strangetrip | Check-in May 15

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Check-in May 15

It was the 15th of the month and given the possibility of arrivals, Caroline decided that something should be done to make new people a little more comfortable.

So she was sitting in the lobby, wearing a bright yellow sundress and surrounded by a riot of materials. Her feet were bare, as her sandals were lying off to the side, and her toenails were blue. She was creating Inn survival kits. There was a little pamphlet of explanations: people call the guy at the desk Daryl; yes,everything is free; no, you can't leave; just be firm about towels. A basket of sundries - snacks from the gift shop, sunscreen, guidebook, toothbrush etc. There was a towel, because obviously.

She considered adding a bottle of alcohol, but not everyone drank - she'd noticed at least a few of the current residents who didn't - and if they did drink TOO much, she didn't want to encourage it.

Maybe chocolate?

Caroline jotted down that as a note and resumed chewing on the end of her pen. The lobby door opened shortly thereafter and she looked up with a smile.

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Once Caroline had pointed her out, Kash's gaze never left the woman she'd named Joanna. For one thing, she was his best immediate hope of getting out of here. And for another, she was also the best immediate chance of him ending up dead before he got out of here.

"Joanna Beauchamp?" he asked, an eyebrow lifted to signify he knew the answer. "Kashaw Vesh. I'm a cleric and currently needed on a battlefield. If you have magic to get me there, I have gold."

Joanna could believe the man had come from a battlefield – spear and shield, bloodied, and with the way he held himself, most likely broken ribs he was ignoring for the moment. She didn't blame him for that either. If she'd just arrived from the middle of a battle – and she hadn't been much past a battle months ago when she found herself here – her own injuries would not have been her highest priority.

She stopped what she was doing, resting her hands on the table top where they were in view. If he was asking her about magic, either he had some of his own, or someone had given him a hint of something she rarely showed even here. "Your gold will do little good here, for either of us," unless Songrun or another such world appeared again. "And I'm sorry. If I, or anyone here, had the ability to send you to where you were, I wouldn't be here for you to ask. I'd be back with my children. The battlefield will have to manage without you."

For a moment, Kash considered observing that he'd only asked whether there were magic users here, which meant he had no way of knowing that she had somewhere to go back to herself. One thing he was reasonably sure Caroline hadn't tried to tell him was that there was no one native to this dimension.

Instead, he shrugged. "If you have children to go back to, then you understand why I had to ask. I'm sorry to have bothered you." With a half-bow of his head, he retreated and set his sights on the apparent business counter of the inn where 'Daryl' was to be found.

He didn't have magic to get back, and it was evidently not going to be a simple process to find anyone who might. A bath and a few hits of Cure Wounds, and in the morning, he'd try a Sending to Z.

Well. That either went as well as it could've or terribly badly. Joanna didn't know the man yet to say which. The inn, and being here, was a lot to take in, for everyone.

"Kashaw?" she called out as he started away. "Once it starts to sink in you're here, you can come find me. I can help with those ribs, and any other injuries you're ignoring."

Kash glanced back briefly and nodded acknowledgment. "My thanks."

He didn't need help with healing, but she'd offered concrete assistance he might need at a time of his own choosing. That was actually helpful.

Once Kashaw - and would it have been so hard for him to tell her that like he'd told Joanna? - had finished up with Joanna, Caroline hopped up off the sofa and moved quickly to intercept him. As she stood, she snagged a basket off her small stack and took it along with her. "Kashaw, here. It's not much, just a few things to make it easier as you settle in. Toothpaste, toothbrush, some chocolate. A coffee mug."

She held it out with a smile. "I know it's not what you want. But at least it's something?"

Oh hell. She was doing that thing. That thing that Keyleth did. When she thought she'd done something good but it wasn't good and you felt like you had to say it was good because she'd break if you didn't.

Kash sighed deeply, resigned to absolutely nothing except that he was going to have to force up a smile, which he did, and say, "Thank you, Caroline."

Her smile widened, just a little bit and she pressed the basket into his hands. "If you need anything and the staff can't help...which they usually can't, feel free to find me. I probably can point you in the right direction."

Once he'd taken the basket, she flashed yet another bright, but sympathetic smile and went back to her sofa, her bare feet quiet on the ridiculous rose carpet.

Butters mostly avoided the lobby when there were new people, but sometimes it just wasn't possible, so--was that blood on the doorframe? Had somebody been dripping?

"Dammit, Jim, I'm a medical examiner," he muttered to himself, eyes tracking up to... some guy with a spear, limping off down the hall with probably a key, the hotel being what it was. "I swear, one of these days I'm going to catch my death of guilt."

The blonde on the sofa was also watching the guy make his way toward his (probably) hideously-decorated new room, so Butters angled her way. "Is, um, is spear-guy okay?" he asked.

Caroline frowned at the man - Waldo Butters, she was pretty sure, even though her entry on him was basically blank because lived like a creepy hermit - and then shook her head. "He says it's mostly giant blood. But I'm betting he's pretty injured. He wouldn't take any help. Not that I have any medical people to point him to except for Joanna and he bounced after two seconds with her."

She narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

Not that I have any medical people caused a visible guilty twitch. "I, ah, I'm not a practicing doctor or anything, but if you really don't have anybody I do, well, have an MD. And a bag in my room with some stuff. Not a lot of stuff, but, like, needle and thread and bandages. That I have used. To treat alive people. Successfully. On occasion." He hunched his shoulders. "I'm a medical examiner with accident-prone friends."

Caroline blinked.

She tilted her head to the side.

She blinked again and tilted her head back.

"You. Have. An. MD." Each word came out very precisely, like she had to test every one to be sure it was right. "And you haven't mentioned this before now?"

"I'm a medical examiner. My usual patients are dead. And I really didn't think I'd be here this long." Butters sighed. "But I am, and if spear guy doesn't mind getting stitched up by someone who doesn't usually need a lot of anesthetic, I'm qualified."

Caroline did not think this was a reasonable excuse for not sharing his talents before now and it showed on her face. "He's in room 197. He's grumpy, so don't let that scare you off."

She picked up her book and corrected her listing for Butters, Waldo by adding a somewhat aggressive MD.

Edited 2017-05-23 01:12 (UTC)

Butters was going to end up the official terrible limbo hotel doctor, he just knew it.

"He can't be any worse than a Chicago ex-cop with three broken ribs. I'll go get my bag."

"Let me know how it goes!" Caroline called after him in a chipper voice.

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