Re: OFFICIAL - The Grand (former Traders on Grand)
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 3:17 pm
One vestige of the bank — the drive-through — will remain as part of the new project and will serve a yet-to-be-identifed coffee shop. The two outer lanes of the drive-through will become ITMs — an internet-based hybrid cousin of the ATM.
Mark Moberly, Sunflower’s director of development, said it was important to use the drive-through space, given that there are so few around Downtown and that it's unlikely more will be built.
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Sorry for the thread hijack, but one of the weirdest things to ever happen to me involved that drive-through.
About 6 years ago I was sitting at Zoo Bar on a Tuesday evening. It had already been a very weird night. First, a woman had been kicked out for groping men sitting at the bar. Then a cab pulled up and another woman arrived, and she started making passes at uninterested men trying to con them into paying for her drinks. When there were absolutely no takers, she got angry, screamed at all of us that one day we would all be lonely and actually long for a day when people like her would be interested in us, and stormed out. By that point a lot of people left because these two had each made people uncomfortable, and by the time it was dark it was just me, one other person, and the bartender.
A cab pulled up out front, and sat there for nearly 10 minutes as we could see somebody fumble around in the back seat. Finally a young man stepped out and entered the bar. He look disheveled and terrified.
He immediately asked if this was a safe place. He said that he was gay and had just been beaten by a group of bigots, and he wanted to know if he would be safe there. We assured him it was okay and asked if he wanted us to call the police. He said no, he just wanted to sit for a while and drink a PBR.
He then pulled out a credit card. Zoo is cash-only, and didn't have an ATM yet at the time. The closest one was in the drive-through mentioned above. We gave him directions to it, but having just been beaten up he was scared to walk outside alone and wanted someone to come with him.
All eyes turned to me. Sigh.
So we walked up the street, and as we reached the entrance to that alley, he asked me if I eat plasma like he does or just regular food.
He then explained that he was a time traveler from Century 22, and that while his beating had been only minutes earlier from his perspective, it was two weeks ago from mine. "Oh, then in that case they are probably gone by now," I said.
We approached the ATM and he asked what it was. I said "It's the ATM". "How quaint," he replied, "Such ancient technology. I am unfamiliar with how this works. You must do it for me, my stupidity is grand." So, yes, I had to insert his card, then enter his PIN, and enter the cash amount, and hand him his cash and card.
As we walked back to the bar he explained that in Century 22 he sells antiques -- mostly record album covers -- and he travels back to our era to purchase them and sell in Century 22. I told him he'd probably have more luck if he went back another couple of decades.
We got back inside and as I tried to discretely inform the others that this guy was crazy, he set his cash onto the bar next to the PBR that had just been pulled out of the ice. There was a puddle of ice melt and it got his money wet. He picked it up, looked at it, chuckled, and said "Wet money. I have not seen wet currency since I worked as a grim reaper on the Titanic. I sent them to their bloody, watery graves."
The next 40 minutes or so were actually kind of entertaining as he regaled us with stories about his travels to various eras, told us about the various implants he regretted not getting, marveled at his strength as he crushed an empty PBR can, and asked permission to vomit, and later rubbed his hands through my aura while at the same time asking permission to do so. But it started taking a dark turn when he insisted that from his knowledge of future events he needed our help building a bomb, and when he started asking us to google various serial killers we kicked him out.
He went up the street to what was then The Social. They sent him right back. Before we could block the door he was inside rambling about Einstein and that he had very important information about the Hubble that he needed to get to NASA. We suggested he tell them in person, and he asked to go to the Greyhound station. We called a cab, when it arrived he escorted him outside, gave the driver cash and told him to take the guy to the bus station, then we went back inside and locked the door.
About two months later there was a fluff piece on one of the local news stations about items in a lost-and-found, and it was casually mentioned that one of them was a journal from a 22nd-century time traveler.
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