strangetrip | [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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"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."

"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.

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."

"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.

"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."

"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.

"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."

Graham, she thought, and then Daddy, both with a barely suppressed grimace and silent sob. She'd made so many of these Heartless. Or some version of her, undoubtedly, had.

Regina clamped down on those emotions and said, "Darkness is a cancer. Once you let it in, it spreads until it takes over. But it can be fought. It can be defeated. The Hook that I knew did. He..." Regina hesitated. It had been so important, so personal to Miss Swan, but it was all part of the story now. She wouldn't mind, not for a boy like Henry. "Traded his ship to save his true love's family, and almost gave his life to save my son."

Sora nodded. "It's harder when you choose it in the first place, but yeah. My friend Riku did it. He lost his body for a while though."

"Strange," Regina murmured aloud. "I've never heard of that happening before." She brightened intentionally and asked, "How's your food?"

"It's good, thank you." Sora had been eating steadily while they'd been talking, in fact. He'd had a lot of practice, in the last while, combining eating with talking about 'what next' - there wasn't always a lot of time, so if you wanted to eat, you had to do something else at the same time. "Yeah, Riku was a special case, kind of. Ansem - kind of, anyway - took his body for a while. I'm not sure how that worked, I wasn't around for a lot of it, but I know it worked out OK."

Ah. That she did understand. Possession. Or control that looked like possession from the outside. None of them things a boy of his age--she stopped her thoughts and looked at him intently. "Is your aging slowed, or are you actually a boy?"

"I'm fifteen." Probably, anyway. He'd lost a year being asleep for... some reason he still didn't know. "I don't think anything's slowed, but I probably wouldn't be able to tell yet."

She wasn't Miss Swan to claim to know when people were lying, but Henry had tried it often enough for her to recognize the signs in a young boy's face. It would surprise her deeply if Sora were lying.

"All right." She smiled again, the expression intended to be soothing. "I just didn't want to treat you like a child if you weren't one."

[GP/EP] Check-In Day

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