milliways_bar | (no subject)

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tyler marlocke

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Outside, there is a young boy playing by the stables.

-thwok- -pokpok-

More specifically whacking a tennis ball at the barn's wall, repeatedly with a long stick, about the length of a baseball bat and about as big around as a medium mag-lite. Tyler figures if he's going to end up learning how to use a Training Lightsaber, he'd best start practicing with something that will move like one.

-thwok- -pokpok-

And since there's a shortage of people with the knowledge of using a lightsaber properly (save for Ray Stantz, but that guy has got enough on his plate), Tyler figures he should at least practice batting things away from himself.

-thwok- -pok- -thwish-

He's missing more than he hits right now, so the little man is entirely botherable.

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Nirupam is really not dressed for winter out here -- it's only autumn in his world -- but he's exploring outside anyway. Call it curiosity.

It's curiosity that makes him follow the sounds, too, and stand watching Tyler for a few minutes, bemused but intrigued.

-thwok- -pok- -whish!- The ball whizzes past Tyler's stick to land in the snow behind him.

"Darnit...missed again..." Tyler turns around to find it, noticing his audience. "Uh..hi."

"Here--"

Nirupam hurries forward to grab the ball and toss it back. "If I may ask, what are doing?"

"Practicing, I'm trying to get better at actually hitting the darn ball." He smiles. "A friend promised he'd give me a sword that'd help repel incoming objects and I'm trying to at least get better at dodging and hitting the regular way first."

His eyebrows go up, and he nods. "That sounds very sensible. How can a sword repel something, though?"

"Well, it's only a training sword...but they use light and electromagnetics to do it."

The ball is tossed up again and this time Tyler manages to hit it against the barn while twice before it disappears again. "The sword's about as heavy and as wide as this stick so..."

"Light? But it's science, then? Not magic?"

"Really advanced science. But there're people here who use magic to do the same thing. I don't have any powers, so I've gotta make do with science and gadgets."

Another nod. "I know magic can do such things -- that is," he adds, a little hastily, "I had an idea it could. I don't think science in my world is that advanced, though."

"Well, Ray's kind of a genius with technology too."

-thwok- -pok- -thiwsh!-

"And I think he's had a lot of time to work on stuff like that." The ball is found and pocketed before he holds out his hand. "I'm Tyler by the way, Tyler Marlocke."

Nirupam shakes, flashing him a smile. "Nirupam Singh. How do you do, Tyler?"

"Very well, this place kind of grows on you." He grins chuckling. "Are you new here?"

Thoughtful -- "I suppose I am. This is the fourth time this year that a door has led here, but only the second I've come in."

"It kind of chooses random moments to pick you up, doesn't it?" He smiles knowingly. "I'm gonna guess you know the rules and the stuff about being Bound?"

Nirupam blinks. "The rules? No. I think I know what a Bound is . . ."

"okay..well...there are 3 rules that'll get you picked up by security if you break em. Rule one is no violence in the bar towards other patrons. Rule two is not taking your your grudge on your enemy here, same goes for him. Rule three is no going around the bar naked, which is kind of stupid, I mean, why would someone want to do that?" Tyler shrugs. "..being Bound is when your door back home disappears on you."

The rules make sense; the last part gives him pause.

"Does that happen often?"

"It happens to a lot of people, sometimes more than once. The second time I got here, I was stuck here for two months when my door disappeared." Tyler says with a solemn, knowing tone. "There's a few other rules I was told the first time I came here. Since most of these people come from different worlds, what's reality in their world might be fictional or legendary in yours. It's...kinda rude to tell someone they don't exist in your world."

"The other thing is that if you see food laying out? Don't eat it unless you see someone else eat it with no ill effects. Some guys like to cheat the rules and leave magically tainted food laying around."

Nirupam frowns. "Why does it happen? Two months is a long time."

The information about the food gets a mildly startled look and is filed away for future use.

"I don't know, sometimes it happens for different reasons for different people. I think mine happened because there was an event waiting to happen back home." Tyler replies. "The kind that keep giving you headaches for months after it happens."

"Yeh, that was my reaction when I saw someone eat a mint and change genders."

Tyler learned a lot of new and interesting words at that time, which he is fairly certain he's not allowed to say.

Edited 2008-01-13 18:42 (UTC)

"Wouldn't keeping you here make it more difficult for the event to happen, though?"

