Participants:
| Scene Title | Relighting the Lantern |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | In the eye of a hurricane, lighthouse keepers restart a doused light to show adventurers that safe harbor still stands. |
| Date | June 27, 2019 |
The Lanthorn (Old time reference to the lantern room of a lighthouse)
With the building as clean from top to bottom as the soon-to-be residents could get it, the firehouse is ready for moving in. At least several of the apartments on the second floor are. There will be several others that need another cleaning pass, but the apartments intended for those who are immediately moving in full-time are ready. The old hardwood of the stairs, the banister and the entire upstairs gleams a deep mahogany. The dark wood paneling that was hidden behind some of the sheetrock does as well, and the sheetrocked walls have a fresh coat of whitewash, as do the high ceilings of the main common room. Brynn has already begun putting her mark on the place, though — the wall that surrounds the mailboxes set into a vestibule that can be locked off from the common area has been painted (or 'painted') to look like a Leonid Afremov painting, an Impressionistic view of a broad avenue flanked by trees and old-fashioned streetlamps perhaps implying old Central Park.
“Hello?” Abigail calls out, a traveling protective container of likely something sweet and home baked if you go by the blonde’s tendency to do that sort of thing. Hair up in a ponytail and the car outside, dressed to get dirty, she’s come to help. “I come bearing vittles as my Ma would say.” Southern twang is strong with this one still.
Up on the second floor, Emily lifts her head up and carefully sets down the box she'd helped carry up the stairs. Brow furrowed, she tries and fails to place the voice that calls up the stairs. Just when she thought she knew everyone. "What the hell are vittles?" she asks in a low voice, looking around with a stern sort of confusion.
Brynn sets the box she just carried up the stairs down near Emily and looks at the girl even as Doodlebug nudges her leg to alert her to the voice downstairs. It takes her a moment to parse the question, and then her face lights up. It's Miss Abigail! Vittles are what she always calls snack stuff. And she's a great baker. C'mon, before Joe beats us down there, she grins.
Turning back to head out of the apartment and bound down the stairs with the labradoodle who is her faithful shadow lately, the deaf teen arrives in a flurry of signs on the ground floor. Miss Abigail, you came! What do you think? Totally primal, right? She gestures to their firehouse proudly.
“Good gravy Brynn. I don’t have Kasha with me. She’s off to my Dah’s for the summer. Anyone here who can translate?” Because while Kasha learned enough these months, Abigail was busy learning other things. “Or better…” She breaks out her phone, balancing the container with one hand and pulls her phone from her back pocket. “Type? Least till someone comes to translate. Sorry. I suppose I should learn.” Abigail looks apologetic for this oversight. “Scones, raspberries from my garden. Moving means everyone needs food to keep going. Lord knows I fed enough people when I moved all the time when I used to live in the city a long time ago.” She owned a bakery too.
Emily can hear the voice below, and sighs at what she picks up. Roughly moving the stack of boxes a little bit further from the door and managing only inches, she finally waves her hands at it and steps back, heading for the stairs. "I'm comin', I'm coming," she grouses before coming into view, heading down the stairs with heavy steps.
Moving was hard work. She's already exhausted, and they'd only just started hauling boxes. (What was in them, anyway? Rocks?) (Guns, Emily, but that's a different conversation entirely.)
She sloppily comes to a hesitant stop still on the steps, only tepidly stepping forward so she's more easily in Brynn's line of sight without the other girl having to turn away from Abby. Out of breath, she asks and signs, "Who's this?" And then abruptly she's turning to Abigail to ask her directly, "Who are you?"
The woman bearing "vittles", apparently. Emily regards her with a wary nod.
Brynn signs sorry!! several times along with Abigail's name for Emily. Miss Abigail's one of the Ferry. She helped take care of us when we were small.
She grins at Abby and takes the phone, typing out with expert thumbs, Hi!! This is Emily, she's one of us — adopted late, when we moved back here to the city, but ours! What do you think of our totally primal home? It's got apartments upstairs and a few down here too, so any of he Lighthouse can come if they need to. We're giving it a name and everything.
The importance of named locations to the Kids is likely understandable, but it's also something of a reminder that for them, the way they grew up, they don't think like most people. They're still watchful of the world and ready with go-bags.
Joe makes his way inside with a heavy box in his arms. He was organizing the stuff on the back of the truck? They rented and/or borrowed. Pushing everything towards the back end so it can be unloaded easier before bringing in more stuff himself. He walks inside and then hears an Abby voice. "Abby?!" Joe shouts out in pleasant surprise. He finds somewhere to put the box down so he can play translator for Brynn and Abigail. Anything he says he signs, and anything he signs he says, and he relays Brynn's words too, his hands very very busy. Too busy for boxes at the moment. "Brynn was asking what you… oh."
