HOME | DD

Description
Chapter 5: Pancakes are Good

Mouse lay still in her bed, her eyes closed. She was trying to remember the dream she had been having when she had woken up. All she remembered was her, Otto and Robin, in a home. A proper home, all together and happy. Like a family.

The smell of bacon prompted her to open her eyes. Robin was entering from nowhere, a bag of food in one hand. "Top of the morning to ya, lassie," she said, smiling broadly at Mouse. "I hope you like pancakes."

Robin nodded to Otto, and began setting the food out on an empty bit of table. Mouse slid out from under her covers, pulling on her oversized shoes as she came over and peeked at the food. Pancakes, bacon, eggs...the two plates Robin had brought them had more food on them than she had seen in a long time. She bit her lip and looked to Otto. He had already been up awhile, it looked like, but then, judging from the sunlight, it was already well into the morning. Mouse frowned, looking up at the dust glittering in the sunbeams. Normally she didn't sleep this late.

Robin smiled and lightly smoothed back a little of Mouse's hair. She had waited until the little one had begun to wake before entering, keeping the food warm via air and Glamour. Robin pulled out two cartons of milk for Mouse, and a hot coffee for Otto, and jumped up to sit on a crate while they ate. "Bon appetite, as they say," she said with a smile.

An actuator closed its claws around the mug of coffee and brought it to the tousle-haired scientist. He looked at it with a slight frown.

"Alright," he said at last. It was real coffee- pretty good coffee, actually- and physically there. "How are you doing all this, Robin? How do you just make things appear?"

Robin raised an eyebrow at him. "The food is from a diner up the block. But I can "make things appear" with my Glamour." She held up a hand, letting sparks of green circle it for a few moments. "I suppose it's really...convincing the air that it wants to be something else."

She reached over, and helped Mouse open a syrup container. The child looked to have been struggling, and Robin suspected that it would have erupted all over her clothes had she managed to get it open in its former position. Robin handed it back to her with a wink, and sat back. Mouse smiled at her, and proceeded to dump the syrup over her pancakes. Her eyes were nearly as big as the pancakes themselves.

Convincing the air it was something else... Otto thought he would greatly prefer it if she didn't tell him when she did that. He was much more comfortable with the idea that she was teleporting things from someplace else.

atomic conversion of atmospheric elements to other substances shouldn't be possible not possible this girl breaks way too many laws of physics

He stifled a snort of laughter at Flo's comment and leaned over to help Mouse cut up her pancakes. Mo, meanwhile, gave his 'sister' a look that could be termed a glare and drifted over to Robin, nudging her hand.

"She might not like that," he told the actuator.

Robin shook her head and petted Mo. "I don't mind," she said. She looked at Mouse, who reclaimed her fork from Otto, and took her first bite of pancakes. Robin watched with a grin as Mouse's eyes got impossibly bigger.

"Mmm," she sounded, swaying happily back and forth in her seat. Robin couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm just surprised they're not plotting how to take you to pieces," Otto muttered. "This friendly streak of theirs is new."

weren't mean were never mean only sought to protect you

Robin half shrugged at him, and turned her attention back to Mouse. "You like it then?" she asked, as Mouse dug her fork back into the pile. The girl got a huge chunk of pancake with the fork, and shoved it all in her mouth.

Mouse nodded, her mouth stuffed with pancakes. Robin shook her head and opened one of the little cartoons of milk, putting a straw inside. "Careful not to choke," she said, pushing the milk over to the girl.

Otto helped himself to a plate, picking at it the food. As cozy as all this was, as pleasant as it was, there were still issues. Not the least of which was how he was supposed to raise a child, particularly in these surroundings. Hell, they were hardly fitting for him to live in, much less Mouse. What would they do when it got cold? And what happened if, God forbid, Mouse's mother went to the police and renewed their search for him? What if he went out one day and got nabbed? Or killed? What would happen to Mouse then?

Robin shook her head at him. Tapping Mo's head, she leaned back and crossed her legs. "This is a no worry zone, mister," Robin said with a mock stern look. She looked over at Mouse. "Isn't that right, little one?" The child looked at Otto, taking in his expression, and nodded her agreement.

The faerie gave Otto a smile. "It'll sort out," she said confidently.

Absently cutting up a pancake with the edge of his fork, he raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh?" he said dryly, "You read minds now, do you?" Was that how she'd picked out the people who had hurt Mouse last night?

stay out of our heads do not want you there too much in here too many voices

Besides, why shouldn't he worry? Someone here had to deal with reality. Mouse was a child, so she wasn't able to—and shouldn't have to. And as for Robin... Otto rather doubted a faerie had the same grasp on reality as a human.

"No," Robin admitted. "Never been much for the mind reading." She cocked her head to one side lazily, studying him. "But you seem like a man who's good with coming up with solutions to problems. The clever sort. And I'm a bit clever myself. Not to mention the magic. I'm sure between the pair of us, we can sort something out."

Mouse finally got down her mouthful of pancakes, and sipped her milk happily. It was still cold. She bounced in her seat, swinging her legs back and forth. This felt right. It was even like her dream.

"I hope so." He sipped at his coffee for a moment. Why was all of this happening now?

Damnit , he was worrying too much. He needed to distract himself before his mind started going in circles. Fortunately, he had a fine distraction sitting right there across from him.

"So, Robin. Can you tell me about yourself?"

Robin shrugged. "What do you want to know? Nothing so special about me." Then she laughed. "Ah hell, I don't do modesty well. Or at all. I'm The Puck of the Seelie Court. One of the most important jobs there is in this world. I serve my lord Oberon and generally...have a good time."

She pulled a ball from her pocket and started tossing it back and forth. "That's about it really. Not that much to tell."

"The Puck, you say." Otto tilted his head slightly as if to get a better view of her. He didn't really need to, however, as Flo was feeding him a far more detailed image than he could ever see on his own. "Is that a title? A position? Rank?"

Oberon. He remembered that name vaguely. He was the king of the faeries, wasn't he?

"What are you doing here in New York? I thought you were more Old World than New."

"It's...complicated. It's sort of a title, and sort of a position. Though, I've held it for so long that it scarcely matters." Robin reached over and snagged a piece of bacon from Otto's plate. He was mostly pushing the food around anyway. "And this is more of a break than anything permanent. Britannia is wonderful, and I get around Europe. But some of the best cities for fun are in the States. Though, most of it can't compare with the old days. The days of Bacchus and Roman soldiers..." Robin's eyes slid to Mouse, and she shook herself away from the story that came to mind. She munched on the bacon and smirked wickedly to Otto. He was a grown man—let his imagination run with that thought.

hey that was our bacon how dare you take our bacon

Flo squawked indignantly as Robin munched on the piece of bacon she'd stolen from Otto's plate.

