Surprise! Elephant!

[npcz]

{Conrad Hotel Basement party thread!}The headwaitress at the Conrad hotel has seen an awful lot in her time working there. Angels, demons, shapeshifters, elementals who weren't aware they were elementals, and, on one particularly notorious occasion, an elemental who seemed to only be able to work with balsamic vinaigrette

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[changingtheodds]

Ruvin doesn't much feel like a party. She watches from the hall that leads to the rooms, her expression closed, almost vacant. She's tired--three nights out of four she wakes up from nightmares about the CLF. The fourth night she wakes up when she turns fuzzy by accident. She hasn't been talking much, to anyone, and has been trying to avoid people in general. Particularly Dusty and Robin.

Her stomach growls, demanding that she take a portion of the food. Ruvin rubs her eyes and drifts over to the nearest table to see what's there.

[findaconstant]

Dan, as always, is fashionably late. Of course, had he not been scanning the area in the first place from the comforts of his room, he wouldn't have noticed the elephant and probably wouldn't have known about the food.

This new power of his sure is coming in handy, he thinks, while casually leaning against a nearby wall with a small plate of food that he's only really been nibbling on. To him, this is more of an opportunity to meet the people (and, uh, creatures) he's been watching for the past few weeks.

When did he turn in to such a social butterfly?

Since Ruvin is the person closest to him, Dan flashes her a friendly smile.

[changingtheodds]

It takes a second for her to recognize Dan from this angle, but when she does a smile breaks across her face before she even realizes it. Embarrassed, she looks down at her plate, half-full of unfamiliar looking dishes. Of course, she thinks, he wouldn't recognize her. This is an opportunity to ask him what he was practicing in the common room, but...

That requires talking. She picks at a the raisins resting atop some pile of goop that is, in turn, resting on a slice of bread.

[findaconstant]

That -

That's the kind of reaction that makes Dan get all awkward and blushy, so it's really a good thing they're not talking. There would be a lot of stammering.

So he clears his throat and focuses his attention back on his plate.

[changingtheodds]

When she glances back up and sees him staring at his plate, too, she blushes a bit more, wondering if he knows who she is already. Ruvin wanders closer, waving timidly to get his attention.

"Hello."

Er. She doesn't remember if he gave his name or not. She remembers his smells, the sound of his voice, and oh god that is embarrassing. She takes a far too large bite of something random from her plate and almost chokes.

[findaconstant]

Shyly, he glances back up at her.

"Hi."

The way his eyebrows slightly knit together almost forms a silent Do I know you?

He's pretty sure he doesn't.

But "pretty sure" does not equal "completely sure."

[changingtheodds]

She swallows, clears her throat, and tries not to blush any deeper. "I suppose you don't remember me."

There. She can feel out what he knows and doesn't without actually admitting she was a dog last time they met. Hopefully.

[findaconstant]

"Um. No."

He squints in an effort to remember her face, but nothing comes to mind.

"But I'm guessing I should. Did you know me before I - uh, died?"

Conversations like this will never stop being Really, Really Weird.

[changingtheodds]

Excuse her while she chokes again. "Before you what?"

She's heard and seen a lot of strange things since coming to Chicago. She even thought she was getting used to them. But that is a new one on her.

"Excuse me, I beg your pardon." She flails about for her manners, then gives up. "What?"

[findaconstant]

Okay so that's a big, flashing neon "no."

He looks a little embarrassed. "Oh. I - sorry, I thought maybe you knew. I've been here before. About a year ago, and I... was murdered. But it was a different me, because I'm obviously not dead."

Yeaaaaaah this conversation isn't ever going to get any less awkward, is it?

[changingtheodds]

Noooo probably not.

"Um. No. I'm sorry."

She's not sure if she's apologizing for not knowing him or for the fact that not!him got killed. Maybe both.

"Oh. I'm Ruvin." She manages a tiny smile and it holds up like a trooper.

[findaconstant]

"It's okay. I'm Daniel. Uh, Dan."

He returns her smile, trying to not look too bashful.

"So how do I know you, then?"

It occurs to him that he could just admit that he has a bad memory, but a) his power has been helping with that and b) he always hates it when he has to tell someone that he doesn't remember them. He's pretty sure he'd remember someone like her, anyway, which makes this situation that much more frustrating.

[changingtheodds]

"Um," she says. Oh fathers. There's no way for her to avoid it now, is there. Nerves trigger what's been conditioned into her as an automatic response at this point. She feels the little pulse of pain that comes before her bones start twisting and shifts her attention, focusing almost entirely on keeping herself from going furry.

It's unnervingly hard.

"Um," Ruvin repeats, sounding more distracted than anxious this time. "Well."

[findaconstant]

...

Dan blinks at her. This isn't sounding good, and he's starting to look a little worried.

"Yeah?"

[changingtheodds]

There. Whatever was rattling lose has finally clicked back into place. "Sorry."

She wipes her forehead. "I'm a shapeshifter."

[findaconstant]

Daniel Faraday, the youngest doctoral graduate out of Oxford, renowned physicist, master of all things mathematical... just isn't putting two and two together.

"Really? A lot of people here are, aren't they? I've noticed - "

Two and two makes four, Dan!

"Oh - oh my. That - that was you, wasn't it? The dog? That's why you recognize me. Oh God."

He's just going to be over here looking mortified and tomato-y, if anyone needs him, 'kay?