2021-04-24 - Painting the Walls Not Red

Today Kailey has arrived with buckets of paint, trays, rollers, drop canvas, and blue tape for edges. There's even a ladder in her van. Of course she can't bring it all in on her own, but she tries. The four buckets of paint are in each hand and the bags with rollers and brushes on one wrist, the drop cloths and tape in the other. She winds up lightly kicking the door as her hands prevent opening the center's door.

"You know, you could ask for help," Ravn suggests, laughing softly, from inside. The Dane's dressed not much different from his usual hipster hobo look -- the jeans are perhaps the oldest he's got, and the shirt does look a little worn, and maybe he just intends to toss it all later if he manages to get himself covered in paint spatters. There are blue spatters on the shirt already -- the same shade of cobalt as the Vagabond's paint job. Maybe not a coincidence. The omnipresent black kidskin gloves have been replaced with bright canary yellow rubber gloves for the occasion -- gloves are gloves, but why ruin a good pair by getting paint all over them, indeed.

He's covered the floor of the front room in -- you'd expect plastic or at least old newspapers, but it seems to be correspondence: Old invoices, pages of shop accounting, the occasional customer complaint in hand writing, all the paperwork you'd expect from a decade of shop ownership. Looks like he found something more useful to do with the previous owner's paperwork than the city dump.

"You got an invoice for all of that, right?" The Dane glances at the small arts and crafts shop that Kailey brought. "I got a couple of businesses offering to cover at least part of our expenses."

Aidan emerges from the back, nose wrinkled, giving the place a slightly confused look over his shoulder as he does. He, too, is dressed presumably for painting, which is to say in a pair of jeans that might actually date to when their acid-washed quality was totally en vogue and a t-shirt that advertises the virtues of 'Sun!'. Just 'Sun!'. In a jazzy font with a cartoon sun behind it. As though people might not be buying enough of it. The seam on one side has part sewn up inexpertly, which may be why it's today's choice. The old sneakers he's wearing are already rather paint-spattered.

"I dunno," he's saying as he heads in, "It's gotta come from somewhere but so far I kinda can't pin it down, and anywhere I clean-- oh, hey, Kailey! You know we could carry some of that, right?"

For anyone who might pay attention to these sorts of things, a figure appears as a shadow against the paper covered front door window. First's it's just a head, but as the person approaches, the shadow rises up as if sprouting from the belly of hell until it displays a woman's figure.

A few seconds later the door is pushed ajar to reveal nothing so tall as the shadow impression may have suggested. This is a diminutive blonde. Today she is presented in a freshly pressed, well-tailored suit of dark gray. The blazer's cut is fairly open and deep to a single button, but her cream blouse is buttoned nearly to the neck. The skirt isn't so tight to restrict movement and is past the knees. Her hair is down in waves that cascade over one shoulder. On her face are way too big sunglass.

Her large purse dangles in the crook of one arm and the other hand carries a huge iced coffee. The door is pushed open with a shoulder. "So this is the place?"

"Pffft! I grabbed what I could. You can get the door for help and the rest from the van. Just close the door when you're done," Kailey says with a playful roll of her eyes and grin. "Oh, yeah. The receipt is in one of these. The ladder is mine as are the dropcloths. They're already covered in paint and I've got several soOOooo..." She grins and shrugs as she moves into the old butcher shop and sets them down. Then she wrinkles her nose. "Ugh. Didn't you get that diffuser and some lavender oil like I suggested? Still smells like spoiled meat and ass."

She turns around as the door reveals the appearance of the local DA. She is about to greet her when Aidan appears and she turns her smile on him. "Well yeah. But I had it all and it's my workout," She says with a chuckle. Kailey's own clothing is already paint splattered. Though it is more true spatter like that from spray paint. Her jeans have all sorts of colors, though nothing below the knee but a drip of two. The black shirt is just a colorful spray of colors against the plain black and worn tee. "How are you doing?" She asks, glancing from Aidan to Cassidy. "OH! I also stopped and got coffee and then croissants. Those are in the front seat if ya wanna grab em?"

