multiversallogs | Fare thee well / Trade in all our words for tea and sympathy

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Fare thee well / Trade in all our words for tea and sympathy

Who: Rachel Conway and THE ENTIRE CITY, if they so choose :|
What: Hanging out at the tea house for tea, conversation, and CR.
Where: The Shrove's Wing.
When: Today, from midday until well into the evening.
Notes: Note the time of day or where your character is sitting if it makes a difference to your thread.
Warnings:Potential for people Rachel knows to get mashed together like Barbies IT'S FUN SHE ENJOYS IT OKAY.

Working the middle shift is a mixed bag. On the one hand, Rachel's day is pretty much shot for anything else; not long enough before her shift for much in the way of adventures, and while her later evening is free it's not like she has a circle of friends or dates or anyone to go out on the town with after.

But the trade-off in being there for this shift is seeing the customer base turn over, from the people doing lunch to the leisurely afternoon lollygaggers, from those arriving for midafternoon tea to the evening dates. A wide range of people, alone or with company, comes and goes over the course of her shift, and she's happy to wait on or hang out with them all.

She can be found manning the tea bar, or sometimes carrying pots, cups, and food to and from tables. Sometimes she even gets to crash at a table or in a booth for a few, or she gets to go upstairs to wait on someone in one of the private rooms. It's a busy day and there are a lot of people to see.

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She laughs, not at all offended. "That sounds like a fun game. And yeah, they do. The doctor is Leonard McCoy--seems like he's military, too. I got that impression. And he's a Southern gentleman so you two ought to get along well."

She pauses to sip from her cup. "The attorneys are Solomon Koenig, who works for Hellsing, and Alan Shore, who was in my party for the Quest of the Gods a while back. They both seem like they have good heads on their soldiers. And, hey, they were willing to oil-wrestle for the chance to advise us, so they can't be all bad."

That last sentence is delivered with such a feigned expression of innocence.

Before he can protest he isn't military OR a gentleman, she finished and he half chokes on a laugh. "...oil-wrestling."

"Oil wrestling," she repeats, oh so seriously.

...Okay, so her mouth twitches slightly. But apart from that little tell, she's doing a pretty good impersonation of "seriously".

"They wanted to fight it out. Their idea was mud-wrestling but that's just kinda gross. I suggested the olive oil. But I decided, for the sake of expediency, to just avail myself of both their offers to help, instead of holding things up waiting for them to wrestle each other. I figured the willingness to wrestle for it was a good sign of commitment to the job."

He can't help laughing. "I'm sure they were very grateful for your generosity." Either with the oil or the not making them actually do it.

"They seemed so," Rachel's laughing now, too, unable to keep up the serious act. "Anyway, they both seem to have their act together, and so does this Dr. McCoy, so that makes me feel a little better, having people to trust if we need their services."

Another sip of her tea, and she grins. "Also--there's a political party here whose platform is more or less 'make sure the people who get dragged here are cared for and treated fairly'. I met their campaign manager and I signed on to volunteer."

"What party is that?" Raylan's always inclined to be suspicious, but he also just wants to know. He might be protective of Rachel, or he might think they could be useful; likely it's a bit of both.

Thank God one of them is; if anything is Rachel's downfall, it's her tendency to accept everyone at face value, often finding suspicion far too late.

"The Peoples' Independence Front," she offers. "The guy's name is Jack Benjamin."

"Right, okay. You want me to meet any of these guys yet?" Raylan realizes he isn't the warmest, most social person ever. But he'd also like to form his own opinion of their trustworthiness.

"Yes, please."

It's not that she's terribly aware of her too-trusting nature. She gets a vague idea sometimes but most of the time she sails on, oblivious. But she does recognize, in this case, the importance of vetting. These are people they may need to rely on in an emergency. Raylan's got far more skill than she has in sniffing out when something may be off.

"Any and all of them. There's those four: Solomon, Alan, Jack, and Dr. McCoy. There's Martel, at the library. There's a guy named Eddie Nigma who works for one of the newspapers here. And Dr. McCoy apparently has a senior officer here? A Captain Kirk. Oh, and there's Hellboy--he also works for Hellsing, as does Mabel, who was going to look into some local laws for me."

