milliways_bar | (no subject)

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The specials show up on the board the minute he gets there. Bartending's fun -- at least he had fun the last time he was back here -- and if nothing else, he'll have paid off that new set of clothes Bar gave him after his trip to Ellen's world. The last thing he wants is to be known as some kind of freeloader. He's always paid his way, ever since he was seventeen and found himself alone, and there's no reason he'd stop doing it just 'cause he's stuck here.

Tonight's Specials

Easy Action
Between the Sheets
A Goodnight Kiss

The specials make him laugh but hey, they're kind of appropriate and at least they go in progression. He adds one more thing to the board before setting up shop for the duration:

Pyramid advice & info always free

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"Indeed?"

Mary's eyebrows are cast a bit higher than usual.

"That is..." She tries to think of diplomatic wording. "...not a skill that women in my world are generally wont to acquire."

Not respectable women, anyway.

"Of course, we don't generally participate in athletic activities with men, either," she adds. "Unless one counts walking or riding."

Now it's his turn to raise his eyebrows. "Really? You separate by gender in sports?" They haven't done that on the Colonies in... well, in forever, that he knows of, and he grew up on Picon where boxing's the national sport, and you see men and women facing off, whoever's up to the challenge.

And running, that's the other national sport, and what's the point in segregating something like that? Or pyramid, where it's not just size or brawn but skill and stamina that win games?

"Man, I can't imagine what pyramid would be like if we didn't have our female players. I mean, I can, but..." No Barolay? No Sue-Shaun? No Kai? No long tall lanky enemy forward guards flicking their hair in his face? There goes half the fun right there.

"Well....we don't really partake of sports. At least not in the way you describe them. Children play together, but not strictly for competition."

Though in Mary's world, ordinary day-to-day existence tends to be more taxing than some would be used to.

"My sisters and I play shuttlecock and croquet at times. Unmarried men and women may walk and ride together provided that they are largely in public view. Dancing is good exercise, I suppose, though I don't care for it personally."

Too many steps to get wrong.

"But it's not considered seemly for a lady to be aggressive or competitive they way you describe. And for public entertainment, at that."

That damn public entertainment. What Mary's describing, it sounds like life in some of the elite circles on Virgon, where things are probably among the most socially conservative. Not religiously conservative like Gemenon or medically conservative like Sagittaron, just... monarchy-based, still.

"So what you're saying" -- he can hardly keep the smirk off his face -- "is that my teammates aren't ladylike."

Now he's gotta laugh.

"I'd have to agree with you on that one. I think if my world wasn't nuked, you know, if I could bring people there on tour, a lot of what you'd see would shock you."

Yeah. Like Queenstown Harbor and the red light district. Probably ruin poor Mary for life.

Mary half winces, half smiles.

"Please understand, I mean no disrespect to them personally. I've come to understand that things are done very differently elsewhere than they are at home, and partaking in such activities do not automatically equate to a poor reflection on a woman's character."

It's strange to think of your own society as the odd one out.

"I'm beginning to think that if I could take people on a tour of mine, they might be equally shocked. It seems that by Milliways standards, England would actually be regarded as quaint and backwards."

Never mind that it is a power to be reckoned with at home.

"No disrespect assumed at all, Mary. It's all good." They're not even here to hear her, and it isn't like he's gonna go running back to Barolay or Sue or anyone and tell them all about some shocked Earth girl at the bar at the end of the universe. Kara was right when she asked him what he was gonna say: they'll think he's frakking crazy no matter what, so he'd better just keep his godsdamn mouth shut until or unless the door opens and they all file in together, just like the well-oiled machine the C-Bucs can be on occasion.

"I'll tell you something. Being a pro ball player means I traveled. A lot, back and forth from this planet to that. A game or two here, hop on a shuttle, a game there, come back and try it out all over again. Every single planet has its own... its own flavor and style. And all twelve of our planets are on the same level, technologically speaking. But on Virgon, for instance, where they had a monarchy, things were a lot different than Caprica, where I'm from. So I never take much of anything for granted. And I know you're not judging the women on my ball team. You can't, you don't know them. But we both know about different ideas and different ideals, and it's all good. I have as much respect for the way things work in your England as I do for the way they work here and the way they worked back home."

Idly, he spears some shit onto a toothpick: a cherry, a piece of pineapple, a mint leaf, a quarter of an orange slice, a red grape. It looks pretty good, so he offers it over.

"You need any more juice?"

"Yes, please."

Mary's been sipping at her juice while they've talked, and the contents are half gone. She slides the glass over.

"It's so strange--strange to me--how you talk of traveling between planets like you're just hopping in a coach and visiting another county. I don't travel away from home very often. I've been to London a couple of times, to visit my aunt and uncle there when I was younger. It's twenty-five miles away."

A good day of travel in a coach.

"And I've been here, of course, but I hardly know how to count that."

It seems that the End of the Universe must be a great distance away indeed.

"England has a monarchy. I wonder if it's at all like your Virgon."

Refills are easy, especially when it's just juice. He tops it off for her, stows the bottle back in the little refrigerator. "Traveling between planets is... yeah, it's always been there. Just the way things are done. It's not any more of a big deal to go to the planet next door than it is to get in your car and drive a couple hours up to the mountains."

Mary's world doesn't have cars either. She talked before about going places on horseback.

"So it's just as normal as waking up in the morning and getting dressed, I guess. And like you said, this place... who even knows where it is. The whole concept of the universe having an end doesn't make sense, 'cause by definition it's supposed to be infinite. And infinity is one of those concepts that our little human brains have enough trouble with, never mind talking about where infinity might end."

But he shrugs in a good-natured way. "I don't know about Virgon and England. Right now there's probably not much of anything on Virgon. But the monarchy there, it was mostly in name only. The everyday running of the government was done by a parliament the past forty years or so. Maybe more."

It's one place he never lived.

"It was really pretty, though, from what I know."

"I know that cars travel much faster than coaches. Detective Chief Inspector Hunt took me for a ride in his."

Mary had honestly thought she was going to die. Or possibly just vomit.

"I've tried to reckon the existence of Milliways as well. And the only real conclusion that I can come to is that it must be taken on faith. Which seems somewhat irrational in that we are sitting right in the midst of it, so obviously it exists. But it seems to be one of those mysteries that only God can fully comprehend."

Mary smiles a little sadly.

"I'm sorry that it's no longer there. Virgon."

She think of what it might be like if England were no more. The idea is surprisingly painful.

Oh, Virgon's still there. It's just not much of a going concern. But that's probably mincing words, and he doesn't need to do that.

"I don't even want to tell you the top speed on the car I used to drive." Okay, he never found a road to go that fast in it, but that thing was rated at 204 miles per hour. If he'd had it a little longer, he would've found a way to drive it that fast. Probably during the off-season, just to be safe. "Talk about traveling fast."

The memory, man, it makes him smile pretty wistfully. "I'll take that car and this place on faith, both of them. I don't know about the gods -- there are some here, maybe they can tell us -- if that's right or not, but I agree with you. Some things are just supposed to be mysteries, and there's no figuring them out. Our brains aren't built for that level of understanding."

The only thing people can do is take them on faith.

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