Not Desire's First Entry Post.

[true_desire]

It's been a long time since Desire set foot properly in the bar: Certainly more than a year, though a few that knew this particular Endless have probably still seen Desire around -- and if anything, Desire looks a little out of sorts

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[shinygeek]

Ray had been out patrolling, thinking about how he really did not want to be a superhero full time anymore. He had a job these days with the group Uncle Sam had put together, but... well... he'd rather be a computer programmer.

And tonight, when he managed to follow some thugs through a random alley door in Washington DC, he really had to wonder if maybe it was time to retire, for his own health! His costume vanished in a flare of light, leaving Ray in civies, and wondering at his sanity.

What was a bar, with a space observer window, doing in DC? And how?

His eyes fixed on one figure, a woman, and moved toward her. "'Scuse me, miss? What is this place?"

[true_desire]

Oh oh. It's a newbie.
How long has it been since Desire handled one of these?

... Considerably longer than Desire can remember. She offers Ray a big, shiny grin -- the kind that no good comes from, ever.

"Ray Terrill! As I live and breathe. Welcome to Milliways -- the bar at the end of the universe!"

As if that weren't overwhelming enough, Desire swoops to his side and links her arm with his, gesturing expansively to the rules written above the bar with the cigarette-holding hand. "There are a few simple rules to remember while you're here: No fighting inside -- that's why we have out the back door. No business or powers in the bar. Don't go naked in public, no sex in the bar -- and always respect your Barman."

[shinygeek]

Ray blinked at being named, and recognized, and flailed a little, that one arm that's free, wheeling as he's scooped to her side. The rules made sense and were filed somewhere while he tried to deal with the very real and very intense presence squished against him. He squeezed his eyes closed, then opened them.

"Ah, hello? How did you know my name? Who are you, miss? And... Milliways? Which Universe?"

He barely refrained from asking any more questions as he stared at this beautiful stranger.

[true_desire]

Desire responded to Ray's fluster by patting his arm consolingly, her grin's wattage still a rival to the supernova outside the observation window. "Desire. Of the Endless, but that's hardly the important information right now -- Although that would answer your first question. And as to which universe, well. All of them."

[shinygeek]

Ray's heart skipped a beat, maybe several, when she identified herself. Damn it, he couldn't remember what those reports had said. Holy Cats!

The Endless! Legends swirled from those who'd encountered them, telling of everything from deadly danger to chances at true enlightenment. When he looked at Desire, though, all he could think was that she was very damn hot...

He smiled a little, still caught by that smile.

"All of them..." He grasped after what he knew. "A local intersection of the Einstein-Rosen bridge concepts? Holy cats!"

He stared at her some more.

"Wow."

[true_desire]

With Desire, expecting enlightenment is probably a long shot.

She hadn't missed the staring: She isn't blind, after all. Desire winked once, then put a hand under Ray's chin and turned his face toward the observation window (and away from her, at least for a moment) in time for a spectacularly fast implosion.

"Holy cats indeed. -- Care for a drink, Ray? The first one's on Bar."

[shinygeek]

He peered at the window.

"Hm. Stars, explosions, and galaxies. I like it." His eyes narrowed as he read everything he saw, and a moment later, a small copy of what he had seen outside the window appeared before him, rotating and dimmed a little. "Hm."

He blinked when she spoke and turned back to her, and swallowed again. Oh. Right. Wow.

"Er, drink? Sure. yes.

Please?" His voice did not break there. Not even close. Whew!

[true_desire]

"Come along, then," Desire said, enjoying this a little more than she should: She led him over to Bar, her hip knocking lightly against his and pushing him to the front of the queue.

"Pick your poison -- Say it, and Bar will set you up. You are legal, hm?"

... It'd be hard to say exactly which 'legality' Desire referred to, from the way her hand brushed his sleeve.

[shinygeek]

Ray's mouth was suddenly dry, and his eyes bugged out just a little as they cut to Desire and back to the bar. He swallowed, taking a second to try to dampen the immediate swathe of red that filled his cheeks from forehead to neck.

It didn't work much. Nor did every thought he had dampen other reactions. "Oh, yes, I am." Any drink, huh? He seized that.

"Sol's Kiss, flaming."

A beat, and then a sudden rush of word, as he thought it might be wise.

"Please."

He glanced aside at Desire as the drink appeared, burning hot and on fire. She had flirted with him. Wow.

"Here's looking at you."

He lifted the drink, and shifted his essence to pure solar energy as he drink the drink that was the same, suspended in a magic flux to keep it liquidy. He shimmered, but his look didn't change much... to ordinary eyes.

[true_desire]

Desire has had Gods and mortals and stars preen for her -- but something about it has never gotten old.

Her finger tapped him on the nose as she winked, miming a tip of an imaginary fedora.

"Ray, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

[shinygeek]

Her response with the right words as he sets the empty cup down makes a thrill turn through him. As does her touch.

Well, now, why not?

"Darlin..." And his voice goes deeper, and curls with an imaginary accent even as from shoes to head an image, as real as light and as solid as flesh unrolls over him. It's in black and white, as old classics are. The face smiles, and winked at Desire, and tips that hat with the edge of a cigar.

"I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." The words are spoken with loving rendition, and a grin that is Ray's own, despite the face.

[true_desire]

A Bogie fan: Desire isn't the least bit surprised, unable to keep down the chuckle low in her throat.

"Hm. I think I'll have a Sol's Kiss myself, at that."

Perhaps Bar's feeling amicable and not holding Desire's long hiatus against her, because -- there! -- another flaming glass appears. (And if Desire taps her fingers twice for another glass as well, that second one appears too... But only a tiny shot glass' worth, which Desire pushes down the bar top towards Ray. Bar, it seems, has a memory long enough to rival an Endless.)

[shinygeek]

Ray eyed the small shot glass of solar energy, then shrugged and raised it to Desire. "To you, dear. May you find what you desire." The emphasis was there on the you, and he grinned as he winked at her and slammed back the shot, shimmering again for a moment as he shifted to solar form and back.

This was amazing!

He eyed her, feeling a pleasant burn in his system, the result of mixing a foreign solar energy with his own. "So what brings you here?"

[true_desire]

Desire offered Ray a catlike grin. "What's to say I haven't already found it?"

The solar 'drink' doesn't have the same effect on her as it did with Ray -- although what one saw largely depended on what they expected to. After one sip, she raises an eyebrow curiously at it, considering.

"Oh, I'm here for the usual reasons -- A drink, companionship, catching up with old friends and making new ones. -- And you?" It's said sweetly, but Desire typically used that tone when she was about to pull the rug out from under someone.

[shinygeek]

He blushed and grinned at her, shaking his head. "Now that would be interesting." His illusion fades and Ray is Ray again.

"Well, I came in without expecting it, but now that I'm here... I guess I'm looking for the same sort of thing. A drink, companionship, and meeting new and interesting people." He smirked lightly, cheeks red.

"Interesting and sometimes gorgeous people like yourself."

[true_desire]

Tch. There are so many interesting things, here in Milliways, aren't there.

"You flatter me," Desire says: The modesty is surprising, if you take it for that.

She reaches behind his neck, fingers trailing -- and with a flick, tucks the tag at his nape back into his shirt.
... Wait, did his shirt have a tag a minute ago?