2025-01-07 - A Little Bird Told Me

New Years is over, The bulk of those tourists wanting a magical shiny new year have removed the glute of bodies from the park to go back to school and work once again. There's a tap tap of a beak on the window of the door holding something wrapped in a napkin in beak. Balancing on one foot the other kicks the glass with a melodic ThOonK!

The jackdaw waits for the door to continue to be a door and finally it opens and Jack walks in looking cold and slightly annoyed. Walking over to the til he sets a wrapped cranberry orange muffin down. "I thought to grab a snack from Cozy Cottage and this is River Village?" He shakes his head with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Too far. So I fly there but forget my jacket. Here we are. Your door she is very difficult. I think she is mad at me."

It's chilly out.

Arrow is bundled up inside Stirring as she usually is, dressed in all black as ever, her platinum blonde hair worn in a tail today. She's got a matte red lip on for once, and it's the brightest thing about her. The vibe is roughly black knit cape over sheer layered black tops and slacks that flare over witch boots. Which, of course, means she's seated nearby the register in the back of the shop, past all the candles, crystals, and sundry.

"My door, pretty bird, is exactly as as stuck as she should be. Would you like me to install you a little perch?" She glances down at the muffin. "Hustle in here and come get warm behind the counter." While the rest of the shop is comfortable, there's a space heater hidden by her. Best seat in the house. "Are you willing to share your muffin?"

Jack tilts his head with a mop of curls shooshing to one side pretending to think about it. "I would not be remiss. There may be more muffins as the result of having some place toooo put them." There's a shifty eye looking between her and the muffin and back before sliding over to join her in enough of his attire to slide back in character when he needs to.

Sitting his eyebrows lift and mouths the word 'OMG toasty' to her appreciating this scandalous secret. "Oui I think if you share your heat I can find it in my murderous little heart to share my muffin. How are we now that the wave of people is at low tide?"

Arrow reaches for the kettle to flick on the button, heating up water in just under two minutes. She slides a teacup over to Jack, then one for herself, and scoops a little of a nearby loose tea into a pyramid shaped bag draped across the cup with a little wooden swizzle. "Bird life isn't always easy," she surmises, smiling a little bit at that. She puts a little muth jar of brown rock sugar nearby for Jack to serve himself up as much or little sweetness as he'd like in his tea.

"Murderous little hearts are often generous with friends," she says, like everybody knows that. "I don't think I've ever tried that flavor. This tea should compliment it." She looks over. "Have you lost your jacket or forgotten it at home?"

Jack watches this small ritual play out and settles int the chair to appreciate the small joy of warming the hell up. It's a mumble of an answer translated from slacker to French and back again to yield, "Naaah it's in the back of the Spookeasy. I was hot then I abruptly wasn't." With a pause there he adds, "very, very abruptly." Yet he didn't turn around for it?

There's a flicker of a smile as he says "Well don't tell anyone or I'll keep raising yourselves an inch." He would not, and seems to know she knows this. "Weird question for you my fellow denizen, you see any more little ghosties creeping around perusing the walk?"

"The eternal struggle," Arrow says, reaching for the kettle to pour, first his then her cup, filling each about 2/3 of the way. "Of having a body." She hms, "Terribly inconvenient, isn't it?" She says that with a little bit of a smile, but never quite makes eye contact. The blonde chooses to do a single spoon of those rock sugars into her cup, letting it dissolve slowly, going translucent in the tea as it steeps. The aroma is spicy and vaguely vanilla.

"This tea will take care of that, Jack." When she speaks, her voice is soft, pitched only as loudly as it need be for her compatriot in heater camping to hear her. "Here? No more than usual." She pauses in that before she says, "But stuff is... more things move at night when the shop is closed. I come in to things in changed places. And I hear tourists all the time saying the activity is up at the Haunted Experience."

Jack melts dramatically an inch is his chair with his gangly, long limbs folding under the seat to not take up all the space. "Sooo much difficult." SO much so even his syntax order is frozen. There's a flicker of a grin not about to complain too much to the woman with more difficulties than he has, but does confide, "Warmer as a bird though. Did not expect this." A positive discovery.

