multiversallogs | Waiting Room

Entry tags:

Waiting Room

Who: Raylan and Ruby (maybe others/NPCs later?)

What: Time for employment!

Where: The employment office

When: Givdi afternoon

Notes:

Warnings: Nothing so far!

Raylan had to accept, eventually, that like it or not he was going to need a way to pay the rent. He doesn't like to think he's anything more than a prisoner in Baedal, but he couldn't stay in the inn forever, and the bed and breakfast will eventually expect him to earn his keep.

As he fills out the stack of preliminary forms, however, he can't help but think he's a specialist who will be unlikely to find an opening in his specialty.

He glances at the other woman in the waiting area, as he pauses over a section. It feels oddly like being in the guidance councilor's office in high school.

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Ruby can tell the man in the room is far less comfortable with this than she is -- and she doesn't blame him. Most people have careers already, things they were doing before being kidnapped by this city, and furthermore, no one is all that inclined to settle down yet. She'll learn what skills she can, but she, too, sees her visit to Baedal as temporary.

That doesn't make her any less friendly, though.

"You know," she comments to Raylan, conversationally, "you'd think we'd have less to fill out, with no social security or driver's licenses to contend with."

He laughs, a little, at the break of tension. "You'd think. Guess they don't trust people to write an old-fashioned resume, these days."

"Apparently not. But then for some of us, I guess resumes might not even exist in our worlds." She's thoughtful about that for a second--that sounds like either a much more chaotic world or a greatly simplified one.

Ruby shrugs.

"What do you think they'll do with you? I'm mildly concerned for my future, personally."

"Hell if I know," he said, frankly. "My experience is all law enforcement, but I've already pissed off the militia. You?"

"The militia can't be all there is to local law enforcement, can they?" She can't really imagine them--from what little she knows--making domestic violence calls, but then, her experience with them is currently quite limited. She sets down her pen for a moment, and leans back in her chair to speak to Raylan more clearly.

"I don't really know where I'll end up, either. I tried to dress nicely just in case they were bearing that in mind, though." This is much more fabric than Ruby usually wears, FYI. There's a sweater and nice jeans and everything. "What kind of law enforcement did you do?"

"US Marshal," he says. "Tracking down fugitives, protecting judges, that sort of thing." Raylan leans back a little. "What did you do?"

She kind of had a feeling. Ruby is not actually terribly acquainted with criminality--except for the fact that she was technically raised by one, and has crossed that line occasionally herself, albeit for what she deems good causes. The lifestyle, that is to say, is not something she understands, and she wasn't raised by policemen, either, so perhaps it speaks to Raylan's general vibe that she guessed.

Or it's another one of those hunches of hers.

"Sounds like the kind of thing they'd be looking for out here. I wrote, sometimes. Fiction. Not exactly practical for right off the bat...and I'd really rather not be a nanny again, much as I like kids." It's an absorbing long-term type of job, and she's not up for that right now. If she had to leave, she doesn't want to say goodbye to another set of kids. Ruby crosses her legs neatly at the knee, resting her clipboard atop them.

He sighs. "Who knows what they need. There's a paper, of sorts, and I'm sure there are businesses could use someone good with words." He smiles a little grimly. "Good to have options, though, I guess."

He's trying very hard to keep the resentment he feels toward the entire situation - and the pang he felt when she mentioned kids - out of his tone and the conversation generally.

Ruby and her supernatural perception, unfortunately, make it hard to completely conceal things like that. She tilts her head at Raylan a little, sympathetic in tone.

"It is. But it's hard to accept this place at all, isn't it? I keep thinking it could all change back at any moment."

He smiles, grimly. "Yeah, well. I did too, but it's starting to wear off." Even if he goes back now, he can't assume he'll go back to the same moment he left from.

"We have to make the best of it, I suppose." Her tone is contemplative. This is something she's thought about, weighing her admittedly not inconsiderable stubbornness versus shooting herself in the foot with being difficult, which is something she has definitely done before.

"There have been...whole cultures, whole groups of people, uprooted and sent away into new places. I think if they could do it, so can we. That doesn't make it any less messed up, but at least we know it's possible. And if things change, they change; no sense in hanging our hopes on it."

She pauses.

"I'm Ruby, by the way. Since I'm rambling at you."

He smiles. "Raylan. I don't mind. Always hated waiting rooms."

As bad as he was at goodbyes, he supposed it was wrong to resent not getting them. But this is the first time he's really let himself consider not getting out.

"I actually used to like them, as a kid." They were safe and had toys. Those were her priorities.

"What happened with you and the Militia, by the way?" Ruby lowers her voice a little, but it's concerned; she's heard enough to know that usually signifies bad things for a person.

"Nothing - awhile back, they were questioning people staying at the Inn, and I got a little... well. I still don't like bein' held here, but I probably should have 'yes, sir'-ed 'em a bit more than I did."

It would be fine. Probably.

"...I heard about that," she admits, carefully, lower lip catching between her teeth. Ruby studies Raylan's face, wondering if it unnerved him more than he's saying and she can read as much in his expression (or her intuition).

"They didn't, like--actually hurt anybody, did they?"

"Not that I saw. Just looking for a couple suspects. You heard about the weird animals attacking awhile back?"

Without her gifts, he'd be hard to read, but not impossible; he's a man who's nearly always on edge, and used to hiding it behind easy charm and humor in most situations.

"Some," she confirms. "Is that what they were asking about?"

Ruby is intuitive on mundane levels, too, but that's a survival technique, not supernatural blessing. (Although she sometimes debates whether what she can do is that much of a blessing in the first place, that's neither here nor there.) She leans forward a little to keep the conversation just between them, wide-eyed, attentive. A touch unsure, like the possibility scares her a bit more than it actually does.

He shrugs. "They said they thought there were people behind it. Asked me to keep an eye out for a couple suspects. I gotta assume they did the same or similar with other people they questioned."

She nods, once, eyes lowered as she mulls that over. It strikes her as probably not the full story.

"Admittedly, I wasn't around for that, but it seems like the sort of thing actual people would have to devise."

"Maybe it was. Maybe it was even the people they were looking for. My trouble is I still had the quaint idea we shouldn't be held here against our will," he said, low.

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Waiting Room

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