2022-05-26 - Impromptu Picnic

There is a very happy Ava out in front of her house today, laid out on a picnic blanket in the Summer heat that can always be found in this private ecosystem. Nimue, the sweet, blue baby is on a playmat next to her, enjoying the bright and shining toys that dangle up in front of her face. Tiny hands and feet are waving as she tries to grasp at them. There's a basket of food and a single glass of wine. Party for one?

When Jules Black pulls up to the house just two doors down in her old silvery-blue Camry, she can’t miss Ava. She drives right past her, in fact, and after she’s parked in her usual spot, Jules opts to saunter down the block instead of immediately heading inside. Neighborly friendliness, perhaps, is what brings her to pause on the sidewalk outside Ava’s place.

“Hey there! Is that the baby?”

Correction: neighborly curiosity.

Charity's pale green '68 Corvair glides to a stop at the curb in front of Ava's house a few moments after Jules arrives. Charity climbs out and closes the door with her foot before walking toward what seems to be an impromptu picnic. Dressed in a faded jean skirt that accents her legs and a black tee with the image of a pair of ballet shoes on the left breast and the worlds "En Pointe Studio" in block letters beneath the footwear. Jet black hair pulled into a loose ponytail that sways with her steps as she waves at the two women.

"Hey. Thought I'd come by and see how you were doing." Charity smiles at Ava and then looks to Jules. "Hey."

Ava glances up towards the pair with a bright smile, so much more relaxed and at ease than she normally would be. It's strange for someone who is usually kind of reserved and a little, mm, uppity? "Well hey guys." Maybe she's had a lot of wine? "This is the baby. Nimue. Isn't she just the cutest??" Ava says with a fond glance over to the wiggling arms and legs.

"I'm doing so much better. All healed up. Thanks again for getting the meds for me." Ava sits up, gesturing towards the blanket. "Have a seat you guys, there's plenty of room! Plenty of food, too. Would either of you like some wine? Are you peckish? Wait until you see what I've grown, they're magnificent.

"I've heard about her," Jules says, coming closer to peer at this little blue creature. She's not just curious -- she's nosy. "Well, what do you know." Nimue is indeed very blue.

"Hey," she answers Charity a moment later with a flash of a smile, though it's followed by her own question, one she picks up from Ava's other visitor: "You got hurt?" Here's a lifted eyebrow, attention transferring from the baby to her adoptive mother. She scans Ava for any outward signs, even though 'all healed up' should be self-explanatory.

A moment later, she's agreeing, "I'd take a glass of wine. I've been told that I have no palate, apparently, so maybe you can teach me a little something." With that, she comes to squat on a section of Ava's blanket. Her offer is invitation enough. "I just finished my last final, after all, and yesterday was my birthday, so pretty please, I'd love to celebrate with a glass. What'd you grow?"

Charity waggles her fingers at the blue babe and settles down on the blanket, tucking her legs beneath her. "Don't mention it, hon. I was more than happy to help." Then she nods in earnest. "Wine? God yes. After the night I've had, I could use some libation." Leaning back on her hands, she arches a brow at Ava. "What did you grow? I didn't realized you did any gardening."

Then she smiles at Jules. "Congrats on finishing the final. And a bigger congrats on the birthday." Her green eyes swing back to Ava, ready to hear what she has grown. From what she can tell, the last thing was Nimue, wasn't it?

A few days back, Ariadne had arrived at Five Oak in order to drop off a Tupperware of blueberries she'd been given by a customer. Una surely had a better use for them, Kitchen Cleric that she is. As such, that's the barista's car pulling up to park in front of Five Oak's lawn. She emerges in a light sailing long-sleeve in white, hooded and all, over a forest-green camisole and a pair of black jogging pants. It must be a lazy errands kind of day given she's even got Ked sneakers on and not the work sneakers. With her hair pulled back into a messy-bun to display the celestially-hued underpanel dyed by the very person she lent the Tupperware, Ariadne makes it halfway up the lawn before glancing over.

"Oh." Quieter to herself, she changes direction and makes her way towards the small collective. "Oh, hey, Ava. And Jules, hi, and Charity! Nice day to be enjoying the balmy around here." Perpetual balmy, as it were. But don't think Nimue's going to escape her attention. The barista laughs softly to herself as she comes to a pause at the edge of the picnic blanket and tilts her head at the small baby. "Well, she's just about a mini-Smurf, but she's cute in a...very different way," the marine biologist decides, curious as all hell about this little being despite herself.

"But did I hear birthday?" A look at Jules is full of teasing consternation. "Shenanigans, you. I'm taking you out for a drink to celebrate this, even if it's a few days late."

"Except for her absolute love of water, nature, and sunshine, she's like a normal baby. Well, with blue blood." Ava laughs softly. "I still haven't had luck finding others of her kind, but I'm nothing if not determined to figure things out once I start looking. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually."

