milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Well, that really wasn't fun. Rae supposes she couldn't truly expect the weather to hold off for a little thing like her fighting for her life, but it would've been nice if it had been a little more considerate, you know? Con had been impervious to the icy rain - of course he had - but Rae's experience had been a little more... well, human. Her fingers, slicked with blood and exposed to the elements, had soon gone numb and clumsy. It hadn't been an easy night. When they had returned to her apartment, her only thoughts were of the hot shower she was about to have. The three hot showers she wanted to take in succession, and the long, soaking bath she wanted directly after, and the twelve hours or more of sleep she wanted after that. So what if that would put her waking up around sunset tomorrow.

But the door to her bathroom, of course, has other ideas.

Rae shuffles into the bar today, exhausted, soaking wet, and shivering. Her black sweater and sweatpants cling to her, sodden and still dripping as the ice melts. There is ice in her hair from the sleet that had gotten caught in it, and she smells of cold sweat and blood. The melting ice and rain may have washed much of the blood from her, but some of it remains, and the scrapes and minor injuries that show where her sweater has been torn still bleed sluggishly.

"Unnnnnngh," Rae makes an exhausted noise of complaint in her throat as she sees where she is. She hadn't been expecting Milliways. Now she has an entire set of stairs to climb before she can reach her shower. Why so cruel, universe?

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"N-no," she shakes her head, half in denial and half to pull herself up out of that warm comfort she was slipping into. "I don't sleep in public areas if I can help it."

She should probably try and tackle those stairs soon.

"A habit you cannot get into? I would protect you, should it be needed, but of course, the choice is yours."

Rae chuckles faintly, but chooses not to comment on Ichabod's protection against what she would rather not catch her sleeping in the open. "Less of a habit and more of a preference for having a good solid ward line between me and the vampires who come here."

Though it leaves a mark, Rae grips the armrest of the couch to help herself get to her feet. "Vampires can enter a public space unimpeded. Technically, they must be invited into a private space, but it's still good to have wards reinforcing everything."

He nods, accepting it without question. "And you have such wards on your room upstairs?"

"Oho yes," Rae replies, with emphasis. "I am fortunate in that I know a retired Wardskeeper - a very high-ranking wardsmith - and that she is a friend of mine."

And her landlady.

(ooc: Heading home! Will return!)

Ichabod tilts his head.

"And she comes here? Or she taught you to ward well enough for yourself?"

"Heh," Rae breathes, amused. "I know her back in my world. Warding takes... years of apprenticeship before you even get to cut your first ward sign, just to make sure you don't kill yourself in the attempt. No way do I have that skill."

"Then who placed the protections on your room?" he asks, confused.

"I did?" Rae says, eyebrows raised slightly. "I asked her to make them for me, saying I had a second place I needed as a... safe space, you know? And she did. And when they were ready, I brought them here and set them to work in my room here."

"Ah!" He nods, understanding. "I hadn't realized they could be transferred in that way."

"If the wardsmith had to install the wards as well as make them, they'd be even more expensive than they already are," Rae murmurs, drowsily amused.

Though the faint smile fades as they reach the bottom of the stairs.

"Ugh."

"Come." He offers a hand, still not touching her without permission. "I said I would assist you, and so I shall."

Rae winces at the idea, hesitating mightily, but she knows she's very likely to trip on the way up if she doesn't have something more than the banister to steady her. So she gingerly accepts his hand.

"Just don't suddenly decide to carry me up without warning. Hal did that last time I came in from a fight - thought I was going to make him fail with all the flailing."

"I wouldn't dream of doing something so impolite, while you can still keep your feet."

He keeps his grip on her hand light, so she can easily pull away if it gets too much.

Her hand is light against his, as well, not wanting to touch anything with her traitorous hands... no, her hands. Her own hands, normal hands. They're just dirty, that's all. Non-metaphorically dirty.

Right.

"Well, he's that sort. Not shy at all, funny, a bit arrogant but that comes with the title, and as charming as a devil," she says, with wry amusement. Her voice has a vague, ramble-y quality to it - she never can focus when she's tired. And the rambling helps her keep herself distracted from the feeling of someone touching her sullied hand.

"The title?" he asks lightly, helping keep her distracted - and also awake.

"A prince, apparently," she chuckles. "Another from Albion - you folks do get everywhere... we have quite a few ref... um... uh, people who've immigrated to Independencia from Albion since the Wars. The coffeehouse's afternoon crowd boomed when I talked Charlie into serving proper tea."

"A prince?" He raises his eyebrows. "Who has emigrated, yet still claims his title?"

"What?" Rae says, a faint line of confusion appearing between her eyebrows.

"No... Nono, Hal's here," she says, vaguely. "He's like, from so many hundreds of years before my time, and not from my world. I was just... there're a lot of people from Albion in Milliways. And I was just commenting... that there're a lot in New Arcadia, too."

"Oh, I see." He nods. "I would imagine there are probably quite a number passing one way or the other in my own world also."

"Very likely," she smiles absently, the effort of the stairs taking up much of her concentration. "Like I said, you folks get everywhere."

(ooc: Gotta date! Disappearing! <3)

Ichabod chuckles.

"Worldwide, in my era."

[ooc: Have fun!]

"That's true for people of most countries, more or less, in my world," Rae murmurs, having to pause on a stair and lean on the banister for balance as a wave of exhausted dizziness strikes her. "Though... it seems international travel is a lot less expensive in other worlds of a similar time as mine."

Ichabod watches her, his grip tightening on her hand as she wobbles but relaxing as soon as she steadies herself. "I wonder why that would be. It wasn't terribly expensive in my original time, but very slow."

"Well, if you ever wanted to get from New York to London in seven hours..." Rae smiles faintly, though there's something sad in it. So much of the differences between her Earth and others' belong to what cities are still... viable. Livable.

Once the spell of dizziness passes, she begins the climb again.

"My world's economy tanked with the Wars. Everything tends to be more expensive back home than what I've seen in other versions of Earth at the same time-period. That's one of the reasons why, when I'm selling my baking, all the prices are just guidelines. I ask people to pay what they would've paid for similar in their worlds, and let the Bar take care of inter-dimensional exchange rates."