Alexander V. Cross (alexvc) wrote in dis_ducibus, @ 2010-06-17 05:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | !open, 2010/06/05, alex |
Who: Alex Cross and OPEN
Where: French Quarter, near the Mississippi River
When: June 5, Midday (about 2pm)
What: Alex explores his new city, (hopefully) mingles with locals, and discovers he might be a little out of his depth.
Alex had arrived early that morning, groggy from sleeping on the plane and unsteady thanks to his leg falling asleep, but otherwise in one piece. The airport, the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport to be exact, was not actually located in New Orleans. That made the name of the place rather deceptive in his humble opinion, but that didn't change the fact that actually reaching the "Belle Lune Inn" - 'Beautiful Moon', he thought somewhat amused, 'Cute' - would involve a fairly lengthy and possibly expensive cab ride. He wished he'd taken Verg up on his offer of a ride, but at least he'd be saving gas.
The cab ride wasn't as lengthy as he was expecting, but it did use up all the cash he had on him. The driver kept talking about something he'd read in the paper that morning. Something about a woman with small butterfly wings. Or maybe his tired mind was imagining things. He hadn't slept last night and he'd only managed to sleep for half of his six hour flight. He was just relieved when he finally made it to the inn so he could get the rest of his eight hours on the couch in the only unused room. It was far too small for him and he was certain the cat had fallen asleep on his face at some point. Hopefully Verg didn't have any cameras set up. Otherwise he'd be supplying perfect blackmail material.
Through all of this, he barely managed to glimpse Verg, a man he hadn't seen in person in at least a decade. He'd wanted to spend the rest of the day catching up, once he unpacked. Instead he awoke to find a hand-written note on the front desk that said he'd gone out to run errands before his guests arrived the next day, and why didn't he go explore the city?
So that's exactly what he did. He'd wandered a few blocks away from the Belle Lune, making sure to keep track of where he was in relation to it. It wasn't hard, since the building was so near the river. He was walking along said river now, which made him feel... strange. Just being close to the Mississippi made him feel calmer somehow. Melted away all the stress that comes from losing your livelihood and moving to an unfamiliar city, and actually managed to make the odd plague he'd been suffering from for the past five days seem like nothing more than a distant irritation. It wasn't as though there was anything particularly impressive about the river. It was big, sure. And it was muddy, and had a very unique kind of stink about it. It was also the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He just couldn't figure out why.
The French Quarter seemed oddly empty considering that is was supposed to be a business district. He knew a lot of people were getting sick recently, not to mention the odd presence of the National Guard. He overheard a small group outside a coffee shop talking about a meteor of some sort. He'd have to ask Google about that later.
For the moment, though, he just found a bench to sit on and tried not to think about what he might have gotten himself into.