Computers and Catchphrases and Cats, Oh My!

Prompt from arianakristine4 on tumblr: "Ichabbie broTP: Explaining why this is a device that holds all the answers known to man, but I use it to watch videos of cats."

Starts out funny, gets serious.

Their sanctuary has become her only sanctuary; the only place where she can sit still and rest in her thoughts during the madness of her newly-paranormal-pre-apocalyptic-biblical-witness- lifestyle.

Ironic that it is the place where she and Ichabod do the most work.

He, however, seemed to be taking a well-deserved break, scrolling eagerly through her old iPad.

A half-smile curved her lips at the sight. She will never tire of watching him learn.

She sank into the chair beside him, leaning forward to fold her arms on the tabletop.

"You know, there is no logic in this, Lieutenant."

Abbie closes her eyes and drops her forehead onto her folded arms, eyes closing in exasperation.

"A complaint already, Crane?" She asks wearily, muffled into her arms "I just sat down." She looks up to see what is rankling his sensibilities this evening.

He gestures with a circling hand flutter towards her iPad. "This makes absolutely no sense, Miss Mills."

"And what, pray tell, is so illogical about it?"

He turns the iPad to show her, "All of your pagemarks—"

"—Bookmarks," she corrects wearily.

"Bookmarks," he allows, continuing, "Lead me to silly videos of animals doing mildly amusing tricks and silly antics overlayed with catchphrases that are risqué or unintelligent. Nothing of any worth or value."

Abbie raises an eyebrow. "Yeah… so?" She smiled, and snarked, "Computers and catchphrases and cats, Oh My!"

He splutters—not unlike when he attempted to drink energy drink for the first (and second) time—pushing her iPad towards her across the tabletop, bumping her elbow. "This is absurd! You told me this machine has access to all of the information available in your world: history, economics, geography, mathematics, technology, politics—"

"—and?"

"Why are you filling your list of favourites with useless drivel?" He looks utterly confounded and mildly scornful.

Abbie bangs her forehead on the table with a sigh. "Crane," she says, "Have you ever had a horrible day?"

He blinked at her. "Well, I fought in the revolutionary war against undead demons and monsters, and died as a result, only to wake up over two hundred years in the future and discover that I am now held partially responsible for the survival of the entire world."

Abbie stared. "Well, yes. After all of that. Do you really want to read about starving orphans in Somalia or physics debates about string theory or war in the Middle East?"

He stared.

"Of course not." She continued. "We need to laugh, we need to feel better after the stress and negativity of a long day. Sometimes, we just need to… forget."

She rested her chin on her hands with a wry smile.

Ichabod wisely chose to say nothing. He nodded, reached across the table, and took the iPad back.

"Thank you for explaining that, Lieutenant." He said.

"Anytime, Crane," she said, closing her eyes to catch a nap before Irving shows up to interrupt their relaxing to demand an update.