Check-In Day: Around the Inn

[st_oriedqueen]

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!]

Comments

Re: Number Five - Assigned and OTA

[st_opsummoningme]

"If you wish to publicize your 'work.' Whatever that entails." Illyana looked down at the journal. "There are advantages to the more conventional approach."

Re: Number Five - Assigned and OTA

[st_illfive]

Five doubted anyone would understand his work enough to worry about whether it was seen, usually. The Commission had known enough that he’d wanted to keep things to himself, but... either this place wan’t Commission and it didn’t matter, or it was and ‘Number Five hasn’t given up’ would get some attention. “Walls tend to be big enough to let me look at everything at once. But it’s a fair point. Maybe I’ll hold off on the vandalism until I’ve got something to look at.

Re: Number Five - Assigned and OTA

[st_opsummoningme]

"It's best to be conservative in your destructive tendencies when we are all forced to share the space," Illyana confirmed. "You can always go larger in scope if it's warranted." She recollected her mug for another sip of tea. "You'll want to check in eventually. The front desk will provide you with the number for a room that has been assigned to you."

Re: Number Five - Assigned and OTA

[st_illfive]

“Yeah? I didn’t make a reservation and I’m pretty sure my bosses aren’t doing it anymore either.” Convenient, and Five was too pragmatic to turn down a room in favor of a corner somewhere, but that was another clue for the pile.

Re: Number Five - Assigned and OTA

[st_opsummoningme]

"The reservation has presumably been made on your behalf by the same undetermined forces that are responsible for the other operations of this place." Illyana had a great many vague clues that led to no satisfying answers for him where these had come from.

Re: Number Five - Assigned and OTA

[st_illfive]

“Interesting. Good to know, thanks.” Five considered, then offered because she’d been genuinely helpful, “I think there’s at least some chance this is a Commission facility. Maybe for timeline disrupters whose deaths would be disruptive in themselves.” A place like this, as it had been described, would be a handy way to remove troublemakers without killing them.

Of course, that didn’t explain Five’s own presence. “I’ll add it to the list, anyway.”

Re: Number Five - Assigned and OTA

[st_opsummoningme]

Timeline disruptors? "For that to mean anything to me, I would need to understand what your 'Commission' is," she prompted bluntly.

Re: Number Five - Assigned and OTA

[st_illfive]

"The Commission maintains the timeline, ensuring the correct progression of history via strategic eliminations of disruptive activity. Or via assassination, whichever phrasing you prefer." He preferred assassination. Why be coy about it? Five stuck his hands in his pockets. "A place like this isn't in line with the Commission I know, but it's not entirely unbelievable that certain people might need to stay alive in some absolute sense while also being too dangerous to be allowed to roam free."

Re: Number Five - Assigned and OTA

[st_opsummoningme]

It was a better premise than some: A governing body outside of conventional time and space storing a set of problematic individuals that would cause some larger inconvenience if they were dead and gone altogether. But without a means to act on or test that theory - short of killing one of the residents and seeing what happened, she supposed - it did them little practical good here and now.

"If your doodles yield actionable results, tell me. You aren't the first arrival to willfully manipulate time and space, but your methods appear to be different than mine."

Re: Number Five - Assigned and OTA

[st_illfive]

So she could do it, too? And she’d implied there were others besides her. five supposed that in an infinity of parallel universes, there had to be more than one who didn’t need a briefcase to jump around in time and space.

She was a font of information, this Ms. Rasputin, though Five expected her bluntness put people off. He liked it, though - no wasted time. “It’ll take a while, but sure. What’s your method?”

Re: Number Five - Assigned and OTA

[st_opsummoningme]

The blonde examined the contents of her mug as she determined her reply. A glowing ring of light cut itself from the air around her where nothing had hung before, filling with vivid golden energy that consumed her figure in an instant. Then it was simply gone, leaving no earthly trace.

"Magikal," she informed him from the cafe area behind him.

Re: Number Five - Assigned and OTA

[st_illfive]

One of the few up sides of being a childhood superhero and adulthood time-traveling assassin was that the phrase ‘no such thing’ didn’t even occur. Instead, Five went straight to, “Huh. Never met some who did actual magic before. Just stage shit.”