[GP/EP] Check-in Day

[st_oneswidow]

Curnen had been at the inn for nearly six weeks, and in that time she'd had her good days and her bad. Most of the time she remembered to walk upright and speak clearly, and on the best days she remembered songs. Not many, and often with a line or two she had to fudge, and she still couldn't play worth a damn, but she was slowly remembering words to standards she'd known for longer than most of the people around her had been alive.

It was time to try again.

In the lobby and the bar she knew that for the fifteenth the welcoming committee was getting into place to set any newcomers straight on the workings of the Madonna Inn. She too was getting into place, but for a very different reason.

Perched on the roof, Curnen lifted her head to the sky and began to sing.

I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
A-traveling through this world of woe
But there's no sickness, toil or danger
In that bright land to which I go

This time she felt the magic take hold as the song lifted up and floated out on the wind, calling out to Rob. She knew that at least some people here would sense what she was doing, would know what she was, but she didn't care. Not enough. While she still had not told anyone about her true nature, she was sure at least a couple had guessed. And there was so much less incentive here to do so. She was surrounded by wizards and beings who like herself were not human at all.

So she sang, her voice bright and clear like a bell. A beacon.

Comments

Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow White was not doing well.

It wasn't that she missed Lindsey on any emotional level, but damn if she didn't miss him like crazy on a practical level. With people in the stables suddenly reduced by half, Snow's workload had doubled. She had not complained. This was natural. Instead she fell into old patterns her stepmother had set years and years before, and just did it herself without expectation anyone was going to bail her out. She'd done it for the first couple of weeks here, it wasn't like it'd kill her.

But it did mean that she practically fell asleep on top of her lunch in the cafe. Finding her head on the table and her sandwich only half eaten, she honestly considered if she wanted the nap more than she wanted to eat it.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_oriedqueen]

When she first saw the dark-haired head resting on the table, Regina thought it might be the new girl, Curnen, but then she saw her sitting up by the bar, and her heart lurched. She tried not to rush forward, but she'd seen Henry slump -- and die, and she just--

"Sweetheart?" Regina rested a hand on her shoulder immediately, fingers near her neck in hopes of feeling her heart or a breath.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

"Mmm?" Snow's eye opened a crack. Knowing it was Regina had kept her fromm starting, but this also meant she had to answer the panic in her voice. Perhaps Snow had grown up a little bit. "I'm fine, Mama," she mumbled, rousing herself.

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_oriedqueen]

Hearing her voice was all Regina had needed, and she relaxed into a less frantic maternal concern. She smoothed a hand over Snow's hair and bent down to kiss the top of her head. "You're not fine. You're exhausted. I don't have anything on my calendar this afternoon. I can come help you take care of the horses."

Re: Snow White - OTA

[st_arkcrowblack]

Snow yawned wide, wide enough to pop her ears and almost her jaw, too. She pushed herself to sit up straight. "I'm not gonna say no," she said, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

tag Curnen

[st_rummer]

Coby was used to losing time. Sometimes he woke to the mother of all hangovers with no clear idea what he'd gotten up to the night before. Those times, he kind of felt like he deserved it and just hoped the fun had been worth it. Other times, he suddenly became aware, to find himself in strange surroundings with zero clue where he was, how he'd gotten there, or how much time had passed, with no explanation except his fucked up brain playing tricks.

The last thing he remembered was grabbing his gear out of the back of Brion's van, telling him he'd see him a few months, the chill fog of a midwinter London night wrapping around him and seeping into his coat. Then he was warm, eyes adjusting to bright sun, a gentle breeze carrying scents that called up memories of childhood, but with the weight of two gig bags still pulling on his shoulders.

Well, shit.

Okay, there were a couple of options. He was hallucinating. He'd lost himself again and hopped a flight back to California in a fugue. Or... magic? After the past year or so in London, he wasn't ruling out anything just yet. Coby dug his phone out of a pocket, glad to see it still had most of a charge, less impressed it had no bars. He walked a little ways along the road in the middle of nowhere, watching the phone for any sort of signal. No luck, but there were buildings up ahead. Peeling off his coat, he shoved it through the straps of his keyboard bag and started in that direction.

