strangetrip | [EP/GP] Check-In: I Assure You We Are Open

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[EP/GP] Check-In: I Assure You We Are Open

The damp, cool, chilly morning clouded with fog seemed to fit the mood about the Madonna Inn. Nobody had been quite right since the undead invasion. Definitely not Vax'ildan. But for him, it was less about their sense of day-to-day calm and safety shattered, less about undead specifically. It was a lot more to do with losing Scanlan and Pike, and the new memorials installed in the Temple.

He wondered about it, not for the first time, even as he readied for the fresh arrivals that might be coming today - or not, because they didn't always. What decided who came and went? Was there any sense in how many and when or why? Not so far as he could tell, but he'd never been the brains.

Gathering up the great heap of cloth and rope in his arms, the lean figure summoned the wings of his armor, the black of his silhouette merging with the other dark and shifting shapes skulking about in the first light of dawn. With a crouch and a lunge from the roof, he spread his wings wide and circled through the air right up to the face of the main building, unfurling the massive banner he'd sewn of spare bedsheets and painted with dark dye to tie it up taut:

WELCOME NEWCOMERS
YES, THIS MEANS YOU
NO REALLY WE'RE SURE

Life kept going on around you, no matter how confused or scared or fucked-up you were. And the best thing, the kindest thing, the sanest thing he could think to do in all this was to start up the coffee machine, stack some decorated pumpkin-shaped cookies on a platter in the lobby, and prop open the doors for whoever would join them in being confused and scared and fucked-up today.

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"I could tell you to turn around and go in the opposite direction as far as you can get, but I don't think it would do you much good," Vax told him with a slightly sad expression that didn't make it out to be much of a joke. "'Here' is The Madonna Inn. It's in Kahl-ee-Fornea, one of the realms of Ahm-Erikah's United States. If that means anything to you?"

"California and America, sure." He said. "But I came from New Orleans and as far as I know, I don't have the ability to travel that far in one..."

Tyrone paused as he regarded the strange man. He shook his head.

"Is there like, a bus or something I could get on?" He said. "I... should probably get back home."

"I don't know where that is, but... Transportation's going to be kind of a problem." Vax sighed. "There's no easy way to say it, and I don't expect you'll believe me straightaway, but I'm sorry to say you're stuck here."

"Stuck here?" He repeated.

Tyrone looked around and frowned.

"What about my family? My friends?" He asked. "There's a lot I still need to do back home.... How are we stuck? Can't we just... Walk in a direction until we find a highway and some help?"

"Okay, to start... Your friends and family are probably fine. You're welcome to walk for as long as you like, but it's the strangest thing, because nobody seems to get more than a few miles out before they're turned around again. And all that important stuff you've got to get back to..." He paused to take a deep breath. "What's your name, if you don't mind?"

"Uh... Tyrone." He said, while trying to process.

Maybe I'll just try to use my powers to leave when I can find a place to hide

"Hello, Tyrone," Vax repeated by way of acknowledgment. "I'm Vax'ildan. This place isn't normal. It's magic somehow, and cut off from where you came from, where I came from, and where all the others you meet here came from too. I know what I'm saying doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but... The way you got here probably didn't make much sense either, did it?"

The man was talking about magic.

"The way I get around sometimes isn't exactly... normal." He replied.

Tyrone peered at Vax.

"One time I was stuck somewhere. It seemed like a really long time." He said slowly. "There was a puzzle that needed to be solved in order to get out."

"Was it a dungeon? I've been stuck in my share of those. They're filled with puzzles and traps and monsters more often than not." Vax wasn't quite putting together what that meant about how Tyrone traveled. Puzzle Magic or something?

"I guess you could say that." He answered.

Tyrone didn't normally share stuff about himself, but he found himself willing to say something to this man. He supposed it was because the man seemed so nonchalant.

"I ended up stuck inside someone's mind." He said, leaving that up for interpretation.

"Well, that's..." Vax found himself nonplussed. Not disbelieving, exactly, because both this world and Exandria had shown him incredible things he couldn't explain. 'Stuck inside someone's mind' wasn't anything he could pretend to understand, but this seemed better than that. ...Unless they were stuck in someone's mind, but how would they even know?

"...But you're here now?"

Tyrone shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess I am." He said. "With no where to go, apparently. And an Inn... which is where I'm staying, right?"

He sighed as he looked around. Did it have to be so... pink?

"Anything else I should know about this weird place?" He asked.

"You're catching on quick," Vax confirmed. "Okay, so... There's a few members of staff, but they're... Maybe I'll just show you," he gestured in the direction of the reception area where Darryl lurked. "That guy, he's got the particulars for your room and your key. Which is a card. And that might sound crazy to you how it was for me, but try to keep up," he moved to show Tyrone the way.

Tyrone didn't look off-put by the mention of a card for his room. He had to wonder why Vax thought it was such a strange concept.

He followed Vax.

"You said something about them, though." Tyrone observed. "Why the 'but''?"

At the desk, Vax tapped the little bell to make it ring - though the figure that serviced the desk was already there, waiting. So far as Vax had noticed, it never went anywhere or did anything else. "Hello, Darryl. This is Tyrone. He's checking in, because he doesn't have a whole lot of choice in the matter."

The ambiguous man-shape that could almost but not quite be mistaken for human typed on what would be considered an ancient computer by Tyrone's standards, readied a key card, and offered it to the young man. "Tyrone Johnson. Room 139."

Tyrone looked nonplussed as he took the key from the strange man.

"Thanks..." He said, then looked to Vax.

He had questions, but he didn't want to be rude. He decided to ask them later.

"So I just take this key that was creepily waiting for me in some different dimension reality place and just... go find my room and move in?" He asked slightly dazed still.

"When you're ready." Vax knew that nearly-trampled-by-horsecart look Tyrone had on his face well by now. "It's a lot to take in. But it's not just you, is maybe the most important thing to remember. There's dozens of us that came to be here much the same as you. We help each other, more or less, because we've got to get along somehow. So when you have questions, or you need something, or you want to point out how bizarre and totally unfair all of this is... You're in good company."

"I guess that's something." He agreed with a nod.

He continued to look at the front desk. Might as well get it over with, anyways

"Thank you... uh." He said, forgetting the man's name.

"Vax," the half-elf offered when he realized what it was Tyrone must be trying to remember. "I can't say I'm glad to see you, when it's not always easy, being cooped up here. But I am glad enough to meet you."

"Thanks," He said honestly, with a nod. "I guess I'll see you around."

He attempted a small smile. Then he turned and headed to the desk,

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[EP/GP] Check-In: I Assure You We Are Open

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