The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (8/17)

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph was... here today. Feeling a bit headachey maybe, which might explain the bottle of Tylenol out by the register and the neverending mug of hot tea she kept at hand.

(Not an actual neverending mug of hot tea, sadly. She did have to keep getting up and making more tea to put in it.)

Anyway, she'd be happy to help you if you needed her to, she just might not be as animated as usual doing it. Honestly, how she'd managed to beat everyone else in the lava workshop thing was beyond her. Maybe she'd gone into some kind of fugue state?

[OOC: Method RP? Just a bit. I only let her have the headache, not the rest of my germs. Open, but I will be drifting in and out of sleep all day, sorry.]

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[pocketpretzels]

At some point in the afternoon, Watts stepped out from the museum to visit Steph.

“Afternoon, Steph,” he greeted, hat going to its usual tentacle.

[drumsticksandd20s]

Headache or not, well... don't mind Steph pretty much barrelling towards you, Watts.

"Llewellyn!" She didn't actually charge all the way in for a tacklehug, and stopped short within arm's length, but for a second it looked like she might.

[pocketpretzels]

There were only a few people Watts was comfortable with that level of physical affection from, and Steph…

Steph was one of those people.

He closed the rest of the distance between them, pulling her into a hug.

“It’s good to see you.”

[drumsticksandd20s]

Steph froze up for just a second, admittedly, since she hadn't actually been expecting the hug.

Just for a second, and then she hugged him back hard.

"Don't fucking do that again," she said with a laugh that was a little bit shaky.

[pocketpretzels]

“I have- both bad and good news on that front,” Watts informed her solemnly.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Of course." Steph sighed. "Start with the bad news?"

[pocketpretzels]

“I will in fact be ‘doing that again’ in the sense that I will be re-entering the house that held me captive,” Watts told her. “The good news being that it has pledged to do that no longer, now that it has a chance to be a proper home.”

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Yeah, I had a feeling. Heard that one from the squirrels." Steph shook her head ruefully, but if anything her expression was perplexed, not disapproving. "Like I said on the radio, it's weird, but not the weirdest thing that's ever happened around here. I mean, are you sure you're going to be okay with that?"

Blink.

"Wait. The house promised not to kidnap people any more?"

That might be up there on the weirdest-things-said list.

[pocketpretzels]

Watts nodded. "It turns out it is, in fact, a sentient being in its own right," he told her. "It had been using the fears of those it had trapped to sustain itself, but we were able to convince it that there was another option, that it could exist without needing to hurt anyone else."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"No, you know, that actually tracks," Steph admitted. "I guess I'm just... impressed, actually, that you'd be cool with staying there after going through all that shit."

You know, as opposed to her, who ran away from Arcadia Bay, never looked back, and just kept going.

[pocketpretzels]

"It- it has feelings, has fears as well," Watts said. "That is- what prompted it to try and communicate with me. When it realised that what I was most afraid of was the very thing it feared as well."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"You know, I say it makes sense, but at the same time that's one of the wildest fucking things I've ever heard," Steph admitted, rubbing at the bridge of her nose.

[pocketpretzels]

"It is a lot to wrap one's mind around, I will admit," Watts said.

[drumsticksandd20s]

"At least around here that's the kind of thing you get used to with practice," Steph replied, shrugging one shoulder. "And I am really glad you're okay. Having friends go missing isn't the kind of thing you get used to with practice."

[pocketpretzels]

"I assure you that was not my intention," Watts told her. "I only meant to find the missing, not become one of them."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"You're a detective, it's what you do," Steph replied with no small amount of affection. "Uh... try and find missing people, I mean, not end up one. How did it end up getting you, too?"

[pocketpretzels]

"That has happened to me twice, now, which is twice too often for my liking," Watts admitted. "This time- I was walking by where the House was situated at the time- in the woods near the onsen. Something caught my eye, a flicker of movement, and- naturally, I had to investigate. I stepped inside, and the moment I did the door shut behind me and would not open again no matter how hard I tried."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"There's a time and a place to be an overachiever," Steph said with a mock scowl. "Being an abductee is not one of them. Though I guess 'be careful about houses that eat people' isn't high on anyone's priority list most of the time."

That could change around here now, huh?

[pocketpretzels]

"It certainly was not on my radar," Watts agreed. "Though it has agreed to no more of that. Trapping people, that is. In fact, if you tried to enter right now, the door would not even open."

[drumsticksandd20s]

"Oh, well, that's nice of it," Steph said, ignoring the vague sproing noise she could swear her brain made as it processed the idea that the house agreed to stop kidnapping people. "Will it let you in, though?"

[pocketpretzels]

“Steven and Marc as well,” Watts said with a nod. “We are hoping to move in fairly soon, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Which- is part of what brings me here, as a matter of fact.”