Despite the opulence of the birthday party the dowager duchess organized for Charlie, there is no palanquin to transport her from the borrowed estate bedroom (where her and her boyfriend spent the evening on the cool tiled floor of the adjoining bathroom sharing the toilet) to the apartment in Chicago she shares with Ray.
In their living room, she sits on the hardwood with a throw pillow as a seat in denim cutoffs and his Bowie tour tee, Wildfox, heart-shaped Lolita sunglasses perched on her retrouss" nose to soften the blow of the sunlight streaming through the blinds. Spread around her are gifts and objects of vice that she sorts through.
Hoisting a bottle of 1951 G"rard Bertrand vintage wine overhead for him to take, she announces, "Red wine for the win! Fancy." While there may have been strawberries handed over at the party, they are absent in this spread so the employees must have made an executive decision to distribute them out to the revelers during the festivities considering their perishable state.
Next are four boxes of Armand de Brignac champagne in the limited series Ace of Spades Swarovski Edition " they sparkle brilliantly in pearlwhite, fool's gold, rosy pink, and emerald green " and she seems even more excited purely on the basis of how they sparkle.
"Fancy champagne, too! We should find a place to put all of those for special occasions."
Ray, on the other hand, is less excited for the alcohol, though it isn't for lack of gratitude or appreciation - typically, he'd be happier about it, but he hasn't had a hangover like this in a while. Laid out on the couch behind her and the array of gifts, he takes the wine from her when she passes it back, sets it down on the end table. "Those look too fancy to drink. It'll have to be a really special occasion."
A unique, rose quartz necklace blended with tiny pearls and a jar of Himalayan mineral bath salts are the first official gifts she reaches for. Admiring the former with a slow drag of fingertips over the surface of it, she seems pleased by the second once she smells it. "I am so taking a bath with that later."
Ray's making gimme fingers for the necklace, and even though it doesn't go with her current ensemble at all, he's leaning in to drape it across Charlie's collarbones, fasten it behind her neck.
Three presents come bundled together. In her new necklace, she is unwrapping one which is so heavy that she has to place it in her lap, an enormous book separate to keep it safe, but there's nothing new about it. It's old, ancient seeming with yellowed parchment papers inked on by hand, a rosary bead connected to it attached to a cross.
A note tucked into the front of it tells her that it's a very old bible, the Lost Words of Elohim in Aramaic, and after she explains what it is to Ray, she is reverently touching over the cover with an expression that even the sunglasses can't fully conceal - she's moved, almost as much as when she unwrapped his present to her. "I'll have to find a translator, but this could help us with our demons."
Gingerly putting it on the edge of the end table, she hugs the stuffed bear she knows is supposed to be Michael Darling's as soon as she sees the second book"a first edition of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by J.M. Barrie. Given the manner in which she buries her face in the bear, Charlie loves her presents from Eve Holloway.
Charlie isn't the only one moved - he knows that a bible like this belongs in a museum, not in this cluttered, working-class apartment in Chicago. He moves to touch the book once she sets it on the table, but he draws back before making contact with it. "We'll need to use the good stationary for her Thank You note," he jokes, but it's quiet, only meant to lighten the mood, to keep it from getting dark after the mention of their demons.
What lightens it even more is the way Charlie hugs the stuffed bear, and while he takes the book from her to set on the end table too, he lets her keep the stuffed toy in her lap.
Buffalo Trace bourbon and Marlboro cigarettes are handed off to Ray shortly thereafter while she tells him, "Alcohol and cigarettes for you! Since I don't smoke." If she didn't know who the gifter was for the box that comes with the two objects of vice, she might be confused, but she laughs as she drags the heavy thing closer to peer inside the lid.
"...oh my God! Three hundred dollars in rolled quarters - for the jukebox, I bet. I can't actually keep them in quarter form, though. If you carry change around you, it clinks around; it's all unseemly. I can cash it out, though. Three hundred dollars," she says, hands up in the air.
The bourbon, he sets down on the hardwood off to one side, but the cigarettes, he keeps for long enough to light one up with a nearby Bic, even though he only smokes in the apartment for very specific occasions, and this is not really one of them. He's laughing out smoke before, "I guess you owe somebody a year's worth of dances."
Pushing her sunglasses up on top of her head like a headband, she moves on to pick up a loose pair of handcuffs to dangle them with a toss toward Ray, wicked. "Kinky! We have our own, though, so I'm giving those to Madison - she'll die." A deck of playing cards is the next thing she distributes over to him. "A poker player, I bet."
