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[neurotic_barbie]

It was, in many ways, a relief to be able to leave her room for the first time in a week, but Elliot just wished she didn't have to do it with a baby in her arms.

Okay, so it was her baby, but she was kind of pissed at him. She was still really sore and felt like she'd been gutted with an ice cream scoop. She supposed it was better to be carrying

Comments

[horacegauge]

Wow, it had been ages since he'd last seen a baby. Almost enough to bring tears to his eyes, if he'd had any. Miracle of life, and all that.

Horace was quite a ways away, just peeking out from a store window where he wouldn't alarm the mother. But oh, he wanted to get closer. He loved kids.

[neurotic_barbie]

Elliot was pretty good at telling when people were watching her creepily, on account of knowing people like Smith. When your boyfriend was an evil machine man prone to staring, you kind of got a sixth sense for that kind of thing.

"Who's there?" she asked as she looked up, glancing around. With her luck, it was probably the evil machine man himself.

I so don't want to talk to anyone who had a front-row seat at the bloodbath. My bajingo still hasn't recovered from the shame.

[horacegauge]

"Sorry," he called back, cringing. He took a few steps into view. "I just didn't want to startle you." Then, a bit hopefully, "That's a cute kid."

[neurotic_barbie]

"Huh?" Elliot glanced down at her baby as if she'd forgotten he was there. "Oh, yeah. I guess so. His head's kind of weird-shaped, don't you think? I keep having to stop myself from poking the soft spot." He's probably already brain-damaged.

[m_max_headroom]

"Hey! Hey! It's-s-s the devil spawn!" Max exclaimed from a nearby monitor.

Max had been playing it pretty cool, lately. Unless Edison specifically called him he was rarely seen, not that he wasn't seeing. But, in truth, there wasn't much to watch. In fact, he found himself more often than not, just waiting on Edison to get back to his room. Entertaining the Murray family of spiders had gotten a little blasé after running out of names for the 12 small Murray-ettes.

Max recognized Elliot, though. She seemed safe if not a little...well a lot like the TV tweaks back home, actually.

"Is is is it just me or is its head a little...eh?" Max said with a distinctive frown.

Granted, he'd seen very few babies in his day. Even Edison hadn't seen all that many.

"Where's his teeth-th-th! I think you should send-d-d it back. I hope you kept the receipt! Hmph!"

[neurotic_barbie]

Elliot nearly had a heart attack. She clutched her baby so tight he made a little squeaking noise and she forced herself to relax, looking up for the source of the voice - the TV screen. It was Plastic-Headed Dude, a.k.a. Max Headroom or whatever his name was, of course.

"You scared the crap out of me!" she told him, glaring. "And babies don't come with a receipt. Not even evil machine ones."

[m_max_headroom]

"Ah. Ah," he said with a nod and a still disgusted glance.

He spent most of his reply starting dubiously at the little bundle of squishy bones swaddled in a cloth. Like pudding in a bag, he mused to himself.

"He doesn't-t-t have much hair. Ha! He looks a l-l-l-little like Edison! Edison! Are are are you sure there's nothing wrong with his-s-s head?"

[neurotic_barbie]

"It takes time for babies to grow hair," Elliot explained patiently. She eyed Max a little, and rocked the baby in her arms as he started to fuss. "You don't know much about humans, do you?"

He was starting to remind her of Smith. Okay, so a stuttery, even more annoying Smith, but still.

[c_macaulay]

(( Since it's backdated to Aug. 1, Camilla's not yet so freaked out that she's hiding in her room again, therefore ...))

It was ... a woman with a baby. A new one, from the look of it. Camilla didn't know much about babies. Nor did she ever want to learn much about babies. In nature, reproduction is invariably a harbinger of death, Henry had said once.

What interested her was this:

"So things can be born here?"

She mused aloud as she approached the woman. The thing was rather still. It could conceivably be a doll, and the woman merely deranged.

[neurotic_barbie]

Oh, Elliot was definitely deranged, but - unfortunately - the evil machine baby was just that: an evil machine baby, and not a doll.

The not-so-proud mother looked up, blinking confusedly at the other woman. "Uh...yeah?" she ventured. "Why couldn't they? I mean, I'm pretty sure there are spiders in my closet; they seem to be breeding fine." She laughed a little, wincing as the sound disturbed the sleeping baby and made him stir. She was just waiting for him to go nuts and scream his head off, honestly. It was only a matter of time.

[c_macaulay]

"I'd thought the cycle of life to be arrested here entirely. We can't die; it would stand to reason we wouldn't be able to conceive, by the same token." A pause, then: "Did you conceive while here, in the airport?"

It was an honest question, though not without a certain undercurrent (Please tell me you haven't been here a whole nine months. Surely no one would have to stay here that long.)

[neurotic_barbie]

"How do you know you can't die? Have you shot yourself in the head just to check?" she asked bluntly. The woman was clearly off her nut.

Then again, Elliot wasn't exactly sane, either.

"I was a few weeks along when I got here," she answered, after a moment.