2021-07-06 - Seven ... No Six

The storm is in full swing, wind and rain battering the small rental A-frame and severely testing its structural integrity. The trees outside groan and creak, branches being ripped from trunks and thrown across the drive that the Jeep crunches over as it bounces up the drive.

If Bennie wasn't soaked before it only takes the short sprint from vehicle to door to achieve that effect, and the Blonde is dripping from her GHFD raincoat by the time she leans herself against the door to close it against the whipping wind. "Hey babe! No time for snogging, just in to get some dry socks. What kinda moron doesn't pack dry socks...." Her tangled hair is hanging down in her face as she hops on one foot to remove her work boot oblivious to the household as a whole as she starts to disrobe out of her soggy bottoms.

The storm is a serious event, one that Bennie is studiously working to save lives during. And what does that leave for Easton and Tor, well it leaves drinking mostly. There is plenty of booze in the cabin, but they are working on the beer first. Easton is dressed in a pair of sweatpants, his leg off and laying against the sofa as he sits on the ground in front of the coffee table across from Tor. They are playing some version of Licky Sticky where each player licks a card and sticks it to their forehead and tries to guess if there card is higher or lower than their opponents.

At Bennie's entrace Easton looks up and then frowns, "But you're all wet and dramatically rushing in the door, that's kind of a great make-y-out-y time." He looks back at Tor with a 4 of spades on his forehead and declares confidentally, "Higher." staring at Tor's eight of diamonds.

"Uh. Hi Bennie." He's grinning. One hand lifts and his fingers twiddle. "Water was already halfway up the cinder blocks so I thought it was smart to jump ship before my trailer became one." His hair is swept up into a lazy half topknot. It's still a little wet, as are the shoulders of his Nirvana t-shirt. He looks back to Easton, then, "Wait, I forget what happens now. I'm terrible at card games." Even ones that are silly and meant to happen while drinking, apparently.

"I was probably supposed to be at the gym helping out like a half hour ago but I guess if we're quick..." Bennie sweeps aside her hair and drops trou just as she looks up and sees the boys there playing cards. "Oh Tor! You made it!" Bedding indeed has been set out in a folded stack for the possibility of an overnight guest, but she obviously didn't think to look to see if any arrived before stripping out of soggy wet clothes. Not that she seems to care, as she kicks the sodden article across the room in the vague direction of laundry. "Now you're supposed to tell him he's full of monkey dung and has to drink." She offers as she pads over to the kitchen and pops open the fridge to grab out a carton of OJ to drink straight from the spout.

Looking at Bennie, Easton starts to protest her stripping off but figures eh, whatever, not like Tor hasn't seen it already. "Uh probably should pass on account of our guest." Pulling the card off his head Easton scowls at it, and then takes a drink of his beer. Before Easton can even put the beer can down, someone else enters the room. Banks, dressed somehow exactly to match Easton in gray sweats and black tee-shirt comes out from the guest room and takes a seat, upnodding at each person before drawing a card.

Easton is about to explain why he had to drink but the sudden appearance of Tom leaves him as speechless as the ghost himself. It's the first time that Tom has shown up in the cabin and it's obviously throwing him off. Banks reaches over and tries to shake Tor's hand, even though there is nothing substantive to his hand.

"Hey, don't mind me. I've got noise-cancelling headphones," says Tor. And he seems to mean that and not just being cheeky. Well. Maybe a little of the cheekiness. But when the ghost arrives, he sits up a little straighter and looks to the other two as if to say 'are you seeing this too?' because, well, Gray Harbor. The card that was stuck to his forehead pops off his face and flutters to the floor, through ghost arm.

Bennie is drinking that OJ like there's no tomorrow, but as she turns back to the living room card game the carton falls from her fingers and thunks to the floor, chugging out into an orange puddle on the floor that Gunner trots over and starts licking at experimentally. "Tom!" She blinks from eyes that have dark shadows underneath them like she hasn't slept for days. "We need to get you a little ghost bell or something..." Her smile is tight but sincere, more concern over Easton's reaction than their spirited guest. "Tor, meet Banks. Banks, our friend Tor."

