First Entry - Max Caulfield

[little_pieces_of_time]

(OOM:Nemesis, n., the inescapable agent of someone's or something's downfall, especially as divine punishment or retribution for their own actions.)

Max steps through the door, and startles to find not the familiar campus of Blackwell Academy, but what looks like a bar. With people in it who are definitely not students, however artsy some of the student body might be. The slight teen stares, caught like a deer in headlights, with one hand still on the door, the other gripping the strap of her messenger bag as though it might steady her.

She might still be a bit new at Blackwell, but there's no way there's a bar on campus, however much Principal Wells might secretly want one for himself.

This day keeps getting stranger and stranger. Where is she? How did she get here?

(ooc: OOM content warnings for teen-typical bullying and brief gun violence.)

Comments

[ostro_goth]

Also, do cats belong in bars?

This one seems to, as it comes to greet her. It's small and grey but carries itself regally. Or at least nobly to some degree.

[little_pieces_of_time]

Cats are easier than people, at least. They hardly ever ask questions. A cat is a small piece of familiarity in the latest strange situation in a day full of strange situations.

"Hey there, kitty," she says, faintly. Max is hesitant to let go of the door, but does so to lean down and offer the cat her hand to sniff. "This your place?"

[ostro_goth]

The cat leans in, and rubs its head against her hand. Then, it turns and walks away, as if he were certain that she'd follow him.

[little_pieces_of_time]

This day is increasingly surreal, to the point where she feels sick to her stomach, but who is she to argue if the cat knows what he's doing? After a moment of hesitation, she stands back up and follows.

[ostro_goth]

The cat walks to a door on the other side than where she came in, and scratches the door in clear indication that he wants her to open it.

[little_pieces_of_time]

Max does her best to stay calm, and is not entirely successful. This place is nearly as loud as the school's hallways between classes, and nowhere near as familiar. How is this here? A bar? On campus? There should be the courtyard here, the statue, the street and the view of the small, familiar town and the endless sea beyond. There should be students.

Not... all of this. She can feel her heart thudding in her chest as she reaches the door and opens it for... what, is this cat her spirit guide?

She wouldn't have thought it'd be a cat.

[ostro_goth]

Outside, there is a lake she has never seen, with steep glens around, and even mountains on the other end; but the cat runs down a slope to the left towards a small, low building that will, if she cares to follow, turn out to be a forge.

[little_pieces_of_time]

There's something almost familiar in the steep glens of the forests she sees, but only in temperament. The landscape is unknown, the gardens strange, the lake wholly unfamiliar. There's no way this is anywhere near the familiar reaches of her hometown.

But she follows. It's the only thing to do, and though she's ashamed of the realization, she's afraid of being left behind by the small cat who seemed to know where she should go. She's afraid of having been foolish to have followed it. But what else could she have done?

She peers around the edge of the doorway, hesitant.

[ostro_goth]

There is a man at the forge-fire, wearing a leather apron and his long dark hair tied with a length of leather. He looks up when Max sticks her head around the door jamb.

"Greetings," he says. "One would assume Count brought you because he recognised you're new."

[little_pieces_of_time]

"I... guess so," she agrees with a faint smile, her voice light. "He found me at the door, and did seem like he knew what he was doing."

More than she did, certainly!

Max steps out from behind the edge of the door frame. The girl is small and slight for eighteen, and her posture does little to help that. She seems a typical mid-twenty-teens teenager, otherwise, outfitted in a pink t-shirt and grey hooded jacket, jeans, scuffed sneakers, and messenger bag. The t-shirt has the name JANE in white all-caps, next to the silhouette of an antlerless deer.

"I'm, uh, Max. Where are we?"

[ostro_goth]

"We are at Milliways, the tavern at the end of the known cosmos," the man says. "I am Teja; I used to be a king, but here, I run the forge and work in Security."

Pause.

"Visitors from many worlds have been coming here for many years now; we have rules and traditions that may bewilder newcomers. But be assured, we do welcome all that come."

[little_pieces_of_time]

Max swallows, her throat tight. This is a lot to take in. Not that she's in any position to argue, with how today has been going so far, but...

"Um... how...?" she manages, stuck somewhere between 'used to be a king' and 'end of the known cosmos' and 'from many worlds.' It's not just the rules and traditions that bewilder newcomers. "How... did I get here?"

How does anyone get here?

[ostro_goth]

"The bar picked you, and so a door in your world became a door that leads here," Teja says, turning briefly to pick up a piece of glowing metal from the fire.

"One moment, please."

For about a minute, he hammers on the metal, doubling its length; then he hacks it apart in the middle, folds it over, and returns it to the fire.

[run_barry]

Barry pops into Milliways looking for a quick bite, but in coming through the door he nearly runs over the girl standing in the threshold.

"Oh, woah, sorry!" he apologizes, doing a neat sidestep spin to move around her.

In a sweater thrown over a button-down, jeans and Converse shoes he hopefully doesn't stand out as too strange, other than of course being a stranger in the mystery bar that's not her school.