"Let her have it," he told the actuator. "I wasn't going to eat it anyway. Not particularly hungry." He'd never really been one for breakfast, usually not feeling hungry until later in the day. Coffee, though, coffee was always good.

"How long have you been the Puck?"

"Oh, a long while," Robin said. She shook her head a little, her eyes old. "Such a long time." Then she smiled, and looked at him. "But then, it's not polite to ask a woman her age. Let's just round it off with I remember watching Rome being built and partying in Pompeii."

And such a city that had been...though she tried not to think about being shaken from a lover's arms by the rumbling of a volcano and the screams of terror at her back as she fled the doomed city.

"Very true. My apologies." There was an odd look in her eyes as she spoke of Pompeii. She was probably recalling its destruction. Good God, the history she must know, the things she must have seen. Otto was a scientist and not a historian, but even he was intrigued. Pompeii and Rome... that put her at a couple millenia at the very least.

He rested his elbows on the table, steepling his fingers. "Tell me one more thing, Robin," he said. Pretty name, Robin. Robin Goodfellow. "Do you often assist convicted criminals in avenging wrongs done to abused little girls?"

Robin pursed her lips, as if pondering the question. "Can't say that I do," she said. Then she smiled. "But that's part of why I did it. There are so few new things left in the world. You intrigued me."

She saw Mouse freeze, and put down her fork. Granted the portion of half-eaten pancakes was probably more than enough to fill up the little girl. But it was also possible that Otto's casual use of the word 'abused' had reminded the child of why she was here. If Robin could have, she might have smacked the man over the back of his head.

Robin reached into an inner pocket of her jacket, and pulled out a pad of drawing paper and a box of crayons. She sat it at the girl's elbow, nudging it over. "Noticed your other ones got a bit wet," she said, hoping to distract her.

Larry also caught Mouse's reaction and nudged Otto hard in the shoulder. He grimaced. How was he supposed to have known that word would set her off? He wasn't exactly a child psychologist. Hell, he wasn't any kind of psychologist, apart from a few bits and pieces he'd picked up.

"I'm sorry, Mouse," he said, though he wasn't entirely certain what he was apologizing for. Larry nuzzled her shoulder, making a chittering sound rather like a purr.

Mouse decided to ignore Otto for now, as acknowledging his apology would mean letting what he had said stir in her mind. Abused. She wasn't sure of what the word meant, but she could guess. It could mean any number of things. Stupid. Retard. Broken. All of which she was. Why should it be any different if Otto said it than Devon or her mother?

So she patted Larry's head, and picked up her milk and the gift from Robin, and hopped off her chair. She went and sat on a crate near her bed, and opened the drawing pad to a fresh page.

Otto grimaced again. Fantastic. Now she was upset, and he wasn't even entirely certain why, apart from the fact that it was obviously something he said.

"Help, please," he muttered to Robin. "What did I do?"

Robin moved around the table, to speak softer to him. "My guess would be labeling her an 'abused little girl'," she said. "Though I doubt she really knows what that means. She's probably just roped that in with all of the other labels people have put on her. And given her home life, I would bet none of those were particularly good."

Especially with her being mute. She had probably been called some terrible things, by those horrible people. Ah well. May all the torments they had inflicted on others be revisited on them in the afterlife.

She watched Mouse for a few moments, the girl's head bent in fierce concentration. "It might be better not to say anything. Or you might at least want to point out to her that being abused is not something that really has to do with her. It's not something she did. Maybe try to perk up her self esteem a little. Course, that will just take time." But it would happen, so long as she was with someone like Otto, who actually gave a damn.

"Right..." Stupid, stupid doctor. Otto went to Mouse's side, using the actuators to help him kneel next to her. Probably not a good position to be in- chances were he'd just get stuck, and that would be rather embarrassing in front of Robin- but he stood over six feet when he slouched, and he didn't want to tower over Mouse right now.

"Mouse," he said softly, using the gentlest tone he could manage. "Look at me, please?" He tugged his goggles up over his eyes, squinting a little in pain against the light.

Robin noticed the squint of pain, and twirled a finger, bringing the lights down to a more comfortable level for him. It incredibly welcome. Otto still had to squint a little, but at least he could see without his eyes tearing up. Now he just had to figure out how to explain this to a- how old was she, anyway? Six, maybe seven? Scrawny as she was, it was hard to tell.

Mouse hesitated, but she couldn't refuse Otto. She stopped her coloring, and looked up at him. There was a slightly guarded look in her eye, as though she expected to either be fussed at or worse.

"What did I say that upset you? Was it the 'abused little girl' comment?" He didn't like that guarded look in her eyes, and could have kicked himself for causing it.

Mouse just looked at him. Why was he prodding it? Whatever he had meant, it was probably true. It had been said--the words were out there.

Robin rolled her eyes behind Otto's back. Such a typical adult. Did it matter what had upset her? She was a hurt little girl who had probably never been told that she was worth anything in this world. All of Robin's presents wouldn't mean squat if someone she trusted didn't start telling her that she was better than all she'd been through. Even then, it would be an uphill battle.

But she bit her tongue, and let him continue. Better not to interfere, at this point.

Otto took her hand in his as Larry looped around to nuzzle her cheek. Flo spotted Robin's eyeroll and clicked disparagingly. Otto knew what he was doing. He was just a scientist, checking all the possible alternatives.

"You've done nothing wrong," he said softly. "'Abused' doesn't mean that you're a bad person, Mouse. It just means that people have been hurting you for a long time, because something is wrong with them. Not you. You're my clever little Mouse, and those people are never going to hurt you again."

Mouse looked down. Clever? Her? Surely she wasn't clever. She was too stupid to speak and Devon always said so. But then again...he said a lot of things. Maybe Otto was right? He was very smart, after all. She couldn't read or anything, but she did know the best places to scavenge. Maybe she was a little clever.

Mouse peeked up at Otto through her hair. She played with her crayon for a moment, then sat it and the paper aside. Reaching up, she gave him a hug. Mouse was coming to like Otto's hugs.

He hugged her back, kissing the top of her head briefly before pulling back. "That's my Mouse," he said fondly. "Better now?"

She pulled back, and smiled at him. Mouse gave him a little nod, and tucked a bit of hair out of her face.

Robin smiled to herself. Well...there was a surprise. The man knew a thing or two after all.

Mouse started to pick back up her crayons, but then thought better of it. Hopping off the crate, she gathered her bag, double-checking to make sure all of the bottles were inside. She had already lost good time this morning. It was better to try and get to the good spots early, before it got too hot and before anyone else could get there. Maybe she could find Otto some Oreos today.

