milliways_bar | (no subject)

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jonathan levinson

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After his conversation with Andrew, Noah spends a lot of time in his new room. When he's there, he doesn't feel "faded", and no other episodes are forthcoming; it seems safe. He's not entirely ready to push his luck and start exploring again.

But he comes out now and again, and even makes it down to the bonfire for a short time at Halloween. After that, he starts spending a little more time out of his room. Still not going far, but he ends up lurking in the bar for several hours at a time.

Like now. He's sitting up at one corner of the bar, quietly looking out at the patrons while he sips at a chocolate milkshake. He looks content enough to be there, but not in any hurry to move outside his comfort zone of the cozy, lonely corner.

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Jonathan has been keeping an eye out for Noah every time he's stopped in, but hasn't seen him - until now.

He gets a drink from the bar and wanders over.

"Hey. Noah, right?"

Noah jumps a little, but manages not to spill his milkshake. His eyes widen in recognition.

"Uh, yeah. You're Jonathan."

"That's me." He pulls up the nearest empty stool. "Mind if i join you?"

Noah shakes his head silently.

He sits.

"So, uh... you know I'm from the same world as Andrew, right?"

Noah's expression and the way his head pulls back says no, no he didn't.

"You know Andrew?"

"Since we were younger than you." He doesn't look away. "And he thought maybe there are some things we should talk about."

Now Noah looks wary. "We should talk" never has a good implication, even if he doesn't know Jonathan all that well.

"Okay," he says quietly.

"Not like that", he says with a faint smile. "He thought it might help you, is all, to know there's somebody here who... knows how it feels."

"How . . . it feels?" Noah echoes, hunching a little behind his milkshake. "What feels?"

"To have somebody who was a friend turn on you." He promised he wouldn't say it was Andrew, and he won't. Not yet. "And to be made a sacrifice without getting to choose. It wasn't quite the same for me as what I've heard of yours, but... close enough."

Noah's head jerks back. "You...?"

He stares. And keeps staring.

"Yeah. I was one of the Milliways dead for a long time. I'll tell you how I got back sometime, but that's not the part that matters now." He meets Noah's eyes. "My hometown was on a Hellmouth, and something called the Seal of Danzalthar. I went there with a friend to try to destroy it... but something was whispering in his ear and giving him other ideas."

Noah shrinks back. He's not sure he wants to deal with this. But he's listening, and keeps watching Jonathan out of the corner of his eyes.

He twists the milkshake around on the bar. And around. And around.

"This thing was called the First", he continues calmly. "It couldn't act on the physical world by itself, so it got people to do its work for it. It told him where to find a very special knife. Convinced him what he was doing was for the greater good, and that I wouldn't suffer. That I'd even go to a heaven dimension just because he did this."

Noah feels something twist sharply inside himself. Whelk's "greater good" had been his bank account. Not that it's not jealousy that cuts at Noah; it's the betrayal wedging in deeper.

But he manages to murmur, in a voice barely more than a breath: "Did you?"

He shakes his head.

"I came here."

That makes Noah lift his head. "You weren't a ghost?"

"I never was", he confirms. "Though they do happen in my world."

"Huh." Noah looks back to his milkshake. "What did Andrew tell you? About me?"

"Not a lot." It's meant as a reassurance, that he doesn't know too much. "That you'd been through the same thing, and that the guy who did it wanted to reawake the ley lines. Because he'd lost all his money, but Andrew wasn't clear on how that would help him."

Noah shrugs. "I'm not sure Whelk thought it out all the way either." He sighs sadly. "Yeah. That's about it."

Jonathan nods quietly.

"I'm gonna guess you never saw it coming?"

Noah shakes his head jerkily.

"You?"

"Not until it was already too late", he says quietly. "I kept thinking, for a long time, how I should have."