ArchivedLogs:Cavewarming

Cavewarming
Dramatis Personae B, Isra, Shane	2014-06-06 '
Location <NYC> {Beachhaus} - Harbor Commons - Lower East Side and <NYC> The Grotto - Harbor Commons - Lower East Side
Enormous windows and an open floorplan give this house an airy-open feel. Much of the wood-and-stone of the walls has been left exposed, and the flooring underneath is done in a mix of sandy-stoney tile in the bathroom and kitchens and foyer and natural wood throughout the rest. The front door opens into the small foyer, an open doorway leading to a small office space at one side and a sunroom looking out over the river at the other. A connecting door in the office space, usually left unlocked, leads to Lighthaus next door. The foyer opens out in back to a large sitting room, the kitchen connecting sitting room and sunroom at their corners. The sunroom and foyer, unlike the other rooms, have no ceilings at ground-level, instead having balconies between the first and second floor. A curving stairway leads up from the foyer to the second floor, while a door between foyer and sitting room heads down to the basement. A powder room sits off the back of the sitting room, opposite the kitchen. There's music coming from one of the units on the end of the triplex. Bright lively violin-music, filling up the wide empty furniture-less space that currently is Daiki and the twins' new place. It trills out into the yard through the open windows, cheery and vibrant. In the house's living room there is, currently, one small blue shark, half-dressed in cargo shorts and no shirt, violin tucked beneath his chin as he wanders from living room to climb up onto a kitchen counter and peer at the cabinets. A black Toyota Highlander pulls up and a stocky brown-skinned man with a meticulously groomed beard and mustache climbs out of the driver's seat. He rounds the vehicle to open the rear passenger door, whence Isra unfolds herself. She wears a gauzy backless leaf green dress with a lavender sash about the waist and carries a big cardboard box tucked under each arm. "Do you want help carrying those?" the driver asks. Something in his bearing and the faint smile on his lips says he knows the answer. "Thank you, Omar, but I shall manage." Isra flexes her wings out to a quarter of their full span before letting them settle back to a relaxed position. "I will find my own way back, as well. Have a good afternoon." "You too." Omar closes the passenger door and resumes his station. Though he lingers at the curb yet a moment longer, he does not wait for her to disappear safely inside. Arriving at the door, Isra raps on it with the curled thumb talon of one massive wing. While she waits for an answer, she takes a step back to admire the building, tail swishing low and slow beneath the flouncy hem of her dress. The music continues after the knock, drawing closer and closer to the door before a small blue face peeks out from a narrow window beside it. Shane's violin-playing ceases a moment later, and he pulls the door open with a huge grin, glancing from the boxes under Isra's arms up to her face. "Guess what?" "A pop quiz, now?" Isra's lips draw back in a fierce, fangy smile. "And no multiple choice, either! Very well, I guess that..." Her tail lashes back and forth playfully. "...you were just really thinking you needed a proper telescope for your new house." "Yeah, well, we just finished /our/ exams, fair's fair, huh?" Shane's eyes drop reflexively to Isra's swishing tail, teeth bared wider. His muscles tense as he watches its motion, slightly twitchy as though willing himself not to pounce. "Holy /shit/ did you read my mind? Did you read my /future/ mind because I wasn't thinking that two seconds ago but /now/ I so am. Come in come in I'll show you -- well there's not much to show you yet we're doing furniture shopping /this/ weekend oh /man/ B's gonna flip. Do you want, um. All I have is Bawls that I swiped from Dusk and a fuckton of venison jerky. So I can offer you those." "Fair is fair," Isra agrees. "I suppose you are relieved that it is done?" Following Shane on long, gliding steps, she cranes her horned head back to study the expansive interior of the house. "I rather like empty, cavernous spaces. My genes have instilled in me an unconscious longing for an aerie up on a cliffside somewhere." She crouches down and sets her boxes against the wall in the foyer. Rising, she stretches long, muscular arms. "Somehow, I have managed to develop a taste for Bawls, and I would love some jerky, as well." "We don't have an eyrie but there is an upstairs balcony that looks out on the river and I can climb across from it to /Pa's/ balcony and from there to Dusk's. Daiki's not supposed to do that though he'll fall and die. Well okay no it's just the second floor so he'd probably just fall and sprain an ankle. Still not fun." Shane closes the door behind Isra, wandering back through to the kitchen where a half-case of Bawls sits on a counter. "Oh you can put the telescope -- anywhere really uh. We'll probably put it upstairs that's as close as we /have/ to an eyrie." He waves his bow in invitation to the drinks, clambering up onto a counter so that he can open a cabinet -- there is, as told, rather an /excessive/ amount of vacuum-sealed packages of jerky, evidently homemade. He drags out an unopened one to tear it open with his teeth. "Is liking Bawls contagious? Cuz