Larry nuzzled her as she went about getting ready to go out on whatever it was she did- bottle scrounging, wasn't it? It was a rather clever idea for such a young child to come up with.

"Be careful out there," Otto said, pushing a crayon away from the edge of the crate before it could roll off. He didn't mind her going out, so long as she was careful. She still had things to do, routines to keep, and at the end of the day, she'd be back. "Back in before dark, alright?"

Mouse nodded and waved at them, before scooting out of her exit. She knew better than to stay out after dark.

Robin watched her go, a little curious. "Want me to go with her?" she asked Otto. "I can keep out of sight easily enough." She had her qualms over just letting a child out in the city, though clearly Otto didn't.

"She does this every day," Otto said with a slight shrug. "She'll be alright. She's lasted this long, hasn't she? Besides, she'd be both bored and unhappy if I kept her in all the time." He looked after her, sliding his goggles back over his eyes. "Doesn't mean I won't worry about her though."

The actuators clicked among themselves as they helped him back to his feet. Otto grimaced a little as his leg gave a twinge, but he'd certainly felt worse. It just didn't like him getting on the ground.

Robin studied him, and nodded. "True." She debated whether she should hang around, or wander off for a bit. But he intrigued her, and she'd not yet had a chance to talk to him properly, with no little ears around.

"Well then, doctor--how is it that you came to be here? Seems to me anyone half as brilliant as you could make their own way in the world just fine."

He went back to his seat and grimaced, sinking into it. "Them," he replied, gesturing to the actuators.

Robin rolled her eyes, and sat on a crate. "That's not an answer," she said. "Come on...I told you about me. I deserve to know a little about you, don't I? Don't need all the details, but still." She smiled reassuringly at him. "I'm an excellent listener."

"That was the short answer," he corrected. "I told you I was a scientist. I specialized in nuclear fusion, and that I created the actuators to help me manipulate fusion experiments. I wanted to be able to create a source of clean, renewable energy for the world, and they were to help me with that. They weren't originally designed to be, well, sentient."

you prefer us this way keep you from getting lonely doing something stupid Flo nuzzled his cheek, and he patted the actuator absently. She wanted to know? He'd tell her.

"There was an... an accident, in the lab one day. Something went wrong, and I didn't shut down the reactor. It very nearly went out of control. My wife..." He shuddered at the memory, seeing the flying glass, hearing Rosie scream in mortal terror... "She was killed in the accident, I was hurt, and the actuators... Well, the next thing I know I'm waking up in the hospital. There had been a surgical team trying to remove the harness from where it was fused to me. I say 'had' because by the time I woke up, the actuators had killed everyone else in the room. Things went downhill from there."

Robin blinked at him, taking in what he had said. She didn't understand a lot of what he'd said--nuclear fusion? That was not something that she knew about, as with most scientific things. "Well..." she started, searching for the right words. "Always had my suspicions when it comes to technology." Then she gave him a rueful smile to show that she didn't really mean it.

"I'm sorry about your wife," she offered. She didn't know much about dealing with human grief--that was usually when she headed the other way. But she figured that something needed to be said to acknowledge his loss. Otto nodded in response, continuing to pet the actuator under his hand. The cool metal, which would feel alien to many people, seemed oddly comforting. He'd gotten used to them over the past year and a half, as he realized there would never be a way to separate himself from them.

"I eventually had to go into hiding and wound up here. That's it, really." Well, there was the bank robbing, the train incident, all that trouble with Spiderman, the second reactor, the river, recovering at Father Everett's little church, spending nine months trying to find a safe place while building up underworld contacts... but he didn't feel like talking about all that right now.

Robin nodded in response. "And you and Mouse just sort of fell in together? Or do you just go around rescuing little girls for the karmic value of it?"

That drew a short laugh from him. "Something like that," Otto told her. "She had apparently been using this place as a hideout before I found it. It was useful for my purposes. I just let her stick around. Though I suppose Doctor Octopus needs all the karmic help he can get."

Robin snorted. "Doctor Octopus. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." She fingered her hair absently. "All these costumed idiots running about...it's ridiculous. And you people find the Coliseum barbaric." She lazily tilted her head to one side.

did she just call us stupid Flo raised her head and hissed slightly at the faerie until Otto waved the actuator down. "She didn't mean it like that," he muttered to her. "Settle down."

"It's a good thing you're doing with her. She needs someone she can trust." Robin smiled softly, taking in the man in front of her. "You're a good man, Otto Octavius. Despite all that's happened to you."

You're a good man, Otto Octavius. Those words made him freeze in place. Slowly, he looked up at Robin.

"No I'm not," he replied. "I've hurt too many people to be a good man."

Robin pondered that over. "Seems to me we all hurt people in our lives," she said. "If we were judged by how many people we hurt, no one could be called a good person. But that's not what matters. What matters is your attitude towards life in general." She kept her eyes on him, looking thoughtful.

"You said you were trying to create clean energy for the world. In this day and time...that's such an important thing to want. Especially with mortals destroying the earth at an ever increasing rate. And that the actuators killed those doctors--not you. All I've seen from you is that you have enough of a heart to want to avenge a little girl that the rest of the world has forgotten." She shifted her weight a bit, leaning towards him.

"There are a hell of a lot of people in this world who would have never done a thing for her, because it made them uncomfortable. People don't see what they don't want to see, and they don't want to see that child and the position she was in. You saw her. A bad man wouldn't have."

He sat there for a long moment, petting Flo. Perhaps Robin had a point. That didn't stop him from hearing screams in his dreams. First it had just been Rosie's screams, and those of the doctors. Then there had been screams of so many others, from his rampage as Doctor Octopus. He'd hurt a lot of people in the last eighteen months And last night, he'd heard screams from the junkies he'd killed, no matter that they'd had it coming to them.

But if those men had continued to hurt Mouse... he would have heard her screams too. Mournful, silent screams of a child whose voice had been scared away from her. There was no doubt in his mind that that would have been even worse.

"I suppose," he said at length.

Robin smiled brightly, in true puck fashion. Her expression said 'see, of course I'm right.' "Besides, I've been around for quite awhile, Doctor Octavius," she said, sliding off of her crate and coming around the table.

She came around to his side, as close to him as she thought the actuators would let her get. "I know a good man when I see one."

The actuators pulled back from her, watching curiously. Was she up to something? They rather hoped she wasn't going to make them disappear again. That had not been fun. She wasn't showing any obvious signs of malice, though. But she was very old, and quite probably a good actress...