Of the tea he states the obvious, "Smells good. Lavender in that one?" Closing his eyes enjoying the quiet after the last month and a half he says "I... have noticed this to be true." He doesn't look at her but the familiar sound of fabrics is there and not shuffling away at high speeds.

"This make you nervous or curious I wonder. I have some thoughts on this, seeing them, hearing them more often. I am curious about your perspective outside of my own though."

"Some of the best things in life come unexpectedly when you haven't asked," Arrow says, mysteriously, as an occult shop clerk ought. She picks up her tea and gives is a taste, then pulls out a tiny rabbit-shaped jar of creamer, and pours a splash into her cup, leaving it in reach of Jack's inclined to use it too.

"Besides, this place is nothing if not a haven for my fellow employees, especially ones with an eye for the strange, the shiny, and the pastry." Okay, that's maybe a little less mysterious. She rests one hand on the edge of the counter, sips her tea with the other. The cups are of various designs. Jack's says, at the bottom, you've been poisoned, written in script. Hers says murderess.

"Curious. The supernatural almost never makes me nervous." She pauses, then glances up at Jack's face. "Oh, the dockhouse." She shakes her head. "Not like that no. That was... that was on spirit, and I know she wasn't la llorona, but the similarity was too much with the wind and rough water." She pauses, then adds, "I don't like the water."

And then, "I think the spirits are restless because they've been disturbed, and it takes a lot of power to disturb so many at once." Of this she seems sure, but does not seem afraid of the prospect, despite her shyness.

Curious Jack hides a smile drinking his damn tea. Glancing into bottom of the cup that reads You have been poisoned he says "This is a very strange fortune cuppy. It suggests I take a night off." That won't happen until next Monday again.

"Ahhh the water?" There's some work trying to remember if he remembers La Larona before he looks to Arrow with a small frown. "The commute back and forth seem they would be very unpleasant for you. They are saying some can walk through reflection to the present memory of other places- skip the water all together. Maybe we find one to help you skip aaaaaaaaall the waaaaaaaaaiting. Hm?"

He's happy to put the focus on the lines and blame that outside of water concerns. "I think probably you are right about the ghosts." After a longer pause Jack comes clean (oddly) and says , "I've spoken with Tank of ways to help the woman we found. We found a bite more information on her. Maybe I suggest we help her not over water though."

Sipping his tea again he shares further, "He didn't know if you'd still be interested. It was a difficult night for many people, ghost include. I said I would ask but also did not want to push you on this. It's not somehting one can just ask people to do."

There's a smile. Arrow's eyes crinkle with it even! The reaction to Jack's casual appraisal of the poison notice clearly tickles the clerk. "Best relax, I say." She looks over, pausing with her cup at her lips, and asks before a sip, "Are you scheduled to play tonight?" Though she doesn't hang out at the Spookeasy near as much as other folks, it's definitely her preferred haunt a couple of times a month, enjoying a lemon-flavored martini for the live music.

"Yes. I, um." Arrow licks her lips, takes another sip to give herself a moment, and the calming warmth of tea. "... I don't swim." There's something else behind that, and it's not a leap to say there's apprehension or even fear there, especially coupled with how fast she fucked off elsewhere with stuff got chaotic at the boathouse summoning.

Jack's suggestion surprises her. Because she hadn't thought of that. Maybe she head a rumor about entities that can walk between reflections, but hasn't realized anyone can do it here. "Oh. I didn't... I don't know who can do that." Her hand ghosts past Jack's elbow, a touch that's brief, in thanks, but she doesn't linger over contact. "Thank you. Yes. I am, I am just not that close to deep, cold—" She was probably going to say water there, but trailed off for another sip of tea.

Jack continues to slowly drink his tea. "Well I do not either but a few people, they profess this. Now we just have to find out who. I will get nosy." There's a wide smile that preens a bit at the elbow pat. "Am genius, I know."

He does give her the pass of, "Well you shouldn't. It's fucking cold out. Make someone else do it." Looking to her he says "Besides, if we make you try you'd go in a little circle. I would not do this to you like a listing duckling. Is too cold. We let that be someone else's problem." His fingers very briefly pat hers before returning to hug the cup.

