mogget_cat | OOM: New Orleans with Hannibal and Jim

An optimist might say the day upon the other side of the door is balmy, but only because it's a little too early in the afternoon for it to be called sultry.

And only a little too early. Already halfway down its trek across the sky, the sun's great heat is partially mitigated by the sea-scented breeze off the Gulf and the shade of decorated balconies. Groups of people walk along Bourbon Street in front of the small alleyway in which the door from Milliways appears. The alley entrance is somewhat sheltered from the street by a fire-escape so none notice three dapper gentlemen arriving from nowhere. Faint conversations and laughter and the mingling strains of lively music reach them, and the varied smells of a port city known for its cuisine.

Yrael's green eyes glance up at the roof-edges for a moment as they enter, a half-smile on his face, before he turns to his guests. "Welcome to New Orleans."

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"I heard rumours about a very tame pack of hellhounds," Hannibal says.

"There was certainly control, followed by her pleased satisfaction at the demons' inexplicable self-destruction. She did seem like she was enjoying herself."

"As for summoning, I did not notice any explicit summoning of demons on her part. But there was much going on at the time, so I may have missed it."

His attention was mostly taken up by his twice-thwarted brother trying his best, yet again, to ruin what other people enjoy.

Hmmm. Interesting. Jim fiddles with his fork, eyes far away for a moment, then puts it down and sits back. One oyster is enough.

'If she didn't summon them, someone must have.'

He knew he wasn't wrong about that smell of sulphur.

'Thanks.'

Hannibal eats another oyster.

"Different demons," he says. "The ones they fought apparently just happened, as opposed to the ones she can summon. You can have demons on both sides of a fight."

"The demons we were fighting issued forth from the Darkgate that had opened upon the baseball diamond. Those patrons who weren't fighting hid in the Lost and Found box, or made sure to be back in their own worlds. There were earthquakes, great creatures of darkness, and something like a continuous explosion or implosion in the sky as well, which threatened the tenuous space-time of Milliways," Yrael says, continuing to enjoy the oysters and wine.

"My brother was also there, making himself a nuisance." He says this, of course, like it was no big deal. Not at all requiring the quick addition of shielding strong enough to reflect a chaos magic-type nuclear-scale explosion.

Jim's eyebrows raise.

'And I missed it? For fuck's sake, that's hardly fair.'

It sounds brilliant.

'Will it happen again, do you think?'

"Everybody who was there has the best stories to tell," Hannibal says. "I liked to listen to my friend Urquhart talk about that tense time, even though he was dead for the last day or so. Ava's hellhounds ate him."

"Even that death didn't stick to him," Yrael says, grinning toothily. "Urquhart died in his world and came to Milliways, I killed him myself in Milliways and he came right back. Ava's hellhounds ate him... but his death finally took when those zombies broke into the bar."

Yrael drinks; he had enjoyed Urquhart's company when he was in Milliways.

"I do not know if so many apocalypses will descend upon the bar again, but then, we did not know it would happen the first time. Or if that even was the first time."

'So that's what happens when you kill a dead person in the bar? They just come back?'

Tedious.

'Hardly seems worth the effort, unless it's just for the fun of it.'

It goes without saying that he won't mind a bit if another apocalypse should descend, so he doesn't bother saying it.

"And in between, he was eaten by a shapeshifter in black panther form," Hannbal says, conversationally. "He kept getting in trouble. Killed Teja once, too, just to see what happened, on a dare."

"Him killing Teja and nearly killing Charlie was why I killed Urquhart. I figured the death wouldn't take, but it was the principle of the thing," Yrael shrugs. "I felt better for it, at least. I had forgotten that Ramon Salazar also killed him."

Of course, Yrael once almost killed Ramon Salazar, also. There was no love lost between the Bright Shiner and the cartel leader.

'...so what you're saying is, the bar used to be a lot more fun.'

He's been coming for what feels like ages now, and not a single person has been murdered! It's unfair, really.

"It was. You would have liked Urquhart," Hannibal says. "He was a medieval hitman and had been a crusader; he knew some excellent old oriental recipes, spicy without New World ingredients like chilis."