Tom seems to enjoy the effect that he's having on both Tor and Easton as he grins and indicates that the other two need to pick up new cards. Easton looks at him and then at Bennie as she just rolls with it, and he grabs his beer to chug it. Who needs drinking games to tell you to drink when you have dead best friends showing up.

"Seriously. I second the ghost bell." Easton manages to get out some words and Tom just shrugs as if to say he's not concerned about the idea either way. Easton's not falling apart but he is reaching toward the fridge and pulling a beer to him via glimmer to replace the one he just downed.

Tom turns to Tor and through a series of pantomime and mouthing things tries to ask, First ghost?"

It takes Tor a moment to figure out ghost charades. Then, "Aw, hell no. I grew up in this town and my mom's into a bunch of New Age stuff. She was always attracting all sorts of shit she couldn't see, but I could." Which is not traumatizing for a child at all. He eyes the ghost, then looks to Easton and Bennie. "So," he upnods, pauses to swig his beer and says, "What's the story here?"

Bennie lifts her arm to avoid the beer bottle in a practiced move that indicates this is not the first nor the last object that has whizzed by her thanks to Easton's telekinesis. "Tom, I'm beginning to think you're the Gray Harbor version of Paul Revere. The proverbial poop is about to hit the propeller." Normally she's all about jumping in and supplying answers of half facts and great hand embellishments but to Tor's question she just gives a tiny shrug.% "Not mine to tell."

Walking over, she palms the top of Easton's head and tilts him back for a quick kiss before declaring, "I need to change." Her pupils are as wide as saucers in that proximity. Forgetting entirely about the mess she's leaving in her wake, she starts upstairs to the loft and master beyond.

Tom helpfully sums up the story by mouthing I'm dead at Tor before making a hanging motion and lolling his head to the side and letting his tongue roll out. Easton is thankfully distracted from this by Bennie grabbing his head for a kiss which he promptly returns. His eyes narrow briefly at Bennie but he's too distracted in the moment to think much about her pupils, for now.

He turns back to Tor and says, "We served together." He glances at Tom and then back up at Bennie retreating as if now realizing he saw something but it's not the time. He cracks open the next beer and takes a sip before continuing, while Tom looks on expectantly, as if annoyed that Easton's going to keep it that brief. "We were uh.. close." Stupid words with their stupid baggage. Easton looks at Tom, in annoyance and says, "And after he got his lanky ass blown up he decided to haunt mine, which is one of the reasons I ended up here in the first place. During the first run round with Gohl when we all sacrificed something I thought I somehow ditched him but that didn't work." The crankier Easton gets about talking about Tom, the easier it is for him to do it. He can complain about him all day it seems. Tom doesn't take any offense though he does pick up Easton's beer and try drinking it, which in turn pours it onto the rug. "Asshole, you're still dead." Easton helpfully informs him.

"You ever try any rituals to help him move on? Or work through some of the..." Tor sucks air between his teeth, "...issues to help break the tether?" He does tend to talk a lot of shit, but in this case he actually sounds serious. "My aunt had this one ghost who wouldn't leave her alone until she cooked him Thanksgiving dinner. He died suddenly on the way home and was anticipating that meal. Soon as he sat down and tried to ghost-eat, poof, moved on."

A shirt goes sailing over the bannister to land with a wet splat on the floor below, presumably to end up in the wash with her pants. "We're not sure it's Banks at all!" Bennie calls from upstairs, apparently voices carry in the house. "Not entirely." Drawers open and close, clumsy sounds of hangers being shoved aside. "Do I have any more clean work shirts?"

Easton looks at Tor with an "Uhh" and a look of either fear or confusion and says, "No but.. you know, I didn't really think through the whole weird ass sacricice to end a ghost serial killer's rein of terror in town thing either? So I'm not sure if that counts?" Easton glances over at Tom who has put the beer back down to flip off Easton with both hands and try /very/ hard to cuss him out though there is no noise from the very vigorous swearing that is happening right now.

Easton looks back at Tor and says, "That's a crazy though, exorcism via Thanksgiving dinner." He looks back at Tom who is still cursing him out to inform him, "I'm not letting a ghost fuck me just to get peace bro." That at least gets Tom to crack a smile and stop swearing at him. But Easton points up towards the railing and says, "Yeah, and we're pretty sure this is just my memories of Tom given spirit form.. pretty sure." Tom just shrugs and points to himself. Whatever that means.

