all_inclusive | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Nick's mind was all about the evening he had planned. Just two quick stops - one to the Compound, the next to the Hub - and then off to the hut Melanie shared with her sister. Melanie was a practical girl, not really into a lot of the romantic trappings some were, but he was willing to bet that she wouldn't mind a picnic dinner on the beach at sunset. And if she did, he thought with a smirk, she wouldn't be shy about telling him so. Might earn him an eyeroll, or maybe a scoff. Twisted as he was, he almost hoped she put up a fight about it. He'd watched the sunset from the beach more than a few times since coming here and it never failed to impress him. It'd just add to the fun to watch her grudgingly admit that the picnic had been a good idea.

Then, if they happened to take full advantage of a dark, deserted beach? He certainly wasn't going to say no.

Still laughing to himself, Nick pulled open the doors leading into the Compound and stepped through.

He stopped stock still when the door closed behind him. This wasn't the Compound. This was different.

Different wasn't all that new to him. The island had a nasty habit of shaking its residents up by radically altering their environment. Victorian London, New York City, rampaging sea creatures that didn't exist in nature. All of that was par for the course; the dues paid for being granted a blank slate. Something, maybe the shiver of fear up his spine, told him this wasn't the island craziness fucking with his head again.

He took a deep breath in, exhaled it slowly. "I don't think I'm in Kansas anymore," he muttered to himself.

Alone in the corridor, he hadn't expected an answer. He got one anyway. "Not even close, Nicky. Welcome back."

With a supreme effort, Nick forced the unwanted voice back and looked around wildly trying to figure out just what the merry fuck was going on. When the answer didn't flash in neon on the wall he tried asking out loud.

"What the merry fuck is going on here?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

MacKenzie has her own issues about the hotel and why the fuck she's here and it takes her a moment to respond to the new guy, focused as she is on her own shit. Once she realizes she's being rude, she gasps a little.

"Oh, sorry. It's...some kind of hotel with doors all over that seem to leave everywhere and nowhere at all. I've been trying to get home for days now with no luck."

"Out of the frying pan and into the fucking inferno," Nick grunted. Trapped again in a place he couldn't leave, if her comment was anything to go on. And as an added bonus, he had his powers, and his demon, back in his head again. So the one bonus of being trapped away from home, the bliss of being human again, was gone in a blink but he was still stuck and couldn't flash out of it. "Typical."

That was when his eyes raised and he really looked at the woman. She was familiar to him, her face anyway, he didn't think he'd ever spoken to her before. "I know you, don't I? From the island?"

MacKenzie frowns a little. "I haven't had a holiday in a long while and not on an island. I'm sorry, I must just have one of those faces?"

She offers a smile and extends her hand. "MacKenzie McHale. It's a pleasure."

He'd heard enough about people coming back to the island with no memory of having been there and that the working theory had most believing that they forgot the place when they left.

Trust his luck to retain it all when he came here, especially as it meant more misery for him. Carrying his memories of Melanie and his other friends on Tabula Rasa, and knowing he was separated from them now? That definitely counted under misery-inducing. He could feel the rage bubbling up and he had to work to force it back down again.

Nick took her hand and shook, his grip probably too firm since he hadn't had to compensate for his preternatural strengths in a while. "Pleasure's mine, MacKenzie. I'm Nick. Gautier," he added the last with its typical hint of Cajun attached.

"I hear a little something in that accent," MacKenzie says, trying to decide what it is. "I'm reasonably good at American accents...the South, yes? Just a little?"

She isn't sure where, exactly, but she feels good about the south.

"There's South and then there's N'awlins even though I haven't been there in a few years. Never seems to leave me completely when I say certain words like my name," Nick said with a half-grin. "You're hearin the Cajun."

"I could never shed the English even when I've lived in America most of my life," she says, laughing a bit.

"But yours is a hell of a lot more pleasant to listen to. Is there anything you want to know about this place?"