Ravn raises a hand in a lazy rubber yellow salute to Aidan and Cassidy as well. "Well, if it's the HOPE centre you were hoping to find, then this is the place -- or it will be, once we get it up to speed, and find out where the hell that smell is coming from. If you think it's bad now you should have experienced it before Aidan and a couple of others got to work on it -- smelled like a moose was rotting under the floorboards."

You take what you can get, the man's tone implies as he walks over to help unload Kailey's generous amount of supplies. Sure, Gray Harbor has a lot of cheap buildings for rent or sale these days but, not every company's willing to rent out to a nonprofit. Mostly because nonprofits are somewhat notorious for, well, not turning a profit.

If one's observant of that kind of thing, most of the spatter on Aidan's shoes also looks a bit... spray-painty. "I mean, it kinda depends where you were looking for," he notes to Cassidy, "Like, if you wanted Safeway, this definitely isn't the place, but if you wanted HOPE..." a gesture toward Ravn's answer and the room in general: ta da! "Also hi, I'm Aidan." He's already starting toward the door, possibly to flee but more likely to get things from Kailey's van, particularly given he turns halfway to walk backwards with an, "Ooh, croissants? Did you get any of the chocolate kind?"

Cassidy steps aside and away from the door so she doesn't get backed into by Aidan. "Cassidy..." she replies to his introduction. The smell hadn't yet hit her, but now she's sniffing for it. "You said it was a butcher shop? I believe it."

"So. Where's the mural? What did you two decide on?" she demands - friendly-like - to know from Ravn and Kailey - who it appears she has decided to claim as pals.

"Is my hair purple?" Is Kailey laughing reply to Aidan when he asks about chocolate croissants. This is Kailey, the queen of sweets. That and she's been known to buy out Vyv's last 4 on several occasions. How does she keep her figure? Oh yeah, running from monsters. "Also almond and plain," She adds with a glance at Ravn and then Cassidy.

"Oh! We haven't started on the mural yet. We've got to repaint the walls first. Sort of like gessoing a canvas. And I dunno yet. Aidan, were you working on some mural concepts too?" She calls after him and out the door. Turning she points to the main entry wall behind the desk. "It'll be there...or possibly down the hall. But those are both good, big expanses to work with. It's up to Ravn really..."

The stuff she got is slowly unpacked. First fishing out the receipt and holding it out to Ravn. "Oh! And the hardware guy said to call and make an account with them so they can give you a non-profit discount on future stuff."

"Not complaining about the hardware guy being friendly," Ravn replies with a grin. "Murals, though? Your call -- both of you -- not mine. The way this whole thing is set up, nothing gets to be the decision of just one guy. Makes us too vulnerable -- something happens to that one guy, everything grins to a halt. Besides, anarchy is love, right? Place is probably going to end up somewhat reminiscent of a hippie commune in the 1970s but, as far as our agenda is concerned, the Age of Aquarius ain't a bad start."

He nods at Cassidy even as he helps himself to more buckets and brushes from Kailey's generous supplies. "Place used to be a butcher shop, yeah. Butcher walked out one day, no one knows why. All this stuff I put on the floor? Myself and a couple of other people have gone over every single line to find out what happened. One volunteer's an accountant -- she's been going over his books, there's nothing. For all we know, the guy just... decided he was going to go be a beach bum in Tampa Bay now."

A wry smile flies Aidan's and Kailey's way. "You know, a little like me. Except, not Tampa Bay."

An unintelligible sound of happiness floats back to Kailey's confirmation of chocolate croissants, and a just audible, "Kinda!" before Aidan's pretty much out of range and loading up with what's left in that van. Coffee and pastry very much included. He'll be a sec.

"Oh I seee...." Cassidy drawls as she turns to look from Kailey has motioned. The redoutable counselor trying hard to be interested and personable. "So Rav has you working for free?"

