milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Why is Clint Barton in the rafters, when he's by all rights way too old and (by some accounts) dignified to climb up there?

Well. He was drinking his morning coffee when some thing touched the back of his foot with a long tendril, and all he saw was its weird misshapen form skittering away.

It was weird, okay? Anyway. He's sitting on a rafter, watching the room below, with a mug of coffee in his hands and a jar of peanuts next to him.

[tiny tag: creepy doll
ooc: No new threads, unless we've talked about it :)! I'll be around this weekend, but I am at this point Friday asleep.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah," he says, looking a little surprised. "I know someone here from at least a thousand years on and she just sounds like she's English. And I met an alien," he adds, making a thoughtful face. "But I guess he could've learned it."

"Maybe, but you heard..."

Her voice trails off, and she looks back at Katya. "You said magic?"

"Da?" Her Russian stays unmangled, just the way she likes it. "I could say it again?"

Edited (Punctuation is awesome.) 2013-07-05 07:14 (UTC)

She pulls a little face at the other woman.

"Say it again, with explanation? How does it work?"

Katya pulls a face back, mostly because she's explained how her world works to someone who isn't an Other from her world exactly three times - and the only time she feels she even vaguely made sense was when it was Skellig, who's practically an Other anyway.

"Um. The bar is..." A swirly, vague sort of hand gesture goes where words should be as she tries to find some. "Mechanical? Almost? Their magic seems to be very rote, very 'if you do this, then this other thing will happen'. Mine is not."

That is so incorrect as an analogy she can barely stand it, but she's not sure how else to say it. Neither of them have the Treaty printed on the back of their eyelids.

While they were talking, Clint leaned back in his chair, listening. "Intent-based, maybe," he says, after thinking a moment about Katya's explanation of Bar's magic.

He glances to Natasha. "Bar's kind of psychic, yeah? The default ... programming," he tilts his hand slightly, unsure how else to phrase it, "might translate it so I could understand, unless you were trying to make it so I didn't."

She draws one of her legs up, hugging her knee to her chest. Magic and intent and-

She'd like to know when she fell into a speculative fiction book. Still, she gives a nod at Katya's explanation. It's an explanation that, judging from Katya's face, is wildly inaccurate, but she's not going to ask for clarification. Some things are hard to explain when one doesn't have the background knowledge.

"Ah, she's just...trying to be helpful," she says, huffing a laugh. "How very A.I. like."

"She's a brat." Katya sums up succinctly - the Bar's given Katya revenge wheat grass smoothies after the girl insulted the Bar's vodka taste for her to be overly complimentary. "But the spell has been in place for quite some time. It has quirks now."

Clint laughs, and shakes his head slightly.

"This place is just... weird." No one ever said he was eloquent. "Need me back out there?"

"I would not say no - whatever started this is... prolific." It's entirely possible she plans on making a pit full of these creatures. And she's going to drop Anton into it.

Possibly repeatedly. It'll be therapeutic.

Clint nods, standing easily and snagging the empty backpack.

He gives Natasha a listening look -- he doesn't even ask a question (you coming with, or should I meet you later?) because from his point of view it doesn't need asking.

She glances back at Clint and nods just enough to say she's acknowledged.

"I should probably grab something to eat," she says, addressing the comment to Katya. "But if I run across any toys, I'll come find you?"

Da, spasiba - they are like ants. If you don't keep after them, they go from being mildly annoying to taking over the pantry. So to speak." It's another analogy that doesn't quite work right, but it's close enough. Besides, the toys do go squish if you swat them hard enough.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only