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Kaleb called up Billy and Teddy's place to meet at the bunker at 5. He didn't understand what a Narnia was truth be told and kept butchering the name. He grabbed food, which marginally included extra taking Vic's appetite into account. He's brought his large draft pad with him and didn't look too bad at all for a guy that was almost melted between classes. Hell he looked spry and focused, sandwich in one hand and pencil in the other looking like the stylish corporate nerd he was. Someone was in a ridiculously good mood.
Billy steps through the wardrobe into the base, and brings with him a pair of pizza's. Kaleb might have brought food that marginally took into account Vic's appetite, but Billy knows himself and his boyfriend. Between the two of them and Vic they could eat enough for an army. So he brought backup. Still. Billy is dressed in a sleeveless white t-shirt and a pair of shorts otherwise. The base itself is fairly empty, still. The only real furniture are benches in the area with the exercise equipment— weights, a treadmill and stationary bike. "Heeeeeeey." he greets.
"Not 'Nerneria', just 'Narnia'," Jay is coaching Kaleb on how to say it for the tenth time, which is just a hoot considering all the things he says wrong. "Like the lion, witch, wardrobe book. Get it? Wardrobe?" he raps on the front of the wardrobe with his knuckles, smiling crookedly to Kaleb, gently amused by the whole subject. Suddenly taking a step back when the wardrobe opens up with more folks stepping out, avoiding the swing of the door adeptly with an easy step backward and light fwip of his wings.
Teddy steps out of the wardrobe behind Billy. He's dressed similarly except that his t-shirt has sleeves. And instead of pizza, he's carrying beer: a six pack of dunkel in each hand, straight from Germany. "Hey." he greets.
Vic follows up the rear behind Jay. He's in track shorts and a t-shirt, but hey, he's wearing clothes, and this is the important thing. Since Kaleb has food covered, Vic's got his book bag slung over his shoulder. Working out or reading, one way or another, he's got a plan. He steps back when Jay does, avoiding the fwip of his wings by a hair's breadth.
Kaleb blinked at Jay having zero recollection of the reference. Oh yeah, that would require Kaleb ever being vaguely human, or having a childhood. "Un…huh." He blinked and processed that shaking his head and going back to chewing his sandwich. He bent sound around him to carry on his conversation for him while his face was occupied with eating. *I'm still stuck on the lot of us having our base, or whatever, in a closet. We're not really doing much for this stereotype, just saying. It …is kinda way cool though.* he even had to admit that one. He quint at Jay *Nearna?*
Kellan seems to be a little bit late to the party, but he comes in carrying a few folding chairs, one pair, then back through the wardrobe with another pair. These, he folds out sets down, claiming one for himself. The others can fend for themselves. Plop. He's in a pair of jeans and a plain grey t-shirt with running shoes on, "We seriously need to start some renovations here.. and get some furniture," he says with a grin.
Tommy's arrived with her brother, really she did. Unlike others she didn't bring anything but herself. Notable, perhaps, is the fact that she's got a rather silly looking large woven floppy hat perched on her head, giant round sunglasses, and sports a pair of pedal pushers, running shoes and a t-shirt.
Billy looks around the space, and goes over to the practice arae which has pads, and plops himself down on the soft floor and sets the pizzas down there. He nods to everyone and grins, flashing dimples, "Heeey. So. Welcome to Narnia, those who haven't been here yet. Its…sparse. I'll be buying stuff and getting it fixed up over the next…well, awhile." His grin fades into a smile, but he gestures to Tommy, "Everyone, this is Tommy, my twin sister. She's been…away helping a friend. Tommy.." He nods to the strangers in turn, "Kaleb, Kellan, Jay." He pauses, and looks at Vic, "And…. in what is I know completely weird to a new level of weird, Vic, our brother. He's kinda brand new and magicy."
A half pivot to one side, Jay reaches out to pat Vic's shoulder apologetically, murmuring low, "Sorry." He tosses a wave to the new folks and steps further into the space. He's familiar with the oddity of Kaleb speaking without speaking, responding normally while he walks the perimeter of the space, raising his voice to be heard in return, a faintly hollow echo chasing his words. "It's not /in/ a closet. Just, y'know, through one." As if that makes it better. A slow smile tossed Kaleb's way as Jay pokes his head around a support pillar. "Closer. Nar-knee-uh." Jay taps his knee, like he's done it a hundred times, and likely has coached some younger sibling how to say it. Nodding slowly over Kellan's observation, Jay chews on his lower lip, looking upward. "Could use some work, but got good bones." Jay notes to Kellan's observations.
Quieting when Billy explains he'll be doing more with it, Jay nods mildly and peers toward Tommy upon introduction. He nods mildly. "Miss."
Teddy sets the beers down next to the pizza and sits down next to Billy. "It's a dark beer from Munich. Very good." Though Billy would likely dispute that. Flipping open the top box, he takes a slice of pizza. "Strange and Wanda were having sex and magic got all over the place." he explains to Tommy. "Congratulations, it's a boy."
Vic smiles fleetingly at Jay and says, "It's all right." He was being rather quiet, after all. He shakes his head at the conversation between Jay and Kaleb, and as he steps into the hideout proper, he gravitates toward Kellan, flashing Billy and Teddy a grin. As he listens to the former, his attention strays to Tommy, and he offers her an uncertain wave. "Hi," he says. "Um, surprise. I'm Vic. I'm only a few months old."
Tommy lifts a hand up, offering everyone a wave as they are introduced, "Nice to meet everyone." She then lets her eyes settle on Vic as he's singled out, "Welcome to the crazy, I suppose. Which…" She pauses, reasoning that out for a moment, "Goes towards both of us." She then flashes a quick grin before shoving her hands into her pockets, doing her very best to gloss over Teddy's description of how Vic happened with a terribly awkward rocking from heel to toe, "So…nice place. I'm kind of disappointed, though. I was betting on a wintery forest."