Jules' scan doesn't turn up anything. "It was just some internal bleeding from the ferocious Spirit Birds in a Dream. You know how it goes." She's surprisingly dismissive about it. "Blood is supposed to be inside, right?" There's a wink, probably meant to be reassuring. Her eyes widen at the question about what she grew. "Oh, I have a whole greenhouse out back," she tells Charity with a grin. Then, as to what she grew. "The most beautiful fruits you've ever seen in your entire life. The tastiest, too. Just wait, I'll show you. But first, let me get some glasses for the wine. Because you have a lot to toast to! Happy birthday and congratulations!"

"Hey Ari! Come sit. Out for drinks later. We're having wine and fruit now. If you'd like some, that is. I'll be back, you guys chatter amongst yourselves." With that, she disappears into the house.

"Honestly, I think the final is the thing that deserves the congratulations." Jules makes a face. The young woman who's settled down on the picnic blanket and who's now throwing up her hand in a wave to Ariadne isn't exactly college age. She grins at the look that Ariadne's giving her now. "Yeah, well, I didn't really want to do anything in the middle of taking tests. Besides, there's the party coming up, and that's good enough for me. But I'll absolutely take you up on that drink."

Blood and Spirit Birds dims her smile. "I heard about that." Jules might say more, but Ava's popping up to fetch wine glasses, and so she turns her attention back to the others. "I don't think we've met," she mentions, looking to Charity. "I'm Jules -- live just down the street." She waves that-a-way, towards where she parked her car.

And then that baby grabs her attention again. "Maybe that's what Ava should have named her, Smurfette."

Charity turns her head and smiles at Ari as the barista approaches. "Hey. Come for the party that I think Ava didn't expect?" She laughs as she gives Jules a thumbs-up. "I think they both are cause for celebration. Though I am not going to lie. Finishing a final is a big deal. If we're going out for drinks later, I've got the first round."

"Hey Jules, I'm Charity." She says looking in the direction the other woman waved, Then she herself points to the west. "I'm over at a rental on Elm. For now. So, what was your final in?"

Ariadne glances up at the hostess and shrugs a shoulder with a good-natured smile. "Thanks, Ava, I will. I can hang for half a glass or so, but not forever. Sam still needs his evening walk." The Windhound will surely require one tonight, it had been a long day of errands. The barista ends up lingering alongside the picnic blanket, hands slipped into the kangaroo pocket of her sailing sweatshirt. She gives Charity a friendly grin. "I guess I'm here for the party that Ava didn't expect, yeah. Curiosity snared the cat and all."

-- and Jules' explanation earns her a knowing twist of nose. "Nothing like finals to ruin the fun. Reminds me of back in college, when I had to wait until finals were done too. My birthday was the 20th." A teasing wink for Jules because Ariadne didn't make a big deal out of her own either. "We'll party at the ball and party elsewhere because why not? Birthdays can be celebrated all month as far as my family's concerned. That way, if there's too much going on to plan for cake and other things, it can be celebrated on another day -- and Charity can buy the first round." A nod to the young woman to acknowledge her dibsies.

Her eyes slide to Nimue and linger on the odd blue baby again. "I mean, that'll be what I'm calling her unless Ava tells me otherwise. It's not meant to be insulting; the wee bairn is as blue as a Smurf."

"Ecology," Jules answers as she crosses her legs under her, getting comfortable. She can't help but reach out and tickle Nimue's belly. "I'm calling Ava Mad Scientist, while we're at it."

She sits back up, finger-combing her black hair to one side. "I like how you think," she tells Ariadne with a grin. "Della and Una were going to take me out, but I asked them to hold off until Friday. Pre-gaming. Pre-balling? Something like that. More importantly, after all the work's done. We're going to a spa!" Jules says this while holding up her arms and wiggling her fingers, jazz-hands style. "Which I have literally never done before. It seemed right to do it before the ball, anyway."

"I highly recommend a trip to the spa. I went recently and it was completely divine." Charity leans back and plants her hands behind her as she looks over at Nimue. "Yeah, Smurfette would have been a more apt name. Of course, I'm one to talk." She grins at her own self-effacing joke. "I'm looking forward to the ball, myself. Getting all dressed up and dancing. That's our idea of a good time." She winks at them. "Who knows, maybe I'll find someone to drag back to my sparsely-furnished apartment and have an after-party party."

"Pre-funking," laughs Ariadne as a third option for whatever the pre-partying is called. Her dimples show up deeply ow. "Spa day sounds amazing and yes, as we've all agreed upon, entirely too appropriate in prep for the ball. No spa day planned for myself, since my pedicure is all set. Can't do much with my nails because nobody wants nail polish in their coffee accidentally at work." Her shrug is accepting. Out come the nails of one hand regardless; they look well-kept if still plain and sans polish. "Figure these will do just fine. They'll be in gloves anyways, nobody will see them."

