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Oh god no, not an enthusiastic walk!
Wait, this isn't Bleach Quest. Whew, okay, you're probably safe. Maybe. Possibly you should keep an eye out for anything suspicious so you can bravely run away. Definately don't mess with any skateboarders even if they are being punkish a*s.
So where are you going, giggity gig?
--
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You had downloads of the full Nanoha anime on your hard drive, didn't you?
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CD: A very enthusiastic walk. ^^
No homicidal vampire priests, though... we hope.
Jorlem: ...I have ALL THE FILES.
If the Internet died right now, I would not be lacking in entertainment.
Dartz: This suit you more? ^^
**********
Entry 18 (Day 12)
Right. My preparations are completed.
I've spent the last few days going on walks through this city, meandering around, taking in the sights.
I left sort of late on Day 9, so I just walked around the general area that night. It reminds me a lot of how things are around airports on Earth- a lot of temporary lodging, a few places to shop, and a bunch of places to eat.
Fortunately for my sanity, hamburgers exist here. Don't know if they're actually made with beef, but they taste just fine.
On Day 10, I went on a browse around the edges of the industrial sectors at the north edge of town, watching things get made. I've seen similar places back home- heck, I worked in a factory- so the basic concept was familiar to me.
The biggest difference was the efficiency of it all. Back where I worked, the managers were all gung-ho about getting everything lean- shrinking inventory, cutting wait times, working at a steady pace- all that sort of thing. These people have done it, from what I could see. Shipments of materials would come in, and they'd go straight into the machines. No processing, no waiting, no pallets of extras sitting around for later. Product came out the other end at a steady pace- most of it going straight into the next factory over. The rest of it went into trucks, which were loaded up as soon as they parked, and left soon after. It was really a marvelous thing to watch, if you knew what you were seeing.
Day 11 was another visit to the commercial area, over near the residential zones on the southern end of town. I got to poke around all sorts of stores, both little and big. For reasons unknown, the people in this 'verse seem to have a much greater appreciation for (and a lot more examples of) artisan goods. A lot of the smaller stores I went to were either small chain stores, or individual crafters hocking their wares.
I spent the last couple hours in the mega-mall, giving a few places a second look. Aldjthaam's had apparently restocked, so I spent another good chunk of my (rapidly dwindling) funds, and picked up the last few units I needed for my eeeeeevil plan.
...okay, so I spent over an hour back in the arcade. Sue me. They have a mech combat simulator in there!
Today was, honestly, the best day of the lot. I went all over town today, browsing through all the cultural sites I could find.
Well, not all of them. I skipped the first place I came across, since it was the local museum of natural history. Fossils aren't really my thing... though a museum of natural xenohistory might actually be rather interesting. Must look into that.
The Unification War Museum... now that was worth visiting. It wasn't just a collection of static exhibits- there were period vid-files (subtitled in Standard for convenience), computer reconstructions of battles, restored Devices donated by the Saint Church... all sort of interesting things. They even had a painting of Olivie Sägebrecht, the last Sankt Kaiser.
...dang. Vivio's going to be a heartbreaker when she grows up.
The other major stop on my list for the day was the municipal library. A good bit of it was stored electronically, but that just meant that there were city blocks full of books, instead of a small town of them. Before I got to work researching, I spent a full five minutes just dancing around amongst the shelves, doing my best Yomiko impression as I took in the sights and smells of rooms and rooms of old books.
I love libraries. SO MUCH.
Anyway, once I'd finished imbibing the local culture, I took a taxi back home, sat down at my local laptop, and logged into their equivalent of the Internet. Once on the network, I went straight for the Link.
The Link is a communication service I'd heard about- to be more precise, that I couldn't help hearing about- during my research on the Preta. It's an odd combination of personal ad system, forums, blogs, and the ultimate social network. If I called it Usenet on steroids, I'd be right. I'd be equally right to call it Facebook on steroids. It's sort of a one-stop shop.
