Echo Bay, California, Friday Afternoon

[napking]

The portal dropped them off at the end of a long driveway leading up to an unnecessarily large mansion with a
large detached garage off to one side. A tall, pale blond ice prince of a male was waiting for them by the mailbox.

"Miss Finch," Alastair said with a slight inclination of his head. "Welcome to Echo Bay."

"Al's gotta adjust the wards to let you in," Raiden explained.

"It shouldn't take more than a moment," Alastair assured her. Sure, Jane had proven slightly complicated, but Jane was a god. Arden was just a garden variety human, right? "If I may?" he asked, and extended his hand in an invitation for Arden to grasp it.

"Hey, why is my car parked outside?" Raiden wanted to know.

(For that totally-not-a-sylph. NFB due to distance.)

Comments

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Totally! Just a normal human girl! Certainly not a god or anything like that!

"A pleasure to meet you, sir," she said, having a weird desire to curtsy at Alastair's old-fashioned courtesy. She elected to not do that and simply held her hand out. "Thank you so much for allowing me to visit. I know it's a lot of trust you're putting into me and I appreciate it."

[thecursedsons]

Alastair took her hand and... "Hmm."

This might take more than a second.

"Why is Bell's car parked outside?" Raiden wanted to know, and Gray gave a laugh that was, honestly, kind of mean.

"Just so," Alastair said in response to that laugh, and then closed his eyes to concentrate.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden was going to interpret that 'Hmm' as being something that had nothing to do with her at all.

"Do you have a car?" she asked Gray, and then realized what a terrible idea it was to have Sloth driving anywhere and amended it to, "You don't have a car, do you?"

Even if he did, maybe she could convince Raiden to drive or something? Nephilim may be immortal, but Sylphs sure weren't.

[napking]

"Oh, yeah, no, I'm not allowed to drive," Gray assured her. "Or fly the plane."

Alastair was not concentrating too deeply to be unable to say, stern, "No one is allowed to fly the plane."

"It's Alastair's plane," Gray explained. "But I have six brothers to drive us around!" All he had to do was make puppy eyes at them and, if that failed, be obnoxious until they caved.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Y'all have a plane?" Arden asked, eyebrow raised. "Just like a wholeass plane?"

Fuck being a mighty Nephilim, having their own plane was the perfect illustration of the difference between Gray's family and, well, her.

On the plus side, reeling over his personal plane was definitely stopping Arden from fretting about Alastair and the wards.

"So why are your cars parked outside?" Plane-related reasons?

[carbsliftthespirit]

"Well, we can fly, but planes are faster," Raiden explained. "But Alastair doesn't really trust commercial pilots." And had you seen the legroom in those things? Yikes. "Plus ever since Castor figured out the stock market it's not like money is real any more. I don't know why the cars are--oh. Ohhhhhhh."

Gray cackled.

[napking]

"So one of the things Castor really likes is cars," Gray explained to Arden once he'd gotten himself under control. "And to keep it under control he's not allowed to have more than will fit in the garage." He gave a sweeping gesture toward Raiden and Bellamy's cars, sitting outside the garage. "He's over the limit, so now he's gotta downsize."

"How's that goin'?" Raiden asked Alastair.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Even if Arden hadn't memorized which brother was which, that explanation would be enough to remind her. "And, um, what does he do with them?"

We're there used high-end car dealers? Did he sell them to collectors? Did he donate--

Arden that was a stupid question.

"Gray, it's important for you to know that nothing about your family really tripped me up--" Other than kidnapped eight year old baby boot camp "--until right now." Nephilim? Cool! Immortals? Sure! Avatars of the seven deadly sins? That's rough, buddy.

Owns their own plane? And so many cars they can't fit them all in a single garage? Nope! Cannot compute.

[napking]

And it was a stupidly large garage, too!

"He donates them, usually," Gray told her. "Sometimes it goes easy, because once he has something he doesn't care about it as much any more." Greed was tricksy like that. "Sometimes it doesn't and Alastair has to force the issue."

Alastair let go of Arden's hand, opened his eyes, and said, "Negotiations are ongoing," which made Gray cackle again. Mind-to-mind, he told Gray, "You and Raiden bring home the most interesting 'humans from other dimensions.'"

