strangetrip | Check-in May 15

Entry tags:

Check-in May 15

It was the 15th of the month and given the possibility of arrivals, Caroline decided that something should be done to make new people a little more comfortable.

So she was sitting in the lobby, wearing a bright yellow sundress and surrounded by a riot of materials. Her feet were bare, as her sandals were lying off to the side, and her toenails were blue. She was creating Inn survival kits. There was a little pamphlet of explanations: people call the guy at the desk Daryl; yes,everything is free; no, you can't leave; just be firm about towels. A basket of sundries - snacks from the gift shop, sunscreen, guidebook, toothbrush etc. There was a towel, because obviously.

She considered adding a bottle of alcohol, but not everyone drank - she'd noticed at least a few of the current residents who didn't - and if they did drink TOO much, she didn't want to encourage it.

Maybe chocolate?

Caroline jotted down that as a note and resumed chewing on the end of her pen. The lobby door opened shortly thereafter and she looked up with a smile.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

River cocked her head and watched for a long moment before perching in a chair opposite Joanna.

"I do not understand."

"We can't. But everyone's working on it," he added quickly. "Mages and scientists. We haven't given up."

Honestly Sam hadn't put much work in on that project, but he had others, more pressing, since Dean was here. Of course, if this Dean hadn't made the deal yet, it might not matter--unless the Dean in his time made the deal and now Sam wasn't there to help him.

"There's time travel involved. People coming from the same worlds, but from different times. My brother's here and he's from two years before me. My grandfather's here and he's only a few years older than I am. So, we don't really even know if anyone from our own time knows we're gone."

Joanna didn't laugh, but the corners of her eyes crinkled, and the way the light caught made the brown in them seem warmer, and she smiled when River joined her.

"I could ask the staff for art supplies, and hope something showed up in the shop. Or I could make my own, get what I want, and enjoy the process along the way." It wasn't a complete answer, but in this case, and with River, sometimes the why was more important than the what or how. Joanna could always elaborate further.

"I... honestly, I don't really know." Angua frowned. "We recently had one of the rooms turn into a whole other world? I don't know if it'll happen again, but it might. And most people try to find something to do with their time, because this is a fairly small place all told. Go out far enough and you'll just end up back here again." She thought a little more, then added, "Not everyone here is exactly human. So if you see oddities or magic or what-have-you, it's generally nothing to be afraid of."

Caroline frowned and then picked up her notebook, flipping to her guest listing. It had all her notes about the people at the hotel and her best guess at who they were and what they did. She used marks to indicate her degree of certainty.

"I'm not sure what the difference is but yes, magic users. Witches, wizards, people who don't like labels." None of them had found a way out of the hotel, she thought about pointing out, but remembered her policy of waiting for him to ask the questions. It wasn't like he was listening to her answers.

"I'm a nonconformist," he told her, deadpan. "You know, the road less travelled and all that."

He tipped his chin to her project and lifted a brow expectantly. "What're you working on?"

She wanted to ask about mages. She should ask, and her eyes had momentarily brightened with curiosity, only the idea was working its way in.

No way out.

No way to tell anybody where she was.

"But..." Corbie said, smaller, barely more than breath. But Felix and Mildmay and Lord Brightmore and Julian and Hutch and Virtuer Stone and Miss Leverick and Robin and...

She didn't cry. She fucking refused to cry. But tears stung at the corners of her eyes.

Relief washed over him. Finally, something that made sense. He nodded, even managed to screw up a half of a smile. "Point me to the nearest one." Witches wouldn't be his first choice, but the enemy of my enemy and all that.

He leaned into his spear and pushed himself up off the couch again, clearly ready to be off as soon as she told him where to find the person he was looking for.

"I know," Sam said feelingly, his expression softening considerably. "I'm sorry. I wish I could tell you what you want to hear. Believe me I do."

He came around the other side of the bar so he'd be closer, able to pat her shoulder or give some comfort.

The hand on her shoulder brought Corbie back to herself. She didn't shrug him off, if anything she ever so slightly leaned toward him, but she made herself sit up again and rubbed hard at her eyes with the heel of her hand. "I'm okay," she said, because it was better than 'I'm not a kid.'

Caroline barely repressed the urge to roll her eyes. She looked around the lobby and spotted Joanna, surely one of the least threatening people in the hotel and probably one of the more patient. Plus she actually had some medical training or something, so maybe she could convince the new guy - who STILL hadn't given his name - to let someone clean up some of that blood.

"Joanna Beauchamp, over there. Be nice to her. She's a good person."

Kash had already made it a quarter of the way to "Joanna" before he turned halfway back (carefully, ow) to say, "Thanks," and then continued on.

Once Caroline had pointed her out, Kash's gaze never left the woman she'd named Joanna. For one thing, she was his best immediate hope of getting out of here. And for another, she was also the best immediate chance of him ending up dead before he got out of here.

"Joanna Beauchamp?" he asked, an eyebrow lifted to signify he knew the answer. "Kashaw Vesh. I'm a cleric and currently needed on a battlefield. If you have magic to get me there, I have gold."

