Bartending and INTRO

[never_going_back]

Wait, what?

[A white blond girl, in the many, many layers that a proper Hoop girls wears, is staring at the Bar.]

[She sighs.] 

Rodice. Slappy sensayuma, this job.  I mean, the whole Zenade thing was not my fault. 

Fine.  This chiklette can take it.  [Halo nods.] And then I'll get Brinna that new sitdram, and you a replacement for that outfit you hurked all over.

Glad I was downwind of that!

Hoy!  [To anyone who walks in.]  Show the Mamcard or flash the cash.


[There's no specials because, whaddaya think this is? Some kind of fancy chop party?]

Comments

[covert_bandage]

The clothing is odd, but then again, it's not cobbled together from used sporting equipment with a dog hat attached. It's nothing Arcade can't handle.

"NCR paper money or bottlecaps okay?" he says. "I don't carry Legion gold."

[never_going_back]

[A....man. Who's not a rumblejack. She can tell because he doesn't talk all weird and formal.]

Don't you try anything heinous. I've got a sputstick and I'm not afraid to use it!

[Now that we've settled that. ]

...what's paper money?

[covert_bandage]

For answer, Arcade reaches into one of his lab coat's pockets and withdraws a handful of bills. "These," he says. "All I've got are twenties, but you did say flash the cash."

He's going to ignore the first part. It sounds like gambler slang after they've been partaking of the odder things on offer at the Gomorrah casino.

[never_going_back]

[She studies the paper.] Wow. So you're from California? That's like...I don't even think the ringroadster goes out that far!

Cash. You know. Credsticks. [What Manhattanites use. You know. Manhattanites. The ones that shoot to kill Hoopsters like her.]

SO...uh. What do you want?

[covert_bandage]

"Something like that, yes," says Arcade as he puts the money away. "This is the alternative- backed, as always, by the water merchants in the Hub."

Said alternative is a handful of Nuka-Cola brand bottlecaps with the edges crimped under, all showing a significant amount of wear.

"Whatever you've got in the way of a beer that doesn't taste like it's been left in the sun for weeks on end will do just fine, thank you."

lol I always goof up format here *you saw nothing*

[never_going_back]

"Water merchants? California must be hella scrogged for water. We got plenty on the Hoop."

She shoots him a look. "The sun bad where you're from?" Because anything that's been allowed out in the sun for any amount of time sounds really....erm...nice."

California sounds like the opposite of the Hoop. Sun and no water. She's kinda envious, just imagining it.

"Right. Beer." And maybe the Bar thing will tell her how to handle the 'twenties'.

Nothing at all, I assure you.

[covert_bandage]

"Oh, there's more of it than anything else out there, with the possible exception of sand," says Arcade. "These days I'm in the Mojave area outside New Vegas. Desert for miles, and all the fools and madmen trying to eke out a living in it."

"Well, yes, unless you had something else you'd care to recommend."

[never_going_back]

"Wow." That sounds like a lot of open space. "Most I've ever seen was when Rodice and I too the Trax on the Hoop ring."

"We were...trying to get to the Mall." And they got there, because, dammit, they needed Kriskies!

"No, uh...I don't drink much." At all, actually.

[covert_bandage]

"Hm. Well, in that case, I'll take it as a sign from the universe that my habits are getting out of hand again. Just turn around and open up that reach-in behind you and take out one of the blue glass bottles full of dark brown cola, with red labels. That's Nuka-Cola, and it should do just as well without involving any alcohol whatsoever," says Arcade.

"And I suppose I ought to admit that I have no idea what Hoop ring you're referring to. Or what Mall, for that matter."

[never_going_back]

"Uh...okay." But don't try anything while her back is turned!

She reaches into the fridge, and stops to boggle. There's...a lot of stuff in here. Like an entire full shelf!

No, wait. She's got this: Halo finds the bottle, pulling it out and handing it to him--careful not to make any sort of hand contact.