Nimue's wiggling and giggling in response to Jules' tickling makes the barista glance over again. "She at least sounds like a normal baby," comes the quiet observation. A glance over at Charity with a thoughtful flick of brows. "It's true, you never know. It's all going to be masks and mystery to an extent -- except for me. Hair." A gesture at her up-do, where the dyed color is obvious. "No big though, I don't mind if people know who I am."

Jules just grins at Charity, remarking, "You don't need much furniture for that." Ahem.

She tilts her head to look up at Ariadne, then. "I suspect we'll all know at least a few other folks, masks notwithstanding. I think you'd really have to pull out all the stops on a costume to fool your friends, you know? It should still be fun. And there's bound to be plenty of people who you don't know -- all the better for those after-parties, maybe." She goes back to entertaining Nimue. "Sounds normal," she agrees. "Still."

Still.

"You all realize that we can see each other's Shine, and that's going to be a dead give away, no matter what costume we're wearing, right?" Ava points out as she steps back out of the house with a basket of fruit and wine in one hand a bunch of wine glasses in the other. She needs to get out of here with her logic. Bare feet pad across the lawn as she basket is settled and the glasses are passed around.

Taking her seat back down with the others, she pops the wine open and starts to pour out the glasses for the others, starting with Jules, because the celebration starts with her. "I'm proud of you!" It's offered with a big grin. "You can have first dibs on the fruit, too," she whispers. Her free hand reaches out to open the basket to reveal the treasures inside. That is certainly not human fruit. It's pretty much what you'd expect from Veil-Faerie fruit; Some are iridescent, some are golden, some black as pitch. They all call right to the very soul of those who look at them.

They don't know how, but something inside of each of them just knows that these are the most wonderful thing that they could ever hope to taste. What could go wrong with having just one?

Charity's grin widens as Ava pours the wine. Yes, someone is looking for some liquid refreshment of the adult variety. Leaning over she looks at Ava before looking into the basket. "Thanks." She lifts the glass in a little salute before looking down at the presented offerings. "That all looks so ... delicious." The reverie is momentarily broken, however, when slightly muted heavy metal music begins to come from her ass. Tearing her eyes away from the delectable fruit, she pulls out her phone, silences the Crue. And sighs looking at the trio as she stands. "Work. I'll be right back." Standing, she begins to head toward her car.

"Make sure you save me some of that." She calls back as she swipes her thumb across the screen and brings the phone to her ear. Leaning against the front bumper of the Corviar, she starts speaking softly to the person on the other end.

"Point," comments Ariadne as to Jules' logic. One doesn't need furniture to accomplish certain antics.

A glance over towards the house as Ava appears. Her hand, out of the kangaroo pocket of her sailing sweatshirt to check nails, gestures in their hostess' direction. "Also point." -- as to the glow each and everyone one of them capable of the Veil arts has about themselves. "Not much of a secret ultimately, but fun times? Absolutely." Jules still gets a lingering look; 'still' what exactly? But the barista doesn't have a chance to ask. She stoops to accept a glass of wine and remains standing alongside the picnic basket as the fruits are unveiled. Pun intended.

They get a proper consideration from the marine biologist. They're...pretty and her fingers tingle to touch one of them, but at the same time...there's something wrong with them. Charity's phone and consequential if brief departure has her attention torn from the display. "Sure," she calls to the young woman, "We'll save one for you."

Another look at the fruit and she contents herself with sipping at the wine instead. "They're so...different," she eventually decides, her hazel eyes flicking to Ava. "What do you know for certain about them?"

Jules beams back up at Ava, holding her glass up to toast. "Thank you! Will you tell me what I'm drinking so I can pretend I know things?" The fruit catch her eye, then, and she leans to have a look.

Now, Jules does not trust Ava with her greenhouse. Item one: blue baby. These fruit most certainly do not look normal, and Jules has heard about Ava's experiments.

Item two: Jules has promised Una she wouldn't do reckless things. She's already broken that promise once, though arguably it wasn't totally her fault.

But those fruit. There's just something about the treasures that basket holds that Jules can't resist. She's captivated, and like a corvid drawn to shiny things, she reaches out to pluck out what looks like a metallic plum, skin shifting between silver and golden depending on how the light catches it. "This is beautiful. It even smells amazing," she murmurs. It's true; what's wafting up scents the air like ambrosia. Jules doesn't think twice. She bites in with a sharp inhale, closing her eyes.

"No worries. They'll be here when you get back," Ava assures Charity with a brilliant smile. She really does seem so much happier than she has been in a while. So very relaxed without that undercurrent of stress that's usually humming around her.

