(no subject)

[nitro_is_ace]

(OOM: You know how A leads to B which then goes on to C? Some universes decide that it actually leads, somewhere in the middle, to unreal numbers and then gives up keeping track.)

Dotty McShane is actually having a pretty good sort of day. Her favorite barista was making coffee this morning at the local shop, and got her coffee just right (everyone else makes it too weak, it's tragic). Her meetings with a couple potential donors to the 'A Charitable Earth' foundation actually went well, despite a somewhat snotty pair of disappointed potential heiresses and a case of an unfortunate fondness for pink and fluffy in clothing. She even scored a window seat at her favorite EAT at lunch, and was able to spend an hour amusing herself with people watching.

So, with a morning like that, it was almost necessary to have a rather upsetting sort of afternoon. She gets two steps inside the door when the rules of the universe realize that this really really won't work and McShane finds a seat to be in while sorting through a bunch of memories that are both hers and really, really aren't.

(OOC: OMG I finally did it - Ace is rebooted. Sorta. Kinda. In the way that if you want her to remember your pup, she will in the way she's inherited her other self's memories, and if you don't, she won't. She's 100% Grade-A human with a little bit of Cheetah temper and maybe sometimes sorta a bit of a boost, and yeah, she still hasn't figured out acceptable safety standards. Have fun!)

Comments

[gryphon_leaper]

Not far away, there is a girl of perhaps fifteen or sixteen. She's wearing a light shift, and a pair of what might be protective breeches or something (they're a bit heavier-looking than just cloth) sewn in blue and gold, and large gold disk earrings, and she's busily assessing several of the stools. Mostly by turning them over and shaking the legs back and forth briefly before righting them again.

It is possible that she could be ignored, of course. Right now she isn't doing all that much.

Just mucking with the seating.

[nitro_is_ace]

She supposes that seating security is important, idly watching the girl test the stool population for a while before moving on to trying to remember if she ever knew why there's a bra posted over the bar like a trophy.

[gryphon_leaper]

Ah, there. That one will do. Now if she can only brace it- here, there's a heavy enough table, one leg should hold it down nicely with its four feet in the air. Odd that a stool should have outward-curved feet so, but doubtless this place acquires them from many sources and many craftsmen. One must have had some image in mind when he carved these legs.

Now all she needs is a good clear path towards it, before she backs up to run.

[nitro_is_ace]

Nope, no ideas on the bra. Or the kissing cowboy nearby, though that's an image for the ages. Briefly, she notes that it seems none of the barstools seem to have passed muster - the girl doesn't seem to have found a seat at the bar. Odd, since she can remember rather enthusiastic conversations on those stools.

[gryphon_leaper]

The rats, and a few of the patrons, have enough sense to clear out of the way. Thalestris can sprint with the best of them.

And vault over the upturned stool with the best of them as well, doing a half-somersault in midair that puts her hands down on the bracing-table in time to push off again, and-

Oh.

Oh dear.

We do hope that second table wasn't too terribly loaded or anything. She hadn't realized she'd be landing there.

[nitro_is_ace]

Ace yalps when suddenly her table is rather emphatically occupied by quite a lot of young girl. She scrambles with the alacrity of someone who gets out of the way of explosions for a living.

...

"I'd give it a 9.5, but I've been bribed by the Russian judge." She announces, once she's done staring at her new tablemate.

[gryphon_leaper]

"That's a good rating, I hope," says Thalestris as she pushes herself up from the awkward landing. "The bookmakers are setting our odds already, and I'd like to outdo them where I can."

[janisthorn]

And nearby is Leela, seated at the bar, tearing her way through a pheasant she shot in the woods out back.

She turns her head and nods at the stranger.

"Hello. I've not seen you here before."


[OOC: And from the sound of it, this Ace may or may not remember her? Your call - I think "Yes" or "maybe" are more interesting, for the record.]

[nitro_is_ace]

(OOC: ... did Ace ever meet Leela in the first place? *cannot remember*)

[janisthorn]

[OOC: I...don't remember, either. May have lived on the same planet for a while, though - might've bumped into each other at some point.]

EDIT: It appears they might have at least once, in Lungbarrow, a book I haven't read. I'd investigate further, but looking at the NA's for too long tends to cause me to go cross-eyed.

