David Talbot // The Vampire Chronicles // That bar at the end of the universe

[mm_fashnik]

Once upon a time, in a place not so different than this, the appearance of one Anglo-Indian-looking vampire inna bar through the front door would not have been such a strange occurrence.

This time, this place, this vampire?

This is a strange occurrence. Because it's never happened here before.

He's never been here before, doesn't recognise the

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[new_to_liirness]

Leaving aside his author's new book, Liir looked up at the rather surprised-sounding voice near the door. That the man wasn't any he knew was entirely expected, and the surprise was similarly common place for a first timer... but it still caused a touch of sympathy, if not empathy, and he peered out from his booth.

"Sir?"

[mm_fashnik]

His eyebrow's rather high on his forehead, or at least one of them is.

He looks to the source of the voice, and takes a step, two, three towards the booth, peering aside at the head peeking out.

"Sorry, I seem to have..." he starts, and looks around again, standing up straight. "Stepped into the wrong place."

[new_to_liirness]

"It's not your fault," he said with what passed for a cheerful expression. His features tended to sharpness and his moods tended to blankness and usually, this ended up making him seem rather dour.

"This place takes people from all manner of worlds and times. It's a rather queer sort of spot."

[mm_fashnik]

He's heard stranger things, really, and seen stranger things, and probably done stranger things. But really, this takes the cake.

"You can say that again; certainly not what I was expecting. I assume there's no point in asking if it's a vision, a dream of some sort?" he says, and reaches out to touch the upholstery of the booth he's standing next to.

"I don't believe 'queer' really covers it. It is a bar. In one of my guest rooms."

And since he drinks nothing but blood, he wouldn't have a bar in his house.

Least of all with people he doesn't know in it.

"And I am sorry, I seem to have lost all sense of propriety. I am David."

[new_to_liirness]

"Liir," he offered with a quick smile; it flashed and was gone in the space of the name.

"And it was also in the middle of the Emerald City. And from what I've heard from others, in their lavatory, and in someone else's basement."

[mm_fashnik]

"A most peculiar place, indeed."

He's still looking around, taking in sight and sound and smell. It certainly doesn't smell like England - the gardeners had, after all, cut the grass on Friday afternoon. He couldn't smell the grass. Couldn't smell the books that lined the walls at home.

"You wouldn't happen to know why I'm here, would you?"

He asks, only because Liir is the only one to speak to him so far.

"I realise that you were not expecting me, otherwise you'd have known who I was, but... I am, after all, in a bar in my guest room."

[new_to_liirness]

"It's no more in your guest room than it is in Munchkin Mousehole," he pointed out with a mildly amused expression.

"And I suppose you're supposed to be here for some reason or another. The popular lore says that's how it works, though if you're worried, it also says that time doesn't keep going while you're here. It freezes for you outside, as if you were putting down a book for some moments, only to pick it up again where you left off."

[mm_fashnik]

"Well, it was my guest room when I opened the door. This is most unusual."

He sits himself delicately in a stool at a table, well within proximity to Liir, but far enough away for propriety's sake.

"Indeed," he says, nodding, taking it in. "Well, that's... good."

Lestat'd probably wonder what in the hell happened to him if he didn't show up later that night for hunting.

"I do have a tendency to do that with books."

[new_to_liirness]

"I've never had the luxury of them before here. The ones I learned on weren't exactly,er..."

They'd been romance novels, including one rather shudder-inducing travesty involving a young maiden's love for her Horse.

[mm_fashnik]

He feels a deep pity for Liir. Books were inherent in his childhood, his teenage years and all of his adult life.

"But you have them here, which is important. Although I hope that you do not put one down and simply walk into a time-space continuum rift without realising," he says, and smiles politely. "Or, if you do, I hope you at least use a bookmark."

[new_to_liirness]

That got him a rather skeptical look.

"Where were you again?"

He's wondering at this strange young man.

[mm_fashnik]

"I was at home, in England. Preparing for a guest for the night, actually," he explains, and fiddles with a candle.

He looks up, and adds, "I like books," as thought that explains everything.

[new_to_liirness]

"They're all right," he said with a shrug.

And he couldn't think of anything he liked except not cleaning up monkey doings.

[mm_fashnik]

"Just all right? As an ex glorified-librarian, I take offense at that, almost."

David smiles, rather brightly, and there's fang in it, though not as much as when he means to show fang. It's still pretty toothy.

"So," he says, returning to talk of the bar, "you have no idea where this is, beyond, 'it's not really my guest bedroom at all'?"

[new_to_liirness]

"It's called Milliways," he offered, "and it's at the end of the universe. I know more than that, but if you'd rather explore, you can do that as well. I'm by no means an expert. I've just been here the last few months."

[mm_fashnik]

"Milliways," he repeats. "At the end of the universe?"

That certainly has his attention.

"How is that possibe?"