For a moment she considers mentioning Arthur and Mr. Eames, but in light of their recent troubles, she decides not to. It's not hiding things from Raylan so much as sharing their business when she shouldn't, much like she let Alan believe she was asking after laws and militia run-ins for herself.

"I should probably be taking notes." 10 names - that's not too many to remember, as long as he takes a moment to commit them all. "I should probably get out more anyway."

"Maybe." She smiles. "I do want you to meet people, though. I want a second opinion. And I think the more of us who know each other, the better overall. Like, more chance we'll know sooner if someone's gone missing or is having problems." She still believes that the cohort is its own best weapon against this place and whatever's happening to them. If they can make connections, work together, keep an eye on each other, they might be able to get somewhere.

"I can make introductions if you want. Or you can just go find them if you want the element of surprise," she adds, grinning as she raises her cup to her lips.

"Nah. Unless you're actually worried about any of 'em, introductions should be fine." Surprise was for when you thought people would run. Or shoot you.

"We can make it a social occasion, if you like, or keep it business. I'll leave it to you."

Raylan is always polite, and can sometimes be charming, but he seldom goes seeking company.

"I'll figure something out," she agrees. "And let you know. Maybe we can get everyone together here or something."

"Whatever you think best. I ain't much good at organizing people." Not socially, at least.

"I'll see what I can do," she assured him. "I'll let you know."

She settled back in her chair a bit, unwinding. "What do you think about all this 'Concerned Citizens' stuff going on?"

He sighs. "I don't know. I mean - hell, murder is murder, can't condone that. On the other hand, shuttin' down the way for them to get the fake stuff... that's counterproductive." Vampires and their like unnerve Raylan intensely, but he'd rather give them less reason to attack the living, not more.

Rachel nods her agreement. "Yeah. Seems like they're trying to have it both ways. 'Don't let them attack us!' but also 'Don't let them get what they need so they don't attack us!' It makes no sense to me."

She's sympathetic to the vampires and such--she'd probably be way unnerved if she met one but she has no idea about their circumstances. Maybe they didn't choose to be the way they are. It's not her place to judge. But denying them a means for getting what they need and then decrying them doing violence? She can't sympathize with that at all.

"It also seems like they're deliberately trying to stir up trouble, don't you think? Scare tactics and such."

"I don't think they're two separate things," he says, low and careful. "They're doing their damndest to get every to look at the vampires. I wanna know what they want us not looking at. They may be right about the crurovores, but that don't mean they're not after something themselves."

This is why she's glad she has Raylan as a sounding board; she sensed something was off about all these so-called initiatives but she didn't see what he did, how it could be used for distraction, or for cover. "I hadn't even thought of that. I wonder how we'd find out. If there's even a way to find out. I'm sure they're not making anything obvious, if they are in fact going to all this trouble to divert attention."

"I'm sure they'll expect at least one or two people to do some digging. Just wish I knew where to dig, myself." There was too much going on, and Raylan isn't sure how much it's connected, if at all. Disappearances, anti-crurovore sentiment, the plague and the ants... he hates all this uncertainty, and he hates that there doesn't seem to be anything he can do about it.

"I wish I did too," Rachel replied, thoughtful. She was in the same boat as Raylan, unsure where to start with so many things that needed explaining.

"Did you go to that rally they had recently? I didn't. I didn't want to take part but maybe I should've at least taken a look."

"No, I stayed away too. Seemed like a fast way to get bitten in the neck or arrested, frankly." Neither of which are very appealing prospects. "Didn't go as sour as I was expecting, though."

Rachel raises her eyebrows. "Were you expecting violence? Or things, like, getting out of hand in some other way?"

"Frankly? Yeah. City's current climate, a bunch of people protesting they should be allowed to eat people - didn't think that's go over too well."

Rachel nods, thinking.

"So it could boil over at any time, basically."

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