"Start with everything and go from there?" Nick suggested.

It was taking half his concentration to keep his voice mild around the shit that was hitting his mind. The demon had registered female and was starting to whisper deadly and dangerous things. Things he hadn't had to deal with in two years. That, and senses, and powers, and...everything else.

"Well, I'm afraid I don't know much," MacKenzie says, "But you can arrive from anywhere and there's doors all over this place that don't necessarily lead to logical places. It's like Harry Potter or something. Anyway, you should have a room at least, I got my key from the front desk."

"Front desk, right," Nick nodded, trying to process what she'd said about the doors. The sounded a lot like the veils in his world, but in New Orleans, those veils never lead to anyplace any sane person would want to go. "I'll make that my next stop. You said something about trying to find a door 'home.' Does that mean what I think it means?"

And more to the point, did that mean he could open a door and find himself in Azmodea? If so, he'd have to be supremely careful about opening anything.

"Manhattan, for me," MacKenzie says, nodding. "I've been trying to get back to Manhattan two years ago and have had no luck."

She sighs a bit. "My friend needs his medication. He's going through withdrawal."

"You've been here for two years?" Not that that surprised Nick. It'd been at least that long since he'd been on the island. Or damn close to it. The withdrawl perked an eyebrow up. "What's he coming down off of?"

"Oh, no, I haven't. It's just 2011 back home and it is 2013 here," MacKenzie explains. She's a little out of it because Will's sick and she hopes Nick can understand she's not on top of things.

"He took Effexor for his depression and he hasn't had it this week. It's making him sick."

He did, because he'd spent his two years mired in bendy time and surrounded by people past, present, and future, all of whom having to transition in some way or another. "It's 2013 here, too? That helps. I haven't lost any time in that respect, but since I have no idea what year it was when I left home? I'm just going with the current year and not worrying about it too much."

Nick winced at the news, antidepressants weren't good to crash down from, especially cold. If he remembered right, that could seriously fuck with your head. "I don't suppose there's a doc here or a pharmacy that could help?"

He was trying to remember what he'd been told when he got his key, but it had all sort of blended together.

"I think there's a doctor but getting Will to a doctor is like getting Congress to pass immigration reform. You can beg and beg and nothing will still ever get done."

It's a bit of a sore spot with her but if government weren't completely ineffective, she wouldn't actually have a job. If Will were easy to work with, she suspects she might also be out of a job.

"Where were you last? An island, you said?"

"That one gets filed under something I can't help you with then," Nick said with a shrug. "It'll come down to what he likes less, doctors or spiders crawling all over his skin."

You could offer to help make that worse? Nick ignored the demon.

"Yeah, an island. And that place was almost as weird as this one. Little pocket universe thing, people dropping in and dropping out with no real logic behind it. Stuck there until whatever force brought you there sent you back home again. Or here, I guess. Added bonus, people with special abilities were stripped down to nothing but human. Vampires, mutants, you name it - everyone back to base zero."

MacKenzie arches a brow. "You sound like one of my associate producers. Next you'll be pitching me Bigfoot, won't you? I've heard all about Bigfoot."

And trolls, both the internet and the kind under bridges. She's not sure what's going to come out of Neal's mouth on an everyday basis.

"Couldn't tell you, I've never met the guy, but I do know a few shape shifters that love nothing more than to fuck around with humans," Nick said with a shrug, thinking Dev would probably find that sort of shit amusing as hell.

That was when he moved in a little closer and let his control over his eyes lessen just enough for the blue to return to their natural state - an eerie, swirling silver. "Just because you don't believe, doesn't mean freaky shit doesn't exist."

MacKenzie has never in her life seen anything like that before and she takes a step back, slightly frightened. It's fucked up but then again, isn't the whole premise of this place kind of fucked up?

"Uh...uh huh. So, Nick, what are you? That's not...the usual."

