cycleofages | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: August W. Booth~~/Pinocchio~~
What: Arrival & seeking answers
Where: Around HQ
When: 9/29 or thereabouts
Warnings: None

He's not unused to waking up in new places. It's just that usually when he does so, he remembers how he got there. Usually. He's also usually in a bed or on a couch or at least not on the floor. In a place that appears to be...a daycare?

The strangest part about this is that he doesn't feel the twinge in his leg that he's been feeling for weeks now, since he day he knows Emma showed up in Storybrooke. He gingerly reaches down to touch it and it doesn't feel like wood. He pulls the hem of his jeans up to look and it definitely flesh and bone again, not wood.

Huh. That's something. It can only mean that he's not in Storybrooke anymore.

He stands and gathers his shoulder bag, and when the old man shows up and hands him a phone, he pockets it and heads out in search of some more answers.

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Grace worked in the daycare and with the sudden appearance of the stranger she ushered the kids away and set them to work on something that might keep them distracted and out of the way. One August had gotten his phone and spoke to the older gentlemen she took a small step forward.

"Excuse me." She paused before giving him a small curtsy. "I'm Grace." She's actually really confused that he hadn't arrived at the arrival bay like she and the others who already lived in HQ had.

"Where did you come from?"

"Hello." She looks a little bit familiar; he recalls seeing her on the streets of Storybrooke, though they'd never spoken there. And she obviously doesn't recognize him. "I just woke up here. I was in Storybrooke."

"Storybrooke?" Her head canted to the side, her bright hair spilling over her shoulder. The name sounded familiar though she can't say why. She'd never been to a place called Storybooke before.

"Where is that?"

"It's in Maine. In the land without magic." He doesn't know if that will mean any more to her than Storybrooke does, but he'll try. Just to see.

Grace shook her head. "I'm from the Enchanted Forest. There's magic there but I haven't really seen it. Papa and I live in the woods." Or did.

She had no memory of Storybrooke or the curse.

"I lived in the Enchanted Forest before I lived in Storybrooke." A lot of other places too, in between, but that's not important. "My Papa and I lived near Snow White's castle. I saw some of the magic there."

"Really?" Grace's eyes lit up. "We didn't live that close to the castle. We only went into town once a week to sell mushrooms and it'd take most of the day." There was little time to do anything else those days.

"What sort of magic did you see?"

Grace always thought it was amazing to see magic.

Being the central location that it is, it's not exactly odd that Remy was walking past it at the time of August's exit. He'd been heading to the dorms, actually, and had been thinking of swinging by the cafeteria for a snack on the way when the door opened. Remy had made it a point, given how few of them there were, to make note of the people in HQ, but this was a new face. Considering the rumors flying around HQ at the moment, new arrivals were strange. Granted, he could be a native here, but the look of confusion in his eyes told the thief something different.

He smiled a charming smile as the man turned in his direction and offered a hand by way of greeting.

"Bonjour, mon ami. New 'round here? De name's Remy."

"Those sound like good days." Not that he knows, but really he just liked any time he had with his father, and assumes she did too.

"I saw the kind of magic that fairies could do." It's not that descriptive, maybe, but it's true.

"August," he replies as he shakes Remy's hand. "I just arrived. Does everyone show up in the day care?" That seems an odd place to wake up, but what does he know?

"Really?"

Grace looked excited. She wasn't sure what sort of magic there was but it sounded amazing. "Do they really help people? The fairies, that's what I've heard. They help give people happy endings, right?" That's what she's heard.

"They do what they can." They had tried to help him, after all, and it was his own failure to listen to their advice that was why it hadn't worked.

"I think that's amazing." Grace has seen many who could do more and don't. Even if it wasn't everything, doing something is better than those who do nothing.

"I like helping when I can but I can't do very much."

Gambit shook his head at the question, making a motion to indicate their surroundings.

"Dat one's new, homme. Down dat way, dere be a receiver. Dat's where most of us woke up. It's been down since, well, somethin' happened ta de girl who helped us get here. Long story, 'less yo' listenin'."

"You can probably do more than you think." Most people can, he's found. Emma certainly had, when she shifted her focus. "You just have to find something you're good at."

"I like stories." He claims to be a writer. He can't be a writer without stories. Especially stories about the place where he's found himself living. "I'm listening."

"I'm good at mixing tea and finding mushrooms." She sounded very proud of herself.

Gambit nodded, turning on a heel and in the direction of the cafeteria. "How 'bout we get somethin' ta eat an' I'll tell ya what I know, eh?"

