Once upon a December ...

[dont_go_west]

There's something in the air. Something like ... a sense of yellow tinted blur, with unusually high contrast between light and dark! There might even be cross-dissolves.

Could this be a flashback?

Comments

[the_h_star_r]

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!

[dont_go_west]

West, oblivious to any and all dramatic noises or the fact that he is currently lit in grayscale, is sitting at the bar wishing the bar had internet access so that he could update his blog.

[the_h_star_r]

Homestar, being Homestar, might notice. He's just that kind of nutty.

In fact, he seems to be his good ol' oblivious self, wandering over and humming a little "bomp-bomp-bodle-bodle-bomp-bomp" and so forth.

Then he stops, glances around, and asks West, "Hey, do things look funny to you all of a sudden?"

It's okay if West doesn't understand Homestar. Most often don't.

[dont_go_west]

. . . well. Homestar looks pretty funny, in the way where he has no nose and no arms.

But it's not cool to mock the disabled.

"Uh . . . no more than usual," says West, trying very hard to project vibes of 'I am totally sorry for your plight of being disabled physically and possibly mentally, but please go away and leave me alone now.'

[latino_menace]

Ramon's outside and not in a particularly good mood. People in the bar are pissing him off just by being there, which is why he'd come outside for a smoke.

Seeing that he's not alone out here either kind of makes his mood worse.

[dont_go_west]

West . . . is unlikely to help him improve his mood.

"Uh, secondhand smoke?" he complains, taking a few steps backward, and lets out a dramatic cough or two for good measure.

[latino_menace]

Ramon looks at him. Well, glares. And very deliberately takes a long drag and blows it into the kid's face.

[dont_go_west]

West's dramatic coughing gets much louder!

In between hacks: "Okay, I'll just send you the medical bills for my lung cancer."

[try_corsets]

When she finds the Flying Dutchman anchored at Milliways, Elizabeth is prepared to admit she likes the place.

When she does not find her husband's ship, and thus her husband, readily accessible, her feelings toward the bar are decidedly less fond. Disappointment and irritation at wasted time and effort bubbles over, making her scowl.

Today's frustration is particularly keen; there is something she very much wishes to discuss with Will. But time and fate have not seen fit to conspire on their behalf and all Elizabeth wants to do is get back to the Empress.

If only all these people would get out of the way. The bar is full, more so even than when she went outside, and every path to the front door is clogged with bodies. Elizabeth scowls harder and starts working her way through the crowd, pushing people lightly aside as is needed.

[dont_go_west]

West's plans for the day do not include getting shoved by skinny ladies with an attitude problem.

"Watch it!"

[try_corsets]

Elizabeth spins stiffly on the heel of her boot and pins the boy she'd just bumped against with her best supercilious stare.

"Watch what, exactly?"

[dont_go_west]

"Uh, your personal space," says West, scowling back.

It is intruding on West's! And West's personal space is very personal.

[noattachments]

Perched on a thick curved branch in the biggest tree near the bar's back door, Kate holds an almost empty bottle of beer between her denim-clad knees and a small toy airplane between her fingers.

She's antsy tonight. Introspective. This place is a mixed bag: it hands you a blank -- or almost blank -- slate and sticks you in a cage you can't always get free from for long.

When the plane slips from between her fingers and drops to the grass beneath her, she looks disapprovingly down at it for a second and then, before she makes any move to climb down, finishes the last of her beer.

[dont_go_west]

West has been out for a surreptitious flight. It may be a risk, but hey, it's dark out - and it's nice to remind himself, every so often, that no matter what the judgmental idiots on the ground might think, he's got the edge.

(Of course he hasn't been looking into anyone's windows. Why would anyone ask such a thing?)

He doesn't see Kate in the tree until he's almost too close, but the falling plane tips him off and he drops down to the ground in haste, with a slight thump on the ground, a few feet away from the tree.

[noattachments]

About three seconds later, Kate lands on the ground herself, feet planted hard to brace against the drop from the branch.

Her eyebrows are definitely raised. "Sorry if I startled you."

Her brain says no, of course he wasn't flying, but even as she reaches down to hurriedly recover the fallen plane, her mouth proves to have a mind of its own. "Next time maybe I'll wear orange before I climb any of these trees. Just in case."

[dont_go_west]

West stares at her. "Maybe you should," he says, more snappishly than even he thinks the situation actually warrants. His heart is still thumping. "Were you spying on me?"

[will_scarlett]

Will's feeling restless, he knows something bad is going to happen soon but he's not sure which world it will be in so he's doing sword practice to calm down.

[dont_go_west]

What is with the whole Ren-Faire-violence thing in these parts?

West leans against a tree and watches, arms folded, with an eyebrow-lift that he himself would probably characterize as sardonic.

[will_scarlett]

Will looks up over to West after a while and nods,

"Am I borin' ye?"

[dont_go_west]

"Oh, definitely not," West says. "I mean, it's really fascinating, watching the, uh, air get what's coming to it. You keep on fighting the good fight, there."