"It's not an exorcism. That's forcibly removing a malevolent entity. What you do with ghosts is just try'n help them move on. Or if they're an echo, like your boyfriend here, then you gotta break the connection." Tor points up at Tom. "Hey, you guys mind if I smoke a joint? To share, 'course." He eyes Bennie's sailing shirt. "No, sorry. You gotta go to work topless. Pretty sure that's the rules."

Bennie bounds back downstairs in a pair of boy shorts, two layers of tubee socks up to her knees and a tank top, having tamed her wet locks into an ugly knot on top of her head without the benefit of a brush. "Smoke away, but none for me, or I will end up back at work topless." She breezes through to the laundry room, snagging down a uniform shirt that hasn't been ironed yet, but no one is going to complain about her wrinkled appearance during a storm. "And don't get the ghost or the dog high, because that's not an experiment we need right now."

Easton gives a gesture of understand at the difference between an exorcism and helping a ghost buddy along, something involving to a head nod plus shrug and open hands movement. "Smoke away." He shakes his head and says, "But I'm gonna pass.. I.." He looks at Tom and then trails off, "I'm stickin' with beer." He laughs at the thought of Bennie having to go save lives topless. "You would probably cause more heart attacks than you save if you unleashed that kind of raw power babe." He nods along and says, "Yeah no. I agree that Tom showing back up for this storm probably means some horrific shit so let's not poke that bear." Tom gives a non-committal shrug that doesn't bode well.

"Oh fuck, no. I wouldn't suggest messing with anything right now. Energy's all sorts of fucky. I'm sure you can feel it." Tor digs out a pill bottle that contains a few joints. "Manipulating the energy right now's like trying to light a gas stove when you know you have a leak." He glances at Bennie's romping, and then looks away. "Don't think ghosts can get high. Dogs, I dunno. Cats can get high on catnip and shit."

"Topless ambulance service. Our slogan can be people are dying to get in the door. Literally." Bennie fumbles with unsteady fingers to try and do up the buttons on her shirt. No telling how long she and the rest of the rest of the First Responders have been running on zero. "Ever just think that he's your guardian angel? Keeping you safe through the worst of things. Gohl. Your little trip to the Other Side. Now." That little moment of clarity is a bit tarnished by the fact she plops down on the couch next to Tom with her boots, forgetting that she has yet to put on pants.

Easton lets out a short bark of a laugh, "Yeah, it's /fucky/ alright. I don't know about energy but the veil feels like it's trying to ride my jock and I don't appreciate that one fuckin' bit." He notices Bennie struggling with the buttons and then plopping down pantsless and says, with a knowing tone, "Babe, you /need/ some rest. If you can't crash out here for a bit, /please/ do at the station. And-." He glances at her and his eyes flick to Tor as he considers saying something but ends that with "And I love this pantsless look."

As for whether Tom was his guardian angel Easton just snorts, "yeah well lot of fuckin' good that did. Besides he couldn't keep his own stupid ass alive, how's he supposed to do me any good." He shoots Tom a look that is clearly fond even as he taunts him for dying. Tom points to at Bennie and manages to become audible for just a moment as he says something about "sweetheart.." before pointing to Easton and then his crotch and telling him to Suck my dick Marshall which doesn't really require sound, the meaning is clear enough.

"I like this guy," says Tor as he thumbs towards Tom-the-ghost. "Do you have to go back out there? I mean, surely they want their first responders to not keel over from exhaustion." He lights the joint and takes a pull from it. "I'd offer to give you two some privacy but I don't think me leaving would give you that." He indicates the ghost again. "And these cabins don't really...well, sound kinda echoes."

"What is it you Marines say? I'll sleep when I'm dead." But Easton points out that she's pantless and then Tor and even Banks seem to get in on the concern. There is a sigh from Bennie as she oozes off the sofa and onto the floor by Easton, stretching her legs across his lap. "They've already pulled us out of the storm for our safety. And they probably already have plenty of help at the gym for now." She concedes, then lulls her head towards Tom. "Tom here's seen it all, haven't you Tommy boy?"

