strangetrip | [GP/EP] We are programmed to receive

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[GP/EP] We are programmed to receive

Fifteen days into this particular strange trip, Kitty had redistributed alcohol supplies between the cafe, restaurant, and night club to make it possible to easily tend bar wherever people decided to gather. Today, as most days, she settled into the lobby cafe after chivvying the cook into chicken tenders and french fries (after convincing him it was a single plate meal). It was the closest she could get to "bar food" from him and someone would probably arrive sooner rather than later to make something else.

A few people trickled in after awhile, but none of them demanding. Like her, they drank coffee from the samovar she'd put out. And also like her, most of them had something else to keep them occupied. At the moment, Kitty had a notebook open (from the gift shop; she kept her school notebooks separate in case she made it home during the term) and was sketching plans to upgrade the hotel's computer technology. She needed more raw computing power to work out the energy requirements to do what Illyana did with a thought.

She lifted her head periodically to check for new customers, and had just seated herself at the end of the bar after refilling the samovar when the first new new customer arrived. Immediately, she flipped to a fresh page in the notebook and headed it "Day 15" and made a hash mark for one new arrival. Then she looked up from her notebook and offered one and all her best bartending smile.

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"It is a lot to take in." Johnny admitted, "but I'm used to weird shit." Just not this weird of shit he added to himself.

"I'm not too happy about getting cut off from my friends though." Truth was, he was kind of happy about being cut off from the Quad,just not so much his brother and Dutch.

"That is the hardest part," Joanna agreed. "For me at least. Being separated from my family. No matter what weird shit," his words offered back to him. Most would call her life weird, and she wondered what he'd lived through that would be as well, "we're used to, not having the people we want in our lives with us is harder to adapt to. I'm sorry."

"As a good friend said to me recently, sometimes you have to leave a home to protect it and sometimes you have to stay and fight. I'm not sure which this will turn out to be, but if I have to fight my way back to my family, then I will." Of course that might be after a while. This was as good as any black hole to crawl into until the heat came down.

"Are you one of the first few people to arrive that Abby was telling me about or did you come later like she did?"

"With the later arrivals, although it looks like we'll have to start calling it the first larger group, since you're not the only newcomer I've seen today."

His insistence he'd do what it took interested her more, and there was a glint in Joanna's eyes somewhere between approval and understanding. "I fought a very long time," longer than most would expect, but she wouldn't elaborate, "Getting my family back together and safe. I'm not going to lose them now, or let anyone else lose theirs."

John had noticed a few people in the cafe, but to him everyone was new so he would guess the ones that looked the most stunned were the new arrivals like him. Then he looked back and caught the glint in her eyes and smiled in response.

"Damn straight." He gave a sharp nod of agreement. "If I have to kick all kinds of ass to do it, then I'm okay with that." Johnny might have also been looking forward to it. He had pent up need to hit something even with killing (he hoped) Delle Seyah.

It probably wasn't a strong similarity to Frederick, Joanna told herself when his eagerness to fight reminded her of her son. Any little thing sent her thoughts back to her children these days, and missing Frederick was a habit of centuries. She gave him a knowing look, possibly a witch's empathy or just as likely a mother's experience. "Is that just okay with or hoping for?"

Johnny laughed, "now you sound like my friend and it might be more hoping for than just okay with. It also sounds like you know where I'm coming from. Have you been in a few places where you were hoping for it, too?"

"Not in a very long time." Longer than he might expect, but it was only a glint in her eyes to hint so. "Afraid I've outgrown my trouble-seeking ways." Wendy would probably like this man, Joanna thought, although it was followed immediately by what had happened to Tommy. Joanna hoped being there for the girls and the girls being there for Wendy would help her hold it together, losing both Tommy and Joanna in the same day.

"I'm not sure I'll ever outgrow those traits." Johnny said honestly and not just that he didn't see him to live to an older age. "With my luck trouble would seek me out the minute I think I've outgrown it." He flashed her a quick grin.

"Some people, trouble will always find." Or maybe that was what Joanna told herself to get through the lifetimes of her girls. "Whether you're hoping for it or not. Case in point," she looked around, "one free vacation in a fancy but strange resort."

"Exactly." Johnny nodded, "not what I was expecting but then few things in life are. Sometimes you take what gets thrown at you and work it to your advantage." He needed to lay low and make sure what he did didn't touch Dutch, this would work. For now.

"And exactly how strange is this? Should I be checking closets and under the bed?" Johnny was teasing, mostly.

"All of us showing up here unexpectedly, not being able to travel more than four hours from the inn, and minimal staff who are decidedly... off isn't strange enough to start?" she countered, mostly teasing back.

"I hate to say it, but I feel like it's going to get a lot stranger as time goes on." Drawing the tarot had suggested that much, although it remained silent on when or how Joanna could get home.

"You're saying this is the calm before the storm?" Johnny arched a brow, though he had to admit that would probably be his luck. This would soon go to shit because that was his life. "I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to that or dreading it." And that was the truth, too.

Definitely like Frederick in that respect. Maybe Wendy too. "I'm saying, we should all keep our eyes open. And that you don't need to go looking for trouble, when it's likely to find you anyway."

She waved her hand in a vague gesture. "But I'm a mom. It's my job to say things like that. Even to people who aren't my kids."

"Yeah, trouble does seem to find me and my friend." Johnny admitted, "so it will probably find me here, and you're a mom? How many children do you have?" It was hard enough being without Dutch and D'avin. He wouldn't imagine being here without your kids.

"Three. The girls, Ingrid and Freya, and Frederick, Freya's twin brother." For so long it had been just the girls, over and over, Joanna still thought of them together with Frederick as the afterthought, when while on Asgard, it had been the twins, and Ingrid separate.

"They're grown now, but there were... difficulties, and we've only recently been reunited with Frederick. To be separated again so soon, well, I've plenty of reason to get home."

Johnny couldn't imagine her with grown children, she sure as shit didn't look like she was old enough to be his mother. His expression was sober as he listened to her and then added his own.

"My brother and I were apart for a long time until recently." Despite feeling like Luke had abandoned him, he'd missed his brother. "He can be a royal pain in the ass, but it was really good to be together again. Well, until everything that happened recently."

"That sounds very familiar. And siblings are supposed to be a royal pain in the ass to each other; that's just life." Wendy could be insufferable sometimes, and Joanna had had reasons for not seeing her as long as they had, but there'd been something missing while they were apart.

"Why don't I get a couple of drinks from the bar. To help wrap your head around winding up here, because that can take a bit. Or if you want to talk about any 'everything that happened recently,' I'm generally a good listener."

"I'm good with drinks from the bar." Johnny said with a nod. "Alcohol always helps or dulls the pain, same thing." He shot her a quick lopsided grin.

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