Driftwave felt lucky that there was an open barstool; he wanted quick access to absurd amounts of alcohol. He fumbled through the currency he had left, sectioned off what he needed for one more nights stay at his motel, then separated his drinking budget. He paused for a moment, then doubled his drinking budget and put the little rest away. He ordered the strongest drink he knew, drank it as quickly as possible and ordered another. He stared at the colors it made with different alcohol, curious about one thing or another, some of it here, some of it elsewhere. He was lost in his own thoughts till he realized he wasn’t drunk yet, and downed the second drink as he waved for a third.
Driftwave activated the holographic display on his new computer. With the jacket on all you see was a large and elaborate watch, but it attached to a series of modules strapped to his forearm, thin cables running between them. It wasn’t nearly as powerful as his custom rig, but it was portable, could do what he needed, and luckily customizable so he could adjust and upgrade it as he was able to. It had a keyboard that could extend from one of the arm modules as well as a projection, but he opted for its third interface feature, a small device he extended by cord from of him from his arm, projecting a screen and keyboard, a bit easier to work with when he could. He began fine tuning its systems, over clocking what he could, installing some of his custom software, he would have to rebuild much of it to avoid it being linked to him, and he would need a new handle, any forum with the words drift or wave in it was probably being flagged. He ordered his fourth drink as he considered the workload, avoiding thinking about where he was going to go tomorrow at all costs.
“That’s an old school set up.” He heard a female voice and looked over only for a moment. He saw chopsticks holding back her hair and makeup that matched the black and red colors on her top. She was leaning between barstools a seat away, ignoring the people between them as she talked. “I’m surprised you didn’t just go for a cybernetic system.”
“There’s not a planet sterile enough.” Driftwave retracted the display and interface and pulled back his jacket to see the entire unit, then began tweaking the settings as various lights and beeps emitted.
“I’m also surprised you’d come all the way here just for that.” This time the voice was closer, she gently pushed her way between driftwave and the man on the barstool next to him, accidentally rubbing an exposed portion of breasts against an exposed portion of driftwave’s arm. She flashed a smile that was somewhere between an apology and your welcome, then set down her drink, turning her head just slightly too long as an invitation for wondering eyes.
“Its probably worth about half as much as what I traded away, but hotel and drinks can add up.” It was difficult to sip a mixed drink that came in a stein respectably, but driftwave gave the attempt.
“So what you’re saying is...” The Asian women delicately grabbed the display projectors around driftwave’s left wrist, bringing his arm between Their faces as if to inspect the device, but then brought his arm down on the other side of her, allowing room for her to move a bit closer. “…next round’s on me?” Driftwave smiled nervously, and she matched, perhaps he was lucky again.
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