2020-12-30 - Threat Level Red?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Heard the New Years party got dramatic and for once not because Cthulhu dropped by or leprechauns drank all the champagne. How you holding up? SETH mentioned there was a bit of an explosion when Taylor and his guy apparently announced their engagement.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : c'mon, you know goddamn well de la Vega stormed out

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Yeah, that's pretty much what SETH said.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : you're going to allcaps him at me forever now aren't you

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Yes.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I'm on a plane somewhere above the Atlantic, let me have my amusements.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : Taylor's guy is Cris Cruz. there's bad shit between him and de la Vega. no, you don't want to know.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Naw, not going to ask. I need to know that you, and by extension, the captain, are all right. I don't need to know everything that's been swept under the carpet.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Because, well, I like you guys. And because in Gray Harbor, drama tends to turn up to 11 once the Veil catches a whiff.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : ...no. he's not okay. and I'm pretty messed up too but fuck it. we'll get through it. Cruz will marry Taylor and they'll have their happy ever after. I'm real fond of Taylor, he deserves to be happy.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : Cruz...I thought he was my friend. but now I'm not so sure.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : He's been decent enough the times I met him. You know, for a stuffy European aristo. 😉

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I don't think I've met the other guy. Might have seen him in passing at the Twofer, wouldn't be able to point him out in a line-up.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : hey, how amazing is it that queers can even get married, these days? wasn't like that most of my life.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : yeah, this is me changing the subject, you wanna make something of it?

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : okay, I lied, I wanna say one more thing about it. De la Vega's not in love with either of them. I hear that might be going around. not true. that wasn't about him being jealous.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Well, I could tell you that Denmark was the first country in the world to allow and carry out a sex change operation, if that counts. Apart from that, no. I know what I need to know. You guys are sorting it out. Gray Harbor won't be on fire when I get back.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : But hey, for things that will spawn rumours? Guess who joined me over here.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : oh yeah how did that go! You said she was coming over

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Hee. Well. It's love at first sight. I think the art school has a girlfriend.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : haaa I just bet it does.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : speaking of stuffy european aristos

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : You know that language thing some of you people do, where you pick language up from other people? She did that. Which means I have now realised that a) I don't know nearly as much about 16th century architecture as I thought I did, and b) Hyacinth Addington can lecture me on it in my own language.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Don't be silly, she's American.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : yeah! she's got that, she and Alexander are the strongest readers in town. as far as I know, anyway. aside from like Old Lady Addington.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : It looked to me like she had a good time. And, you know, being away from said Old Lady Addington.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I mean, I thought my family history was complicated but I got nothing on them. And at least the old bitches in mine do me the favour of being dead.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : right? the old lady's a real piece of work. I owe you the story about her and about their rotten fucking ancestor.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : now that it's definitely cold and gloom and the whole state's made of mildew

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I think I may have picked up parts of it but I wouldn't at all mind hearing the full story. Hyacinth knows it but, I don't want to grill her too hard. It's very, VERY up and personal for her, and I'm hardly some old friend she's leaned on for a decade.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : yeah, uh. She took the worst of it.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : and the old bitch still expects her to smile and make nice for the holidays

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Pretty much why she bailed to Denmark, yeah.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Some of the things she's said make me lose sleep, that's for sure. Particularly the part about the Baxter ghosts.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : It's a little hard to look at Clayton or Grant Baxter and know that as far as the Veil and the Old Lady are concerned, they're nightmare fuel to be harvested whenever's convenient.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : yep. that'd be this stuff.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Yeah. I'm not just interested in this as a folklorist. It's not just theoretical here.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : shit, it'd be nice if this stuff had any relation to the stories. some of it kinda does, but most of it's just buck fucking wild.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Well, it all has relation to the stories insofar that it actually all pretty much seems to fall within archetypical patterns. It's just that it's -real-. And that knowing how it works doesn't make it stop. What I'm hoping for, maybe, is to get better at predicting what comes next so we can deal with the fall-out.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : so uhh would you hate it if I asked you if you're interested in Hya?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Some of us can heal, some of us can open and close doors, some of us can fight -- what I can input is knowledge, I suppose.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Uh. You'd not be the first to ask?