I'd been playing with the Link for the last couple days, so I quickly navigated to the personals section, and posted the following ad:
Attention: UnoLooking for somebody with a wonderful dream.Requires substantial Numbers, and expertise in lifting very large objects.Rewards should satisfy any applicant, even if their desires have no limit.Contact FP!Loki on AW#7 for details.
With my plan in motion, I then settled in for some well-earned sleep.
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Your number's up, so. So, playing the good Doctor, or helping him win? A willing guinea pig?
And yes. The longer pieces are more interesting. Even if it is just set up.
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Hmm, I have no strong reaction this time, though I've got some ohshits in reserve if fishing for madboys goes wrong, or horribly wrong, or for that matter horribly right.
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There are a few significant things that happen in this bit. Can you find them all?
Dartz: YES. Well, sort of. Not really. Difficult to explain.
CD: It's sort of hard to react to something you've been expecting for half the fic to date, isn't it? And here I thought this hadn't been done before. ^^
Also, now I have Ork Scaglietti running through my head. It scares me.
**********
Awareness. Not laying down/not where I was? Possible Plan success/chance of other faction. Hostility assumed until disproven. Best approach? Collect data/put off confro-
"There's no need to pretend, Mister Prefect. I know you're awake."
Baritone voice/affable phrasing/sinister undertone suggests Plan success. Awareness permits overt action. Surprised he sounds so much like seiyuu....probably being monitored. Crap.
With that, I opened my eyes, and tried to move- unsuccessfully, as it turns out. I'd been placed in a rather tight full-body bind. All I could move was my head. Red binds, greenish/orange walls? Plan successful. Next phase- negotiation.
Given all of this, I already knew who I was dealing with... and what he was capable of. From a purely scientific perspective, the man was brilliant. Using that perspective (and a good bit of focus to avoid thinking of my current unpleasant situation), I put as much pleased respect into my voice as I could manage.
"I'd expect no less of you, Doctor Jail Scaglietti. It's an honor to meet you at last."
"Oh? How wonderful! How wonderful, indeed!" A beat later... "Tre!"
As he spoke, I heard something in my nose crunch. Then I felt it- that odd sensation of some of your body pushed into a position it's never before occupied. As I was contemplating that particular sensation, I began to feel the pain. That kept me rather busy for a bit.
During all of that, I never saw the blow.
Finally, the pain faded to a manageable agony, and I turned my attention outward. Almost laughed when I noticed a complete lack of evil monologue. Figures. Evil Doctor would know when I couldn't listen to him talk.
When he began to talk once more, it was in what I used to think of as his 'crazy voice', back when I was watching StrikerS. "Uno saw your little ad on the Link a few days ago." ...days?! How long have I been out?! "Imagine my surprise when I read it- when I realized that a man with no past had learned of my wonderful dream! Amazing! How very amazing!"
The voice- I still couldn't see the not-so-good Doctor anywhere near me, so he must be projecting it into the room- continued. "I couldn't help but take an interest, so I had dear Uno see what this mysterious 'Ford Prefect' had been up to."
One of those holographic windows appeared in front of my face, the receipts from my two trips to Aldjthaam's displayed on it. After a second, the window with the receipts moved to the side, to be replaced with what looked like security footage of a figure (clad in a very familiar hoodie) placing a small device on the roof of a building. Double crap. I didn't know there were security cameras up there. He knows how many I bought, and knows I was planting them... Tre is a fast flier, so he could've had them all gathered... I'd be an idiot if I assumed he hadn't read the file, and yet I'm still alive, which means there's something he wants.
The Doctor's voice shifted to a chiding tone. "You've been a very busy man, Mister Prefect- very busy, indeed. And so well informed! Truly magnificent!" The tone suddenly shifted to a malevolent hiss, of a sort I don't remember hearing from him in StrikerS. "It makes me... curious."
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Oops.
