multiversallogs | How many goodly creatures are there here!

How many goodly creatures are there here! :: GAME OPENER

Welcome to Baedal.

These are the first words newcomers hear when the door opens and they are invited into their new world. Some fuss, some fight, some need time before they have the courage to step outside. Others, shell-shocked or jaded, go quietly along with the proceedings.

They are given brief instructions; a repeat of what's described in the pamphlet and a door key.

Please stay in your room. There will be dinner soon.

It's been almost a day for some. For others, only an hour's wait. The latest newcomer is lead straight from the arrival room to the dining hall where candles and lanterns have been set out to compensate for failing electricity. (Those who have been here longer explain about rolling blackouts.) The food, however, is warm, varied and plentiful. Seating is open, and less conventional chair are available to those who need them.

There are many strange faces around the table, the majority of these recent arrivals. The proprietor of the Valhalla Inn is here, as is some of her staff. The Sheriff of Mog Hill is introduced, his function detailed. The reason for the dinner is explained:

It's a celebration. A new cohort has finally been officiated; CeidaryBlue523. Your cohort. Please. Introduce yourself. Mingle. Get to know your fellows, they will be your brothers and sisters for as long as you live in this city.

((OOC post for discussion and coordination.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Jack never has been one for reading when there's action that can be taken instead, so rather than reading up on where he is and why he's there, he decides he's going to find out for himself instead. Making his way down to the public room he takes a look around at the space. Cozy enough, but he's not really sure what to make of the fact that he's there in the first place. A Rift flare, perhaps?

Ashley had pulled off the mask a while ago, but still remained in the spandex tank and leggings. She'd given up trying to find anything productive in the building, and was more leaning against the wall and alternating between passively taking in the scene and outright glaring at the people who came by. Who was to know which were like her and which were the ones to drag them in, after all? Anyone could be anyone here, she didn't have a single lick of info to work it out on her own.

The most recent arrival at least looked as lost as a new comer should be, at least. Not that appearances meant much, but desperate times came with their own measures. She gave a half smile and a nod as his gaze swept passed her.

Jack smiled back, taking the smile and nod as an invitation to make his way over to talk to her. "Hey," he said, laying on the charm. "Don't suppose you know what the hell is going on here, do you? Nice look, by the way," he added, flashing an appreciative smile at her spandex tank and leggings. "You wear it well." Just because he was trying to gleam information about their surroundings didn't mean that he couldn't flirt. In fact, he'd found that flirting usually even upped his chances of getting information, after all.

Mina immediately hate the inn. It wasn't so much what it represented (separation from home, from family, from the people she knew and needed) as it was that everything about it was hauntingly familiar. She and Tom had owned a inn such as this. Not of the world-snatching variety, but of the warm, friendly variety, filled with common spaces and boisterous talking and all that other nonsense.

She didn't want to think about Tom.

Ever again.

She decided it would be best to make a quick escape and now that the sun had mercifully set, she was on her way out. Yet, as she crossed the common room, she noticed him. It seemed impossible not to notice him really. There was just something...she couldn't put words to it. It wasn't predator's taint. He was no Kindred. But she couldn't help but stop to stare.

Which was ironic, since she was usually the one being stared at. After all, it wasn't every day you saw a woman in a pin-striped suit and fedora. At least not in 1930s Chicago.

The room is nice. The inn is nice, the people are nice, it's all nice.

It's just not where she wants to be. Not where she was planning on being at any point but she didn't exactly get a say in the matter, just a brochure to explain it all. Except not really.

So she's stiff-upper-lipping it for all she's worth at the far end of the room when the gentleman in what looks like military garb strides in. There's an air of authority about this guy so she figures, can't hurt to ask, right?

"Excuse me." Rachel moves to intercept him, offering a faint but entirely polite smile. "I'm new here. Can you tell me what's going on?"

