milliways_bar | (no subject)

In a nearby booth, a blue hair girl is sketching the Ordinary Princess as she feeds the squirrels.

The Ordinary Princess looks up, sees the blue-haired girl, smiles brightly and waves.

Echo smiles and waves back.

"Hi! I'm Echo."

"I'm Amy," she says, "and this is Mr. Pemberthy and this is Simon Perryvall." The squirrels chatter their own greetings.

"would you like to join us?"

"Sure!"

Echo hops up from her seat and comes over, carrying her pad with her. She sits down across from Amy and starts petting the squirrels

"It's very nice to meet you," the Ordinary Princess says.

Mr. Pemberthy offers Echo a cake crumb. Simon Perryvall tried to eat the edge of her pad.

"It's nice to meet you too. Where are you from?"

Echo takes the cake crumb, scritching him behind the ears. She giggles at Simon, and start to draw again.

The squirrels are, needless to say, delighted with the new arrival.

"I live in Amber," the Ordinary Princess says. "I'm a kitchen maid in the palace. What about you?"

"I'm from Greece, although now I live in Japan with my husband and his family." She smiles brightly at this statement.

"Where is Amber at?"

The Ordinary Princess has heard of Greece. Japan, not so much.

"Amber is the capital of Ambergeldar, in Europe. Or at least, in my world's version of Europe it is."

"It sounds pretty, at least it's name does."

Echo continues to draw the squirrels.

"Do you like being a kitchen maid? I really don't know what one does."

"I do, most of the time," she says. "I fetch water for the cooks, and I wash dishes, and I shell peas and peel potatoes, and make lemon icing."

The Ordinary Princess looks at the drawing. "You draw very well. Are you an artist?"

Echo looks down at her pad. "I guess? I just do it for fun."

She finishes the drawing and carefully tears it out. She then holds it out to the Ordinary Princess. "Here!"

"Thank you!" The Ordinary Princess looks at the drawing for a long moment, and then slips it into her apron pocket.

"So, what do you do? In Ja--Japon?" She's trying.

"In Japan? Not really a lot. I read some of the books in the library, play with Maeve, help Yamino when he'll let me. I like to come here, mostly. Many of my friends are here."

She grins.

The Ordinary Princess smiles back.

"Yamino is your husband?"

Simon Perryvall hops onto Echo's shoulder.

Echo giggles at Simon.

"Yes, he is. He works in the kitchen here, but I think he just cooks. He makes wonderful cakes."

Cakes. THAT is a word both the squirrels know. Mr. Pemberthy drops his bread crumb and comes over, optimistically.

"I see. So you help him make cakes?" she asks. "That sounds like fun."

"Sometimes, at home, but not here."

She grins at the squirrels. "I'll bring one some time so that you and Mr. Pemberthy and Simon Perryvall can try it."

"That would be lovely, thank you."

The squirrels are chattering happily.

"Have you been at Milliways long?"

Echo nods, petting the two squirrels.

"I've been here, um, I'm not sure how long, but it's been quite a while. I used to actually live in the bar."

She points at the booth she was sitting at earlier.

"You lived in the booth? I thought there were rooms or something upstairs, aren't there?"

The Ordinary Princess is a little confused.

Echo blushes a little.

"Well, yes. But when I first arrived, I didn't understand. And before I came here, I was living in a cave. The booth was a comfort in a strange new place. Much like a cave itself."

The Ordinary Princess smiles. "That makes sense. I used to live in a forest," she says. "It's were I met Mr. Pemberthy. And there's a lot about the Bar I don't understand."

Echo nods. "I lived in a forest before living in the cave. If you have any question, I can maybe help you. I know a little bit."

The Ordinary Princess frowns for a moment. She has a thousand questions, but she's not even sure how to ask most of them.

So she'll settle for the one that bothers her the most. "How do people become Bound? And is there a way to become not Bound?"

Echo bites her lip. "That... I'm not sure about. It just happens. Some times it's because a person is dead. Other times, they just are. And people have become unBound before, although it's taken a little time."

She tilts her head at the Ordinary Princess. "Are you Bound?"

"No," she says. "I can get in and out through a door in the back of one of the pantries in the palace. Although time seems to move a little oddly. I can be here for what feels like hours, and get back and discover than only a few minutes have gone by. Is that normal?"

Echo nods. "It happens all the time. People will go away for what is a long time in their world, but when they return, it's only the next day. Or the other way around, like what happens with you. It might have to do with being at the end of the universe."

"It's very nice. Otherwise I'd never get to come visit it at all." She smiles. "And I like visiting, I get to meet such interesting people." The smile gets wider.

Echo beams a little bit. "Who have you meet so far? Maybe I know them too!"

"Oh, let's see. Random, and King Caspian, and Mr. Gimli, and Mr. Smeagol, and a rather rude man named Snape, and someone named Viktor, and Steph, and Snow, and Thea, and an alchemist named Al, who made Simon Perryvall out of an acorn shell."

It's not a complete list, but it's the highlights.

Echo tilts her head. "I might know Smeagol, but I don't think I know the others."

The Ordinary Princess smiles. "The Bar's a big place, isn't it?"

Echo nods, smiling back. "Milliway's really is. And lots of people come and go, so there are always new people to meet."

"And I'm very glad to have met you," the Ordinary Princess says. "But I had probably better run, I'm on duty after dinner."

Echo smiles brightly. "Have a good evening, Amy!"

"You, too, and thank you again for the picture."

She gathers up Mr. Pemberthy and Simon Perryvall, and they're off.