milliways_bar | (no subject)

"May I see one of those reports?" the Security man asks. "I see you have a sylladex, from the trolls; one would assume you keep it in there?"

Autor doesn't wince, but he does suck a quiet breath between his teeth. "That's a reasonable request, but I do want to voice my objection up front. These are essentially lists of information I've taken down from private conversations I had with other people, and I'd prefer not to expose what they told me in confidence to Security.

"This is the report which Guppy's son, Fry, saw," he says, withdrawing Yugo's from his pocket, folded into quarters, "and then alerted Gene. At the time, I thought Yugo would die during the eclipse, but it turns out that he did not. Thankfully."

It occurs to Autor that he may want to let Yugo know about all of this, given he was an unwilling party to it. Watching the grim man read, the student applies a bit more of the gel from the hand sanitizer bottle on his hands.

Edited 2013-05-16 19:35 (UTC)

"That smells," the grim man says, not looking up from the paper. "Does the one you wrote about, know of this?"

It does smell, but not like hand sanitizer. Now Autor's wondering if the man before him has animal-characteristics, like a super sensitive nose, or can transfigure himself, or...

But now is not the time for such questions.

"He doesn't yet," Autor says, clasping his hands behind his back. "I plan to tell him shortly."

"He shall not be pleased, that all and sundry know this about him," the grim man says. "Is he from your world?"

"You're right," Autor says viciously, narrowing his eyes. His frustration isn't directed at Teja, but the situation as a whole, and he hopes the grim man can see that. "He won't be pleased. All and sundry wouldn't know all this about him if the document was returned to me immediately rather than read and acted upon without my permission.

"And no, he's not from my world."

"Then what is it that you gain from this?" the grim man asks.

"I think you've already asked that question," Autor says. "And as I told you: this is the way I keep track of the world, and I gain inspiration for my own writing by speaking to others."

"And I still do not believe that is all there is to it," the grim man declares.

Waiting.

"I plan to come into power someday, and I need practice quickly gathering information about allies and enemies," Autor says simply. "I do not plan to use these against anyone here--there are too many dangerous people. Like you.

"You're difficult to read," the boy says, tilting his head. "You're old, probably deceased? As far as I can tell, you're extremely honorable, and though you acknowledge duplicity in others, you don't seem to engage in it yourself. You're observant and detail-oriented. You've given me a chance to speak, and will let me speak myself into a corner while you gladly watch. You're likely slow to make judgments, but they'll be final, and logically supported."

He smiles. "I do appreciate your asking to see the piece in question first. I'd take you over Gene any day, even though you could kill me before I blink. I don't think you will, though, at least not yet. Who are you?"

The grim man neither agrees nor denies anything that Autor says, but instead simply nods. "So I got to hear the notes on me, before you even write them."

Pause.

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

"Part of them," Autor murmurs, noting the simple nod. It reminds him of Lohengrin.

But when the king announces his name, Autor steps forward and stumbles. He places his wrist on his forehead and drops to one knee.

Then he laughs. Helpless, debilitating laughter, which tears at his sides and chokes the air from him.

"Sorry, I'm sorry," he stammers, wiping tears from his eyes. "But of all the people they could have sent, I am amazed that it's you."

"None sent me," Teja says, raising an eyebrow at Autor's odd behaviour. "I am here by myself, as I am dead; this is my after-life."

Pause.

Then, he adds, "Who did you think sent me?"

Autor stands, and scrubs at his face, still chuckling. "I seem to have the unfortunate misconception that Security is at all organized," he says, "rather than just showing up where they hope wrongdoers are."

He stands up a little straighter and draws a breath or two. "Please forgive my reaction. I laughed because your legend survived to my time. I know you."

The boy still has his own dog-eared copy of Ein Kampf um Rom given to him by his grandfather.

"We come when we are called," Teja says. "We are no more than the watch-dogs of this place. We deal out no justice, we have no code of law: we simply make sure that three rules are kept in this place. It is much different from what I worked with when I was alive. If you know who I am, from reading your Procopius, one would presume, then you must know about my people, also."

"Right, so who called you?" Autor asks, adjusting his glasses.

Luckily, the boy has read Procopius' Secret History, because he loved Struggle for Rome so much.

Make way, you people, for our stride.
We are the last of the Goths.
We do not carry a crown with us,
We carry but a corpse.

Autor gazes at the broad-shouldered king clad in mourning, and nods. "Yes," he says. "I know the Ostrogoths."

"We dealt our justice in public, and based on laws long-established," Teja says. "It was very different from here. This is a bar; we are the bouncers. You know what the three rules are?"

The student nods again. "I'd prefer that, actually," he says. "Arrest me or don't; no more of this 'are you a paranoid wanker or a dangerous bugger' business.

"And I do know the rules, very well," Autor says, ticking them off on his fingers. "No nudity, no violence, and no grudges against people from your own world. I assume that is where some of the debate about my dossiers enters play?"

"Indeed," Teja says. "If you collect knowledge about those from your world, it would fall under 'business from home', as the phrase goes."

Pause.

"Also, the rule about sex and nudity is the third one; it came last."

Autor nods. "Just out of curiosity," he says, "what if I'd already had knowledge about people from my world before getting here--and didn't collect any more?"

After Teja's next statement, though, the boy's face blooms brighter than a firework, and spreads just as quickly. "Oh," he says. "I don't know why, uh, that would be last?"

"It was instituted last of all three rules," Teja says, "after an incident which, I think, involved some strange Japanese incarnation of the god Loki from the myths of my people, and his vampire lover, finding their pleasure right against the bar one night. The bar, being sentient, seriously complained. Or so we are told; it was long before my time."

Edited 2013-05-16 23:42 (UTC)

Japanese. Loki. Vampires. It's like a conglomeration of the characteristics of people Autor knows glued together and doing... things on Bar.

Autor is rather loathe to disgrace himself in front of a solemn king from one of his favorite pieces of history, so he turns away and tries to keep his paroxysm contained. "On Bar!" he croaks, when he turns back, face aflame. "That is disgraceful."

Then he clears his throat. "Do you happen to have an answer to my previous question?" he says. "And I don't suppose I can ask whether or not I'm on grounds to be arrested."

"If you knew about them before, you may still not use the vantage point this place gives you against them," Teja says. "But it will be hard to prove, unless one complains. So you shall remain unarrested, as far as I am concerned, for now."

Pause.

"And indeed, it must have been digraceful. They were both punished more severely than by mere celling: they were refused service for a while."

Autor inclines his head. "Thank you," he says. He still finds the thought that the reluctant king of the Ostrogoths would come to talk to him about a diary utterly absurd. I'm not worth him.

Still. He does appreciate Teja's judgment, for now. Autor knows very well that he would not be able to escape if the king decided to pursue him.

"I can't imagine Bar would want to give them service after that," he says, and shudders. "Why did you choose to work for Security?"

Autor has a theory. But Teja may surprise him.

"Bar, it seems, was deeply shocked," Teja says. "And that takes some doing. And I wished to be in Security as I wished to have a say in how matters are handled here: and among my people, only the fighting men, and the old and wise warriors, would have a say in the matters of state, so to have a spot of ground from which to voice my mind, I found I would prefer to be among those running the place, hence, Security. I do not lead any here; I am merely a fighting man and bouncer in this place, and throw trouble-makers in the cells, and warn those that are about to break the rules, or find out of they might be. I first worked for Security when there was a vampire of great powers come to this place, preying on some of the denizens, and spoke to one that trusted me because I was not, at that point, Security: - then, Melaka Fray hired me on the spot."