milliways_bar | (no subject)

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teja

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Another day, another death.

More and more of those are happening recently. I know logically there was nothing I could do to intervene in this case -- making the horse thirsty this time didn't work, to misquote Father Martin. But it doesn't stop me from wondering why YOU still keep me around and let these young kids die instead.

Since I sincerely doubt I'll be getting an answer any time soon, a visit to the end of the universe seems like a good substitute.

[tiny!tag: William Banks]

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At the end of the universe, there are many strange things instead of answers.

Like a dead Goth leaning on the bar and drinking a cup of tea.

It's a good day for tea. Lula's been thrilled to see me drinking more of it, and with that in mind, I go up to the bar and get a mug myself.

"Greetings!" says the dead Goth. On his arm, half-hidden under his cloak, is a little grey cat, sleeping.

"Hello." Interesting get-up. Doesn't strike me as a threat, at least not off-hand.

I really need to turn the investigator off more.

"I have not seen you here before; are you new to this place?" the dead Goth asks.

"Not really. I've been coming here for a few months, but haven't been in a while." I offer a hand. "Call me William."

The dead Goth takes the hand, and shakes it as men from the future do.

"William," he says. "Greetings. I am Teja, son of Tagila; I was the last king of the Ostrogoths in Italy. I died in battle, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, in the year 552 of Christian reckoning."

That makes me pause.

Milliways really does get all types, it seems. And all times.

"Pleasure," I say instead of something more idiotic. "Have you been here long?"

"Seventeen months," says the dead Goth. "I have changed much, since I arrived. The end of the universe will leave no man untouched."

I take a sip from my tea. "So it would seem. I find the view disturbingly hypnotic at times."

"Of the window, where the cosmos ends over and over?" Teja says. "I do not look at it much; it is the different people from the different worlds, different times, that make this place so chalenging."

"True enough. Many different kinds come here." I smile, thinking of Guppy. "Though some aren't so different."

"Most are very different from me," Teja says. "Most are from much further in the future."

"I can see where that would be disturbing. Have you had trouble here?"

"I did," Teja agrees. "But I got used to the place, and stopped calling the women 'wenches' when they served behind the bar"

"Probably a wise course of action."

"One wench got quite energetic, stating she wasn't one," Teja says.

"I can imagine. Most women of my acquaintance never care for that particular term. In modern times, it has less-than-flattering connotations." Something tells me Melissa would cold-cock anyone who used it around her.

"She thought it meant lewdness, of a mercenary kind," Teja says.

"Thought so. Words tend to change meaning over time."

"Indeed," Teja says. "And this one changed meaning on me for the worse!"

"An honest mistake, though."

"It was," Teja says. Now, he does smile. "But of course, she thought I meant ill and impugned her honour as a virtuous virgin!"

That makes me laugh. "Good for her. I find nothing more enjoyable than knowing strong women."

"On my time, men thought differently about what makes a woman strong," Teja says. "That said, I came to like some of them, also. Some confuse me, though."

"Me too. I doubt we'll ever understand them. Or vice versa. But it'd be dull without them."

Teja ponders.

"It would truly be dull without Demeter, or Carlotta," he agrees.

One I've met, but I don't think I know the other. "Friends of yours?"

"You might say they are the women in my afterlife -- one my most trusted friend, the other almost a daughter!" Teja says.

"That's good to hear." His vigor makes me smile. "I have a son and a daughter back home."

"I never had offspring," Teja says. "But now, I know what it feels like to have one's heart set on a child growing up as well as possible, and giving her all one can so she will."

"It makes everything else seem much less important." I'm just glad that now I can recognize it.

"Indeed," Teja says. "All else must wait, if one's child needs a parent's attention."

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