"I can promise that none of us would let anything happen to you though. No one is wanting your shift." Not quite how 'job security' works but if it makes her laugh at the nervous bit maybe this is good? In some tone of promise not to make her go he says, "The good news is our ghost friend is on land and maybe this is her problem but easier for both of us to stay warm with. What you think the song might have been though? Not the chart topper the-" he hums the melody that haunted the Boo'edwalk (and other places he is less worried about) when they were all decorating.

"You say that like the nosiness is a switch you flip into invasive mode," Arrow says, cupping her tea in one hand while the fingers of the other lightly clasp its dainty handle. Pinkies up! "Yes, very smart. Now if you know who can do this mirror thing, that's even smarter." The occult shop clerk is not above asking the bird's eye view guy for intel. If he doesn't know right now, he surely sees stuff, right?

Arrow stays silent on the subject of swimming, even though there's the faintest hint of a smile at the circle thing. It's clear after her next swallow of tea that she really does not like open bodies of water. She doesn't even have to say it, because her body language closes up a little bit.

She glances over at the shift thing. "The truth comes out. Customer facing jobs aren't that hard, especially when you can playfully threaten to curse the rude ones." She turns slightly on her stool to face Jack a little more, just about 10 degrees. "What did she say?"

"There are totally factory settings for snark, sass, and nosiness." Jack assures with a roll of his hand; being a pianist his fingers curl up in the process like an expired spider. His fingers flap around again and promises, "I'll find out. Now I'm curious. I also hate getting my steps in."

He doesn't address Arrow's nerves but he leans over slightly invading her space in the smallest way possible with a shoulder as if to disrupt threat with the invasion of not being alone. "Sometimes when they are rude I just send the other half of myself to run into the same person three times and make them think they have lost their mind. They turn around. Is bird. messing with the patrons is a past time I didn't know I needed in my life." That secret shared with a grin he sits upright again.

The question of the ghost gets a thoughtful look, "Uhh sob sob weep wail wail bitch moan and then I need my gift my baby gave me so I can move the heck on." Very concise. "We believe still is wedding ring and the current plan is to find as many lost ones as we can stick them in a jar. Jessica, apparently, has a knack for knowing what is more important than the rest. I don't know if the remainder goes into lost and found or we divvy up like pirates or we keep the jar in case of more errant widows."

"No switches necessary," Arrow says, a smart deduction made in the face of Jack's mischievous mien. She brushes a few unruly strands of hair out of her eyes, which does little to make them behave. Back into her eyes moments later they go. "I avoid all the walking when I can do it," she agrees. "So that's another thing we have in common." And the space heater appreciation.

It takes a couple of beats for her to relax again, but something about Jack's willowy build and the lean he takes seems to sooth the water-twitchy occultist. "I'd like to see that trick some day." That's cheerful, her tone there, delighted at the idea of instant confusion of the bird-Jack-bird bait and switch.

"That's... an interesting transcript. Wailing over babies... oh, baby gifts! Okay, that's valid. It's probably an heirloom by now." She pauses. "Oh, a partner not a baby baby." She thinks on that then asks, "So we're looking for a ring?" She nods. "Sometimes, when you touch things, you can get an impression."

"Awww twinsies!" Jack offers his teacup to clink not that it's a thing tea cups do, but 'should' is not one of his big drivers in life. He lets her mood right itself enjoying the successful thaw looking to the window as people are shuffling into the line for the Haunted Estate now all indoors as the crowds are not engorged with patrons.

"Yes her husband, the chef on the ship gave her a ring-I assume wedding. She wants it back. This is why I'm very confused but very clear about the human condition. 'I will create my own hurdle to allow me to do a thing instead of...just doing the thing I want to do. Like he's gone sweets, as are you, go haunt him. Non she cannot. She cannot even use it anymore as, hmmm, translucent person. Still this is where we are. She didn't bother me all the way to my apartment though, that was sweet of her."

If the porcelain's well made, and the glaze formulated properly, it shouldn't chip the cup, at least as long as it's not smashed against the other. Arrow goes with it and ticks the rim of her delicate cup to Jack's, a light tap, barely even audible. She's got pretty good spatial awareness. Maybe it comes of only being in control of some of her body at all times. "It's funny how many people see the candles and crystals and spooky stuff and are a little scared to come in here, and still others walk in because of that."

