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

[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."