"Is that what those top hat and card trick magicians do? Perform at birthday parties?"
Mia knew there were those who performed sleight of hand, but she didn't know where they performed it.
"I've had to pretend to be one of those before. My friend Guppy and I had a good laugh about it afterward. But I'm digressing when I should be explaining. Welcome to Milliways."
The woman, not all that much older than Alexis, stands up from her booth to properly greet herself.
"My name is Mia. Pleased to meet you, and I'm always happy to help newcomers."
"Well, yeah," she replies. "Unless you're talking Siegfried and Roy magicians and they've got better things to be doing than hanging out at children's birthday parties."
There are booths. In her house. Excuse her slight distraction.
Did her Dad hire Extreme Makeover: Home Addition or something?
"Before the whole mauling thing, at least."
She sticks out her hand reflexively. She is nothing if not well-mannered.
"Siegwhat and Who?" Mia asks as she shakes her hand. "We might have to establish where we're from soon or this is going to get confusing."
She smiles at the name, though. Any name that reminds a person of a Dragonmaster is a good name.
"I've never heard Castle as a last name before, Alexis, but I really shouldn't talk since I can't seem to choose which last name I want. I usually let people pick, so I'm either Mia Ausa or Mia Malfoy."
Okay, it seems the idle chatter isn't distracting Alexis from the "huh?" of the situation, so time to focus on that again.
"As I said, this is Milliways. It has this habit of showing up instead of where you were meaning to go. Think of it as magic, advanced science, whatever makes you comfortable. If you want to go back, you can check the door you just came from."
"Roy," she says, giving herself a few seconds to process. "He was the one that was mauled - not that it makes much of a difference if you have no idea who they are."
Though it probably made a huge difference to Roy at the time, to be honest.
"I was totally going to ask you how much my Dad paid you for this, but you're totally serious, aren't you?"
Her living room is a magical Bar out of a Douglas Adams novel.
"Trust me, this place blew my mind when I first came here, too. And believe me, I don't need another job, no matter how well your dad pays, not with how busy my current one keeps me."
Mia nibbles on a corner of her lip a little as she realizes she's going to have to put Draco and Nash on Guildmaster duties so she can get maternity leave later. Good thing Draco's doing inventory on his shop now.
"Well, considering the fact that he would've had to pay pretty much everyone here to be in on the whole thing, we'd probably be out a bit more than he could afford -"
Alexis pauses there, reconsiders.
"I say that like he couldn't convince people to do it without money."
"It's all right," she says, holding a hand up herself. "It's all a bit overwhelming. Here, you can sit down at the booth and get a drink. Your first one is free."
Please say yes. Mia wants to sit back down.
"There is waitstaff here, but a lot of the footwork is done by trained waitrats. They're clean and it's surprisingly easy to get used to them."
Okay, she's not waiting anymore. Mia's already moving to sit down in her booth again and waves a waitrat over. If she's paying attention to the order, she'll hear snippets of things like "grog loaf," "plenty of garlic," "strawberries," and "Demeter's tea."
Mia blinks as she thinks over what she just ordered and asks, in general, "Did I just order grog loaf?"
"Oh, I like that stuff, especially with ice cream, but I can't really have that for a while."
Ah well. That's life.
"So, now would be as good a time as any to let you know about the rules and the different places that connect here. The rules are pretty simple: no fighting, no indecent exposure, and no outside business or home grudges come in here. As for places, Milliways can connect to many different worlds, many different versions of worlds, and many different times. For example, my home is Vane, a city on a world called Lunar, where it's currently 1040."
If she didn't already need therapy, this would probably do it.
Not that you could really tell a therapist that you visited a magical bar that appeared in your living room and conversed with people from other planets without being institutionalized.
So there goes that idea.
"Oh, wow," she laughs. "I suddenly feel really boring."
"Why would you say that? If you aren't from my world or my time, and it's actually pretty clear to me that you aren't, then I'm not going to think you're boring at all. For everything I know about my world, you have a whole world that might be a complete mystery to me."
Beat.
"Unless you're from a part of Earth I've been to, but you don't sound British nor do you seem to be aware of the Wizarding World."
Ick. She shouldn't have stopped talking. Small wave of nausea came up, but she's pretty sure it has to do with not eating in a while. Thankfully, the waitrat arrives with their drinks and the strawberries Mia requested.
"I guess the grog loaf will be out later?" she briefly asks, but she's mostly reaching and drinking from her tea.
A sigh of relief and a quiet, "Ah, that's better."
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A beat, considering.
"Though I was kind of five at the time, so I can't be sure if he still has their number."
(Not that she'd be surprised if he did.)
See, it's not so much the people in the house that's at all weird.