Kaleb is so going to come out of this saying Narnia with a twang because Jay is the one teaching him elocution on this one. He walked Kellan his sandwich handing it to him before pointing, speaking without involving his face still, *I left the tomato off. They looked funny. Been working with Billy for a new interior. I broughthe draft mock-ups I've been working on. FIgured I could finish this with us all here. Figure out what we need.* At the introduction of Tommy he looked up from his own twin to Billy's and arched an eyebrow. He blinked and finally gave her a nod of approval before looking back to Jay, "Nar-nyuh?" He sighed. Who names their kid this.
Kellan pulls himself up out of his chair long enough to steal one of the beers that Teddy brought. "I'll give one a try," he grins, opening it up and then taking a swallow, trying it out. His expression goes thoughtful for a moment and then he nods. When Tommy is introduced, he grins broadly and says "Heeey. We've heard a bit about you, well, a little bit anyway. Nice to meet you. Want a chair?" He gestures to the one he just vacated. When Vic gravitates toward him, he slides an arm around Vic's waist and leans in against him comfortably. "We can help get stuff too, Billy, if you want some help getting the stuff to set up this place." It's just an offer. He laughs, "We should get a wardrobe that opens into a wintery forest.. just because." When Kaleb brings over a sandwich, he takes the sandwich, grinning in appreciation for the lack of funny tomatoes.
Billy manages to look a little green at Teddy's accurate if gross description of how a Vic happened. "Can we all agree to let me have my polite fiction that my parents— neither of my parents— do that?" He sounds pained. But he goes for a slice of pizza, and pointedly not a beer. Because beer is gross. But he laughs at Tommy, and nods to Kellen with a grin, "Hey, if we want a door to siberia, I can do it. I don't know why we'd want to go to siberia, but if you people have a thing for snow…" He nods over to Kaleb then, "Wow, you're way more prepared then I am. I was just..winging it. I'm going to hire a contractor to put in a kitchen and a bathroom for sure."
Jay smiles quietly to himself as he hits the far corner of the space and takes a long look over the space from the vantage, his gaze traveling up high. Calling back, echoing through the enormous space, "Yeah, it's missin' a few things." Jay notes with mild amusement in his tone toward Tommy. "There's also no White Witch, though, so give an' take." Joking.
Jay grins widely from a nearly a block away in the space, the click-clack of his flip flops echoing in the distance at an even pace while the red-head explores. He speaks conversationally back to Kaleb, figuring he'd just drag the sound back to him. Jay smiles gently when he hears his own accent hanging on to his friend's tongue, speaking back in Kaleb's own voice, only with a lack of Kaleb's patented haughtiness, "Narnia, where Tumnus lives." Have another weird ass name there, Kaleb.
Talks about remodeling and revisions, Jay shouts again, letting his voice echo, "It's got interestin' accoustics with all th' brick! Anyone else have any buildin' experience?"
Teddy gives Billy a quick grin at his comment. Nope, not going to happen. If his mother had to have sex with an alien, then Billy's other parents do it too. "Let's not go to Siberia. But it's winter in the South America and Australia. They have forests."
"No, no White Witch." Tommy agrees, her smile widening a bit before she catches a strand of her hair, wiggling it in the air, "I'll happily pose as her if need be for the purpose of…something. Amusement? Yeah…" She nods, seeming satisfied that it'd be just that, amusement. "How about what…uh, the Black Forest? Wouldn't that be sort of foresty and snowy? Less with the whole Siberia feel, too."
Again, glossing over the parental sex portion of the conversation she shakes her head at Kellan's offer of a seat, "I'm good. I like standing, or the floor is fine…don't want to take anyone's seat from them. But I'll be certain to drag in a nice chair of my own next time."
Vic himself manages a small smile while dying a little inside picturing his parents doing that. Nnng. He draws Kellan to him with an arm around his shoulders. He watches Tommy without trying to watch Tommy quite so much, which only makes him watch Tommy more. "It's so nice to finally meet you. I've heard so much, and I've just wanted to see you, and here you are." He hugs Kellan to him, because Tommy might not appreciate being bear-hugged by a virtual stranger. "Anyway, if you ever need anything, all you gotta do is ask." He looks to Billy and grins stupidly. They have a sister!
Jay was right, Kaleb dragged sound around like a child with a wet doll. He was paying attention when- OH snap! Mimic battles were on, Jay! It was Kaleb's worst Kin-tucky accent ever, and likely deliberate, entirely in Jay's voice "Y'all just stahrted yuirself a war, thar, Jay" But Kalb was grinning wihtout malice. "Really though I'm with Teddy, no Siberia. Cold. Hostile. Terrible restaurants. No four star hotels even." Because anything below 4 didn't deserve stars nor their occupancy. It was to Jay he answered, "You know, I do actually. I haven't done the carpentry, but…oh just look at the drafts. Vic mentioned adding hammocks to teh rec area Billy was proposing." He stopped and looked to Tommy and squint at her, "And possibly a pari of locker rooms."
"Well, Kaleb's an architect and all.. so making plans and stuff, that's his thing," Kellan says to Billy when he marvels at Kaleb's planning. He does laugh a little bit at Billy's queaziness about his parents' extracurricular activities. Then he glances over at Jay, watching as he explores the space with a grin. He laughs a little at Tommy and says, "You could be the White Witch, sure." He accepts the squeeze from Vic. Being the surrogate for Vic's impulsive hugginess doesn't seem to bother Kellan at all.
Billy returns Vic's grin with an encouraging one, and he shakes his head, "South America, Black Forest, sure. I just am not clear why we have this big urge to have forest times. Do we want to camp?" He wrinkles his nose, "I'm not much of a camper." But he eyes Teddy, "But not Australia. Too dangerous. Talk about something trying to eat us — everything in Australia tries to kill humans." He blinks at Kellan, "Oh, hey. I didn't actually realize that." He nods to Kaleb, "So, yeah. Small locker rooms off the bathroom, maybe? I have nothing against hammocks, though part of the reason for having the wardrobes is how fast we can get to-from home. To go to our own bed."