I suddenly start to have my suspicions about why this is being fed to us as a series of digitised memories.....
Among other things.
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About what you can expect when fishing for madboys - you got caught by one. Now comes the interesting part, convincing Crocodile of the merits of catch-and-release when he's already got you by the nose. Of course, carrying the allusion to the Kipling story further, turning your small, blunt, useless snout of a linker core that lets you breathe but little else into a fifth limb that can manipulate the world around you IS the whole point.
--
"Come closer, and I'll whisper in your ear," said the crocodile.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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In the last update, Scaglietti's last line was read by DBZ Abridged!Freeza.
I'm sort of writing the doctor as two parts scientist, one part Chairman Kaga, a part and a half batshit, and however many parts worth of canon mannerisms took from a watching or two of StrikerS. Not sure if it's quite right.
CD: Who's caught? I've got him precisely where I want him! ^^
Dartz: :3
If you have to ask, I'm doing it right.
********** CRAP IN A BUCKET AND CALL IT GRANDMA! THIS IS BAD!
Before Scaglietti could start in again, I interjected. "...and that is exactly why I did it." A beat later, I continued, not having been killed doing wonders for my confidence. "I needed to get in contact with you. Simply sending you a message wouldn't work, as I'm sure the Enforcers are constantly on the lookout for you, and anybody connected to you. I'd just get myself imprisoned if I did that."
Why was it so hard to avoid that pun?
"I couldn't get to you physically, since I don't know precisely where this lab is. Even if I did, I doubt I could get to it... and even if THAT happened, why would you let me in to talk?" I chuckled a bit, tilting my head. "It's not like you've put out a welcome mat."
Sobering up, I kept going. "Contacting Due wouldn't work out, either. I know some of the faces she'll use on her mission, but I don't know which one she's using right now, or where she's posted at this stage of the game. Even if I did know who to contact, and could get to her, what could she do? Blowing her cover would earn me no favors."
"That left me only one plan with any real chance of success- putting together a message that your Flawless Secretary" -I said, emphasizing the capital letters on those two words- "would notice, and pass on to you. More than that, the message had to be interesting enough that you couldn't ignore it, mysterious enough to prevent you from killing me out of hand, and generic enough to slip past the Enforcers and the High Council."
As I swallowed, licking my now-dry lips, I sort of expected the Doctor would take a few seconds to process all that. If he did, he was covering it with laughter.
"Very logical, Mister Prefect! A good plan!" I could actually hear the bastard applauding me through the link. Really? Did you have to do that? As the applause died out, I felt somebody put a hand on my back- must be Tre- and give me a fairly rough shove forward... not that I went anywhere.
OWWW!!! WHY DON'T THE BINDS MOVE?! WHY DO THEY BURN!??
"...but irrelevant."
PAIN! PAIN!
"I believe, Mister Prefect, we were discussing your unfortunate habit of distributing information I'd really rather keep private. Now before you die, would you like to explain why you did something so foolish?"
I was rather busy gasping for breath, but managed to croak out a response. "Wanted... to live... ...long enough to... make proposal. Benefit ...us both. ...needed insurance. "
To my relief, the Doctor remained silent for a time. To my greater relief, Tre didn't take the opportunity to do any more damage to my favorite body, giving me the chance to catch my breath, compose my thoughts a bit, and attempt to change the course of the interrogation.
"I give my word of honor that I never intended for the devices you found to actually transmit their contents. I set them up so that you would have a reason to let me live long enough to make my proposal, and a reason to let me go afterwards. My intent is, and always was, to deactivate them after speaking to you, Doctor, whether or not you agreed to my proposal."
The next thing I knew, I was looking at the shocked face of Tre, a display full of medical data hovering in her field of view. "...you're serious."
