Arrival

[weirdwilbur]

A . . . man enters the bar. Well, sort of a man. Most men aren't nine feet tall, with a trenchcoat that still manages to be oversized.

He freezes and stares around.

"Whar am I?" he asks in a thick New England-ish accent.

(OOC: Come one, come all.)

Comments

[gone_byebye]

... no.

Oh, no, no, no. Oh hell no. Ray knows that voice. Or one very like it, anyway; who knows, it could be an alternate universe at work...

"Uh," his throat sort of manages without him, since the rest of Ray's brain is tied up with calculating the distance to the nearest large dog or scary book. "This is Milliways?"

[weirdwilbur]

"Yeah?"

He looks curious.

"Where's thet?" He frowns. "An' who are yew?"

[gone_byebye]

"End of the universe, Mr. Whateley."

He's guessing. There's no way there could be two people with that physiology and that same speech mannerism, could there? Please?

"My name's Dr. Stantz. I don't know if you'd know me, but I was an assistant librarian at Miskatonic University..."

[weirdwilbur]

His face twists.

"Yer the 'un what wouldn't let me take the Necronomicon! Ef yew'd let me look at et . . ." He winces. "Ef yew'd let me look at et I wouldn't have had my throat torn aout.

"Thet's why I'm et the end o' the universe, isn't et? I'm dead."

He slumps.

[gone_byebye]

"No, you wouldn't have, but a whole lot of other people'd be in much worse straits," says Ray sternly. "I'm sorry, Mr. Whateley, but librarians have a duty to the reading public in general. If it helps at all, there's much worse places to be dead."

[weirdwilbur]

"May I . . . may I sit down?"

He looks crushed. Underneath everything, Wilbur is a kid who doesn't understand why he's being punished. A bright kid, genius even, but a kid.

[gone_byebye]

"By all means. I suggest that chair over there, as it's been reinforced." Ray eyes the young man carefully, then adds, "There are rules here, and one of them is that nobody is to bring any of their old grudges or issues from home into the Bar. You have just as much right to be here as I do."

[weirdwilbur]

Wilbur sits down.

"Thank yew." He still looks broken.

"I jest wanted tew bring my Father tew Earth. I dun't see why every'un gits sew upset."

[gone_byebye]

Ray's not actually having this conversation, is he? Allan Funt's hiding in the rafters somewhere, right?

"Possibly, sir," he says, "because your father's presence on Earth would have ended everyone else's presence on Earth. That kind of thing tends to upset people."

[weirdwilbur]

"Nawt every'un. The people en Innsmouth an' such would've survived." Wilbur shrugs. "An' I'm sure a lawt o' people would've been changed intew creatures more like us.

"I never gawt tew meet 'Im. I was lookin' forwards tew et."

He looks at his hands.

[gone_byebye]

"I'm sure they would've, too, but it's really incredibly rude to go around changing people into entirely different beings without getting their permission first," says Ray. "Even the Yithians have issues in that department. As far as not getting to meet your father goes, it's entirely possible that you might still encounter him here. All kinds of beings come through that door, living, dead, and otherwise."

[weirdwilbur]

He brightens.

"Yew really think sew?"

He looks like he's having trouble stopping himself from hugging Ray.

"Oh, I hope he comes!" He smiles shyly. "I'd buy yew a drink, but I dun't gawt any money awn me jest now, en . . ."

[gone_byebye]

Ray's trying really hard not to think about that.

"It's very possible," he says when he's recovered a moment later. "As a matter of fact, I can think of at least two other beings on the order of your father who've had a presence here in the past, and a member of the Great Race of Yith leapt into my own head once. If your father-" He's not going to speak that one's name in his son's presence, thank you. "-isn't already somewhere out there, he's likely to show up eventually."

He indicates the Observation Window on 'out there'.

[weirdwilbur]

Wilbur looks at it and laughs happily. He waves.

"Looks like the End came, one way ur the other."

He raises an eyebrow. "A Yith, eh? Interestin'. An' hew were the others? . . . Yew kin write the names down, ef yew like."

[gone_byebye]

"Yessir. The Yith in question was the last librarian of Pnakotus before the coming of the polyps." Ray steeples his fingers. "As for the others... the Crawling Chaos, and he that sleeps at the city of R'lyeh. Or rather, one of his smaller avatars."

[weirdwilbur]

"Poor thin'. May 'is next existance be better."

He smiles, darkly amused. "The Messenger, eh? Bet He caused a lawt o' trouble."

(OOC: There should be a special font for the Lovecraftian languages, so we know when they're being Said.

(A weird font.)