milliways_bar | (no subject)

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He isn't going to keep carrying around Baby's inert mobile forever. That'd just be morbid.

But he tried keeping it in his room upstairs, and that's worse somehow. It looks like a toy, sitting there. Like nothing that was ever really important.

So he's bringing it downstairs to try to find somewhere better to keep it. Maybe a shrine over the bar, like the memorial for Bernard and Tonks, if Bar herself wouldn't find that too painful. Or maybe in the Security office, in a storage closet there or something, so that if Baby ever -- if she ever does come back --

Right now Andrew's sitting by the fireplace, watching the fish swim in and out of the flames, with a mug of Irish coffee in his hand and a little metallic arachnoid in his lap.

Botherable.

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Ava glances to Andrew, blinking despairingly.

"You know everything."

"--Oh, hey, you've heard of me."

Epimetheus is slightly unnerved!

He shakes his head, dismissing that. "So that's what you meant when you said you understand different forms of life? Because you've created some?"

"Yup."

:D?

She kind of wants to poke him.

Or say prove it.

Instead, Ava just nods, slowly.

"... Mind a pop quiz?"

Oh hey, she did say 'prove it.'

. . . Epimetheus looks perplexed, now.

"Okay?"

She gestures between herself and Andrew.

"Are we alive?"

He shoots her a swift glance, and then quickly looks back at Epimetheus.

It's a fair question.

"Είστε ζωντανοί; Όχι. Αυτόν; Ναι."

Just in case Bar's translation spell kicks in, that's Are y'all alive? No. Him? Yes.

At first, Ava experiences an irritated-slash-panicked worry that she won't be able to understand him at all, and a lot of good that does them.

Then--

She smiles, faintly.

"Ah."

A nod.

"Okay."

He nods slowly.

"Okay." He doesn't want to say well played.

(This isn't a game.)

"So ... you can tell she's still alive. For some value of life."

"Baby? Yeah. Yeah, definitely."

"But not here, like -- like her soul isn't here?"

He's not even sure Baby has a soul, but --

Epimetheus considers, hands in his pockets.

"Yeah," finally. "But it's definitely somewhere. I just can't quite tell where."

Oh, that's interesting.

Robot jailor spidercells have souls now?

At least this guy knows something about life-and-death statuses, after all.

He swallows.

The words come out smaller than he means them to: "Do you have any idea how to bring her back?"

The Titan gives him a look, and his expression turns rueful before he shakes his head.

"I'm sorry. Not my area of expertise."

Okay. Problem-solving mode.

"But she could, conceivably, go back to normal-- if someone could tell us where to find her soul?"

She narrowly avoids putting soul in scare quotes.

". . . She could go back to something like normal," he agrees slowly.

"Souls that leave and return to their home don't usually come back unchanged."

Oh, dude, Baby's going to come back wrong.

This idea strikes her as the coolest thing ever!

... She realizes Andrew probably doesn't share her enthusiasm, so she turns ooh! into a wince.

"Ew."