Entrance - reprise

[makes-it-rain.livejournal.com]

((First there was this. Spoilers for ep 25.))

Hughes doesn't register the door swinging open, nor closing once he's through. He barely registers hitting the ground through nerves that are already nearly overloaded. The first thing he registers is the sound, the low murmer of voices interspersed with laughter that denotes a public arena. And then the rafters above him, where there should be a night sky, as much as one can ever see the sky in Central.

Or nothing at all.

He is still for a moment, trying to put together a puzzle for which he lacks several of the pieces, and then he raises his hand, studying it as though he half expects to see something utterly alien. It isn't, and this is almost more puzzling than if it had been.

He gives himself a mental shake, and pushes himself to his feet. Slowly, because he still hurts, traces of phantom pain firing along his nerves from a wound that is no longer there, that has no trace of having ever been there. He touches his chest to confirm this, pats at his uniform, pristine but for the slight disarray caused by having fallen onto the floor of what is apparently a bar.

A bar?

He adjusts his glasses and looks around himself. Still a bar, and not one that seems at all familiar, not even in the hazy manner of recollections of a youthful pub crawl that had gone just slightly too long.

"Where...?"

((New mun. Thus Hughes is starting over.))

Comments

[makes-it-rain.livejournal.com]

"I've played it once or twice," he admits. "I am -was- with military intelligence."

He shrugs, shooting for cheerful nonchalance. "I'm decent with puzzles."

[dragon-tamer-po.livejournal.com]

'You seem like the type.' Sally grins. 'I bet you were among the best. You might consider joining up with Security, once you've been here a while and gotten settled in. I bet they could use a guy like you. They've got a lot of muscle, but sometimes I wonder if they may be short on brains.'

She eyes him speculatively. 'You any good at chess?'

[makes-it-rain.livejournal.com]

"I wasn't bad," he allows.

Not good enough, though, in the end.

Maes nods, and grins slightly. "Pretty good. Though I have a few colleagues I've never been able to beat. I'm better at cards."

And not just because of he's proficient with sleight of hand!

[dragon-tamer-po.livejournal.com]

She asks because it seems everyone she knows who works in intelligence is bloody brilliant at it. Except for her.

'I've never been good at either,' Sally says cheerfully. 'I never really had a chance to learn chess, and as for cards, well. I have a horrible poker face. Only game I've ever won was strip poker, in the barracks, and that was because everyone was laughing and giggling and griping.'

Not that she's proud of that, or anything, but a win's a win, here!

[makes-it-rain.livejournal.com]

"Well, I was going to offer you the advice my uncle gave me when he taught me to play, but it sounds like picturing everyone at the table naked wouldn't help that much after all." It's a true grin this time, not shadowed by grief.

"It's a simple matter of distracting yourself. Focus on something else, and you won't react as strongly to what's in your hand."

[dragon-tamer-po.livejournal.com]

Victory! Take 10 ccs of immaturity, that's Sally's prescription for a quick pick-me-up.

'Focus on something else...' Sally thinks about that, then frowns.

'Wouldn't imagining everyone else at the table make you laugh, though? Kind of hard to keep a straight face, when you're doing that.'

If actually seeing some of them naked was anything to judge by!

[makes-it-rain.livejournal.com]

"Precisely!" He winks. "Everyone expects deception from someone who's stonefaced at the poker table. But from the person who's laughing maniacally?"

[dragon-tamer-po.livejournal.com]

At this point, Sally takes a moment to imagine Une and Zechs in their underwear.

And nearly falls out of her chair.

'I see your point,' she manages between giggles. 'I'll definitely bear that in mind, next time.'

[makes-it-rain.livejournal.com]

"It'll work wonders. Trust me."

He leans back in his seat. "As for chess, the trick there is just learning to look several moves ahead. And to anticipate your opponent."

[dragon-tamer-po.livejournal.com]

'You'll have to teach me, sometime. About chess, I mean. Not naked people, because I know all about them.' Sally chuckles. 'Combat never was my specialty, partially because I was too in the moment, as it were. I'm proficient in small arms, and I've piloted mobile suits before when it was necessary, but I'm really at my best behind the scenes or in the infirmary.'

Where her enemies tend to be injuries that she knows how to treat, or the situation permits her to lay everything out and piece it together without the pressure of time.

[makes-it-rain.livejournal.com]

"Chess, I'm willing to teach." He falls silent for a moment, thoughtful. "It's different from front line combat. There, you don't always have time to think of strategy. It's more important to neutralize your enemy swiftly. With chess, you're closer to taking on the role of the general leading from behind."

