milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

[OOM: And it's just feels like one failure after another.]

Behrooz is sitting in a booth, for once near the window. He's never really liked the view very much, but at the moment, he's leaning back against the seat, and his eyes are in the direction of the window.

Whether he's really paying much attention to it, though, isn't really clear. What is clear is that he's being slow about eating the small plate of baklava that came with the tea (thankfully instead of a newspaper, perhaps), and could perhaps use someone to snap him out of it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Jilly likes the window. She knows what it means, what it represents, but the colors are so pretty! The designs are almost like fractals. Sketching it, trying to capture those moments of ultimate destruction, are completely fascinating.

"Hi," Jilly says sweetly. "Are you all right?"

He doesn't look all right.

He blinks in her direction fairly quickly, perhaps because he didn't notice her coming - at least, not to him.

But it's after a moment of staring that he answers. "Yeah - fine. Just a long day, I guess."

Jilly nods sympathetically. "Yeah, I know how that goes. Mind if I sit and have a cup of tea, or would you rather just digest by yourself?"

He stares at it for another moment, then shrugs.

"If you want to."

Beat. "I'm Behrooz," he adds, abruptly, like he just thought of it.

"Jilly Coppercorn," she says, studying his face. It's an interesting face. Not classically handsome, but attractive. And he seems young, somehow, but old at the same time.

And then there's something about his eyes...what's up with his eyes? "I'm from Newford, in the States, 1978."

And he, in turn, tries not to notice that she's looking at him, blinking down to the table and drinking a little of the tea that's gone cold.

He doesn't entirely look up when he answers in turn, "I'm - from the States, in 2012."

It's another pause before he asks, "How long have you been coming here?"

"Not long. I mean, longer in my world - maybe a six months since my first time, but I've only been in a couple of times. And not much time has passed here. You?"

He usually has to think about this to get it right, but he doesn't really bother right now.

"I think - it's been about two years here. A little more than that on the outside - right now I just sort of go in and out. The time's - different here, so it's sort of hard to tell how much has passed."

Jilly nods. "Does time stop for you, when you're here? So far I haven't noticed any time changing, but apparently it does for some people. It's really weird, how things are one way for some of us and another for others."

"It - does -" he says, a little more slowly and finally giving up a little eye contact. "My first time - was a little weird, but since then it always just stops and starts, but I don't really stay very long unless I'm Bound."

"Have you been Bound often?" Jilly asks, intrigued. "Most people seem to only have been bound like, once, maybe."

"It's - been a while since the last time. I guess I've had more time for it to happen - it's happened more than once. But I can't really afford that to happen right not, anyway."

He shrugs again, a little more half-heartedly this time.

"Why not?" Jilly asks. "I can see it would be inconvenient, but if you don't lose time, I suppose it wouldn't make much difference."

Practically enough, "Because it costs more to eat here than just stay out there. I don't - really have the money to be here all the time."

Even if he's got people that would pay for him. But this isn't the point.

"I hadn't thought of that," she says. "I could see it being a problem. I do all right, but I certainly can't afford to eat out all the time, or to hang around here with the drinks and the socializing and all. Bet it gets expensive."

"Some people... get jobs here, but I don't really stay here now, so it's - not really something I could do."

"Yeah, it's hard to commit to something when you're just not sure when you'll be around. I wouldn't want to have that kind of responsibility."

"Yeah, well... I think it's better for people who - aren't going back, or can't."

"Aren't going back? Are there people who stay here? On purpose?"

She's heard about the Bound. Apparently, not the dead.

He shrugs, not really remembering to think much of the dead part.

"Well, if they're dead. Or just... don't want to go back, I guess."

Jilly shivers. "The crazy thing, is I can imagine hating your life that much, you know? I know so many people who just drop out entirely, but still have to function in 'the real world' as best they can."

Beat. Behrooz blinks a few times, face rather blank now.

"Yeah," he agrees, finally. "I guess so. This place might be - better for them, then."

"Might be," Jilly agrees. "But maybe they've got their own places, places we don't know about."

"Some of them - probably go to other worlds."

After a moment, "I don't really know, I've only done that once."

At least, intentionally.

"And this is the only one I've ever been to, so..." Jilly trails off, and shrugs as if to say, 'what do I know?'

He shrugs. "The one I went to isn't that different. And I wouldn't want to be - stuck in another world or something, anyway."

"No," Jilly says slowly. "I don't think I would either. But it's pretty cool to have the chance to come to another world. And then go home again."

"Yeah... if you keep coming here enough, you'll - probably do that eventually."

He doesn't exactly offer, though - his world wouldn't be the most fun or interesting place to go to at the moment.

"Cool," Jilly says, beaming. She picks up on the undercurrent - the refusal to offer wasn't exactly palpable, but it wasn't entirely unreadable, either. "I hope to do that."

she stands, offers a hand. "It was really nice meeting you, Behrooz."

He nods, taking her hand politely enough.

"Yeah, you too."

((OOC: Sounds good!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only