There is a sudden moment of disorientation. 

Her car lands on snow, it both cushions the impact and causes it to give a full 360° spin.

There is no sight of any landmark from a minute ago. Or the highway. And it's sure snowy and forest-y here. The sky is mercifully clear, but the sun is setting.

Woah, snow? She shivers in the drivers seat of her van, hugging her thin layers to herself. She has a momentary panic, turning back to look at the back of her van, containing all her meagre possessions, meaning a well used mattress, and a ton of high tech computers and other devices, all of which are fully intact and exactly where she left them, except a couple usb's which are now scattered on her bed but otherwise, nothing is worse for wear.

"Thank you, I could not lose my babies."

She reaches back further, grabbing her only sweater, covered in holes and torn as it is, it's the warmest thing she owns, slipping it over her head, wriggling in as she exits the van, boots hitting the snowy ground.

"Now where in the flippity flappity heck am I?"

That appears to scares a bird.  Which shouts something surprisingly bird-like before taking flight.

...the bird, once she looks at a little longer, appears to be wearing a scarf around it's neck.

This isn't exactly a road, but the trees here are spaced enough that she could theoretically drive around them.  Assuming the ice is not covering anything.  There is a frozen lake that ways a way. The snow glitters.

What the hell is a bird wearing a scarf for? Y'know what, not her current problem, taking in her surroundings with a turn this way and that, she realises the only direction she can go in is the trail of trees seemingly parted for her.

"Well, better hope that's the direction of civilisation, then I can figure out where I am, and how to get home."

She gets back in to her van, turning it on with a few awkward, almost failed, revs of the engine, and away she goes. Presumably, she makes her way with little or no problem, even driving around the lake, hoping to see another exit through the trees, or maybe a sign that tells her where to go

This eventually will lead her to a small trail in the snow. No marks of tires going through the snow... instead a bunch of different kinds of pawn prints. But's navigable with her vehicle.

oh, look! Someone put a trail of fairy lights on the ground and they are on. That's sure a sign of civilization of some sort, right?

That's sure some interesting fairy lights. They look just like vine-y flowers.

Skye honestly doesn’t notice anything weird about the fairy lights, she’s to busy looking ahead for more signs of people, buildings, anything remotely familiar. She follows the trail nonetheless, hoping she might come across someone sooner rather than later.

She’s actually starting to get a little hungry, thankful that a packet of chips in her passenger seat also remained unharmed from the... crash? Journey? She’s not sure what to call it. She thinks she’ll go with ‘flying-snake-incident’. Anyway, they survived, so she pops a few in her mouth and continues on her way.

It's not too long until she finds sign of people. A person even.

First she hears music. A kid in his early teens? He is in front... a crowd with a variety of animals apparently conducting them into singing a song. Which, the animals are clearly singing, despite the complete lack of anatomy to do so.

She slows the truck, grabbing an extra scarf to wrap around her neck before awkwardly climbing down from the drivers seat, towards the group of... singing animals? What the heck?

"I uh... Hi there? I was wondering..." She trails off in the face of a genuinely adorable little boy, rearranging her face in such a way that she hopes is comforting and not at all scary. "Hi there."

The little boy turns and appears to be surprised to see her here, though not extraordinarily so. Definitely not in a way that betrays any weirdness regarding the singing - now quiet - animals.

He asks something. One of the animals - a bunny in a dress - approaches and asks the same question.

"I, uh... Were those words? Okay, uh..." She thinks hard for a second, before beginning to gesture vaguely in some sort of explanatory way for each of her words. "Hi. I'm lost. Can you help?"

The boy thinks for a moment then goes over to a backpack that was left on a rock.

He removes... an eagle shaped flute, which, he uses to play a five note tune.

There is a sudden flash of bright light, and she sees a radiant white eagle before her.

"Mortal! Receive the blessing of translation! And remember! When you're thinking of emergence blessings, think of Radiant Eagle Emergence Blessings."

Then it's gone.

"Did it work?"

