| Date: 20 January 2008
Characters: Sally Sparrow, Methos Location: just outside the hotel Link to IJ: thread #41433 |
 After getting her bearings somewhat, Sally had realised it had been a while since she slept and found herself a room to curl up in for a while. She woke in daylight, not knowing how long she'd been asleep. After a quick shower to wake herself up, she dressed and headed down to the restaurant. She hadn't noticed the robot waiters in there before, so she was a bit too startled and fascinated by them to notice much else in the restaurant and just grabbed a quick and solitary breakfast before heading out to the hotel lobby with the intention of exploring. Fresh air and a walk would be nice, as would clean clothes if she could find any.The lobby wasn't deserted, Sally noted a few people milling around or sitting talking or reading and briefly contemplated approaching someone, but the lure of exploring for herself was stronger and she stepped outside, blinking a little at the light and trying to take in the strangeness of her surroundings. She didn't know how long she stood just outside the door, looking around, but suddenly someone else almost walked straight into the back of her. She turned, startled, and uttered a flustered apology. "Sorry, I haven't been here long and this is the first time I've seen outside the hotel. Are you all right?" |
 "I'm fine." Methos stepped a little to one side, so he wasn't blocking the door, and studying the woman who'd stopped abruptly in front of him."How long have you been here?" It was one of the handful of questions he'd decided made half-way decent openings for conversations here. |
| "I'm not sure, exactly," she replied, stepping slightly out of his way. "Long enough to eat and talk to someone I ran into, and then to sleep. Possibly a day or so I suppose." She paused, taking in the appearance of the man and trying to work out where and when he might have come from. "I'm Sally, by the way. Who are you and how long have you been here?" |
| "Adam Pierson." He looked away a moment, thinking, calculating. "I think I've been here a bit less than two weeks. Not sure, since the days and nights are... weird." He wasn't sure how long they were, only that his sleep cycle didn't seem to be reset by them. And that he'd been awake as much when there were stars out as when the sky was lit up. |
| "Good to meet you, Adam Pierson," Sally replied. She wasn't quite sure on the subject of shaking hands, and settled for a polite smile instead. "Yes, I was just thinking the sky didn't look quite right. Two weeks, really? So, have you explored much?" |
| "Here and there." Methos shrugged. "The pub has decent beer, there's a place with some decent burgers, and the hotel bar appears to have anything you could want to drink." He wasn't particularly feeling the need to tell her too much. Like the forge, and the lake and some of the more interesting shops he'd been poking into. "Library just down the street has a lot of books, including some rare first editions in better shape than I'd imagine they should be." Some in better shape than the copies he owned, and he was very careful about how he kept his books. Which meant they hadn't been drawn from the twenieth or twenty-first centuries. |
| Again there was this appearance of normality in a place that was clearly anything but. At least the people seemed relatively normal. She was mentally glossing over the fact that Adam had mentioned two places to buy alcohol in the same sentence, just in case that was all there was to do here. He'd mentioned books, and nobody who liked books that much could be dangerous. Eccentric, possibly, but not dangerous. "So, beer, food, books. I don't suppose you've passed anywhere I could get clean clothes, have you?" |
| Methos gave Sally a wry smile, nodding his head down the street. "I found a place that has quite a selection when I first came here. Just around the corner." Mostly because he'd been looking for the nearest place to shop, being not really fond of being outside in just a bathrobe. Not in the century he'd left, or that this appeared to be mostly stuck in. "I'll show you." |
| "Thanks, that'd be great," she replied. Then thought for a moment. "If people are dropping in here from lots of different places and times, what do shops and the hotel do about payment? People aren't going to have the same kind of money, are they?" |
| "They don't require payment. Which is useful, since I doubt everyone who arrives even has money." Methos knew he didn't at the moment, mostly because his credit card and cash were still in Bucharest. |
| "Don't require payment?" she echoed in disbelief. Somehow that was weirder than anything else about the place. "Oh, well. That's a relief," she continued. "I have no idea what the hotel bill might have been like." |
| "Something that even Bill Gates would shudder at, depending on how long you're here." Methos shrugged, his hands in his pockets as he walked. "Add in the bills from the pub and the shops, I don't want to think about how much money I'd have spend in the last two weeks. More than I usually would." If mostly because he was trying to keep up the polite fiction that he lived on the budget of an academic. Well, when he was in the world he found familiar, at least. Here, he didn't have to pretend to keep to any budget. |
| "Somehow, the more I find out about this place, the less I want to go back to where I was before," Sally replied, smiling. "You don't happen to know anything about how to get back, do you? I'd like it not to happen by accident if that's possible." |
| "I've heard it involves doors, but I haven't figured it out myself. And I'd like to know how to go back, and retrieve certain of my belongings, if nothing else." Like Ivanhoe, and the gun under his pillow, just in case. |
| Something about that was slightly worrying. It made sense in an unnerving sort of way. Hadn't she walked through a door to get here? "I know I need to go back," she said thoughtfully. "Just... not yet. But like you said, it'd be useful to know." |
| Methos nodded, stopping in front of the shop he was leading her to, pushing open the door, and holding it for Sally. "There's plenty of time, from what I know, to find out how to get home." |
| Sally stepped through into the shop and glanced around. Given that her clothing requirements were usually limited to something that fitted, was comfortable and didn't look outlandishly ridiculous, she was sure she'd find what she needed here. "Thanks for bringing me here. There are probably lots more things that I could ask you, but I know clothes shopping with virtual strangers isn't high on a lot of people's lists of things to do. So if you want to go off and do something more interesting I promise not to take it personally. I could always catch up with you later." |