(Untitled)

[waco_jim]

An unfamiliar figure enters Milliways.  He's whistling a tune a hundred years ahead of the time he's ostensibly supposed to be from and has the tense, aggressively casual stroll of someone who's just ducked out of their kid's ballet recital to have a smoke

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[starrydome]

"Is this your first visit?"

The one asking the question is clearly friendly and concerned, albeit in a gentle, non-intrusive sort of way.

He is also not human. The ears give it away of course, but is more the eyes really. They way they're bright and intense and ancient. Of course, you have to ignore the robe, the long hair and the gently shimmering silver band resting on his brow to really focus on them.

He might sound vaguely British, only not really. He's seated at a table with a tall goblet of wine, a small plate with something baked, and an ancient-looking leather tome.

[waco_jim]

Jim briefly considers making a "hippie Spock" crack, but wisely decides against it.

"Yeah," he says. "Wasn't really looking for the place."

[starrydome]

"I doubt anyone are, the first time. Looking for this place, I mean. It is hard to imagine a place like this if you haven't already been here."

He smiles. "My name is Elrond Halfelven."

[waco_jim]

"Jim, though I'm better known to the world as the Waco Kid. So where are you from, if you don't mind me asking?"

He hasn't ever seen anyone with ears like that. Except for maybe that one time he wandered into the wrong part of Detroit. Don't think that guy was born lookin' like that, though.

[starrydome]

Odd. Still, if one had to use only one word to describe Milliways ..

"My home lies at the foot of the Misty Mountains, close to the river Bruinen. My world is called Arda and the part of it that I know best is Middle-earth."

[waco_jim]

He'd show more surprise about him being from another world, but this sort of thing is starting to appear normal at an alarmingly fast rate.

"Well, I'm from a town called Rock Ridge. It's a little hamlet on a studio lot in Burbank."

[starrydome]

"A studio lot?" Elrond asks. He always enjoys learning new words. That is one of the really amazing things about Milliways. So many words and concepts that are in every sense of the word foreign.

[waco_jim]

"Yeah - the film studio owns some land out back, and they build the entire town set on it. Union labor - it doesn't come cheap, let me tell you. The exterior shots are somewhere else, though. Arizona, I think."

It dawns on Jim that this might not be an especially helpful answer.

"Do they have movies where you're from?"

[starrydome]

"It is not a word I am familiar with," Elrond says, shaking his head.

The silver band glitters as the hair beneath it moves like heavy silk, midnight black.

As it were.

[waco_jim]

Jim sees it. He ain't that bad looking. Maybe if he were a little drunker. Once you've had enough whiskey and the lighting's bad enough, who's to say what's what and who's who?

Okay, maybe he'd have to be a LOT drunker.

Anyway.

"Well, it's a little hard to explain. It's basically an illusion. You capture a whole bunch of images, flash them one after another so fast that it looks like they're moving. And you put the images together and it tells a story. I'm from one of those stories."

[starrydome]

Elrond cants his head a little, trying to imagine this. "Does the images just appear in the air?" he asks. "I have seen that done. Not as elaborately as what you describe, though." Olorin had a flair for that. And kind enough to indulge even grown elves when they pestered him to do party tricks.

[waco_jim]

"Not exactly. They capture it on a sort of semi-transparent strip of film. Then they shine a light through it and project it onto a plain white screen."

[starrydome]

"Ah, like when one makes shadow plays on a wall. Hmm, interesting. How do they capture the images then? Must one hunt for them first?"

He smiles, a quick glittering of teeth. It's a jest of course, but he can't help picturing it like that. Probably because of the turn of phrase: capture them.

[waco_jim]

"In a manner of speaking. That's what location scouts are for.

"You use a device called a camera to get the image. I don't really know how it works. Something to do with chemicals that are sensitive to light. You have other people hold microphones out of sight of the camera - they get the sound.

"Then you take all the film you've shot and cut and paste it together so it makes sense. Unless you're David Lynch. Then you cut and paste it 'til it doesn't make any sense at all."

[starrydome]

During the whole explanation, Jim is treated to the full intensity of a fascinated and attentive elven gaze.

"So you capture images with sound to go with them?" He just wants to make sure that he understands it correctly. "Remarkable. And then what? What do you do when the story makes sense? Or not?"

He smiles.

[waco_jim]

"Well, then you send the final cut of the film over to the studio, who will make a large number of exact copies of the film. Studios are...merchants who sell copies of the film to the theaters, which are the places where movies are shown. Then the theaters put up big posters and make a lot of noise so people know that they're going to be showing the movie you made. Then the people come and buy a ticket to get into the theater, they sit down, the lights go dim, and the movie plays on the screen in front of them.

"You understand so far?"