strangetrip | [EP/GP] Today is Check-In Day

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[EP/GP] Today is Check-In Day

When the fifteenth of the month came and went without any new arrivals, most people logically supposed that there would be no new arrivals that week, or that the pattern they believed they'd found was false after all.

Kitty Pryde, Caroline Forbes, and Phryne Fisher were decidedly not most people.

Between them, they agreed it would be best to keep a watch for a few days following the fifteenth, on the grounds that, often enough, holidays interrupted regular schedules, which would reassert themselves again at the next instance. If "keeping a watch" had required them to do anything out of the ordinary, they might have been somewhat less sanguine about it. Might have, as they were not, after all, most people. Yet since their routines, almost invariably, had them in public places, working and people-watching, it required no special effort on their part to be alert for new arrivals.

So it was that Phryne had taken up a table in the lobby cafe to read and hold court, while Kitty took an extra shift tending bar, and Caroline tidied up and labeled the boxes of decorations from Valentine's day "for next year's residents" on the morning of the sixteenth and again on the seventeenth--and not one of them were surprised when, in early afternoon, newcomers began to arrive.

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There was nothing out of the ordinary for the hotel lobby. People were coming and going in their daily activities. If no one noticed, besides the man behind the counter, that a light colored duffle bag suddenly appeared out of thin air near a table, the occupants could be excused. Their minds had been on other things including embarrassing things that had recently occurred.

An idle thought of what might be inside, if anyone gave it a thought, was likely to be wrong. It didn't house supplies or anything that could be of use to the people stranded in the quirky hotel. It did house something that could be of use, just not what was expected.

Molly's steps were a lot lighter than they had been in a very long time which was mainly due to a certain tall wizard. A certain tall wizard that was ALIVE. The happiness that she felt at that fact had dulled the white noise of heightened emotions after Valentine's Day. It had turned out to be a typical day for her as she stepped inside the lobby.

Apparently, Molly had spoken too soon and fate was about to laugh its ass off. The white noise shield crumbled as a tidal wave of fear and confusion washed over her. At first she couldn't tell where it was coming from and Molly had to concentrate hard to pinpoint the location. What she hadn't expected, was learning that it came from the bag.

"The hell?" Her own confusion took hold as she approached it. For a fleeting moment she thought about getting in touch with that hot guy that she'd seen in the Security area when she saw the "Call the FBI" on the tag. Was the guy's name Alan? No, Alex. Molly mentally nodded even as she decided to handle it on her own. It was better to be safe than sorry, and she didn't want to release something magical and harmful into the hotel with someone inadvertently opening the bag.

She drew her wand and felt the kinetic energy power flow into her silver bracelets and rings. "Swear to God, if an alien pops out of this thing, while cool, I'm going to lose my shit." Molly reached out to take hold of the zipper, but before she could it slowly opened.

"Son of a bitch!" She scrambled back, prepared for anything and hoped for the best.

The first thing that emerged from the opening was a slender female arm covered in tattoos. Next, the bag tilted as a woman slowly crawled out of the small fabric encasing and onto the cool tile floor. Her brows knitted when she tried to take in where she was but she had no idea.

With muscles tight from a cramped space, she straightened up on shaky legs and trembling arms. Her eyes shut against the glare of the overhead lights briefly before her hands came up to shield them.

Even without empathic ability, Molly could tell that she wasn't a danger. "Hey." She calmed her own racing heart and tried to ignore the cacophony of emotions rolling off the other woman. "I know it's confusing but the first thing we have to do is get you something to wear." Just as she completed the sentence, almost before she took her next breath, a hand carrying a large sheet thrust the fabric toward Molly .

"Well there ya go. A toga until we get you something better at the store here." She held out the sheet to the other woman.

Her eyes became adjusted to the lights and she could finally see the girl speaking to her. She took the fabric and wrapped it around herself, but as she did she noticed that her body was covered in drawings. Was that normal?

Her eyes flicked quickly over to the other girl and noticed that she had a lot of drawings on her, too. Not as many as she did, but quite a bit, so maybe it was.

"Where am I?"

"Yeah that's going to take a minute. I'm Molly by the way." She thought it might be easier to come from her if she knew her name and she might reciprocate. "What do you remember before you came to the hotel? I was in Chicago."

She opened her mouth and then promptly shut it again. It was in that moment that she realized that she had absolutely no idea what she'd been doing. No memory of anything except waking up inside the dufflebag.

"I don't know. I don't know my name. I don't know what I was doing. I don't know why I'm here. Everything is a blank. What's happening to me?"

Molly could feel the confusion and the panic starting to rise. It didn't really take an empath to see that. "I'm not sure it will make you feel any better but I don't know why I'm here either. None of us do. We were all taken from our lives and brought here. You're the first that I know that your memories of life before here is gone."

She stepped closer, not touching her but offering comfort, hopefully. "It could just be temporary but I won't lie to you, it might be what happened to you before you came. But that doesn't mean it has to define you. We are who we are because of choices. You have a blank page and you can be whoever you are now." There was just a slight hesitation, before she offered. "I can help you if you want, with your memories if they don't come back soon."

Molly had never done anything like that before. She'd made people forget and she'd opened doors that were closed to give them their fears but she'd never tried to give someone their memories back.

