milliways_bar | First entry

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First entry

"...a one-way direct flight to Fiumicino, arriving at 1:10 in the afternoon, business class--"

A woman enters, talking on her cellphone in rapid French. She's professionally dressed, a briefcase in one hand and a Blackberry at her hip, with an ID clipped to her jacket. She pushes open the door absently with one shoulder, the phone tucked under her ear as she fumbles with the briefcase, and grabs her cell with her free hand. "--no, no, that's no problem, I'll take economy class--okay, how much will..."

The booking agent's chirpy voice on the other end of the line trails off in a puzzled "Allô? Allô?..." as the woman stops dead in her tracks. Sophie Neveu, cryptologist to the French Judicial Police, catches her breath and stares as the universe outside the window silently and brightly explodes.

This is most definitely not the hotel bar.

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No, it most certainly is not.

"Let me guess..." Eddie says, smiling slightly as he speaks. "You're new here?"

There is a man sitting in a booth not far from her, beer in hand. Tall, big, blond buzzcut, serious looking. But obviously nothing special by Milliways standards.

Welcome to Milliways, Sophie. Enjoy your stay.

"I..." Sophie blinks, shuts her mouth, recommences in English. "I'm sorry, I was supposed to meet someone at the hotel bar--"

"And I'm telling you, you are about as far from that bar as you can get. Welcome to Milliways, hope you can still see the door. Otherwise, well, you ain't getting out anytime soon."

Eddie takes a drink from the bottle he's holding, then eyes her curiously. Her accent sounds a tad odd to him, but he probably isn't one to talk. His New York accent's pretty thick.

Sophie whirls around, feels for the doorknob. Still there, shiny and brass as ever.

"Where is this place?"

"End of the universe." He replies calmly. "It's a complicated thing. I'll explain what I can, if you want." Eddie remembers when he was new. It was confusing to say the least.

"Please," she says fervently, shaking her head as she draws up a barstool.

"Hmmm...where to start?" he mumbles, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Well, guess the rules and basics will do for now. Welcome, as I said, to Milliways. Bar at the end of the universe. Since you can still find the door, that means you can leave at any time. Be happy for that, at least. This place has rules, and you've got to be sure not to break them. No fighting, obviously. No sex or full frontal nudity in the bar proper. Other than that...well, common sense stuff. This place holds all types, so if somebody says they're a god, they probably are." He pauses, takes a drink, and glances around. "Any questions you've got, shoot 'em at me now. I'll try to answer as best I can."

[ooc: Ack. Sorry. Slow-time?]

"--a god?"

Sophie's trying to absorb all this in little bits.

[ooc: But of course. See you later! ^^]

Eddie can't help but laugh a little. Newcomers always cheer him up.

"There aren't that many, really. Most people here are just honest mortals who've found a good place to get away from it all. Mind you, there are a few who're nastier than most, and you've always got to be careful of the endless, but still. No need to go around being afraid of everybody."

"Are you lost?" Riley asks, pausing on his way to a booth with plate of late dinner in one hand and laptop under the other arm. "You look lost."

"I am..." Sophie smiles helplessly, indicating the door. "I'm sorry, this was supposed to be the hotel bar--Normandy Hotel? Rue de l'Echelle, Paris?"

Riley laughs and shakes his head. "You're definitely lost. This is Milliways Bar." He tilts his head to one side, slowly realizing that she may not have been here before. "Bar at the end of the universe?"

"--where, now?" She's completely lost.

"Uh." Riley sets the laptop and cheeseburger down on a nearby table, because an explanation requires total concentration. "Nobody seems to really know how it works, but this place is at the end of the universe." He gestures at the observation window. "Which is deal with the view. Armageddon repeating over and over again, always stopping just before everything goes kaboom."

Beat.

"That's not possible."

"I didn't think so either when I first got here, but--" He points to the window again. "There it is." He shrugs. "Weirder things happen here. People come in from all kinds of dimensions, realities, times. It's strange." He grins dorkily. "And really, really awesome."

