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[500-year-shaman.livejournal.com]

The door opens, and outside, it's dark, and raining. The view, to those who can see through the gloom, and the veritable sheets of water, looks like a street in roughly medieval Japan.

Those with a little more history under their belt might even be able to pinpoint it as Heian-era. But only those with intimate knowledge of the location and era would be able to recognise a street in Heian-kyo.

A (relatively) tall man, made taller by the hat on his head ducks through the door, in out of the rain. In addition to the tall hat, he's wearing the distinctive - if currently somewhat damp - white robes of an onmyouji.

The door clicks shut behind him as he steps in, and he freezes.

"By all the gods and spirits... Where am I?"

((ooc: Please note - Hao is a mind-reader. Not a full-blown telepath, but he can hear thoughts. He has no control over this - i.e., he cannot choose to not read minds. He does it all the time, and if someone doesn't have some sort of mental defence of their own, he's liable to pick up what they're thinking.

If you have any questions or whatnot, please feel free to ping me on AIM at Azremodehar.

Additionally, if your pup is dead, please ping me before you tag. Please. Thank you! :D))

Comments

[the-grayman.livejournal.com]

Allen's sitting right next to this door, so he has to lift his book away from the incoming rain.

"Hullo, a new arrival?" he asks, politely and all smiles.

[500-year-shaman.livejournal.com]

"I suppose so," Hao replies. "As I have never been here before."

His eyes travel slowly over the... very, very strange room. He's never seen anything quite like it. They don't quite make it to the Window, before ticking over to the boy speaking to him, and--

His eyes widen slightly, for a moment, fixed on the boy's left eyes. He doesn't say anything about it.

Yet.

[the-grayman.livejournal.com]

"Welcome to Milliways," Allen says. "It's kind of a ..." he pauses when the newcomer's eyes flit to his left, as if it were activated. But it's not ...

"Kind of a bar at the end of Everywhere and Everywhen," he finishes, touching his left cheek.

[500-year-shaman.livejournal.com]

Hao catches the gesture - and the thought.

Not what? he wonders, but not out loud.

"That's quite a claim to make, boy," Hao states, but not impolitely.

[the-grayman.livejournal.com]

Allen circles his hand confusedly. "I don't really know how it works, but for instance, I'm from England in 1899. And I've met people from the 1250's! And people from other worlds altogether ..."

He has no idea where the newcomer is from, but his hat is really, REALLY tall.

"Oh, pardon me, how rude. I'm Allen," he introduces himself, hesitating on holding out a hand to shake.

[500-year-shaman.livejournal.com]

Hao blinks at the hand.

"I am Asakura Hao," he replies, offering a small, polite bow.

Other worlds? Also interesting; he had never really imagined such existing, beyond the realms of death, and spirits. Although it could very easily be those that the boy - Allen, such a strange, foreign name - was speaking of.

[the-grayman.livejournal.com]

Okay, Allen knows this ... "You're Japanese," he exclaims.

He looks a little like Kanda, now that I think of it! but he can't imagine Kanda in that hat. The thought almost makes him laugh, but he remembers his manners and returns the bow. "It's a pleasure to meet you. Would you like to sit down with me? I can answer any questions you have ..."

He gestures to the seat beside his own (empty).

In truth, Allen desperately wants to ask what Hao was looking at when his gaze went to Allen's left eye.

[500-year-shaman.livejournal.com]

The word makes no sense to Hao, but he gleans the meaning - perhaps from a stray thought in Allen's head - nonetheless.

"Yes, I come from the Land of the Rising Sun," he says. After a momentary pause, he continues, "I suppose I may as well take your seat."

He settles himself somewhat awkwardly, draping his damp robes around himself.

[the-grayman.livejournal.com]

Allen takes his seat as well. That's what Kanda calls it. He leans forward and gestures to the table (part of Bar). "You can order anything you would like. Your first drink is free."

