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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"Yeah, that's Daryl. He's pretty useless. All the staff is, unless you need towels." Steph uncurled from the chair and stood, holding out her hand. She smiled, friendly and unthreatening. "I'm Stephanie. I'm a guest, like you. But I'll definitely be more help."

Liz took the girl's hand in a sturdy handshake. "I'm Liz. Parker. And um. I guess I'm mostly wondering where I am and how I got here? One minute I was outside my room and then next here." As her hand left the handshake, she reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"That happens." Steph tucked her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. "So it's like this. You're at the Madonna Inn, and it's apparently somewhere on the California coast. There's supposed to be a town a couple miles away but it's not actually there. As for how you got here...we don't know. Sometimes people just show up. The staff act like you have a reservation and they've been expecting you. And the rooms are nice, kooky but nice. The biggest problem is really that you can't leave. Also that it's like, 1995 for some reason."

Liz's brow furrowed slightly as she listened to the explanation. If she hadn't just met Max from the future, this would all seem a lot more weird, but she'd seen a lot of weird stuff since running into Max Evan. "Okay so... like, we teleported here somehow and we can't leave and so we're.... prisoners? Or, why are we here?"

"That's about right. As far as I know, no one knows why we're here. Sometimes people disappear again, and all the staff says is that they've checked out." Steph shrugged. "We all..the guests, I mean, just try to keep the place liveable. The rooms, like I said, they're nice. You can't trash them, it just goes back to normal. Most people get a job or something. I do massages. What did you do back at home? Oh, where are you from anyway?"

"Oh, um. I'm a server? At my parent's diner in Roswell. Roswell, New Mexico." Liz said a little sheepishly. She thankfully hadn't arrived in her uniform which was a little silly. "What about you?"

"College student." Steph grinned. "So there are two restaurants here and no one really does the serving. If you wanted to get on that, you could. Carlos does kind of the front of the house management. Ignis pretty much runs the kitchen." Steph turned and picked up a basket, then held it out to Liz. "Here. One of the other guests makes these up for new people. It's your basic survival kit. You can get most of it from the store too, but this will save you a trip."

Liz tried to follow the entire description and put names to positions as best as she could. At the very least she could have something to do here - that was good. She took the basket and peered in. "Is this like, razors and mouthwash or more like how to build a fire survival kit?"

Steph laughed. "The first one, but knowing Caroline, maybe the second one too. There's definitely a toothbrush. Do you want to go see your room?"

"Sure. I have, um, the Hideaway?" She shifted the basket to one arm and pulled out her card again. "189 I guess."

There was a pause as Liz glanced around. "This place looked really big when I was walking here."

"It's pretty big. There's, like 100 rooms, over three buildings. Hideaway is...I think the first floor of building three." Steph pointed out of the lobby toward the correct direction then started walking off that way.

"Then there's this building, the spa, the gym, the stables and the expo center which is massive but basically useless."

"Doesn't sound so bad... I mean, except for creepily being the only people here, I guess." Liz tried to commit the hall to memory, taking in things as they went.

"You said you were a student?"

"Yep. Sophomore at Gotham University." Out of the lobby, into the sunshine. Even in December, it was still in the low 70s. "The other weird thing is that you can go only four hours away from the place."

Liz wanted to go to university, but she still had one more year to go. "Can I ask what you're studying?"

She squinted a bit when they were outside, but quickly adjusted as she was used to this in Roswell. "Why four hours? What happens after 4 hours?"

"I haven't really decided, honestly. I've been taking a lot of general courses. I do like my psych classes." But Steph would never actually go into psych. She'd seen what happened to Harley, after all. "I was thinking maybe kinesiology or physical therapy. That would be cool."

Steph shrugged. "Nothing happens. It's just that once you've gone four hours in any direction, you can't go any further. You have to turn back."

Liz tried to picture what it would be like. She wondered if it would be like an invisible wall. Maybe she would try it out one day to see what it was like. It sounded like this place ran with rules and suddenly Liz wanted to study it like a puzzle.

"I can't wait to go to college." The idea of being able to take a variety of classes really appealed to Liz. "There's no way to take classes here, is there?"

"No, but... I mean you could probably learn from a bunch of people here. There's a lot of really really smart people. I think Kitty - she's one of the bartenders - is also like a rocket scientist."

They proceeded past the pool and up the walk to the third building.

"A rocket scientist?" Liz perked up a bit, then smiled. "I'm kind of hoping to be a microbiologist in the future so I might have to look her up. You said her name is Kitty?" She wondered if that meant the woman really like cats.

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

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