[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]

Sora blinked, but took the offered seat. He wanted to say that he could get his own food, but something told him to settle. Regina wanted to be helpful, and it had king of been a long day. "Um... fruit, maybe some bread? I don't eat meat, just so you know. You know, ahead of time."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_oriedqueen]

"Is there anything besides meat that you don't like or are allergic to?" Ignis did fantastic things with vegetables. But there was always peanut butter and jelly, bagels and cream cheese. Cereal, and the like. Plus no one would object to him having dessert for lunch and dinner the next few days, if he wanted it.

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

"I don't think so." At least, he couldn't remember swelling up or being sick or anything. And it was a good idea to limit pickiness as much as possible, especially when you were turning down a whole food group. "It's just I have a lot of friends who're animals. So I can't eat them. Everything else is fine."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_oriedqueen]

"Okay." Regina shared a kind-eyed smile with the boy. "I'll be right back."

Possibly not right back, since Regina was plausibly the world's worst cook. (Not quite that bad. Henry had survived his childhood, but that's what frozen food was for.) She'd need to find Ignis to see what might suit a skinny energetic vegetarian kid of indeterminate age.

"Ignis?"

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_eadfast]

Ignis was, as usual, found in the kitchen. Sometimes he ventured out of it, on arrival days, but this time he had not. "Ms. Mills. What can I help with?"

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_oriedqueen]

Although she had't stood on ceremony since the Forest, Regina found a certain comfort in Ignis's formality with her. It meant she didn't have to try to negotiate the awkward social space between service staff and friend.

"Thank you, Ignis. We've had a young boy arrive, vegetarian, but extremely energetic. He's hungry, and I'm hoping you'll have some good idea what to feed him."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_eadfast]

Ignis considered for a moment, then asked, "Do you know his feelings on eggs and dairy? If both are fine, I have a mushroom quiche that may suit?"

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_oriedqueen]

"I don't, but he did say one of his friends was a duck. So perhaps not eggs this time. I'll ask for his next meal." She really should have thought to ask. Henry had had food phases, so she knew better.

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_eadfast]

"A duck," Ignis echoed, a little nonplussed. "Very well. There's a fruit salad in the refrigerator there," he gestured, only slightly off, "and I imagine grilled cheese will do well enough until we know all the rules?"

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_oriedqueen]

"Grilled cheese." Regina's voice had the distinctive ring of 'why didn't I think of that?' "Yes. I think that will do. Do we have any vegetarian soup? Tomato maybe? He looks a little on the thin side."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_eadfast]

"As it happens, yes." Ignis started to move around the kitchen, fetching bowls, a plate, the fruit salad, cheese, bread, et cetera, and then returning to the center island to start slicing cheese. "The leftmost pot on the stove is a tomato bisque. I made it intending to use it as a base for other things, but I expect it will suit your purposes."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_oriedqueen]

"Perfect, Ignis. Thank you." Her gratitude sounded regal, even tinged as it was, with relief from rising panic.

She paced off some of the energy while he prepared the meal, and after a moment words spilled out. "It's just that he's alone. Without parents. Or any adults. And we know some people in common." Or versions of them. "My son's about his age and I know he'd act like everything was fine and under control, but he'd be able to because he'd know his mother and I would come for him. But if he were here, we wouldn't be able to and--" She realized what she was doing even as the words tumbled free and put the brakes on her prattling tongue. "I want Sora to feel welcome and safe before it hits him that he may never see his family again."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_eadfast]

"I understand." And while Ignis's only experience with children had been with Noctis when he'd been a child himself, he had very sharp memories of how clingy Noct had been and how desperate he'd been to fill in as much of the gap as possible after the Queen had been killed.

He'd arranged bowl of (probably) brightly-colored fruit salad, a bowl of hot soup, the freshly-grilled cheese sandwich, and a glass of juice on a tray - a solid enough meal to soothe both the child and the worried Ms. Mills. "Unlike we adults, he can't get drunk and pass out somewhere as a method of coping."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_oriedqueen]

"Thank you, Ignis," she said with unusual softness as she took the tray from him.

Sora couldn't drink until he passed out, but Regina could use magic to soothe him to sleep if it became necessary. She hoped it wouldn't, but resolved to do what was needful to help the boy become acclimated, and made a note to explain to Snow so she wouldn't feel replaced.