"You mean…" Tommy turns towards Billy, giving him the strangest of looks, "You've never /read/ the book?" She lifts a hand up, covering her mouth as her expression turns into something that is very astonished. For about five seconds, then she drops her hand to continue, "So when the one kid, Susan, goes through the wardrobe into Narnia, it's in a snowy forest. With a…sign post?" She glances at Jay, since it might be he is the only one that has read the book other than her, "Anyways, that is the forest things. But locker rooms? Hammocks?" She holds up her hands, begging for a pause, "What are we doing with all this, and why?"
Teddy nods. "Yeah, we don't really need a lot of stuff here when we all have wardrobes. Or will have. He can make more. I really don't plan on ever sleeping or showering here when my own is just a hundred feet away." Tommy gets a shrug since he doesn't really get it either. Unless it's an adult version of building a fort.
Blink! Jay physically starts, the metronome sound of his flip-flops stops for a moment in the bowels of the hide out. Sure, a block long is a /long/ way, but it's practically all open but for those support beams and the equipment right now, so the bright speck of red that is Joshua Z. Guthrie is pretty easily seen most of the time. The thrown accent causes him to grin, briefly, but broadly, simmering to a smile a moment later. "Ah was only tryin' t'help, but if you want a mimic-off, then yer on." Jay continues talking to seemingly himself when he swaps back to Kaleb's voice, "I am disappointed in you, Kaleb. You missed a good chance for some animal imagery." His steps pick up again, walking back toward the group once more with a dip of his chin and amused expression.
"Sign post," Jay yells back his confirmation. "Lockers in case there's sensitive stuff we dont want hangin' 'round our homes? That what yer gettin' at?" Jay guesses, calling back to the group, then starts whistling softly to himself, having fun with the accoustics.
"I was thinking hammocks for hanging out in," Vic says. "Because I thought out space was gonna be limited, and building vertically as well as horizontally made sense. Making the most of what we got, you know?" He gives Kellan a kiss atop his head, and he hasn't even gone for food yet, he's so wrapped up in hugging on the other man. "But there's lots of ways we can do that."
Kaleb did, however, seemed actually…well he's never really been humble. Humble and Echo have neer really met, but he was standing a little straighter at Billy's compliment offering only, "Well those things seemed important to you, they were good ideas and it's… I dunno." It made him feel like he was contributing something other than salty wisdoms. He looked to Kellan and tilted his head and back, "If going through the wardrobe ever eats my pants and I show up pantless then that's all on you guys. Just remember I voted locker room." Something was wrong in the world. Echo was in a good mood. That sharklike grin go a titch wider at teh challenge accepted and snipped back to jay in Jay's voice, "Now' you ahre just getting a burr up yuir backside faster than'a sheep in a thistle patch." He listened to these animal analogies long enough to half half of them memorized in candid illustration. He grinned back to Kellan like 'ya see that?' His twin got a squeeze to his shoulder in passing in thanks for being a little proud of him though. Kellan was right pre-emptivly; Kaleb was determined to be an architect. Of buildings or a new world order was still out.
"Well, in the event home was ever compromised and we needed a place across town to lay low or something, I guess," Kellan says and then shrugs his shoulders. "That way we'd have a backup place. Or if we had someone we wanted to bring here but not to our own places for some reason. But it's not really necessary I guess. So maybe we ought to figure out exactly what it is we do want here, outside of the practice and exercise space?" Then he glances over at Kaleb and squints at him. "Did you just… mention sheep.. in a thistle patch?" He accepts the squeeze to his shoulder but there still s a little bit of a sidelong skeptical look. He takes a bite out of his sandwich and then offers some to Vic.
"I've seen the movie!" Pause, "I think. I remember a cute british guy." Billy shrugs. Of course, the movie doesn't even kind of exist, but still. He looks to Tommy and explains, "Well, see, for awhile there we were having Team Meetings in our apartment. And it started not feeling like our apartment. Now Teddy and I don't mind friends coming over from time to time but if its the place we meet and do stuff, its not our home anymore. So we need a base, where we can do any… communal stuff. Hang out and relax together, work out, practice fighting, plan… but also a refuge. In case something goes wrong this is our secret haven. No one but us knows where it is, and only our hands can activate the spell, so its secure." He adds, to Teddy, "I do think a kitchen and bathroom are important for the refuge purposes, but if we're having a refuge, I can just conjure a bunch of sleeping bags. But if Vic wants to hang in a hammock, I'm cool with that." He looks to Kellan and blinks, "Oh, bringing someone here is like rule number one of no, isn't it? Wouldn't that compromise the secrecy of the place?" Then… he stares at Kaleb. "…what?" Sheep…thistle…patch?
The sheep thistle thing gets a look, but then Tommy just laughs, shaking her head before going back to the topic of what this place is. At the explanations that are forth coming she nods, "Alright. So, a safe house." She drops her hands, returning them to her pockets once more before she starts to move around, pacing out the width of the place, "Hammocks are great, showers are great, kitchens are the best…I vote we have a flashy light and a dance floor."
Back on the refuge thing again? "Well, if we're planning on using this place as a safe house, there should be places to sleep." Teddy agrees. "But guys, if we've done something that gets us tracked to our homes, we did something really, really bad. Let's not do that. Cause if someone ends up knowing where we live, they can find out who we are and who our parents are. So no matter what, don't ever let that happen. If you're on your own and in trouble, call Billy or Tommy. They're the best at quick escapes."
Jay listens as best he can to the discussion at hand as to what they are or are not doing here. He remains a mute party to much of it while details are sussed out by and large. Whistling what sounds like a slower, angling toward sultry blues song, the notes /lean/ as they wind through the supports, quietly echoing in the background. A break in the tune for him to grin and murmur back to Kaleb in mimicry, "A burr would suggest going outside in the wilderness; somewhere any man with a bit of sense and a decent pair of slacks would never go."
Going back to whistling, out of curiosity's sake, Jay slowly stretches out his wingspan to double check the distance between support pillars, judging the pracitcality of space for some of his own purposes. Another curious glance upward, the young man shouts back to the others, "What's Tommy do?"
