2022-03-29 - Repercussions, and a Bag of ...

Actions have consequences. In a little while, this will be the theme of the day. As of the moment, though, Ravn Abildgaard is just another bloke walking home one morning. Where has he been? Nowhere in particular; hiking boots, black jeans and ditto windbreaker say nothing of his destination. Maybe he just want for a walk for the sake of going for a walk. He often does. Sometimes, a small black cat walks along. Today, he walks alone, gloved hands deep in the windbreaker's pockets, thoughts a million miles away. The tall copper blond is easily distracted by his own thoughts and Oak Avenue is, well, Oak Avenue.

Which in the case of Oak 1 through 5 means it's summer. Sure, the rest of Gray Harbor may suffer the woes of spring but those three yards sport a pleasant summery climate, complete with green trees, buzzing hummingbirds, and the occasional deer or rabbit poking its head out from somewhere down there in the bushes at the end of the yards. There's a bit of talk on Oak Avenue about it; most folks figure it's some kind of heating pipe leak that causes the unusual microclimate. A few people in the know may cough and nod at the circle of mushrooms in the yard of number 3. People of Irish descent might add, don't forget to put out milk for your local leprechaun.

Ravn pauses to pick up the mail. Then he heads up to his front door in said Number 3. He pauses; there's a parcel sitting on the porch -- his house mate must have ordered something off Amazon or some other delivery service. He bends down to poke at it. There's a lid on, and the label is partially stuck inside. Might be a delivery for the wrong address too. He opens the lid to check the address.

And that's when his world explodes in a very loud Boom! and a cascade of coloured smoke.

Boom!

It only takes a few moments after that for the front door of Number 5 to burst open, and a surprised-looking redhead to stick her head around to try and see what's going on. Her tank-top-over-cotton-shorts ensemble-- and the streak of paint down one cheek-- probably give some indication to what she's been doing, this fine (if you live in this particular part of Oak, anyway) morning; the paint roller still clutched in one hand is another such hint.

"Holy fucking shit!" she calls, having caught sight of Ravn's cascade of coloured smoke, even if she's too late for the moment of impact. "Ravn? Aidan? Someone? Are you okay?"

Oliver just woke up from a semi-long slumber. He was getting his morning coffee prepared while he was thinking of breakfast and what to eat. He wasn't even sure of the time, but it's always coffee and breakfast after he awakes. His mind getting clearer on the choice when he heard a loud noise. A type of noise you don't often expect to hear on Oak, and one loud enough to hear inside a house. Oliver ran out of the house to see colored smoke from down the street. He was only wearing some shorts and a simple t-shirt at this point, he ran down the street to see what was going on. "Damn, what happened, is anyone hurt?" Being a surgeon that was his typical first response, to make sure everyone was ok.

A beat-up bicycle cruises down the street, carrying along one Robin Lane. As a relative newcomer to the area, it doesn't even occur to the young man to question the pleasant microclimate. He just smiles a little and leans back slightly, enjoying the sun on his face and a bit of a reprieve from the chilly wind that his light jacket doesn't /quite/ manage to block. Unfortunately, that bit of peace doesn't last long. Wherever he was going, the explosion startles him enough that he jerks, pulling the handlebars just far enough to overbalance himself. "Shitboogers!" he yelps, as he starts to tumble. At the very last moment he manages to clumsily bail out to avoid landing on his head. The bike goes clattering, and he ends up on one knee, peering with wide eyes up the street toward the source of the explosion and the colored smoke. He is only startled out of his shock by Oliver's question, and he glances that direction. "Something blew up." A regular Sherlock, he is. But he starts hauling himself to his feet to get his bicycle out of the street, then starts wheeling it along a bit more slowly in Oliver's wake.

After his trip to the coffee shop over the weekend, Kayden was determined to get started on his investigation. He had met some colorful characters and while none of them admitted to recognizing his sister from her photo, he was sure she had been here as she'd said. Why had she come? He still didn't know that. Did she disappear from here? He didn't know that either but this was the last known place she was going to be. So that's damn well where is going to put his efforts.

This morning, those efforts consist of getting access to City Hall and seeing if there are public records of her visit or what she might have done. After that he plans to check out the newspaper archives to see if she shows up in any articles. All of this is weight in on Kayden's mind as he heads towards downtown from his comfortable, and as of yet not dangerous, room at Seaview Suites. Up early, the young man is dressed in beige khakis, light blue Brooks Brother's shirt with the top few buttons undone, and a comfortable looking pair of brown crossover loafers. A small pad is held tightly in his left hand while a lidded cup with the remains of the cheap hotel coffee is held in his right. He was expecting a lot of things today, finding clues, talking to people, and maybe enjoying another cortado at the cafe....what he was not expecting was to hear an explosion a few blocks away and see smoke beginning to rise.

