Check-In: Not-Mother Hen

[st_alksthroughwalls]

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.]

Comments

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor lets out a bark of laughter at that. This woman gets it.

"Do you fight, then?"

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_everybodylives]

"More of a lover than a fighter I'm afraid," she winked at him, pleased he'd perked up a bit. "But I do have my own gun."

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_ormbreaker]

"Nothing wrong with loving," Thor says with a smile. "It's better than fighting. Safer, too."

Most of the time.

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_everybodylives]

"I think that probably depends on how you go about it." Her eyes twinkled. "No one wants to be safe all the time."

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor's grin widens at her answer. "I take it you prefer the danger?"

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_everybodylives]

"I'll admit that I prefer a bit of danger. A bit of variety. A good mystery. Really anything that bit prove to be a bit of an adventure." Something the Inn didn't provide nearly enough of.

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor lets out an mm of interest and takes in the sight of River again. Springy curls, beautiful smile.

"I'm Thor, son of Odin," he says finally. It seems only appropriate for him to introduce himself.

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_everybodylives]

She noticed him noticing and returned his smile.

"River, daughter of time. Among other things." That sounded a bit melodramatic, and yet it was less so than the actual story.

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_ormbreaker]

"Among other things?" Thor repeats. He makes no attempt to make his curiosity; he's always worn his heart on his sleeve.

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_everybodylives]

"Well, I did have parents." Mostly. Even if her relationship with them was as complicated as everything else in her life. They were still her mother and father. And then there was the TARDIS.

"And I was fostered at a very young age." Wouldn't Madame Kovarian appreciate it being described thus.

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor takes another swig of his beverage. "Sounds complicated," he says. Thor knows complicated. Everything about his family situation was complicated. "What makes you a daughter of time?"

He'd thought it was a title. Now he wasn't so sure.

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_everybodylives]

"USusally when I try to expain there are graphs and visual aids," complicated was an understatement. "The occasional flowchart can be handy."

She refilled her glass and leaned against the bar toward him conspiratorially.

"The time vortex is and interdimensional plane where time and space meet. Once you've traveled through it you're inextricably linked to it, and I was conceived within it."

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor follows her cue, leaning over the bar to close the space between them.

"That's something," Thor says, without judgment. "What happens when you're linked to this place? Do you have the powers of time and space now?"

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_everybodylives]

"I did," she said with an airy sigh. "All used up I'm afraid. And all that's left is a touch of wanderlust, and a really remarkable arse."

Don't judge, she'd focused hard during that last regeneration to get a bum quite so shapely as hers turned out.

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_ormbreaker]

"I'd be happy to confirm it if you wanted to join me on this side of the bar."

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_everybodylives]

"I don't need confirmation," she said with a laugh as she picked up her pitcher of Sangria and moved around the bar making sure he'd get a good look before joining him on one of the adjacent stools.

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor gives her ass an appreciative, appraising look before and after she sits down.

"Confirmed," he says, before moving onto yet another question. "How long have you been here?"

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_everybodylives]

"Thank you," she tipped her head in a show of false modesty. "I've been here almost 18 months."

She didn't feel like it had been as long as that, and she didn't think of it that often.

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_ormbreaker]

"18 months," Thor repeats, curling his fingers around the bottle. He can't even possibly fathom being here that long. And yet, here River is, alive and thriving.

Or at least is quite good at faking it.

"Do you have any family here?" he asks. "A wife? A husband?"

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_everybodylives]

"Not here," she answered with a smile, maybe because of the question. Maybe because of how he'd asked it but there was that touch of melancholy in her eyes that flickered briefly whenever she thought of the Doctor.

Remembered that the next time she saw him may well be the last.

"He's off traveling somewhere and I'm here. Not an uncommon experience though the location is different."

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_ormbreaker]

"Sounds... complicated," Thor says. It's the truth. "If that's the golden standard here, what do people do here? Simply live without companionship until--"

Thor pauses there and instead asks another question:

"People do return home here?"

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_everybodylives]

This was actually the least complicated part of it. but she didn't tell him that.

"Companionship?" She arched a brow at him, amused. "Some people have left, I assume they went home though I have no actual proof of that. And companionship is easy enough to find if you want it."

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_ormbreaker]

"I was just curious," he says to that. "Long-distance relationships can be tough. Tougher for humans, I think, than Asgardians. I think that just comes with the whole lifespan thing."

One year was an eternity for humans with their teeny lifespans.

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_everybodylives]

"Are you assuming I'm human?" She sipped her drink and smiled coyly. "Actually any number of the people here aren't actually human though I have no first hand knowledge of if they have extended life spans or not. I know you're too much of a gentleman to ask a lady her age but let's say I don't look a day over 900."

Re: Thor - Assigned Threads

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor tips his bottle towards her. "Forgive me for the assumption," he says. "Most people mistake me for human, too. 1500, give or take. You sort-of stop keeping track after 500."