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

[st_abby]

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.

Comments

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_rongernow]

"Nice ride. You could at least try to boost something like it if we go to a world that doesn't have our versions of motorcycles." Clarice had lived on the streets since high school, she did not have a problem stealing. That's what she had got arrested for, though it was stealing food to eat.

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_x5_494]

"True. Whatever it is, I need to make sure I have enough fuel or it'll be a short ride... though it's sort of like back home, I guess. Didn't always have a great supply of gas." Alec stole it often, but sometimes there was just none around at all and you had to walk or use the Jam Pony bike. "You wanna go shopping with me next time the doors open?"

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_rongernow]

"Depends." Clarice said with a serious face, though her eyes were amused. "Do I get to boost a bike for me or do I have to share yours?"

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_x5_494]

He seemed to consider it. "I guess that depends on which one you want." He looked over at her. "I'd be cool to have someone to beat at racing."

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_rongernow]

"Well I guess it would depend on what world we go to. One like home, I'd take an Indian bike. But if it was some space station future thing, I'd want one that lit up and flew." Clarice might have been kidding about the last one.

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_x5_494]

"Fly, maybe. Lighting up would make it less useful to actual do things." Or things that you needed to be more stealthy to do in the first place - though arguably those things he probably shouldn't be doing in general.

"That settles the bikes, then. You have anything you miss you want here?"

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_rongernow]

Clarice thought about it for a minute and then shook her head, "nope. Most of my life has been light for flight. Honestly, this is the first place I've put down roots. But..." She continued with flash of humor, "I do miss a good steak."

It wasn't like she'd had steak a lot back home either, but it was a nice extravagance to have.

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_x5_494]

"Steak I can do. Maybe I'll come across a cow one day on my run. Otherwise we might have to wait for a world. Dyson's deer is pretty sweet, but you're right, it's not steak."

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_rongernow]

"A couple of cows would be nice though you have to wonder where the milk comes from at the restaurant if there aren't cows here." Clarice made a face, "maybe I don't want to know."

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_x5_494]

"Powdered milk? Though, it doesn't taste like it." Post-Pulse food meant getting used to thinks in canned or powdered form... Unless you were rich like Logan had been.

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_rongernow]

"Probably something like soy." Again Clarice made a face at the thought. Not that soy milk was bad, it just wasn't that great. But Alec was right, it didn't taste like anything other than regular milk.

"Maybe whoever's behind the inn knows how to portal and portals the supplies in and out of here."

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_x5_494]

"Makes sense. Kitties been trying to figure it out since she got here. She's even made drones to figure it out and nothing." He took another bite of his muffin. "But they'd have to be pretty powerful, right?" He was talking around the muffin in his mouth. "Cause you and Illyana both can't leave here. Or even Thor."

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_rongernow]

"Very powerful." Clarice agreed and then smiled brightly before she popped the last of her muffin in her mouth. "Thanks for thinking I'm powerful enough to break out of here. Sadly, I'm not." A beat. "Not that I'll admit to that if you repeat it."

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_x5_494]

"Repeat what?" His winked as he took another muffin bite. "Would you go back if you could?" He knew people on both sides of the coin, he just wondered which on Clarice fell on.

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_rongernow]

"I don't know, to be honest." And Clarice didn't. "I'd like to stop the son of a bitches that killed my family. But a part of me, knows that it won't really matter. Someone else can fight that fight. It's kind of nice not having to worry about that other part of my life, you know? Would you?"

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_x5_494]

He nodded, getting it. "Yeah. Nice not to have to worry whose staring at you or if you're about to walk into a trap." He paused, then pursed his lips "well, a trap for people like us. Of course if you piss off a talking raccoon you end up walking into traps on occasion."

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_rongernow]

That made Clarice laugh, "yeah? What kind of traps does a talking raccoon have in his arsenal?"

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_x5_494]

"Glitter bombs, mostly." He grinned. "So if I'm covered in it one day, I promise I didn't kill a stripper or something."

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_rongernow]

"I would have thought unicorn but I guess stripper would work." Clarice smirked. "Did you at least get your revenge for the glitter bombs?"

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_x5_494]

"Once in a while I defuse one and set it back up in his room." Alec was trained in warfare after all. "That guy's gotta run out of steam at some point, right?"

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_rongernow]

"Would you?" Clarice snickered, "it depends on how stubborn and determined he is to get the last glitter bomb in."

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_x5_494]

He considered that. "You think he'd stop if I snuck in a shaved him bald?"

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_rongernow]

"Well." Clarice began with a smirk, "if it was me and you shaved me bald, I would probably teleport you in front of a moving truck. Just saying. He might see that as gloves are off traps now."

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_x5_494]

"I like your hair too much to shave you bald, don't worry." Though she had a good point. "Sort of hoping he'll just run out of steam, eventually."

Re: Clarice and Alec

[st_rongernow]

"Don't react. As long as he's getting a reaction out of you, he'll do it." She made a face, "I know that's easier said than done, but I do think that sooner or later, he'll get bored and move on."

Her lips quirked, "raccoons like shiny objects, I think. I'm a city girl so I'm not really sure. But maybe he'll find an oooh shiny and move on."