2021-04-24 - Ideas and Greasy Diner Food

It is late evening in Gray Harbor. April is started and it isn't as rainy. Kailey had blown up Ravn's phone a half hour earlier with excited texts. None of which could exactly explain what she was trying too. And so she had told him to meet her at Black Bear. And so she is here, having claimed a booth, with a large sketchbook out and a small pencil case beside her. Sketching away with the book in a landscape orientation. The waitress has already brought a cup of coffee and an iced tea. The former is apparently not hers as she sips from the tea distractedly.

Nothing wrong with an evening walk and coffee that isn't instant. Ravn Abildgaard shrugged into his leather jacket and covered the not impressive distance between Gray Harbor's marina and the Black Bear at a relaxed pace, enjoying the evening air and, well, the peace and quiet of it. Heading that way also solves the eternal quandary of whether to order something or just eat that pack of stale biscuits in the Vagabond's kitchenette -- yes, so they're from last fall, they're probably still fine.

He wanders in and, upon spotting Kailey, raises a gloved hand in a lazy wave to her and the waitress alike. "So, where's the fire?"

It's well established that in this town law enforcement frequent the Black Bear (and the criminals show up when they leave - because everyone loves the menu - except for the omelettes). It's as neutral ground as one can get in these parts. So it's not surprising that there are a few officers sprinkled among the booths and tables. Everything is peaceful and as it should be. A nice calm little diner for a nice calm little town.

That is until a fairly diminutive blonde blows through the door. Her blue eyes are pointed straight at her phone and the perfunctory 'excuse me' to Ravn (whom she brushes right past) is barely audible.

You can almost hear the needle fall off the record player among the cops. A couple get up and hastily grab their coffee to go. One drops a spoon. The atmosphere tenses. But Cassidy seems pretty oblivious to it all. She just stops at the counter and calls over it, "Is Alison here? No? I want a coffee. A giant one. And something that's not an omellete. With the sourdough toast. Yes I'll take cream. No water."

"Ravn! Oh good! Thank the stars you're here. I just...I can't decide on which of all of these I like better. They all are great and I want to start working on details, but I can't possibly choose," Kailey says as she points at her sketchbook. The current page is a vague nod to Lisa Frank, though less cartoony. It has a colorless rainbow sketched out over a bay not unlike the one Gray Harbor sits on. All along the beach are people playing, but in the water are killer whales and seals and fish. All of it local sea life. "Is this too much aquatic? And then there is this one..."

And the next page is of a forest scene, with a group of people having a picnic and sunlight indicated to be streaming down. Some details are more well done, some are just sketches and notes in the margins. A detail that is more written note than visual is 'Faeries?' in little bubbles around the people. "This one I think I went too tame...and I dunno about faeries...but they make me hopeful?" She begins to turn the page again, but pauses as the temperature drops oddly in the room. Not in a physical sense, but the moods sense. And Kailey? Well she is unusually keyed in to people's emotions.

The purple head lifts and she frowns as she looks past the Dane to the counter where Cassidy has laid down her order. "Whose that?" She asks Ravn softly, not recognizing the woman. But then, Kailey rarely has need to interact with the police in the area. For which Everett is probably thankful. "Is she new?" Derailed from showing Ravn murals momentarily by the woman who turns a room with some cops quiet and fleeing. Or at least that's how Kailey sees it. Absently she adds to Ravn, "I got you coffee," As if Cassidy's order reminded her of the fact.

For some reason the tall copperblond all but teleports out of Cassidy's way as she brushes past him, as if somehow, accidentally being touched by someone in passing is a terrible and dangerous thing that must be avoided at all costs. He looks after the blond as she storms through, and then wanders over to look at the sketches -- not at all oblivious to the sudden tenseness of the scattered law enforcement officers. Something's off with that woman, clearly. Maybe she's the one who writes their pay checks.