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : yeah, that's the kind of shit you're good at. Not me, brother

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : well, I just figure, if I know if you are or not, you know. If you are, I can wingman for you if the chance comes up, yeah?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I think it's too early to say whether there's anything there. She's attractive, certainly. Intelligent, pleasant company. And I admit that I'm not as unhappy as I thought I'd be, that we've got some background in common. But I'm not really a relationships kind of bloke. And also, there's the rebound issue.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I've got a long history of fucking up relations with women the moment I stop thinking of them as people and start thinking of them as women, too.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : ? what's that mean? thinking of them as women?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : You know. You meet people of either gender, you hang out, you do things, you don't think of them in that context. Once you start, though, everything becomes bloody awkward, and then I at least miss or mis-read most cues and end up screwing things up.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Then they turn up on your boat with a bottle of wine and you think they need somebody to talk to and work through things with but ACTUALLY. 😛

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : uhhh well I can't say I ever think of anybody apart from them being a man or a woman or an nb or a trans or whatever, to be real honest? and, well, I guess I ain't PROUD of it but I also think about having sex with just about everybody too.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Hahah. Well. In Danish we say that thoughts are customs free.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : As in, you don't have to declare them.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : this is why a girl turning up on MY boat with booze, wanting to look at the stars, would definitely get what she wanted. probably. most likely. So yannow, your way sure ain't bad. keeps you out of trouble.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Yeah, I guess. It's all very complicated and I'm not very good at it.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : But, I do know a few things. Like, rebound is supposedly a good time to hit on a girl because she's vulnerable. It's just also one hell of a dick move.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : christ no, that shit's gross.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I can't say that there couldn't have been something Bennie and me, for example, if things had progressed over time (and, you know, her de facto husband and true love hadn't popped back into existence). But if there had been, it would have been after I was pretty damn sure it was not a rebound thing.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : And that's kind of in play here as well. Hyacinth told me she proposed to a guy sometime back. He did not accept.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Maybe I'm a bit... You know, maybe women don't need every shark in the pool to pounce on them the instant they stick a toe in.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : nah, of course they don't. it's just showing up with booze and climbing in your lap ain't exactly THEM getting pounced. all that said, yeah, I wouldn't have fucked her either, knowing Marshall. ....or I would have. shit, I don't know, lol

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : glad I didn't have to make the call

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : No, but it's still rebound and making bad decisions that you're probably going to regret later. Replacement goldfish is not the real deal.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : yeah well, you're way more sensible than me, buddy. I was in endless fuckin amounts of trouble back home.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Also, I want to punch whoever's making up these shitty Veil stories in the face.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Setting Hyacinth up as married to the guy who turned down her proposal? That's a dick move on a galactic scale.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : I was there when she proposed to him. It was a weird Veil thing? The girls in the room suddenly wanted to propose to their guys. That's when Ellie proposed to Roen, actually

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : aaaand I mighta been high on Vicodin and wine and texted literally the entire town

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I suggested that at first to her, about the Christmas party affair. That she turn up with some arm candy, distract people that way. And she told me about how it would just get even more complicated because she's supposedly married to this bloke. And then it all came out.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : So not only has the Veil chained her by the ankle to a guy who didn't want her, it's also effectively prevented her from finding someone who does.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : really? and she wouldn't just claw the eyes out of anybody giving her guff about it?

