The bar reeked of beer, body odor, nicosticks, a dozen different perfumes, and spicy Salish meats. The wooden floor was littered with a thin layer of sawdust to absorb spilled drinks and spilled blood. Illumination was kept at a low level, creating pools over nine-ball tables. Trid arcade games hovered impossible figures of mechanical madness and freakish nature combined with mythology in the smoke-laced air in the back. Bets were made and taken rapidly, the groans coming regularly from one group or another as the imaginary combatants flew at each other with rending fangs and claws or missiles and machine-gun fire.