Manhattan bar

[Malaclypse 666]

"Blast it, Lads!" The next ELF I see will be a sorry ELF!", Pops stormed into the bar gesticulating wildly. "That bloody fnorder thing absconded with my ship! Beware of Greeks bearing gifts indeed!"

"Took your shhiptht..?' Romer roused momentarily to babble..

"Bloody right! Just installed the thing. Sophie over there helped me with some data downloading out of the box, and next thing, "it" wants to be called Sophie too! sputtered Pops.

"...the ship, blatherskite!?" Jay stabs, in his CEO-fficious way.

"Sophie! a double g 'n t! Any rotgut will do. And blast your metal hide for aiding and abetting!" Pops finally focuses. "I had invited Patrick here down for drinks before leaving the Daddy W, but he had some systems to check. Next thing I know, he catches up with me, and informs me that my bloody ship has lifted! Something about a frock up in Fleet Street on NL! The blessed computer thing had decided to go shopping! In my ship!"

Pops glared and fumed as Sophie the first brought his juniper-shrouded drink. "If that's not bad enough, one of those Cylon toasters had picked the time to stake out the California jump gate. Sophie later said he was "moping with intent to gawk". Moping! At least the thing was bright enough to classify "moping" as hostile.. and stripped his shields just as she entered the jump gate and waggled her fanny.. its fanny.. Daddy's fanny!! Aaargh!"

Pops slumped, and drank deeply. "I know you lads don't understand my association with those nutters the ELF. And sometimes I don't myself. But I'm beginning to wonder if these marvelous "Fnordettes" are not some devious tactic to further their agenda.. what is it.. balancing the Chao?"

He buries his snout once again in the resiny tang of his gin. "Wonder if gifts carry warranties..."

---

[Zukeenee]

Yahvo walked up to the robot bouncers outside of the IND's "private" room.

"Hi there! I'm, err, Yahvo, and I... um..."

The first robot stepped up to Yahvo. "I do not recognize you. You are not permitted to enter."

"Oh, well, I'm kinda new to the Independents, um... maybe you can ask one of the guys inside? We've talked a bit, they know me..."

The first robot motioned for another to go inside. The second bouncer went in, and returned momentarily. It gave a slight nod of its elongated head. Without a word, the first bouncer stepped aside.

"Err, thanks..." Yahvo said, and shyly stepped inside the bar.

***

A tall man in a long, yellow coat ducked through the doorway into the dim light of the barroom.

"Hi there!" said Yahvo cheerily. "So... what's good here?"

---

[Malaclypse 666]

A tall man in a long, yellow coat ducked through the doorway into the dim light of the barroom.

"Hi there!" said Yahvo cheerily. "So... what's good here?"

[snapback]45632[/snapback]

Pops looked up from his third double g 'n t, wondering who had ordered a coast guard lighthouse,

"Errr, Yahvo is it? I'm Pops. I recommend the skewered ELF!"

Pops motioned to a chair, wondering if the gent's knees would reach his ears when seated. "No, seriously. The Welsh rarebit, the really runny Stilson, and the fish on Cortez manage to squirt out a passable imitiation of caviar. Do yo smoke?" The odor of juniper as Pops spoke was almost thick enough to cut with a Husqvarna..

---

[Zukeenee]

Yahvo took the seat next to the man who called himself Pops.

"Oh, no, thank you. I, um... I don't smoke.

"So, caviar, you say? Hm. Well, maybe some other time. Would there happen to be a salad that I can get here? I'm not terribly hungry; I just had a late lunch an hour or two ago. Yes, that and a glass of water ought to do it.

"And how's business? I heard you say something about a 'skewered ELF'? You wouldn't happen to mean those chaos-crazed E.L.F. fellows, would you? I've always thought of them as a nice bunch of people; quite funny, really. I met up with a few of them one night in Sigma-13, and we talked a bit."

The bartender set down a glass of water in front of Yahvo.

"Of course, they did ask me to transfer them a few credits, some sort of 'Halloween' thing, but I simply saw it as a necesary bit of mischief in a world that seems so lacking in it."

Yahvo downed the glass in a few large gulps, and set it back down gently.

"Ah, thank you," he said to the robot bartender. "And a tossed salad, please."

---

[7 of 9]

Maria turned towards Yahvo and Pops.

"Funny guys ? ELF ? Well, good fighters at all. I had a hunt once, on one of that guys."
Shades were running over her face. "In another life....."
She takes a seat, without asking.
"Eh, Yahvo, right? Why ya drink water ? Fish pee 'n' more in it - Ya knew 'Vodka' means water, too ?"
She layed her hand on his shoulder - smiling.
"Pops, ya want us to do sumthin' against ELF ? It'll be hard work - and I am not sure if we get far."

She took the glasses from the table and and lifted three fingers in the air. "The special one, tender !"