He was close enough to see the parking lot when he heard a clear soprano, a familiar soprano almost calling to him, a beacon. He sped up, following the sound of her voice, scanning the area around until... There. On the roof.

Coby's smile lit up like a sunny day, and he joined in as the song near its end.

I'm going there to see my father
I'm going there no more to roam
I'm just a-going over Jordan
I'm just a-going over home

"You don't know how glad I am to hear your voice, butterfly."

Re: tag Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

Despite her efforts, Curnen had been mostly certain that nothing would happen. The people she lived with did not sing. What had Rob told her? In primitive societies, everyone sings. In agrarian societies, most people sing. In modern societies, almost nobody sings. So that a voice had not only joined hers, but knew just how to support it and weave around it made tears flood her eyes.

With her vision blurred, her hope momentarily flared. But when she blinked her eyes clear again, she knew this wasn't someone she recognized.

Still. This wasn't exactly discouraging.

Not sparing any thought to whether or not she might fall, she leaned forward, balancing on all fours, and tipped her head to one side like a curious cat. "You don't know how glad I am to hear a voice at all," she said.

Re: tag Curnen

[st_rummer]

Coby didn't worry about her falling. Curnen had wings. If it hadn't meant putting down his gear, he might've flown up to join her. But not knowing where he was or how they got here, he wasn't quite ready to do that yet.

"You and me both. We're a long way from London. Not quite as long a way from Cloud County, but far enough. Is this more weird magic shit or something?"

Re: tag Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

Curnen blinked slowly at that, sure that she hadn't processed that sentence correctly. That hadn't happened before, but that didn't mean it couldn't happen. London?

But he knew her. He knew where she was from. And... well, butterfly could be a term of affection, or given the mention of weird magic shit, he may know what she was.

Curnen was fascinated. So she climbed down, easily scrambling to a section of the roof where the drop was shorter, though she maintained the crouched position for a moment or two longer than necessary once on the ground. It still felt so right.

"Yeah, there's weird magic shit," she said as she pushed herself to her feet. "We're kinda stuck here."

Re: tag Curnen

[st_rummer]

"Stuck? What the-" Before Coby had time to try to wrap his head around the idea, he was already sending up a prayer to Anael, who'd come when he could. He always came when Coby prayed to him, sometimes it just took a little while.

"But how? Why?" Coby shook his head. He and Curnen had been through some weird shit, and London had been all kinds of messed up. But at least maybe since she was here and said it was magic, it wasn't that his brain weasels had run amok.

This time.

tag Sora, then OTA

[st_rummer]

Anael still wasn't here.

Curnen was Curnen, but she'd never met him before today – Coby'd decided to take that as a chance for them to get to know each other all over again. He was looking forward to that. A lot.

He'd gotten checked in, and his gear was stashed in his room. The place looked like something out of a Barbie Dreamhouse, except somehow, impossibly, unbelievably pinker, but at least it had a balcony. And it wasn't a church. Still, it wasn't a place he felt like spending a whole lot of time just yet. The eyestrain alone...

So he was exploring. Might as well see where he was going to be stuck for however long he was here. He'd found his way back to the main building, because if he was going to explore, somewhere he stood a chance of getting a drink or some food, maybe check out the shop for toiletries and the kinds of things he wouldn't have bothered packing if he'd known he was going to be in a hotel – packing being on his mind anyway, since he'd been getting ready to head to Paris in a couple of days.

Standing in the lobby, he ignored the creepy guy at the desk, getting his bearings and deciding what to do first, when it wasn't like it really mattered anyway.

Re: tag Sora, then OTA

[st_rongheart]

Sora was between deliveries at the moment. Which was getting to be a regular state of being without Miss Fisher, since she was almost the only one who regularly requested 'room service'. Sure, sometimes Regina asked him to do things, but Sora got the feeling that she felt bad about doing it too often for some reason.

Either way, he'd been on his way outside to pretend to fight a rock formation (he had to practice, in case of Heartless!) when he almost-but-not-quite ran into someone he didn't recognize. "Hi! Sorry about that. Are you new?"

