"Hah, I see," Galen replied with relief as Lydia confirmed his suspicions about the nature of the establishment. He looked up as she inquired about the type of room they were looking for, but let out a nervous laugh at what she said. "<i>Friends</i>,  er... I don't think Axle would call me his friend. We've met not too long ago and he doesn't seem to enjoy my company<i>too</i>much, so..." He cleared his throat, deciding to focus simply on answering her question. "For me personally, I'd just like a place to sleep. I don't really know what a 'jacuzzi' or a 'fridge' is, but if I can take a bath and have something to eat that would be great. Thank you so much. As for a 'theme'... erm... I don't know if you have different paintings to hang up or so, but I'd love to have a room that feels cozy and warm. Do you perhaps have one with a hearth? If so, that would be amazing."<br/><br/>Axle, meanwhile, was too distracted to pay much attention to what Galen and Lydia had been talking about, but he focused briefly when the woman spoke to him. "I see. Nalia, you say..."<br/>He stared over in the direction of the bar for a moment, seemingly committing that name to memory before his watchful eyes wandered back over to Lydia as he extended a hand to shake hers. "Nice place you got here."<br/>From the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the pouch of coins that was being put away by his companion after giving her the coin for his room, and realized the transaction.<br/>“Oh, right. Money,” He grunted annoyedly. “One second…” Tapping the device on his wrist that looked like a watch, he made a holographic menu of symbols in a strange layout appear that he scrolled through quickly until he got to what was presumably the functionality he was looking for. Then he looked back over to Lydia, eyebrow slightly raised. “Got a bank account number here, ‘Hotel Convergence’ right? I’ll deposit to it.” With a few taps on his watch, a transfer of credits had occurred and he looked at the friendly, calming receptionist again. "You'll recognize the payment. Name's Winters, John.”<br/><br/>Galen pulled a face. "You told me your name was Axle!" he remarked indignantly, to which the other's mouth tensed. “No. I told you that you can call me Axle. It’s a nickname.”<br/>"Oh." The mage's voice softened a little. "What does it mean?"<br/>"Does it matter?" Axle responded off-handedly as he turned back to Lydia. “A… spacious room, if you have one. Away from<i>him</i>, please. Doesn’t have to be fancy though, and I won’t be needing any room service either.”<br/>The old soldier gave a nod, and off he went into the bar, back over towards the sweet sounds drifting over from the piano. Though Lydia's aura was calming, these notes sung and played were calming in their own way too, even if he couldn't help but feel a hint of something extra about Nalia. As he stood in the middle of the room and listened, there was suddenly a flash that came into his mind - a mental image of Lauren and Gemma. It startled him somewhat, causing him to stumble to the side and accidentally knock against one of the tables before he immediately steadied himself.<br/>"'Scuse me," his gruff voice quickly apologized, deep down embarrassed to have lost balance like that for no reason. "Didn't mean to interrupt your music. Nalia, right?"<br/><br/>With Axle stepping away, Galen briefly leaned closer to Lydia conspiratorially and nodded in the direction of the older male as he disappeared around the corner. "Found him in an abandoned liquor shop, gun in his hand and... well, a lot of his brain missing. But despite that, he was still very much alive. He hasn't really said much about it, despite me asking, but I think he was trying to get out of this... dimension, or whatever this is where we are. By attempting to kill himself. "<br/>The mage cleared his throat. "I'm a healer by trade. If I touch people, I can use magic to heal them so long as I maintain physical contact. So I kind of sped up his process of recovery from the head trauma - it was so recent that I could get him pretty much back to the way he was before. When he regained consciousness, that's when I found out just how much he doesn't like being touched by a stranger without his permission," Galen explained with a soft chuckle. "But once he understood what had happened, he did seem kind of grateful that I'd made the effort to help him recover. I imagine being unable to die while suffering from severe head trauma would not have been a particularly happy existence. So... he stuck with me for a day, up until now."<br/>Galen sighed. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to check out the bar as well. But first, what other amenities do you have in this... ho-tel? You mentioned being more upscale." He regarded Lydia with curiosity.