Streets of Fandom, Wednesday

[two_idiots_one_body]

Arthur had finally been released yesterday! He'd made his way slowly to the hotel, nearly had a heart attack at the cost of it, which was several months' wages for a single night, paid it anyway, and promptly collapsed into bed and gone to sleep.

Look, it had been several blocks and a lot of steps with a cast on!

Today he was out again, though. There had been a brochure at the hotel for the local bank, which promised access to accounts no matter where you were from, and he would apparently need that in order to stay here.

At least he and John had the crutches down pat by now. The stairs were still a bitch, though.

He paused at the top of another short flight to catch his breath.

"The doctor wasn't exaggerating, was he?"

"Unfortunately. Shift off the crutch." Arthur put his weight on his good leg, and felt John rearranging to look at the map. "Another block forward, if this is right."

Arthur sighed. "Might as well get on with it, though."

John took up the crutch, and they continued on.


[Open post if anybody wants to waylay the guy with a full-leg cast and crutches who may be talking to himself!]

Comments

[canondisasterbi]

Michael was taking a break from poking at a chomper and happened to see Arthur struggling along.

"You, uh. Need some help there, buddy?"

[two_idiots_one_body]

"It's a young man with dark curly hair," John informed him as Arthur turned in the direction of the voice. "He's casually dressed, and wearing a black hat with a wide brim."

"Hello," Arthur offered. "So long as I'm on the right path to the bank, I think I'm doing well enough, thank you."

[canondisasterbi]

"Uh huh," Michael said. "If you say so. You look like you got run over by a truck."

[two_idiots_one_body]

Arthur snorted. "Unfortunately nothing but time will heal that." Well, time, medications, and eating regularly. "I must say that between that and the incessant stairs, I'm not enamoured of the future so far."

[canondisasterbi]

"Seriously?" Michael asked. "I figured this place would have at least one magic healer. What kind of a crock is that?"

[two_idiots_one_body]

"I would just as soon skip magic, but I thought surely science would have advanced a bit," Arthur answered. "Not a flying taxi in sight, either."

"To be fair, nothing's in your sight, Arthur. Anyway, these streets seem too narrow for automobiles."

Thank you, John.

[canondisasterbi]

"No flying taxis," Michael agreed. "I, uh . . . can do a little TK for you if you need it, though."

Look. It was apparently an open secret to have weird abilities around here, so he might as well make his useful, right?

"I'm Michael, by the way."

[two_idiots_one_body]

"Arthur. Sorry, TK?"

[canondisasterbi]

"Telekinesis? Fancy way of saying I can move shit with my mind."

[two_idiots_one_body]

"You what?"

"He can move things with his mind, Arthur, do keep up. It's not an unheard of power, if uncommon."

"I wasn't aware anybody could do that."

[canondisasterbi]

"Yeah, I gather it's not real common on Earth," Michael said with a wry smirk. "You, uh, you have gotten the 'not everyone here is from Earth' speech already, right? I mean, you seem to have grasped the 'this is the future' thing. Since you're snarking about flying cars."

[two_idiots_one_body]

"One of the men in the clinic said he wasn't from Earth," Arthur said. "You're not either, then?"

He couldn't decide if all these non-Earth people here was worrying or not.

[canondisasterbi]

“Nope,” Michael said with a shrug, moving to amble along side Arthur. He figured the guy had shit to do, but at least Michael could stabilize him if he tripped or something. “But uh. It’s a little like people who were born in Iowa and moved south when they were little aren’t ‘from’ Texas, you know?”

[two_idiots_one_body]

Arthur took a moment to parse that as he started back up, John nudging him in the right direction. "So you're from somewhere else, but you grew up on Earth?"

"He looks human," John supplied. "A bit younger than you, and stockier, not that that's difficult at the moment."

[canondisasterbi]

Definitely not hard. Most people would not call Michael “stocky”.

“Got it in one. My folks, uh, immigrated on a ship that crashed in the desert. Place called Roswell.”

Michael snuck a glance looking for a reaction. It weirded him out that there might be people here who’s never heard of the Roswell crash.

[two_idiots_one_body]

Arthur was an undernourished twig at the moment, so most people would be stockier than him.

He also had no idea about anything to do with Roswell, as that was a few decades after his time. "Where is that? In the States?" he guessed, based on Michael's accent.

[canondisasterbi]

“Wow.” Michael nodded. “Yeah, New Mexico. Soooo . . . when are you from?”

[two_idiots_one_body]

"Is that a thing you just ask people nowadays?" Arthur asked. "1934," he conceded after a moment. "Why?"

[canondisasterbi]

“Curious is all. I mean, you have heard it’s the 21st century, right?” He shrugged. “But yeah, my people’s ship won’t crash for thirteen more years, when you’re from. It makes pretty big news.”

[two_idiots_one_body]

"I have heard," Arthur agreed. "It still feels a bit hard to believe. I'm half convinced it's a trick to convince me to pay twenty times the going rate for a hotel room."

Only half, though. The weird plastic razor he'd been given to shave with was pretty convincing.

"This city certainly looks old. If it weren't for the clinic, it would be a good theory."

And Arthur did trust John. It was just harder to believe when you couldn't actually see it.

[canondisasterbi]

Michael sucked a breath through his teeth. “Yeah, talk about sticker shock. Hey, I had trouble wrapping my head around it myself and I’m only from about five years ago.”

And yes, if you were paying attention and did the math, that’d make Michael at least a septuagenarian.

[two_idiots_one_body]

Arthur was paying attention, he was just going to assume that Michael had been born some time after his parents crashed.

"So how did you end up in the future?"

[canondisasterbi]

Ah! But Michael had already specified that he wasn't born on Earth!

"Sucked through a portal in my sleep, apparently. Lucky me, it grabbed my whole trailer, or I'd be trying to find cash for the hotel like you are."

. . . Actually he'd be squatting in an abandoned warehouse or something. But he didn't need to tell this guy that.

[two_idiots_one_body]

So maybe I Arthur was a dumbass and hadn't taken it that literally.

"I'm just lucky I had some cash," he said. "But the bank's brochure says it can get to your funds from wherever they are, so I'm hoping that's true. Although if everything is as expensive as the hotel, I'll be lucky to last a week."

Maybe he could find a job. "What's a weekly salary around here like?"

[canondisasterbi]

Michael shrugged. "Far as I can tell, people work like one day a week and are fine. Which might just be the weirdest part about this time traveling, portal-hopping town."