When Kailey asks he looks back at her and shakes his head a little. "I don't think I've seen her before -- could be? Looks like the officers know her, though, so maybe not. I'm the new kid in town, remember?" He curls long, gloved hands around the offered coffee cup, leaving no fingerprints on it, and grins slightly. "Thanks. Now, slow down a bit and tell me what you're doing? Or do we go play welcome wagon in case she is new in town? You know -- before the grizzly statue comes alive again."

Instead of sitting, Cassidy turns from her order and leans her back against the counter. After her thumbs pound out a quick missive she finally actually looks at the place she entered. Hard blue eyes float across the tables. The passing of that gaze is all the 'hello' any of the police in the joint will get. Even a beat cop who does manage to break from the herd and actually wave gets little more than a tense jaw forcing a pitiful smile and a nearly imperceptible nod.

But it's the plain clothes in the booth that get her scanners to halt. Her eyes widen just a touch, neck slightly extends and the tendrils that outline her face vibrate from a very subtle shaking of her head. Her facial expression asks, 'yes?'

"Again? I missed it the first time," Kailey turns to eye the big wood-carved Grizzly near the front. "Eeehh...if she's on the force for any period of time she'll know. And given the general feel of the crowd..." She glances over at the partners in the next table over now staring quietly into their own cups. After a second Kailey realizes she had been staring when Cassidy looks at them. Kailey puts on a smile, waves cheerfully, and looks away to pick up her iced tea, taking a long drink.

"Oh oh, the pictures. They're sketches for the mural at the community center. Remember you said you wanted to see some ideas?" The sketchbook is pushed at him and while they are sketches, one could say parts of them are finished pencil drawings. Like one face is very clearly Ravn on the beach. In purple trunks and sunglasses. "So I dunno if I should do a forest scene, a beach scene, boardwalk, or like..." And she flips to another page where there is just a parade of different animals that are well known for being in the area. Bald eagles, black bears, mountain lions and bobcats. Behind them is Gray Harbor, but if it was given a fantasy twist. Complete with a dragon in the sky and the Addington's place making a very pretty castle. "I just...I can't...nothing feels quite right!" She loudly laments in the restaurant that had been pretty quiet.

Only minimal red fills Kailey's cheeks as she hunches her shoulder in embarrassment. Clearly she did not mean to talk quite that loud. Looking around the diner briefly to see if anyone cared about what they heard. Granted it is actually tame subject matter, but that statement in this town could indicate crazy is about to happen. Or call it. Hopefully not the later. "She also doesn't shine. Haven't you noticed you can see people who do and don't? All of us who can as opposed to who can't?" These words are said to Ravn in a much quieter tone."

Ravn looks at the sketches -- and at the one clearly depicting him in particular, as if he's not entirely sure how he feels about that -- and comes to the realisation that meanwhile, the brusque blonde stopped to look at them. He smiles at her, because what is he if not polite? "Nothing to declare, officer. I left it all in customs."

Foreign accent; European, probably, British -- nah, but it tries to sound that way. He looks a little amused as he glances around at the couple of actual law enforcement officers -- he knows they are, he's seen them dining in uniform, or talking to de la Vega, some of them are in uniform now -- and realises that every single one of them is very very busy studying their menu or looking out the window or otherwise signalling nothing to see here, definitely not, nope.

With another little smile he adds, "You can't be new in town, miss. That's what we were wondering -- but with that kind of aura? Next you'll tell us you're the new chief of police."

"What /aura/?" the blonde asks in a bossy, argumentative sort of lilt. Her voice is pitched fairly high, and she would certainly give off the sense of a somewhat 'basic' girly girl were it not for her demeanor and tone. She has giant bug-eyed sunglasses resting unused on her head. Pink nails. 'Cute' make-up. Her suit is a heather gray with a skirt cut at the knee. The blazer is open and the cream colored shirt beneath it is to the collar bone - no hints here (of course). The bag in the crook of her arm is overly large.

She is given her coffee at the counter and she gives a brusque "thanks" to the waiter. "I'm going over there, okay? For when the food comes," she has pointed to the booth where the artwork resides.

Cassidy grabs the giant cup of (iced) coffee and heads for the booth, "I'm not a cop." That well explained now, she studies the works of Kailey and asks in softer sort of tone, "You did these?"