Now some people might go the other way, or find someone to help. But not a journalist and particularly not Kayden. Turning smoothly from a casual walk to a sprint, Kayden follows the direction of the explosive sound, moving down residential streets and pausing to find the source of the smoke to orient himself. As soon as he arrives in the well manicured neighborhood, he stops short and takes it all in. This is not the place he would have expected to hear such a commotion and when he sees several people already here, he rushes towards the yard. His eyes pick up Una and the expression of suspicion, furrowed eyes and pursed lips, is clear on his face...she could have had something to do with this. Seeing another man he doesn't know, Kayden calls out "What happened? 'Not yet seeing Ravn through the smoke.

There's coughing. There's sputtering. There's swearing a language that definitely isn't English (though admittedly, it gave birth to a quarter of the English language, but that was about nine hundred years ago, not that anyone's counting).

It's raining glitter. It's raining tiny colourful objects. Smoke in all the colours of the rainbow drift away on the breeze, revealing -- one very disturbed looking man standing on his own porch, face and torso covered in paint in all the colours of the rainbow, glitter, and well, small colour objects. One falls off his nose. On closer inspection, it's a wine gum in the shape of a dick. A literal bag of rainbow dicks, then.

Here's to hoping that paint is water soluble. Here's to hoping that Ravn gets a chance to get even. This one will be hard to top, though. The entire porch, furniture and all, rainbow coloured. The facade, rainbow coloured. Ravn, rainbow coloured. He may be all right physically but his ego is going to need surgery.

Una, now leaning over the railing on her front porch to try and get a better look, abruptly begins to laugh. And laugh. And LAUGH.

She sets down her paint roller (carefully, so that the paint-covered bit does not touch the white trim over the porch railings), and, bare footed, crosses the lawn towards number 3, still laughing, but at least managing some level of sympathy in those big brown eyes. She's not noticed anyone else, yet-- not Oliver or Robin, and not her new nemesis, Kayden, though wait for it: it likely won't be pretty when she does.

"Aidan is going to love the decor," she calls, one hand on her hip. "Are you okay, Ravn?"

Beat. "What, what are those?"

From down the street, the engine of a old '69 Shelby Cobra roars to life. The old, black, muscle car makes its way down the street, slowing down as it passes 3 Oak to pull a rubbernecking maneuver as the occupant looks over the scene before spreading up and heading off for parts unknown.

Once the clouds of colored smoke start to dissipate, all he hears is laughter. Oliver was looking around at the scene, then see's tiny dicks floating down to the ground with a "What the fuck" expression on his face. He noticed a car speeding down the street and turns back to the painted man, "Are you sure you are ok?" Oliver can't help but laugh at the sight and was glad it wasn't a real threat, well maybe to his painted mind at this point.

Robin leans his bicycle against a handy tree as he approaches the house. Some of the concern drains away as he realizes people are laughing, and then he comes in sight and just kind of... stops. He stares for a long moment, round-eyed and nonplussed. His lip twitches in something that might be repressed humor as he scans the scene. His foot lands on something squishy, drawing his attention downward to find... a wine gum? He picks it up, holding it up to the sunlight to get a better look, then sends a puzzled look toward Kayden. "I think this guy pissed off a unicorn." He holds up the wine gum. "Hey, am I nuts or is this a dick gummy?"

On Kayden's way towards the gate to see who was hurt and to offer help, the smoke clears and laughter rings out from Una and cursing from who is now easily identified, through the myriad of rainbow colors and tiny gummy dicks, is Raven. When the car drives past, Kayden's already memorizing the license plate and anything he can about the driver. If this wasn't a prank gone bad, he at least has enough information to follow up on it.

His pace slows as there does not appear to be a casualty and he's shown what does appear to be a small gummy sized penis. He takes it into his hand and turns it over slowly, careful not to smear any residual paint on himself. The whole situation seems to finally get to him and the dark-haired man starts to chuckle. "I'm not qualified to answer the first question. For the second, I think you're right." Turning to where Oliver is laughing then to Ravn, Kayden walks up towards the fence. "Is this a regular occurrence in town that I should be adding to the list of things to watch out for in Gray Harbor?"

"I wish I pissed off a unicorn," Ravn mumbles from somewhere in there, under the layer of wine gums, glitter, and sticky paint. A few curls of smoke powder still make their way skywards; they can probably see it from Hoquiam on the other side of the bridge across the Chehalis River (where 'Gray Harbor, man' is probably a household saying, accompanied by a certain shrug and expression). "He'd just yell at me."