"Uh, no comment?"

Alastair just raised an eyebrow at him for that and gave a sweeping 'welcome' sort of gesture toward the house. "Welcome to our home, Miss Finch. Please, come inside."

"Negotiations mean he gets to pick which ones go," Gray explained to Arden as he started up the driveway after Alastair. "If negotiations fail then Alastair will pick for him."

"And he'll sulk for weeks," Raiden muttered.

"Hey, we'll be on the other coast," Gray reminded him. "But Ray's right. Money's basically not real to us. Except Cas. It's very real to him. And, yeah, I know that's pretty weird in the real world."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Thank you very much," Arden said, hoisting her overnight bag - which at least was pretty nice, because she'd looted a luggage set from the Walmart last fall - and followed them up.

"I mean, it makes sense? I know that Duke and Grimm--" She faltered for a moment, before remembering that Grimm had pretty much kicked the Detente open with her heeled shoe and continued "--don't care about money either. Part of it is being djinn, but also, you throw money into a blank account with compound interest for long enough and suddenly it's stupid amounts of cash whenever you need it."

Wait. Was that maybe dismissive? Would that get under Alastair's skin? Shit, she should have asked for more details.

"And that's just the basics, which is all they could really be bothered with. Doesn't even touch on what you can do with savvy investing or anything."

Right. Because the only thing she knew less about than how compound interest worked was the literal stock market. Great job, Arden.

"...I do think it's really cool that he donates them," she added softly.

[carbsliftthespirit]

If it helped, Gray and Raiden knew exactly jack about how the stock market worked, too. That was Castor's job. Alastair probably knew stuff, but that was because he was a giant nerd.

Once Alastair had opened the door to the house, Raiden ducked past him and headed straight into the kitchen. To get there one had to pass through the foyer into a two-story living room, then go through the dining room, and upon arrival they wound find Raiden already opening and closing cabinets while Bellamy and Castor stood like they were awaiting inspection and Galen leaned against a wall like he just happened to be there holding it up. Alastair clasped his hands behind his back, likewise observing and awaiting judgment, and Gray nudged Arden's side like, 'Get a load of this.'

"Did you get--" Raiden started, and Castor interrupted.

"We got everything on your list."

Raiden considered that. "'We?'"

"I kept him from 'upgrading,'" Bellamy said, with air quotes, and Castor scowled at the accusation. Or at being foiled in trying to buy Wagyu ground beef instead of 80/20. Who knew?

Raiden turned to go through the refrigerator, and after rummaging for a minute or so he closed it and put his hands on his hips. "All right. Everybody get out of my kitchen. Dinner's at seven."

[thecursedsons]

"I will be absent, I'm afraid," Alastair said, and Raiden looked wounded at him. "I'll be back for breakfast tomorrow, but I'm having dinner tonight with Joseph." Since he had just decided he had better be present for this little jaunt to Krave tomorrow night. For some mysterious reason.

"But I thought you said--" Galen started, and a look from Alastair silenced him.

"It was lovely to meet you, Miss Finch," Alastair said to Arden. "If you'll excuse me."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden was watching the way they had just kind of fallen into neat roles around each other with an expression that hovered at amused but sometimes trekked over to vulnerable for a moment before winding its way back to amused. Being with the Khans had been like that, too. They'd all just slid into place perfectly, like a dance that was always going and the people that belonged there could just jump right back in. It was beautiful.

A little heartbreaking, too, as it always was, but she was going to focus on the beauty. No reason to rile Daman less than thirty seconds into being in his home.

"Of course," Arden said and shuffled slightly to the side on the off-chance she was somehow between him and his exit. "Thank you very much again for letting me stay," she added and then turned to everyone else. "Um, that goes to all of you," she added. "Thank you. It means a lot."

Having a stranger in your house was kind of a big deal, especially if you also had to deal with your sin at the same time! And, you know, she was a totally normal human girl to boot!

"Also," she mentioned in an undertone to Gray, "this is me not falling all over myself to offer to help Pro--erm, Raiden in the kitchen. This is personal growth and you should be very proud of me right now."