"No, Time stops on the other side of the door when you come in here, that and I didn't know it was going to happen."

Hindsight. Bringing 20/20 vision to everyone.

"It did give me a lot of time to learn about the stuff here, like how to keep coming back here when I wanted."

"Ah, yes. It seems to do that for me as well."

Unfortunately, as far as he's concerned.

"How do you manage to come back at will, then?"

"You take a small object from the bar, like a matchbook, swizzle stick, napkin or bar coaster. When you want to come into the Bar, you hold onto it real tight anf focus on coming here." Tyler explains genially. "Ray tried explaining how it worked to me once, and I kind of glazed over after the words philiotic portal..."

Edited 2008-01-13 22:56 (UTC)

Nirupam's eyes light up.

"I'm afraid I don't know that word. Do you have to open a door after that? It always seems to be through a door for me."

"Neither do I, why do you think my eyes glazed over?" Grin. "Doors work best, I've heard of people using windows, or really rarely coming in through the woods... But doors are kind of your best bet. If you can find a secluded door to use, like some shed in the woods, or an abandoned halldoor, then it's easier for you to sneak in and out."

"Any small object and any door, then. And . . ."

He trails off uncertainly for a moment, and then shakes his head.

"You said you have no powers, so it must be the magic of this place, and not a person's own -- powers."

"Yeh, pretty much."

He looks away at the mention of not having powers.

"You can visit other people's worlds too, by the way."

"Yes, I was told about that."

He eyes Tyler. "I'm sorry -- did I say something wrong?"

Nirupam can be distressingly candid sometimes.

"Nah... Just stuff at home." He says with a wry smile.

Did we mention Tyler's really crappy at lying?

We should have.

"So, how far around have you explored around here?"

That's all right -- Nirupam is more than familiar with the mindset of I Don't Want To Talk About It.

"Not very much," he replies. "I have not had much chance."

Tyler grins, nudging the taller boy.

"You wanna see something really cool?"

He hasn't heard the word used like that, which is a little confusing -- but the tone's recognizable enough, so he nods encouragingly.

"C'mon! It's over this way."

Tyler starts jogging off through the woods along a narrow deer-path. When he comes to a stop it is at the base of a gigantic oak tree with a fort nestled and built in around it's thicker branches, with a crow's nest and telescope on one stout limb.

He is clearly, very smug about this little niche in the woods.

Nirupam follows quickly enough, and follows Tyler's gaze up into the branches.

And his face lights up.

"Who made this?"

"My friend Enzo and I built it with some help from Bob and Will." Tyler says turning to the tree trunk and scrambling up it like a little blonde monkey before unlocking the puzzle lock and disappearing inside.

After a few minutes there is a distinct clunking of wood against wood. Then...one entire SIDE of the treefort comes away from the house, unfolding into a drawbridge ramp. Tyler's face peers out of the new opening in the treefort.

"Come on up!"

So that's what cool means.

Grinning, Nirupam scrambles up the ramp.

All the light inside of the tree fort comes from the various windows, including one that looks like it was built out of a blast mark. There's almost no snow inside, save for what the boys track in, and over by one wall are two bins. The larger of these bins is labelled comics, and the other is labelled snacks.

There are benches built into the walls with some cheap (read this as: newspaper-filled) canvas cushions.

"Enzo hasn't found a door out of his Academy yet, but there are comic books from his world over in the bin."

"Really?"

Comics are some of the good things about moving to England.

Nirupam heads over to that bin and flops down, long legs stretched in front of him, to investigate.

". . . What sort of world does he come from?"

"He comes from Cyberspace, which is inside of computers."

". . . Is he very small?"

"No, not when he's in here. I think the Bar provides an environmental spell that lets him come here and interact with us." Tyler replies picking up a selection from his own section. "He told me one time that Bob tried going into a world like ours, and it nearly got him killed because apparently Sprites can't survive outside of cyberspace, unless someone does a spell to turn em human."

"They must be made from something different than us, then?"

Which makes sense, judging from the multi-colored pictures in the comic he's leafing through.

"Yeh, mostly electricity I think." Tyler says. "He's got light green skin and dark green hair. Bob's got blue skin and greyish dreadlocks."

Nirupam grins, a little.

"How odd."

"People in his world come in all kinds of colors. But he and his sister Dot are super-nice."

Tyler smiles.

"You'd probably like meeting Enzo, he's got a lot of energy."

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