Exploring the Basement

[bluesuit_handy]

Who: Handy and Cordelia
Where: The basement
When: After Dr. Brennan's post on the network, and after Faith's reentry into the hotel.
What: Having made arrangements on the network, Handy and Cordelia meet to explore the hotel's basement.

Comments

[tact_girl]

After Cordelia got the Doctor's message to meet him at the elevator in the lobby, she took a moment to ponder what she should bring for their investigation. Inwardly, she wondered what had led her to sign up for the basement. A potentially dark, creepy basement. She guessed that was just what she was comfortable with, oddly enough. What a far cry from Sunnydale High.

She picked up her notebook and tucked a pen behind her ear. She had laid her small battle-axe and stake down on her dresser and looked between them both. Well, probably best not to scare the crap out this guy, she thought, and slipped the stake into her boot. Even if it wasn't the best weapon choice, the wood felt solid and familiar against her leg

[bluesuit_handy]

"Hallo!" Handy brightened and straightened up from where he'd been leaning against the wall. He, too, was feeling quite enthusiastic about their venture. He pushed the button to call the elevator, and stuck out a hand to shake. "Cordelia, right? I'm the Doctor. Sort of. But we already covered that, didn't we?"

[tact_girl]

Cordelia laughed, shaking the Doctor's hand. "Yes, we did. And it's really very confusing. One of you could at least dye your hair a different color or something. How do people know which Doctor they're talking to?"

[bluesuit_handy]

"I really don't know," said Handy. "At least two of the people I knew before I came here can tell, though. It's probably the suit, except I think he still has a blue suit, too, so if he decides to change his clothes you're out of luck."

The elevator doors opened and he stepped inside. "And if either of us is going to dye his hair, it's not going to be me, I can tell you that."

[bluesuit_handy]

"I'm not sure what I believe," said Handy. "He called himself 'the Beast,' he had certain...powers...and he looked like the devil - horns, hundreds of feet tall, all that - but I can't exactly trust what he told me about himself." He tried to grin at Cordelia, to make it a joke, but the truth was that the memory was unsettling and he didn't want to dwell on it.

"You said you met the other Doctor?" he asked, wanting to change the topic.

[tact_girl]

"Um, just briefly," she said, running her stake gently down the plastic that was covering the stack of unused chairs.

"Right when he arrived. Martha and Captain Jack were there too, so I can't say that he and I really had any sort of detailed conversation. He was too busy putting the braintrust together and trying to get the hell out of here."

[bluesuit_handy]

Handy moved on to a broken nightstand, having come to the conclusion that the furnace wasn't going to tell him anything particularly interesting about their situation.

"Sounds like him," said Handy, peering into the nightstand's drawer. A thought occurred to him. "Do you know if anyone has seen him around recently?"

He'd been dreading meeting with the Doctor enough that he hadn't thought about how long it had been since Martha had all but said she was going to arrange the meeting and now. It had been the better part of a week - surely the Doctor would have contacted him by now.

[tact_girl]

"I don't know," Cordelia shrugged. "I haven't been exactly social lately, I guess. Martha would probably know better than I would. They seem...close."

She moved past the stack of chairs and on to a pile of dusty linens in a laundry bag. "Gross," she said, picking at the pile with the stake. Well at least they weren't stained and dirty.

[bluesuit_handy]

Handy sighed and nodded. "I have to say, I was expecting something a bit more...creepy. Or at least useful." He poked at a stack of chipped and bent lampshades, which fell over with a crash. He left them where they fell and took a few steps to where he could get a better view of more of the room. "Do you see a door or anything? It's hard to believe this is it."

[tact_girl]

Cordelia surveyed the room, secretly hoping that something would happen, some monster hiding in the darkness. Anything she could just ram her stake into and feel like they'd actually made some progress in this dusty old basement filled with useless crap.

"Nope. No door, no secret passageway behind a bookshelf. Just a bunch of dusty shit that no one's thought of in years," she said. "What a waste of time. Oh well. Not like I had a fantastic spa day on the agenda anyway."

[bluesuit_handy]

"Do they have a spa here?" asked Handy, a bit too eagerly. He paused and blinked, surprised at himself. What would he want with a spa?

[tact_girl]

Cordelia laughed. "No, not that I've discovered. But who knows? I haven't actually gone further than the second floor."