xp_logs | Angie and Doug in the hotel

Angie and Doug check into their hotel room. Marie-Ange is having a bad feeling, and Doug tries to help her narrow it down a bit. They don't have much luck, and Doug decides to not worry about it in favor of ordering room service.

Marie-Ange was fairly sure Nathan had been tweaking her nose a little when he assigned her and Doug a room together. Obviously he didn't object to co-ed rooms, but when she'd asked, he'd definitely had a teasing tone of voice.

Not that she was complaining one little bit. "Random" room assignments that meant she did not have to listen to Jubilee's snoring were a good thing.

The iPod had been a good idea, she thought. Doug was in a -far- better mood than he had been the last time they'd been in a crowded airport, and instead of nursing a headache and indigestion, he was unpacking his duffel bag and humming to himself, occasionally singing little bits and pieces of whatever song was stuck in his head.

He wasn't entirely sure he'd ever be completely comfortable with the way he had to get through airports, but the iPod had indeed been a good idea. "You are a genius sometimes, love, you know that?" he asked, pausing in his trip to the bathroom to unpack his and Marie-Ange's toiletries to give her a kiss on the forehead and smile down at her.

"It was only because of what you did after programming Haroun's legs that made me think of it." Marie-Ange answered, pulling out and re-folding a shirt. "I would rather have you not be tense and miserable in the airport." She paused, giving him a sly smile. "And if it means that you sing more, why should I complain? I like when you sing.."

"You," Doug said, touching Marie-Ange's nose with his finger and smiling before walking over to the bathroom, "are entirely biased. I could have the worst voice in the world, and you would enjoy me singing, I think," he said, raising his voice slightly to be heard as he unpacked the toiletries.

"I am not..." Marie-Ange protested. "You have a good voice, and I like it. I just like it more because it is yours." She nodded, despite knowing Doug couldn't see her, and finished unpacking, moving the ever-present small packages of tarot cards to the desk by the window of their room and looking at them thoughtfully.

Coming out of the bathroom, Doug noticed Marie-Ange turning the pack of tarot cards around in her hands. "Love?" he asked quietly. "You've been a little on edge ever since we set down. Anything the matter?" He wondered if this had to do with the abrupt way Amanda had left the mansion.

"I hope it is just stress. The airport was excessively crowded." She shook her head and frowned down at the cards. "Something does not feel right, like I keep seeing something out of the corner of my eye." Or not seeing it, since every time she turned her head to see whatever it was that she thought she saw, it was gone.

Stepping over to the window, Doug placed his hands on Marie-Ange's shoulders and began to rub them. He had developed a healthy respect for even the vaguest of bad feelings Angie might have, due to her precognition. "Is it anything more than just a bad feeling?" he asked, trying to encourage her to talk through whatever it was.

"Nothing I can put a finger on." Absently, she'd begun shuffling the tarot cards, laying them out in an intricate pattern, and then scooping the whole deck back up in one hand and starting over again, all without looking down at the desk. "I tried to figure it out on the plane, but I could not settle my mind, and there was no room to do a reading..."

"Would doing one now help?" Doug asked. He had a healthy respect for Angie's precognition, but that didn't mean he was occasionally wierded out by some of her mannerisms where it was concerned. Not that there was much he could do but be as supportive as he could. He loved her the way she was, odd mannerisms and all.

"I keep getting the same cards.." She pointed down at the pattern on the table, frowning. "The hanged man? I have no idea who this could indicate, if anyone.." Marie-Ange shook her head slowly, frustrated. "It comes up as the key card, over and over."

Doug looked over Marie-Ange's shoulder at the card. The Hanged Man. As he recalled, both from fairly extensive research, as well as Marie-Ange's ramblings on the subject, The Hanged Man was the only card in a tarot deck with a mythological representation - in this case, Odin. "Does he even look like that?" he asked with a silly grin.

"Odin?" Marie-Ange asked. "No, he is older, and has a beard.." The card was right in most of the other aspects. "He does only have one eye, though I am not sure if the myth about him plucking it out himself was right. I never asked." Not that she was -going- to ask Odin. She let out a soft laugh. "Maybe I should look out for ravens..."

"Ugh." Doug remembered how much Marie-Ange had hated the raven that Odin had gifted her with. "No ravens, please." He still wondered if that raven had been sitting in the window watching when...he blushed and quashed that thought rather firmly. "So, the Hanged Man figures prominently. What does it normally signify?"

"A sacrifice... giving something up to gain something else that might be more important later." Marie-Ange answered. "That is why it is usually represented as Odin. He plucked out an eye, so the myth says, and hung himself, to gain knowledge." She frowned down at the cards. "The Hanged Man, The Tower, The Ace of Cups?.."

Doug leaned forward to look at the last card of the group. "The six of Swords. A long, lifechanging journey..." Doug paused. "A life-changing journey, a one-eyed man in a tower...no, a cave..." He snapped his fingers. "Odysseus!" He frowned. "That still doesn't make any sense."

"Do we know any tricksters?" Marie-Ange frowned. "Sharp of tongue and witty?" It could be Remy, but he was back at the school. "It could be Jamie, but he is not -here-... "

"None that I can think of on this trip," Doug replied. "Maybe it has something to do with how far we are from home? A life-changing journey? I mean, I know Forge has this huge jones for possibly getting involved in politics, maybe it's something about the summit?"

"Forge -does- have a smart mouth..." Marie-Ange mused. "And I suppose if anyone would build a giant horse, it might be him." It didn't feel quite right, but she couldn't think of anyone else who might fit.

Doug shrugged. "Well, suppose we build a large wooden badger..." He grinned. "If we can't nail it down, no sense in worrying about it too much. We're here to observe the summit and learn some things." He leaned down and touched his nose to Marie-Ange's. "Not to mention, if someone managed to 'randomly'," he made air quotes with his fingers, "assign us to a hotel room together, it'd be downright rude of us not to take advantage of it..." he said, pulling Marie-Ange out of her chair.

"I will obesssively worry about it -because- I cannot 'nail it down'. Marie-Ange protested gently, letting Doug pull her up to him. "And you telling me not to worry..." She paused, kissing Doug on the cheek.. "Is very much 'do as I say, not as I do...', yes?"

Doug attempted to look innocent and failed miserably. "Very much like that," he said more seriously. "But for now, put the cards down and try and come relax a bit?" he asked.

"I wonder if we could get away with ordering room service..." Marie-Ange mused.. "It would be easier to relax if I did not have to go out for food..." Halloween in a city she did not know, while she was already nervous and worried? She wasn't sure she even wanted to venture out of the room unless she had to.

"Room service it is!" Doug proclaimed, grabbing the phone. "With chocolate ice cream for dessert." He grinned wickedly.