The Clutch (A bar for airship pirates, ragamuffins and other law breakers)

[The Corsair]

He turned to the barmaid
"as the lady asked it, if you please ma'am. I'll have a pint o' the local meself"
turning back to alegrah, he resumed speaking with her.
"Sounds german. And what be your proffession? Something a little less societally compliant I'd imagine"

[MWBailey]

 , Brantley thought, somewhat cynically, That bit of sociopolitical dissatisfaction is pretty much a dead giveaway when connected to the weird proto-teslaic ambiance of the place.

Out loud, he said, "Yes. The Clutch popularly had just such a distinctive energetic and...um, societal, let us say, signature back in a certain period of the Nouveau-Victorian Temporal Hegemony. Thank you so much for the information. " Inwardly, he ground his teeth. He had just missed the the dreaded Weng Chiang incidental loop that had claimed so many Victorian-era chrono-sorties. He breathed a slight sigh of relief at that, but also shuddered at the nearness of the almost-catastrophe. He was safe, or relatively, as long as he kept his head and --

"RIIIINGGGGGGGGGGG... RIIIINGGGGGGGGGGG... RIIIINGGGGGGGGGGG..." went the cigarette case in his pocket. Oh, confound it, Sally, not now! he thought, wondering at the Committee's ability to find and pester him even in the midst of the  most tortuous of temporal singularities. He tried vainly to ignore the ringing, as well as the stares of nearly everyone in the bar. "Kee H. Righst, Brantley," he muttered to himself as he rolled his eyes in frustration and embarrassment, "you could set up chairs and charge admission..."

[The Corsair]

The ringing was by far the most bizarre thing he'd ever heard from a man's pocket but nevertheless he figured the man mustve had some sort of radio telephone and decided to pay no attention to the stranger besides his initial puzzled stare at the man.
he's wierd, that bloke. The last thing I want is an argument with a man who forgets what planet he's on...

[AlegrahEredschtadt]

Alegrah shrugs at the man. "It does." Obviously, the young woman will not add to this information.
 She tilts her head, studying him as if wondering if she should deem him worthy of telling of her profession. She shrugs once more. "Grave-robbin'. Not socially fit, s'right, what would be why I shun society." She seems to do her best imitation of a lower-class accent but with more correct speech, her admittedly upper-class accent almost entirely hidden.

[MWBailey]

Brantley snatched out the cigarette case, opened it still another way, exposing the phone dial ring and astrolabe era-setting dial, pulled out the tiny earpiece, and pressed it to his ear and teh case up next to his mouth, and said as quietly as he could, said, "hello?"

"MARIUS WENDELL BRANTLEY!" The sound that emanated from the case belied its diminutive size, until Brantley (who had nearly dropped it in shock from the loud answer from Miss Sally on the other end) turned down teh volume to a lees ear-damaging level, and began yet another rather embarrassing conversation with his faraway fiancee on the other end...

"Yes, It's me, Sallykins. What? Oh, alright, I won't call you that in public...."

[CorneliaCarton]

Cornelia stopped ppouring the drinks to turn and look at Brantley in amazement and slight confusion.
What was he doing?
She'd some strange people in her time, but he outshone the rest in levels of weirdness....

[AlegrahEredschtadt]

Alegrah blinked and turned to watch the man, curiosity piqued. Her green eyes flickered with a sudden emotion as a slight smile tuged at her lips. Yes! Someone who knows a way out of this hell-hole of an era, where things aren't so damned 'ard for us all! I knew there were others like that girl and her strange doctor that I met. I knew it! She watched him, careful to keep most of her curiosity in check, not wanting to seem odd -- though odd in comparison to this chap was most likely hard!

[The Corsair]

He glanced at alegrah just long enough to see a small spark in her eye.
Besides that one look, all eyes were on the strange man talking to a cigarette case.
He reckoned it was only a matter of time until some explaining was done, after all, the man had to notice the stares sooner or later.