He's surprised to see handcuffs left as a favorite vice, but he's grinning too, just as wicked, catches them easily, one-handed. "Are you sure you want to give them away' Never hurts to have a second pair around - y'know, in case of emergency." He might be kidding - hard to say! The cards, he's taking, immediately tossing onto the coffee table that's been moved aside some to make room for all the gifts. "Must be. Who do you think's the better bluffer - me or you?"
"You," is her immediate answer.
A pack of smokes and a bottle of whiskey is up next, both of which she relinquishes to Ray. "Smokes for you, whiskey for us - since it's definitely my new drink of choice." Read: cheaper in the long run to drink the same alcohol.
Ray squints at Charlie a moment, because he's not sure if that's a bluff - but he forgets all about it when she's handing off another pack of cigarettes to him, which he tosses onto the table with the deck of cards; the whiskey gets placed down next to the bourbon from earlier. "I think my drink of choice for the next month or two is everything you got from the party." Read: cheapest to drink what?s free!
Serah's gift to Charlie"three more bottles of expensive champagne, two of which she hands off, one of which she opens that has the top cork flying to hit the sofa right above Ray's head like a bullet. A little wide-eyed and sheepish, she apologizes fast: "Sorry! More fancy champagne, though!" Drinking from the bottle like a heathen, she opens the little card that comes after.
"Oh, awesome! A day trip to a luxury spa with four guests! Serah, Lucy, Eve - and Madison, too, she deserves a day like this. I don't think it'd be Saila's thing" But yay! Girls' day!"
Ray's in the middle of setting those two bottles aside when he's nearly the victim of death by cork; instinctive he ducks, even if it's unnecessary, and he's not too fazed, though he's grabbing the bottle from Charlie to drink from while she's distracted by the contents of the card. "Your aim is terrible," tells her, before he swigs from the bottle. "You do a girls' day - I've got the cards for a poker night to keep myself entertained, at least."
Once the champagne is gone and they're both a little tipsy, they proceed.
A delicate gold brooch in the form of a jeweled beetle is next and as she places it on the end table, it skitters across the surface and flicks iridescent wings which has Charlie squeaking as she falls off her pillow in an alarmed backwards crawl. "Ray! Catch it, catch it! Put it in a box!"
Ray, tipsy and never really one to think twice about whether or not something is a good idea, is lunging for the skittering jeweled-gold beetle to catch it, and once he's got it in hand, he's depositing it in the same box that the rolls and rolls of quarters are in, takes care to shut it afterward. "So." A little wide-eyed. "That's on you to remember that's in there. I don't think the teller's gonna appreciate it if you bring those in, open that up, and this escapes in the bank."
Relief floods her once the brooch is captured and she relaxes with a big breath out. "I think I could sell that in Rhydin for a good price?" Still somewhat apprehensive, she scoots forward back onto her throw pillow with a wary look and presses her tongue into the inner pocket of her cheek. "It's pretty, but I think it's also....alive....ish."
With it is a small velvet pouch of golden powder with instructions to place it in champagne and wish for your heart's desire to which she decrees, "This, too. I've heard horror stories about making wishes to genies and this has to be semi-similar, right' I wonder who brought it..."
Ray's in agreement about selling the brooch - alive-ish is right, and he's still not used to things like that, not even after more than half a year of exposure to magical elements in Rhydin - but he hesitates when Charlie puts the golden powder in the same category of things more safely sold than kept. "Maybe that one we keep for a rainy day. A just-in-case."
"Maybe," she relents.
A bottle of Patr"n tequila is happily received as she observes, "Luckily, alcohol does not go bad because I think we're going to have a year's worth of it - easy." It comes with a sealed envelope with a few vouchers for Kinky Karl's Sex Shop in West End and she's tilting her head bird-like at it before she passes them over to him. "Uh....keep or redistribute" It'd make a funny gag gift."
"Lots of variety, too - different kind every day of the week," putting the tequila aside with the rest of the alcohol. Charlie's reaction to the contents of the envelope is something he doesn't expect, but once she passes the vouchers over to him, he gets it - he's just laughing, though. "Why don't we check out what they've got there first' But if nothing looks interesting - in a good way - they'd make a great gag gift, you're right."
"Fine, fine - we'll check it out. But no ball gags."
Parting a plastic sack with her finespun hands, she delves further before pulling out handfuls of condoms which she blinks at, disinterested in the apparent variety. "Huh! We don't use these," notes Charlie as she returns the bag's contents only to swing it out of her way toward the sofa. "Maybe I can donate them to one of those walk-in clinics where they keep jars of them at the counter."
