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

[st_alksthroughwalls]

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.

Comments

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

"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?"

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

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."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

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."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

"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."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

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.

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

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

[st_igmatized]

Sunny nodded. It was a general rule of life, you didn't out people. Though in the supernatural community, that also needed the caveat 'unless they're an immediate danger to others.'

But you could out yourself.

"And what I am?" Because she didn't know who or what was there yet, and she couldn't bear the idea of keeping it completely to herself.

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

Another surprise, but maybe it shouldn't have been. "Now that's a conversation I don't remember having." Should he know? Did he, when she's from?

"So I can't say what you'll decide to do. But there are people here who don't hide what they can do. Magic and not-exactly-human, and I couldn't even say what else."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

If Sunny got in trouble with the Obi Library about it, she'd argue the technicality. The man was the lover of an angel, friends with a fairy, and knew about magic. She nodded once. "I'm a witch."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

"You won't be alone. I know at least a couple of others here who are. Or wizards or sorceresses or whatever they call themselves. They have and do magic anyway." Regal Regina and cutie Corbie came to mind first, as different from each other as they were from Sunny.

"And there are others who come from places where magic's normal and out in the open. There's one chick who goes flying around on a broom even. So up to you if you want to hide or not."

She'd opened up to him, only fair he do the same, but whatever he was, it was easier to show first, and he wasn't going to do that here. "Sometime, I'll have to show you what I've got up my sleeves. But, uh, not really the time or the place."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

Sunny could not help but think back to another time, another man, another confession. The day that she'd told Fin it was just after he'd confessed to her about his undead state. She'd told him so he might not feel so alone... and he'd been angry with her. Angry. As if a secret she'd had no choice but to keep was any of his goddamn business. That should have been the first hint, but at the time she still hadn't seen what a narcissistic little shit he actually was.

Coby hadn't even shrugged it off. It just was now.

She snorted, the tension going back out of her shoulders. "A broom? Are you serious? I've never seen anyone actually do that."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

With two fingers, Coby drew a cross over his pec. "All she needs is the pointy hat. I swear. " Sunny seemed a little more chill after telling him she was a witch, and that was what mattered. If girl on broom upped the ridiculousness and helped, even better.

"We thought there was a lot of weird in London? Or I did, anyway. But here... it's all condensed. Nothing but the fifty or so of us, in a four hour radius."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

"Yeah, I already tested the boundary," Sunny admitted in a mutter. This was a problem she'd have to approach more like Orlu, then, because hitting it hard enough wasn't going to work. "And rest assured, there was a lot of weird in London. I'm sure between the both of us we still somehow didn't see the half of it."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

"No, I get that. I'm just saying, it's concentrated here. There are how many millions of people in London? And here there's less than a hundred. I'm not sure it's possible to keep that kind of secret here for long." Coby already wasn't as careful with his wings as he had to be back in London... where he still hadn't been as good at keeping them hidden as he probably should've been.

"It's all good. Anybody who has a problem with magic and stuff, has to get over it real fast. Just by being here and unable to leave."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

Sunny nodded her understanding. "That's... I'm not used to people being in the know."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

"Back home, people can ignore the things they don't understand. Convince themselves they didn't see what they thought they saw, or they're remembering it wrong. That they were just caught up in the Halloween spirit and somehow that's why they thought they were attacked by monsters or nightmares from their past. Stuff like that." Coby had, when his memories started playing tricks. And again when he started seeing stranger things he couldn't explain except by magic.

"Let yourself get used to this place first. Get to know people. I'm not going to tell anybody."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

"I appreciate that," Sunny said. She was so used to keeping secrets under pain of everything that it was disorienting rather than freeing to think she might not have to.

She was quiet a moment before blurting, "They put me in a damn room called Safari."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

"They what?" What kind of an asshole, racist move was that? "And I've been complaining about my Barbie Dream Pad."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

Sunny bristled and shook herself like a wet cat. "I have no idea, but it's the most hideous thing I think I've ever seen."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

"From what I've heard, most of the rooms are pretty hideous, one way or another." Not that that helped exactly. "And you can't redo them. Break it, paint it, burn it, whatever. You come back later or wake up in the morning and it's all back just the way it was. Maybe you can figure out how, 'cause I sure couldn't."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

"Given there's nowhere else to go, that's probably for the best," Sunny admitted grudgingly. "There's two beds in there, though. No one's bunking with strangers, are they?"

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

"Not that I've heard of." But Coby hadn't talked to everybody. Caroline would probably know. "A few people have seen ghosts though. In their rooms, and around the rest of the place."

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

"Oh, so undead creeps. That sounds awesome." Sunny was trying not to grouse too hard, though. If she really started complaining, she'd never stop. She even smiled a little, because how much more absurd could this get?

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_rummer]

"London had those too." But again, it was a matter of concentration. "But I'm here, and obviously that's what you need most." Maybe, if he was lucky, he could get that smile to grow a little. Although as much as it sucked getting pulled here and trying to wrap your head around it all, probably not.

Re: Sunny - OTA

[st_igmatized]

Sunny didn't punch him, but she flicked him in the forehead like she would do with one of her brothers when they were being dumb. It was a kind of affection, though. And she did smile. "Obviously."