[GP/EP] Check-in Day

[st_hotflashes]

Liz was starting to get better at the whole check-in day stuff. She knew she hadn't seen 'everything' yet, but she was learning from watching Kitty and Caroline and the others how to approach distressed, confused, and even angry people. It wasn't always perfect, but she was getting better.

With the help from the bakery, there were muffins on trays in the lobby - Mary had insisted. She insisted on coming in every once in a while to restock the trays too.

Liz had helped bring another tray to the front desk and then moved to sit at one of the couches that had a view of the front doors. She had a complicated science essay for Kitty due in a week and Liz was having trouble finding the right wording to express her thoughts.

Every once in a while, Liz would look up to see if there was someone knew approaching. There could be no one today or there could be a lot. Briefly, she wondered if someone else from home would show up. A part of her was curious who that would be, but she found a larger part of herself was hoping no one else would.

Comments

Assigned Threads

[st_ormscoming]

Ororo used the moisture in the air to create a fog to envelope her and the surrounding trees in an effort to mask herself from Hank's sensors. It was the X-men version of hide and seek. Hank had wanted to test to see if his recalibrating could pick her out of a dense fog.

She stayed as quiet as she could, so any mutant hearing wouldn't be able to pick her out either. It was only her affinity with the weather around her that alerted her to the subtle change. It was only then that she noticed that she couldn't hear the rustle of the leaves in the wind. Ororo immediately dropped the fog and was both surprised and alarmed to see that she was now standing in the deserted parking lot of a very large, very pink inn.

The wind current picked her up and allowed her to have a bird's eye view of her surroundings. Storm didn't see any visible threats but she knew they weren't always visible. After lowering herself to the ground, the first step was to get answers and the quickest way for that would be inside the Inn.

She was very glad that she had been wearing her X-men uniform. It wasn't subtle, she definitely stood out in a crowd, especially with her hair, but it would also ground her in trying to think like Mystique, like the Professor, instead of falling back into her comfort zone of life in Cairo. Storm stepped through the doors of the lobby and paused. Nothing could have prepared her for the eclectic surroundings.

Re: Assigned Threads

[st_illkindalost]

Hurley was grateful that someone asked him to do something.

Sure, he worked the kitchens -- he had even learned how to cook something other than fried chicken, which was pretty much a requirement when you had an actual staff chef whose one specialty was chicken. But it wasn't often that someone needed him to do something. There were plenty of people who were way better at doing stuff than he was. Hurley couldn't fault them for defaulting to those people first.

He would, too.

Hurley actually doesn't hear her come in; there was definitely a good chance that if he'd been doing anything other than staring, bored, at the doors, he would have missed her entirely. But as soon as Hurley sees her, he pushes himself to his feet.

"Hey," he says, keeping his distance for now. Probably a smart move, he thinks. You never really know what you're getting from the newcomers. "Uh..." What does he say now? "Welcome to the Madonna Inn."

Storm & Hurley

[st_ormscoming]

"What is this place?" Her Egyptian accent was a little thicker than normal because of her stress level. "Are you in charge here?" Storm didn't think that he was, but looks and body language were usually deceiving.

Re: Storm & Hurley

[st_illkindalost]

It takes Hurley a second to process what she's saying because her accent is so thick. There's a slight delay in his response while he plays back what she's said in his head and then finally

"It's a pocket dimension." Hurley has picked up that much from the others; science really wasn't his thing. "A bunch of us are stuck here. We're all from different places, different timelines, different times."

And to answer the woman's other question:

"I'm not the leader here." Thank God for that. "We don't really have an official leader. We all, uh -- we all do our own thing. I'm just here to greet the people who show up."

Storm and Tony - Stables

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

After the fiasco of the last Arrival Day, Tony opted to stick close to home base but not too close. He had attempted to camp out in the lobby--but the mirror served as a grim and constant reminder and he wanted no part of its taunting. Instead, he camped out by the stables to watch the horses doing their thing. It was supposed to be relaxing, but all he could do was wonder various things such as, were the horses also pulled from some far reaches of other dimensions? Were they weird, mechanical automatons like much of the staff? Were they oddly material ghosts? Were they immortal?

Tony laid his head down on the white fencing, cheek compressed by the wood. He sighed. The scent of manure was thick. His nice sneakers were slowly sinking into the mud, and he activated his armored boots (knowing they wouldn't hold out long with the ongoing destabilization.) None of this was relaxing. He was forced to maintain the assertion that horse-people were crazy.

In the distance towards the hotel, Tony caught the sight of bronze skin and a shock of white hair, all done up in a form-fitting costume with a cape. He didn't even need to ask F.R.I.D.A.Y. to run facial scanning to know that that was a new face. Well, no time like the present to be neighborly, half-assed or no. Nothing could go worse than the last attempt.

