milliways_bar | (no subject)

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It may be some time before Quinn gets up the nerve to walk outside again, no matter how appealing the green landscape is. At least he's starting to think he knows why. He's not going to be staying here much longer. Not if his world keeps grabbing him back and pulling other people with him. It's nearly time to go home.

Still, he could do with a proper dinner or two before he has everything together, so he makes his way down to the Bar and finds a convenient booth. It'll do as well as anywhere else, really.

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"Didn't think I was that interesting, actually," Quinn says. "What'd he have to say, anyway?"

"Well, you're apparently from Earth, which seems to be a rarity around here. And you're from a world with dragons, too."

Quinn sighs. "Correct on both counts," he says. "There's some people around here from the future who call the planet Earth-That-Was. Nearly as I can tell, my version of it qualifies. It's Earth, all right, but it's 2020 where I come from."

Bonzo blinks.

"2020? I'm from...2160, I believe. And...did dragons destroy the world or something?"

"Pretty much, yep," says Quinn. "They've been at it a good twenty years now. Very thorough, dragons."

Bonzo blinks.

"They've been destroying the world for twenty years? How've you survived?"

"Well, they started by throwing the military at 'em," Quinn says. "After they wasted a good couple of years debating whether the damn things were real or not, mind. 'course, that just gave 'em a head start at digging in and breeding- they swarmed like locusts... Military didn't help much, you understand. They blew up plenty of dragons, but there were more to take their place- and they wound up blowing human infrastructure to pieces in the process."

Bonzo blinks.

"Sounds like you had the Russians and Americans working together to botch that one."

"Try the entire UN Security Council," says Quinn. "China nuked Tibet. Dragon nests everywhere, you understand."

Bonzo blinks.

"Nukes didn't solve the problem?"

Ok, wow. Thank you, traces of Battle School mentality.

"And I'm guessing they weren't up for negotiating, either?"

"They weren't enough," Quinn says simply. "By the time the world was willing to use 'em, they weren't enough. They're as persistent as cockroaches, and a million times more dangerous."

He snorts. "They're not sentient enough to negotiate. Animal intelligence, not human."

Bonzo sighs.

"We got invaded by aliens twice, but it was nothing like that...then again, we beat them back fairly early on each time, too."

"Lucky you," Quinn says. "The scientists said these bastards'd been in hibernation the world over for thousands, maybe millions, of years. Made propagating all over the planet that much easier."

Bonzo blinks.

"How does that work? I mean...how would they survive for so long?"

"Bugger if I know," Quinn says. "The first one rose when I was twelve. Didn't exactly get to finish out my schooling."

"Man...sorry to hear about that. So...how long have you been in the Bar?"

Quinn smiles a little tiredly. "Couple months now," he says, "although I seem to have a knack for wandering back into my world without meaning to."

Bonzo shakes his head sympathetically.

"Bar has a habit of doing that to some people. I just seem to get stuck here for long periods of time."

"I can think of worse places to be stuck," Quinn mutters.

Bonzo nods.

"Oh, I can too. Believe me, when your world is on the verge of breaking into a world war, this is called a vacation."

"That bad, eh?" Quinn says. "What's it like?"

"It's not bad, as far as everyday life goes, but there were a number of students, myself included, who went to an elite military school when we were growing up. We were supposed to defeat the Buggers...the aliens I mentioned earlier...but something went wrong and they held us off. Now, everyone wants to conquer everyone else all at once."

Quinn shakes his head sympathetically. "Sounds like you got something of a short stick," he says. "Look like they're gonna manage it?"

"Probably not, which is the problem."

Bonzo rolls his eyes.

"Countries just don't know how to take 'no' for an answer sometimes."

"Mmm. Well, I wish you luck with that," Quinn says. "You lot don't need them to get any worse, from the sound of it."