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.)

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[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."