Oh, a drowned sailor?" She goes quiet, thinking, nibbling on the inside of the corner of her mouth. "If I couldn't have my lover back, I'd certainly want the symbol of our love returned to me. It's hard when you have nothing left to remember someone but what's in your head." She shakes her head a little. "But if we were both departed, I'd like to think I'd get over the materialism. Not like you can wear it if you're see thru."

"Does anything about this unsettle you or are you beyond such earthly concerns?" There's a little smile in her voice, though it's less evident on her face, just the warmth in her words that gives it away.

Jack holds still and lets Arrow do this clinking as this is not a pub! Looking over Jack says "You'd think the unknown is the interesting part. People complain so much and fear the unknown when it's by far more interesting than what one knows already. I dunno."

When Arrow talks quietly Jack shuts his proverbial beak and thinks back on that. Lips pressed together he admits, "Sometimes our security line is held on to so hard we don't realize we don't need it anymore. It's what we know to do though so we do that. Is hard to led go to trust you are on solid ground again I think for a lot of people. Maybe is why this is important to see her become unstuck."

There's a chortle and the flash of a grin given to her on queue and entirely teeth and fabrication, "I don't know. I'm fine. It is happening I cannot stop it so it is. But," he pauses with a small thoughtful furrow, "I don't know. Constantly being reminded of the frailty of all things is very disquieting some days."

"I believe that much unseen is also here," Arrow quotes, with a salute of her cup before she finishes it off except a little bit left in. And because she doesn't like drinking tea, she flicks in a bit of the wet leaves from the open-topped bag and gives it a swirl, liquid just enough to distribute the leaves on the bottom. She upends the cup on the saucer, which catches the extra liquid. When she turns the cup back over some tea leaves are stuck to the bottom. Arrow tips the cup to eye the interior, to see what the leaves are saying today.

"A bowl, no... very deep vessel." She squints. "And the moon."

She looks up and looks at Jack. It takes a minute for those words he says to sink in. She opens her mouth to reply, closes it. A little frown line appears between her brows. "Holding on, I guess, doesn't save you unless the floor's actually tipping, so... energy best spent elsewhere then? Going with it till you figure out what the shit is happening." She nods. "Yes." Frailty. "So very many things are delicate." She looks down at her hands, and then puts the cup down in its saucer with a light click, amber-colored liquid clinging to the base where it rests in a divot meant for it. "But here we are. Alive, together, and looking good while we do it."

Jack observes the leaf reading curious and not calling belief or BS on it. Looking on he hugs his cup a little closer, not done yet he murmurs, "Don't touch my cup. We don't want the truth. If it's bad newsit takes away my ability to have a good half hour of thinking everything is fine." He chuckles though saying that not likely being too concerned either way, but willing to lend weight to her craft there.

He finishes his tea and set the cup in front of her. "you know you get a bowl inside a teacup this is good volume. Whoever your supplier is? Good deal there. Is a two-for-one." The smile warms brightly to Arrow, "Chere, we look amaziiiing. For everything else there is a spa day to fix it. We cannot do anything about it raining yesterday, but we can set a bucket out for tomorrow. Is some planning there. What time do you come in the morning? It's early isn't it?" He does not look optimistic about a 'no' there.

"All the readings have been weirdly similar, so I'm getting used to circles and crescents and stuff." Arrow glances at Jack's cup, but given the things they've been talking about, she definitely doesn't reach for his cup. You can only do the thing if the other person is down. Even if they're kidding when they say naw. "Rules are rules," she agrees.

She glances down at the teacup as it's put down in front of her. She squints. "Mixed messages, piano man."

"I sometimes open. It's early and no one likes it, but I split shifts with a couple coworkers. I try to get the late shifts, but can't always work it out." Arrow seems used to the oddball hours that aren't all that stable. "It just means more breakfasts."

Jack makes more begrudging little whiny noises that all sound like "ehhh," but he pushes a hand to the cup and her when called out bluntly for mixed messages. "What you are expecting other from me? Fine fine for science Take a peek is fine. Now I want to know if is more of the same."

