abraxaslogs | ( open — august catchall )

That's good to know,

( if there's a space to go where other people can't be, then matt knows that there's going to be a reason for it. there'd been a reason for it the first time before the discover of the horizon so there'd probably be a reason in the future. )

Note to self, if things get bad, go to the giant hole and just get comfortable.

( despite his joking, it's good advice. he nods at her. )

Been through a lot of shit since you've been here, huh? Still sound like you're in good spirits.

You could put it that way. But compared to my world, anythin' they can throw at me here is a cakewalk, so.

[ But the way she says this suggests that she is not open to elaboration. Julie's version of Earth only barely exists now, and the end was not something easily recounted or spoken of. In her experience, trying to casually explain only leads to awkwardness and insincere apologies said automatically. ]

I mean, the stuff that's happened here sucks, don't get me wrong. I don't know many folks who are just rarin' to have to relive their worst memories and nightmares and shit. But it's manageable, I guess. Better'n the dungeon, at least.

This definitely wasn't on my agenda of places to visit before I kicked the bucket but —

( he doesn't really have much of a choice. he's here and he's resigned himself to the fact that he's going to be here. he sighs and sits back. )

There's a few people that are from the same place as I am which is...strange. That we'd all be in one place like this. I was aware of them but they didn't know me.

( and he uses that to his advantage. )

Yeah, that happens sometimes. Best we can figure is, maybe some stuff in certain worlds makes us better for them to pick? There were originally four of us from my world. [ Well, three, plus one... it's complicated and she's not going to clarify. ] It's just me and one other now.

[ Which is another very touchy subject. She has her theories on why the other two are gone, what made the Singularity toss them back into the void, but it's nothing she can say definitively. ]

Who's here from your world?

A lot of people from New York. Uh, Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark —

( people with one thing in common: the whole avengers schtick. he knows it's not a schtick but matt continues to not be their biggest fan. they do their thing, he does his. )

A lot of them are here in Cadens.

( a few in solvunn, a few in thorne. )

They don't know me and I only know of most of them in name.

Ohh, that world. [ Yeah, Julie knows most of them. Sam basically adopted her a year ago. ] So are you magical or a superhero?

[ Three years ago, that was a question she would have only asked on Halloween. Now it's just part of "getting to know you" chit-chat. But given that she has yet to meet a regular person out of Sam's world -- and she's met nearly all of them -- it makes sense to ask. ]

Super Counsel? Delivers closin' arguments at the speed of light?

Neither. Just a lawyer.

( he shrugs a shoulder, used to lying about things like this by now. the number of people who knew what he could do was small though it was growing. )

I just happen to exist in the same city as all that weird shit happened in, you know? I guess you could say I'm...a good lawyer. My win loss record isn't terrible and I don't look bad in a suit and tie.

There was this sorta joke in my world, about how awful it would be to live in a world with superheroes. Like you're just a regular guy goin' about your day, and Super Fuckface drops a car on you while he fights Godzilla or whatever. But you never see comic books or movies about the Joe Schmoes of those universes. [ Free Guy never made it to theaters in Julie's world. ] Anyway, I figure the world probably needs decent lawyers more than guys flyin' 'round and pickin' fights with aliens or whatever.

[ SORRY YOUR WORLD IS A CLICHE, MATT. Without even knowing specific events from his world, Julie can spout example after example cribbed straight from pop culture media.

She does seem to revise that statement after a moment. ]

Well, not just decent lawyers. Decent lawyers who work on good stuff. Not, like, the Giulianis of the world.

Yeah, that's definitely not me.

( the giuliani comment, at least. he wouldn't really classify himself as superhero either. vigilante was more his thing. the avengers could be superheroes and he would just...protect his side of the city. )

I got the building my office is in cheap because some superheroes decided to kind of blow up the city. Guess there's one good thing about it.

Y'all's world is probably one of the only ones where it's a good thing to live in the middle of nowhere. Hope they changed the Kansas state motto to "At least we ain't got collateral damage here". It ain't like we had anythin' else goin' for us.