Also, cool. All of Gray's brothers were hotter in person and that was rude to Sylphs.

[thecursedsons]

"Hey," Castor, more relaxed now that Raiden had not declared that they had ruined his kitchen and he wouldn't cook them food, said. "Gray's little human."

"Arden," Raiden reminded him, head in the pantry. "Her name is Arden." He pulled his head out to say to Arden, "Guests don't work."

"Right. Arden. Gray said you had a birthday recently?"

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I did," Arden said, with a bob of her head. An eyebrow had ticked up at 'Gray's little human,' but immediately smoothed back down at Raiden's intervention and she offered him a quick smile. "It was the 29th. Probably."

She hadn't meant to add that 'probably,' it just snuck its way in there.

And to pull attention away from that, she held her knuckles up for a bump to Gray. "Also the year anniversary of me leaving Callista's house and heading to the island."

The intervening four days had been spent laying false trails and things before heading to Maryland, which was a very normal thing to do.

Normal. Human. Girl.

[thecursedsons]

Gray made to return her fist bump, but Castor didn't care about any of that. "Right. Cool. Catch." He tossed something that jingled at her and tossed, "Happy birthday," over his shoulder as he left the kitchen through the other doorway.

Congratulations, Arden, you were now the proud new owner of what was previously the apparently least favored of Castor's luxury sports cars!

"It's not much of a gift if she has to pay insurance on it!" Bellamy told him.

"It's taken care of!"

"Cas says the insurance is taken care of," Gray reported. Because obviously Arden was already worried about that and not just wondering WTF just happened.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

By habit, Arden reached up and caught the small thing that glittered in the light as it flew towards her. "Thank you?" she called to his retreating back before actually looking at what he'd tossed her.

"Um." And now she was just gonna keep staring down at the object in her hand, while her brain struggled to make sense of it. "Wait. What just happened?" She looked to the other three like they could help her figure the events that had led to her holding car keys, even though she'd seen exactly the same thing she had. She was so flustered by the keys, she completely forgot to be flustered by Bellamy, so actually, thank you Castor!

"Um. So, uh. I don't know how to drive."

At least it wasn't a plane?

[napking]

"One down, three to go!" Castor called from somewhere deeper in the house.

"...sometimes someone teaches Driver's Ed at the school?" Gray offered. "Or they used to when it was a high school; I don't know about now..." They should probably go to the garage at some point and figure out which car Arden owned now.

[thecursedsons]

The mountain of a man known as Galen finally spoke up to say, "This is bullshit."

Bellamy sighed. "Galen..."

"No, what makes her special? We never let humans in here!"

And in canon, Galen would be the one to break that rule without thinking twice, but that hadn't happened yet and Wrath wasn't exactly rational. "She's from another universe," Gray pointed out. "It's not like the demons are gonna be able to find her to do anything to her."

"It's still bullshit," Galen proclaimed, and stormed off the same way Castor had gone.

Gray sighed and told Arden, "C'mon, I'll show you around."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Maybe I'll ask Dean," Arden said, resolving to just not even question it right now. She actually felt a little better, realizing that this was more about Castor getting rid of cars than anything about her.

And then Galen spoke (how had she forgotten he was even here? The man was a giant!) and she went back to feeling awkward again. But. Right. Not about her. These were all just the intricacies of families and Sins and she was more a trigger than anything else.

Again, weirdly comforting. But people having seemingly outsized emotional reactions in your direction wasn't exactly unheard of in foster care. Being the focus wasn't the same as being the cause and that made things easier.

"Sure," she said, relaxing a bit once she was able to contextualize everything a bit more in her head. She stopped radiating confused deer quite and unconsciously straightened herself up a bit, shoulders going back, sass reserves slowly refilling.

So, actually...thanks, Galen?

"This place is gorgeous, I'd love to see more. How many Squishmallows do you have in your room here and will I be able to find you in the pile of them?" she asked, trailing after him.

[napking]

"The Squishmallows are more a Fandom thing," Gray told her over his shoulder as he led her back to the staircase in the living room. "Because I got started with them when we robbed the evil WalMart in the woods." You know, as you did. "But I can show you my Converse collection! But your room first, so you can put down your bag."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"You have a Converse collection?" Arden asked, continuing to duckling after him. And then laughed; "I don't know why I assumed I would be crashing with you, instead of having my own room."

