Outside of Muses: Camden Market, Christmas 2032

[underlondon_npc]

At first glance, the busy street Nix ushers Reid out to looks like something out of a Charles Dickens book, although slightly more sanitised than that. The street is narrow and jammed with stalls selling a massive variety of food, clothing, small animals, tools, odd-looking electronics and virtually anything (and everything) else. Few people in the street look particularly well-off - or particularly clean - although there's a wild variation in outfits, ages, genders and races. There are even horses and carts, although the occasional electric flicker betrays the fact that the horses, at least, are some kind of hologram, and in the sky are pigeons, and odd flying shapes that look as if they might be some kind of motorcycle or quadbike. Far off, and high up, an odd-looking machine like a train or perhaps a tram whirrs and rattles along elevated rails into the distance as it snakes through the tallest buildings.

The overall impression is that of noise and ragged colour and smoky late-afternoon air, all highlighted by the rather incongruous-looking strands of fairylights and the lightly falling snow. London smells odd: not entirely unpleasant, but smoky and damp, with an odd note of petrol and oils, maybe even gunpowder, behind the smells of dozens of cultures' worth of cooking food.

Nix turns to Reid with a laughing, red-lipped grin, gesturing with her furled umbrella. The door she's holding open for him is now that of a pub, the George Cross, with people laughing, shouting and drinking behind them as they had been in Milliways, but unlike Milliways it's far pokier, darker and overheated: it's no surprise that she preferred to drink at the end of the universe, when the opportunity presented itself.

"Welcome to London!"

Comments

[brokensteeldoll.livejournal.com]

Nix shrugs, flicking idly through a shelf full of Sherlock Holmes books.

"What doesn't 'e?" she says rhetorically. "I think he's got everything written on computers, though. This lot's half practical, half fun - and one's a Mills & Boon that I am reliably assured is for a prank."

[bau-woobie.livejournal.com]

"That's good. It's... nice to see, that even in one future, people still read books."

[brokensteeldoll.livejournal.com]

"Well, the real tech's only for the rich and the criminals, so 's not that much of a surprise."

She leans relaxedly against a bookshelf, watching his face with a small smile on her lips.

"Don' get too hung up on this being the future, Bright Spark. If you're really very lucky, it might not be."

[bau-woobie.livejournal.com]

"No, but it is, from my perspective, one possible future," he replies. "Of course, I guess I could look in a history book, and see if it is, but-- Are you familiar with the concept of a stable time loop?" he asks.

[brokensteeldoll.livejournal.com]

"Think I saw one in a movie once," she says distractedly, now keeping an eye on Ottaline, whom she strongly suspects to be busy earwigging rather than book-hunting.

Raising her voice: "Any luck, love?"

Ottaline's head appears from behind a different stack of books to the one she disappeared behind. "Just found 'em! All present and correct, as it turns out."

Nix's grin is cheerful, but doesn't quite reach her eyes until she turns back to Reid. "You chosen anythin' yet?"

[bau-woobie.livejournal.com]

"Uh-- I'm narrowing my selection?"

There are a half-dozen books stacked beside him, as he runs through titles.

[brokensteeldoll.livejournal.com]

Nix giggles.

"You and my brother would get on disturbingly well, y'know that?" she says reflectively. "Probably too well, actually."

They'd probably wind up ruling London. Even for someone who wants every member of the current government dead, that's a disturbing thought.

"I'm gonna go pay for Toby's stuff, anyway," she says. "You have until I'm done to pick, or you get nothin' at all."

And yes, she will literally pick him up and carry him out if she has an excuse so required.

[bau-woobie.livejournal.com]

There's a slightly alarmed look on his face as he resumes the selection process - at a faster pace.

[brokensteeldoll.livejournal.com]

Nix snorts, sauntering over to the till and rummaging in her pockets for a battered old red leather purse.

Ottaline, meanwhile, disappears beneath the counter again and several minutes of rustling later produces a small, tightly-wrapped package from a place unknown, which she places on top of the small pile of books without explanation. Nix nods understandingly, picking it up and stowing it in an inner pocket without a word before carefully counting out money for the books.

"Chosen yet, Bright Spark?" she enquires, looking over at Reid and shining the torch his way.

[bau-woobie.livejournal.com]

Reid reflexively raises a hand to block the bright beam, and nods, holding up a single volume.