"Relax," Otto muttered to them. "If she was going to hurt us she would have done so a long time ago."

Robin watched the actuators with a curious tilt of her head. "Do they talk to you?" she asked, her brain jumping tracks. "How is it exactly that machines think anyway?"

yes of course we talk what does she think we are

"Hush," Otto told them, shaking his head. "Yes, they do speak to me. They have some incredibly advanced artificial intelligence programming. You see, an organism's brain is nothing more than a computer of almost incalculable complexity, with neurons that link to and signal each other. Those signals are thoughts, or commands to other parts of the body. What I did was create a program that mimics the processes that occur billions of times a second in a living brain. Now, I did not intend for them to be sentient, originally. They were designed to be semi-autonomous while linked to my mental control. Basically what I would do before the accident was give them an order- say, move to the left- and their own programming would direct the motors to move them in that direction, but the programming would figure out how to do that by itself. Rather more like how a real octopus controls its limbs than a human does.

"As to how they think... I really don't know. Somehow, the electric shock we received during the accident triggered some sort of sentient intelligence to form in them. I haven't the faintest idea how. They've been self-aware ever since."

Robin blinked, and straightened. She looked very confused for a few moments, then she shook her head. "Umm...alright." She was starting to regret asking the question. Especially since she hadn't understood half the answer.

Otto shook his head, smiling wryly. She didn't understand a word he'd said, evidently. Normally this would irritate him, but somehow he couldn't be annoyed when she was the one confused. After all, what could a faerie know about science? "They're smart because I made them that way," he explained. "They're intelligent because an accident made them that way. Is that better?"

Robin smiled ruefully. "I suppose. Sorry, but my scientific knowledge is about as varied as yours is of folklore. Probably less, actually. Nonetheless, they are very impressive." She had known several scientists over the years, but as a general rule, they bored her.

"I would say right on up there with Tesla's earthquake machine. Granted, that man was mad as a hatter, but he made some amazingly cool toys."

"Ah, Nikola Tesla." Otto grinned, leaning back in his seat and surveying the faerie. "I used to make Tesla coils for fun. And for science fairs. While other students were making volcanoes and bottle rockets and ant farms, I was playing tunes with electrical arc generators. Brilliant man, Tesla."

Robin nodded. "Incredibly brilliant. Like I said though--completely mad, and paranoid to boot. Not to mention as homosexual as one could get. It wasn't fashionable in those days though, so he simply claimed celibacy helped his scientific abilities." She snorted, shaking her head. "Had a nice little affair with Mark Twain. Edison too, which was probably why they had such a nasty falling out. He was quite the showman though. And I do love a good show."

The way she spoke so casually of some of the greatest minds in recent history was astounding. She spoke as if she'd actually known them. Had she?

"I see," he replied. Tesla wasn't the only scientist to be both mad and paranoid- the same could be said for plenty of scientists these days.

something to be said for celibacy fewer distractions

"Yeah," Robin said, twirling a finger around a ball of wire. "What are you doing with all this anyway? Are you a mad scientist in your own right?"

Flo chittered and neatly plucked the wire away from her. don't touch we don't let mouse touch why let you touch no don't

"She wasn't hurting anything," Otto muttered to the actuator.

faerie not human bizarre energy field being emitted don't want it to mess up computers

"She doesn't affect you."

we're special

Otto sighed. "If a man who talks to the voices in his head is mad, then yes. Even if the voices are from four artificially intelligent mechanical tentacles fused to his back. Actually, probably even more so."

Robin thought about that. "Don't suppose it can be madness if the voices are real," she said. "And hell, I have my own voices to deal with." Well, really only the one, but still. All faeries within a Court were telepathically linked to some extent. And they had other ways of detecting each other.

"And if I've ever been accused of anything, it's being mad. I know madness well. I don't think you're quite there yet." She gave him a friendly wink--more in jest than flirting. She had a feeling he wasn't ready for that yet.

"You hear voices?" he asked curiously. He'd rather liked it when she winked at him, though the sensation was a little painful. "Who?"

Robin shrugged. "It's complicated. I'm connected to my lord...suppose you might think of it as a sort of...mental link. When it's completely open, we feel what the other feels. It's kept mostly closed most of the time. But there's a certain amount of connection between all faeries among a Court. I can find pretty much any of the higher fey I want at any given time."

Of course, her connection to Oberon was so much more than just a voice in her head. He could inflict all sorts of damage along that link if he wanted to. Fortunately for her, he rarely wanted to.

"Interesting." He was connected to the actuators, but what was it like to be linked to other living people? It seemed rather unnerving to him. Why would you want other people in your head like that? At least the actuators were alien enough to be perversely comfortable. "Are there many higher fey?"

Robin shrugged. "Yeah, there are. Most of whom don't like me, so I really only worry about my lord and lady. And a rare few others."

Speaking of her lord...Robin rubbed her forehead as a flare of annoyed pain singed behind her eyes. Oberon had been prodding her for over an hour. She had ignored him, and he was getting pissed with her.

"Speaking of my master..." she said, sounding a bit weary, "I think I'll need to go." She gave him a shrug. "I'll pop back by later. Maybe not today, but tomorrow."

He didn't want her to go. But who was he to try to convince her to stay against her master's wishes?

"Tomorrow then," he said reluctantly. "We'll be waiting."

Robin smiled at him, and lightly ran a hand down his arm in farewell. "Sorry. Is there anything you'd like me to bring you when I come back? Being in hiding, must be something that you're missing."

His skin seemed to tingle as she ran her hand down his arm, and all the actuators snapped around to look at her. How was she doing that? Their memories indicated the only person who made Otto feel that way when they touched him was Rosie. She was not Rosie. They liked her, but she was not Rosie. Why should she make him feel like that?

"Ah..." He scrambled to think, get his mind back on track. "If it's not too much to ask... Oreos, and maybe some decent coffee? And... I don't know what Mouse might like."

Robin smiled. "Coffee and Oreos. Check. And I'll think of something for Mouse. I have a few ideas already."

She inclined her head to him, in a show of respect. Then she turned and vanished. Time to appease the master, then she would pick up some goodies for her new friends.

Otto watched her vanish. The actuators did as well, though they watched through different spectra to try and figure out how she did it. Nothing they saw told them much of anything. She just disappeared. Incredible.

strange one this robin

"Very strange," he agreed. And oddly fascinating.

not rosie

No, she wasn't Rosie. Rosie was dead, and a part of him with her. He'd never get that back.

Otto sighed and raised his goggles to rub the bridge of his nose. He did not want to think about that electric touch. He did not want to think about that impish smile. He did not want to think about her.

The memory of the Puck was not so easily shaken.

