milliways_bar | (no subject)

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The front door opens onto a sedately appointed hallway, framing a tall middle-aged woman in loose-fitting beige knit shirt and tan pants. She pushes back a stray wisp of silvering red hair, and blinks into the noise and light of the bar in brief surprise.

(Her surprise is perhaps understandable. From her perspective, after all, it's been just over six years.)

"...Oh," she says after a moment. "Oh, that's right."

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"And a good place to do it," she adds, tilting her head in an indication of the room.

"I'm going to be taking so many readings when I get home," he says, "And when I get back. There's no way this sort of place should be stable."

Robo sounds more enthused than aggravated. He leans in, conspiratorially, to Cordellia, "I think they're cheating."

She chuckles. "You should talk to Dr. Stantz. ...If he's still around," she adds, with a small sigh.

...Sure, why not. Who's Robo to throw stones about people's reality. Might even be a coincidence.

"I'll keep an eye out," offers Robo, Does he have any distinctive features?"

"Well, he's human, which puts him only barely in the majority here. Caucasian male, probably about ... early-to-mid-fifties." A beat. "Maybe younger than that."

"Ah", says Robo, "Things aren't entirely linear here, or to the same scale. What's the good doctor's field?"

"Physics and ... parapsychology, if I remember correctly. It's been a while."

"Now that's an interesting combination," says Robo, "The interdisciplinary work is almost always more fun."

Her smile is entirely unintentional. "Oh, definitely."

"And you, Lady Vorkosigan, what's your field?" asks Robo, "If you aren't an unrepentant generalist that is."

Robo tends towards any field that goes 'High Energy _____'.

All right, now that's a grin.

"Social engineering."

"I get the sense you do applied work," says Robo with what would be an eyebrow, but instead involves only the top cover for one eye, "A on the larger side of the scale too, as these things go."

A beat.

"It's got to be incredibly frustrating to see all the different cultures here and not have any depth to the backgrounds."

"I don't know that I'd say frustrating," she says, thoughtful. "It's fascinating, but ... everybody here is out of context of their culture. The background's only significant as regards how it's shaped the individual."

"Ah," says Robo in realization, "You're looking at Milliways not at the people as they are on the other sides of their doors. That would change the whole thing..."

She spreads one hand, palm up, conceding his point. "Well, Milliways is all I've got to observe. Seeing people's homes, on the other sides of their doors ... that would be very different."

Robo's eyes give the impression of a grin.

"I am, am afraid, a reductionist at heart," he says, "Which is fine for any system I can take apart --"

Humans, not so much. He shrugs.

"I haven't managed to take a look around another patron's world yet. It really would be something."

"Reductionism does have its place," she admits.

"And neither have I, come to that."

"Well it's not like you'd generally want to run tours, even if you could," allows Robo, "Though if it came to that you would generally draw less comment than I would, I think."

"I take it you're not representative of your world's population, then?" More curious than anything else.

"Not so much," says Robo, "Mr. Tesla had concerns - he didn't want to end up making a slave caste. There's no plans, no backups, just me."

"Huh." She sits back, and her tone is unequivocally approving. "That was extremely foresighted of him."

"He was only ten when the US civil war ended," points out Robo, "I suspect hearing about that growing up was a major factor."

Plus, Nikola Tesla was bad about taking note to begin with. This just made things deliberate.

"US ... the United States?"

It takes her a moment, and then her eyes widen.

"Not Nikola Tesla?"

"That's the - I shouldn't way one given the number of timelines that intersect here, but yes more or less."

Cordelia's timeline, for example, probably didn't have Nazi walker tanks on the shores of Italy. It might be a bit of a marker.

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