[ Kansas really sucked. If she never sees another cornfield or hears another Wizard of Oz joke, she'll die happy.

Another round of ales gets dropped off, and she leans back in her chair. ]

So, what d'you make of Abraxas so far? The other Summoned?

Kansas, huh? Land of grass, corn, cows and tornadoes. Don't think I wanna end up there. I have to have a Starbucks on each corner of I start to shrivel up and die.

( don't ask how he was alive now with no starbucks and all. )

This place is...different. A lot different. But, I think that what's made it easier is the other people are willing to help. You didn't know a thing about me and you sat down, started a conversation. That doesn't happen often.

Closest Starbucks to where I'm from was about an hour away. [ YEAH, SHE KNOWS. IT'S HELL ON EARTH. ] But if it helps, I somehow accidentally got people to invent the frappuccino here. I've shown 'em TV and all sorta gadgets and food in the Horizon, but I gave one person a frap one time, and next thing I knew, they were out here gettin' Viktor to invent a blender. Swear to God I didn't mean for it to happen, but here we are.

[ This is actually an entirely true story. Julie remains miffed that the only modern invention people have clung to is frappuccinos. She supposes that she's just grateful it was a mocha one she'd shown Ciri instead of a unicorn one. ]

Mm, well, I like to get a read on everyone that I'm gonna have to be on a team with. And we are sorta like a team, all of us. There's only a handful of Summoned across the whole world here, and we all got more in common with each other than with these people. We're always gonna be the outsiders, so we gotta be willin' to work together if we're gonna make it.

An hour? Yeah, I wouldn't last. I'd just start walking towards this place and end up keeling over and dying right there on the street. Everyone would look at me and shake their heads, so sad over the man who lost his life because of no Starbucks.

( a very dramatic turn of events, for sure. good thing that he'd been able to find some kind of caffeine here to keep himself above water. )

I guess I can see your point. So, you've been over here talking to me and making judgments, right? Anything you're willing to share? What do you think?

Walkin'? Oh no no, sweetie. An hour drive. Welcome to the midwest. I used to drive further'n that just to see a movie. We had a coffee shop in town, but it wasn't very good.

[ The laugh is clear in her voice. She knows it's ridiculous, she hated it. Her whole life's goal had been to get out; she had no way of knowing what it would actually take for her to accomplish it.

Still smirking, she hums thoughtfully. ]

Hmm. You seem nice. Not creepy. You're smart enough to graduate law school. You do charity stuff. Nothin' about you makes me think you're gonna run off to the locals and share Summoned business with 'em. That's all good. You married, got a family? Kids?

So, it'll probably take me a few hours since I can't really drive and all.

( he gestures up at his face and then laughs. he'd gotten used to walking but in new york, it was never that long a walk. sounds like he'd have to figure out another way to get to and from places where she'd come from. )

Uh, not married, no kids. I don't even have plants.

( not very responsible that way. )

The state of my refrigerator back home would tell everyone not to put anyone in my care.

Ah, "only eats takeout", check. So, not a cook, not a gardener, no pets. Definitely not a tennis player. What do you do when you ain't lawyer-in'?

[ Part of this is standard background digging on behalf of Wanda, but she is genuinely curious as to what hobbies a blind person might have. She imagines many common ones aren't much of an option. ]

Bein' here makes a lotta stuff we used to do pretty hard. What with... y'know, no technology.

( that's a good question and it's not like he can go saying what he does do when he's not in court. or he could but he doesn't want to give that away just yet. )

There's not a lot of free time away from the whole lawyer thing. I do a lot of stuff off the clock just to make sure I'm prepared when I'm on.

( but he knows she's asking for hobbies and such. )

I like to walk, which i know sounds boring. But it's interesting in New York. Something new to see everyday. My friends and I, we've got a bar that we hang out in and drink shitty beer until we're as close to drunk as we can get. I'm a pretty good pool player too.

