milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

When she opened her eyes she was staring at a tea cup handle, white and thin, which was level with her nose. That was strange. Wasn't it? She couldn't remember falling asleep. Was she that tired? And why here? Better yet, as her head rose, leaving the white tea set and the browning apple core.

Where was here?

It was strange and big and bright. There were booths, tables, a bar top and groups of people. She looked at them warily, her thoughts marching clearly across her face. Disorientation and fear and curiosity. Who were there? Did they know her?

Wait.

Who was she?

Blinking she looked down over herself. A long, thin fabric dress that was richly colored and dark hair with curls. Pale hands with strange calluses and scars, not to mention the colorful flower-band ring on her left one. They were not, a single one of them, helpful to her confusion. Those things should belong to something, somewhere.

"I--"

She looked up, suddenly, toward the people in the room. There was a pause, with a look that was confusion and maybe a little anger underlining from pre-panic, though it was equally as nonsensical because she wasn't sure who they were at all, or whether they'd help, of whether she should ask them, or why they'd help even if they did hear her.

"--think I need help."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There was a shimmer as her words sounded, and less than a moment later, a man hurried across the room, from the stairs. His eyes, burning with a golden tint that surely was not actually a glow, were focussed on her even before he could see her.

He neared her and stopped, eyes intent.

"Lady Marian?"

Merlin had heard, and he had come.

[Mun melts in helpless adorable moment. *loves you*]

She wasn't even looking at him when he called out the name. Her face was still turning and taking in the area, a complete lack of anything in her features.

Only when he was standing close before her, did she look up, blue grey eyes full of things confused and wary and curious and maybe even some fear. There was no recognition for him or the phrase he'd said which seemed to have never reached her.

"Who are you?"

There was a moment's hesitation, and worry and fear struggled across those golden eyes, before he moved. He bowed to her, a courtly bow by any measure, delivered with concern in his eyes.

"I am Merlin, dear lady, a friend. I-- what is wrong?"

For something is very wrong indeed.

She stared at him while he talked, if not staring harder at some of the words, which caused her to miss others.

"You are my friend?"

"Aye, milady, I am. We have called each other friend for near on a few months, and shared moments of joy and sorrow, love and fear."

His eyes carefully took her in, but held sheer warmth and emotion as he watched her.

"Do you remember aught?"

"I-"

She was trying to make his face do something, anything, but nothing was happening. And she felt embarrassed and more confused, which made everything feel sharper.

Shaking her head, looking if anything rather more lost.

"-don't remember you."

He settled into a chair opposite her and reached, slowly, for one of her hands.

"I am sorry, milady."

An she allowed it, he lifted such to his lips for a kiss.

"I will aid thee as I can. What do you remember?"

His stare is intent, his attention suddenly, very much all on her, even as his voice still stays gentle.

She stared at his hand reaching for hers more than reacting to it. Like she'd never seen even the act before, and was very still when he lifted her hand to kiss it.

The confusion really was winning over his logic of slow questions.

"Why did you do that?"

"It is a greeting between two intimates where I come from. A friend, usually a man, will greet another so when meeting them again."

His eyes were on hers.

"I am your friend, Marian."

She was still handling intimate with a look of speculatively innocent wonder, when he said the last part and she frowned, raising her eye brows.

"Is that my name?"

It certainly didn't ring any bells here.

"Indeed. You are the Lady Marian, a friend, noblewoman, and Lady fair, as well as warrior sure, and child of nature."

His grin was half-whimsical as he recalled the events of days gone by.

"Never was a truer child of the Mother born, save perhaps the Lady of the Lake."

She stared, pressing her lips together and then tilting her head while he said all those things. Wanting one of them--they did sound fantastical and surreal--to trigger something.

And then just shook her head.

"I don't remember any of that."

He nodded, a hint of sadness in his eyes.

"Fair lady, let it trouble you not. For sooth, I will find what darkness clouds your eyes, or another will. This place is a place full of heroes and powers, and hope need not be abandoned."

He touched her hand again, gently.

"And you are not alone."

She looked down at her hand, troubled expression settling. "Of course, I'm not. This place is full of people."