"Here here to fun times," is agreed easily. "Don't worry, Ari, I ran a slew of tests on them myself, and had the lab do a speed work up on them, too. Self-tested each of the fruits myself to make sure there weren't any side effects also. I know that they are beautiful and the most delicious thing I've every eaten. If I could figure out how to develop this on a large scale, I could make a winery and retire forever if I really wanted to. Not that that's my dream. But I could."

Her eyes drift to Jules. "It's Chateau Haut Brion Blanc Pessac. Summer sipping wine. A little pricey, but perfect for the yard since it's eternal summer. I'll let you take a bottle home if you like it." Her eyes brighten as she goes for one of the fruits. Yessssss.

"What do you think?"

Chateau Haut Brion Black Pessac. Ariadne, with her nose in her wine glass for a distracted sniff, can't catch the rising waft from the fruit basket in turn.

But Jules can and does and reaches and all the barista can do is watch where she stands, her non-glass-holding hand jammed hard into her kangaroo pocket. It's almost as if she's half-expecting Jules to vanish from sight in another iteration of Sudden Veil Doors 101 or something. Half of her is tempted to text Ravn right now because hindsight is 20/20 and fuck all if some of her is screaming this is an idea she doesn't know how to counter. She can't manipulate Veil doors anyhow.

"This is your...first crop of them you've run the tests on?" she asks Ava while still watching Jules to make sure nothing insane happens like...spontaneous combustion or extra limbs or sudden polka-dots in chartreuse.

"Oh my God, this is the most delicious thing I've ever tasted," Jules declares before she's even opened her eyes, savoring the lingering taste. "It's like a kiss from Jesus."

She'll take another bite, but not until after she's tried the wine. "I have literally no idea what any of those words mean," she tells Ava, "except that it's expensive. Is expensive wine actually better? Or is it all a marketing ploy? I grew up pretty poor so we definitely never had a bottle like this, and I'm almost afraid to drink it because I'll just embarrass myself. I already feel like I embarrass myself around people like you plenty, because you're so put-together and glamorous and fucking gorgeous and you're a fucking doctor to boot."

And just like that, Jules says exactly what she thinks of Ava. No combustion. No Veil creatures coming forth to grab her with their tentacles.

And no filter.

"Yup. First crop, first tests. Well, I suppose Nimue was technically the first crop, but her tests were a little bit different wouldn't you say?" Ava chuckles softly at that. She can see the concern in Ariadne's eyes and softens slightly. "Don't worry, you don't have to eat one if you don't want to. There's cheese and crackers in the other basket if you're hungry. I got those at the grocery store. Much safer.

Jules' exclamations seem to delight her. "No," she offers honestly. "Not all expensive wines are better. But some are. That's why wine tastings are important, to find the ones that you actually like. Some of it is a marketing plot, some if it is just a matter of wineries trying to make their money back for expensive costs. A lot goes into making wine." But then Jules is talking. A lot. Ava's eyes go a little wide, and she laughs, reaching her non-wine holding hand to touch the other woman's legs. "Have you looked in a mirror? You are fucking gorgeous! You know what I can't do? Fight a cougar."

A kiss from Jesus. "...how would you know what that actually tastes like?" It sounds more than a little stupid after it leaves Ariadne's mouth, but she's torn between horrified anticipation and her scientist's brain taking fast and simple shorthand notes. No extra limbs. No sudden Veil door. No fire, no lightning, no wings, no...

She blinks. No filter?

Some of her lip balm is left on the rim of the wine glass as she brings it down from her mouth, this half-parted in surprise.

"I'll...probably have some cheese and crackers, sure, thank you, Ava." It's quite difficult to separate attention between hostess and Jules and fruit regardless at this point. The sample with the bright orange hue is incredibly tempting. But -- "Wait. Wait. A cougar? Jules." Now Ariadne is really staring at poor Jules. "That's what got your arm? The bite?"

Javier said he'd stop by on his way home from the station. He probably ought to have known better. Declined the invitation. Maybe it was easier not to, or maybe it's his own damn curiosity that got the better of him.

He climbs out, and the door to his cruiser's slammed shut. No mistaking that beast for anything other than a cop car, unmarked or not. He adjusts his gun slightly, tugs his jacket down over top, and jams his hands into his pockets as he trudges up to the front yard where the action is. Maybe no-one'll recognise him under the baseball cap and scruffy beard.

Jules wrinkles up her nose at Ava, but it's in pleasure, paired with a bright, genuine smile. "I did do that, didn't I. I was pretty boss." She sounds proud of it, too, turning her attention now to Ariadne and nodding like it's no big deal. Cougar bites, sure.

"It wasn't just a bite. And technically, I don't think it was just a cougar. It was, like, a spirit cougar. One sec." Jules can't show off her inner arm until at least one of her hands are free, and this means she polishes off her silver-gold Veil plum in short order, leaving only the pit. After sucking the last bits of flesh from the pale core, Jules puts the pit on the grass beside her and displays her arm, inside up. There are three long pink lines that run down the length of her arm, pink with new and scarring skin. "This is why I was all bandaged up. Ava treated me."