Jack weighs her house there and says "I was going to offer to grab a ride with you, we tie a little string to you and everything, but that sounds like it might be before eleven. Consider me concerned after 11 am. After 11am I have feelings, before then I have sleep and not enough coffee."

Leaning over he murmurs, "What's the cup say anyways?"

She laughs, though, because he's all let's be travel buds... AFTER the official morning times. "Noted." Arrow shakes her head at Jack's stipulations. "It's good to know where your boundaries are." Sometime in the last few minutes, her posture's eased up, and when she looks over this time it comes with eye contact, however brief.

Arrow flips the cup to dump the dregs of the liquid and turns it over. "Well, there's a coin which usually means wealth, but it's in a weird location in the cup." She tips it, and turns the cup a little bit. "And—Oh. A cross which usually means trouble." She tips the cup so Jack can see. "But here's the thing. It all depends on how you approach it."

"So I guess beware of shiny things this week."

Jack grimaces and mutters something in French switching to English halfway through. "I don't mind fabrication but disappointing peoples is not on the bingo card." He leans, leans more like a nosy orchid for a moment before giving his fingers a little nudge for her to go on with it all.

He waits "Money's never bad." He squints and asks her, "Well can we get a straw to put it in less funny part of the cup? Control your destiny Arrow." She advises avoiding shiny things for the nest week which get a "Hmmmm this is not going to happen, no. What sounds like is going to happen is we are going to find this lady's ring and find more problems with it. Oh fun."

Arrow doesn't speak French, but some of the words are familiar. It's not enough for her to get what he's saying, but thankfully the swap to English comes in clutch. "More information is important. Less information leaves gaps for people to fall into when their communication style sucks and they make assumptions." She puts the cup down. "You know what they say about those."

"Ok, well," Arrow pauses. How does a person give a birb this kind of advice. She knew when she said it, he wasn't gonna do it. It's like telling a cat not to go for stringy bits. "Don't pick up any pennies that are the wrong way 'round?" Maybe that's doable. "Jewelry is a go." She glances down at the cup. That could be a ring. "Jewelry's fine." She's used to giving people what they wanna hear, she is. Arrow may also be a psychometrist, but she doesn't offer to be a random ring feeler upper. Everybody has boundaries.

Jack answers with his best guess, "It's a great way to accidently wind up engaged when you didn't intend to?" This is his guess though he doesn't go into why this very specific example. She makes a lot of exceptions and he stares at it in silence a while. Leaning sideways he keeps his voice low so the cup cannot hear.

"Soooo be careful of calamity I'm going to inevitably invite because I have little self-moderation?" He's still picking up what her leaves are throwing down. "Mmhmm This is going to be a fun week. What did yours do?" he peeks not that he has an eye for knowing what any of it means but he is just absolutely nosy.

"That sounds like a little bit of a nightmare," Arrow says, and then she tips her head, thinking about it. "Unless the other person is cute, skilled in some way, or excellent at business management." This woman has her standards for legal and interpersonal entanglements. "Pref all three, since marriage is a contract and if you're signing one of those, you better be making out like an escort on a BOGO evening."

Do escorts do those?

Not important.

"What?" She glances over, startled, when Jack uses her middle name. "Oh. Oh the cup." A laugh is surprised out of her, a short one. Calamity as in the cup and the tea leaves. "Mine was like generosity and invitations but caution. So never trust a free gift or don't sign on the dotted line without reading it, especially if it feels like a favor."

Jack scans anyone in earshot before answering Arrow; the hanging wry grin being the first clue he is up to no good, but he remains 'professional'. "Call girls with coupons? That is not what I thought the advert meant by free roll over minutes carried over if unused. I need to talk to my provider. This could be an interesting birthday if they are all saved up." He hangs his head.

When she startles with a What? he flinches still confused, "Quoi?" He looks to the shop and back with a nod. yes, the cup. He watches curious. "Yours makes you read the end user license agreement?? You need a new cup."

"Groupons work for some weird stuff, you know?" Not that Arrow even knows if those are still a thing. She stacks both of the teacups with saucers and busses them into a little plastic bin hidden under the antique counter with an equally vintage cash register atop it. She looks up at Jack. "I don't think it's that kind of rolling over." She laughs when his head hangs. "Jack, I didn't know you were into these things. Would you like me to ask around?" A little smile threatens to turn the corners of her lips up.

