Fashion. Turn to the Left!

Rædis initially thought that Traveler's uncanny and impeccable fashion sense stemmed from his exposure to a vast wealth of cultures across countless ages. The truth, he discovered, was far more amusing.

Traveler's incredible sense of style was actually the side effect of one of the many drugs he habitually used. This was first observed by the machine after Traveler had spent a month away at a luxury hospital. Traveler would check himself into such places from time to time in order to detox and restore essential life functions that were particularly susceptible to prolonged time travel.

Traveler returned to the ship invigorated with an energy and youthful exuberance that belied his actual physical years.

However, he was dressed much more subdude than Rædis had ever seen him. So much so that he almost felt embarrassed for his friend that he should be seen in such a state of ordinary and plain dress. He imagined Traveler would want to change into something much more extravagant as soon as possible but Traveler barely gave his attire a thought and was merely happy to be home. He retired to settle back into the quarters he lived in and wasn't seen for two days.

When he emerged Rædis was expecting to greet his friend as he usually appeared, well dressed and ready for action. Traveler however, was wearing a white v-neck t-shirt, denim jeans of faded black and a beat up pair of grey Chuck Taylors on his feet. Ready for action he may be but he looked like a high school kid with low self esteem.

"Hello Trav. Good to see you." Rædis said in greeting. "We've reached our destination and the race organizers of this system are eager to meet us. Are you ready to go out?" He asked his shabbily dressed friend.

"Yes, totally. It's good to be back." Traveler responded happily and tapped a series of buttons readying their shuttle and started for the hangers. Rædis hesitated.

"You sure you're ready? I mean...do you have everything you need?" He said trying to bring attention to Traveler's appearance without actually coming out and saying anything. Traveler stopped and patted himself down. Rædis thought this was his friend beginning to second guess his chosen attire but Traveler was just ensuring that he had his wallet, keys and phone.

"Yeah, I'm ready. Got all I need. Let's go." He said. Rædis was a little confused and stayed put. Traveler stopped and looked at him.

"Something wrong Ræ? You look apprehensive." He said to the robot.

"I'm not sure, it's just that..." he trailed off then said: "It's just that... Well, is that what you're going to wear?" He asked his friend. It felt odd even having to question this man on matters of couture.

"Yes, of course. These cats look pretty laid back. Why? You think these sneakers are too dressy?"

Rædis found the question unfathomable. The fact that his friend, a veritable fashion plate for the ages, would ask if sneakers were too dressy was something he never imagined hearing. He chose to hide his dismay and find out more about the curious condition his friend seemed to be in since his return and watch him.

Over the next few days there was no change in his friend's slapdash fashion. Then, a week after his return he appeared for lunch wearing a dark purple sport coat of velvet. It was old and worn at the elbows but when added to his current jeans and sneakers gave him a sort of vintage, hipster kind of look. Certainly not up to his normal standards in any way but was a marked improvement on what he'd been wearing lately and was the first semblance of any attempt at a specific style in days.

And so it continued. At first, every couple of days different, subtle changes appeared in Traveler's wardrobe. He added a pocket square to the faded sport jacket he'd taken to wearing. It was red and made from the fine silk of worms, thousands of years ago. It clashed furiously with everything else he would wear but, in itself, was at least an improvement.

Next came the spats over his shoes. They too were very old and in fine condition but neither matched nor fit properly over his sneakers. When questioned about them he nervously evaded the query, preferring to divert attention to whatever the task at hand was at the time.

Over the ensuing days more odd bits of fashion from the past to far in the future were mixed into Traveler's daily attire. They were obscure things like the detachable collars and sleeves on 19th century male dress shirts of old Earth to very complicated things like the holographic underwear worn by a future race of beings with wildly differing genital proportions.

What Rædis found most intriguing was that once Traveler realized his attire was drawing attention he began to go to great lengths to hide, even deny his expanding affinity for mismatched haute couture. For example, it was hilarious to see him try to conceal a fine bowler hat under a hoodie at a hockey game one evening.

On another night he and Rædis went to dinner at one of the nicer restaurants located in a small city sector of Rædis' giant ship.

Traveler appeared in a pair of comfortably worn red leather jeans, his favorite black engineer's boots and a lovely, beautifully tailored dress shirt complete with diamond studded cufflinks and cummerbund flecked with rainbow chips . He wore a green velour zip up track jacket to complete the ensemble.

Each piece if his clothing on it's own was very nice but was absurd in combination. When Rædis pointed this out to the man, he insisted the machine had no clue about what constituted fashion and sat through the entire evening seemingly indifferent to the giggles of the others they met for the meal.

When asked about his friend's mismatched attire, Rædis simply said that Traveler was currently undergoing a unique therapeutic experiment that had certain fashionable side effects. Those that knew the man just accepted this as one of his weird eccentricities. Those that did not just accepted it as weird.

Always, after the passage of an inconsistent amount of time and once their activities in the fourth dimension resumed, Traveler's sense of fashion would normalize and he would once again be the coolest dressed adventurer to ever muck around in time and space. When paired with his best friend, the two of them were a fantastic sight to behold no matter where their endeavors took them. Their constantly evolving style was a trademark of their association.

You may not know who they were, where they came from or remember exactly what they did when they were around but one thing Traveler and Rædis ensured was that no one ever forgot how awesome they looked.