[AlegrahEredschtadt]

She noted the look quickly, her expression laxing into one of well-feigned confusion, brows drawing over her large eyes as her lips pursed. Her arms cross once more, forcing herself to still the nervous habit of tapping her fingers.

[MWBailey]

"Now wait just a minute --!" Brantley began heatedly, then noticed that people were staring at him in a mixture of confusion, shock, surprise, and --oddly enough, from the girl with the shovel -- a degree of smugness. He spoke again into the tiny transceiver in less of an obvious tone, and said, "Now listen here, Miss Sally, I've been trekking across the 'zones for the better part of a standard day-unit, taking the gates and portals as they come, and making my own in places where oneis not exactly protected or capable of being discreet." He lowered his voice to just barely-audible, and said,  this time the  point's in this bar somewhere; I can't help it if its a nexus point, that's just the way the field flux is working out on this plane. Something apparently just happened here that weakened spacetime enough to make a good departure rift -- What? why's the Imam all up in arms? Cardinal Fange as well? Well, they did say to hurry and take whatever shortcuts are safe and necessary. Oh, really? Well, people already noticed when you yelled over the line, and now they can't stop, apparently."

The box crackled back for several minutes, and then Brantley said, "No, Sally, I have to go now or the rift will close again and I'll have to trek another hundred miles or so. Okay, then. He made a rather abbreviated and silent smooching noise and said, "Take care, love." and closed the case.

" I suppose you're all wondering what I was doing just now," Brantley said, fighting the urge to go all tentacles-and-eyeballs and slough on out the door. He decided instead to face the music and maybe get a little help in the process. Provided he didn't have to really scare them all crackers with the whole truth.

"Well, its like this...I'm a sort of regulator, tracking a number of fugitives who're trying to change...well, history, I suppose you could say, so that mankind will no longer exist." he fought to keep from rolling hios eyes at the sound of his own voice propounding such 'absurdities,' as teh people in the bar were probably hearing it all. "I know that sounds a bit farfetched, but in any case, to make a long story short, that is, I'm looking for a rather weird spot in midair into which things seem to keep disappearing, or perhaps its just like a really, really cold draft but all tied down in one spot, again in midair. It's vitally important I find it because I need to use it to travel to my destination, and stop these fiends from destroying humanity." And all other life, he added mentally. He gulped, realizing how utterly impossible it all sounded. Well, one way or another...

[AlegrahEredschtadt]

She stayed silent for a moment, then jumped up from her seat. "Well, I suppose you'll be needin' some help, right? Anything to get me out of this hell-hole and somewhere I'm 'preciated. I know 'bout your time travel and such. Done it before, I have. Not very wary anymore, either."

[MWBailey]

It was Brantley's turn to be poleaxed, now. This girl actually KNEW about time travel? DONE IT BEFORE!? HE fished the blackbox back out of his coat pocket and held it first at floor level right next to the girl, pressed a silver stud with blue flutes in its sides, and watched the two dials immediately above it as he slowly brought the brick-like device back up to the level of her brows.

"Well, wash me in Cthulu's bathtub!" he exclaimed, and looked the young gravedigger in the eye. "There's transtemporal plasma traces and blackstar alloy dust all in your clothing. What's your name again, Miss? Who'd you ride with?" This was extraordinary. Miss Sally and the Committee'd have another set of apoplectic fits, but he could do with a traveling and regulating companion, as long as she didn't get lost or left behind, or go around causing paradoxes...

After the girl answered those two questions, he added, "It's not a very easy time you'd have with me, especially on this case; and I should tell you in advance, I'm not completely human, though that was by surgery under duress, and definitely not my choice." There was a lot more to it, of course, specifically the part about the 'not human' bit of him--  but that could wait until later. Or at least, he hoped it could...

[The Corsair]

"Up in the sky? I know me way around airships, since I been repairin' them all these years. Give me a ship and I'll make it fly any height. How far up 'ya headin'?"

[AlegrahEredschtadt]

She gave the man a faint grin. "Name would be Alegrah. And I'm not entirely sure who I traveled with, to be honest. Think 'er name was Sibyl or somethin' of the sort. And oh, I know. But I'm not much trouble, really. I can take care o' myself."