"Tea's notoriously fickle," she says, airily. Even if she got portents of death in the leaves, she probably wouldn't be worried. This is what the wave of her hand suggests. "Oh, my middle name." She lifts her hand, palm up. "Calamity. I was confused, you know, when you said it because nobody knows it, and it's a little." There's a shimmy of her shoulders. "Unusual."

Jack loses it and just cracks up breaking the 'very serious stare off' with Arrow like any of that conversation is normal. Forearms brace to the till and curled fingers allow him to bury his face laughing until he's sorted himself out. "I'm good... maybe probably good? I know someone that might benefit from that coupon though if we do find one." Nope, cannot hold the face.

With a deep breath he finally says "Calamity? Why? but this is a good name. Mine's Darryl. All the best people are unusual. It's the story we do not yet know."

Arrow throws her hands up into the air like 'I don't know', then laughs right along with Jack, because how can you not? When a French Canadian laughs, so do we all. "Maybe probably ever turns into nah needy, we commence looking for a deal. But not too good a deal. Deal's too good, you're getting drugged." She says it like she knows.

"Calamity. Weird parents. You should see how my brother turned out." She widens her eyes briefly like yikes, but doesn't elaborate on the specifics. "That's a very good point, Jack Darryl. The mysteries keep it interesting. There's always another question to chase into the depths. It's basically my whole job." She lifts both hands and circles her fingers to indicate the shop. (Or to direct everyone to the nearest emergency exit.)

"Things beyond the known." She leans in a little and says, "What people don't know is there are snack stashes all over the place in here. We're big on secret compartments." With that knowledge imparted, she shifts to get herself carefully off of the stool and stretch a little. Sitting still too long comes with its own problems. "Would you like some honey for your muffin?"

Jack doesn't answer- composure under construction. Maybe it's been a minute but he lets the high of laughing ride for a moment longer like it's been a minute. "I- merde...." he's got nothing to come back to that with.

The hilarity ebbs back into amusement. "Your poor brother." He doesn't know what it is but there's trust established. "Good thing for your brother names are very malleable. Just call yourself whatever you want and write your name badge in purple crayon. It all goes to the same bank account is fine. I changed mine. He can change his if he is feeling he needs to."

His head swivels to the shop before his eyes squint hard. "Well telling me this you just keep me busy all day now. You have done this before I see. Weeeell played, you tiny monochromatic woman. Well played."

Arrow smiles right back at Jack, and won't be surprised, in future, should she wander into the shop to find him digging around shelving and poking stuff looking for secret hatches, levers, and hinges. "Everyone should find their joy."

She hefts the big jar of tea, tops it with a lid, and steps over to place it among some fellows on a shelf full of jars of teas. She tidies up a bit more, using a pan and brush to clear a few herbal leafy spills off the counter, then puts that away as well, counter once again neat as a pin.

"I'm not sure this place would survive my brother. Luckily, the rest of my fam is elsewhere. So most everyone is safe from Glyphs." She looks over at Jack. "How about yours? Canada, yeah?"

Jack absolutely will be as were it a life mission to uncover all of their hidden edible secrets. Jack's eyes are looking around the room for clues. "yeah my joy's buries in the walls apparently. Where you are hiding the peanut butter cups, chere?" There's the slowest panned look to her with all squint accusation before his eyes get very wide in a Vaudevillian way. If he's not careful he could sprain an eyelid pulling a face like that.

There's a nod as his face resumes it's normal composition. "Mm my mother is in Granby. This is southeast of Montreal by a bit. Dad- who knows. He drove a truck and just kept on driving I suppose. It was us, my sister, and my grandparents." Optimistically he says, "She started teaching me piano. She was very good. Hilarious too. They are there, though. Sister moved to Nova Scotia because...reasons I am still figuring out but her family is there and the food I cannot complain about, though I try."