[little_pieces_of_time]

"Woah! Careful!" The teen girl shies out of the way, not expecting someone to come barreling up behind her. She is slightly built, in a pink t-shirt, hooded jacket and jeans, with a messenger bag slung over her shoulder that all serves to label her as a somewhat hipster high-school student. She was already looking a bit distressed before Barry arrived, but the sudden stranger getting up in her personal space - even accidentally, and she was standing in a doorway - only adds to it.

[run_barry]

"Sorry," Barry apologizes again, hands held up, palms out. He takes a step back to give her even more space, and then jerks a thumb at the door.

"I was just stepping in to grab something to eat. Kind of busy on my side of the door so, thought I'd take advantage of the bar, y'know?"

Or... maybe she doesn't know. Giving her a once over Barry asks, "Are you okay?"

[little_pieces_of_time]

She looks scared, and confused. More than a little lost. Her shirt is a faded pink; on it, in white, is the name JANE next to the silhouette of an antlerless deer.

"What is this place? How did I get here?"

He seems to know what's going on, but there's no way he just came in from Blackwell.

[run_barry]

"Oh, okay, you're new," Barry says, expression shifting with sudden realization and understanding. "Okay, cool, um... "

Where best to begin...

Barry glances around, looking for help or ideas, and finally gestures at a nearby table.

"Would you like to sit down? The explanation is going to sound a little crazy, but I promise everything is fine and it'll all mostly make sense eventually."

He gives her a smile that's warm and friendly, and hopefully reassuring, knowing exactly how nuts Milliways seems the first time in.

[little_pieces_of_time]

The teen doesn't want to sit down with a strange guy, however warm and friendly he's presenting himself as.

"No, tell me where we are," she demands, voice shaking. "There isn't a bar on campus. I was just there. How did I get here? Where's here?"

[run_barry]

"Okay, that's fine," Barry says quickly, realizing he's not doing such a great job at this.

For a moment he considers making a quick trip to the bar to grab a pamphlet, then realizes bringing superspeed into the situation is probably only going to make things worse, so he stays put, making sure to leave her her space, and tries to explain.

"You're in Milliways, it's a bar at the end of the universe. Which... is the part I was telling you was going to sound crazy, but that door is an inter-dimensional portal that brought you from your campus to this place, and if you go back through it it'll take you back to the same place you left."

Barry gestures at the floor to indicate the bar, at the door, back down at the bar again, and the door once more, then watches to see if that made any sense at all or what her reaction is going to be.

[little_pieces_of_time]

She stares at him, trying to read the lie in his face but failing to find it. That all sounds mad.

But then, it has been a mad day.

"All that's... supposed to 'make sense eventually'?" she asks, in disbelief. "You're saying... I stepped out the door of my school building, and the far side of that same door didn't lead to the outside of the same building. That's mad."

[run_barry]

Barry tries to hold up under her scrutiny, and then gives an awkward shrug.

"If you decide to keep hanging around this place, yeah," he replies.

"I know it sounds insane," he said as much before he started explaining, "But, I mean... depending on your understanding of physics and the universe it is scientifically plausible. There's also the magic angle, which works better as an explanation for some people who don't want to deal with the science. In either case it's basically a folding of space and time so that the doorway bridges the gap between where you came from and this place."

Barry could really go on a whole ramble here, but he stops himself to ask, "Wait... when and where are you from?"

He's found it helps to know that bit of information to help with analogies an such. Based on her dress he'd say she's from somewhere around his time, but best not to just assume, right?

[little_pieces_of_time]

She can't help but think all that sci-fi talk would be completely sensible to Warren, but there's a good reason she isn't a science student.

"I, uh, came in from Blackwell Academy, in Arcadia Bay, Oregon. It's October eighth," she replies, voice still unsteady. She adds, in case it helps: "Two-thousand thirteen."

"So... something about this place manipulates time and space, and did so to bring me here... on its own?"

[run_barry]

"Great, thank you that helps a lot," Barry says, a touch relieved. Hopefully being relatively close in time and from an earth helps make explaining things a little easier.

"My name's Barry Allen, I'm in from one of the police precincts in Central City, Missouri, it's December fifth two-thousand fourteen for me."

Nodding to her question, he replies, "Yeah. Depending on who you ask it's either science or magic, but the main thing is the front door serves as a portal and for whatever reason it opened for you today. I can't really say why, some people tell me there's some sort of 'landlord' in charge who picks which people come in, but I've never really seen any evidence of that other than this place just being here and functioning. I think the best, most consistent theory I've heard is that it picks up people during interesting events or changes in their lives, and generally finding this place gives them help in dealing with whatever is happening on their side of the door. Whether that's just by offering a safe place or a break, or perspective, or literal help from others with whatever's going on."

Again he pauses, waiting to see how all that goes over with her.

[little_pieces_of_time]

"Uh, I'm Max," she replies, her right hand absently coming up to grip her left arm. Closed body-language, uncertain. "Max Caulfield."

Something in her look reacts to 'during interesting events of changes in their lives'. It's hard to imagine that he's from half a country and over a year away. But then, it's been an increasingly hard to imagine day.

"What do they, um, tell people on the other side of their door - how do they explain where they disappeared to?"