He laughs when Brynn pulls out her phone, a tongue stuck out at her before he grabs up his box again and hefts it upstairs. It rattles, with the sound of metal on metal as it's hefted up. He takes it up to the room what will be his, he thinks, and puts it in there, at least it's upstairs. Then he… takes the pole down. He takes a flying leap onto the pool and slides down it to land in a roll and spring up to his feet. Why? To give Abby an attack hug. Once back he goes back to signing away for Brynn and Abby, happy to translate for them both. "We really need to learn you some sign language Abby. You may even qualify for Lighthouse Cant. Though that would be a group decision thing."
Joe is grinning wide though, bouncing from foot to foot. "Emily this is Abby, Abby this is Emily. Abby is one of the awesome people responsible for us well… being alive. So next time I annoy you you can blame Abby." Joe flashes Emily a wide grin before well… baked goods. Joe has greedy hands and they are definitely going to snatch up a scone for the nommings. Which he then has to juggle to continue translation work.
At the sound of Abigail’s voice, Lance’s head leans out into view from through a doorway. No Kasha? He has mixed feelings there. His life is weird sometimes when he thinks about it too much, so he tries not to.
Then the rest of him appears, and he’s actually wearing a suit for a change, all in grey with a tie loose around his neck, a grin curving to his lips, “Hey Aunt Abby,” he teases, “Welcome to the new place.”
Then there’s people everywhere. Everywhere. Fingers flying and the phone to read, tackled by Joe in a hug. “Hello Emily, it’s a pleasure to meet you” Over Joe’s shoulder, one arm wrapping back around him to hug in return. “What they all said. I’m Kasha’s mother.” One of the lighthouse kids. Though gone for most of the years and the youngest one too. “Cash’s mother in another lifetime too.” Does that make her Cash’s mother here? Technically, no. “Okay, someone take the scones before I drop em.” She’s smiling, seeming genuinely happy to see them all. “Brynn, this place is very primal.” So strange that word coming from her mouth. Primahll. “When y’all get finally moved in fully there better be a housewarming. I’ll bring a present.”
There’s Lance. Up goes an eyebrow as she extricates from Joe’s embrace. “You dress up well Mister Gerhkin. You come to ask me for my daughter's hand in marriage?” It's a joke. Kasha’s only ten right now. There’s a deep breath and a look around. “Whomever painted this, I should get to come over and paint Kasha’s room for her. We got it done finally, and I’m close to having the living room done and ready to be painted. Who’s the one who put it up?”
Emily pauses in her translation attempts to lift one hand in a wave. "Well, I'm Emily, one of Brynn's friends," she introduces herself, oblivious she's been ID'd as much more than that. And then Joe comes barreling around the corner. "And Joe's," she adds, then her voice tapers off entirely by the time Lance pokes his head out.
She knows them all, which may or may not be obvious, because the moment Joe appears, fulfilling the role of better translator and louder conversationalist, she slides a step back to be less in the loop.
Her brow lifts with interest at the mention of Kasha, and her gaze tracks to Lance with a briefly amused snort at the mention of marriage. Briefly, because she wants to wince on his behalf as soon as she gets over the humor of it. Poor guy.
"I've— heard of you, vaguely." Emily offers up finally, still quiet and reserved. "Nice to meet you." Her head turns to the painting after, more life in her than before. Lips firm into a small smile as she says, "Brynn did that. She's amazing, really talented." She's sure to make sure it's signed as well.
Brynn flushes with pleasure at the compliments, offering a bit of a shrug. Now that everyone's here and Joe has taken on his standard role in any kind of group setting (mainly cuz he always talks anyway, may as well give him a job to do with it!) as Brynn's translator, she rapid-fire signs her answers with every faith that her brother will translate. I saw a bunch of this man's paintings in a book, and I loved the way they looked. His colors were always so bright and vivid. I toned them down a little for mine, cuz his are sometimes jarring. But I like the feel of looking out a rainy window at the world.
Since Joe has also snatched up the scones with raspberries (he better not think he's going anywhere with Abby's baked goods!), it leaves her free to just lean on the gleaming wood of the banister post to watch for a few moments near Emily, always more one to watch than be in the middle of the group.