Kailey's ears maybe turn red a bit but her smile is genuine for Cassidy. "Large and in charge, is the aura I think he was referring too," Kailey offers with a tilt of her head to the non-Brit. As she comes their way she glances at Ravn and then down at the pictures. She makes no move to cover them. "They're for the HOPE Center that a couple of people are working on. Community space type thing. I'm gonna do a big wall mural and I can't settle quite on what sort of design. This place is so crazy it's hard to pick one thing. And when my brain starts doing this," And she gestures at the five different sketches scattered on the table, "It's impossible for me to decide..." And she huffs and leans back to frown at the collection, chewing on her lower lip.

There's a beach scape one with familiar faces of GH sprinkled among them, the forest one, the animal one, another is only rough lines of the boardwalk on a busy and sunny day, and the last is a picture of Gray Harbor from out on the water, looking back at the marina with the city spreading back and into the forested hills around it. This one has seen some more work too with it. It has been divided into four sections and above each is written Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter with question marks. Pointing to it she says, "I was gonna put in various weather types and the look of the town changing through the seasons on this one...But is that too generic for this place?" She asks the both of them, not she has an audience.

"It's not every day you see somebody walk in here and cause the police officers to flatten themselves like rabbits in a field who just spotted a hunting dog," Ravn grins unabashedly and nods; that was indeed the aura he was referring to. Then he scoots a little, making room. "Hi, Ravn Abildgaard, not law enforcement either."

He cants his head to look at the sketches again. "I kind of like it. I mean, yes, it's kind of traditional -- but hanging on to traditions isn't a bad thing? In this town, maybe people need something familiar to cling to, sometimes. Things do happen very fast sometimes. Oh, that reminds me -- if you add a mermaid with teeth somewhere, Denny will love you forever."

"Was that a joke or something?" Cassidy asks with a slight furrow to her brow. She eyes the space made by Ravn at the booth. Then she looks at Kailey and makes a motion with her head that says, 'I'm coming in'. And she begins to sit on the same side as the other woman.

"I'm Cassidy, assistant state's attorney." she puts her bag in her lap and digs through it. She pulls out a pack of cigarettes and sets them on the table. Then a pen and sets it on the table. Then a gun and....on second thought, that one goes back in her purse. Ah! She pulls out a business card.

The cigarettes go back in the bag. Cassidy scratches off the word "King" from "King County" on her business card and writes in the word "Grays". State of Washington, Grays County, Assistant District Attorney, Cassidy Bennet. Who might be remembered as the lead face of the investigation into the Casino murders and the woman who put Joshua Foster in prison.

Once the card is placed before Ravn, Cassidy looks over the artwork and simply says, "Not that one. You never want local people on a mural because inevitably one goes to jail and you have to paint over it." She takes a sip of her coffee.

Kailey sits back and watches as Cassidy goes through her purse. "Kailey Holt, sweet face for Sweet Retreats," She chimes back in her warm and chipper voice. The booth has plenty of space and she scoots to make room for the other woman. Peering at each instrument, especially the gun, as they come out. "Nice piece," She comments with the tone of someone who at least is passingly familiar with firearms. The name, however, doesn't seem to click. Kailey being a girl who doesn't pay much attention to the local news, her head usually too deep in her art. Or other things.

Turning back to the piles she takes the one of the beach scene and slide sit back into the book from which it came. "That is a good point. Plus it was too Lisa Frank I think to boot," She agrees with a nod as she more evenly spreads out the other four. "I feel like I am missing an important piece of the place, but I dunno how to put it in. Though I suppose a sharp-toothed mermaid would work in the four seasons one," She says before chuckling at Ravn's request. Or Denny's more specifically. "Any thoughts?" She looks hopefully between the two. "Not like I can put Baba Yaga's hut in the background or something."

