2021-07-12 - Rip Van Winkle

The house is old. Even for all the improvements Seth has made to it over the years, it is mostly the interior that has been updated and the outer structure is still that of an old run-down building.

So it is no surprise there are leaks that spring up in the roof during this heavy storm. The most prominent one being the golf-ball-sized hole that opened up right over Seth's bed, dousing the enforcer in a stream of cold water that causes him to scream in shock and surprise.

Leaping out of the bed in his sleeping attire, which is nothing more than a pair of boxers, Seth curses loudly as he wipes the weather from his front, looking up at the hole and then glancing around for something, anything, that he can use as a bucket.

Vic was next to him when he fell asleep, but she's not there when mother nature so rudely awakens him. She hasn't been sleeping much, mostly pacing the house, checking for damage, using her phone to check the security cams on her own place. So far it's lost shingles and some siding, but seems to be holding together. So far. She's also been keeping an eye on her father's house with the cameras Alexander installed for her. He seems to be fine, but she worries.

The other enforcer is in the kitchen, sitting at the little breakfast table with a pot of coffee and her mug, and her cellphone. She's worried that the service is going to crap out any moment, or the electricity, so she's trying to use the device sparingly to conserve battery after charging.

Grabbing a trashcan from beside the bed, Seth places it under the stream of water as a makeshift bucket and pads off into the bathroom to get a towel to dry off. Towel in hand the enforcer makes his way downstairs, calling out "Vic?"

The house isn't that big, so it doesn't take long to follow the smell of coffee to the kitchen, "Hey...there you are..." he says as he towels off his hair, "Funny thing, did you know they installed a shower over the bed? Neither did I until about 2 minutes ago. Guess who just got woken up by an involuntary cold shower. I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count."

The enforcer pads over towards Vic, leaning down to give her a peck on the head as he passes by to retrieve some coffee for himself, "Everything holding together? Hows's your dad?"

"Dad's fine, it seems to have missed him, thankfully," Vic murmurs tiredly, rubbing at her eyes and blinking blearily. She sips her coffee and grunts at the news of the leak in the roof. "If we have to, we can go to my place. No cameras in the bedroom but I am not seeing too much damage other than some shingles and siding, and the bedroom is on the other side of the house from where the damage is."

She leans her head into the kiss and pours coffee into his mug when he presents it. "Kind of surprised the entire street hasn't washed into the Veil or something. I mean, it is Elm."

"Oh god, why would you go and say such a thing?" laments Seth as he takes a sip from the freshly poured coffee. "Just you wait, now instead of rain, it will be horny pregnant toads falling from the sky, all of them wanting to get into my pants. Damn it, Vic!" Seth grins, pulling out a chair and taking a seat in it.

"Good to hear about your dad," the enforcer nods. "Now maybe you can actually get some sleep instead of worrying about him. If you were that concerned, you should have had him come here. We could have found him a place, or he could have stayed here. As far as I know, the guest room is still leak-free."

"The less my dad is in this batshit town, the better," Vic mutters. "If anything, we should have stayed with him in Portland, but no way were we leaving our places unguarded." The problem with being a criminal, is being all too aware of how other criminals work, and having to be paranoid about it.

She curls her hands around her mug, dark circles under her eyes. Trying to keep an eye on Kelly's house too. And Clayton's. So far, no one has been blown into Oz."

Nodding, Seth slips into one of the chairs next to Vic and takes another sip from his coffee, "Our places would have been fine, I think. Nothing in them that couldn't be replaced anyway even if something had happened to them." He grins, and adds in a joking tone, "Hell, your place is still barely a place as it is. Joey, he is probably holding court in the basement of the gym during all this. Who the fuck knows about Alexander. Haven't seen hide nor hair of him for a while. Pity, I was getting to like the guy."

Reaching up to comb his fingers through his hair, Seth leans back into the chair "Just be glad we hadn't made it to Spokane yet. Working in this mess would have been hell."

Vic groans and scrubs at her forehead. "Ugh, Spokane. We still have that to look forward to. Great. It's like a punishment at the end of a natural disaster." She chuckles a little though, amused. "Did I really just imply Spokane is worse than the storm of the century? I really must need sleep."

"I think that working in Spokane during this would have been worse than dealing with a leaky house, but now that you mention it Spokane in and of itself is one of the circles of hell, so maybe I was subconsciously thinking it as well." chuckles Seth.

