Surviving the Plan - 2

Warning: this is complex.

–Beginning Basic Expressive Narration of Recording 28–

“I think this is actually a really clever plan, Lapadj,” Grapefruit says. “It plays to your strengths and weaknesses.”

Grapefruit, Sarela, and, of course, Lapadj are reentering the room. The latter has napkins in his grasp and is smirking slightly. Holding back a smug grin as the chit-chatting voices of Anna and Mark sound through the space.

“This is so blunt,” Sarela says. “Beautiful.”

“Etae to, etae to,” Lapadj tells them.

He sits down and then greets the Human and the other Empirian. He sets the napkins down and Anna takes a few from the stack. Mark does not do anything save watch Lapadj closely.

“Thank you,” Anna says.

“No problem.”

“Yes, thank you,” Mark repeats that pleasantry.

The Kharatzara then proceeds to take a few chips and places them onto his plate. He puts one into his mouth and crunches it loudly. Loudly only for Mark. The audio is specifically directed and sent over to Mark using my glorious power and the technology of the Empire that exists in their midsts.

“Do you hear that, paepeik?” Lapadj asks while chewing noisely. “That is the echo of me crunching your bones.”

Mark’s eyes blow up. His face begins to turn a little red. The blades of his shoulders roll as he shifts his position.

“How do you know it is not me breaking your bones?” Mark returns.

“How do you know I have bones?”

“How do you know I have bones?”

Sarela laughs at the back and forth; she is able to hear the conversation unfold.

“I know who does not have bones: your Szarehan friend,” Mark says, reclining back and staring at the places where Sarela occupies. His senses are surely deft to be able to note the location of invisible, energy based being. Or is merely enhanced by cybernetics or implants. Or is simply a Gladiacon. Or, perhaps, all of those, but I will not share the true one. The events of the recordings shall do that.

Returning to the events taking place in this encapsulated moment, Lapadj takes a moment to speak to Anna, who is very focused on devouring the food before her.

“Anna, how did you get into programming?” he asks. Then he turns to Mark: “If you have bones, you will not have any once I am done with you.”

“I took a few classes at school,” she answers between bites. She finishes chewing. “I got into it and then never really got out. Not a very exciting answer, but I find it sort of enjoyable. I like playing around with code. How did you two get into code?”

“I had an interest in the subject,” Lapadj replies simply.

Mark responds with: “I always tinkered with things as a child and then when I got older I played around with computers. Naturally, that led me to programming. My first language was C++.” Mark pauses and shifts to look at Lapadj covertly. “And if I do not have any bones, what are you going to do to me? Give me bones?”

“Maybe,” Lapadj answers in his normal idiotic, flippant tone.

“Nice,” Sarela comments, which is heard also by Mark.

“You have had a few good ones,” Grapefruit consoles to Lapadj as she, from her position close to his body, notices his tensed state.

Mark cocks his head. “Is that a tiny Mechanicha in your pocket?”

“C++ was also my first,” Anna says, nodding. “Object oriented languages are something I’m more comfortable with, I think. It’s good they are more popular right now.”

“I am a Goddess,” Grapefruit cries out.

“And I am Jihst Caseius,” Mark says dryly at the sound of Grapefruit’s voice.

“For all we know you could be,” Sarela jabs.

He bristles visibly. Lapadj masks his chuckles by placing his hand across his mouth.

“Are you okay?” Anna asks as she turns to face Lapadj.

“Yes, just thought of something funny about Java,” he says. “Speaking of Java–so you are not a large fan of Clojure, then?”

“Eh, it is okay. I like it for some things, but I like Java more. That is why I’m more than okay using IntelliJ with it.”

“What an unorthodox opinion,” Mark comments. “Especially with not using Vim.”

“Emacs is better,” Grapefruit exclaims. “That is what I would use if I had need of such things.”

“The Goddess has spoken,” Sarela quips, floating over the table. “Mark, you have not proven that you are not, in fact, the great idiot Jihst Caseius. What do you have to say to prove your Empirian nature?”

“I thought I was handling this,” Lapadj says, then he returns to the ‘Human’ conversation. “Not using Vim is a fine choice. There are better alternatives out there. Like IntelliJ in this instance.”

“Everyone has different opinions and that’s okay,” Anna says. “I know a guy that uses Sublime and he is super fast and efficient.” Her phone goes off and she reaches to check it. “Speaking of efficient, we need to get back to work, Harrison.”

“Yes, we do, Anna,” he says and rises from his seat along with the Human. They begin to tidy up.

Mark joins in and leans to hiss at Lapadj: “This is not over. Meet me at the abandoned parking garage next to the building after Human work and I will prove to you how Empirian I am.”

Lapadj smirks wildly. “And so shall I.”

“Well, thanks for meeting with us, Mark,” Anna says as she hurries out to exit. “Really nice talking with you. Maybe we should do this again.”

“Maybe,” he says.

“See you later,” Lapadj taunts as they leave. Cackling fills the audio channel as the recording dies.

–Ending Basic Expressive Narration of Recording 28–

I think I’ve given up all pretenses about this being a programming blog. Expect this to be cross-posted or something to the Spine soon. By soon I mean in the next five years, give or take a year. Use a ouija board to get a better answer. Then divide by three and multiply by a dice roll. Draw a random card from a tarot card deck and your next dream will hold the exact date that will have a 5% margin of error.

Yeah.

TBC