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Getting in contact with the sort of person the wily doctor is if you aren't serious about at least attempting to deal in good faith would be a very bad idea. Of course, not being prepared for a doublecross would probably alsobe Holy Flaming Crapsticks Bad. What actually happened with him finding your 'insurance packages' is probably about as good (for the long run) as it could get, as it demonstrates you're not a naive fool but also reassures him that you can't outwit him, or at least his loyal assistants.
--
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You keep your head in a crisis remarkably well....
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Dartz: I have a few mental quirks. One of them is a tendency to shut off my emotions (or repress them so well I don't know I'm feeling them; hard to say) instead of letting them have an effect. At that point, I might be screaming inside- if I am, I wouldn't know it.
I'm also the planning sort, and I just walked into a negotiation, after several days worth of thinking time, with somebody whose personality and goals were known to me beforehand. All that 'this is bad' attitude? It's less me thinking that I'm in a bad situation, and more me having to throw out a pile of possible approaches I'd devised earlier. Also, I still have a sabacc card up my sleeve...
If I'd awakened to find a TSAB Enforcer looking at me, THEN I'd be panicking inarticulately. I didn't plan for that.
CD: This is a mad scientist with magitech and massive physiological knowledge. Lying causes detectable bodily reactions. Do the math.
Also, I used a single means of holding information (one model of device) bought from a single location for a reason. It was intended to be clever, but not clever enough. If they found them all, I could simply do what I did, but if they'd missed some... Either way, I won.
**********
The doors in front of me opened with a hiss, revealing another long, wide hall. Why is it that every single room I've seen so far is actually a hallway? Aren't there bedrooms? Aren't there tables?
...dear HERA, does the man own any CHAIRS?!
Once Scaglietti had been convinced of my intentions, the bindings I'd been trapped in had vanished, letting me collapse to the ground... only to get hoisted- rather forcefully- back up by Tre before I could catch my breath. Once I was standing, she gave me a rather long glare, before turning her back to me, and walking over to the door at the far end of the room.
"Come."
...I know Tre's not much of a conversationalist, and I know her voice is usually rather harsh, but I'm really getting the impression she doesn't like me.
She led me through a rabbit's nest of hallways, rooms that looked like hallways, and what I could only guess were automated factories. I can see why they needed an area search power to find the guy. Finally, after opening ANOTHER door leading into ANOTHER hallway, I was somewhere I recognized.
My stars- it's full of JARS!
This was a very familiar room- the center of Scaglietti's lab, if memory served. There were a LOT more people jars on the walls than I'd expected- the numbers went all the way up to XXIV- and a lot less of the Type 3 gadget drones stowed under the jars. At the end of the room, though, there was the same wide chamber, complete with our 'favorite' mad scientist and his lovely assistant.
Both of whom were looking at me now. Huh.
"Ah, Mister Prefect! Welcome!", Scaglietti said, spreading his arms wide. Wow. He's really over the top. I can work with this.
I stopped short of him, keeping a polite distance, and nodded respectfully at him. "Doctor Scaglietti. An honor to finally meet you in person."
Keeping my tone brisk and professional, I began the spiel I'd been working on, on and off, since leaving Karnarog. "Your time is valuable, Doctor, so I'll keep this short and to the point. I am in need of your scientific expertise. In return, I offer you information and support."
I had the doctor's attention now. "Mm. Elaborate on that. What is it you want?"
Good. "What I want and what I have to offer are linked. If I may elaborate on both?" At his nod, I took a deep breath. Now for the fun part.
"I come from a non-administrated world. We don't have very many mages there," -because it's in another universe- "so I had no way of knowing what potential I had. Recently, I came here," -against my will, by means unknown- "and got tested. The TSA doctor told me I had an F-rank linker core, and would never be able to cast a spell.
What I want," I said, pausing for a second, intentionally putting my best spiteful expression on my face, "is the magic *they* said I'd never have. What I want is to have a bigger, stronger linker core- enough to cast great and powerful spells. What I want, Doctor Scaglietti, is to show them all... and I offer to do so, in service of your dream."
