The New Guy in town

[Mhairi Ankaa]

Topping up one of the bowls of Lucky Charms scattered about the house, it just wouldn't do to get Mumphert mad at her. She was still more then just mildly terrified over just what the Brownie could do to her and the house if Mhairi failed to keep her end of the bargain, and got him mad. So she always kept the sugary cereal out and fresh and smacked the hands of the other lings that might want to nibble on a marshmallow or two.

The knock had fell-flames blinking.

No one ever knocked. Well, people knocked, but not any that lived in Edna's or whoever had been around for any real length of time. It might be a door-to-door sales man. Or a girl scout offering cookies. Now that would be awesome. Mhairi had been craving cookies.

After closing the cereal box Mhairi set it down by the bowl she'd been filling and moved towards the door. A quick peak through the curtained window disproved her girl-scout-cookie-gaining theory.

The new Elemental is stared at through the window. Mhairi's own fell-flame glaze flickering at the sight of the sun lit man, the flame spun hair, noticing the burning leaves of his mantel and frowned.

Two thoughts crossed her mind.

The first. This Elemental was her opposite. The Sun to her Moon, the red flames to her fell green fires.

The second. What was it about the fires that drew the Lost created from them to Autumn's embrace?

Letting the current fall, she opens the door.

"Hello." her head tilts, the galaxies in her hair twinkle, the scent of dead and dying leaves twining with his wood smoke scent, her mantle's rain falls, spattering the ground (but never herself, she runs to hot for it to drench her), and the flame licked edges of this new Autumn's leaves. "Are you Lost?" the play on words brought a crooked smile to her lips, even if the wary flicker didn't leave her eye.

[Mhairi Ankaa]

The accent had her cocking her head in confusion. In the year Mhairi'd been here, she'd noticed that many of the Lost that came through Sacramento were american. Or had that sort of accent. "London? What brings you all the way to Sacramento?" If she'd been the one to travel from London Sacramento would be the last place she'd go...which might just be the point.

Her quicksilver coated and ever dripping fingers settle into Pippin's palm, for once not fearful that she might burn the other, even if her fear was an imagined one, the spatter always burned into glamour before it touched the ground, or another's skin.

After dropping his hand and her's, she pushed the door open and walked backwards inside it, "Come on. I'm sure you're thirsty. I'll get some water or tea or something."

"This is a Boarding House for Lost Souls." Once Pippin's through the door, Mhairi will close it softly behind them, and lead her fellow Elemental into the kitchen. "I'm Mhairi. Mhairi Ankaa, and I'm Leaden Queen." Surely there had to be the touch of the wyrd upon this meeting, her mirror opposite and fellow Autumn's first meeting with any of the Lost in Sacramento was with his very own Sovereign.

[Mhairi Ankaa]

Fell-flames flicker, but she doesn't reacted as she had during the Winter Solstice, she was Queen, and people who hadn't known her before she was crowned would bow. Besides Pippin had nothing on Dinbrane.

"You couldn't have known." Mhairi says after a moment. Deciding to leave off asking about who Pippin was looking for. She wasn't going to talk to this stranger, this Unsworn ling about her mom, so she shouldn't expect someone else to readily talk about the half healed scabs of their past. "London to Hong Kong to Sacramento with no stops in between? Are you just someone who enjoys a monumental change in scenery?"

Giving the Elemental time to answer, Mhairi moves towards the coffee maker and starts the motions that would lead to them having a wonderful, warm and flavorful beverage.

"I'm always up for coffee, but it'll take a bit to brew." she warns him, knowing that she probably should have started a new pot a while ago but other things had taken her attention away from it.

[Mhairi Ankaa]

On her way through the house to the kitchen Mhairi grabbed the cereal box, to store back into the pantry.

"I suppose that's true." Mhairi agrees with an Elemental's glibness.

A nod, layovers were understandable, but not quite what she was asking, but the it was still answered. "'Our People'? Elementals? Autumns? Or Changelings in general?" Mhairi asks leaning against the counter as the coffee began the always too long process of brewing.

"But wow. Six months in Hong Kong. What was that like?"

[Mhairi Ankaa]

"So is it safe to say you have something interesting to add to the archives?" even thought the Autumn wouldn't be seeing the Commons until he Pledges to the yet to be named Spring Sovereign. Maybe it'll be Sera, maybe it'll be one of the New Springs from San Francisco.

"Chinese food tends to be very yummy. Speaking of, you want a snack?" abruptly pushing off the counter as the coffee continued to brew. "I think someone dropped off some muffins." to bad they didn't have doughnuts, they were the perfict pairing with the coffee to come. "If your Mandarin's that bad, how'd you get by for six months?"

Not commenting on Pippin's apparent aversion to crowds. With Sacramento's Lost, he definitely wouldn't have the problem.

"It's not to forward. Normally I meet others out and about and direct them here. But since you are here. You can stay here. And it's okay if you can't pay. You can help with cooking." since all the other chores were the domain of Mumphert, and Mhairi really, really didn't want to know what happened if any of the Lost infringed on the Brownie's purview. "Pitch in with groceries, or yard work." a shrug.

A moment, the only sounds the continuing drip, drop of the coffee maker, the pitter patter of her new rain infused mantle, and the soft sizzle of burning leaves of Pip's.

"Every Freehold has troubles. We're trying to take care of ours...but before you decide to stay you need to know that there's a Dragon. He's been around for years. Killed...so many of us and...we've only started to gain strength again to fight back."