Bartending

[kamehamehaaa]

Gohan's been looking for a chance to repay some of his food bill, so he jumps at the chance when Bar presents him with a napkin tonight.

Okay, so he's not bartended before, but shouldn't be too hard, right?

'Tonight's Specials!

SUPER SAIYAN ENERGY DRINK

Milk and cookies

With that, and seeing as he's not tall enough to see over the bar, he hovers behind it in order to obtain the correct height.

Comments

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"That... sounds interesting, actually," says Ellen, peering up at the sign. "What's involved in the energy drink?"

[kamehamehaaa]

"Er..." Gohan looks at the back of the can.

"I think it's mostly sugar and caffiene." he says, honestly.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh," says Ellen. "Well, um. I'm not that fond of sugar, so... how about I just get the cookies and milk instead?"

[kamehamehaaa]

"Okay!" Gohan lands, dives in the fridge, and gets the milk and cookies.

"Do you want..." he looks at the types. "Full fat, semi skimmed, skimmed, or goat?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Um," says Ellen. "I'm not really- let's go with the full fat? I"ve never had the other kinds before. Or even heard of goat."

[kamehamehaaa]

Gohan pours one glass of full fat, grabs some cookies, and presents them to Ellen.

"Here you go." Beat. "Am I supposed to take money off you or put it in a computer or is it automatic?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I think I'm supposed to give you money," Ellen says, and starts counting out flattened bottlecaps with the edges crimped under. "At least, that's how it usually works when other people tend the Bar. This is what we use for money back home, so hopefully that'll do."

[kamehamehaaa]

Gohan looks at them carefully.

"I'm not sure how much each of these is worth."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Well, a bottle of soda back home costs around fifteen or twenty of those," Ellen says. "And a pint of water costs twelve. How much does milk usually cost compared to soda, do you know?"

[kamehamehaaa]

Gohan doesn't do a lot of shopping. He thinks about his maths problems back home.

"Less?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Okay," Ellen says. "Let's say, then, that it's probably around ten caps for the milk, and... I'm not sure about the cookies, but two Fancy Lads snack cakes cost five caps. Since they're bigger than cookies, let's say I probably owe you four caps for the cookies. Does that sound fair?"

[kamehamehaaa]

"Sounds fair to me." Gohan nods and smiles.

"Why does your world use these?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh, we had a war about two hundred years ago, and everything that made the old money worthwhile was destroyed," Ellen says. "The bottlecaps are kind of rare and hard to come by, and people can't really fake making new ones, so they're about as good as anything else for money."

[kamehamehaaa]

"Ohhh, that's clever." Gohan says.

"Couldn't you wish your world back, after the war?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I don't think anybody had that kind of power," Ellen says after some startled blinking. "I mean, if they did, I'm pretty sure they would've done it by now."

He's a kid, and this is Milliways. For all she knows they do have people who can change things with a wish where he comes from.

[kamehamehaaa]

"We have the dragonballs." Gohan says. "They can bring back the whole planet's people."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh, I see," says Ellen. "I don't think I ever heard of those. Or of dragons being anything but stories, for that matter. Where are you from, if you don't mind my asking?"

[kamehamehaaa]

"Earth." Gohan says. "In Japan, in the middle of nowhere."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh. Huh."

Ellen considers this.

"I don't know if there's anything left in Japan, in my world. I barely even know there's people alive in California, and that's on the same continent as me."

[kamehamehaaa]

"Oh, in that case, if you did have dragonballs, they may have been destroyed."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It's possible," Ellen says. "A lot of things were. Are they very common, in your Japan?"

[kamehamehaaa]

"There's seven in the world. You have to find them before you can wish."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Ah. That's got to be one of those really epic searches, I'm guessing?" Ellen says. "I had a hard enough time finding my father and a Garden of Eden Creation Kit, honestly."

[kamehamehaaa]

"Only if you have to fight someone for them. Mostly I use the radar." gohan says.

"What's a Garden of Eden creation kit?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It's a device they made before the War," Ellen says. "It turns an area around it from lifeless, dead, contaminated soil and water into someplace a lot more viable to live. Kind of like your dragon balls, but only for a little territory, and it can't bring anybody back to life. We needed it to use in a water purifier, so that everybody in the Wasteland could have clean water again."

[kamehamehaaa]

"What does viable mean?" Gohan asks, helping himself to a cookie.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh- more likely, having more of a fighting chance," Ellen says. "People kind of expected things to go badly so they were getting ready to overcome those odds, when they built the GECK. That's how we usually refer to the Garden of Eden Creation Kit."

[kamehamehaaa]

"Like... if a planet was about to explode, it would restore it?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Mm- no, I don't think so," says Ellen. "More like- if a place had been full of homes and trees and gardens and things, and then got bombed so that the houses burned down and the trees turned to ash and the soil was mostly sand and all the water was so poisoned you couldn't drink it, the GECK could remake the area into somewhere with soil you could grow things in and water you could drink, and maybe start some of the plants growing properly, too."

[kamehamehaaa]

"Oh, that's cool." Gohan nods. "I guess planets don't get blown up too often."