Cassidy turns back around and smiles at them both as waves of yellow swing into her face and are promptly pushed back away from her eyes. "Usually in an anarchy the one guy who decided to make decisions gathers people together and wipes out the leaderless communes." Luckily mural choices are not nearly as life-or-death as TV written post-apocalyptic society.

Kailey stands up and turns a warm smile on Cassidy. Except there is a glimmer in her eyes. "I have a spare smock in the van if you'd like to stay and help paint," She offers and reveals the ulterior motives. Surprise crosses her face when the woman asks about working for free. She looks at Ravn and then back. "Some of this we're volunteering for. Some of it he's paying for. No it isn't art for 'publicity'. Ravn would probably scoff at that much as any true artist should," She says with a smirk. "Helping fix this place up...we're volunteering. I'm hoping to help make a place my kids can come and make friends, learn, and have fun."

She slants a sideways look at Ravn and seems unsure for a second before nodding. "Okay then. Murals for everyone!" And she throws up her hands, one hand holding a brush which is not sent flying. In the other a roller. "You're not a beach bum. You've got a boat. And by the way we are -so- going salmon fishing. It's almost the season. I'll show you all the tricks." She did grow up fishing in the Pacific Northwest for the most part.

"Everything here is donation or volunteer based," Ravn confirms. "We've got some financial backing that covers utilities, rent, and so on. All actual work is volunteer and, well, pro bono, though -- also my own. Place doesn't have any paid staff to make you wonder why their work is worth money and yours isn't. And, well, yes. Exposure doesn't put food on an artist's table, that's about the biggest bull in the history of grifting -- and I should know, I used to be a grifter."

He laughs at Aidan as the younger man disappears croissant-wards. Because of course he does -- this is Aidan, he is powered by sugar and curious sartorial choices. Then the Dane nods at Kailey and chuckles. "You realise I'm from an archipelago, right? Maybe I can show you a trick or two about salmon fishing at sea."

Cassidy just huhs and shrugs. She diverts her eyes back toward the big walls where the painting is happening, "Well I'm sure it'll be cute."

Kailey nods with enthusiasm at Cassidy as she stands up. "All we're doing today is base white, though. Did you want to help or do you have to go off and save the city from mundane villainy?" She asks. There is one thing that can be said for Kailey, she is a very cheerful woman. The roller is held out to Ravn as her attention turns to him. She purses her lips in thought for a second or two. "This seems like a challenge. A fishing challenge! See who can catch the biggest. Loser has to clean and cut up the catches?"

And lo, an Aidan reappears! The chances seem good that he's managed to get everything Kailey left in the van, largely because he's managed to balance pretty much all of it on the ladder. This is surprisingly effective! It also leaves him suddenly stopping several ladder-filled feet outside the door, and blinking at it, as he realises he can't reach the knob from where he has to hold the ladder to keep it horizontal, he can't tilt the ladder without things falling off, and he can't turn the ladder and get it through the door. This bears a moment or two of thought.

The first thought that comes to mind for solving this gets rejected as he eyes the shape of Cassidy in there -- Cassidy, who entirely fails to ping his Sparkle Meter, and who walks around wearing a suit. The combination has not, historically, bade well for little exercises into The Unexplained, unless he's in a position to make it look like the kind of magic they believe in. Another tiny pause, and then the end of the ladder tinks extremely gently against the door, once, then again. Knock knock?

Ravn takes one look at Aidan outside and then manages to suppress a laugh. Yes, he gets it. He knows the other man well enough to realise that under normal circumstances, this is where stuff would have quietly levitated itself inside and no questions asked, but now -- now things are a little more complicated. He walks over to open the door as to allow the ladder and its handler inside the old fashioned way. "You know, you could go twice, or let one of us help." Steel grey eyes sparkle with amusement.

Then he nods back at Kailey. "You're on. But I'm warning you -- fishing is how my father thought he'd make a man out of me for at least four consecutive summer vacations, and while I never did become an outdoorsman to any great extent, I do know my way around a red vibrax spinner."

(Clearly not well enough to know that those went out of manufacture ten years ago, Ravn).