"What the f-" She cuts herself off before she swears in front of the kid. "All right then. Uh, hi? I think yes is the answer, if the goal was that crazy bird yelling product placement at me and now I can understand what you're saying. Can you help? I'm kinda lost."

"Sure? Where do you want to go?"

The various animals are whispering at each other.

"I'm not particularly sure. I mean, I'm from a place where animals don't talk. I mean, the giant flying snake that swallowed me was my first sign, but I thought I'd show up on the other side of the world, somewhere like Norway, or China, not... talking animal land."

The be dressed bunny takes a step back, ears folded against her head.

Adam looks perplexed. "Are you sure you just didn't listen?"

"I, uh... Pets weren't my thing, orphanages and animals weren't a good mix for some reason, and I lived inner city all my life, again, not a place for pets. The internet though, that's my thing, and I never found any proof of talking animals the world over, so I'm calling it. I'm somewhere very far from home."

Skye fidgets with her sweater as she rambles awkwardly.

"Pets..." Adam starts saying before shaking his head. "Okay, you look... very lost. Maybe I should take you back to town and... I think my mom will know what to do with a lost person?"

He would've sent someone else, but Adam doesn't want this girl to be insensitive at his friends.

"Is that not a thing you have here? Wherever here is? Look, I'm really sorry if I seem... rude I guess? I just... Like last week aliens flew through a portal in the sky and tried to murder everybody and it was really scary so I was moving to somewhere else and now another scary thing has happened to me and I'm just kind of panicking. And being blunt. Nice to meet you," She also turns to the bunny who still looks kind of offended, weirdly enough, "and you too, I guess. I'm Skye."

Skye is clearly terrified, not of the talking bunny, but of the fact she's definitely way farther from home than she first thought.

"I'm Adam. And okay, calm down. I will-uh, Betty, tell everyone to try rehearsing by themselves while I help Skye out."

The presumably-Betty bunny nods and turns around to tell that to the other animals, which is largely unnecessary because they heard everything anyway.

"Follow me?"

She nods jerkily, rubbing her shoulder anxiously as she follows the boy.

"If it's far, we can take my van?"

"Your van? Sure."

"Cool, it's, uh, this way." She leads him back to her van, unlocking it and moving her dirty clothes from the front passenger seat before he makes it over to the other side. "Sorry for the mess, I was moving when it happened so, this is the sum of all my belongings."

"Nah, this is neat," Adam says looking at her computer equipment. "What does all of this do?"

"Uh..." She tries desperately to think of a legitimate use for all of the high tech encryption breaking software and hardware she has lying around. Coming up with nothing, she says, "It's mostly for internet... stuff."

She sighs, realizing immediately how lame that sounded, and instead tries for a simplified version of the truth. "I use it to find secrets that people don't want the world to know, and I give the world free access. That, and record voice overs for video's about exposing those secrets."

"The internet? And why would you do that sort of thing with people's secrets?"

"Not a thing here? And they aren't really personal secrets, more like industry secrets that people deserve to know. Like illegal stuff, and stuff that companies are keeping from the people that are giving them money and stuff. That and stuff the government is keeping from us, like the existence of aliens and the fact that they've known about aliens for, like, actual years. Y'know, stuff that you should be allowed to know but The Man doesn't tell you because they just want to hog everything." She looks at the kid beside her. "Sorry, I get a little intense about it sometimes. So, where to kid?"

"I have never heard about an internet. And aliens are a real thing where are you from? That's crazy."

He gives direction and soon a giant Christmas postcard comes to view. No, wait. That's an actual town. It's almost insultingly picturesque. Small cute buildings. Something that might be a church. Colorful decorations that are fairly Christmas-like. The works.

Skye starts internally freaking out again, because this looks nothing like anything she's ever actually seen, and while it isn't like anyone back home would really miss her, she would certainly miss home. But she follows the kids directions.

"Huh, guess I really am pretty far from home. And yeah, aliens. As far as most of the general public know, a fairly new thing. Aliens being on our planet, not existing. Given how much more advanced they are, they've definitely been around a good long while. We're just new to having them with us. It's kind of insane really."

"Are you sure they are not, like, fairies that are messing with you?"

