strangetrip | Check-In Day: Around the Inn

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Check-In Day: Around the Inn

Finished with self-imposed paperwork and emergency planning for the week, Regina permitted herself a leisurely ride on this absolutely gorgeous spring day. After a good gallop, Grace was content to walk, cropping at dried scrub and new shoots when Regina gave her rein. Regina steered the mare gently toward the west; she could teleport, of course, but she appreciated the quiet of riding toward the beach. She found, in the wake of Henry's Christmas visit, she more often craved the scent of the salt air and ocean breezes. Of course, the Pacific never quite smelled like the Atlantic, always warmer and less bracing somehow, but it soothed the wildness in her just the same.

Back at the Inn, Kitty busied herself with stocking the pool bar and generally setting up for the warmer seasons. The pool had been skimmed of winter detritus and chlorinated by the staff-spectre she rarely if ever saw, and there were fresh towels set out like a proper resort. Since the choice of music was hers, the air around the bar filled with dance beats, Afro-Caribbean today, and Kitty moved right into it. She didn't usually dance at work, but she felt bright today and maybe Lara would come down and work with her and they could goof around Cocktail style.

Sam passed through the Copper Cafe in search of a cup of coffee and a salad, or one of the two gorgeous women he'd somehow wound up involved with. His brow scrunched like a caterpillar hurrying away from a predator while he semi-consciously outpaced thoughts about babies and brothers, and possibly babies and girlfriends. His mild scowl wasn't helped by the pack of spirits trailing him and chatting at him about the lives of his family members. He'd asked them not to gossip about people he wasn't close with, but as a consequence, they talked rapidly and often about River's most recent oddness or his mother and Hathaway acting like...well, like him and Molly and Bo, and no thanks. Ditto on Dean and Jane. For all that he looked a little bothered, there wasn't anything menacing or aggressive about it. If anything, the slight tilt of his head as he strolled through the Inn looked thoughtful, as though he listened to something somewhat distant.

Lillith had come to a bit of a routine for arrival days, and around noon, she sat for tea with River Song. They spoke little, and it was difficult to tell whether the women even liked each other. But for all that, Lillith was content with the ritual. If Curnen sang, she would go out to the lawn next and listen. In fact, on such a sunny day, she would undoubtedly flop on the lawn with a sketchbook and a practice notebook, letting her mind float between image and spellcraft as it would. Out here, she would quickly veil herself at the approach of anyone new, but she often was distracted enough that they might catch her in her true form with her all unaware.

Around them, the Inn hummed and buzzed with the happy energy of winter giving way to spring. The most patient and subtle would undoubtedly note the undercurrents of tension, fear, frustration, and boredom that built up over time. But for day, at least so far as this four were aware, the worst of it had been suspended, in favor of enjoying warm sun and the company of friends.

[OOC: GP. It's a gorgeous day. Come and play! All four of mine can be available. Ping me if you're inspired to tag. <3 Welcome, Carol, Toby, and Number Five!]

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"Ms. Nimura can shapechange?" Thor asks. "My brother can, too!"

"Get out! Is he a changeling? That would be cool. What does he look like when he changes?"

He was still trying to place what Loki was in mythology. Maybe he was the changeling god. It could happen.

"I don't know, but he can become lots of stuff," Thor says. "When I was little, he used to turn into a snake, like, all the time. It was my favorite animal. When he first arrived here he was disguised as a cat."

"Wow Ms. Nimura and Not!Enrique can only go from human to troll to human. Your brother has some really cool skills." Which would explain it if he was the god of changelings.

"So he turns into animals, huh? That would be fun. Unless you turned into a snake and a bird came down and got you. But I guess, he'd just turn back into a person again and scare the bird."

"That's probably true," Thor says. "But if a bird tried to eat Loki, I'd stop them." This part is very true. "We look out for one another." Somewhat true. "You don't have any siblings, do you?"

"Nope it's just me and my gran. My parents died when I was two and my grandmother took me in. I met my best friend Jim a couple of years later and we've been friends ever since." So sort of like a brother.

"I'm sure it's like that," Thor says, nodding. "My friends -- the Warriors Three -- were all like brothers to me, though none of them could really replace Loki." Loki definitely couldn't be replaced. "We used to get into trouble all the time. We'd fight, too. Mostly me and Fandral, though sometimes Volstagg would get into it, too."

The ends of Thor's lips curl up slightly at the memory. "It's too bad they aren't here or else I'd introduce you. I'll have to introduce you to Loki and Valkyrie instead."