[nitro_is_ace]

"Simple explanation - I've not been here before, have I?" Except for the part where she has, which is messing with her head. Some of the stuff she remembers doing stretches the bounds of reality to breaking.

[janisthorn]

"Oh," she says. "Have you been told what this place is?"

[nitro_is_ace]

"Nope. Or yes. Whichever." She shrugs, dismissing the question - her head's been hijacked a bit, she can give a flying fig about this place's rules and the times she's broken them.

Broken so badly/i>, yes.

[starrydome]

Someone sits down at the table next to hers. Someone tall and regal and carrying a scroll - not a leather-bound tome even, but a scroll - and a steaming mug. Of mulled wine.

It's list time and you need some sort of fortification for that. The sigh as Elrond sits down might say as much.

His hair is scraped back in a tight braid, making not only his cheekbones but his ears as well, far more noticeable.

[nitro_is_ace]

"A'right then you, for sure, I haven't met before." Dotty announces with the emphasis of someone who is very very glad to have found one solid fact, and who intends to cling on to it as long as possible.

[starrydome]

And as far as Elrond is concerned, any distraction is good distraction right now, so he turns to face her fully.

"No, I do believe you are right. We have not met before."

He smiles.

"My name is Elrond Half-elven."

[nitro_is_ace]

"Dotty McShane." She grins, with a little wave. She's run into enough cultures by now that she has figured out that shaking hands isn't actually a terribly common gesture.

[starrydome]

"I am pleased to meet you, Dotty McShane," he says, pleasantly. "You have been here before?"

[nitro_is_ace]

"That question's a bit... complicated. I haven't been here b'fore." She's pretty sure, anyway. But some of those memories seem awful familiar.

She really isn't sure what's going to happen if she meets either of the two blokes she has... really interesting memories of.

[creator_raven]

There is a loud thump to her left, and a bundle of ragged black feathers hits the table.

Hard.

Raven does not bounce.

He tilts his head left, then right, watching Dotty out of brilliant black eyes.

Possibly he is waiting. But for what?

[ooc: Lemme know if this is too late? <333]

[nitro_is_ace]

(OOC: Wibley-wobbly timey-wimey... what is this late business you speak of? :D)

She startles, but less than a normal person ought. Of course, she hasn't filled in the job requirements for 'normal' at any point in her life, so that's okay.

The part of her that is more McShane is starting to get highly annoyed at all of the weirdness going on today and is more than willing to give her 'conflict management' skills a bit of a workout, starting with sniping some highly sarcastic Edgar Allen Poe at the intruding bird and perhaps finishing with quite a lot of Nitro-9.

The part of her that isn't thinks that yes, the sarcasm definitely has a place, but it really ought to be cookies, not Nitro.

"This place is completely do-lally, I hope you know." She informs the bird (brother, whut) and wonders vaguely who she has to hit up for some paracetamol.

[creator_raven]

"That, I am thinking," says the bird, slipping out of his feathers and into something differently comfortable (see: human-shape), "is not so much a surprise."

He wrinkles his nose.

"Unlike some other things, yes?"

See: Dotty.

[nitro_is_ace]

"Wasn't askin' for this, Adobebutt." She grumbles before her brain catches up with the words and she blinks, because even for her that's getting familiar awfully quickly.

Except how that's right.

Except how she has never had a brother - comrades, lovers, odd alien not-quite-father-figures, but not a brother.

Could be brill, having a brother.

[creator_raven]

Raven's snort is very loud.

Just this once, it is accompanied by neither a nose-tweak or a tug on her hair.

"It is not so much a thing one asks for, perhaps."

He doesn't sigh, just reaches into his pocket and fishes out two cookies, iced. They are shaped like fluffy six-legged lambs.

One of them gets flicked at --

Dotty.

"It is also not so much a gift."

[nitro_is_ace]

She doesn't so much catch it as block it, as her instincts have taught her to do over time, and the cookie falls to the table.

It's now a five-legged lamb and a small stick.

"Yeah, no." She agrees, blinking at the suddenness of the move and the readiness of the agreement. Clearly they aren't a whole bunch of false memories, a trick to lure her into some sort of ridiculously over-thought trap, but...

Yeah. It's weird.

"So, this might sound odd but I know you, but I'd swear I've never seen you before. You're... Raven?"