"Fairies? Those are a thing? But, well, no, the aliens said they're aliens, and there's been space ships and a whole bunch of other stuff. And this was less 'prank to freak out stupid humans' and more 'aliens here to cause death and destruction so they can rule us all' kind of vibe."

 He is paying attention the buildings and still giving directions.

"Of course fairies are a thing...? Man, if you don't know anything about faries than it's great that you ran into us instead of one. Okay, here is the library and we can ask one of my dads for help."

"Yay... Please, God, let there be a nap somewhere in my future." 

She tries to keep the tiredness out of her voice but she was driving for many hours before being swallowed by the flying... whatever it was. Today has almost been enough for her to renounce her rebellious atheism and start to pray again.

"You can probably take a nap, soon enough?" Adam says once they parked the car.

A tall blond man, opens the door to the building.

The library, outside and what they can see from the inside, is just as on-your-face about being charmingly from fifties as the rest of the town.

"Adam? Did something happen? Why were in that vehicle? Who is this?"

"Let's hope, kid."

When the man comes out, she has a brief moment of absolute fear, just because he radiates authority, but she tamps it down easily.

"Hello, hi, my car. I'm Skye." She holds out her hand in greeting, going for polite and meek.

Well, that breaks the man's stride enough for him to copy some of her polite meekness. He shakes her hand.

"She says that she is from another world."

"Oh dear. Okay, come in. Oh, I am Sophocles Grayscale."

Okay, not so scary. She follows the two in to the library quietly.

Sophocles leads to what must be his office. "How it happened?" He says while looking for something in his bookshelf.

She peers at her surroundings in mild trepidation, thinking for a moment before answering the man's question.

"I was driving to another city, called LA, a road in the middle of nowhere really, just wide open spaces, when all of a sudden this huge... I want to say flying snake? Well it came out of seemingly nowhere and flew right towards me. I didn't even have time to swerve before it swallowed me up and then I was in a forest, I guess."

Sophocles blinks at her. "Okay, the flying snake is probably not something that we can deal with. And I don't know of a way to return you home. We will have to find you a place to stay for the next while. Do you have any urgent needs? Medication that you need to take?"

"I... No, I was travelling, so I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself in my van. Although, I might need help with food until I can set myself up with a job in the mean time. Any chance your town needs a political activist or expert hacker? Professional sassy youth? Waitress?"

Skye, now realising she's trapped in a foreign place with money that likely has no value in this mysterious place, has a strong reminiscence to her whole life, and for a moment, she has to tamp down the urge to have a panic attack about the prospect of going back to eating out of a trash can. She's still avoiding direct eye contact.

"It's okay, deary. You won't starve."

Sophocles awkwardly pats her shoulder.

Regaining some of her decorum, she smiles lightly, still looking anywhere but in his eyes.

"Thank you. I... Honestly, this place is... I've so many strange things, I need the low down on how things work here, how best to blend in."

"They don't have fair folk, she should know about fair folk."

"She definitely should. ...a lot of them is a case by case basis, but in general they will tell you what bizarre rules they follow so you don't anger them - it's safe to ask if something they give to you has a price, before taking it - this particular island doesn't have very aggressive ones, and they keep to the wilderness, so if there is a residence you should be fine. The lake has some aquatic fae that don't like other fae, but mostly ignore humans. Iron and metal weapons hurt most fae, but you don't want to use that as a first resort. If you have a sudden urge to dance and sing in perfect choreography, turn around and run as fast you can in the opposite direction and try to remain calm to the signs that more time has passed than it should have from your perspective."

The last advice is delivered in a more serious throne than the one about metal weapons.

Her eyes widen comically, signalling the absolute freakiness of this situation to all.

"Right, I, uh... Right. Thank you. Both of you. I... Yeah, just thanks."

"Sorry. Do you need a moment?"

"No? I just. I've kind of lived on the streets all my life and seen plenty of scary human things, but scary mystic things involving faeries is a new one on me. But all of this sounds like the same general rules just applied in a different environment, so I should be good. Do you... Do you know of anywhere looking for someone to work that requires minimum expertise?" She bites her lip anxiously, running a hand through her messy curls.

