milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

xaldin,
xigbar

(no subject)

Space is unusual in Milliways.

This almost does without saying.

It also doesn't usually warp and bend and twist like an Escher painting gone mad, with insubstantial blackness dripping up, and something white and not right just barely visible.

The warping space folds itself into something small, black-coated and roughly humanoid.

He's still 'bleeding' something, but it certainly isn't blood. In fact, if you're perceptive enough in the right ways, what he's bleeding is rather a lot like what's going on outside the Window.

[xigbar]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Dude, don't diss the floating specks of dust!"

"I'm not dissing the floating specks of dust." Xaldin assures him, "I was suggesting the next thing to drink to."

"Okay. Yeah, that. Totally works. To the floating specks of dust!"

"Floating specks of dust! Because no matter where I go the air isn't clean!"

"Dude, like. How do you define clean air?"

"It's like..." Xaldin frowns, "I just know it. No particulates. Just the gas molecules. It's...me. The dirt is the stuff in it that isn't me."

Xigbar nods slowly.

"Yeah. I think I get it. Like. Stars are in space, and kinda part of it, but they're not. Same with planets."

"Yeah." Xaldin says, "That's it. Most of the things in the air don't press me. Some of them...like grit and sand? That's really uncomfortable. Too much earth."

"Guess I'm kinda lucky," Xigbar says after a little silent contemplation. "Space doesn't have an opposite."

"Dude, you really are." Xaldin says with a shake of his head, "Although an argument could be made that Void is your opposite. Space is, like, potential. Anything can happen. Void is non-potential and Nothing."

"Got a point, dude. And the people who'd say Space is Void? Can all go jump in a black hole."

"Totally. Space is space. You just don't notice it because all the stuff in it distracts you. Just like air is air. You don't notice it until it's gone."

They're complimentary. Xaldin thinks he'd appreciate that, if he could.

"Yup. ...We're gonna need a new bottle soon, dude."

"Got another one in my pocket." Xaldin informs him, "After that we're going to have to stand up."

"Screw standing, man. I'll just get us another one."

"That works too." Xaldin retrieves the pocket bottle and passes it over, "I'm gonna be broke soon."

"Me too. Wonder how VIII manages it? I mean, he can't spend all his time like, you know. Killing shit."

"He probably doesn't spend nearly as much time as we do drunk." Xaldin points out, "We've spent a not-so-small fortune lately."

He ponders for a while, then says, "What about getting into and out of the storage rooms back home? And our rooms. I've got - stuff."

"Shouldn't be like. A problem. Couple of minutes, tops. I'll just, you know."

He makes a shrinking motion with his hands.

"As long as you don't shrink me again, dude." Xaldin says with a shudder, "Our pockets? No airflow. None. I figure we take it all, dude. If you can take it, we take it."

"Sounds good to me."

"My room, your room, the synthesis room, the munny, the potions of various kinds." Xaldin says slowly, "Library? My office. I mean, losing all the information we've gathered would suck."

"Yeah. It totally would. Vexen's lab, if we can get it?"

"I've got his notes and reports. All of them." Xaldin says quietly, "After Castle Oblivion fell I copied everything. I don't even know why, really. It just seemed smart."

"Good thing then," Xigbar says.