strangetrip | [GP/EP] Check in Day

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[GP/EP] Check in Day - Feb 1

Caroline waved to Kitty as she dropped into her table in the cafe. It was a banner day. A full month of living in a hotel without her mom or her friends, hungry literally all the time.

But at least there was coffee.

Caroline went through her notes - many people had already started to take on roles in the hotel. Snow and Lindsey ran the stables. Kitty ran the bar. The brothers tackled the ghosts that popped up now and then - Caroline held her tongue on how wrong it was to discriminate against the undead. The list went on.

Caroline knew very well - having a job kept the despair of being trapped away.

She hadn't expected today to be different than any other day, but then, she should learn to stop expecting things. Apparently, it was check-in day again.

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Molly hadn't yet figured out the 'pattern' to new arrivals but she knew there had to be one. She was on her way to the cafe when she caught sight of a familiar figure. "Son of a bitch." She muttered and quickly veiled, the last thing that she needed was a Warden catching sight of her. Though she had to admit that Carlos wasn't as big of a dick as the others.

She watched him for a good half hour before making up her mind that he was just as lost and confused as everyone else that arrives in the hotel. Molly left the cafe, not wanting to be seen unveiling, and stepped into a shadowed alcove. One minute you could see the walls and the next a blonde was standing there.

It was tempting to leave, before Carlos knew that she was there, but Molly knew that it would only be a matter of time and frankly she'd rather the first meeting be public. So she re-entered the cafe and made her way over to where he was.

"Who's the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?"

Molly was good - so good that Carlos couldn't feel her veil at all, so he was not expecting her to appear from the shadows. He did a reasonable job of not jumping, he thought.

He raised an eyebrow as he looked at her. "Molly Carpenter. What the... what are you doing here?" Was this place gathering up wizards, because that would just be too weird, and would put him on edge even more than he was.

"Well that is a different response than I thought I'd get from a Warden." Which actually calmed Molly's nerves. It meant that this place wasn't connected to the Wizard's Council, not that she'd given that much thought. But Carlos showing up had made her wonder if they'd sent someone after her but his genuine surprise and rattled nerves helped to take care of that concern.

"Welcome to the Hotel of the Weird. I'd say Hotel Hell but except for the cook's extreme fondness for all things chicken it's not really hell. And how I got here, I'd say the same as you. Well maybe not the same, I was in Chicago, doing dark magic and making baby sacrifices. You know, normal shit for a Warlock."

"What, did you think I was going to take you in on the spot to... where? As far as I can tell we're stuck here. It's a bit difficult to take anyone anywhere." But he relented a little.

"Last I heard you were kicking Fomor butt in Chicago," he pointed out, narrowly avoiding rolling his eyes. "Which frankly is good enough for me. I like to think I'm one of the good guys. You know, that rare but extremely good looking breed?" But he had done his bit to help her, by nixing several investigations into her, making sure Warden attention was elsewhere. Harry trusted her. That truly was enough for him.

He pulled a face. "Chicken? Really? Tedious. How does it work if you're vegetarian?" Which he wasn't, but hey, it was a valid question.

Molly arched an eyebrow at that. She hadn't known anyone knew what she'd been doing with the Fomor, outside of the people she trusted in Chicago. Her wall of bitch crumbled a bit.

"Yeah, he has a real fondness for it and because of that, I've stayed away as much as I could from the chicken." She didn't think anything was drugged, but that didn't mean there wasn't something else in it. It might be just that that is all he knew how to make. Molly totally got that since she couldn't cook worth shit. She was just suspicious by nature, especially lately.

"And I've no clue how that works for a vegetarian. I guess they're shit out of luck or maybe there's enough for them. I've noticed that when I want a greasy hamburger and fries, someone is nice enough to make it for me." She made a face, "or at least I'm assuming it's hamburger, maybe I don't want to know."

It was hard to miss that Fomor were dying in the east, and it really didn't take much to put it all together - at least for him. Thankfully the rest of the Wardens had been far too busy to worry about it, so he had 'persuaded' them that there were issues elsewhere that took their attention away from Chicago. Just a little thing he could be doing to help.

