milliways_bar | (no subject)

Dorian Gray had been at the bar, undecided whether to order wine or coffee, when Ichabod came in.

When he hears the man ordering skulls, he peers sideways, fascinated by that wildly extraordinary order. Who needs two dozen skulls??

He's aware of being watched, and glances sideways at Dorian with a wryly crooked smile.

"I would explain, but I fear you wouldn't believe me."

"I'd guess a really scary theatre play, a party with morbid decorations, or a student prank," Dorian says, smiling. "But this is Milliways, so the explanation is most likely much less ordinary, and I am ready to believe anything."

"I am planning a trap", he says, deadpan, "for the headless Horseman of Death. He wants his head. I have it. These", waving one of the skulls, "are decoys."

"If you have his head," Dorian says, "what does he see the decoys with?"

"A very good question! And one I'm unable to answer. Some form of magical senses, perhaps."

"He can't just see whatever it is where his skull actually is?" Dorian asks.

"It seems not, because he moves around with no apparent difficulty."

"That is even scarier than than the fact that he's the Horseman of Death," Dorian says. "What does he wan with his skull if it's that useless?"

"I don't believe it is useless. Our theory is that without it, he is deprived of his full powers... and whatever the reason, he has killed many men in his search for it."

"How can you kill him if not having his head doesn't stop him?" Dorian wonders.

"If there is a way, I'll find it", he says flatly. "At the very least, I believe I know how to weaken him and hold him prisoner."

"How did you end up having to fight something headless and almost indestructible?" Dorian asks.

"Fate", is the simple response. "Our paths crossed long ago and I took his head. Now I must end what I began."

"It can't have been so long ago," Dorian says, "as you're still quite young."

Unless he's yet another immortal, of course.

"I am still quite young", he agrees, "but in objective time, it was more than two hundred years ago."

"I think only people with extraordinary stories are allowed to come here," Dorian muses. "What brought you forward more than two hundred years? It must have been a shock!"

"To put it very lightly", Ichabod says dryly. "And to answer the question, it was my wife."

"That is probably the strangest thing I have ever heard a man say about his wife," Dorian says. "She sent you 200 years into the future for which offence?"

"For no offence, but to save my life - and to take the Horseman out of time with me, for as long as possible."

"So you were linked to him in some way?" Dorian says. "How very uncomfortable."

"Indeed it was. And now the link is broken."

"Does it make fighting the Horseman of Death easier or harder?" Dorian asks.

"A little of both. He can no longer track me, but neither can I track him - and now he will not be afraid to kill me."

"Hence all the skulls to lure him," Dorian nods.