The Perk- Friday afternoon

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

Look at that, the new girl was out and about.

Claire's coffeemaker had decided it was going to fail at the one thing it was designed to do- it was in the name- and so a caffeine fix was necessary. So she came to the Perk, got a drink, and decided to grab a table and pretend to play with her phone when she was really listening to the baristas' conversation. As it turned out, it was good for NPC gossip, even if Claire had no idea who these people were.


[Open!]

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[vdistinctive]

Eliot swung by the Perk on the way home from the gym for an iced latte and nodded to Claire while he waited. "Howdy."

He'd spent the morning playing Johnny Cash for Bob's class. His accent was out in force and determined to linger.

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"Apparently I moved farther south than I thought," Claire decided with an easy smile. "Howdy yourself."

[vdistinctive]

Eliot laughed. "Nah," he said. "I've just been hittin' the country a little hard, this week." He offered her his hand. "Eliot Spencer. Don't think I've seen ya around, before."

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"Claire Temple," she said, shaking his hand. "I'm new. And in that still settling in stage." And therefore she'd been a little antisocial, oops.

[vdistinctive]

"That can take awhile around here," Eliot noted. "Fandom tends to have a little bit of . . . extra personality. Where you from? Other'n 'north'."

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"New York. It's been a change."

Which was a nice way of wondering why the hell it was so quiet here.

[vdistinctive]

"City?" Eliot guessed, and whistled. "Yeah, that'll be a hell of a culture shock. How long you been down here for?"

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"A few weeks. Got a place to stay and a clinic job which is just slightly less busy than the Hell's Kitchen ER I'm used to," she said. "You'd think people don't need medicine or checkups here."

[vdistinctive]

"Not right now," Eliot said. "Around here that sort of thing tends to come in, uh. Waves."

The clinic had been plenty full after Gaunt, for instance.

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I guess all it takes is one person to get the flu and then everybody's in there."

*pats her head*

[vdistinctive]

Eliot chuckled. "Somethin' like that. I'm guessin' no one's given you the speech yet, then."

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"There's a speech?" she asked.

[vdistinctive]

"Well, sort of," Eliot said. "There's no script or nothin'. But Fandom ain't like your typical small town."

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"Let's be real here, I don't even know what a typical small town is," Claire said. "I assume they don't have as many stairs."

[vdistinctive]

"Not on this side of the Atlantic," Eliot said. "Back in New York, you got much experience with, say, ghosts? Or curses?"

Those being the two things that had last required Eliot to seek out medical attention.

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"Caaaaaan't say I have," Claire said, extremely slowly.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot smiled. "Yeah, I didn't believe a damn word of it when I heard about it, either. But just wait. Soon enough somethin'll come along and turn most of the island's population into children again, or something."

Or she'd meet the pony. That must be why the island kept her around, to throw the new folks right off the deep end into the insanity.

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"The... wait, what?"

What was the proper response to that, really?

[vdistinctive]

That was pretty much it, actually.

"Happened for about a weekend last summer," Eliot said. "I turned the diner into a sort of playground for 'em 'til it wore off. I've also been here for a magic, evil carnival, a ghost convention, flying attack eels, a couple variations on 'random kids show up', and, uh. That time an elder god showed up and tried to steal people's souls by sellin' 'em cursed trinkets." Which was a very abbreviated overview. "We've got vampires and werewolves and aliens and such runnin' around, too. Like I said, no so much your average small town." He smiled faintly. "Now's the part where you decide I'm crazy or pullin' your leg, until something happens to prove I ain't."

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"You could be both crazy and pulling my leg," Claire pointed out, staring.

[vdistinctive]

"It's possible," Eliot agreed cheerfully. "But I ain't either. And you stick around long enough, you'll see it for yourself."

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"Okay, let's pretend I have also gone crazy and buy this," Claire said. "People see stuff like that and stay?"

[vdistinctive]

"Near as I can tell, for some of 'em it's a relief. When you're someone who can walk through walls, it must be nice to live somewhere where that ain't the weirdest thing anyone's heard of."

Or, you know, when you were a seasoned criminal who used to kill people for money, it was nice to live somewhere where your skills were useful and no one worried too much about your past.

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"Okay, now I know you're messing with me," Claire said. "There's Thor, and then there's walking through walls."

[vdistinctive]

"He used to teach here," Eliot said. "Never really met him, though."

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"...Thor did not teach here," Claire said. Though she wasn't positive, because it wasn't like she knew where he went between movies.

[vdistinctive]

"He did! Check out the radio broadcast archive. You can hear all about it."

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"And next you'll be telling me the Tony Stark on radio is Tony Stark."

What, like there was only one guy with that name in the world?

[vdistinctive]

Eliot totally didn't get the emphasis there. "Near as I can tell he ain't lyin' about his name. Why, he some kinda celebrity in your world?"

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

That was actually weirder than hearing about people waking up as children. "I mean... he's Iron Man. Who doesn't know Iron Man? What do you mean 'in your world?'"

[vdistinctive]

"Like the triathlon?" Eliot did not, in fact, know Iron Man. "Folks around here come from all over. By which I mean multiple universes. One of my best friends apparently came here for high school. Except the one of her I know? Never went to high school at all."

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"Uh huh," Claire said. "Makes total sense now. I definitely don't think you're shitting me at all."

She was new. Just wait until this weekend.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot shrugged. "When the island proves it to you, come find me. I'll buy ya a drink."

[askhimyourself.livejournal.com]

"You're on," Claire said, because she unwisely didn't think that would ever happen.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot jotted his number down on a napkin and slid it over to her. "I run the diner in town. Luke's. In case you want a snack to go with that drink. Be seein' you around, Claire."