A Man's Gotta Eat

[phdbilly]

Who: Billy Buddy and (open)
Where: The Bar
When: After he's found his room and this thread
What: A man's gotta eat when he's gotta eat.

Comments

[cptn_browncoat]

Mal had FINALLY found the library and walked out with a book on star charts. He had found the bar easily enough and was perusing the book with a whisky in one hand and the capture of Inara in the other. He glanced at the door when it opened, but went back to his book when he didn't recognize the man.

[phdbilly]

Billy literally fell over. Opened the door, saw him glance over and back down to whatever entertained giant baboon-tools like that and promptly tripped over his own feet, collided into a chair which knocked into the table which he then fell against, all the objects landing together, along with himself, in a heap on the floor.

Smooth, he chided, attempting to twist away from the wreckage, only causing it to create very loud and echoing bangs.

[cptn_browncoat]

"Zhè dàodǐ shì zěnme liǎo?" Mal muttered to himself as the guy took a nose dive into the furniture. Sighing, he got up and walked over. He put a smile on his face. "Need a hand mister?" he asked holding his own out. "Careful, the furniture can be sneaky-like sometimes."

He looked reminiscent of a cowboy with his jacket, clothes, and gun. However, the capture of Inara, still in his left hand, clearly showed he was from some sort of future.

[phdbilly]

Freezing out of sheer panic, Billy stared at the man. There was something off... it was like looking at Captain Hammer but... different. Somehow different. The clothing, the manner- the speech, if he was hearing correctly. It was all...

The chair he'd been resting his arm against slid across the floor and he fell on his side with a 'omph', now scrambling to get up. On his feet, unsteadily, he stared at the man, his eyes flickering down to the device in his hand, the pictures. Surely if this was Hammer, he would be recognized. Anger filled him, remembering the last time he'd seen the man, sniffling and cowering. This was all very strange. And there was really only one thing he could say in this situation.

"Uh, what?"

[cptn_browncoat]

"Well, you can just order. Though sometimes they just give you what you want... or need without you saying anything. It's a mite creepifying in all honesty." He smiled a sarcastic smile. "All you can drink for free... as long as you ain't looking for your freedom," he added.

"What's clausterphobic about this world?" he asked with a quizzical look.

[phdbilly]

"You can't get away from it," Billy said simply, looking for someone. A man came up, placed a drink in front of him and disappeared. "It's all around you and you can't change a thing about it- can't make it better. Doesn't make sense, doesn't have order; and you can't get away from it."

He took a sip of the drink and held it in his mouth, waiting for something. Nothing happened and he swallowed, gagging, his face screwing up in disgust.

[cptn_browncoat]

"I'll drink to that," Mal said with a salute of his cup. "I find anytime I'm planetside it's clausterphobic. And my sky is starting to get crowded. Alliance keeps pushing farther out."

He grinned at the man's face. "Not a fan of... whatever it is you're drinking?"

[phdbilly]

"I wouldn't know- first time drinking it," he admitted, wondering why people did this even though he took another sip. This time he managed not to gag, though his nose did scrunch up. "Alliance?" he asked after a beat.

[phdbilly]

"Neat is a cool word," Billy mumbled, his chin dropping into his palms. His elbow slipped off the counter and he jerked. "Neat is nifty."

Things were starting to feel less solid and he really noticed when he took the device from Mal's hand not grabbing it exactly where he'd been aiming for. "She's beautiful," he said, holding it carefully, his finger tracking Inara's face, hovering above the screen so he wouldn't smudge it. "This is beautiful too," he muttered, turning the device in his hand.

[cptn_browncoat]

Mal was not drunk enough to listen to another man call Inara beautiful. He just watched, stony faced. It was best not to punch the guy. He didn't want to become Captain... Douche-Tool. Or as he was going to say now, Captain Chōngxǐ gōngjù.

"See, ship, crew... not Captian Chōngxǐ gōngjù. We clear on that fact?" He ordered another whisky. "How'd the Hotel take you?"

[phdbilly]

Billy nodded a little, placing the device back down on the table. "Ship, crew, technology, not Captain Chōnjxǐ gōmggù," he repeated badly, leaning back a little in his chair. He ordered something as well, and the man placed a drink in front of Mal and two glasses in front of him. Billy reached for the water first.

"The Evil League of Evil sent me here for a meeting of something," Billy said, "I keep hearing that I'm not going to be able to leave. Doesn't matter much- don't have anything to go home to," he muttered darkly. "How'd they take you from the sky?"

[cptn_browncoat]

Mal did a double take. "The Evil League of... Evil?" He mulled that over. Well that was interesting news. It seems he had become drinking buddies with... a mad scientist? Which when you looked more closely, weren't all mad scientists really just mad engineers?

"Well, whoever told you that was right. Once you're here, you're here for good. No way out. I was planetside on a job. Stranded in the desert on the planet Bellorophane. When my crew didn't come for me, I started walking... and kept walking... until I found the hotel."

[phdbilly]

"The structure may have rewritten itself a bit... I don't think it actually counted as gold. The good thing about experimenting is you come up with a lot of new things. Or, well, maybe things that were discovered but no one bothers to make. Because they smell like cumin... why don't you just melt the bars if you don't want marks or stamps on them?" he asked, not thinking too clearly.

[cptn_browncoat]

"Ain't worth as much to some... but that ain't the point"

[phdbilly]

Billy paused, trying to go back on the conversation in his head. "What is the point?" he asked, genuinely unsure.

[cptn_browncoat]

Nice job báichī (idiot) Mal scolded himself in his head. "There ain't no point," he continued, slurring his words to sound drunker than he really was.

[cptn_browncoat]

Mal decided Billy had had enough to drink. He gently took the glass out of the man's hand and left it on a convenient table in the hall. He provided support when Billy had grabbed his arm, and moved to catch him when he stumbled. Throwing Billy's arm over his shoulder he steered him to another door. "Depends on how much you drink... and how much food you have in your system." He opened the door. It seemed the hotel was being nice to them.

"Banquet hall" Mal gestured at the huge space with tables. "Buffet's over there... but if you sit down, they'll probably bring you something."

[phdbilly]

"All factors that have to be taken into consideration," Billy nodded, thinking up a formula that would be able to properly represent the relationship. "Although I'm not sure how much alcoholic content the drinks I had, had, I would have to assume I won't be feeling well in the morning.

He sat down at Mal's urging, looking around, waiting for someone to serve him. "Are you hungry too?" he asked, wanting Mal to join him.

[cptn_browncoat]

Mal had been planning on leaving, but one look at Billy told him he should probably stay there. "I could eat something I suppose," he sighed as he sat. Sure enough, the waiter put a steak in front of him.

[phdbilly]

Billy got a grilled cheese sandwich with something that looked like chicken soup. "They're no chance that they'd poison us is there?" he asked, suspiciously running his spoon through the soup. "That doesn't happen here, does it?"