nexus_crossings | (no subject)

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There's a new addition to the nexus; a young woman in her early twenties with a small duffel bag slung over one shoulder, wearing a completely bewildered expression as well as pointe shoes, tights, and an oversized jumper over a black leotard.

She was expecting to leave her class and end up in the main theatre for rehearsal; instead, she's God knows where. After walking a little, she stops and looks around again, trying casually not to panic in a way that only the British are able; usually this involves a couple of deep breaths and muttering to yourself, but is subject to change.

"This is fine. Totally fine. I'm just completely lost in a place I've worked for years. Totally normal."

and then, at normal speaking volume;

"If there's anyone here, I'd really appreciate a hand. Anyone?"

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"More like a room for people who like to dance can practice. It's usually a big room with lots of mirrors?"

asking more rhetorically at this point, as it's clear he doesn't really know the answer. Which is fine; she'll find a place one way or another.

"It's okay - I'm sure I'll be able to find somewhere. I can be resourceful when I need to be"

When Grace explains the dance room Harrow smiles and nods in the way of someone who's practiced in not knowing the details of another world. His nodding becomes more enthusiastic and his smile more sincere when Grace says she'll find it on her own. One of his floating hands lightly and playfully cuffs her on the shoulder.

"That's the spirit! You're gonna get far in the Nexus, I can tell. Folks with open minds always do better."

He takes an abrupt turn down a street and keeps on guiding her through the bustling downtown district.

"I'm gonna take you to a place folks call the underbelly. Shady stuff goes on there. Spy work, wheelin' and dealin', weird stuff. I figure you ain't gonna have much of a reason to go there, unless you're secretly a druggie or somethin', but I said I'd show you round and I might as well keep my promise."

He glances back at her as he has a habit of doing to be sure she's following his lead. "But, y'know, if you are a druggie, you oughta come to me. I don't have the hard stuff, but I do have the good stuff! Just... Whatever you do, if you ever see a little green man in a suit with a head shaped like a pickle? Don't take nothin' from him."

A few seconds pass before he thinks to tell her, "Most folks here you don't gotta watch out for, though. Most folks try real hard to be friendly. Strangers pop up and help out, and some of 'em become part of your life for good. That was a real big change for me. I had to learn to get used to it, but now that I am? I like it.

"Do you think that's gonna be a big change for you? Folks helpin' out, bein' kind? Or is that how most folks in London are?"

(I just realised the first sentence of that last tag made no sense e_e my bad!)

Grace isn't sure how far she really wants to get here, but she listens all the same, keeping up as well as she can while she's still wearing her pointe shoes. Made for dancing, yes - walking around a lot? Not particularly. She makes a mental note to stop the next chance she gets to pull her boots back on.

She catches his glance with a look of wide eyed surprise, like she's just been caught daydreaming, although he doesn't seem to notice.

"Oh, no, I don't- I'm not really into that sort of thing"

A lot of what Harrow's saying, Grace finds strange. She feels a little like Alice in Wonderland, surrounded by peculiar things that are all apparently perfectly normal. Like she's the odd one.

When he asks her about what Londoners are like, she thinks a moment, casually guiding them both towards the nearest bench. While she answers him, she takes a seat and goes about taking off her shoes, carefully untying the ribbons around her ankles before slipping them off and rummaging in her bag for a pair of old, well-loved brown boots.

"It depends where you are - on the tube, a lot of the time people don't want to know. They just want to get on with their day - other times, they can be amazing. I had a woman wait with me once when my train was cancelled because it was late at night and she didn't feel right leaving me alone. Other times I've seen people just stand around and do nothing while someone's being harassed. It's weird, but I think generally people are okay...the city just has that effect on you."

((Your tag made perfect sense to me! I didn't even notice until you pointed it out haha. You're fiiiine <3))

Harrow follows her to the bench no questions asked. He doesn't need to sit, exactly, but he's content to do so as long as it seems like it's what she wants. It's interesting to watch her undo her strange and impractical shoes, and he makes no attempts to hide the fact that he's totally staring. And then boots come out, and he can't help but smile. He moves his leg to put his own boots near hers; yellow-tan, well worn things with a classic Dr. Martens vibe.

"The tube's a train station in London?" It's as much a statement as a question. Not something he's intimately familiar with, but she was generous with the context clues. He speaks quietly, thoughtfully, when he says, "I don't think there's anything like that here. Some people drive cars, but I think most folks walk. You get where you want to go pretty fast, no matter how far it feels like it is. I think things just kinda... Unravel right. Like always havin' good luck, but maybe with a little bit a' magic."

He folds his hands between his knees and hunches over slightly to be more on her level. "Before I tell you more about the Nexus, can you tell me more about Earth? About England, and London? What's it like livin' there? What sorta things're important about bein' English?"

Given that she's only just met Harrow, Grace doesn't let herself show just how good it feels to be in comfortable shoes again. Her feet ached most of the time anyway, and these boots were their salvation after a nine or ten hour day.

It's around now that she's realising she probably should have pulled her jeans back on first, but whatever. It's not cold, and she's used to wandering around in tights anyway. She smirks over at him when his own boots catch her eye, before she clarifies what she means.