He drips. The odds of those clothes ever becoming clothes again are minimal. Not even his colour loving house mate will look at this and think 'neat'. Probably.

And then, in the direction that the black car slunk off, "Monaghan! You asshole!"

Poor Ravn. Una probably regrets her laughter a little, now: certainly, the look she aims at him now is a little more towards the sympathetic end. "Do you..." she hesitates. "Need a towel? A hose?"

She's got a glance over her shoulder at that departing car, and has evidently put two and two together to reach some kind of vaguely plausible total, because she-- very wisely, perhaps-- does not comment on the presumed author of this little farce, and instead gives the newcomers (except Kayden; he can eat a bag of non-gummy dicks) a quick, rueful smile. "Just a prank gone wrong, I'm sure. Gummy dicks and all."

Nothing serious would involve gummy dicks or rainbow paint after all.

Oliver starts relaxing a bit seeing no one is really hurt, pride perhaps? Oliver wanted to burst out laughing at this scene but figured it probably wasn't in his best interest to do so at the moment, although it was a hilarious moment in time. He nods, hearing Una, mention it was a prank, and of course, seeing gummy dicks and rainbow paint solidified that answer. "Well, it's a good thing no one was seriously hurt in this /prank/.. I mean what if it poked an eye out" a soft chuckle escaped but remained in control.

Robin hangs back on the sidewalk, but still close enough to continue watching the proceedings, arms crossing over his chest. His brow goes up slightly as Ravn loses his cool, but he doesn't take his eyes off the rainbow-painted man as he leans slightly toward Kayden. In sotto voce, and a tone as dry as the desert, he asks, "Do you know who Monaghan is? I feel like I need to meet them." Una earns at least a flicker of a crooked smile for her explanation. "I dunno about that. Looks to me like it went off exactly as intended..."

Kayden looks down at the slightly crushed cup of coffee in one hand and the pad of loose flapping papers in the other. "I just got into town a few days ago, so no. But ask me again in a day or two and I should have a better answer." Determination sets into his expression as he casts a glance back at the retreating car, long gone by now and apparently no amateur at delivering such pranks and being good at getting away. Still, how many cars could match that description in this area.

At the other arrival who has so far kept his cool, Kayden replies, "From the little I have seen, the hurt pride...pretty serious." Turning back towards the subject of this joke and his neighbor...for what does he really know about this...Seattle pretender..."Do you need a hand with anything? That doesn't involve getting colored pain or ... gummy dicks...on us?"

"I may need that garden hose," the Dane grouses -- and then looks down. There's a slip of paper at the bottom of the box from which mayhem came. He pauses and looks at his kidskin gloves -- no longer black, in fact, one is a nice shade of purple and the other is trying on shades of blue and orange. Now the trick is getting them off without getting paint inside them, because no note is going to be legible after getting rainbow fingerprints everywhere.

"I swear to God, that man," mutter, grumble. "The bag of literal dicks was a nice touch. I'll get him back. I'll... throw an angry cat at him or something." Mutter, mutter.

"I hope it's water-based paint and isn't going to destroy the lawn," says Una, more as an aside than anything. It may come across as unsympathetic, but her expression says otherwise: she's not laughing now, and her attention is mostly fixed on Ravn. "I'll get the hose. And a towel for afterwards."

It's as she turns, evidently with the intent of going back to her own house for the aforementioned items, that she gives Oliver, Robin and Kayden another look (and in the case of Kayden, a look). "Oak's usually a lot quieter than this, I promise. But... it's fine. No one was hurt, exactly. Some people around here take their pranks very seriously, but it's nothing to pay any attention to."

As a doctor of course Oliver will get closer and ask one more time, "Are you sure you are ok? anything I can help with?" He throws that out there in case his neighbor wants some clean-up help, beyond what Una is going to help him with. He looks back over toward the two standing by the street then back to Ravn, "You know them?" Oliver asked as he hadn't seen them around, then again, Oliver has been very busy working as of late.

"Oh. Huh, me too," Robin answers, giving Kayden another small lopsided smile. "Robin Lane. Nice to meet ya." His gaze drops to the papers and crushed coffee cup, then back toward the porch. "Looks like everything's okay here, I guess. If you find that Monaghan person, tell them they owe me a dollar for the laundromat." There /is/ a bit of a smudge on the knees of his jeans from where he bailed off the bicycle. But he takes the edge off that with a little grin, and starts retreating to fetch said bike from where it's still leaning against the tree.