He glances at Cassidy at that. "So what does a district attorney do for fun? Got to admit, I never talked to a lawyer before whom I wasn't either on the wrong side of, or paying."

Cassidy ohs! as she sees a giant ladder coming with stuff meticulously stacked on it. She wonders silently at the architectural genius who could've accomplished it. Until she is shaken back to the conversation by Ravn. "Fun? Usual things like anyone else. Grab drinks. See a movie. Board games with friends. Things like that." But something about the sound of her voice gives away that it's likely been a very long time since she's caught a movie, or done 'board games with friends'.

The DA takes down a good portion of that ice coffee with a single sip and then looks back to Aidan. "Impressive ladder carrying there."

Kailey looks coy for a moment when Ravn nods at her about the bet. She reaches out to seal his hand and seal the deal with a sly, "Hygge!" And she actually gets it! How about that. Accent and all. Looking rather pleased with herself. Someone's been using Golingo or some such. "You know those are -so- last decade right?" She asks him with a smirk.

"Ah! Aidan, you got it all," Kailey praises as she moves from painting supplies to energizing supplies. Quickly she takes the big Starbucks togo of coffee and the other is a bakery to-go box from Patisserie Vydal. And yes, there are croissants as well as other baked goodies in there. Coconut macaroons, macaroons, danishes, and a selection of cookies. From the box the woman retrieves a chocolate croissant and with it in hand asks of Cassidy, "You've had these before you left, right? They're so good! And we should totally do a game night. I've been meaning to suggest doing a trivia night somewhere."

More complicated, but thankfully Aidan (and the ladder o' bounty) is saved! "Thanks!" he says brightly to the compliment on his ladder stackin' skillz, "I practice on my days off," adding Ravnward, "And thanks," for the opening of the door. There would still be something of an Issue with putting things down, except there's at least six other hands in this room and they're surely adept at solving this problem! ...at least the part that involves snacks. He watches the chocolate croissant emerge from the box and prompts Kailey with a hopeful sound from a handily opened mouth. Snack goes here!

Ravn leaves the ladder man feeding to Kailey and just starts plucking off supplies, laughing. "Honestly, board game night or trivia night? Both sound like fun to me. Definitely more my kind of fun than karaoke or going clubbing. But then, I'm an academic nerd, boring is what I do." He winks.

Then glances around. "You know, that's something we could definitely do here, once we get the smell out and the place up and running. Why not? A lot of the people who'll be using this place are essentially in need of other people to connect with. Why not do something like that? Not every social occasion in someone's life has to centre around beer and recreational drugs. Or hey, maybe I'm just ready to join the grandma brigade and get started on knitting some doilies, who knows."

"Oh I love karaoke." Cassidy suddenly admits with a bit of a slow dip. Her eyes widen a bit and she smiles. "You know the last time I went out to karaoke I got the acting chief of police to get up there and sing Journey?" she laughs a single laugh. "I used to have a little home karaoke machine in my dorm in college and we'd practice on the regular." This is a thing. College girls practicing karaoke in their dorms in preparation for nights out. Ask anyone.

"I love karaoke too!" Kailey enthuses as she saunters up to Aidan. For a second it looks like she might eat it right there in front of him. But she reverses her grip and sticks it in his gaping and hungry mouth with a giggle. Reaching out to tap him on the nose with a powder-sugar encrusted fingertip. Then fetchers her own croissant. "I can totally run a trivia night. I bet we can find one of those little popcorn machines and sell popcorn. I've my food handlers license you know?"

Turning back to Cassidy she continues to enthuse about karaoke. This girl's brain easily hopping from one thing to the other. "Oh that is so cool! You did? Last time was rock themed and I was the only one to choose one of the four secret bands of the night. Meant I got my tab taken care of," She looks ever so please. "Glenfinnan 10 year is soooo good with mozzarella sticks. How did I not know this?"

You know who's got a stellar set of puppy eyes? You know, for not actually being a puppy? Aidan, that's who. So big and brown and limpid and sad! It doesn't seem to be intentional, either, which only makes it worse/better. They brighten right back up, though, when she reverses course and tucks the pastry into his mouth. "Mmnk mmh!" he says in a tone in which it can only possibly translate to 'thank you', and wrinkles his nose happily at the tap.

