milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Max is curled up in a booth, sipping coffee and flipping idly through a book. This is not unusual. The skirt and sweater she is wearing are. Everyone needs a bit of a change sometimes.

Come bother the X5. She won't bite.

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"It sounds like things are worst for them--the Bound. I've heard the term before. I--what exactly is it?"

"People who can't return to their own worlds from here. At least, not at the current point in time." She smiles faintly. "Most people become unBound, eventually."

She stiffens a bit, at that, casting a glance at the door.

"I'm glad to hear that, at the very least. There's no rhyme or reason to it?"

"For the dead, it's obvious - they can't return to their own worlds as they are. For the living, it's a little harder to pin down." She frowns thoughtfully. "The running theory is that the bar keeps you Bound for a reason - something you have to learn, something you have to do, or simply to keep people from running off half-cocked and getting themselves killed doing something stupid."

Nynaeve scowls.

"What, if anything, gives the bar the right to do that?"

She's silent for a long moment. "You know, I think we all ask that at some point. I don't know if anyone's found an answer yet."

She scowls a little more deeply.

"I hate things like that."

"Most people do, especially when their own lives are affected by it." She sighs. "Even the gods who come here can't do anything about it, though."

" . . . gods?"

Nynaeve looks, not skeptical, but stunned. For a moment, at least.

"I see. And your feelings on the matter?"

"About the gods, or about the door's tendancy to kidnap people?"

It'd be a valid question either way, really.

Nynaeve opens her mouth, pauses, and snaps it shut again.

There is silence.

"Both, I think."

"The idea of walking amongst gods has always unnerved me a little. Especially since you can't always pick them out from the other patrons, if they're inclined to be subtle."

A moment's pause.

"As for the other, it can be good for some people, sometimes. But at the same time, I think holding people against their will, unless it's absolutely necessary, is fundamentally wrong."

"I--well I certainly hope I haven't met any yet."

She snorts and shakes her head sharply.

"As for the last, I quite agree with you. The trouble is with 'necessary'. Sometimes it's very difficult to tell."

"Don't worry, most of them don't bother with subtlety..." This clearly bewilders her, a little.

"Yes. It is."

Nynaeve's sigh also manages to be sharp.

"It's almost a relief to get better at discernment with age."

She nods firmly.

"Subtlety in creatures with power is . . . worrisome."

"I suppose it might be. But knowing that half of them will cheerfully nuke you if you say the wrong thing isn't all that comforting, either."

"Nuke?"

Hello new terminology.

She smiles a bit apologetically. "Slang developed from a sort of weapons technology in my world. Means obliterate, effectively."

Nynaeve pales.

She makes a decent effort at rallying, though.

"Ah. Wisest to be wary, then. I will remember."

Max smiles sympathetically. She'd been tempted to hole up in her room for a week after finding out that gods were real here, and what they could do.

"Generally a good idea..."

Nynaeve laughs.

It doesn't last long, not at all, but it's there.

"I have often found it so. Which is one among many causes of irritation."

"It does get a bit wearing, after a while," Max agrees.

"Can you leave?"

Nynaeve hesitates a bit before asking this question.

"I--I cannot quite imagine it, myself. Being trapped here, I mean."

Not being trapped in general. That, unfortunately, has happened before.

Max nods slightly. "Now. I couldn't, when I first arrived here."

It's never easy. A prison, no matter how comfortable it might be, always becomes unbearable after a time.

Nynaeve's expression tightens.

"I am sorry for that. Capture is never pleasant."