When Robin introduces himself, Kayden moves his writing pad to rest under the coffee-holding arm and extends a hand. "Kayden Masters. Just visiting. Are you a local to Gray Harbor?" Noting the bicycle to see if it looks like one that's seen a lot of use or is in good repair from someone who has been its owner for a while. As he switches his pad back to his free hand, he nods "I'll keep you posted. So far everything that causes problems in town seems to start with /M/."

The look Una gives him is returned though perhaps not as harshly as he watches her go about helping Ravn with obvious concern. Not waiting for Ravn to answer the question from Oliver, Kayden steps up just inside the fence, "We met at the cafe yesterday. Ravn was telling me about all the things to watch out for in town." With a glance past Oliver to the rainbow colored man, "He did leave out this Monaghan though. I'm adding him to the list."

"Monaghan's a friend. With a jerkass sense of humour." Grouse, grouse. Ravn manages to get his ruined gloves pulled off, and picks up the note. It goes in his (ruined) pants for now; maybe he intends to read it later. Maybe he intends to order a stampede of rabid bison bulls for delivery at Seth's later, too.

"I'm going to go -- well, find a bucket of paint cleanser. I'm fine, really. Well, my pride may need a lot of bandaids. Or maybe this is when I should just proclaim myself out of the closet and go embrace an entirely new lifestyle, I'm not sure. Aidan did want to paint the house rainbow coloured, looks like Seth beat him to it." The Dane is literally dripping glitter and paint. He kicks his boots and tennis socks (not black!) off, hoping to avoid leaving footprints in rainbow colours all over the floor. It doesn't help. Paint just drips down from his jeans. He better hope it's water soluble because it if it isn't, he's going to have to shave his head or embrace the punk look, too.

"Hose," says Una, from her porch. "And towel. Before you go inside, lest the glitter spread further."

Who is she kidding? It's glitter. It's absolutely without question going to spread further. The paint, too, because that's just what paint does.

She's got both: hose and towel, evidently stored somewhere on or in the porch, because now she's meandering back with them in tow, the hose unrolling behind her. It's now that she focuses on Robin for the first time, giving him a crooked kind of a smile. "Welcome to Gray Harbor?" Oliver is more familiar-- Una's lived on this street a few months now, long enough to know the man by sight if not more than that-- but he, too, gets a smile.

Oliver nods that Ravn is ok and doesn't need any help, at least more than the hose that's coming for him. Oliver stepped back, as he didn't need a shower of sorts at this time, and would rather watch from a distance than anything. Oliver returns the smile to Una, than goes to greet the two on the sidewalk. he didn't recognize them.

"Hey what's up? I'm Oliver, " a nice friendly tone extended to the two. He figured a friendly introduction would go a long way versus thanks for helping what are you doing on our block introduction.

Robin gives Kayden's hand a quick shake, once his bicycle is in hand. Anyone who knew anything about bicycles would recognize that Robin's is /both/ well-used and well-loved. There's no rust on the frame, though anything plastic is scuffed or chipped from long use. The cables have a telltale silver sheen of relatively new ones. The chain is well-oiled and probably recently changed. Even the gears have been kept clean, though they are very worn down from much use and could probably stand to be replaced. In short, it's a daily driver that someone is doing their best to keep in good repair after many, many miles.

"Not a local," Robin explains. "Just blew into town." Una gets a little one-handed wave and a smile in return, before his attention is drawn back to Oliver. "Nice to meet you. I'm Robin. Heard the explosion, so I stopped to make sure everyone was okay." As though he wasn't just totally rubber-necking.

"With friends like that, who needs a party planner," Kayden muses as it appears all is well in hand with Ravn, and Una seems to be offering any necessary shower assistance. A final look to the pair and then Kayden is repeating his name to Oliver, "Kayden Masters." With a side nod to Oliver, he shares a similar story. "I arrived a few days ago myself. I'm staying at the Seaview Suites, and yes, I've already been warned," he says before any further Murder Motel stories can be started.

"It looks like everyone is okay or will be soon. I should get back to what I was doing when the explosion happened...heading to City Hall." He almost raises the coffee up to his lips but then gives it a scowl, and lowers his hand. It's probably cold by now and while he appreciates a cold brew, unintentionally cold coffee won't do. "

"I'm going to go shower. And plot a murder. And then clean up the porch. And the furniture. And the deck. And my boots. And the floor. " Ravn mumbles ominously.

And then, at long last, it dawns on him that there are strangers present. He actually manages to blush through the paint; manners, what are manners? "Um. Hi. I'm not usually rainbow coloured. Ravn Abildgaard. Thank you for -- you know, checking what was up. It could have been something serious."