you do hang out with Dusk a lot. Oh /man/ if you like big empty caves though you gotta see /our/ room. It's the whole basement." "The balconies /are/ rather convenient." Isra's ears press back, her expression strange and still for a moment, but then she smiles again. "I had a chance to appreciate the balconies from the air, but had not actually seen the building at ground level, nor in full daylight. It is splendid." She snags a bottle of Bawls and twists the cap off daintily and takes a somewhat less dainty swig. "I would not say it is contagious as such, but I have spent a /few/ late nights at Geekhaus and had need of getting back to school in a rush. This," she taps one long index fingernail, wicked sharp and painted a metallic blue gradient, against the bottle, which fizzes lightly in response, "is faster than coffee." "Now, my dream cave would have to overlook a forested valley with a stream tumbling through it." She hunches over to rest an elbow on the counter, wings mantled around her. "I suppose you'll have a pool in yours?" "Hive did an amazing job. I mean, I thought the Clinic was pretty rad but this is /way/ better. I feel like it must be hard making homes just like all these different people want them but then from the /outside/ it all. Fits together, right? And not just fits together but fits with -- Like this place looks like it /belongs/ here by the river. I bet he could build you a dream cave. If you found the land." Shane digs out a hunk of venison, chomping down on it before offering the packet out to Isra. "Most of us just, we've never really /had/ a place that --" From across the house there is a scramble of footsteps; someone taking stairs /up/ two at a time. B is dressed identically to Shane; cargo pants, no shirt. Ze is loping across the floor on hands and feet, leaving damp prints behind. "/Hi/ hi hi ohmygosh have you seen our everything? S'pretty cool huh?" Ze stops by Isra's boxes, sniffing at them curiously as though this will tell hir what's inside. "Are you coming to Fight Club tonight?" "There's some faculty dinner thing tonight," Shane grouses, "for the graduating class? I don't know, Pa's supposed to be there and Dai has to be there." "OK but that's /dinner/ you can fight /after/ dinner just not," B says conscientiously, straightening onto two legs to go swipe the half-eaten piece of jerky from Shane's teeth, "less than an hour after eating or you could get cramps." Nodding her thanks, Isra picks a strip of jerky from the bag and tears into it. She is still jawing the dried venison when B arrives, but makes quick work of it and flashes hir a smile. "Hello, and no, I have not seen /all,/ though Shane assures me it is capacious in the extreme. From what I have seen, I cannot doubt it, though I should still like a tour after we have finished stuffing our gullets." She picks out another trip of jerky and nibbles on it. "I did intend to go to Fight Club after the function. It would not be the first time I arrived in evening wear, and I am sure it will not be the last." "Now, that--" One vast wing unfurls to gesture in the direction of the boxes. "--is a housewarming present, though perhaps I ought to have brought groceries, too. The smaller box contains a custom modified Schiefspiegler, the bigger one a tripod and mount...the one that the XS Astronomy Club designed, in fact. It has space and hard points for motors, microcontrollers, and antennae of your choice." "You should bring Dai with you. He can /fight/ in a suit." Shane seems kind of tickled at this possibility. "Will /you/ fight all dressed up?" "That," B says with a wrinkle of hir nose, "would be a /serious/ waste of eveningwear." Ze's dropping to hir knees beside the boxes, eyes wide as ze extends hir claws to neatly slice open the top of the smaller box. "Yeah, fair enough. But it'd be a really neat-looking fight." Shane drops down beside his twin, reaching in once the box is opened to pull the telescope out, gills fluttering in sudden excitement. "And what's /most/ important about fighting," B's fingers are skimming up along the length of the telescope, hir gills fluttering too, "is that it's aesthetically pleasing." "Well, /yeah/. It's why I /always/ watch when Isra fights Dusk. Holy /shit/ this is the best housewarming gift I've ever --" "-- it's the /only/ housewarming gift you've ever gotten," B interjects with a giggle, "but /yeah/ it's pretty much also the best ever." "It's an intriguing thought, and the gown I'll be wearing allows a rather wide range of motion, but it most assuredly would not survive the ordeal. Somehow, having one's clothes torn off is a bit different than just not wearing much by design." Isra takes a long sip of her Bawls and sets it down, swiveling to watch the twins open their presents. "Besides, my tailor would weep, and possibly stop talking to me. Then I would be on the hook to sew my own outfit the next time I attend a formal event." She stalks over, crouches down, and curls one wing around each twin. "I felt a bit silly about it, considering the skyglow in the City. Still, there's plenty out there to see on a clear night. Congratulations on your new home." Shane leans into the wing with a quiet purring growl, gills fluttering slower. "No, it's awesome. I'm gonna put it in the balcony so B can spy across the courtyard at Ines." "I'm not going to spy on Ines," B says with a wrinkle of nose, snuggling