milliways_bar | (no subject)

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There's a man by the bar.

He's got his wallet out, and seems to be making a point to the bar.

"Put this on Bruce Banner's tab, please. And, I'd sooner you kept it anonymous, thanks."

Those with attentive eyes, will notice either the 4 $10 bills vanishing from the bar top, or maybe the $40 of credit that then goes onto the tab of one B.Banner.

"And I'll have a pint of Kopparbergs. No, not the cider, the beer."

So, there's one scientist, with a pint, at the bar. Eminently botherable.

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"After getting away safely and re-equipping, yeah they did. That's what friends are for, isn't it?"

"I hope so. Though, wouldn't it be better if friends weren't put into danger in the first place?"

"It would. But, that was the nature of the film. And sometimes, you have to stand in harms way, because someone has to, and otherwise, it'll be an innocent civilian."

This would be the point where Aang looks away, swallows hard, and very quietly agrees.

"no. that's true, isn't it."

"Yes. And I'll happily confess to being most grateful it wasn't me that had to stand up in my world."

He says in complete ignorance of what's going to happen... (And he wonders why the mun is snickering).

"Did...did something happen in your world?"

"We had..." Erik says, "Aliens."

Whether that word gets translated into anything Aang can understand, is another matter. It's the factual truth.

Yeeeaaaah, judging by his expression...not so much.

"Aliens?"

"Beings from another... world."

The hesitation was between the use of world or planet. World should give Aang enough of an idea, without the need to introduce a possibly new concept.

Of course, it might also give a completely different impression than what he actually means.

His eyes widen.

World was a good choice, given that his has the real people world, and the Spirit World. Aang knows first hand just how powerful beings from another world can be...

"I take it they weren't friendly."

Erik considers this for a moment.

"The people we met from that world, were wonderfully friendly. Joyous, gracious, polite. The problem came from the killer robot one of their siblings sent after them."

Robot, automata, puppet, something like that, anyway. Erik's not really sure. He never got a close enough look at it before SHIELD spirited it away to, to, to wherever they spirit stuff away to.

Aang really doesn't like the sound of the word robot.

"The Spirit World is kind of like that too. Back where I'm from, I mean."

"As human as the rest of us? Flaws and virtues all? Just, with great power?" Erik replies.

"Oh yeah. Even the not so people people."

"What do you mean by that?"

"There aren't a whole lot of people spirits in the Spirit world. Mostly they're animals or plants or...other things."

His tone shifts from completely sure of himself, to less than that...rather quickly.

The shift in tone is one he knows full well.

"You're not sure, are you?" Erik asks gently. "You don't know what it's 'supposed' to be like. There's no shame in that."

He's quiet for a moment, and in that time begins to nibble on his own bottom lip. "no," he finally admits quietly. "I know there isn't, but that doesn't mean I don't feel it anyway."

Erik smiles as gently as he can. "It's something we all feel. Especially when it's 'our' area, one we feel we should know completely. We shouldn't, but we do."

"Yeah? What do you do when you feel this way?"

"Depends on the topic. Depends on who already knows I don't know. Might go read a few summary papers on the topic. Might just go talk to people."

"Of course, sometimes no one knows. That's when you try to invent experiments that might get results that would tell you."

"That's what I was trying to do! Er...talk to someone, I mean."

"And hey, you are," Erik agrees. "I guess the real trick is talking to someone who knows what you want to know."

"Also not losing the light you were told to follow."

"Assuming the light was provided by a source you trust, yes, that would certainly help."