"Friends like that are the best." Toby nodded, "and I can't wait to meet your brother, Loki. Is Valkyrie your family, too?" He assumed so since he hadn't mentioned her as part of the Warriors Three.

"Basically," Thor says, because Valkyrie is pretty much family at this point, whether or not she believes so or not. "She's kind of my cool older sister. Plus, she's the lieutenant of my army, so there's that as well."

"Hey that would be like me back home!" Toby said with glee, then paused. "Uh, a Lieutenant is the one that's second in charge right?" Not that there was a second in charge, they all helped Jim but he was there at the beginning so that totally counted!

"Something like that," he says, smiling. "I consider her next in charge, after me. And I trust she'll make the right decisions even though she might not trust herself."

Thor finds himself swelling with appreciation for Valkyrie just by talking about her. They hadn't known each other especially long and their acquaintance hadn't started off on the right foot, but his friendship with her was as important to him as his friendship had been with the Warriors Three.

Toby might have puffed up a bit thinking how he did the same for Jim. He always encouraged his best friend and knew he would make the right decision even if Jim didn't think so sometimes.

"I can't wait to meet them! I wish my friend Jim was here so he could meet you, too." Toby was definitely going to take a selfie with Thor sometimes so he could show Jim.

"He may show up," Thor says encouragingly. "When I first arrived here, there was only one person I knew. But months later, plenty of other people started surfacing and now there's a few others I know from back home here with me now."

"Really?" Toby said with a little bit of hope, but he knew that it was selfish. The trolls needed his friend Jim a lot more than he did.

"That would be awesomesauce! We could go on adventures here, too! Maybe even troll adventures."

"You'll have to let me know what a troll adventure is before we go on one."

"AWESOMESAUCE!" He was going on an adventure with THOR!!!!

"Well one of the adventures that we did, not counting this one." Toby indicated his armor, "was where I had to pretend I was a king. See the Quagawumps old king looked like me and we needed their help in finding the Second Triumbric Stone so I pretended to be their lost king. It worked, too! Well until it didn't." Which was like a lot of their adventures.

"Anyway, before they found out I wasn't their lost king, I had to give them a song that I had 'found' on my journey." Toby had had to think fast. "So I did this." He set the hammer down so he could demonstrate. It wasn't as fluid as it should have been since he was in his armor, but Thor could get the idea.

"Boom, boom, shake the room, say what. Then they started doing it." Toby described the Quagawomps and their dance.

Thor nods sagely at Toby's description of events. This doesn't sound very much unlike his own adventures with the Warriors Three when he was considerably younger.

"Like this?" Thor asks, mirroring Toby's dance as best as he can manage. It's a clumsy attempt, as he's more concerned about getting the movement right than making them look fluid.

Toby clapped in delight. "Yep, just like that!" He then put his fingers to his cheeks and made a pop, pop, pop sound that was the same rhythm as the song. "Boom, boom ,shake the room, say what!"

Thor follows suit with the same sounds and words; if he has an ounce of self-consciousness inside of them, it's not showing now. Troll dances and their songs are not beneath him.

He lets out a bark of laughter when he's done. "Your trolls sound a lot more fun than mine do," he says.

Toby nodded enthusiastically. "They are! Well I don't know your trolls but the ones at Troll Market are awesome. What are your trolls like?"

"Like anyone else, I suppose," he says. "There are good trolls and bad trolls, but they're easily stronger than humans and stronger than even some Vanir and Aesir, so they have been known to make trouble. Usually only when and where they have an obvious advantage."

"My other best friend AARRGGHH is like that! Well, he is huge like you so he kind of always has an advantage, but he's way stronger than most trolls." Toby thought about the trolls in his world, both good and bad, and then asked Thor, "do they have a special place they live? Like for my friend AARRGGHHH and Blinky, it's the Troll Market under the bridge in town, but for the Quagawumps that I pretended to be their king, it was the swamps of Florida."

Thor can't even answer Toby's question because there's only one thing on his mind right now:

"Is that your friend's name?"

"What?" Toby was a little confused at the question. Blinky wasn't a weird name. Then the light bulb went on, "Oh! You mean AARRGGHH? Yep that's his name. He's great!"

Thor grins at that. He likes the name.

"The Rock Trolls live all over the Nine Realms," he says. "Except on Earth. They don't live on Earth." For obvious reasons. "They tried attacking Nidavellir a few years ago, but I helped stop them, so."

Thor wave a hand vaguely.

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