OTA! And backdated because I didn't realise I could post. >_>

[sparrowhillrose]

The sun has already set when the blonde girl stumbles into the grounds of the Barracks, clutching a candle. She's wearing nothing but a green dress, which was probably quite nice before her little jaunt through the woods, but is now muddy and torn in a few places. Her hair is full of leaves, her arms are scraped from pushing through brambles, and

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[paterelohim]

Enter Chuck, carrying a sketch-pad and looking confused. Frankly he can't blame her for sounding ticked off- who wouldn't be, at this place? It's a hell and a half of a lot better than his reaction of throwing up and passing out for three days (and waking up sore and nasty to boot).

"Uh, I have that stuff." He shuffles over uncertainly, trying his hardest not to look like a sketchy middle aged man with a beard offering a blanket to a young girl. "You cool with furs? I have furs."

[sparrowhillrose]

Don't worry, Chuck - Rose has hitched rides with sketchier-looking men than you, and blown some of them. Not that he knows that, and she looks as innocent sweet sixteen peaches and cream as she did the night she died.

Rose turns, and sighs with relief. "I'm cool with pretty much anything," she says. "I'm fucking cold, and tired, and my feet hurt like hell. Where is this place, anyway?"

She's not really expecting much more of an answer than she got from the lady with the candle, but if she keeps asking, she might get an answer eventually.

[paterelohim]

It's a good thing He doesn't, because he'd freak out and fall over were he privy to that information. As it is he shrugs, a little awkward with the details about the Wood.

"Uh, it's a fairy rape forest with people from over a dozen different universes?" Chuck beckons her towards the pub across the center of town, looming in the shadows. "It's sort of C.S. Lewis- a wood between the worlds concept." He realizes not for the first time that he's probably the only grown man on the planet who remembers the Chronicles of Narnia well enough to reference them.

[sparrowhillrose]

Rose follows, and frowns at his description. "C.S. who?" she asks. It's not her fault - Lewis only started writing them the year she died. If she'd had a chance to read them, though, she'd probably still remember, too.

"But, okay, creepy fairy forest. I'm assuming from the fact that you don't seem very fond of it that no one knows how to get back to... to their universes, right?" Okay, it is weird, even for her, to think about multiple universes. Multiple layers of one universe, sure, but... whole separate universes?

[paterelohim]

"He's- an author. Just, never mind." Way to make him feel old. Not that the feeling is exactly... logical, here, but still. "Yeah, uh, as far as I can tell nobody knows how to escape, which is pretty messed-up. There are some really powerful, uh... beings here. Trapped like rats, with the rest of us."

The green is small, and they cross it quickly; Chuck pushes the front door open to reveal the slightly dilapidated pub, the shelves behind the bar lined with glass bottles of various shapes and sizes all filled with dark red liquid. "Welp, here we are." Insert a vague ~behold!~ gesture. "Home sweet home."

[sparrowhillrose]

Well, if she were to be honest with him, it'd be more like making him feel young. But she's not really feeling the "admitting to her birth year" thing at the moment.

Rose steps inside and looks around with a dubious smirk. "You live in a bar?"

[paterelohim]

"No one else was using it," Chuck shrugs. There are very few fucks that he gives about this particular topic. He kicks the door shut and lights the gas lamp, walking further into the place. "And I have a couple rooms in the back. It's a pretty sweet little set-up- I have more space than anyone else here, and a pretty respectable amount of stuff."

[sparrowhillrose]

Hey, it works for her, even if it is a bit unorthodox.

"More space? I'm surprised you're the only one here, in that case." She knows living in a small space. She did get a room to herself when her brothers had to share, but it wasn't much more than a glorified storage closet with a window. "What're the other sleeping arrangements like?"

[paterelohim]

"There wasn't really much alcohol before I got here, and the place was pretty crappy when I moved in." Chuck leads her to the back rooms, where there is indeed a desk, a bed, a chair and some other basic trappings, and a small room further back with a crappy, dusty couch. "Everyone else lives in those little cabins- they're not bad, really. You can take the couch- I think it's actually more comfortable than the bed? Which really, is sad."

[sparrowhillrose]

Given that they're in the middle of some weird magic forest, Rose thinks he's done pretty well for himself. If he's got a sitting room (even if it is just a room with a crappy couch), he's doing okay.

Seeing the couch - which, while it probably looks softer than it is, is probably a sight better than the ground - seems to remind Rose's body that she is very tired, and with her adrenaline levels plummeting now that she's out of immediate danger, her legs are feeling a little rubbery. She smiles wearily at her host, fighting back a yawn.

"Thanks," she says, and hopes the gratitude in her voice is evident. "Um... I'm Rose, by the way."

[paterelohim]

Given that the sitting room is attached to a big-ass bar all to himself, he's doing a little more than okay. Chuck smiles at her, shrugging a shoulder noncommittally before sticking his hand out to her. "No problem. I'm Chuck Shurley, nice to meet you."

"I, uh," he adds sheepishly, "Probably should've said that before."

[sparrowhillrose]

"It's okay," Rose replies, shaking his hand firmly. "I could've thought of it earlier myself.". Nev mind that she was tired, confused, and undoubtedly being mistaken for just a simple teenager. What kid in her shoes would've thought of something like introductions after being dumped in a magic faerie wood and then being chased by some unidentifiable monsters, losing their shoes in the process?

She wouldn't have, a few decades ago, so it wasn't like chuck would think she was rude, even if he hadn't forgotten, himself.