Description
Chapter 5: Pancakes are Good

Mouse lay still in her bed, her eyes closed. She was trying to remember the dream she had been having when she had woken up. All she remembered was her, Otto and Robin, in a home. A proper home, all together and happy. Like a family.

The smell of bacon prompted her to open her eyes. Robin was entering from nowhere, a bag of food in one hand. "Top of the morning to ya, lassie," she said, smiling broadly at Mouse. "I hope you like pancakes."

Robin nodded to Otto, and began setting the food out on an empty bit of table. Mouse slid out from under her covers, pulling on her oversized shoes as she came over and peeked at the food. Pancakes, bacon, eggs...the two plates Robin had brought them had more food on them than she had seen in a long time. She bit her lip and looked to Otto. He had already been up awhile, it looked like, but then, judging from the sunlight, it was already well into the morning. Mouse frowned, looking up at the dust glittering in the sunbeams. Normally she didn't sleep this late.

Robin smiled and lightly smoothed back a little of Mouse's hair. She had waited until the little one had begun to wake before entering, keeping the food warm via air and Glamour. Robin pulled out two cartons of milk for Mouse, and a hot coffee for Otto, and jumped up to sit on a crate while they ate. "Bon appetite, as they say," she said with a smile.

An actuator closed its claws around the mug of coffee and brought it to the tousle-haired scientist. He looked at it with a slight frown.

"Alright," he said at last. It was real coffee- pretty good coffee, actually- and physically there. "How are you doing all this, Robin? How do you just make things appear?"

Robin raised an eyebrow at him. "The food is from a diner up the block. But I can "make things appear" with my Glamour." She held up a hand, letting sparks of green circle it for a few moments. "I suppose it's really...convincing the air that it wants to be something else."

She reached over, and helped Mouse open a syrup container. The child looked to have been struggling, and Robin suspected that it would have erupted all over her clothes had she managed to get it open in its former position. Robin handed it back to her with a wink, and sat back. Mouse smiled at her, and proceeded to dump the syrup over her pancakes. Her eyes were nearly as big as the pancakes themselves.

Convincing the air it was something else... Otto thought he would greatly prefer it if she didn't tell him when she did that. He was much more comfortable with the idea that she was teleporting things from someplace else.

atomic conversion of atmospheric elements to other substances shouldn't be possible not possible this girl breaks way too many laws of physics

He stifled a snort of laughter at Flo's comment and leaned over to help Mouse cut up her pancakes. Mo, meanwhile, gave his 'sister' a look that could be termed a glare and drifted over to Robin, nudging her hand.

"She might not like that," he told the actuator.

Robin shook her head and petted Mo. "I don't mind," she said. She looked at Mouse, who reclaimed her fork from Otto, and took her first bite of pancakes. Robin watched with a grin as Mouse's eyes got impossibly bigger.

"Mmm," she sounded, swaying happily back and forth in her seat. Robin couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm just surprised they're not plotting how to take you to pieces," Otto muttered. "This friendly streak of theirs is new."

weren't mean were never mean only sought to protect you

Robin half shrugged at him, and turned her attention back to Mouse. "You like it then?" she asked, as Mouse dug her fork back into the pile. The girl got a huge chunk of pancake with the fork, and shoved it all in her mouth.

Mouse nodded, her mouth stuffed with pancakes. Robin shook her head and opened one of the little cartoons of milk, putting a straw inside. "Careful not to choke," she said, pushing the milk over to the girl.

Otto helped himself to a plate, picking at it the food. As cozy as all this was, as pleasant as it was, there were still issues. Not the least of which was how he was supposed to raise a child, particularly in these surroundings. Hell, they were hardly fitting for him to live in, much less Mouse. What would they do when it got cold? And what happened if, God forbid, Mouse's mother went to the police and renewed their search for him? What if he went out one day and got nabbed? Or killed? What would happen to Mouse then?

Robin shook her head at him. Tapping Mo's head, she leaned back and crossed her legs. "This is a no worry zone, mister," Robin said with a mock stern look. She looked over at Mouse. "Isn't that right, little one?" The child looked at Otto, taking in his expression, and nodded her agreement.

The faerie gave Otto a smile. "It'll sort out," she said confidently.

Absently cutting up a pancake with the edge of his fork, he raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh?" he said dryly, "You read minds now, do you?" Was that how she'd picked out the people who had hurt Mouse last night?

stay out of our heads do not want you there too much in here too many voices

Besides, why shouldn't he worry? Someone here had to deal with reality. Mouse was a child, so she wasn't able to—and shouldn't have to. And as for Robin... Otto rather doubted a faerie had the same grasp on reality as a human.

"No," Robin admitted. "Never been much for the mind reading." She cocked her head to one side lazily, studying him. "But you seem like a man who's good with coming up with solutions to problems. The clever sort. And I'm a bit clever myself. Not to mention the magic. I'm sure between the pair of us, we can sort something out."

Mouse finally got down her mouthful of pancakes, and sipped her milk happily. It was still cold. She bounced in her seat, swinging her legs back and forth. This felt right. It was even like her dream.

"I hope so." He sipped at his coffee for a moment. Why was all of this happening now?

Damnit , he was worrying too much. He needed to distract himself before his mind started going in circles. Fortunately, he had a fine distraction sitting right there across from him.

"So, Robin. Can you tell me about yourself?"

Robin shrugged. "What do you want to know? Nothing so special about me." Then she laughed. "Ah hell, I don't do modesty well. Or at all. I'm The Puck of the Seelie Court. One of the most important jobs there is in this world. I serve my lord Oberon and generally...have a good time."

She pulled a ball from her pocket and started tossing it back and forth. "That's about it really. Not that much to tell."

"The Puck, you say." Otto tilted his head slightly as if to get a better view of her. He didn't really need to, however, as Flo was feeding him a far more detailed image than he could ever see on his own. "Is that a title? A position? Rank?"

Oberon. He remembered that name vaguely. He was the king of the faeries, wasn't he?

"What are you doing here in New York? I thought you were more Old World than New."

"It's...complicated. It's sort of a title, and sort of a position. Though, I've held it for so long that it scarcely matters." Robin reached over and snagged a piece of bacon from Otto's plate. He was mostly pushing the food around anyway. "And this is more of a break than anything permanent. Britannia is wonderful, and I get around Europe. But some of the best cities for fun are in the States. Though, most of it can't compare with the old days. The days of Bacchus and Roman soldiers..." Robin's eyes slid to Mouse, and she shook herself away from the story that came to mind. She munched on the bacon and smirked wickedly to Otto. He was a grown man—let his imagination run with that thought.

hey that was our bacon how dare you take our bacon

Flo squawked indignantly as Robin munched on the piece of bacon she'd stolen from Otto's plate.

