By The Insanities
~*~*~*~
Drinks~*~*~*~
"Now, this is style," Mithborien said as she relaxed back into the luxurious chair near the bar. "I don't know why I didn't think of this before."
"Yeah, why didn't you?" Finarfëwen said as she too sat down, placing a tray of drinks on a table in front of them.
Mithborien glared at her. "I had other things on my mind, like people getting blown out of ships, thank you very much." She reached forward and picked up a drink. "Always wanted to try one of these." She took a sip.
"What is it?" Jynethe asked, as she too sat down, stretching out her legs, admiring her shoes.
Mithborien gagged as she swallowed with a degree of difficulty. About 84.268º actually, if you want to get precise. "Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster," she managed to gasp out.
"Wuss," Finarfëwen jeered, grabbing the glass. "It can be that bad, after all you don't even like fizzy drinks."
( Yes it's true; the real alter ego of Mithborien doesn't like fizzy drinks, any of them, horrible stuff, the fizz. )
Finarfëwen took a gulp of the drink and promptly spat it out again, managing to knock over a couple of the drinks of the tray in process.
"See?" Mithborien told her smugly.
"Nope, but I sure… do… taste…"
All three of them watched as one of the drinks Finarfëwen knocked over, frothed, and then proceeded to eat through the metal tray and into the table.
"Hmm, maybe that's enough drinks," said Jynethe as she gently eased the glass out of Finarfëwen's hand and placed it on the tray. "You have some explaining to do, Mithborien."
"Me?"
"Yes, you."
"Of what?"
"Of all this. Where the hell are we?"
Mithborien sat up. "I told you. So did the waiter. We're at Milliways - the Restaurant at the End of the Universe."
Both Jynethe and Finarfëwen flung out their hands as if to say 'and?'.
Mithborien sighed. "Okay, here's how it goes. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is one of the most extraordinary ventures in the entire history of catering."
"You sound like you're quoting from a book," Finarfëwen commented.
"I probably am. Basically it was built on the remains of a ruined planet, well, eventually it will be ruined, Frogstar World B if I remember correctly, and thrown into the future in a vast time bubble to exactly when the universe is ending."
"Won't the restaurant be destroyed then?" Jynethe asked.
"Well, no because the restaurant just keeps going back in time to the start of the end of the universe, I think. Look I didn't come up with all this, so I'm not precisely sure how it works, but I know it works. All you have to do is deposit one penny in a savings account in your own time then when you arrive here, your meal is already paid for by the operation of compound interest."
"But we never opened any savings account," pointed out Finarfëwen.
"Well, think about it. We obviously did."
"How?" Jynethe asked.
"Well, we arrive here, find out our meal isn't paid for, so we go back and open the savings account, come back and the meal and show is paid for. Simple as that."
"What show?" Jynethe asked.
"The End of Time, Life, the Universe and Everything. What else?"
"So we're are actually going to see the universe end, explode, whatever?"
"Yeah, weren't you listening before?"
Jynethe wasn't even listening now. She leant back in her seat. "Wow, that's gonna be one hell of a show."
Mithborien grinned. "You have no idea."
"Okay," Finarfëwen said. "I'll buy that. But explain these clothes."
"Isn't it obvious?" Jynethe asked.
"Obviously not," snickered Mithborien.
"It's simple, we came here, decided our clothes weren't suitable, so went back and changed them. Right?" She turned to Mithborien.
"Right."
Jynethe turned back to Finarfëwen. "Right."
Finarfëwen frowned for a moment. "But why wouldn't our previous clothes be unsuitable. I wouldn't care."
"Let's just say people tend to dress up a tad here," Mithborien said. "After all, it's the last chance they'll get."
"True," Finarfëwen agreed. "Hey, the waiter's back."
They all looked up to see the thing, the waiter actually, in his green suit making it's way towards their seats.
He bowed. "If you please, your table is ready."
Mithborien nodded. "We'll be right there." She picked up three shots of Aldebaran liqueur and handed them out. She held up her glass and toasted, "To the end of the universe!"
"Cheerz," Jynethe and Finarfëwen chorused and all three threw back their heads as they drowned down the shots. Then all three launched into a coughing fit.
"We gotta stop doing that," Finarfëwen struggled.
"Oh yeah," Jynethe choked out.
"Right," Mithborien said dragging her head upright again. She threw the glass over her head and saw it shatter against the head of a wild-skinned sky-gypsy who was playing an electric violin. "Damn. I was aiming for the violin." She shook her head and waved at the others. "Let's go, the end awaits."
She started walking towards the patiently waiting waiter, staggering slightly from the effects of the drink.
Jynethe turned to Finarfëwen. "That sounded slightly morbid."
"Yeah," she replied and grabbed Jynethe's arm. "Let's go anyway."