milliways_bar | James Stanton and Cally enjoy each other's normalness and Ako embarrasses James, for the fourth time

James blinks a little at the damp girl.

"Excuse me - do you need some dry clothes? I have a jacket -"

Cally turns and smiles at him.

"Hm? Oh, no. I'm just fine, thank you. Bit damp, that's all. I was caught out in the rain in my umbrella, and then almost as soon as I walked into my flat the strange tune that brings me here started up. I didn't have much choice but to come on in, despite my moistened state."

She holds out her hand (which has been dried off from holding a warm cup of tea). "I'm Cally. Always a pleasure to meet a fellow Brit in the bar."

"Very much so," James agrees, and shakes her hand firmly. "You're not about to tell me you're really a goddess or a spaceship or something like that, are you? Not that that wouldn't be all right, it's just if I'm going to be shocked best to get it out of the way, I suppose."

Cally smiles, amused.

"This place makes one wonder, doesn'it? No, no. I'm quite safe and normal." ~~Or so she thinks.~~ "I think we've been talking to the same people, though. I met a little...well, it was small, cute, and furry. It meowed like a cat but looked similar to a rabbit. But anyway, it told me it was a spaceship. And I've met a Valkyrie, though not a goddess. To my knowledge at least. You don't have any surprises hidden up your sleeve, do you?"

Admittedly, looking at James, she wouldn't think he did.

James epitomizes normal. It's tragic, really.

"Yes! That's the one," he says, eagerly. "It was - well, I suppose it was cute. But it was a bit unnerving. I haven't met any Valkyries, but I did meet the goddess of the underworld."

He looks vaguely uncomfortable. "Um. She cried at me. But unless making goddesses cry is a special surprise, I really don't think I've got any -"

Cally isn't going to ask about how one makes a goddess cry.

"Well, it's always pleasant to meet someone who is completely normal. It's a rare find here, it would seem." She smiles.

"When and where, well, more specifically that is, are you from?"

"A small town that you've most likely never heard of," James says, with a smile. "And - um - 1977. Still not used to that question. You?"

"London, currently, while I attend University. I used to live out in the country, though." She then adds a year that is not particularly recognizable to a "normal" Earth's timeline.

James blinks at the year.

And then decides that the wisest course of action is prooobably to pretend it doesn't exist.

"What university do you go to, then?" he tries for, instead. "I'm going to be graduating next year, I have to start thinking about it."

Cally names a university in London that James may or may not have heard of. Your call, really. "It has a good program in International Relations, which is what I'm majoring in," she adds.

"Graduating? Well, that sounds fairly exciting." She grins ruefully. "Well, for some people, at least. It was for me. Do you have any idea what you'd like to major in?"

"Oh yes," James says, proudly. "I'm going to be a botanist." He pulls out his book of Magical Botany, which he has, in fact, been clutching this whole time. "I'm here to return a book to this girl who lent it to me -"

He is not, in fact, blushing at the mention of the girl. At all.

"Botany? That certainly sounds interesting. I know a bit, but it's all only what my father taught me when I was small. I don't remember as much of it as I'd like." A slight frown.

The frown grows into a smile as she watches James not blush at all. "Really?" she says, maybe a little too innocently. She looks at the title. "This girl knows magic, then?"

"She's a witch," James says, rather proudly, and grins. "Botany's really terribly interesting - we don't have very many resources for studying it around where I live, so I might be going to university somewhere with a better climate. Or at least spending a year there."

Cally takes a sip of tea to hide her amused smile. "Mmmm," she says.

After a moment she regains composure. "Travelling sounds lovely. I've enjoyed living in London, though I do miss the country sometimes, and my Aunt. Family's always hard to leave behind. The first year is especially difficult."

Admittedly, Cally had more of a longing for her home than her aunt.

"I've been to London a few times. It was very nice," James says, politely. "To visit my siblings, and so on - one or two of them are at school there."

"Do you have many siblings?" Cally asks, curiously, thinking that three sounds like quite enough. But then, she's an Only.

James makes a face. "Eight," he says, glumly. "Five brothers and three sisters and it's too many."

Kiss.

And...four fingers.

And gone once more.

Cally blinks at the number of siblings James has.

And then blinks a good deal more at the girl who kisses James and then disappears again. She covers her mouth with her hand to hide her mirth.

Only she can't, because she's chuckling behind her hand.

