milliways_bar | (no subject)

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A young Jim Moriarty enters the bar looking thoughtful today. He's dressed like a student, carrying a bookbag and with (fake) glasses on his nose. He takes a coffee from Bar and goes to sit by the Observation Window, but he doesn't look out of it. He empties the bag of its contents, and sits there looking at that instead.

It's money. A thick stack of fifty pound notes, easily making the tens of thousands. Jim...doesn't look happy about it, or dismissive, or much of anything really. Faintly quizzical, perhaps. After a while he draws his knees up to his chest and puts his chin on them, still watching the pile like it might stand up and do something interesting.

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"Yes, because are just so many legendary heroes willing to train and parent seven strange children walking around."

Jay had been hard enough to convince.

‘Then they’re not really legendary heroes, are they?’

Jim waves a hand, dismissive.

‘Mentors are overrated anyway. They’ll be fine.’

"Most of them are dead or still being heroes."

She shakes her head.

"None of them have ever had stability in their lives."

‘Also overrated.’

Stability is fucking boring.

‘Do they even want it?’

"I'm not keeping them prisoner."

For once.

"They can leave whenever they want."

'Well then, hurray for caring adoptive parents, you can feel good about yourself and still enjoy having your house to yourself when they're gone.'

He is still on 'other people, blah blah' in his head.

'What are you planning to do with your few days of luxurious solitude?'

"I haven't decided yet. Probably just get some work done."

Yes, she's still as exciting as ever.

Jim looks at her like she's mental. Because she is.

'What a complete and utter waste of time. Most things are, but that especially so. What's the point of even being happy they're gone?'

"And what would you suggest I do?"

'Literally anything else?'

He's being a bitch because he is a bitch, but none of this is said in a nasty tone.

'Go water skiing. Pick up a stranger in an airport bar. Read a book. Invent something. Anything you wouldn't normally do when there are other people around.'

She snorts softly at the idea of hanging around an airport bar, but she gets what he means.

"I do still have to work. Just because they're on holiday doesn't mean I am, too."

'I've never met anyone who needed a holiday more than you.'

Jim considers life a holiday and doesn't actually take them himself - but he considers everyone else 'normal', and that's what normal people do.

She shrugs.

"Duty calls. I can't ignore that."

'You really can.'

She really, really can.

'What's so important you have to have no life?'

She really, really won't.

"Saving the world. I think I've mentioned this before."

'And I've mentioned to you before that it's a futile goal, and why would you want to anyway?'

He's not being flip.

'No species is meant to live forever. No planet is meant to live forever. The universe is not going to live forever. Let it go.'

"Because the planet deserves it."

Again, this isn't about humanity.

"I don't need it to live forever. Just a few more eons."

'The planet doesn't care. It's not...okay, I won't say it's not alive, but it doesn't have feelings. Whenever it dies, that's its natural lifecycle. It won't thank you for helping it.'

No one deserves anything, as far as he's concerned. No one, or nothing. You deserve what you earn for yourself.

"It doesn't need to thank me. I don't expect any reward other than a better place to live."

That's not why she's in this and knows it difficult for him to understand.

'Right, yeah. Except...is that what you're getting?'

Futile.

"Hopefully."

But this is getting them nowhere. Again.

"What are you going to spend it on?"

He grins at her change in subject. Probably enough to show that he was just being a dickhead, because why not? He's in a good mood.

'I've got some travelling to do after Christmas. I only came home because of uni. I suppose I could stay in actual hotels this time, but I probably won't.'

His eyes return to the cash.

'Equipment, I should think. I'm a strong believer in investing in myself.'

"What kind of equipment?"

She believes in investing in yourself, too.

Another smile, a knowing one this time.

'The sort of equipment Bar won't hand over. The sort you have to know the right people to get, or mix yourself with chemicals from the hardware store.'

Stuff to announce himself with a bang, when the time comes.

"You'd have a blast in one of my labs."

Not that this is an offer.