Kaleb squints and snapped back as Billy and Kellan both questioned the analogy and terribly Jay immitation. "I dunno how sheep operate okay? I know they're fuzzy and do… something." Sheep fell under organic-feeling things. Kaleb had zero clue unless they were convertable to a building material but he's never heard of sheep-shifters so he assumed not. He looked back to the room, "Shit I was thinking just an occasional sleepover would be cool or, hey I'm going to kick back while other people do…work…stuff… it'd be nice to have a sectional sofa or a conversation pit or something. We do take breaks. At least I am. I do second Tommy's idea for a dance floor and sweet lights. I already started on a sound system for in here and Jay, sorry bud, we're correcting the accoustics. I like my shoes without my lunch on them."
Vic grins at Kellan and takes the offered sandwich. "Thank you," he says. Then the sandwich goes in the face, where sandwiches belong. Kellan may be distracting him from food, but if food's just going to happen, down the hatch it goes. "Wooly," he says to Kaleb. "Sheep are wooly." He keeps an arm around Kellan, but he steers them toward more food. Now his appetite is kicking in. "We don't have to have hammocks. I just think life is better with them. Like, if you're in a hammock, nothing can be that bad."
"I'm with Tommy on the flashing lights and a dance floor," Kellan says with a grin, though he nods to Billy and Teddy and says, "Well yeah.. I more meant.. like… something explodes in New York and our building ends up half-collapsing or something.. not necessarily someone tracked us down to our apartment.. But yeah, no compromising secrecy. I was more thinking like if Tommy and Kaleb rescued someone and needed a place to take them temporarily. But if we want this absolutely secret and not use it for that, that makes sense too. Figure it's worth asking the questions so we can all be on the same page as to the answers." He takes another swig from his beer, and allows Vic to steer him toward the food, since he got a bite out of that entire sandwich.
Billy nods his head to Teddy, "I'm going to try to get some… something, so that people can remotely get in contact with me. In case of emergency. Teddy had the idea for a teleport-home thingy, but I haven't figured out a way to do that. But a alert-Billy thing I think I could make work. Then I teleport to you and get you out of trouble." He grins at Vic, "Hey, I'm not against the hammocks .." And the same dimpled grin for his sister, "Or flashy lights and dancing." He nods to Kaleb then, "I'm going to be magically-soundproofing the place, by the way, like I did for my apartment." He thumbs-up towards Kellan, "Oh yeah, all being on the same page is exactly right. Hm. If we need to take someone somewhere… maybe we should like… get a safehouse."
"So a secondary safe house, but for other people?" Tommy wonders, starting to pace the length of one of the walls, a hand pulling out of her pocket to trail across the surface. When Jay asks what she does she pauses, then grins, "I go really fast." She leaves it at that, though, "I think both ideas are great, though. I get not wanting to having everyone conducting business in their apartments, or I guess houses, either. For one, what if things get loud? Always a pain when the neighbor shows up and complains that they didn't get invited to the party. Plus, I'm almost certain there is always an attractive British guy. And…if we get a kitchen here, who is going to cook?"
"Vic is going to cook." Teddy answers though he's looking at Billy. "Couldn't you teleport people to you? You know everyone here well enough already. If you needed an extra boost to home in on, you could make a magical something to give to each of us. That's better than you porting there into the middle of trouble."
Satisfied with his exploration of the area, Jay meanders back toward the rest of the group, hands in his pockets and hovering around the outer edge of the group while they hammer down details. A faint smile tossed Kaleb's way. "What, y'don't wanna work in a giant echo chamber?" His tone both understanding and on a wry angle. listening to the conversation a bit to catch up to any details he missed.
Tommy's explanation as to what she does draws a slow lift to the serene curve of his mouth, intrigued. Before he asks any other questions, there's a glance to Vic, then the rest, intercepting in a mild tone. "Vic cooks a lot already. Ah'm sure we could figure out a rotatin' schedule or somethin'. Even if that means eatin' sandwiches fer a bit." Tipping his head toward said sandwiches.
Kaleb didn't look back up to TOmmy but went back to working on an alternate overlay in mylar for the space. How he loved his portable drafting table. "Tommy, Sound's not carrying out of the room if I or Billy's there." At the important question Kalebn said almost in tandum with Teddy, "Vic is going to cook.". He paused and looked up at Hulkling blinking giving him a nod of approval. Well played. It was to Jay he blinked and said in deadpan, "We could call it an Echo chamber but I don't think anyone wants to deal with anything named after me. I've met me. There'd be no living with me after that." He winked at the birdmana nd went back to doodling.
"I got places," Vic says. He glances around at the others. "If we need to stash people. I got places." The way he says it, there are glimpses of the shades of OldVic imprinted on his mind, and echo of the caginess that was OldVic, with an innocent delivery that is entirely NowVic. He shrugs a shoulder and says, "One or two in every borough, got some bugout bags loaded and ready to go, too. MREs, money, some of them have guns, I've got bolt holes, safe places. If you need to disappear someone in the city or get them out of the way for awhile…" Another shrug. Then he reaches for a sandwich. "I don't mind cooking," He says. "I like it, but if I can't be there, you don't have to wait for me."
For the time being, Kellan seems content to drink his beer and find another sandwich while he and Vic are over by some of the food. He listens to the others as they discuss the plans and nods a bit to each idea, seeming interested. He grins a little and says, "Vic doesn't always have to cook. We can always order food to the apartment and drag it through the wardrobe." Catering, this is Kellan's answer to Jay's suggestion that they take turns.
"Oh, Kaleb." Billy gives a serious look to Kaleb, "Its super important you not mute me— ever. You can mute everyone else but if I can't hear my spells, they don't work. Keep this in mind when we are teamworking." He looks consideringly at Teddy, "I… don't know. I've never reverse-teleported. But that's a really good idea. Maybe a token that pings me, then I know to port someone. Hmm. You and me will experiment on this." He eyes Jay, and laughs, "If I provide food, its take-in. I don't cook— trust me. You don't *want* me to cook." He nods emphatically to Kellan.
