Check-In November 15

[st_raighttovampire]

Next week was Thanksgiving, and Caroline's preparations were well under way.  She had a list of food, all of the bartenders were working on drinks. There would be entertainment - the new guy, Coby, had said something about performing and she'd heard that he'd played on his balcony over the weekend.

Since it was one of the usual days for check-ins, Caroline had decided to take the opportunity of waiting for arrivals to decorate the lobby. As with every other holiday, the inn had a huge storage room full of decorations, all labeled and packed away for the right season.

Gourds had arrived in the last delivery, so now the pink of the lobby was complimented by the orange and yellows of pumpkins and squash. A cornucopia spilled fake fruit onto the front desk, where the staff kept coming by and rotating one apple a few degrees, as though it would look more real that way.  They had lapel pins on, she'd noticed. Well, who said non-real people didn't deserve a little holiday cheer too?

Caroline perched on a ladder and fastened a streamer into the high corner of the roof, and watched the door. 

Comments

Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_artliving]

Majesdanian prison was exactly as bad as Xavin had suspected it would be. Mostly-solitary confinement in near-total darkness, punctuated by brief flashes of harsh cold light (no solar energy for the prisoner) when food was delivered, just enough to prevent starvation. Regular decontamination under the same cold light to prevent disease. Periodic 'exercise' with other prisoners under (again) cold light to maintain general health and allow the dark cell to be cleaned. Guards were only enemies. Fellow prisoners were no sources of camaraderie, either, during exercise time. They were eager to point out, violently at times, that they weren't the traitor responsible for the destruction of their homeworld, who had tried to actually marry a Skrull.

For Xavin, it was a miserable and terrifying existence. But every moment was validation: it would have destroyed the real Karolina. That validation was the only reason she hadn't broken down and set everything on fire long before.

It didn't, however, stop her from fighting back on the occasions when her 'walk in circles while staring at the ground and meeting no one's eyes' tactic didn't keep another prisoner from picking a fight with 'the traitor'. As always, fighting back earned her a beating from guards and being physically tossed back into a half-cleaned cell.

Except this time, when she was tossed, she landed in a different place. On an... asphalt road? In a desert. With an actual sky. And a large pink Earth-style building in the near distance.

Xavin didn't let surprise shift her. With the ease of practice, she held tight to Karolina's shape, including all the 'updates' of prison. No shoes. Ragged hems on skirt and top. Tangled hair, even if it was clean.

She did eye the not-distant building critically. Teleportation was of course possible, she might actually be suddenly free, but who and why? This was far more likely to be some kind of trick. Some new interrogation, maybe. But in general shelter was better than no shelter, so she started walking the road to the building.

Up close and as soon as she opened the door to step in, it was... interesting. Basically pink, covered in root vegetables on the inside. Earth root vegetables, Xavin thought, not that she had ever been an expert on such things.

Rather than engage further with the insanity, she stood still and tried to make sense.

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_raighttovampire]

Caroline glanced down as the door opened and watched the blonde girl in the rough clothes look around the place. That wasn't unusual. The Lobby was a sight to see, even if you were prepared for it, and no one ever was. She judged that they were about the same apparent age, and as she climbed down the ladder, put a welcoming smile on her face.

"Hi! You're new, right? Don't be overwhelmed. I know it's a lot."

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_artliving]

"I'm not," Xavin denied immediately, on reflex, then backtracked, "Overwhelmed, I mean. I am... confused. This is nothing like where I was." Seemed safe enough, when faced with what appeared to be an actual human. She might have been a powered-down Majesdanian, but surely such a one would know Karolina Dean?

Yes. Confused was the best word.

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_raighttovampire]

"I know. We all went through it." With both feet firmly on the ground, Caroline brushed her hands off before approaching the girl. "I'm Caroline. This is the Madonna Inn. And...there's not really an easy way to say this but, we're all kind of stuck here."

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_artliving]

Xavin tilted her head, carefully arranging her borrowed face into considering-but-still-confused. "I'm Karolina." The lie came very, very easily. This could still be a trap, someone trying to get her to admit she wasn't actually who she said. "All right. Where's here?"

