(Untitled)

[visible_sariel]

Well, what do'ee know. It's a Sariel! It's a Sariel in the bar! That hasn't happened in a while

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[smallestopener]

Ingress walks by, ice cream cone in hand. It's an ice cream cone kind of day.

"Hi," she says.

[visible_sariel]

"Hello." That's the slightest bit absent, as Sariel's still got one eye on the star charts in front of her at first. then the fact that yes, someone is actually talking to her clicks in, and she glances up. "... Oh. Er, hi." The whole talking to kids thing isn't getting much easier, families on the Enterprise or not.

[smallestopener]

"I'm Ingress. What are you called?"

She's a smiling, friendly child. One of the best to get used to, if one is wary.

[visible_sariel]

And one is, though not make a quick excuse and scurry off wary. She's not quite *that* bad.

"I'm called Sariel." Smiling friendly child, meet thoughtful though not unfriendly twenty-something. "Nice to meet you, Ingress." Beat. "I've never heard that name before."

[smallestopener]

"It's an Opening name. My sister is Door, and my brother was Arch and my mummy and daddy were Portia and Portico. Our names are different from Topsider names."

[visible_sariel]

"Different from..." Oops, first contact situation again? It's a second before Sariel tries the only question that readily comes to mind. If this backfires, lord but she's going to look silly...

"Are you from Earth?" For all she knows, Ingress isn't.

[smallestopener]

"Uh huh. London Below. Where are you from?"

She meets people from all over, so if she's not from Earth, that's totally okay.

[visible_sariel]

That gets a half-curious, half-puzzled headtilt. "London Below? You must be from a different Earth than I am." No kidding! "I live on a ship, but I come from Saint Lucia."

If Ingress knows where that is, Sariel will be more than slightly impressed. Adults from her own world don't know where it is, after all.

[smallestopener]

She doesn't, sadly. She's still working on remembering the major cities of the world, and the countries in Europe. And the Undersides, of course.

"It might be the same. The Underside is under and around the regular London. People from regular London can't see our part."

[visible_sariel]

If there's an underside of the London Sariel's world has, it's news to her. "... Oh." Pause. "What year is it for you?" the when is important, first contact situation or not.

[smallestopener]

"1998 most of the time. In the parts that are 1998, anyway."

Time is a fluid thing in the Underside.

[visible_sariel]

It takes a moment for Sariel to sort that. "Your world has different years in different places?" that's one thing she's never heard of. "It's 2368, for me."

[smallestopener]

"Sort of. Time gets lost there and memories. So some parts can be from a long time ago."

[visible_sariel]

Nope, definitely not any sort of world she's heard of. When she speaks, it's clear she's choosing her words carefully. "I... doubt we come from the same world, really." And what better way to test that theory than, "Does your world have space travel, at all?"

[smallestopener]

"No, but Mal and River and Simon and Wash and they're friends live on a space ship. Not in the Underside, though. In space. They're in the future."

[visible_sariel]

"Oh. In that case--" hang on a second. "You know River too?" they've got a friend in common, sounds like.