2025-03-16 - Meeting Camilla

Trace's sister arrived on Saturday and was staying at the resort. He had gone out to meet her with Enzo and they'd taken her out for her first day in the park. Today, she was coming over to see Trace's place and meet whoever happened to be home. It's early afternoon when he returns from the ferry with Camilla in tow.

Trace is wearing a pair of faded jeans, some black suede Oxfords, and a black Henley. His sister is dressed in a dark red off-the-shoulder short-sleeved blouse with a pair of black jeans and heels that still leave her some 9 inches shorter than her brother. He opens the door for her and lets her in. She has a shopping bag draped over one arm and a pair of shades perched on top of her head.

"Oh!" Camilla says as they walk in, "It's so cute! I love it. It feels very homey, comfortable, like people actually live here instead of being a museum."

Gabe happens to be home! They're cozy in one of their usual brightly hued, loudly patterned sweaters. Color-blocked most likely with a mix of stripes and polka dots. Very art-forward NYC kid kind of vibe. Black skinny jeans and black socks round out the rest of the outfit since they're lounging off work and have no place better to be.

"If only this was a museum. Then we could charge per entry." Gabriel's humor can be described as deadpan at best but there's warmth in their blue eyes, especially for a family member of Trace's. "Hi. I'm Gabe." A soft smile. "You must be Camilla?"

Camilla laughs and asks, "Do you have that many people coming and going through here? If so, then you should probably put one of those little glass boxes by the door for donations." She makes her way into the room and she smiles brightly. "Hi Gabe! I am Camilla. And I've come to invade your space, at least for a little while, or until you kick me out, if you don't mind. I just wanted to see where my brother is living these days."

Trace makes his way inside and kicks off his shoes inside the door before wandering further into the apartment. "You want a drink?" he asks Camilla and then Gabe as well. "I'm buying." By which he means he's going to go get them out of the fridge.

"Sorta? But...we frown upon charging our own boyfriends for admission right? That's considered rude?" A sharp smirk cuts a line across Gabe's face as they've clearly amused themself with their own joke there. "I like the donation box idea. Trace, let's order one on Amazon." Because now he's being roped into this too. "You're free to stay forever, obviously. I don't have any siblings so I welcome everyone else's. He's also done a way better job at decorating his room than I did. I didn't even bother to paint the walls."

Trace's question gets a nod as Gabe plops down into a corner of the couch. "Yes please."

"Sure, we can put it right next to my picker wheel and the spirit board that I got from King," Trace says with a chuckle at them getting a donation box from Amazon. He comes back out of the kitchen with a few cans of soda, letting Gabe and Camilla pick their poison and he just takes whichever one is left once the other two have theirs. "I got three of them," Trace chuckles. "But this one's my favorite." He slings an arm around Camilla's shoulders and gives her a little squeeze before wandering over to the couch and collapsing into the opposite corner.

Camilla looks around at the photographs of Fin's on the walls, taking them in for a moment and then she takes off her own shoes and wanders over to curl up in the middle of the couch, turning to face Gabriel more fully. "Forever!" She laughs, "I don't know, Trace. The likelihood of my running away to join the circus just keeps getting higher." Then she says to Gabe, "Well you can consider yourself my honorary sibling. I am a fantastic little sister." If she does say so herself.

"Isn't it cursed?" Gabe vaguely remembers something being thrown around or breaking or generally being unpleasant in regards to the spirit board. Once the sodas are placed on the table, they lean forward to snag one up as their opposite hand tucks into their blonde locks to keep their bangs from spilling into their face. "Huge family. Which one's the youngest?" They look between the two of them, expecting the answer to be one or the other for some reason. Cracking open the soda, they take a long sip while watching Camilla peruse the apartment.

Their head tips to the side, hair flopping over at the same time, when she joins them on the couch. "Really? What are you qualifications? I just want to make an informed decision before accepting." Their lips twitch into a smile at the tease.