"It's an underground train system; there are loads of stations it goes to with different trains running in different areas. The map is kind of notorious for being difficult to navigate, at first anyway"

She smiles at what he says about Nexus, about it maybe being a little magical. It's oddly comforting, even if it's only being used figuratively.

As for describing England in general...she exhales as she straightens up, hands folding in her lap.

"Telling you about Earth might take a while, but England and London I can do. London's the capital city, which means lots of tourist attractions, lots of cool things to see, amazing architecture...there's something there for everyone. And there's all sorts of people living there as well. It's completely different from where I was born, even though they're not that far away from each other.

As for England, it's not really that big, but there's a lot of different places with totally different accents and ways of doing things. It's difficult to say what's important about being English though...our history isn't that great as far as other countries are concerned."

But that's a whole other kettle of fish.

"We have had a lot of Kings and Queens though - that's pretty interesting. And we do love tea. A lot. We didn't invent it or anything, but we're very good at acting like it."

Harrow nods along with what she says, sometimes slowly and sometimes with a little extra energy.

"We've had a lotta Kings and Queens where I'm from, too! I think that makes more sense than leaders ya vote for. And tea, we got that on Azeroth too! Used to be just one kind I knew of, but ever since we discovered Pandaria there's been all sorts of teas! Kinda makes me wish I was alive to taste 'em all, y'know?"

He leaves his hands folded between his knees and stretches his arms across the back of the bench. The trip around the Nexus is going to have to wait. They're talking Earth. You're stuck now, Grace.

"I got a buddy who lives in London. He took me there once, to his apartment, on emergency circumstances. I didn't get to go out in the streets or nothin', but I did get to stand on a balcony and look out at all the folks! Light, it was real excitin'. Everyone was human. I liked that. All the buildings were made of white stone with grey roofs, and there were black iron fences all over, and everything was so clean. I really wanna go back, see more, walk around, but I don't think it's really in the cards."

Harrow shrugs and smiles. That's life. Or... Unlife.

"So where were you born? Here, wait..." His hands untangle and one of them digs around in a side pocket on his cargo shorts. He comes up with a phone, does a bit of searching, and hands it over to her. There's a map of England and all its counties there for her to point to. "Show me! Tell me all about it. What it looks like, what the people do. I wanna learn."

"I don't know - I like being able to have a say in who leads my country, but the fact that it's rigged to the teeth makes that pretty much moot."

It's only now clicking that Harrow's actually not alive. It would explain the hue of his skin, certainly - and it only makes her wonder more just what sort of place he's from. Somewhere more interesting that London, she suspects.

When he hands her the phone, Grace zooms in a little on the Southern coast of the UK, quickly finding her home town and pointing it out to Harrow.

"Just there - it's very...quaint, I guess? In a way? A lot of the buildings are really old, a lot of the smaller streets are still cobblestones. It's nice to go back to when the city gets too much, you know?"

She pauses a moment before she brings the phone closer to her again and types something in. After a few seconds, she holds it out for him again. The screen is filled with pictures of the Royal Opera House; a grand, beautiful building in Covent Garden.

"This is the place where I work...I love it" a moment later, she adds, "Tell you what; if I find a way to get home again, I'll let you come with me. I'm not a professional guide or anything, but I'd be happy to show you around. That's a better way to learn than me sitting here telling you"

Quaintness, cobblestones, away from the rush of the city... These are concepts Harrow can certainly relate to and agree with. He smiles, pleased, at her descriptions of her original home. He goes to speak, but by the time he does Grace is showing him more pictures, and he's more than willing to let himself get immersed in the sight of the stage.

"Woooow," he whispers reverently as he takes the phone and zooms in, inspecting the finer details of the opera house. "I've never seen anything like this! And you work here? What is it you do? Are you an actress? I'd love to come see you act! I-if I can, I mean. I don't think I'd exactly fit in on Earth. Especially not in a fancy place like this..."

Grace wasn't expecting him to sound so enamoured by the theatre, but it's kind of endearing. She's used to it, she sees it everyday - but then again, she remembers what it was like visiting it for the first time and seeing her first ballet there; it was pretty magical.

She speaks with a laugh in her voice when she replies. "Oh God, no - I couldn't act my way out of a paper bag." - Not strictly true; she's not a terrible actress. But without any formal training, it's not something she'd go around saying she could do - "I'm a dancer; a soloist, technically. You'd be more than welcome to come see me do that sometime"

"A dancer!" Harrow is at once intrigued and, for some reason, embarrassed by that. He punctuates his exclamation with a self-conscious laugh and begins to rub his hands together anxiously.

"Normally I ain't the kinda guy who goes and watches girls dance, but it'd be rude to say no to a lady who's offered, huh?" He nods then and, smiling, says, "I'd be glad to watch you dance some day."

Then a brief pause before he asks, "What made you wanna do that for a livin', though?"

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tl;dr - Britain is hard to describe since our culture is 'tea, brexit, save the NHS'

Grace, vote Remain on Nexit

oh, she'd vote 'remain' for sure - and that icon is so cute omg

Thank you! And thanks for your patience, been sick the past few days 9_6

D: oh no! I hope you're feeling better!

3-weeks-late low-content post: My signature style B)