barring emergencies

[the_very_best]

Bella's not sure where she has wandered. She thought she was about to walk into a shop, but this appears to be an unattended bar. With none of the windows associated with the shop she thought she was entering. It could be an elaborate psychic assault of some kind, but it doesn't feel very... assault-y... and she was in the middle of a town and doesn't think any humans want to sic their 'mon on her. It's strange. She approaches the bar, looking around warily, hand hovering near her belt.

with Max (Benedict)

with Earth and Lightning (kappa)

with Ann and Sabrina (kuuskytkolme)

Comments

[unblinkered]

This is a good and hopeful idea! He decides to test it. Max steps inside, closes the door, and immediately steps over to the window and moves his head back and forth directly in front of it.

There is noticeable dejection in his voice when he turns to her and says "If it's a TV, it's a 3D TV with head-tracking and higher definition than anything I've ever seen."

[the_very_best]

"My first thought was that it was a psychic attack, it just doesn't seem nearly hostile enough to be an attack," says the girl.

[unblinkered]

He looks at her funny. "You're... going to have to unpack that."

[the_very_best]

"Huh?"

[unblinkered]

"The "psychic attack" thing. D'you think people are trying to mess with us with, what, crystals, or something?"

[the_very_best]

"...What do crystals have to do with psychic attacks? I mean like somebody's having their Kadabra prank us or something."

[unblinkered]

"The hell is a Kadabra?"

This girl is being confusing. She is being separately confusing from the whole Tardis-coffee-shop thing, and Max does not care to be two kinds of confused at the same time.

[the_very_best]

"It's a Pokémon. I guess you haven't been in school for a while?"

[unblinkered]

"What, that game my kid used to play? You're seriously proposing a Pokémon is using a Psychic-type attack to make us think the coffee shop is-" Oh. Wait. That was a joke. Duh. "-ohhhh. Oh, sorry. I thought- didn't pick up on the joke. Heh."

[the_very_best]

"It wasn't a joke - what ware you talking about?"

[unblinkered]

Ha ha! Kid's got a funny bone, alright. He chuckles. And then... doesn't chuckle, because there's still that exploding stars thing.

"So... okay, seriously. What's... there's something... what do you think happened here? This looks... a few different kinds of impossible. Where did Brenda's go?"

[the_very_best]

"Brenda's? I wasn't going into anywhere called Brenda's..."

[unblinkered]

It's one thing for a door that was supposed to lead one place to lead to a different place. There exists, presumably, a space of hypotheses to explain seeming singular discontinuities of this type. There exist markedly fewer hypotheses that explain multiple places leading to the same different place. The shrinking of the hypothesis space is both encouraging and intimidating.

But first...

"What do you mean you weren't going anywhere called- where'd you end up here from? Huh?"

[the_very_best]

"I was trying to go into a shop to get more Pokéballs and Potions."

[unblinkered]

ha ha ha the joke again ha ha ha this would be a lot more funny if he hadn't just noticed the pokéballs already hanging from her belt

There are a couple obvious possibilities. One possibility, the stupid one, is the one where she is actually a Pokémon trainer. The other possibility is that he's talking to someone who's suffered some severe mental something-or-other and has lost the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Neither is reassuring.

"What..." he begins, "do Pokémon have to do with..." he fails to continue.

[the_very_best]

"Have to do with what, magically appearing bars? I don't know, I already told you my first guess and why I don't think it's quite right."

[unblinkered]

Okay this crazy person doesn't know what is going on and is probably only going to confuse him further. He ignores her answer and walks up to the bar.

"HEY! Is anybody back there?! Hello?! We're- um, you've got customers!"

[the_very_best]

The girl rolls her eyes and sits at the other end of the bar.

The bar, near where Max is yelling, produces a napkin. Of course, it reads in feminine cursive. What can I get for you today? First drink is on the house.

[unblinkered]

Napkins do not materialize out of nowhere. This is the same impossibility class as doors leading to different places. This is much less plausibly deniable than the door thing.

Max screams and recoils from the bar, failing to read what's written. "WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?! What IS that?! HOW?!"

[the_very_best]

I didn't mean to alarm you, reads a new napkin, if he reads it.

The girl seems interested in what's going on at his end of the bar; she gets off her stool and meanders over and reads the napkins.

[unblinkered]

Max reads the napkins, and processes them exactly enough to notice that they are being used to communicate with him. He does not process them any more than it takes for him to shout "NAPKINS! You're- NAPKINS! NO!"

[the_very_best]

I'm the bar. This is how I communicate, says a third napkin.

"Weird," says the girl. "Okay, where is this place?"

It's called Milliways.

The girl offers Max this napkin once she's read it.

[unblinkered]

He takes the napkin, but no, he has not calmed down enough to say anything useful.

"No, you're not! You're- those are- you can't do that! That's not- no!"

[the_very_best]

"What's your explanation, then?" inquires the girl.

[unblinkered]

"What's MY explanation? What's your explanation? What's- explanation! What!"

He stares at the "It's called Milliways" napkin, in the absence of anything else that suggests investigation. Alarm is not receding, but mounting as more seconds tick by without any explanation clicking into place.

"What's going on?! Where's Brenda's? What did you do?!"