dog. Gunner for his part, ambles up to him and sniffs at him looking mildly interested but only as much as there might be treats involved. Easton smirks and says, "Aaah he's harmless. He's more likely to slobber on yer face and piss on leg than bite ya but, well, so am I." You know how dogs start to resemble their owners? Well Easton doesn't look anything like an English Mastiff but Gunner certainly gets his lack of boundaries and personal space from his two owners.

"Can I help you with something? We should be reopening from happy hour to close tonight.." Easton obviously hasn't put together yet who the guy is and is used to townspeople wandering in for a chat anytime.

"If those are the options, I think I prefer having my face slobbered on." The Dane holds out a gloved hand rather tentatively towards the dog; he is very obviously not a dog person. He's very obviously not a native speaker either; the accent is far from unintelligible but it certainly fails to pass for American. It very obviously wants to identify as BBC or Oxbridge but can't quite make the cut. "I, uh, came by to check on the repair crew. Kind of promised Bennie that I would. I didn't realise it'd be this soon, though -- heard there were even people here last night, having a quiet one."

He in turn has guessed who the other man is. Probably piecing together the fact that man and dog alike appeared from the office, a display of deduction that honestly would not impress many people. "Anyway. Hello. I'm, uh, your barback. Ravn Abildgaard."

Gunner sniffs the hand and wanders off deciding that he'd apparently rather curl back up in the office. Easton starts to get an inkling from the accent but thankfully doesn't have to puzzle it out on his own. At the introduction he 'ohs' outloud and extends a hand, "Nice t'meet you. I'm Easton." He doesn't really fill in anything around what that means about who he is in regards to the bar or anything else. "You know sadly when Clayton mentioned the bar had a new Danish guy, I was really hoping you were a new pastry supplier for our brunch crowd. " Yes, it only now is dawning on him that 'The Danish Guy' and new the new barback are one and the same.

"Thanks for checkin in on the place. I appreciate you helpin' Bennie out." There's a bit of a funny smile there like he's trying to imply something but it's not clear what, but he's trying to be friendly. It's awkward as hell.

Moving on.

"Yea, wouldn't be surprised if people were slippin' in already. I haven't always been great at things like 'closing time' and I've let some people pick up some bad habits in that regard." Plenty of locals stay after closing to have a drink with Easton, especially during the off season when they close early. And some of Easton's closest friends used to come to shut down the bar with him where he'd kick people out before close to talk about the ridiculousness of this town. He gets a little caught up in thinking about that for a moment and stares off at the bar.

Ravn's handshake is firm but not finger breaking through the kidskin glove. "I sort of figured. I'm not sure what's the appropriate greeting here -- first time I've met somebody who came back from the dead like that. Sorry to disappoint about the pastries though -- people here thought I was a Swedish chef for some time but believe me, I'm the last guy you want near a kitchen, unless something got spilled and you need a guy with a mop and bucket. I imagine Vic and Bennie already told you about anything they changed in your absence, but if you need me to be doing anything I'm not already doing --"

He pauses for a beat and then says, "I'm glad you're back. I've only worked here a month but -- you left a pretty big hole in reality. Lot of people going to be very happy to see it filled out again, the way it should be." Nope. This isn't awkward. People rise from the grave all the time.

Easton's handshake is relatively understated when compared to his voice, which is always just a touch too loud. "Well as a newly minted member of that exclusive group, I can say the appropriate response varies. So far I've been shot, punched in the face, nearly had a rib broken in a hug and thoroughly fucked." And just like Easton doesn't really have an inside voice, he also doesn't have a lot of internal filters. "I think a handshake is on the mild side, but considering yer also just meeting I'll allow it." He waves off the question about things that he might need to do. "Nah, yer fine. I'm not going to be making any big sweeping changes." He does quirk an eyebrow at mention of Vic though, now curious as to how big a role she's been playing in running the bar since he's been gone. But that's not a question for Ravn.