He's quiet a few moments while things get unloaded from the ladder. It has apparently not occurred to him until now that he won't be able to actually bite until that's done, but he can be patient. As long as it doesn't get soggy. Once Ravn has things sufficiently unloaded, Aidan tilts the ladder, catches the last item or two in his now-free arm, and carts the thing over to lean it against the wall. The bite is finally taken then, chewed as he carries the last couple things to set them down beside the rest. "All of those things are awesome and we should definitely do them. Except maybe the whiskey 'cause I think we'd need a liquor license."

Ravn pauses a moment to tap his own lip with a (bright yellow) gloved finger. "Pourhouse's just across the street though -- might be able to use theirs if they're the ones doing the services, so to speak? Pretty sure we could talk the Gyres into something like that -- I mean, they already do karaoke night." And with a side eye to Kailey he adds, "I might have to request a flat ban on such abuse of perfectly good whiskey, though. Show some respect, woman. Think of all the little scots that had to be reared, butchered, and boiled in a vat to make you that drink."

Beat. Shudder. "Got to admit, karaoke, though? It's fun to watch. There is no way in hell anyone's getting me on to a stage to sing. In part because I'm too bloody asthmatic and in part because no way in hell, period."

"I work for the state, not the city." Cassidy tells Aidan with a little brushing wave of her hand as she totally assumes he made the point about having a liquor license just because she's there. One might imagine the little signals of law abiding-ness thrown her way on a daily basis.

"Oh yeah?" the blonde tilts her head and smiles competitively at Ravn. "Is that a challenge? You're stronger man than De La Vega? Won't be bullied into public singing by a little blonde girl?"

Kailey finds herself chuckling at the interaction between Ravn and Cassidy as she eats her own croissant. Powdered sugar only adding to the colors on her shirt. "I know nothing about liquor licenses. I was suggesting popcorn and soda for trivia night to make it teen and kid friendly. Heck, we could probably find a karaoke machine and do a teens karaoke night," She seems excited by the idea, her eyes wandering off into the middle distance as she moves to get herself a cup of coffee from the togo tub she brought.

"Careful," Kailey tells the DA between bites. "I'm pretty sure Ravn has no manhood to offend. You'll need to try a different tactics." She turns and flashes a toothy grin at Ravn. Indicating her words are playful...mostly. Or maybe she's just trying to help Cassidy get him to sing.

Aidan tilts his head at Cassidy. "You work for the state? What do you do?" he asks, and either he's a good actor or he really doesn't know. Or conceivably both, but in that case the former probably isn't relevant right now.

He settles in to lean comfortably against a wall and eat his croissant, with every evidence of enjoyment but at least passable manners, like finishing chewing or at least holding a hand in front of his mouth before he asks, with another tilt of the head, "Wouldn't being bullied into stuff by a little blonde girl kinda look less manly than standing your ground? I mean, I don't have asthma or anything so I'm down to sing, whatever," and by general evidence (though less of it today) he probably isn't all that worried about public perception of his manhood, "but I mean, theoretically speaking..."

"Have to admit that I haven't exactly thought of myself as a tougher cookie than the Captain, but on this? I will fight lions." Ravn grins back at Cassidy. "Also, I suspect that unlike me, de la Vega probably has a half-decent voice, he seems like the kind of man who would have. I know he appreciates music -- he'd have killed Rosencrantz a long time ago if he didn't, because music is that man's life." Ravn laughs and does indeed not look like public emasculation bothers him all that much. "If I ever do get on a stage, and I find that exceedingly unlikely -- but if I ever do, it will be with an instrument, not to sing. I am badly asthmatic, that's not a made-up excuse."

He nips over to steal a croissant of his own -- almond, plain for someone who professes to be quite plain. "I did enjoy watching that one time I went, though. August Røn, dressed up in black and red leather, that was... unexpected. Yes, unexpected is a good word for it."

