strangetrip | [GP] Check-In Day: What a nice surprise; bring your alibis

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[GP] Check-In Day: What a nice surprise; bring your alibis

Every check-in day conjured memories of her first, and all of the others, which inevitably meant she spent the day with Lara on her mind, and Petey, Illyana, and Wyatt. She'd been blessed with dear friends and loves arriving, and yet she never stopped hoping she'd figure out the mess that was this pocket universe and get home.

It was starting to become complicated, though, almost a year later. It would hurt to lose the people she'd grown fond of here, almost as much as it would be good to get home. She didn't know what to do with that feeling, but it was what it was. All she could do was tend the bar with patience and understanding, and keep an eye on the readings her crude energy measuring devices out on the road sent to her.

For all the people that came in and out, it was a quiet day. So between drinks, she spent most of it bent over a notebook with a cup of coffee in her hand, trying to design better instruments to dismantle Yana's shackles. Maybe Percy could help her build them.

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"Nice to meet you, Lilli." The way time ran together when you didn't have a set schedule, Coby had to think about it for a moment. "A couple of months, a month and a half. Something like that. A few people have been here almost a year, but that's the longest, I think."

He waved toward a couple of seats off to one side. "Want to have a seat? I can try to explain a little. It's kind of...strange."

"It would be nice to put my things down," she agreed. Especially since she was in a human body that she wasn't entirely used to. She glanced in the direction of his gesture and decided it would probably be safe to go and sit as long as she could see the exit.

She would check to make sure there were no illusions in place, of course.

Coby gave her an encouraging nod and moved over to the chairs letting her follow and get settled at her own pace. He sat, running a hand through his hair and pushing it back from his face.

"So, this is the Madonna Inn, in California, if that means anything but from your clothes, I'm guessing it won't. That's okay; it doesn't for a lot of people here.

Her arcane intelligence didn't reveal any illusions. There might still be traps, but as he'd sat down first, Lillith chose to accept that it was safe.

Her lips pursed in a small frown at his words. It was no longer possible to maintain the fiction of knowing where she was. She sighed. "Is this California in the Feywild, then, or one of the other planes?"

"The Feywild," he repeated, slowly, like he was trying to find meaning in the shape of the word. "Like... the Other Side?" But that might not make any more sense to her than Feywild did Coby. If he was wrong, and she didn't know about fae, this conversation might be even more an awakening for her than he expected. "Where fae are from, and mostly live?

"If that's what you mean, I've never heard it called Feywild before. And if that's not what you mean... sorry. California... is a state – where I'm from actually – on a world called Earth."

The Other Side had a not very nice ring to it. The Feywild also often had not very nice feel to it. "I have never heard it called the Other Side, but it is not impossible. Fey places reveal themselves as they choose."

She glanced toward the bar, very much wanting a drink. But it would not be wise to drink anything in a plane inhabited by unknown beings. "I have never heard of either California or Urth. Am I to understand that I can't leave?" If she could, he would surely not be so careful not to alarm her.

"I think everybody who's here had tried." Coby figured Lilli would too. It was one of those things you had to see for yourself. "You can go out in any direction for four hours, but at four and one second, you're on the road outside again. Doesn't matter if you run, walk, ride, whatever. Four hours is the limit.

"I've been told a few people have disappeared. The staff says they 'checked out,' but nobody else really knows what happened except they aren't here any more. Hopefully they got sent home, same way we were brought here."

Lillith made a thoughtful sound, less distressed than might have been expected. She certainly wasn't happy to be stuck somewhere she couldn't leave, but, "It is only impossible until someone accomplishes it," she observed mildly. It was fortunate, then, that she had left Beatrycze in the car of the Erathians.

She should ask if her sisters were here or any of their agents, but he might be one. Best to simply hide. There were important questions to ask. "What is the coin of this realm?"

Edited 2017-12-03 22:30 (UTC)

She was a lot more practical than he'd been at first. Coby was impressed. On the other hand, he'd been figuring out how to introduce himself to somebody he'd slept with more than once back in London. Priorities were maybe different.

"Vending machines take US currency. Dollars, quarters, that kind of thing. But honestly? You don't have to worry about money here. If we're stuck, at least the place provides. Food, drink, even clothes and stuff if you aren't picky. It's all free. People try to find ways to help out – the staff's mostly useless unless you want towels or to eat chicken – but you don't have to pay for anything."

Vending machines. The word conjured images of a market space filled with loud, noisy machines that did the work of a guild member. She did not think this would be a thing she liked. Percy would find it fascinating, though. She would have to tell him the next time they met or she set a letter to Vox Machina.

The thought she might not occurred to her, but was tucked aside for later. Instead, she focused on the other things Coby said to her. "I am afraid I have no 'U.S. currency'. I do not even know what it is. But I can earn my keep as a chamber maid, unless there is much call for signs and portraits here."

These were practical questions, too. Ones she had learned to make a first priority while she and Beatrycze lived on the run. How could coin be earned? Where could supplies be acquired? And, "Is there anyone I should know to avoid or not run afoul of?"

Coby shook his head. "The people here are okay. We're all in this together, yeah? Pulled here against our will, with no way out. The staff are creepy. I don't think they're people exactly, but they're harmless. I know it's a lot to take in, but so far, it's safe here."

He seemed like a nice man, but Lillith had not survived on the run by trusting in seemings. "You will not be offended if I trust to my own counsel on that, I hope?" She offered him a pretty smile to smooth the way.

"Not one bit." Coby was a guy. And not just a guy, but a cis white guy. He tried to remember he didn't have to think about safety in the same ways some people did. And he couldn't promise they'd stay safe here. That was the point of Kash's meeting or whatever the other day that Coby hadn't gone to because what did he know about fighting other than the occasional, very satisfying bar brawl?

"See what you can see, make up your own mind. If you talk to creepy Daryl up at the desk – he doesn't seem to have a name, but somebody around here started calling him Daryl and it stuck – there'll be a room waiting for you."

"Waiting for me? But how did they know I was coming?" That was the strangest thing he had told her by far. "I did not know I was coming."

Lillith frowned worriedly now. It was incautious but she needed to know. "Have you heard the names Bellenore, Nethspira or Nephitiri since you arrived?"

Coby shook his head slowly. None of those names meant anything to him. "Never heard of them. Sorry, if they're friends of yours. And I don't know. None of us knew we were coming, but all of us had a room in our names. Something or somebody has to be behind it, but nobody knows who."

Edited 2017-12-04 20:11 (UTC)

"You seem like a nice man. So I will tell you--" Lillith leaned in, voice dropping to a conspiratorial low. "If you ever hear those names, you would best served to remove yourself from this place. They are no one's friends." Not even their own.

The hint of uneasiness in Coby's gut got stronger at her insistence. "I'll remember.

"Were you in some kind of trouble, where you were?"

"Let us leave it at, there was a disagreement over a matter of inheritance," she replied, less cagey than not wishing to involve him in a quarrel between three warlocks and a wizard, and all of them with fangs and claws. "I have been safe for some time, but such things..." She shrugged expressively. "You understand, yes?"

Coby was quiet a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, I think I get it. Enough anyway.

"If it helps, I'm sorry you got dragged here with the rest of us, but I'm looking forward to getting to know you, once you've had a chance to get your bearings."

"I also will look forward to knowing you."

And then with a tip of her head and a sweet smile, she stood from the table. "As much as I wish to stay and enjoy your kindness longer, the realities must be faced. My thanks, Coby."

"My pleasure, Lilli. I'm in 182. Building three," he offered as she stood to go. "If want to talk some more sometime."

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[GP] Check-In Day: What a nice surprise; bring your alibis

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