He shrugs and says, "Yea well with the way things go around here it's always nice when the weird breaks positive. We've recovered people before.." He then tilts his head and asks, "You've had the primer on how jacked up this town is right?" Because he almost started getting into the Veil and Dreams and all the things he's been living day in day out and while most people here can follow that it's a good reminder that 'oh yeah, not everyone is down with all that' especially when people are new to town.

Ravn can't resist a small, lopsided smile at the other man's directness. Then he nods. "Yeah. First week in town, I ended up starring as Ichabod Crane in one experience and as a tuna in the next. Things haven't gotten any less weird since. I'm supposedly a -- soft ping, someone without a whole lot of dream juice. Enough, apparently, that I can still be a chew toy for the powers that be in the absence of something with more flavour. I'm very quickly learning that 'normal' is very negotiable around here." He hitches a shoulder lightly. "My cat is apparently the goddess of vengeance of a small tribe of sewer inhabiting murder gremlins. Gray Harbor is something else."

"Bennie texted me last night -- said someone put a bullet in you." The Dane looks the other man up and down. "I got to admit, I thought you'd be -- well, in hospital, or at least lying down somewhere."

There is bruising around Easton's nose as well, he didn't mention the broken nose but really that was his fault more than anyone else's. But it's far less than it should be. Easton laughs at Ravn's abbreviated adventures. "Is it weird that I kind of wish you were Ichabod Crane AS a tuna." That's an even better mental picture of a fish dealing with a headless horseman. The mention of a soft ping gets a narrowed eye appraisal from Easton, "Heh, that's ... yeah." He tends to sense glimmer strength as a gut feel, calling it a soft ping is exactly how Ravn registers. He's slightly caught off guard by the precision of that description but recovers and moves on. "Well I hope you keep your cat very happy then. We had gremlins here in the bar once, I don't recommend it."

At the news of the text Easton shrugs, "Yeah.. technically I told Bennie I was taking Gunner out for a short walk." A five mile run and working at the bar was not in the brief that she requested. With a shrug, "I was cooped up all weekend." and that's about all the rest he's willing to give a single shot from a handgun. Especially with the help of a little Glimmer mojo to encourage healing.

"I won't tell her if you don't. Pretty sure I'd be jumping out windows, I bloody well hate hospitals. Can barely stand to visit somebody in one." The lopsided smile lingers a moment at the mental imagery of Headless Horsemen tail-slapped off their scary black horses by a tuna tail large enough to qualify as the piscatorial half of a tuna merman.

He sticks his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. Everything this guy is wearing is black -- it's very clearly a theme for him. There's not as much as a print on the t-shirt, never mind any fancy little animals on the non-existent breast pocket. "If you haven't already -- I know a bloke who does healing things. Claims he helped someone recover from an axe to the chest once. Pretty decent bloke, does sleight of hand busking for a living -- you probably know him, Aidan Kinney. Everyone seems to know everybody in this town. But if you don't, I could drop him a text, ask him to come by?"

A small nod of appreciation is all that is 'said' about not telling Bennie. "Yeah, I've spent far more than my share of time in hospitals." He lifts a leg of his warmups revealing that his left leg is a prosthetic below the knee. "So I tend to avoid them if possible." There are certainly plenty of times that he has ended up in the hospital sadly.

Easton is usually arrayed in shades of gray, white and black but today has a on an olive green tee shirt over black warmups. The talk of someone who does healing brings a grin to Easton's face. Obviously Ravn means well, so Easton makes a slight scrunched face as he says, "Yeaa. I'm married to one and sleeping with another." Because Easton will never tire of talking about Geoff, his husband, especially to confuse people. "But yeah, Aidan did in fact heal someone who had an ax to the chest. He also snapped my good leg in half, but in fairness I was beating the shit out of him with my crutches at the time and he healed me after so.. ya know, all good. I would love to see him." Easton leaves out the part where he was possibly under the influence of a serial killer ghost during the incident, just easing Ravn in to some of the more bizarre adventures.

A month ago the Dane would probably have stared blankly at the other man. Then he might have tried to dissect those sentences one by one, looking for the true meaning behind the words. Now, though? He's inundated enough to this bizarre town and its equally bizarre inhabitants to just cant his head slightly.

