The Bar at the End of the Universe

In celebration of new canon and because the mun is insane, let's take a look around and see what's what.

In the entry for Milliways in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it is noted that one can visit as many times as one likes without fear of ever meeting oneself. The entry also notes that this is impossible, but it somehow seems to work out. At least, that is, most of the time.

Today, however, the same patron has arrived not just twice, but thirteen separate times. There's virtually no direction you can look without seeing one of them, and yet all of them are studiously avoiding looking at each other.

(Reaction posts to the main post only, please. I'll add separate threads for each Doctor to tag into.)

One of the slogans for Milliways once upon a time was "If you've done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways?" The Doctor's not sure he's accomplished six today, but he figures it's close enough for a drink. So before the Clerics arrive to collect River, he leads her and Amy through the TARDIS hallways and into the bar.

Amy lags behind, still a little worse for wear after having an Angel in her mind, and so the door closes between her and the Doctor and River. For a moment, the Doctor's afraid that she won't be able to get in, but then the door opens again, and there she is.

"And here we are!"

[OOC: Yes, I'm still alive, though some days are more indicative of this than others. Anyway! This is as much to see which characters I still have voices for as to see which characters people are interested in interaction with. No need to migrate accounts for pups I can't/won't play, after all! Please indicate as best you can who you're tagging.]

The Doctor slips in from the back door, having just returned from indulging his sudden whim to have a bagel in every incarnation of "New York City", all twenty-seven of them throughout the whole of time and space. Needless to say, he's very full at the moment.

---

Agnes Nitt, now 25 and looking more the Mother than the Maiden despite her continued lack of a love life, is perched at the bar absently working her way through a mug of scumble and a plate of fried paradoxes while she people-watches.

---

David Xanatos has a booth near the window with his laptop set up and a number of newspapers spread out before him. An observant passerby might notice they are all copies of the same paper on the same day, but all carrying different stories.

---

A battle-weary Echo is taking advantage of the bar to rest and resupply. Her table is covered with several dismantled guns, and she is methodically cleaning them and checking for wear.

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Kitai reclines in the rafters, casually watching the ebb and flow of people below her and indulging in her hobby of mentally calculating how difficult it would be to defeat each of them in combat.

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Nikola Tesla has collected a small crowd around him as he demonstrates again his favorite party trick of juggling balls of crackling electricity. The resulting static field is playing merry hell with his hair, but he doesn't seem to mind.

---

A relatively recent newcomer, Quorra is still somewhat starstruck by being in the presence of so many Users. She is also voraciously working her way through the stack of books on her table, but would never turn away conversation.

Out back there is a man shouting at a large, blue box.

"Donna! Come on!"

"I am not walking into some grubby little space pub!" comes a muffled reply, presumably from inside.

"But it's at the end of the universe!"

"You promised me wonders of creation, not beer and chips!"

"Just come and have a look!"

"No!"

The Doctor throws up his hands and sighs. There was just no reasoning with some people. Oh, well. No reason why he couldn't go in and enjoy himself without her. (And honestly, they could probably use the break.)


[catch him outside or in; your choice.]

Entering now, from the back door, is a face unseen in a while. The Doctor shuffles in muttering, "Another Christmas, another crisis," and heads to the bar for some tea.

At this point, it's still a bit of a toss-up in his mind which was more difficult to deal with, the Rachnoss Queen, or that shrill and bossy Donna Noble. Which is, admittedly, a bit unfair, but he's tired. She did acquit herself fairly well, certainly better than most would have. And he did think she had enough potential to have invited her along. Just because she turned him down doesn't negate that.

He shrugs it off when the tea arrives. Onward and upwards, he supposes. On to the next thing. Well, in a bit, anyway.

The Doctor is sitting in a booth by the Window staring down into his teacup. He dropped Martha back at home to visit her family. He felt like he needed to be alone, but if that were true, why did he come here?

The tea is stone cold, but he doesn't notice because he's not drinking it anyway.

Feel free to stop over. He'll probably be here for a while.

[tags: professor river song, cal chandler, crypto]

[ooc: 1:20AM: Migraine is flaring, so must call slowtime. Still feel free to tag; post is open until his next EP.]

The door opens, the front one this time, and in walks the Doctor.

Not the same one who just walked out the back, but one that Milliways hasn't seen around in quite some time.

"Are you sure you saw him here?" he asks over his shoulder, as Nancy and Rose follow him in. He turns back just in time to see the congregation forming. Just a few now, but more come in from the back or descend from the stairs as they watch, taking up positions in one corner of the room, Jamie himself at the lead.

"Oh. I guess you are sure, then."

The trio head in that direction.

[ooc: not for tagging. open post will follow shortly.]

When the Doctor comes downstairs to get a pot of tea and some dinner, he instantly notices that something's changed.

He can see the door.

Dinner and tea are forgotten as he dashes back upstairs and returns with the two Magnaclamps he'd entered with.

He doesn't pause as he heads through the door and back into the fray.

Some time later, an astute observer looking out the Observation Window might spot a tiny blue box in orbit around one of the dying stars.

Not too long after that, the familiar wheezing death-throes-of-an-accordion sound echoes through the lakeside area and the blue box appears in its familiar spot at the end of a well-traveled footpath.

And shortly after that, the back door opens, and a haggard-looking Time Lord with tear tracks staining his cheeks walks inside, pausing at the bar only long enough to get some tea before retreating to a booth in one of the many darkened corners the room seems to always have.

[ooc: This is probably not the best time to be meeting the Doctor for the first or second time, so only people he knows pretty well, please.]

The Doctor notices the sign about tabs when he comes downstairs from the library for some tea. He's had to depend on that tab system while he's been stuck here, not having access to the TARDIS to settle up accounts as usual.

He has to believe that time is frozen back in the world he left. It's the only way he can remain functional. Because the alternative is that it's all long over -- Rose would be dead, or worse, "upgraded", and the Earth would be utterly devastated by the war between the Daleks and Cybermen. No matter who won, as Ray put it, humanity would have lost. He simply cannot accept that as an option right now.

Along with the tea, he obtains a placard and a marker. Then he retires to an out-of-the-way table and sets up the sign.

ELECTRONICS REPAIRED - ANY ERA
TIPS APPRECIATED

He hates the idea of asking for money at all, but as he has no idea how much longer he'll be stuck here, it's a necessary evil. And he's got the sonic screwdriver; might as well be useful.

[OOM: "I ain't afraid of no ghosts!"]

The front door opens, and the Doctor runs through.

Wait a minute... the front door?

The Doctor looks around and realizes suddenly where he is.

"Oh, no. No no no."

He drops the two objects he's carrying to the ground with a resounding thump and whirls around to the door.

Which isn't there.

"No no no NO!" he yells, slamming the bare wall with his fist.