Tea for Two

RP Date: 2026-10-04

Location: The Watch Tower (exterior)

Participants: Lilith, Spizzzo

Summary

Spizzzo and Lilith reflect on the first town hall meeting, share some tea, and start building a wall around the campfire.

This archive was published after approval by all listed participants.

Roleplay

Lilith melts out of the shadows surrounding the watchtower like they were made to house her. The darkness clings briefly to her wings, pierced only by a few pinpricks of faint ivory light. She looks around suspiciously before cautiously approaching the fire.

Spizzzo has a blank expression on his face, lips thin and almost perfectly horizontal, as he labors, sinking logs into the marshy ground, forming a rough structure around the entrance of the watch tower and the cook fire. Notably, the fire is still open and visible from the lake. A thin sheen of sweat drips ignored from his brow as he reaches for the next timber from a pile of logs recently chopped and cleaned of bark and branch. He nods momentarily to Lilith as she arrives.

Lilith crosses her arms and watches Spizzzo work for a few moments.  He has done an impressive amount of labor since the earlier meeting.  She does not feel particularly keen to get her hands dirtier and in worse shape than they already are, and speaks to the man between logs. "Need a hand?"  She extends her hand, and a couple of wraithlike shadow people emerge and flank her.

Spizzzo looks at the wraiths and shakes his head quietly, grabbing the next log and tossing it over his shoulder before walking to the muddy soil and driving it down. He smacks the top of it with both fists several times until he's satisfied. "No, Thank you. I need a project to occupy me. If they help me finish more quickly, then I'm simply finished. Have some stew. I also have some tea, if you'd like to try any." Spizzzo gestures to eleven tea bags in a black box with purple ribbon, the same as his herbs and spices. An empty mug with a wet tea bag in the bottom sits nearby.

Lilith takes a step back to study the emerging fortifications, but engineering is under no circumstances an area of expertise of hers. "What kind do you have?" she questions, cautiously. OOC: Might, I'm not against it if she can be convinced that tea is good. "What I could really go for is a glass of wine.  Red, preferably."  She approaches the box to peer into it. "Where'd you find this, anyway?"

Spizzzo shrugs and points to the dregs in his glass, offering, "Brown? Tasted like pine and citrus. Woody. Earthy." He shakes his wooden log, then goes for the next, using the other shoulder yo carry it this time. Judging from both his progress and the red marks on his neck, he's been at this since the meeting broke up. "Post Office. Someone's out there looking out for us. Right next to the machine that dispenses kindling."

Lilith studies Spizzzo with an unreadable expression. "Sure, why not."  She takes a seat near the fire and drops her arms to her sides, close to, but not touching, the hafts of those axes. "There's a firewood machine too?"

Spizzzo buries his next log, smashing it into place, then walks back to Lilith and the fire. He gestures to one of the strips of paper from the morse code machine, which are wadded up in a small pile to serve as fire starters. While Lilith picks out her tea bag, he hauls a pot of water up next to his stew pot to bring it to a boil, and spends a few moments tending the fire. "We're not sacrificing anyone. People are just scared. They miss their homes," he responds to the elephant in the room as though Lilith had actually brought it up.

Lilith scowls down at the fire. "Fear isn't an excuse to offer someone up for a blood rite on a maybe based on something in the language, no one can read.  We aren't even really deprived here." 

Spizzzo quietly watches water boil. "No, it isn't." He says without looking away from the water. Then he reaches for his own mug, and rinses it out from the boiling water, scrubbing it for a moment and rinsing again, then holding out the mug of hot water for Lilith's tea bag. "But, I can't imagine what it would be like to be in their shoes. To have a family and home you miss. We can't all be as lucky as I am. So, I don't support their endeavors. I certainly don't acknowledge they hold any claim over me or mine to prevent me from helping people. But until the time comes, I bear them no ill will. They're scared. They miss their homes."

Lilith stares at the fire. "I miss my home too. My parents were very often embarrassing, but they weren't bad people.  I miss the others; my hundred or so siblings, families they sprouted. But what am I or are they even going back to?  Some of those guys aren't even from the same world that I and my sister are from, and you don't even know what world you're from. Is this supposed cure all portal going to be specific or is it just going to dump every single one of them into the ether?  Is what any of us remember even real?  My sister Lettie it's 18 years old. She is 18 years older than me and was yanked here while my mother was still pregnant.  I don't remember ever having a sister by that name or her mother so when did she disappear? We all came here around the same time so where was she before that?  Did a weird disappearance snatch me from my mother and will I turn back into a baby if we go back or is all of a lie?"

Spizzzo shrugs his shoulders, then nudges Lilith. "Have some tea." He gets up, tends to the fire for another moment, and starts lifting logs again.

Lilith plucks a bag from the box. "Thanks." She sets about making herself some tea. "I can feel the others, but not really communicate with them besides Lettie, so we <i>are </i>related." Lettie might be a total weirdo, who is somehow younger than her, is something kind of comforting about having a real live relative here. "But I will tell you one thing that I did learn from my mother about magic.  If someone has to die to make it work, this is dark sorcery.  There is no killing one person to save everybody else.  that's not what those kind of rituals are used for."

Spizzzo snorts quietly as he pounds the next log into its new home, stretching his hands afterwards, rubbing the sides of them. "I'll tell you one thing about not magic. Killing is bad "

Lilith smirks at Spizzzo. "Sometimes. Not always. But yeah." She watches the tea.

Spizzzo continues to work quietly, leaving Lilith to her tea. After several more logs he keans against one, finally dabbing the sweat from his face. He looks back toward Lilith, nodding to himself. "I know you're a warrior. I don't want you to think I'm being patronizing. But if something bad happens, come back here. This place is defensible, and I'll need your help protecting others. Better together than apart, right? Like these logs."

Lilith nods quietly to Spizzzo.  "Yeah," she agrees. "Better together." She conjures a tea cup out of shadow, solidifies it, and takes a deep drink, eyes, widening in surprise. "Hey, this is pretty good stuff.  Somebody likes you. My little love letter was a dragonfly stuck in a frame. Very inspiring."

Spizzzo just nods again, squeezing his hands open and closed. "It isn't what people are used to. But I believe this is a land of miracles and bounties. A kind soul sends herbs to make the stew more palatable. Tea to calm our nerves. We have meat, fire, and shelter. Washing up on a lake with no memory and no preparation could go a lot worse."

Lilith drinks her tea and nods in agreement. "Yeah, exactly. I spent my whole life moving from place to place and traveling with my family. Their absence aside, this place really isn't that bad.  If you feel OK, leaving the watchtower for a little bit in the coming days I think we should investigate that stone circle ourselves before they get any ideas.  Just in case a bogeyman or a tentacle monster or something pops out to play games."

Spizzzo nods again, then gets back to work lifting logs. "Let's do that."

Lilith holds out her hand, and the shadow raven lights on it. "I'll have this guy keep a close watch on things in the meantime.  You mind if I sit awhile? The fire is nice and it doesn't feel cold out here to me."

Spizzzo smiles for the first time in a while, bashing another log into place. "Stay. That's why I keep the fire."