[But walls are still walls, so she doesn't get to see the face he pulls or the way he rolls his eyes to the moon and back.
In any case, he stomps down the stairs and arrives at her door, letting himself in without warning.]
Uh, hey.
[At least Ros isn't totally alone in looking like hell. Being comatose for two straight weeks will do that to a guy. He's had time to shave, at least. Small victories.]
[Javert had done the best he could, but in the end, he's a policeman, not a doctor. Stitches covered by haphazardly wrapped bandages line her torso, but the gash on her throat, her cheek, is raw and red looking. And that's not to mention the patch over her left eye.]
I don't know-- I can't examine them, I don't know if they need to be restitched, or if there's an infection.
[He's doing his best not to react, but it's a lot, to see another person like this. He doesn't know Rosalind particularly well, so that's good. Still, it sucks to see her in such a bad way. She's not the cold and confident scientist he'd first met, and even now, he registers that there's an importance in that shift.
No point in worrying over it now, though. He sits down next to her to get a better look at her roommate's work.]
Couple hours, I think.
[He says it offhandedly, distracted. At first glance, the policeman looks to have done a pretty decent job. He'll check under the bandages later, but if the stitches at her throat are any indication, the guy knew what he was doing.
He wasn't a doctor, though. Neither is Newt in this specific sense, but he knows enough. He knows what to look for, and maybe how to fix it.]
Here, uh, let me...
[Very gently, he moves to cup her jaw in his hand to guide her head this way and that, testing her range of motion.]
[There's a soft, sharp inhale, but beyond that, it's the only pained reaction she gives.]
Somewhat. Not overwhelmingly.
[If it's painful, she means. Her eye darts over his face for a moment, noting the exhaustion lining his expression, before he tips her head and she glances away.]
A creature tore the roof off my lab. I raced outside, and . . .
[It's not that she couldn't get out if she really wanted to. The snow is heavy and already piling up high, but not so much so they're trapped. But it's just high enough to be an incredibly uncomfortable inconvenience, which is why Rosalind sighs and closes the door again.]
You can leave if you'd like, but I wouldn't advise it.
[At least she has a torch here. And a cot, which comes with at least three blankets, because let's be real: she spends an awful lot of time here, and sometimes it's easier to just sleep where you work. It's fine.]
Get the blankets. This place wasn't built for insulation.
[He's not that shocked, given that the temperature's been steadily dropping since he arrived a few hours ago. He can hear snow liberally peppering the shack of a lab on all sides. You're not really supposed to be able to hear snow.
He does as she says, rooting around through the storage cabinets until he unearths a load of blankets. Amazing forethought on her part, come to think of it. Like, better forethought would've been to focus on getting this place hooked up to heating again, but whatever. It's not like he had the forethought for either of those things.
(It's also not his lab, as she likes to remind him, so, like, just saying!)
It is cold in here, though. He heads over to get his own look at the situation outside.]
I wonder if we can still freeze to death here. Probably, right?
[She, meanwhile, sets one blanket down as padding and then settles in with her back against the wall. They could, of course, both climb on the cot, but if it's all the same she'd rather not, thanks.]
Oh, assuredly.
[Hm. She settles in, her legs stretched out before her, two blankets already piled atop her. It's quite cozy, and it's unfortunate he'll have to join soon, but so it goes. He's far too useful a lab partner to allow him to freeze.]
Why not? If you can die via your throat being cut or what have you, why not a more mundane way? Frankly, I'd rather die that way. I'm told it's rather peaceful.
[. . .]
Close the door, please, it's cold enough here already.
It's not. Dying's never peaceful. That's just, like, a thing people say.
[But that's a bummer thing to talk about, so instead he drags a trash bin over to where she's decided to nest, propping the torch up inside of it. The one nice thing about this physics-breaking fire: No risk of accidentally setting themselves ablaze while trying to stay warm.
He plops down next to her, close enough to make use of the floor blanket without invading her space. He would bet against any huddling for warmth in his future—research suggests such an idea would go over, uh, poorly. It's not dangerously cold in here, anyway.
He pulls his lantern into his lap, hugging the glow in his hands. There, that's a bit warmer.]
So what's the plan? Sleep here and hope the weather clears up overnight?
[It's a decent plan. Not exciting, perhaps, but a decent plan nonetheless.]
We've plenty of water and the ability to sleep. We shan't starve. And I imagine between the two of us, we can figure out some way to pass the time without going mad. Sooner or later the storm will end, and we'll be on our way.
