Chapter 24: Friends

Ida's plumbots are selling well these days; even City Hall purchases a few to help with janitorial work. When the inexperienced bot maintenance people mess up and cause the bots to go haywire, Ida is called in to fix the issue.

Before she can finish, though, she goes into labor.

It's very late at night, but Ida manages to get a cab to take her to the hospital. She goes in alone, not wanting to call and wake her parents.

She does call and leave a message on Marlin's machine, though, so he'll know to come over later and meet the baby. She could call him later, of course, but the thought of actually talking to him is daunting. Leaving a message is much easier.

She doesn't realize that Marlin's job requires him to be up late, and is surprised when he shows up an hour later.

They don't speak, but Ida is glad she's not alone when, around 3 in the morning, her baby girl is born. 

Marlin follows her home. "Do... you want to come in?" she asks him tentatively. It's the first time she's spoken to him in days, and the words nearly stick in her throat. 

Marlin hesitates, and doesn't look at her. "I really... need to get some rest, actually," he admits. "I'll be back first thing in the morning, and we can talk about names?" His sentence turns into a question at the end. Ida tries not to be disappointed that he isn't staying.

"Yeah, okay. That's fine," she tells him, and watches him leave before heading upstairs to the nursery.

Ida rocks her newborn little girl to sleep and tries to focus on anything else, rather than on her ex. Finally, she is too exhausted to stay up any longer and puts the infant to bed.

"What are we going to call you, little one?" she mumbles, yawning. The baby yawns back at her, and Ida huffs out a pleased laugh before heading to bed herself. 

The next morning, Marlin shows up as promised. It's storming quite heavily, and the air smells of static and longing. 

Marlin and Ida just look at each other for a long moment, then both begin to speak at the same time.

"No, you go first," Marlin insists, so Ida takes a deep breath and blurts out the first thing that comes into her head.

"I'd like us to be friends," she says quickly. "I mean, things are so awkward between us now, and it won't be good for the baby. You're her dad, and I want you to be part of her life. She can even stay with you sometimes when she's a little older. But for this to work, well... we need to work." She fidgets nervously as she waits for his response. 

Marlin laughs, but it's a little awkward, and not genuine. "Yeah, okay," he says finally. "Friends." He appears to think for a moment, then smiles a real smile at her. "I'd like that."

"What were you going to say?" she asks him.

"Oh, I was just thinking of a name for our baby, and I really like Josie. What do you think?"

Ida smiles then, too. "I think it's wonderful."

Shanti and Alex get a pleasant surprise when they wake up and find Josie sleeping in her crib. They take turns rocking her in the rocking chair while Ida and Marlin reconnect.

In the afternoon, the Hands decide to have a little gathering to celebrate Josie's arrival. Rain comes over, alone because Aubrey is at work, and some neighbors join in, including Shanti's old friend and work contact Holly Alto and her son Dominic.

Marlin and Alexander jam in front of the house and everyone gathers to watch. Even little Josie, bundled in her grandmother's arms, seems to really enjoy the music.

Morgana Wolff comes over, too. It's been a long time since Shanti and her friend have gotten together outside of work.

Shanti and Morgana have been through a lot together; they've both been working at the hospital for over two years now. They both love work too much even think of retiring.

Shanti can't resist showing her friend the nursery, and Morgana looks at Josie and coos and laughs and tries not to be jealous.

In the evening, the new parents chat hesitantly but comfortably over a game of Sim Gnubb while the elders gather in the nursery to take turns oohing and ahhing over the baby.

It turns out to be quite a fun and successful little gathering. Once the last Alto is seen to the door, and Josie is fed and tucked into bed, everyone heads to their own rooms and falls asleep.

With her parents helping out with the baby, Ida has time to work on building her Sentience Chip. A day before Josie's birthday, it's completed, and she installs it in her latest plumbot. As soon as she does, Emit Relevart appears to her and gives her a huge congratulations.

"What are you talking about?" Ida demands, alarmed by Emit's sudden appearance.

"You're the pioneer of plumbotics, of course!" shouts Emit. "You're the first person to ever create a future-quality plumbot with sentience! I'm so proud! Would you like to change the future?"

"I'm the Pioneer of Plumbotics? But when I visited Oasis Landing, it was like, some other woman, on the Legacy Statue, I forget her name, but..."

"But you've changed it! The future! And it's my job as Keeper of Time to give you the option to change the future for the better or for the worse. Which do you choose?"

"What? Wait, why would you even give someone that choice? What the heck is going on?" Ida thinks for a minute. "Is there an option not to change the future at all?" But as soon as she's said it, she knows she can't do it. If she has the opportunity to change the future for the better, then she has to take it, right?

"All right, I'll do it," Ida tells Emit. "I want to change it for the better, please. Just tell me what to do."

Her first task is to scan happy people and collect their laughter.

Hmm, these people look pretty darn happy!

Beep boop. "Okay, what's next?  Wait, hang on, I gotta get the door."

Oh, it's Aubrey! As Ida says hello to her brother-in-law and best friend, Emit tells her what to do next. "You just have to break this vial of black Dew at your feet, see if it works."

"Ooookay...."

"I'm yellow now, and I feel happy! Does that mean it worked?"

"Wait, what's going on?" Aubrey asks.

"Yes, it worked. Now try it on other people!" Emit says.

"Sorry Aubrey!"

Shanti, Alex, and the Altos down the street all get splashed with Dew, turning them colorful and happy.

"Okay, this is all very good work you're doing," says Emit. "Next up is to give some Dew to the military, to introduce into the air. It should take several hundred years to fully saturate the air with Dew, but when that happens, the world will be an absolute Utopia! Are you ready to do this?"

Ida is dubious, and more than a little scared of the power she holds. But she's also terribly excited about the possibility to do major good in the world, so she stands up straight and marches over to the military base to hand over the Dew.

Emit congratulates her again before saying good-bye. "Thank you, Emit," Ida says. I hope I never see you again, Ida thinks. This future business is way too real; she'd much rather live in the present, and only experience the future in dreams and video games. 

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Notes -

Marlin has the virtuoso trait, and in my mind I imagine he listens to a lot of soft rock and jazz rock. He seems like the type, right? Maybe he listens to this song and the lyrics ("She's the raw thing/ the live wire/ she prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire") remind him of Ida, and that's why he wants the name Josie for their child. Whatever the reason, I think Josie is a great name, and I'm looking forward to playing with her ('cuz I like her rolls, lol :P)

As for the future thing, I can't see any reason Ida would still want to visit the future. I had her do the opportunity for Opportunist but I'm writing the future out of her story for now. The thing that drew Ida to the future in the first place was the technology, but she can do all of that at home now so I'd imagine she's pretty tired of the whole thing. She still thinks time travel is cool in theory, it's just a lot easier for her to get excited over machines and inventions than over, like, practical metaphysics and stuff.