fandomtownies | The Perk, Thursday (... Definitely Thursday) Morning

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The Perk, Thursday (... Definitely Thursday) Morning

Today - no, yesterday, by now, Will was absolutely sure there'd been a sunrise at some point between the FBI stuffing him in a car and dropping him off at O'Hare, and then picking him up at BWI and dropping him off at... a causeway? A causeway! - Yesterday should have been the best day of his life, finally married to the woman he loved and by all rights he should be on his honeymoon now and not-

Not in some coffee shop on some tiny little island off the coast of Baltimore, drinking some peppermint-and-caffeine-laden concoction in an effort to keep himself awake.

Yeah, he knew he ought to take the duffel bag he'd been allowed to pack and check in to the hotel room that had been arranged for him, but he knew as soon as he caught sight of anything bed-shaped he'd be tempted to sleep and just... no. Nope. Nope.

[ooc: ayyyy I have the day off entertain meeee.]

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Well, it was Thursday, and even though Gladio had plans for later to give Prompto a little privacy for his little "cat playdate" later that evening, he'd definitely enjoyed his new habit of getting some reading done in the Perk, and, besides, there was only so much room in the kitchen for the snacks Ignis was working on, so he might as well give him the space and just come back when he could reap the benefits of just eating said snacks.

And while he was used to seeing a few people in there when he popped in, ready to double-fist whatever seasonal drinks were available and crack into a new book, today had him stopping for a moment at the door before making his way to the counter.

"Popular place today," he commented, to no one in particular or perhaps whoever wanted to comment back on it, especially as he noticed a few different faces than who he was expecting to see in here based on the last couple of times, but he looked impressed. There was a reason he came out here to the cafe rather than just lurking in his office, after all.

“Yeah?” Will asked, giving the guy a wary look. And not just because Gladio looked like he could bench press Will himself. But also because he wasn’t sure if that comment was directed his way.

Well, it wasn't not directed his way, technically speaking, just meant to hang there in the ehter to see who might latch onto it, but he was glad at least someone did, and he met the question (and the wary look) with a faint grin.

"Must be the shift in the weather," said the guy wearing a tank top in November and seemed perfectly fine with it. Then he considered the bag (and the wary look a little further), tilted his head thoughtfully, and then lifted a finger as if making a realization. "I don't think we've met."

"I've been here all of," Will checked his watch, "two hours, now, so that's not surprising."

"Okay, wow," said Gladio, with a lift of his brow, and figuring, yeah, that would explain the bag and how tired this guy looked, maybe, "so really new in town. I'm only around part time myself, so it's easy for a few faces to fall through the cracks."

But, not about to let this one do just that, he offered out a hand. "Gladio Amicitia. Feels weird to welcome you to the island when I don't really live here myself, but..." He shrugged a shoulder, grinned. "Welcome to the island, anyway."

So many handshakes today. "Will Halstead," he replied. "And thanks. Everyone's been really nice, so far."

And not in like, an uncanny valley sort of way. So far as he could tell everyone was genuine.

"Pretty good folks around here in my experience," Gladio agreed, "yeah. Good to meet you, Will. Planning on sticking around for a bit?"

What with your one duffel bag...

Yeah, well, the FBI hadn't given him a lot of time to pack what with getting him out of the range of people who wanted him dead ASAP being more of an immediate concern than making sure he had all 900 of his plaid shirts with him.

"That's the plan, yeah," he nodded. "I heard the clinic over here is woefully understaffed."

"Which is a little weird," Gladio had to admit, "considering how much stuff this place gets thrown at it. So, you a doctor?"

Will nodded. "Emergency medicine, most recently." Which was conveniently enough pretty much the only kind of medicine most people on Fandom ever needed!

"Well, aren't you going to be a good person to know, then," Gladio noted, as if he wasn't constantly toting around potions that you just had to pop open and suck down to cure yourself of whatever ailment you might have, easy as that, but he supposed they couldn't cover everything. "This place can get pretty interesting, but I'll admit, I hope you wind up more bored than not, all things considered."

"That's what people have been saying," Will acknowledged. And it made sense; he'd spent the last four years working in a place where people didn't exactly want to come see him (and in fact, sometimes hadn't been given a choice).

"So," Gladio then asked, "where are you coming in from?"

And, as soon as he did, he lifted a hand. "Granted, I probably won't know where it is, I'll tell you that much off the bat, but I am all about polite conversation when meeting someone new."

"The midwest," Will said, sticking to the same answer he'd given anyone else who'd asked.

"Geography not your strong point?" Yeah, he was from somewhere where the concept of 'other worlds' wasn't really a thing.

Which always made this part of the polite conversation pretty interesting around here, and trying to decide whether or not he wanted to be the one to either break a brain a little bit or be stuck with the lable of being a little unhinged...at least until the poor guy had been around a little longer.

"Let's just say," Gladio offered, since this was also a really good stand-by as well, "that I'm not exactly from around here."

"Getting that impression about most folks I've met so far," Will said.

Literally all of them had mentioned living somewhere else before here, which was kind of weird and statistically unlikely.

"Yeah," Gladio agreed, with a mild glance around to note who else was still lingering in the coffee shop that Will may have spoken to such for. "Kind of a...destination location. Lots of people coming in for the school, sticking around for a bit, heading back out eventually."

Well, if everything went to plan, Will would be one of those 'heading back out eventually' folks, because this was not where he wanted to be long-term.

"Or... living here part time," Will acknowledged, with a nod in Gladio's direction.

"Or living here part time," Gladio agreed, with a nod back. He could appreciate that kind of attention to detail in a person....especially a medical professional. "Not actually a bad set-up, if I'm honest, and my teaching schedule has it so that I'm usually here to catch all the weird shit when it happens."

And so far? He actually had kind of enjoyed all the weird shit, if he was completely honest. He got to be a plant that one time, even! How many people could make a claim like that?

"Weird shit, huh? Now that does sound like home."

Oh, William. We weren't talking about 'heart surgery on pandas' or 'stuck a gun up his butt' type weird shit, here.

"Yeah?" Well, color Gladio intrigued. "What kind of weird shit are we talking?"

From Mr. Turned into a Shouting Ten Year Old Bent on World Domination that Tied Up His Roommates and Shoved them into a Closet and Also He Had a Dog on his very first week himself.

"Oh, just," Will shrugged. "Like I said; I worked in emergency medicine. People will do all sorts of strange things to their bodies, you know? Or hurt themselves doing something incredibly stupid." And then, because at least this story didn't involve breaking any sort of doctor-patient confidentiality (not that Gladio would have any way of knowing who any of the people Will had treated were, but an oath was an oath and despite his recklessness with the rules he did take his job very seriously). "One time, they brought a panda bear into the hospital. A human hospital. And a friend of mine, one of the best surgeons I know, actually had to perform heart surgery on her."

"You know what?" asked Gladio, who, okay, did look kind of impressed, that was pretty weird. "Something like that could be kind of useful one day. There's actually a panda bear that works at the general store."

'Work' was probably being generous, but Gladio had to admit, that bear had yet to steer him wrong on a cheese choice.

"That had to have taken a lot of anesthesia..."

Yeah, Will's brain was gonna skip right along past that 'works at the general store' bit because he was still very, very new to this place.

"Sure did," Will nodded. "Especially since at one point they had to wake her up, to make sure everything went well. And then put her back under..."

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The Perk, Thursday (... Definitely Thursday) Morning

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