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: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_illfive]

"It didn't bother me even when I was completely thirteen. It's just a name, who gives a shit?" Five shrugged. For most of his actual thirteenth year alive, he'd had much more substantive worries than his name or lack thereof. Not starving, for one. "The physics is necessary and self-taught. This might surprise you, but time travel is a bitch and a half."

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“So you just do it all.” Tony wandered back to the couch, lounging back. If Five wanted chit chat, well, he wasn’t moving anytime soon.

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_illfive]

"Where 'all' is 'travel in space and time', yeah." Five returned his attention to the conspiracy board, as if it would make sense or seem familiar the longer he looked at it. "Never actually traveled to parallel or pocket dimensions before, though. Not on purpose, anyway - alternate timelines pretty much happen all the time."

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“Any going in and out is, thus far, utterly arbitrary.” Tony thought of Lara as he said it. Many had left and only the one to return.

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_illfive]

“Yeah, well, no one else is me.” Five was confident, but he didn’t think it was misplaced. It might take years or even decades, but he’d get it sooner or later.

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"That's encouraging." Not all sass. If one of the masses had spunk, all the better. Wallowing in angst was the easy way out. Tony made a simple hand gesture at WALL-E to signal for a cup of tea. "For the record, unless the name 'Thanos' means anything to you, consider it niche decor."

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_illfive]

“It doesn’t, but I don’t know what’s useful yet.” Cross-dimensional travel was likely to be even more complex than time travel, after all. Being able to precisely define other universes might be part of it. “Give me a year or five.”

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Don't burn at both ends." Rich, coming from him. "Take a load off. Have a cuppa. What do you take yours with--lemon? Honey? Vodka?"

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_illfive]

“None of the above.” Tea wasn’t as good as coffee, but it was often easier to get. Five moved back to the bed, as a convenient place to sit. “Where I came from, the world just ended. I showed up here, and I don’t know when my family went. I’ll burn every end I have to.”

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Giving a vague but knowing hum, Tony set his mug aside and gestured for WALL-E to approach. “Time won’t pass back home. That was a leading theory that’s been anecdotally confirmed. Not that that takes much pressure off.” WALL-E dutifully spun around for Tony to pop open a panel on his back.

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_illfive]

“I don’t care if time passes there or not. The world already ended, I’ve got as much time as I want on that one.” Again. “My family, on the other hand, might be stuck outside of it, and one of those morons is going to figure out how to send that to shit, no time required.”

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Five’s rant was a hair too familiar for comfort, but still Tony simply nodded. “Whatever you get during your stay here, you’ll take when you leave...memory-wise.” He nodded sideways at the conspiracy wall he’d bother to put time into at all.

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_illfive]

“Of course I will.” Why wouldn’t he? Five waved a hand. “Once I get the How worked out, it’s just a matter of doing it. Personal time is always one thing after another, even when after ends up technically before.”

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“That’s the spirit.” Defense mechanisms or no, it was nice to not feel the need for a pep talk. Re-calibrating his robot with a sequence of buttons, Tony pushed the panel shut and sent his boy on his way. “What’re you gonna do now?”

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_illfive]

“Finish recon, then start work.” Five slid off the bed again. “Maybe find a wall.”

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“Best way to go is up. Smacked it enough times to leave a mark. Haven’t tested underground.” Or underwater, for that matter. “Spend the first few months taking notes of the surrounding terrain. California all the way down until you venture more than a few hours out.”

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_illfive]

“Wrong kind of wall, sport. And wrong kind of work. I’m not going to be flying or tunneling anywhere.” Five wasn’t sure whether it was optimism, naïveté, or stupidity to believe that tunneling or flying would get you across a dimensional border.

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony grinned wryly. “Are you sure? It’s pretty fun.” It was easy to see Five was one to prod. If the man-boy-man was gonna hang around his bedroom, might as well make the most of it.

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_illfive]

“Then you can do it. I’ll stick to things with some chance of actually working.”

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Ah, the joys of the pathologically joyless. Tony brought his mug of chamomile back around with another hum. “Jokes aside, I’m a tech guy. I’ve got my own findings floating around my internal database, but the associated research fellows is open for fresh blood.” Maybe call it a club, but club was a lame title. Commonwealth? Illuminati?

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_illfive]

"I probably don't mind sharing my work," he couldn't, when he tended to spread it out on walls or floors, "but I'm definitely not interested in being supervised." Research fellows were, as far as he knew; subordinate to a primary investigator. No way. "That's how people get stabbed in the femoral."

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Don't give us that much credit. There's no real hierarchy." Aside from some length-of-stay seniority that Tony recognized where Kitty was involved, anyway. "We talk, we theorize, we drink, we keep ourselves busy." Besides that, some qualitative and quantitative chit-chat on transfer of person-sized matter? Too good to let walk.

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_illfive]

It was on the tip of Five’s tongue to say ‘I don’t do talk’ or something like it, he even had his mouth open. But then he shut his mouth, because he did, a little. With Dolores, who was gone, burned up or wearing sequins in the remains of a department store. Yes, she was a mannequin, but she’d been his only company for decades, the only one he could talk to.

There hadn’t been anyone safe enough in the Commission, and his family were buffoons. But Dolores was proof that he did kind of need someone around, the more so if he actually intended to commit to this ‘grow up’ thing. “I don’t promise that won’t be how someone gets stabbed in the femoral.”

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Idly rubbing at the glowing core at his chest, Tony shrugged to one side. “You’re used to dangerous crowds, so’s everyone else. Just don’t hog what few gluten-free options there are, I’m trying to cut down.”

Re: Five/Tony - Bewildered Bedroom Meet

[st_illfive]

“My body’s thirteen and I’m not picky.” It was possible there’d be days where he lived on peanut butter marshmallow sandwiches and vodka, but not many. “I’ll say this for the apocalypse, it gets rid of a lot of fussiness.”