"I think the general store and maybe the dinner by the docks could need extra help. There are always some odd jobs around town and if they know that someone needs to get on their feet they can come to you first. You could apply to get a farm lot when spring comes. Oh, and people might be interested in your world? There is a witch that lives nearby who would be interested, but I heard she is away on vacation and I don't know if she will be back before spring."

Oh! Good, at least something's are the same from one wacky reality to another.

"The diner sounds like something I'd be used to doing, and that'll get me on my feet. Thank you so much for the help. Hopefully I haven't disrupted your life too much."

"It's my job dear. Okay, I kinda need to answer a few questions? For a report. People falling into our world is not common, but it is definitely something people want to have triplicate forms about."

"Also, she needs a place to stay or how to stay in a place."

"Oh! Sure thing! And don't worry kid, I like to live in my van, it's home," Her smile is genuine, and she very clearly would prefer to stay in the van, with all the familiar comforts of the mattress and her decorations. "But the questions! Fire away my dude!"

Sophocles snorts. He starts making questions to what amounts to some sort of police report, but then moves on to give Skye some documents (a copy will be kept here and another sent to a central location). They are straightforwardly technical, if matching the weirdness of the situation "what was the date when you left your native world?" and "what is the calendar system in your native world like?". He types everything in a typewriter and then gives Skye local documents for herself, her van, and her status as being from another world.

Also, a library card. Those are very important.

Adam takes this time to collects some books, read some of their contents, and then he now has four books for Skye to read. Convenient that she has a library card too.

"This one is very important, and you should follow its instructions right from the cover."

The book tittle is:

A Book To Read Quietly - Lessons on the values of polite unacknowledgement of certain knowledges.

She answers all of the questions as best she can, thinking hard about the date because she's horrible for those, and takes all the documents gingerly, trying not to show her distaste for being documented on her face. She's not a particularly great actress, so he can probably tell, but it's the thought that counts right? She then gratefully accepts the books from the young boy, reading the title of the one he pointed out with curiosity.

"Wow, that's... super cool, kid."

Sophocles gives his son a quick smile and a pat on the head. "Do you mind taking her to the dinner, sweetheart?"

"Sure. It's three blocks away, it might be better to leave your car here?"

"Okey dokey, I'm following the leader."

Sophocles says goodbye to the both of them, and they depart. There is more idyllic small town scenery to go through and Adam waves at a couple of people.

"I guess you have to talk to Mr. Upton himself? I don't know how waitresses get jobs."

Upton's dinner, has wide open glass windows that let people see the beachfront from inside.

"That's alright, hopefully it's not too different between worlds. Thanks for the help though," Skye breaths shakily, apprehension clearly tensing her shoulders. "I should just go in, right?"

"Yeah. I don't think you have to tell the entire another world story, though people will know soon enough? You can say that my dad sent you." Pause. "It should be fine. Mr. Upton is nice."

With a deep breath, she pushes through the front door and makes her way to the front counter. "Hi, Mr Grayscale sent me, I need to speak with a... Mr Upton, please?" She uses her best manners to request this, a whole different attitude to that of the awkward teen attitude she's displayed up till now.

Adam follows her inside, but doesn't say anything.

The woman at the counter asks. "Which one? I guess it doesn't matter." And calls to someone in the back.

Mr. Upton comes from the back, pulling out a hair net. "How can I help you?"

"Mr Grayscale sent me, I've found myself in need of a job and he recommended you. I've done plenty of waitressing and I'm a really quick learner. Is there any possible way you happen to have an opening right now?"

"Are you new to the island then? Do you mind working during the winter holidays?"

"I'm new to everywhere around here, and I'm more than happy to work whenever you need me, holidays won't be an issue."

"Oh, okay. How soon do you want to start working?"

"As soon as you want me."

"Oh, okay. I can get Clara to train you before rush hour and get you started on a trial run. Does that work? Oh, and wage," he names a quantity that's meaningless to her due to lack of reference frame, "plus tips. Plus a meal per day of work." He looks her up an down. "Maybe two meals?"