Jack takes in her smile and the way she's holding herself and tones down what his normal reaction might otherwise have been when a pretty girl walked up and asked him a direct question. "Your guess is as good as mine, I'm afraid. Just got here myself." He offers her his hand and a wide bright smile. "Captain Jack Harkness. And who do I have the pleasure of meeting here, then?"

The response is a lot warmer than she was expecting, and let's not lie, that smile is downright disarming. She takes his hand and gives it a firm shake, her own smile growing wider and more bright.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain Harkness." Captain--at least she had that part right. "I wish it was under less confusing circumstances. I'm Rachel Conway. I just got dumped in this place from New York."

New York--but the accent doesn't match, not by a long shot. The rapid-fire cadence is similar but the syllables are drawled, vowels rounded and indistinct, southern California all the way.

"So we're like, in the same boat, then. I take it whatever happened didn't ask your permission first?"

"New York, huh? Been there a few times. Granted, it was a while ago... Gotta say, not one of the most hospitable places I've been to, but the night live was great," he said, with a wide grin.

At her question about how he got here, he shook his head. "Nope," he said. "Not even in the slightest. One moment, I was walking through a doorway, the next I was here. What about yourself? How'd a pretty girl like you end up in a place like this?" he said, exactly in the tone they would in any of the old black and white movies that he seemed to look like he'd just stepped right out of anyway.

The color in her cheeks rises a few degrees--the curse of every redhead ever, not being able to hide a flush--even as she shakes her head, dismissing the compliment. He's just being nice, isn't he?

"New York's great for that," she agrees with a soft laugh. "I always thought that whole 'city that never sleeps' thing was just a saying, but when I got there I found out it was true. It was pretty awesome."

She spreads her hands with a shrug. "I didn't see anything more than you did, coming through, I guess. I was leaving my apartment building. One second I was heading for the front door; the next, I was in that room."

Jack sighs. He suspected as much, but to hear it from her right there. It's a bit disheartening, to say the least. "So you just showed up in that room, with no idea how you got there either, then?" he asks. He and Ianto had agreed to collect information separately and convene with him in an hour to compare notes.

"Any idea why you might've gotten pulled here?" he asks, as casually as he can. "I mean. Any idea at all?"

"That's... pretty much it," Rachel agrees. "Surprise! Here I was."

She shakes her head, looking up at him. She doesn't even notice she's being gently interrogated, so comforted is she to have the opportunity to compare notes and share a bit of "what the hell?" with another person. "No idea. I wasn't given any reason, I wasn't doing anything, you know? Like, I'd expect this if I'd been casting some crazy spell or some shit, but nothing. I was leaving to buy a printer cartridge. I don't know, maybe now printer cartridges are instruments of the supernatural."

Jack chuckles, shaking his head. "Somehow, I doubt that. Even with something as crazy as stepping through a door into another dimension. That's pretty much as mundane a task as you can get, stepping out the door to run some errands." Alright, so. No connection there. Damn it.

He shoots her a look out of the corner of his eye, with a lazy smile. "Are you the kind to be casting crazy spells then? Got any special abilities that I should know about and watch out for? Or...maybe even look forward to?" he asks, with a lazy smile.

There's a fleeting shift in her expression, nearly imperceptible because she recovers swiftly. But to people who know how to read people, well. That deer-in-the-headlights look that crosses her face in that moment is unmistakeable. Does he know? He can't possibly know anything about her, they've only just met.

She laughs, shaking her head like the question was just harmless small talk. "Me? No, not me, no crazy spells. No spells at all, actually." She rolls her shoulders in another shrug, a bit more elaborate, her smile taking on a mischievous cast. "And things to look forward to is way too subjective for me to even try to make suggestions now."

Jack catches that look on her face and catalogs it for later, to try and figure out what it means. In the meanwhile, they have just met, so he doesn't want to push anything too hard too fast. Maybe she might even tell him later, of her own accord, if he gains her trust.

"Well, then. Guess I'll just have to keep an eye on you and find out for myself, then," Jack says, with a smirk. "How've you been finding this place so far then?" he asks, amicably.