From the demented grin on Jail's face, I was fairly sure I'd hit the jackpot there.
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You're speaking remarkably clearly for someone who just had their nose broken, I must say. The gargling on your own blood is hardly discernable at all. I'm not sure about seeing things so clearly when tear production is pretty much autonomous under that circumstance, but that part's excusable with the need to narrate the scene through the limitations of first person limited perspective. I do kind of wonder what's got Tre pissed at you, yes you did have those data packets out but she's already seen that you
--
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honestly had no intention of activating them. Are the Numbers just that conditioned for loyalty, to react to even potential threats already neutralized?
Hm. You're about to be the only non-father-figure male in a pack of powerful, strong willed young women. Ford Prefect, prepare to enter the abyss of hell, because even if the girls don't their 'father' will send you there... well, unless he thinks studying that aspect of artificial mages makes good SCIENCE! which could arguably be worse.
--
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ClassicDrogn Wrote:You're speaking remarkably clearly for someone who just had their nose broken, I must say. Translation spells can work wonders, I'd suspect.
ClassicDrogn Wrote:Hm. You're about to be the only non-father-figure male in a pack of powerful, strong willed young women. Ford Prefect, prepare to enter the abyss of hell, because even if the girls don't their 'father' will send you there... well, unless he thinks studying that aspect of artificial mages makes good SCIENCE! which could arguably be worse. Oh, dear. No, the Nanoha franchise is definitely not a harem comedy. Besides, with Prefect's luck, he'd end up with Quattro ... and quickly become her chew-toy.
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Nah, Quattro's too yandere for the doctor, I expect. Close contact with a bunch of otherwise isolated teens-or-thereabouts without acting like a total boor is pretty much bound to produce some emotional reactions, though. The only real question is whether Jail decides its too disruptive to his plans, or an interesting study in the psychology of his creations.
It doesn't have to be a harem comedy to have a few girls with crushes and the rest gossiping and giggling, or even a first rank plot element, but
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most of them have normal enough responses that something in that line is pretty certain unless Scaglietti intentionally keeps Ford far away from them.
But for now, please excuse me, I need to go rsge about my lack of computer again.
--
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grrr
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stupid yuku
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So, Project F Volunteer? Combat Cyborg?
Makes me wonder what era this is. Quattro might not have been finished yet
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CD: 1P limited means you know what I know, and I don't know that I got healed just enough to be able to talk. Not every scene will be that constrained, but by Thor, I stick to it when I do it!
CD, Rob: Emotionally repressed man surrounded by emotionally repressed teenaged girls. Pfft- no. Who would start anything?
I am now imagining Troll!Jail engineering compromising situations. You have doomed us all.
CD: Canon!Quattro wouldn't be able to talk with me. At me, sure. Oh, look! A butterfly.
Dartz: Interesting post. You didn't ask the right question. When could it be? Also, end of entry. Sorry for the short.
**********
"You wonder, perhaps, how I know of your dream?" The 'good' doctor didn't respond; he was busy typing on another of those handy holographic displays, muttering to himself, his eyes glittering with a manic light. I looked over to Uno, only to receive a shrug, and a raised palm- I was fairly sure she meant that I should wait for a bit- in response.
A minute or two later, I was getting antsy, shifting from foot to foot, trying to ignore the burning sensation coming from the spots I'd been bound. My frustration was soon ended; Scaglietti soon stopped muttering, and with a few decisive-looking stabs of his finger, closed the window he'd been working in. Looking up, he gave me a long, searching gaze- one eye drifting to what looked like a recorded vital-sign display- only to nod in satisfaction. "Why, Mister Prefect, I believe I rather like this wonderful proposal of yours. Now, tell me more about this information you claim to have. How is it you know so much about my dream?"
I smiled. "My people may not have many mages," -or any at all- "but the ones we produce tend to be strong." Like Admiral Graham, or Nanoha. "One day, I received a series of files, " -on those DVDs I ordered from Geneon- "documenting a series of events occurring across dimensional space. Some of them have already happened," -in flashbacks- "but a great number of these events have yet to occur."