“Sure, that sounds great,” he says as he hurries to follow Remy. “Can you start with where we are?”

“Not everyone is good at either one of those things. You never know when you might want a good cup of tea.” Or mushrooms, but he'd probably better not go into what some people use mushrooms for other than eating.

Grace nodded her head. "Right. If you ever want a cup of tea please let me know." Though the cafeteria has tea to but Grace wants to help; even with something this small.

"I will." Sometimes it's nice to have that personal touch on something. "So what can you tell me about this place?"

"Not that much. The people who run it are very nice and they give us meals and a place to sleep while everyone tries to figure out what's happening."

"Well that's a start, I suppose." He supposes that Grace would probably be able to tell if someone were only pretending to be nice, so the fact that she says they're nice is a good sign.

Grace nodded her head enthusiastically. "You can ask them questions too!"

Gambit nodded as they made their way toward the cafeteria. I was a short walk, maybe five minutes, from the day care center. "I'll do my best, mon ami." He didn't have much information beyond 'some form of New York', but he'd give it a shot.

"Dis place is under New York City. It's kept secret an' safe by a lot 'a magic. What's out dere...it's New York, oui, but it ain' mine. Odds are, it ain' yours, either."

"When I have some, I sure will." He knows there's a lot he's going to want to find out.

"I'm not that familiar with New York anyway." So it doesn't matter to him if it's the one he knows or not. That's not the tricky part. "When you say under New York City, do you mean underground?"

Grace smiled. "Is there anything else I can help you with? I need to be somewhere soon but I can run a little late if you need me."

She liked being helpful.

Remy nodded in response to his question. "Way underground, too. Takes a while ta walk topside."

"Maybe you could point me in the direction of..." He doesn't know, actually. It seems like he got all the help he was going to get when he arrived. "I'm not sure. Wherever you think I should go next."

"So we don't have to stay underground? We can go up to the regular New York?" Underground is a new one to him.

Grace nodded her head and then pulled the small phone that they'd been given from her pocket. She'd been taught how to use it.

"If you press this button and then this one you can get to the map. The cafeteria is here and your room is here. If you want to talk to Charles you just need to go to his office." She paused and stared at the map. "Here!" She pointed and smiled.

"Charles is the one in charge?" There's something he hadn't thought about yet in his myriad questions running through his mind. Who runs this place, and are they responsible for everyone showing up here?

Remy nodded at the question, motioning down a hall. "You gotta get checked out at de infirmary first, make sure yo' not gonna introduce any weird infections ta de population, non? Den, oui, you can go outside."

"I come from the same world that has New York in it." What kind of weird infections is he going to bring with him that haven't been seen in New York? But he figures there's probably no point in arguing this. "I guess I'd better go there then. How do I get there?"

Grace nodded her head. "I'm sure you can talk to him if you want. You can find him..." She pulled up her phone and pointed at an office. "Here, after dark."

She looked up at August. "Do you think you can remember where it is?"

Gambit was more familiar with alternate dimensions and mirror worlds than he ever thought he'd be in his relatively short life. It was practically old hat to him, and he realized something about that should bother him. Still, he nodded at August's claim.

"Oui, homme. Ya came from a world wit' a New York City, but dere be thousands 'a dose, non?"

He nodded, reaching out to pat the other man on the shoulder. "Follow me. I show you de way."

"I can remember where that is. Thank you." With his phone, he'll just keep wandering until he figures something out, and he might have some questions to ask later.

"Thousands of New Yorks?" He's familiar with the existence of worlds other than this one, but duplicates of places that already exist is a new one to him. "Lead on then."

Gambit nodded and headed off in the direction of the hospital wing, a necessary stop off unless August here wanted to try sneaking out. There were so many magic wards in place, though, that even Gambit wasn't willing to risk that.

"Ain' never heard 'a parallel dimensions before, homme?"

August is not going to try sneaking out. At least not right now. "I've heard of different realms. That's not a new concept. I just haven't heard of the same place existing in more than one realm at the same time."

"Hmm." That was new. He shrugged as they made their way. "Where I come from, we got...hundreds 'a parallel dimensions."

"That must get confusing. How do you know which one you're from?" Or which one you're trying to get to?

"If you got de right equipment, dat sort 'a thing can be tested, homme. World know who belongs in 'em."

"Well I suppose that makes sense." Though he's never heard of a world kicking someone out because they didn't belong before.

Gambit offered him a shrug. "What I mean ta say is de universe's got a balance, non?"

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