"It's okay if you're not." He squeezed her shoulder gently then lowered his hand away. "Anyone who's been here through more than one check-in day has seen someone completely lose their shit. We're all pretty used to it."

Which probably wasn't comforting, on balance, but hopefully she'd get that no one would think worse of her if she cried or threw something.

Corbie had to pause a moment in surprise, and then she laughed. It was a little frayed around the edges and hollow in the middle, but it was a real laugh. "Yeah. Yeah, I bet you prolly have. All right." She was so used to being the one dealing with new people, and even in Esmer she'd had no real reason to be in distress herself.

In any case, she gave him a little smile and drank the bourbon. Liquid courage and all that shit.

Edited 2017-05-20 02:34 (UTC)

For a moment, Rey's expression is incredulous, but then it occurs to her that on Jakku, she didn't exactly warm quickly to offers of help, either. Even before Devi and Strunk stole the freighter she had painstakingly repaired, she was slow to trust anyone on Jakku. After that, trust came even slower.

Until she met Finn.

"I'm not going to kill you," Rey says patiently. "No one here will. As long as you're not planning on attacking someone, you don't have anything to worry about."

She shifts her weight from one leg to the other as she once again looks the man over.

"If you don't have a key, you'll need one. The front desk is this way." She directs a finger in its direction, then looks at Vesh expectantly. "Are you coming?"

Joanna could believe the man had come from a battlefield – spear and shield, bloodied, and with the way he held himself, most likely broken ribs he was ignoring for the moment. She didn't blame him for that either. If she'd just arrived from the middle of a battle – and she hadn't been much past a battle months ago when she found herself here – her own injuries would not have been her highest priority.

She stopped what she was doing, resting her hands on the table top where they were in view. If he was asking her about magic, either he had some of his own, or someone had given him a hint of something she rarely showed even here. "Your gold will do little good here, for either of us," unless Songrun or another such world appeared again. "And I'm sorry. If I, or anyone here, had the ability to send you to where you were, I wouldn't be here for you to ask. I'd be back with my children. The battlefield will have to manage without you."

For a moment, Kash considered observing that he'd only asked whether there were magic users here, which meant he had no way of knowing that she had somewhere to go back to herself. One thing he was reasonably sure Caroline hadn't tried to tell him was that there was no one native to this dimension.

Instead, he shrugged. "If you have children to go back to, then you understand why I had to ask. I'm sorry to have bothered you." With a half-bow of his head, he retreated and set his sights on the apparent business counter of the inn where 'Daryl' was to be found.

He didn't have magic to get back, and it was evidently not going to be a simple process to find anyone who might. A bath and a few hits of Cure Wounds, and in the morning, he'd try a Sending to Z.

Well. That either went as well as it could've or terribly badly. Joanna didn't know the man yet to say which. The inn, and being here, was a lot to take in, for everyone.

"Kashaw?" she called out as he started away. "Once it starts to sink in you're here, you can come find me. I can help with those ribs, and any other injuries you're ignoring."

Kash glanced back briefly and nodded acknowledgment. "My thanks."

He didn't need help with healing, but she'd offered concrete assistance he might need at a time of his own choosing. That was actually helpful.

Once Kashaw - and would it have been so hard for him to tell her that like he'd told Joanna? - had finished up with Joanna, Caroline hopped up off the sofa and moved quickly to intercept him. As she stood, she snagged a basket off her small stack and took it along with her. "Kashaw, here. It's not much, just a few things to make it easier as you settle in. Toothpaste, toothbrush, some chocolate. A coffee mug."

She held it out with a smile. "I know it's not what you want. But at least it's something?"

Sam smiled at the laugh. She might have it rough for awhile, but this one would be okay.

"There's more to know, but most of it isn't really important right now. I'll tell you if you want, but it might be easier to get your room key and go check out your room. Depending on where you're from, you might need someone to explain how some stuff works."

Oh hell. She was doing that thing. That thing that Keyleth did. When she thought she'd done something good but it wasn't good and you felt like you had to say it was good because she'd break if you didn't.

Kash sighed deeply, resigned to absolutely nothing except that he was going to have to force up a smile, which he did, and say, "Thank you, Caroline."

Her smile widened, just a little bit and she pressed the basket into his hands. "If you need anything and the staff can't help...which they usually can't, feel free to find me. I probably can point you in the right direction."

Once he'd taken the basket, she flashed yet another bright, but sympathetic smile and went back to her sofa, her bare feet quiet on the ridiculous rose carpet.

Corbie nodded. She wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but she'd take his word for it right now. "Should prolly actually let the guy gimme that key now."

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 3 of 12

Check-in May 15

Re: OTA

Re: Assigned threads

Re: OTA

Re: Assigned threads

Re: Assigned Threads - Night

Re: OTA Tag Sam

Re: Assigned threads

Re: Assigned Threads - Night

Re: Assigned threads

Re: Assigned threads

Re: Assigned Threads - Night

Re: Assigned Threads - Night

Re: OTA

Re: Assigned threads

Re: Assigned threads

Re: Assigned Threads - Night

Re: OTA

Re: OTA

Re: OTA

Re: OTA

Re: OTA

Re: Assigned threads

Re: OTA

Re: OTA

Re: Assigned threads