Finn Mason (rangerboy) wrote in _fracture_, @ 2014-04-22 18:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | chapter 2, christer, lavel, tierney |
Looking for Answers
Who: Christer and Tierney
Where: Near the stables
When: Afternoon
Christer was trying not to focus too much on his feelings around Lindsey, her knight, and himself, which had him throwing himself into his job which wasn’t even his real job, but he’d been suited to work in the stables just like had been at home. He worked until he was exhausted, finally sitting outside the stables with something that mustered for lunch, watching people pass. They were staring at him again, blonde hair hanging in his eyes, but more than that, he’d gone down to just a flimsy shirt with shorter sleeves, showing off the tattoos that trailed up and down his arms. He knew that was what they were looking at. They always were.
Tierney had met Sullivan, and gone with him to the tournament. But at some point, she’d wandered off and wasn’t able to catch up with him again. She wasn’t worried about it, if they really did come from the same hotel, they’d cross paths again. And if not, she’d survive. With his watch, which she didn’t have to steal after all. Bonus. She was doing a little exploring now when she spotted the tattooed blonde. Well, that didn’t seem to fit the way most other people looked around here. And that was a good thing. Approaching him, she didn’t bother to lean down, she was short enough that he wouldn’t have to look up very high to see her face. “Hey. Nice ink.”
Christer was lost in his own thoughts, completely caught up in them and hyperfocused on what was going on in his mind until the voice had him glancing up and staring at her. “Um, thank you,” he said. That wasn’t expected. Maybe she was from somewhere else like him as well.
She nodded in response to his thanks. Unsure of how to continue the conversation, she studied him carefully for a moment before casually looking around once again. “You get them done somewhere around here?”
Not even close, Christer thought, doing his best to shake off his feelings and thoughts in general so he could focus on the woman in front of him. “No, not around here. I’m not sure I could find somewhere and if I did, they wouldn’t look like they did.” He glanced down at his arms, the lines tracking up and down them. “Far away from here actually. Do you have any?”
“A couple.” She nodded a little, turning her back to him and tugging her shirt down at the shoulder to reveal a lion on the back of her right shoulder. She figured it was only fair that she show him one of hers since she’d already remarked on seeing his. Turning back to face him, she studied him curiously. “You okay? You look tired.”
That was enough for Christer to get up, leaning in to get a better look at her tattoo. “Why a lion?” he asked. His all had stories and he like hearing the stories of others. “Well enough. Threw myself into working here,” he pointed behind him at the building behind him. “Despite it being seemingly pointless.”
“I wish I had a good answer for you, but I don’t. I was probably too drunk or high at the time, but I bet I thought it was a good idea back then.” She furrowed her brow in confusion, not really following him. “Why would you throw yourself into working if it was pointless?”
Christer had heard that story before. It was a sad one, but he nodded nonetheless. “Perhaps it meant something in the moment. It looks good at least.” And it wasn’t something drastically embarrassing. At her question he shrugged slightly. “It’s distracting, which was what I was looking for.” Anything to get his thoughts off of Lindsey.
“I can hypothesize, or make up a really good meaning, but I’m working on this whole honesty thing so… yeah. And thanks.” He was right, it could have been really poorly done and she was thankful that it wasn’t. Considering his words, she nodded. “Fair enough. But I’m sure there’s a lot of other ways to distract yourself without doing manual labor.”
“Honesty is probably the best policy for as much,” Christer agreed. “Why the attempt at honesty?” That was an interesting point of view for someone to take and such a thing probably came with a purpose. “I’ve always found work does the job, even before I wound up here.”
“Just figured, I haven’t been completely honest all the time, so better start while I’ve still got the time to see how it pans out.” She wasn’t sure if that was an acceptable answer and so shrugged as well. But something he said sparked her interest. “Before you wound up here…. when did you come here?”
Christer considered that then wound up nodding. That made sense to him he supposed. He still felt like maybe there was a better motivation for it, but he didn’t push. Sometimes people didn’t want to give more than they had. “I woke up here yesterday. You?”
“Today. Where are you… originally from? Does that even make sense? I’m still figuring all of this out.” She studied him a little more closely now. She was sure they’d never met before, so her fleeting theory about this all happening to one group of people in one specific area went right out the window.
“A few centuries later and an ocean away,” Christer explained. “I was in a hotel I didn’t mean to be in before this as well.” He ran his fingers through his hair, trying for a smile but it was tiny and didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m not the only one either.”
She caught the half-smile, but wasn’t really sure what to make of it. She let his words sink in for a few beats of silence before rubbing at the back of her neck. “How many others? And… you didn’t mean to be there?”
“I know of three or so,” Christer said, trying to count them in his head. “But there could be others. I’m sure there were more at the hotel.” At her second question he shrugged, nodding off to the side to get them out of the crowd of people. “No. I was out in the park staying in a cabin with some other rangers tracking a bear and then woke up somewhere else, an old hotel.” He wrapped his arms around himself, concern creasing his brow.
Tierney nodded slowly in response, thinking about the little information she knew otherwise. Which didn’t really make anything clear, instead, it just added to her running list of questions. “Do you know these other people? Like… from before the whole hotel situation?”
Christer shook his head. “No. Met them all there,” he said. “Have you run into anyone familiar yet?” he asked wondering if that was why she’d asked.
She shook her head no, looking around once more. “No, just a theory I had. I met one person, he said his brother is here too. Which is weird but none of this seems to follow any sort of logical path.”