"No, there was just some kind of angry spirit that showed up. We think. Maybe," Trace says with a shake of his head. Look, he couldn't see anything really and still doesn't know if there was something there versus just someone with powers messing around and breaking lightbulbs. But that's neither here nor there. "Anyway, the board isn't cursed. It's just a board." He nods toward Camilla and says, "She is. I'm the second youngest." Of the four, they both are. "Leo's the second oldest, and Stefano's the eldest."

She laughs and then says, "Oh man, I didn't know this was going to be an interview or I would have brought my resume!" Camilla straightens her back and neatly holds her can of soda in her lap. "I am fantastic at keeping secrets. I give really good hugs. I always remember your birthday. I will personally bite the kneecaps of anyone who needs it on your behalf. I am a very happy and cheerful drunk. And I am willing to do crimes on your behalf if they aid in an important investigation." She looks over at Trace and says, "Oh, and I can tell you all kinds of stories about Trace from when we were little."

Trace smirks just a little bit and says, "My sister," lofting his can in her direction and then taking a swig from it.

"Yeah that's like the first line out of every horror movie..." Gabe grumbles into their can of soda. "Gonna just say maybe leave it in the baaaack back back of your closet." They know they'd be the first to get GOT in any sort of cursed scenario. They move onto the next topic, eyes bouncing back to Camilla once she's revealed to be the baby. "I see. The two youngest are closest kind of deal. Are Leo and Stefano tight too? There's a divide right between the middle?"

Their smirk draws up into a crooked smile, fully enjoying how Camilla rolls with it. "Oh good, you're playing along." Gabriel nods along with each point, head tipping left and right as they are considered. "Mhm. Mhm. Oooh." Camilla just got to doing crimes. "Alright, accepted. Does this make me an Accardi or you a Gardner?" And then the BONUS of Trace stories. They splat a hand against the wall with a thump right next to them. "Hold the phone. Way to bury the lede! Start there. We've wasted too much time already."

They don't even look to Trace to make sure this is okay. Stories are HAPPENING.

Trace laughs and says, "Well, if it's any consolation, it's in its bag in the closet and I haven't touched it. I didn't even use mine. We used King's at Lucky's." So his remains in its original packaging. "Technically Leo and I are the closest in age," Trace says. "Stefano was first, then Leo's four years younger than him, I'm two years younger than Leo, and Camilla's four years younger than me. I'd say that they're closer to each other than they are to us, yeah. Though Leo's kind of a fuckup and Stefano's like the dutiful eldest son, so even they clash from time to time." He shrugs his shoulders slightly.

Camilla is definitely playing along. She is always game for a game. But then Gabriel poses an important question and she considers. "Well if you're an Accardi that means you get a two-fer because you get a sister and a brother. But you already have Trace as a roommate so I don't know if that's like double dipping? But if I'm a Gardner that means I can be Camilla Gardner which admittedly is a pretty cool name since a Camilla is a flower and Gardner is a great last name to go with it." She is musing over this for a moment or two when Gable smacks the wall and she bursts out laughing.

Trace says, "Hey, wait a minute.." though he's also laughing. "Do I get a say in this?"

Camilla says firmly, "No."

"It is, actually, thank you." Gabe nods appreciatively at the spirit board being tucked far away for now. There's another sip, a pause as blue eyes narrow to take in the names and their respective dates and then do all the long division. "What a word problem that one is..." they murmur as they actually count on their fingers. "No, I got it. Damn. So all that's to say that yes you're definitely each other's favorite so nyah." The nyah is reserved for the other siblings who are not in the room with them of course.

They purse their lips in gentle thought as Camilla offers up which side would mean what, eventually shaking their head. "Mmm double dipping is basically cheating and that's not fun so..." A clever look washes over their face. "Welcome to the family. Yeah you can't mess with that kind of logic. It's like Poison Ivy's alter alter ego. But just so you're in the loop-- we're from New York and we think we're better than everyone. Continue." There's a tiny scrunch of their nose, denoting that's mostly a joke too.

