Oh Hello Again

[iamnotpolaris]

This isn't Emily's dorm room.
This is Milliways! Awesome.
"Hi, Bar," she says cheerfully. "Looks like I'm the first one in at the moment, huh?" she says, looking around at the otherwise-empty room.

Comments

[iamnotpolaris]

"Me personally?"

[middlingalong]

"You personally, being the one I'm talking to. ...I do not think I am ready to meet someone with plasma eye beams today."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I do not have plasma eye beams. My internal organs are a little bit weird, but not in a way that's ever likely to become relevant unless I make fantastically improbable life choices."

[middlingalong]

"...Okay."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Most of the actual visible changes are pretty awesome. I know multiple people with fully-functioning wings, and my aunt looks like she was carved from lapis lazuli."

[middlingalong]

"These people should not ever consider visiting Barrayar."

[iamnotpolaris]

"They don't find Milliways, so it was already pretty unlikely. But noted."

[middlingalong]

"Oh, is 'finding Milliways' a - trait?"

[iamnotpolaris]

"Eh--sort of? If it's never happened to you, it might or it might not ever, some people find it once, some people find it pretty regularly. If it happens to you reasonably often it probably won't just stop, but there's no guarantee."

[middlingalong]

"Huh." He sips his pink thing.

[iamnotpolaris]

"I only get Milliways when I'm opening a door with magnetism, for some reason. No idea why."

[middlingalong]

"Huh. I couldn't begin to guess why that would be."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Nor I! The ways of Milliways doors are mysterious and unfathomable. Even Bar doesn't have a clue," she adds, patting the bar.

[middlingalong]

It is occasionally a frustration, confides Bar.

"Well, at least it gave me a place where if I understand correctly I can buy the groceries I was looking for in the first place."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Yep."

[middlingalong]

"Maybe you even have better groats than Earthside shops."

I assure you that you will find no fault with my groats.

"I will take your word for that."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Ooh, I hadn't even thought about that! I've never gotten Milliways while far enough away from home to be relying in import shops."

[middlingalong]

"Mostly I miss real meat. It's outrageously expensive on Earth and I've never gotten used to the vat kind."

[iamnotpolaris]

"You can absolutely get real meat here. Well, not real real I suppose, it's never been a dead animal, but I can't tell the difference."

[middlingalong]

"Some people claim this about vat meat -"

I assure you my imitations scarcely warrant the term.

"- but presumably Bar is better at it."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I mean, the pink thing she gave you has never been whatever it is pink things are usually made of. ...Hey, bar, can I try the vat stuff to see what it's like?"

[alicornucopia]

Of course. Do you have a preference for the inspirational dish?

[iamnotpolaris]

"Not pork. Or shellfish. Or anything else not kosher."

[middlingalong]

Of course not, agrees Bar, appearing a slab of spiced turkey with perfectly recognizable texture, aroma, and flavor, which simply happens to have corners.

"Anything else not what?" asks Ivan.

[iamnotpolaris]

"Kosher. I'm Jewish. Do spacefuture people not have Judaism anymore or is that just Barrayar too?"