The Wayhouse is more or less public knowledge to people coming into the area, located on Tamarack Road, inside of a large brick boarding home. Inside it, Leo is sprawled out on the couch, feet kicked up on the arm, playing a Gameboy. He and Etsy had shown up for some reason, and it had turned into Leo getting distracted by something, then Etsy getting distracted by the kitchen. He's dressed in a pair of jeans that are neatly creased, the bottom cuff rolled up to reveal the lighter blue material from the inside. Long socks disappear up into his jeans, his feet capped by a pair of soft looking moccasin or house-shoes. He's humming softly to himself, his feet waving lazily up and down in time with the beat of whatever it was he had going on in his head.
The kitchen is one of Esther's favorite places to be, and currently the mermaid is sitting on the tile floor, singing herself a little song, with a container of lunch meat between her knees. She's sitting there with the Family Size container of turkey open, singing herself a song. It's a silly little sing-song thing, rising and falling like waves lapping the shore, and it goes: "Meat meat meat! Meat meaaaaat meat. Meat. Meat meat. Leo, I have a meats!" Like that. Her feet, inside their tatty silk slippers, tick off the time of the song. Boop boop. Meat meat meat.
Annabeth slips in humming a quiet tune, and oh-so-subtly shooing a couple little birds away from the door as they try to follow her. Her voice is high and sweet, with a southern drawl, "Shoo. Go on now, shoo!" Wildlife dealt with, she turns to the interior of the room, looking around and slowly making her way inside, a somewhat wary look on her face, and movements slow, as if she's expecting an ambush or something to be waiting inside. She gravitates toward the singing and, when she sees Leo and Etsy, sizes them both up for a moment. Seeming satisfied, she relaxes a bit and promptly offers up a big smile and a wave, "Well hi y'all. You planning on grilling out?"
The siren's song trails off, and she tilts her head to one side as she hears the other tune. A blue-grey ball of fur next to her perks up its head and bobbles around Esther in that very particular way of walking that's only done by otters on land. The otter chitters, folding its little human-like paws in front of itself. "It's a girl," the otter informs its mistress, who has scooted her butt up against the fridge as if defending it, and picked up her container of deli turkey.
Etsy, from the kitchen, responds, "Is a cooked turkeys, already, is not a needing of cooked, but is an okay for a cooking if is cooking done by you?" Was that even English?
Annabeth has just arrived, and is currently giving Etsy a curious, confused and somewhat plastic smile. "Oh...Well bless your heart, sugar. I'm sure that turkey is doing just fine whatever you're doing with it." She looks at the otter, seeming to find it much more suspicious than the people, then back to Etsy. "I'm Annabeth. I've just arrived in town. I thought I'd stop by and say hello." She reaches into her bag and pulls out a tupperware full of lemon squares. "I brought a little something for everyone, if you've got a sweet tooth after that turkey of yours."
"Is a thanking," answers Esther in her strange mangling of the English language as she shoves two more slices of turkey into her mouth -- those teeth are really something else, piranha-sharp and at a hell of a contrast with her otherwise delicate expression -- and as soon as she's swallowed the meat, she points to the counter, "Is maybe for to go there for the nows. A Leo will like a desserts. An Etsy cannot to having the desserts. Only a meats. Only a meats and an eggs and a honeys." The little carnivore wrinkles up her nose, smiling at Annabeth without showing her teeth. "An Esther Swift is me. Hello, an Annabeth. Is Etsy everyone calling me."