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_raighttovampire]

"Karolina. Good name." Caroline sighed. "We're not really sure where this is. Right now, anyway. There's apparently a real inn and it's actually in Central California. But for us, there's just...nothing. You can go four hours in any direction and that's it. Hold on for a second." Caroline turned and went to pick up one of her welcome baskets. "If you go over to the front desk, he'll give you a room assignment."

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_artliving]

Not just Earth, but California. It wasn't LA or Malibu, so Xavin wasn't inclined to pangs of homesickness or anything like that, but for some odd reason even just being tricked into thinking she was close to there again was relaxing. She ignored the basket in favor of a nod and glance around.

Yes, that counter was probably the front desk. There was an oddly blank person there, clearly the 'he', so Xavin walked up and started, "I understand you-"

The man was already holding out a keycard, before her sentence was finished. Xavin took it as he started to say, "You will be in room 131, Kona Rock. Enjoy your stay, Pr-"

And that was all he got out before Xavin lunged across the desk (over the top, legs dangling without much dignity) and slapped a hand over his mouth, rendering whatever else he intended to say thoroughly unintelligible. "Miss Dean. Karolina. Thank you."

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_raighttovampire]

Caroline, who had followed a few feet back, crossed her arms around the basket, and tipped her head to the side. "Subtle," she remarked wryly. She glanced at the front desk staff and shook her head. "Do you want me to show you where Kona is?"

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_artliving]

"I am very subtle." It was probably a joke, but it was delivered entirely seriously as Xavin slid back off the desk, still glaring a little at the man. Who didn't appear to care.

Oh well. She turned back to Caroline. "Yes, please. If I'm going to stay there, I should know where it is."

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_rummer]

Coby had been in the Silver Bar checking out the set up, in case he, and maybe Curnen if she wanted, decided to play on the regular for people beyond just themselves. One of the brochures had said the inn supposedly had live music and dancing nightly, you know, when this wasn't a Hotel California trap resort, and when he took the time to look, he'd found mics and stands and amps and all the cables he might need and then some.

He'd kind of lost track of time, though, and by the time he was finished going through things, he was starting to get hungry. Trying to decide if he wanted to go to the kitchen and throw something together for himself or see what culinary magic Ignis had crafted lately, he almost missed a new face as he passed. Coby stopped, turned, and nodded with a knowing grin. "Crazy, right? It takes awhile to really wrap your head around it all."

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_artliving]

Xavin smiled back, a reflex more than anything else. She still felt coiled tight even if she wasn't showing it. And it didn't help that the total lack of certainty that she was being watched was making it oddly hard to hold on to Karolina's shape. The possibility that this wasn't some bizarre Majesdanian mindgame made relaxing into a different shape, being herself again, very tempting.

For now, she ignored temptation. "It's actually not the craziest thing I've ever dealt with."

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_rummer]

That was fair, and made Coby laugh. "Yeah, crazy's relative, I guess. I'd seen some weird shit before here too. Although most of it not quite so... colorful."

He checked his hand, making sure it wasn't dusty from digging around in storage, but the creepy housekeeper did their job well, and there was no dust to be seen. He held it out. "I'm Coby. Just got here last month. Did you get the whole spiel, and your room and stuff already?

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_artliving]

"Yes. Caroline helped me." Xavin eyed the offered hand, torn between not actually wanting to be touched and knowing that Karolina would do the friendly thing. She compromised by keeping the offered handshake short. "I am Karolina."

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_rummer]

"If Caroline helped you, you should all set." As much as anyone could be when they found themselves here anyway.

"Good to meet you, Karolina, if not where we want to be." He didn't try to hold the handshake any longer than she did. Maybe she wasn't sure about him. Maybe she wasn't big on touch. Maybe... who knew? He wasn't going to push.

"I was just on my way to get some dinner. Have you eaten? Want a drink or anything?"

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_artliving]

"I have not." Somehow it hadn't occurred to her that food would be... available. Rather than being slid through a slot in some door or... otherwise. "I would like that, yes. I will go with you."

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_rummer]

"It's a lot to take in. Easy to forget the obvious stuff." Like eating. But it helped, sometimes, grounding you in the here and now. Something Coby had a lot of practice needing to do.

"The cafe's this way. And if Ignis isn't working, I'm not a bad cook myself. Caroline probably told you," Caroline was almost frighteningly efficient, from what Coby had seen, so she probably had, "Everything's free here. Only fair, since we can't leave, but I didn't want you worrying about paying or not paying or anything."

