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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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.'"

"I only really know D&D from the show Community," Bradley admitted, feeling sheepish. "But... I guess that makes sense."

He thought of Vax who was a half-elf and Sunny could do magic. Everyone here seemed surreal in one way or another.

Brad sat back.

"I think... I'm going to go find my room now." He said.

He was still really tired.

Kitty watched as his expression went from confused and slightly wounded to overwhelmingly tired. A wave of sympathy washed over her and she nodded. "Of course. But if you need anything, Brad, don't hesitate to ask."

"Yeah," He said, nodding, then stood up. "I probably just need, you know... time."

Brad took a deep breath in.

"But, thanks," He said. "For the food and talking and stuff."

"You bet," she said, standing to clear his plates. "Any time."

Bradley nodded and faintly smiled. He turned and walked back to his room.

Check-In: Not-Mother Hen

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