Three Twisted Knots

In no particular order.

• Aoibheann — well, she gets an order, because she’s the first person I met here. She puts me up at her tavern, the Lucky Leaf, in exchange for my working at the pub. It is a pretty good exchange, I think. All I do is serve drinks and food and sweep the floors occasionally. It gives me something to do. Aoibheann is from sometime in the 14th century, from a world where dragons attack people. She has a self-esteem problem.
• Nathaniel — Well posh, even though he says he’s not, my coworker at the Lucky Leaf. He is meant to do accounts but mostly tends bar and philosophises. He is from the Victorian era, which may account for his thinking he is not posh when in fact he is very posh. His father owned some shipping and construction business. He says there are werewolves in London where he comes from, and he believes in dragons and all sorts of other things.
• Alec — Alec is the King. Yes, there is a king. I think he is some kind of magician as well. He always seems happy. He overpaid me for dinner once when I served him at the tavern. He and the queen have a bunch of little kids and another one on the way.
• Isabella — Isabella is the Queen. She is pregnant. She drinks a lot of milk.
• Anna — Runs the infirmary and also cooks for the pub. Everybody has this idea that Aoibh can’t cook. I don’t know what that is all about: she makes great chips.
• Cristoff — A patron who visits the tavern. He keeps schnapps of his own behind the bar, but nobody seems to mind. He fills it all up with cherry flavoured syrup, which is well weird. But he has seen all the right films, and he dresses like a mobster. I like him because he is funny and he gets my jokes.
• Daimon — Creepy birdman who’s stalking Aoibh. She seems to be falling for it, but I don’t like him. He feels dangerous to me.
• Bound — Guy in chains who insists he was cursed by some Goddess of Death or other. By in chains, I mean they are coming out of his skin and shit.
• Emanuel — Runs the bookstore. Comes from some bizarre timeline in which Steve Jobs is still alive and some android operating system has taken over technology. Yeah, right.
• Various little kids — I can’t keep them all straight. One of them at least knows what an iPhone is, so she might be from around the same time as me. One of them doesn’t talk to anybody and is generally creepy. Anna seems to be the only person who can talk to her. Another one has an imaginary mum and seems a bit disturbed in general. The king and queen’s kids, of course, are well-adjusted and normal-acting. I guess it’s always better to be born in the right place.

Here is a sketch of the Lucky Leaf.