milliways_bar | (no subject)

Current Mood: stressed

Entry tags:

andraia,
matrix

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Quiet nights are quiet.

Quiet nights are quiet, until your wife elbows you in the ribs while you're lying on your back, staring through the darkness of the ceiling of your bedroom.

"I'm hungry again, Lover."

"Code freeze and fish?"

This is becoming the staple late-night pregnancy craving.

A word of affirmation.

Sighing inwardly, you get up and head to the kitchen, to the fridge.

Code freezes... Code freezes and fish. Did Dot have cravings for random food combinations?

Blueberry... Lime... Cocoa... Grape... Orange...

No strawberry.

Frag!

Out of strawberry!

Your wife has cleaned you out over the past half-second, thanks to her growing appetite.

"What are you doing in there? Don't you have my snack yet?"

Pregnancy can make women ... demanding.

"I'm making it now," you say. Sweetly. Never let them know you're equally tense and frustrated.

Damn. No strawberry in the freezer. At. all.

Can you slip out of the apartment and out into the night to find a convenience store that's still open in Mainframe, or, failing that, hope Milliways shows up and has the desired flavour in stock?

"Don't you have any on hand?" Matrix asks the bar, hoping that at least Milliways will have the desired snack item.

Not currently. AndrAIa cleaned us out, too.

Frag.

How is he going to tell his increasingly moody spouse he can't provide her with what she wants?

Distractions now are in order.

Read that as delay-and-divert tactics for when his wife gets here.

[Slowtime is in effect due to the late hour of posting. Tag whenever you're able to.]

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Let's see: Greenish skin, muscular build, leathery-looking clothes, strange eye colorings, questionable disposition... he sort of fits the description of a Super-Mutant, but it's not a good idea to jump to conclusions.

So, standing nearby and supposedly minding her own business, the girl in the single-sleeved leather jacket with a mini-computer strapped to her wrist, without making eye contact, asks causally, "What are they out of?"

Right characteristics, wrong equation.

"Strawberry code freezes. AndrAIa is hungry. Again."

Bar being out of stock he's hoping—and almost inclined to make like a User and pray—is either extremely temporary or just Bar being funny.

AndrAIa has been extra moody lately.

"I haven't heard of those, sorry. Where do they normally come from? I thought this place had everything."

That does sound familiar, from those times back in Arroyo when one of the girls was Expecting. Which likely ruled him out as a Super-Mutant, since those were supposedly sterile. "Cravings?"

And of course, it was a long way to the nearest surviving convenience store.

Really not trying to sound rude in tone here; he's just stressed, "Users usually haven't."

Pause.

"It does."

Pause. Has AndrAIa somehow managed to clean Milliways out?

"Pregnant. Five minutes, or, in User terms, months."

Pause. To the Bar.

C'mon, please?

I think the time anomaly may be in effect. You'll have to wait for your order to arrive.

The text disappears, to be replaced by an hourglass.

Stop being funny, Bar; this is a matter of compiling and deletion!

Well, that appears the extent of ability to be helpful.

"Oh... users of what?"

While she's experienced the extraordinarily quick service, the notepad effect is new to her. This bar is definitely very advanced. Or magical. Okay.

Bar's something, isn't she?

We're not being sarcastic here. Really.

Yeah, we totally are.

"Computers. I live in one, and humans use them. They don't know about us."

Matrix is now tapping his fingers, not liking this waiting.

"What, inside them?" She has a rough idea about computers, besides the one strapped to her wrist. The largest seen were those terminals that sit on counter-tops, mostly for decoration since working models are rare these days, never mind the power to run them.

She looks at him. Up at him. Her jaw works silently. "...How would they not notice?"

Roughly the size of a barn. Isn't that how the quote goes?

"Inside. Computers kept by Users are not large. When I'm inside one I'm only a couple of pixels tall."

Pixels are something Sativa knows about?

It's a retro-styled future, they could get them down to half the room, easy.

"That's... very small?" Oh sure, pixels, certainly. They're a kind of fairy, right? "But out here you're - big." Maybe there are pixel-scaled brick shit-houses to compare him to where appropriate. Anyway.

"Do a lot of people like yourself live inside those?" Think of how many you could through a series of tubes!

Actually we were talking about the size of Matrix, if there was any confusion happening.

Pixels. Not pixies.

"Milliways. This place allows Users and people from cyberspace to meet and talk."

Very important. Users can't see and therefore know about you when you're the size of a period on any given monitor.

"Yes. Mainframe is a large city with a growing population."

And it's about to be expanded by one.

Okay, sure, no problem. Refer to previous comment regarding brick shithouses.

To be fair, she'd be hard-pressed to recognize either.

Most of the explanation does not make a whole lot of sense to her, but from her time here, just saying Milliways makes it an acceptable one.

"And inside a computer. Do all computers have people living in them?" A hand strays to her Pip-Boy. If there are any little people in there, they would have been through a lot - it's pretty old and well-traveled. She hopes they'd be okay.

"And I guess congratulations are in order - for the coming arrival."

Milliways becomes everyone's go-to answer, given time enough.

"Just the ones in the world I know. Nobody's yet come forth to tell us if they have sprites in their world."

Bob would want to know. Especially about the Pip-Boy. Moreso if she uses it to play games on.

"Er, thanks. I think."

That baby can't get here soon enough the way his wife's been lately.

She may have him flattened and taking up permanent occupation of the floor as a rug before initialisation begins.

When in doubt, ~~a wizard~~ Milliways did it.

