Enter Mal Reynolds.

[badinlatin]

The hatch opens and Mal rights himself, somewhere in the back of his mind double-checking that his gun is still on his hip. The corridor wasn't a corridor anymore, and instead of seeing anyone he recognized he saw a wide expanse of people, and...rats? Blinking, wondering if he had kissed anyone lately, Mal came to the realization that he was perfectly capable of eloquently explaining his confusion at this particular juncture.

"Huh."

If he recognized nothing else, he recognized a bar in the corner opposite to the door he had just walked through. At least this place has one. Find a stool, figure out where you are. Good plan.

[OOC: First ever intro post for mun. >.O; Gentleness appreciated?]

[[Summary: Snow gives Mal all the necessary information, Mal chats up Richard and tries Scotch, enters into a bit of a still ongoing dancing around with Ace, and begins a convo with Raph. And then there is River, Roland, and the bit where Mal finds out what gunslingers are and all that. Yeah.]]

Comments

[lastgunslinger]

"It's a shock, yar," says Roland agreeably. "Where do you hail from?"

He himself has graf.

[badinlatin]

"Nowhere in particular." Keep it simple. "Just walked through a door, and here I am. At the end of the gorram universe, apparently."

"What about you? Anywhere in particular you come from?" A glace up and down. "Shadow? Whitefall?"

[lastgunslinger]

"Or near enough to it." He nods to the observation window.

Roland half-smiles. "Nowhere in particular. A world that moved on."

He drinks.

[badinlatin]

A thought. Gorram it...

"Has anyone else, um, followed me here? Big guy, loud, or maybe a girl, long hair, kinda funny in the brainpan?"

[river_meimei]

Over his shoulder, idly, "No."

[lastgunslinger]

A small smile. Roland will smile for River.

"Hile."

[badinlatin]

Whoa. "River, what are you doing here? Where's Simon - he's supposed to be with you."

"Hile?"

[river_meimei]

"I came," she informs him peacefully. "Simon's busy." Faint grumbling there. "Hile. He's not from Whitefall."

[lastgunslinger]

Roland nods. "She says true. Gilead-that-was." And relents. "'Tis a greeting in the High Speech of Gilead -- from one gunslinger to another."

Pause.

"You're Mal. Dinh of the ship. Is it not so?"

[badinlatin]

"Yeah, I'm the captain of Serenity..." Beat. "Gunslinger? She ain't even got a piece on her."

[badinlatin]

"How did you get here, River? Same way I did?" Stares out into space for a second...literally, his gaze fell somewhere toward the view of two black holes. "How do you know this guy?"

[river_meimei]

"Through the door." Duh, says her voice. This is clearly sufficient explanation in River's world.

"I know him."

...Yeah, that's apparently sufficient explanation too. Sorry.

[lastgunslinger]

"She's a gunslinger." Peaceful. "As am I. We met here."

It's kind of scary how much Roland and River sound alike, sometimes.

Also with the lack of useful information.

[badinlatin]

"[Hold on a second here.] What is a gunslinger? You mean what the Alliance did to her?"

[river_meimei]

See River. See River flinch.

She pulls back a little, looking at the bar. Her hair hangs over her face.

"Not relevant. It's an unrelated subject."

[lastgunslinger]

Quietly, almost soothing, "She says true." He looks at Mal. "You know what knights are?"

[badinlatin]

"Yeah, Earth legend, lotsa armor, be nice to women, all the stuff that you hear stories about but never see, that?"

[lastgunslinger]

"That," Roland agrees. "Gunslingers are like that. A code of honor." Pause. "No armor, though. Guns."

[river_meimei]

"The armor would clank. It's impractical. Doesn't wear well in a bar."

She's slowly relaxing, but still looking away from them.

[badinlatin]

"Ok." Mal can handle that. "Honor is good." All this new information, River, gunslingers, bar at the end of the universe, all is well and good, if not all at once.

[lastgunslinger]

Something perilously close to a smirk.

"It is." Pause. "You're taking this better than sai Wash said you would, sai Mal."

Roland is a tricksy old man.

[badinlatin]

"Oh Wash had words with you about me? Happy to know I exceeded expectations."

A slight relaxing of the shoulders...Mal should be okay with everything. At least, ok for now.

[lastgunslinger]

"Said you wouldn't like the idea of an eighteen-year-old getting in swordfights and winning."

A small smile at River.

[river_meimei]

River eyes him.

"You lost your tact," she informs him. "Check the couch cushions."

[badinlatin]

Memories of past sort-of swordfights. "I never heard nothing about River gettin' in swordfights. When was she in a sword fight?"