"Who's with who around here is something I gave up on keeping track of about -- say, three minutes after coming into town." He leans slightly against the counter with one hip, hands still in his pockets, obviously taking the other man's words at face value. "Whatever works for people is fine in my book. Aidan was one of the first people I bumped into here -- awful nice bloke, ran into him at the library. We kind of fell into talking shop, and he lent me a sofa to stay on for a few days. I still use his shower -- my boat hasn't got one, and it's not really the season for swimming in the bay. I'll admit, I didn't know Bennie had that kind of power. Or maybe she did say and I forgot -- there's a lot to keep track of for someone who until very recently thought that he and Uri Geller were the only people who bent spoons for a show."

"Yea, the fuck trees here are like spider webs." A brief pause and then a shrug of, "Small town" as if that explains that Easton possibly thinks of how people copulate in terms of diagrams? Because he means that term in the same way as family trees, just with less permanent attachments. But either way he agrees it's for the best to not try and keep track. "Yea Aidan's great, Bennie crashed out with him and Baylee for a bit way back. And he's always been willing to lend a hand, unfortunately needing to call a healer isn't uncommon." Though no one has really explained why healing isn't working the way Easton remembers it. No more instant zap and done. Maybe they're just being more cautious? Healers were targeted at one point after all.

"Yea well, I'm not even sure I know all the details anymore. Sometimes things just up and change on you anyway." There's a little bit of tension in his voice at the last part, almost like it's a threat? Or at least a warning? But his body language remains relaxed throughout. Maybe it's more of a complaint.

Ravn glances sideways at the door, almost as if he's just reminding himself that there is an escape route. Then he cants his head slightly and sighs. "There's this... thing going on. False memories. People get -- stories that never happened. Their identities get rewritten to the eyes of everyone else. I don't know if anyone's brought you up to speed on that yet. It's been pretty bad for some people. August Røn and his wife nearly didn't marry because one of those stories had him leaving her at the altar." The Dane pronounces Roen's last name as one syllable, using a vowel that very definitely does not exist in any Anglophonic language.

"There's a girl who's what, maybe twenty, twenty-a-few. Story supplied her with two husbands -- simultaneously -- and thirteen kids. There's no way she could have thirteen kids unless they were sextuplets times two and then one. One story more crazy than the next. Mine made me a Swedish celebrity chief -- Gordon Ramsay, pretty much. I got hounded around by newshounds and paparazzi. It was pretty funny at first, but now we're talking about 'fuck trees', I should probably come clean and say that there are absolutely people in this town who think I drugged Maggi Gyre and raped her on my boat. That I'm screwing Itzhak Rosencrantz. That I'm boning Aidan Kinney -- and Bennie. None of those stories are true. But it's better you hear it -- particularly the last part -- from me, instead of some other bloke, I figure."

Easton is nodding along when Ravn starts talking about fake memories. "Yea, Alexander mentioned it, but didn't really get into it." The few examples that he lists are met with raised eyebrows and then a reminder that he needs to send Ellie and August a wedding present. "But he didn't.." Easton is obviously just catching on and making sure that he doesn't have to go smack August upside the head for pulling a runaway groom.

He grimaces at poor Sparrow's story though he doesn't know who exactly was burdened with that tale. And when Ravn gets to the more serious bit about the the allegations against him, Easton's smile fades. He nods and says, "Honestly, if you and Bennie were fuckin, that's not a worry. I was gone... it's not a thing. And I wouldn't hold Itz or Aidan against ya." And then something passes over his face, "But if you ever did that to Maggi, I'd /fucking/ end you, unless Leon got there first." Yes, these are lies and rumors and Easton gets that, but the thought of it still hits a nerve and he's just twitchy enough to feel the need to spell that out.

"There's coffee on in the kitchen if you wanted some."

He takes a big sip of his now and smiles, as if the guy in town with the most guns who very recently just shot someone in this very room didn't just threaten to kill his barback.