"No' Didn't know you were such a prude," but he's kidding - really! Ray catches the bag, gives a quick peek inside, and then he's shrugging a little. "Yeah - either that, or god knows they could probably stand to have them on hand at the inn."
His comment earns him a dark look. "I saw a tin or two in there for condoms, antiques - might be worth something?"
At the bottom of the next box is nothing but a colorful slip of paper with someone's high score on Candy Crush printed out. She squints at it before handing it over to Ray. "Is that a good score?" A loose pack of Lucky Strikes, originally Ray's own offering, follows. "That one is for you. You're welcome," sunnily.
"Probably' You know I have no idea - I had a flip phone when I met you, remember?" The paper, he ditches on the end table; his pack of smokes, he pockets, though he teases, "You should just keep them, the rate you borrow them from me..."
"I would do that if I was a smoker - which I most certainly am not!"
A candy jar full of what seems to be prescription pills is peeked into with interest as the tips of her manicured fingers sort through the top. "I bet I could sell these to Q for a seriously decent profit!" With a momentary pause, she peers over-shoulder at Ray to clarify, "It's not illegal if it's once for my birthday and in a place without laws."
"I might save a few blue valiums. You can save a few of your choice if it's in there, too, but the rest is pure profit."
Amused, "It's still illegal. —or it would be, if that place had laws." Charlie knows him by now, though - must, maybe? - and he's not exactly on the straight and narrow himself, still a little wayward, even if he's a lot better than he used to be. Not so good that he doesn't partake in any himself, though: "I'll grab a few for myself later." Though what he plans to keep, he doesn't say.
Tugging a small brass bound chest with a variety of items forward, Charlie opens it to peek in at the contents. She examines the book with blank pages, but when she realizes there are maps in the second book that are not even of Earth, her doe-dark eyes widen. "I bet a map book would fetch a good price, and this one with it seems like a matching set, an adventure log or something."
The three vials " essence of dreams, wish tonic, and the love potion " are considered before the last one makes her lose her smile, appear momentarily distant as she touches it, and it's separated from the other two deliberately into a pile by itself from everything else. "Stuff like this can be dangerous - I'll sell the dream and wish one, but the love potion should probably be flushed."
As for the two knives, she admires them distractedly before observing, "These are beautiful; they'll definitely fetch a good price." Closing the chest, she moves on.
Ray trusts his girlfriend when it comes to the assessment of the books and the vials (though he notes her reaction to the love potion particularly, files that question away for another time) - the knives, he's studying while they're in her hands. Almost asks her a question about them, but in the end, doesn't, stops himself with a shake of his head. "What's next?"
A box of stacked records is well received when she sorts through it, brightening up a little from whatever melancholy had momentarily washed over her. "Music! Vinyl! If there's any duplicates or something we're not into, we can totally trade at the record store."
The vinyl is enough temptaion to get Ray off the sofa and onto the floor next to Charlie so he can flip through it; he perks up suddenly when he sees one album in particular. "This is perfect - I lost my Sounds of Silence when I moved a few years back. If you ever throw me a party' Vinyl can be the cost of admission." He probably means it, too.
"Only if you share as good as I am," she teases.
His sudden proximity prompts her to scoot close after she drags the outer ring of offerings and gifts to where they will be within reach, and she seems to approve of the next two that come together. "Whiskey," she announces as she picks up a bottle of Glenlivet 21 to pass over, but the book catches her attention. "Ooh, I've seen one of these before - De Materia Medica! Actually, several times, but I've never found one to own. It's in English, too! Good, because I can't read Latin either."
Charlie hugs it to her chest briefly, appreciative, before something that glows catches her attention.
"You can't' I'm surprised," and he's not teasing - he'd actually expected that she'd be able to read Latin. He's taking the bottle from Charlie to put down with the rest of the sorted alcohol, but he notices when her attention is diverted. "What's that?" Might be a little hesitant - you never know, when gifts come from the other side of the Looking Glass.
"I'm fluent in seven languages, I can speak about half of four more, and tiny snippets of three others"but none of them are Latin or Aramaic," she admits dryly to Ray. "Besides, just because I can speak those languages doesn't mean I can read or write all of them."
Golden and shimmering, the bottle of fae wine tempts touch and Charlie's running tips over it curiously as cautious as she is. "It says fae wine, but it looks different than what we were drinking during the Beltane fires. I bet I could sell it, too?" Much more apprehensive about her presents from Rhydin, she's nudging it toward him for his opinion. "Or we could drink it. It's very pretty?"
