2024-11-29 - Quarters, Pennies, Fountain Wishes

Most of the night has ticked on by at this point. Ghost speckled wreaths have been hung up, lights draped, and bows clasped. It's pushing sometime close to the proper start of the next day, with many of the employees having gone back home.

Ty had too much hot cocoa for that. Fueled purely on sugar, he made it through the decoratening with plenty of energy but it's starting to wane. He finds a bench overlooking the water and plops down.

"God bless OT."

Lennox has not had nearly as much sugar and he'd already done a full shift at Spider Walk before he'd come out to help with the decorating so he's tired. He's been dragging a bit for the last little while but the decorating crew hired in for just this purpose was busy loading up all the empty boxes on the carts and pulling out as the morning crew would be rolling in within the hour to begin doing a pass over the park before opening.

He makes his way over to the bench and plops down on it next to Ty, stretching out his legs and looking out over the darkness that is Lake Michigan at night. It's kind of spooky. But then, he likes kind of spooky. "Amen."

Ty gives his legs a little stretch as well but they're not nearly as long as Lennox's. He seems to notice this and slouches doooooown slowly but surely until their feet are lined up.

It means he's half folded against the backrest but it's fine. Both hands clasp over his Godzilla sweater. His body gives an abrupt shiver, like the cold of the flurries is finally kicking in.

"Do you ever think that like..." his voice is a little husky from exhaustion, "we were all meant to come here? Like on purpose?"

Lennox watches this slow slouching with one brow raised just slightly, lips tugging just a little bit at the corner of one side in amusement. He's about to say something when Ty asks that question though and he pauses, giving it some thought as he looks back out over the water. "Nope," he admits. "Never thought about it. But, if we were, that's fine with me. I'm glad to be here." He then looks over to Ty and asks, "What about you?"

Ty glances up at Lennox, then looks back over at the lights reflecting on the lake. He gives his feet a little side to side wiggle as he waits for an answer. It has him blinking rapidly when he hears it.

"Me? Hah. Nope. Totally. Never." He did just ask. That sure sounds like a LIE.

Lennox glances at Ty sidelong and says, "Never, huh?" He's not buying it. He then looks back out over the water and says, "There's nothing wrong with thinking about it. I'm thinking about it NOW because you brought it up." He grins then, a little crookedly.

"Who says I was thinking about it? I'm so not thinking about it," Ty starts off very somberly and then quickly ends up grinning. His mouth wobbles, trying its hardest to hold onto the serious face even at this hour when it's physically impossible. He ends up pushing a hand up into his hair and leaving it there atop his head for a moment.

"I dunno. Maybe I just like to believe in the one-ness of the universe. As crunchy as that sounds."

"Nothing wrong with that," Lennox says. "That desire to be connected somehow, for there to be some kind of meaning, fate, something bigger going on." He looks up as the flakes continue to fall, landing in his hair, slightly damp with them, in his eyelashes, and melting away. "Stuff like this? Tonight? It's nice. Just.. everybody kind of doing things together, hanging out, thinking about ways to horribly mangle me inside a small container."

"Yeah...that. I dunno." Ty lets his hand slip from his hair and shifts in his seat a little. He's very slowly sliding sideways towards Lennox. "I haven't had much meaning in my life, it feels like, in forever? And with magic and shit here...y'know? It's nice to think that maybe it was meant to happen. Like we all deserved this."

He chances a sleepy glance up towards Lennox and watches for a moment as his dark hair seems to collect snowflakes. "Yeah." Then a sudden laugh as he recalls that particular tidbit. "What was up with that?! Like isn't it enough that you can shift, why they gotta put the bird in a box?"

Lennox nods and says, "Yeah, I can understand that, I guess. Maybe we do." It's lacking a bit of conviction, not for others perhaps but maybe for himself. Still, he doesn't argue against it. He doesn't know.

Then he snorts, "I don't know but if I ever go missing?" He nods in the direction where the others were, "Check Harper for signs of stray feathers and packing tape."

"Yeah," Ty intones thoughtfully. Perhaps a bit distractedly. It's that time of the night where people wax poetic (or maybe just Ty does that). Across the lake, the first signs of sunrise are starting to appear with a gradual shift in the dark sky color to more lavender hues.

His smile softens. "She would neverrrrrrrrr." A beat. "Though I dunno. Never say never." He goes quiet for a moment, simply watching the snow flit around in the new light as his sideways lean culminates with his head pressed again Lennox's arm.

Lennox watches as the sunrise begins on the horizon, that gradual lightening capturing his attention. Though when Ty's head ends up against his arm he shifts a little, sliding his arm out of the way and lets it slip around his shoulders, just resting there. He studies the sleepy bard for a moment and then looks back out at the sky. "You're gonna fall asleep on this bench," he points out quietly. "And wake up a snow person."

