(Untitled)

[spooky_shrink]

As far as Malcolm was concerned when he came down the stairs from his room, it's only been a day or two since he last enjoyed a late-evening nightcap at his usual seat at the bar. But it only takes a minute for him to take in all the new faces and realize Milliways must have done it to him again

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[looksafterthem]

There's a woman a few seats down, nursing a glass of red wine and looking vaguely suspicious. Both suspicious of other people and suspicious, herself -- that latter part mostly because she ought to be suspiciously familiar.

(And also because she's kind of paranoid, in general, and tends to broadcast that fact a mile away to anyone with a hint of natural empathy.)

[spooky_shrink]

Malcolm would be the last person to blame anyone for feeling suspicious about Milliways. And she does look annoyingly familiar, though he can't quite place her.

He certainly doesn't have any trouble picking up the cues for paranoia. But that doesn't stop him from offering a casual, friendly nod when they do happen to lock eyes at one point.

[looksafterthem]

Claire acknowledges him with a tight, wry smile that doesn't reach her eyes.

"Does it get less strange here, or do people tend to just stop caring?"

She knows a bit about the amount of strangeness one can become accustomed to, and the compromises a person makes to hold onto their sanity. But she hasn't quite gotten used to time not lining up correctly here.

[spooky_shrink]

Malcolm grimaces. "Pretty much the latter. If it's gotten any less strange, I haven't been able to tell."

Probably not the answer she wanted but likely the one she expected.

"I'm Malcolm. Dr. Malcolm Crowe." He thumbs behind him. "On the medical staff here. Or at least I was."

[tyler_marlocke]

...speaking of one of his patients...here comes one of them now, though the worry about Tyler snapping and blowing this place up are....are..

...

Actually it's just been a while since Tyler saw the guy, and let's just leave it at that for now.

"..Dr. Crowe?"

[spooky_shrink]

Malcolm smiles. "Hello, Tyler! Good to see you."

He gestures vaguely at the bar. "I guess I've been away for a while? The Landlord must have decided I needed a time out for some reason."

[tyler_marlocke]

"...yeah, it's been a few months since I last saw you." Tyler nods, after having thought about it a bit. "I never got to ask you if you wanted regular notebook updates or not...or how far you got in the copies I sent you."

There's another glance towards the bar. "Yeah, she's like that, though at least she doesn't time warp you when you're heading for the bathroom."

[spooky_shrink]

"Not yet, anyway," Malcolm grumbles. He'd really rather Tyler not give the Landlord any ideas.

"Well, the last time you saw me was a few months for you but only about a day or two for me. So I guess there must be a stack of updates somewhere for me to read."

"Sorry about that, Tyler. I'll get to them right away, ok?"

[is_a_ghost]

No one's taken his usual spot, no, but someone is inhabiting a barstool only one or two down from Malcolm, arguing with the bar in a tired voice.

"I just want my clothes back," he says, head on one hand and showing a dark hand-sized bruise on his jaw. "I can't go home," Silas argues at the next note he gets. "You won't let me go home."

[spooky_shrink]

Malcolm doesn't like the look of that bruise, and he knows all too well the sort of tricks Milliways sometimes plays on the more unlucky patrons.

"Sorry," he speaks up. "I couldn't help overhearing. Sounds like you might be Bound here?"

[is_a_ghost]

Silas looks up, startled for a moment; his pulse spikes, but he calms down quickly. He's still alert, and has to turn fully towards Malcolm to see him in any great detail.

"Ouais," he says, nodding. "Yes. She...It seems she likes to do that to me. But I had a kind of accident at home just before I came here." He isn't sure he wants to go home, for all his argument, not when that will mean a police investigation over his parents--now dead. And only one by accident, strictly speaking. "But I brought some clothes with me, she just won't give them back."

[spooky_shrink]

Malcolm frowns slightly. "Won't give them back, huh? That's a new one to me. For what it's worth, though, when she does something like that she usually has a reason."

His mention of an 'accident,' though.... Malcolm can't help but be reminded of the circumstances that brought him to Milliways.

"An accident? If you don't mind my asking, do you remember what happened, or did you just end up here?"

[katyafeline]

"Do your patients generally blow things up?" There's a blond gal down the bar who's trying not to look too hopeful.

Mostly she's bored. It'd liven things up around here if someone attempted mayhem.

[spooky_shrink]

Malcolm smirks. "They've been known to give it a try sometimes."

"Hasn't actually happened yet, but some of them are pretty resourceful."

[katyafeline]

Katya looks dubious.

"Can't be terribly resourceful - I've met members of their Watch." The Tiger of Moscow is not impressed. Maybe she ought to take up the explosive challenge.

Olya would kill her.

[spooky_shrink]

"Well, seeing as how I'm Bound here, I'd just as soon they don't get that resourceful."

[claudiometer]

"I'd think if anyone were really determined to blow the place up, they'd have to get through a hell of a lot of other people to pull it off."
So says the redhead with a pink (this week) streak in her hair, a few seats down (in the opposite direction of Suit Guy), dressed like a thrift store fell on her. She has a milkshake and a snowglobe.
(The two things are connected, even though it's not obvious at first.)

[spooky_shrink]

"I sure like to think so," Malcolm agrees with a grin. "I'm sort of attached to the place."

[claudiometer]

"Yeah, it grows on you like that." There's a reason she keeps coming back despite her hard-earned twitchiness about interdimensional spaces, after all.

[spooky_shrink]

"True, but it's a little more serious for me. Being dead means where Milliways goes, I go."