"My dream resort is a giant haunted manor with a bunch of secret passages and a huge occult library. Must have gargoyles, a glassed in solarium or greenhouse, and a creepy butler. So," Arrow says, "Like the house from Clue but more goth." She reaches under the desk and feels for a button hidden in a recessed inset, pushes it, and a little spring loaded compartment shoots open an couple inches, right next to Jack. The flaw drawer hidden in a false bottom of the counter contains exactly two KitKat bars.

"I don't know much about Canada, but I know a thing or two about wide open places and people who do things for reasons that are purely their own." She thinks about that for a bit and then says, "When you're playing, do you take requests? I really like instrumentals of Amy Winehouse songs."

"That house was circa 1950s. Probably need it sixty years older than that for this. Good Mansard roof, secret passages, darker wallpaper, smaller rooms." Jack might know something about this because he knows someone that talks endlessly about it and almost assuredly it was Quincy at the Haunted Estate with tiny voice, short stature, and well of bottomless knowledge.

There's an Mmm regarding just going but he doesn't particularly have many presented feelings on it either way. It's then Arro distracts him with sugar and a request- the best kind of request! He reaches for it and answers her "They tried to make me share my kit-kat- I said noooo nooo no!" He does open it after bending it in half so he pulls pre-broken bars out. He pops the package up so one pokes out like a cigarette offered to her.

"Of course. I go at the hotel all the time. I could to that into the show. Would not even charge you twenty for this. What is friendship if not exploitable for the things that make us happy? Love some Amy, some Teddy, some Nina. Fan of Blues and R&B really."

Arrow's eyes light up when Jack offers her a candy like an old timey bartender. She plucks one free with manicured nails, smartly biting off a little bit at the end. "Oh, all good. I can see spending an hour enjoying some tunes and sipping a nice tart drink. Something fancy, you know? I feel like piano music deserves a little fance." She takes another bite of the crispy little wafer cookie.

"Nina makes me cry. In a good way, you know. Music does that. I think it's a lot less likely to lie to you than people." She gestures with her candy stick. "I guess it does make it more interesting digging out all the secrets when a place is built to hide things." She glances around the shop, then out the paned shop window, toward the walkway outside. "That's what we do here, isn't it? Hide the ugly truths and make everything else magical?"

Jack gives Arrow a wink as delight enters her pantheon of expressions. He pops a second one up pinching it with his lips in a practiced motion setting the pack with the remaining to aside on the top shelf under the till. He mumbles around the bite trying to cover his mouth to savor every crumb as she talks about the building hiding things. "It's enrichment." They're bird treats now dammit!

"Take a lunch hour Thursday. We do a whole women of blues. I maaaay ask Arte what her familiarity is with it, give her time to prep. I think it would sound really badass on a couple pianos, get one to cover the strings and low brass as accompaniment. I think man people would like this." Lighting up he animates, "You know what I would love to do and I do not know if we have one, but I want to pull a Westworld where they played Metallica on player piano but now like biiiiig damn pipe organ like Lurch from Addams Family." This i s a damn near childlike excitement. How much sugar is in one kit-kat?

"Oh, man," Arrow says. "That would be so cool. Westworld and Bridgerton have the best instrumental cover soundtracks." She doesn't do much of a job being cool through the mention of that kind of music done without singing. Classical touch on a badass song seems to be something she's a yes on. "Can you rent a pipe organ?"

"Just blow the lid off the Boo'ed Walk with one." She gestures with her Kit-Kat like she's directing an orchestra. Or trying to wingardium someone's leviosa.

Jack strokes his jawline thoughtfully and says "I don't knooooow?? But we might be able to pitch the idea and see what planning does with it? Be interesting . Also I want a whole haunted castle. Castle island has a castle Yarble has a castle because no one tells Yarble no. Maybe I can get him to make us haunted castle so we can have spooky dinner and crazy pipe organ."

There's a long pause before he realizes this may be a suggestion that also if taken seriously could change his ability to sleep in. "Please tell me to keep maybe my beak shut. I think we can do this on the late lunch. Is a good crowd but also people I think like when they recognize some things in a new form. I think you are a genius." His finger lightly reaches to boop her nose before taking another kit-kat passing her the last one that doesn't pop up because it's the last one left in the wrapper there.