"And he was always so generous with any fish he caught," murmurs the not'cat into his wine.

"The bar's security force didn't make itself nearly as much of a nuisance back then. It was much less... perceptive, then, with arrests made based on personal opinion and whether or not the security member saw anything happen," Yrael says. Essentially, if you were clever enough to not get caught, you got away with it. "The worst I ever encountered was when a security member had the audacity to try and arrest me for being someone's suicide-weapon-of-choice."

Security may have known enough not to hire him when he tried to apply for a position, but not much beyond that, in his opinion. Nothing like hiring someone who cares nothing for justice or the safety of others to your security force.

Jim hears easy to manipulate re: Security, and chuckles into his wine.

'You have to admit, having X around is fun though.'

He likes X! The fact that she'll be so difficult to beat is only a mark in her favour as far as he's concerned.

'But I'm very interested to know who'd try and get you to kill then, Yrael. And Hannibal, do you judge everyone's character on how much they like to cook?'

He had such high hopes for this friendship too! Maybe. Ish.

"I do not," Hannibal says. "It was yet another thing Angus Urquhart and I had in common."

"The one who apparently tried to kill himself using me was just a boy, Riku, who had gotten himself possessed by a power greater than himself. The one possessing him was mildly interesting, his ambitions grandiose, but he had little care for keeping the fragile mortal form he wore free of harm," Yrael replies. "It is not my concern if the boy chose to seek me out in my true form, to try and provoke and then attack me for dealing cordially with the one possessing him. My warnings that righteous anger was insufficiently flame-retardant went unheeded, and Security saw it as 'violence by neglect' or some other such nonsense."

Yrael sips his wine. "He was a handy diversion from time to time and occasionally made himself useful, but others from the same sheaf of worlds were much more interesting. I would have liked to learn more about the creatures that could devour a world's heart."

And he does, Yrael would admit, miss Axel.

'I presume he didn't die?'

Riku. He sounds stupid. Jim shifts restlessly in his seat, and finishes his glass of wine.

"Sheaf of worlds," Hannibal muses. "I think I have heard of them. Urquhart mentioned one that made thousands of muffins the day they regained their heart?"

"He didn't die, no, but he was rendered blind for a time," Yrael replies, touching his napkin to the corners of his mouth after he finishes his oysters. "And perhaps rendered a little more cautious."

"The Nobodies, yes. Most of those who came to Milliways regained their hearts, or acquired new ones. I did hear that one of their number had made large quantities of muffins after regaining their heart, for then they could once more find joy in it. The Nobodies came to Milliways from a world consisting of a grouping of different worlds, each distinct and separate but in the same neighborhood, so to speak, and they had ways of traversing between them."

Thus a sheaf of worlds. Like a gathering of individual wheat stalks.

'Regained their hearts?'

Whatever that is, it sounds even more stupid.

"From what Urquhart told me," Hannibal says, "that sheaf of worlds took metaphors very, very literally. Hence, loss of heart."

"Quite literal darkness could consume the literal and metaphorical hearts of people and worlds. For most, this would mean instant death and destruction. The minuscule percentage of a world's population with extraordinarily strong will and minds may survive as Nobodies, beings without hearts. From then on they would have to continuously struggle against being unraveled into nothing," Yrael explains. It feels very much like how utilizing Free Magic works, to him. It will destroy you eventually, but the stronger your mind is, your will, the longer you will last, and the greater things you might achieve with it.

"Generally, they were rendered nearly mindless by the loss, as well, though thirteen Nobodies were of such a strength of will as to keep their human forms and names and minds. Some of these Nobodies found their way to Milliways, and it is of them we speak."

'Why-' he says carefully, picking his glass up, '-is literally every other world more interesting than my own?'

That place sounds interesting.

"Greener grass syndrome?" Hannibal suggests, finishing his last oyster. "The familiar can seems boring, until one observes a medieval man's reaction to, say, motorbikes."

Edited Date: 2016-08-27 07:54 pm (UTC)