"Oh, come on - In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti" Don't tell me I ended up a better Catholic than you somehow." That is a tease - likely, it just speaks to the age difference, that the Church he'd grown up in still used Latin from time to time - really, he's a terrible Catholic, and they both know it.
He takes the wine, picks it up to study it - admire it, really, drawn to it in some way. "It is pretty. It looks different, but I liked that fae wine, didn't you?" And while he's tempted, he's hesitant too; it seems like he's leaning toward keeping it, but he's not decisive, leaves it up to Charlie. "It's your present," he reminds her.
"I know mass Latin, Ray, it's different. I don't know it outside of phrases you hear in the church," she says, giving him the hint of an elbow in his healed ribs before she places the fae wine in a maybe pile.
A bottle of Dalmore 64: Trinitas earns a wider-eyed look. "Do you know how expensive this whiskey is" This is definitely going in the special occasions pile - unless we want to try to sell it for like over a hundred and fifty thousand dollars."
Ray watches Charlie put the fae wine aside, and it takes him a moment to refocus on the current gift - he's just in time to catch her estimation on a price, though, and then he's similarly wide-eyed. "What kind of special occasion would we even save that for?" Pause. "I can't even make a joke about it - I can't think of anything I'd open a hundred a fifty thousand dollar bottle of whiskey for."
"Maybe pile. If I sold it, we could go on an amazing vacation," she tempts him.
Unwrapping the next gifts from their protective casing, she lights up over the vintage gold vanity set including a hand mirror, brush, and comb well as a mirrored gold filigree tray " she's even more enamored with them than the crystal perfume bottles, though she seems to like those, too. "Oh, wow. I don't care if they'll stick out on the dress, I am so keeping these. Maybe the perfume bottles, too. How lovely."
"I don't even know the last time I was on one of those - like a good one, a real one," so apparently, he's tempted. If the face he makes afterward is any indication, he seems to agree that the vanity set and perfume bottles will indeed stick out in the current apartment's scheme of decor, which is still mostly bachelor pad other than things Charlie has done to make it a little less so, but he relents a little: "In our next place, we'll have to get a two bedroom so you can keep all your girly stuff there. And so you won't take over my closet..."
"The closet is mine and we need much bigger ones eventually because three-fourths of my wardrobe is still in storage," Charlie informs him imperiously, chin up. Closet space is girl space!
A bottle of Jack Daniels is handed over wordlessly to Ray to join their liquor collection (the one not for special occasions), and she moves right on to a chisel for tattooing, a bottle of ink, and a collection of small piercings. For awhile, she stares at it wordlessly, her dark head tilted, but there's a knife that looks easily concealed that she offers to Ray before she moves the other stuff toward the pills. Maybe she plans on giving it to Q, too"
"Uh-huh..." He's eyeing Charlie right back, dubious, but he lets it go when she's handing Jack off to him - that's a sure way to distract him. Thinks about asking he she plans to sell that collection too, but in the end, he doesn't - doesn't ask if the knife is meant to be for him or for her, either, but he sets that aside with the small collection of non-booze, non-book things they intend to keep.
Two packages of merlot infused coffee is handed off to him with a happy but simple, "Keep," after she presses that little tip-tilted nose of hers to the bag to smell it. However, as for the vegan chocolate stout beer, she inspects it skeptically before deciding, "I'll pawn that off on Oz unless you want it?"
The coffee gets sorted with the keepers, but he's shaking his head for the offer of the beer. "Vegan" Weird hipster stuff. He'll like it."
A box of chocolates and another bottle of scotch whiskey is handed over to Ray to their growing collection of alcohol, but she asks, "Does everyone in this town drink whiskey?"
The chocolate finds a place alongside the packages of coffee, and the whiskey' It goes with the rest. "Yeah - I guess a lot of people have good taste."
Charlie doesn't even bother to hide the fact that she's rolling her eyes!
What's fascinating is the small box of kitchen matches that she guesses to be someone's vice, and she's rolling it around in her hands before she puts it in the keep pile. Matches never go to waste. Like most of the other books, she appears to love the Pablo Neruda poem book - even the wrapping job that has a personal touch - given the way she draws her fingertips down over the front.
"What an amazing haul! Let's drink some of it," she suggests.
Ray's finished off his Marlboro long ago, but he's snagging up the matches so he can light up a familiar Lucky Strike instead. After he takes a drag, he offers the cigarette over to Charlie. "Sure - there's whiskey, whiskey, scotch whiskey....—oh! What about whiskey?"