But he agreed with her. Anyone who supplies that much chicken is suspect. Or they had something in the region of a ton delivered. Either of which was terrifying and something to bear in mind. "So what else is there here other than dodgy food?" Thing he needed to know.

Molly could feel his confusion but also his pain and from someone that was still having issues with her leg, she got it. A small part of her would have liked to ignore it. The dark and bitchy part of her soul but Molly actually liked Carlos if he hadn't been a Warden ...

"Come on, let's have a seat over there and I'll let you in on what I've found out so far. Not that there's a lot." Of course it was only what she was willing to share. "I thought at first this was connected with the Sidhe but there's iron here so that got ruled out quick."

Hey, it wasn't his first choice to be a Warden. He got into it because of his amazing skills as a fighter in a time of war. The rest... well, he could see the problems within the White Council as well as anyone. And he liked Molly. She was cute - and more, these days. Old dinosaurs like Harry wouldn't understand.

He nodded, and walked over to where she indicated. He knew that Molly had no reason to trust him, but if they were stuck here, they'd have to find some way to work together. "I was walking through the Ways and got turned around," he said as he sat down heavier than he would have normally. The relief was great. "But it doesn't feel like the Sidhe playing games."

Molly hesitated as she had an internal battle of what to reveal about her arrival and what to keep to herself. In the end, she decided it would be good for Carlos to know but also for Warden Ramirez to know. In Molly's mind they were blended but also different. Sort of like Molly and Ragged Lady.

"Lea has been taking over from Harry as my mentor since ..." She trailed off because Harry's death still hurt a lot. "well since, and I thought this was another test at first. It was only after I noticed that there was iron here that I knew that the Winter Court wasn't behind it."

"Lea? As in the Leanansidhe?" Because everyone wanted to be trained by Winter Court nobility. "Dios, Molly." He needed a moment or two to absorb that. If Winter Court was taking an interest in Molly, what was she to them? "They aren't working through intermediaries? It wouldn't be the first time they'd done something like that."

He was cautious, who could blame him. There was a reason he'd stayed alive longer than most of the other apprentices who became wizards at the same time as him. He was a survivor.

"I thought that, too. I haven't ruled that out, they are tricky pain in the assses, but there are so many normal people here." Molly paused and re-assessed what she said, "uh not normal as in boring but normal as in not magical or supernatural. They do like to play with us, but not really with them."

She wrinkled her nose, and continued, "that makes me sound like we're not human but you know what I mean."

Carlos laughed. "I got what you mean. Don't worry, we have normal people in California," he joked in return. "I tend to assume there are non-supernatural people in a place when I arrive somewhere strange until it's proved otherwise. It makes it easier, I find." But Chicago seemed to be the real gathering point for the supernatural, he'd found.

Molly thought of everyone that she'd seen and the few that she'd actually met. "Not that you can tell by looking, I mean we don't look like we're magical, but if I had to bet, I'd bet there were more non-supernatural in the hotel than there were supernatural." She rolled her shoulders, loosening the muscles. "That only begs the question, why us? There were four people that were the first to arrive and then a butt ton of us came in. Now you and the few others that I've seen today. There has to be a common connection but hell if I can figure it out."

Okay. He could work with that. He just hoped that they were open minded enough to accept the supernatural, because it wasn't exactly something that could be turned off, and the stress at being stuck in one place would no doubt get to him and Molly eventually, and goodbye technology. His control was impeccable (unlike some wizards he could name), but life was what it was.

"So, we're all from random places are we? Maybe the question we should be starting with isn't why, but how?" Because there was no way he and Molly were both on the exactly same part of the Ways to be brought here? "Where were you when you were brought here? And I don't care what you were doing, so don't worry about that." Now wasn't the time to be precious about being a Warden.

"Literally in Chicago." Molly offered. "Kicking Fomor ass." She smiled slightly, "that's my story and I'm sticking to it. If anyone says that the ass being kicked was mine, I will deny it."

