strangetrip | Check-In: Not-Mother Hen

Kitty sat at the bar with a cup of coffee and her notebook, watching the 'welcoming committee' make themselves busy. Liz was here, as she'd promised Kitty she would be and Kitty gave her a quick smile of encouragement.

One of the worst things about Check-In Days was that you never knew whether it'd be a whole long day of no one arriving, one spectacular fall from the ceiling and dropping dead after another, or anything in between. It made it hard to know what to do with yourself. After awhile, you got used to it and just kept on with whatever you'd do otherwise, and know that if you didn't step up for a new arrival, someone else would. But for someone not used to treating it like a responsibility to be here, especially someone with Liz's anxious need to be perfect at it, Check-In Day could be emotionally exhausting.

So Kitty made sure to have milk warmed for hot cocoa and her plans for the obstacle course handy in case Liz needed something to do with herself. Otherwise, she was working on a modification of Cerebro to see if she could start detecting new arrivals.

[ooc: Regular check-in day gathering post. If you want Kitty, ping me.]

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She gave a small nod. "I don't think... he came from a good place." He hadn't seemed to want to talk about it, but he didn't just look like he was weirded out about the inn. She frowned a little. "And he left his younger brother."

"I'll be sure to check in on him later," Kitty said and reached out to put a hand on Liz's shoulder. "You look a little shaky. It's pretty rough, isn't it? Talking to someone who is completely disoriented and in their own world."

"It's hard telling someone who's panicking and worried about their family they can't see them again." She nodded again with a bit of a frown. "I don't understand why this place has to bring people in who were in the middle of something."

"Well, we don't really know what happens to him," Kitty pointed out. "It's possible it saved him from something much worse." She thought back to the beginning and recalled, "Henry, Sam's grandfather, would probably have bled to death and Alcuin was almost certainly dead. Kash's girlfriend fell from the ceiling and she looked pretty dead too."

She pulled out a stool for Liz and then went to get her a cup of cocoa. When she came back, which didn't take long at all, she said, "The thing that you have to remember is that you don't have to tell them everything all at once. I usually try to answer the questions they ask, and only those. If they seem really upset, I try to get them something to drink or eat and get them to focus on the fact that they're safe. Instead of telling them everything's okay, I try to show them, and ask gentle questions about them to find out what they're so upset about."

She listened and nodded. "I don't think... I think they came from a time when things were bad. I don't think me telling him that he's safe but his brother isn't would have gone over well." At least that was the sense she had picked up on with Brad. "And I think he's really tired, too." Liz did think the Inn might be good for him, even though she didn't like the whole 'his brother isn't here' thing.

"Did he seem to want to talk at all, or only to know where he was and how to get home?" Liz looked like the conversation had been rough for her, and Kitty wanted to know how it had gone for Brad. "What kind of world did he seem to be from?" Another important question that Liz needed to learn to ask, if she hadn't.

She shook her head. "He didn't seem like he wanted to talk a out it much.. but I'm pretty sure it's Earth? During winter. He said, um, that he was from some place called Sudbury." Liz had no idea where that was, however.

"Sudbury could be U.S., Canada, England and those are just the three I know about. Does he have any kind of an accent?" It wasn't the sort of thing Liz might be thinking about immediately, but it was always good to listen for it. "He probably won't bond with someone just because they're from the same country, but the more we can learn about him, the more we'll be in a position to understand what he's been through."

She shook her head. "No accent." Not that she did too and a lot of people thought she should coming from the South. "He definitely came from somewhere that's really cold." That much had been obvious. "And I don't think it was exactly safe, wherever he was."

"Did you offer him something warm to drink?" It wasn't a criticism, just a question with a suggestion attached for her next adventure in greeting newcomers. "I usually try to find them a booth to sit down so they can have their back against a wall and see the entrances, especially if they look scared."

"He, um... He didn't seem to want to stay and talk?" But now Liz felt guilty. Like maybe she should have done more to help him want to talk more or stay around or...something. She frowned. "...I did point you out to him.. if he wanted to talk to an adult."

"It's all right. That's why we make sure there are at least two of us to talk to the new people." Kitty gave Liz a quick hug. "Sometimes they won't listen to the first person, or the second. I'll check in on him."

"Will you... let me know if he's okay?" She'd kick herself if he wasn't and she just let him go.

"He'll be fine, Liz." This tendency of Liz to put everything on herself was beyond ridiculous. "And if he isn't, it won't be anything you did or didn't do. Remember that. Whatever he's coming from, and showing up here, that's what's upsetting him, and there's not very much any of us can do about that."

Liz nodded. She did know that, but it didn't stop her from feeling bad. "I guess you're right..." Still. "Thank you, by the way. For... keeping an eye on me." She wasn't oblivious, anyways.

"Just doing my job," Kitty replied. "Speaking of, do you want anything from the kitchen? I've got to go grab Regina's lunch."

She shook her head, but smiled. "No, thank you... I'll just stay here in case anyone else shows up."

[ooc: and wrap!]

Check-In: Not-Mother Hen

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