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[amicably_absent]

Glitch had swum for hours, chasing fish and insects and bubbles and sunbeams. Eventually, worn out and tired, he had swum to shore and curled up on the bank on the sun warmed pebbles, grumbling about his lack of coat until he fell asleep.

He woke up with Rennie shaking him, a scolding voice telling him he had to come in, he was all wet and dirty and needed a bath and clean clothes, and was she going to have to strap him in the chair.

Glitch reacted predictably.

He screamed at her, judo flipped her while sitting down, dove into the water, swam to a far edge and took off.

Rennie asked Cain to go find Glitch and bring him in before he froze or hurt himself.

Glitch had retreated to the rotunda, sitting on the seat and swinging himself back and forth, watching the sun setting on the lake. He was soaking wet again, but his trembling didn't seem to worry him at all.

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Cain does sigh this time around, but sets off not even a second later. "Glitch?"

He skids to a halt beside the clumsy former Advisor, kneeling on the floor to check him over. Nothing broken, he hopes.

"Glitch, are you all right?"

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His legs were tangled against the wall, on his back and rubbing his head. "Ow. I think I bumped my head and my bum hurts."

Rennie stops behind them and sighs.

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"Let me have a look," he says softly, lifting his hand to brush away tousled, dark curls, trying his best not to linger. Especially not with an audience.

Sure enough, there's a pale pink splotch of color on Glitch's forehead, closer to his zipper than Cain cares to think, and if he knows anything about bumps, it will raise before long.

"I told you to draw a bath for yourself." He only musters a slightly reproaching tone of voice, before hooking his arms under Glitch's, heaving him up off the floor. "Come on. Let's get you cleaned up." Looking at Rennie.

"Shall we?"

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"You said you were going to give.... someone a piece of your mind, and I came to stop you, because even missing a little of your noggin is bad!" He staggers and then balances, rubbing his head, then his butt. "I think I slipped because my feet are wet."

Rennie sighs. "Come on, Mister Ambrose. I'll run a bath and then come and get you both some dinner."

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"It's a figure of speech." Helping him on his way, Cain heads back to Glitch's rooms. Then, giving Rennie a look as they walk along.

"What would you like to eat, Glitch?"

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"I was worried." He walks with soft slaps, tracing back the muddy footsteps.

"Um... An apple. And some bread. Oh, do we have muglug?"

"I can rustle up some muglug," Rennie offers.

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"Just some coffee for me, please." He ventures a small smile, glad to see the nurse's effort.

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"And coffee for Mister Cain. I'll just go ahead and get the bath running then and you can make sure he gets in while I get dinner."

Well, it's a start from her. She hurries ahead of them.

Glitch leans in. "Wyatt? Who is she?"

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"She's your caretaker. Nurse Rennie." Cain watches her go. "She's a very nice young woman, who's going to fuss over you while you get better. Top of her class at school, and everything."

He suspects he might be something of a culprit, with his negative view of her, and Glitch's inability to remember who she is. He'll make an effort to change that.

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"I don't need a caretaker," Glitch protests. "I'm plenty better, even since they put my marbles back. They said if it goes well, a viewer might come down with Ambrose," he states happily. "Though... it would be useful to have... a doohickey, that simulates the viewer link..." He pushes his fingers together, stopping and staring off into space.

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"Some sort of interface?"

What? You pick stuff up when you spend time with a former engineer. "I'm sure you could invent something suitable."

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He looked up, the bright, almost manic energy subdued as he watches Wyatt. "I'm sure I can sort it out eventually. Just a bit of an uphill fight some days." He sighs and starts walking again. "It'll be worth it though, not having to lug around the jar and a viewer everywhere."

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The small, infinitesimal hairs on the back of his neck stand straight up, but it's not an entirely bad feeling. Just...something crackling in the air.

"Yeah... No one to invade your privacy by necessity."

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"It's..." he shrugs. "My feet are sore." He keeps walking, rubbing his arms. "I think maybe I walked a lot."

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"I think you did, just by looking at your feet." He shrugs, keeping one arm around Glitch's back, just to be safe rather than sorry.

"You had a good day, though."

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"Mm." He shrugs and leans in against Cain. "I don't remember. I swam a lot. With you."

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He looks Glitch's way, wondering just what would cause such...familiar tranquility. "So you remember something, at least. Wasn't that part of the day good?"

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"It was. So was the wood chopping." He gives Cain a cheeky, tight smile just outside his room.

Inside, there's water running and Rennie is cleaning up the mud. "Mister Ambrose, where's your soap? And shampoo? And the shaving cream?"

"The what?"

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Cain looks from Rennie to Glitch and back again, brain working over the age old dilemma of whether to lie for his friend, or tell the truth. He fills the momentary silence with a shrug of shoulders and eyebrows both, mouth opening on the tail end of a moue. Even the straight and narrow has its fair share of wobbly bits.

"Some of the things in there made me sneeze up a storm, Miss. Ambrose was good enough to dispose of a few things for my benefit." Glancing at Glitch with the hint of a smile. "Maybe one too many things."

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"Oh, the flowery stuff!" Glitch beams at her. "I threw it out the window. It made my nose itch and I don't like it much."

Rennie's mild disposition hardens just a bit and her eye twitches.

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Over here, Cain stifles a sigh of frustration. Of course Glitch couldn't let him take the blame.

"Terribly sorry."

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Rennie nods slowly. "All right. I'll go and find some other toiletries then. Please make sure the bath doesn't over run."

She leaves in a swish of skirts.

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He waits until the door closes behind the two of them on the young nurse's way out, then lets out a breath he didn't even know he was holding in.

"So much for getting into her good graces, huh..."

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"Well it was true, and I don't want her stocking me up on it again." He starts pulling at his shirt, tugging it off and over his head without bothering with the buttons. It was how he got on in the first place, afterall.

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And suddenly, from the involuntary way in which his eyes zoom in on the pale, unbelievably smooth skin, Cain doesn't know which way to turn. Doesn't know where to look but away.

"Good thinking."