faelans_folly | [Open - Irish Coffee]

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[Open - Irish Coffee]

Maggie finished the chalk easel for the front of the cafe, embellishing the announcements of specials with sunny wildflowers and scrolled ivy leaves. As she walked it out to put on the sidewalk in front of the store, she stopped to let the sun warm her face.

It had rained in Faelan's Folly for a week - starting with storms full of thunder and ear-splitting lightning strikes until tapering off to yesterday's lighter clouds and soft soaking rain to last night's light drizzle.

She'd spent most of her off time during the week near the monument, the flat stone just off the park grounds that was, for all intents, the heart of the Folly. There were rumors about it, of course, some of them right on the mark. Not that she'd ever confirm it.

The monument was also where she rechared, reset her magic and reconnected with the elements that bowed to her. At midnight last night, she knew it was time to get back to business, back to herself, and move herself forward.

Maggie pulled water from a nearby puddle, rinsed the chalk from her fingers, and settled in to help her morning regulars get the caffeine they needed to start their day.

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Maggie giggled again. "Then we're of like minds as far as crime-solving dogs and their perennially hungry human companions go. I can't help you as far as speech filters go, though, I'm afraid, but I will wish you the best of luck. Now then, you mentioned being hungry. I can make you something here, or something to take home with you." She stopped, laughed, "which I should probably go over with you so you don't start thinking you'll be bunking in my dumpster over night. Unless that's a preference," she smirked again, holding up a hand. "I don't judge."

"Well, I just lost my home back in my world so this is pretty much out of the pan, into another pan." I said and gave a bit of a shrug. "Half of one, six dozen of the other."

I'm sure that wherever she has me staying is better than the Water Beetle. It's all about location, location, location and I'm pretty sure whatever location she's going to give me it won't have someone pointing a high powered rifle at it. That's the kind of living situation I can get behind.

"You can pretty much have whatever suits your fancy here. From a house, cabin in the woods, condo or apartment in the middle of downtown, ah....And now I've just realized that I've been a very poor welcoming committee." She extended a hand. "I'm Maggie Donnelly."

"I don't suppose you have anything with a basement?" I asked. I don't know if this is flat-land or hill country so maybe basements are hard to come by. I really hope that I can find one that does though.

"And I have problems with technology. Computers, electricity, complicated machines... they all tend to get fried or jam up around me."

Maggie considered the areas around the city. Housing the Drop Ins was never a problem; they had more than enough vacancies of all sorts but not so many that it felt like a ghost town. Magic was weird sometimes.

Not wanting to send him off alone after wild geese, she pulled out a file folder from under the counter and opened it. She didn't question why the house was on top of the pile. She pulled the sheet of paper out and slid it over to him - it looked like a real estate agent's flyer.

"Will this suit? It's just outside center of town, back opens into the forest." Then she paused and looked back at him or, more specifically, his teeth. "Any reason for the basement? Like a sun allergy, maybe?" she added, tongue in cheek.

Okay, they were really, really well prepared here for this kind of thing and I'm not sure if that's reassuring or a little freaky. I look at the place though and it looks perfect, reminds me a bit of the Ozarks. But it's still near the center of town, like my old place. It's perfect, which means I'm a little suspect about it.

"I like to have my office there," I said. By office I meant my laboratory, necessary for my magical workings. Basements were good for that sort of thing, sub-basements even more so. I'd have to start stocking up on all my stuff again, remake all my tools and just... everything. But it would keep me distracted for a little while anyway.

"But that looks perfect."

She'd been fishing with the sun comment but she was already pretty sure the guy wasn't a vampire. Magic, certainly, but she didn't feel anything malevolent coming off of him.

All she could do for now was put him on the list of ones to watch and hope for the best.

"Would you like to go there now? It isn't far."

"Maybe a sandwich first?" I asked. Food was a priority for the moment and then I could look at shelter and clothing. I had no idea how long I'd be awake and busy so I'd better get something in me fast. Then I could start worrying about things like the fact that I just died right before a date with Murphy. How she'd probably be the first one to find the scene. Hell's bells, this was a mess.

"And another Coke?"

"Of course," Maggie nodded and pulled the bottle out before going into the back. A few minutes later, she was back with a club sandwich on a plate and a small basket.

She slid the plate over and started rummaging through the pastry cases, pulling and wrapping a sampling of the day's fare. "I'm going to send you with a little more from here to tide you over until you can get to the store for your own." Maggie shot him a grin. "I assume that's all right?"

