Entrance Post

[forever-england.livejournal.com]

And so. There's a very well dressed gentleman standing by the door to Milliways - naturally enough, he has a rather surprised expression on his face.

He's not wearing a tuxedo and there are no gorgeous women draping themselves over him. No vodka martini or Walther PPK in his hand either - in fact, he thinks he was about to get fired. So maybe he's a bit relieved to find himself here. He just wishes he knew where 'here' is.

James Bond is in the bar.

Comments

[forever-england.livejournal.com]

Bond looks at him for a moment. 'Thank you.' There's a pause and a raised eyebrow. 'Milliways?'

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

He claps his hands like a youth counselor.

"Right! Milliways, restaurant, bar, and lonely hearts club at the end of the universe. Ever, uh ... been here before?"

He's guessing not.

[forever-england.livejournal.com]

Bond isn't sure what to make of the young man, but he seems harmless enough. 'No, never been before.'

His voice is cool and he's still wondering about the reference to Pussy, who as far as he knows is now married and working legitimately somewhere in America.

He likes restaurants and bars though, so this doesn't seem all bad. 'So I can get a drink here?'

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

Hey, he's taking all this pretty well.

"Oh, sure," he says with a nod. "First one's free. Just, uh, ask Bar. Or we could flag down a waitrat."

He pauses.

"... We order things differently around here."

[forever-england.livejournal.com]

He's used to unusual situations - and he wasn't all that happy before he walked throuh the door anyway.

'A waitrat. Right.' He looks sceptical. 'You have me at a loss, I don't know what one of those is.'

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

And, as it happens, a rat runs by right then.

"Hey, buddy!" Xander says, flagging it down with a wave of his arm. "Hi, drink for the new guy?" He glances at Bond. "Uh, what's your poison?"

[forever-england.livejournal.com]

He stares at the creature, but good manners force him to pull his eyes away after a moment. 'Vodka Martini please. Shaken, for preference.'

He looks up at the young man and decides its about time he introduced himself. 'My name's James Bond.' He offers his hand.

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

Xander takes it, and there is absolutely no macho attempt at giving a firm handshake. No sir.

"Name's Harris," he says. "Xander Harris. Uh, good to meet you, Mr. Bond."

[forever-england.livejournal.com]

Bond doesn't trust people with weak handshakes, but then, he doesn't trust people that act in an overtly macho way either. 'You too Mr. Harris.'

The waitrat appears with the drinks and he takes them, thanks the animal bemusedly and then hands one to Xander. 'I notice the door I came through seems to have disappeared. Is there another way out?'

It's not that he's planning to run away, he just likes to know where the exits are when he's in a new place.

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

Xander takes the drink awkwardly. Yeah, it's way too early to be drinking. He was more in a lemonade mood tonight, anyway.

"Oh," he says with a frown. "Um, that'll happen sometimes. If it doesn't come back soon, it might mean you're Bound. Which means, um, you get to take advantage of the Milliways 'bed and breakfast' feature."

[forever-england.livejournal.com]

It didn't occur to Bond that it might be too early to drink. Hard to gauge what the exact time is.

'Bed and breakfast. You mean I might have to stay here.' He sighs, but then realises that he didn't have a great deal to do back at home anyway. 'For how long, do you know?'

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

Xander shrugs.

'Well, uh, I've been here for around four months, give or take," he says. "And no end in sight."

[forever-england.livejournal.com]

He sighs and has a drink. 'Four months? Well, I hope this is a nice place then.' He looks at the man a little nmore closely. 'You're from California?'

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

"Eh, it's all right," Xander says, waving his hand in a "so-so" kind of way. "You know, aliens, demons, wizards, gunslingers ... takes all kinds to make a universe, I'm guessing is the moral."

He blinks.

"Uh, yeah ... how can you tell?"

[forever-england.livejournal.com]

'Aliens...demons...' He trails off and blinks. He's here from the sixties after all.

He focuses on what he he can respond to calmly. 'Your accent Mr. Harris. I've spent a fair amount of time in California, one learns to recognise it.' He has a drink. 'So there are non-human beings here then?'

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Xander nods. "Right."

And he nods again. "Yeah, but that's not really huge news-- not where I come from. My version of California gets a little wild and woolly."

[forever-england.livejournal.com]

'I'm afraid that where I come from, people are just people. Which is not to say that it doesn't get a little 'wild and woolly' sometimes.' He frowns as he turns that over in his head. 'So your version is different. You mean that it may not be the same Earth as mine?'

He doesn't know whether he likes that idea.

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

"Right," Xander says. "There are pretty much as many parallel universes lying around as there are cable channels with nothing good on."

[forever-england.livejournal.com]

He doesn't know what cable is, he doesn't like television much. But a thought does strike him. 'Does that mean it's possible to run into an alternate version of your own self?'

It's an alarming thought.

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

Xander considers this.

"I haven't, but I don't see why not. I mean, your own alternate universes probably got invited to the party, too."

[forever-england.livejournal.com]

He blinks. 'That would be...strange. To say the least.' He changes the subject rapidly. 'What's so wild about your version of California then Mr. Harris?'

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

"Well, there's not much that isn't wild," Xander says, shaking his head. The alcohol remains untouched. "Pick an occult phenomenon and we've got it."

[forever-england.livejournal.com]

He's not offended about the untouched drink. Just thinks its a little strange. Kind of like Xander, but not in a bad way.

'Must make life interesting. Are you looking forward to going back?'

[xan-shaped.livejournal.com]

"Strange" is Xander's middle name.

... Actually, it's "Lavelle."

He shrugs. "Well, you know. If I get back. I suspect there's some magical, universal lesson I'm supposed to be learning, but I really don't have a clue what it is." He grins. "Anyway! It realy is a cool place. I've made some good friends."

[forever-england.livejournal.com]

...which is strange in itself. :D

He laughs. 'Oh dear, I hope we're not supposed to be here to learn lessons. I'll never get out. But if the people are interesting, I'm sure the stay will be worth it anyway.'