15:23 <banana> A few days before Samhain and a few days after the last of Mari's work for the semester. Bob's girlfriend is relishing her last long holiday... perhaps ever; depending on what study path she takes, next year could involve a clinical practicum or hospital residency. 15:25 <tom> Bob's in the kitchen, doing the dishes. 15:26 <banana> Most of the Nameless House have other work to do today, so Bob's free as well. There's no need to go out every day... this basement might not be a forever home but it's a nice little hole to hide in. 15:26 <banana> If Bob's taken on some chores... Mari is probably going to be playing a game on her phone. She's curled up on the sofa swiping gems, or something. 15:29 <tom> The perfect time for malicious japes. He just isn't quite able to hide the amusement in his voice as he calls from the kitchen: "Hey hun, I need your help with something." 15:30 <banana> There's a radio on in the background tuned to 1602 Heritage AM, but the volume's down too low to really here anything. Nothing attacks or explodes (except for triple-combined Heart Gems). 15:30 <tom> "That spider's back again, can you like, talk spider at it?" 15:30 <banana> Mari looks up, and gets up. She trots toward the kitchen with the phone in her hand. "Yeah, B?" 15:31 <tom> "Oh, I'm just tryin' to catch it with a cup and some paper.." Does she cross the threshold? 15:31 <banana> Argh. "I told you that's not a real thing... I don't mind helping to catch it but we'll have to do it the old fashioned way." 15:31 <tom> Well, the moment she does, she steps onto a piece of paper on the floor. Bob claps a plastic cup onto her head. "Gotcha! Wait," 15:32 <banana> >::::-[ 15:32 <tom> Aw. Bob pulls her in for a hug. "I got you something!" 15:32 <banana> Mari: "Grrrgnb." 15:33 <tom> There's a little white box in his hand. He chuckles nervously as he hands it over. "I melted down the ole silver slugs." 15:33 <tom> Inside, a little crumple of tissue paper, containing: https://i.imgur.com/2Q7IFdd.jpg 15:35 <banana> Mari: "?" 15:35 <banana> She takes the box, twisting in Bob's arms so that her own are free to open it. 15:36 <banana> Bob can't see her face for a moment, but when she turns back her eyebrows are all the way up. "Hang on, you dead made this?" 15:37 <tom> He slides behind her so he can lean against the kitchen doorway a bit to watch over her shoulder. "Yes ma'am. I wanted to save it for your birthday, but with Samhain comin' up, I figured, hell," 15:38 <banana> Mari: "Wowww." She holds the gem-bearing spider up to the kitchen light, feeling along its legs for the little inscribed hair-patterns. "That's so pretty, sort of." 15:38 <tom> His eyes flicker over hers- trying to gauge her reception. 15:39 <banana> "I mean it's beautiful, but it has to go with a dress, like, or some sort of formal suit.. when I wear this it's for Power." 15:39 <tom> Bob breathes a silent sigh of relief. "...Power. Power?" 15:40 <banana> "Bearing the black heart of my enemies. Or the husband I ate." 15:40 <tom> "Oh hell yeah." 15:40 <tom> "That's 'zactly what I was going for." 15:41 <tom> He beams: "I made sure it'll go well with our Samhain costumes." 15:42 <banana> Mari: "There are a couple of lecturers in second-year anatomy who could do with being overawed. And cocooned into silence." 15:42 <banana> Which is a metaphor. She doesn't spin silk. But it's far prettier than a venomous thing has any right to be. 15:43 <banana> "Thank you so much, baby. When is your birthday?" 15:45 <tom> He pulls her in, resting his head over her shoulder and taking her hands, still holding the necklace, in his. "I'm a sweet summer child, baby." 15:46 <tom> "You were there for it! I mean, we just got set up here. Didn't seem important." 15:48 <tom> "...Being the birthday boy had to take a beakseat to other stuff.." 15:50 <tom> backseat* 15:51 <banana> Mari: "Then I'll have to make it up to you somehow." She hums happily (Bob may recognise the music from the phone game). 15:51 <banana> "Being able to make stuff is kind of magical. Repairing things I get, bodies and machines are both the same kind of functioning system that can go out of tune... but there's an element of creative design to this which is beyond me. Visualising an idea and how to realise it." 15:52 <tom> Bob grabs a beer from the fridge and offers her one before taking her back to the sofa. "You know, I get what you mean." 15:52 <tom> "Making stuff." 15:53 <tom> "It's the closest thing us normies get to having anything like you guys have. Willie can make fire, yeah. But I've made more than her." 15:54 <tom> "It's all just physics, you know, chemistry." 15:55 <banana> Mari: "I don't even see the wyrd as creative, or not for me. A contract is this specifically worded promise, like a business deal... I've always been good at maths, and the use of language. But I almost failed my essay-writing O levels." 15:55 <tom> "Maths," he pinches her. "God that never stops being funny." 15:56 <banana> "I guess the classic question is, where do you get your ideas? Whether it's about jewelery or guns..." 15:56 <banana> "What. Your empire expects to get by on a single mathematic??" 15:57 <tom> "Not even a very good one, either. Fuck algebra." 15:57 <banana> Mari: "Algebra is easy compared to... various things." 15:58 <tom> "Where do we get our ideas?" 15:58 <tom> "I mean I guess I think it up... or dream it?" 15:59 <banana> Mari: "Dreams have always seemed to me like a regurgitation, processing warmed-over stuff. I've heard people describe moments of inspiration, ideas you have drifting off to sleep.." 