"Let her have it," he told the actuator. "I wasn't going to eat it anyway. Not particularly hungry." He'd never really been one for breakfast, usually not feeling hungry until later in the day. Coffee, though, coffee was always good.

"How long have you been the Puck?"

"Oh, a long while," Robin said. She shook her head a little, her eyes old. "Such a long time." Then she smiled, and looked at him. "But then, it's not polite to ask a woman her age. Let's just round it off with I remember watching Rome being built and partying in Pompeii."

And such a city that had been...though she tried not to think about being shaken from a lover's arms by the rumbling of a volcano and the screams of terror at her back as she fled the doomed city.

"Very true. My apologies." There was an odd look in her eyes as she spoke of Pompeii. She was probably recalling its destruction. Good God, the history she must know, the things she must have seen. Otto was a scientist and not a historian, but even he was intrigued. Pompeii and Rome... that put her at a couple millenia at the very least.

He rested his elbows on the table, steepling his fingers. "Tell me one more thing, Robin," he said. Pretty name, Robin. Robin Goodfellow. "Do you often assist convicted criminals in avenging wrongs done to abused little girls?"

Robin pursed her lips, as if pondering the question. "Can't say that I do," she said. Then she smiled. "But that's part of why I did it. There are so few new things left in the world. You intrigued me."

She saw Mouse freeze, and put down her fork. Granted the portion of half-eaten pancakes was probably more than enough to fill up the little girl. But it was also possible that Otto's casual use of the word 'abused' had reminded the child of why she was here. If Robin could have, she might have smacked the man over the back of his head.

Robin reached into an inner pocket of her jacket, and pulled out a pad of drawing paper and a box of crayons. She sat it at the girl's elbow, nudging it over. "Noticed your other ones got a bit wet," she said, hoping to distract her.

Larry also caught Mouse's reaction and nudged Otto hard in the shoulder. He grimaced. How was he supposed to have known that word would set her off? He wasn't exactly a child psychologist. Hell, he wasn't any kind of psychologist, apart from a few bits and pieces he'd picked up.

"I'm sorry, Mouse," he said, though he wasn't entirely certain what he was apologizing for. Larry nuzzled her shoulder, making a chittering sound rather like a purr.

Mouse decided to ignore Otto for now, as acknowledging his apology would mean letting what he had said stir in her mind. Abused. She wasn't sure of what the word meant, but she could guess. It could mean any number of things. Stupid. Retard. Broken. All of which she was. Why should it be any different if Otto said it than Devon or her mother?

So she patted Larry's head, and picked up her milk and the gift from Robin, and hopped off her chair. She went and sat on a crate near her bed, and opened the drawing pad to a fresh page.

Otto grimaced again. Fantastic. Now she was upset, and he wasn't even entirely certain why, apart from the fact that it was obviously something he said.

"Help, please," he muttered to Robin. "What did I do?"

Robin moved around the table, to speak softer to him. "My guess would be labeling her an 'abused little girl'," she said. "Though I doubt she really knows what that means. She's probably just roped that in with all of the other labels people have put on her. And given her home life, I would bet none of those were particularly good."

Especially with her being mute. She had probably been called some terrible things, by those horrible people. Ah well. May all the torments they had inflicted on others be revisited on them in the afterlife.

She watched Mouse for a few moments, the girl's head bent in fierce concentration. "It might be better not to say anything. Or you might at least want to point out to her that being abused is not something that really has to do with her. It's not something she did. Maybe try to perk up her self esteem a little. Course, that will just take time." But it would happen, so long as she was with someone like Otto, who actually gave a damn.

"Right..." Stupid, stupid doctor. Otto went to Mouse's side, using the actuators to help him kneel next to her. Probably not a good position to be in- chances were he'd just get stuck, and that would be rather embarrassing in front of Robin- but he stood over six feet when he slouched, and he didn't want to tower over Mouse right now.

"Mouse," he said softly, using the gentlest tone he could manage. "Look at me, please?" He tugged his goggles up over his eyes, squinting a little in pain against the light.

Robin noticed the squint of pain, and twirled a finger, bringing the lights down to a more comfortable level for him. It incredibly welcome. Otto still had to squint a little, but at least he could see without his eyes tearing up. Now he just had to figure out how to explain this to a- how old was she, anyway? Six, maybe seven? Scrawny as she was, it was hard to tell.

Mouse hesitated, but she couldn't refuse Otto. She stopped her coloring, and looked up at him. There was a slightly guarded look in her eye, as though she expected to either be fussed at or worse.

"What did I say that upset you? Was it the 'abused little girl' comment?" He didn't like that guarded look in her eyes, and could have kicked himself for causing it.

Mouse just looked at him. Why was he prodding it? Whatever he had meant, it was probably true. It had been said--the words were out there.

Robin rolled her eyes behind Otto's back. Such a typical adult. Did it matter what had upset her? She was a hurt little girl who had probably never been told that she was worth anything in this world. All of Robin's presents wouldn't mean squat if someone she trusted didn't start telling her that she was better than all she'd been through. Even then, it would be an uphill battle.

But she bit her tongue, and let him continue. Better not to interfere, at this point.

Otto took her hand in his as Larry looped around to nuzzle her cheek. Flo spotted Robin's eyeroll and clicked disparagingly. Otto knew what he was doing. He was just a scientist, checking all the possible alternatives.

"You've done nothing wrong," he said softly. "'Abused' doesn't mean that you're a bad person, Mouse. It just means that people have been hurting you for a long time, because something is wrong with them. Not you. You're my clever little Mouse, and those people are never going to hurt you again."

Mouse looked down. Clever? Her? Surely she wasn't clever. She was too stupid to speak and Devon always said so. But then again...he said a lot of things. Maybe Otto was right? He was very smart, after all. She couldn't read or anything, but she did know the best places to scavenge. Maybe she was a little clever.

Mouse peeked up at Otto through her hair. She played with her crayon for a moment, then sat it and the paper aside. Reaching up, she gave him a hug. Mouse was coming to like Otto's hugs.

He hugged her back, kissing the top of her head briefly before pulling back. "That's my Mouse," he said fondly. "Better now?"

She pulled back, and smiled at him. Mouse gave him a little nod, and tucked a bit of hair out of her face.

Robin smiled to herself. Well...there was a surprise. The man knew a thing or two after all.

Mouse started to pick back up her crayons, but then thought better of it. Hopping off the crate, she gathered her bag, double-checking to make sure all of the bottles were inside. She had already lost good time this morning. It was better to try and get to the good spots early, before it got too hot and before anyone else could get there. Maybe she could find Otto some Oreos today.

