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Hi, Chaboy, this is Norman - we spoke on the network a while back after I took over the soup kitchen. I hope you're well! Sorry it took me so long to finally reach out to you about your invitation, but - well, you know how things are around here. My point is: would you care for honoring that dinner invitation sometime before the fog rolls in?

aint no thing
see ya soon kiddo

[He promptly hauls himself up from wherever he was lounging and heads to the kitchen, gathering materials from one cabinet or another. It won't take her long from Hill House, and he can at least get it looking nice as he listens for the door.]

[Taako is never going to correct this man. It's so funny. He's keeping this text forever.]

heeeeey my man
sounds like a date im in
ive got nothin as long as no one thinks of a new way to piss off foggie but we probs have a couple days
lemme know when ur schedule allows for lil ol me ;)

I can always tell when people have been here for a long time by how casual they get about the start of the month ...

Would Tuesday at 7 be alright?

[And sure enough, there she is soon enough.

...With about the saddest knock anyone has ever heard, yeesh. Her mood is definitely not one that's being exaggerated is it.

Opening the door will show that she's at least trying not to look miserable, but she's not doing the best job of it either unfortunately.]

HAH
i mean what are we gonna do about it other than curse foggie like
might as well just not be disappointed when plans fall through
anyway
yeah sounds fine see ya then buddy boy

[Oh buddy. Taako will open it with little fanfare, look at her, and then just sigh and shake his head.]

Aw, buddy, now that won't-- that won't do.

[And without asking, he will just reach down, pick her up, and put her on his back like a piggyback ride. Snakey back? Who knows or cares. He'll take her into the kitchen though, either way.]

You wanna talk about it or you wanna eat cookie dough until you puke?

Norman shows up promptly at the appointed time, a pair of wine gift bags hanging off his arm. He didn't get completely dressed up, but he's in his good pair of black jeans and a long-sleeved blue dress shirt, the top button undone and the sleeves rolled up past his elbows. He approaches the farm alert but smiling, looking to see if 'Chaboy' might be working somewhere in the yard or if he's inside the house.

[And Reira, limply enough, will just cling along for the ride with a sniffle.]

...C'n I do both without the puking..? [She says after a moment, staring at the ground as best she can.] ...I don't wanna puke...

...

...I don't really wanna talk either but things feel better after that happens so...

[So, lesser of two evils probably.]

Aaaw, he's cute. If only the same could be said for his dinner date. Taako meanwhile is outside when he approaches, tending to what looks like a tomato plant out around the front of the farmhouse. He's in a yellow t-shirt knotted at the bottom that says 'NO BUMMERS' across the front in pink text and a large straw sunhat. And being a naga, he's since long abandoned trying to wear anything past where the scales take over, the pale blue iridescent length of him laying lazily along the ground and stretching to a patio door off the side. When Norman approaches, one of his long, scaled ears perks up, and he turns with a lazy grin as he rests on part of his tail as if sitting on a bench.

"Heeeeey, my guy, glad you could make it. Hope it wasn't too far for ya."

Thankfully, being best friends with Fiddleford has made Norman immune to both the concepts of pantsless monsters and lack of fashion sense. There's something inherently whimsical about the sunhat, though, and it broadens his grin as he closes the distance between them.

"No, not at all. It was a nice walk, and I can always use the exercise." He holds out a hand for a handshake. "Good to meet you in person."

Ooh, that's a complicated one babe. Luckily for you, I'm a professional, so yeah, we can uhhh, we can make that happen.

[He'll lift her off him once they arrive and on to a stool. In front of her on the counter are all the materials necessary- bags of flour, sugar, chocolate chips, mixing bowls, measuring cups and spoons. There's even a baking sheet or two in case they actually decide to bake any, but like, he thinks he'll probably just eat it.]

You can start with the dry stuff in that big ol' bowl if ya want, or you can just dish, I'm not picky.

[Mutely, she's taking that bowl and grabbing some measuring cups. 'Just mix it', it is. Just gotta get to mixing!] Thanks, [the goblin says quietly, saying little else from there until most of the dry ingredients are together in a powdered mess.]

...everyone keeps acting...surprised... [she eventually says- perhaps out of nowhere, if Taako kept quiet himself.]

He saunters over to the edge of the fence, insomuch as someone without legs can saunter, but it's really a lot of unnecessary hip movements that he will do no matter what anyone says. "Good to see you too, my good dude. Front door's open, so, uhh, bring on in that little prezzie of yours and we can get aaaall set up."

He gestures to the door and moves himself through the side one to meet inside, a spacious farmhouse set with a decently sized dining table and living room. It's obvious this was once a barn from the sweeping ceilings, and there seem to be large metal hangars bolted to the wall in a few points... which don't make a lot of sense until Taako comes in and returns to the kitchen, at which point he takes a detour over one of them, and Norman can see they're obviously meant for holding some of his snake tail out of the way while he's working. There's a pot and a few pans on the stovetop, and he moves to wash a tomato he's brought inside before moving it to the cutting board.

"Soooo, what did you end up deciding on for the uhhh, for the ol' drink tonight? Got some mixers in the fridge or we can just, uh, just raw dog it, whatever's the thing."

[Taako? Quiet? Please. He'll keep chattering to himself, letting her know the measurements, but he isn't policing her. That's the good thing about cookies. It's just a lotta bullshit in a bowl. He's got the eggs and vanilla on his end when she pipes up though, and he leans back on the counter, idly stirring while he looks at her.]