It actually did make her feel better to know that while she might not have memories, other people had just arrived, too. That was a connection and she latched onto it. Nor did she turn down the offer. She wanted memories back, she wanted to know who she was.

"Thank you. I want my memories back any way I can get them." She didn't care how, but sooner rather than later.

"Deal, but before that, let's start with something easy. Taste. Let's see what you like and don't like." Molly would steer clear of known allergies like nuts just to be safe. "But first thing's first. Let's get you something to wear and a room." She nodded over in the direction of the front desk. "As creepy as it sound, they'll have known you were coming and have a room for you. Maybe even a name."

She felt hope rise in her chest. It wasn't creepy at all to her. To her, it meant maybe someone knew her, knew what had happened to her. She would settle for a name. The man behind the counter did have a room for her and it seemed that her name was Jane Doe. Her lips curved into a wide smile at that as she turned around to Molly, "I"m Jane."

Molly had overheard her name and she didn't have the heart to explain what Jane Doe meant. It was also odd that the creepy guy knew that she wouldn't have memories when she came. The other question was, did he know her true name and just wasn't saying or didn't know it?

"Nice to meet you, Jane." She motioned with her hand, "come on, your room is near mine. We'll stop by the boutique on the way and get you something to wear. I'd loan you some of my clothes but my boobs are bigger than yours so my top wouldn't fit." At least not well.

"I guess the first thing I'll learn about me is what I like in clothes." Jane offered when she began to walk beside Molly. Though the truth of it was that she was a little nervous, what if nothing appealed to her. She glanced over at what Molly was wearing and just let herself feel, didn't think just whatever came to her mind first.

She liked the function of the pants. It was a start.

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Joanna hadn't seen the woman around the hotel before, and the confusion and uncertainty written all but confirmed she was a new arrival.

"It takes some adjustment," Joanna said, offering a small smile. It hadn't been that long since she found herself suddenly at the inn instead of at home with her family where she should've been. And the woman looked about her daughters' ages. "I was about to get some coffee, if you'd like to join me?"

It was one of the things that Jane had tried and liked. Molly had been right about that. Little steps and she was learning what she liked and didn't like.

"Thanks, I'd like that." Her smile was a little shy as she said it. "I'm still getting used to things."

Joanna didn't think anything of the comment; of course a new arrival would be getting used to being stuck at the inn. She nodded, her smile warming somewhat at the younger woman's shy one, and walked toward the samovar usually kept warm and full of coffee.

"How do you take it?" she asked, picking up two mugs from a tray to fill them.

The only way that she'd tried it was without anything and she'd liked it so she stayed with that. "Um, just plain. It's the only way I've had it." She was curious though so she asked, "how do you take yours?"

Not from a world that had coffee maybe? But it sounded like the woman was open to trying or at least learning about new things, which would help. "Black usually, or with a bit of sugar. My sister insists on cream or milk," she added to give the woman an idea of the usual choices. "Later in the evening or when it's cold out, maybe with a shot of whiskey. But usually just black." As she did now, leaving a little room at the top of both mugs, in case the other wanted to try something other than plain coffee.

"Whiskey." Jane contemplated that, it sounded good. "Maybe I'll try a shot of whiskey on a chilly night." She did idly wonder why it was called a shot of whiskey but more importantly, how did Jane truly understand what that meant? Maybe she had it once?

"It can't hurt to try it. Never know what you'll like." Joanna took a cautious sip first to make sure she wouldn't scald her tongue, the a more normal one when she knew the temperature was right. "Joanna Beauchamp. I've been here about six weeks, which puts in me in the group that came a week after the first four showed up. Long enough, I can maybe try to help, if you have questions. Not so much any of us really know what's going on, I'm sorry to say."

Molly, after awhile had finally told Jane what Jane Doe really meant, but to her that was her name. At least until she knew otherwise. "Jane Doe." She smiled a little, "I know, I know, weird name right? But it's mine." There wasn't a lot of things that were hers.

"I met someone earlier that came that same time. It sounded like there were a lot of people in that group."

"Names are what we make of them. It's nice to meet you, Jane." If she had another name she didn't want to share, or she didn't know what her name had been, didn't matter to Joanna unless Jane wanted her help. Until then, she was happy to call her what she wanted.

"More at once than have come since. Almost like whatever has done this wanted a grand opening before settling into something more routine. I'm not sure that makes things easier or harder for those of you who've arrived since."

Jane thought about that for a moment and then answered with her thoughts. "It's kind of comforting to me to know others have gone through something similar." Especially for her with no memories of anything, it made her feel less alone. "But, it's scary not knowing why."

"Not knowing is always scary," Joanna agreed. The last time she'd world traveled, she'd known why and who was responsible. And how dangerous he was. This time, not knowing and having no control over the situation was not something she dealt well with.

"I think all we can do is our best to be prepared for the unexpected, and helping each other when we can."

Jane paused, trusting her gut as Molly called it, and decided to be more forthcoming. "Everything is unexpected for me. I came here to the hotel without any memories. The man behind the desk in the lobby told me my name was Jane. There's a lot of not knowing in my life right now." She smiled a little at Joanna. "And some help, too."