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

Entry tags:

[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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Coby stopped to grab a beer before setting up, and when he turned from the bar, he stopped with the bottle halfway to his mouth. Check-in day, man.

Just because he recognized her, or thought he did, didn't mean she would know him. That much he'd learned from Curnen. And he didn't want to be caught staring, so... best way to know was to ask.

"This is maybe going to sound like a line, but today I promise it isn't. Have I seen you before?"

It did sound like a line and Sunny was about to bite the guy's head off... but her expression immediately softened when she saw a face she recognized.

She flew out of her seat and threw her arms around Coby's neck, bursting into tears.

"That would be a yes, then," Coby murmured mostly to himself as he wrapped his arms around Sunny. Curnen had taken to him quickly, but it wasn't like the comfort of finding somebody who knew him from before, and Coby had to spare a second to make sure his wings hadn't manifested from relief. Fortunately his control held, and they were safely tucked away wherever it was they were when hidden.

"Easy there, sunshine. You're not alone anymore."

It was a sudden storm of a crying fit, over almost as quickly as it began. Sunny sniffled loudly and rubbed her eyes with her fist, but it took her longer to actually let go. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

She didn't like crying. As a kid, her family had considered her rather a crybaby and she had been trying to tame that ever since.

Coby cupped her cheek in one hand, tilting her face to look at him. "Hey... it's all good. Getting stuck here's worth a good cry.

"I'd say we should go dance out all the feelings, but I'm supposed to be what passes for musical entertainment tonight so..."

Sunny gave a laugh that was half a sob. "Is that right? I don't think I've ever heard you play..." London being the behemoth it was, you could go so long without seeing someone and it'd be perfectly normal. That could be a blessing, such as with a few friendships that had recently completely collapsed, but for everyone she wanted to avoid there were more people she probably should have been seeing more of.

"Time to do something about that then, don't you think?" Coby asked with a wink. "Anything special you want to hear, that a white boy from California can play?"

An answer to that popped into her head and Sunny didn't second guess it. "How basic would it make me if I said 'Fire and Rain'?" It wasn't her taste typically, she liked high life and Afrobeat and hip hop, but...

"Aw, not 'You are My Sunshine'?" he teased. "We're going full white boy, I see. I can give you a little James Taylor. 'Fire and Rain' works." It was a good fit, he decided. For here, and for the two of them.

"Don't you dare!" But she was laughing. From another person at another time she might have glowered, but she needed the joke.

That was better. From tears to laughter. "I don't know. We'll have to see what inspiration hits once I take the stage."

Coby waited a beat. "Or maybe I'll save that for a private serenade sometime."

"You are not unpunchable, Coby Ward," Sunny warned, but the twitch of her mouth gave her away as not being at all serious.

Well. She was serious about the fact that few people were unpunchable, but she didn't think it was likely that she was going to hit him, now or ever. Actually one of the few who was...

Her eyes went wide. "Is Anael here?" she asked quietly.

Oh, Coby knew he could be very punchable, which was why he started to tease about being the opposite, when Sunny's question delivered a worse punch than her fist could've. "C'mon, you know you wouldn't pun-ch Anael," hitch breaking mid-word and finishing achy without a hint of the play he'd started with.

Sunny knew Anael. And loved him, because it was impossible not to. And knew them both well enough to ask the question in the first place. "I've tried. I'm still trying. Either he can't hear me because of whatever this fucking place is, or he can't get here. Or his duties are keeping him too busy to come, but he's never left me this long when I've prayed for him."

The hitch said everything, but it was the profanity that really made Sunny wince. "I'm sorry," she murmured. It was a feeble thing to say, but that didn't make it any less true.

Coby nodded, subconsciously rubbing his sternum and the ache of emptiness in his chest. "I'm not giving up. We'll see each other again. If not in this lifetime, then another." He had faith in Anael. Anael would be here if he could. And his path was twined with Shamsiel's over more lifetimes than Coby could know. The thought, made it bearable, most of the time.

Which might sounds like nonsense to some people, but the concept of other lifetimes was part of Sunny's culture, her magical heritage. Anyanwu had seen many lifetimes, hers was just the current one. "Well. Apparently I'll be around for a while, too. If you ever need to talk about him."

"Yeah, I wish you weren't stuck here too, but I'm not complaining about having a friend around." He'd probably take her up on the offer too. Having someone else who knew Anael, it was good.

"Sometimes... with people coming from all sorts of worlds and times, it's possible for somebody you know to show up, from before they met you. Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey shit like that." He didn't know if Sunny knew Curnen. As small world as London had felt sometimes, it was a huge city. No reason to think they were close, but some warning was probably helpful.

Sunny frowned at that, thinking. "So... that's why you asked if I knew you." Because there hadn't been a guarantee. She'd been fortunate.

"When I hit on you," Coby said it with the easy confidence she was totally hit-on-able and he probably would at some point. "You'll know. And it probably won't be something as cliché as 'have I seen you around here before?'" It might be cheesier, you never knew, but hopefully not that cliché.

"But... yeah. That's why I asked."

"When you hit on me," Sunny volleyed back, her eyebrow arching up, "you tread carefully."

But her heart wasn't really in it, and her expression soon smoothed out. "Anyone else?"

Treading carefully wasn't always Coby's way, but he wasn't going to push.

"Did you ever meet this girl named Curnen?" It was an unusual name. If Sunny'd met her, she'd remember it. "Tiny brunette from Tennessee. She was busking in London when I met her.

"The first time. She was also the first person I ran into here, only she's never been to London. Didn't have a clue who I was."

Sunny blinked slowly. "About so big," she indicated a height around her shoulder, "extra set of pinkies? If yes, I met her once. She was with Willy Silver, so it wasn't a long conversation."

"That's her. Voice like a bell." Curnen was pretty and hot and sweet and edged. And magic. But of course, for Coby it was her music that mattered most.

"She's here, so you'll probably run into her soon enough. There aren't enough of us not to."

Sunny nodded. Even assuming every room on the premises were occupied, it wouldn't be more than a couple hundred people. Even a fairy or two, apparently.

Another day, she would have been more cautious, but finding herself cut off from her people she found she didn't care as much what happened. Maybe if she trespassed she'd be fetched away to the Library somehow. "And you... know what she is?" After all, he knew about Anael.

Coby was a little surprised Sunny knew enough to ask. She did believe in a lot of the weird shit out there, though, and was friendly with Fin, who was pretty much incapable of not telling people his life story. Bad habit for a tabloid fodder favorite.

"Yeah. I've known. She's not really telling people, though. The older the habit, the harder it is to break, you know. So keep it to yourself." Coby was protective of Curnen, had been almost from the beginning. He wasn't going to hide that.

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA

Re: Sunny - OTA