(Untitled)

[forced_pilgrim]

A horse walks into a bar; the bartender says, "Why the long face

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[veryscaryrobot]

Someone shoots him with a blue elephant gun.

Meanwhile, a cyborg walks into a bar. "You look Young," says the bartender.

That's the joke.

"Next time," Cameron informs Monkey, "you should duck."

[forced_pilgrim]

Monkey stands on his head.

Yeah, that's about it.

[veryscaryrobot]

"You're still vertical," Cameron informs him, in case he is unaware. "Your height is unchanged."

"My new friend was upside-down."

[forced_pilgrim]

"When?" Monkey asks. He shifts all his weight onto one hand, and begins plucking hairs from his head with the other. As he blows on them they turn into eggs, which he tosses up to juggle with his feet.

[veryscaryrobot]

Cameron watches curiously. The eggs are possibly a metaphor.

"In the process of falling from the rooftop. On the ground, she was horizontal. You're juggling."

[forced_pilgrim]

"Yes," Monkey agrees. He's up to a dozen eggs.

"She died?"

[veryscaryrobot]

The juggling does not accord with Cameron's understanding of physics. This does not surprise her.

"Yes."

[forced_pilgrim]

One of the eggs pops out of Monkey's interweaving wheel of eggs, headed towards the floor.

[veryscaryrobot]

Cameron tracks its trajectory calmly.

"How do you grieve?"

[forced_pilgrim]

It smashes. A bird does not erupt out of the smashed shell; yolk splatters messily all over the floor instead.

"I don't," Monkey says. "How do you grieve?"

[veryscaryrobot]

"I don't," Cameron says, moving one foot out of range of the splatter. Raw egg is unhygienic. "Sometimes people write notes, if they can't cry."

[forced_pilgrim]

"Like a prayer wheel," Monkey says, semi-approving. "Or a flag."

[veryscaryrobot]

A pause. "'A wheel or cylinder inscribed with or containing prayers, used chiefly by Buddhists of Tibet.'" Nobody at school brought a prayer wheel.

"Flags are commonly used as national symbols. Are they also used to grieve?"

A flag might be easier to obtain.

[forced_pilgrim]

"No, but they are used to pray."

"Objects may be imbued with intentionality," Monkey explains. He's getting bored with juggling; his tail whips back and forth. "Like you."

[veryscaryrobot]

"They're programmed." She sounds uncertain; it's a question.

[forced_pilgrim]

"Very simply," he says, nodding. Nodding upside down is weird.

He stops bothering to juggle; the eggs begin to spiral up into the rafters.

(The mess on the floor fades away to a single monkey hair.)