[GP/EP] Check-in Day

[st_oneswidow]

The woodwinds in her collection were for noodling mostly, and the violin was for memory of her family, but when Curnen really wanted to play she turned again and again to her guitar. This would probably always be her best instrument. It was the first of the month, she’d been here over a year, and it was probably a check-in day. So she sat on the lawn with her instrument in her lap, sending out a subtle magic to call anyone stranded in their little world this way.

At one point, though, she set aside the guitar and turned her face to the sky. For just a few minutes she required a different kind of magic.

It had been a week now since Scanlan had vanished in the battle. And Pike, too, though Curnen honestly couldn’t have cared less about her going away if she tried. Still. The two of them were family to people very dear to her, people who missed them. And Scanlan had been her friend. You marked something like that with a song.

Of all the money that e'er I had
I spent it in good company
And all the harm that e'er I've done
Alas, it was to none but me
And all I've done for want of wit
To memory now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

It was a traditional Irish goodbye, a farewell to friends said with love, drinking, well wishes, and the hope of meeting again. She couldn’t think of a better one for the occasion. And as she sang she twined her magic into her voice in a new way, sending the song to any ears that needed it, ears of those who knew and missed the departed. Not all of them might understand it, not all of them knew what she was, but she didn’t particularly care about that right now. The song was more important than the hiding.

Once the last note had dissipated she picked up her guitar again and resumed her work. If there were anybody out there, they had to know where to go.

Comments

Bucky & MIldmay

[st_onecoldfox]

"It's too fu- too much. Or it was for me. Takes awhile to..." To what, Milly-fox? Not feel like someone's playing in your head? Making you see and feel and think things that weren't real? Not like you ain't been there before. He didn't say any of that, though. Instead he looked around, gave a half-shrug. Either the guy would get it or he wouldn't. If Mildmay'd been placing bets, he woulda gone for would.

"I like maps." Going back to the guy's question was easier. And maybe a reason Mildmay'd picked an atlas if he was gonna have a book out in public. "And where I come from, it ain't, it ain't the world this place is supposed to be from."

Re: Bucky & MIldmay

[st_ranger]

"To settle in." Bucky knew what he was saying, the idea he was trying to convey at least. His head tilted and he glanced down at the atlas, looking a little closer at it. Bucky was getting it, for the most part. He really didn't have any choice in the matter, either.

He had to admit, he liked maps too. "The information is factual. Resolute. Doesn't change. Very few variables." He turned to Mildmay, nodding his head. "She said we were out of time and space. Wouldn't be in any atlas." He frowned, hating the idea of just being stuck somewhere that nobody would ever find them.

Re: Bucky & MIldmay

[st_onecoldfox]

Maps here, Mildmay had found mostly by comparing them to places he went when the portal-whatever opened on 'Europe', were way more accurate than maps in Méduse. You could actually use 'em to figure out how to get places without a ton of surprises. So what the guy said about maps made more sense here than it would've at home.

She who, he wondered but didn't ask. There were lots of women here who helped with the new arrivals. He flipped to a map of California. One finger, the back of it spider webbed with the hair thin scars of a knife fighter who'd lived, came down on a point roughly a third of the way up. "Out of time and space, yeah. But when it wasn't, where we are now woulda been here. A place called California. In the... United States. Do you have them where you're from?" 'Cause Mildmay didn't.

Re: Bucky & MIldmay

[st_ranger]

His eyes lingered on the atlas, flicking to the finger and then back to the map in front of him. "California," he murmured. That would make sense. He paused, thinking it over. A hotel in California, if they were not out of time and space. He'd try to go and get away, but he would just come back. There was no escaping. "I did, yes. That's... A different country than where I was, but yes. I know it."

"Bucky," he said softly. "I... I'm Bucky. I wasn't from California, but... Yeah." Yes, he understood because yes, that was the world that he was from. He guessed, from the way that the man was speaking, that he did not. A place called California? Someone from Earth would not have phrased it like that. "Where are you from?"

Re: Bucky & MIldmay

[st_onecoldfox]

A name deserved a name, and Mildmay was the last person to think somebody else had a strange name. Bucky wasn't any stranger than most names around here, at least. "Mildmay." Wait. "That's my name. Not where I'm from.

"That ain't gonna be in here," he continued, hand resting on the atlas. He knew what most people here thought at first. Listening to him talk, he could've been neighbor to Curnen. He'd found Tennessee on a map after hearing she was from there, outta curiosity mostly. He hadn't expected it to by anything like Marathat, and he was right.

"World's called Méduse. Don't worry if you ain't heard of it. Nobody here had. Did she tell you 'bout people coming from other worlds, other times?" Whichever woman it was had met Bucky when he first showed up. Mildmay hoped she had, 'cause explaining things wasn't something he was all that good at.

Re: Bucky & MIldmay

[st_ranger]

Bucky nodded his head. He had actually followed the conversation easily, but he didn't want to interrupt Mildmay, so he just smiled awkwardly. "Mildmay. Got it," he murmured. His eyes glanced down at the book. So, Mildmay wasn't from Earth? He tried to follow the conversation. After all, if he could be pulled here, why couldn't he be pulled to another planet?

Bucky shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head again as a yes to Mildmay. "She did. Out of place. Out of time," he said, motioning to the room around them. "Stuck." Bucky's good hand tensed and he struggled not to just make a fist with it.

"Kidnapped." He sighed. "Never heard of your world. You probably never heard of mine before here?"

Re: Bucky & MIldmay

[st_onecoldfox]

Mildmay shook his head.

"Mosta the people here are from some kinda Earth, though, so I been trying to learn what I can. But it ain't always the same one. Like, some's got more magic than others. Or different fights being fought. That kinda thing. It's a lot to wrap your head around, if you ain't used to all kinds of weird shit." And maybe too much to throw at a guy all at once.

"Getting used to just this place was a start. You got your room and stuff yet? Something to eat?"