milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Michael pushes through the front door, the sword in her hand vanishing at the moment she registers her change in locale.

It takes another moment for her to push her windblown hair out of her face and tame the too-bright green of her eyes. Then, of course, she moves to the bar for coffee and a newspaper.

It is rather unfortunate that, once she settles down to fill out the crossword, her pen has a tendency to push right through the paper.

Temper will do that.

Ah, well.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Lots of people say that."

Lots of people in the Bar say it, anyway. She lets the sparks die out again.

"We don't have it in my world."

"No?"

Michael arches an eyebrow, but she is not entirely skeptical.

"I don't know that I'd be comfortable in a world like that. Have you ever visited anywhere with magic?"

"Yeah."

There's a pause, and then Elle concedes, "They weren't that different."

Exorcisms and world-to-world travel might not exist on Elle's own world, but she hadn't felt out of place in any of it.

"And no with magic's come to my world."

She's not sure how that would work.

"Huh."

Michael digests that, twirling her pen between her fingers.

"Now I'm curious about what that would do. And if it's different for every world without magic. Or vice versa."

Huh.

"Do you - use magic?"

Her job description hadn't seemed to mention it. As far as Elle knows.

"Some people would say so."

Michael shrugs, easily and uncomplicated.

"Or I think they would, anyway."

"So it's something else some people call magic?"

Elle's had that issue, too. It's the only thing she can think of from Michael's words.

Michael thinks this over, head still resting on her hand.

"I guess it's an easy enough mistake to make. They share some similarities, back where I'm from. But it's not -- I couldn't teach it. And no one, human or fae, is born with the affinity for it."

Jesus does not count.

And that was a different story, besides.

"So... you're not human."

Elle's not sure what 'fae' is, but if Michael's not one of them, she's guessing she doesn't need to ask about it.

"No," Michael says, inclining her head.

"Though I've lived among them for quite some time."

Maybe Elle should have deduced that from the fact that Michael doesn't stand out as not human.

But her mind works in just the opposite way.

"Then what are you?"

Michael leans forward.

"How familiar are you with religion?"

It's a genuine question.

She knows it exists. And it came up a few times when she was tutored.

(Not as much as you'd think in here.)

"Does it matter?"

"Only if you lack any context for the word 'angel'."

She says that easily enough.

This is, in part, because it is true.

"Oh."

Beat.

"They're here."

And she's never met one with wings here, so she's not feeling as confused as she could be right now.

"They are," Michael acknowledges.

"I'm Michael."

"And that's... one of them."

'Michael is an Important Angel' is about as far as Elle's knowledge of this goes.

"Yes," Michael agrees.

"I save the wings for special occasions."

"Like messenger stuff?"

Or ... whatever special occasions are for angels.

"On occasion."

She does not quite smile.

"On other occasions public transportation works just fine. Or a bike."

"You don't have a car?"

There's really no reason why Michael should have a car. It just seems like something an angel would have. In Elle's mind.

She'll have to ask Castiel some time.

"No," Michael says, mouth quirking at one corner.

"It would be bad for my image."

"Your... being an angel image?"

Which bicycles and public transport is okay for?

Michael shakes her head.

"The image of humanity I'm trying to cultivate."

She sits up a little, revealing a little more of her too-skinny frame.

It makes it easier to see her T-shirt, which has a cracked-open fortune cookie on it. The fortune reads 'You have just eaten poison'.

It's kind of an illustrative example.

Elle doesn't snicker, but it's close.

"Why do you have to look human?"