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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"I don't even know," he says. "There's like, these people who are like, inner-circle who know exactly what's going on because they're always in the middle of it. And then there's people like me who are kinda inner circle, but sometimes not."

He and Charlie were definitely in that place.

"So like, I never saw the smoke monster, but it goes around killing people sometimes. Or other stuff, but I'm not really clear on that. And we thought the people on the helicopter were there to rescue us, but just before I got here, a bunch of them were holding my friends hostage on the beach, so I had to rescue them."

Rescuing them involved mowing them down in the Dharma Van he found.

"And the Others? I still don't know who those people are. They like, live in this village and abduct people and stuff."

Hurley slides a token in.

"No offense, but your world sounds pretty confusing." He said. "Even more than this place.. and this place is really weird."

Brad thought the whole thing sounded like some strange thriller direct by M. Night Shyamalan.

He put another token in too.

"Yeah, I know," Hurley says, slipping in another token. "My life actually used to be normal. Now it feels like I just move from one weird situation to the next."

Not that that was his favorite situation, but...

"But you kinda learn to just go with the flow. Nothing wrong with letting yourself get swept up in things as long as the current's taking you forward."

"That... sort of makes sense, actually." He said with a slight smile. His eyes remained troubled. "You ever just want to get off, though? Or press pause?"

Brad had liked how things were before the weekend.

Was that the first time the kid's smiled since he's got here?

"All the time," Hurley says. "But wishing for it's not going to change anything. Life's not gonna stop just 'cause I want it to."

Hurley takes one of the tokens in hand and taps it against the table. "But that stuff? It's not easy to do. I still freak out all the time."

"What do you mean, freak out?" He asked.

Bradley couldn't picture an adult freaking out except for the way his dad did. Bradley didn't think most people freaked out the same way as his dad did.

"Uh, well." Hurley hesitates. Not because he doesn't think it's OK to talk to a kid about this, but because he's pretty sure Bradley is gonna think that his life is even weirder than smoke monsters and the Others.

Which is probably true, but then there was explaining it all.

"So I won the lotto," he says. "Mega Lotto Jackpot. I did it with some numbers this guy in the hospital kept repeating over and over again. And after I won the lotto, all these bad things started happening to basically everyone and everything around me. So I fired the two cooks that worked for me. Gave them severance. Right in the middle of dinner."

It had been nice severance, but... still, that was how Hurley freaked out that time.

"Oh..." He said, thoughtful. "...but you let them go because bad things were probably going to happen to them too, right?"

Brad considered it more.

"I think you did the right thing." He concluded. "The right thing, even."

"Yeah, I mean, I wasn't stingy with the severance either." He'd basically dropped a stack of 100s right in front of them. "I'm glad you think it was right, though. My ma didn't think so, but she and my dad thought I was freaking out about nothing. It wasn't like I thought up being cursed out of thin air."

"Sometimes... your parents don't know what's best for you," He said, thinking of his father. Mom let us stay with him, too.... "Are you still cursed here?"

"Nothing really that bad's happened here," Hurley admits. "But I don't know. Maybe this place is protected or something. I don't know."

A beat.

"But you're probably right about the parents thing. I'm sure my Ma meant well inviting my dad back and trying to convince me I was wrong about the cursed stuff, but it didn't help."

Or maybe you being here is the biggest curse of all

Bradley placed another token. He wasn't sure there would be a winner this time. There weren't that many spaces left and they were running out of tokens.

"Thanks..." He said after a minute. "For, trying to make this place seem a little normal."

"No problem, dude," Hurley says, slipping in another token. "I have a shift over at the cafe in a few. You find anything to do here yet? It helps keep you preoccupied."

He shook his head.

"Not yet.. " He said. "I guess I'll have to figure that out too... any suggestions?"

"I don't know, man," Hurley says. "What do you like to do? Or -- what are you good at?"

That was where Hurley started when he was trying to figure out something to do.

Brady had to think about the question.

"...French?" He said, dumbly. "And hockey."

Two things that aren't really helpful here, probably

"How good's your French?" Hurley asks. "There's a French cookbook I found in the library, but I don't know any French. Could help to have someone translate some recipes for me."

"Pretty good, I guess?" He said, never the one to feel confident about his skills. "I'm in French immersion, so half my classes are French."

Brad thought about it.

"Yeah, sure." He said with a nod. "I could definitely do that for you."

"Great," Hurley says. "You got your first job. I'm sure there's other people around who can use your help getting something done. It's just about finding who those people are and what their need is."

Another token goes in.

"What's your room number again? I'll drop the book off after my shift."

Bradley placed his last token in. He looked at the pattern. Was there a winner?

"105," He answered. "And... thanks."

Somehow, in all their talking, neither one of them seemed all that concerned about winning.

Which is why there isn't a winner, just a couple of close calls.

"Hey, no problem."

Hurley presses the little latch again, then starts throwing the tokens and pieces back into the box. "You think you can hang onto this for me for awhile?" he asks, tapping the lid of the box. "I gotta head to my shift."

Brad looked surprised. Then he nodded.

"Yeah, sure." He said while helping by dismantling the two side pieces that keep the yellow part up. "I'll keep it safe."

"Great," Hurley pronounces as he pushes himself off the couch. "Feel free to stop by the cafe if you get hungry. You'll get tired of the chicken quick."

Even Hurley was starting to tire of it.

And with one final smile, Hurley lumbers off to the cafe.

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Check-In: Not-Mother Hen

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