Billy Ray is at his shop - a little birdy said that the mermaid was coming over so the food is grilled and kept warm on the grill and the cooler has water and beer. He has the big garage bay doors open to part of the workshop and he's laying out on a lounge chair with another chair nearby, his mutt laying at his feet gnawing on what appears to be a good sized beef bone. He has a beer he's sipping while working on a yellow legal pad, doodling out some sketches it appears with little notes here and there.
The building that is 'Hold My Beer, LTD' is massive - outdoor ranges, indoor ranges, archery ranges, big enough to need golf carts to move around. The 'shop' area has tshirts and polos, soft drinks and long counters to sell guns, ammo, hand-made ammo, quivers, bladed weapons, so on. Behind the customer service side is the huge workshop side that can now be seen afterhours with the bay doors open - all the CNC, water jet, CAD-assist and old fashioned metalworking, wood working and firearms-working gear a fella should need. The 'mutt' is scout, a down-South mutt around 6 months old, and Billy Ray is well known in Lost circles for being a firearms-expert and inventor par excellence.
The mermaid rolls up in a rental car: she pledged for the day with herself for a bit of money and an ID that's good for that day. It'll last long enough for her to return the car, and that's enough. Etsy brings with her a friend! "Has been such a longs time, and have not seeing Billy Rays in long times really either." However Lumi got into town, Etsy soon found the iceberg and dragged her along on an adventure to see a friend.
On the way over in the car, Etsy gave Lumi the basic broad strokes: they'd been looking at forming a motley, she and Billy Ray and others. She had started dating one of the guys involved, who she backed away from when it got too intense too fast... and he promptly ghosted on her. There never was an oath, and Etsy's convinced there wasn't enough of a central link for the motley. She natters away about wanting to introduce Lumi to Reggie, who is also aquatic, and Billy Ray, who is a Spring like her and is so clever with building and inventing things. When they pull up -- Etsy's actually a great driver when she's not getting a kick out of scaring people, which she once did to poor Haruki -- the mermaid and her blue-grey otter slide out of the non-descript sedan, casually so. "Oooh, can has a smell of a meats! Billy Rays so niceness."
"BILLY RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" she hollers, fluttering in her tatty silk slippers toward the Wizened.
What else is one to do when they see strange Winters in town than pick them up and take them to visit friends? Of course, the fact that Lumi came along might not have been the most sensible thing to do either, but when you're in a hurry to start making connections sometimes you just go with the flow. She's fairly confident in her ability to deal with many varieties of trouble anyway, and arranged for some contingencies (like sending a friend a photo of the car's license plate that she surreptitiously snapped before getting in, and turning on tracking mode on her phone to let a few select people locate her if needed) to make it a little less crazy.
When they get where they're going she gets out of the car, having probably not said more than half a dozen words on the whole trip over, and looks at the place. She peers for a moment and then Etsy is off already, and she decides that either someone who feeds their guests on the regular is probably going to be okay, or she'll be next on the menu for dinner. Either way, she might as well get it over with. "Is Ray part of his first name, or is it his last name?" she asks as she trails a few steps behind.
It should be noted that to those that have the eye, the security around Hold My Beer is -legit- - we're talking Etsy's car was scanned and she had to pass by a heavy wall and guarded perimeter before making her way into the property. Billy Ray gets up with a lumbering gait for his tiny frame, a grin as he finishes his beer and two points the can into the trash, "MISS ETSY!" he calls, "Ah got all the meats - all of 'em - and did it simple, like you like," he says as Scout eyes the pair, and his bone, and drags it a bit further away. He's packing - o' course, Sig on his right hip, clearly custom, and his trucker cap is angled back a bit, overalls with multitools and other tools peeking out of every pocket. Within the Lost community he's fairly well known. "Even got some veggies an' whatnot," he tells the pair as he offers a right hand, calloused - interestingly, for all his scientist demeanor he has the hands of a brawler and fighter - to the Winter. "Billy Ray Johnson miss, any friend a' Miss Etsy be a friend of mine. This young fella be Scout, an' ah got beer, ice tea an' all the meats an' food in the world, ah reckon. Lemme drag over another lawn chair."