"Vic cooks?" Tommy's head snaps up at that, and she ceases her wandering to focus on the brother in question, head tilting before she grins, "Well, that's good. Good information to have." She then resumes her pacing for a little while longer before she takes a step out from the wall, hands spreading out around her, "Dance floor here…" She doesn't seem married to it, but something about that particular space just evidently screams dance floor. "Alright. If you need help with any of this reverse-teleportation thing, I can help too…or the Billy-Buttons. I want mine to be a button, literally, with your face on it. Or maybe a teddy bear? No. Yes?" She glances around, seeing where everyone else is landing on this idea of buttons.
Rotation schedule? "We're not going to be living here." Teddy reminds them, nodding to Kellan. "If there's no emergency, and we want to hang out here, we can just get take out. From anywhere in the world." Glancing from Billy to Kaleb, he adds "Don't mute me either." Just because.
Jay shrugs when Vic says he's fine with cooking and drops it, tossing Kellan a kind smile and shrug. He tried not to make Vic the pancake guy? Eh. His smile lifts slightly to Billy as well, understanding. "Ah don't expect most fellahs our age to know how t'cook. Whatever folks wanna do."
Returning to pleasant silence while ideas are tossed around regarding magic, he's about as magical as a pillow so he leaves it to the rest. Jay maneuvers himself to peer over Kaleb's shoulder, watching while he draws.
Kaleb looked up and a squint at the other twins. There was a smile. Then a grin. Then… a big big null zone of silence. Oh don't even challenge the sonic like that in a non crisis situation. He chuckled to himself and let it go looking smug as hell.
Jay could see what he was drawing though "Actually, Tommy I was thinking this half of the room we might just do wood floor. Dance floor, basketball hoop, and all our training equipment. The problem with concrete is a- sound is going to bounce even more, magic withstanding? It's more porous and will trap blood, sweat, and tears. Far more sanitary to keep a polished wood floor aaaand better on the knees. I may dress like a 60 year old banker but I do not care to feel like one."
The rest of the drawing did show a small section for couches and something that suggested all of the walls were going to be brought in by a foot and a half? . He showed Jay and anyone else coming to look, "We can actually discretely store things in the walls but use the walls to slide out to alter the shape of the room to give us a more dynamic 'battleground' to practice drills on and what not. I'm looking into heat, shock, and weather resistant materials for this."
Vic puts away another sandwich, and that seems to sate him for now. He stands behind Kellan, wrapping both arms around his shoulders. "I cook," he tells Tommy. "I'm no chef or anything, but I can make food that doesn't taste like despair, according to Kaleb." He smiles at Jay in passing, and he adds, "But the real treat is when Billy brings takeout from somewhere far away, like Greece or Italy, or I bring something from the restaurant where I work. I mean we have to have variety."
"We should have like a wall for climbing," Kellan suggests, seemingly out of the blue. He's managed to acquire a sandwich for himself and he eats the whole of this one, slowly though, as they conversation continues. His beer is eventually finished and he says to Teddy, "You were right. That was really pretty good."
Billy eyes Kaleb, and smirks— he extends a hand out and suddenly Kaleb finds himself wrapped in bands of force and lifted a couple feet off the floor. Billy grins, "Hey, don't get cocky, buddy. All my other powers still work in silence." He winks, and gently sets Kaleb back down and drop his hand. He otherwise nods and falls into a companionable silence as they discuss matterse, not finding anything to disagree on at this point.
"Well, where ever you want to put it." Tommy replies with a shrug, her hands returning to her pocket as she begins to wander back towards where the chairs and things are. She zeros in on the pizza, lifting the lid to one of the boxes to pull out a slice, "So what can I do to help? I feel kind of like I might be the only one of you all that can't actively contribute to this nesting."
Dance floor? Teddy blinks and looks at Billy a moment. Just shaking his head, he grabs another slice of pizza to eat. "Germany has the best beer." he tells Kellan. "I like the dark ones but there's a lot of different kinds. Billy has yet to find one he likes from anywhere and I think he's given up in favor of sweet drinks with umbrellas." Billy: girl drink drunk.
"We won't be eatin' here so much that it matters a whole lot," Jay murmurs absently. Then the room gets real silent around him. unnaturally silent, like the grave. Jay blinks and glances around, then smiles gently, bemusedly shaking his head as that bubble pops. Then Kaleb's lifted off the floor and Jay takes a step backward, wings bristling slightly, shaking then smoothing out. Shaking his head mildly when he's set back down on the ground, glancing between the others. Jay reaches over to pat Kaleb's shoulder, once and briefly, still looking over the interior sketch. "Don't worry, Miss Tommy. Nobody can do everything. Fact yer here is enough." Still peering over Kaleb's shoulder.
Kaleb was drawing and then was not in his seat. There wasn't a glare so much as there was a squint sidelong to Billy as he was held in suspension. "Point taken. Good to know." Okay, that was fair, and as he was set back down there seemed to be no harm, no foul. At the hand at his shoulder he grinned a bit to Jay amd went back to sketching. "Kellan, remember how we used to have that bookshelf withthe pop-down minibar in it? We could jsut do that and have a snack shelf and call it a day?" He looked back to Vic and Kellan curiously, "Vic, you and I should chat about these safehouses too. We cna make certain they have facilities and untilities paid up. That I might be able to help with. Miss Tommy," His roommamte was really rubbing off on him, "You run real fast? it'll help us get things where we need them more efficiently in any case- and Teddy… i'm with you. I like my beer as dark as my humor. If it looks more like tar than beer I'm a pretty happy camper."
"I think at this point, we're just tossing around ideas anyway," Vic says. Then he gets all shy and hides his face against Kellan's hair briefly before he resurfaces and says, "I don't know how to dance all that much, but it's good exercise, so maybe you could teach me? Besides, I have this guy I'm trying to impress." He nods to Kaleb and says, "Sure. There's a lot of places in the city people just forget about. I can show them to you, show you my set up." At the beer talk, he merely looks wistful. Stupid fast metabolism.