The car pulling up gets a glance, and the man emerging from it a second look. Jules recognizes him, despite the hat, though she's squinting like it's taking her time to place him.

"You were pretty boss." The agreement is firm. "Not just a cougar, but a spirit cougar? I faced down a spirit bird and it almost killed me. So really? You can't compare us. We have different strengths. We all do, that's why we make great teams." Ava beams brilliantly. As she does, she opens that second basket and pushes the cheese and crackers towards Ari so that she can feast. Even though those wonderful fruits in the other basket are just oh-so-tempting.

Just look at them, sitting there, begging to be eaten.

Hearing the car, bright eyes glances up, Ava straightening as her smile grows. "Javi! Come see!"

"A spirit cougar."

Is there an echo?

Just an Ariadne still holding her wine glass and barely having sipped it. She's only got eyes for Jules' display of her arm. "Damn. It scarred nicely. Er, as in it didn't scar all super bright," the barista amends as she leans in slightly to see the marks better. It means bending a little at the waist, but at least there's no wine spillage. "Good job on the healing, Ava." Laud for the woman and a lift of drink in salute for the skill. She remembers now as having Ava listed under 'healer' in her personal phone directory of Veil Powers. "But maybe no more picking fights with spirit critters."

A deeper stoop means she can snag a few offered crackers for herself because otherwise, her hand is going to reach out towards the fruit with its gleaming siren-song of appearance. That is a very nice scent about them. It makes her mouth water. Eat cracker. Eat cracker and not put fruit in mouth, she saw what happened to Jules. Something about her verbal filter.

It doesn't mean she misses the sound of a car door shutting. Ava announces who it is as the barista looks over, mouth full of cracker. A lift of glass in greeting for the man making his way across the lawn.

Spotting the trio -- make that quartet -- and their blanket on the grass, Javier checks the time on his watch and angles in that direction with some hesitation. A mumbled, "Hola," covers the group at large, along with an effort to adjust his hat like tugging it lower over his eyes might ameliorate how intensely awkward this is. To Ava, "Did you invite me to a fucking garden party?"

See? He doesn't need any Veil fruits to cause him to lack a filter. He does just fine on his own.

Sensing the immediate requirement for nicotine, he starts patting himself down for a cigarette. "You, uh, mind if I smoke?" Yes, Javier. They probably do. The baby, if no-one else.

"To be fair, the spirit cougar wasn't actually trying to kill me; it was teaching me. It was a whole thing. I never thought of myself as a spiritual person, but it was a spiritual experience." Jules gestures as if this might explain better what she's trying to put into words. "Versus what I heard about your spirit birds -- it sounds like they were pretty nasty. We found Della half-dead on the floor."

Jules' expression clouds over, and she frowns with the memory. It remains as she confides, "I think the birds might have been my fault. I took Una and Della and Ravn up to visit my family awhile ago, and my grandmother told us this myth in the context of a ritual people used to do. I think maybe we brought it back. Ravn said it wasn't my fault, because the Veil likes to pick our brains, so if it wasn't that it would be something else, but I still kinda feel like it is." She contemplates her guilt while sipping her wine. No more fruit for her now; the plum seems to have satisfied that urge.

"Smoking is gross," she promptly tells Javier. He did ask. "Unless you're smoking pot, in which case you should share."

"Thanks Ari! Jules wouldn't let me Heal-heal her, so we had to go with old fashioned doctoring, which is why there's a scar at all. But she bears the scars with honor." Her eyes dance back towards Jules, head shaking. "He's right. Ravn. You didn't bring them. They like to pick apart what's in our minds and tear us apart with them. Make us feel like we're crazy. Makes us feel more guilty so we're easier to mess with."

"No. It was just me when I invited you," Ava offers towards Javier as he makes his way up towards them. "But they came over to say hi, and we're celebrating Jules' last final and her birthday with a drink and some fruit. You want a drink? Forget the smoke, try the fruit. It's way better than a cigarette, I promise you." She plucks one of the golden apples from the basket and lifts up to her knees to offer it towards him, eyes bright and charming. How very Eve like in her white sundress in the Faerie Garden.

Ariadne looks back at Jules with wide eyes. "Oh my god, I hope Della's okay," the barista says calmly with a minute up-lilt of question-tone. She must be...right? No one's red-eyed or weeping and surely Una would have told her if the third roommate at Five Oak had been disemboweled by a spirit bird. Insert another cracker in mouth instead of fruit. This is working wonderfully so far. Flawless logic. Here's hoping she doesn't run out of crackers anytime soon. Not wanting to flash chewed nibbles, she nods obvious agreement to Ava's own thoughts; Ravn's right -- the Veil listens at all times and in all places. Rotten bastards.

