strangetrip | [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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"A gift shop?" It might be the first time he was stranded somewhere where there was a souvenirs of the experience. Maybe whatever race who was responsible for this place had a really good sense of humour. He doubted it - not that maybe alien races had any sense of humour.

"Anything else to do here with your free time other than shop, drink, and -" He gestured vaguely to the sword.

Not really, but he didn't quite say that, even though the thought made his lips quirk.

"We all pitch in, the people who were here when we arrived are little more than automatons." His assessment, not the scientific term. "So those of us who came here by other means, like yourself, we all take on jobs to make things run smoothly. But even with that there's a lot of leisure time."

"Sort of a... 'communal' set up, huh?" Daniel would love this place. Jack just got that feeling about it. There were probably so many cultures and worlds and languages. It was as if this place was build exactly for him. A Daniel play ground.

"Alright. So everyone pitches in... does that mean everyone here is on the level?" Not that Jack was going to necessarily believe that right off the bat, but getting the sense of how locals felt about their society was always telling in one way or anything.

"As far as anyone can tell," he thought by now if someone who was here was behind this they would have done something that people would notice. But He knew as well as anyone that, that didn't mean everyone was actually on the level.

"I've been here over a year, weird shit happens. We've been attacked, we're given doors to other worlds occasionally. But no one is obviously in control of it."

"From my experience, just because you don't see someone pulling the strings, doesn't mean there isn't one."

Sometimes it was grey little men other times it was Urgo.

"Anyways... it sounds like I'm in it for the long haul, huh?" He tried to bury any feelings he currently had about not seeing team again deep down - that would be for another day. "Please tell me there's at least a lake around here to go fishing."

Dyson silently agreed with the assessment about not seeing the people pulling the strings.

"Lake, pond. A few creeks in the woods. And an ocean not far from here." A pause, and a smile. "Not a lot of gear but I've cobbled together the basics and we'll use any food you bring in. The chicken provided by the inn gets boring fast."

He hadn't been ocean fishing before. He knew that it was different to lake and pond, but he decided immediately he'd have to figure it out and give it a try. "No steak?" Red meat was sort of Jack's thing, more than anything. "Fish I can do. Maybe the universe is finally giving me time to fish more often." Maybe this was someone's way of forcing him to retire for a while.

"Some red meat, but that mostly depends on how you feel about venison." Dyson did more than fish. And his tone makes this clear.

"Not sure I want the universe deciding I should hunt more, but I'm enjoying it anyway."

Jack didn't mind venison. He had definitely eaten stranger things.

"I wouldn't say no to a little fishing." Hunting, maybe, but it wasn't really his thing. He was mostly a catch-and-release except for the occasional one wanted to cook. "Any other interesting tidbits I should know?"

"Probably, but where would the fun be in telling you all of them?" Dyson grinned, his tone joking and not malicious. "Not everyone here is human, in case that might startle you."

But something told him that this man wouldn't even blink.

"That just means life here might not be so boring." Though he had to wonder if there were any Jaffa or little grey men walking around.

"Well, I guess I should get going to have a look for myself, huh?"

It had it's moments of boring, but he didn't argue the point.

"Dwayne will have you room keys at the front desk, and there's a fully stocked bar that way too."

He gestured at the main building with his sword.

He nodded, then touched his hat as if 'saluting' Dyson before turning and heading toward the Inn and the new adventure.

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

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