(Untitled)

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen spent a fair amount of today trying to work through as many basic flexibility and basic strength-regaining exercises as she could. It was a frustrating process, and she did not like it at all, so when she was finished she got a coat and a hat and a scarf and went out to the target range to practice with her plasma rifle again. This was

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[i_got_vision]

There's a cowboy loitering nearby at the bar. He's got his best friend put to bed--or at least the guy in the general shape of his best friend, who isn't really him but thinks he is and is sick and needs looking after. Damn, this place gives him a headache sometimes when he really thinks about it.

Whatever the case, he's at the bar with a glass of Old Taylor and the copy of Oliver Twist he's been working his way through. But Ellen's approach, along with the dog, and then the strange expressions--yeah, he's not really paying attention to his book anymore.

"You look like you just ordered a sandwich and got a shovel," he says.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen just shakes her head and puts down the book. "I'm not sure what this is supposed to be about," she says, indicating the grotesquely colored cover. "It... looks like a historical survey of how people used to decorate their houses, but... it's a little hard to believe anybody was willing to do that." She gives a rueful smile. "I'm sorry, I hope I haven't disturbed anything with my reaction."

[i_got_vision]

He starts to say something, but then he gets a good look at the book.

...and that's more or less the same expression he has on now, too.

"...folks do that?" he asks after a few moments, when the power of speech has returned to him. "Wouldn't it give them nightmares, or make them turn to a life of drink and dissipation?"

If he were locked in a room that looked like that... well, it seems like an effective way of breaking a man.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I... think they did?" Ellen says. "Honestly, I don't know. They don't do that any more, not where I come from."

And if they ever did, it's probably kind of a mercy all the rooms that looked like that burned down in the war.

"I don't think i could sleep in a room like that. Or even just sit in a room like that."

[doyousmellfudge]

"Ahh, the seventies. The decade that good taste forgot."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"The what, now?" says Ellen, looking up. "You mean this isn't some kind of weird visual science fiction?"

[doyousmellfudge]

"No, it's not. Which is unfortunate for everyone involved." He squints at her a little. "We--we've met before, right? The, ah, the young lady from the post-nuclear future?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I think I remember you," says Ellen. "You hung around very close to the door, right? I had more hair then."