"How would they find out?" The Pip-Boy has a map program, a calender/organizer and a video player. There's not much to endanger tiny computer people. A falling bombs screen-saver maybe?

"Nervous?" She asks with kindly smile. It happens in her tribe. Big strong brave warrior type fears nothing, then a baby's on the way and they're all but going to pieces. And not just from the standard threats of bodily harm from their mate.

"One of the Users would have to come here and meet us face-to-face before they'd know about us."

Then go home and have friends and family commit them to an institution for claiming to have met and talked with technicoloured people supposedly living in their computer.

"Nervous? About the baby? Of course not!"

This big, strong, brave warrior-type is not afraid of some baby—he's been happy about it ever since Phong had confirmed what Bob suspected.

It's just the hour-long wait while his wife goes through the pregnancy roller coaster that makes him this nervous. Afraid, too.

"So there's no other way to communicate with them." Maybe shouting real loud? Morse code? That Close Encounters Light and Sound Extravaganza?

"Okay! If you say so," she relents. "I'm sure everything will be fine. Well, if it's anything like human childbirth." Her brows furrow. "...Is it? If that's all right to ask."

"None that I'm aware of."

Pause.

"I ... think so. I don't know how humans are born."

[Took that to be spoken aloud. Whups.]

Edited 2009-09-15 05:43 (UTC)

"Oh. Well first of all, when a man and a woman..." she starts. Does she have to give him the Talk? Is she going to give him the Talk? In detail, unless he stops her?

Looks like!

Sure, take him to be an idiot like every other warrior-barbarian out there that he looks like!

Narrowing his expression, "I know about that part."

His face might have darkened a little while he said it.

Hey, he's frigging green and lives inside electronics. There's a lot of room for assumptions here.

"Okay, so I guess that part's the same. What don't you know about?"

Matrix'll be wanting to initiate those delay-and-divert tactics right about now, because here comes the source of his worry fast.

And he can't duck and dive for cover, either.

What here can hide someone this big?

Turn around, says the napkin.

Stressing out like this means he's uncharacteristicly Not Paying Attention to his surroundings. He has to have it pointed out to him.

Oh, no...

Behind him, AndrAIa stands and taps her foot, crossing her arms as she levels Matrix with a Look.

"What are you doing here?"

Remember: you can count on one hand and have fingers left over the number of people who frighten Matrix.

Here stands one of them.

"Er, uh, getting you a snack?"

Sheepish look.

Bar's napkin reads, Hahahahahahahaha!

Matrix would burn it if he could see out the back of his head.

"It's Milliways, how long does it take to get a snack?"

"Not very long?"

Did Matrix's voice take on a squeaky quality just there?

"Bar says she's out of strawberry."

The Game sprite arches a querying brow.

"And you didn't digitize some strawberry ice cream, why?"

Matrix is smart enough to think of that at this time of night, and while stressed, no less?

"I, uh..."

See that change in the immediate surroundings? There's a small audience now. Noting AndrAIa's belly and Matrix's expression and after doing a little math they're smirking at his predicament.

"...didn't think to?"

Big man cowed by small woman. This is quality entertainment!

The Look intensifies, and she snaps at him in a biting tone.

"You didn't think to?"

—Smirking audience leans in to watch, popcorn bags mysteriously appearing in their hands.—

"Well, you wanted a code freeze, so I went to get it. I didn't think about digitising User food as a substitute..."

Matrix was always the muscle of the pair, remember?

And like that, the anger is gone, and AndrAIa visibly deflates.

"Sorry," she apologies softly. "I didn't mean to yell."

—Cue disappointment from the audience. Maybe this is halftime?—

"We ... can digitise some now?"

Before they can do that, the code freeze finally appears, in a bowl, alongside a plate of sushi.

It's fish. How it's made doesn't matter, right?

There...might just be some sniffling as she leans against him and her mood swings wildly again.

"You're wonderful, you know, I've been horrible to you lately."

—Cue simultaneous "Awww" from the audience.—

One arm is sufficient to give AndrAIa a full-body hug.

"Have a seat. Have your snack."

Pause. He's helping her to the closest chair, where the fish and freeze is.

"It'll be all right."

Being all "understanding husband" here.

More sniffling, and there might actually be some tears starting now.

"No, it's not going to be alright! It's going to get worse, and I'm going to get fat and ugly, and you're going to hate me!"

—Familiar with this sort of thing, the audience breaks open the popcorn bags again. Halftime is over.—

"AndrAIa, you're never fat or ugly to me. You're always going to be beautiful to me, and I'll never hate you. I'd go permanently offline, first."

He pats her hand for assurance.

There's actual, full-blown sobbing now, and she turns to cry into his shoulder, clinging to her husband.

"I don't deserve you!"

—"Wait for it" is the looks on our audience's faces.—

A shoulder that's fast becoming soaked. Where does that water come from?

"You're wrong. Sometimes, I don't think I deserve you."

Hugs are returned.

Suddenly, she's pulling back to give him another Look.

"What, so now I'm not good enough for you?"

Sudden flailage is sudden.

"What? No! I mean, yes! Of course you are!"

—Flitter of quiet laughter from the audience.—

There's only one word that the Game sprite utters now as she glares at him and gathers up her snack to head for home, it's a truly terrible word, one Matrix will learn to fear and dread.

"Couch."

Once she's departed, he puts his head in his hands and mutters something about what he'd just done wrong to himself.

Cheer up, emo sprite, says bar pleasantly. Only fifty-five minutes to go.

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