(Untitled)

[sleazeoverstyle]

Drinkin' at home or drinkin' at the end of the universe: it doesn't much matter to him. End result's gonna be the exact same, so either's good. As he opens the door, his hand goes to that knife he carries in his pocket

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[bannion_sight]

She edges her way past him, a cup of coffee clutched in her hand, trying not to knock into anyone or anything with her own odd attire.

"Sorry," Kim apologizes. "I'm not used to this."

[sleazeoverstyle]

Fuck, he hopes she ain't used to it. That's gotta be one of the ugliest friggin' things he's ever seen. Actually, though, the more he looks at it, the less he...

Nope. Still friggin' hideous. Good thing he's a skinny fuck. Makes it easier to get out of the way of those green things hangin' off the side. The one saving grace for the outfit is the lady wearin' it? Real pretty. She's got that white-blond hair like Lara but it's long. The kind a guy could play with for a while in one of those let my fingers do the wanderin' sorts of ways, if he was lucky enough. And she's got a great smile.

Plus, she apologized all nice and everything.

"Hey. No problem. If that was me in that, well, two things would happen. First, everyone would be laughin' at me, and second, I'd have to start killin' people. You know, wipe out all the evidence it ever happened." With a small smug smile, he nods to the seat next door and holds out his hand. "I'm Reno, and you and me ain't met before."

He definitely would've remembered. Ain't no drink in the world

[bannion_sight]

She perches carefully on the chair and puts her hand in his.

"Kim Ford. Nice to meet you."

An impish smile appears as she adds, "And since I'm having trouble picturing you in an outfit like this, I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and say better me than you!"

[sleazeoverstyle]

"Shit, Kim Ford, I'm glad you can't picture me in that outfit. Reinforces my faith in humanity or somethin'." Her hand gets a little squeeze before he lets go. "How come I ain't met you before?"

He would've remembered, he would've remembered, he would've... yeah, he definitely would've. "Where you from?"

Earth, probably. Like most of the people here.

[bannion_sight]

"Oh, I'm in and out," she says, breezily. "Maybe we just missed each other before -- have you been here long?"

"And I'm originally from Toronto, Canada, but these days it's Glastonbury."

Kim smiles at him.

"How about you?"

[sleazeoverstyle]

He has no friggin' idea where any of those places are. "Me? I've been here a while, but just... like you say, in and out. Never here for long." He takes a swig of his ale now. "And I got to tell you, we don't have places like Toronto and Canada and Glastonbury on my planet. I guess we're from different worlds, you and me."

Same species -- probably -- different planet.

[bannion_sight]

For some reason, this elicits a bright spark in the clear gray eyes. Interest? Longing? Hope? Surprise? Whatever it is, it's quickly buried, as Kim says,

"Oh, probably. Unless by any remote chance your world happens to be the 'first and fairest'..."

[sleazeoverstyle]

Leaning forward on his hand (she's real pretty), he shrugs slightly. "Most people who live there happen to think it is, but I'm pretty friggin' sure I ain't never heard anyone call it that exactly. Me, I call it Gaia."

Then he realizes he's still starin' at her all goofy-eyed and shit, and he sits up, looks away from that thing she's wearin', and takes a sip of his ale.

"Let me guess. You're from that Earth place, right?"

[bannion_sight]

"Gaia," she repeats, softly. "No, it sounds like you're right, we're from different worlds after all."

Kim pushes a lock of white hair back from her face with the hand that's not holding the coffee cup and admits, "I'm from Earth, yes. Or one of them, anyway."

[sleazeoverstyle]

Shit.

"You mean there's more than one?"

He's only been to the one with that Hawaii place. The lava, the volcanoes, all that pretty natural power.

"How many are there?"

[bannion_sight]

"I don't know," Kim says. "A couple, at least? They all seem pretty much the same, though."

For the most part, anyway.

[sleazeoverstyle]

"How the fuck," he says gracelessly, "can there be more than one version of a friggin' planet?" That makes like zero sense to him. A place is either there or it ain't. Then again... wait just a minute. There's two Clouds. But it's easier for him to accept that the king of brooding has an unfortunate double someplace than the idea of a whole planet being duplicated.

"I mean, how do you know it ain't just the same one but at a different time?"

[bannion_sight]

"If I knew that," she says, "I'd probably have the answers to everything."

She's watching him with some concern, though.

"I'm pretty sure it's not the same one; there's, um, well, there's this one person who was -- who did two very different things in the world I'm from and another place. Different enough that he-- that they couldn't be the same."

And yet, she'd been able to summon Arthur Pendragon from Bran's world as well as her own, from beyond the summer stars.

"I don't think, anyway."

[sleazeoverstyle]

The concept of parallel universes isn't one he entertains on a daily or weekly or monthly or even an annual basis. Because he doesn't, it's all he can do to lift his ale to his mouth, take a sip, and look at her like she's got two heads.

Two real pretty heads, but...

"Shit."

That much thinkin' hurts his brain, and why waste perfectly good brain cells on figuring shit out if you can waste 'em on alcohol instead? That's always been his motto.

"Kim Ford. We oughtta talk about somethin' else."

[bannion_sight]

"Okay," she says, clearly amenable. "Do you have anything in mind?"

[sleazeoverstyle]

"Yeah."

He gives her a good look both up and down.

"So we're here at a bar and you're dressed funny and I ain't, but I'm the one who's drinkin'. Don't you want somethin' besides coffee?"

He'll get it for her and everything, 'cause he's nice that way and also 'cause he believes in investing in his future. It's all potential.