"Welcome, Traveler. Or something." He beckoned, waving a hand.

Re: Storm and Tony - Stables

[st_ormscoming]

Ororo had been out exploring when someone had told her there were stables. She had never been around horses, but she supposed they were probably like donkeys in their temperament. Those she didn't mind which was why her curiosity brought her over toward the stables.

"Hello." She said in greeting when she got closer to Tony. Her brown eyes held amusement at his greeting. It was more how she would have greeted someone. "Are you on the welcoming committee?" Ororo actually didn't think there was one.

Re: Storm and Tony - Stables

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

When she got closer, unsurprisingly, the get-up wasn't any less outlandish. His eyes went up and down her form, silently ordering F.R.I.D.A.Y. to take note through the scanning function of his glasses.

"Goodness, no. I'm not nearly perky enough." Tony replied with a straight face, pushing up to lean onto his palms. "But hell, I've got a baseline of manners. Tony Stark." He offered a hand crossing his body towards her.

Assigned Threads

[st_artfeeling]

Niska's words reverberated through Mia. She'd been at a loss of what to do with herself, how to make things better, but she was still wary of life with the humans after Ed.

"Just one experience like that, just one person like that, can define us, but only if we let them. You will find a way."

It was all that she could think about after taking the Synths to the railyard and Max. She must decide what she must do next. Her mind was trapped in thoughts of their failure. The Consciousness code disappeared seven minutes after it was uploaded. There were no new conscious synths since day zero. Everything that they had tried had failed but she hadn't failed the four synths that had survived the trip across the North Sea. That was something.

The cool breeze against her skin shifted to a warm breeze. The smell of the ocean was.... different, yet still faint. Her green eyes re-focused on her surroundings and what had been the outskirts of an abandoned railyard was now a desert. Mia closed her eyes and let her internal inspection go through her systems. There were no anomalies, no gaps in time so she wouldn't have been turned off and she certainly hadn't been sold.

She walked toward the closest building, but when she got closer, her fluid steps became more robotic. Until she knew what had happened, Mia was now Anita. Just a normal green eyed synthetic.

"Hello?" Her voice was softly modulated with a hint of a British accent, there was also not a hint of emotion in the voice.

Liz/mia

[st_hotflashes]

Liz looked up just as the girl entered the lobby. She started up to her feet quickly, abandoning her notebook on the couch.

"Um, hi." She offered a smile as she slowly approached with her hands visible and neutral. "I'm Liz. You must be new here."

Re: Liz/mia

[st_artfeeling]

"I am Anita. I believe that I am lost. I need to contact my primary user, Laura Hawkins." Mia said to Liz, though she did file away the body language and lack of apprehension on the young girl's features. The sight of a green eyed synthetic usually brought stares as they would wonder if the synth was conscious from day zero or not. That was interesting.

Re: Liz/mia

[st_hotflashes]

"oh, um... I'm not sure if she's here... You see, you're not exactly where you were a few minutes ago. This is the Madonna Inn. It's, um. It's in a separate reality than your world." She hoped that made sense. She realized not everyone understood the concept of alternate reality.

Rocket and Mia

[st_ripetail]

It was arrival day, which was almost a reason to stay away from the cafe and lobby, but... well, Rocket kind of wanted to be around in case people showed up. Groot, other Guardians, Jemma, Greenie, anybody. So far no luck, but maybe someday.

Today, he had a pile of different batteries and plugs, testing out power sources and setups. Boring stuff, really, but it let him keep an eye out. Which was how the human woman newcomer... no, not human, she didn’t move like a humie... caught his attention.

Out of curiosity, he hopped down from his table and moved over to a table near her. Yeah, he was gonna steal the forks, but he also wanted a closer look.

Re: Rocket and Mia

[st_artfeeling]

"Hello." Mia smiled at Rocket and offered. "Do you require assistance?"

It didn't strike her as an unusual request to make. He walked on two legs rather than four and the intelligence in his eyes were easy to see. Especially when you were used to looking for consciousness in other synthetics to see who woke and who didn't. You became very good at discerning that.

Re: Rocket and Mia

[st_ripetail]

"Uh, hey." Up close, she didn't smell like a human any more than she'd moved like one. A human wouldn't notice, but there was a little ozone smell of electricity about her, a tang of metal. She was at least a bit mechanical, probably more, and it was hidden.

Hidden better than his stuff, for sure.

Ordinarily the best way to piss Rocket off was to even imply that he needed help with anything, much less ask him directly. But he wanted to figure out the not-human, so his ears only flattened briefly before swiveling forward again. "I was gonna take the forks back over there," he pointed at his table with its pile of batteries and odd bits of wire and cable, "but if you wanna grab an' carry I could be okay with that."