Rachel laughs, tension easing in gratitude that he didn't push the issue, didn't seem to realize what he'd asked. She is relieved--that could have been a difficult explanation. It is certainly one she didn't want to have to make.

"I guess you will," she replies, a hint of a teasing lilt in her voice. That fades, though, as she considers his question.

"Efficient," is the answer she settles on. "Like the staff here has dealt with this kind of thing before, a lot. I can't say I take a lot of comfort in that."

"You and me both," Jack says, with a grin that doesn't quite meet his eyes at that statement. "I mean. They've got a brochure. I don't know whether I want to think about what that means exactly, other than the fact that they were expecting us which. Well. Kind of really isn't comforting in the least, you know?"

"Yeah, I know."

Rachel sighs. She reaches up and tucks her hair behind both her ears, unable to stop the nervous tell. She looks up at Jack, face a bit grave.

"Do you think we're really safe here, Captain? I'm not convinced we are, even if they were like, completely prepared for us to show up."

Jack hesitates on what to tell her. Does he really think they're safe? He hasn't really got a clue. Is he going to tell her that she's in immediate danger by being there? No, because there's no evidence to that either.

"I haven't seen anything so far to say that we are in danger, no," he says, hoping that his answer is reassuring without outright lying to her or anything like that.

Rachel's quiet for a few moments, considering that. She has no actual idea if she's in danger or not, it's just a feeling, a general sense of unease and distrust over the manner in which she wound up here. But Jack--this is a man with military training, she can probably put some faith in his opinion.

"I guess that's better than nothing. I guess I can have a little trust--but keep my eyes open, too."

Jack nods. "Yeah, please do. You're definitely right to not trust everything about this place. I mean, for one, we were taken in against our will. That in itself is pretty hokey. But I mean." He motions around them. "As creepy as it is, they are accommodating for us, and there aren't armed guards or cells we're put into or anything like that. So I wouldn't worry too much about it, you know?" He gives her a reassuring smile.

She nods too, a faint smile returning to her lips. "I'll try," she assures Jack. And she will--but that distrust is going to take a while to get over, she's sure.

"I was thinking of checking out the rest of this building." She doesn't know that she yet has the nerve to try outdoors, maybe tomorrow. "Do you want to come with?"

Jack rocks on his heels a little, moving to check his watch. He's hoping she won't take it in the wrong way--he has to make sure that he's got the time to agree and go with her and be back to meet up with Ianto in roughly an hour. Well. Forty minutes from then. Still doable, though.

"Could do," he says, looking back at her with a smile. "Promised Ianto I'd meet up with him in a little bit, but I've got the time. And far be it from me to turn down a walk with a pretty lady," he says, with a wink. Of course they'll be checking the building out. That doesn't mean that he can't be a merciless flirt as well, though.

She doesn't take it the wrong way at all--Rachel's never been the kind of person who assumes the world will stop for her. She smiles as he glances at his watch, that smile growing wider at his agreement. But of course his compliment makes her turn pink all over again.

"Thank you," she says, glancing up at him, and it's clear she means for both the compliment and for wanting to come along. "So what have you checked out already? No point in, like, duplicating efforts."

Jack shrugs. "Only the hallways where we were led to earlier, really. And they're all full of rooms that are pretty much identical and most of them pretty empty, except for our 'new arrival' ones. Haven't really met anyone who's actually a local to this place either, or who's admitted to being one yet. Anyway, though," he continues, "nothing really of interest to be looked into up there. Might as well try somewhere else."

He cocks her a smile. "Where would you like to go looking, since we are on a bit of a time schedule?"

She's thoughtful for a few moments--okay, but a smile, in answer to his own, slides across her mouth before that--he's charming, what's she supposed to do? But then she's thoughtful, and after that she's looking up at him again with a tiny but determined lift of her chin.

"I think we should check out the common areas. First of all, we'll see just what kind of face this place wants to present to all its guests and all that. And I think we might, like, run into employees? Who are more likely to have at least been here a while if they aren't natives."

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