She smiles brightly in amusement at the visual assessment she gets. "That's very sweet, but the one meal will be fine, thank you. And the wage sounds fine to me," she immediately ties her hair back in a ponytail to get it out of the way. "Lead the way?"

"Sure, dear." He leads.

Luckily, waitressing isn't that different between two worlds. Mr. Upton makes small talk, but appears to be leaving her space to talk about where she is from.

She considers whether or not to explain, and ends up deciding honesty seems to be the best policy in this sugar-sweet place. "I actually came from another world, it's why Mr Grayscale is helping me, I'm horribly new to everything around here. But, in regards to where I'm from specifically, well, all over my world. I'm an orphan, and I moved around a lot once I aged out, always been a bit of a free spirit."

"Oh, dear. Which Mr Grayscale did you meet again? I am assuming things have been mostly taken care of?"

"I believe I met with Sophocles, but I was originally found wandering by Adam over there," She gestures to the young boy before continuing. "I've been completely taken care of, you're all so kind here, I don't know what it would be like without everyone's help, and I'm sure I never want to know."

Adam has since acquired some kind of pastry and waves.

"I see." Mr. Upton says. "Such a good kid, specially given their entire situation. And people really should stick together and help one another. It's what separate us from evil spirits."

Her eyes widen a little in mild wonderment and confusion before she covers it badly. "Well, he's certainly been very nice to me, they both have."

"Oh. It's nothing bad. Just complicated. And I shouldn't have been gossiping. Anyway, do you mind wearing a uniform a size too big?"

Definitely curious but easily letting go of the comment, Skye smiles happily. "Not a problem at all, what is too big when you own a belt?"

"That's the spirit! Okay, you can go through that door and change. I will go figure out the paperwork."

She walks through the door indicated and puts on the uniform without much flourish before looking down to gage what she can do with it, considering the bridge between cute and appropriately modest.

The uniform is sufficiently larger that she can go for a "cute and pixie" sort of over-sized. Might help get more tips.

Sweet, cute and pixie is right where her wheelhouse sits, that plus a little bit of adorable Asian vibes that are inherent in everything she does. Fixing, fixing, fixing... And done, she looks down to find she's thoroughly pleased with the look and walks back out, squaring her shoulders for 'work mode' and placing a pleasant smile on her face.

Adam comes to say goodbye - unless there is anything she needs doing - and to remind her to read her books.

She ruffles his head kindly, says goodbye sweetly, and solemnly swears she'll read them the minute she gets back to her van. Now, off to work, which might presumably be a relatively monotonous thing, unless something of exceeding interest happens, which she doubts and hopes against.

Nothing particularly interesting happens, except for a few people asking if she is new which gradually changes over time to people asking if she is actually from another world. Because there is nothing faster than gossip. At least people don't come to gawk at her or anything.

She takes every single question with ease and a permanent cheery attitude, not even slightly fussed by her gawkable facets.

Then when the service is over and while they are cleaning things up, Sarah (Mr. Upton's niece) asks if Skye is all set up for the night.

Skye looks at the sweet girl and smiles, "You're lovely to ask, but I'm just fine, thank you."

"Alright. I know that the librarian's kid got you the necessary books, and you should read them."

"I will, definitely. If you need me, I'll be in my van, light blue thing, I'll figure out where I'm allowed to park it and be there."

Head tilt. "I think as long you're not in the way of anyone there won't be a problem?"

"Sweet! Alright, well I will see you tomorrow," Skye waves jauntily goodbye and makes her way back to her van, a little bit dead on her feet.

She waves back.

The van is just where it was left. Is she planning to do anything for the night? Like reading the books or something else?

Books! The kid seemed very intent on her reading them, and she feels weird about disappointing a child. Though homework. She checks for blurbs to see if the information in one particularly catches her attention.

The first pages are very colorful and have bold letter saying:

THIS IS A BORING BOOKS!

VERY BORING!

DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU WANT TO NOT BE BORED!

