milliways_bar | (no subject)

(Somewhere Under Milliways: Sunshine's large, lovingly-collected library of gothic vampire lit will likely never be the same refuge of fantasy escapism ever again. She may burn them all when she gets home. If she survives to get home.)

From the kitchens come the sounds of startled, squeaking rats, of a large basket of paradoxes overturning as someone runs unsteadily towards the reassuring light and noise of the bar. The door to the kitchen slams open a moment later, letting through a pale and shaking Rae, clutching her wrenched and bruised right arm to her chest as she runs.

Her head is still reeling, her eyes watering and blurring her vision, the realization of what had just happened - what she had done - and to whom - causing her stomach to rebel violently.

Luckily, the cleaning crew prefer a clean bar and have put trash cans up at strategic locations, for Sunshine doesn't make it to the restroom before being physically ill. She falls jerkily next to it, clutching the trashcan rim with a white-knuckled grip in an effort to steady herself and counteract the tremors she can't seem to stop.

(Warnings in OOM for... well, gothic horror.)

(Tiny tags: A Gothic Winter Tale, Vlad Dracula)

(OOC: Mun has gone to bed. Will return to tag up on threads tomorrow. EP is open for new threads/tags forever and ever, amen. <33333)

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"Ah, yes. The sinister cheese."

She gives him a look.

"I'm not telling you who it is, so it's best we change the subject even from imaginary food poisoning. You wouldn't like it if I told you, anyway," she says, making her unsteady way to the bar. She needs tea. Possibly something stronger.

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah really," she says, scooting up onto a bar stool with a wince.

"But you'll like at least one outcome of it. I seriously going to burn my collection of trashy vampire lit when I get home."

Which causes something to occur to her, that she hadn't thought about.

"Shit," she rest her forehead in her hand. "I can't go home with this shoulder. I wouldn't be able to bake." And then there'd be questions.

"Small blessings," Nikola says, moving to follow her to the bar.

"That's the beauty of Milliways, of course. You don't have to go home. Not yet."

"Yeah, but the big bad cheese is still here, remember? I would rather be back home with the ongoing threat of annihilation I'm under, than be here with him."

The vampires back home are practically tame in comparison. They, at least, have a reliably fatal allergy to sunlight.

Rae forsakes tea and orders scotch. Probably not good for her stomach, but it'll do wonders for her nerves.

"Hells, and he knows my name."

"The big bad cheese is that bad, is it?"

He frowns at her last comment. "Is that a problem?"

"He scares me more than any vampire I've met, and I've known quite a few by now," she says, drinking.

"Names have power, in my world. Knowing someone's name gives you some manner of power over them. I only told him one, but I think he knows even the ones I didn't speak out loud. He would be able to do that, if I remember correctly."

She hasn't read that book since high school.

Nikola rolls his eyes. "Christ," he mutters. "He's one of those."

It'd be telling for Sunshine to say Hells, he's THE one of those.

"Told you you wouldn't like it, Spike," she says, downing the rest of the scotch like water.

"That's never actually bothered you before."

Rae rolls her eyes. "I remember you bemoaning the lack of appreciation for your strange if possibly well-meaning acts of kindness?"

"Case in point," Nikola says, smirking.

"Only in reverse, Sparkles," she says. She'd warned him.

"And if you're not careful, I might revoke your Solstice present."

He arches an eyebrow at the 'Sparkles.'

"Solstice present?"

"What, you haven't gotten it yet? Not been around lately? I left it with the Bar."

Nikola shrugs. "The bar has a sense of humor when it comes to giving me a door. I tend not to pay attention to how long it's been on either side."

He figures that since he's immortal, Bar thinks he's got time enough on either side.

However, since they're at the bar, Nikola turns to it and says, "Any packages for me?"

At which point, he receives the gift, and smiles faintly. "It's poisoned, isn't it?"

"Of course," she says lightly, sipping her drink. "I psychically know you are fatally allergic to chocolate."

Poor Tesla.

And then, dropping the sarcasm. "I wouldn't mess up good food with poison."

"Just as well. It would have been completely ineffective and ruined a perfectly good dessert."

"You never know," she says, touching a hand to the sickle-shaped scar on her chest. "My world's suckers got scientists of their own, and they've developed poison that works on them, too."

"It's highly improbably that would actually work on me, considering the two species evolved independently of one another."

"But it's not beyond the realm of possibility," she says, calm.

"It's entirely improbable - most would consider it impossible - for a human to escape from vampires twice in her life, yet it's happened to me."

"Very little is actually impossible."