multiversallogs | OPEN::Just trying to get by

Who: Astrid Farnsworth and YOU! Come say hi to one of the new members of your cohort.
What: Astrid's finally ventured out of her room at the Valhalla and is getting coffee.
Where: Queequeg's
When: Sukkardi, around mid-day
Notes: ...Astrid is awkward?
Warnings: None yet.

It took a couple of days for Astrid to feel comfortable venturing out after Olivia let her out of the room she arrived in. It was a precaution, mostly - if she could try to come to terms with everything being different before she went out, she could probably avoid having a meltdown in public, and she very much wanted to avoid that.

Olivia had mentioned a place that served coffee, and she was more than a little excited by the prospect of being able to drink coffee regularly. That's what drew her outside, eventually - a nice, simple task that would have something she enjoyed involved in it. And she made it without any mishaps.

So now she's sitting at a little table in the corner with a big mug of coffee with cream and sugar and a plate with some sort of danish-like pastry on it, slowly and methodically chipping away at both.

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Hellboy just stands there for a moment, food and drink in hand, a little dumb-founded. He then mentally kicks himself for not recognizing, as this is far from his first encounter with people who exhibit signs of autism, and he should've seen it in the parts of the post on the network he'd been privy to. (While it wasn't an absolute, back home it wasn't uncommon to encounter autistic kids who had some sort of sensitivity or ability. Three-quarters of them were in Maine. He never quite understood that.)

"If we want to be technical about it," he says mildly but with some reluctance, "my mother was human." He's not going to get into his father. With a quiet and calm voice -- not talking down, but being sure to keep his statements clear and concise -- he continues, "My name is Hellboy. I work with Olivia at her new job. You arrived in the city a couple of days ago. I wanted to introduce myself, and see how you've been settling in. Would it be okay if I sat with you?"

She is surrounded by unfamiliar things and people, and it's a triumph that she's not starting to freak out right now being faced unexpectedly with such a... unique individual.

But his voice is calm, and his statements are simple, and he knows Olivia. Those three things are enough to relax her a bit. "Yes, it would be fine," she says to her coffee. She pauses for a moment, sips her coffee. "I have been acclimating myself to the idea of being in a completely strange environment. I was informed that new arrivals have two weeks to find their own accommodations, is this true?"

"Thank you." He sets his coffee and bagel down on the table, then takes his sword off of his back and hangs it by its baldric off the back of his chair before easing himself down into the seat. As he does so, he tries to keep an eye out for any sign that she's getting overwhelmed -- not staring; occasional glances mixed with mirroring her lack of eye contact. (That his eyes are solid orange help with this, as it's not always obvious which direction they're looking.)

"You've made it to the coffee. I think you're doing well. The Inn provides the first two weeks for free. You can stay longer if you pay for it. Most people do not." He starts in on his breakfast.

"Coffee is very rare where I come from. It is rationed and very expensive. I could never afford it."

She falls silent and busies herself with her danish, eating it slowly and delicately, examining Hellboy out of the corner of her eye. While she usually doesn't come face-to-face with the strange and somewhat more frightening parts of Fringe Division's jobs, she is not isolated from them. He is imposing, yes, but he is also clearly at least somewhat accustomed to dealing with people like her. He works with Olivia, and seemed at least amicable her when he mentioned her.

The probability of him being what people generally call "a big softie" is very high, Astrid calculates. She decides that she would not be at all opposed to maybe being friends with him, if he were interested. Not that she'd ever say as much - that's too weird even for her.

"Do you have any advice on finding a home and employment before I am required to pay for the room I was given?" she asks after she's finished thinking. "I have never had to do either of those things on my own before."

"Hm." Of all the things that could go wrong between worlds, he didn't expect coffee to be one of them. "Well, I'm glad you have the opportunity now."

Fortunately, she won't have to mention it. Hellboy is, in fact, a great big old softie, and has already decided he likes Astrid and would like to be friends if possible. He chances a slightly longer look at her, quietly checking for phantom pains in his horn-stumps or any of the other little but not especially reliable signs related to his tendency to run into the supernatural wherever he went. He gets nothing, but Olivia had said her world's weird was more science-y, anyway, so he wasn't expecting anything.

"I might. Olivia didn't say much about her old team, so I don't know your particular skills. She did tell me about Fringe Division. It is similar to Hellsing, where we both work now. If you liked what you did for Fringe Division, it's possible that you might like Hellsing too. Our guild hall is in Sobek Croix. Many landlords in that neighborhood offer discounts to Hellsing employees, and it's a nice area to live in. There are other possibilities, but I would need to know more about you to suggest any of them."

"I was a Looker. I specialized in processing multiple streams of information to present the most likely outcome of various situations. Especially regarding dangerous rifts in the fabric of the universe." A pause. "I am very good at it." It's not boasting or anything - she had one of the fastest processing records in the department and a high accuracy rating to boot.

She rubs her fingers against her thumbs, thoughtfully. "May I ask you a question?"

It may not be a boast, but it pleases him to think -- whether it's actually true or not -- that she wouldn't have added it if she didn't have some sort of pride in it. "That does sound very useful. You would have to talk to Princess Nuala. She handles Personnel for the guild. I can arrange a meeting, and I'm sure Olivia would put in a word as well. Princess Nuala is not human. She is fae." Better that she be at least a little prepared for that, he figures, given how she reacted to his own appearance.

He finishes his bagel, then takes another sip of his coffee. "Yes, you may ask."

"Thank you." Astrid appreciates the offer and the heads-up. When she knows what to expect - even if it's just "not a normal human" in this case - she can better prepare herself and be less likely to get freaked out or overwhelmed by what's going on. Not many people realise that. And, granted, with how Fringe Division is, she's gotten more used to taking unexpected things in stride, but with everything else, she will take every little bit that she can.

She pauses, taking the time to word her question properly so that it comes across properly. "You seem to be accustomed to interacting with... people like me. Is this correct?"

Hellboy takes another pause of his own. He's been doing pretty well so far, but keeping his thoughts organized like this wears on a guy after a while.

"Back in my world, I worked for an organization like Hellsing. I was on the job for... about fifty years. Some of my cases involved..." He makes a vague gesture in her direction, accepting by her phrasing that maybe she doesn't like autistic any more than he likes the d-word. "...people like you. Not all the time. Not very frequently. But over fifty years, enough that I'd... made mistakes. I took the time and learned better. I haven't had to use the knowledge in a long time, but it's still there."

OPEN::Just trying to get by

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