Larry nuzzled her as she went about getting ready to go out on whatever it was she did- bottle scrounging, wasn't it? It was a rather clever idea for such a young child to come up with.

"Be careful out there," Otto said, pushing a crayon away from the edge of the crate before it could roll off. He didn't mind her going out, so long as she was careful. She still had things to do, routines to keep, and at the end of the day, she'd be back. "Back in before dark, alright?"

Mouse nodded and waved at them, before scooting out of her exit. She knew better than to stay out after dark.

Robin watched her go, a little curious. "Want me to go with her?" she asked Otto. "I can keep out of sight easily enough." She had her qualms over just letting a child out in the city, though clearly Otto didn't.

"She does this every day," Otto said with a slight shrug. "She'll be alright. She's lasted this long, hasn't she? Besides, she'd be both bored and unhappy if I kept her in all the time." He looked after her, sliding his goggles back over his eyes. "Doesn't mean I won't worry about her though."

The actuators clicked among themselves as they helped him back to his feet. Otto grimaced a little as his leg gave a twinge, but he'd certainly felt worse. It just didn't like him getting on the ground.

Robin studied him, and nodded. "True." She debated whether she should hang around, or wander off for a bit. But he intrigued her, and she'd not yet had a chance to talk to him properly, with no little ears around.

"Well then, doctor--how is it that you came to be here? Seems to me anyone half as brilliant as you could make their own way in the world just fine."

He went back to his seat and grimaced, sinking into it. "Them," he replied, gesturing to the actuators.

Robin rolled her eyes, and sat on a crate. "That's not an answer," she said. "Come on...I told you about me. I deserve to know a little about you, don't I? Don't need all the details, but still." She smiled reassuringly at him. "I'm an excellent listener."

"That was the short answer," he corrected. "I told you I was a scientist. I specialized in nuclear fusion, and that I created the actuators to help me manipulate fusion experiments. I wanted to be able to create a source of clean, renewable energy for the world, and they were to help me with that. They weren't originally designed to be, well, sentient."

you prefer us this way keep you from getting lonely doing something stupid Flo nuzzled his cheek, and he patted the actuator absently. She wanted to know? He'd tell her.

"There was an... an accident, in the lab one day. Something went wrong, and I didn't shut down the reactor. It very nearly went out of control. My wife..." He shuddered at the memory, seeing the flying glass, hearing Rosie scream in mortal terror... "She was killed in the accident, I was hurt, and the actuators... Well, the next thing I know I'm waking up in the hospital. There had been a surgical team trying to remove the harness from where it was fused to me. I say 'had' because by the time I woke up, the actuators had killed everyone else in the room. Things went downhill from there."

Robin blinked at him, taking in what he had said. She didn't understand a lot of what he'd said--nuclear fusion? That was not something that she knew about, as with most scientific things. "Well..." she started, searching for the right words. "Always had my suspicions when it comes to technology." Then she gave him a rueful smile to show that she didn't really mean it.

"I'm sorry about your wife," she offered. She didn't know much about dealing with human grief--that was usually when she headed the other way. But she figured that something needed to be said to acknowledge his loss. Otto nodded in response, continuing to pet the actuator under his hand. The cool metal, which would feel alien to many people, seemed oddly comforting. He'd gotten used to them over the past year and a half, as he realized there would never be a way to separate himself from them.

"I eventually had to go into hiding and wound up here. That's it, really." Well, there was the bank robbing, the train incident, all that trouble with Spiderman, the second reactor, the river, recovering at Father Everett's little church, spending nine months trying to find a safe place while building up underworld contacts... but he didn't feel like talking about all that right now.

Robin nodded in response. "And you and Mouse just sort of fell in together? Or do you just go around rescuing little girls for the karmic value of it?"

That drew a short laugh from him. "Something like that," Otto told her. "She had apparently been using this place as a hideout before I found it. It was useful for my purposes. I just let her stick around. Though I suppose Doctor Octopus needs all the karmic help he can get."

Robin snorted. "Doctor Octopus. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." She fingered her hair absently. "All these costumed idiots running about...it's ridiculous. And you people find the Coliseum barbaric." She lazily tilted her head to one side.

did she just call us stupid Flo raised her head and hissed slightly at the faerie until Otto waved the actuator down. "She didn't mean it like that," he muttered to her. "Settle down."

"It's a good thing you're doing with her. She needs someone she can trust." Robin smiled softly, taking in the man in front of her. "You're a good man, Otto Octavius. Despite all that's happened to you."

You're a good man, Otto Octavius. Those words made him freeze in place. Slowly, he looked up at Robin.

"No I'm not," he replied. "I've hurt too many people to be a good man."

Robin pondered that over. "Seems to me we all hurt people in our lives," she said. "If we were judged by how many people we hurt, no one could be called a good person. But that's not what matters. What matters is your attitude towards life in general." She kept her eyes on him, looking thoughtful.

"You said you were trying to create clean energy for the world. In this day and time...that's such an important thing to want. Especially with mortals destroying the earth at an ever increasing rate. And that the actuators killed those doctors--not you. All I've seen from you is that you have enough of a heart to want to avenge a little girl that the rest of the world has forgotten." She shifted her weight a bit, leaning towards him.

"There are a hell of a lot of people in this world who would have never done a thing for her, because it made them uncomfortable. People don't see what they don't want to see, and they don't want to see that child and the position she was in. You saw her. A bad man wouldn't have."

He sat there for a long moment, petting Flo. Perhaps Robin had a point. That didn't stop him from hearing screams in his dreams. First it had just been Rosie's screams, and those of the doctors. Then there had been screams of so many others, from his rampage as Doctor Octopus. He'd hurt a lot of people in the last eighteen months And last night, he'd heard screams from the junkies he'd killed, no matter that they'd had it coming to them.

But if those men had continued to hurt Mouse... he would have heard her screams too. Mournful, silent screams of a child whose voice had been scared away from her. There was no doubt in his mind that that would have been even worse.

"I suppose," he said at length.

Robin smiled brightly, in true puck fashion. Her expression said 'see, of course I'm right.' "Besides, I've been around for quite awhile, Doctor Octavius," she said, sliding off of her crate and coming around the table.

She came around to his side, as close to him as she thought the actuators would let her get. "I know a good man when I see one."

The actuators pulled back from her, watching curiously. Was she up to something? They rather hoped she wasn't going to make them disappear again. That had not been fun. She wasn't showing any obvious signs of malice, though. But she was very old, and quite probably a good actress...

