Location: Sorcerer’s Hotel
Skills: Foot in Mouth
Even now, Valerie still wasn’t quite used to the experience of traveling with pop stars. It was such a change from her old life - rather than sneaking onto flights and buses, wearing invisibility like armor, they took chartered planes and chauffeurs waited to bring them where they needed to go. They didn’t need to travel light, they didn’t need to worry about where they’d be able to stop for supplies, and they didn’t need to carefully rotate through a set of fake IDs. Even the clothes were different - she’d spent so much time wearing the same gray hoodie and a pair of ripped skinny jeans, having a wardrobe of options to choose from felt extravagant (though mostly, her girlfriend and brother helped to pick things out for her. She appreciated it).
However, the hotel lobby they found themselves in now, with peeling paint, old and tattered furniture, and a pack of upset children on a school trip… That was
much more in line with the shitty motels Valerie was used to staying in. She raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised that her brother had decided on this place. He had expensive taste.
”Are you sure this is the right hotel?” It looked like the sort of place the Mutant Underground would have used as a temporary headquarters - one of their nicer ones, to be clear, but still definitely below the pop star’s standards.
Davie, for the moment, was the personality utilizing his body. He’d let one of the others take control if it was needed for the situation, or if one of Harry’s other personalities decided to pop on out - he didn’t want to steal time from the others when it came to their significant others, although the entire arrangement was much easier to manage on the astral plane, where they weren’t limited to the single body Davie and the others had to share. He slipped his hand into Harry’s, entwining their fingers. He went with his husband on every tour, and he’d stayed in enough hotels to know that this one
probably wasn’t correct. He then paused for a moment. “Willow wants me to tell you that it isn’t Terry’s fault.”
Eva looked around the lobby of the Hotel. She raised an eyebrow, hidden behind her sunglasses.
”This place is quaint.” Her eyes paused on the group of teens. They seemed to be upset about something. She wondered if they were here for the same reason her little group was there. It was likely, which probably meant they were involved in the contest.
”There isn’t anyone at the front desk. Hopefully, they hurry back so we can check in.” Harry turned to face his group, leaning against the Front Desk counter as he looked down over his sunglasses. A spotlight cast upon him.
”Of course she did. She never thinks anything is Terry's fault. But that just makes me feel like it's his fault even more.” He declared before pushing his sunglasses back up and viewing all the others in the room before turning to Val, leaning on one side now against the counter.
”I don't know Val. All the hotels in the French Quarter look the same. I get they're historic but could they have individualized it even a little bit? Anyways Eva, apparently they cant find my reservation. How they managed to misplaced such a high esteemed reservation makes me wonder what kind of business he's running here.” Davie’s posture abruptly shifted - no longer loose and relaxed, but instead stiff and tense, with crossed arms and an aggressively tapping foot. “What in the nine hells is your problem with Terry?” Willow hissed, her eyes burning a bit with hellfire. “You’re always blaming him.”
Valerie shifted a bit uncomfortably - she was much more used to Legion’s sudden shifts in personality, but it was still jarring to see.
”Okay, so… Do you have a confirmation email?” she asked.
”Did you book it - or was it one of the boys?” The fact that Harry didn’t immediately confirm it was the Sorcerer’s Inn they were booked at was concerning to her - and the idea that they were at the wrong hotel entirely, with her brother complaining about the hotel’s owner, it didn’t soothe the small flare up of social anxiety within her.
”Val is right. Do you have a confirmation email, or this place is old enough to use fax or carrier pigeon.” Eva stood close to Val and gently wrapped a comforting arm around her.
”If we are at the wrong place you're buying dinner.” She told Harry.
Harry scoffed, mock acting as if he was hurt by all the accusations.
”No I don't have a confirmation email or pigeon. Just this note left by Terry and his terrible handwriting. It says the place with arms. There's a coat of arms right there in the windows. Ergo, We are at the right location.” He said as he produced a scrap piece of paper that read
Place D'Armes.
Willow snatched the paper from Harry, reading the note for a second. She didn’t know French, despite her beau being French-Canadian. She didn’t get out enough to really master the language, and one of the others likely was sitting on the French skills. “I want to talk to Terry,” she insisted. “And his handwriting isn’t terrible, it’s
unique!”
Valerie relaxed slightly with Eva’s arm around her, but what Harry had said didn’t inspire a lot of faith in her.
”So you don’t know the name of the hotel, just that it has a coat of arms on it… like tons of the other buildings we drove by to get here,” she summarized, reflexively reaching into her pocket for her phone, as if this was just another mission and she needed to reach out to a contact for intel. Maybe they’d need to consider finding a place that could fit them in same-day. They couldn’t stay with the Kingston-Grays - and Valerie still felt some lingering guilt there, even years later - and she started mentally running through the list of mutants they knew in the area.
