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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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."

He laughed in response. "Well, I'm not his apprentice. I get a pass for that." Carlos had a lot less to do with Harry, but Harry wouldn't hesitate to kick his butt, after all. "Passable. Tend to prefer working with kinetic energy, but I've kicked fomor butt with fire before now."

"Wow passable and can kick fomor ass." Molly winked, "okay, we can always try blasting our way out but it doesn't necessarily have to be literal fire." She huffed out a breath and laid her head back on to the headrest of the chair. "God, I always feel useless in this kind of stuff. Sure I can mess with your mind but I can't do shit against an immovable object."

"What can I say? I'm just that good." We won't mention that he's spent the last year recovering from a fight, that was just bad luck. "Blasting when you aren't sure of the consequences isn't the best idea," he pointed out. "There's a time and a place for all talents. I can think of many times I'd like a better veil. And mine is good." Not as good as Molly's of course, but even he'd admit that she was better at them.

"Sure if we find someone that's more than just the low guy that offers up towels I can tip toe through his mind to see what's really going on." Molly made a face, "don't mind me. I know I can do things, it's just sometimes I hate having passive magic." Her lips suddenly quirked upward, "but other times I'm good with kicking ass the subtle way."

He frowned at Molly. He might be one of the more relaxed Wardens, and there was a lot he could let go, but that was a little too close to the edge of what he was comfortable with. But what could he do here if they were truly trapped away from their reality?

"There's a time and a place for blowing crap up, and a time for subtle. We just need to persuade certain dinosaurs of that."

Molly knew who he meant and it brought a pang thinking about how they'd never get a chance to tell Harry that. In spite of that, she shot him a grin, "Yeah good luck with that. Usually dinosaurs are very stuck in their ways."

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[GP/EP] Check in Day - Feb 1

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Somehow I missed this tag... idk

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