milliways_bar | (no subject)

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As he suspected he would, Jim caught Sherlock's - heh, Rory's - stupid bloody cold. He went to bed angry, frustrated, and sick to the back teeth of this entire bloody bar.

He wakes up with a Welsh accent, a body that feels weirdly exhausted, and a whooooole lot of surprise at finding himself in a bedroom that is not wallpapered in Laura Ashley, cluttered with years' worth of books and theatre junk. Gethin has never set foot in a room so opulent, and so incomprehensible to him. He spends a good hour looking at the clothes, the books, the...frankly pornographic, yet extremely beautiful...photography on the wall of the library (the centrepiece of which involves his own face, and the blurred figure of a much taller man in the background. He doesn't look at it for long.) Everything is very, very weird.

In short, Gethin Roberts does not have a bloody clue what's going on. But at least there are clothes he recognises - comfortably 80s in style - and if the cold he's got means he can't go searching Jonathan out, at least there appears to be a...bar, downstairs?

What. The Actual. Hell.

[OOC: getting in under the wire! Open until the end of March. :)]

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Despite his insistence, Rory has been wandering around the grounds, though he's been more occupied with skipping stones on the lake than seeking anyone out.

When he re-enters the bar, he pauses at the sight of the man who said his name was Jim. Since he's the only person Rory knows here, it would be rude not to say hello, wouldn't it? No matter how strangely Jim behaved...

So he approaches, cautiously. "Jim, I wanted to apologize for my behavior the other day. I'm sorry I was rude. It was uncalled-for."

Gethin has had a day full of people calling him Jim, and someone claiming he's their husband. If one more person calls him...well no, he doesn't know, but he's a bit rattled by the whole thing, to be honest.

'I'm not him. I'm not him.'

There's a snap of annoyance in his tone, but he sucks it back in straight away and smiles tiredly in the direction of...

'You?'

Wait, what the fuck?

...ooookay.

"Rory? Rory Slippery? We met the other night -- or I met a bloke who looks like you and said his name was Jim and we were boyfriend and boyfriend, which is fine, except I'd never met him before and I've never had a boyfriend."

Blink. Bink blink.

Gethin peers at him. Then shakes his head as if trying to dislodge a thought, only it doesn't go away.

'I've seen your face before. But I'm not Jim. My name's Gethin.'

Recently. He's seen his face recently.

"Hello, Gethin," Rory says. "Yeah, the... photographs.

"I'm fairly certain I didn't pose for them."

'You've been in that room as well?'

Well, that doesn't make sense.

'You weren't there this morning. Unless you were, and we just circled and missed each other.'

The place is big enough for that to happen. But he doesn't think so, for no other reason than...why would he be there at all?

"I woke up there a few days ago."

He hesitates.

"I think we -- he and I -- I think he seduced me."

'...oh.'

Jesus Christ. Whoever this guy is, he sounds nasty.

'I dunno, though. I met his wife earlier. She said he has a boyfriend, so - well, I suppose that's no reason he couldn't be seducing you as well, really.'

"His wife?"

Rory is now convinced there is no depth to Jim's depravity.

"The poor girl."

'That's what I told her, but she didn't seem to mind. She was just angry he was pretending to be me. Said she didn't know what she'd tell their kids.'

Poor woman. Poor family.

'Doesn't explain what you're doing in those photos, though. Unless he took them when you were asleep.'

"He must have ... very quickly. And had them enlarged and hung them quickly."

He rubs the bridge of his nose. Ugh, this headache. he feels like his brain is afloat.

Is it even possible to do that so fast? Gethin's from a time of much slower photo technology, so he has no idea. He also has no idea what sort of bloke would put explicit photos of a one-night stand on the wall of his library. it's bizarre behaviour.

'But you don't remember anything about it at all?'

Rory doesn't think it makes sense, really.

Which means there's someone out there with his face, and isn't that an odd sensation.

"I don't. I went to bed in our house in Wimbledon and woke up here, as far as I know. But I thought the place was interesting -- and I don't want to be at home right now anyway -- so I stayed."

'I went to bed in London too, and woke up here.'

It's the tattoo that's bothering him. There can be semi-rational explanations for the other things, but not that. Not really.

He yanks a handkerchief from his - very 80s - jeans, and sneezes into it.

'Sorry, got a cold. D'you fancy a drink? Maybe we'll work it out.'

"Sorry to hear that.

"I'd love a drink," fervently. "Maybe a brandy to fight whatever we've both got."

'Yeah, good plan.'

He smiles at Rory, and turns to the bar.

'Someone showed me how this works earlier. Bloody mad, isn't it? A whole place run on magic.'

But, lo! Two brandies. He can't deny it's a neat trick.

'Had you been here before the other day?'

"Never.

"Though right off, the Bar asked me, through a napkin, if I'd tend for a while so she could rest and I thought, why not? I'm not a bad bartender, as long as no one orders anything complicated.

"Had you?"

'No, never.'

He thinks for a few seconds, then shrugs.

'I suppose if a place can produce food and drinks out of thin air, why not pick up two blokes from London and dump them in a room a few days apart? Maybe everyone comes in to that room first, who knows?'

Which doesn't explain the photos, but he'll ignore that for now.

"I don't know--I've seen people come in through the door." He nods towards it. "I haven't tried it yet, though.

"Thanks for this, by the way." He sips some brandy, and shudders a bit. He normally doesn't drink anything stronger than lager.

Edited 2017-03-29 01:19 (UTC)

'I can't even see a door. I s'pose it's to stop me even getting tempted to leave.'

He nods acknowledgment for the thanks, and picks his own brandy up.

'Why is it you don't want to leave? If you don't mind me asking.'

"I'm living with my brothers and parents while I go to university, and a few days ago my brother seduced my girlfriend.

"My parents are trying to keep the peace between us, but I'd rather just not see any of them for a while."

'Oh.'

He pulls a face, pure sympathy.

'Shit. That's not what you want a brother to do. What'd he do it for?'

"She and I had been having some problems, and he was just bored enough to take advantage of it. His girlfriend's been traveling in Thailand."

Edited 2017-03-29 01:27 (UTC)

Is everyone in the world suddenly a massive dick? Gethin stares for a moment, then shakes his head.

'Is he even sorry?'

"No. He's smug."

And Rory is deeply hurt.