”Which coat of arms?” The city was going to be busy and booked. If they had to pull some weird strings it would look bad. Eva considered the possibilities and then shrugged. It would work out. Either this hotel was the right one or they were at the wrong place and needed a different hotel.
”How did Terry book it? Maybe there is a number to call.” Eva suggested. Though if there was no email there likely was no number.
“Terry can wait a bit Willow. Place is crowded enough as is without adding more people to the mix. Now let's see…” Harry thought as he got off the counter and paced in small circles, the spotlight following him as he did.
”He found the place online, because I wanted something quaint but not too quaint. Character but with class. So he needed visuals…but I think he booked them on call which means…” Harry fished his phone from his pocket and began to scroll to calls from the same day it was booked. Finding a number he didn't recognize but that Terry had saved as ‘Contest Hotel’
”Ah-ha! I have a number. I can call them.” He said as he held his phone up to his ear.
Willow’s nostrils flared, before she suddenly gasped and her posture loosened up considerably again. “Ooof she is
big mad…” Davie said, shaking his head slightly. “Like almost as mad as the Geneva trip from last summer.” Of his most frequently appearing other personalities, Willow was definitely one of the more fiery ones. At least - unlike during his youth - Davie didn’t black out anymore when other personalities took control. It was more like he went to a quiet space in the back of his head, just a fly on the wall observing.
Valerie nodded, waiting patiently as her brother called. She was beginning to really regret not insisting on making the arrangements herself - or at least asking for Harry’s management team to do it. He was sometimes thirteen different people - she could hardly blame him for being a little scattered at times.
”Does anyone hear a phone ring?” Eva let go of Val to lean over the counter and listen for a phone.
”Imagine.” She said and then wrapped herself around Val again.
”Look at it this way. If he is wrong we get to tease him mercilessly about it later.””Thank you for calling the Places D'Armes Hotel. My name is Kevin, how can I help you?” Harry proceeded to speak to the man on the phone. Many “uh huhs” and “mhms” spoken as he continued the call.
”Now in relation to the uh…Sorcerers Hotel? Next block? Right, heading towards…ok. Thank you so much for your help Kevin we will be there momentarily. Oh there's online check in? Wonderful I'll do that instead.” He said as he hung up the call.
”Terry forgot to write the word hotel at the end of it. That note wasn't an instruction, it was a name. One I'm hoping is better than this…lovely hotel.”Valerie couldn’t help but laugh slightly at her girlfriend’s antics, shaking her head.
”Not only are we going to tease him, I’m also never letting him make the travel arrangements again.” Nor would she allow him to live this down. He already had one over on her, by using the name VEIL for his institute - technically two, if she counted the fact that he clung to the mere minutes between their births to assert himself as the older brother. She could work with this, if nothing else.
Once Harry finished his conversation, Davie flinched slightly, a hand reflexively going up to his ear. Willow was
screaming in his head about how this actually vindicated Terry, and that it was Harry’s fault for assuming the note was a description and not the name of the hotel, and that he owed her boyfriend an apology. “Oww, inside voices
please... Is the other place nearby? Do we need to get the car back?”
”I guess you’re buying us dinner, then, Harry,” Valerie smirked ever so slightly - concealing the mortification that her brother had, in fact, insisted they had a reservation at a hotel that they
definitely had not had one for.
Eva was grinning broadly. This was entertaining.
”I'd like surf ‘n turf. Or one of those bags that they cook a bunch of stuff in. And obviously beignets for dessert.” Eva heard some of the conversation coming from the group of teens. The adult was giving a lecture about death. But importantly they had been noticed. At least two of the teens had noticed them.
”Time to go soon. We’ve been spotted, and I don’t mean Harry’s spotlight.” ”There’s still time for you to change your mind and let me cloak you both,” Valerie said pointedly, an eyebrow raised.
”It’d be more effective than these glasses.””Technically still Terrys fault. He needs to learn to note take better. It's difficult enough to scramble through thirteen different memories but I suppose I can treat you all to lunch. You get Po Boys and you're gonna like it. There's a great spot nearby for them too, apparently the recipe hasn't changed in over a century or something. Barry found it.” Harry said until they all noticed they'd been spotted. Val went into defense mode, wanting to cloak them, Eva was ready to leave but Harry? He faced his adoring fans, tilting his sunglasses down once more to look over them straight at the queer pair before him.
A spotlight appeared over Wiccan, a gentle hue of blue surrounding him.
”I see we have a fan in the house. Don't be shy, come on up here kid.”
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