As for Trace's say in this--

"No," Gabe adds just as firmly after Camilla does. "If you don't like it you can put a comment in the Star Jar and I promise to read it...never."

Trace laughs a little at that and says, "Yeah, basically. We're definitely the closest of all our siblings." Not that he has any animosity to his older siblings, they just aren't as close and have different lives. He settles comfortably, stretching out his legs and crossing one ankle over the other as he takes a sip from his drink. The near simultaneous no from both Camilla and Gabe over whether he gets a say about stories has him laughing a little bit and then shrugging his shoulders. He got himself into this, inviting her to come visit and meet everyone.

Camilla, on the other hand, seems absolutely delighted to have gained a new family and offers a hand to Gabe for a celebratory high-five. "Love it. Oooh, snooty New York Gardners. I can totally do that. I am amazing, after all." She shifts, bending one knee and tucking one foot up under her as she faces Gabe and says, "Okay so.. stories.. oh! Did he ever tell you about the time that he got his head stuck in the stair railing?"

Trace slumps into the couch. This is going to be a long couple of weeks.

Gabriel taps a high-five into Camilla's hand, equally as pleased at the turn of events today that granted them custody of a new sister. "You very much are," they agree when she says she's amazing. A fond look gets tossed Trace's way for being a good sport in all this, but Gabe intends to be relentless in their pursuit of knowledge. Their brows quirk up in bright interest. "Nooo, please share." Blue eyes flick over to Trace just in time to see him slump. That actually gets a tiny closed-mouth grin.

"Okay so," Camilla starts. "Our folks were fighting.. which.. you know, they do. There was a lot of shouting in Italian. They always fight in Italian. I'm convinced it's because it sounds more dramatic. Anyway! We were upstairs and couldn't sleep because of the aforementioned shouting, which we could understand. So it totally wasn't so we didn't know what was going on." She pauses a moment for breath and then says, "So we snuck downstairs and we were about halfway down the staircase, but couldn't really see what was going on in the other room. So I put my head through the bars to peek. Then Trace put HIS head through the bars to peek. And we're there, crouched on the stairs, totally craning to try and watch what was going on.. it was like the Accardi family version of an Italian Telenovela or something.."

Trace catches the look from Gabe and he just smiles, helplessly, and shrugs his shoulders. This is his life. He has accepted his fate. He is going to be a good sport about it as his sister divulges whatever embarrassing stories she digs up about him.

Gabriel draws up their knees to wrap an arm around them, balling up into the corner as they listen to the story. They prop their chin up on a knee as the smirk on their face grows with every sentence. They nod quickly, totally getting the snooping part of wanting to hear what parents are yelling about. Camilla putting her head through the bars gets an upwards flick of brows. They can see where this is going. Gabe looks over to Trace again as if trying to figure out just how big his head actually is. "Keep going," they murmur excitedly.

Camilla clocks Gabe looking at her and then Trace and laughs, "He's four years older than me! His head was bigger, anyway, just bigger enough that when they heard a creak on the stairs and stopped arguing, I pulled my head back and ran up the stairs." She then grins and says, "But Trace got stuck.. and he couldn't get out. And so my father had to climb up the stairs behind him and like, help tilt his head while my mom pushed him back through." She claps a hand over her mouth, giggling. "Then he got sent to bed with a stern warning about snooping. It did get them to stop fighting though!"

"Sure, right, let's blame it on the age," Gabriel snorts out softly. There's such a pleased expression on their face now. They're loving every second of this. By the end, they have to roll their lips into a thin crease to keep from laughing outright. For Trace's sake. Or respect. Something like that. "He got caught big-headed." Okay now there's a laugh, breathy and light. "Oh my god. I mean, I had hoped that a tub of butter or grease would be involved but this is pretty great just as it is. Thank you for sharing that." They then look over at their roommate. "And thank you for snooping all those years ago to make my day right now."

Trace smirks and says, "My head wasn't THAT big, it just you know.. I couldn't figure out the angle to pull it back through the way I got in." He sighs, dramatically, while Camilla continues to giggle. "And she just left me behind. Just bailed on out and ran. Rude."

