sweet_caroline

Caroline isn't sure how long it's been since she's actually had to get ready for a date. So far everything with Eddie and Jonathan has been uh... spur of the moment? You know, impromptu post-hostage situation dinner, meeting up in random places via text after helping a ghost commit murder. Stuff like that. All totally normal.

So when Eddie finally insists on planning something in advance, he of course picks a place way beyond Caroline's few remaining "nice" outfits. And well, she knows enough to know she's probably not ever owned anything nice enough to go to the damn Iceberg Lounge in. Nor does she have the cash to fix that. Oh well. In the grand scheme of things, stealing a damn dress isn't much of an ordeal. From some place on the other side of town, thank you very much. Which is why she's a bit short on time to get ready now. Not enough to make her late, but she doesn't have any of that buffer time to futz around the hotel before leaving.

With one last glance in the mirror-- yup, everything looks good (ayy)-- Caroline grabs her coat and heads for the door. She swings her purse onto her shoulder and yanks the door open...

...Only to find Jonathan standing there, hand raised to knock. Uh. They blink awkwardly at each other for a small eternity. "Uh, hi?" Caroline says automatically.

Caroline stalks into the dingy pub with plenty of time to spare before she's supposed to be there to meet Eddie. In fact, she's managed to get here before him. How nice. She grumpily takes a seat in a back corner and waits. Since she found the wad of cash in her bag last night, the jumble of emotions has mostly coalesced into anger. And she's only getting madder the more time that passes. She's honestly not even sure why she's bothering to show up for this meeting, except to give the damn money back. She's fairly certain it was Eddie and not Jonathan, but if she's wrong he can at least pass it along for her. Or do whatever the hell he wants with it, frankly. Caroline doesn't care.

When Eddie, Jonathan, and Bus Stop had a hard time figuring out where two supervillains and... whatever Caroline is could go, she piped up and mentioned she was due to switch hotels soon anyway. So now here she is, leading Eddie and Jonathan up the steps to her crappy little hotel room. Perhaps she didn't think this through. It's... well, she doesn't have a lot of money and doesn't want to answer any questions. So that puts her in a certain kind of hotel. She's sure they've both seen worse, and it's not like she left anything embarrassing laying around, but... well. What an impression to make, huh?

"Um, sorry again," she says as she fights with the stupid lock. She finally gets the door open and ducks in, trying not to look over her shoulder and catch the inevitable reactions.

Caroline is fed up. Since her stalker disappeared on her that one time, she's only seen him more often. But now she can't get anywhere near him somehow. It's frustrating, because she has questions.

And then the dreams came back. The fog dreams aren't new, Caroline's had those off and on for years. Those dreams are of some place that seems very familiar, but alien at the same time. She's started having new dreams, though. Dreams about an apartment. After a couple weeks, she finally puts it together.

She's walking to the subway when she sees a familiar sign out of the corner of her eye. She looks up and sees the Hotel South Ashfield sign and realizes the apartment she's been having dreams about must be in South Ashfield Heights. The creepy guy was on the steps when she tried to talk to him that one time. If she hadn't already suspected he had something to do with her dreams, that would do it. Well then.

This is probably a bad idea, but it's the only one she has. She strides purposefully into the apartment building. It's... still inhabited, but barely. It looks pretty rundown. She wanders around a little, following her gut instinct and an increasing sense of déjà vu. She ends up on the third floor without too much difficulty. She doesn't know how, but she instantly knows it's 302 she wants.

She knocks tentatively and then takes a step back as the door just swings open. Well. All right. She steps through. "Hello?"

Caroline spends several days after the bank robbery holed up in her hotel room. She is both relieved to have gotten away unscathed and a bundle of nerves. She sassed a goddamn supercriminal. More than once. But she's here to tell the tale and maybe someday laugh about it.

So now here she is, venturing forth in search of wifi. She needs to plan the next leg of her trip, because she sure as hell isn't settling in Gotham. She finds a little coffee shop next to a park and ducks inside. She acquires an iced coffee and the password to the wifi. She heads back out into the fairly nice weather and settles on the nearest park bench to see if... oh, not quite.

She ends up curled up under a nice shade tree eventually. She contentedly sips at her coffee and makes good use of her bar and a half of wifi, scribbling down information in a little notebook she brought with her.

It's a good day after all. She hums a little.