[dragon-tamer-po.livejournal.com]

'So a slow and methodical process is anticipated on both sides?' If both players follow the philosophy that Maes has just outlined, then Sally's logic states that it would be so. It simply would not do, to take an extended time to make one's own move and then become impatient when the other player expected the favour to be reciprocated.

She smiles. 'I'll bear that in mind. The guy I'm usually up against is disgustingly good at what you've just described. I doubt I'll ever actually beat him, but I'm looking forward to at least being able to hold my own, at some point.'

Sally has a loose definition of 'holding her own' in this particular case, namely lasting beyond fifteen minutes of play.

[makes-it-rain.livejournal.com]

"In the general run of things, yes. Patience is definitely a virtue. Of course, the more you learn about an opponent's favoured strategy, the more swiftly the game might go."

He nods, supressing a laugh. "Well, some people are just prodigies."

[dragon-tamer-po.livejournal.com]

'He's brilliant. Absolutely mental, but brilliant. And he never seems to play the same way twice, and I've watched him. I don't really know quite how he does it.'

Sally makes a face. 'Of course, his primary opponent when he was learning was the greatest military mind of our time, so I suppose it stands to reason.'

[makes-it-rain.livejournal.com]

"Some of the most brilliant people are utterly insane. Or maybe it's the other way around?" It is truly hard to tell sometimes.

[dragon-tamer-po.livejournal.com]

'I suspect he was probably brilliant before he went all strange upstairs,' Sally replies. 'Nice guy, though, so long as you don't get on his bad side. You'll probably see him around; very reliable and tends to fight for the underdog.'

She chuckles. 'You meet all kinds here, really, so if you're going to be prepared for one thing, let it be for weirdness.'

[makes-it-rain.livejournal.com]

"As long as it isn't too weird before 08:00." He's definitely being a bit flip. He doesn't really want to contemplate what might be weird by the standards of an impossible bar-slash-afterlife at the moment.

[dragon-tamer-po.livejournal.com]

'Just remember that your 08:00 is not everyone else's 08:00. Time is... strange here. But you'll pick up on things like that as you go along.' She grins. 'And when all else fails, you know, just bang on the wall if someone's being a jackass too early for your liking.'

[makes-it-rain.livejournal.com]

"I'll keep that in mind." He puzzles for a moment over what she might mean by time being strange, and in the end decides that his curiousity would be best served by asking. "What do you mean, time is strange here?"

[dragon-tamer-po.livejournal.com]

'I'm not entirely sure it really exists.'

That warrants an explanation, yes.

'See, there's a difference between time that passes here and time that passes there. In my world, one hour is equal to a full day here. But that varies from person to person, world to world. I have yet to determine if time here is simply relative on an individual basis here, rather than having any set values to it. See, out back time appears to pass relatively normally, and the environment mimics traditional seasons. But inside, well, we get the explosions outside the windows.'

She frowns a bit. 'It's all a bit confusing, but what it boils down to is that at 08:00 for you, someone else's internal clock might be telling them that it's three in the afternoon.'

[makes-it-rain.livejournal.com]

While he will eventually grow accustomed to such things, as much as one can, for the moment he looks a little bit glassy-eyed. Relativistic time isn't something he had ever considered. "Pity I didn't find my way here while I had some work with me. An extra hour or two could come in handy."

On the up side (possibly), his confusion seems to have taken his mind off of his death.

[dragon-tamer-po.livejournal.com]

'Problem is,' Sally says, 'that things could be extreme in the other way. A day in your world might only equal an hour here. After all, if time is relative, it doesn't necessarily have to be relative in an identical way for everyone, either.'

Which makes her glad she's from where she is. If she needs a day off, she can always take one during lunch time.

[makes-it-rain.livejournal.com]

"That," he remarks, "sounds patently unfair. I pity anyone who comes from a location with that sort of relationship to this place and doesn't know it."

Going missing for days at a time would be bad, but doing so because you didn't realize it would happen would be even worse. After all, if one could anticipate the probable duration of one's absence it would at least be possible to concoct a plausible lie.

[dragon-tamer-po.livejournal.com]

'I was lucky enough to have someone from my world to tell me the relationship, when I first came here. But I imagine that if such is not the case, it would be best to spend only short periods, then return and gauge the differences.'

Sally finishes her tea thoughtfully. 'Just one of many peculiarities that this place has to offer.'

[makes-it-rain.livejournal.com]

"Assuming you encounter someone kind enough to tell you that time won't necessarily work as expected." His gaze grows distant, and he smiles ruefully. "I suppose I won't have to worry overly much about that, though."

He'd much prefer to have to worry about it.