milliways_bar | (no subject)

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The door opens.

The boy on the other side -- dressed in simple cotton kurta pyjamas -- stares for a moment and then shuts it very quickly.

The door opens.

The boy on the other side -- now in a blazer and carefully pressed trousers -- blinks, peers around the edge, and studies the bar for a minute before closing the door slowly and quietly.

The door opens.

The boy on the other side jerks to a momentary halt, throws a wary glance over his shoulder, and slips into the bar. He closes the door behind him, quietly, then reconsiders and cracks it open again to peek out. Apparently satisfied with what he sees, he shuts it and turns back to the bar with a curious, intent look on his face.

In precise, slightly accented English -- "Where is this, please?"

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"If other people bring you."

Jamie rips another bite of bread off, and manages to chew and swallow most of it before continuing, "Otherwise they've got a way figured out so you go back wherever you came from. I reckon They - ah, I mean, the management don't want people crashing other people's worlds without an invite.

"I suppose that could be dangerous. Bringing magic into an unmagical world, or technology into an uncivilized one."

"It'd play havoc with the rules of the place," Jamie agrees; there's something that's almost bitter underlying the easy words.

Couldn't have the rules overturned, of course. It might interfere with Their game.

It's gone a second later as if it had never been, replaced with a quick grin. "I've been one or two places where - well, say trains - would have seemed right strange to them. Or carriages, come to that."

He blinks. "There are rules about that sort of thing?"

Quick: "Well, every world's got it's own laws and so on, doesn't it? Natural laws, too. Like what you said about places with magic and without."

A slow nod. "That makes sense. They would have to, or one could never tell one world from another."

"Some of them are awfully alike in any case."

Jamie settles in happily for a chance to expound on his knowledge. (It makes up for the other boy being so tall.)

"They run in sets sometimes. You'll get a whole row that look alike - same sort of geography. Or same customs, or they're all having the same kind of war."

"So how do you know that it is a different world?"

"Well, it helps if you already know where the Bound is," Jamie points out, a little evasively.

He knows what it feels like to cross if you're a Homeward Bounder. Maybe it's different when you don't have the tug to start out with.

Nirupam's eyebrows go up.

"Ah. Yes."

After a second, he gives Jamie a quick grin. "I'm sorry -- I'm Nirupam. Thank you for all the answers."

"Happy to help."

Jamie holds out the hand not clutching a third of a roll. "Jamie."

He shakes the proffered hand. "How do you do. How do you come to have visited so many worlds?"

"I wander about. It's sort of a curse," Jamie explains, easily - he's had a lot of practice with this story - and crams the heel of the roll in his mouth.

"A curse?"

He sounds vaguely alarmed.

"No fear," Jamie says, with slight good-natured condescension. "It's not catching."

"I do not believe most are, though I don't know much of magic. What have you done to earn such a curse? To be compelled to wander from world to world is not a small thing."

They're always sure you've sinned, when you tell them half the truth.

Jamie looks portentous.

"I spied on forbidden sacred mysteries."

Whether you sin or just annoy someone, curses are rarely laid for no reason at all.

Nirupam gives him a surprised look.

"You do not seem like the sort."

"Really?"

Jamie looks rather curious. "What sort do I seem like, then?"

When you get as old hat at reinventing your identity as Jamie, this tends to become a good thing to know.

"The sort who would rather be comfortable."

Nirupam is sometimes unfortunately candid.

"In India, it is the holy men who wander. It isn't a curse, but it is never very comfortable, either. That is rather the point."

"I'm about as far from holy as you can get," Jamie admits easily. "Dead common, that's me. It's curiosity did me in."

"Ah." Nirupam flashes him a quick grin. "I can understand that."

Jamie grins back.

"So you said as how the door coming up when it did got you out of a tight spot? Mind if I ask what?"

He frowns, suddenly wary again, and glances over his shoulder. "I am afraid I annoyed some of the other boys at my new school."

"Oof."

Jamie makes a face, as much for the general concept of school as for the boys in it. "What sort of school? Posh?"

Nirupam speaks very precisely.