You Wake Up In A Bar

You begin work on Nadezhda and Voronezh's drinks. They've got different preferences, and you don't know if you'll be making both of theirs at the same time, but there is something quick and easy you can do-- make the precursor to each of their orders in a small batch, meaning a better pair of drinks with less multitasking.

Meanwhile, Helen's kicking up a stir as Stax and Laren watch in awe and terror, so you're gonna have to do a little something to cool that down. Dang thing's pretty freaky.












That one really rocked the bar back in forth. Everybody regains their bearings for a second, and you struggle to keep your handiwork from spilling. Stax seems mostly content continuing the conversation, however loud it gets.








Nadezhda frowns, huffing.








Helen hops in!








Another crazy rattle. Your leaves ruffle in the wind for a moment, and you make sure nothing behind you has shattered.








As you say this, you put down your two finished cups-- with which you will compose masterpieces! You've already got a fantastic recipe in mind.

Through the gut-wrenching screech, however, you start to feel a little unsure. You are just making it up as you go along, after all. There's gotta be a recipe somewhere on Starnet...








A few taps on her borrowed PDA later, you've searched for 'antimatter ale'. One Wyre immediately catches your eye-- as you read the name of the original poster, 'nad-dawg', you start to wonder...

Nadezhda?

As you begin reading the thread, something dawns on you.

Transcripted by HandyBot33KShow

Life -> Organics -> Lifestyle -> Drugs -> Alcohol -> Bartending
who makes good antimatter ale
Wyre created on: 4 | 4102 | 4632 (7/29/2656 Your Time)

Post by: nad-dawg
Location: Roaming
Posted on: 4 | 4102 | 4632, 2304:356

so work's been tough. courier work especially. i've got a partner which is... its own thing. most people on here don't deal with ansible stress, but it's been every day since meeting him. growing up sucks.

but uh, i've just been wondering if anyone's found a good space bar that serves antimatter ale? i've heard that shit is super tasty and sort of otherworldly without doing crazy stuff like most weird bar drinks. i am totally ready to get other-levelled.

my partner makes fun of me for it but i could really use a place to stop by next time we're out on a job for more than a day. anyone serving?

-nad

Post by: SYLG
Location: The Past, Usually
Posted on: 3 | 6625 | 9529, 2341:697

Hey Nadezhda,

Cool that you're into drinks like that. Well, as it happens, I just invented antimatter ale today, and though it's the last day I'll be able to binge like the good ne' days, it's a damn good day being able to fulfill a promise. I also invented something called matter mead, and from what I'm hearing it was marginally more popular, though died off somewhere around your time.

The bartender I mentioned later is your best bet. We had a lot of interactions, and from the looks of it, we're approaching the due date for them and I to start communicating properly by linking PDAs. It's weird how these things coincide, because I recall linking PDAs wtih them thousands of growths from now-- it's just that Starnet's built-in metric hasn't gotten there yet.

That's fine. It's better than being completely locked out. It's a real shame that you and I don't ever meet face to face to link PDAs, but I picked up from my interactions with the bartender that you and them once met. I've still got thousands of messages to send on Starnet, but it's delightfully hidden my replies to linked PDAs. For the last time, management of this service seems somewhat competent. I am hoping the Starnet timeline is somehow inexorably linked to the time where they figure out how to stop me from my terrific slip into the past, but until then, I derive a lot of pleasure from messages. It's interesting how I didn't know exactly how to write this Wyre post until I did. It all seemed so befuddling until that moment.

Nadezhda, enjoy the antimatter ale. And if you do ever manage to contact me again, the very current me, I hope you can tell me how it's going to taste. Moving past the fruits of my labor into the labor for my fruits is a jarring time, and I enjoy reminiscing for what I'll one day accomplish.

Post by: nad-dawg
Location: Roaming
Posted on: 4 | 4102 | 4635, 9953:535

sorry, the hell. it's been three growths and you just drop into this old wyre to tell me all about some future stuff i don't even know anything about?

i don't want to be """""insensitive""""" but i'm pretty baffled at how you can simultaenously reply to my opening post while also acting like i've seen your future posts, especially when there's this huge delay between them. why three growths? why not just post all the stuff you're... going to post?

you're obviously travelling back in time. i guess starnet has some sort of inclusivity policy that means you can communicate over time gaps. but if that's the case, shouldn't future (past) future (past) future (past) past (future) you be smart enough to just post all your stuff at once? ugh.

Post by: SYLG
Location: The Past, Usually
Posted on: 3 | 6625 | 9542, 0349:156

Sorry for this gap too, Nadezhda. It's a long one. I remember that you won't like this long gap much, or at least that's what the bartender told me. It was a bit hard to coax real info out of them, because talking about past (future) past (future) patrons was... troubling for them. Well, I opened the conversation with them being very willing to talk, but it did get harder and harder over time, especially when I said the right things...

Anyhow. I'm sorry that this gap will happen. It's a fault of Starnet, I can promise you, or it's some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy in reverse. When I open a thread, sometimes I just see what I'm going to post. There's not often rhyme or reason until I'm halfway through. I didn't even know your name until the post you're about to make, and until then, there wasn't this intimacy that I now feel (and will clearly continue to feel, judging by my very opening post, which I'll do in thirteen growths, it seems.)