Probably because a house with seven brothers must surely be full to bursting and have no spare rooms! Because she hadn't really expected them to be personal plane rich.

[napking]

"Oooh, like a sleepover? We can do that, too! But you have your own room if you want it," Gray assured her. Because what kind of absurdly oversized mansion didn't have a guest room or two in addition to seven occupied bedrooms?

He pushed the door to said guest room open and said, "Ta-da!" It was...a guest room. Bed, dresser, nightstand, small empty closet, attached bathroom. A little bare on the decor, but perfectly nice. "It has all the comforts of twenty-first century life. Things before humans figured out hot running water were sad, especially if you didn't know a good witch." He flopped down on the bed to...test it out for her, by which the player meant we would be paused here for about fifteen minutes while Gray took a power nap, if Arden wanted to unpack.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Oh of course! How foolish of Arden to have underestimated it!

Arden covered Gray with a blanket, and unpacked everything she'd brought, hanging up her two potential club dresses, putting her (many) toiletries and makeup and hair stuff in the small bathroom, and put her club jewelry in the same drawer as her underthings. Maybe that would help.

And then started texting folks back on the island because apparently she owned a luxury sports car now????

[napking]

After a little while, Gray woke up, blinking and sitting up. "Oh, hey. Did I fall asleep on your bed before you did? That's embarrassing."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden finished a text and tucked her phone in her pocket. "It's cool, I just took a ton of pics and sent them around the island and told them we're dating now," she lied, not even bothering to keep a straight face.

[napking]

"Oh, no!" Gray exclaimed, falling back on the bed and flinging one arm across his face dramatically if more beshirtedly than in the icon. "Now I'll have to marry you to protect your honor!" Then he sat up and said, "Wait. It's not the eighteenth century any more. Whew."

Somewhere Lydia was not amused, Gray.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I've already eloped with Cal, Gray, I don't think Lydia's heart can handle me coming back married," Arden snickered. "I'll just have to live with the stain on my honor. Thank the goddess I'm resilient."

She tilted her head. "So, like, the keys. Was Castor serious? Is he gonna ask for them back? Or someone else...?"

[napking]

"Oh, he's serious," Gray assured her. "You couldn't hear it because it was in our heads, but he said something about already taking care of the insurance, so you don't have to worry about that." Which was good because the insurance on a car like that was no joke. I'll ask him if he thought about getting it to Fandom sometime before we leave. He tried in case it would make her feel better, "Think of it as helping Bell and Raiden get to park in the garage again."

And then he cracked up again. "I'm sorry," he said between giggles. "I'm sorry. It's just--I know it's such a wild problem to have. But you have a car now?"

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Oh shit, I hadn't even thought about insurance," Arden said, blinking several times. Because oh nooooes. "I mean, I appreciate it! Please don't get me wrong! It's awesome! I'm just..." She laughed. "I was five minutes in the the house and suddenly I own a car! High bar for my next visit, I'm just saying."

[napking]

"I mean, it could have gone the other way and he pickpocketed you," Gray said with a shrug. "That's Greed. Although you kind of got that side of it from Galen." He picked at the blanket with his fingers. "I'm sorry about that. He's...Galen. He worries a lot. Especially about me, because of, y'know. The Sloth. And you're a stranger. That we're breaking the rules for."

He did not even try to explain that Galen was probably worried for Arden, as an allegedly garden variety human who would now know where their house was, and mad at himself for worrying about a stranger. And also mad at Gray for putting Arden in danger, and then even more mad at himself because he hated being mad at Gray. Wrath: not a fun sin!

Instead, he threw the blanket off and jumped up. "Wanna see my room?" Aw, yeah, subject change.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Oh Galen threw me off way less than than the car thing," Arden said, hopping off the bed. "Like, he was mad, but not mad at me? And I've been there before. Kinda scary, but I didn't feel targeted, if that makes sense." She gave him a smile. "It's cool," she promised. "Honestly, I've been through worse--" Her face shadowed for a second and she wrapped her left hand around the inside of her right elbow, before she realized what she was doing and dropped her hands to her side.