It then proceeds to describe household fae, to which there are a few subtypes, but nearly all of them have the common trait of not liking to be acknowledge by adults. Children of every species are fine, with the cut off point being unclear and hard to research. Acknowledging a given species will typically result in some kind of misfortune of varied potency. There are polite (and thus safe) ways to interact with them, and they are listed such. Actually getting rid of them is not advisable. There are different methods and some of the methods that work for a species do not work for others and count as acknowledgment. Additionally, they are by default helpful and harmless.

She raises an eyebrow at the apparent presence of fae beings but reads more. Is there a section specifically on the appropriate ways to interact with them? A handy little how to tid bit?

Specifics vary a lot per species. But a universal approach is "talk to yourself". Though only things one could conceivable say by themselves, and never addressing the fae directly, it's better to lie and talk about a person that's a way or even someone imaginary or a character from a book. It's highly recommended inventing your own sort of norm, because anything too normalized ends up being a clear sign of impolite acknowledgment.

Another thing that's common is leaving food for them, though the details on that vary a lot. There is a species that will be okay if you leave anything overnight in front of the light of a hearth. Some have specific dietary requirements/customs. One of the "bolder" species will gladly accept if you leave a plate under the moonlight with words to the effect that anyone can eat the meal.

Most of the advice is regarding standard homes, instead of her vehicle. It's unclear if the van is even counts as a home, though the commentary on sea going vessels (which often contain their own subspecies) implies that even a small boat might count under the right circumstances.

Well crap, she only has a half packet of Funyuns in here, and zero plates. Guess it's just going out in the bag then? She slides open the van door, places the bag on the ground and takes a deep breath.

"If anyone out here is hungry, this is a packet of chips that taste like onions, it's free to a good home, and or stomach."

The dark empty street in front of her provides no answer. That clouds in the night sky part to shine more moonlight upon her.

"I'm gonna close the door and hope that worked," she has a tendency to speak outloud to herself, a habit formed from years spent in the isolation of homelessness in the big city.

Again. No reply. It's a quiet town in the middle of nowhere, so there is no sound louder than an owl's hoot.

Shrug.

She slides the door closed and rests on the mattress firmly situated in the bed of her van, its old, and damaged, and to be completely honest, she found it in a dumpster out the back of an apartment building, but it is a bed so she figures its fine. She picks the book back up to make sure she read everything there is to read in it, she is finding it surprisingly unboring because 'oh my god faeries' is the prime thought.

There is a lot of book to read, eventually she will need to get to her well-deserved rest. Or maybe she just falls asleep anyway. The dreams are surprisingly pleasant that night.

She falls asleep midsentence. Healthy sleep patterns and practices aren't a thing she knows. And her dreams... are weirdly pleasant? She hasn't not had a nightmare about being attacked in her van or... her childhood. But this was just her, in a house with dogs and all the tech she could ever use. And she wakes up rested and happy? Weird.

It's a relatively quiet morning, she can hear the sound of birds and people out and about in the streets.

She very quietly and peacefully gets dressed into the work clothes from yesterday, and her stomach grumbles briefly, she hungers the silence with a gulp of water and leaves the car to walk back to the diner with a rare skip in her step.

Work today keeps not being meaningfully different from working on a restaurant on Earth. Same level of people being curious about her "supposed" origin. With only one lady doing air quotes about it.

She doesn't even slightly react or care about said lady, other people's opinions rarely affect her, so she just carries on with her work day as normal. Before she leaves, she realises that she doesn't have any food left in the van, worries about it briefly, which is probably evident on her face as poker has never been something she's been good at, and hopes nothing will come of not leaving food out tonight. She then goes to leave.

"Bye Mr Upton, have a good night."

"Bye... Uh, if you don't mind asking. Have you eaten anything at all today?"

"Uh..." She hesitates, going back and forth in her mind between admitting the truth and lying. On one hand, she doesn't want to worry this very nice man, on the other hand, she really doesn't want to lie to this very nice man. Eventually, she lands on telling him the embarassing truth. "I haven't, but I'm fine, I promise. I normally don't eat that often."

Frown. "Weird... is that something that the food in your world just does?"