What a perfect excuse. "Lady's got a point," Ravn agrees. "I'm not planning on ending up behind bars but something could happen and that'd be a pity. Besides, thirty years from now, no one will remember who anyone was, and if they do, we all look very different. You can definitely put Baba Yaga's hut in there -- or at least her cormorant. The damn thing bit my leg the other day, I'm never leaving home without either tic-tacs or a flame thrower again."

If the blonde's pointed seating herself on the other side of the table bothers him he does not let it register. He cants his head to look at the card and then quirks an eyebrow. "You know, I'm not even sure what a district attorney does. Some kind of high profile lawyer? I wonder what our equivalent is back home."

"Just about every English speaking land - America included - calls it a prosecutor." Cassidy says before sliding her bag off her lap and hanging it from the little hook under the table. She looks to Kailey and shrugs. "What is the HOPE Center?"

"Well, he isn't exactly from England," Kailey says with cheerful helpfulness. "Denmark, actually!" And she beams at Ravn as if he were some star on a show. Or something. She also happens to watch far too much SVU, CSI, and such shows because she says, "They're the city lawyers. Prosecuting the physical bad folks around here. So yeah, kind of high profile. They're a city official and stuff." Finished explaining the first few things the young woman takes a drink of her iced tea, which is almost gone.

As she waves down their waiter she talks with eager excitement about the HOPE center. "It's gonna be a community center and space. With a tool and and art library and classes like yoga, kids dance or art classes, and also a place people can rent out for parties and such. I think?" She looks at Ravn thoughtfully. "And other stuff. I'm just doing one wall's art and helping with some maintenance stuff." Oh so much maintenance...but that's another thing for another time.

"Prosecutor." Ravn tastes the word much in the fashion of someone who's mentally sifting through what the equivalent might indeed be in a non-English speaking country such as his own. "Well, you know what they say, the two truly scary kinds of people in this world are lawyers and accountants." He stirs his coffee -- which may be a little odd considering he didn't actually add creamer or sugar to it -- and then sips it, an amused gleam to his blue-grey eyes. "Good to meet you, district attorney. Here's to hoping we'll never meet in a professional capacity, then."

He nods at Kailey's explanation. "All the bloody maintenance. Centre took over a derelict butcher shop on Spruce. Building is healthy enough but, place's been abandoned for a decade so a lot of repairs and fixing is required. Folks around town have been exceedingly helpful, though -- I honestly didn't think we'd end up with quite so many people with tool boxes. Which is good because I am utterly useless with one."

The woman's face squinches up when he says butcher shop. "Be sure to get it re-zoned," Cassidy says in an off-hand of lessened concentration. She's shifted her focus to her phone, which has apparently behaved and now earned more gentle taps of her thumbs. "The HOPE Center, hmm?" she asks in that same sort of 'only 1/2 paying attention to you' way. Then the phone is gently slapped face down on the table and she look up to Ravn and then over to Kailey. "Who's it for? Kids? Bums? The poor?"

Kailey glances again at Ravn as she knows he has more answers about the place than her. "Well, kids at least. At least...I offered to teach kids art classes and Ravn said yes, so..." She looks sideways at him in a way that questions whether he did or did not. It may have been an assumed yes in one of many conversations about HOPE. "I dunno the super details. Just that I wanna help make it happen. Down in Oregon, the libraries have tool loans and art rooms for making art with tools like sewing machines and donates yarn and stuff. Pretty cool right?" But that is in Oregon, not the HOPE center. So Kailey turns to the Dane expectantly.

"City zoning planner is on the team," Ravn says with a small chuckle. "Everything's by the book -- last thing anyone wants is trouble with city hall."

He sips his coffee again. "It's for everyone, really. Vulnerable people come in all ages. Some of them are homeless guys -- and some of them are kids with abusive parents, or kids who might end up not running drugs for shit and giggles if they get something else to take up space in their lives. Am talking to some people about maybe getting a program running for victims of domestic violence, too. Ordinary people, and sadly, ordinary problems. Gray Harbor's got a remarkably high ratio of homeless people though compared to similar towns on the west coast. Somebody suggested that there might be something about the place that draws them here."