Post by: nad-dawg
Location: Roaming
Posted on: 4 | 4102 | 5648, 5495:884

...Oh, wow. Hey, SYLG. Long time, no see. I mean, I see your posts all the time. I've never gotten a chance to reply, because you've got so many threads you only post once in. God, it hurts my head to think about, even with my partner on assist.

No, but, SYLG, I'm a massive fan. And I don't mean that in the sense that I'm one of the hacks who finds your biting critique of linear narratives in granuvanovelis funny, I really think I relate to you on a crazy and intrinsic level. It actually gives me this wonderful feeling knowing you'll read this, or, uh... that you already did, and the fact that you replied inspired me to learn more about you and your condition. I'm willing to guess there's going to be another post after this one, but judging by your usual MO, that's probably going to be the conversation wrapped, and maybe we'll not talk. Ever. But it also seems like next post you'll tell me who the hell the bartender is, finally, and I'll meet them and ask about you. Then if I just keep contact with that bartender, I'll be able to keep contact with you. Through and by proxy. Sort of. Right?

Oh, and let's just start with what you have to know. I'm Nadezhda, I'm an Ansible, I work with my partner Voronezh as a space courier in most of Common Space. I was miserable for a long time because I hated- really resented the hell out of- the fact that I had to rely on somebody else to feel my feelings and think my thoughts. And I'm still sort of that way. Voronezh jokes that I'm one bad day away from wrecking house and burning down a space station, or something. According to the Time Travelers Logging Depo, this post in 9542 was one of the "first" (last) ones you put out on Starnet, which means that if you do reply, it's near the beginning, maybe the very first. So for all the good you'll do, I want to show you the fruits of your future labor. I want to show you how you did it, future past tense. (Ha!)

1. You set goals to improve the universe, and once you changed yourself to make these goals possible, they'd happened. It's sort of a very neat time traveler's example of "mind over matter".

2. You inspired people like me, who saw their future as unchangeable, to try anyway. I am reading a lot of your earlier (newer) posts on this whole thing and I've learned, like so many people, that if the laws of physics can get broken to allow your crazy and ridiculous method of time travel, maybe they weren't so solid in the first place. I think you'll teach (taught) people how to say "fuck you, universe, I'm doing my own thing".

3. Apparently, you tell me where to get a damn good glass of antimatter ale. This is the only thing I haven't seen yet, and if you let me down, I swear to radio I will future-punch you.

Post by: SYLG
Location: The Past, Usually
Posted on: 3 | 6625 | 9545, 1045:948

Nice to meet you, nad-dawg!

This is my first post, that's correct. I'm still very much figuring this out, but I can already see this is a mess I need to sort out in my head for... a long time. Still, seeing Starnet like this is so, so reassuring, and... I'm taking what you said I said to heart. I'm going to make myself understand this, and I'm going to make myself make the world better. Maybe that's why it's so good.

On the matter of antimatter ale: if we are syncing up correctly (damn Starnet!) then you should, at this very moment (your very moment) be in Drinkmaster Greene's bar, on Terrats, on FFROC.

From what they will tell me, you don't know about this message. In fact, it's Greene that reads it first, on a borrowed PDA. Have fun! This is the bartender I mentioned!

The post at the end mentions you by name. It describes an event happening right now... or the future... or the past? Your head aches, but after some more reading, you realize just how strange this whole thing is. Nadezhda looks completely unfazed, seemingly lacking any knowledge of this latest post.

Is it just hock, or...

You're about to speak to try and clear things up somehow when another patron enters the bar. A ghostly floating thing of rag and keratin, with a pair of glowing eyes indented within its surface. In the back of your collective mind, you recall something similar.

Stax calls out towards it, beaming.

This is... a lot to handle at once. First off, four patrons want something, and you've only got a couple frameworks done, nothing completed. Second off, while the Homeowner's bio is... unsettling... it's nothing compared to the absolute time-crapping shark-jumping insanity of the Starnet Wyre.

The patrons and Stax look at you relatively expectantly, and it seems you've got to do something.



Cup status: 3 occupied (Time Flier Frame, Time Flier Frame, Helen's Boiling Innocence), 1 dirty (Ashen Corrugible), 6 free
Plate status: 0 occupied, 1 dirty (The Sate Catsberry), 3 free
Scavenger ability: Unavailable (0/1 uses)
Intrusive ability: Enabled

Having created the precursor to two drinks, you've gained four new wild entries in the Cabinet:

Starnet Wyres now have a transcript in a spoiler at the bottom!
No longer shall mobile explorers or eye-valuing folks be forced to check out the tiny text on the images. It's super easy to just hop into that spoiler and read what was posted with nothing really missing. This applies to all of the Wyres in the past, and you can go and re-read them now here and here!

Author's NotesShow

Lotta stuff happening in this update. Hope y'all like it.

If there are ever any difficult-to-read things or annoyances with YWUIAB that could be helped, please let me know! I know it's a lot of content all at once, but I promise I'm putting heart and soul to make it as enjoyable as possible, and accessibility is an important part of that.