Car Keys! (But open to all)

[52_dropoff]

Charlie is at the bar, sipping some green tea and honey, reading a big book of Shakespeare plays he found in the rafters. He has no idea how that got up there, but it's been some time since he brushed up on the Bard. He's midway through Henry V.

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[abitofawildman]

That right there is the biggest book of English that Bumi has ever seen, and he can't help but stare.

Which only looks all the more foolish when one realizes that the nearly 60 year old grown man is reading Fox in Socks.

[52_dropoff]

"Er, hello." Charlie hasn't noticed the book yet, just the man. "Shakespeare fan?"

[abitofawildman]

He's so focused on trying to parse a few of the words he can see from where he is that he doesn't realize Charlie is talking to him.

"...huh? OH! Yes! I am. Completely."

Beat.

"What's Shakespeare?"

[52_dropoff]

"A man considered by some to be the greatest playwright in the English language." Charlie, even the contrarian, would nominate Shaw. Just to see people react.

"I will assume you are not from Earth then." The clothing is different, but not in a pre-Shakespeare way.

[abitofawildman]

His bushy eyebrows raise as realization dawns. Shakespeare is a who, not a what. Good to know.

Bumi grins a lop-sided grin.
"Not as you know it, no. What any number of things was the giveaway?" he asks while striking a rather dashing pose.

The man's ethnicity is hard to pin down, but Oceania would be a good place to start, as for his clothing...it reeks of the 19teens, but has a decidedly Chinese air to it.

[52_dropoff]

"The number of people on Earth in my time who don't know Shakespeare isn't tiny, but I can't say I've ever met anyone who didn't know Shakespeare." How first world of Charlie, this once. "Add in the clothes not quite being like anything I've seen. And maybe the hint of an accent, though that could be the Bar translating for you."

[abitofawildman]

"Accent?" He asks as he raises his tumbler of FireWhiskey to his lips. Bumi pauses right before he takes a drink. "No that's fair. My Southern Water Tribe tends to be strongest when I've been drinking. The names Bumi."

[52_dropoff]

"Charlie. From the midwestern part of the United States, though my accent is what's often called TV Anchor Standard." He has no idea if Bumi will get that. "Does your homeworld have a name?"

[abitofawildman]

He'll just store that TV Anchor Standard thing away for later.

"Nice to meet you Charlie. Do people in the midwestern part of the United States clasp forearms when they first meet?"

[52_dropoff]

"We shake hands. Though I suppose one method of greeting is as good as another." Charlie offers his arm. Always good to learn something new.

[abitofawildman]

"Only the hand? Huh. Interesting," he says even has he's clasping Charlie's arm.

"Homeworld. Ha! You know I've been asked that a couple of times and I still don't have a good answer for it. Back home we're kind of all we've got, and it seems rather presumptuous of us to go and claim Material World as our own. Of course, the same could be said for just using The World."

[52_dropoff]

"I think everyone's homeworld is called some variation on "the world." Earth means, well, earth. Dirt. It's only when a race gets into space, I guess, that worlds get names that could mean something." As if calling a planet Mars because it's red makes much sense.

"Small population on your world?"

[abitofawildman]

"Earth we have, and I'm sure the Earth Queen herself would love it if we named the entire world for her Kingdom." Judging by Bumi's tone, there's not a whole lot of love for the Earth Queen.

"Depends on where you go. Our bigger cities are huge, our smaller villages not so much. Though, a small village in the Earth Kingdom is still leaps and bounds bigger than a small village in either of the Water Tribes."

[52_dropoff]

"Sounds like Earth in the 18th or 19th century. Over a hundred years before my own time." He isn't going to explain just how crowded Earth's gotten. "Any cities pass one million residents?"

[abitofawildman]

The mention of a hundred years earns a low whistle. A lot can change in that time.

"Republic City has easily has that many citizens. Ba Sing Se and Omashu as well. It's been some time since I've been to the more populated parts of the Northern and Southern Water Tribes, so maybe there as well? I'm never anywhere long enough to count."

[52_dropoff]

"I would hope you don't spend your time counting people. Unless you're with the census office." A thankless, boring job, no doubt.

[abitofawildman]

"Ha! No, not if I can help it. Though one more promotion and that's exactly where they'll send me, just to spite me."

[52_dropoff]

"Promotion? In the civil service then?" Talk about thankless jobs.

[abitofawildman]

"Worse, active duty military."

Bumi adjusts the flopped back lapel of his United Forces coat to reveal a series of medals and ribbons.

[52_dropoff]

"Ah." Yes, even worse, when it comes to bureaucracy. "I would never have guessed that is an uniform. A bit tip off to the differences between your world and mine."

[abitofawildman]

"No? Well, you did say that my world is at least a century behind yours. Say, what do officer dress uniforms look like in the midwestern United States?"

[52_dropoff]

"Less colorful. The US army tended towards blues. Sometimes there was gray." He won't go into the details of the Civil War right now. "And there were soldiers prior to them called Redcoats but the cut was very different.

"Also, a lot of soldiers tended to wear hats."

[abitofawildman]

"The Water Tribes generally dress in tones of blue and grey. The Earth Kingdom in greens. After the Hundred Year War the only military industrial complex still functioning with any efficiency was Fire Nation, so...red," he says gesturing towards his coat.

"Most of our enlisted wear some sort of head protection, but..." Here Bumi runs his hands through his wild, cowlick riddled hair. "Officer privilege."

[52_dropoff]

"I'm going to venture a guess that everything in your world is connected to one of the four classical elements." He wonders about an one hundred year war, but holds his questions about that for now.

[abitofawildman]

"You would be correct in that assumption, yes." He pauses to take another sip from his tumbler.

"Where I'm from there are people called Benders who have the ability to manipulate one of the elements. And then there are those of us don't have that kind of spiritual connection, and we're called Non-benders."

[52_dropoff]

"Spiritual connection? That can grant anyone these abilities?". Now you've caught Charlie's attention.