When Nick straightened away, his eyes were perfectly blue again. "Names aren't really important, are they? Let's just say I'm a little reminder that not everyone fits into neat little human boxes and leave it at that."

The demon inside was almost drooling at the fear coming off the young woman and was whispering at him to show her his true form, to pull even more fear from her to feed its power. Again, Nick ignored it.

"Uh huh, well. I'm just human in my box over here," MacKenzie says, rambling a little. "Nice little human box. So, can I show you around?"

That's much better than talking about things that aren't supposed to exist.

"Sure, I'd appreciate that," he answered easily, giving her another grin. "I'd tell you not to worry, that I'm not dangerous, really, but you seem smart enough to probably not believe something like that just because I say it."

He shoved both hands in his pockets and widened the smile. "I don't make a habit of hurting humans in their boxes just for the hell of it."

"Good. I've seen combat but I suspect my version of combat is not the same as yours."

MacKenzie starts heading in a random direction. "We can head to the bar and I can buy you a drink?"

"I would hope not," Nick said honestly.

He had started walking beside her, then stopped. "Wait. 'Buy' a drink? This place uses money?"

MacKenzie nods. "It does, yes. Don't worry, I showed up with a full wallet and am happy to loan you some cash if you need it."

It had been a lark that she'd gone to the ATM the day before she turned up here.

"I might need to take you up on that," Nick said, passing a hand over his face. Yeah, he'd never hurt for money when he'd been back home, but he also hadn't thought anything about it in two years. "I don't suppose we're given access to bank accounts with money already in them while we're here?"

"Not that I've seen," MacKenzie says, smiling ruefully. "But allegedly you can go back and forth even though I haven't managed it yet. I'm just slow on the uptake, I guess."

"Just as a warning, it looks like we're in the middle of space. This place floats in midair."

"I'll have to see if I can make that work then, because I can't play guitar for shit so sitting in the hallway begging for quarters is not really an option for me. Unless there's a way to earn here. I'll have to start--- wait," Nick stopped, then turned to look at her again. "Did you say midair?"

MacKenzie nods. "I damn near walked off the edge the first night I was here. It's like something out of a movie."

She feels it's her duty to warn him so he doesn't fall off the edge of the earth.

Nick just snorted a laugh. "With my luck it wouldn't kill me, just send me off into some other strange ass place. I'm sort of hard to kill that way. I don't suppose anyone's ever jumped, to see what would happen?"

MacKenzie makes a horrified little face. "No, not so far as I know. Will and I got the fuck away from the edge when we found it."

She hasn't been outside since because the idea of it frightens her so. Maybe that's why she hasn't had any luck finding a door home but she's not going to go out there unless she has to.

"I guess you could try it, if you don't care about life preservation."

"I dunno. I've just come from a place kind of like this. We were on an island, though, not a hotel. Got to say, I'm going to enjoy air conditioning and hot running water less than a half mile away. Anyway, a few people tried to take boats and shit out over the water to find land. All that would happen is you'd somehow find yourself sailing right into the islans, without ever having turned around."

For all he knew, this place was just like that and falling into space would drop you right back here somewhere.

"Well, I don't know about that," MacKenzie says, thinking that sounds the other side of insane. Then again, isn't this place the other side of insane?

"But I like my life so I'm not going to give it a shot. If I get desperate, I will let you know."

"Of the two of us, I somehow think I'll be the one getting desperate there," Nick laughed. "And probably the only one with nothing to lose if it does end up turning out for the worst. I'm not quite there yet, but probably because it hasn't really sunk in yet that I'm stuck here, that I finally found a sliver of happiness where I was and I was yanked rudely away yet again."

MacKenzie frowns a bit. She knows a lot about being unhappy and she wouldn't wish it on anyone else, much less someone she finds cordial and kind. She smiles instead, wanting to ease some of the pain if she can.

"Well, maybe you can find some happiness here too. It's just shit to get used to at first."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only