"Cash being Lance's wife from one of the futures." Joe comments to Emily around his mouthful of scone. "Our lives are seriously weird sometimes." Joe snorts softly and tries to both eat more scone, laugh, and translate. Emily tries to slink into the background, but not while Joe is on the case. If she steps back Joe will step back too, making sure she stays in the circle of peoples. "One of us, one of us, one of us." He murmurs, a wide grin in place, though a close mouthed one cuz he's busy chewing scone. "Oh my god this scone is amazing. I forgot how good your baked stuff was Aunt Abby."
Joe does translate for Brynn of course. He'll never not. "Brynn is an amazing artist. Anything she can come up with she can put up. It's really primal." Joe agrees with the group's assessment of the murals Brynn has put up on the walls. Joe finishes off his first scone, and unabashedly grabs another one. If people want scones they better get scones before they all get eaten. "Lance. Lance. Lance. Why are you moving in a suit? You're gonna get it all dirty and wrinkled and torn and stuff. Like… why would you do this?" He's still grinning wide though, and he steps back to munch on his scone, and play translator while /trying/ to give everyone else a chance to talk. It won't last long, and they'll all know it.
Lance’s nose wrinkles up at Abigail’s joke, and he holds up his hands. “C’mon, that’s awkward enough without making jokes about it, Abby,” he pleas, “She’s like ten.” It’s super weird, with him being aged directly between the two incarnations of her that currently exist.
He spreads his hands a bit then at Joe’s words, protesting, “I just got here from work, Joe! I’m interning at SESA these days, Abby. So I’ve gotta be all professional and botswarf.”
Then he’s stepping over to peer at the baked treats, eyebrows going up in interest.
“Like I said, she’s at my Dah’s for the summer. Milking cows and being a kid not in the city. But when she’s back, I’m sure she’ll have a lot to tell you about.” She smiles at Emily. “A friend of theirs is a friend of mine. Brynn.” She looks to the other girl. “You’ll have to come see what I have for Kasha’s room then, and maybe you can paint it for her before she comes home? Just one wall.” Joe’s stuffing his face. Lance is working at SESA, in a suit. “There’s two pies in the back of my car too. One raspberry, one apple. And there’s biscuits. I brought enough to go in freezers. I didn’t bring the baloney cake because I figured if I did, it would just get shoved in the corner of a fridge and never eaten.” Baloney cake. A staple in Abby’s fridge. “And I brought my own two hands. So, put me to work, lets get y’all moved in and settled.”
This woman keeps listing off more and more food, much to Emily's surprise. Sounds like Abby has a little bit of free time with her daughter being out of town. "I won't get in your way there," Emily assures, still trying to sidle back out of the circle Joe persistently keeps her in. She shoots a brief but sympathetic smile in Lance's direction at his dismay before grabbing the banister to swing around and start heading back up.
She'll realize she's heading the wrong direction soon enough, (the other boxes are outside, Emily) but she just needs the retreat at the moment. She ruffles the top of Doodlebug's head in passing.
Sure, Miss Abigail! I'd love to paint Kasha's room for her. Brynn looks shyly thrilled. While Lance and Joe call her Aunt Abby, Brynn didn't get to spend quite as much time with Abby, but the excitement at seeing her is evident even in the deaf teen.
Put her to work? Uhmmmmmm. Brynn shoots a look toward Joe and then just shrugs with a grin. If you eat all the scones and raspberries and don't share, Joseph, you're gonna have a stripey face. Then she heads to bring in Abby's offerings along with more boxes.
"Uhh no. Food doesn't go to waste here. Food gets eaten. Have you seen Lance eat Aunt Abby? I mean it's not a sight anyone should have to endure, but being siblings you know… I've seen it lots." If anything Joe is the human trash compactor of the group. He signs away for Brynn. "Emily. Come help me get the stuff out of Abby's car?" He asks as he's heading for the door, pausing really quick to let Brynn know she'll need to use the phone cuz he's heading outside. Though the comment about him having a stripey face has him slow blinking, then considering a moment. It will be totally worth it. He flashes Brynn a wide grin and is then heading outside to retrieve further snackage from Abby's vehicle.
“Joe, you are literally half of our food bills,” Lance observes with an affectionate roll of his eyes, “But you’re right, food never goes to waste here.” As Joe starts to walk out, he points at his back and mouths ‘because of him’.
He grins, then, turning to head back to the kitchen, “I was unpacking all the kitchen sh— stuff— anyway.” Don’t swear in front of Abby!
Abby just smiles. The back and forth between everyone, like a big family. She has to stop for a moment and just watch them all scatter, some to grab the food, others to hightail it to their new homes. Abby opts to follow the food lovers back out to her car so she can pop the trunk on the loved green sedan. And there’s containers, red hard plastic containers with frosted white domes and lids that bear precisely what she said.