With Lennox shifting his arm out of the way, Ty unabashedly snuggles up into his side. Lennox is warm after all and it's still snowing. Are Ty's eyes even open? No. Still--

"I'm not gonna fall asleep," he mumbles, folding his arms up higher along his chest to keep both Godzilla and himself toasty. "I'm so awake. Ask me anything."

The look that Lennox gives Ty when he says that he's not going to fall asleep is deeply skeptical, but of course Ty can't see it since his eyes are already closed. The wild claim that he is so awake is met with a little bit of a chuckle that can be felt as much as heard. "Do you want me to take you home?"

The rumble of Lennox's chuckle actually gets Ty's to blink open again. "I wanna watch the sunrise," he says with just a hint of a whine, as if he fully believes he can stay awake the whole time.

It shouldn't take too long, seeing as the morning light is already breaking through the cloud cover in some spots. "I can't remember the last time I saw it. You?"

"Okay," Lennox says, not seeming to mind waiting out the sunrise, even if he has his doubts that Ty will make it through it. "Can't say as I've watched it in a while. Gone to bed as the sun's come up, sure." Because sometimes late night shows at Spider Walk means even later night closings, which turn into early morning returns home. He's used to the nocturnal life. He turns his gaze back out across the water. It won't be too long, and it won't be the best sunrise to watch given all the clouds and snow, but the sky is still turning colors and getting brighter.

"Yeah, see," Ty murmurs confidently. "This is why we gotta watch it." It's a we thing now. His eyelids droop again but he seems to be watching the muddy watercolor of the overcast sunrise this time.

He's quiet for a long moment until a tiny little laugh burbles out of him. It's slightly crispy with late-night deliriousness. "If I had a quarter, I'd show you a magic trick."

"Alright," Lennox says. Not that it was going to take any arm twisting in the first place. He doesn't seem in a hurry to get up and run off any time soon. Instead, he just sits there quietly, letting Ty curl in to him for warmth, and watches the sky shift hues. He laughs a little and says, "I think I gave you my last quarter. You're going to have to go to the laundromat if you want to do any more magic. Magic and laundry."

"The laundromat has pay-by-app now," Ty laments with a soft laugh. "It's like there's a conspiracy against spare change? When was the last time you saw a squished penny machine?" This is about the most awake he's been in the past few minutes now that he's indignant on behalf of squished pennies everywhere. "I saved that quarter by the way. It's just back on my desk though."

"It has quarters, too," Lennox says with a chuckle. "You can pay with either." Though if you use the app, there's no real need to use the quarter machines to know that. The fact that Ty saved the quarter has him chuckling. "Is it reserved for magic tricks now? You need a second quarter you can carry around for tricks." His voice is quiet and low. "And.. I don't know, honestly. I can't think of one. They must still have them. What other use are pennies?"

"Oh, for real?" There goes all the heated commentary in one fell swoop. "Good to know. Good to know." Ty smiles to himself as he hears Lennox chuckling in regards to the quarter. "It is. It's like a focus...or whatever those are called." His eyes slide closed for a moment as another wave of sleepy hits him. "Yeah..." he intones softly. "You need to get me another quarter." Because this is all on Lennox now for some reason. Ty falls silent for a whole breath. Did he actually fall asleep?

"Pennies are for wishes. In fountains." Hanging on by a thread.

"I need to get you another quarter?" Lennox laughs. "I think Will needs to get you another quarter, for teaching you that trick." He glances down when Ty falls silent, perhaps checking to see if he's asleep. But then he mentions the fountain and Lennox murmurs, "Okay. And for fountain wishes." He then asks, "What would you wish for? If you had a penny to throw in a fountain right now?"

Lennox shirking quarter responsibility off to Will seems to infiltrate Ty's psyche and he snorts out a gentle laugh though his eyes remain closed. He's still conscious, but barely. He shifts his head a little, most likely getting more comfortable here against Lennox's side where he's leeching his warmth. "Hmmm." Another long pause. His breathing actually evens out like he's truly fallen asleep. Well, he has, but he manages to blink back awake for a moment, eyes glassy and reflecting the dawn. "For...something that feels real."

He shifts his arm just a little as Ty shifts, letting him get comfortable where he will. Ty's nice and warm, too, and Lennox isn't complaining about that added warmth given the snow that's still falling around them. He's quiet for a long time, too, even after Ty answers him, but he hasn't fallen asleep. He's just watching the colors wash over the clouds and turning that over in his mind. Something that feels real.