Nyon Bonyerd, Vertega

[m_d_h]

This planet is more expensive than she'd expected, shit. Look at these draft beer prices!

And this Starhut bartender is pissing her off, looking skeptically at her Transtone Bank Mastercard, "What kind of mother names her kid 'Frag'?"

"The kind with the last name 'Clawhammer'. Are you going to serve me or not? There must be at least one other bar in this shithole town."

But then the card scanner made the good kind of beeping sound and the bartender backed down, "I'm sorry, Madam, please forgive me. Welcome to the Nyon Bonyerd Starhut. As a new customer, your first drink is 'on the house'!"

Frag decided to play this as gracious, she didn't know anybody on this planet yet, didn't want to start out with more enemies than friends. She retracted her claws, calmed her tail, formed her best feline smile, "Thank you, I appreciate your hospitality. Shot of your best tequila, please."

"Yes, Madam, that would be the Voidcloud Extra Añejo, coming right up!"

Frag had to lap at the liquid, her feline adaptations would never allow her to down a shot like she could back in school.  She tried not to spill any, but lapping from a shot glass ...

"Madam, I'm so sorry, let me get you a bowl for that."

"Thanks.  I should've said something.  Where I come from, feline adaptations are more common."

"No, Madam, I've been trained in the various offworld customer profiles, I just wasn't thinking.  Here."  The bartender poured the remainder of Frag's shot into a small, shallow bowl and topped it off with another half a shot.  Frag thought the bartender wasn't bad looking, now that she was receiving an acceptable level of service from the bitch.  Or bastard.  Or ... this one might be nonbinary, so hold the gendered curse words for now, let's go with "jerk".

"Thanks, again, ... um ... Killa."  Their Starhut tag read "Killa K.O." which sounded like a budding rap star's name back on Earth.

Frag tried to take in Killa's look, without appearing too nosy, but there weren't many other people in the bar, and she'd taken a stool at the counter, so ... but this attempt as not appearing too nosy caused her pupils to dilate widely.  Killa was dressed in a tacky Starhut uniform -- green nylon top, brown nylon pants, with a Starhut ballcap.  Sad.  But Killa looked fit and had a kind-looking face, despite their earlier skepticism.

Well, you don't come out as a Furry and undergo the full transition without having to put up with strangeness from strangers, especially while visiting a shithole town on a shithole planet.

Frag continued licking at her bowl, feeling a pleasant burning sensation traveling down her throat and into her belly.  Ahhh.  She'd avoided alcohol while traveling, felt like that would be a waste of good money.  But now she's here.

Killa resumed doing the barback work they'd been doing when Frag had entered, a few minutes before.  Yeah, Frag decided, I should try to make a friend here.  And I still need to find a decent place to stay.

But Killa surprised her by launching into small talk first.  "So what brings you to this 'shithole' town?  Are you in sales?  Here to buy minerals?"

Fuck, thought Frag, but her oath of honesty meant she had to answer the question. "Well, I'm here to practice genocide, actually."

Killa laughed out loud, "Aren't you a joker!  And what do you mean 'practice' genocide, hahahaha.  Well, you came to the right place, hahahaha."

Frag smiled.  "'Practice' means I'm not actually going to kill anybody.  It's a practice run."

Killa stopped laughing.  "But you are going to kill people later?"

Frag sighed, "I don't know.  That's not up to me.  I'm just supposed to practice."