"Eight, ah, yes, that is certainly quite a lot...." Cally gallantly tries to stay on topic, but, alas, cannot.

Biting back her giggles she says, "That wouldn't happen to be the girl you borrowed the book from, would it?"

"No," James says, with a great deal of flailing. "I've never met her before!"

Or so he thinks.

Cally still valiently tries not to giggle over this. She's succeeding. More or less.

"Are you sure you've never met her? Although, I imagine a strange girl randomly kissing you is the least peculiar thing that could happen."

Cally glances around the bar to see if she could catch a glimpse of the girl. Nothing. "Perhaps in her culture that is normal and friendly behavior," Cally offers grinning.

Then, taking pity on him. "Can I get you something to drink? Tea, maybe?"

"It seems a fairly common culture in the bar tonight," James says, scowling. "That's the third one."

He is, however, not as vexed as he might be. He is, at least, apparently improving.

"And yes, tea would be lovely."

"Third?" Cally repeats, raising an eyebrow. "Quite popular with the ladies, you are," she says, maintaining her innocent demeanor.

"Any particular type of tea?" she asks, as she turns to go to the bar to get it.

"Not really," James says glumly. "The highest I've been rated is a four out of ten."

Yes. This really does make sense, in context.

"And, um, any kind - I'll pay," he adds, rather belatedly, since he is a polite young boy.

Cally blinks.

"Four out of ten? Is this something the girls at your school are doing?"

Cally grins at him as she heads to the bar. "I'll treat. You deserve one after being, er, ~~molested~~ traumatized tonight."

And she's back moments later with another steaming cup of tea for James.

"Hardly from my school," James says, grumpily. "There was this girl here who seems to have organized it, it's maddening -"

He takes the tea, still grumping rather.

"Ah. I'm beginning to see now."

A beat.

"Any particular reason why this girl would organize such an interesting...ploy?"

"Because she's hideously bored?" James offers.

Cally nods her head. "That is certainly a plausible reason." If Cally weren't so darn polite and nice, she could see the amusement in sending random girls to kiss a single boy. Especially if that boy reacted the way James did.

Then, in an attempt to steer the conversation back to something more normal (Cally seems to gravitate towards it. It's a pity.), "So. What's it like having a large family? It sounds rather nice in some respects, though I imagine it's hard to find private time for yourself."

James likes polite and nice people! James is a polite and nice boy himself! Random kissing is not a situation with which he is accustomed. Darn Susan Cooper and her value system.

"There are," he says, still a trifle grumpy, "far too many of us. Although it's not as bad anymore, now that most of the older ones are off at Uni."

Darn her value system, indeed.

Cally nods.

"I imagine the house feels quite empty with out the whole lot of you around. I'm an only," she adds. "Even my extended family isn't very large. My mother was an only child as well, and my aunt is really the only family I've ever had around growing up and she's not married."

James considers this for a moment.

"I can't imagine that," he says, finally, honestly. "I mean, even now, there's never less than five of us at home at any one time -"

Cally chuckles.

"And I can't imagine that! I spent two years in a dormatory and thought our floor was noisy, even though it was a quiet floor. It was always quiet at home." Especially after mum and dad became sick. She can almost hear the wind in the poplar trees inside her head; it's a comforting sound.

She shakes her head. "I have my own flat, now, though and it's much quieter. Except when my neighbors downstairs play their music too loud," she adds, after a moment of reflection.

James looks envious. "Oh, I can't wait. Having my own space -

but," he adds glumly, "I'll probably end up rooming with a sibling or something, even then. That's the way our family does things."

Cally smiles.

"I think it would be nice to room with a family member. You'd at least know in advance what you were in for. And you could always blackmail them in to keeping their half of the room clean and doing their share of the rest of the cleaning. I roomed with my best friend, Jen, and it was very nearly like family. I would have taken her as a flat-mate, but she wanted to live closer to her boyfriend." She shrugs.

"You'd always know in advance, yes," James says, wryly, "but that doesn't make it any more pleasant. It wouldn't be any sort of change, you see?"

Cally nods.

"That's true. And college is about change."

She finishes her tea.

"It's getting late for me, I'm afraid and there's some reading back at my flat for me to do. It was nice meeting you James." She stands and grins at him. "Good luck with the ladies."

And she turns and walks out the door into her flat.

James Stanton and Cally enjoy each other's normalness and Ako embarrasses James, for the fourth time

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