IMDB Flu

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

Space Marines do not get sick. Ever. This is no exaggeration of pride, just cold, hard fact. Genhanced bodies don't fall ill, or need bed rest, or require antibiotics.

Of course, that goes out the window when Milliways is concerned.

There must be one of those magical, otherworldly plagues going around, because Sahaal's definitely got something. His throat hurts, there's some unpleasant aching behind his eyes and every couple of minutes, he has to blow his nose. Not fun.

But, he's scheduled for Happy Hour tonight, and since he's got quite the tab to pay off, not showing up isn't really an option. So, at about a quarter to eight, he shuffles down into the bar, sniffling all the while. He pulls out the little specials chalkboard, and starts writing:

No food or drink specials due to bartender illness

All drinks half price

All regular menu items half price

Comments

[ostro_goth]

"Greetings."

That is the grim, dark axe-Goth from Security.

"I would have a cup of well-watered red wine: - but tell me, what are you ill with?"

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"Coming right up." He reaches behind him to grab a bottle from the rack, pours a measure of it into a glass and mixes it with some tap water. Then, he slides it across to the barbarian-esque mortal with the Security badge.

"No idea. Some bug of some description, I'm not a medicae." Sahaal coughs, as if to underline his point.

[ostro_goth]

"What ails you?" Teja asks, picking up the wine and drinking, with the ghost of a little smile. "A cough, and then?"

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"Ah." Sahaal pulls out a metal water canteen, and takes a drink from it. "Headaches, sneezing and a sore throat. My voice isn't usually this croaky."

[ostro_goth]

"But you know clearly who you are?" Teja asks.

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

An eyebrow appears over one tinted goggle lens. "My name is First Captain Zso Sahaal, Talonmaster of the Eighth Legion. Of course I know who I am. Who are you?"

[ostro_goth]

"I am Teja, son of Tagila; I was the last king of the Ostrogoths in Italy and died in battle, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, in the year 552 of Christian reckoning. I have been in this place for over ten years, run the forge and serve in Security."

Pause.

"I other years, I have seen versions of the flu that made people believe they were another; I even once suffered such delusion myself."

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

Well, that made little sense to Sahaal. He doesn't really know what 'Italy' is, or 'Mount Vesuvius', or 'Christian', but he gets the gist. "At this point, I'm not even surprised that there's a disease that swaps personalities here. That's probably what I have." He sighs. "How long does it take for the delusions to set in?"

A thought strikes him, and he smiles. "You're from the early first millennium?"

[ostro_goth]

"It will mostly set in after sleep, or feverish dozing, quite soon after it broke out," Teja says. "And indeed, it is the latter half of the first millennium, but barely -- barely past half of the sixth century."

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"Well, I'll suppose that I'm not sleeping for a few nights, then," Sahaal says.

"Ah. I was surprised, almost every person here seems to be from either the late second or early third millennia."

[ostro_goth]

"Many, but not almost all," Teja says. "And then there are, of course, those from worlds with quite another way of reckoning years."

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"True," he concedes. Cassian, Guide, Ellen. They certainly don't fit into his statement.

"I'm sure I could be counted amongst them. I'm from the 42nd Millennium."

[ostro_goth]

"Very far into the future, then, for almost all of us," Teja says.

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

Sahaal chuckles. "Very far. Don't worry, nothing that important has changed."

[ostro_goth]

"It never does," Teja says. "Even though it is long enough for mankind itself to change in its blood and bones, much as it changed when cattle were tamed, so grown men and women might drink milk and eat cheese. That takes ten thousand years, I have learned, give or take. Ten thousand years for a blond tribe sent to a sunny place to turn all dark, also. Your version of humanity could have done it four times over: - but the soul of mankind never changes! They will ever strive to give their progeny a better future, and will ever use fell ways in politics and war."

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"I think you might have just summed up the human condition. Yes, nothing does ever change, not truly. I am a warrior, enhanced by arcane gene-treatment and extensive surgery to be beyond the ability of any mortal man. I fight in warplate that lets me shrug off deadly blows like raindrops and fight with relic weapons that cannot be replicated in the dark millennium I hail from. But, I still fight using the tactics that men that were dust before you were born devised, I have sent Night Lords under my command to die for causes that are mirrors of a thousand other conflicts down the years and I still have a knife on my belt."

Sahaal takes another swig of water. "And no matter what we do, our souls will never change, because to do so would to render us as inhuman as an alien from another galaxy."

[ostro_goth]

"Even the aliens from another galaxy are quite human, in many ways," Teja says. "I have met some. And often watched serial entertainment made for and by squid."

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"I can't say, I haven't met too many aliens myself."

He smiles. "Oh, thank the Primarch. I thought I was the only one who's television got that channel."

[ostro_goth]

"All do," Teja assures him. "It is quite popular. Sometimes, in the dead of night, sleepless patrons happen upon each other in the bar and binge-watch together. That is how I learned to treasure it, when I was quite new here."

Pause.

"For a while, I thought all tee-vee was either squid drama or one of several sports known as football."

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"Oh? I didn't know that people did that here. I'll have to come down here one of these nights, it'd be better than sitting in my room watching films on my terminal."

Sahaal pauses. "I mostly get games of something called 'Blood Bowl', or news broadcasts from various Earths. And, of course, the squids."

[ostro_goth]

"I never understand the Blood Bowl," Teja says, shaking his head. "Or the broadcasts from Desert Bluffs. They're voice only, though. So I end up with Tentacles Of Our Waves, most of those sleepless nights."

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"I quite enjoy Blood Bowl, but I can see why it's hard to get into."

He cocks his head to the side. "Desert Bluffs?"

[ostro_goth]

"One of the places I sometimes catch news broadcasts from, at night," Teja says. "They have a radio host named Kevin whose cruel cheerfulness feels like a nail scratched over rough metal."

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"Ah. Are they any good?"

Most of the news broadcasts Sahaal gets come from something called 'BBC', and that's a little boring for his tastes.

[ostro_goth]

"Strange," Teja says. "Even for this place."

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

He chuckles. "Right, now I have to listen to it."

[ostro_goth]

"One would hope that it will not cause you to throw things at the pesky cheer of that voice," Teja says.

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

"I'm a Night Lord," he says, "trained in psychological warfare. If it provokes that sort of reaction in me, then I'll be playing from my armour's speaker systems the next time I go to war."

[ostro_goth]

"It might be used that way, indeed."