"Well... no. Technically, people are meant to eat at least three full meals a day, with snacks in between, or a variant therein depending on your metabolism, but I just... don't, usually."

Blink. "Why? Curse?"

"We don't really have those there. I just... don't usually get the opportunity."

"But... are you hungry?"

"...No?" 

She tries to sound convincing but she is, 100%, the worst liar in existence.

"Okay... I am going to currently assume that you are under a curse where you can't talk about the curse, but I can talk about it."

"I..." Now she feels bad for making this complicated, ugh, well. "No, I'm not cursed, I just... I don't like talking about it a lot, but I grew up in an orphanage, and once I was 13, I ran away and lived on the streets. So eating food more than once every few days isn't something I'm used to. I can and should eat a normal amount, but I don't because... Well, because that's just, normal, for me, I guess."

"Oh... Now I feel like a jerk for pushing, I guess. You really shouldn't starve yourself."

"Oh no, it's fine, you were just being nice, I was being all... Weird about it."

She very intentionally skips over that last part.

"Okay. Can you at least... take something home?"

"Oh, no, I'm fine, I promise, you don't have to worry about me, I promise, I really don't wanna..." She thinks but doesn't say 'inconvenience you'.

"People... need to eat?" Mr. Upton says slowly, like he is not sure how to react. "You can't... just not?"

"My entire life experience says differently," she jokes off-handedly.

"No... seriously, eat something."

Skye grumbles and shuffles her feet. "Okay..."

Mr. Upton prepares her a dish, out of the day's left-overs.

As she looks at it, her eyes tear up a little, and she launches herself at Mr Upton into a hug.

"Thank so so so so much."

Mr. Upton hugs her back. "It's okay," he says with a weird mixture of amused and bemused.

She detached awkwardly and eats. And gosh is food good. 

Mr. Upton is relieved. And yes, the food is good.

"Thank you so much for... Everything. Everyone around here is just so... Nice."

"Well... I am glad that you found us then."

"Me too."

She finishes her food, says thank at least twelve more times, and leaves for her van.

The van is how she left.

...There might be something of a flowery smell to it? Could be coming from the street.

She breathes it in, finding it unusual because she's so used to the places she parks her van to smell like urine and week old scraps. Instead, she writes off the smell as another weird aspect of this place she's landed in. She wonders if she should read again tonight... She checks to see if she finished the faerie book already.

There is a chapter dedicated to parents of kids that recently became too old to keep friendships with their household faeries. Which she probably does not need to know much about. There are other books, like a basic world history book.

She squints at it, wondering exactly how important it could possibly be to know right this minute. She is very tired, it has been a very long day, and her stomach is full so she's post-food drowsy. She might just put it next to her pillow while she sleeps, hope something sinks in by ozmosis, and try again tomorrow. Yeah, she'll do that. 

Once finally snugged into bed with her world history book beside her, she tries to sleep.

The book is there for her in the next morning. Songbirds sing outside.

....and there is a green haired woman is waiting right outside. Sitting on a toadstool that was definitely not there the night before and reading a very old book.

Ah! A person... Skye wonders whether this is a faerie or not, but to her, green hair and the surprising arrival of a toadstool leans her towards yes. So, just follow the things in the book. Don't talk to them, talk to yourself, or, you know, nothing. She picks the sun.

"Good morning sun, you are particularly bright today. Thanks for the wake up call, guess I should... Get ready for work?"

She looks up. "Oh, I guess that makes sense." She hops down her toadstool and then rips a piece of it to bite off. She slowly starts growing. "I am okay to talk to. I just shrunk down because I forgot to bring anything to sit on. Hi, Temperance! Are you too much in a hurry?"

"Oh, hi, sorry, a bit new, getting used to the everything of this place. Nice to meet you Temperance, I'm Skye. I'm not in any hurry that I can think of."

She absently puts the rest of the mushroom in her messenger bag. "That's reasonable. I am just a teeny tiny bit non-human, if you are curious. More importantly, I am a witch and I was curious about you and your and everything."

"That's... cool. So cool. I wasn't going to ask, but it's nice to know more things about what I can reasonably expect around here. Anything you want to know specifically?"

