[[ milliways ]]

[almosthonorable]

[ two weeks prior, or, once upon a time in El Paso ]

Ben's coated in sweat and grime from a fourteen-hour day when he walks into the bar.

Just across the threshold, he pauses.

This is ...

Well.

It's certainly more surreal than usual.

Stepping over and around debris — and taking care to avoid knocking into see-through patrons — Ben picks his way across the bar proper. Amid the general mayhem, a tinny, crackling song plays from what has to be a phonograph, maybe hidden somewhere in the rafters.

"Now that is unsettlin'," Ben mutters to himself.

As if on an eerie-ass cue, the floor tilts beneath his boots.

He grunts, and catches his balance with the help of a nearby stool. Righting himself, he notices the glowing red gem hovering over the counter.

"All right, you've got me," he says to Bar. "Color me curious."

A moment later, his battered brown hat is gone, and he's sporting a rough-hewed pair of decidedly feline ears.

He holds back a sigh.

"That is what killed the cat, as the sayin' goes."

Comments

[almosthonorable]

Forty-five seconds after Dan heads inside, Ben takes a slow step backward, well clear of Phoenix's bared teeth.

"Now," he says, with some measure of authority, "you're just bein' ornery for the sake of surliness."

[lasthalfmile]

Phoenix feels like she has every right to be surly - between the massive explosion, the fear on the air, the bitter cold, the changes in the atmosphere and the fact that everyone else in the stables has been just as pissy - so Ben Wade had better recognize that fact and step off.

So there.



Dan returns with a bag slung over his shoulder (inside are a few small items he couldn't stand to leave behind, as well as a solid amount of cash - he'd had the treasure from the dwarven mines converted into familiar currency months ago) and he's holding his rifle in one hand, and a leash in the other.

Said leash leads to an apparently empty harness.



"He's there," he promises, looking at the horse, and then back at Ben. "Maybe...maybe you should walk him, and I'll take her."

It may end better for everyone.

[almosthonorable]

Ben tilts his head, studying the space that Bogart should be occupying.

"You sure you've been feedin' him?" he asks, taking the leash. "Because from the looks of it, he's wasted away."

[lasthalfmile]

"He eats better than I do," Dan protests.

There is a phantom grunt-oink from below at the mention of food. Bogart is present and accounted for, indeed.



And with everyone ready, they head into the Bar. It takes every ounce of Dan's calm to keep Phoenix from spooking horrendously; Ben has to urge Bogart to move his bacon ball ass at least six times.

(Wade feels like a fool, talking to an invisible pig on a string, but if it means they get the hell out of here before that Window shatters, then a fool he'll be and gladly.)

Ben's door works, and without further fanfare - unlike the Loompa parade moments earlier - they're gone.