*Is* this how it happens?

[for_tradition]

There's a woman in the Bar proper. She's commandeered a medium-ish sized table and covered it with things: books, pieces of parchment, notes. There's a plate of biscuits and a pot of tea. She has one pair of glasses tucked on her shining brown hair, and she's wearing another, and she's humming to herself.

She is also, as a certain cavalier might say, mega-dead... but she doesn't seem at all perturbed by it.

Comments

[for_tradition]

"Then you must call me Abigail," she says, smiling. The tea set which came with her order is simple and lovely, bone china that would cost a fortune on the Fifth brewing a variety of tea that has not been seen in Dominicus for a myriad. (It's Darjeeling. And delicious.)

She pours him a cup, sets a ginger biscuit on the side of the saucer, and passes it over with a nod for him to help himself to the creamer and sugar bowl. "The House of Arch...oh, and you are Lord Ostium, that's very clever. I take it you know this place well, then? You speak as though you are quite familiar with it."

[riddleofthebelow]

“I do,” he says, thoroughly charmed. He takes his tea without cream or sugar, but the ginger biscuit is just to his taste.

“I’ve been a patron here for many years, although not nearly as frequently in the past years as when I first arrived. Are you newly arrived or have we simply not crossed paths?”

[for_tradition]

"Newly arrived," she tells him, topping off her own cup and delicately breaking a piece off a biscuit of her own. "Although it is a bit difficult to get my bearings on how time works here... still, I should say I arrived only a day ago or so. I think it's absolutely fascinating."

She smiles at him; Abigail Pent is pretty well charmed, herself. What a polite man! "You must have a wealth of stories from your time here. Could I coax one or two favorites from you?"

[riddleofthebelow]

“Only a day? I’d say you’re adjusting remarkably well, madam. I thought perhaps you’d have your own anecdotes to share.”

He sips his tea, which is, indeed, delicious, and considers what to tell her. “I suppose my favorite story is that I met my wife here, and we spoke only in haiku - a form of poetry - for our first exchanges of words.”

[for_tradition]

"Well, I have already spoken with the King Undying, the Emperor, our Kindly Prince: the man who became God and the God who became man," she says, thoughtfully, "but it's early days yet."

Shocking no one: Abigail loves a love story. "Oh, that's sweet," she says, warmly. "Were the haikus on purpose or was there some sort of dare involved?"

[riddleofthebelow]

Ah. That's... a title.

"Everyone was speaking in haiku whether we wished to or not. It was a whim of Milliways. I'd say the Bar, but this was before she became sentient."

[for_tradition]

"Sentience? I suppose that explains the tea. May I ask, how exactly does a bar attain sentience?"

[riddleofthebelow]

He grins. “It started with a magical serving spell, one from my birth world, but greater powers were at work, I believe, to create the Bar we know today. Milliways is an exceedingly magical - and inscrutable - place.”

[for_tradition]

"So your world has magic, also?" says Abigail, delighted. "And with a spell that resulted in sentience – I doubt very much that would be possible with necromancy. Not true sentience, anyhow."

[riddleofthebelow]

"Indeed it does. And if I may be so bold as to inquire, your world with its Fifth House wouldn't happen to have a Ninth, would it? Because if so, I believe I've met two patrons from there."