"It's the crime," Cassidy says to fill in the blank about why the homeless come here. "There's a quick buck around every corner for a dirty deed." Her toast arrives and she picks up a square. She looks to Kailey and motions to the artwork, "Do, like, kids playing soccer with rare sunlight shining through the overcast."

"It's an indoors area mostly...though I could paint some sort of sports," Kailey muses as she flips open the sketchbook to a page with a number of other ideas written out. Some have micro sketches, others are angrily scratched out, others just have Xs. Sports field joints the ranks of, 'kittens frolicking???' and 'random GH notable stuff'. "It's a big space so I have a lot of room...is there a lot of crime? I mean...I haven't seen a lot of it. Sometimes the place seems pretty tame. But there was that serial killer and the whole casino thing. Which I really don't know what happened. I know knew something happened there..."

"I'm tempted to ask if Gray Harbor's really that bad but -- yeah, I did take a couple of bullets during the recent mall shoot-out so maybe I just shouldn't. Gotta say, though, haven't really seen anything bad happen all winter in the trailer park so maybe it's more -- organised. First time I've been shot for looking at flowers." Ravn smiles, a little wryly. "Eh, first time I've been shot, period."

He falls silent a moment. Not getting shot when the literal police department got attacked by armed men in riot gear was more luck than anything. Might not be the right time to mention how he tried to stab one of those men in the eye, either.

"What's Gray Harbor got that makes it so interesting from a crime point of view? I get the tourist aspect -- I've done some grifting of my own in times past, tourists are easy marks. But organised crime doesn't really go for Mr and Mrs Jones from Philadelphia, they want to deal with people who have money."

"Gotta get drugs into Victoria somehow," Cassidy says with a confident smile, looking at her phone and scrolling through some stupid app. It's just the sort of excuse someone oblivious to the Veil and all that sort of thing would invent.

Kailey looks completely surprised by this revelation and her eyes go wide. "Really? Huh...I would never have thought. Really?" It's the kind of really that isn't doubting them, but sort of shocked. In some ways Kailey can be so naive. "You know, I am not going to complain that I haven't seen much or experienced much. Just...kind of surprises me. But it makes sense too," She shakes her head and then gets enthusiastic when her own meal arrives. Waffles with berries and whipped cream with butter. Bacon on the side. Which she promptly starts chomping into. "I keep forgetting you got shot, Ravn. You healed pretty fast. Got to love this place for that...so what do you do in your spare time besides fight to keep bad guys off the streets?"

Ravn nods in that 'well, if you say so' fashion of somebody who honestly doesn't really have an opinion on the drug trade because he doesn't know much about it. "I am probably very ignorant in such matters. In my country, cannabis possession may land you in jail, more so if they nail you on intent to sell. I still feel like I should be looking furtively over my shoulder when I walk past the dispensary."

He seems to have settled simply for the coffee Kailey had already ordered for him. Yes, those biscuits back on his boat don't look very appetising but he's a little distracted and he's definitely the kind of guy who sometimes forgets about food entirely. "Didn't get hit as hard as say, Rosencrantz or Vic, either. Still, not an experience I'm in any hurry to do over. Once is enough for the bucket list, you know?"

"See? That's the shit you hear about in Mexico. With the cartels." Cassidy says about the mall shooting. "If they knew it existed, Gray Harbor would be all over Fox News instead of Baltimore." Seems she has a flair for the dramatic.

The waiter slides a second plate onto the table after the first. It's the steak and eggs with sourdough toast. Nothing fancy and meat done medium rare. The safest temperature when you are not sure. And Kailey knows Ravn likes his meat. Get your mind out of the gutter, they've talked about food. She smiles at him in a hopeful way, as if this might prove a pleasant surprise for the Dane. "I couldn't remember if you liked your meat mooing still or not, so went with the safe bet," She tells him with a nod.

"Who all do you think is involved? Or is that something you shouldn't talk about? I know in, like, SVU they generally know who the bad guys are. They just can't really pin anything on them. Is that how it actually is? Just with a lot more paperwork," Kailey talks between bites of her waffle, questions directed at the DA sitting with them.

