milliways_bar | (no subject)

A young man with damp hair and a gun wanders by. "Say sorry to botherya, miss, but you know where they hide the waitresses in this joint?"

Val chuckles, looking a bit sheepish. "Well, today, one's hiding right in plain sight at the bar. I'm a waitress, actually." Her eyes twinkle. "What can I do for you?"

Eddie grins. It's slightly goofy and fairly winning. "Oops. Say sorry bi--I'm really sorry to bother you, then. I was just looking to get an iced tea, maybe."

He holds out his hand. "Eddie Dean. Pleased to meetcha."

Val laughs brightly, a gentle, cheerful laugh. Her smile is gentle and winning as well. She takes his hand and shakes it firmly. "Valentine Wiggin. It's a pleasure to meet you as well. Let me tell you a little secret." She grins at him, then turns to the bar. "Bar? Can I have an iced tea for Mister Dean, and a refill for myself?" Her mug is re-filled, and a glass of iced tea appears, complete with lemon, and a small bowl of sugar lumps. "There's a spell on Bar here. She'll get you whatever you like. All you have to do is ask."

"Oh, groovy. I think I knew that once. I was here once a while ago, but it's all hazy." He takes the tea and sips it. "Delicious. Thankya big-big, Val." It slipped out that time. The Calla is not going quietly from his tongue.

"Hey, you're on the staff--you know a lot of the folken around here? I've kind of got the feeling my friends are here, but the breakfast guy wasn't much help."

Val's eyes sparkle, and she shrugs. "Yeah, I know more people than I give myself credit for sometimes. Who're you lookin' for? I might be able to point you in the right direction, or at least find someone who might know."

"Well, Richard told me he knew one of my tet--Jake Chambers--but I'm also looking for my wife, Susannah and my dinh, Roland of Gilead."

"Suzie's a gorgeous black lady in a wheelchair--" for a moment his grin gets a bit goofier and his eyes soften-- "and Roland's--kind of like Clint Eastwood's scary big brother, if you know who that is. And he has one of these." He taps the sandelwood grips of his pistol.

Val's eyes soften, and there's recognition dawns on her face. "Jake is definitely here. I knew your speech patters sounded familiar. He's like a brother to me. Unfortunately, he's... not himself at the moment." Her eyes are sad, but she goes on. "Roland is here as well, and I've hears rumours of a couple of other people from your tet, however, I have not actually met them myself."

He grins widely. "Well, we're well-met then, Valentine. He's--he's like a son to me and Suze." His smile falters. "What's wrong with him?"

Doesn't matter. We're ka-tet. We can fix it. We can do anything, with the five of us.

"Oh! Hey, is that fucked-up weasel of his still following him around?" The tet's not complete without Oy, strange but true.

Val giggles. "You mean Oy? Yeah, he's around. Jake's a full gunsliger now, too." There's pride in her voice. "He fought Roland and won, from what I've heard, pretty handily." There's an oddly dark look which crosses Val's eyes as she goes on. "As to what's wrong, well, we don't know. He came in one night, in the arms of some man in black. He's been up in his room ever since, some fight going on in his mind. Bastard in black messed with his mind." There's a feeling that Val believes messing with one's mind is about the worst thing someone could do.

Eddie's voice is tight and dangerous. "Walter's here? Or maybe he calls himself Flagg?" He doesn't look the slightest bit goofy now; he look like--like he could fill Times Square with bodies, actually, and never blink. His hazel eyes are hard.

Val is serious as well, but not intimidated. "He was. He left. From what I've heard, I have a feeling it was a good riddance." She looks at him for a moment. There's an odd strength in her manner as well, as if she could take on about anything for those she cares about.

"That cheapshit bumhug motherfuck, always just shows up to run his mouth and then takes off."

A fight in his mind. "A fight in his mind. All right." Eddie calms himself visibly, pushing the pulses of battle-fury back. There's nothing for him to shoot here. He rubs a spot over his right eye.

"Jake's the strongest of us in the touch. And if Suze is here, like I suspect--like my heart tells me she is--when the five of us are together, we're stronger. A lot stronger."

Val nods, face serious. "We have a couple healers in the bar, one of them, Peter, is a dear friend of both Jake and me. Peter's been trying to think of things he can do to help him, but nothing's been coming to him." She sighs, pulling her knees up to her chest. "I just wish I could do something for him. It seems as if he's fighting something that only he can beat." She wrinkles her nose. "If that makes sense."