She was quite sure she could still count.

"What is this place?"

"I--"

He waved it aside.

"This is Milliways, a fantastical home away from home for many people, which lays beyond the edge of time."

He watched her.

Her eyes narrowed, but it wasn't mean. She was looking at him in blank confusion backed by skepticism.

"How can something be beyond time?"

"Time is finite, as all humans must know."

He smiled.

"This place is suspended beyond the end of time. It is, for want of a better word, magic."

"Magic..."

She was not frowning but she might as well have been. She couldn't figure out whether to say it sounded all weird, or that she wasn't sure she believed in magic and whether it was real.

She didn't know that.

"Why am I here?"

"God works in mysterious ways."

He raised a hand and spoke in Latin, old and slow, and a soft, warm, reassuring golden glow.

"His will guides many along paths they do not understand."

Marian's head tilted and her eyes blinked, blown wide suddenly.

"I-I know that."

She meant the language, though couldn't even say it, since she didn't know what it was called. Simply that it had made sense.

"Know what--?"

He looked to her and shook his hand, and the light faded from him.

"The words? The magic? Or what I said?"

Gentle still, did his voice sound.

"Fair lady, push not yourself too hard. Memory will return."

She wasn't sure what the difference of the three things he'd asked, and her eyes listed on the glow which faded because of her outburst, only focusing on the fact he'd preformed magic as it left.

"The...umm....what you said? It wasn't like this. But I knew what you said."

"Latin, then, the language. It is possible you were taught it as a child."

He speaks for a moment in Latin, slowly, a simple phrase*.

"Did you understand that?"

*handwavey phrase*

[Mun handwaves, but only by means of a bribe. To be explain in a moment, in aim.]

Marian's blue eyes focused, as she leaned in because she wanted to hear the sound of it and not just the words making sense suddenly in her mind, and this time she nodded very slowly.

His breath puffed out and he swallowed as she leaned in, and he shook his head slightly, watching her, banishing all distraction.

"Good. That is a start, dear lady. A definite start!"

His smile was warm.

Latin. He called it Latin.

The name didn't ring any bells, but the langauge he'd spoke had made sense. And at least it was solid, tangible real and had a name.

....since hers was...well, not fitting still.

But she had one thing.

"I suppose it is better than nothing." This was said with some dubiousness, but there was a smile tugging the edges of her lips.

He smiled gently.

"One step starts the path, milady. Tis what leads to a whole."

He nodded.

"I am not sure if you have a room here, or back in your home alone, but I believe, if you are willing, there is room here for you to stay, until you learn what you have lost."

Or to live with it, he does not say. His eyes glow a soft gold and he nodded
again.

"Do you recall any names, or words, anything at all?"

Again, his voice was soft as he spoke.

"Where is this room?"

She shook her head, warily at his last question, and then, after looking down at the table, with a small shrug.

"I know that's a tea pot and this is a table. Things of that ilk. Sort of common place things though."

He nodded again.

"So it is knowledge of your own history, not of everything, that has vanished or been stolen."

He thought, then nodded.

"A room, if you have one, would be up those stairs, over there, and the Bar can give you a key. The Bar is a form of magic counter that grants boons to those who ask of it politely."

That sounded ludicrous, but it didn't feel it. And, even more strangely, she felt compelled to believe him.

"Ah..okay. Thank you."

He smiled.

"I know... it may take some getting used to. I play that this shall pass before too long. An if it does not, you will have friends and guides to aid thee."

"It would be strange to start over a life from this place, wouldn't it?" Her eyebrows are slightly raised, and this sense that she wanted....well, something....but it had no name.

"Like a completely forgotten story."

"Indeed. And learning it might be a choice, as is starting over."

He knew what he would do, but it must be her choice. Nothing else mattered.

Marian gave him a strange look, sort of wary.

"Was it a good life?"

He spent a moment thinking of it.

"A hard one, but a good one... and there are others who know more than I, who would be best suited, I think, to reveal anything you would know. We are close, you and I, but your world and mine are far different, and lives separated are sometimes very not the same."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only