[And until then, that lantern trick isn't such a bad idea. She scoops up her own, shifting in closer to him: body warmth may be out, but sharing the proximity of lanterns isn't.]
I don't suppose you've some hidden side-project I don't know about that you could describe? That would pass the time nicely.
Sooner or later? Sure, hypothetically we could hang out here until spring, but—
[But they're double stuck, is the thing, and he doesn't like the sound of that. This town is already far too quiet and still for his liking. Holing up in rickety, cold building telling campfire stories will just maybe be entertaining enough to get him through a single night.
Instead of saying all that, though, he drops it abruptly. This is a good enough thing to do for right now, since she's pretty good company, and it's not like he feels like trudging back to the Invincible. Tomorrow, when he's inevitably going stir crazy, he can worry about tunneling out of here.]
Uh, not really. I've just been helping you—oh, I did make this.
[He digs around in the pockets of his coat until he unearths his old cell phone. There's a makeshift flash drive-looking thing plugged into it.]
It's a really, really shitty bluetooth adapter. Good for basically nothing except data transfer, but it kept me busy for a couple days.
[That's very interesting, actually, because though he's explained things like bluetooth and cell phones, it's still fascinating to see in person. Without thinking she reaches for it, tugging it out of his hand so she can look at it properly.]
Data transfer meaning what, exactly? Can you access your files on your tablet?
[He laughs a little. Right, she's from... whatever time she's from. Well before his time, that's for sure.]
Yeah, I can move stuff around between my phone and tablet. I just made it to pull my music and pictures onto my tablet.
[Since Beacon's tech is still more advanced than the stuff he's used to. Somehow. But hey, that works out. Who thought hologram screens were a good idea, anyway? Here's hoping that fad dies soon.]
[And a bit of culture from home, which is a rare enough thing. Almost nonexistent, in fact, save for clothing and a few paltry items. Rosalind runs her thumb against the drive, then separates the two curiously.]
Hm.
[She might ask him how he made it, but let her try and figure it out. She doesn't look up as she adds:]
Show me a song from your world.
[She's had a taste of music from the future once before, and she hadn't particularly cared for it-- but perhaps this will be different.]
[Oh, that wasn't the response he was expecting. Sure. He digs around for his tablet this time, scrolling through his collection before settling somewhat arbitrarily on the first song that catches his eye. He sets his tablet on the blanket between them so he can watch her examining his work.]
I've recognized some of the songs that play around town sometimes, like when the ferry shows up. Congrats, you've already heard stuff from my world.
[That should maybe register as weird to him, but the queue for weird stuff in this world is way too long already.]
[She does not hold a high opinion of the ferry songs. Rosalind shifts, setting the flashdrive between them so she can reach for her tools. She's got a few just for delicate work like this, and it's as good a distraction as any.]
A man in my world stole music from other universes. He was quite irritating, and I never enjoyed the way he twisted the songs to fit our standards. I don't believe the original artists ever intended God Only Knows to be a barbershop quartet.
[The thought of another person taking tools to his tiny creation is fairly appalling, but just this once, he'll let Rosalind do whatever she's gonna do. She's been letting him help with the Lutece device, which has way higher stakes than his dumb little adapter, so it seems only fair. He doesn't have a ton of use for it now that he's got his music, anyway.]
Hey, don't knock remixes. There's a lot of value in a good cover. Here.
[He shifts his lantern so she'll have more light to see by. The torch casts enough light, sure, but working with pieces this small is a pain in the ass if you're constantly casting shadows on your work.]
So... You really think this thing's gonna get us out of here?
[Speaking of scientific endeavors, he nods at the Lutece device half-assembled in the corner. Clearly if someone had the ability to pirate music from across the multiverse, that bodes well for them. Right?]
[Which isn't the same thing as yes, and he's smart enough to know it. She shifts, lying more on her hip than sitting up, getting closer to the flashdrive.]
But it seems too easy. But it worked in my world; there's no scientific reason it oughtn't work here. Dimensions are dimensions, oddities contained within or not.
[He doesn't respond right away, opting instead to just sort of nod lamely as he gets lost in the implications of what she's said. I don't see why it won't. He can't, either, and that's far more horrifying a concept than it would've been a few months ago. He saw no reason why his Pons system wouldn't have been stable enough to maintain a neural bridge without killing him too, and yet, here he is.
She's right. There is no scientific reasoning why it shouldn't work, so then, what if it doesn't?]
And you've used this thing to jump around between worlds before, right? Like, you, personally?
Page 1 of 9