[GP/EP] Check-In Day

[st_oriedqueen]

Why Caroline had needed her to help with Check-In Day she hadn't bothered to say. Just, "you said you'd help," and when Regina protested she wasn't good with people, "aren't you a Queen or a Mayor or something?" complete with shooing gestures. While Regina found Caroline more exasperating the terrifying, she did have a point.

So Regina suited up--literally, gathered her files and folders, coffee mug, pens and pocketed the wooden carving of Henry/Roland Robin had made for her, then headed for the cafe. If, polished and politic and patently Busy, she didn't offer newcomers the brightest or warmest smile when they arrived, it was nevertheless confident and quite possibly reassuring.

Caroline did friendly. Regina...did knowledgeable and polite. Dot and Ignis had been asked to provide finger food on catering trays. The still-grieving Miss Pryde had been tasked with samovars of tea and coffee and ice chest of soda and beer. Caroline's welcome baskets sat on the table beside Regina's for easy access. And though she didn't when she was alone in the office, Regina spent the magic to fix her eyesight so she didn't put glasses between her and new arrivals.

Madame Mayor was in.

Comments

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

"Yeah, he'd never heard of them either." Sora sighed and shook his head. But it wasn't like he wasn't used to looking for people he'd lost. It was just four now instead of two, and he was sure Donald and Goofy would do their own looking for him in turn.

It would all be okay, because of course it would be. "Thanks anyway. Hey, can you tell me what this world is called at least?"

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_abby]

The thin, dark eyebrows hitched upward a bit. Not at the question itself. But at this kid and how wholly well he was taking things so far. ...It was actually a little unsettling, given the circumstances. It would be more natural to flail or growl or sob or at least deny all of this was even happening. Especially so for one this young.

Maybe it hadn't quite hit him yet.

"I'm not from here, but I've been told this world is 'Earth,' and the kingdom called 'Kal-eh-forniah,' in a country made up of United States. Does that mean anything to you?"

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

"Nope!" It was a little more complicated than most world-names that Sora knew, sure, but maybe it was bigger. Worlds weren't all the same size, after all. And they had areas and things. So.... "Earth, huh? Thanks, I'll remember." He wondered what other worlds it was connected to, what pathway Maleficent had found. "How about Maleficent? Do you know her at all?" This guy, despite wearing black and having a kind of Captain-Hook-ish accent, didn't seem like her type, but sometimes it was hard to tell.

And then something else in the guy's answer grabbed Sora's attention. "Wait, you're not from here? You came from a different world too? Neat! Which one? Maybe I know it!"

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_abby]

"I don't know any Maleficent," he kept first things first, though it did sound vaguely elven. "But the world I came from is called Exandria. ...Are you saying this travelling between worlds you've just got done doing is familiar to you?"

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

Huh. Exandria was another world he hadn't heard of... but there were probably a lot of those. "Sure, I do it all the time. I mean, not usually by a witch's dark portal..." Or was Maleficent an evil fairy? Sora wasn't sure. "Anyway! Usually I travel on a ship with my friends Donald and Goofy. But yeah, I've been to lots of worlds. Not Exandria, though, sorry."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_abby]

Even as a seasoned inter-planar traveller who found himself transported to a new world entirely some months ago now, Vax was finding that a bit difficult to believe. He considered the boy critically, but he didn't get a sense that the child was lying to him. As mad as it may seem, he believed that the boy believed it.

Maybe he was just a little... You know. Touched.

But for the moment, the half-elf extended him the benefit of the doubt. (People here still looked askance at him about dragons and the rest.) "If you have a way of contacting your friends with their ship, there are a lot of people here who would be very much interested in the possibility of travel to other worlds. We're in what's known as the Madonna Inn, you see, and we don't seem able to leave."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

For a moment - just a moment! - Sora looked crestfallen, then he smiled again and shrugged. "Sorry. They're usually right with me, we've never really needed a way to talk to the ship. It's just like 'Hey Donald, Goofy, come over here!'" And he hadn't seen any of the glowy spots on the ground that usually meant 'gummi ship transporter', either. "And I didn't come here by ship anyway, Maleficent sent me here."

Was it possible that this world wasn't connected? It would explain no one being able to go anywhere, and no Heartless, but... how did people from different worlds all end up here, if there was no connection? Maybe... maybe it was like Traverse Town, way back in the beginning? People with strong hearts and wills ending up someplace else when their worlds were consumed by the Heartless. Like Sora himself had done, and Simba, and Bambi....

Sora decided, immediately, not to mention this possibility to the man in black, who was being friendly and helpful. It wasn't like Sora was sure, or it was anything but a mean thing to say. "I'm sure this world will get connected sooner or later. It'll all be fine."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_abby]

"You are... Indomitably chipper," the fellow informed him, quirking a smile in spite of the strangeness. (Maybe even because of.) "What's your name, lad?"

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

"I'm Sora." Sora held out a hand to shake, and decided to also not mention that he'd introduced himself in his first flood of commentary and questions. There had been a lot of names in there, it was probably understandable that the only one not belonging to a lost friend had gotten missed. "And this isn't so bad. Nobody's tried to steal anybody's heart, or turned into a dragon and tried to kill anyone, or started and had to run away from an avalanche... anyway, this is a pretty nice world actually. Plus I still have hands."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_abby]

Sora seemed to have a habit of talking at a speed of about 30, and Vax - particularly as he was only now recovering from the Worst Hangover - was really only keeping up at about 25. Old people problems.

