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[mothmansplaining]

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"Stanford Pines. Leave a message."

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[mothmansplaining]

All right. There's plenty of places we can go that are good for eating and for private conversations. ...ha ha, you're not just using me for Enclosure access, are you?

[This is a tease. It's a little weak (which, for Ford, just means delivered with a normal human amount of bombast) but very obviously teasing. They're far enough past it that Ford's comfortable making jokes about Bill using him to get access to Warden-only things.]

[tetractys]

NAH.

[A small, tired eye-smile from Bill. Okay. Yep. That one hurt more than usual but he deserves it.]

YOU PICK, I DON'T REALLY CARE WHERE!

[He's gonna try to steer them towards the door and stairs though.]

[mothmansplaining]

[Oh. He'd expected Bill to play back, there -- an over-the-top game, an extended joke that Bill's been flirting with Ford to get into the restricted parts of the ship, ha ha oh no the flirting had ~ulterior motives~! But that's clearly not what's happening here. Ford's face falls. Whatever they have to talk about must be very, very serious.

He really hopes this doesn't mean the multiverse is going to be on the line again.]

Okay, then.

[Alright alright he's going. Ford runs through his own memories, looking for a good place to talk. Somewhere quiet, with as few bad memories as possible for them both. He'll think of something by the time they get there.]

[tetractys]

[Bill talks while they walk, apparently trying to get the small-talk out of the way. Or at least raise the mood a little maybe?]

HOW WAS, EH, VACATION?

[mothmansplaining]

Nice! It was nice.

I got to meet the X-Men. Some of them, anyway.

[tetractys]

YOU MEET ANY GOOD ONES?

[Good here meaning "has rad powers" or "would be useful to our project."]

[mothmansplaining]

Oh, a few. Mostly, I was pretty busy keeping an eye on Laura's clone sister, but before she left, she did introduce me to Hank McCoy.

[From Ford's tone, the introduction went really well. Friendly acquaintance, at the very least.]

Who was able to help me replace some of the equipment I lost.

[tetractys]

AH, HEY, GOOD! WHAT'D YOU GET?

[Loot! Delicious science loot. Bill pauses at the elevator, pushes the button.]

[mothmansplaining]

Oh, just a few things that could fit in a suitcase. You know, a quark collector, a molecular sequencer, a quantum regulator...

[He grins.]

I think, if I put them together, I might have everything I need for a dimensional stabilizer.

[You know. A thing that a ship that sails between dimensions needs for its passengers to make the trip alive.]

[tetractys]

[Bill's pupil turns into an exclamation point.]

OH, WAY AHEAD OF SCHEDULE! FORDSY, THAT'S FANTASTIC!

[Usually this would be accompanied by spinning but they both have trays...]

[mothmansplaining]

Isn't it?

[He's just as happy. Ford isn't interested in pursuing the graduation route for fulfilling his dreams: one, it's a fucked up system and he doesn't like it, and two, he has no confidence in his ability to rehabilitate an inmate. So being able to make progress on independent transdimensional travel is very, very exciting.]

It's still going to be a long and complicated project. But I really think I can do it.

[tetractys]

YOU'VE MADE TWO PORTALS, THAT'S THE BEST PRACTICE THERE IS!... FOR HALF OF IT!

[The other half is making a working spaceship. How hard can it be?

Ha ha

Ha.

The elevator dings and Bill scoots inside.]

[mothmansplaining]

Eh, how hard can it be?

[Working spaceships are way easier than transdimensional calculations, right? They've just got to be airtight, stable, contain the necessary propulsion systems... All kinds of universes without dimensional technology achieved space travel. It'll be fine!

He follows Bill. Doop doop, taking the elevator.

Again, the worry flickers across his mind that this interdimensional ship plan doesn't involve Bill. But surely Bill isn't trying to get rid of him. Not now, after they've been through so much -- after Bill did so much to make sure Ford stuck around. Nah. That can't be it.]

burning mention, really pretty rude joke about RL deaths

[tetractys]

WELL, THE REASON WE JUST ENDED UP FAKING IT IN THE SIXTIES WAS THAT ALL OF OUR TESTS HAD JUST GIVEN US AN EXPENSIVE WAY TO COOK ASTRONAUTS.

[Door opens back up! Here we are.]

BUUUT, EARTH TECHNOLOGY ISN'T ANYTHING. WE ALL KNOW THIS!

[mothmansplaining]

I've been to plenty of dimensions that had it. Even if I hadn't, there's people here who go to space. All the time! I bet there's all kinds of technical manuals in the library.

[Ford crosses to the Enclosure door and shifts the tray so he can hold it with one hand, bracing it against a hip. He wiggles his fingers in front of the keypad, as if warming them up.]

Okay. Where are we going to go?

[Hm. Hm hm hm. It's their conversation up till now that makes Ford decide what he does: he programs in a space station, but one of the ones with artificial gravity so they can eat without anything floating off. It's all gleaming chrome and an enormous domed window with a beautiful view of an endless starfield with the arm of a spiral galaxy snaking through it.]

This'll work.

[tetractys]

[Bill is peering over his shoulder.]

OOH, YEAH! INFINITE VOID!

[One spaceship to another isn't what Bill would pick but eh, it's all backdrop. He sobers as he floats through the door and finds a place to set up.]

[mothmansplaining]

[There are seats around a low table near the center of the room, and a bar along the far wall. Ford settles at the table.
He feels a touch on-edge, too much to immediately dig into the food they brought.]

[tetractys]

[Bill sets his tray down, perches on the back of the chair.]

UH, SO.

[How to ... start this.]

LEMME ASK YOU SOMETHING THAT'S A LITTLE PERSONAL. BUT IT'S GOT A POINT, I PROMISE!

[mothmansplaining]

Okay.

[He's listening.]

[tetractys]

HOW'D YOU GET OVER BEING ANGRY AT ME?

[mothmansplaining]

[He blinks, surprised and caught off-guard by the question.]

Well, I...I admit, it wasn't easy. It, ah...it took a lot of time. Time I spent with you. Realizing that you'd changed -- become someone who didn't intend to harm me again, if you could help it. Someone who'd take more care with that than I ever thought possible!

[Bill's been good to him, lately. Better than some. Better than most, actually.]

[tetractys]

BECAUSE IT WAS ALREADY OVER, RIGHT? IT WAS OVER WHEN I DIED.

[Bill glances up, but otherwise is staring determinedly at his tray. He has tea, a little pile of loose salt (?) and a hamburger, which he is dissecting into its component layers.]

[mothmansplaining]

[When he looks up, he'll see that Ford looks very confused.]

What was over, Bill?

[Seriously. He has no idea what Bill is talking about.]

[tetractys]

THE, YOU KNOW, THIS GAME! THE THING WE USED TO DO.

[mothmansplaining]

[Ford's mouth opens, then shuts and twists.]

Bill, I don't know how to tell you this in a way you'll actually believe, but fighting you was never a game for me.

[He has said it before, and he will say it again, even if it feels like talking to a brick wall.]

I know that's how you saw it, because you were so sure no one would ever defeat you. It was...fun, for you, to watch me get closer to doing it. To know that I was obsessed with bringing you down. But it wasn't fun for me.

[He hadn't been happy. Driven isn't the same as happy.

He doesn't have high hopes for Bill getting it this time, though. Bill always brushes it off, and it's not the hill Ford's going to die on.]