Camilla continues to giggle and then says to Gabe, "No, no butter or grease. It was still funny though." She then says, "He got me back later though. He pushed me out a window once."

Trace groans and says quickly to Gabe, "It was a first floor window. And I did not push her through it."

"You say that but I won't quite believe you until receipts are shown?" It sounds like a question but it's definitely a request. Someone better make with the baby pics, stat. Gabe looks over at Camilla and offers a sympathetic nod. "I'd do the same thing. Cut and run. Sorry Trace but there's just some things you gotta do solo. Like get in trouble for snooping."

And then the kicker. Gabriel's jaw DROPS. Full shock. "Trace Middle Name Accardi! What the hell!"

Camilla is very quick to offer up, "Emiliano!" Now Gabe also has his middle name. Which begs the question -- why do all his siblings have Italian names and yet his got shoved to the middle name? Meanwhile she's fiddling through her phone to try to see if she can find her online picture storage and pics of them when they were little.

"She was bouncing a ball down the stairs and didn't realize the window at the bottom was open. It went through. And instead of going outside to pick it up like a normal person she decided to try hanging half through the window to grab it and got stuck," Trace says as he takes another sip from his can of Coke. "And so.. I tried to pull her back in, but she was mostly on the other side already and I couldn't get back in so SHE pushed off of ME and just finished going all the way through. Into the flower bed under it."

"Trace Emiliano Accardi! What the hell!" Gabe immediately course corrects when Camilla gives up his middle name like the angel she is. Yeah no, totally sus why Trace has the one White Man name out of the bunch. "Your excuse better be that you were trying out for a junior production of Goodfellas at your school."

They'll wait for the full answer, which also gets a broad smirk of appreciation. "I'm really feeling left out on this whole childhood shenanigans thing right now but at least I didn't get my head stuck in the stairs or fall out of a window. You did try to help, so, I guess you should get some credit." There. Minor consolation to Trace. Gabe gulps back a few swigs from their soda, then places it on the coffee table to stretch out a leg that's fallen asleep. They roll their ankle around a bit to help.

"So you're just here to hang and spread embarrassing stories or is there a specific reason for the visit?" they ask Camilla.

Camilla laughs when Gabriel busts out the middle name on Trace but she's still digging through her phone to finally come up with a picture of the pair of them where Camilla is about four and Trace is about eight and they are all cherubic smiles and angelic little faces, both in the branches of a tree at what looks to be a campground of some sort. There are tents and campers in the distance behind them. She holds it out for Gabe to see that at that age, Trace did indeed, have a bigger head.

"Should we tell Camilla your embarrassing stories?" Trace asks, raising both brows, perhaps referring to that whole floating through the ceiling incident that he swore never to tell about (and hasn't). But he might just make an exception at this point.

Camilla says, "I just wanted to come out and visit Trace. Go to the park. Meet his roommates. Meet his boyfriend, especially after all the clandestine shenanigans." She smirks just a little bit. "And it's my Spring Break. So I'm taking a little break before I dive back into the home stretch before graduating before going to law school." She then pauses, "Unless I change my mind and decide to run away to the circus." She flashes a grin over her shoulder at Trace then.

Gabriel leans in a bit to awwwwww at the phone, one slender finger point right at his sweet baby angel head. "Knew it." Like, yes, that's the point. But for some reason it's amusing them to no end that Respectable Trace done caught his wee head caught in railing. "But you both look super cute. And happy. And well-adjusted given all the window trauma."

Trace's mention of Gabe's embarrassing story gets a sharp look from the blonde-- very try me even though there's still amusement on their face. "Don't make me middle name you again. I'll do it." Trace has plenty of cards in his pocket with that one, good job him.

"Ah right, yes, the boyfriend. Was it that clandestine?" Gabe probably(?) knows some of the story, though the level of detail is questionable. "Law school. Very chic. You'll be making more than all of us so I suggest to keep at it. Though if this is what you call the circus, it's not half bad. Just prepare for Theater Camp vibes as a living."

