(Untitled)

[gone_byebye]

Ray walks into the Bar with a brushed-metal robot dog takka takka takka-ing at his heels. There's no visible slime, and he only smells a little bit of ozone, but that's what happens when you come to Milliways without changing out of your jumpsuit and proton pack first. "Bar? I realize it's still morning in New York, but I've been on my feet for

Comments

[bloody_rockgod]

"Hey, Ray," says Charlie and Eyebrows at the robot dog. "Who's your friend?"

[gone_byebye]

"Oh- hi, Charlie. This is Francis. Francis, say hi."

The dog cocks its head (no visible ears, one glowing yellow panel across the place where eyes and forehead would be on a normal dog, a pitty area with something like nostrils at the muzzle, no mouth) and makes a "WHURF" noise.

"Francis is from a dystopian future about a hundred and twenty years down the road, but I don't think it's my world's future for various reasons. The person he was trying to run down gave him to me and I had him reprogrammed."

[bloody_rockgod]

"Hi, Francis," Charlie says, and almost offers his hand to sniff--but it occurs to him that would be very pointless with this particular canine.

"Well, I'm at a loss to ask an intelligent question about any of that last part."

[gone_byebye]

Actually, Francis proceeds to lean forward and sniff at Charlie's leg- although the motion of air is tiny compared to a biological dog's sniffing.

"Oh, um, translation: he used to chase people down for a dictator's government. Have you ever met John Preston?"

[md_donighal]

Gray suit coming. "Evening, Ray. Francis. What are you drinking, what's so eeeek, and am I wrong in assuming those are two separate questions?"

[gone_byebye]

"The eek has nothing to do with the drink," says Ray. "The eek has to do with what happened to my friend Garion. As far as what I'm drinking goes, I asked for this stuff first a while ago on the anniversary of the founding of quantum physics. You can know what it tastes like or where it is at any given time, but not both."

[md_donighal]

"...Only in Milliways, man. - Sounds interesting, mind you; I may have to give it a try.

"I finally met Garion when he was tending Bar the other night. From the look of him, anything eek-worthy that happened to him must be very eek-worthy indeed."

[gone_byebye]

"It's not bad," Ray says. "It kind of reminds me of Jolt Blue, although it hasn't got the same levels of caffeine. It's sort of fruity in terms of what it tastes like, although the flavor is very distinctly artificially derived-"

The glass disappears as he says this.

"-and that's what happens if you try to pin down the taste too closely. It's somewhere else in the Bar, I know that much."