Ravn laughs softly. You can escape the mother country, apparently, but you cannot escape mothers and their caretaking instincts. "I think I do prefer when I don't have to chase it around the table. Thank you."

He looks curiously at Cassidy as well; and why not? How often does a random Danish drifter end up at a table with a district attorney talking about the big leagues of crime? "Imagine that if there's really big money in circulation here, maybe it correlates to the port, too? The Russian mob doesn't even bother to try denying that they ship drugs and money through ports and banks in the Baltic -- which includes Denmark's east coast."

Cassidy shakes her head, "I don't know. I just got back yesterday." Cassidy's food now arrives. It's a giant fruit covered waffle.

She cuts off a square and sticks a strawberry to it. "It's just.like.SVU," she says blandly. And as she chews she adds, "And if we can't get anything on them, we have their taxes audited. That's an easy way to get 20 years some times."

Kailey smiles around her own mouthful of waffle in approval of Cassidy's own. Though she does frown thoughtfully at the tax thing. "Really? I guess if that's the easiest way to get 'em locked up..." She smiles at Ravn as he seems to appreciate her thoughtfulness. "I knew we both have a tendency to forget about food. Especially when distracted..." Like with the shiny returned DA. "Oh! Welcome back. Did you used to go to the Pourhouse?" She ask thoughtfully. "When did you leave town?" She has a bit of whipped cream on her chin and hasn't noticed. Yet.

"Heard that's how they got Al Capone -- on taxes." Ravn laughs. "This is why I have a paralegal handle all that for me. I'm clueless -- laws, regulations, and more so when you're a citizen of another country without a permanent work permit. I give her everything, she tells me what I'm supposed to pay, and where. Doesn't get any less complicated by the fact that technically, I work for the state of Denmark except I'm residing in the US. God bless the Internet."

He does that steak not too great justice, picking at it slowly and tasting each bite very carefully. One could start to get the impression that the man is thin not so much because he works out too much but because he is a very picky eater.

"Oh they get a ton of them on taxes." Cassidy says with a high pitched laugh. She picks for a new square of the waffle. "Pourhouse? Rings a bell. If it's dodgy I didn't go there more than once, maybe." She selects a bite. "I mostly came here and Two If By Sea." Swanky broad.

"I left town shortly after the Foster trial. Before they sold the casino. Went to Seattle." She smiles and kind of speaks fondly of that time, "It was a big case! So I went to the big city." She shrugs. "And then last week they said I have to come back here."

"Well very cool. Time in a big city is nice. Makes me appreciate the small towns more...and sometimes a bit less," Kailey says agreeably as she takes another bite. "Mmmm...I guess the Pourhouse looks pretty dodgy. But that's it's purposeful charm I guess. Well, welcome back to town then," She says as she starts eating more than talking. Strawberries and bacon and waffles, oh my! But she watches Ravn eat. Oh yes she does. Like a...crow?

"Worked as a bartender at the Two if By Sea last fall," Ravn nods. "Pourhouse's more my kind of place. Twofer's all tourists and rich yachters and people looking for a date -- not really my scene on either account. Same reason I don't go to the Casino -- I usually don't play well with the rich kids."

It's not that he doesn't appreciate food. It's just that he doesn't eat very much of it, but at least the bits he does eat get proper and careful attention?

Either way, the Dane looks up and adds, "Should drop by the marina sometime, though -- both of you. It's always pretty good out there this time of year, fresh air, seagulls, nice and quiet. Not sorry to be back on my boat for the season, and I've usually got a couple of beers in the fridge."

Cassidy furrows her brow at that and thinks for a moment. "It was usually empty as far as I recall..." She shakes it off and wraps up her waffle. "I guess the tourism industry in this town somehow started attracting the masses." She laughs as if to perish the thought. "New casino? Who knows. Maybe." She stands and collects her bag, "Well this was quaint. Thanks Kailey and..." she looks at the Dane and instead of trying to repeat his name as he said it she just goes with "Rahv".