At what, pumpkin?

....About the Fog. ....all the stuff outside of here, [she mutters, voice quiet.]

[He sighs, because... yeah. Yeah, that's. Yeah.]

Yeah, it's... kinda a big ol' booger, right? This place is bogus, it's right in front of you, how, how have you not seen that?

[He's not very good at the Big Feelings, but he will for her.]

Seems like you're takin' this a lot on you though.

[It is indeed. Reira pauses in what she's doing, shaking somewhat.]

...How can anyone just forget that much, that someone...

...She was always that mean..! It's not just about what always happens here..! But it's not even just some people who are surprised it was like that outside...everyone keeps...going, and going...

...as if she was never just...

Between Chaboy and Fiddleford, Norman is beginning to form the opinion that naga are, as a whole, very chill people. He likes the energy he's getting here, and smiles as they shake hands.

Moving inside, he marvels at the architecture, the exposed beams: even growing up in New Haven, they didn't have buildings like this, and he's instantly charmed. Any confusion at the hangers is replaced with a bright smile as Taako crawls over them.

"Your house is beautiful," he says, coming to meet him at the counter so that he can set the bottles down. "I've seen so many different kinds of architecture and design here, it's always such a nice surprise to see how people live compared to New York." The use of the phrase 'raw dog' in reference to alcohol throws him off a bit, and he clears his throat, trying not to be An Old Guy about it. "... I brought a red and a white wine, since I wasn't sure what we were having. The clerk at the store told me they were good vintages ... I had to take him at his word, I'm still learning what's good quality around here."

'Good vintages' is a modest and massive understatement: Taako will likely recognize that Norman's brought The Nicest Cab Sav And Riesling In Bavan, hands down.

[Yeah, okay, time to try and get through this. He puts down the bowl he's stirring as he rounds the counter, gently putting his arms over her shoulders so she can lean back against him if she wants.]

People like that, when you got a lotta power, you just... forget the small stuff. 'Mm not sayin' it's good, 'ss just how it is, but like... those people won't ever be really lookin' out for you. Everything's just too fuckin' big.

[It's how he felt about Merle and John, too. He was too big. Too much. At least when Taako has power he doesn't pretend to care about everyone who likes him, even if his actions say otherwise.]

She just keeps goin', because she has to. It's not kind. Never gonna be. And anyone who thinks that is a big idiot.

Nagas are the type of people whose personalities are bigger than their new bodies, which is a lot considering they're the penninsula's biggest monster by length. Also, people who appreciate good naps. In the meantime, he peers over as Norman speaks to actually look at the bottles, and his scaled eyebrows raise.

"Oh yeah, baby, I can work with this, dang. Now that's some fancy sips." He moves the bottle to his off hand and moves his other in a swirl; in a moment, a spectral hand appears behind him and lifts some slices of tomato off the cutting board, moving to place it on the pan. Meanwhile, Taako's flesh hand is mirroring it, though he isn't exactly looking. "Oh it's uhhh, it's chicken-- not the chickens here, they're like, fucking immortal, but still good shit. I think you could do either but uhh I am pre-tty sure I'm feelin' this red tonight."

....So then why are they surprised..?

[That's what she's stuck on, it seems.] ...They keep arguing about it. About how it's nothing they expected...about how it 'can't be'...

...If it was just...one person, or two people... ...but instead...

Because they don't want it, sweetie.

[It's hard to explain that some people haven't seen what they've seen. He's over two hundred and she's what, fifteen, and yet he knows she's seen as much as he has by this point. It's the problem of being impossibly old and improbably young all at once.]

Look, when... when you haven't like, gone through shit, you think you know how bad the world gets. And then something happens and you gotta realize that it's worse than you thought like, anybody could do? And they get surprised, and it sucks, because you're soooo past all that level 1 shit, right?

[Ugh. He's right, but she wishes he wasn't right all the same. If Reira wasn't busy mixing ingredients in a bowl, she'd plant her chin on the table in a hopeless slump immediately. Instead, fueled at least a little by frustration more than misery, she's able to bring herself into a pout- tilting her head up to look to Taako with a quiet frown that says yes, super past it, this is the WORST.]

It'd feel at least a little better if anyone thought about doing stuff instead of shouting at each other on the network...

[Fortunately by now, Taako probably knows that 'doing' doesn't mean something stupid, like joining a god. ...It just means, y'know. Doing something.

(Maybe with fact checking first though. That Pearl deal wasn't even supposed to be anything big, and look where that went.)]

[Okay, in his defense, the pearl was supposed to just be a pearl. There was no good reason to believe it was some kind of god blocking the world’s most important storm drain. He never admits he’s wrong normally, but this time he is confident that just happened to be the universe dunking on him specifically.

Regardless, he goes back to stirring the wet ingredients, making sure the vanilla and eggs are measured right.]

Yeeeeah, that’s the hard part about being better than them. You’re like, well this is dumb as hell, you guys could be like, thinkin’ of ways to make it better? And they’re not. But you, you’re here making cookies, which makes everything better automatically.

[He gives her a wink, trying to lighten the mood just a bit.]

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<DrOsborn> - backdated to Sept. 1st

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WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, TAAKO. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 420.87.169.02 * coolertwin has joined 420.87.169.02 <coolertwin> wait <coolertwin> waaaaait <coolertwin> waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait <coolertwin>** made ya look lol