[MWBailey]

Brantley decided to disclose at least part of his travelling apparatus. He laid the big black brick of dials, switches and weirdness on the bar. It lay there, still emitting luminous smoke; all of the Inter Dimensional Committee's and teh Customs blackboxes did the same. According to the engineers in the 'home' dimension, it was a sign that they were working properly.

He also pulled out and completely opened the cigarette case again, this time to what was generally called the Travelling Console, which actually required that he fold out six different leaves from the same case (It often seemed as if it should be impossible for the entire affair to fit back in, but it always did) to show all of it at once. The 'cigarette case' was as different from the blackbox as was day from night; it was all gleaming brass, silver, chrome and goldtone metal, tiny jewel-like lights winking off and on, crystalline and brass-and-wood sliders and switches and weirdly-opulent-looking astrolabe-starmap-and-rete-like dials and jade-green miniature screens displaying glowing, scrolling columns of figures and letters, one circular one in particular dominating one full leaf of the opened device, and showing a bright white glowing line sweeping around in a circle anchored in the radial center of the jade-colored screen, showing a multiplicity of dots, lines, and reef-like shapes as the line swept around.

"Well, young fellow, you see...*ahem*" he paused and decided to go ahead and say it, "this is my 'ship', so to speak, these two devices, and if in fact we get to any height above ground, it'll be because we walked there. There might be an actual airship later on, but it has a different captain and a device of it's own on board; it's being used for other purposes at the moment." An Idea struck him, then. "Of course, if anybody has an airship that we can borrow for a while, it would come in handy. I'm bound across the dimensions, and it's a mighty long walk for a human, even one like me. You'll have to stay close by me, if you folk come along, and the field's not much bigger than this section of this barroom." he folded up the contents of the case and put them away again, and put both devices back in the special pocket of his coat.

He nodded at the young woman's account. "it's often like that, unfortunately. Actually better in the long run if you can forget some of it; it keeps one from going 'crackers.' I wonder... he thought. Is that what's happening to me? Going Crackers, finally, after all these years? hmmm...

[AlegrahEredschtadt]

She nodded briskly. "Fine by me. And ha," She began to laugh darkly. "They were 'bout ready to throw me in an asylum when I left, anywho. Rather close to bein' a sandwich short of a picnic basket, 'ccording to them."

[The Corsair]

"I can call in a favor if ya need it."

[Alexis Voltaire]

((Hope you don't mind if I join, sorry it's kinda last-minute. If it doesn't work I can edit it.))

There was a heavy, damp chill in the air that felt like it might turn into rain as Horatio walked down the dimly lit streets. Most of the storefronts he saw were dark at this hour, and some looked as though no light had shone through their boarded up windows in years.

It started to rain as he rounded a corner, realizing he was a bit lost. He was probably miles from the docks now, he thought, looking around at the dreary surroundings.

The warm amber light in the windows of a place down the street looked inviting, and above the door he could dimly make out a sign that read 'The Clutch'. It was a good place, or so he'd heard. A place where they didn't ask too many questions. Horatio stopped outside the door for a moment before coming in, listening to the conversation, although he hadn't really intended to eavesdrop. What he heard sounded interesting, if a little strange.

He wore a heavy brown coat with a fur-lined collar and a few pockets on the front, and plain gray trousers. A battered aviator's cap was pulled down at a slight angle over his tangled light brown hair. At his side was what appeared to be a telescope case on a long strap. His right eye was an ordinary sort of blue gray, over his left he wore a monogoggle with a heavy brass frame and a dark-tinted, almost black lens. There were several small knobs around the rim, and he adjusted one slightly as he came in.

He looked curiously at the devices on the bar for a minute, as if he wasn't quite sure of what he was seeing.

"I've got an airship that might be of some service." He said slowly. "Well, more of a hovership than a proper airship, but she'll fly higher well enough when she's got enough fuel, and it happens I've got enough for a while now."