"Relax," Otto muttered to them. "If she was going to hurt us she would have done so a long time ago."

Robin watched the actuators with a curious tilt of her head. "Do they talk to you?" she asked, her brain jumping tracks. "How is it exactly that machines think anyway?"

yes of course we talk what does she think we are

"Hush," Otto told them, shaking his head. "Yes, they do speak to me. They have some incredibly advanced artificial intelligence programming. You see, an organism's brain is nothing more than a computer of almost incalculable complexity, with neurons that link to and signal each other. Those signals are thoughts, or commands to other parts of the body. What I did was create a program that mimics the processes that occur billions of times a second in a living brain. Now, I did not intend for them to be sentient, originally. They were designed to be semi-autonomous while linked to my mental control. Basically what I would do before the accident was give them an order- say, move to the left- and their own programming would direct the motors to move them in that direction, but the programming would figure out how to do that by itself. Rather more like how a real octopus controls its limbs than a human does.

"As to how they think... I really don't know. Somehow, the electric shock we received during the accident triggered some sort of sentient intelligence to form in them. I haven't the faintest idea how. They've been self-aware ever since."

Robin blinked, and straightened. She looked very confused for a few moments, then she shook her head. "Umm...alright." She was starting to regret asking the question. Especially since she hadn't understood half the answer.

Otto shook his head, smiling wryly. She didn't understand a word he'd said, evidently. Normally this would irritate him, but somehow he couldn't be annoyed when she was the one confused. After all, what could a faerie know about science? "They're smart because I made them that way," he explained. "They're intelligent because an accident made them that way. Is that better?"

Robin smiled ruefully. "I suppose. Sorry, but my scientific knowledge is about as varied as yours is of folklore. Probably less, actually. Nonetheless, they are very impressive." She had known several scientists over the years, but as a general rule, they bored her.

"I would say right on up there with Tesla's earthquake machine. Granted, that man was mad as a hatter, but he made some amazingly cool toys."

"Ah, Nikola Tesla." Otto grinned, leaning back in his seat and surveying the faerie. "I used to make Tesla coils for fun. And for science fairs. While other students were making volcanoes and bottle rockets and ant farms, I was playing tunes with electrical arc generators. Brilliant man, Tesla."

Robin nodded. "Incredibly brilliant. Like I said though--completely mad, and paranoid to boot. Not to mention as homosexual as one could get. It wasn't fashionable in those days though, so he simply claimed celibacy helped his scientific abilities." She snorted, shaking her head. "Had a nice little affair with Mark Twain. Edison too, which was probably why they had such a nasty falling out. He was quite the showman though. And I do love a good show."

The way she spoke so casually of some of the greatest minds in recent history was astounding. She spoke as if she'd actually known them. Had she?

"I see," he replied. Tesla wasn't the only scientist to be both mad and paranoid- the same could be said for plenty of scientists these days.

something to be said for celibacy fewer distractions

"Yeah," Robin said, twirling a finger around a ball of wire. "What are you doing with all this anyway? Are you a mad scientist in your own right?"

Flo chittered and neatly plucked the wire away from her. don't touch we don't let mouse touch why let you touch no don't

"She wasn't hurting anything," Otto muttered to the actuator.

faerie not human bizarre energy field being emitted don't want it to mess up computers

"She doesn't affect you."

we're special

Otto sighed. "If a man who talks to the voices in his head is mad, then yes. Even if the voices are from four artificially intelligent mechanical tentacles fused to his back. Actually, probably even more so."

Robin thought about that. "Don't suppose it can be madness if the voices are real," she said. "And hell, I have my own voices to deal with." Well, really only the one, but still. All faeries within a Court were telepathically linked to some extent. And they had other ways of detecting each other.

"And if I've ever been accused of anything, it's being mad. I know madness well. I don't think you're quite there yet." She gave him a friendly wink--more in jest than flirting. She had a feeling he wasn't ready for that yet.

"You hear voices?" he asked curiously. He'd rather liked it when she winked at him, though the sensation was a little painful. "Who?"

Robin shrugged. "It's complicated. I'm connected to my lord...suppose you might think of it as a sort of...mental link. When it's completely open, we feel what the other feels. It's kept mostly closed most of the time. But there's a certain amount of connection between all faeries among a Court. I can find pretty much any of the higher fey I want at any given time."

Of course, her connection to Oberon was so much more than just a voice in her head. He could inflict all sorts of damage along that link if he wanted to. Fortunately for her, he rarely wanted to.

"Interesting." He was connected to the actuators, but what was it like to be linked to other living people? It seemed rather unnerving to him. Why would you want other people in your head like that? At least the actuators were alien enough to be perversely comfortable. "Are there many higher fey?"

Robin shrugged. "Yeah, there are. Most of whom don't like me, so I really only worry about my lord and lady. And a rare few others."

Speaking of her lord...Robin rubbed her forehead as a flare of annoyed pain singed behind her eyes. Oberon had been prodding her for over an hour. She had ignored him, and he was getting pissed with her.

"Speaking of my master..." she said, sounding a bit weary, "I think I'll need to go." She gave him a shrug. "I'll pop back by later. Maybe not today, but tomorrow."

He didn't want her to go. But who was he to try to convince her to stay against her master's wishes?

"Tomorrow then," he said reluctantly. "We'll be waiting."

Robin smiled at him, and lightly ran a hand down his arm in farewell. "Sorry. Is there anything you'd like me to bring you when I come back? Being in hiding, must be something that you're missing."

His skin seemed to tingle as she ran her hand down his arm, and all the actuators snapped around to look at her. How was she doing that? Their memories indicated the only person who made Otto feel that way when they touched him was Rosie. She was not Rosie. They liked her, but she was not Rosie. Why should she make him feel like that?

"Ah..." He scrambled to think, get his mind back on track. "If it's not too much to ask... Oreos, and maybe some decent coffee? And... I don't know what Mouse might like."

Robin smiled. "Coffee and Oreos. Check. And I'll think of something for Mouse. I have a few ideas already."

She inclined her head to him, in a show of respect. Then she turned and vanished. Time to appease the master, then she would pick up some goodies for her new friends.

Otto watched her vanish. The actuators did as well, though they watched through different spectra to try and figure out how she did it. Nothing they saw told them much of anything. She just disappeared. Incredible.

strange one this robin

"Very strange," he agreed. And oddly fascinating.

not rosie

No, she wasn't Rosie. Rosie was dead, and a part of him with her. He'd never get that back.

Otto sighed and raised his goggles to rub the bridge of his nose. He did not want to think about that electric touch. He did not want to think about that impish smile. He did not want to think about her.

The memory of the Puck was not so easily shaken.