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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She nodded. "One, actually. Dyson? One of the more grumpy looking rough-around-the-edges guys here." But said fondly and maybe, if Tony was good at reading people, he could pick up that there might be enough fondness there to indicate some sort of present or previous romance.

"Except for a few other people, there aren't a lot of people from back home I'd want here, to be honest. Most of them would be a lot to handle. But I could do with my best friend here. Kenzi's great. She'd be a force of nature here."

"Haven't made acquaintesces with a Dyson as of yet."

Tony's lips quirked as a touch of sympathy found its way into his chest. "I've been spoiled with familiar faces, I'll admit." One or two, not so much, but they were from home and he knew where he stood. "Peter Parker, Thor, for example--you know 'em?"

Bo was not normally a blusher, but she blushed a little at the mention of Thor - that particular memory was one of her more embarrassing moments and Bo had a lot of those.

"I know Thor more than Peter." She tried to avoid the teenagers, particularly now when she could be out of control so easily - teenage more hormones could be brutal. "Peter's a good kid, though. Always helping out."

Tony caught that look. His curiosity was firing, and unapologetically at that. "Yeah?" He took a slow, thoughtful sip.

She had to work hard not to clear her throat. "Yeah. Both good guys... if you're world's filled with people like that you're not bad off."

"Heh. If you say so." There was something knowing in Tony's eyes as he regarded Bo, but he let it go. "Plenty of bad guys to balance it out. Equilibrium and all that."

Oh, she didn't like that look. She had to wonder if he already knew or if he simply just planned to find out by asking the god of Thunder - and then she had to wonder if Thor would actually tell the truth.

She swallowed and decided she should pour herself a drink - it wasn't like there was a manager to fire her or anything for drinking on the job. "Yeah, we've got some of those too. A lot of them are pains in my ass." She poured vokda into a whiskey glass and took a sip.

Tony's eyes followed her cup up to her lips. When he caught himself staring, he blinked and turned his attention back to his own mug. He was an unapologetic appreciator, but this was less idle watching and more of a...compulsion. As a committed man, not something he needed to heed.

"Less of those around these parts." He patted the counter. "I've got plenty of enemies. Trying to buck the trend. Active contributing my many and varied talents is a decent way--that being said, maybe you or anyone else you know has need of a decent engineer?"

It might not help Tony's cause that once she was done taking a sip, she licked her top lip slowly.

Though his question made her pause and thing. "Well, I guess that depends. Does your engineering degree include wood?"

Faint tingles ran up his spine and he utilized more force of will to keep his eyes elsewhere. 'God, the reminders of how goddamn ugly this place is. If I threw up on this carpet you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.'

"More metal and software, but I'm a jack of all trades. Carpentry? Baby stuff. Hit me."

Some of Tony's reactions were familiar to Bo, but looking away was a little interesting. It made her think he knew more about what happened with Thor than he let on.

"I need an arch made of a bunch of different trees, the older the better, interwoven arch. Because...." She did a palms up. "stupid reasons based on tradition?"

"Someone getting hitched?" The cageyness on Bo's part only invited Tony's endless curiosity.

She made a face - was it about the wedding itself or the idea that it had to be fae related? Bo wasn't even sure. The last time she stood in front of the alter, she had been brainwashed and almost married someone for hundreds of years - yuck.

"More like, we need one to imbue with magic to stop some bad stuff from happening." She played with the cup, swirling it a little to distract her on how the 'bad stuff' was her going primeval and trying to kill the entire inn. "Don't suppose you also do some magic, huh?"

"Oh, yeah. Unless you meant in the witchy, spellcasting sense. I'm simply a credit to my muggle race." There was clearly a weight behind Bo's ask, but Tony was, for all intents and purposes, a contractor. Contractors didn't need to pry about the 'whys.'

"Got a project completion date for me?"

"Yesterday?" She was only sort of joking. "The sooner the better... I think Dyson's been scouting for the trees, but he's not exactly a lumberjack."

"Right." Tony chased the rest of his drink with a glass of water and pushed back from the bar. "Point me in the direction of a chainsaw and we'll get this show on the road. The more bad juju I can ward off, the better."

Bo looked surprised, then genuinely happy. "Great. I think - Well, Dyson has a shed at the back of hotel near the garden. It's where he tans and whatever else the animals he hunts. He'd probably have something for that there."

"Well...Miss Bo." Tony began to offer his hand, nearly thought better of physical contact with his curious physiological quirks throughout their conversation but extended it anyway. After all, not shaking on a deal was unthinkable for a businessman. "Don't worry about bartering. Consider it a, ah, pro bono type deal."

She reached out and shook his hand. She had to resist the urge to purposefully send to him lusty feelings. There was the little whisper in the back of her mind and for a moment she thought - it wouldn't hurt, just a little - but she took a breath and pushed it away completely. "Looking forward to its completion. And I'll make it up to you somehow, don't worry." And yes, that did sound like she was promising something lewd even though she wasn't.

'Damn.'

Tony slowly retracted his hand. "Pass me some top shelf and we'll call it even."

She reached for the best bottle of Scotch and slid it over to him with a wink. "Don't tell my boss." Which was a joke, obviously.

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

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