Maddox is not a people person, despite people constantly showing up around him. Nevertheless, he us a Squire. And what better place to hear about trouble or find new Lost that need aid than the Wayhouse? So here he is, pushing his way into the room with enough force that the door smacks the wall, ricochets back, and slams closed. He's in his usual grease and soot stained jeans, t shirt, and sneakers. Electricty crackles around the man, or half man, half machine, and a strong summer mantle blades forth, scented with heated asphalt and exhaust. He looks around, scowling, then spots the pair. He heads over. Etsy gets a growl as a greeting, and Annabeth gets a rather intense stare. He growls in his rough, southern drawl, "Who the fuck are you?" This us how Maddox greets people. "And where's the goddamned beer?" He looks towards Etsy as he asks the last question
Annabeth gives Etsy a little smile, her words a bit slow and exagerated, as if talking to someone quite slow. "Well, it is very nice to meet you, Esther. I'm sure we'll be good friends." Maddox's scowling is met with a forcefully cheerful sort of facade, "Well hello there, sugar. I'm Annabeth Hooper. And who are you?" Despite her almost sickly sweet tone and a southern drawl of her own, there is a hard edge to her words, as if expecting things to turn sour with this new scowly man's arrival.
"Is a Maddox, not likes people, because a people is less of an understanding than a machine," answers Esther, scooting out of the way of the fridge door when Maddox comes in. "Beer in fridge, Maddox," she points out, her eyebrow arching up as if this should be obvious. She shoves another slice of turkey into her face, continuing to watch Annabeth curiously. "Is newness, yes? Is a Wayperson found, or coming here first time?"
Maddox snorts at Annabeth's sickly sweet greeting, completely missing any indication that it's not genuine. An empath he is not. He does seemed intrigued by her accent, though. His own is deep south, bayou area. He growls, "Where the fuck are you from?" He heads over towards the fridge, apparently forgetting to introduce himself. Etsy has it covered, however, and he grunts, "Everyone's a goddamned psychologist these days." He rolls his eyes. He pulls a beer from the fridge and twists off the cap. It isn't a twist off but he doesn't seem to notice. He tosses the cap aside ardently as he returns to the group. He studies Annabeth intently. "Yeah, you new? You need help getting back to living and shit?"
AB gives Etsy another appreciative smile, seeming to warm to the odd girl a bit. "Ah well, bless his heart. We can't all be socialites, now can we." The question of her newness gets a bit of a shrug, "New to the area, but not new to..." she waves a hand about, "All of this. I've been out and about a few years." As for her origins, she returns that fake smile to Maddox and offers, "Tennessee, originally. It's been a while since I've gone back there though." Returning to the subject of her needs, she adds, "I've got a job and a place and all that, so I don't think I need much from any of the official sorts, except a handshake and a howdy. I came 'round hoping to find someone might be willing to arrange for the appropriate introductions."
She splays her webbed fingers, does Etsy, and gives Maddox a winning smile, no teeth. "If I am wrong, tell me I am wrong, Maddox." That was almost an intelligible sentence. Esther snatches another piece of turkey from the container, shoving it into her mouth, and goes quiet for a while, watching. "Is not so hards to find a person to do this, I am having had talks with Crown myself." She mimes pinning some sort of pin on the front of her coat, and then adjusts it, the winged sash she wears briefly catching the light. "Not so hard. Be here, you will find a someones."
Maddox rolls his eyes at Annabeth's first words, but he doesn't add anything to it. As she answers his question, he snorts, "A yank. You'll get right on with fucking Billy Ray." When she says she's been around, he grunts. "Well, I won't fucking help, then, less you need something in the Hedge and shit." He waves a hand at the last, "Won't take you ling to find someone. Bunch of goddamned white hat do gooders crawling all over the fucking place." He snorts at Etsy's comment. "Machines make a whole lot more sense than most asshole. They get shit done and don't fucking whine about it." He's a real charmer. He takes a swig of beer and grunts, "What she said. What I said. Hang out and pretty soon someone will hold your fucking hand. Or blow up enough shit that someone takes notice." That might have been what he did.
AB laughs slightly at the suggestion to blow shit up. "Well, I suppose that might be an option eventually, but I do try for a /touch/ more subtlty at the start. Bit more neighborly." She ignores the comment about her being a 'yank', other than a slight narrowing of the eyes. "I'm sure someone will show up sooner or later. I figure this is a good place to meet nice folks like y'all in the meantime. Last freehold I was in, you couldn't get three people in the same room at the same time. Year round Winter hold that was. I do /not/ recommend that kind of arrangement, if I'm bein' honest. But to each their own." She shakes her head then looks from Etsy to Maddox. She coniders, then asks Maddox, "What color hat do /you/ prefer?"
