strangetrip | GP/EP: Check-In Day: Turning Tricks into Treats

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GP/EP: Check-In Day: Turning Tricks into Treats

Instead of the remains of a raucous night of dedicated drinking, the chairs were up on the tables, the counter was cleaned, the floor had been vacuumed and mopped as appropriate. Kitty had had plenty of time to straighten up at close yesterday, since almost everyone seemed more interested in drinking in Bonesville. For her part, she'd had enough after her and Wyatt's little adventure in Funland. At least, she'd had enough for the few days it would take her to heal.

On the upside, that made opening up this morning easy and fast. On the downside, it meant she had an entire day with not much to distract her from wondering when Barrel of Fun would lock down access to the outside and why it couldn't open onto a world with higher tech. She had managed to scavenge some computer circuitry and cell phones, but she hadn't worked out how they'd solve her current tech problem yet.

If Dot were still here, she'd be baking for Halloween. Even if they'd had to explain Halloween to her, she'd be making cookies and candy and cakes, and probably sewing costumes, too. Those thoughts summoned a wistful sigh from Kitty while she took down the chairs. She was still sighing when she finished refreshing her stock of cut up fruit.

By mid-afternoon, she'd put away a pot and a half of coffee, she was practically vibrating, and a buzz-by from Caroline prompted an amazing idea. Why not spend the afternoon testing Halloween and Thanksgiving cocktails, to help turn the arrival trick of Check-In Day on the 1st into, well, a little bit of a treat? So it was that the new arrivals, two days earlier than expected, found the bar counter covered with spooky and kooky and dry-ice steamy drinks and Kitty literally spinning between her coffee cup and the next bright green, weirdly black, or pumpkin orange drink.

[ooc: find Kitty making any of these or drinking yet another cup of coffee, she's OTA]

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"There aren't that many of us. Give it a week and you'll know all the people and all the not-people." Unless Vax's friend and Peter and Yana were more hide-y than usual. "Other than that, the fastest way to tell is to ask them something that doesn't have to do with work. If they don't offer you towels before you get a chance."

"Towels. Got it." Bo had a feeling somehow Kenzi would like this place. She also had a feeling Kenzi would totally accept the free towels. "Does this place have, like, a pool or better yet, a spa?" She figured with her luck, no, but it was worth a try.

"Both, actually." Kitty led Bo out of the lobby to the outside. "There's also stables, bikes, a basic gym and pink tennis courts. We've got a not-person chef who only cooks things with chicken and Ignis, an actual person, who cooks pretty much anything else.

"Somehow we get inventory restock whenever we need it, but my surveillance drones shut down if they even get close to wherever something might be coming from, or turned around, or fuzzed out."

"Sounds like whoever or whatever's responsible for this place really likes keeping secrets." Bo thought it was a good thing she was pretty good at uncovering them. It made sense there were things to do here, though. It was easier to control your prison population if they had stuff to pre-occupy their time with.

"What's the longest anyone's been here?"

Kitty didn't even have to think to answer that. "Snow, Steph, and Sam have been here since Christmas last year. A lot of the rest of us arrived on New Year's, including me. Talk to Sam or Steph if you want to know what it was like when they got here. Snow..." Kitty shook her head. "Doesn't talk much at all."

She pushed open the lobby doors and led Bo out across the parking lot. "As far as they know, they were the first."

"Kinda makes them sound like settlers." Maybe, she supposed, they kinda were. She was glad she hadn't been one of the first. She didn't think she would have handled it gracefully. Bo filed away those names.

"And no one ever leaves? Do we still grow old? I mean, if we don't at least I can't complain there." Not that Bo aged the same as a human, but still.

"People leave. Just...as far as we know, not by their own choice. Sometimes it's one or two. Last time it was fourteen." Kitty shrugged tightly and tried not to think too hard about who might leave next.

"If you ask Daryl what happened to them, he just says 'they checked out'. Usually, most of the stuff they collected while they were here gets left in their rooms."

Of course she knew what the next question would be. "How do we know they didn't find their way out, right? We don't. Except... except that Sam's brother would never have left without him, and Lara--" Her throat closed down over her name, even now. "Lara wouldn't have left without me."

And because she didn't want to talk about Lara, or even risk talking about Lara, she added, "We searched, too, to make sure nothing happened to them. And there are never any new ghosts, which Henry said there probably would be, if they died violent deaths."

Something in the way that Kitty said the name Lara reminded her of how she felt mentioning Lara now and though she was naturally interested, took the change of topic in stride. It was clear people were certain there was no way out. Bo would need to see that for herself.

"I'm not sure what's more disturbing. Being brought here suddenly or learning I can suddenly leave and all my stuff stays behind like some weird museum." She sighed softly. "I wish Trick were here. He tends to know everything about anything... Or at the very least a book that'll explain it."

"I have a lot of theories," Kitty said, happy to be away from the topic of the woman she'd only realized she'd loved after she'd disappeared. "But I don't have the equipment I need to test them. Unfortunately, the hotel didn't come equipped with a quantum mechanics lab."

She hoped now that Illyana was here that they'd be able to work it out, between the two of them. But so far, no luck.

"So you're a scientist." Figures she'd run into someone like Lauren the moment she got here. Bo had a lot of respect for scientists except right now it was kind of a reminder of unhappy events.

"Sorta. Technically more of a computer engineer." Kitty shrugged as she guided Bo around one of the rare potholes in the lot. "I'm also a martial artist."

She'd settled on that instead of the more technically accurate 'ninja' because people tended to accept the one and think they knew what it meant whereas the other raised a lot of questions. As inclined to like Bo--and as attracted to her--as she was Bo scanned as too sharp and dangerous for her to reveal everything about herself right away.

"Nice range of skills." Bo knew how to fight, but it was all learned with an occasional lesson from Dyson or Hale thrown into the mix. "My resume is not that impression. I can pour drinks and help people with problems."

Bo's eyes scanned the hotel from the outside. It was a pretty big place it seemed which made it a little bit better, she supposed. "How far does this place go?"

Kitty decided to let their respective resume's go. Because helping people with problems sounded like PI or vigilante, and Kitty didn't want to get into that right now.

Her gaze followed Bo's as she scanned Building 3, and she directed her toward the entrance with a gesture. "The hotel is three buildings. Buildings 1 and 2 are single-story units. Building 3 is three full floors with a smaller 4th floor. And if you meant the property, it's hard to say. You can go exactly four hours in any direction and at four hours and one second, you'll be back at the front of the Inn. It's four hours and one second whether you're on foot, a bike, a horse, wings, broom..."

Kitty smiled a little sheepishly. "Yeah, people have tried all of those options."

"Broom huh." She said it with a smile, but in full belief that it had, indeed, happened. She was picturing Wicked Witch of the East on a broom and kind of wish she had been there to see that.

"I'll be honest with you, but I'm probably going to be that person who takes 6 weeks or more to figure out they can't leave." Bo shot Kitty a lighthearted smile. "I've been told I'm stubborn like that."

Shrugging, Kitty opened the door to the building and let them both in. "I still don't believe I can't leave. It's not the first time I've been stuck in another dimension for this long. It's just that, after awhile, you realize you have to keep living while you try to go home."

She glanced at Kitty when she casually mentioned being in another dimension before. Kitty was definitely one of those people with a lot of stories and layers to peel away. Bo gave a nod in agreement. "I've been there before too. Like, even when life sucks, some normal is needed."

"You said you tend bar," Kitty recalled. "One of our bartenders just disappeared. You could take her shifts."

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GP/EP: Check-In Day: Turning Tricks into Treats

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