[b]"So even Starkey admits to Elizabeth's faults... interesting."[/b]  Julius was muttering to himself, surrounded in his study by mountains of books.  Most of them were closed but coloured pieces of paper stuck out from several pages; bookmarks for useful information and references.  Around him on his large desk were multiple open tomes with the one he was currently reading by his left side, kept open with soft pressure from his left hand while his right scratched away furiously with a fountain pen on an A4 pad.  Somewhere in the building a bell rang, denoting the end of another session and soon the corridor outside was full of voices and the sounds of movement.

His concentration interrupted, Julius quickly scribbled down a note on a yellow piece of paper and stuck it to the outside of the page he had been scanning before leaning back in his chair with a sigh.  The long hours of hunching over the desk had started a dull ache in his back so he decided it was time to get out of the musty study and out for some fresh air.  After all, he mused, long hours of strain on the brain reduced efficiency while being surrounded by a natural environment with plants and living things enhanced one's concentration span.

It wasn't long before he had found a need for sustenance and left the university campus, heading into town in search of a properly made cup of tea (or a 'brew' as he liked to call it) and some quickly edible lunch.  As he crossed Times Square he started to feel drowsy and he began to pay less attention to his surroundings.

The next thing Julius knew was he was lying on a beach, staring up at an unfamiliar sky with oddly pink clouds.

[b]"Did... I just fall asleep and get a train to the beach?"[/b] His brain was feeling a little fuzzy, as if he'd been on an extremely extravagant night out on the town.  With a groan he pushed himself to his feet and looked around to find himself not alone on the alien, in apparently more ways than one, beach.  He did not recognise any of the others, neither from his past life or immediately from his last remembered experience in Times Square.

After summing up the courage, for he was ever the introvert at heart, to trudge over to someone, a woman, he greeted them with a nervous half-wave and an awkward, lop-sided smile.

[b]"Erm, hello?  I don't suppose you happen to know where we are?  That might sound like an odd question... but last I remember I was in Times Square.  I don't think there was anything in my tea..."[/b]  Realising that he was babbling, Julius rubbed the back of his head in a nervous gesture he had picked up years ago and bobbed his head in place of a more formal greeting.  [b]"My name's Julius.  I'm a PhD student at the university."[/b]