strangetrip | Check-In: Not-Mother Hen

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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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No pancakes, check. She wondered what made him think of that right away, but she didn't press. He'd talk when he was ready. "Well, the chef only makes chicken, but I bet there's someone around who could make a cheeseburger and fries if you'd rather have that than a chicken sandwich or chicken tenders or a chicken Caesar." She smiled conspiratorially. "You get the picture."

"Chicken fingers is fine, really," He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm not picky. As long as it's hot."

Brad smiled politely.

"It's... still pretty weird to think I'm here." He continued. "I've never stayed at a hotel by myself before."

"Hot we can do." She gestured for him to follow her back into the cafe. "It's probably going to be weird for awhile. I wish I could say it won't, but even for people who are used to weird stuff happening, this is hard to get your head around."

"This stuff usually only happens in the movies," Brad said as he followed. "Like sci-fi movies and stuff. This isn't supposed to be real."

He dug his hands in his pockets while they walked.

"I keep thinking maybe I passed out and I'm in a coma or something." He added.

Kitty nodded sympathetically and gestured him to a quiet, cozy spot in one of the booths by the counter.

"What I usually tell people is that it doesn't much matter whether it's real or not. If you treat it like it isn't, it'll make you crazy. If you treat it like it is, it's weird, but you learn to deal with it." She offered a smile and a shrug. "I don't know how much that helps, though."

"I guess," He said unhelpfully. "I guess if I thought it wasn't real then nothing would matter and that would.. suck a lot more."

Kitty smiled a little more brightly at that. "Good attitude." He was going to be all right. "Let me go grab you something to eat and then we can talk some more, okay?"

He nodded, then waited. He wasn't used to adults being so nice to him unless it was a teacher and they thought he was depressed or something. This whole place was so weird.

Khani wasn't busy (since most people were sick of chicken), so popping up an order of chicken fingers and fries took the same amount of time as it did for Kitty to whip up a chocolate shake. In a hot minute, she was back, putting plate, shake, water, ketchup, and ramekins of a few different dipping sauces since she'd forgotten to ask what he wanted.

As she sat, she pointed to each and listed out, "Honey mustard, ranch, bleu cheese, teriyaki, and sweet and sour. If you prefer something else, we might have it. If we don't, it'll probably show up with the next inventory. And if you have any regular meds you take, they'll be in clinic."

"I don't, but.. that's good to know." He said, looking at his choices.

Bradley liked plum sauce the best, but he didn't hate any of the ones she picked out, either. Brad started to dig in tentatively. The food was good.

"I guess you've been here long, huh?" He asked.

"Yup." Kitty'd brought along a cup of coffee for herself and sipped it now. "I was in the second batch of new arrivals. New Year's before last. A year and a half."

Sometimes it seemed like a minute. Today, it felt like an eternity.

"Every once in awhile, a big group shows up at once. Or a big group disappears at once. Most of the time, it's like today. Maybe one or two people on the first or the fifteenth of the month. We figured that out pretty quick, and some of us started making a point to be in the cafe or out by the road on those days."

Another sip. Mostly she was talking to give him a chance to eat and acclimate a little, and maybe give him some relevant information without making a big deal out of it.

"It's ended up saving a couple of lives, too. Some people's entrances are pretty dramatic."

Bradley ate as he listened. When Kitty got to the part where she mentioned some people's arrivals were dramatic, he let out an unhappy laugh. He paused and looked sheepish. He decided to say something.

"Anyone ever be totally okay with this place?" He asked.

"When they first arrived?" Kitty thought back over the various arrivals and recalled Regina flipping Dyson through the air. She suppressed a chuckle but the light showed in her eyes.

"Regina. She came blazing in looking for her daughter and found her here waiting. I don't think either of them has complained since. Zahra, Kashaw's very pregnant girlfriend, she seems okay, too, and now that she's here, he's good too."

Kitty shrugged. "Most of us get around to okay eventually. Even if we're trying to get home still, it's not so bad here."

"Getting okay with it sort of makes it feel like defeat," he admitted. "Like you've accepted this is your life now."

"At first it does feel that way." Kitty remembered that feeling well. Sometimes she still woke up wondering if there was more she could be doing to get out of here. "Especially if you're worried about someone at home."

Bradley's expression darkened slightly.

"Yeah..." He said, looking down at his half eaten food. Caleb's probably really hungry right now.

He sat up from his food. He was suddenly not hungry anymore.

"Hit a nerve, huh?" Kitty gave him a sympathetic look. "Liz said you mentioned something about your brother. Do you want to talk about it?"

"I just have to hope he's not alone, you know?" Brad said quietly after a beat. "I keep just hoping it's one of the theories people say... Either where time stops or there's another copy of me there still being me..."

"From what I've learned, that is what happens. If it would make you feel better to talk to people who have some more direct experience, Vax, Percy, Vex, Pike, Scanlan, Kash, Zahra and Lillith all came from the same world at different times," she said evenly. "I'm pretty sure they'd be willing to walk you through their timeline."

"I met Vax," He said, as he tried to put the other names to memory. "He was really nice. He's an elf."

A beat. Bradly looked a little embarrassed.

"You probably knew that already," He added.

"I did. But it doesn't make it any less surprising the first time you learn it." She grinned. "The first time I saw Kashaw healing someone, I was like '...shit, you can DO that?'"

And she'd known plenty of people with healing factors before that.

"He can heal?" He asked with a furrowed brow. "Like a faith healer on TV?"

Bradley remembered seeing one advertised on a road trip. There were lines of cars to get into a small church in the middle of nowhere while they drove to their grandparents. Caleb had wanted to stop, but Ted said they were just money-grab con-artists. Caleb still wanted to watch it.

"No, more like, his girlfriend fell through the ceiling of the Inn and she'd apparently been falling from way too far up to fall. She hit and then, I don't know, she was barely alive. He came running, spoke this really complicated magic spell, and golden light just..." Kitty paused, trying to remember how it had looked. "It rolled over her like a wave. And the next thing I knew, she'd gotten up and was fine.

"Since then, I've seen him do some other pretty amazing healing magic. It blows my mind, every time."

Bradley tried to picture the scene before him and struggled.

"Like... a video game?" He asked quietly.

Kitty laughed abruptly. "Oh yeah. Exactly like a cleric in D&D. He even calls himself one. But don't mention it to him. You should've seen when Sam and Harry tried to do a D&D game and he and the rest of Vox Machina kept going '...no, you're doing it wrong.'"

Check-In: Not-Mother Hen

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