"Well, what sorts of things can you do, or are you interested in doing?" Kellan asks Tommy when she asks how she can contribute. "You can always help us pick out some stuff, or help us put stuff together once we get it in. For whatever Billy's contractors aren't doing that we do on our own." He glances over at Kaleb and then to Vic and says, "Yeah, those resources would come in handy in case of an emergency." Then he glances at everyone and says "So.. we were going to go fight some spiders at some point. We still planning on doing that? I hear they're still in Central Park." Though he reaches up and grins, ruffling Vic's curls a bit at his comment about dancing.
"…Jay? Kaleb? You guys know like… Tommy's my twin sister? We're 18? I mean I'm starting to feel old on her behalf." Billy laughs and shakes his head, then grins at Tommy, "Hey, don't worry about it. We all have different skills. Yours are super useful but just not so much base-building, Speed. Heck the only thing I'm good at is writing checks and making magical wardrobes. Is there anything you think we need?" He asides to Teddy, "And beer is gross. And daiquiri's aren't sweet or have umbrellas. Okay well they're a little sweet. Rum, syrup and lime juice." Hmph. But Billy grins at Kaleb as they make peace with their teeny tiny little power-struggle there. He does nod to Kellan, "Yeah, we gotta get that done."
Tommy lifts a hand, one finger raised, "If we're all to be friends, first thing I've got to say is no more miss." She then drops her hand before taking a bite off the pizza, nodding to the questions of if she is very fast, a hand moving up to cover her mouth, "I am very fast, yes…and I could base-build! I just…I don't know what I'd do. I could paint? I'd have it done in like…well, super fast. I'm kind of curious now. Can I paint?"
"You don't like t'drink anything that doesn't taste like sorrow, do ya, Kale?" Jay murmurs thoughtfully and tilts his head slightly over the seating area he's drawing out. Glancing up briefly when he hears his name, there's a glance between Tommy and Billy. Jay nods, not getting the point made. "Yeah, Ah know." A faint tilt of his head, actually a little birdlike in a vague regard as he doesn't register what he did. Tommy lays the rule down and is greeted with the same confused looks, followed by a shrug. "Just bein' polite to the lady, sorry. You can take the man outta the south, but so long as his Momma's on this green globe, he's gonna treat each lady like a belle." Smiling mildly down to the drawing Kaleb's working on while he mixes sayings around and concedes to whatever Tommy wants. "Yer helpin' design." Jay points out regarding what she can do. "An' be plenty of experimentin' to'see what else y'can do to help. Speed's real helpful with tasks—trust me, Ah wish one of us had speed with all the construction we've done on our house."
"They ain't just in central park no more, the spiders." Jay mentions mildly. "Dougie, 'Nette an' Ah ran into a few a couple days ago. They're gettin' crazy. Spinnin' people up."
Kaleb kept sketching out the current configuration trying to figure out how to make part of the divider retractable if needed. He answered Jay, "Yes. I like to drink my bitterness and resentment, Jay. Without it I'd have no personality at all. I take what I can get here." Having a sense of humor about his general dissonance was not off the table for him. he was still at one with his flaws.
Kellan bringing up the spiders got him a pause from drawing. He looked up from one to the next, "We're going to need to do something before they too try to eat our apartment like those dream demon things."
Vic grins at the ruffling. Then spiders are brought up, and his expression grows more serious. "I'm game," he says. He then tells Tommy, since she's the only one he can think of here who doesn't know, "I'm strong, and kinda fast but not as fast as you are. And I can move things with my mind and make energy move, kinda." He pauses, purses his lips, then adds, "And I apparently come back if I die."
Kellan looks over toward Jay when he mentions that the spiders have moved outward from Central Park. There's a nod at that. Seems to stand to reason that they wouldn't just hang out in the park forever. Though he grins at Tommy and gives her the thumbs-up. "I think you should paint if you want to paint." He looks over toward Kaleb and shakes his head, grinning a little bit, but he makes no comment on his twin's personality, at least not for the moment.
"Sure, paint away. You can pick the colors, I trust your taste, sis." Billy nods to Tommy with a quick smile, but then he looks grim, "Its taken awhile for me to work out how to open a wormhole interdimensionally, which is why we haven't gone yet." He just…stares…at Jay. "Did you just call Tommy a lady? A lady you're going to treat like a bell? Are you wanting to… ring my sister?" He has absolutely no idea what it means to ring someone, but he's pretty sure its dirty. Not that he's protective of Tommy's virtue— as if she needs protection— he's just incredulous over the whole Lady thing. He eyes Vic, "..which, that last ability, we are agreeing not to test."
"Decorating.." Tommy replies, then she shrugs a bit, accepting her role since afterall…she asked for something to do. "What spiders, though?" This seems more like a relevant topic to her than any bell ringing that might be happening, or being discussed, or even a figment of Billy's imagination. "So, explain the spiders…and coming back from being dead is a handy talent. I wish I had that one."
Walking over to where Teddy left one of his six packs. Picking one out of the bunch and glancing at the foreign label, Jay grasps the bottle cap and pulls it off, slipping it into his pocket and shaking his hand out of the sting. "In that case," he sets the beer down beside Kaleb with a soft smile. "You better have another one. You've been in way too good a mood, lately." Jay kindly teases the more caustic twin, hands slipping back into his pockets.
Looking up again over the mention of the spiders, the pleasant smile he perpetually wears curves a hint more when Vic explains his powerset to Tommy. Smart. "One test's enough," Jay agrees with Billy. Then gives him a likewise confused stare, though to his credit he doesn't blush. "Ring her? Ah…what? Ah…don't honestly know what that'd mean. Belle like…like a southern belle or belle-a-the-ball? Like a lady. You said 'sister' so she /is/ a lady." Jay hesitates and glances toward Tommy, uncertainly, now. He lowers his voice a bit, as if Tommy can't very well hear him,"Raght?"
Questions aside and back around to business as a far more comfortable subject, Jay swallows and ignores the soft fwipping of his wings behind him. "They're these weird crystal things that been attackin' folks. Hard as rock, the little ones you can smash pretty easy, but the bigger they are, well, like you'd expect, they get harder. We're talkin' the size of a bunny and the biggest one I saw was as big as a big dog. Anyone see bigger ones? The last bunch Ah saw were spinnin' folks up in these weird webs. Why, Ah don't care to find out."
