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Bella was expecting to be slightly late to math class. This is not math class, but it seems like the sort of thing she ought to be later to math class in order to investigate. In she stalks, ready for something to jump out at her, wondering if she ought to pull a stake out of her bag.
cross_and_bow
"He is chronologically six. It's occasionally weird to think about it, but he's pretty thoroughly eighteen in relevant ways."
cross_and_bow
"Charming sort of person who wakes up one day and says 'I think I'll clone a first-grader'..."
cross_and_bow
"I do not. Anyway, if you didn't replace my math class with a time traveling bar, I don't know how it happened, and it could be unfriendly. For instance, if I've been flung forward into the thirtieth century, there may have been a missing Slayer problem for the last millennium, although if you don't have vampires that suggests something else is going on." She looks around at the utterly innocuous furniture. "Interesting wall display," she says of the window with the exploding stars.
cross_and_bow
"Yes. It may be magic. I suspect everything here of being magic until otherwise demonstrated." Her hand is still hovering near her bag, though her wariness is mostly dropped with respect to Mark.
unmarred
"I suspect everything here of being beyond our prior experience. 'Magic' is as good a label as any."
cross_and_bow
"I don't have very much experience with magic. I can't cast any, myself."
Bella drifts near the bar. A napkin appears. She has a stake in her hand in the blink of an eye, and nothing to stab with it.
Another napkin appears.
The first one says, Hello, can I interest you in a beverage? First one is free.
The second napkin says, Please don't be alarmed, I'm not going to attack you. In fact, violence is strictly prohibited in my immediate environs.
Bella drifts near the bar. A napkin appears. She has a stake in her hand in the blink of an eye, and nothing to stab with it.
Another napkin appears.
The first one says, Hello, can I interest you in a beverage? First one is free.
The second napkin says, Please don't be alarmed, I'm not going to attack you. In fact, violence is strictly prohibited in my immediate environs.
cross_and_bow
Reasonable currency-dependent prices. A shot of whiskey will cost more than a chocolate milk, of course.
"Huh. And why are we here?"
I don't control the door or communicate directly with whoever does. But if you prefer to leave, you will find yourselves in the same times and places you left, respectively.
"Huh. And why are we here?"
I don't control the door or communicate directly with whoever does. But if you prefer to leave, you will find yourselves in the same times and places you left, respectively.
cross_and_bow
Apparently not, as the door is still there. Occasionally people enter and find that it has disappeared temporarily, but that has not happened to you.
"So right now back home time is paused - and if I walk out the door, and close it, and open it again, math class?"
Correct.
"And you don't know why us, why our respective 'now's... Do you know whether this is time travel or alternate universes?"
Alternate universes.
"So right now back home time is paused - and if I walk out the door, and close it, and open it again, math class?"
Correct.
"And you don't know why us, why our respective 'now's... Do you know whether this is time travel or alternate universes?"
Alternate universes.
cross_and_bow
"And aren't you ever so pleased with yourself. Er, bar, have you got a name besides 'bar'?"
Bar is it, thank you. And for reference I am a she.
"Good to know. Aaaaand is all this business magic?"
It is, yes. But not of the sort of world-specific kind you're accustomed to.
"Riiiight."
Bar is it, thank you. And for reference I am a she.
"Good to know. Aaaaand is all this business magic?"
It is, yes. But not of the sort of world-specific kind you're accustomed to.
"Riiiight."
cross_and_bow
"More beyond yours than mine, I think, at least I've encountered magic at all before. I will take a free Orange Julius."
She receives an Orange Julius. It has a straw. She sips it.
She receives an Orange Julius. It has a straw. She sips it.
cross_and_bow
"How is the no-violence rule enforced? Is it?" Juliet wonders.
There are security staff, who turn up when there is a problem. Whatever mechanism controls the door arranges for the security staff to have the ability to subdue whatever patrons they coexist with.
"So right now in a security office somewhere there is someone who can beat up the Slayer and will do it if I take it into my head to do violence."
Yes. Although as a matter of general habit I do not announce who it is on my own recognizance.
"I doubt I'd recognize the name anyway."
If you are very much inclined to do violence, it is not prohibited in the backyard.
"Noted. I'm not nearly as trigger-happy as I seem, by the by."
I wasn't going to mention it.
There are security staff, who turn up when there is a problem. Whatever mechanism controls the door arranges for the security staff to have the ability to subdue whatever patrons they coexist with.
"So right now in a security office somewhere there is someone who can beat up the Slayer and will do it if I take it into my head to do violence."
Yes. Although as a matter of general habit I do not announce who it is on my own recognizance.
"I doubt I'd recognize the name anyway."
If you are very much inclined to do violence, it is not prohibited in the backyard.
"Noted. I'm not nearly as trigger-happy as I seem, by the by."
I wasn't going to mention it.