Seth grins after a beat, "You know, I could help wear you out. Get a little 'exercise' in to make you sleepy....or I can just grab you an Ambien. But that isn't nearly as fun. We do still have the issue of the bed being soaked though. Might have to camp down here."

"If you can plugthe leak with something, I can get the water out of the bed completely," Vic notes. Physicalist powers ftw. "Same way I remove blood evidence from crime scenes we don't want found." She smirks and sips her coffee slowly with a grin. Yeah, if he ever pushes her to killing him, they'll never be able to pin it on her. Terrifying woman.

Seth eyes Vic for a moment, "Right. I always forget you can just do that."

The enforcer shakes his head with a chuckle, setting the coffee cup down after taking one last sip, and starts for the garage. "I'm sure I have something in the garage that can patch it. At the very least I have some of that flex seal duct tape for a temp fix if I really have to low ball this thing till I can get it patched right. I've got a bucket under it now if you want to go get the water out of the mattress and sheets."

"On it," Vic declares, and she drains her coffee cup, setting it in the sink before she heads back upstairs in her tank top and pajama pants with cute sheep on them. It takes her just a few minutes to command the water out of the bed linens and mattress, and marches it into the shower and down the drain. It's all very 'sorcerer's apprentice' to watch. She might even hum Paul Dukas' score, which was made famous in Fantasia.

Seth meanwhile retrieves the tape and a ladder from the garage. By the time Vic is back from the bathroom, Seth, wearing his blue duckie boxers, has scrambled up the ladder and is in the process of tearing off strips of the rubber tape, slapping them across the hole in the ceiling where the leak is coming from. It's a crude fix, but it works for now.

"Well, that will hopefully hold for the rest of the night, or at least until I can fix it properly."

"Perfect," Vic declares with a grin, before she sidles over to snap the waistband of his boxers with a hooked finger. "Now, what was that about wearing me out?" she croons, lashes lowered.

Seth waggles his brow as he descends the ladder and folds it up, setting it against the wall and out of the way so someone doesn't trip on it while the stumble around half-asleep, "You heard me. A vigorous workout is just what you need. You know, some push-ups, situps, crunches..."

The enforcer removes the makeshift bucket from the spot under the bed, setting that aside as well so it also doesn't get kicked over, "Oh, you know, we could just have monkey sex and wear ourselves out that way."

"I vote for the latter," Vic quips with a grin, and pulls Seth to her.

THE NEXT MORNING???

Vic stirs from sleep slowly. She feels really, really rested, in spite of having not slept much at all the past couple of days during the storm. Birds are chirping. Sunlight is streaming in through a gap in the curtains. The storm is clearly over. Then why are her feet cold? She shivers groggily and curls up against Seth, the feel of a long-sleeved nightshirt not what she expected, having gone to bed wearing considerably less.

"Babe? I think the AC is on the fritz. It feels too cold in here," she mumbles.

Stirring slowly to consciousness himself, mostly due to the prodding of Vic, Seth makes a sound that combines a grunt with a moan and halfway opens his eyes, "Great," he mumbles, "Just one more thing on my list of things I have to fix around this place. I should have just used that beach money to buy a new place."

Then the cold hit him as well and he shivers a bit, "It really is cold in here. Did one of us knock the thermostat during our fun last night? I mean, I don't think we did but stranger things have happened."

Speaking of stranger things, Seth peaks under the covers and notices the boxers he wore to bed are gone, "God damn it. It wasn't just a strange dream, it was an actual Dream with a capital D. If Ravn comes bitching at you, you can already tell him that I told you I bet my underwear. I'll explain more later."

"You bet your underwear?" Vic asks groggily. "What were they worth?" She snickers quietly and shoves him with a hand. "Go fix the thermostat. My toes are frozen." She illustrates by putting her frigid digits on his leg.

"JESUS," Seth screams as those ice-cold feet hit his leg, and he scrambles out naked from under the covers to go check the thermostat. Groggily he looks at the digital readout and taps it a couple of times, "That can't be right. Why the fuck is it 65 degrees in here. The air isn't running. Damn thing must be busted, but maybe the heat will work."

Seth turns the thermostat up to a comfortable 75, setting it to heat instead of cool mode, and a minute later that smell of burning dust when you first turn on a heater in winter starts to permeate the air as he crawls his way back under the covers "They weren't worth much. I need up having to just kick the guy's ass instead. It was easier than playing poker anyway."

