milliways_bar | (no subject)

It isn't that Andrew likes odd chat, per se, but rather that he seems prone to it. Just when he thinks a conversation is going to be normal for a change, it whips back into weirdness.

Of course, with some people, he didn't even attempt normal. JD definitely fell into that category.

"She told me you were back," he remarked, taking the seat beside his other doppleganger at the bar. A Heineken appeared immediately before him. "I guess she told you the news." He smiled, faintly. Perhaps a little smug.

JD looks up, and beams. No, not even a snarky comment.

"Hey, man. Good to see you. Congratulations!"

"Thanks," Andrew replied, nodding to JD, his smiling growing. "Where the hell have you been? Did the door stop working for you or something?"

He shakes his head and takes a swig. "Nah, man. You know how sometimes you get so busy you forget to, like, eat? Well I got so busy that I forgot I could come in here for as long as I wanted for a break."

Man, that sounds dumb.

"Really dumb," Andrew commiserated with a low snort. "But yeah, I guess I understand. Sam and I were out for four months. No real reason but life."

He grins. "Yeah, I hear you're getting married out in New Jersey? Your New Jersey, I guess. How do I get there? And did you come up with a good doppelganger story yet?"

Which other New Jersey would it be?

"We'll have to take you through, same as everyone else from here. I don't think it'll be a big deal, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed." Andrew took a long drink from his beer, giving JD a sideways glance.

"How would you explain it?" Because Andrew was at a bit of a loss.

Well, I'm still kind of getting used to the idea that there's more than one.

"I guess 'freak coincidence' is a good explanation?"

He starts to take a drink, then a look of consternation crosses his face. "Fingers crossed? Like, you don't know if I could just vanish into the void? The void where the universe ends?"

He looks nervous.

"I don't like voids!"

Andrew turned and cast JD a withering glance. "I don't live in a void. I was thinking more along the lines of the door working for all the people we want to get through."

JD rolls his eyes. "That's what I meant! If it just sort of goes *pfftoof* while we're halfway through?"

"You really think that's gonna happen?" Andrew arched a brow.

People come and go from different worlds all the time, you know.

"They do? Oh."

He takes a swig, then notices the stare.

Well I didn't know!

You would if you came around more.

Andrew stilled a moment and then made an annoyed sound in the back of his throat.

"Forget I thought that. I sound like my Aunt Slyvia. Stay away as long as you want, and don't expect me to make you a shirt."

JD looks very confused; then, that doesn't take much.

"I.. wait, you're not glad to see me? I thought you were! Make up your mind. And... shirt? I didn't ask for a shirt..."

You got weird while I was gone.

"I'm not w-" Andrew's voice halted, and he tilted his head. "Actually, maybe."

Take a look around, man.

He does. So there's some Goddess blood over there... a bar that is sentient, and he's sitting across from... himself, only less well-adjusted.

Yeah, I got it goin' ON.

"Uh... I mean... Yeah, okay. Weird place."

Well-adjusted was all relative.

Andrew just kind of blinked back at JD for a long moment. At length, he took another sip from his beer and said, "And you say I'm the weird one."

JD nods, totally seriously. "You are."

Then he grins.

"No, I am the neurotic one. You are the weird one."

The grin was mirrored. It had to seem eerie for anyone watching.

Hell, not just for anyone watching. JD reaches for his drink and watches Andrew's arm very carefully, just in case.

"So what else has been happening here, anyway? Besides all the engaged."

Andrew shrugged, nonplussed. "More of the same, mostly." The twin thing had stopped wigging him out some time ago.

"Oh. Except Meg." His eyes clouded. "Did you hear?"

He squints. "Meg?"

"Meg the ballerina." Andrew had never met Meg, but most everyone knew of Meg, he found. She had been popular, and friendly. "She was shot in the greenhouse."

JD thinks realy hard. There was a girl he met once, wasn't there? Or maybe not... Still.

"Man, that's awful... Who would shoot someone here?"

So what does happen when someone dies here? I've seen dead guys here..

"Someone who would shoot someone out of here," Andrew pointed out, somber. "Most of the people here have issues, but sometimes we get some that are fucking crazy for real." He sighed.

She's dead, man. Didn't wake up. I don't know if she could come back now or not.

He nods, sombrely.

Do they know who it was?

"Some guy named Todd, the paper said. I'd never heard of him."

Andrew stared at the liquid in his bottle through the familiar green glass.

It's weird. I've almost had my eyebrows cut off by one of the crazies in this place. But still I let myself think it was safer than home.

JD frowns, and nods. "Yeah... I guess it kind of is sometimes..."

"Makes you wonder if anyplace is really safe, y'know?" Andrew wasn't thinking only of himself, but of Sam, and the multitude of friends he had made in the bar.

JD looks off into the middle distance. "These things just... happen, sometimes, man. They're not as common as they seem."

"Hmm." Andrew half-nodded, but didn't seem much appeased by JD's explanation.

"Anyway. You gonna be around here more now, man? If you miss the wedding, you know Sam won't forgive you."

He smiles, slightly. "But you'll be over the moon?"

"Aw, man, that's harsh," Andrew protested, and clapped JD on the shoulder. "And totally not true."

But if you make me laugh or forget my lines during the ceremony by doing this brain thing, I'm going to kick your ass.

I could do it. I've been working out.

JD laughs.

Man, I wasn't gonna.

WASN'T.

Oh, how evil he looks.

Fucking liar.

Andrew smirked. "Dude, she would kill you. Don't underestimate her because she's little."

He fakes scared.

"Oh, I'm sure she could really do some damage."

Andrew arched his brows again and said nothing.

You have no idea.

JD also raises his eyebrow.

"Okay, let's not go down that road."

"I'm just saying, man. She can be cruel and unusual when she wants to be."

Man, I don't wanna know.

JD finishes his beer.

"Anyway, man, I'm tired. I'll be around more, though."

"Good. Because freaking my family out with one doppleganger really just isn't enough." He smirked.