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : I mean, that's what I'd do, if anybody gave me a single word of shit about being with de la Vega

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Gotta remember, you're not the de facto crown princess of Gray Harbor. Everyone watches the Addingtons and her in particular.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : ugh. you royal types, man. gotta think about shit, what fun is that?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Maybe that's why she feels she can tell me about it. Though I've never been in a position quite like that.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : ... Also a very big part of the reason I'm a grifter in Washington State these days.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : you got someone to manage the shit for you back home, I guess?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I've never been involved with anything. There's a company that has my name on it, but it's pretty much its own thing, run by people who would be decidedly not thrilled to have me suddenly start thinking I know jack all about business and finances.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Hyacinth runs her own business. I admire that. For all her rich girl, glamorous attitude, she's about this town and getting stuff done.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : yeeees she is. I like her a lot. and she's gorgeous. not everybody could rock everything they got, and some things they don't got, like she can.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : That, pretty much.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Her and Vydal and for that matter, Taylor, are all very... approachable. Reasonable.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : haha, you're the only person I ever known to say Vyv is approachable and reasonable

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Really?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : He's got attitude up to here but apart from that he seems pretty decent to me.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : really. he's got quite the reputation yannow. I like him too. shit I like just about everybody, I'm easy. Even Cavanaugh.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Maybe it's because I met him under unusual circumstances. I mean, we were bloody fish.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : it breaks the ice, meeting someone in a dream.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : You and Taylor are friends, right?

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : yeah, we are, why

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I think on some level I'm worried that things will change.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : what things? change how?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : When you asked me about running things back home just now I had this gut feeling to change the subject. Which kind of tells me that I'm worried about how I come across to you.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : what? I am super not picking up what you're laying down right now, give it to me straight

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : [contemplative dots]

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : I feel like an entitled asshole.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : what for?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Not sure. I think it's about how I see myself. I'm a guy who lives in a trailer park and tutors online to pay rent. So on some level, rubbing elbows with the Addington heiress forces me to take a long hard look at myself.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : well, look. the other rich fucks in town, they own it. and maybe it does you some good to see that you don't have to be a fuck about it, yeah?

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : That's kind of half the issue right there. I'm not rich. My name is rich. It's a theoretical difference, I realise that, but it's a pretty big damned deal to me.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : look, not for nothing, but from where I am, your name being rich and you being rich is a hair I can't split.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Let's say you discover you've got some rich uncle tomorrow. He's actually kind of an asshole and he probably made most of his money working for the Nazis but hey, he's willing to write you a big cheque. Would you feel comfortable taking it?

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : you know what I'd feel comfortable doing? donating that check. probably to the nonprofit I got violin lessons from. They don't need to know where it came from. They just know it becomes instruments and they can pay their instructors something and they can take in a lot more kids like me.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : ... Good point.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : would I take that money for ME? nah, I gotta say, I probably wouldn't. but I'd put it where it can do some good.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : That company back home that has my name on keeps a lot of people employed. But it's got nothing to do with me, personally. I don't want to take money from it, and I don't want to get a free lunch anywhere because of it.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : And it's one of the things that I need to sit myself down and deal with, at some point, if I ever want to even consider the idea of there being something between Hyacinth Addington and me. Because no bloke who's hanging off the arm of the princess of Gray Harbor gets to not have a background check done by the Gazette.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : So when you ask me if I'm interested in her? It's very, very complicated. On both sides. And maybe better to just not poke that hornet's nest.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : honestly? shit's complicated between me and Javier too. We just fucking do it. what helps is that we're both from kinda the same place. He had it worse than me, a lot worse, but that we both grew up poor in trash conditions and that we had to get out of it? That we're both working class guys from poor families? We got a lot in common. That's kinda like you and Hya.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : just saying, sure it's complicated, but maybe being complicated ain't the worst thing in the world.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : That's a fair point too.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Not going to pretend I'm not a little envious of people who have relationships like that.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : I'm an ex con and he's a ranking cop, but we really ain't so different. He just made a lot better decisions than me about a lot of stuff.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Yes, well, making bad decisions is something I can relate to. 😆

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : You never told me what you did that landed you in the slammer. Do you want to?

