fandomhigh | Library [Sunday, March 23]

There's more reading than daydreaming going on right now.

The library is closed except for other aides and Bob.

And now there's more daydreaming going on than reading.

The traverse from the library door to the front desk wasn't usually an easy one for Adah on principle alone; hard might not necessarily be an appropriate word, either, but, with all the limping and attempts to be nonchalant, it wasn't exactly a breeze.

Today, however, it was downright difficult. She didn't even bother with the nonchalance, since it would have been near impossible when one was holding a wriggling, squirming rabbit under one arm, and had a robotic baby strapped to your back in a papoose occasionally managing to grab part of her hair and give it a good yank.

She wouldn't have even bothered with coming at all, with everything considered, if she just desperately needed to get out of her room and distract herself with someone pleasant for a change. She let out a long deep breath when she approached, winced and sucked it back in through her teeth at the pain briefly sparking against her scalp and said, "You don't happen to want one of these, do you?"

"Wow, you are popular," Lee said and laughed. "No, not really but I can help you out, if you need it."

"Har har," Adah muttered and, as Edgar got another good fistful of hair and yanked even harder, she couldn't help the immediate response of gasping at the pain; Bob suffered the worst penalty of the droid's fondness of Adah's hair, though, as, when she gasped, she lost control over the crook of her arm and Bob's wiggling finally freed her, but then gravity took over and Bob plopped to the floor.

Bob, beyond a small, annoyed, slightly grumbling sort of sound, did relatively well at shaking this off. Adah, glad to be freed of one burden, just wilted her shoulders a little and decided that Bob could fend for herself right now. She gave the sling a slight pull to start swinging Edgar forward, head ducked so that her hair didn't pull more as she tried to coax the child's fingers out of a tangle. "If you want to help," she said, "you can start by punching Karal Austreben in the face the next time you see him. Also, hello. ...ow, Edgar, sweetie, stop it, please."

Edgar, fingers clamping down again almost as soon as Adah freed them, started to blow bubbles between her lips, grinning.

"I don't know Karal but I can punch him for you," Lee decided, nodding. "No problem. You just called your...baby thing sweetie. Hi."

"She's a robotic stimulation of an actual child, programmed to be a big pain in my ass," Adah muttered, grimacing as she finally managed to get Edgar's hands away by giving her a finger to grip onto instead, "and my hair. Lee, this is Edgar. Edgar, Lee. Edgar is the supposed product of my unhindered and passionate lust for Karal, who is an irresponsible father who leaves his daughter with her cripple mother all weekend, contrary to prior arrangements. If you do punch him, punch him good."

"If we run into each other, I'll punch him good for you," Lee said, smiling down at Edgar. "Hey, Edgar. You causing trouble? Yeah, I do that to her too. I don't tend to grab her hair though. Other places, maybe."

"Oh, come on," Adah muttered, as Edgar started blowing a few bubbles between her lips, sounds like a motorboat, as she made progress in pulling Adah's finger to her mouth, which gapped open to toothlessly chew on it; Adah allowed this, partly because she was too exhausted to bother otherwise. "This girl has kept me up all night, inspired at least three bunny bites on me from Bob, has me believing that part of my scalp is constantly bleeding, and has sent me into at least one panic attack because she was crying and I was having a physical fit and couldn't get to her immediately, and she could still take lessons at being annoying from you and learn a good deal."

He laughed and, just because she seemed like she might need it, leaned over the counter and kissed her cheek.

"I'm not that annoying."

A light grin pulled at the corner of Adah's mouth a little at the kiss on the cheek because, really, he was right; she did need it, and it seemed to allow her to let out a bit of a calming breath as she carefully withdrew her finger from Edgar's mouth so that her arm could support the baby better. "You are too," she countered, bouncing Edgar a little because she could see that trembling lower lip thing that she did before she started to cry, and hoped the bouncing would help convince her not to. "And, even if you aren't, you should still let me say it, because it's making me feel better."

"You can say it all you want," he decided, nodding before he looked down at Edgar and made a few silly faces at the baby.

Edgar's elaborate build-up to crying was cut short as she noticed the faces that Lee was making and she stopped, mouth hanging a little open, and she just stared, wide eyed, as if not sure what to make of him.

Adah just shook her head lightly, and grinned. The staring kept Edgar still, too, which was a small blessing. "What are you doing?" she asked, quietly, not wanting to distract Edgar too much with the sound of her voice.

"My brother used to like it when I did this when he was a baby," Lee said just as quietly, still making faces at Edgar. Said faces included sticking out his tongue, squinting his eyes, demonstrating an exaggerated over and under bite and wiggling his nose at Edgar.

[I'm crashing out early. Pick up in the AM!]

Edgar was still staring, taking her time in deciding what to think. It didn't help that he kept switching thing son her just as she was about to giggle or pout or smile or perhaps just be gassy.

"Oh, go back to that last one," Adah said. "You should keep that one, it might be an improvement." She, as it was, was not nearly as indecisive as her fake child in giving the Eel a smirk.

"You're just jealous I don't make these faces at you," he said and wiggled his nose at Edgar again. "I know how you feel about me and my face."

"Jealous?" Adah asked. "If anything, I'm grateful for it; it's giving me two seconds where she's quiet and not trying to pull my hair out of my scalp."

"Because I'm that good," he said and wiggled his fingers at Edgar while sticking his tongue out and making quiet noises. "Zak used to love this game."

Edgar moved her hand, lifting it, but tentatively, once finger wiggling started to get involved; she made a small noise back as her wide eyes seemed to try to decide what to pay more attention to, the faces or the fingers. She could grab onto fingers better. She was definitely a grabber, and she wasn't seeing much hair, and that was her favorite.

Meanwhile, Adah arched a slight eyebrow at the clear indecision in the robotically lifelike eyes and smirked a bit. "Was it that Zak used to love this game, or that you can use that as an excuse for the fact that you love it?"

"I think it was a mutual thing," he said and puffed out his cheeks at Edgar. The fingers wiggled again, slowly though. "He liked it because it entertained him, I liked it because it got me cookies and my mom liked it because it calmed Zak down."

The droid baby's attention went entirely to the fingers now, catching them carefully; Edgar's own fingers curled out in preparation for when she finally, leaning forward in the sling, made a little sound as she reached out to grab one of them.

"Careful," Adah warned the Eel, "once she gets a hold of something, she doesn't like letting them go, and it would be a shame for her to start crying again after all that."

"It's okay," he said and let Edgar have one of his fingers, testing the grip by tugging lightly. "She's strong. Where'd the name Edgar come from?"

Edgar babbled something nonsensical and tried to pull Lee's finger closer, little fingers clinging to it as best they could.

"For Edgar Allen Poe," Adah explained. "I feel disappointed that you couldn't pick that up, for how much I read him. So she'd named after a drunken poet. I actually didn't think Karal would be so receptive to it, but..." she shrugged a shoulder. "It was going to be Ruth May if not that. Edgar fits her, I think, though I'm not sure why."

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OOC