16:00 <banana> "Actually, I tried keeping a dream journal when I was a kid. I even wrote down a couple of ideas of that sort but... in the morning, they were nonsense." 16:00 <tom> "Like I said, I dream small-brain dreams, bug dreams. Usually just a feeling when you wake up, you know?" 16:01 <tom> "Actually that's not totally true, when they had us on ambien I had some fun times." 16:01 <banana> "Don't sell your dreams short. They can be dangerous." 16:02 <banana> The mention of the powerful sleeping drug (in the U.S.A., that thing is over the counter??) reminds her. "Oh yeah... how is the tapering going? Have you had any more shakes?" 16:03 <tom> Bob takes her hand in his, leans back against the couch. "I'm doing better. Haven't had any more palpitations. The shakiness is still happening but I think that might just be dehydration." 16:03 <tom> Bob picks up her hand. "Dumb question, which hand is this?" 16:04 <tom> He lets it go, squints, then goes to take her hand again. "...Same one?" 16:05 <tom> "...I don't understand how this works at all, huh." 16:05 <banana> Mari nods, taking on her clinical tone for a moment. "I spoke to Joanna about her experience - they had her on eat-me-drink-mes, so she came back and was like, instantly craving something that isn't even real. That's a similar experience to your tough-guy pills, it'll never actually be fully gone. But it's no worse than aging, or changing your mind - the equilibrium of your body is different 16:05 <banana> now. There's a lot we can do to help when you need it." 16:06 <banana> Mari takes Bob's hand. Then she takes it again. And again. 16:06 <tom> That is so cool. 16:06 <banana> He can see her dark arm, small-fingered, a single hand holding his. 16:06 <banana> She lets go, and he still sees it. 16:08 <banana> "...It's not something I've tried to understand in detail myself. Two hands should be enough for anybody." 16:09 <tom> "Damn," is all he can manage for a little bit. He puts an arm around her shoulder and scoops her up. "I can live with the cravings. D-AMP should attenuate eventually... I'm more worried about the side-effects if I freeze up on a mission or have a panic attack or something. Which would get worse without the meds." 16:11 <tom> "You really saved my bacon. Plan B was to see if Benny Athletico or whoever deals in Captagon." 16:12 <tom> "Gonna miss the Go-Juice though," he sighs wistfully. "Trust me, it feels so fucking cool. You stay awake for sixty-eight hours straight and punch a vampire in the balls." 16:13 <tom> "...The bad stuff comes later." 16:15 <banana> Mari: "What do you do with a lady vampire?" 16:16 <tom> "...What do you mean?" 16:17 <tom> Bob is, of course, completely stone-faced at this instant. 16:18 <banana> Mari throws back her head and giggles. Of course the question could be, where do you punch her. 16:19 <tom> His facade cracks. "Easy, you ask them politely, yet firmly, to put down your teammate's torso." 16:19 <tom> "Dude needs his torso back." 16:20 <banana> "Okay, I hope that one didn't actually happen yet." 16:20 <tom> "Not to my direct experience, ma'am, but Operation Twilight gets up to some truly stupid shit." 16:22 <banana> Have they talked at all about the new hunt? The one which actually does involve a lady vampire, possibly of the actual torso-removing variety? 16:23 <tom> He's told her a bit about it. Mostly giving her the heads-up to avoid the places Aster and Rolf staked out after dark. 16:23 <tom> "...The fucked up thing is, Ruth doesn't look like she's feeding." 16:23 <tom> "She's just tearing people up. Men, women, all kinds. No sorta reason to it." 16:24 <banana> Mari: "Yeah, that's really weird. I don't know much about vampires, and what I do know is like.. blood. Literally all they care about is blood." 16:25 <tom> He hugs her tighter. "You be careful if you're out at night, yeah? I know you're not big on guns, but, I dunno, maybe a flare gun would do it..." 16:25 <tom> "Nah, sorry, I just get paranoid." 16:25 <banana> Mari: "I like you protective. Don't stop it." 16:25 <tom> "Well I still need to talk to Carl. Fucking Carl." 16:25 <banana> "...but I don't need to be protected at night, really. The shadows are, um, my friends. In a sense. More literally than you'd think." 16:25 <tom> "Did you know our local Baron's a Hulk-Hogan-looking motherfucker with a broadsword?" 16:26 <banana> oooo_oooo 16:26 <tom> "I think he knows about, uh, us." 16:26 <banana> "Is that even legal?" 16:26 <tom> "...When Willie took me to meet the local nobles I swearta Gawd he just looked right at me and grinned." 16:27 <tom> "Hun, I don't think any England copper with a billy-club is going to ask him if he has a loicense." 16:27 <banana> Mari: "Yeah, I'll let you know if any of them come poking around here, or Riann's place. We're not supposed to be on those guys' radar at all." 16:27 <banana> "Oh shit, I can actually talk to you about this stuff now." 16:28 <banana> "Or technically after Samhain, but it's a done deal. This is such a relief." 16:28 <tom> "Yeah! Gimme all your secrets. I promise I'll keep em better than Uncle Sam's." 16:28 <tom> "Fuck that guy." 16:28 <tom> "...But I'm thinking I should reach out to Carl. That's his name. Carl. You know, make sure, we're, ah, cool." 16:28 <banana> Mari sort of pounces on Bob, coiling herself up at one end of the sofa and then sprawling across him. "I will seriously give you all my secrets. Everything you'll have of me." 16:30 <tom> Bob crumples under her, wrapping his arms around her waist to guide her into an embrace. "Wouldn't have it any other way."