[video]

[10_20_15_5_50]

[Sam's collected a handful of cards---some fancy, some simple---and she shuffles through them, one eyebrow up. Still shuffling, she looks to her drone to address it, and the whole of Haven.]

I've gotta say, this something of a mind-screw. I've been here... Seventy-six days. Damn.

[She's taken aback, at least a little, by the tally, but shrugs after swearing and soldiers on.]

That's not the thing that throws me. The thing that throws me is having had Valentine's seventy-six days ago! Keeping my calendar, we'd be two days out of April.

Comments

[video]

[atjackisback]

Maybe it's some weird science woo. Or a different day length. Or something.

[video]

[10_20_15_5_50]

I'm going to take the term 'weird science woo' and start using it myself, since it covers a lot very conveniently. Day length...

[She snorts, amused, and shakes her head.]

Don't get me started. The days here have me all messed up, so I've been tracking time on my phone. Whatever it actually is, I guess it doesn't matter much; I have nothing against the holiday.

[She's barely said it when a falling card---one falling fast---strikes her shoulder. She startles, fumbles, and just manages to catch the thing without dropping the cards she already has.]

Even if it might mean I'll want an umbrella. I can't even be annoyed; check it out.

[She holds the recent acquisition up to the feed, grinning a little.]

The toy's a nice touch.

[video]

[atjackisback]

Pff. Phone chronometer's gonna get messed up easy, especially with no master clocks to check. And if this is really one big science experiment...

[Well he knows a lot more than he wants to about losing time there. Even he can't completely repress a shudder.]

Aw man. All mine are sarcastic. How'd you find cutesy ones?

[He snickers, holding one up to the drone to share.]

[video]

[10_20_15_5_50]

It's still a step up from the traditional five-scratch score, given my sense of time's been screwed up since I arrived.

...if it is, 'weird science woo' has gone above and beyond, and might be to blame for borking my ritual ranges.

[It's more than she might've mentioned, but given she had to have help---from Predaking, from Wing, and from Irja---in collecting the components to test it, her favourite ritual isn't exactly hush-hush, and there's no reason to keep it from Raiden; he's a good sort, and a good sport. His snicker gets her grinning.]

At least it's honest? But you can have the little dinosaur, if you like. I think it's even posable.

[video]

[atjackisback]

[blinkblink]

Ritual?

[Well it isn't any more insane to have magic than nanomachines.]

We should hang out. Maybe we can leave the dinosaur in embarrassing places.

[video]

[10_20_15_5_50]

I know one for sending a short message to a single recipient. It's kind of involved, but it's pretty cool, because you don't need to know a person's full or even real name---however they were introduced to you, that's how you address it. On Earth, it seemed to be able to reach anybody anywhere. Here... only people planetside. That might've been the case on Earth, but no way to tell.

[Either way, it's still a serious bumme, and irksome.]

We should.

Embarrassing places, or just weird ones? I do wonder how many times it could find its way back if left with a little 'if lost, return to' sign around its neck.

[video]

[atjackisback]

Wow. Sounds like a magic codec. Neat.

Oooh, let's do some of both. But make it a blind drop. We have reputations to think of.

[Someone clearly has some valentine-related regression going on.]

[video]

[10_20_15_5_50]

You'll have to clear up 'codec' for me, but it is neat; the message'll appear on whatever blank media your address next has handy. An empty notebook page, a piece of scrap paper they pull out of a pocket, a new word-processing document, 'compose text' screen on a cell... so it's well worth the work.

Okay. We could always have it returned to the gateway nearest the hospital? I'd say 'nearest the Warehouse,' but Dirge.

[She waves a hand.]

Anyway, embarrassing places?

[video]

[atjackisback]

Hey, that is nice. If you need help with one of those, let me know.

Codec... it's something like a communications implant, I guess. I've had a few different models, but they're all about sneaky communication. Not as fancy as yours, but...

[Shrug. There's silly things to think about!]

Hospital gateway works. Embarrassing places... well, we'll have to beat the miasma on that but...

I don't suppose you could magic stuff into people's places?

[video]

[10_20_15_5_50]

Will do. As it stands, if you ever see a Scrabble set---with the little wood tiles, since plastic won't work---in the Warehouse or whatever, I'd love an alphabet out of it.

[A 'boil and bubble' ritual, it ain't; she's serious about the Scrabble set.]

But probably better for time-sensitive stuff, and if you don't mind me being blunt, kind of cool.

[Oh, bro, if only you'd been about when she was telling Elsa about the books Ray Bradbury wrote.]

Unfortunately... [Sam shakes her head, sorry to answer the way she will.] No. That's outside my sphere.

[Private]

The closest I can come to that is going into a place, not being noticed.

[video]

[atjackisback]

I'll keep an eye out. Might be easier to find than a car, at this point.

[He nods, a little smirk at the end for the private note. Well. Good to know.]

We'll just have to think of some public spots, then. This place have anything like a makeout point? That'd be pretty good.

[a_little_red_in_the_face]

Guess time back home don't mean much here.

[10_20_15_5_50]

Guess so. Gives me options, for the first time, for when I want to turn twenty-three, but other than that...

[a_little_red_in_the_face]

Twenty three? [He'd never really thought of organic ages before.]

[10_20_15_5_50]

Come December. At this time, though, I am twenty-two years old. Earth years, that is. I'm throwing my hands up at any others.

[a_little_red_in_the_face]

.......

That's not very old at at...

[10_20_15_5_50]

Not really. One whole year of being a "real adult" behind me, but... it doesn't feel like it.

[a_little_red_in_the_face]

[He’s still gaping a bit here.]

How....long do humans normally live?

[10_20_15_5_50]

Normally? Anywhere from seventy-something to the nineties, though a few live to be over a hundred.

[a_little_red_in_the_face]

..........I...never realized humans lived such a short time...

[10_20_15_5_50]

[She shrugs one shoulder, at a little bit of a loss.]

Been trying to make the most of it. Ars longa, vita brevis.

How long do Cybertronians live?

[a_little_red_in_the_face]

What? [Sorry, they only downloaded local languages when they arrived.]

[He shrugs] Some believe we’re immortal, but I’m not sure I buy that, we wear out eventually. I’m somewhere around six million right now, according to Earth years.

[Video]

[treacherous_widow]

Get used to the mind-screwing. It's a common thing around here.

[Video]

[10_20_15_5_50]

At this point, I'm going to stop expecting anything specific of anything, save my own skin.

[It isn't quite Cartesian, but what the hell; she has a lot hinging on her hide.]

Or, at least, I'm going to try to.

What's struck you as strangest since you got here?

Re: [Video]

[treacherous_widow]

Oh I don't know, the way we got here in the first place? Or how about strange missing people and weird blobs.

Or slag, this entire place.