Throughout The Room
— a floury thing in a three-sided husk —- her pants were on backwards
- without a consultation fee
- “Here’s a subpoena for you.”
- into the umbilical ramp
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Throughout the room, other Pinks milled around in the balloons. Most had drinks, but I saw one munching on one of their weird delicacies, something called an oscillatta — a floury thing in a three-sided husk — and I wondered if she knew her pants were on backwards. Given how into bizarre forms of insignia the Pinkie Swears were, it probably indicated high rank, or meant no one could ask her what time it was without a consultation fee.
I set off wading through the layer of inflated whimsical orbs to the bar, noting that no one was dancing. They were all wearing earbuds, and some were discreetly bobbing their heads. It was the saddest silent disco I had ever seen.
The bartender held up a hand to silence me when I tried to order. She sized me up, nodded, and then started pouring liquors into a shaker. When the gold-purple concoction was fizzing in a tall glass, she slid it across to me and said, “Here’s a subpoena for you.” She winked. “You’ve been served.”
“Thanks.” I took a swig. It was surprisingly good, but seemed strong as hell. “Hey, I’m a gatecrasher at this thing, not on purpose, but still. Any chance you’d be able to help me get out before the guest of honor returns?”
“Finish your drink, then we’ll talk.”
“After this drink I won’t be able to complete a sentence.”
“Drink up. While you do that, here’s something to engage your mind.”
She laid her phone on the bar, playing a video clip of the presidential zeppelin. It was docking, but I didn’t recognize the mooring stand. The resolution was too low for me to tell who was moving into the umbilical ramp to board the blimp. The bartender wouldn’t let me try to zoom in unless I was also taking a big slurp of my subpoena, which made it impossible to improve the image clarity.
Finally, with the drink three-quarters gone, I managed to recognize one of the faces on the screen. But that was impossible!
bonus points for using them in order