strangetrip | [GP/EP] Check-In Day

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[GP/EP] Check-In Day

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.

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"Yet another peculiarity. There will be a room reserved in your name. You needn't pay for it, or anything else while you're here."

Since he seemed inclined to head toward the Inn, she gestured down the road and turned to walk with him. He bled, and if there were few predators in this wilderness, there were not none.

Fenris said nothing, at first.

As they walked, his limp actually became less pronounced. Not because it was better, but because Fenris made a forceful effort to walk normally. He had an exceptionally high pain tolerance.

"I recognize that my appearance may not give the best first impression," he finally said. He was, after all, covered in blood. "But I was in the middle of battle with a group of slavers. I pose no threat to those who do not deserve it."

"I escort you as a courtesy, not out of concern for their well-being or yours. Many arrive in similar condition or worse. So much so that some imagine this to be a waystation between death and life."

Although he managed the walk well, Yasmeen kept her pace to a lazy, hip-swinging swagger. He might feel little pain, or ignore it well, but she saw no upside to further damaging the injured muscle. She glanced sidelong at him as they walked to say, "It is not, but those who have not known the inside of a cage may not recognize one when they see it."

Fenris had been about to say something else, but at the word cage his head whipped towards her. His expression was perhaps best described as alarmed, with an edge of anger to it.

"You think this is a cage?"

Ah. They had that in common then.

The fire of resistance lit her eyes and her voice. "We come and go as we please, but there is nowhere to go but here--" She gestured to the empty land. "My ship is not here, so I cannot fly. Last month a passage opened to somewhere else. I ran far and fast and when the passage closed, I was here again. What else would you call it?"

"It has to be magic," Fenris said, his voice cold.

"A cage is a cage. This one nets its birds indiscriminately. A sorcerous I traveled with in the world before this is every bit as trapped as I am." He clearly hated magic, which if his captors had possessed it, she understood.

"Understand, there are magic users in the Inn. But not one has used their magic to do anything but help."

Fenris had heard that before. Even Hawke, whom he respected perhaps more than anyone he'd ever known. But she had a blind spot when it came to mages, and how had the Abomination thanked her for it in the end? Mass murder.

"Magic corrupts," said Fenris curtly, but no more than that, for now. If there were mages here then they may start by doing good - but the quest for power always led them astray.

"And this cage must have been built by someone."

Yasmeen marked the suspicion and made a note to warn Regina to stay out of this one's way.

"The will to power corrupts. Magic, science, swords--" With a tip of her head to his in the scabbard at his back. "Are only tools. Did you or I wish to keep people as pets, I wager we would have no difficulty doing so for the lack of magic."

"Funny how we do not wish to," Fenris snapped fiercely. He knew that it wasn't as if Tevinter mages were the only ones to keep slaves, but the practice was so commonplace that it betrayed the evil down to the core of the race.

Before she could react, he took a breath. "Perhaps we should not speak of such things. Take me where I should go."

"Perhaps not." If her tone remained level, there could be no mistaking it for placid. "But before we agree not to talk about it, I would have you know, I will tolerate none being enslaved, no matter who wields the whip."

And with that, she fell silent and continued along the road to the hotel.

Perhaps Fenris had said too much. But then, he had never taken much care with hiding his emotions - at least, the ones on the side of anger.

He walked with her, until they reached the inn, and he looked a bit alarmed when stepping inside. It was not like an inn he'd ever seen. He couldn't quite put his finger on what was so different about how it was appointed, but it was very different.

Not the type to brood or nurse a grudge over true words, powerfully felt, Yasmeen flicked a small, feral smile his way when they entered the inn. He looked just this side of poleaxed.

"You get used to it." For the most part, anyhow. "Enforced stay aside, the accommodations are comfortable. Peculiar, but comfortable."

"Is there wine?" Fenris asked after a moment, because now seemed like a good time to go through a bottle. At least he had not yet seen anything that constituted a threat.

"Plenty of it. And anything else you prefer to drink." Yasmeen inclined her head toward the cafe. "If you'd prefer to start there than with your room key, the details are easier to take over a bellyful."

Fenris considered this for a second and then said, "I suspect it would be advisable for me to bathe before meeting anyone else." And wash the blood off of his armor as well.

"You'd be surprised how many of us turn up bleeding," Yasmeen replied, but steered them toward the front desk.

"Unless I miss my guess, you'll need a few explanations after you talk to the Innkeeper." And because she was bored and he was touchy and wore a sword, she reckoned, "I'll wait."

Ferris looked at her for a moment, and then nodded. He stepped up to the man at the desk.

A few minutes later, he returned to Yasmeen. "Is that man a Tranquil?" he asked.

"A what?" Yasmeen's gaze narrowed as she glanced past him to the Innkeeper. "If you mean is he an idiot, I think not. Although I'm not convinced he and the other staff are alive They behave like highly advanced automata."

"Tranquil mages are stripped of their connection to the Fade," Fenris said, even as he realized that she would likely have no idea what he was talking about. "They cannot dream, nor feel much of anything. They lose the ability to do anything but form a logical opinion."

Yasmeen's stomach turned rather sharply at the inevitable comparison to nanites her mind leapt to. "In that case, I hope not."

"Me too," said Fenris.

He showed her his card. "I have a room, apparently. Can you help me find it?"

Interesting. He disliked mages, but also disliked the practice of making them Tranquil. Perhaps somewhat less biased than he seemed to project.

She took the card from his fingers, read the details, and nodded. "First floor, building three. If your world is anything like mine, you might prepare yourself now. 'Inn' means something entirely different now than it did half a millennium ago."

"At this point I think I will continue to assume that whatever I see next will continue to shock," Fenris said, and turned the card over in his fingers.

"Safe bet." Yasmeen considered the distance involved in getting him from here to there, and held up a hand. "Hold a minute."

She sauntered off to the cafe and asked Kitty, who seemed to be behind the bar in spite of her recent loss, for two bottles of red wine. Kitty didn't bat an eyelash. Just pulled the corks, popped them back in, and handed them over.

When Yasmeen returned, she held out one of the bottles. "It's not far, but no one should have to bleed from their leg and their eyes without wine."

[GP/EP] Check-In Day

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