OTA

[st_evengrantrogers]

Steve couldn't believe that he'd been here two weeks already. He'd spent most of that time exploring the boundaries of this place and trying not to hate chicken. The first few days were fine--he wandered off in every which direction trying to figure out a way out, but somehow always seemed to come back to the Madonna Inn. The food wasn't bad. Steve had had bad food back in the war, so this was actually pretty tasty, considering. But it started to get monotonous. And Steve started hiding. He didn't know how to act or what to say when he came into contact with the people here, so he stopped trying. Besides, he had a lot of things to work through on his own.

It was time to end his self-assigned hermitage, though. He came out on the day he knew new people would be arriving and lingered near the dining room area to people watch.

Liz/Steve

[st_hotflashes]

"Um... you're Mr. Roger's, right?" Liz had seen him around, of course. She had heard about him from Peter, but hadn't quite found the courage to approach yet. Liz offered him a friendly smile.

Liz/Steve

[st_evengrantrogers]

Steve turned at the gentle voice and caught sight of the brunette standing near. He hadn't spent much time outside of his room over the last couple of weeks--at least, not with many other people--so he didn't know the girl. Though, he thought he'd seen her around with some other young people--with the boy who introduced himself as the Spider-Man.

"I am," he put on a warm smile. "You can call me Steve, though. You're a friend of Peter's?"

Re: Liz/Steve

[st_hotflashes]

She blushed a little, looking sheepish, but nodding. "Um, yeah." Somehow it felt strangely intimidating to correct him that Peter was more than a friend, but she didn't know why.

"I'm Liz. It's nice to meet you. Peter, um. He's said a lot of nice things about you."

Re: OTA

[st_rongliketeflon]

Maria was on her way to wait tables when she practically ran into the tall drink of water that was Steve Rogers. Her eyes went wide and her mouth gaped open slightly.

"Woah." She said.

He is like, way too good looking to be real life right now

Steve/Maria

[st_evengrantrogers]

That was a common reaction when people bumped into Steve Rogers. The funny thing was Steve hadn't really put together why people--especially young women--reacted to him this way. It was probably something to do with the celebrity status that he had, right? Meeting Captain America was like meeting a hollywood movie star, or a MLB MVP.

He broke into a somewhat shy smile at the sight of the pretty girl who was gaping at him. "Hi, there."

Loki and Steve

[st_ratagem]

"Ah, Captain." Loki, as was his usual pattern, seemingly appeared out of nowhere. That he'd done so with his actual self rather than an illusion was the only slightly unusual part, but he'd decided to stay unseen while he tried to work out whether the smarter move was to introduce himself or continue to allow himself and Rogers to go about their separate tracks.

In the end, the simple fact that both Stark and Thor knew very well that he was present in the Inn was the deciding factor. To associate with them while avoiding Captain Rogers could present an image of being up to something. Which in fairness he usually was! Just not at the moment, and he couldn't see how adding avoidable suspicion to the unavoidable would help him. "I'd heard you arrived."

Loki and Steve

[st_evengrantrogers]

Well, this was unexpected. Not entirely, of course, because Thor had mentioned that Loki was here... but Steve hadn't thought the god would seek him out. Then again, this place wasn't that big--Steve should have imagined they would come face to face eventually.

Steve's spine straightened just a little at the sight of the dark-haired man, and his chin lifted just a little.

"Hello, Loki. Your brother said you were here."

OTA

[st_ranger]

It had been days since Bucky had arrived at the hotel. He was careful as he entered the lobby, making sure to get a good look around before entered fully. While he had started to feel more comfortable within the hotel, he still was skittish. Mostly, he didn't want to run into Tony Stark again. He wondered briefly if someone had fixed the mirror yet.

Nodding his head slightly, he moved around the room, looking at some of the others who were there. He wasn't sure if they were new arrivals or just people he had not met yet. His brow furrowed and he looked around, checking out every corner and potential exit.

He felt like he should approach someone and try to be social, but he just wasn't there yet.

Re: OTA

[st_hotflashes]

Peter had mentioned the man with the metal arm to her. She had seen Peter fight the man in Berlin too. Now she knew it name, but that was most of it.

When she saw him, she offered a friendly smile and put down her school work. "Um, hi. Bucky, right? Or do you prefer a different name?"

[st_ranger]

Bucky smiled, blinking at her. "Uh, that's fine." He shook his head slightly, remembering that he had to relax around people here in the hotel. At least, people that weren't named Stark. "No other name. Not really. Just... Bucky."

James took a step closer. She had mentioned him by name, which meant she either knew him or knew someone that did. His mind whirled as he tried to think if he would know her, but her face didn't look familiar to him. "You, uh... You have a name? I can call you hey you," he said, trying awkwardly to joke with her.