Power Without a Price

[curiousdiscoverer]

The first time Ezra finds Milliways he spends most of the experience overwhelmed by psychic sensory overload. Postcognition doesn’t really mix well with inter-dimensional nexus.

However when he walks out and tells about the experience, the true nature of the place is eventually revealed, furthermore he discovers that the Traders are very interested in using the unique location to seed magic to other worlds and they pay very generously for it. So Ezra’s family all hear about the story and stay in the look out for another door, just in case.

Years pass, and Ezra’s family gets a little smaller, and starting wishing for a door to show up.

Because resurrection is possible, but expensive and bringing three people back is impossibly costly without extreme circumstances.

So Ezra feels extremely lucky the day he finally finds a door again, with family in his apartment where they wait behind after Ezra grabs a few things while Temps holds the door.

He is now in better control of his powers and Milliways massive history doesn’t overload him anymore.

Ezra looks around the bar, sits on a table with a nice view and observes.

Is anyone here that could want and deserve magic?

Comments

[can_i_go]

It's snack time for Lucy. Unfortunately what she finds behind the kitchen door is not her father's kitchen, but a bar she's never seen before.

She blinks and yells for her sister.

"Aaaaann, where did the kitchen go?"

There's a muffled answer, and Lucy yells louder.

"No really, the kitchen's not here anymore!"

[can_i_stay]

"Okay, what's wrong with the kitchen this time?"

Ann assumes Lucy has somehow managed to make a huge mess, but instead the kitchen is indeed literally gone. Ann gapes at it for a moment and then she, too, yells out.

"Sabrina, you really really need to see this.

[can_i_help]

The third sister comes.

"What is it? I was in the middle of re--"

Sabrina, too, stares at the bar that used to be their kitchen.

[can_i_go]

"Oh look, there are people inside!"

Before either of the older sisters can stop her Lucy steps into the bar. She walks up to the first person she finds.

"Hi, I'm Lucy. Who are you and how did you get into my kitchen? Are you one of dad's friends?"

[superego_medico]

Ezra is a person and he is totally found first!

"Hi! I'm Ezra. I am a mind healer and your kitchen is still where it is but its door was taken over by the Milliways' door. This is a magical inter-dimensional bar. Even if your dad is from my world, I might not know him. Are you from an Earth? One where magic was revealed to the general public nearly a year ago?"

[can_i_go]

Lucy laughs.

"Don't be silly, magic isn't real."

[superego_medico]

"The sad thing is that you could be one of the magic deniers, but I am guessing not. You could go to the Bar and see her materializing stuff out of thin air, my less subtle magic is kinda dangerous right now"

[can_i_go]

Lucy goes to the bar and comes back with a huge milkshake and two more women.

"This is so cool. The best thing ever."

She motions to the two others.

"These are my sisters, Ann," the dark haired one, "and Sabrina," the blond one. It's glaringly obvious that Sabrina is not related to the other two.

"And this here is Erzie."

The two wave at him.

[superego_medico]

Ezra knows what it is like to have a weird family situation, Good Lord he knows, he doesn't comment.

Ezra waves back politely

"It is Ezra. Full name is Anthony Ezra Blackwell, but call me Ezra" he sounds accustomed with saying this "you never answered what kind of world you come from"

[unblinkered]

Max is carrying his copy of Interstellar Physics: History, Principles, and Engineering, vol. 1-6 (Omnibus Edition), by habit, as he walks through the front door of Brenda's. It has been a week or so since he left Milliways, and he's since been studying advanced physics in hopes of understanding the thing.

A pair of people, whispering to each other, push past him as he heads inside- and before they can turn and... apologize, Max assumes, although they sounded more frantic than that- the door swings shut.

And, unceremoniously, he finds himself in that non-Brenda's location. Its claims that he might find a door again have, it seems, been confirmed. And... it's the same door as last time, which he finds suspicious, but...

Milliways has a different person in it this time.

[mage_see_mage_do]

This person is a nineteen year old sitting in a stool eating a sandwich she watched Max walk in and has a quizzical expression.

"Did you just walked pass two people while you walked in?" Temps says "I don't think the door can open to two different worlds at same time, not like that at least, not normally."

A napkin appears

The door is working normally, he just managed to walk in while the other two are leaving.

"Well, that explains it," Temps says after reading the napkin "Hello, have you been here before?"

[unblinkered]

"I- what? This..."

He looks around, taking in the bizarre view from the front window again. There's a part of him saying "so it wasn't a dream!" which is being berated by the parts of him that already knew full well it wasn't a dream. Exploding stars... and, uh, right, someone's talking to him.

"Uh, yeah. Been here before. Weird place."

[mage_see_mage_do]

"The weirdest!" Temps says brightly "full of interesting people."

The place is, in fact, empty besides the two.

"Most of the time at least," Temps says looking around "Are you an interesting person? I know I am."

[unblinkered]

"I would describe myself as more 'interested' than 'interesting', actually. I'm a substitute teacher. And, judging by how the people I've met here so far have been an omniscient talking bar, a pokémon trainer, and an elf... I'm probably at best 30th percentile as interesting people go."