"Hands are super useful for introductions," he put out a black-gloved hand for a smooth, friendly shake. "Welcome to you, Sora. I'm Vax'ildan. And I know a thing or two about dragons," he confided. ...Killing them, at least. "I can show you where to find your room if you'd like."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

"Nice to meet you, Vax'ildan! And yeah, please, I don't have a map yet. It's... 174?" He was pretty sure that was right. "I've only met two dragons. Maleficent was one, she's the one who tried to kill and burn everybody. The other was a friend."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_abby]

"Just a short stretch of the legs," Vax assured him, leading them back outside and angling them in the direction of the building in question. "In my experience, most dragons are like that first kind, burning and killing and scheming. Not nice."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

"Mushu did like burning things, but he was pretty little. A family guardian spirit for another friend of mine." Sora wondered how Mulan was doing. He'd had to leave pretty quick and hadn't had a chance to visit again. "If anybody else I know is a dragon, they haven't told me. And I mostly fight Heartless, so it's a lot of ghosty demon things. Behemoths. Weird invisible geckoes."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_abby]

"I'm not sold on a 'guardian spirit' being the same as a dragon," Vax turned it around. "But what's a 'heartless'? And what kind of fighting is involved?"

Sora certainly didn't look threatening, but Vax more than most knew better than to assume. He'd been killing men for coin by the time he was this boy's age.

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

"Heartless are... they're Heartless." Sora waved a hand in the air, trying to illustrate a point he hadn't had to explain in a long time. "They come from the darkness in people's hearts, and they want to... eat hearts, I guess. It's a little more complicated than that but I don't think much." Nobodies were the complicated part. And boy, were they. "What they really want is to consume the hearts of worlds. They want everything to be dark."

And that was as good a time as any to call the Keyblade, in its swirl of light, as Oathkeeper, one of its more impressive forms. And a nice reminder that he had to see Kairi again, to return the keychain she'd lent him so long ago. "I use this to destroy them, free the hearts they take, and lock them out of worlds. It's called the Keyblade."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_abby]

The Keyblade as Sora called it hardly even looked like a weapon at all. Art, more like, and it was hard to see how it would be practical. Magic, must be.

"Don't take this the wrong way, lad, but all of that sounds super weird to me," he finally admitted. "You lost me back at the dragons. ...Are any of your Heartless here, do you think? I'm fond of keeping my organs where they are."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

"It's okay." It was weird, until you got used to it. Which Sora had had to do very quickly, since he'd gone straight from island boy to prospective savior of worlds in a matter of minutes. The Keyblade disappeared again in its swirl of light. No point keeping it out unless there was going to be a fight. "And no, I don't think so. They'd've shown up by now if there were any here, they're kind of drawn to the Keyblade. Sometimes, anyway."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_abby]

"Maybe this will be a bit of a vacation for you then."

As they worked their way round the winding path, giving Sora a better understanding of what buildings were where and the garish charm of the Inn's outdoors, they chanced to pass another man with ridiculously good posture, white hair surprising on someone so young, and a custom set of spectacles. He had his nose buried in a book on approach, but glanced over the pages at them when he noted there were people headed his way. "Don't even, Percy," Vax held up a hand as if to signal for safe passage, even as the fellow seemed to purse his lips to say something. "Check-in day." 'Looking for a young boy,' indeed. Percy thought better of it, and continued off in the opposite direction.

"That's Percival. He's alright. A bit too smart. You can meet him later," Vax promised. "Better not to get sidetracked first thing."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

Sora turned to walk backwards a few steps, watching Percival moving farther away, then nodded and spun back around. "Yeah, I'll never learn where things are if I get distracted. Good plan. This isn't a very big world, is it?"

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_abby]

"It's very small," Vax agreed as they walked past a quaint garden. "You can walk in any direction for a few hours - but you'll just end up back here at the end of it. This fact makes some people rather cranky."

"Every once in a great while," he struggled a bit with weighing out how much hope he thought he ought give in his mild tone, "one of the rooms will... Change a bit, to let us visit some other world for a time. But once the door shuts, things are back to being small and closed-off like before. We all come back to the Inn."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

"So it's connected sometimes," Sora mused. "That's weird. Most worlds're either connected or they're not." So would there be a Keyhole or wouldn't there? It was worth looking, anyway. "Hey, by the way, thank you for helping me out here. I appreciate it." New friends were always better than more enemies, after all.

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_abby]

"We're neighbors now, so we should at least try to be neighborly," Vax gave him a bit of a smile, reaching carefully to pat the boy's shoulder. The kid was really being very brave about this. It made him think of Kynan - with less beating him and breaking his tender heart. But Sora wasn't trying to throw himself into the fray with Vox Machina, either.

He nodded at the three buildings that rose up ahead. "This is where the private rooms are. Most of us end up in the largest building, over there. There's also an artificial pool beyond, if you like to swim." He flashed an impish grin. "Or toss your friends in."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

If Donald was here, he'd probably enjoy that. Being a duck and all. "Okay, got it. Private rooms, pool, over there." After a moment, Sora jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Do you throw that guy in the pool much?"

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_abby]

That startled a genuine chuckle out of Vax, his dark eyes brightening. "He's stuffy enough for it," Vax had to admit. "But he might surprise you. He helped me chuck in one of our other friends. A very grumpy one." Not that he was going to elaborate for the boy that they had been sloppy drunk and trying to distract from his own heartache.

"Our building is back this way," he waved them on. "...I know this is all a lot to take in. But is there anything special you're wanting to know already?"

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

"No, I'm good." Sora was looking around with interest rather than any sign that strangeness was catching up with him at all. "It's not really as much as you think, you know? Remember, I'm used to going to different worlds." He was also used to being able to leave again, but... eh, it'd be okay. Everything would always be okay.