He led the way across to the cafe and stopped when they were just inside. "Pick a table, any table."

Re: Xavin - Assigned Threads

[st_artliving]

"I would not have worried. 'Children' are invisible until we're caught." And sometimes, in Xavin's case, literally invisible. "But yes. Caroline told me. And gave me a basket for some reason."

She looked around, then picked a table at random and took a seat. "The basket had useful things in it, at least."

Mary - Assigned Threads

[st_huntermom]

Mary had no idea where she was or what had happened, but suddenly she was standing, bare foot in her white night gown in the middle of a road that seemed to be in a desert somewhere. She tried to remember what had happened before, but her mind was fuzzy at the moment. It was there, like when a word was on the tip of your tongue, but she couldn't quite grasp it.

She tensed. Her years of being trained as a hunter meant that she knew something wasn't quite right and she immediately looked around to try and figure out what the Hell was happening.

There was a structure in the distance. Since she was practically naked she figured the safest bet, hopefully at any rate, would be to go find shelter and help if she could.

By the time she got to the Inn, her feet were covered in dirt and were sore from walking without shoes. Mary looked around for someone who looked helpful or who might be in charge.

Re: Mary - Assigned Threads

[st_ereoscopic]

Abby was on her way to see if Caroline might need help and to experiment with a few drink concoctions for Thanksgiving when she noticed a new arrival. At least Abby assumed she was as she looked both confused and determined, kind of how Abby had felt.

"Hi." She greeted the woman cheerfully and grabbed on of the many offered towels in the process. "You look like you could use this. Not that there is anything wrong with how you're dressed." Abby hastened to add not wanting to offend her.

Re: Mary - Assigned Threads

[st_huntermom]

She turned at the voice and saw a woman with a towel. Mary paused for a moment, trying to assess the girl first, but it was hard since her style choice in clothing wasn't something Mary was used to. Still, she seemed nice enough and her walk had given her enough time to really think about how thin her nightgown really was.

"Thanks..." Reaching out of the towel, she unfolded it and began to wrap herself as best she could. "I'm... not really sure where I am."

Re: Mary - Assigned Threads

[st_ereoscopic]

"That's easy and not so much." Abby said with a try at comforting. "You're at an Inn, though you probably could have figured it out from the lobby. My working theory is that it's a nexus of realities and time, but that's just my top theory at the moment. We've all arrived like you did. One minute at home and the next bam in the middle of the desert."

Re: Mary - Assigned Threads

[st_huntermom]

"At home..." She murmured this to herself - something was there but she couldn't remember what had been doing, though her arm reached up to hug across her body without thinking about it.

Mary shelved the thought again and focused on what the woman was talking about. "So... A different dimension." Her eyes scanned what she could see. "...How do we get back?"

She thought about her boys and John - they would be worried.

Re: Mary - Assigned Threads

[st_ereoscopic]

"We're still working on that." Abby confessed a little sadly. It had been almost a year that she'd been there. She wasn't one of the core first ones that arrived, but she and a lot of the others came not long after them.

"But, I think we're getting closer to figuring it out. There's a couple of times a window of opportunity showed up, where we could visit a different world than this one. We just haven't found the one that leads us back to ours." At least not yet.

Re: Mary - Assigned Threads

[st_huntermom]

Her expression turns more unhappy, lips pressing into a frown. "I can't stay here. I have a family. Children." She felt a sudden rush of panic for her boys and it seemed to intensify more as she tried to remember what had just happened to her.

Mary's shoulders tensed. Something was in the house. She remembered something was in the house.

She looked back to Abby with a more stubborn expression that was not willing to give in to an unfavourable answer. Her voice was more assertive, but there was an urgency there as well. "I need to go back. Now."

Re: Mary - Assigned Threads

[st_ereoscopic]

"I wish I could help you, I really do, but we can't. There's a barrier all around us. If you walk in any direction, you'll be stopped. I won't tell you not to try, because we all do. Heck I still do, but we can't leave." Abby stopped and thought about what she was about to say. She wanted to give her hope but at the same time, she didn't want her to think it was something that would happen.

"Some people have left, or disappeared. My friend Johnny was one. I hope he went back and not just to another place like this. But it's only happened once." That Abby knew about.