Kaleb looked up and said plainly to Billy, "I've tried to tlak Jay out of having proper manners. It makes the rest of us look like hobos. Then we have to double down and try extra hard to readjust status quo. Huge pain. He just won't budge though." He isghed with annoyance looking to Tommy as if breaking to her unformtunate news. "I'm afraid you might be cursed with Jay's undying respect by virtue of being still breathing. I dunno what to tell you TOmmy. There's a support group that meets every third Thursday for victims of Southern Hospitality." OH the satire coming off him tonight. His deadpan was playing well though.
He looked back to Kellan and finally broken into a snicker. "Soooo how we want to tackle these things?"
Vic nods firmly. "Yeah, that last part's a doozy. We're just going to leave it alone." He smiles at Tommy, happy like a dopey golden retriever. He's finally talking to the sister! At least he's not trying to scrapbook the moment. "It beats the alternatives, but I promised everyone I wouldn't put it to the test." He just looks so sincere. Dying is no fun and coming back feels worse. At Kaleb's question of how to tackle these things, he puts on his serious face, and he gives Kellan's shoulders a squeeze.
Kellan hasn't actually seen the aforementioned spiders and so he lets the others describe what it is exactly they are all about. He glances from one person to another as the conversation goes on around him, though there's a little shake of his head and a chuckle as Jay presents Kaleb with that beer. When Kaleb looks at him for an answer, Kellan shakes his head and says, "Billy's the one with the portal. I haven't even seen them to know how to deal with them. I mean, I think you could probably shatter them if you can vibrate them at the right frequency, probably." There's a glance over at Vic when mention of that last portion of his abilities comes up. His brow furrows just a little, but then he gives him a return squeeze and says nothing more about it.
The look that Billy gives Jay makes quite plain his attempt at elaborating on 'belle' leaves him blank. "She's my sister." he agrees slowly, "And not a lady. Ladies dress in fancy dresses and speak proper and have names like Mrs Haverdash and have coming out parties and … stuff. Tommy's…Tommy. I mean I'll let her speak for herself but whoa boy." He looks to Kaleb, listening, and shaking his head slowly, as if Kaleb just named Jay an alien from the planet Pluto. Billy is many, many things; irreverent is first among them. "You give me your plans, and I'll hire a contractor. We'll get the stuff that require strangers done first before we start moving in any of our special activity requirements." Then he blinks at Kellan, "That's a good idea, the vibration. They…vary. The smaller they are the easier they are to destroy. The big, horse-size ones? No one but Teddy can take. Uhh." He winces, "I Unmade one of those. Dad was… kinda mad. Apparently I'm not allowed to Unmake things."
"A lady? I'm a lady in so much as the fact I have a lack of a penis, yes." Tommy replies, sighing heavily as it becomes clear she can not avoid this awkward conversation, "I am a girl, yes, so by that I am a lady. I am not, however, a lady in the form of…" She pauses, gesturing towards Billy, "Fancy dresses and coming out parties. A debutante, I am not. In fact, I find that whole meat market vibe to be rather uncool." She finds herself a place to sit at this, even if that means dropping herself down onto the floor. "So while I appreciate the very nice manners, I'd rather not have you miss and ma'am me simply because my gender is different. Polite for being polite, whatever, though."
"And by ringing my bell I believe that he is refering to sex. Not an actual bell. Or actual ringing. But I might be wrong."
Then…spiders. Safer topics, those. "So breaking them is possible, just maybe not giant horse-sized ones? I'm not particularly afraid of a spider, but I might run away from one that large, I won't lie." Tommy points out, leaning back on her hands, "Maybe we can find their web and just blow them up?"
Jay dips his head and smiles bashfully, feathered appendages twitching gently and settling smooth against his back again. "If you knew mah Momma, you'd understand, Kale." Bright eyes dancing with mirth. "The support group meets at our apartment. Ah make iced tea an' biscuits t'add insult t'injury," Jay informs Tommy. Picking up Kaleb's story smoothly. He shrugs at Billy, helplessly. "Yer her brother, man." As if he doesn't know what else to tell the guy. Well, he didn't color up until now, but Tommy talking about sex and penises and whatever else draws some heat into Jay's fair cheeks "Nobody said anythin' about debutantes, an' meat markets. An' Ah'm not ringin' any bells, yers or otherwise." Good lord! Jay shifts from foot to foot uncomfortably, scooping a hand through his hair.
"Horse sized?" Jay murmurs incredulously and shudders, feathers fluffing up behind him briefly. The mention of frequency makes him nod and lick his lips quickly. "Dougie asked the same thing, but…Ah haven't got enough practice t' figure out resonance so…" So it was a no-go for him and his recent enounter. Some guilt apparent there. "Dougie said they were communicatin' on some frequency an' body language. Had me hit a note an' they didn't like it very much. No damage, but they started to run. Uh, Ice slowed um down. Can't be /sure/ but enough cold mighta made their joints brittle. They seemed t'break apart a little easier but could've been the moment." Jay simply recites stuff he's tried and seen tried. Observations. "We get back to their nest, there's bound to be a real big baddy there. We need a little more info if we got any hope of beatin' it without gettin' Billy in trouble with y'alls daddy again.". Jay looks to the group and shrugs. "Should we…go patrolin' fer em? Engage an' try some stuff?"
Kaleb stood there stunned as he was suddenly not the most blunt person in the room. Echo was speechless and just blinked as Tommy's defiant pride clashed with the collision of manners most of them grew up with so help them. He blinked and a grin widened as vulgarity became rejection of status quo. Yaaaaaas! "Soooo I don't have to stand here and kiss your ass?" He was utterly flummoxed. "Billy your sister can stay. She has my full endorsement." He noted helpfully to Billy, "You know honestly where I'm from 'ringing a bell' means to punhc someone out cold. I got confused too. So. Speaking of punching s and things we're not going to be screwing: spiders. "They're glass. We cna handle a giant glass bug. I'll be honest I've been itching for this for like a month. This and going back to see the Beatles live."
