wickedchouette | (no subject)

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[The good news: they get out. They escape Norfinbury, and once they're out of the town's iron grip, all of its effects on them disappear - no more MN poisoning, no more radiation sickness. They're still malnourished and underfed, and the dead among them are still dead, but they're out.

The bad news? They can't go home yet.

It's some sort of time- and universe-travel issue, which Alfie honestly isn't even trying to understand in full. Using the town's power, they'd opened up a portal, but they hadn't had time to fine-tune it. When they'd all jumped through, they hadn't even been sure it would work - but with the town collapsing around them, they'd all been desperate enough to try anyway. It had ended up dumping them all at random into New York City - or some version of it, anyway - in the early twentieth century. Stark and the other tech wizards are working hard on the issue, pooling their knowledge and using this world's resources to figure out how to safely repair and direct the portal to send them all back home, or wherever else they want to go. The ones who can't help with that are, essentially, left to their own devices. Tony the billionaire sets them up in a nice hotel in a decent neighborhood, and provides them with enough money to live comfortably on as long as they don't go too crazy with spending. For Alfie, Royce, Emily, and Tifa, he's able to find a two-bedroom suite that's available to be rented by the month. Nobody knows how long they're going to be stuck, and nobody wants to take the chance of being left without lodging.

After all the trauma of the past few months and the chaos of the past few days, their little group isn't wild about splitting up even just for a few hours. But Emily desperately needs a doctor's checkup, and Tifa convinces Alfie and Royce to go ahead and scope out the room while she (with help and advice from the more modern doctors) takes her to a pediatrician. And so they go.

The hotel is towering, and looking up at it makes Alfie feel dizzy, so he focuses straight ahead as they approach the front entrance and its automatic revolving door. He has the envelope with their room number and key, and as they walk, he hands it to Royce.]

We're on the sixty-first floor - larger rooms at the top only. Fucking hell, I hope they've got a lift.

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Yeah.

[The room is unlocked with a keycard, which is completely unfamiliar to Alfie, but at least there are instructions on it. It'll still probably take them several tries to get it right, but they'll get in eventually.

The room is large for a hotel suite - two bedrooms, a kitchenette, a bathroom with a large whirlpool tub, and a living room area with a pull-out couch. Alfie heads for the window first, gaping at the view.]

[ Keycards definitely make things difficult. Royce has no idea how to do it and neither does Alfie, and they sort of just fumble with it for like a full minute before figuring it out.

Alfie goes for the view, and Royce falls into old habits - he checks every room, looking behind doors, in closets, under beds. ]

We're gonna want to keep the curtains closed, I think.

[Alfie isn't afraid of heights, but he also isn't used to being up this high. Looking down makes him almost as dizzy as looking up at the skyscrapers from the ground.

It is a hell of a view, though.]

[ Royce finally comes out from one of the bedrooms, satisfied - nobody here but them. And yeah, Royce isn't afraid of heights, but when he joins Alfie by the window, his stomach rolls. Gods above, he just can't get used to any of this. ]

Think you might be right. [ Royce says, resting a hand on the glass to stare down at the streets. He shudders a little at the thought of falling. ] Keep Emily away from the windows, too.

They don't open up. Sealed shut.

[He runs a hand down the windowpane.]

What a fucking world, eh?

[ Oh. Well, that's okay, then. Royce has to take a few steps back. ]

It's different. So much that I doubt any of this will ever happen where I come from. [ He settles down on the couch. ] This is your future, though.

I'll be dead for it.

[He leaves the window too, finally, and heads into the bathroom, fiddling with the sink's taps.]

[ Royce opens his mouth - and then closes it, frowning. He stays on the couch for a long moment, staring out as far as he can see from the window. After a moment, he follows Alfie, after hearing the tap noises.

He leans against the door frame. ] Depressing answer. [ Royce remarks. He's pointedly not thinking about how he'll live longer than most of the people he knows. ] Sure all that poisoning is gone?

Yeah. But I'm forty-three in nineteen twenty-two, mate. To see all this, I'd need to live to nearly one hundred and forty.

[He moves to investigate the bathtub next, frowning as he runs his fingers along the massaging jets, having no idea what they are.]

You never know. [ Royce says offhand. ] Could live that long through science. Could be part elf.

[ He watches Alfie's fingers, and then: ] Might not want to just touch everything you see, Solomons.

I don't understand why this tub has so many taps. It's big, but it doesn't need ten of the things to fill up.

[He straightens.]

Part elf, eh?

Like I said, you never know. [ Royce shrugs. He scoots into the bathroom, perching carefully on the edge. ] They must do something else, then. I doubt it'll be anything dangerous.

No, they're water spouts, I'm sure of that. And nothing here is gonna be dangerous, Royce; this isn't Norfinbury.

Touching and playing with things you don't understand is always dangerous. [ Royce says, lifting his eyebrow. ] People get killed by simple, stupid things all the time.

I'll survive touching the water spouts, mate; don't you worry.

[He pokes a finger inside one, just to show Royce that he can.]

[ Royce rolls his eyes. ] If you lose a finger, don't come crying to me.

[ He's just saying. ] Go ahead. Turn them on, then.

All right.

[There are little buttons by each jet, and he flicks a few of them on. High-pressure streams of water shoot out.

He turns and raises an eyebrow at Royce. See? Nothing dangerous.]

[ Whoa. Royce is distracted by the water, impressed despite himself. He pulls off a glove, reaching carefully from where he's crouched on the edge of the tub to dip his fingers into the water. ]

I've never seen anything like this before.

Neither have I.

[He plays his fingers through the stream.]

I think it's a water massage.

[ Royce shakes his hand off, pulling his glove back on. ] Could be good for all of us. [ Dry and teasing: ] Might never get you out of here again, if that's the case.

That depends on how nice the beds are. Have you taken a look?

I looked under them. [ Royce slinks off from where he's crouched to go check said beds. ] Not nearly as many blankets as you'd amassed, though Stark mentioned we could ask for more.

[Of course he looked under them. Alfie grins, and turns off the jets before he gets up to follow Royce.]

Yeah. Might want to do that.

[It's late spring here in New York, and the weather is very mild, but old habits die hard. Alfie has a feeling the four of them are going to end up piled in a single bed more often than not, huddling together for safety and to guard against an imagined chill.]

[ Old habits definitely die hard. After months of being stuck in a harsh place like Norfinbury, Royce has almost trained himself to be a guard dog. He'll be happy to get his own place to sleep here and there, but he's gotten so used to having them all close that he's not sure he can give it up just yet.

It doesn't seem like that long ago that he couldn't stand to be in the same room as any of them. And now he doesn't know what he's going to do when he goes home. ]

He called it room service, right? [ Royce asks, sitting on one of the beds experimentally. ]

Yeah. Supposed to be a menu around here somewhere-- ah, here it is.

[Alfie pulls it out of one of the bedside drawers.]

Hungry?