She ran her fingers through her hair by her temple, easing the tension that she could feel building there. "I was in the middle of a fight or at least the middle of my rave spell when I got here. What were you doing?" If it could be narrowed down to a certain activity or the equivalent of a non-magical one, maybe Carlos was on to something.

He held his hands up with a faint smirk. "No one will hear any different from me," he promised. After all, he wasn't exactly in any fit state to say anything else.

"Was heading down to Texas to visit Bill," he said with a slight frown. Bang went the idea that it was something to do with the Ways. "I got turned around, and ended up here." Okay, at least they were both still magic happenings. That was something, but it didn't explain anything else, like how the normal folks got here. But hey, it was a starting point.

Molly was about to say something but that drifted away like a fog with another thought, much stronger. "You got lost?" That wasn't like Carlos at all that she knew. "Did something happen to confuse you? The reason that I'm asking is that I was distracted to coming up with a plan D and didn't realize I wasn't where I was supposed to be until a minute or so after arriving."

Was there something that cause disorientation? Was that the common thread?

"No. I just didn't come out where I was expecting." Which sounded really bad, but what was the point in lying about it? Carlos was confident enough in himself that he was comfortable in admitting when something went wrong. "It was quiet, such a short hop I wasn't expecting anything." Which was odd in itself. The way things were, he at least expected to see someone on the Ways.

"Okay there goes that theory." Molly thought back to when she arrived and the people that had arrived before her. "The first four people that arrived, or at least assuming they're the first and there wasn't a group before that left, they didn't have any special abilities. But a couple of them had a connection to the supernatural. They protected people and hunted down beings like harmful spirits and vampires." She glanced at Carlos' eyes but her gaze flicked away before a soul gaze could start. "Maybe whoever is behind this is getting ready for a supernatural battle. Or hell we're the red shirt sacrifices before they bring on their real warriors."

"Oh trust me, I am not a redshirt," he huffed, disgusted at the thought. "The handsome first officer, maybe." Yeah, he probably didn't mean to say that out loud as he would in front of Harry, but hey, he was rattled. "There have been no signs of people here before then? Who would just suddenly open a hotel for the purpose of bringing people here? That seems a little crazy. Or a little too pre-planned."

Molly chuckled, "okay we're not red shirts." Though there were times when she felt like it back in Chicago, not that she'd ever admit it. "As far as anyone knows those four were the first and only like a few days before I arrived. But for all we know there could have been a shit ton of people before and they all disappeared like Atlantis and we're the version 2.0." Which she wasn't sure she liked that theory either. Any way you looked at it, it was creepy as shit.

Oh no, they were never redshirts. The plucky side kick who had the lucky escapes, maybe, but never expendable.

He mulled over what she said. "Well. It's a hotel. There are a lot of rooms here I'm guessing." He'd glanced at it, it looked like a large hotel. "Perhaps a judicious explore would be in order. You never know what you might see." Especially if wizards were looking in their unique ways.

Molly had been concentrating on finding a way home rather than finding any clues in the hotel. "Hey! See, you're more than just a pretty face, that's a good idea. I've only been looking for the rift to get back home, but maybe there's something in the hotel itself."

Carlos gave her a long look, then laughed. "Flattery will get you nowhere, Miss Carpenter," he pointed out with a grin back at her in return. "Nothing wrong with looking for a rift back, but maybe we just gotta think outside the box a bit."

"We both have a good mentor for that." Molly snickered. "If we can't figure how to think outside the box, Harry would have our asses." There was a bittersweet tint to her voice as she said it. God, she missed Harry. "Huh, how are you with fire power?" Her lips twitched, "we could always try to blast our way out. I hadn't tried that yet."

[GP/EP] Check in Day - Feb 1

Re: Carlos Ramirez - [AfterCaroline]

Re: Carlos Ramirez - [AfterCaroline]

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Re: Carlos Ramirez - [AfterCaroline]

Re: Carlos Ramirez - [AfterCaroline]

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Re: Carlos Ramirez - [AfterCaroline]

Re: Carlos Ramirez - [AfterCaroline]

Re: Carlos Ramirez - [AfterCaroline]

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Somehow I missed this tag... idk

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