milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Boromir descends the stairs, again without his armor and weapons except for his eating dagger--though he knows by now he does not need it. He feels better with it at his waist nonetheless.

He sits at the bar and looks around for a few moments before speaking. "Lady Bar? The concoction I had the other day--I would like that again, please."

Up pops waffles with honey and berries. Boromir puts a coin on the bar top and murmurs "Thank you" as he begins to eat.

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"Good morning." His smile is friendly--but he has been a soldier all his life, not a man of court, so the next words out of his mouth are, "The waffles are good this morning."

She looks at him bemusedly, then slowly nods. "That's nice. Bar provides the best meals in the mutliverse." At this she grins and affectionately pats the Bar.

"I don't think we've met yet. Are you a new arrival?" of course she watched Sooty make a fool of himself, and heard about it afterwards, but she's being polite.

"I have been here a few days. My name is Boromir, son of Denethor."

"Pleased to meet you, Boromir. My name is Eska Smith," she gives a half bow in greeting.

"A pleasure, good lady.

"Whence do you hail?"

She winces impercepatably at 'lady'.

"From Ankh-Morpork," she hazards. He's as close to anyone from her world as anyone else she's met, except for the whence-speech, wchih makes him ound like a character in a play. "Unseen University."

The name is unfamiliar but that does not surprise him. "How do you attend a university you cannot see?"

"You can see some of it," she explains, "but much of it is folded in on itself in space time, so from the outside, at least, the majority of the campus is not visible." It's a rote answer, used to explain to tourists, of which quite a few ask the same question.

"So, where are you from?"

"Gondor," Boromir says simply, his mind occupied with trying to understand a university folded into space time.

There are many parts of her answer he does not understand.

That's the point of a rote answer like that: to confuse the tourists.

"I don't know it, I'm afraid." she says.

"It is a country in a world we call Middle Earth.

"I was told there are some histories of my country here. I should like to read them."

"Middle Earth? I know a lot of people from Earth, but I've never heard of a Middle place." She shrugs. "Bar can provide books, though. Have you asked her?"

"I have not--I did not know she could provide books. I shall have to ask."

He hesitates, then asks, indicating his slightly grimy and torn tunic, "Can she provide clothing as well?"

She nods. "I think so, although I have been asked to bring some in from the city for a friend. but I think that was her personal choice."

"The door disappeared," he explains. "I would not think one needed clothes in the afterlife, but . . . I could use a new shirt."

"It does that for some people," Esk confirms. "I can still use it, though. Which is why some people ask me to run errands into the city occasionally.

"You could try Bar, or do you want me to call in a few favours at the Tailors Guild?"

"I think I would like a handmade tunic," he muses, and pulls out his purse for coins. "Could you use my currency? Gold is gold no matter where you are from, I should think."

"It is, but we haven't used pure gold coinage in Ankh Morpork for years," Esk says, her eyes widening a bit. "Put it towards my tab, however much you'd expect to pay."

He studies the tab board--his own tab is several numbers in the negative. He puts a coin on the bar and says, "Bar, please put this towards the tab of Eska Smith."

The coin disappears and Esk's tab reduces. Drastically.

"Thank you," she grins, and eyes him over, sizing him up. "I'll bring in what I can get for you."

"Thank you," he says, bowing slightly again. "If I am to stay a while it would not suit to wear the same clothes every day."

"No, I can imagine it wouldn't," she says, "although, have you seen the washing facilities they have here?" She add, a little incredulously. She hadn't mentioned it to anyone when she moved in, but if, as Sooty says, he comes from a 'High Fantasy' world, he may be as surprised by running water as she was.

"The first night I was here I stood under the fountain in my room for quite some time. The water was warm and it drained itself. I liked that very much."

She nods. "I never quite figured out that thing. Maybe It should have occured to me to stand under it.

"So how has the rest of your Milliways experience been?"

"I have learned much," he says, nodding. "I spoke with a young woman who works for the city guard, investigating murders. And the barkeep introduced me to waffles."