milliways_bar | (no subject)

[OOM: your life is separating from reality. Warnings for violence, nightmares, and mild allusions to gaslighting and cannibalism.]

It's warmer than he was expecting. What was he expecting? The moment Graham walks through the door, he can't really recall. (A doorway effect, move from one room to another and forget why you did in the first place.) The distant roar that was in his mind swells and disperses into the clatter of utensils and an unfamiliar mix of voices.

He squints, eyes still adjusting to the sudden brightness, and thinks of headlights. But there are too many voices, too many sounds he doesn't recognize, nothing he knows as the room comes into focus. And as he stays outwardly still, the previously slow and steady beat of Graham's mind picks up pace, whirring from awareness to full-on panic as he realizes he doesn't know where he is.

It's too much to speak, or step any farther into the room, or even look around. Graham's hand trembles as he reaches into the pocket of his jacket for his glasses, the most immediate defense mechanism he has.

[ooc: Hi! This post is open, but all other threads will take place after the one with Dr. Lecter. Please see this post for warnings concerning Will's canon and how I intend to play him, and information about his "empathy."]

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"There are only three, but they pretty much cover everything," Rae replies. "First is the simplest."

Well, perhaps not as simple as Rule Three.

"No violence in the bar. Duels agreed upon by both parties are said to be okay, but they have to be fought outside. Second - no outside business in the bar. That's not the selling-cinnamon-rolls-to-make-money kind of business, though. It's the business business kind. Vendettas, arch-nemeses, etc. If your worst enemy walks through the door, both of you have to leave the other alone. No bringing in outside business. Like that."

"Third rule is just... no nudity or lewd behavior in the bar. Some of the people who come here are kids, and others bring their families here. Besides, there are rooms upstairs for rent, for that sort of thing."

Graham listens, raising his eyebrows a few times.

"That seems... manageable."

He rubs at his face again. "Do all those... different people create problems with those rules?"

"Not often, no," Rae replies. "Milliways is usually viewed as neutral territory."

"The woods are generally considered the weres' territory on the nights of the full moon, as courtesy," she says, but her tone changes slightly as she continues. While she has no trouble with weres, the same can't be said for - "There are vampires who come here, too, and they will be seeking their meals, but usually they only drink from the willing. If they try... to do otherwise, they are breaking the first rule, and will be dealt with by Security."

"Security for vampires…" he murmurs.

His tone also shifts, not quite holding to his previous calm acceptance.

Rae hesitates.

"I... did say there were people here who might be considered monsters by some views," she says, apologetic for the shaken calm. "Vampires are just most salient to me, because they are a problem in my world."

"Must be quite a problem."

Graham's not yet able to scrub that tone from his voice. There's no curiosity, only a very deliberate note of uncertainty.

"Yes, they are," she answers, steadily, but there is a slight touch of unwillingness to elaborate in her tone.

For his sake. Milliways is enough to take in.

"There are very few of them here, however, and they are generally well-behaved." As far as drinking people goes. Some of them are still arrogant leeches, however well they follow the rules.

It's not an opening he means to pry at. But shutting it again is taking some effort.

"You" (the slightest emphasis on it), "feel reasonably safe here, then."

"Safer than I thought I would feel, when I first came here," Rae replies. It's not really an answer. 'Reasonably' is hard to judge at the end of the universe.

"I couldn't leave for a while, when the door first brought me here, and I didn't exactly appreciate random bars showing up and kidnapping me from my bakery," she says. "That was years ago now, though. I'd adjusted. Milliways has become a nice escape, sometimes, when things get to be too much back home."

He wants to say something else. Very occasionally, he was able to - he'd know what the other person wanted to hear, and could produce it.

But speaking to Rae, more than it often was, more than it should, was too much like speaking to himself. And Graham could easily unstitch any words he'd try to offer.

So he only asks, "How do you know when you can't leave?"

"Usually, being unable to see the door you came in by is the first indicator," Rae replies, nodding towards the front door. "If you can see it, turning the knob and finding it locked is the other way of finding out."

Graham turns.

"I - can see a door."

He doesn't really remember walking through it in the first place.

"Try it," she suggests. It's really the only way to find out.

Graham gives a small nod, and then stands from the chair. His steps toward the door are slow, as though he thinks if he moves too fast, it will somehow flicker away from. But the door stays in place, as he reaches it, and reaches out to it, touching his fingers to the knob, and then pulling the door open.

Very little is visible of whatever lies beyond Graham's door – streaks of moonlight in what's probably a dark room. He doesn't move at first, not to close the door or continue on through. That is, until a nose appears near his knee. The dog dips down to sniff his shoes, and Graham crouches down, reaching out to scratch behind its scruffy orange ears.

The dog's tail wags. After a few seconds, it turns away from him, wandering into the darkened room beyond the door.

Without looking back, Graham follows it, the door swinging shut behind him.

[ooc: Wrap, if that's okay?]

Rae watches him, a slight smile tugging at her lips at the sight of the dog, and the scritches Will Graham gives its ears. She isn't really surprised when he decides to keep on going.

Knowing Milliways, he'll be back.

(ooc: That's perfect! Thanks so much for the fun thread! I love your Will Graham.)