Arrow's thinking really hard about all that. It's easy to tell because there's a little furrow between her eyebrows, dark eyebrows at odds with the platinum of the rest of her hair. "Well. Yes. If they played it early, it might carry some distance, but probably not to the Crescent area." Right? She knows little to nothing about organs except that they're loud, but surely they wouldn't carry.

"Ok, so maybe we start with smaller suggestions." She looks over. "Like a goblin themed scavenger hunt."

She wrinkles her nose when it's booped. "I feel like I should check my pockets, Jack." She reaches over to crinkle the last Kit-Kat bar out of the wrapper, saluting him with it with a quick motion of her hand. "Or dueling pianos. Simpler place to start. Less planning, more chill. I don't have to climb anything."

Jack turns a grin to Arrow, "I like this plan. I do think big gothic castle could be cool so long as they don't try to make me be a bat. They are cute but they get thrown around by the wind and if there's only like a couple of you it is like the sad postcard." He grins as her nose wrinkles with a fondness.

"Always check your pockets. Okay we start with some Amy Winehouse inspired blues afternoon then ease into scaling castle walls with new ideas. This is a deal? Let me know before the set so I don't make other promises." He is a little allergic to disappointing a crowd of one or more.

"I think you'd be more useful in a suit doing the musical ambiance than a bat on the scenery," Arrow says. "Don't you?" She grins at that, even though he's clearly joking. "Plus they're upside down all the time. I don't know about that, even if they are cute. I'd totally keep one as a pet, but it stresses them out way too much. Be free, little flying rodents. Eat all the bugs."

"Yes, Amy Winehouse." She nods once. "And the adventure later. Maybe I supervise adventure with binoculars and a walkie talkie. I feel very home base-y." She looks to Jack and says, "So long as I have advance notice, I can usually be at things. There are other shop gremlins to take over when I actually wanna go to something, but don't tell anybody that." Then they might start expecting her to show up.

Jack leans and rests a hand on her arm lightly swaning over the compliment. "Yooooou have clearly met me. Yes. Thank you for that." The flattery and not calling him an old bat. Sitting back up Jack considers, "What we should get you is- just give this a moment- we get a palanquin, but on wheels so we can move it from place to place on the Boo'edwalk, but we make it look like haunted ass 1800's fortune telling machine." He adds, "but also little black opera glasses and a cup holder." convenience is key.

When told not to tell anyone he makes as if to lock his lips and hand her the key, though everyone knows he'll start yapping anyway. That secret is reserved though. "I will plan on this Thursday one unless you tell me hey move this."

"I've never been in a palanquin before." Arrow thinks on this and it doesn't take her long to decide, "I think that would be cool. Maybe just a golf cart with sides. And decorations, that feels mandatory. Little bats, I think." In keeping with the Boo'ed Walk theme, of course. "Even better if it's a caravan style something or other with lanterns on it." Opera glasses! Her eyes light up. She really is just a shiny stuff lover in the goth vein.

"Excellent. Good." She nods at the lip locking motion, key thusly thrown into the imaginary swamps of no tellin'. "Thursday. I'll see you for Winehouse on Thursday, Jack." She holds up a hand, then turns to the register to scoop something out of a little jar on the other side of it. She holds up a little translucent yellow stone set into an eight inch silver chain with beads. "Take this." She says, handing over the little citrine pendulum. "For emotional cleansing and abundance. Which could mean cash, or lots of snacks, you never know."

Jack reaches out for the odd charm not knowing now how oddly useful it will be to him later. An eyebrow arches examining it closely. For this he reaches inside his pocket an pulls out his sunglass lens cleaning cloth a very fancy cloth of various purpose (now) to wrap the pendulum in.

A flicker of a smile he asks with a statement, "My indecision is showing." It is carefully pocketed. "Thank you for telling me what happened so we can prevent that from being future issues." But he agrees with some aplomb, "Thursday, fantastic. And I will bother the props and robbers crew with these excellent ideas. Text me if you get any good tea," the other other kind, "I need, unfortunately, to still find my coat. Until the next exciting thing is to happen." Because he will return for that.

He pushes in his stool and heads out waiting for the door to close before being a bird in the following two steps and taking off to go back to his belongings.