Vic grunts and she reaches over to the nightstand for her phone to see if she missed any messages from the boss. The real boss, not the bar boss. She squints at the screen a moment. "Can you check your phone? I think mine has a virus. It says it's September 16th." She opens it up to check her mail and sees ....

... three months worth of exchanges with people she doesn't remember happening, between June and September. There is a flutter of panic in her chest.

"....uuuuuuhhhhhh...."

"Sure.." the enforcer says as he reaches over to grab his phone off of the charger on the table next to him. He rubs his eyes and glances at the screen and makes his own noise of surprise. "Uhhhh...mine says the same. That can't be right..."

Seth maneuvers in the bed to sit straight up, shoving a pillow behind his back as he starts to scroll through some of his texts and calls. "None of this happened?"

"I fucking hate this town," Vic grumbles, scrubbing a hand over her eyes. "Or it all happened and someone took our memories. Did that damned Revisionist get up to shit again? Better text the boss."

"Who knows. I just hope that I don't look down and see a ring on either of our fingers," Seth says with a shake of his head, "Don't get me wrong, it's not the thought of getting hitched that bothers me, I could just never remember our anniversary and would always get put in into the doghouse when asked!" Yeah, he tries to make a joke about missing 12 weeks of this life, but what else is he going to do?

"Calling Joey might not be a bad thing. I'm going to reach out to Darth and see if this is a just us thing or an everyone thing..."

(TXT to Joey Seth) Vic : Um, Hey boss. We just woke up 3 months older with no memories since June 16th. Are you ok? Still alive? Did we do anything we need to be told about? FUCK this town.

(TXT to Ravn Vic) Seth : I may as well add Vic to this so I don't have to middleman this whole thing. Vic, Ravn is now married and pregnant.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : And dragging Seth to court in a paternity suit.

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : As long as I'm not married and pregnant, Mazeltov! Seriously though, you safe and sound? Do you remember jack shit about, oh....the last 3 months or so?

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : I woke up in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar house. House turns out to be one I share with Aidan Kinney. I have no memories of the last 12 weeks either. But I have heard from several people who have had the same experience. It seems to be Gray Harbor having ... I don't know, borrowed us, something?

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : And in the meantime our lives just... went on. And we did things. And I for one am terrified of finding out what things I did.

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : What? Like was kind to a bunch of people and animals and got bossed around by your cat? Come on, Ravn, if anyone needs to worry about not remembering WHAT THEY DID for THREE MONTHS, it's Seth and I!

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : Not saying I wouldn't worry too in your position. But if the Veil stole us to actually do something -- then I'm slightly worried about the fact that I'm the best damn cat burglar in Gray Harbor and probably half of Washington State.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : Thing is, though -- it stole a lot of people. And most of those people don't have a questionable past -or- present.

(TXT to Vic Ravn) Seth : I'm sure if we did something that would be a problem, we wouldn't have just woken up in our beds just now. Of, if we did, we knew how to clean up subconsciously. Or..oh hell, I don't know. I'm winging this.

What, I'm not good enough to marry. Ouch, hurt a guy why don't you dear. 😉

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : I'm not sure it stole us physically. I mean, I called people and shit during that time according to my phone. I must have worked? No one seems to be missing me, including my dad. So I'm thinking this was a memory thing? Maybe that damned Revisionist again?!

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : Hey it's not that I don't want to marry you, Tiger, I'd just like to REMEMBER it if I did

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : I'd be sorely disappointed if there was no stag night at least.

(TXT to Vic Ravn) Seth : Well, I don't have a ring, so I think we are still good. And even if we somehow did, we would just have to do it again so I can have Ravn throw me that stag party. Of course, knowing Darth, he is just going to get Itz to give me a lapdance, so...

Seriously though, trying not to freak a bit here. At least people don't seem to be missing us? So maybe they are all suffering from the same shit? Oh god...we didn't go to Spokane did we?!

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : No, I'm going to just sit back because Itz taking that opportunity won't require my interference.

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : Shit, well the boss hasn't responded yet, so no way of knowing if we went to Spokane or not. Unless....

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : Yep cancellation fee for the hotel room. Looks like it was postponed?

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : This is me not asking.

(TXT to Vic Ravn) Seth : Just a trip we were going to take. Looks like we didn't miss it though, so no worries on that end then. So just what /have/ we been doing for 3 months? Jesus.