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : like, he joined the Marines, wasn't no way in hell I was going into the military. Probably I shoulda, like him and Roen.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Much as I respect people who stand up for good in this world, the idea that having to go abroad and kill other people in order to become a decent person is a trifle unhealthy. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that evil gets fought. But, there's something fundamentally wrong when the best way to exit a miserable background is to sign up to become a professional warrior.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : sure. it ain't nothing too exciting. I was a car thief and a breaking and entering man. B&E, we call that, and GTA, grand theft auto. Well, it was grand because I racked up a pretty good score. I was working bottom rung shit like that and turning it around to whoever would buy it. I did a long damn term because I resisted arrest when they finally ran me down. Freaked out, lost my shit, went after the guy coming for me. I'm pretty fucking lucky they didn't gun me down. If I was black or Latino I'd be dead.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : one of the cops actually ordered the others to hold fire and he talked me down. De escalation, that's a thing Javier does a lot.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : You're probably right about that. The black or Latino thing. 😕

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : And yeah, the military sucks up poor people, and that's fucked up. My pop was in Vietnam. It fucked him up. Some black or brown kid doing the exact same things I was probably would have got shot and that's fucked up.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Yeah. I was just thinking, Dubya didn't go to Vietnam, he stood on parade in Washington D. C.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : Prison...was rough. It was the most fucked up thing of all.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : My knowledge of US prisons is... pretty much non-existent if you take Hollywood out of the equation. But, I don't imagine that Hollywood made up everything out of thin air.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : this is more stuff that for me and Javier, actually kinda works in our favor. We both come from that kinda thing. He never did time, but he knows damn well what it's like in there, especially for a nineteen year old queer car thief. So he understands a lot that I don't have to tell him.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Yeah. 😕

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : The world isn't fair, though. I mean, even I know that.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : I mean, Hollywood is stupid about everything, prison's no exception. Yeah I went through real bad shit, yeah I was caught in a riot, yeah I did bad shit to survive. But mostly? It was incredibly fucking boring, and most days, the worst shit about it is being treated like a little kid who can't be trusted not to piss in a corner or eat glue. ...which, to be fair, plenty of guys in there are actually like...

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : That honestly doesn't sound very different at all from being in a mental ward. The boredom, I mean. And the constant monitoring.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : oh Christ, I was driven out of my fucking mind by the boredom. My cellie, great guy, told me stupider guys have it easier, and smarter guys have it harder.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Some of the people I travelled through Europe with had done time. One thing they all said was, it didn't make them better people, it just made them better thieves.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : and I mean...you weren't in prison, but you've done time in a place they wouldn't let you walk to the bodega for a pack of smokes and a nudie mag. It's fucking humiliating, when you can't do normal every day shit, you must know that.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Oh yes. Shoulda seen the look on my face when I realised that I couldn't even wash my hands because you need staff present to turn on the water in the sink, you might be trying to drown yourself in it.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : You're a grown man but they don't trust you with a plastic spoon lest you use it as a weapon.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : yep. I was the contraband king inside. I was the guy who everyone went to for a hookup. That was because of the Song. I could hide just about any damn thing, lift anything, too. Nobody knew how I did it, and that's the way I liked it.

(TXT to Ravn) Itzhak : God, you know exactly how it is. Do they let you shit in private? In prison, obviously, you kinda can't. That was hard for me, actually, I was shy about a lot of stuff when I went in. Got broke of most of it pretty quick.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : After a while everyone kept telling me to transfer to a private hospital and maybe get better treatment, more comfort. Because I could afford it, you know? That's when I decided that when I got out, I was done. Leaving. Gone. Because if homeless schizophrenics and alcoholics who worked their asses off for society for forty years only to get dumped in the gutter like so much debris don't deserve help, then neither does some privileged asshole whose only contribution to society is that he got born in it.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : They do, if you're not on suicide watch. But you can't lock the door, and there is absolutely nothing in there that can in any fathomable way be used to hurt yourself or someone else.

(TXT to Itzhak) Ravn : Anyhow, it's stupid o'clock in my head. And it's going to be stupid o'clock when this bird lands, nevermind when I get back to Gray Harbor. I got ordered to report in for an Introduce Clayton to Star Wars dinner at SETH's and I know I will pass out face first in the potato salad if there is one. I need to catch some sleep -- but I'm glad to hear you and the captain have things under control and the dramatics weren't threat level red.