Washing her cheekful of crackers down with a mouthful of wine, she's then able to reply to the recent arrival. "What...Jules says though. I'm allergic to cigarette smoke," she informs Javier politely nonetheless. "My throat tries to close off." That is a very shiny apple on offer. Rolling her lips, the barista drags her eyes from it and to Javier, wondering how he's going to respond to it. Very shiny. So sparkly.

"Quizás no me importe un carajo," murmurs the cop to Jules, looking faintly amused as he slides out a cigarette. And he's all ready to light it up when Ariadne has to go and ruin his day. I'm allergic?

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." He watches her a moment or two, tonguetip poking at the inside of his cheek in irritation. Then shoves the cigarette away, still watching her with that mingled incredulity and nervous tension. Finally, he glances at the apple, and Ava doing her best impression of Eve over there. It is awfully tempting for some reason, even if that itch in the back of his mind is warning him not to do it. don't don't don't. But he takes two steps forward and snags it. And takes a bite out of it, crunch. Juice dribbles down his chin, leaks into his beard as he chews.

Apropos of nothing, Jules suddenly exclaims, “I know who you are!” It’s Javier she’s staring at. “You’re the cop that came to check up on me after the hostage situation. That was the worst fucking day of my life. I still have nightmares.” The words come out calmly enough, but Jules also seems to have the need to drink this nice wine faster than she should right about now. “Also, I don’t speak Spanish.”

She’s still watching Javier as he bites into the apple. “I’ll get out of your way here,” she decides after a moment more. “I just wanted to come see the blue baby that everyone’s been talking about. See if she looks as weird in person as she sounds.” She reaches out to tickle said baby again, so weirdness aside, Jules seems okay with playing with Nimue. She looks up from the baby to address Ariadne and add, “Della’s fine now. Una and I got to her pretty quick, thank God. Her bed looked like someone had been murdered in it.”

Jules shifts out of her cross-legged position on the picnic blanket, stretching before she stands. “I am honestly fucking exhausted, so I’m gonna head home. Ava, I would take you up on the offer of a bottle, but I know I’m not going to appreciate it by myself, so maybe I can come back sometime soon and share it with you instead? Good to see you guys.” Her glass is empty now, finished off with one last and large-ish sip. Jules carefully places it down on the blanket, and with that, she’s off, headed back to her own house two doors down.

"Now now. There's no need for grumpy, just trust me. Try this instead." The apple is taken and Ava's eyes linger on Javier as he takes that bite, her smile warm and hopeful. "¿Cómo te fue, amante? ¿Todo lo que dije que sería?" She truly already knows the answer because she's already had an apple herself and knows how very good they are. She's already under the spell. "Come relax with me." Her hand gestures to the spot next to her. "Do you want wine or should I get you tequila?"

Jules is getting up and Ava offers her a little finger waggle. "I'd love for you to come share some more with me. Come over any time, really. Go and sleep well! Tell Della I said hi." She glances towards Ariadne with a grin. "How are the crackers and cheese? Need anything else?"

Ariadne shrugs despite her intense wish to swat the apple away. Or grab it. Either-or. "Unfortunately, not kidding," the barista replies to Javier. "I appreciate you respecting my allergy, thank you." But then, there he goes eating a Veil fruit and the barista sips at her wine because no -- NO -- there's not enough qualitative and quantitative evidence to convince her to try one! Nested in the basket on the blanket, they still look like a rave party and smell like honestly the best damn thing in existence. Another cracker is eaten.

Jules earns herself another bemused stare with her commentary. No filter. There's no filter. It's nearly too belatedly that she adds, mostly at Jules' back, "I'm glad to hear Della's okay! Send her my good wishes, please! Remember, birthday drinks!" The barista makes a mental note to text Della anyhow, just in case. A bed described as a murder scene doesn't settle her concern.

"Ah, the crackers and cheese are great, Ava, thanks. I haven't made it to the cheese yet, but any time now," Ariadne laughs lightly when asked. "So...the fruits, are they...hybrids or...different cultivars of the same strain or...?"

Well, Ava's correct, to a degree. There's no need for grumpy, because whatever's in that apple, it seems to smooth away a good deal of the Mexican's snarl. He turns to watch Jules's departing back. The hostage situation? That fucking PS5. The guy he had to talk down to keep from shooting her in the head.

"No problem," he tells Ariadne, with a smile. Yes, a smile. It makes his eyes crease up at the corners, and it looks like he actually means it. He takes another bite out of the apple, pausing mid-chew when Ava speaks. Play it cool, brush it off. He resumes chewing, and ambles on over to settle beside Ava in the grass. "Mejor," he murmurs to her, turning the iridescent fruit over in his hand. "De dónde sacaste estos?"

"They're all from the same strain," Ava answers with a pleased expression, focusing on Ariadne as Javier settles. "They were all the same type of figs, but watered and soiled differently to see what sort of variety that would lead to. Granted, I was assuming that it would lead to plants with Veil creatures in them. But this was just so much better. I didn't think anything like this would happen."

