you are alert as a tigress at a common table with her fate
Life for the past year has been a series of motel rooms, cheap bars with hollow carvings in their jukeboxes telling stories she doesn't care for, and empty beer bottles lined up on the counters she uses later for practice. There's the occasional postcard to her mother and traveling down the open road from one middle-of-the-fuck-nowhere town to the
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Jo is not the something shifty.
The something shifty recently went into a burger joint. Rogue is pretty sure Mr. Shifty is eating a Big Mac.
So much for that.
She's starting to move back toward the hotel when a light catches her eye, followed by a voice. "This city's like a damned crane game," she grumbles, picturing a giant claw hanging down from one of the taller buildings and just grabbing folks up and dropping them down onto the streets below.
Rogue jogs a bit closer, her head tilting to the side. "Hey," she calls out, and her voice is already carrying a bit of an oh hell tone. "Just get here?"
Duh, Rogue. Duh.
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Ordinarily she's a leap-before-you-look kind of gal, but right now caution's gonna have to be the name of the game. It doesn't help she literally has no idea where she is or how she got here.
The adrenaline that surged through only minutes before ebbs and flows away until it dwindles into nothing.
Goody. I get a welcome wagon.
"Who wants to know?"
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Rogue's not surprised to be met with some frustration and suspicion. If she's right, the gal just got yanked away from her home.
"I'm Rogue," she says, remaining where she is. She nods toward the alleyway. "The light caught my attention, and seein' as how I got yanked on over here to Chicago a few months back, I figured you mighta had the same thing happen."
She shrugs a bit and scratches at the back of her arm. "If I'm wrong, though, I'm surely sorry for buggin' you. I just thought I'd see if you needed any help, yeah?"
She already feels bad for the other woman, but she doesn't figure that would be terribly welcome.
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Except, Rogue claims she's been in the same sitch.
Jo stares at her, contemplating her limited options, before finally coming to a decision. "I'm Jo and last time I checked, I was in Arizona."
Anyone that expects her to be more forthcoming than that is shit out of luck. Which doesn't mean she's gonna tell the stranger that wants to help to shove it.
"Help me how?"
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Arizona.
Her face scrunches up a bit. "Shoot far," she mutters. "Well, Jo. We're here in Chicago, and it's a whole different kinda world. Like, literally." She takes a deep breath, not really expecting a girl who's likely more suspicious than Rogue to buy it all, even if it is the truth. "That fancy light thing? You just got yanked through a rift and, so far as I know, there ain't a way of goin' back through."
"As for helpin'... Well, there's a hotel that puts up folks who fall through like us. I've been stayin' there since I came in from New York. I could show you the way. I reckon that'd be somethin'. Besides, there'll likely be folks there who can explain things several shades better'n I ever could."
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Until she sees for herself there's no way back, Jo won't be drinking the kool aid and refuses to believe it's true. She's certain that could be said for a lot of folks that were once in her shoes but whatever.
She sighs, and it's obvious she's not mad at Rogue. She's angry about the situation, hating whatever this rift is, and she's pretty sure that's allowed at this point. She won't cry a river if it's not.
"Okay, I'm gonna have to ask you to back up a moment. You're saying there's a hotel that helps those of us that find ourselves shit outta luck and in a different world than the one we're from."
A pause. "What's the catch?"
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She doesn't like any situation where she feels helpless, and this being sucked into Chicago through a damn rift doesn't really allow for her to do anything to fix stuff. She doesn't like it, but she's starting to accept it.
It kind of makes her sad, thinking that someone else is going to have to, too.
'What's the catch?'
Rogue laughs and shakes her head. "I ain't found one yet. It's owned by a nice lady who came through like us. It's chock full of folks." She tries to think of anything that might potentially be helpful. There's just so much. "It's a place." Somewhere to go...even if it's not home.
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This? She'll admit this is taking it to a whole new level.
She's not sure what to believe. There's always a catch. The good thing is, Jo can take care of herself if there is one, and right now she needs a place to regroup and stitch herself back up at the very least.
"Yeah." She blows out a breath. "Yeah, okay. Where's this place at? I'll owe you one."
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Something makes her shut her mouth, though, and she just nods. Some people just feel like that. Rogue knows that much.
"It's back a few blocks this a-way. I was just out doin' a bit of a patrol." She starts off toward the hotel, shooting a look back just once to make sure Jo is following and that nothing is following her.
She takes a lot more notice of things than most folks give her credit for, and she glances over briefly when she tells Jo where the first aid kit is located in the hotel.
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The answers she has gotten suck and they're not enough.
She's also alert to her surroundings, never once letting her guard down. She's mindful of every sound, every flicker of light, every seemingly empty corner in between buildings she's never seen before in her life.
The quiet is never truly quiet. She would know this better than most.
She wedges her uninjured arm into the rifle's sling. "Patrol?"
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The hotel is really not too far, just a couple of blocks, and she's glad for that. The gal seems like the sort who can handle herself just fine, but she doesn't think anyone's first day should be met with some of the nonsense the rift can toss at people.
For a brief moment, she thinks of that awful exploding slime monster she fought with Phoebe.
At the question, Rogue nods. "Yup. Where I'm from, it's what I do. I'm...kind of a..." Rogue scratches at her head for a moment. She's not comfortable with certain terms, particularly considering her colorful past. "A soldier, I reckon." She nods, okay with that.
"There are folks here that don't like us...the people that get yanked through: Wanderers. It's stupid and it's folks bein' fearful of what they don't understand, but it's crazy enough for there need be careful. It won't do for folks ( ... )
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She tries not to watch to closely, to look too concerned.
She knows it'd irritate the tar out of her if someone did that to her.
At the questions, Rogue bites her lip, wanting to make sure she gives her accurate answers. No answer is probably better than a wrong one.
"Well, y'know, in the bible and such, angels are send down from God and they're all holy and stuff. These angels here do regular folks stuff, they just got their wings and they're stronger and...there's more to it, but it's not about the bible. It's somethin' different. I know three, though, and I couldn't ask for better friends."
'Demons different, too?'This, Rogue is more cautious about answering. "From what I've heard, yeah. They just live out with everyone else, like the angels do. But, I've gotta be honest; if I' ( ... )
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So, I ain't got a lick of firsthand knowledge to give you on 'em. Sorry.
"Don't worry about it." Jo's lips purse together thoughtfully. "I'll be looking into it."
Just because she's in a completely different place doesn't mean she's different. She's still Jo, and Jo takes matters into her own hands. She doesn't wait around for things to happen to her.
Jo's head lifts, sizing up the hotel. It's all starting to become a little more real, and there's a heaviness that wasn't there before. She didn't say goodbye.
She never got to send her mother the postcard.
"Thanks," Jo tells Rogue, looking back at the girl.
She means it, but she can't feel anything but the heaviness.
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