"You aren't a Marine." Easton says flatly, as if this is something he's had to remind Bennie of in the past. "And those people don't need you there tripping over yourself pantsless." he places a hand on her bare legs as they take up his lap.

Tom looks at Tor and nods in approval of his approval. At Bennie's question the ghost nods again and then holds up both hands, Ten. Very nice followed by a chef's kiss of approval for having both seen all of Bennie and approving of it. Easton looks at him annoyed and says, "Stop rating her ass. It's fuckin' weird." Tom follows that up by pointing at Easton and holding up seven fingers and then thinking about it and dropping off one. Easton rolls his eyes and pulls out a pack of cigarettes to light one up. Yes he normally doesn't smoke in the house, but with the storm blowing there's no chance he's going out for a smoke right now and he really needs one. He lights it, takes a drag and then offers it to Bennie.

Tor snort-laughs at the mimed exchange. Then he holds the joint out to the pair for another polite offer even though they previously refused. "If he's a projection of you and your memories," he lets out a low whistle. "Listen, I'm not a shrink, but there's gotta me something there." He's slouching quite a bit, to the point where his oversized shirt rides up a bit, revealing a narrow scar. "How's it looking out there anyway? I got here before dark and that was fuckin' unnerving enough. Water's a medium for spiritual shit and I don't wanna be ankle deep in it right now."

"No, but I'd look smoking in the uniform." Bennie beams at Tom's rating system, "Now I /know/ that's not your score for his abs. Because. C'mon. We'd all know you're lying." Her fingers scissor over Easton's knuckles to pluck out the cigarette offered, hoisting it to say she's good with this kinda smoke at Tor right before she gives a little excited squeak at the reveal of Tor's scar. "See! Fuzzy! I told you!" She takes a drag and exhales out her nose. "Roads are flooding near the beach, most of it's unpassable now. The Twofer hasn't washed away yet, so there's that! Lots of debris down. Clean up is going to be a beotch. And there..is something coming out of the clouds at the shore. Like. Stephen King level creepy."

Easton concedes the point of Bennie in uniform and adds, "Any uniform really." He again declines the joint, something about the storm and Tom's return having him on edge enough that he doesn't want to mess with anything. He shakes his head also at the shrink comment, not wanting to even consider what that might mean.

Tom looks Bennie and bedgrudgingly gives a shrug that fine the abs are more than a seven. Both Easton and Tom look at Bennie's squealing and Easton just shakes his head. "I really don't want to think about my bar washing away.." And then she finishes that sentence and he adds, "Or whatever the hell that means.." And he turns to Tom as if that's a question for him. Banks nods with a slight wince. The slightest confirmation that he might know something and that no, Easton does not want to also know it.

"Oh fuck you." (Easton's response to that little nod)

Tor tugs down his shirt and sits up when Bennie points it out. He might actually have turned a bit pink. "You get that shit's not really flattering, right? Especially when you're over there talking about six packs and shit." And he's definitely more 'lean punk rocker' build and not 'chizled ex-Marine.' "I'm almost more worried about the metaphysical debris this thing might leave in its wake." Spoken like a true born-and-bred Gray Harborite with founding family blood in his veins. Things can always get worse, and what seems mundane rarely is.

"It's adorable!" Okay, Bennie. Probably still not helping in the great stomach debate. "Pretty sure the normies just see a giant freaking storm. But I've talked to several Glowers and they've seen the same thing. Something's coming, and not the sort of something we can stop." Even though she's the Harbinger of Doom she's snuggling up against Easton's shoulder and nosing her face up under his chin.

Easton looks at Bennie with squint and a small shake of his head at calling Tor adorable. That's kind of painful, even if he understands that she means it as a genuine compliment. "I don't care about metaphysical debris, I care about legit monsters coming to fuck us up or kill us or shove us into the veil..." The last one nearly sets his teeth on edge to even mention but Bennie is right there. Who is not there though? Tom. At some point while Easton was still talking Tom just drifted out of being, the Jack of spades from his forehead drifting down to the beer soaked rug. Easton takes the cigarette back from Bennie and just grumbles, "Great" before taking another drag.