"Oh, I want to know everything. I would like to see how you interact with our magic, because I read that people from other worlds have weird magic interaction sometimes."

"I could be down for that. Though it sounds like something that takes more than ten or twenty minutes. I'll ask Mr Upton if I can have tomorrow off. Or if I get time off. Not entirely sure how that works here."

"I think non-magical folks celebrate the end of weeks by taking a couple of days off?" She shrugs. "I can wait."

"That makes sense. We call those weekends where I'm from. Do you happen to know when that is? I've never been very good at keeping track of days or the time in general."

"I think in a day or two? I am not sure. And they call weekends too. Do you mind coming to my tower or me visiting you when you have the free time?"

"Hmm, well weing to a tower sounds awesome. How about I talk to Mr Upton, find out when I'm free and... Is there a way I can leave a note for you, or leave you a message of some kind?"

"Oh, right." She starts looking around her purse and retrieves... what might be a tiny bell and a wooden stick. "Ring this three times using the stick and then leave it somewhere in the open. Someone will pick them up in a short while and ask about your message."

"That is... so awesome. Well... Talk to you later I guess?"

"Sure!" And she walks in the other direction.

Mr. Upton asks if Skye has any preference regarding her day off. He low-key thinks that she should meet the witch as soon as possible. This one is rather friendly, but you know how witches can get. (His niece reacts to this with a roll of her eyes).

"Hmm, well, I like Saturdays better than Sundays, they have better energy, if that's okay?"

"Yeah, that works. Did you eat today?"

"Oh! I guess I forgot!"

She genuinely did, she's not just saying that, but she also probably would just have said that if he asked and it weren't true.

"Go snack on something before work then."

If there is something toast like, she grabs that, trying hard not to rush and give herself the hiccups, warming up her legs and feet for a fulls days work.

They have toasts! With butter and jam even. If she doesn't butter or jam the toasts herself, Mr. Upton might swing by and do it for her.

She butters it, but that's about all, and very sparingly at that. She then tries to warm up the rest of her, last night was even colder than the rest and a van isn't exactly the warmest sleeping place. Though compared to not the van, it's not that bad, but she was certainly cold enough to struggle to fall asleep.

At least she is working on a place that has very reason to be cozy and warm.

That does help to warm her up quite quickly, and once she's eaten and stretched for work, she sets about serving the people that come in.

There are plenty of "Skye is novel and shiny" kind of questions, but some people will chit-chat about more (relatively) mundane topics. Like how she is doing in her new situation.

She is very happy to entertain any questions about herself, and she kind of likes being considered 'novel and shiny', and she's actually enjoying it here much better than she was back in her reality, everyone is so eternally nice here. Once she gets off of work, she finds a clear space near her van, rings the bell on a stick three times, lays in on the ground and sits down to wait.

The wind blows gently if cold, and maybe the sound of birds tweeting becomes somewhat more frequent than usual for a winter day.

Soon, a small yellow-brown bird lands near her, this would be noticeable even if the bird wasn't wearing a tiny adorable red scarf.

"I see. I see. Message?" It speaks.

Its voice is very deep. Much deeper than it has any right to be from something so small.

She blinks owlishly for a moment, before finally realising she needs to speak. "Um, I need Temperance to know I have Saturdays off, and I'll be here at... dawn on Saturday.... Thank you."

She adds the last part after a moment, almost as an afterthought, and she has to avoid curtsying. She's feeling more and more like Alice these days.

"Temperance, the witch that lives on the lake, right?" The bird retrieves a white-brown leaf from under his wing, alongside a small stick. He takes notes using his beak to hold the stick. "Just making sure. It's not like we have many here." He says around the stick.

"Uh... I don't know about that, I remember she had green hair?"

"Yeah, that one." He finishes writing. "At that hour she will either be here or send someone over. Is that all?"

"Yup, thanks!" She's not sure what the appropriate manners are for speaking with a little bird, so it's a little awkward, but she tries her best and waves jauntily.

The little bird mimics the wave, puts his things under a wing. Then takes off.