Her eyes layed on pop's face - waiting for a response.
'No reaction also is a reaction', she thought, remembering the simulations, she fought last night
against two really hot guys of the escort-wing.
"Maybe I have a good company, fighting them - undercover - of course."

---

Chars: ">>7<<" - "[IND]Gothic.Maiden" - "[IND]Maria_B.D'Arc"

[Nightfall]

Hearing about Pops' g 'n t started stirring in Pat's brain for a feverish result from a book he read:

It is a curious fact, and one to which no one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85% of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonnyx, or gee-N'N-T'N-ix, or jinond-o-nicks, or any one of a thousand or more variations on the same phonetic theme. The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian "chinanto/mnigs" which is ordinary water server at slightly above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan "tzjin-anthony-ks" which kills cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that the names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds.

What can be made of this fact? It exists in total isolation. As far as any theory of structural linguistics is concerned it is right off the graph, and yet it persists. Old structural linguists get very angry when young structural linguists go on about it. Young structural linguists get deeply excited about it and stay up late at night convinced that they are very close to something of profound importance, and end up becoming old structural linguists before their time, getting very angry with the young ones. Structural linguistics is a bitterly divided and unhappy discipline, and a large number of its practitioners spend too many nights drowning their problems in Ouisghian Zodahs.

Pat decided to drown his own problems in something anyway, a tzjin-anthony-k would sound nice but there was no such thing around... 'Maybe I'll try some banana juice, a friend told me he puked on himself after drinking that... true, he drank a lot of alcohol before the juice' he thought...

---

If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God? - from 'Nightfall' by I. Asimov
The Outcasts consider Siniestre Nube a sacred place for several reasons. Early explorers discovered a jumphole within the depths of the cloud that leads to a strange world of ringed stars and strange craft. All ships in the burrial ground are placed facing that hole to honor the Alien Spirits. - An Outcast rumor

[caylith]

Cay stumbled into the bar to see some new faces. "Hiya guys! Nice to meet the new people finally. Been out in the border worlds lately so my apologies for introductions being a bit late. All drinks on me tonight!"

Cay spotted Pat and bounded over to him. "Whatcha drinking buddy? What? Ack, no, i've had some very profitable runs lately, not a problem. I'll get you what you need. Oh! Carly should be here in a bit, said she had a little cabin fever after putzin' around Southhampton for the past couple of days. Anywho, how you doin?"

Caylith settled down next to Pat. If only she could drink away the ghosts of Corsairs and Phantoms she felt were still chasing her.

[Fellow Hoodlum]

"Cay, bloody hell, thought hell was freezing over ... Nice to see ya girl.
Lordy, the place is getting full again. Few new faces round the place ... You'll sort em out.
Right everyone, bit of filming got done for the Promo last night, yet to see the rushes, but
early indications seem positive ...
Big thanks thanks to Pat, and the girls and boys of Epsilon ...
Also you will have seen the memo concerning ship squawk ident changes ... please make
sure you put in the respective paperwork to the Ship Registry Offices ...
Pat has all the relevant forms on the Saratoga, above Newark.
Comply, or die ...
Sophie, please set em up again."

---

Some say he is a proud member of: "The most paranoid group of people in the Community."

[Malaclypse 666]

"Maria, my Dear! wonderful to meet you in person at last." Pops enthused in a slurred, gravelly voice.

"Please don't misconstrue me about the ELF. I do have business ties with their leader, that Malaclypse fellow. He's co-owner of the plantation on Canaria, where we grow the most delicious product for the Erisian Church's "missionary" activities." I'm quite fond of their Deity as well, though I do tend more towards the agnostic when dealing with fictional/mythical "religions". I was just a bit pistled about a recent "gift" which seems to have malfunctioned, with nearly disastrous results."

"And the lovely Cay! Once you have our new lad Yahvo supplied with those ersatz bacon bits for his rabbit fodder, allow me to lubricate your tonsils. Sounds like you could use the customary unravelling of woes thru liquid means."

---

[Nightfall]

'Cay, hello, have one or two of these' Pat raised his head, his eyes fully showing the near nine hundred souls he took part in their disembodiment 'Nearly got vapped last night, the new lady in town. I'd like to see Carly against her... Maria is one of the best I've faced in a long time, you'll like her. Anyway... I've been trying to marry miss Smirnoff and mister Kinley. They get along pretty well...' Pat takes two glasses from across pours from the two bottles on the table and puts the two glasses in front of Cay. 'You look like you need these. Anyway, how was your day? Or days for that matter, haven't seen you in a while.'

---

If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God? - from 'Nightfall' by I. Asimov
The Outcasts consider Siniestre Nube a sacred place for several reasons. Early explorers discovered a jumphole within the depths of the cloud that leads to a strange world of ringed stars and strange craft. All ships in the burrial ground are placed facing that hole to honor the Alien Spirits. - An Outcast rumor