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

Comments

[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."

[mm_cam]

"Wow, my human pattern recognition is worse than I thought, then," says the robot. "I tend to startle people if I'm not careful, that's all. Um. Welcome to Milliways, at least?"

[iheartwatches]

Where a lot of people would say "um" or "er" or perhaps start and abandon a sentence, Gabriel maintains a pensive silence whilst he continues to stare.

At last: "Thank you," he says uncertainly.

[mm_cam]

"You're welcome!" says the mech, her voice conveying much more of a smile than her facial servos are capable of. "I know it's a little weird and it's probably not what you were looking for when you opened that door, but it's okay, really. You'll be fine. My name's Ecto. What's yours?"

[iheartwatches]

"Gabriel Gray." He's still speaking cautiously, like he's not sure all this won't just evaporate if he looks at it too hard.

But. Um.

"Things like this... don't happen to me," he tries to explain. They don't happen to anyone, or at least not anyone in full possession of their wits.

[mm_cam]

"Didn't," Ecto corrects gently. "They do now."

[iheartwatches]

And is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Aren't you sick of the word 'stare'? As he continues to do just that, somewhat sharply, he experiences another breath of that clarity he feels sometimes when he's repairing watches; the clarity he supposes everyone must get around this time, hot on the heels of breaking voices and facial hair.

...Well. She's definitely not just wearing a costume, anyway.

It leaves behind, more than anything else, a sense of awe.

"...You called it Milliways?"

Pray tell, what the heck is a Milliways?

[mm_cam]

"Mm-hm." Ecto smiles again, as far as her construction will allow. "I don't know how familiar you are with the concept of time travel or pocket dimensions, but right now we're hundreds of millions of years in the future from wherever you just came from. But it's okay, it's safe here, and just as soon you open that door and go home you'll be right back where you started with no time passing at all."

Her father's been on her case about the introductory speech needing to be something easier for newbies to digest than 'end of the universe, don't look too closely at the Window'.

[iheartwatches]

"Hundreds of millions of..."

All right, so that was a trailed-off sentence, but you can't expect the boy to keep a grip on himself the entire time. Just be grateful he isn't actively freaking out.

Tightly: "The... handle's stuck."

[mm_cam]

... oh, Dad's so not gonna go for that.

"Whoops. Um, yeah, that happens sometimes," Ecto says. "It'll open up pretty soon, though. Usually it does that just to give people a chance to calm down and get used to the place, kind of thing. Um. I'm sorry?"

[iheartwatches]

"The door decides whether I can go or not?" he demands.

This is not Gabriel's favourite day ever.

[mm_cam]

"Well, some people say it's an entity called the Landlord controlling the door, but Dad and I haven't ever found any real evidence of a Landlord's existence," Ecto says.

[iheartwatches]

...Great. He's been kidnapped by an invisible man who probably doesn't exist. This could be a kind of twisted allegory.

"I did have plans," he says testily. "I'm meant to be moving apartments today."

C'mon, universe, leaving your childhood home is stressful enough without unexpected interdimensional travel.