"You know I am not eating a plants," Etsy tells Billy Ray chidingly, as she flings her thin arms around the Wizened's neck and plants a kiss on his cheek. "But maybe Lumi will have an eating of a plants." She doesn't have the slightest bit of fuss about Lumi's security gestures, if, indeed, she notices them. (It's possible that she does; Etsys are good at noticing these things. It's possible she noticed and pretended she didn't.) "Lumi Aaltonen, this is a Billy Ray Johnson." Well, that answers Lumi's question, doesn't it? "Billy Ray, this is Lumi, I am knowing her from a time when had a wanders in Europe, and she is a nice friends, a watery friends. I thought maybe would like to have a meetings of her. And have to have a talks with you, and a Lumis is a person to talk to about serious things." Sometimes following what Etsy says isn't easy.
Lumi's face is usually a mask of expressionless impassivity, and the current moment is little exception. It's hard to tell what she thinks of all of this as her icy face turns to look around, and then her gaze settles on Billy Ray and she reaches out to take his hand in one of hers. She's a short woman, and her hand is small to match, not to mention chilly to the touch. There's a roughness to what's otherwise smoothe ice, like the living iceberg's equivalent of callouses. "It's nice to meet you, Billy Ray," she says with an accent that sounds American, with most regional distinction rounded out of it on purpose so that it's simply bland. "I do eat plants, but I'm fine with meat as well, and I would love some iced tea. You've got pretty extensive security here." It's hard to tell if that's a note of approval, but maybe it is.
"Ah figger if ah was gonna live outside the city -an- stock several tens of thousands of rounds an' firearms an' whatnot, ah should kick it up several notches," says Billy Ray as he gestures Etsy - after a hug! - to the grill where the meat is waiting, kept warm - and grabs a pitcher to fill a glass with some ice tea - Georgia style - to hand over to Lumi before he drags over another lawn chair for her to complete the trio's set. After a pause he adds, "An' there's some other stuff here ah'd like t'protect an' whatnot," he says. He cracks himself another can of Bud - America's beer - and sips it before he offers to Lumi, "Figger ah should say - Knight of the Third Hour, Spring, Greenie recruit, medic, inventor, gunsmith. Hedgespinnin', Token makin', that kinda whatnots. If it's technically minded ah c'n prolly git my fingers int'a it an' take that sumbitch apart an' put it back together ag'in, better." A pause as he considers as he takes a long gulp from his beer, "Sorry, miss. Pardon m'French there an' whatnots."
Etsy piles up food on a plate for herself, but does remember to also make a plate for Lumi. Someone drilled manners into her at some point. Possibly the mrbl. The mrbl is also being given a sausage or three on a plate, because she is a kind friend to her hedgebeast. The mrbl drags their sausage away, muttering something under its breath to the effect of, "At least she isn't that stupid otter." Or something like that. Etsy squints at the mrbl, then offers Lumi a plate with food on it -- veggies too! -- before taking a large pile of meat for herself. She doesn't interfere with the intros, just starts shoving meat into her piranha-toothed maw.
"I'm a Knight of the Utmost Silence, Winter, Lawyer, Fixer," Lumi replies with a quiet, steady, neutral tone. The Silent Knight part could probably be figured out by the fact that something always seems to be blocking her mouth from view. It's the mist that tends to swirl around her, or its a play of shadow, or her icy hair blocking it from view, but for some reason her lips are never visible. Even when she takes the plate from Etsy, picks up a bite, and puts it into her mouth. "Thank you, Etsy," she tells the mermaid. "In any case, if someone is in trouble they don't see a way out of, of a sort you can't just stab or punch or shoot until it goes away, I try to help. I also just arrived in town."
"Gotcha,' says B-Ray as Scout settles down with his bone and Billy Ray gestures to the lounge chairs for the other two, collapsing down himself. "Alright, that'll prolly come in handy ah reckon. Miss ETsy is good folks an' if she vouches for ya - lawyer or no - then you is good folks," he says with a toothy grin. "Ah grew up here - as a kid, an' after 'round a decade spent workin' fer the Spring court an' building stuff ah decided to come back here. What brings you back?"
"I could have had a using of you being here a few weeks ago. I did a thing kind of the way maybe shouldn't have dones, but oh well," Etsy sighs. Lumi probably knows what that means: the high-Mantle Spring (the vines are already climbing all over her chair, and the air around her smells like the sea) did something that she wanted to do on the spur of the moment. "This... not very smarts person throwed a molotov cocktail at polices station, and I breaked him out because he was talking to invisible fake peoples, like someone name of John and someone else name of Bartleby and some other names, I am not a rememberings, but then he disappearing and then he is blab blab in the hospitals about 'blue mermaids with flowers in hair' as 'crazed fan' who kidnap him and have a beat him up." You can't actually see Etsy's eyes roll, but it's possible to feel them roll. "Look at me! Skins is not even a blues." This all between hurried mouthfuls of meat, as if the food might run away if she lets it. "Should have you do a thing about that."