[The Corsair]

I did one of those up a while ago. Marvellous machines they are.
He turned to the stranger
"out of pure respect for your machine could I buy yer fine self a drink?"

[MWBailey]

"I'm pleased to make yer acquaintance as well, Mister...?"

He checked his instruments, and found that the bar's ingress/egress/nexus point had closed up, but that a larger, probably longer-lasting one was opening up in...Bath? Always wondered what Bath looks lik ethis time of year, he mused to himself.

"Not meaning to interrupt your drink, captain, but how soon can you get us to Bath?"

((OOC:And Welcome!))

[AlegrahEredschtadt]

Alegrah arched a brow, a smile easy on her smudged features. "Bath? Had a few friends there once, I did. Had a va-..." She broke off with nary a blink. "Ah, that's not important now, is it?"

[Alexis Voltaire]

"A drink would be welcome, my ship's fit and fueled, but I'm a bit short of cash at the moment." And not likely to find a job anytime soon, either, he thought. "Whiskey'd be fine."

"Horatio Bellingham." He introduced himself upon finishing his drink, glad of something to drive the chill away. "I've never made a run to Bath, myself, I'm a bit new here, but I'd say that I could make it in about two, two and a half hours, less if the weather's good. That is," he said with a slight grin. "If someone could tell me how to get back to the docks from here? I'm afraid I'm a bit lost at the moment..."

Damn, I wonder... he found himself thinking, could this really be a way out? He wasn't one to run from trouble, but the more he considered his options here, the less he seemed to have to stay here for...

[AlegrahEredschtadt]

Alegrah turned her attention to the man, nodding in greeting. She eyed him critically, taking in his clothing and features. A man like that, she thought, is running away from something. Aren't we all? Even me, running away from devil knows all back 'home'.

"Name's Alegrah Eredschtadt." She divulged in sharing her surname, a rare thing. Obviously she felt a kinsmenship with these men or at least knew how to defend herself if it came to it. "Aren't all our pockets mighty empty nowadays, eh?" Also, her accent's cover began to slip, more and more of her true, refined speech pulling out. She scowled to herself. Gotta be more careful. Anyone one of these blokes could be a bastard they sent to try to sedate me and take me to that blasted asylum again. Humph! Like any of them would make it home alive. Be good to get back to Bath, as long as I don't see Vincent and all that lot again.. an' how would I? Isn't like I'll be makin' runs back into society.

"It'd be a pleasure gettin' out of this place, wouldn't it? I don't doubt you lot want out o' England's filthy belly, eh?"

[MWBailey]

"The place I'm bound to is definitely outside of England, Brantley said, "maybe even out of the planet earth entirely, depending on where the enemy shows up at. I'm not even sure I can take all of you with me, but I'll take you as far as I can -- er, with the captain's help, that is."

Brantley flipped open the case again, this time to a simple two-panel configuration, and dialed a series of number combinations into the unit. There was a pulsing tone for several minutes, and then a tinny, metallic-sounding voice with a thick Texas accent said, "Hello? Hello, dangit!" the voice rose in volume and fairly screamed into its own end of teh connection, "HELLO! WHO IN TARNATION'S CALLIN' ON THIS BUSTED OLD THANG!?

"Jack, Brantley said, Just sit tight and wait for the advance party to do their job, and give 'em air-to-ground artillery support when they call for it." Brantley and the tinny voice exchanged a few choice words, and then Brantley closed the cigarette case and consulted teh black box and a watch that he pulled from his vest pocket, which opened up, and then unfolded several subsidiary dials, mounted like the trays in a sport fisherman's implement chest.

"I think we have about four hours to get to Bath before the portal closes," ladies and gentleman, Brantley said. Shall we go?

[AlegrahEredschtadt]

Alegrah listened to the exchange with a bemused air. She afterward gave a nod. "I carry all on me that I'll need, I'm sure. If all else fails, a bit o' pilfering won't be hard, will it, now? I'm ready if you chaps are."