Sophie stares. Shakes her head. Gapes in wonder. The cellphone tootles, irritated, and she snaps it shut.

"All kinds of dimensions, realities, times--mon Dieu, you're really not kidding. How does it work? Who runs it?"

"I don't know." This is a point of contention, and he shakes his head slowly. "Someone I talked to thought it related to temporal distortions and time travel, and other people have told me it's all magical, but everything's just kind of theoretical. No one knows for sure." He thinks back a moment. "The Bar kind of runs itself; I mean, there are bartenders and the Head Barman, but the Bar itself--" He waves a hand toward it, "Is sentient. You can order straight from it." He beams. "Again, very much with the cool."

Sophie passes her hand over it, eyes gleaming with wonder. "Order you a drink?"

A wide smile, because he'll never pass up free alcohol, especially from a cute girl. "Sure. A Heinekein'd be fine." He lets her do the actual ordering, 'cause it's fun.

"Um." Sophie spreads her hands over the bar flat, unsure, looking back at Riley. "Can I... can I have a Heineken, please?"

Cue one ice-cold, frothy bottle of beer, coming right up. She jumps back, startled.

Riley grins and steps forward to snag it. "Thanks. See? It's easy. It just goes on a personal tab that the Barman asks everyone to pay off every once in a while." He takes a drink, then remembers to tell her, "Bar can give you all kinds of stuff, too, not just drinks. As long as it's not going to hurt you or anyone else, you can get it." He grins. "I've gotten some blueprints and pretty cool stuff from her."

"Unbelievable." Sophie's eyes are sparkling. "Incredible. How many people come here?"

He pauses, stumped by that one. "Huh. I don't know, actually. It's a lot, though, I know that. Most people come and go, but some live in rooms upstairs, too, or in the staff wing, so it'd be pretty hard to keep track."

He points to the table with computer and dinner. "I'm going to grab a seat, but you're more than welcome to come with." He smiles. It's a new experience, talking to someone who knows even less about Milliways than he does.

"So it is a hotel, just the wrong one for me." Sophie pulls a rueful face, gladly accepting as she sits nearby. "When did you come here?"

He laughs and nods. "I guess so." He drops into the booth and sets his beer down, taking a big, gleeful bite of cheeseburger and waiting until most of it is chewed before answering. "I first came in two or three weeks ago." Not sure which version of the question she's asking, he adds, "From February 2004."

She nods, listening intently. "From America, oui?"

"Yup, Washington D.C." He looks to her, hazards, "Paris?"

"Bien sur." Sophie smiles back at him. "I'm with the French Judicial Police--a cryptologist."

"Whoa. Breaking codes and stuff? That's cool." Another bite of burger, and then he says with some degree of pride, "I'm a treasure hunter."

"Ah--like Indiana Jones?" Her smile widens.

"We're in the process of trying to find the ship with the treasure on it, so it's a whole lot of programming and data and computers right now." Riley pats the closed laptop and then grins boyishly. "But once we do find it, I'll be all about the whips and the one-liners and the awesome hats."

"That's magnificent. I wish I could come along." Sophie leans her head against the window. "My job is much, much more boring than it sounds like..."

"Trust me, I know the meaning of boring. My last job was sitting in a cubicle writing code all day." He shakes his head at the memory. "I played a whole lot of solitaire to keep from going crazy."

And then he realizes something, and there's a long moment of silence before he says, "Um. Sorry, but--what's your name?"

She laughs, extends her hand. "Sophie Neveu. What's yours?"

{ooc: I am loving this conversation, but I have to beg slowtime, it's really late :( Want to pick up the thread tomorrow?}

He shakes her hand, smiling ruefully. "Riley Poole. I've picked up this wacky Milliways habit of talking to people for a really long time before I remember that I never introduced myself."

[OOC - No problem; picking it up tomorrow'd be great!]

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