firstofitskind | MHA #6, Sunday Evening

MHA #6, Sunday Evening

The last two days in the Kincaid-Price household had been, uh, interesting. First and most obviously, there was the appearance of some animal but not actually animal visitors. There had been Kestrel, of course, and then there'd been who had shown up claiming to belong to Verity:

"Jack."

"Your name is Jack."

"Yup"

"Jack the jackalope?"

"Yup."

The talking part of which wasn't even as startling as it might be for most. And that was because of the mice. Which led to the other really interesting thing: once they'd figured out that these animals- daemons- were in fact extensions of human souls, two schools of thought had immediately formed: those that believed the new arrivals needed to have names bestowed upon them so they could be properly worked into the canon, and those who believed that, as part of their gods, they were already covered, namewise.

That the daemons would likely disappear either tomorrow or in a few days, as is typical with Fandom, Did Not Matter, as it had been pointed out that They Have Always Been There, You Just Did Not Know It. Therefore, they would continue to exist once they've disappeared.

"For does NOT the Pilgrim Priestess search high and low for he God of Empty Rooms and Cold Regrets with no sign of him nor proof he still lives? Is not our entire life based around the faith of That Which We Feel But Can Not See?" remarked one of the acolytes early on in the discussion.

So that was the background noise as Liam (and Kestrel, who wasn't really much help per se but had Opinions) was in the kitchen, preparing some Ginataang Talong with some Deep Fried Cauliflower on the side. The eggplant had finished simmering and now it was just a matter of waiting for the deep fryer to finish as they waited for their guests.

[ooc: for thems that live here or are coming for dinner!]

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"Mahalo?" Verity asked, helping herself to eggplant, too. "Have you always lived in Hawaii?"

"You must've gone to school out here," Liam realized, also turning to look at Steve. Which meant this wouldn't be his first Maryland winter and thus he really should know when a goddamn jacket was necessary.

Danny shot him an amused look, and gestured for Steve to join in the sharing hour. His happy expression was possibly the positive reinforcement that Steve might need to do just that.

Normal things.

"I went to the Academy in Annapolis when I was 18, yeah," Steve said, definitely needing Danny's encouragement to share and kind of annoyed with himself that he did, "but my family's been on O'ahu since before Pearl Harbor. We're kamaʻāina," he said. "Local, but not native. After I graduated, I went where the Navy sent me, and didn't make it back to Hawai'i until my father died."

"Even non-native species can have deep roots in the soil," Verity murmured, thinking of Portland.

Or Michigan.

Stupid swamp bromeliads.

"I was born in DC," Liam offered, since Steve had done such a good job with the sharing. "Lived my whole life there, practically," all eight years of it! "Until I moved here, anyway."

Steve got a slightly wider grin for sharing before Danny turned his attention onto Verity. "Where'd you grow up then?"

"Danny's from New Jersey," Steve added teasingly. "You might not know because he never brings it up."

Verity snickered at that before answering Danny's question. "I grew up in Oregon, not far from Portland, but my dad's family lived in Michigan ever since they kipped over from England about five-ish generations ago. My dad and aunt both ended up moving to the West Coast."

"She made us stay a night there- in Michigan, I mean- during the drive back from Vegas after we got married last year," Liam said, making a face.

Really, it would have been fine except for the swamp bromeliads and the fact that it was a murder house.

Though them being there meant they'd been in the right place at the right time to save a kid, so in the larger scheme of things it hadn't been terrible.

Yeah, that sounded like a normal outing to Danny. Only maybe the feds are involved somehow.

"A Vegas wedding?" Danny had to ask with a grin once he was done giving Mr. Board of Hawaiian Tourism a look. Though it was mostly just Danny who got the wonders of Hawaii shoved at him. For reasons.

Because he didn't appreciate the wonders of Hawai'i! Enough!

And all of its apostrophes and vowels.

"Was Elvis there?" Steve asked.

"Married by one, in fact," Verity said, sharing a warm smile with Liam. "A chupacabra Elvis."

Liam beamed back at her.

"We got tired of waiting and it was the nearest place with no wait between applying for the license and actually being able to hold the ceremony," he said with a shrug to Danny.

Well, that and also her Uncle Al lived there and was able to set him up with identification that would pass even the strictest of checks in her world.

"Probably a better plan than the whole big wedding thing," Danny replied with a grin that only a little faint.

"I am the only one in the room with zero wedding experience here," Steve said, "unless you include zoning out and nodding supportively when Chin talked about reception food."

"That's what my family was trying to push," Verity sighed. "First of the generation to get married so it was a Big Deal. And it led to fighting and Liam and I were just like...what if we didn't? Let Alex and Shelby deal with that."

"Exactly," Liam nodded. "Her family wasn't thrilled when they found out, but," he shrugged, grinning ruefully. "They got over it."

Yeah, he wasn't mentioning how his family had reacted... because there wasn't a family to mention.

"Well, here's to making it work," Danny said, lifting his wine glass in a little toast.

Steve held his up, too. "Hoʻohiwahiwa," he said, grinning. "How long has it been?"

"It'll be a year two days after Christmas," Verity said, with another one of those happy looks at Liam. "Technically, we're still eligible for the Newlywed Game if it were still on."

Yeah, Liam was beaming back, unsurprisingly, except:

"The what?" he said, puzzled.

"The Newly Wed Game?" Danny asked. "Old TV show where you competed to see who knew their spouses better."

Danny and Steve would crush it.

Steve nodded, pulling up questions on his phone. "You know, stuff like 'what's their favorite junk food'--Danny's is peppermint patties that he hides in my freezer, 'who is the strangest member of their family you've met'--gonna go with your brother, sorry, and 'their most repeated word or phrase,' which is babe."

Totally normal things to know, okay.

"Okay, we might struggle on 'strangest member of the family you've met,'" Verity pondered. "You're kind of spoiled for choice. And you haven't met Grandma Alice."

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