"It wasn't easy," he says, as he comes to join her by the till.

[brokensteeldoll.livejournal.com]

And there she'd been hoping she'd wind up carrying him out. Ah well!

Nix grins at him, switching the torch off and handing it back to its owner. "That's what she said. 'ow much, Ottaline?"

The shopkeeper checks the inside cover. "A fiver, but I'll give y' discount for buying in bulk. Call it four."

"Deal," Nix says cheerfully, counting out the extra coins before picking up the bag of books. "Ta very much, but now I think we'd best be off."

Ottaline nods, smiling as she puts the returned torch away. "You can bring y' friend back any time you want - but preferab'ly with more money." Reid is included in her smile. "Nice to meet you, luv. Merry Christmas!"

[bau-woobie.livejournal.com]

"Merry Christmas," he replies automatically, returning her smile.

[brokensteeldoll.livejournal.com]

"Oh yeah, Ottaline? Y'might want to stay out of Westminster on New Year's. Just a warning." Nix heads to the door and pushes it open. "Happy Christmas!"

She holds the door open for Reid to follow her into the snowy street, now a little less busy as the sun sets. The snow is falling more heavily, now, and she opens up her umbrella to hold it over both of them.

[bau-woobie.livejournal.com]

"Do I want to know?" Reid asks, as he steps in a little closer, to get under the umbrella.

[brokensteeldoll.livejournal.com]

"Prob'ly not." Nix shakes her head. "And I'm not saying while there are people within fifty feet, anyway." She pulls his book out of her bag and gives it to him with an unusually self-conscious smile. "Happy Christmas."

[bau-woobie.livejournal.com]

"It's okay. I'm not asking," he replies. He tucks the book under one arm, and then offers her the other - he can be a gentleman!

[brokensteeldoll.livejournal.com]

Nix's smile is slightly more self-conscious but pleased, and (though she hesitates very slightly) brightens even more as she links her arm with his.

"Right, then." Flustered? Her? CRAZY TALK. She looks at the list scribbled on her other hand, moving carefully so as not to shift the umbrella from covering them.

"One last thing to get, I think - Eden's Christmas present. That's back on the main road, down nearer the river."

[bau-woobie.livejournal.com]

"Lead the way," he replies.

[brokensteeldoll.livejournal.com]

"I'd salute, but you've got my arm," she tells him, looking (totally not) woeful. "This way's a shortcut."

The way she leads him is a tiny, cramped alley just off the one they originally came down, filthy but deserted, and it opens out within shouting distance of the canal. Fifty feet above them, a chain of carriages rattles through the gap between buildings, louder than a tram but quieter than a train.

"That's the Overground," Nix explains, when it's gone and she can speak without shouting. "They built it nearly twenty-five years ago, to replace the Underground. The old tunnels are where I live, now."

[bau-woobie.livejournal.com]

"Why replace the Underground?" Reid asks, looking up at the tracks. "I mean, was there-- is there something wrong with it?"

[brokensteeldoll.livejournal.com]

"A couple of the lines got bombed t'hell and back, back in the early 2000s," Nix explains. "That was just before the Establishment took over. Official story's that it was easier to build something new than it was t'replace it, though I dunno how much of that is true."

[bau-woobie.livejournal.com]

"Hmm. It might be true," Reid allows, after giving it a little thought. "I think... I think it would depend on the extent of the damage. Though," he continues. "I think that provides preliminary evidence that this is not my future. I think I would have heard of bombings severe enough to close the Underground."

[brokensteeldoll.livejournal.com]

Nix smiles, then, with a sideways glance at the graffiti on the alley wall: a red phoenix hastily spray-painted onto an Underground sign.

"Good," she says simply. "Come on, this way."

[bau-woobie.livejournal.com]

Reid nods.

"I take it that at least some of the Underground is safe enough to live in?"

[brokensteeldoll.livejournal.com]

"Couldn't live there if it wasn't, could I?" She grins at him. "But yeah, it's pretty good. We had an architect an' a couple of builders an' that with the first lot who joined, which got us started. Lea got shot a couple of months in, but she left the plans and we've got it pretty well sorted these days."

The alleyway opens out, at this point, into a little enclave of market stalls whose contents are markedly more sharp and metallic than the rest, and whose proprietors are generally more masculine if not necessarily more male. Nix looks rather like a child in a toy shop.