milliways_bar | (no subject)

Autor looks the newcomer over with a rather skeptical eye, and decides not to close his book. "Did the bar pull you in at an awkward time?"

"Not so very awkward," Dorian says, smiling at the scrawny fellow with the glasses, "but I was still very glad to see her appear at all, so I didn't risk the door by going to get shoes. I can get shoes here when I want to go outside."

"Oh? So you could," Autor says, turning a page as he takes a seat at the bar. "So how long have you been coming?"

"A little more than two weeks," Dorian says. "I stayed here for almost all of it, as this is the most amazing place I have ever known, but then I got -- homesick."

You might say.

"I say, what are you reading? They have this marvellous library here."

"The library here is magnificient, isn't it?" Autor says, finally closing his book to adjust his glasses. "What time are you from? It's a book of poetry, but I don't want to tell you of an author who hasn't written yet."

"Oh, I like cheating!" Dorian says. "I'm from London, 1891, and the other day, I borrowed a book first printed in 1893 that I had secretly seen some manuscript pages of."

"Pfft," Autor says, smiling briefly as he taps his book. "Well, I guess there's no harm in it, then. This is the collected works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Welcome to the bar. I didn't get your name?"

"Yes, the name is familiar, and his works are as well," Dorian says, offering his hand. "My name is Dorian Gray."

Really! The Dorian Gray?

Autor nods at the offered hand, and straightens his book again. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance. Now, I'd like some tea. Would you care for some?"

"Tea would be excellent, and just the right solution to my current conundrum," Dorian says. He looks at his hand in a slightly dubious way that is positively comical.

Dorian Gray is exactly as beautiful as the book describes him -- but in addition to that, he is lively and has a smile that speaks of a sense of humour which doesn't stop at his own door. Dorian's expression is full of little quirks that may bely the Grecian beauty but show his personality, his enthusiasm and his off-beat humour.

"What can I call you?"

Perhaps handshakes aren't customary where this bookish little fellow is from?

Autor licks his lips in order to hide another smile at the comical Dorian. He orders two cups of an Earl Grey variant from the bar, wanting to avoid giving anyone his normal tea. The cups arrive and Autor nudges Dorian's to him.

"You may call me Autor," he says, amused that Dorian asked. "So what do you do back in your own world?"

"Thank you, Autor," Dorian says, accepting the tea. "It's very nice to meet you."

No handshake, apparently, but the tea covers the potential awkwardness. Also, everything is far too interesting to be awkward about it. Awkwardness is a waste of time, unless you turn it around by being open about it.

"And I do nothing at all -- I'm a completely useless hedonist enjoying life while contributing next to nothing."

"Sounds like a good life," Autor says, adjusting his glasses again, "though I could never live it myself. Does that make you independently wealthy, then? Not many hedonists live on the streets."