milliways_bar | (no subject)

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axel

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It's a little like a bad joke, but at least it's not a dirty one. Allen knows enough of those to last him well into ... well, the rest of his life, really. They're all funny, but no one he knows these days laughs at them. This is a good thing.

So a guy walks into a bar ...

This guy is sopping wet and wishing his well-made, silver-lined coat was actually waterproof. At least this bar is warm and dry, and from the smell of it, probably has food as well.

Timcampi hides in his coat sleeve. He's not terribly fond of wet weather, either.

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Allen looks at the way Axel lounges and wishes he could be so at ease. As it is, his hands shake a bit as he sips his very spicy tea. "Thank you for the help, M--Axel," he says.

At the same time Timcampi escapes Allen's sleeve and nestles itself in Allen's hair. Allen is pretty sure he's going to go bald in that spot from Timcampi making its nest there.

Axel's eyes flick up at the motion, and he raises an eyebrow.

"What's that?" he asks.

Allen raises his gaze and his eyebrows. Of course, he can't see Tim on top of his head. "My master's golem," he says nonchalantly, dismissive of the matter. "So how did I get to this bar, exactly? I mean, I can't leave so I guess it doesn't really matter, but ... how?"

"That's a damned good question," Axel admits. "People have been trying to figure that out for a while - I think there're a few who have some ideas, but transdimensional displacement isn't exactly my area of expertise."

"Trans-what?" For Allen, who knows how to read just about enough to get through his favorite passages of the Bible and the menu of an English diner, the word completely sails over his head.

He reconsiders. "Perhaps I don't need to know," he decides. He has the feeling the explanation would be like Komui attempting to explain Innocence.

"But these people must come from ... everywhere," he remarks, looking back at the bar.

"Yeah," Axel says. "Different times, different places, differnt worlds. We're at the end of everything here. The last hurrah. The day the light goes out for good. Every hour, on the hour."

"That sounds depressing," Allen answered, taking a bigger gulp of tea. It put his nerves on fire.

Axel seemed quite comfortable with this. But then, Allen *was* in a bar where time - even if it was on the verge of ending - was apparently frozen. Even if the end of the 'universe' was going to be in seconds, the bar would never feel it, theoretically.

This made Allen's head hurt. Tim nibbled his hair.

"I've never found it to be that way," Axel replies. "It's a great show."

Allen just smiled. Smiles were wonderful things; they deflected most anything. Occasionally, even punches.

Funny how that works.

"You okay, Allen?"

Axel understands smiles.

Allen blinks at him. "Ah, I think," he says. "A little ... overwhelmed, perhaps." A horrible thought occurs to him. "Will they take my currency!?" he asks, abruptly urgent. "I need a place to stay, so--!"

"Yeah, yeah. Bar accepts any currency you have."

Which reminds him.

"And I almost forgot to mention - Bar? Is sentient."

Allen falls back with relief, but the next sentence makes him pause. "Is ... it's what?" he asks.

"Sentient. Has a mind of her own," he adds. "If you need anything, just ask the counter."

"Just ... speak to the counter," Allen repeats.

He pauses. "Does it talk back? I once met a gate that really despised cursed people."

Blink.

"No, I've never heard of her talking back," he replies. "She'll give you notes though."

He pauses.

"What, are you cursed?"

Allen blanches slightly at this. "Well, yes," he admits. "But it's a very useful curse." But he doesn't attempt to explain further, either. "That's good. About the bar, I mean."

"Most people around here don't care about stuff like curses, as long as they don't affect anyone else," Axel replies. "If it's something you want to get rid of, you might even find someone willing to help."

Allen's curse can't effect other people, except maybe creep them out sometimes. "I actually don't mind it much," Allen says. "It's useful, as I said." And to some degree, sentimental. And a reminder. And a lot of other things that Rinali would say was 'cliche' from the books she liked to read so much. "But thank you for the advice! If there are people from everywhere and everywhen, then ... I think one must be able to meet all sorts of interesting people."

Axel nods.

"Yeah. And..." He gives Allen a scrutinising look.

"You're human?"

Allen's first inclination is to take offense, but he quickly revises this position. After all, he has been waited on by a rat. "Of course," he says anyway. "Only humans can be cursed." Komui told him as much.

That gets a raised eyebrow.

"You have a lot to learn," Axel says. "There are a lot of people here who aren't human - some of them you can even tell by looking."

Allen smiles.

"As long as they have no murderous intentions, that's all right," he says, thinking of AKUMA hiding in human skin.

Axel wobbles his hand from side to side, his grin shifting to something a little sharper.

"Depends on how you define it," he says.

Allen looks at Axel, really looks at him, with both his normal eyes and his Other vision. "... Why? Are you not human?" Allen asks, throwing Axel's words back in his face and nearly certain of the answer.