"That's fine. Anything I can eat cold or heated up on a stove would be best," I told her. No fridge or microwave makes for tricky meals sometimes, but since it's all I've known I don't really mind. I just need to find a decent pub around here that's not too far from home. I'll add that to my mental checklist of things to do so I can procrastinate thinking about other things.

"Then all of this should be just fine," Maggie smiled and covered the basket back up. "Since electronics are out, does that mean cars as well? It's not a long walk regardless, but if you'd rather drive I can get my car."

"It depends on how modern your car is," I admitted. "And how attached you are to things like your radio, power seats, and that sort of thing."

He was so exhausted though that it might not hurt her car too badly. Still, I'd hate to stick her without a radio just for giving me a ride somewhere. If it wasn't that far of a walk I could probably probably make it just fine. It would give me an idea of the lay of the land as well as what this place was like.

"So we're walking then," Maggie smiled. "I don't drive much, but when I do, I like to have music, and windows, and an ignition system. It's really not that far," Maggie stopped at the door and turned back to him, "unless you have any way of traveling faster than the average person?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," I said, finishing off the last of my sandwich and standing up from the counter. I felt better than I had in a long while, or at least in memory. Considering what my life had been the past few days, hard to believe it's only been several days, that's not difficult.

"I take much, much larger steps than the average person."

"Now that's just cheating," Maggie laughed. "And no fair taunting the short of stature for their smaller strides. It's not like I chose to be petite."

Still, even with those strides, she kept up easily, bare feet plodding along next to him as she guided them through the streets that slowly gave way to a more residential feel.

"I would never do anything like that," I said, holding my hands up in a defensive gesture. "Not until I know you well enough to make sure it really annoys you."

Which makes me think of Murphy and upsetting her and our date and... no. I'm not going to think of that because that would make me think of Ana too and that would just... I think that would kill me right now. Literally kill me. So as we walk I made sure to keep my mind occupied in other ways, like trying to memorize important shops and things like that.

By the time we were close to where I was going to live though, the shops had faded and it was mostly just houses.

"How many people arriving do you get, usually?"

"It varies," Maggie shrugged. "Some weeks we'll have several, sometimes we'll go a month or more without anyone showing up. I've been welcoming newcomers for years, even tried tracking it a few times. No patterns that I could find, so I stopped and just do my best to make the transition easier."

She directed them around a corner and the houses were starting to get more and more spaced out.

I nodded, filing it all away in the back of my mind. No offense to Maggie, but I'm going to see what I can come up with on my own in terms of patterns and the like. It will probably be a bust but I can't help but try. I'm not the most talented or powerful wizard and certainly not the smartest, but I am damn stubborn.

"Do they always show up in the same place, at the cafe?"

"Inside it or around it, yeah," Maggie confirmed, then shrugged. It made no point in hiding what nearly every other DI had figured out. "All of you come to me first."

One more turn and they were headed down what looked like a path into nothing but more trees.

"Why?"

I'm sure that I could have phrased that better but I don't have the energy to do so. I appreciate her setting me up with everything but I really want to know about how and why I'm here. I'm not really hopeful on that though, I've been in this situation before.

"Because this is Faelan's Folly, named for one of the first residents. Faelan Donnelly," she said pointedly, wondering if he'd remembered her last name in the crush of everything she'd told him today. "Some say Faelan is the reason the town exists as it does and because of that, the new residents, or Drop Ins as we call them, come to us."

"You must be super popular then," I say.

I know what it's like to be blamed for something magic that's meant to protect people. Granted, sometimes I really do mess up and should be blamed but none of that is just because of who my ancestors are. Well, some of it is but I pissed off those people on my own anyway.

"Oh very," Maggie laughed. "Sometimes I even make it all the way down the street without someone glaring at me. Most of the DIs are pretty good about it. It's the ones like me, who're born here, and are by the nature of the place, stuck here, but some of the kids left by their parents can make life fun."

There wasn't any depression behind it. Just a feeling of accepting what is. That was when they stepped through the trees into a clearing and the house came into view.

"House looks nice," I said as it came into view. There wasn't a lot to say to her comment. She seemed to have accepted it and was making due with what life gave her. It was a pretty mature way of looking at it, not at all the way I'd go about it I don't think.

"Go ahead in and take a look around," Maggie encouraged. "See if it'll suit what you're looking for. If not, come back out and let me know. I think there are a few other vacants around here we can investigate." She smiled. "The shop can mind itself for a while longer."

[Open - Irish Coffee]

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