"That was pre-window-trauma.. I was like.. twelve when that happened," Camilla says. "I was still innocent and un-betrayed," she adds only a little bit dramatically. She tucks her phone away then and says, "Sortof. I totally snuck around behind Trace's back and got his number and might have been texting him for like.. a while now.." She glances over her shoulder at her brother and flashes him one of those faux-innocent smiles. "Anyway, yeah. The whole family is in law. But I want to go into environmental law. But the more I hang out here, the more I'm considering running away like Trace. The sheer number of hot people here is bananas."

Trace grins at that sharp look from Gabriel and laughs when Gabe threatens to middle-name him a second time. "You know, I asked them once why Emiliano wasn't my FIRST name, since it's my grandfather's name and all. Because Stefano, Leonardo, Trace... Camilla. Turns out it was supposed to be, but my unncle named his son Emiliano after my grandfather two months before I was born and it pissed my father off, because they couldn't have TWO Emiliano Accardis, so they named me after my mom's father instead. But his name was Tracey and they didn't like the Y on the end. So they cut it off." He then says, "But nobody even calls Emiliano by his first name. They call him Monello." He shrugs his shoulders.

"Ahhh well that explains it," Gabe nods along as they continue to study the picture for another moment before Camilla puts it away. What they're not expecting is how she flat out reveals she got Enzo's number anyway. "Oh shit, really?" A glance to Trace, then back to Camilla. "So you're the Bond Villain of the family? I love this. Did you find out any good dirt?" There's a click of their tongue when it turns out the whole family's in law. "Okay I changed my mind. Too much of the same thing is meant to be disrupted. You should definitely run away." It's hard to tell if Trace wants this for her as well but Gabriel will just be the enabler here. Her mention of hot people gets a waggle of their brows. "Tell me about it. I snagged one for myself too."

Trace's explanation of why he ended up with the White Man name gets a huff of a laugh, then a slightly guiltier face. "Maybe this reveals that I shouldn't be a parent but it would have been endlessly entertaining to have two Emilianos and then have them confused forever on who you're talking to. Also, rude to your Grandpa that they butchered his name? Though...if you squint you can make Trace sound Italian. Trah-chay."

Camilla already confessed her sins to Trace the day before, so that cat's well out of the bag now. "I might.. have stolen his phone when we were both drunk at Christmas and drunk texted him from it.. and then took the number and put it in my own phone." She smiles sweetly. "I am totally the bond villain. I was not kidding when I said I'm willing to do crimes." She then glances to Trace when Gabe asks if she got any good dirt. "Mostly figured out he was interested in Trace before Trace did," she admits with a little laugh. "And that he's super tolerant of being randomly drunk texted." But when Gabe says that they snagged a hot one for themselves she makes grabby hands toward them and says, "Pics?"

"I don't think I would have minded it," Trace admits. "But yeah, it was a whole dramatic thing at the time. Mostly it's just funny now. Oh, Grandpa Tracey doesn't care. He likes it. He got called Trace a lot as a nickname so.. it's all the same to him."

"Might," Gabe barks out a laugh, covering half of it with the back of their hand as they shake their head. "Yeah I see that. You fucking meant it." The crimes part. "This is so good." Another apologetic look goes Trace's way but Gabriel's being real selfish here with getting the dirt from his sister. "You did? That's some rom-com level meddling right there. Trace--" they turn back towards him, "your life is so goddamn cute." They're then met with the grabby hands, smiling in return and leaning sideways to tug out their phone from their pocket. A little tap to the screen lights it up to show the lock picture: Jett looking all gothic-skater-punk at the skateboard park, making a half heart at the camera with his hand by his face.

"Yeah no, that's a great story to tell the grandkids. Of which now all need to be named Emiliano."