When she emerged from the kitchen, it was only a few minutes later, but she half-expected Sora to have disappeared rather than wait. In a new place, Henry or Roland might well have.

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

Sora, however, was still sitting where Regina had left him, idly kicking his feet and looking around with interest. It wasn't that he felt the need to obey grownups, or anything, because he truly didn't. It was more that he didn't really have a reason to run around at the moment.

He was stuck. There'd be plenty of time to explore. But right now, he thought it'd probably help both of them if he let Regina look after him. And okay, maybe there was a little loneliness from missing all his friends instead of just some of them.

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_oriedqueen]

Mildly surprised to find Sora where she'd left him, Regina relaxed back into a smile as she brought him the tray of everything Ignis had put together for him. She set it down in front of him, then joined him at the table.

"We weren't sure if eggs and cheese were okay. I went with yes on cheese and no on eggs. Everything else is strictly vegetarian," she explained in a vaguely maternal tone. "I hope that's all right."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

"It's great!" Sora beamed at her. He hadn't thought about eggs, but... well, they were probably still OK. Eggs were in basically everything, like bread. And everybody ate bread. But he hadn't thought about it, and it was really thoughtful of Regina to worry about it. "Thank you!"

Perhaps predictably, the grilled cheese was where he started eating.

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_oriedqueen]

She smiled, one part relief and one part amusement. "You're welcome."

For a little while, she just watched him eat and tried not to be creepy about it. But there was only so long you could distance-mom without looking creepy. She'd watched Emma (and herself) do it often enough to know. "Why don't you tell me where you're from that you know Pan?" she suggested, gently, without her usual imperative.

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

"That was in Neverland. I'm not from there, I was just sort of... well, I wasn't visiting. I was kind of visiting. It's complicated." After a second Sora offered, "Pirates," in a tone that suggested it should explain everything. "I'm from the Destiny Islands. You probably haven't heard of them."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_oriedqueen]

"I haven't," Regina confirmed. "But I've been to Neverland." Not pirates, exactly, but, "Pan took my son." Since she didn't want to upset Sora with that, she said, "We got him back." But it occurred to her that it might give Sora the wrong impression about this place. "The Jolly Roger carried us with the Golden Fleece for sails. I bound Pan's shadow to get us back. But I don't have any powerful magic here."

She never once imagined that he might not know magic or that he might be bothered by her using it. He knew Pan. It couldn't.

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

Sora blinked. If she'd.... "The Jolly Roger was the 'pirates' I meant. Captain Hook took my friends and me and tossed us in his hold with a few hundred Heartless. That's where I met Peter, because Hook had Wendy and my friend Kairi too."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_oriedqueen]

"Pan's a villain," Regina said flatly. "It doesn't matter what the stories say. He stole the lives of young boys to stay young himself. Hook used to be a villain, but he reformed. He's a hero now." And in love with the Savior.

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

"Yeeeeah, we're probably going to have to agree to disagree. On Hook anyway, 'til I see it for myself. Anybody with a hold full of Heartless isn't on the right side." He wouldn't argue Peter that hard, because... well, what else would you call taking the Darling kids from their home and drafting the boys into his little army? Never mind that they were okay with it, that wasn't good either. "Plus he tried to kill me." After a minute, Sora added, "He wasn't that good at it, though. Oogie Boogie was worse and he was basically just a pillowcase filled with bugs."

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_oriedqueen]

"Hm." Regina fell quiet for a moment, troubled that Sora wouldn't accept that Hook had changed sides. What did that mean for her? And more importantly, "What are the Heartless?" Because if they were what she thought, she was going to have a lot of proving herself to do when he figured it out.

Re: Sora - Assigned Threads

[st_rongheart]

"They're... monsters, kind of. They come from the darkness in people's hearts. And they're attracted to it. And when you lose your heart you become one, too." Sora had spent a few minutes as a Heartless that way. A pretty weak one, too, which wasn't all that surprising. "People with dark hearts can control them, for a while, sometimes. 'Til they get consumed by them, which even somebody who does it said always happens eventually." After a moment, in fairness, Sora added, "Hook was scared of his, of what they'd do to him. He didn't give'em orders, he just... used'em like walking the plank. Which only worked when it wasn't me. So there is that."