Gabriel Gray - Heroes (way, way pre-canon) - Waysbar Milli

[mm_caz]

The handle of the main door clunks up and down a couple of times, as if someone keeps trying to manipulate it and missing; at last, the door agrees to open and a tall young man with armfuls of heavy cardboard box comes through backwards.

Gabriel has been doing more than just thinking about moving out. He's studied the thick red-bound books with

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[mm_cam]

"Oooh," comes a voice from the general direction of the Bar itself. "You're new here. Hi there!"

[iheartwatches]

There is a robot. There is a robot talking to him.

No, you can sort of tell that Gabriel is new, because one imagines a Milliways veteran wouldn't react to such a sight by dropping the box so hard that it collapses in on one corner (only really clothes in there, thank God) and fumbling behind his back for the doorhandle.

[mm_cam]

"Whoops. Sorry," says Ecto, looking contrite (or as contrite as somebody with a face and shoulders like hers can, anyway). "Didn't mean to scare you, mister."

[iheartwatches]

The handle isn't turning properly. The door is locked.

Looks like he's going to have to face whatever the hell this situation is, then.

Defensively, and not particularly convincingly either when you consider his reaction: "I wasn't scared."

[kleinefluegel]

She doesn't know how she ended up here. She doesn't even particularly want to know. All she knows-- for now, though one can foresee that she doesn't, by any stretch of the imagination, look forward to figuring out any more of this nightmarish storyline-- is that she woke up, crammed into a small compartment that turned out to be a cupboard, wings and limbs at odd twisted angles that make her realize that she couldn't possibly have done this herself, and, secondly, that the person who did do it must have either fancied her a contortionist, or in grave danger

[iheartwatches]

Gabriel, meanwhile, is having something of a crisis. It would be far-fetched enough to believe that he could find a taproom in an apartment block that his key happened to fit, and mistake it for his own rooms. It would be even more of a stretch to say that this bar could then be filled with-- well, with the kind of clientele this one seems to play host to, some human and some things he wouldn't like to name for fear of thinking himself mad

[kleinefluegel]

She's making him nervous? Perhaps. Nill isn't used to people being scared of her. She's short, thin, and frail, blonde and donned in the dress Priest got for her, and overall, is really not a picture of terror, or even confidence. There's no confidence in her stance-- despite the fact that she's not standing at all, but kneeling, crouched, under a table, the fact perhaps furthering the argument-- or her eyes, or her expression--

But let us focus on her eyes for a mere moment, big, wide, blue, and scared. Nill is, of course, easily rattled, let there be no doubt about that, and it's rare when the bright irises reflect back something other than some form of aversion and fear, so, in this particular instance, what is curious about the way she's looking at this new male specimen is, perhaps, the fact that she doesn't seem entirely frightened by the timid, weak Gabriel Gray with a distaste for ham and tuna and corn who thinks he will never be able to escape his mother-- this bar thing is sort of new-- and frets over the fact that his

[iheartwatches]

To tell the truth, he's not so much nervous of her specifically as of the whole general concept of 'hi I just walked through this door and I do not think it led where I thought it led and also hello clearly non-human regulars how's life in the twilight zone?'. In which situation I'm sure we could forgive anyone for being a little on edge.

Now for a question: would Gabriel Gray, this Gabriel Gray from this place and time and in this place and time, look around to see if she's waving to someone behind him? If it was just a random encounter in the street, probably. But in this instance, the question is not so much is she? as why is she?He's slightly reluctant to leave the door to find out -- and anyway, personal space. (Though the narration will leave it up to you, gentle reader, to determine just whose personal space it is he is interested in conserving.) So he doesn't take his left hand away from its fruitless task at the doorhandle

[nneverwas]

Someone sighs.

Then someone gets up, closes his book (Samuel Beckett's Endgame) and offers Gabriel a nod of greeting.

"Hey there," he says, in his unmistakeable Southern accent. "You're new, right?"

[iheartwatches]

Aaron gets stared at like he's an alien from outer space. An offensive alien from outer space.

"What do you mean, 'new'?" he demands. New to bizarre and aggressively mystifying circumstances? New to being kidnapped by doors?

[nneverwas]

"Yeah, thought so. Look, can I get that for you? You might want to sit down."

Aaron Luke has remained calm in the face of a lot more iiritability than Gabriel is currently displaying. He smiles slightly, an expression of quiet, unassuming friendliness, and holds out his hands for the box.

[iheartwatches]

"I've got it." Gabriel's not given to immediately trust a stranger with his precious precious... okay, so there's only really clothes in this box, but it's the principle of the thing.

...Though he probably should put it down at some point. He isn't built for manual labour.