A napkin appears, issuing a gentle correction on the subject of omniscience, which Max ignores.

[mage_see_mage_do]

"You can add magical girl with power copying to your list," Temps says taking a bite of her sandwich "I do admit you are interesting by association alone, whatever a Pokemon is."

A napkin explains pokemon.

"Ah, cool," Temps says after reading, she turns to Max "What are you interested in? I am Temperance by the way, call me Temps. Power copying magical girl at your service."

[unblinkered]

"Power- magic- inter- at my service? What do you want?"

Max eyes her suspiciously. Direct, and... he can't make assumptions about how she'll take anything he says, yet. She might be like that elf, where some innocuous part of speech could have unusual connotations. And... this one's magic, unless that's also some strange idiom.

[mage_see_mage_do]

"I... was just trying to talk," Temperance says slowly "Sorry, I met the people that just left the bar and as far I could tell we all come from similar Earths, including languages, I wasn't pledging some sort of endless servitude to you. It was a joke. Also, I assumed that since you are familiar with Milliways and elves you would know about magic being a thing."

To illustrate the point of magic being a thing, she takes a flower from a nearby vase and the flower starts to grow, doubling in size.

[parental_guidance]

Emma decides she doesn't like the Washington Metro. She doesn't like cities much to begin with, really. Suburbs are so much calmer, and the city is so busy. This particular subway car is, at least, not horribly full. She and Phil found seats, and Alli is ignoring the extra seats to hang over them and chatter excitedly about her new boyfriend, which Emma is attempting (and failing) to focus on.

Mostly, she is focusing on not focusing on Professor Reed. They ran into her on the platform boarding the train; there's only so many ways off campus, after all. Emma didn't want to bother her- it's a holiday, after all, that's why they're exploring, why make Professor Reed do more work than she has to?- but Jenny of course immediately walked over to chat about their latest kinetic assignment, and it's making Emma squirm uncomfortably on her behalf.

All such thoughts become irrelevant when there is a loud Bang! and the car starts filling with smoke. Awful, caustic, burning smoke, soaking in through the doors and filling the car. Emma pulls her turtleneck over her nose and mouth, but it only does so much. Alli's done something similar, but Phil's doubled over coughing horribly.

There's more smoke in Jenny's direction- Emma casts her a frightened look, but Phil's coughing is getting worse and Emma doesn't know what to do. Announcements start coming over the emergency speakers- they're hard to hear, but Emma can make out 'move towards the station'. This, at least, gives her a goal: get out of the car, don't breathe, go back towards the station they only just left. Panicking, trying not to show it, she has to help, if she panics she might get hurt, Phil might get hurt, keep it together- she and Alli manage to haul the still-coughing Phil upright and drag him through the subway door towards the next car.

Except-

-this isn't the next car?

[mage_see_mage_do]

It isn’t the next car, it is a bar, too large to fit inside a subway tunnel, not that anyone would put a bar inside a subway tunnel.

There is about a dozen people inside: they noticeably don’t act like a subway car derailed and collided to the building; they do start to look at Emma and her friends with confused expressions, conversations die down and silence reigns.

Then a girl and two guys get up from a table and move forward towards Emma’s group. The two guys take Phil and haul him to the nearest table, but the girl steps around and closes the door, before turning back to Emma and asking.

“I have some healing magic,” She says and points at Phil (coughing too much to speak) “can I use it?”

[parental_guidance]

"Healing- magic? That helps with smoke inhalation?" Emma asks, caught wrong footed. "But, um. If you can help him- uh, yeah, please."

[witch_perfect]

"Noooooo. No no, backtrack. What just happened, what sort of crazy shit- what is this place? Where's the subway?! We need to get Jenny!"

[mage_see_mage_do]

"Huh, Franklyn, explain?" The girl says to the guy who is more than six feet tall "but keep the door closed while he explains."

The girl approaches Phil and says to him "you might fall asleep" before placing a hand in his forehead. Phil stops coughing and falls unconscious, but some color returns to him. The girl takes a ring out of her hand and puts on his, she keeps holding the hand, maintaining contact with the ring.

“I am going to get some medical supplies from Bar” the second guy says.

“If you need immediate healing, tell me” The tall one offers - Franklyn apparently - and he turns to Alli “answering your question, this is Milliways the door is magical and sometimes will take over other doors from other worlds, your world is paused while you are here with the door closed. What happened? House fire?”

[witch_perfect]

"Noooo idea. We were just on the Metro when smoke appeared."

[parental_guidance]

"You- no!" Emma goes for the door. "Magic doesn't do this, it just- this isn't how it works! Let me out, let me- Jenny's out there, I have to help her, get out of my way!"

[of_all_trades]

Moving way too fast for a man his size, Franklyn goes for the door, but instead of blocking the way, he opens it to... a living room.

Emma may notice the window in the opposite wall, it opens to a cityscape that is completely unfamiliar and the view is high above the ground.

"It is a different kind of magic," He says.