"No I get it." Cassidy purses her lips and nods emphatically. "Woman's not going to push you in to anything. /I/ under/stand/." She shuts up long enough to hear the last bit of the rationale. Then she just shrugs. "We'll give you a short song. Itsy Bitsy Spider remix."

Cass turns her sharp blue eyes to Aidan and ohs. "I work in the District Attorney's office."

"What instrument?" Is Kailey immediate and interested question for the Dance. Quickly she finishes off her croissant and has her coffee prepped with cream and sugar. Lots of the later. That done she sets it on the counter and moves to begin popping the lid off a can of paint and spreading it into the trays. "August is good at surprising you. Which remind me, I need to find out what a war guppy is," And she turns to look at Aidan hopefully. "Do -you- know what they are?" Here comes the phone to look it up even if they do know.

"OH! Why didn't he just say it was a betta?" Kailey says suddenly a few seconds later as she stares at her phone. One handed she begins to fish in the pocket of her baggy jeans to pull out a pair of gloves. These too have been paint spattered with the tips being the most encrusted. "See? He always has to use fancy names. But I always learn something new..."

"Oh! That's cool," Aidan says, regarding District-Attorneyship, and probably means it, though he looked less into the trying-to-manipulate-Ravn-into-singing thing. But then there's war guppies, and though he shakes his head, he looks highly intrigued. "Maybe they've got spears?" he suggests, "Or tiny helmets." The answer she comes up with is faintly disappointing, on that front, but just gets, "I dunno, is 'war guppy' fancier than 'betta', really?" He eats the last bite of his croissant, and brightens again as he chews. "We should paint little fish in roman-ish helmets and stuff. I dunno who they should be at war with but."

Ravn briefly contemplates just commenting on the war guppies and absolutely ignoring Kailey's question about instruments. Maybe it's testimony to the fact that he knows her well enough to tell that doing so would only spur her on. "I play the violin a bit for my own amusement," he says after a moment, croissant still in one hand. "I practise with Rosencrantz off and on, though of course I have none of his showmanship."

Something in Cassidy's tone prompts him to chuckle though, and he shakes his head. "I let a woman push me around once. Ended up engaged to her -- it didn't go very well. No offence but, it's more of an 'anyone' thing than a 'woman' thing. This town has a lot of people who are really great at giving a show -- I'm happy to let them have the stage."

Cassidy is briefly confused as to how pet fish became the topic. So much so that when Ravn says his last piece it's met with a dull look for a moment. "Huh?" Then she remembers and ohs! She looks up and fakes a sigh while closing her eyes. She gives her head a little shake, "It's fiiiine. I don't want to argue with you, Rav." She sighs again. She looks to the other girl in the room, "Kailey and I will just go get ourselves another cute Danish boy to sing for us." Because those are in abundance in Gray Harbor!

Then she's back to the fish thing. "Who said anything about fish?"

Kailey seems surprised in a pleasant way when Ravn mentions the violin. "Really? I had a dream once where I only spoke like a viola!" She tells him with a grin, glancing at Aidan as if he must know what she's talking about. But then she is being asked about fish and her lips purse much in the way the current topic does. "Well...see...August was arguing that...um...well that a story had minnows instead of something fun like guppies," She explains with a lot of hemming and hawing as she obviously struggles with how to explain it. "It was about the story The Boy Who Couldn't Shiver."

Turning to the paint and filled trays she grabs a roller and then turns to Cassidy. "The painting shall commence, grab a roller or watch out for paint spatter," She tells the other woman warmly. The phone comes out one more time and she swipes through to an app.

Then music starts to play. But from one of the plastic bags, not her phone, and loudly (https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpU6wY67DKTTw_AAHcQuDuU-LZ4I2TOD9). From the bag she pulls out a round, and paint spattered, bluetooth speaker. Which goes to sit next to coffee and croissants while the phone goes into the breast pocket of her teeshirt. Time to get their paint and grooves on. And while Ravn may not sing, Kailey definitely does to some of the songs.