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : Seriously. Spokane. The LEAST they could have done is let us go and forget it.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : I have apparently been hiring people to help me renovate things. And bought a house. And according to my cell phone, lead a remarkably boring and quiet home life which probably consisted of a lot of doing nothing. Which is odd, because I know I didn't actually go pick up neither my boat or my cat.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : I know this because apparently, Kailey Holt's bloody Veil cat ADOPTED mine. Which makes sense, sinc ein a very strange and 'long story' way, they are the same cat.

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : Wut?

(TXT to Vic Ravn) Seth : You and Addington didn't elope or anything, right? I just have to ask because...who know what the fuck is going on.

(TXT to Vic Ravn) Seth : What she said

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : I placed my cat with a sitter, before the storm. And apparently didn't pick her up. So her Veil clone picked her up. And, uh, babysat her in the Veil.

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : Shit did Joey and Nicole get hitched? They were going to right?

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : ... No, I don't have any calls or calendar notes about Hyacinth Addington.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : But at the rate people like us are turning out to be affected, I'm thinking we probably all were.

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : See that's the thing though. We were all affected but it looks like we all were also here doing whatever stuff needed doing, we just don't remember.

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : I mean it would be awesome for passing a lie detector test? But otherwise, this is not cool.

Seth glances over from his position on the bed, "Don't think I missed that 'It's not that I don't want to marry you' line by the way. He winks, before going back to staring at his phone screen.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : No, it's not cool. Because it leaves out the 'what were you actually doing part.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Joey : Find out who is out there and what we need to follow up on in collections. Doesn't matter how much time passed you know we're gonna get fucking billed for it

(TXT to Vic Seth) Joey : Christ my rent did not need this

(TXT to Vic Seth) Joey : I'll reach out to Rhys. He knows how insurance shit works. Someone tries to collect on you tell em to talk to me and get the fuck in line. We have to figure this out financially.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Joey : What's our head count at?

(TXT to Vic Ravn) Seth : Well, at least we know a couple of things. We are not in jail, we didn't go to Spokane, and as far as we can tell nothing 'weird' happened, other than Ravn's living situation. So...yay?

(TXT to Joey Vic) Seth : I have no idea. Literally just work up, man. I haven't even put on pants yet.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : My living situation is fine, I was planning to move in with Kinney regardless. We seem to have just skipped the whole house hunting part and gone straight to room mates. I hope his girlfriend approves.

(TXT to Ravn) Joey : You're under official orders to not be dead. If you need anything to make that happen text me a list.

(TXT to Ravn) Joey : Also hi.

(TXT to Joey Seth) Vic : It looks like...life carried on, boss. But we just can't remember it. I don't see any financial issues in my accounts. Regular payments for bills and money from you and TiBs. I think it's just we can't remember.

(TXT to Vic Joey) Seth : At least, as far as we can tell so far, everything seems to be somewhat 'normal' in that aspect. Bills were paid, Vic went to work, nobody is missing us, Vic is not pregnant, we are not married...etc.

(TXT to Joey) Ravn : Fairly certain I'm not a vampire count yet. You?

(TXT to Joey Seth) Vic : Oh yeah boss, check your hand for a ring, did you get hitched to Nicole?

(TXT to Seth Vic) Joey : people being pregnant is neither my concern nor fucking business.

(TXT to Seth Vic) Joey : Shit I dunno. My face isn't bruised so I'm assuming I'm not because if I did and don't remember Clayton would find a way to beat my ass

(TXT to Ravn) Joey : I mean I kinda could go for a stake right now. Jury's out.

(TXT to Joey Seth) Vic : Wondering if that Revisionist is messing with all of us again or something.

(TXT to Joey) Ravn : Steak, sure. Stake-out? Not if I'm the main dish. But I spent several hours in sunlight earlier so I'm fairly certain I get a pass.

(TXT to Joey Vic) Seth : She never messed with me in the first place, so who knows. Maybe this is to make up for lost time...but why everyone?

(TXT to Joey Seth) Vic : Well huh. Looks like we spent some time finishing up my house. From what I can tell in my camera roll, it's mostly done now. Good on us, I guess?

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : Pst, Vic. Remind me to tell you a funny story later.

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : Oh yeah? I'm setting myself a reminder, in case my MEMORY takes another vacation.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : Just say 'duckaroos', I'll fill you in.

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : Oh he already told me he bet his boxers.

