Pugsy's

[truth_is_the_enemy]

Who: Niles Pottinger and OPEN
What: Niles is looking for a dealer
When: After the swamp exploration is over
Where: Pugsy's
Notes & Warnings: Reference to drug use/addiction.



He had only one week's supply of Adreno with him, a fact that he was keenly aware of. If he cut it, he might be able to stretch it to a week and a half, maybe two, but inevitably if he didn't find a supplier he'd be facing a deeply unpleasant withdrawal. He wasn't about to stay in the Dakota Reaches just because it had a steady Adreno trade, but this was an obstacle to leaving that he knew he was going to face.

So once he was unpacked, settled into his room, and spent some time surveying a few maps of the town, finding a local dealer was one of his high priorities. A few basic questions to one of the robots bustling about the resort gave him a sense of the right part of town to start looking, and so a few hours later he found himself strolling into Pugsy's.

He ordered a drink at the bar and turned to strike up a conversation with the person next to him.

"So, how long have you lived in this town?"

Comments

[truth_is_the_enemy]

"Is this a good place, then? It was sold to me a someplace a person could start over, make a new life. Escape their past. Is it?"

It sounded to Niles that Niko had quite a past to escape from as well. So if anyone would know if the place lived up to the adverts, Niko would.

[vengeance_driven]

"Yeah, it is. Just ah... don't take any work from little green men. Or get too close to their women." He thumped the guy on his arm.

"But no, this is not a place you can judge on being just like home."

[truth_is_the_enemy]

"Little green men? I thought that kind of alien only existed in science fiction stories. Do they abduct people too?"

Niko has been nice to him. Friendly. It really is not much like home, not many people are friendly to him there. He wants to do something for Niko in return, a gesture of thanks.

"Hey, let me buy you a drink."

[vengeance_driven]

"They are actually not so little." He gestured towards the far side of the pub where there was a green man playing some game with a round deck of cards, piercings all along his ears.

But as for the drink. "Sure. Save me some emeralds. I like Vodka."

"You were really born in 2008? A very good friend of mine here? He comes from centuries after a nuclear war." He gushed with approval when he spoke of Boone, though, still grateful for having been saved.

[truth_is_the_enemy]

Niles looked in the direction Niko was gesturing, his eyebrows popping up at the sight of the large and heavily muscled green alien. Looked almost like a raider.

"I'm pretty sure that's the opposite of little. I think I'm going to make a point not to go near one of them unless there's security safely nearby. I like having my arms in their sockets."

He waved down the bartender and gestured for a second drink for Niko.

"I was indeed born in 2008. In April. It's a bit weird having all these different times all running together here. I think I'm around the same age as you, but I'm technically an infant back where you're from. And a nuclear war in the future...in my time I don't think anyone has any nuclear weapons anymore. Makes me wonder if we manage to build civilization again, just to destroy it."

[vengeance_driven]

"Just ignore them. They're assholes." And then, as if to explain Niko's feelings on the matter, a rough-headed Klingon came up behind him and thumped him heavily on the shoulder.

"NuqDaq 'oH loDnallIj, Bellic?"

"BIjatlh 'e' yImev, baktag!" He said back to the man, with all the tone of a real insult, but only got a friendly laugh and another rough shove and then he headed on to another one of the tables.

Niko, for whatever it was worth, seemed to not be in the least bothered. It just seemed to be how you talked to those people. "Hey, how about that drink you mentioned? If I'm going to talk nuclear war and planet wide destruction I would want to be getting drunk, I think."

[truth_is_the_enemy]

"Whoa whoa whoa, what did you just say there? Because it sounded like you two were either hacking up hairballs or saying mean things about each other's mothers."

It wasn't like any language Niles had heard before. Only natural, since these aliens weren't Votans, but it had him fascinated. And everyone seemed to live here peacefully, not even struggling with the sort of cultural clashes that Defiance saw.

He tossed some emeralds at the bartender and decided to just get the whole bottle. Vodka wasn't his drink of choice, but it'd do. And there was something bonding about sharing a bottle, and Niles wanted allies. Without the might of E-Rep behind him, and no Churchill (may he rest in peace), he'd only really feel safe once he had some friends, even in a peaceful place like this.

[vengeance_driven]

"Both." He rolled his eyes and leaned his elbow on the bar as he waited for the dog-faced man to present him with the drink.

"I sort of know that guy. Ahhh, like acquaintances with no real ill will. But with Klingons, they are warriors. So they like tough people that can stand up to them but also do not get intimidated."

"It's complicated. For whatever reason I've never had a problem with them."

[truth_is_the_enemy]

"I think I'll keep my distance from them as well as the green ones. At least until I know when it is and is not appropriate to insult their mothers. Because it sounds like a fatal cultural misunderstanding just waiting for the unwary."

He watched the alien barkeep pour out the drinks and leave the bottle.

"Cheers. To..." And then a toast came to him. "...to destroyed worlds. May better ones arise from the ashes."

[vengeance_driven]

"Yeah, you generally look like you have taken a few less punches to the face than me." He motioned to his own battered brow, and then raised his own glass.

"Yeah, good enough. To destroyed worlds and let us hope we don't fuck up this one." Niko then took a swig, in his heart of hearts believing one day he would.