Once he's settled, Ava nestles herself against Javier's side, her eyes on the apple as it turns in his hand. "I grew it in the greenhouse. All of these fruits." Her free hand gestures towards the basket with the others. The are beautiful and just as hypnotic. "Have as many as you want. They grow so fast now that they've bloomed, it's amazing. Aren't they beautiful?"

Javier's mannerism gets a suspicious look. Wait. Isn't this supposed to be the grumpy cop? He'd started off prickly and now the barista's reading honest good cheer in his expressions. "Uh. Right." This Veil fruit is doing the most uncanny things, but: the apple can be smelled from here. Sweet, to the redhead's nose, like freshly-baked apple pie with just the right amount of cinnamon and caramel and maybe even a la mode to boot.

Eat cracker. Eat cracker. Think about the cheese.

More of Ariadne's wine disappears as she listens to Ava's findings. "Ah, so the...pH of the soil or something affected how they grew. Maybe you both should stop at one fruit for now though, y'know? Just because they didn't sprout Veil critters doesn't meant there's not something funny about them. Ava, Jules just...you heard her. She's blunt but not that blunt." A gesture in the direction of Five Oak's front yard. "And I mean, I'm not...totally sure what's going on here." Javier gets another dubious look of consideration.

Guess who's not the touchy feely type. Who'd rather be strung up by his toenails than have someone snuggle up to him in public. That guy over there, maybe, because this one seems just fine with it. He even slings an arm around the slim brunette, and leans in closer to show her the fragrant fruit he's bitten into. It's turned a couple of times between his heavily inked fingers, and his teeth sunk in again with a satisfying crunch. The juice is licked off his knuckle.

"They're like nothing I've ever seen before, even my mother's higo chumbo and granada don't compare." His dark eyes cut to Ariadne. "You going to try one?" He waggles his eyebrows at her.

Prickly? This guy? Nah, must be a different Javier. Plus, if something were wrong, would Ava be the first to note it and worry? After all, she's the one who is usually pretty big on at least marking down the effects of her mad science. Research is important. The most important part, actually. But there's a laugh, instead as she reaches out to try to catch a couple drops of the juice from the apple as he bites into it with her thumb, suckling it off as she glances back to Ari.

"You're worrying too much. I told you I already tested them. If bluntness were an issue then wouldn't I be being blunt, too? I had that fruit as well. Plus the apple. I'm alright, right?" She smiles again, that relaxed, easy smile. Then she's turning back to Javier and the apple, leaning in to try to bite it at the same time he is, nudging at it playfully.

"Uh...you're both acting as if you're under some sort of spell at the moment," notes Ariadne. Her brows seem undecided about whether or not to quirk or meet or perhaps loft a single brow to an arch. "Soooooooooo...no. No thank you for the fruit, even if it looks like a dream and smells even better than one. I'd rather not risk it. Not enough research done for me. If you manage to run, say..."

Circling a cracker in the air before herself, the marine biologist decides on, "...another month's worth of tests and then want to show me your findings? I'll make a decision about it then."

As luck would have it, the cop's phone goes off right as Ava's jostling in for a bite of his apple. Rather than play the game of keepaway he was planning on, he chuckles and hands it over, and shoves to his feet. "I've got to take this," murmured as he swipes to pick up the call. Then, "De la Vega," in a considerably more cheerful than usual tone. The voice on the other end hesitates for a good three seconds before continuing. It's the D.A., who's likely accustomed to his gruff personality by now, and was no doubt expecting to have to dodge some incoming snarl.

"Yeah. Uh.. no, not a problem. I'll be right over." He lifts a hand to the pair, and gestures to his cruiser with a jerk of his head. He's going to have to go in. Off he goes, digging his keys out enroute.

Well that's less fun, but still, it's yummy. Ava takes the apple and manages a bite of it while Javier manages his way up to his feet. Brows twitch inward in a dismayed look. "Heeeey," she calls after him with a pout, but work is work. "Oh well." She flops back down onto her side, shuffling close to the playmat nearby so that she can wiggle Nimue's foot and get a little giggle. That's enough to have Ava grinning again.

That, plus finishing off another bite of the apple. "You are being overly cautious. But like I said, nobody is going to force you to eat anything. I'm just saying that they aren't something to be as worried about as you are making them out to be. I'm just in a really good mood today. A rare and beautiful thing."

Oh, sudden phone call. "Take it easy," bids Ariadne of the cop as he departs for his call. A lift of her glass and sip of wine before she looks back at Ava.