“What are you guys calling this place?”
Brynn works on carrying the food in, so with her hands full she can't answer Abby. She lets one of the boys field the question as she carries the bowls through to set them on the counter. Only then does she check to see, Did you guys tell her what it means?
“I think we’re calling it— what was that, the Lanthorn? It’s some old word for the lighthouse’s lamp room,” Lance offers easily as he follows behind her to the car, leaning in to steal one of those red plastic containers. Well, maybe he’s not stealing it. Maybe he’ll put it on the counter for everyone to share.
Maybe he’ll steal it.
“So another lighthouse.” That elicits a chuckle from Abigail as she starts unloading baked goods into waiting hands so that they can be spread out among the different apartments. Enough to go in freezers too to save for later.
Belatedly, Emily trundles after the group heading outdoors, slow in her descent back down the stairs. Her footsteps are heavy as she comes up to the car, glancing sidelong at Lance — she sees that look in your eyes, mister — and picks up some plates to bring in to the kitchen area. She nudges aside a box on the countertop with an elbow to make room enough to place the plate down, afterward pulling at the tape along the side of the box to peek in and check on the contents. Plates, maybe?
Well… Needed something that had meaning. It's not just where we come from, it's who we are. Brynn offers that thought just before she takes another load inside. The sheer volume of what Abby's brought has her looking terribly amused, and by the time she's back yet again, she observes to whoever may be watching her hands, I think she thought we were starving.
No, the box does not contain plates. No, that box contains…. Nerf guns. And a whole bunch of them. There are some of the clip loaded guns, as well as some of the revolver style guns. And a TON of extra darts. Inside the box is a note. To ye whom opens this box. Ye have the right of first shot! It's even signed Joe. Joe comes back inside trying to carry too much between food and additional boxes that they're moving in. THe kids don't own a lot though so there's not a ton more to bring in. But he pauses when he sees Emily with the box open. "Ah hah! Emily you get first pick and first shot. Everyone else…. scramble!" He turns and signs at Brynn only two words. NERF FIGHT! And then he's racing forwards, hopefully Em has at least pulled a Nerf gun out to look at it, because that gives Joe clearance to shove hands in there, grab one of the clip loaded weapons, some extra clips and then take off running. There's not much in the way of furniture to hide behind, so the little bulletproof guy is high tailing it for the stairs, turning at the base of them to let loose with the clip of nerf ammo at the crowd of friends and siblings.
“I grew up with you guys. You’re always starving. You never know when you’re gonna get struck by a shortage. Better to have stuff in a freezer you can ration out as needed, or on a bad day, than nothing at all. Besides, a little flour, water, salts and butter and you can make nearly anything.” Abigail imparts her wisdom, setting down some of the other ready to be frozen goodies.
And then Joe has a nerf gun. There’s apparently a box of nerf guns. “First pick? First shot?” She calls out. “Scramble?” She’s leaning backward to look over, draid dangling as she watches Joe do just that. And then the colorful gun.
“Oh Lord save me.” He is unlikely to save her and just like that Abby’s diving for cover. “I am UNARMED! You don’t get to shoot the unarmed! Do not make me flame up in y’all’s new home and burn it to a crisp!”
The red plastic containers are stacked up in Lance’s arms, and he takes a step— and then there are nerf guns being pulled out of boxes and darts flying through the air. “Em, get a gun,” he shouts to distract his intern-partner, clutching the stacked pies and biscuits and scones as he darts across the room with them.
Hey that’s a side room, not the kitchen he’s heading for.
Apparently he’s gambling that everyone is too busy with nerf to see him stealing the pies.
It takes Emily a moment to recover after discovering what she has, unburdening her hands after making sure there's enough counter space for what she's brought in. Joe sneaks his gun off and her brow arches high, urgency felt. When Lance calls for her, she turns to lob a gun his way …
… but he's retreating! How dare.
"Lance, you coward!" she yells after him, squeezing the trigger to fire three times on his retreating back. Then, that gun meant for him is lobbed at Brynn instead. Here we go…
Woohoo!!! Nerf War!!!! Brynn catches Joe's sign out of the side of her eye and doesn't comprehend THOSE, but the weapon?? Awyeah, training time! Pivoting on a heel, she darts the opposite way from Abby, and her hand shoots up to catch the lobbed firearm from Emily. Landing low and sliding toward the wall, she comes to a stop with her side against it and taking gopher-looks around the corner to see if Lance is an open target in there.
It's on!