Vic blinks at Tommy, and his cheeks color. Sister! Whatever he was expecting, Tommy's given him his first of what will likely be many surprises. He clutches no pearls, however, and instead ventures, "I can probably punch them. The spiders, I mean. And stomp on them and, I don't know, just kind of tear them apart?"
Kellan imagines horse sized spiders and shudders a little bit. Then he glances over at the conversation going on between Tommy and the others and he shakes his head just a little bit, actually laughing slightly when she lays down whatfor to those caught up in their politesse. He isn't even going to get into that conversation. He just gives her a grin and then he turns his attention back to the spiders. "I'm not sure that anything I can do will have any effect on them. I don't think I can even do anything telepathically since they're not.. humanoid or even animal, really. I can probably hit them with something or shoot at them.. or you know, I don't know.. just help with communication between us."
"Right, so on the spiders." Billy takes a moment to not think about anything, but he does give a fully supportive nod to Tommy. But the clarification is for Jay, "These are interdimensional crystal spiders. Any… nests, are footholds. There's nothing we can do without me finalizing how to open a portal to their dimension that can stop it entirely." He nods to Tommy again, "The little ones swarm. Anyone can crush them, but the swarming is a problem. You'd be supremely useful against a swarm. Just run around stepping on them all. The medium ones are a problem, but the big ones..yeah, Teddy. But their numbers seem directly proportional to their size." He takes a long breath and lets it out, "Patrolling is good. Engaging, learning is good. Just be careful. I… almost have the portal worked out."
"Wouldn't that be what a belle-of-the-ball is? A debutante?" Despite her rejection of miss as a mode of polite address, she does sound momentarily curious about this aspect. Momentarily. But the mysterious case of the extra-dimensional crystal spiders wins out as far as attention catching goes. "I can run around a bunch of you want, should be easy." She grins at Billy, then lifts a hand adjusting her hat for a moment, "So the bigger they are the less their is….and I still thinking blowing up their nests is a fun idea. It might at least make them have a really bad day, you know."
"Communication is important," Jay says lowly to Kellan, supportive and quietly. "You can take out the lil ones, which means all of you can." He murmurs in point to Kellan.
Raising his attention back up, there's a brief glance to Tommy, lowly explaining, "Ah was just describin' belle like a person, not bell like a…bell, since Billy didn't seem to know. Not literally every gal is one. Belle-of-the-ball's a very specific kinda lady. Least in mah mind." He shrugs mildly, appendages twitching again as he looks away and back to Billy. He clearly didn't know precisely where they came from. "So the only one who can really do anythin' about it for good is you. Good. We ain't shootin' in the dark, then." Rubbing a hand through his hair. "Meanwhile, we keep whatever pests what show up under control best we can. Stick together, get good at fightin' 'em, an' when Billy figures it out, we run interferance. Seems doable." He nods a few times his understanding. Jay turns to Vic and says with encouragement, "Yer stronger than me. Ah can pull the legs off a medium one with some doin'. You can prolly crush one down with a few hits."
Kaleb took in this concept about the swarms and that Hmmmm, "I can help Teddy out with the big big ones. Larger they are the easier they are to break when we're talking glass weirdly. Those fissures once resonating at higher-… know what fuck it. I'll hell Teddy with the big ones because unless clustered a swarm's going to make me do more damage to the area than them. Seems like Tommy can handle herself. I mean shit she just handled Jay and I rather neatly." He didn't like not winning a discussion but he was down with dropping all the bullshit niceties. He did look to Jay and offered, "I think she knows ya meat well. But yeah. I think we're on wrangling, and Kellan, I'm actually thinking you could get like some net or something or baseball bat. Glass breaks. And communication is key. We just gotta wrangle them back to…wherever Billy gives us. Bugs aren't that smart."
Fameous last words which Kaleb will likely eat later.
Vic grins at Jay. With much more confidence, he says, "I'll take them apart. We've got this." His first real mission! "We can get you a baseball bat," he tells Kellan. "Maybe a crow bar. Especially if we're out on patrol. I kind of want to go with you." So he can be overprotective and hover. "And Billy, we gotta practice that 'spark' thing where I feed you energy before you do your thing." To Tommy, he says, "We should maybe figure out how we could work together, too. I don't want to slow you down. I want to be able to support you in combat too, Jay, but I'm not sure what you'd need."
Kellan nods to Vic and seems to agree on the buddy system for patrolling. "Well, it's probably not a good idea to go alone. I don't know how wandering around with a crowbar isn't going to get us the wrong kind of attention.. but we'll figure something out." He gives Vic a grin and another little squeeze, not seeming to mind the overprotectiveness. Kellan is squishy.
Billy eyes VIc a long moment again, "I can't tell you not to think what you think, man. But we're from New York. Tommy's dad's an asshole who I am barely not turning into a frog. Barely." The anger is very, very clear in his voice. Its restrained, just. "I'm Jewish. All of this, lady stuff? Bell stuff? Its just not us. While I respect your right to be *yourself*, you're projecting a bit? If you wanna respect Tommy, get to know her, and treat her how she wants to be treated." This is said gently, despite the hint of anger from the mention of He Who Shall Not Be Named. But he does nod, "Fight where you can, when I can get the portal, I will." He does nod to Billy, "Yeah, we can practice that, though… out somewhere safe. It might be dangerous to do in an urban environment." He adds then, "Yeah, alone bad. Don't do alone. The little ones, anyone can kill— individually. But if there's twenty to you then that's… a problem."
"Right." Tommy replies to Jay, offering him a quick smile to show that she isn't taking much offense to his politeness. She then gets to her feet again, hands brushing themselves off as she nods, "Learning to work together, for me at least, sounds good…I'm coming into all this late and I know that. I'll find a way to fit, don't worry. Just, might be bumpy for a little bit. That said…whoever wants to let me tag on for these patrols, I'm ready. Not /now/, probably. Well, I could be. But the general now."