"I don't mind being wrong later, Ava, if it turns out I was being overly cautious. I'm just...how to put it. The one a few steps back from the situation and I can tell the fruits are doing something." It makes her glance back towards Five Oak, her mind track circling back around to Jules and her earlier sudden shift in communication style. "I don't know enough about the Veil to want to try them. They really do smell and look beautiful though." The barista isn't ashamed to give the basket a look full of checked wistfulness. "Like a rave party and a Christmas tree and everything you ever wanted to taste all in one basket. Veil figs. I'll remember them until the day I die," she laughs faintly before eating another cracker. "Anything particular inspiring the good mood? Or it's just one of those good mood kind of days, like you said?"

The core of the apple is set down and Ava reaches into it with her nails to dig out the golden apple seeds and hold them up into the light. They shine in her hand as she gives a faint smile. More seeds. Veil-Faerie Fruit seeds to be exact. Something new and exotic that she helped to create. "Do you want one?" Was she even really listening? Ava holds a golden seen out to Ariadne. "Doing something or not, as long as you don't eat it you should be fine, right? It'll give you something to study. These are brand new, one of a kind seeds. Born of faerie and Veil."

"Dry it out, study it. Keep it to plant yourself, put it in a tank with some fish and see if it has an effect on the sea life if that's your thing, maybe." She sets the seeds out for Ari to take or not to take.

The question of inspiration has her eyes drifting towards the retreating police vehicle noticeably for a flicker of a second. "Mm, a few things. Mostly I think I've just decided to stop letting the stress eat away at me like an infection. If I stop worrying about everything, things are so much better."

Those seeds are tempting as hell...and it's clear in Ariadne's expression, in how her eyes linger on them where they sit on the blanket in clear offering.

She might just take them. Maybe. Another cracker is eaten.

"It's not a bad way to go about things," she observes, wrenching her attention back to Ava again. "Though not worrying at all can lead to trouble. Sounds like a mental vacation or something. Did somebody give you some mind Xanax or something?"

There's more apples for Ava to get her own seeds from, so these can be left for Ariadne to do her own mad science with. Spread the love. From one scientist to another. A bunch of iridescent grapes are pulled out of the basket and set out between them on a plate so that Ava can pick at them as she lounges. Her wine glass is scooped back up in the other hand.

"Mind Xanax? Is that a thing that's actually available and nobody has told me about it? That-- would actually have been great to know about while I've been silently suffering for about the past month." The words are harsh but the tone is laughing as if it doesn't matter at all. Because right now, it truly doesn't. She genuinely isn't concerned. "Well, I haven't gotten into trouble yet. Obviously there are some concerns." She has a grape pinched between two fingers as she gestures towards Nimue. If she didn't worry about anything at all, the baby probably wouldn't be clothed and changes and taken care of at the moment.

"Mental vacation is a great thing to call it, though."

Ariadne can't help the sympathetic twist of her lips at the tone she's hearing and especially the dissonance of it. Suffering and laughing about it? Yikes. She looks to Nimue and nods.

"She's a cute little bean if...a different little bean," the redhead says of the baby, smiling to herself. "She's in good hands with you, Ava. You're not in trouble with her." Yet. Ava chose correctly there, yet, by how a frown flickers there and gone through the barista's brows. Another sip of her wine. "And I've discovered that I can calm minds." Her hazel eyes slide back to the other woman now. "It happened on accident with Ravn. It's temporary and you can't do it to yourself, apparently, and I'm still learning, but...you need a little hit of mind Xanax, I can give you that after I learn better how to do it. You seem like you've got enough on your plate these days. At the very least, a good night's sleep will help, right?"

Finishing off the wine, she sets the glass aside on the picnic blanket. As she does, she grabs a single apple seed. Holding it up to the light and turning it back and forth, she sighs seemingly at herself. "I'll dry this one out and see what happens. Maybe cut it into small pieces or something. I dunno." The one golden apple seed gets pocketed now. "Here, this is my number." She lists it off. "You can text me if you need to, okay? I've got to get back to Sam now, my dog, for his walk. Thank you for sharing some summer on the lawn with us, Ava." A last grin for the impromptu hostess and there goes Ariadne, back to the car, and back to be the proper canine butler.

"The cutest of all the beans," Ava agrees with a lift of her wine glass.

The yet hangs there, as accurate as it is silent.

"Pretty much all of the beneficial, inward facing powers can't be used on one's self. Things like healing and mental abilities. I wish it were otherwise. Things would be a lot easier if I could heal myself, sometimes, believe me. Zara wouldn't yell at me so often," she chuckles. Bright eyes study the red head for a long few moments as a small smile drifts over her lips. "I'll keep that in mind, thank you. Congratulations for tapping into another part of your powers. That's always fun."

The doctor looks quite pleased as Ari picks up one of the seeds and tucks it away, then even more pleased as she takes the number. "Thanks, Ari. Give Sam some lovin' for me." With another tilt of that wine glass, she salutes the other woman before relaxing back into picnic blanket with her head tilting towards Nimue, murmuring to the baby in quiet conversation.