Warnings: brief mention of canonical character death (North)
Prompt from @freelancercarolina
"Hey, Caboose?"
"Hello Washington!" Caboose responded at a much louder volume than necessary, but Wash was used to that by now.
"Can you take care of something for me?" He asked.
"Yep!"
"You don't even know what it is."
"Yep."
Wash decided he would try to explain anyway. "You know how I don't like to have an AI in my head?"
"Yes."
"And you know we found an AI."
"Yes."
"Would you mind taking him for a while?"
"Take him where?"
"Wha–? Oh. No, just, watch him for a while, hang out, um. Do... things."
Caboose paused, then, "Like a babysitter?"
"Exactly!" Maybe this would be easier than he had anticipated. "Yes. Exactly that."
"Okay! My babysitter used to make s'mores in the microwave, but maybe he will be too small to eat a s'more. Do we have really small graham crackers?"
Wash decided that he didn't have the time to remind Caboose about holograms. "No, we don't. But, uh, maybe you should have him help with the microwave, if you use it. Speaking of which," he looked around, hoping that the AI's avatar would have appeared already. "Theta?"
The little purple hologram blinked into existence, almost reluctantly, in between the two men.
"Theta, this is Caboose," Wash said.
"Hi."
The tone of his voice made Wash's heart sink. He'd been like this since they'd found him– nervous, but more in a deflated sort of way. Defeated. It made Wash nervous too.
It didn't seem to phase Caboose, though. He gasped excitedly. "You are very nice colors!"
"Thanks." Theta's avatar shuffled his feet awkwardly. "When are you gonna be back, Wash?"
"Soon," he said. Truth be told, he didn't really have anywhere to be, he was hoping that one of the Reds or Blues would help cheer Theta up. They hadn't had much luck so far. "Don't worry. I think you'll like Caboose– Oh! Do you still know how to do fireworks?"
If a holographic projection could stiffen, Theta did. "I dunno."
Wash held his breath. Maybe bringing up something Theta had learned to show his dead freelancer wasn't a good idea.
"That's okay," Caboose said, oblivious. "Fireworks aren't all they're cracked up to be. They're loud and you can't even touch them, so, there's not really a difference between them and bombs. Neither of them are very friendly up close."
"I've never seen real fireworks," Theta admitted. "Mine are holographic. They're not that loud either."
"Oh, that's much nicer," Caboose walked forward again. "I do like things that don't explode in my face."
Theta hesitated, then, to Wash's surprise, asked, "Do you want to see?"
"Um, okay." Caboose started to take a few steps back.
"You dont have to do that," Theta said, a bit of a laugh in his voice. He waved his hand and showed Caboose an example firework, about the size of a man's palm, a few inches above Theta's head.
"Oh," said Caboose, as if it had all started to make sense. He walked back to stand in front of Theta.
Theta took that as a cue to make some more fireworks. He threw one, two, three tiny starbursts above his head, each accompanied by a little pop sound effect.
The fourth firework Caboose reached out to touch. Of course, as it was a hologram, his hand waved right through it, barely flickering in response to the disturbance.
He gasped, then, in a tone of awe and jubilation, said, "Ghost fireworks."
"I guess," Theta conceded, releasing another one.
"That's the best idea ever!"
Theta visibly turned his full attention to Caboose. "You think so?"
"Of all time!" Caboose insisted.
Theta's glow brightened noticeably. "Thanks!"
"Can you do two at a time?"
"Of course," Theta said, proudly obliging.
"Wow," Caboose almost whispered.
"I'll leave you two to play," Wash said.
For all the attention they paid him, he might as well have not said anything before he walked away; Caboose was now telling Theta how much he'd get along with Freckles. He'd come back in an hour or so, to see what happened. Carolina would be happy to hear that Theta had finally made a friend.