(TXT to Vic Ravn) Seth : Ha! I already beat you to it. I knew you would do that...

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : Did he also tell you about attempting to teabag an old Texan guy?

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : Not yet, we sort of got distracted by finding out we were missing 3 months.

(TXT to Joey Vic) Seth : Good for us? I wonder if I patched the roof. Oh, Joey, it looks like we never made it to Spokane. Our reservations were canceled.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : Yeah. I have ... some people I honestly kind of hope also missed three months? Because if they didn't, then I'm going to have a very hard time explaining why I ghosted them for three months.

(TXT to Joey Seth) Vic : I'm assuming something came up. Rhys will probably have a record right?

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : You may not have ghosted them at all. Check your phone messages, mails, bank account stuff. Looks like Seth and I mostly finished my remodel.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : I did, there's nothing there.

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : Who did you ghost? Will you need a bodyguard?

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : ... I didn't ghost them literally as in, turned them into a ghost.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : Just saying my social calendar for the last three months goes 'buy house', 'teach students', 'grade papers'. There's not even a 'pick up boat and cat' in there.

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : Well duh. But have you never heard, hell hath no fury?

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : Why do you think I'm hoping it happened to all of us?

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : Just sayin, you might have been in communication with them and just can't remember. Heck, YOU might be married or something.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : If I hadn't already checked my fingers for new jewellery, this is where I'd be fainting.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Joey : Rhys loses fucking nothing. yeah he'll have it

(TXT to Ravn Vic) Seth : Be glad you're a guy. We don't tend to take ours off. Vic here would have to go check the sink in the bathroom to make sure there wasn't one on the ring dish thing.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : I only got rid of my engagement ring two weeks before the damn storm.

(TXT to Joey Vic) Seth : I guess we need to make new reservations? Assuming things are still as they were.

(TXT to Joey Seth) Vic : Yeah ok, I won't panic till we hear from Rhys

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : Better check the computer records and filing cabinets. See what we did or bought or sold or whatever.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : I did. I bought a house on Oak St.

(TXT to Ravn Vic) Seth : Shit, I should buy a house on Oak street. The second to last thing I remember is patching the roof on this place because of a leak over the bed. The last thing I remember...

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : I'm just wondering what happened to 'trailer park demographic' in my own case. I guess the Veil or my subconscious mind decided on an upgrade.

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : OK well. I'm getting up and going to see if we have coffee and food to eat. If you hear a roar of anger all the way over on Oak Street (send us the address) you'll know the answer is no.

(TXT to Joey Vic) Seth : Yeah, panic is bad until we figure out just what the hell is going on. Maybe everything is all on par and for whatever reason, we just can't remember the last few weeks. I mean, nobody seems to be missing us so maybe everything is five by five.

(TXT to Ravn Vic) Seth : I am going to hide up here until I know for a fact there is coffee, so in case I need to jump out of the window and flee I can.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : I'm going to sit and wonder if mermaids ate Denny.

(TXT to Ravn Seth) Vic : Good news! We have coffee. And groceries. You want Eggos, Babe? I'm getting off this convo now to inhale coffee and try not to explode from the sheer WTF of all this.

(TXT to Ravn) Joey : Hey you ok? Someone's told me apparently we lost 3 months in there. Your health get any better with the lung thing?

(TXT to Ravn Vic) Seth : Yup, I'll be right down. Let me put on some pants.

(TXT to Joey) Ravn : I'm ... kind of OK? I don't seem to have changed physically to any great extent. Apparently I bought a house. I don't have any exciting new wedding rings or letters from lawyers.

(TXT to Vic Seth) Ravn : YES PLEASE WEAR PANTS GOOD BOY

(TXT to Ravn) Joey : Could be worse. You could have bought a house and lost half

(TXT to Ravn Vic) Seth : You know you are just jealous.

(TXT to Joey) Ravn : Naw, apparently I moved into this house with a buddy and... forgot to pick up my boat and my cat for twelve weeks but also did absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. My calendar and calls list are all just, teach, grade, return library books.

(TXT to Joey) Ravn : How about you and Nicole? She OK? This has got to be the strangest day I've yet to hear of in Gray Harbor. One of my volunteers woke up in a room full of fast food cartons, like he'd stayed in there for all three months.

(TXT to Seth Vic) Joey : I say anyhting to you about changing all my locks? This is weird. Call before you come over in case I trapped the yard.