"Hoop. It's off Manhattan. And the mall! THE Mall." The only one: and it took a whole day--and a lot of courage--to get there!

[covert_bandage]

"And Manhattan would be...." Arcade accepts the bottle; the puzzled look has more to do with the sentence than anything to do with the drink. "Wait. No, don't tell me- I do remember my histories talking about a Manhattan Island being bought from the natives hundreds of years before the Great War and winding up as one of the greatest real estate deals of all time. Eastern coast, I take it?"

[never_going_back]

She can't imagine anyone who's never heard of Manhattan. But still. "Great war? You mean the one General Cannibal's fighting?" She only half pays attention to Swifty Frisco. "Unless you mean something way back."

[covert_bandage]

"Most... most probably not," says Arcade cautiously. "Can I ask what year it was the last time you checked? It may be important."

[never_going_back]

"It was...uh...4949." Not really often she got asked the date. I mean....weird.

[covert_bandage]

"Oh! All right, then," says Arcade. "The Great War I'm talking about was in October of 2077. Which would be why you don't recognize the reference, most likely- my name is Arcade Gannon, by the way. I should probably mention that before I forget."

[never_going_back]

"Woooooow. So you're like from...history."

She'll goggle at him for a minute like he's some museum display. He looks so...not old!

"H-halo. Halo Jones." A thought strikes her. "Hey is that cola from the past, too?"

[covert_bandage]

"Apparently so," says Arcade. "I think you'll find most people here are. This place tends to play fast and loose with the usual rules of time and calendars. For instance, the last time I checked the date, it was 2281. And, yes, the soda is... probably about from my time, actually. This place keeps it fresh instead of getting the old stuff. I'm not sure how that works."

[never_going_back]

"So, do you drink it because it's good or because it tastes like home?"

Why yes, she's fixating on the odd details because, well, science isn't her thing.

[covert_bandage]

"More the first than the second," says Arcade. "Although the taste of home is part of it. I was raised in a little town out west that isn't there any more, and we had Nuka-Cola there, but most of the soda sold in the Mojave is Sunset Sarsaparilla, which I've never been a big fan of."

[never_going_back]

"...I'm not sure I could ever get homesick. I mean, not for the place. But people, yeah. Rodice...Ludy..." She blinks. Ludy. Brinna was dead, Ludy'd gone to the Drummers.

She tosses her head. "I never had either of those. Or traveled that far. I've never been...anywhere really."

[covert_bandage]

Arcade nods. "My mother and I moved from place to place a lot after my father died. I'm kind of used to the prospect, although I occasionally envy people who have a more stable option than that."

[makesthings]

Sam's doing some sketching when she goes behind the Bar and looks up, his linen shirt's rather grimy from work and he asks,

"I've got coins but no cash. What's a mamcard?"

[never_going_back]

So. Much. Skin. Halo decides the only course of action is to stare at the floor. Hello, floor. You're looking very...clean today.

"I...er...it's a Mamcard! We all have one. That's how we get our benefits!"

[makesthings]

Its a long sleeved shirt just rolled up a bit and he isn't sure why she's looking down. He doesn't think he's doing anything odd and reaches up to touch the Charter Mark on his forehead but its not glowing,

"Oh, not on my world. Are you new to Milliways?"

[never_going_back]

Because NECK. WRISTS. Not even the mall wolves showed that kind of skin!

The movement catches her eyes and she looks up to see the mark on his head.

"Uh, hey. I'm a friend of Ludy's, alright? You Drummers can just, you know...remember that. Or something." Her hand sneaks into her pocket, as though reaching for a weapon.

"No way. Been here before. Lots. Best place on the Hoop." She is entirely convincing.

[makesthings]

"I don't know a Ludy or what a drummer is. My name's Sameth from the Old Kingdom,"

He moves his hands to rest on the counter, which makes it easier to see the burn scars around his wrists. She's clearly nervous and he doesn't want to seem a threat.

