milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

antigone

(no subject)

There is a woman seated at the bar.

She looks comfortably settled, and very engrossed in her meal.

This could not be farther from the truth.

Talk to her, if you like.

She doesn't bite.

Better to keep a close watch on her hands.

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Antigone, ~~bouncing~~ coming in from the after-dusk, stops by the bar for a hot drink. She gets tea in a mug and clutches it to warm her fingers.

She gives Hunter a vague smile, because she's in that sort of mood.

Hunter raises one eyebrow.

"Someone's in a good mood. Is it justified?"

"I've been outside," she says simply. That seems to her to quite justify it.

"Reinvigorated by the fresh air?"

Somewhere, there is sarcasm.

Probably in Hunter's voice. If you listen very closely.

Antigone isn't bad at sarcasm, even the sort that's difficult to detect, and she may make a bit of a face at her.

"Everything went to sleep."

"I doubt that."

"As much as it ever does."

"Which is to say 'lightly', if it wants to survive."

She smiles. "Here? Sometimes it's a little too late."

"It's possible to die twice. At least."

The corner of Hunter's mouth quirks.

Antigone raises an eyebrow, just a little, at the quirking.

"Once is sufficient."

Hunter shrugs.

"Not always. Though the second-timers tend to ooze."

... All right, she's got to hear that story.

"How do you know?"

"I travel."

Good luck getting Hunter to talk, Antigone.

You'll probably need it.

"How far?"

"Most of the largest cities. Well, the Undersides, at least."

"Undersides?"

Antigone knows that Thebes can be very interesting indeed in the right part of town, but even there the dead don't die twice.

"There are places below the cities Above. It belongs to the people that fall through the cracks. I live in London Below."

Hunter shrugs, slightly.

"They are hard places. I fit well, there."

"It can't be so hard if one death isn't enough to end you."

"You've never crossed Night's Bridge, then. Do that, and then we'll talk."

A bridge? That doesn't sound too terribly daunting-- even if there's a troll beneath, like in one of the stories.

"Why?"

Hunter shrugs.

"It is a good place to be afraid of the dark."

"Only if there's something in it."

Or nothing to breathe.

Hunter smiles.

"That would be why."

Her eyes widen very slightly.

"Something real?"

Hunter nods, still smiling fiercely.

"Every nightmare that ever was, since we lived in caves, is in that darkness. And that is one of the lesser things, in the Underside. People cross it every day. Some actually come out the other side."

Antigone isn't smiling.

When she was a child, she would crawl into Nurse's lap and cling to her until her nightmares went away. Stronger than the void under her bed, stronger than the sinister rustlings from the closet ... Antigone did make a crossing, of a sort, from nightmare into day, but it wasn't real then.

"That would be something, then."

Hunter nods.

"Yes."

Antigone's fingers are cold on her mug now, probably because her tea is also cold. Rabbit could warm it, most likely, were he here. This makes her scowl.

Hunter just looks at her.

"Tea is troublesome? I wouldn't have guessed that."

"When it's cold," she replies ~~sulkily~~. "It's too cold for cold tea."

"Get more."

She nods toward Bar.

"It's simple enough."

"Didn't want to waste it."

Hunter shrugs.

"Drink it faster, then. It's easy enough."

She scowls.

"Yes."

Hunter smirks.

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