give it all you got, go

[alicornucopia]

At a booth in Milliways sits a woman in her thirties, stirring a cup of tea, watching the stars explode. There is a fat boring-looking lawbook under her elbow, and a barcode across the back of her right hand.

Mark (with kappa)

Ruth (with Maggie)

Comments

[unmarred]

A short and slightly odd-looking man enters the bar.

He looks around.

The woman and her book draw his attention enough that he approaches and tries to get a glimpse of the words.

[alicornucopia]

She glances at him. The book is entitled Reproductive Cloning Law and Opinion: Six Case Studies. It has several little paper flags sticking out of parts of it.

"Hello."

[unmarred]

"Hello," he says, smiling in what might be meant as a friendly manner.

[alicornucopia]

She looks at him. She looks at the barcode on her hand. She looks at her tea, puts her spoon on the saucer, and takes a sip.

[unmarred]

"The significance of that symbol is completely opaque to me," he mentions.

[alicornucopia]

Now she looks skeptical. "The barcode?"

[unmarred]

"Yes."

[alicornucopia]

"Huh." She smiles a little. "I might want to leave it that way, that's an unusual luxury."

[unmarred]

"I admit I'm beginning to develop a guess, but it's based substantially in personal history which may not apply."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh?"

[unmarred]

"Mm. What sort of a world are you from? One which contains both widely available print books and reproductive cloning, apparently, but besides that?"

[alicornucopia]

"Reproductive," she snorts. "Earth, currently 2015. No magic."

[unmarred]

"Mine has an Earth also, but I don't live there. 2998. No magic. A whole galaxy full of planets with humane and reasonable laws about the possible applications of cloning, and it was just my luck to be produced on the one planet with no humane and reasonable laws about that or anything else."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

A brunette in an oddly-styled yellow-and-green blouse and skirt comes in.

She notices the woman and decides to approach obviously enough that if she has any interest in being bothered she can initiate conversation; if she doesn't she won't have to choose between being interrupted and being rude.

[alicornucopia]

Barcode lady glances up. Blinks at her.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Hello," she says. "What are you reading?"

[alicornucopia]

"Case studies."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"On what?"

[alicornucopia]

"Cloning." She holds up the book so its spine is visible: Reproductive Cloning Law and Opinion: Six Case Studies.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Oh, is cloning very common in your world? Most people prefer to have kids the old-fashioned way where I'm from."

[alicornucopia]

Lawbook lady looks at the barcode on her hand. "No, people who want kids do that the old fashioned way in my world too, almost all of the time."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Um. Would it be rude to ask why you have a barcode tattooed on your hand?"

[alicornucopia]

"Because somebody wanted a source of compatible organ transplants, not a kid." Her voice is distant, level. She has explained this so many times that it's only hurting scar tissue.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"...Oh. Fuck, I'm sorry. Do you--you probably don't want a hug from a stranger."

[alicornucopia]

"No thanks."