One night, at lonely bar...

"Hey, buddy, you're cut off."

Ryan blinked his bloodshot eyes. He picked his head off the bar and saw that the bartender had put his credit card down in front of him, along with a receipt and a pen. That wasn't right; Ryan had given the bartender his card for his tab. The young man - barely out of college - looked up in confusion at the bartender, a greying man in his fifties with a beer belly and thick arms.

"I'm na' done yeht."

The bartender sighed. "Buddy, you're pickled. You want a ginger ale? I can give you that."

"Nooo, no, tha's schuptid-" Ryan slurred. He grabbed the pen and furiously scribbled an approximation of his signature. "Dis is b'llsheet."

Ryan got up angrily and tripped backwards over the stool. He hit the floor without dignity. Nobody was around to see him - the dive bar was empty, except for Ryan, the old bartender, and the basketball game running on the TV. Ryan had stalked in at 11 in the evening in a full suit and proceeded to finish off four whiskeys in a row. Now he was sprawled out in an undignified mess while the bartender, who would've preferred to close up an hour ago, leaned over the bar in concern.

"You all right, buddy?"

"F'ck yuu!" Ryan picked himself off. He dug for his keys as he stalked angrily towards the door of the bar.

"Hey! Hey! You got a ride? You ain't driving."

Ryan held up his keys, middle finger extended.

"Oh, god damn it-"

Ryan reached for the door, when the world hiccupped. One moment, he was reaching for the door in a drunken haze. The next, he was facing the bar again, remarkably clear headed. The bartender stood in front of him. The older man fiddled with the a remote that was pointed at Ryan.

"There you go. How are feeling, buddy?"

"I-" Ryan blinked, stone cold sober. "I'm fine. What...? What happened?"

"I'm sorry about that, buddy. I don't like using this thing on people." The bartender held up the remote for Ryan to see. "But I couldn't let get in your car like that. I had to stop you."

"Did you... What did you do?"

"I had to pause you."

"You had to what?" Ryan looked back and forth between the bartender and the remote. "What is that thing?"

The bartender struggled to find the words before finally speaking. "Buddy, can you keep a secret?"