"Color?" The mermaid flops over on her side on the floor, in the middle of the puddle of her Mantle. The longer she stays in one place, the more vines and tiny white flowers flare out around her on the kitchen floor. "On me I likes a purples and a greens and a blues. On other peoples, is themselves to choose the colors." Rolling onto her back, she puts the turkey container on her stomach and keeps eating slices of it. Is she ever, ever full? "I know, Maddox, I know. Is a sense-making is the machines." He isn't the first robot friend she's had, probably.
Maddox grunts at Annabeth's comment about subtlety. "I ain't got time for that shit. I got a goddamned war to fight. Year round Winter? How the fuck does that even work? Sounds fucking horrible." At the question about hats, he reaches up and pats his head. He didn't remember putting a hat on but you never know. He growls, "Hats get lost too fucking easy." He shrugs, then looks at Etsy. He takes a swig of his beer, then reaches over and boldly snags a piece of turkey, grabbing and shoving it into his mouth in one quick action. He looks at Etsy challengingly. The man can not help himself - he has to constantly test people.
AB opens her mouth to start over-explaining her hat comment, then stops herself and just shakes her head, offering a little smile. "Well, we all have a war, now don't we? I'd argue that there's more than one way to skin that cat." She watches, alert and wary, after Maddox steals Etsy's meat, half expecting a fight to break out of the cold cuts.
-> >> Etsy to Here << <-==============================================
Rolled 0 Success
< 4 4 6 7 >
========================-> >> Resolve + Composure - 3 No Flags << <-
There are very few hard and fast rules when it comes to Etsy. 1. Don't touch her food. 2. Don't touch her food. 3. Don't throw beer at her face. 4. Don't touch her food. 5. Don't mess with MRBL. 6. Don't touch... you get the idea. Maddox manages to snag a piece of the turkey, and then the mermaid's eyes, normally a lovely brackish olive, turn suddenly abyss-black. Her piranha teeth are bared, and she hisses, launching herself at him. "GIVING BACK MY MEATS!" the mermaid shrieks, going from chill to zero fucking chill just like that. "NO TOUCHING MY MEATS! MY MEATS!"
The mrbl in question, that blue-grey otter, gasps and puts his little human hands over his mouth. GASP. He asides to Annabeth, "That was not a good life choice."
Maddox grunts at Annabeth's words and growls, "Yeah, but using a spoon ain't as effective as using a goddamned knife. Whatever floats your boat and shit, though. I'm sure you're good at something." He doesn't sound condescending or anything, he just speaks whatever's on his mind without thinking. And then there is that theft, and Etsy is flinging herself at Maddox. And Maddox, well, doesn't move. The thing about being half machine is that he's /solid/. He doesn't even budge as he's so viciously 'attacked'. His electric gaze glints with something akin to approval, but he grows bored of it quickly. He reaches out, attempting to place his palm against her forehead to push her back. Not hard, just enough. And the man is strong. He growls, "You dropped your fucking meat."
AB watches the 'fight' with a wide-eyed sort of horror, that quickly turns to amusement as Maddox starts to push Etsy back. "Oh sugar, you're gonna hurt yourself. Settle down now. I'm sure there's plenty of meat left. You want me to buy you some ribs or something?" She pauses, then looks to Maddox and asks, deeply serious, "/Are/ there any good ribs in town?" She notes, as an aside, "You don't get good at something overnight. And a spoon may not be as effective as a knife, but it sure does hurt a helluva lot more when you know how to use it well."