"Ka." It's flat, unambiguous, the end of the line. Which is, of course, what it means in the vulgate.

Val sighs, shaking her head. "There are so many people in this bar, from so many different worlds. Each of the worlds interacts differently with each of the others. It's frustrating sometimes, to try and help someone whose world is much different than your own, when you love them, and want to help."

"Trust me, I've got experience in that area. It's like the old song says, though: the fundamental things apply. No matter what world you're in."

"Stand and be true. The rest is ka's business."

She smiles, a wistful smile. "I will stand by him. I promised." Her eyes are determined, flinty, but not harsh or evil. "I will always be around for my family."

Eddie thinks of Henry Dean, Great Sage and Eminent Junkie.

"Good on ya, sister."

Val grins. "So, I was thinking. if you're Jake's father-like person, and I'm his sister, that makes you my sorta uncle." She beams. It seems Val likes creating more family.

He smiles. "Do you say so?"

"Tell the truth, us Dean kids don't have much of a track record. None of us made it much past thirty. Might not be the best family to join up with."

"Psh. I say so, and thus it is." Her eyes sparkle. "Family is those you love, and that's what matters. If you don't make it for long, make what you have count."

His hand goes up to the spot over his right eye again. "Yeah." His smile fades again.

He can still hear Susannah's grief ringing in his ears. She's here. Has to be.

She can tell. She reaches over wordlessly and hugs him, when she speaks, her voice gentle. "I have a feeling you don't come to us from the land of the living."

Ahh cheap New York humor. "Nope. I caught the Forty Caliber Express, if it does ya. And if it doesn't, say sorry, 'cause I'm just as dead. Suze and I only got... oh, a year or so. Time's funny in Roland's world."

Val chuckles. "Well, there are quite a few here who share your fate. Some who have caught the same train as you." She smiles. "Others who have come by the sword, or old age, or other, more complicated means." She shrugs. "Time's funny in a lot of worlds. I seem to have arrived here about three years later than my older brother." Another smile. "You learn to just take things as they come around here."

Older... brother. Eddie's not sure what he'd do if Henry were here.

Or ohGodno Selina. He grins despite the troubling thoughts. "Sounds like my kind of place. I was about three in the year Suze comes from originally, before Roland pulled us out of our worlds."

Her eyes sparkle. "Well, you'll do well here, then. Some people take a while to understand that. I'm from the future of most people here. It's odd at first, but it's interesting. My fiance's from a time beyond mine. Or at least I think he is. His technology's a lot beyond that which I'm used to."

Technology, huh? "The future, huh? The name Sombra mean anything to you? Or NorthCentral Positronics?"

Val shakes her head. "Sorry. Doesn't sound like anything I've heard about. Doesn't mean much, though. My studies and readings tend towards the political."

"Hey, if they aren't big name corporations in your when, that's good enough for me." He thinks about the technology.

"What about sneetches? You know what one of those is?"

"Jake told me about those once. They're not something I would like to encounter. We don't have them in my world, thank heavens." She smiles and shrugs.

"Sounds like a pretty good future then." He drinks more iced tea, now that his mun remembers it exists.

"So--fiance?"

She turns slightly pink, nodding. "Yes. His name's Luke Skywalker. Some have heard of him from vids, some haven't." She smiles gently. "He and I met in the bar, and, well, kinda fell in love." More than kinda Val.

Eddie's heard of him. He manages not to choke on his iced tea, because he's taken lessons from Roland in not showing his reactions, but it's a near thing.

"Right. I'd forgotten--there are people from movies and things here. We're in some books--at least..." He knocks wood on the table.

Val's eyes twinkle. "There's a lot of people from books and vids here. I'm actually in a book in some peoples' world." She shrugs, her eyes twinkling. "There's also Greek gods, other gods, angels, and demons, and just really interesting people."

Also, beautiful legless black women. (http://www.livejournal.com/community/milliways_bar/2549692.html)

"I... gotta go. Thanks." He bound across the bar, towards the stairs.

She follows his eyes. Susannah. "Talk to you later..." She chuckles, as she turns back around to the bar. People always find the ones they love here.