strangetrip | [GP/EP] Check-in Day

It was a musical day at the Madonna Inn, both inside and out. Curnen had taken her usual place up on the roof and was singing charms to the sky to keep any wanderers from getting lost (though that part of it was not immediately obvious). Unrelated to that, Sunny was on the dance floor in the bar, summoning songs of her own with her knife to keep her moving before she went to do her shift at the library later. It was one of those days where if she thought about it too hard she’d start thinking about that empty bed in her shitty room and the person she most wanted to be there.

This of course eventually seeped into her magic. She knew better. Maybe she’d even wanted that to happen.

Because just once, between different pop hits and dance beats came a rather unexpected French love song. She sighed and rolled her eyes, but the exasperation didn’t last. Before the lyrics started up she was waltzing. By herself and not caring how it might have looked. And for those three and a half minutes, she dared let herself hope for the slimmest chance that Orlu might come through that door.

She didn’t let herself hope too hard, though. There was admitting to feeling things and there was setting yourself up for certain disappointment. She’d lived too long with disappointment to do that to herself.

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Hurley can relate to the whole being out of place thing, even if he's not eight feet tall and made of pure muscle.

"I feel like this place is a resort for supermodels and I'm just one of the people who got dropped off here by mistake," Hurley says. It's not an attempt to be self-pitying, it's really how he feels.

"There's a lot of hot people here. Looking not-hot is pretty abnormal."

"Not everyone can be as good-looking as me," Scanlan nodded as if to say 'it's hard, I know'. It was arrogance mixed with a lot of confidence. "But you're not too bad. Look at your -" Scanlan looked at Hurley and paused, gesturing for a minute and needing think on his feet. "Your beard is pretty sweet."

"Yeah," Hurley says. He puts down the cards and strokes his beard. "It is."

Hurley starts doling out the cards again.

"So do you know anything about that Xavin chick?" he asks, trying to sound casual. "She's pretty cute, right?"

"I've seen her around." Scanlan had a bit of an amused smile on his lips. "Yeah, she's cute. Why? You got a thing for her?"

"No, I'm just asking about her," he says, looking at his cards and trying to sound Totally Not Interested In Xavin At All. Hurley is a terrible liar. "Do you know anything about her beyond her being cute and nice?"

Yep, he liked her. "She likes coffee." And she was a little weird, but who wasn't, really?

"You know, I make a great wing-man."

"Yeah, she's good at that, too," Hurley says. He's going to have to squeeze information from someone else.

"What, are you offering to help me?"

"Yeah, I am." It didn't hurt Scanlan was kind of bored. "I can find out whatever you'd like and talk you up - what do you want to know about her?"

He could be really persuasive when he wanted to be.

Hurley thinks about this.

"What she likes, what she doesn't like, where she's from, whether or not she likes guys--"

That one could be important because he'd be off the table immediately if she didn't.

"--her favorite foods, how she feels about music..."

Hurley feels like he can go on for another ten minutes, but he should probably cut himself off while he's still ahead. Scanlan had volunteered for the position. He couldn't expect him to submit Xavin to a full-on full life interrogation.

"So basically you want the full run-down. Got it." This wasn't his first rodeo, although maybe it had been a long, long while since Scanlan actually helped someone else find a partner. "You want me to try to find out if she has any baggage too?"

"Like, emotional baggage?"

A beat, and then:

"No, that stuff doesn't really matter. Everyone's got baggage, right?"

At least Hurley thinks so. He's definitely got baggage, so he can't go around expecting Xavin to not have any.

"Can you find out her favorite number, though?"

There's the real important question.

He blinked. "Uh... sure." Scanlan had no idea why a number, but he wasn't one to judge people on their kinks - his were wide and well ranged. "Into math, huh? Kinky." He smiled teasingly. He could poke a little fun though.

"Yeah, math," Hurley says, because it's not worth explaining it.

"I really owe you one, dude."

"Technically, you owe me two." He joked, but shrugged right after. "But don't mention it." He reminded Scanlan of Grog, he couldn't quite help like the awkward, big guy. "As long as you occasionally talk me up to Pike, we're good."

"Consider it done," Hurley said. "Already did that a little for Charlie sometimes. He had this girl named Claire he liked."

Hurley begins to gather the cards together. "I should get back to my room. Have a sorta-project I'm working on."

"Alright." He nodded. He actually trusted the big guy to do what he said he'd do too. "You ever want to take some more of my money let me know."

Hurley pockets his 75 cents and leave the rest on the table.

"Yeah, I'll let you know," Hurley says, shooting Scanlan a smile.

And with that, Hurley meanders out of the lobby and up the stairs.

[GP/EP] Check-in Day

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