It's something right out of a comedy routine: the angry flailing tiny person held at arm's length by a much larger person. Esther doesn't stop trying to get at Maddox and take the meat back by her tiny force, not for a good while. When that doesn't work, she grabs hold of his arm with both hands and tries to turn her face so she can latch onto his hand with her vicious pointy teeth. Summer protects, and she just ends up yelling something that sounds like a wet cat protesting bathtime, while her otter runs around picking up the turkey that she dropped onto the floor while trying to retrieve the one slice that Maddox took. The otter stops and gives AB a look aside, then tsks and finishes picking up the meat. "Best way to end it, distract her with new meat," the mrbl agrees, and then as Etsy curses in a way that would make sailors take to their fainting couches, it skitters over to her ankle and smacks the plastic container against her knee.
"Here, ya hungry brat. Stop making me talk."
-> >> Maddox to Here << <-============================================
Rolled 0 Success
< 7 >
==============================================-> >> 1 No Flags << <-
Maddox is grumpy, sure, but he's not completely filled with wrath as some summers are. He has anger, but he's fairly composed all things considered as Etsy flails at him. To Annabeth, he growls, "How the fuck should I know? I just eat whatever Leo brings me, or I find in the goddamned hedge." Electric eels are pretty good. And then Etsy is /biting/ him. "What the fuck!" And, the thing about being half machine is... well, he's half machine. Etsy managed to bite down not on a fleshy bit, but on a machine part. Poor teeth. "You're gonna fucking scratch my finish! Look, your water weasel has more fucking meat so just chill the fuck out!" Yet... again there is that glint if approval. He took the meat for a reaction, and that's what he got. "Fuck, you made me spill my beer." Not all of it, just a splash if the precious nectar.
Annabeth watches the continued ruckus with bemusement. She notes, to no one in particular, "I feel like I've just caught a glimpse of what I must have looked like when I first got out of the hedge." With a sigh she looks at Maddox and adds, "You eat /hedge/ food?" She sounds slightly horrified, as if he just suggested he's a lover of boiled duck fetuses and viper heads. "Aren't you worried you'll get some sort of...disease or something?"
Snarling at Maddox in a way that twists her pretty little face into a hell of a mask of ugliness, Esther snatches the meat away from the otter; while it's impossible to tell exactly where she's looking, since her eyes have no pupil or iris, the abyss-blackness of them stays mostly pointed at Maddox. Etsy skitters away from Maddox and flops down with her back against the fridge; her skinny arms wrap around the plastic container of deli meat, and she mutters, "Fucking of fucks your fucking polish, meat-stealing fucking fucker." Etsy snarls down toward the turkey, and the otter just tosses its small paws in the air and trundles over to curl up next to Etsy's knees while the mermaid soothes herself with dead bird flesh.
Maddox snorts at Annabeth's comment about their shenanigans. He growls, "You got it fucking backwards. Longer you're out, worse it fucking gets." Again, he's just speaking out loud - it's not an argument, just True Facts According To Maddox. "What else would I fucking eat? Should I turn back in the middle if a goddamned mission so I can duck out and get some fucking McDonald's? And you don't eat the goddamned poisonous stuff. That's just ridiculous." He looks over at Etsy as she settles down, if you can call it that. He grunts, then says to Annabeth, "I like her. She got fucking spunk. So many don't bother fucking standing up for what they want." He drains the rest of his beer. Then, as an afterthought, he says to Etsy, "Ever eat fucking Hedge meat?"
Etsy gets a sympathetic look from Annabeth, but she leaves the other woman to her meat for the moment. Instead, she gives Maddox a little shrug and a nod, "Indeed. She's got some fight in her. It's nice to see. I prefer to be a bit more discerning in my fightin', but I suppose we're all working with a different set of tools." A small beeping goes off from her purse, and she reaches in to turn off the alarm that's going off on her phone. "Anyway, it's been a real pleasure meeting y'all, but I've got to get on to work." Another item, a greasy visor from 'Shabby's Shake Shack' is removed from her purse and placed on her head as she starts for the door. "I'm sure I'll be running into you again. You have a real nice evening."
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