milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

santo,
unicron

(no subject)

The door flies open and Santo barrels through, shoulder first. This makes a tremendous noise when the wrestler hits the floor.

Well, these things happen.

he gets to his feet, shakes his head, and tries the door briefly; it doesn't open. "Señora Bar?" he says. "Is this your way of saying it's been too long since I stood a Security shift?"

The Bar, of course, says nothing in response. But there is smugness in the air.

"Very well. I will do my duty, but then I have work to get back to," says Santo. He produces his Security badge, please don't ask from where, and fastens it to the harness that holds his cape to his shoulders.

Because really, what says 'don't try breaking the rules' quite like a large Mexican in a silver spandex mask, spangly cape, and silver spandex pants?

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Smug now seasoned with "chilling sense of doom".

Guess who's decided to come back to Milliways after two years' absence?

[Two years is nothing to some people. Like this one.]

MILLIWAYS. YOU STILL STAND, he says to no one in particular.

Not sure if happy, or disappointed with this observation.

Santo has seen and heard a great many things in his time, but usually they do not sound off where his head can hear them and his ears cannot. That bears investigation; he looks around for the source of the strange words.

Hm.

That's new.

Telepathy is one of those things that takes getting used to.

He examines the premise.

Rats scurry as fast as their little legs can propel them.

Everything is pretty much almost as he left it. Or restored.

Everything, save for what his systems register as a temporal shift that always comes from dimension-hopping.

Satisfied with ... whatever it is that's still here, he sets about to examining the new: the patrons.

And the shiny man is new.

IT APPEARS THAT THE BAR HAS ACQUIRED NEW FLESH CREATURES WHILE I WAS AWAY.

Santo is eyed up and down.

"Buenos días, señor," says Santo; he has faced down very strange things before this, more times than he remembers how to count. And he's used to being eyed and assessed anyway, both in the ring and out of it. "I don't recall seeing you before, but I've only been coming here a year or two now. Were you a regular patron?"

Regular enough that the people who remember him shrink away in fear.

And if he were a different person he could even make a funny about it.

I HAVE COME AND GONE FROM THIS PLACE, YES.

Santo nods solemnly. "In that case, welcome back," he says. "I hope the Bar finds you well this evening."

Deeply unnerving patrons are still patrons.

Oh is he having an effect? Excellent.

THE INHABITANTS ARE NOT FINDING THIS WELL AT ALL.

There might be a trace of humour in the tone.

"So I see," says Santo, glancing around. "But everyone is free to come here, even if the other patrons aren't so fond of the idea. May I ask to whom I am speaking, please?"

Possibly one of the best parts of Milliways. So long as he's on his better behaviour no one can toss him out on his audio receptors just because they didn't want him around.

Good luck finding a patron that can lift him though. His inside weight has to be at least one ton.

YOU MAY. Pause. I AM KNOWN BY MANY DESCRIPTORS, BUT ALL WHO KNOW ME CALL ME UNICRON.

Santo gives some thought to this name, then inclines his head. "Unfortunately, not a name I recognize," he says. "Although I don't believe I've ever had to talk to a machine who could speak into my thoughts before, so that may be part of why."

It's a name that should be committed to memory.

He is not always on his better behaviour, and it doesn't take long to figure out what Unicron's definition of "bad behaviour" involves.

I AM MORE THAN MOST MACHINES. EVEN AMONGST THE MOST SENTIENT.

Hey that's an interesting idea. Intelligent robots.

"Then I will be sure to remember that," Santo says serenely. "Are there very many of these... other machines? I admit, we have only stories of robots that can walk and talk in my country."

OH YES. ENTIRE PLANETS ARE POPULATED BY THEM. AND THEY DO MORE THAN JUST WALK AND TALK. THEY ARE ALIVE. AS ALIVE AS YOU ARE.

"I see," says Santo. "Well, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. if science can raise monsters from the dead, then why shouldn't there be machines that are alive from the beginning?"

(His is an interesting world.)

[Hilariously fascinating.]

YOU ARE UNUSUAL FOR A FLESHLING IN THAT YOU ARE OF AN OPEN MIND. MOST DO NOT TAKE WELL TO THE IDEA OF MECHANICAL LIFE.

Santo shrugs. "I have had to face vampires, whose bodies were still moving hundreds of years after being dead," he says. "I don't know what keeps them in action. A machine is a thing of science, which at least has a reason to work. It makes no sense for a soul to be in a dead body, but it happens; why shouldn't a soul be in a working machine?"

THE MEMORY OF ONCE BEING ALIVE, PERHAPS. AND A DESIRE TO REMAIN IN THAT STATE.

Just accept that you're dead and be done with it.

[That might've been a funny.]

TO MANY RACES, A MACHINE HAVING A SOUL UPSETS WHAT THEY THINK IS THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS. IN THEIR MIND A MACHINE IS A TOOL THEY HAVE POWER OVER. MACHINES POSSESSING LIFE CHANGES ALL THAT.

And some get violent about it.

Exhibit A: Josie Beller AKA Circuit Breaker.

"I've seen things that came from other worlds," says Santo. "Something as natural as breathing Earth's air was enough to kill them, even when they looked very much like human beings. The natural order on Earth might not be the natural order on another planet. Do they have living things of flesh and blood on the planets where these machines live?"

Starfish biology if not starfish alien.

IT IS EXTREMELY UNCOMMON, BUT NOT UNHEARD OF, IF THE ATMOSPHERE HAS PROPERTIES THAT PERMIT ORGANIC LIFE TO SURVIVE.

Levels of coexistence vary.

Santo nods. "But mostly it's unnatural there, like a living machine would be unnatural on Earth," he says. "So I shouldn't be surprised that things are different elsewhere."

THINGS ARE ALWAYS DIFFERENT ELSEWHERE. IT IS A CONSTANT I CAN TRUST IN.

"Then I am glad there is something in the world that gives you a foundation," says Santo.

More like something in the multiverse.

He gives Santo a shark's smile.

AND WHAT IS IT IN YOUR WORLD THAT GIVES YOU FOUNDATION?

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