"I approached them. The Veil people. About that. Because that did not happen and Maggi Gyre doesn't need to have people going around thinking she's a poor, helpless victim." Whether Ravn is unaware of his employer's gun collection and reputation of willingness to put that gun collection to its intended use, or he just has a bit of steel beneath the laid back exterior is anyone's guess. "They changed the story. Now I train combat seafood. Which is ridiculous, but at least it doesn't get anyone hurt."

He turns to head kitchenwards, perhaps choosing to take the statement as an invitation. "I talked to Maggi about it this morning as it happens. She's upset that the whole mess meant she had to tell her parents she married the locksmith, Leon. Who also knows that this story is bull. We owe it to the nosy rich people on the next yacht over who saw her chasing gremlins on my boat."

Easton's eyebrow quirks up at the talk of approaching the veil people. "The Revisionist." Alexander did tell him this much, even if he was only half listening, he was just really glad to be home. He nods approvingly at Ravn at getting that sorted out, even if it meant dealing with one of those things on the other side. Veil people is as good a term as any. "You train.. combat... seafood." Easton nods slowly and says, "Yea, that's pretty big upgrade from rapist. And it gives me an excuse to rubber band a knife onto a crab's back." He hasn't heard about it being lobsters specifically and was weirdly quick to come up with wanting to do that with a crab.

"Oh, they're also married." Dammit how many people got hitched while he was gone. Just wait until he hears the rumors about Byron and Lillith. Is it kind of dumb that he's considering ordering multiples of the same wedding gift now? "Yea. I should catch up with Maggi." Because he can already feel that this whole getting lost and coming back thing is doing wonders for his mental state, so he proooobably should continue treatment. Granted he also doesn't know that they now own the Pourhouse, which people seem to think is the Poorhouse. "Well good, it's probably best to make sure Leon knows that. Locksmith and all that." As in there is no where to hide.

"I've done a lot of things in my life that I regret. Rape isn't one, and I wasn't intending to make it it one." Ravn pours himself a cup of coffee before returning a lopsided smile as he turns back around to face the other man. "I have no bloody idea how I'm supposed to train a lobster to fight but if that's the trade-off for people not getting strung out with full front page colour photos in the National Enquirer? I'll learn. Revisionist, whatever it calls itself, as far as I am concerned this round goes to us."

He pauses briefly at the mental image of a crab -- or rather, a lobster -- rubber banded up with a Swiss army knife. So it can unscrew the other combatant's carapace, naturally. Or maybe use the corkscrew. Or the bottle opener.

The Dane shakes his head, dismissing his mind's attempt to escape down a much safer road of imagining absolutely ridiculous things that are no doubt very funny and belong in a Looney Tunes cavalcade. He looks back at Easton instead and returns to the subject that spawned the whole discussion about Maggi Gyre and stories in the first place. "There's -- Bennie and I. We're not, and we weren't. You have a right to hear me say that, so I'm saying it."

"Good plan" Easton confirms that adding rape to your to-do list is a bad idea.

When Ravn returns Easton is seated at the bar, taking the weight off his leg for a moment. "I'd guess you just put two hungry lobsters in a tank and see what happens? But, you're the expert, so I'll defer to you." The expert who has no idea what he's doing, that sounds about right for GH.

When Ravn comes back around to the topic of Bennie, he nods again, earnestly. He understands what a crappy position that is for this guy. "Okay. I believe you, and well more importantly I guess I believe Bennie. So no worries, seriously. You make a pass at her now and I'll let her smack you. Promise." He grins and then stretches a little, "Anyway, speaking of that hot blond, I should probably get back. It was good meeting Ravn." He gets up and lets out a short whistle blast that brings Gunner galumphing out of the office in a gangly gallop.

"You look out for yourselves, all right? We can hold the fort here for a few days longer while you recover. There's no patron so unruly Vic can't stare them into submission." Ravn side-eyes Gunner in the fashion of someone who absolutely believes you when you say the dog is friendly. Just, please, be friendly over there, that's a good dog.