(Untitled)

[badge_177]

A man walks in the door. He is a middle-aged but lean figure, dressed in a worn brown uniform and dented armor. He carries a helmet under one arm. His posture and expression manage to convey a sense that he is strictly at attention yet rather irritated at being so.

Upon seeing where he is, he stops. Meaning he stops moving completely. This is not

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[assassinpharaoh]

Teppic's been feeling a bit homesick (certainly not for Djelibeybi - that damned pyramid is still under construction), so he's having some fish and chips for dinner. Not the extreme fish and chips Chidder set up to celebrate their Guild graduation; for one thing, he doesn't trust himself to think it up just right.
But the plain fish and chips are still rather Morporkian, in smell. Teppic's reaction when he notices the new arrival is also somewhat Morporkian in nature... it's just several years behind the times.*
"...Captain Vimes?"

*This isn't his fault, though. If anything, it's the inn's.

(OOC: This will be slow like a slow thing, but I couldn't resist. XD All I ask is no Pyramids-based future-spoiling, as he'll get to that soon enough; anything else is fair game.)

[badge_177]

Vimes frowns as he focused on the young man. Well, he was already frowning, but it deepens.

His first assessment said "Assassin," but that can't be right, no assassin would be so politically unaware as to call him "Captain." Of course, you didn't have to stay in the business once you'd graduated, but those pursue less thrilling careers tend to lose the look pretty quickly. It happens when you start being able to take for granted that this roll isn't poisoned.

Torn between correcting the man or asking who he was, Vimes decides to get the "Captain" part out of the way first.

"It's Commander." His tone suggests he begrudges this effort.

(( As you can tell, I have no right to mind slow. >.> ))

[assassinpharaoh]

"It is?"
Teppic does a re-assessment. The Watchman in question does seem to be a little older - and, perhaps most importantly, quite a bit more sober - than what he remembers seeing a few times in Ankh-Morpork.
"This place has to be playing with time again. I have not been out of Ankh-Morpork that long."
Between the inn and Djelibeybi, the exact length of time is a bit fuzzy. But he knows it hasn't been several years.

[badge_177]

"Playing with time?" Vimes repeats suspiciously. (Of course, he's always suspicious)

Wizards.

[assassinpharaoh]

No. If it were wizards, Teppic definitely wouldn't be able to trust the food service.*
"It's a quirk of the place, so far as anyone can tell. It... collects people from all sorts of times and places - most of them not even on the Disc. The first time I found myself here, I was trying to leave my Guild exam."

*Even if the created food held its form for more than a second or two, it would more likely be poisoned than not. Such would be Teppic's assumption, anyway, as his Morporkian experience is pre-Ridcully.**
**At which point you have more to fear from crossbow bolts than dinner.