not the best day ever.

[tends_to_panic]

"--Grant

Comments

[fair_hero]

Sir? *she touches his arm, very lightly, almost afraid to do it* O, sir, I pray you-- might I do aught?

[tends_to_panic]

He reacts to the tone more than anything else, soft and anxious and utterly without guile -- looks up with a creditable attempt at a reassuring smile, and sets a hand on her shoulder. "Sorry. It's all right. Can you point me back toward the house? I think I've confused my directions."

[fair_hero]

*she gestures towards the Mansion, a little past him at an angle* 'Tis there, sir, please you.

[tends_to_panic]

"Thank you." He glances in that direction, more by way of acknowledgement than because he expects to see anything familiar, and back at her again. Did she just say 'aught'? "What's your name?"

[fair_hero]

Hero, sir. I am Leonato's daugher, o' Messina. *her little shyish smile*

[tends_to_panic]

"Hero." Justin is not properly up on his Shakespeare, but he knows he knows that particular tag from somewhere; and more to the point, that nobody seriously introduces themselves like that. "Come again?"

[fair_hero]

"O' Messina. 'Tis in Italy, sir, nearby to Aragon, where my lord the Prince lives."

[tends_to_panic]

"...I see." He doesn't. He looks at her skeptically, one hand still on the trunk of the tree.

[fair_hero]

Her smile becomes hopeful on top of trusting. "Yet you are well, sir?"

[tends_to_panic]

"I'm fine." The trained response: I'm fine. It's not your fault. Are you all right? --even as he knows by her demeanor, her speech patterns, her clothes, that she is nothing he's used to dealing with; but he can't refuse that look of trust. Can't. "Can you tell me where I am?"

[fair_hero]

"'Tis called the Mansion, sir. It is a great house where all do live as they are suited, and most well. There are many kind people."

[tends_to_panic]

"As they are suited." Justin has to laugh, though it's too shaky even to be very cynical. "You're telling me I just strolled into utopia by accident?"

[fair_hero]

"I know that word not, sir, I pray you forgive me," with a polite little curtsy to offset her failure.

[tends_to_panic]

"It's not--" he begins, and gives up with a sigh. He's entirely out of his depth, and he knows it. "This isn't where I'm supposed to be."

[fair_hero]

"Where would you be? Perchance I might lead you--"

[tends_to_panic]

His hand touches his pocket: keycard, ID...

And then, looking into Hero's upturned face, he lets it fall again. "No," he says quietly, "I don't think so. Thank you just the same."