Re: tag Sora, then OTA

[st_rummer]

Coby laughed, shaking his head as the kid pulled up short before running into him. "Sure am. What gave it away? Me standing around like a doofus?"

Re: tag Sora, then OTA

[st_rongheart]

"Oh no, people do that all the time." No judgement! Sometimes there really wasn't anything much to do. "Mostly I just didn't recognize you. I'm Sora!"

Re: tag Sora, then OTA

[st_rummer]

Coby chuckled softly. "Well at least I'm not the only one. I'll fit right in here in no time.

"Hey, Sora. I'm Coby."

tag Curnen

[st_alksthroughwalls]

Kitty caught the first snatch of melody when she stepped outside to check the road for newcomers. It was turning into a quiet sort of Check-In day, and sometimes people took a long time to come in.

A glance up at the singer--Curnen--provoked a smile, on top of the urge to dance, to blend her body and her mind into the music and let herself go. She waited until Curnen finished the song to beam and say, "Hey, that's great. You're remembering and your voice is so pretty." Inadequate, but she didn't want to gush, in case it embarrassed her.

Re: tag Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

Having hoped for an answer from out there, Curnen hadn't expected anything from the people in the hotel. She wasn't embarrassed so much as startled, and she jumped. Then ducked her head. "Thank you."

Re: tag Curnen

[st_alksthroughwalls]

"Sorry!" Kitty called up. "I didn't mean to startle you." But she probably should have thought of it. When she was dancing, she tended to lose track of the outside world too.

Re: tag Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

"I'm okay," Curnen assured her. Really the biggest problem was that her face was starting to get hot rather than the fact that she'd practically been caught howling like an animal. "Takes more'n that to make me fall."

Re: tag Curnen

[st_alksthroughwalls]

"D'you want some company up there?" She wasn't sure exactly what it was about Curnen, but she didn't worry about her seeing Kitty climb air-stairs or anything like that.

OTA

[st_ubby]

Shopping wasn't nearly as much fun when there wasn't any haggling involved, but Vex still liked to browse the boutique, maybe even rearrange displays or help people pick things out sometimes. So she noticed when there was stock on the shelves that hadn't been there before. Things she wouldn't expect to find: strange masks, wigs, fluffy-gauzy skirts? collars? she wasn't sure they were supposed to be, hats, and clothes that didn't look like what most people wore here.

So she was distracted when she found her way to the cafe, wanting to see if anyone she knew had shown up for check-in day. Or anyone at all, if not someone she knew. She carried a top hat decorated with shiny plastic gears and goggles that were inexplicably glued in place. After helping herself to a cup of coffee from the carafe, she found a table with a view she mostly ignored as she turned the hat over in her hands, wondering why.

Re: OTA

[st_rutsthepolka]

"Oh, are you going steampunk for Halloween?" Butters asked... Kash's friend, he was pretty sure. He wouldn't have said anything, except he'd been looking forward to throwing Harry a birthday card that didn't involve the world ending, and also one year Andi had gone rather memorably steampunk in a hat like that and, after the party, not much else. He was a little homesick. "Er. Sorry. Hi, Waldo Butters, the completely nonmagical doctor."

Re: OTA

[st_ubby]

Vex looked up from the hat, confusion drawing a small line in her forehead. "I'm sorry, are you sure that first bit was in Common? I'm sure they were words, but it was gibberish to me."

She gestured for him to join her at the table if he wanted. "Vex'ahlia. Most people call me Vex." As much as she thrilled to hear her full title, she wasn't as comfortable as Percy offering it to others when she introduced herself. Not to people who didn't seem like stuck up assholes or easily impressed by that sort of thing.

Re: OTA

[st_rutsthepolka]

"Most people call me Butters. Nice to meet you." Butters took the offered chair with an awkward little chuckle. "And, sorry again, I keep forgetting we didn't all get yanked here from Earth. What part do you want explained first?"

Re: OTA

[st_ubby]

"You're Butters, a doctor, and you don't use magic. That I got. The rest of it, not so much. So whatever you'd like to explain first, darling."

If she had to guess... "I assume it has something to do with this hat, but I'll admit, I can't see the point of it. Some sort of artificer's... I couldn't say."