It didn’t follow any kind of path, but he wasn’t sure he was the one to figure it out. He probably wasn’t smart enough for it. It felt far bigger than they were. “I’m running out of theories at the moment. At least for now.”
“So… you just sit around and wait for something to happen?” That didn’t seem like a very proactive approach, but she wasn’t judging. Maybe he was content to hang out around this place and… work, apparently. Tierney was undecided on how she felt about this place, but finding herself a job to do was the last thing on her mind at the moment. “I mean… are you trying to get back? Or just seeing what happens?”
“Just as I was getting settled something did happen,” Christer said, though he supposed he could do more. He’d been too distracted to do more. “I haven’t thought of way to get back from here. At the hotel, you couldn’t get out. Going out a door just dropped you somewhere else inside.”
“What about a window? Or a closet?” Maybe it didn’t make much sense at all, but she wasn’t just thinking up random scenarios. There was some consideration behind it, but sci-fi had never really been her genre of choice.
“Closet works like a closet and I hadn’t tried a window because I’m not keen on jumping out of them,” Christer said with a tiny shrug. “You’re welcome to try if we wind up back there again.”
She nodded thoughtfully. She knew it would be flat out stupid to go and get herself hurt, all things considered. Especially if she was still going to be stuck in this old timey type place that likely had really poor medical care. It wasn’t exactly her prefered place to get sick or injured. “Maybe just climbing out of a low window would be a good place to start. We’ll see.”
“Seems reasonable. We have to get back there first. Which means we should probably take in here a little bit better.” Christer had to hope that they did, if only for that sense of normalcy until they figured it out, but there was always a chance that they stayed here or wound up somewhere else again.
“I suppose you’re right.” Shoving her hands down into her pockets, she looked around yet again. “Any suggestions?” Turning her attention back to him, she arched a brow. “So, what did you do back… back where ever home is for you. Were you like a park ranger or something?”
“Not yet,” Christer admitted. “Just going along with things at the moment. Seeing where it takes us.” He nodded when she asked, ghost of a smile on his lips. “I was. You?”
She noted the smile again and was about to remark about it before something popped into her head. “Wait, you said something did happen? Sorry, delayed reaction there.” Tierney was disappointed in herself, she was usually much better with the little details like that. “I am, or… was a documentary maker.”
“What happened?” Christer was confused. He must have said something, but he wasn’t sure what it was. “What kind of documentaries?” That was always interesting and it got the attention away from him again.
“You said you were getting settled and something happened? Sorry, I didn’t catch it when you first said it. There’s a lot going on here that doesn’t make sense, I guess I filtered it out by accident.” Hopefully that’s all it was. She could sometimes be a little paranoid when she started acting differently, worried it was something more serious than just not paying attention. “Um… like social justice issues. Homelessness, mental health treatment, discrimination, addiction… “ She’d been working on something a little different lately, but waking up in a strange place seemed like a good enough reason to put a project on hold, for a few days at least.
“Oh that.” Christer waved around them. “I woke up here. Which was just as weird.” He took in everything around them then shrugged again. “Important topics all of them. Sounds like you do good work.” Present tense. He wasn’t able to put it behind him yet, give up on who he was when it was so much of who he was.
Tierney wasn’t entirely sure how good or important her work was, but at the very least she found it necessary for her own peace of mind. She’d seen enough crap in her life to realize some people were just blind to her reality, or chose to ignore it. She shrugged it off in response, kicking a little at the ground in front of her. “It’s a process. Being a park ranger sounds… different. Sorry, I don’t know much about life outside of the city.”
“Not a lot of people do,” Christer said with a smile. He was used to hearing that. “I like it, but I realize it’s not for everyone.” He considered it for a moment then nodded. “It’s a dying job I think. People aren’t as interested in the parks as they used to be.”
“I’m far from a conservationist or anything, but people should be interested in parks. While I love the city, if that’s all there was things would get pretty horrible, pretty fast. I could do a piece about your park, get some tree-huggers on board, get some good exposure…” She stopped herself short, realizing all too quickly that this wasn’t a brainstorming session for a potential project. Shaking her head, she smirked. “I guess we’d have to figure out how to get back before all of that. Sorry.”
Christer just gave her that same ghost of a smile again, nodding as she spoke. “That’s not an awful idea,” he said at her suggestion. “But yes, let’s get out of this mess first.”
She tilted her head, studying him curiously for a moment before snapping out of it. “I’m supposed to be trying to figure that out right now. Or at least looking for clues. On how to get back, that is.”
He caught that look, the way she was watching him and she gave him a barely there curious look, one eyebrow raised. “Are you? Should I let you know if I notice anything?”
“Sure, that would be great.” Tucking her hair behind her ears, she gave him a small smile. “Or if you’ve got any ideas on how to get us back, I’m all ears.”
He thought about it for a moment then shook his head. “Nothing as of yet. But if I come up with something other than playing along I can let you know that as well.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that.” She hesitated before shrugging a little. “I guess I should keep it moving and let you get back to… work, I guess? I’ll try to track you down later and catch up, sound good?”
“Work. I’ll be here if you need anything,” he said, nodding back over his shoulder towards the stables. “Sounds good. Be safe out there.”
She nodded hesitantly, a little caught off guard by his last words. It had never occurred to her that this place might not be safe, then again, she had gotten so used to unsafe places that she didn’t think about it much in general. Offering a little wave, she turned to go. “You too. See you around.”