[mogget_cat]

"Milliways. Welcome to it," says a stretching cat, unconcernedly. It's currently curled up on a barstool.

[500-year-shaman.livejournal.com]

"Hello cat-spirit," he says, his voice unusually (not that anyone here would know that) gentle; he likes cats, especially since getting one of his own.

And a speaking cat is clearly a cat-spirit.

"What, precisely, is Milliways?"

[mogget_cat]

"Hello, human," the cat smiles at him. "Milliways is the bar at the end of the universe. It occasionally likes to pick people up from their worlds and deposit them here. An opportunity that does not just knock, but pulls you out through the door whether you'd like it or not."

"And then it offers you all sorts of good food and drink and company and experiences. Well worth the unexpected hijacking, I'd say," he continues with his luxurious stretching, yawning and claw-flexing session. It's almost as good as scritches.

[500-year-shaman.livejournal.com]

"I would not call myself human," he murmurs. After a moment, he wanders over to the cat.

"Still, an interesting kind of place. The end of the universe, you say?"

[mogget_cat]

"I would not call myself a cat-spirit," he returns, wryly.

"Yes. You can see it over there." The not'cat butts its head towards the Observation Window with a mwrrr.

[500-year-shaman.livejournal.com]

Hao's head turns, and--

His eyes widen, but the colour doesn't drain from his face. It takes several long moments for the riot of explosions, and implosions, and collisions, and ending to sink into his head. And what they imply.

And.

It's the end.

The end of the great cycle, the end of nature, and life, and reincarnation, for everything.

Until the universe itself reincarnates; he does believe that it will.

"..."

His hand drifts down absently to pet between the cat-spirit's ears, and scratch down its neck, like he would for Matamune; it's a habit, and a comforting one, at that.

And when his fingers touch that soft, white fur, they freeze. Power, like barely leashed lightning, like the air in a storm, like---

"You are not a cat, in anything but shape."

[mogget_cat]

"Told you I wasn't a cat-spirit," Yrael says, smugly, leaning against the fingers and purring.

Not a cat in anything but shape and behavior.

He can tell this one has had experiences with the Dead and magic, among other things, but that's what stands out the most to the Mogget's senses.

Yrael wonders if he can feel the Pet Me vibes he is putting out.

[500-year-shaman.livejournal.com]

Hao is the well-trained friend of a cat back home. He'd have to be a lot sensitive to miss those vibes.

"So then, what are you?"

He smooths long fingers down that soft fur.

[basic_powers]

Oh, hey it's someone new in the Bar.

"Uhm...you're in a Bar at the temporal end of the universe?"

I -really- hope he doesn't decide to yell at me for telling him that

[500-year-shaman.livejournal.com]

Hao pushes a damp strand of long hair out of his face before looking for the source of the voice.

"What do you mean by that, boy?"

It does feel strange, very, very strange.

[basic_powers]

"Uhm... it's the end of all timelines and universes?"

He's trying to remember what Ray told him, really. It's just that the little guy tends to glaze over after philiotic gateways and nexuses.

"It's kind complicated, but you just kind of came to a magic bar at the end of everything that ever existed."

[500-year-shaman.livejournal.com]

"Everything? Truly? The end of all karma?"

[basic_powers]

"Yeh..Uhm..there's a a spell that loops keeping everyone in here safe from it.." Tyler, sits up a little bit more. "And there's someone called the Landlord who brings people here from different worlds. Really randomly."

[500-year-shaman.livejournal.com]

"...Really now," he asks softly, after a pause. "Such power... It's amazing."

He can't help but wonder what this 'Landlord' is - shaman, spirit, something else?

[basic_powers]

I hope he doesn't ask what the Landlord is, no one's ever SEEN that guy face to face...

"Uhm...there's a few rules of the bar, there's just 3 and they're really easy to follow."

[500-year-shaman.livejournal.com]

Hao isn't planning on asking, especially not now.

"And what are they?" he asks.