An awkward laugh. "I mean, you should see one of Grimm's temper tantrums," she said, instead of whatever she'd been thinking of. "You said your room?"

Aww yeah, subject change!

[napking]

Yeah. Gray was going to be having A Talk with Galen on the subject of Being Nice To My Friend Arden. But right now he was saying, "Oh, yeah, my room!" and leading her out of her room and down the hall into the other wing, because of course this house had wings. Gray's door was easy to identify because it had a sloth-shaped door hanger with his name on it.

He pushed the door open, flipped on the light, and said, "Ta-da!"

Gray's room was done in soft, soothing pastels, except for the anime posters on the walls. The bedding had clouds on it, and there was a color-shifting nightlight shaped like the moon on his bedside table, which Arden would have recognized as the twin to the one in his dorm room if she'd ever been there. There were blackout curtains on the windows, a TV mounted on the wall across from the bed, and a big cushy beanbag chair in one corner. The bed did have a couple of Squishmallows that had migrated, but it was nothing on the situation in Fandom.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"Oh, your room is so cozy," Arden cooed, looking around. "Kams would love your nameplate." She gave the anime posters a thorough look. "I've never seen anime," she admitted. "These are your favorites?"

[napking]

"Yeah," Gray said. "I watch a lot of anime but my player doesn't lol. Sometimes when Sloth is being extra a butthole I'm not really sleepy but I still can't get out of bed, so..." he gestured vaguely toward the TV and the posters. "And I like scary movies, but those are the most fun to watch with other people. What about you?"

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I like a lot of stupid action flicks," she said, returning the favor by hopping onto his bed and making herself comfortable. "Found family movies." No reason, moving on. "Cute romances." Also no reason. Moving further on. "And musicals, especially Bollywood ones."

[napking]

Gray was just gonna flop down on the other side of the bed. It was his bed, after all. "I don't like anything I have to stay awake for the whole time to understand the plot," he confided. "Alastair likes mysteries and I always have no idea what's happening."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"So watching action flicks with me, where it doesn't matter because all you're missing are explosions, and sometimes how or why they've launched a car into space," Arden said.

They went through Gray's ridiculous house ("You have a pool in your basement?"), being an actual tour because it was so damn huge, and then out into the garage to find the car that Arden had apparently been given.

"Gray? Did your brother actually give me the Ratmobile?"

[napking]

Were pools in the basement not standard now? Gray had just assumed because the dorm had one, too.

"It's a Chevrolet?" Gray asked, sounding confused. "Don't normal people still have Chevrolets?" Was he messing with her? He would never tell.

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

Arden peered at him, trying to figure out if he was bullshitting her or not. "I think being crazy rich skews your outlook more than being a Nephilim does," she informed him. "Who else do you know with a pool in their basement?"

His answer was going to make her facepalm.

"And people drive Chevrolets, but not like that!" She pointed to the Ratmobile, which was what she'd be naming the car now, no question. "It looks so fast."

[napking]

"Us?" Gray said. "I mean, the dorm? At the school? I know you live in town but I'm sure you could use it..."

He peered into the newly dubbed Ratmobile. "It probably is fast...oh. It's an automatic." Gray, how did you even know that? "That'll be good for you learning to drive. I think manual is harder."

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

"I'm not allowed to go in without an invitation," Arden said. "So I've never been past the common rooms."

She also peered into the interior of the Ratmobile, like she would know a damn thing about it. But she did notice it was luxe as fuck. "I'm gonna have to ask Dean or maybe Marc about teaching me how to drive. This car is too fucking wild to just leave it on the Causeway."

[napking]

"Oh," Gray said. "I didn't realize." Because you lived there, Gray.

"That's a good idea. I'm sorry I can't help, but, y'know." The Sloth.

Dean was going to have PTSD flashbacks, wasn't he?

[afraid_of_marshmallows]

At least Arden knew about cars conceptually, and had been in them before! And she'd be learning automatic, not manual, which was another benefit.

"Gray," Arden laughed. "I wouldn't even have this if it weren't for your invite. It's okay if you can't also teach me to drive."