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melaka fray

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One moment Dead Boy was doing something unspeakable yet necessary in the Necropolis.

The next, he was somewhere in the middle of Lake Superior.

It's really a good thing he can't drown, because he can't swim either.

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Noram is big and boring and doesn't contain enough Erins. That's Mel's opinion. All the fun monster killing in the world won't change that.

She was walking down the lakeside, looking for something meaty that might be an easy kill for dinner, when she sees the flash and the bang and the splash.

And so she dives straight in.

At least her gun is waterproof.

Dead Boy is floundering, just a bit, and keeps going under. Also his coat is going to be ruined.

But at least he's getting a bit closer to shore?

She might not be able to drive a car from any century, but at least this sewer kids can swim. Everytime he goes under, she dives, oyl to see him resurface and to kick towards him.

By the time she reaches him, she's regretting not taking her shoes off.

"Can't swim?"

"It never occurred to me to learn." He's wearing heavy boots, which is making things more difficult. "Not much call for it in the Nightside."

"Roll on your back."

There's probably a technique or something, Mel doens't care. It's just easier to handle someone who's doing the floating thing.

"Can tell me what the Nightside is when we get dry, OK?"

"...dry sounds good, yes." He's already obeying, and proves reasonably buoyant in spite of the boots. "And you can tell me where we are."

"Yeah, would I knew."

It's possible she's a little lost. Still, she's a strong swimmer and there's soon shore.

"Some lake in Noram."

Shore is good. He scrambles to his feet, turning automatically to help her out of the water too, then steps away to shake out his hair.

"Noram? And you don't know the Nightside?"

"North 'Merica," Mel hazards helpfully, dropping to the ground to empty the water out of her boots.

"And no, I don't. You've switched worlds."

"But I was in..." he starts to object, then hears her last sentence and finishes weakly, "...London. Timeslips don't work like that."

"World slips," Mel says. "Be grateful you're still on Earth. Don't always luck out like that."

"You've known of this happening before?" he asks, starting to recover his usual sang-froid. "Oh - I'm Dead Boy, by the way."

"Happened to all of us," she says, pulling her damp boots back on while looking out over the lake. "Three times, some of us."

"And not always on Earth..." he surmises. "It could definitely be worse. Can't be as exciting as the Nightside, but it could be worse."

"Yeah," Mel says, with the dark certainty of one who knows.

"So what's the Nightside?"

"...Taylor explains it better than me." He thinks for a moment, trying to phrase it. "It's a city in its own right, part of London but apart. Most people never know it's there, but once you do, you can find anything you ever wanted, to the darkest of your imagination."

"Right," says Mel, not getting it at all. "We just call that the Lowers."

Dead Boy shakes his head.

"I'd be very surprised if your Lowers is anything like the Nightside, if it's a solid place. There are angels, in the Nightside, and demons and everything in between. It's a place of magic."

"Had them," Mel says cheerfully. "Not that I figged while I was there, but things that followed me out - yeah, we had demons."

"Ours claim to be political refugees", he says dryly. "They've formed a biker gang."

Mel grins. It's possible this isn't the desired reaction.

"Rocketship."

Not the desired one, but it's certainly interesting.

"So what do your demons do, or is it just the usual mayhem?"

"Mostly just eat people," Mel says helpfully. "Most folk didn't even know what they were. I didn't 'til I came off-world."

"...yeah, the Nightside has a lot of things that eat people. At least the angels stopped dropping people out of the sky."

"Yeah," Mel says. "Though people not dropping people out of the sky'd be spled."