Pool, for real? How do you know which balls are yours? Or, like, where they end up after every shot? [ Screw Wanda for the moment, this is legitimately fascinating. Julie spent much of her life in dive bars, playing pool and darts, because there was little else to do. ] I feel like this is somethin' I would actually like to see.

[ If only to say she's seen it. She was willing to bang a deaf guy just to say she did it, she can definitely spare some time to just watch a blind guy shoot pool. ]

You got a lotta friends, or are you more of a lone wolf type?

Oh, I don't. I have to rely on the friends that I play with to not lead me wrong. Doesn't always work.

( he laughs though, rubs a hand against his cheek. he was a pretty good pool player but the colors of the balls? not his strength. )

Usually, I have someone helping me, telling me where things are so I can get an idea for the shot. But I just have to have a good partner. And not be too drunk. So, I lose a lot. But I do get the balls in the holes. Just not always the right one.

Guessin' you probably don't make a habit of bettin' on the games, then. Can't trust anyone when there's money on the line. Or muffins.

[ Unless he has only particularly upstanding humans as friends. Still, never know who could really use an extra twenty bucks. But he still didn't really answer the question of whether he surrounds himself with friends or only takes to rare exceptions.

Her mug clunks against the table when she sets it down. ]

What are you gonna do here for money? Go to the university and learn their law?

You know, hadn't really thought about it but I should. Money makes the world go round.

( he hasn't even started looking. he's just been trying to keep his balance here, get his bearings, figure out what was going on. )

There's a university?

Edited 2022-09-08 11:17 (UTC)

Oh sure. There's a couple of 'em, actually. My friend, she lives upstairs with me, she's goin' to the medical academy. I mean, she started learnin' stuff back in our world, emergency first aid stuff, then she worked as a healer's apprentice here for about six months before she enrolled. Her name's Nadine Cross, she takes care of all the Summoned for just donations. Her office is called Salves and Stitches, it's just down the street. She gives out candy.

[ Might as well plug one of the family businesses. The "donations" aspect is very much enforced by the fact that, if Julie is in the office and sees anyone with a closed purse (when she knows they have coin), she will straight-up pickpocket them while Nadine works. ]

Anyway, I'm not sure which school they teach law at, but you can just go down there and talk to 'em about classes. If anythin', I'd bet their law here is easier than our weird system was.

My clients would love someone like that back home. They can pay me in baked goods and then go get medical attention and pay in donations? They'd love it.

( and he'd appreciate someone like that being around too because he knows how tough it can be for people that need the help the most. )

I might check into that, thank you. I don't know if the idea of going to law school again is really enticing but I'm sure it's necessary since I can't really just wave around my license and say 'I did this in New York, let me have a job here!'

She tries her best. I mean, it ain't the kind of medical care people like us are really used to. Like, modern medicine and shit. It's... well, it's past leeches, but pre-penicillin. Nadine treats the Summoned 'cause most of us don't trust the natives, and she consults in the Horizon for people in Thorne and Solvunn. And I know there's a doctor in Thorne, like a for-real doctor. From regular modern New York. His name's Stephen. So we have okay care, all things considered.

[ Julie snorts. Based on what Abraxas considers to be a full medical education, she's pretty sure law school can't be that much harder. ]

Yeah, I'm inclined to think that it's not gonna be all that hard. Probably like, a year of part-time classes. How did people become lawyers in like... 1890? I feel like they didn't go to years of law school and then pass the bar. I feel like it's mostly just that the guy who reads the best gets a suit and business card. Now he's the official town lawyer.

Edited 2022-09-08 17:11 (UTC)

Hey, it's better than nothing.

( and for awhile, that's about what he did to himself. nothing except put a bunch of bandages over his bleeding wounds. claire had helped a little but he couldn't just walk into a hospital with the things he did. too many questions. )

Well, I don't want to brag but —

( matt acts like he's straightening up a tie he's not wearing before he shrugs. )

I can do okay with reading. If I have to study, I will. It's gonna make me feel like I'm in college again and that's just gonna make me feel old.

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