Poor Ravn. Una's mouth curves up at the corners as she comes to stand just out of reach of the paint explosion mess.

"He's not-- usually," she agrees. "Usually nice and monochrome. Perfectly ordinary, in this perfectly ordinary house, on this perfectly ordinary street, in this perfectly ordinary town." Beat. "I'm Una. I'm also perfectly ordinary. From perfectly ordinary Seattle."

From above, one of 5 Oak's windows, Della's head emerges after a little fiddling with the screen. Photography becomes involved.

Oliver greets Robin and Kayden, "It's nice to meet you both" Oliver looks over Robin's bike and can't help but notice the attention to detail and offers up "It looks like you take care of that bike really good" Oliver turns and hears Una and chuckles, "Perfectly ordinary Seattle huh.. Is that the same Seattle I came from?" He shrugged and chuckled slightly then hears a noise to see someone hanging out the window snapping photos. "What a morning" he muttered.

Robin snorts faintly at Kayden's words, with a sparkle of clear humor in his eyes. "Some party." For some reason, Una's words only heighten that amusement, and he shakes his head. "Hello, Perfectly Ordinary Una. I'm Perfectly Ordinary Robin. I live in a perfectly ordinary van down by the perfectly ordinary river." Apparently that's some sort of private joke that no one here will be in on. Before it can really land, his smile crystallizes a little when Ravn addresses the gathered crowd directly. Embarrassment, perhaps? Whatever it is, he gives a kind of awkward wave to the now-multicolored man. "Raven Applegarter?" he echoes. "Might want to be more careful with your mail, there."

To Oliver, Robin just gives a more genuine smile. "Thanks. She gets me where I'm going, anyway."

At Una's words, Kayden's eyes flick to her and then to the others, "Seems a lot of us are from....Seattle. So perfectly normal." Why the pause there and why did his eyes shift briefly to Una when he said it? Who knows, Might be coincidence. Looking down at the watch on his wrist, Kayden frowns as he looks up "Always nice to meet more locals and visitors. I'll be around town for a few days, maybe a week, so I'm sure I'll run into the two of you again." The camera taking woman gets a brief but studied look up. As he starts to turn to start walking towards the downtown area, he quick glances back at the bike, "You should see about getting those gears repaired, Robin. If you're ever forced to ride away from the man-eating Mermaids every second could count."

"I'm not from bloody Seattle," Ravn murmurs. He manages to not wince (much) at Robin's mangling at his name -- worst part of that is, he's heard a lot worse. "Ravn," he murmurs nonetheless, and pronounces it a bit like round, but without the hard consonant at the end. "It's a normal Danish boy's name, I'm not actually some kind glittery Goth kid."

Not difficult to see how anyone would get the impression, with the man's pendant for dressing in black, granted. Or, well, being covered in rainbow paint and glitter. Winegum, anyone?

"I'd better go shower. I'll be slightly more in hello new people mode when I'm not dripping in all the colours of the rainbow. Thanks for checking on me. I mean, that could have been something far more ominous." And finally, he ambles inside. That poor floor. That poor door knob. That poor everything.

Seth Monaghan better glad he's not nearby. He might loose an ear drum to angry screeching in a language he doesn't even understand.

"Pai--" Una gives up. Ravn is just going to have to walk paint through his poor house.

(She does give the porch a desultory little spray of water with the hose, but to be honest, that's probably just likely to make more of a mess: she'll just leave the hose here, then, for someone who actually lives here to worry about, in lieu of causing further issues.)

"Nice to meet you, Perfectly Ordinary Robin. We really, honestly, aren't usually like this around here. Ravn in particular. But--" But who can blame the tall Dane, in this instance? "Be mindful of that Kayden guy, too. He's-- weird."

Una, so helpful.

Oliver smiles and chuckles as Una describes Kayden as weird. He wasn't even sure he wanted to know why but was an intriguing fact to know. Ravn stepped inside and Oliver looked at the others.. "Well it was nice to meet you and see you again" stated to the respective people. "I'm going to head back and heat up my now cold breakfast and laugh a little bit at what I just saw.. "Hope you all have a better day than Ravn.."

Let's face it: everyone is going to have a better day than Ravn.

Poor Ravn.

Robin chuckles a little and looks down at his bicycle. "Yeah." He sighs, then, and shakes his head. "Yeah, she does. We'll get it done soon." Since the party seems to be breaking up, he gives another wave. "Nice to meet you all. Maybe I'll see you around." It's a small town, after all. But either way, he hops on his bike, and soon he's peddling off to whatever destination he'd originally had in mind.