Ms. Scarlet in the Conservatory with a Dark Curse

[follow_the_wolf]

Memory throbbed like an exposed nerve as Graham wandered through the first floor of the hotel, attempting to look at everything at once but seeing little with wide, confused eyes as he set one foot in front of the other with no goal in mind beyond simply moving. The walls of his office had spun around him, leaving Emma and one last glimpse of her confused face in his wake before he had been dropped into the middle of the grand lobby, the gleaming wood and open spaces startling after the drab insides of his office.

He pulled to a stop in the conservatory, his head tipping back to feel the warmth of the sunlight on his face. There he sucked in a breath and allowed himself a moment, only a moment, to pretend that the lush greenery that surrounded him was of another world. The smells were all wrong, no wet earth or woody oak. The light was wrong as well, too clear without the dappling wrought by the sunlight being scattered by the leaves. Still, it allowed him to sort through memories old and new.

He could hardly think within walls on the best of days, he had forgotten that. He had forgotten so many things.

Comments

[littlerubyred]

"Oh wow," Ruby said at David's announcement of a strange writing system. It had become quite obvious that they were dealing with something that was well beyond at least her understanding, and while she could read the tiredness plain on Graham's face, she herself was not ready for sleep, not even close. She would, however, relish the chance to be alone with her thoughts, and she supposed getting a room in this hotel, if that's what it was, and attempting to figure it all out would be as good an option as any.

"I think that's a wonderful idea," Ruby said. "Do we...Check in? Are their rooms?"

[follow_the_wolf]

The idea was basic and a good one, and it had Graham nodding in immediate agreement. There was much to think on in the present and much to discuss later. Too much to swallow in a single sitting in a strange environment. He had to wonder on the Curse and the strange implications to do with the Prince having come from more than a year after his waking and disappearing from the hospital, the memory of who he had been so long ago clear in his eyes, while Ruby was...Ruby. Cheerful and bright and unknowing of who she had been before.

Both the writings the Prince talked of and the phones could be used, of course, for as much as the Huntsman might have preferred some more familiar way of communicating, it wasn't as if there were likely to be carrier pigeons to carry notes to one another.

He stood and waited for the Prince's answer, wondering why he of all people would be thinking of carrier pigeons. Wolves didn't keep carrier pigeons.

[princehonorable]

"I kept looking for a room until the door handle opened, but I don't think the front desk is a bad place to start, either," he says, watching Ruby carefully and looking for any indication that she remembers what's been happening. In a way, part of him is glad that she hasn't yet lived through George's manipulations, but he wants her to remember for his sake, at least.

"Maybe we can meet up again sometime soon and talk," he says heavily.

[littlerubyred]

Ruby had to wonder yet again at the safety of her situation when the doors could be so volatile, but if David Nolan said it was safe she figured that would be enough for now. He seemed relatively unharmed if not stressed and a bit different than she remembered him, but that was likely just the newness of the situation.

"I would like that," she said in reply to David's statement of them all meeting up again. "Do you have a room number or someplace definite we can come find you/"

[princehonorable]

"1937," he replies. "It's on the first floor, you just have to keep wandering." He gives the both of them a grateful smile, aware that there are obviously some issues they're going to have to work out, but he doesn't care. They're here. "I really am glad to see the both of you," he confesses. "Truly."

[follow_the_wolf]

Somehow there was some relief in having a plan in place. Released from the watchful eye of Regina and knowing that their surroundings were safe - he took stock in David's opinion on that matter as he doubted that years fighting of fighting the Queen would have made the man lax when it came to searching out threats in the world around him - Graham let out a breath and nodded. Where everything else was unsettled, he had to agree. He nodded, "We will talk more later."