"This is Em, and Emi, and Emil, and Emili, and Emilia, and Lia, and ..." Trace snickers just a little bit at the thought of it. "The likelihood of my giving them any grandkids is real, real low. So I think we're safe from a cast of Emilianos." He takes another swig from his soda and shakes his head as Camilla regales Gabe with the story of her crimes. "Neither of them told me they'd been talking til yesterday," he points out. But if he was upset, it's not evident, or he's over it. Either way, he seems more amused than anything else.

Camilla says, "He was mooooping around because he was getting all kinds of mixed signals and so I was like.. I gotta find out what's going on." Then Gabe is getting out the picture of Jett and she's eagerly leaning in to take a look, her eyes going wide. "Oh my god. He is the cutest. Goth hottie! Love it."

"Yes. Yes. Yeah. Definitely." Gabe's eating it all up, slowly losing it to a bout of low chuckles that rattle their narrow shoulders. "Grandkids can be cats, too. Or dogs. Or a pack of rabbits. Either way, the name needs to live on. Shit. Maybe I should just carry it on for you. Pass the torch, coach, I'm ready." The luminosity of their grin reveals it's a joke but it's amusing nonetheless. They nod a little at the late texting reveal. "Good. The long con executed perfectly. Plus, like, don't act like you wouldn't do the same if given the chance."

The mixed signals part gets an empathetic grimace. "Oh ew yeah okay good job interfering. Mixed signals are the worst." A slightly more arrogant look washes over their face when Camilla gushes. "Though can't say I had the same problems. We went from 0 to 60 in one date. Trace you should have just asked me for advice." Which would have been TERRIBLE at the time given that Gabriel had been scowling at everyone on the planet back then.

"See?" Camilla says, gesturing toward Gabe and then looking at Trace. "It was a moral imperative. And I was drunk. And I love a good mystery. Anyway, they're super gross and cute now. So it all worked out. And Enzo's totally going to come to our next family holiday and bring a karaoke machine. It's going to be amazing." She is clearly delighting in this.

She laughs when Gabe says that they went from 0 to 60 in one date. "Nice. I mean, sometimes, when you know you know! Maybe I'll meet someone while I'm here and then have a tragic separation when I have to go back home, and then we'll pine for each other until I graduate, then I'll come back for the summer and never end up going to law school and join the park, too." She has this all planned out.

Trace chuckles when Gabe says that he should have asked them for advice. "I was still getting to know you then and we hadn't really bonded yet for me to just kind of dump all my drama on you. Fin was still helping me do recon at the time and trying to get dirt," Trace admits with a little bit of a laugh. "I just didn't know my sister had joined the sleuthing team at the time. Anyway it all worked out."

"There you go. Case closed, mystery solved. Great job Kid Detective." Gabe's still living for this vicariously as they smile at Camilla. "I take it back again. You're too smart to throw away a career in law. Imagine all the sleuthing you'd get paid to do." Her whole planned out love story has them tipping their head, hair flopping over in the opposite direction now. "Aw. I love that for you. Or you come back as a lawyer and defend them in some way and you have a dramatic courtroom kiss as the lights fade."

Yep. They want this for her.

"Oh. You bond with people before dumping trauma on them? Hmm. Good to know." Said thoughtfully but not without humor back at him. "What you gave everyone, Trace, was the opportunity to live out their matchmaking dreams. I don't know that I have any but I love hearing about it. Gossip's worth its weight in gold. So next time something juicy's going on, hit me up. I'll bring popcorn."

Camilla laughs and says, "Oh, dramatic courtroom kiss. Scandalous and romantic. I love it." She then looks over to Trace and says, "I like this roommate situation. When I runaway to join the circus I'm going to come live on your couch. Maybe. I guess I need to meet Fin first and see if I can charm her into letting me sleep on the couch, too."

Trace just smiles and says, "I have created a monster." But then he laughs and tells Gabe, "Well I'm glad everyone enjoyed the whole sneaking around part of the program. Not that.. that part is over for me but at least the pre-matchmaking part is." But when Gabe says to clue them in when something juicy is going on, he glances between Camilla and Gabe and says, "I suppose I should tell you about Enzo's dad..."