Kinda, almost, not really first eps

[feed_the_lost]

Will sits at the back of the bar, back to the wall. He has a copy of the bar explanation pamphlet in hand, tapping it rhythmic on the scarred wood of the table.

He's watching the comings and goings from behind hooded eyes. He may not be good company but he's still trying to understand the place.


{ooc: new mun/new Will.}

Comments

[witchfinder_general]

A middle-aged man comes walking in, looking like a priest and carrying a rather old-fashioned model of laptop computer.

"Good morning," he says to Will in a polite British voice.

[feed_the_lost]

"Morning." Will's eyes are a little red as he takes the man it. Face still bruised and cut up but healing. It's clearly been a rough few days.

He taps the pamphlet again before dropping it. "Been here before?"

[witchfinder_general]

"Often," the priest-like man says. "I'm Father Pearse Harman, London 1998, and I run the little chapel here."

[feed_the_lost]

"Will Graham." And getting that it's the correct form. "2015, Baltimore."

[witchfinder_general]

"Would you like some tea?" the priest asks, politely. "This place must be very confusing for you."

[feed_the_lost]

"Very." He confirms. "No matter how many times it's explained."

"Coffee?" He asks hopefully. He can't tell if the lingering headache is caffeine depredation or residual concussion.

[witchfinder_general]

"Of course," Father Harman says, waving to a rat and then ordering coffee.

As the rat leaves, he adds, "The explanations sometimes make it sound more bizarre, not less. And it doesn't help that this place seems to conspire to demolish the strength of one's convictions as well."

[feed_the_lost]

That last part gets a raised eyebrow. "You speak from experience."

[witchfinder_general]

"Yes," the priest says. "I shot the first vampire I met here. Fortunately, what kills a Code Five in my world doesn't harm a pirate vampire from his. I still ended up in the cells, of course."

Pause.

"That may be confusing to you as well," he admits as the coffee for Will, and his own tea, arrive.

[feed_the_lost]

He closes his eyes for a long moment. "I think I'm more surprised there are cells here."

[witchfinder_general]

"There has to be some sort of punishment for people who break the rules," the priest says. "And actually, well, barring anybody seems not to be an option. Drug-lords, actual literal Dracula, and suspected cannibals can roam freely here as long as they keep the rules."

[feed_the_lost]

That last one leads to a raised eyebrow.

[witchfinder_general]

"I am told he doesn't kill here, and only cooks acceptable food," Harman says. "But still, some people find the idea very off-putting."

[the_cupbearer]

"You look confused," says Ganymede--young man, long hair, impossibly attractive--from his table. He's interested in this man who looks like he's trying to absorb everything.

[feed_the_lost]

"It's a lot to take in." Will admits, tapping the edges of the pamphlet.

He doesn't meet Ganymede's eye but he does study the youth's face.

[the_cupbearer]

"It is at first," he agrees. "But it gets easier the less you try to make sense of it. Milliways is complicated, nearly as complicated as the people that come here."

Ganymede finds it interesting that Will won't meet his eyes, but he's familiar with the near-deferential posture. "Would you rather I not look at your face while we talk?" he asks.

[feed_the_lost]

Will answers that by forcing himself to meet Ganymede's eye. Briefly. It's not a deferential reaction so much as a self protective one. "It's fine. Don't always like what I see in people's eyes."

His own eyes have something dark and dangerous to them.

[the_cupbearer]

Ganymede chuckles. "Does anyone?" he asks, unflinching in the face of that dark and dangerous.

He's seen that before many many times, and has not come away unscathed. But that hasn't deterred him yet. "And what do you see in mine, if I may ask?" Will might see something beyond his appearance, the calm that comes only with age and experience; the arrogance he still has from his youth and rarely shows, too.

[feed_the_lost]

Will looks up, looks into Ganymede's eyes.

There's a moment of discomfort as Will takes Ganymede in, letting everything about the youth wash over him. "Time. Pain. Survival."

He looks away, taking his glasses off to rub his eyes like he's staving off a headache.

[the_cupbearer]

Ganymede breaks the gaze first, but watches Will as he rubs his eyes. "Would you like something for a headache?" he asks.

"Apologies if you didn't like what you saw." It's not entirely heartfelt; he isn't sorry. He can't be after this long, it's just a side effect of his age.

[feed_the_lost]

He shrugs, taking a drink of his coffee. "It's fine. It'll pass."

He quirks a small smile. "I've seen worse."

[the_cupbearer]

"I can only imagine. The look in yours reminds me of someone," he says.

[feed_the_lost]

He cocks his head in question.

[the_cupbearer]

"I don't know that I could accurately place it," he replies, shaking his head slowly. "Just...reminds me someone I knew."

Still knows. Still interacts with. Is still here, for a given value of 'here'.

[feed_the_lost]

"Compliment or insult?"