At this point, I let the grin slide off my face, to be replaced by an utterly serious expression. "Fully half the files in the collection documented you, Jail Scaglietti- where you came from, what you've done, and what you're planning to do. I've seen it all, from the creation of twelve combat cyborgs and a duplicate of the last Sankt Kaiser, to the Saint's Cradle ascending high into the skies of Mid-" raising my hand as I said this, almost as high as I could reach, and then slamming it back down- "only to crash before it reached the moons."
The stunned expression on Scaglietti's face was priceless.
In response, I smiled, as sweetly as I could manage. "Would you like to know more?"
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Well, as a dedicated researcher of lost ancient lore, Jail is probably one of the people more likely to consider 'woo-woo mystical stuff' like seers and whatnot plausible. I'm not really clear on whay his canon motivations were, becoming a conquering monarch seems like it would eat up a lot of valuable SCIENCE! time - if it was just a case of "I'll show them all!" you could quite possibly get him to convince himself to dosomething less generally troublesome just by asking for clarification on those points.
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Quote:ClassicDrogn wrote:
Well, as a dedicated researcher of lost ancient lore, Jail is probably one of the people more likely to consider 'woo-woo mystical stuff' like seers and whatnot plausible.
Especially given that being able to see the future is a documented ability in Nanoha canon. It was the only reason that the TSAB knew in advance that something was going to happen in Strikers, remember?
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No, I hadn't caught that - StrikerS was not enough about Nanoha and Fate to really engage my interest; I did watch it but only once, and the thing I remember the most is the fansubber credits screen with the comment "Rainbows are straighter than Subaru" with a still of her pouncing Teana as the background.
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
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CD: Jail's motivations are really summed up by the name of the project that made him: Unlimited Desire. He wants ALL THE THINGS. The brains that had him made were trying to channel that into wanting all the knowledge, but he ended up wanting all the worlds too, and had all the knowledge he needed to make an attempt.
What else do you do with a giant Lost Logia battleship, anyway?
Jorlem, CD: Exactly. Prophecy has and continues to happen in the 'verse. Incidentally, the biggest canonical example produces prophecies in Ancient Belkan. Rare Skills like that are often nearly-lost Ancient Belkan bloodlines/techniques. JS has oodles of knowledge about Ancient Belka. There's a bankable chance he knew of that ability.
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Entry 19 (Day Unknown)
It seems that my plan is working. I've made contact with Doctor Scaglietti, and he seems to be rather pleased with my offer. With any luck, we'll both get precisely what we want out of this arrangement.
Contact came at least a week after the night I posted on the Link. It was a bit hairy at first, what with having to convince a (justifiably) rather paranoid group of people that I wasn't going to rat them out, but once that happened...
I never thought I'd say this, but being put under the microscope worked out for me. Never try to lie to a magical doctor, kids- it won't work.
Negotiations went rather smoothly after that. My initial offer was, shockingly enough, conditionally accepted. We had to haggle over some of the particulars, of course, and everything I'm contracted to do depends on the Doctor's ability to deliver his part of the bargain, but if that goes as planned, we have an accord.
I'm given to understand that things like this are usually a good bit harder to manage, but who cares? If both of us are getting something we want, why does it have to be hard?
At this point, I'm sort of in a holding pattern. The Doctor is doing SCIENCE! right now, going over some data he recently received, and I...
...okay, I'm just sort of sitting around. I've got Link access, so I'm able to do some studying, but I have no real goal at the moment. I sleep when I'm tired, eat when I'm hungry, and spend the rest of the time reading the equivalent of Spellcasting for Dummies. Occasionally, Scaglietti calls me into his lab for a set of scans, which mostly involves laying still on a table for long periods of time.
I would write more, but there's nothing else to write yet.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
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