"The bad news is we don't have any control. The good news is you can't make any mistakes." [Open!]
This is not exactly the world Bernard is used to.
For one thing, he's never even been to Chicago in his own world. For another, he's pretty sure his world did not have angels and demons and whatnot walking around. Of course, the general population of this world doesn't seem to know either, so it's not really helpful. And then there's the small thing about him being five years into the future.
But the first thing he did when he got on his own was call Fran. Then Manny. Both numbers were non-existent. He then tried his bookshop, even tried looking it up by address, but apparently in the same place as his is, there's now a bookshop called Collinge & Clark. The thing is, that would make perfect sense, it being the future, but he asked, and the shop has been there longer than five years.
And so he asked about what happened to Black Books. And he was told that was only a fictional place. His bookshop is fictional. It was pretty real to him, Bernard can tell you that. He feels almost like this is some elaborate, insane April Fools' prank. He wonders if his bookshop in London, if all that was a dream, and this is the real world. That's a plot writers like to pull sometimes. In any case, he's been told he can't go back to where he came from. Rift only goes one way.
So that's that. Nowhere to go -- not that he could even go to this world's London, he doesn't have his passport, if it would even be valid in this world. And so, what with his less-than-solid grasp on the world, he decides he needs to know more. Angels and demons and supernatural humans, he's only gotten a brief summary so far.
Then to top it all off, there's this annoying sparking that comes occasionally from him. He is not sure if he likes being electric. It's more or less died down now, but who knows when it might flare up again. He tries to avoid doing it, but he's not sure how he did it in the first place, burning away a small part of the park.
So, after he's had his arm bandaged from that minor burn, and gotten a room in the Conrad basement, he makes his way to the common room, heading straight for the books. Books he can deal with. Books are nice and familiar, and hopefully will explain all this. He picks out a whole stack of books that look promising from the shelves and settles in an armchair by himself.
Feel free to come say hello to the new arrival.
For one thing, he's never even been to Chicago in his own world. For another, he's pretty sure his world did not have angels and demons and whatnot walking around. Of course, the general population of this world doesn't seem to know either, so it's not really helpful. And then there's the small thing about him being five years into the future.
But the first thing he did when he got on his own was call Fran. Then Manny. Both numbers were non-existent. He then tried his bookshop, even tried looking it up by address, but apparently in the same place as his is, there's now a bookshop called Collinge & Clark. The thing is, that would make perfect sense, it being the future, but he asked, and the shop has been there longer than five years.
And so he asked about what happened to Black Books. And he was told that was only a fictional place. His bookshop is fictional. It was pretty real to him, Bernard can tell you that. He feels almost like this is some elaborate, insane April Fools' prank. He wonders if his bookshop in London, if all that was a dream, and this is the real world. That's a plot writers like to pull sometimes. In any case, he's been told he can't go back to where he came from. Rift only goes one way.
So that's that. Nowhere to go -- not that he could even go to this world's London, he doesn't have his passport, if it would even be valid in this world. And so, what with his less-than-solid grasp on the world, he decides he needs to know more. Angels and demons and supernatural humans, he's only gotten a brief summary so far.
Then to top it all off, there's this annoying sparking that comes occasionally from him. He is not sure if he likes being electric. It's more or less died down now, but who knows when it might flare up again. He tries to avoid doing it, but he's not sure how he did it in the first place, burning away a small part of the park.
So, after he's had his arm bandaged from that minor burn, and gotten a room in the Conrad basement, he makes his way to the common room, heading straight for the books. Books he can deal with. Books are nice and familiar, and hopefully will explain all this. He picks out a whole stack of books that look promising from the shelves and settles in an armchair by himself.
Feel free to come say hello to the new arrival.