It's the fact that the house is wrong.
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Mia knew there were those who performed sleight of hand, but she didn't know where they performed it.
"I've had to pretend to be one of those before. My friend Guppy and I had a good laugh about it afterward. But I'm digressing when I should be explaining. Welcome to Milliways."
The woman, not all that much older than Alexis, stands up from her booth to properly greet herself.
"My name is Mia. Pleased to meet you, and I'm always happy to help newcomers."
Reply
There are booths. In her house. Excuse her slight distraction.
Did her Dad hire Extreme Makeover: Home Addition or something?
"Before the whole mauling thing, at least."
She sticks out her hand reflexively. She is nothing if not well-mannered.
"Alexis. Um, Castle."
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She smiles at the name, though. Any name that reminds a person of a Dragonmaster is a good name.
"I've never heard Castle as a last name before, Alexis, but I really shouldn't talk since I can't seem to choose which last name I want. I usually let people pick, so I'm either Mia Ausa or Mia Malfoy."
Okay, it seems the idle chatter isn't distracting Alexis from the "huh?" of the situation, so time to focus on that again.
"As I said, this is Milliways. It has this habit of showing up instead of where you were meaning to go. Think of it as magic, advanced science, whatever makes you comfortable. If you want to go back, you can check the door you just came from."
Reply
Though it probably made a huge difference to Roy at the time, to be honest.
"I was totally going to ask you how much my Dad paid you for this, but you're totally serious, aren't you?"
Her living room is a magical Bar out of a Douglas Adams novel.
It kind of figures that it's a Thursday.
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"Trust me, this place blew my mind when I first came here, too. And believe me, I don't need another job, no matter how well your dad pays, not with how busy my current one keeps me."
Mia nibbles on a corner of her lip a little as she realizes she's going to have to put Draco and Nash on Guildmaster duties so she can get maternity leave later. Good thing Draco's doing inventory on his shop now.
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Alexis pauses there, reconsiders.
"I say that like he couldn't convince people to do it without money."
She corrects herself quickly, holding up a hand.
"Not that I don't believe you."
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Please say yes. Mia wants to sit back down.
"There is waitstaff here, but a lot of the footwork is done by trained waitrats. They're clean and it's surprisingly easy to get used to them."
Okay, she's not waiting anymore. Mia's already moving to sit down in her booth again and waves a waitrat over. If she's paying attention to the order, she'll hear snippets of things like "grog loaf," "plenty of garlic," "strawberries," and "Demeter's tea."
Mia blinks as she thinks over what she just ordered and asks, in general, "Did I just order grog loaf?"
Reply
Hey, it's the little things in life.
Though the whole LSD-thing seemed to work for Lewis Carroll. A rat-populated waitstaff would sort of make sense in that context.
She follows a bit cautiously - seating herself and tugging her schoolbag onto her lap.
"I think so?" she replies. "Hopefully it tastes good?"
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Oh, so much that Mia doesn't know about drugs.
"It tastes better than roast ant surprise, but I never thought I would order it from here. Just kind of flew out of my mouth."
Huh. Must be cravings setting in.
The waitrat looks at Alexis, awaiting her order.
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Though she could be wrong.
She glances downward, startling slightly when she realizes that she's supposed to be saying something.
"Uh - a coke? Please?"
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"Oh, I like that stuff, especially with ice cream, but I can't really have that for a while."
Ah well. That's life.
"So, now would be as good a time as any to let you know about the rules and the different places that connect here. The rules are pretty simple: no fighting, no indecent exposure, and no outside business or home grudges come in here. As for places, Milliways can connect to many different worlds, many different versions of worlds, and many different times. For example, my home is Vane, a city on a world called Lunar, where it's currently 1040."
Reply
Not that you could really tell a therapist that you visited a magical bar that appeared in your living room and conversed with people from other planets without being institutionalized.
So there goes that idea.
"Oh, wow," she laughs. "I suddenly feel really boring."
Reply
Beat.
"Unless you're from a part of Earth I've been to, but you don't sound British nor do you seem to be aware of the Wizarding World."
Ick. She shouldn't have stopped talking. Small wave of nausea came up, but she's pretty sure it has to do with not eating in a while. Thankfully, the waitrat arrives with their drinks and the strawberries Mia requested.
"I guess the grog loaf will be out later?" she briefly asks, but she's mostly reaching and drinking from her tea.
A sigh of relief and a quiet, "Ah, that's better."
Reply
Okay, so this whole thing is going to take some getting used to.
"I'm from New York. It's in the United States, if you know where that is? Earth. Right. Um, and it's 2009?"
She thinks that she covered all of the important parts in there.
Alexis tilts her head briefly, "Are you okay?"
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