But then Etsy's just barreling on. "Billy Ray, this motley of High Voltage, it is not a happening. Maddox and Leo went poof, Jon went to a training camps... is not a motleys. Need to talk of another ideas." Good lord, Esther Swift. Could you stop living up to your surname?
"I always hope my skills won't be useful at all," Lumi says as she takes a seat and starts eating, which she does more daintily than Etsy. Probably more so than Billy Ray, as well. "I'm here on business," she says, "and I hope that you'll forgive my caginess, but my business thrives on my discretion. I intend to stay for a while, though, even after those responsibilities are concluded." She takes another bite while she listens to Etsy, face impassive. "We'll need to talk about that more later, I think," she says about the situation, making no promises. "I think that some things might be done, though."
"Sure nuff," says Billy Ray, "Ah'm still workin' with Jon - on some Greenies stuff. But ah git ya, Miss Etsy. And ah'd like t'talk stuff." The last part seems directed at Lumi, - since this is new to her. "Mostly, ah want people ah can trust implicitly. Ah got real resources here - stuff ah kin make an' generate that kin be dangerous in the wrong hands. Including some pretty powerful stuff in th' Hedge. So fer me, it's jes' bout trustin' folks. AH ain't no front line fighter, no way no how, but ah'm a paramedic an' c'n see my way 'round a tussle if'n it comes to that. If'n yer copacetic, Miss Lumi, we could talk it over sometime. Y'got anyone else y'think' could be interested Miss Etsy? Those ribs 'kay? Ah got a new rub for 'em."
"Not so much interested in having anything to do with a CBs, still have a tracks on my back from bus tires going over me thump thump. He was talking to invisible persons, honestly. Of course, was so worried he would be talking to invisible friends about Lost, and what does a do? Has a talks about a mermaids at a nurse. No good deed, unpunished, so on," sighs Etsy. Having gotten that rant out of her system, where it's clearly been building up for a while, she shovels more meat into her face and goes quiet for a bit. "But anyway, talk more about thats later I guess." She swings her slippered feet under the chair. "Yes, exactly," she agrees with everything Billy Ray says. "Oh, you must meet a Reggie Dangers! He is an otters. He has a hedge airships with a habitrails of swimming... and he is very dashings, and... "
And then the mrbl accidentally bites her ankle, and she yelps. "Sorry, sorry, I was not paying attention while eating my bacon," the mrbl says casually. Someone doesn't like Reggie. (Maybe the mrbl just doesn't like the competition of another otter wanting Etsy's attention.)
"I'm a Winter courtier," Lumi notes with some tiny bit of humor in her otherwise chilly voice. "Everything is always about how much I can trust people, and I tend to err on the side of caution. Then when I trust, it's trust-but-verify." The petite woman shrugs ever so slightly and continues eating, then reacts with an unsual amount of surprise when "Reggie Dangers" is mentioned, her attention jerking around to blink at Etsy like there was something unexpected there. Of course, she doesn't explain. "An airship?" she asks, like maybe that was it. It wasn't.
"Huh. Ah wouldn't mind seein' that - if'n it's in the Hedge,t hat's somethin' else! Ah think ah may've heard of that fella. Sure, sure. We c'n set somethin' up here, sure, some night, let us all hang out some and see how we git along?" asks Billy Ray as Scout settles down near his legs and yawns, mightily, before he closes his eyes.
-> >> Etsy to Here << <-==============================================
Rolled 2 Successes
< 1 2 2 3 3 4 5 6 9 10 >
======================-> >> Wits + Empathy.Adroitness No Flags << <-
-> >> Lumi to Here << <-==============================================
Rolled 3 Successes
< 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 7 8 9 10 >
==========================-> >> Wits + Subterfuge + 2 No Flags << <-
"Oh, do you knows him? Or is just the airships? The airships is amazing. Or so I am tolds. So excites about going to see it. Am thinking maybe will want to living there for so longs, maybe forevers. Do not need to come up for airs, you know? Just stay underwaters forever." Etsy absently kicks the murbl; this is an ongoing argument between them. "He is a perfectly niceness."
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