[never_going_back]

"So that's like...Connecticut?" Yeah, Hoopsters aren't allowed to go there. It's in the warnings. "Must be nice, you know. A place without Different Drummers."

"Uh....Halo. Halo Jones. I'm from the Hoop."

The scars don't really help. Is he a convict? Men. Are. Scary.

[makesthings]

"No, it's not, it's the Old Kingdom, which isn't on Earth. What's a drummer?"

The way she talks they sound like the Dead and he hopes they're not that bad. His scars look like handprints burned into his flesh, they've healed some but will never disappear.

[never_going_back]

"You're from space? I just saw the Clara Pandy come in, did you see it? That kinda thing, you know, makes you realize there's stuff out there. Real stuff. In space. ...and all."

What are you doing, Halo? Talking to a man!?

"You know, Different Drummers. They all get an implant. It's like music or something. And," she starts bobbing her head to a steady tempo. "Like this. All the time. They just get lost in the beat."

She wants to ask about the scars, but that would mean admitting she looked at his skin.

[makesthings]

"No, sorry, an implant? That sounds dangerous and powerful to lose yourself to anything,"

Not that his family is the best for knowing when to stop and moderation but duty's different than music and the Charter is the Old Kingdom.

[never_going_back]

"Totally dangerous. And violent. You run into Drummers on your all-alone and you end up crumped in some side alley."

[makesthings]

"Then I can see why they would make you nervous. The Dead are like that in the Old Kingdom but there aren't as many of them as there used to be. We're getting the older protections stronger and my mother's not fighting them alone."

[never_going_back]

"So these Dead. They're like a gang or something?"

She's....totally forgotten what Bar explained to her about the whole, you know, serving drinks thing. Seeing the Clara Pandy had started giving her, well....thoughts. That there was a world out there way bigger than she knew. And she kinda wanted to.

"Wish they'd do something about the Drummers."

[makesthings]

"No, not a gang, they're well Dead and a necromancer uses them to attack people. They're not right, a body should be able to rest and go into Death."

[never_going_back]

"Necromancer?" This sounded like one of Brinna's vids. "You're not scrogging with me? Like, glombies but actually dead?"

Yeah, that sounds about seven different flavors of 'not right'.

[makesthings]

He's not sure of all the words she says but nods,

"No, I'm not lying, they're real in my world. I've fought them."

[never_going_back]

"Oh." It's just a lot to take on board, ya know?

"How do you kill something already dead? I mean...kinda dead, right? Don't think a sputstick would work on that."

[makesthings]

"What's a sputstick? There are different ways but its hard and mainly involves sending the necromancer truly into Death, which stops the Dead. There are ways to protect yourself from them,"

It is, Sam knows his world's one of the stranger ones in Milliways.

[never_going_back]

"It's...uh...," well, so much for bluffing that she has one. Rodice is the one that's always armed. "It's a thing. Like this big." She holds her hands up to show a space of a few inches, like a pen. "You spray it--don't stand upwind like Rodice did--and whoever you spray with gets...you know...splatty."

She's not going to mime projectile vomiting. But hopefully he can guess.

[makesthings]

"Oh, huh, that sounds messy and complicated."

[never_going_back]

She gives him a weird look. "And killing Necromancers isn't?"

A child could use a sputstick!

[makesthings]

"Well, yes, it is just without vomiting."

[never_going_back]

"But with more death!"

Which is probably messy. And dead.

[makesthings]

"Yes, I prefer to make things, its what I'm better at."

[death_fangirl]

Aradia walks up to the Bar. "Hello! Can I have a can of Tab?"

"I don't have any money on me, but I can pay in boondollars or grist." She doesn't look especially human, with her grey skin, candy-corn-striped ram horns, and the fact that the whites of her eyes are in fact yellow. Oh, and also the big red butterfly wings. Her outfit may or may not be weird by Halo's standards; it covers pretty much everything except her face and hands, though.