into Isra's wing as well. "Just the stars." "And I can turn it sideways and spy over towards Dusk," Shane adds cheerfully. "Not much /spying/ you need to do there, he'd probably strip for you if you asked." B's cheeks color a little darker, though there's amusement in hir voice. Ze curls arms snug around Isra, cheek nuzzling into the curl of wing. "Thank you." And then, uncertainly, "-- is he doing okay? I mean when you see him? He should come to fight club, he likes it there." "Even if he's not ready to fight again yet. S'better than building himself new /computers/ as frie --" "-- hey there's nothing wrong with robot-friends," B protests huffily. "Really, this scope is utter and complete overkill for observing your neighbors," Isra says equably. "Now something across the City, perhaps." Her wings squeeze in tight, and she rests a hand on each prickly blue head. "Dusk...I don't know if I would use the word 'okay,' but he is improving. Restless, though." Her tail sweeps rhythmically across the floor behind them. "I think you're right, it'd do him good to get out. I'll drop by and ask him later." "What if you want to observe your neighbors /really closely/?" Shane asks with a grin. "More like if you want to observe your neighbors in the next galaxy over." B takes the telescope from Shane's hands, setting it gently back in its box. Ze bounds to hir feet excitedly, grabbing at one of Isra's hands to /tug/-tug-tug, hir hand still a little clammy-damp from downstairs. "Come on you have to see the best part. Hive really --" "Kind of outdid himself. It's going to be hard to want to /leave/." Shane pushes himself up, to, scampering off ahead towards the basement door. "He'll leave. Because fight club. /Plus/ there's Evolve. He's like a. Proper businessman now." B's gills are back to quick-eager fluttering as ze tugs at Isra's hand. "Official beverage sponsor of the -- wait, do we have a name for Fight Club?" Shane's brow rumples uncertainly. "It might not quite be equal to the task of observing neighbors the next galaxy over." Isra's hairless brows knit as though she is seriously considering how powerful a telescope they would need for that particular project. She waits until Shane is clear of her before snapping her wings back in and letting B pull her to her feet. "Whatever the name, I am sure it will better do better with beverages from Evolve." This with a smile oddly sincere against features so feral. "Now, then, show me this Shark Cave of yours." "If you come down there is a batcave now?" Shane is leading the way, bounding excitedly down the stairs to the basement. "Dusk hasn't been down yet," B says cheerfully, "so it hasn't been a batcave /yet/." <NYC> The Grotto - Harbor Commons - Lower East Side The basement of this home does not much resemble the upper levels at all. Stony and rather cave-like, its flooring is rock -- where it has flooring, anyway. The majority of the space in the center of the room is taken up by an indoor pool, of sorts, though the stone ledges around its edge and the tiny ripples of waterfall burbling down into it from stone steps leading in give it more the feel of an indoor /pond/. Somewhere in the side a door leads out to the riverside, and around one rocky wall a small bathroom /also/ has the feel of being carved out of the stone. For the most part, though, the room is just taken up by Pool -- though in the wall on the farthest side away from the pond there's been recessed shelving and storage space cut right into the stony facade. Shane stops his bounding at the base of the stairs, throwing his arms open wide to gesture to the rocky basement around them. "/Does/ kind of look like the sort of place he might --" "-- roost from the ceiling?" B stifles another giggle. "My word!" Isra straightens up to her full height, well above six foot, as if to get a better view of the expansive room. "How magnificent!" She picks her way around the edge of the pool. "Certainly practical for your needs, but magnificent as well. I was not /completely/ serious about wanting an aerie, but if I do ever look into it, Hive will be the first person I call." She looks away from the pool and to the twins. "You may dub it a Batcave now if you wish, but I will not be roosting from the ceiling. It's an awkward mode of rest for my preferred garb." Her tail swishes, stirring the hem of her dress. "Still, this is positively the most unique bedroom I have seen. Do you mean to bother with any furniture down here?" "B makes enough gadgets it could be a batcave," Shane adds with a pleased flutter of gills at Isra's reaction. "You know we didn't even really give him much instruction for this? With the upstairs we all worked together a lot to say everything we wanted --" B shrugs a shoulder, wandering over to step onto a ledge by the poolside and curl hir toes down into the water. "But here we just told him to make it /our/ home. And it's kind of like. Perfect." Shane's claws scritch lightly against the rock, hand trailing alongside it. "I don't think we really need any furniture. There's rocks to sit on if people need. And some of the ledges in the wall are kind of -- seatlike." B waves a hand towards the wall. "But we've really got everything we need." "Your home," Isra echoes, ears pressing back and wings folding down over her shoulders as she runs an appreciative hand over the stone wall. "Yes, and it is, indeed, perfect."