(Untitled)

[ff_ambassador]

Lunchtime. Thank goodness. Inara is starving, her stomach occasionally making embarrassing grumbling noises as she makes her way to an open seat at the bar.

She quickly dives in to her soup and sandwich, people-watching between bites, her favorite relaxing activity at Milliways. Come say hi!

[ooc: Mun is at work, so apologies for slow tags! Need

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[alien_bartender]

Normally I would've noticed the woman at the bar nearby as soon as she came in my orbit - she was one of those ladies who can turn all the heads in a room without trying.

Embarrassingly enough, I was preoccupied at the time because I was experimenting with my new bioluminescent translator. Specifically, I was quietly singing "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" to it and watching how it lit up.

[alien_bartender]

"What do you mean by ver...oh, I get it." First time I'd ever heard anyone abbreviate the word 'universe.' "And no, I don't feel like I'm being interrogated. I like to talk about myself way too much, which is why I have to try and keep myself from doing it.

"But, back to what you said. What about insane space cannibals?"

[ff_ambassador]

"That's good, because I enjoy listening."

Inara sits back and sets down her soup spoon. Talking about Reavers always takes away her appetite. "When men began exploring space and settling new planets, a central government took over the 'verse. And in the interest of public service, they performed certain experiments on planets. And the Reavers, the cannibals, were an unexpected side effect of one of those experiments."

[alien_bartender]

"Jesus. What was their little project, anyway? Genetic manipulation?" I'd heard some ugly stories about various alien genetic experiments gone wrong: it seemed like the logical conclusion.

[ff_ambassador]

"Behavioral modifications. They were testing a drug in the atmosphere of the planet, something to create a stable populous." She shudders. "It was terrible."

[alien_bartender]

"You'd think that people who were big enough control freaks to make a mind-control drug would test it in a lab before spreading it all over a planet."

[ff_ambassador]

Inara nods bitterly. "They paid for their mistake." She shakes her head, then smiles at him.

"I'm sorry - this is a very unpleasant topic, considering we have just met."

[alien_bartender]

"It's okay. I'm a practical man: I can accept that the universe is chock-full of unpleasant things."

Like the truth about the afterlife driving people to commit suicide, or the aliens who filmed human conflicts to sell as war movies, or the gligstith(click)optok growing headless human clones for the dinner table. I was used to all kinds of unpleasantness.

"Maybe we're due for a change of topic."