office hours: round 1.

[foo_bar]

office hours daily. i'm here to help... i think.

(screened PCs with han)

Comments

[foo_bar]

[he wants to ask her if it can wait for literally any time, but... he just exhales, and leans back in his chair, pulling his glasses off his face.]

Alright, Miss Gales. I'm all ears.

[throwabookatit]

[ She just...looks down at the newspaper clipping, how does she... ]

I found...something, that I wouldn't imagine you're aware of, in the library tonight. And, I... I need to ask about it.

[ It's worth noting, she looks sort of...concerned, in a way. ]

[foo_bar]

[he looks a little confused]

Okay, go ahead. That's what I'm here for, isn't it? You ask a question, and I answer.

[throwabookatit]

This is a little bit of a different sort of question. It's about you.

[ She holds it out, the newspaper clipping. It's covered in blood, so it's hard to read all of it, but it seems to be...from a school paper. The picture it sports? Han. Covered in blood.

GRUESOME SUICIDE STRIKES COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT by (blood)
Assistant professor (BLOOD)ens, a fixture in the computer science department, committed suicide on the student path next to Sproul Hall. Professor Han (blood)ng tri(blood) to stop

And, it rips off there. ]

Do you...know what this is about?

[foo_bar]

[why is there a blood soaked paper-- more importantly, what is that picture of him? who is this talking about?

his eyes knit together in confusion, because he feels like he should remember this.

But he doesn't.]

Sorry but... Where did you find this...?

[throwabookatit]

The library. There were a lot of student papers, from all over, mind you. This was...stuck, between a lot of them.

...I haven't told anyone else, not yet.

[foo_bar]

[well, now it's his turn to be disturbed, because--]

I don't remember this.

[he hands the paper back to her. it does not look like he is lying.]

I'm not sure it's real.

[throwabookatit]

[ ...Hm. ]

Who would've put it there? For what purpose?

[foo_bar]

I don't know.

[but it's bothering him to consider-- there's so much going on, and to add this one more thing to his list of worries?

He steeples his hands together, a tense look on his face.]

I don't know, but I know I don't remember that.

[throwabookatit]

[ She hesitates before she says this: ]

But...there's...a lot of things I don't remember. Apparently. And...I've already remembered some of them. Are you sure... Can you be sure your memories haven't been tampered with too?

[foo_bar]

I mean... I've told Connor and Hank, I don't remember events the same way Hale and Vivienne do. But--

[well. he looks a little uncomfortable at the thought]

... I. I don't know for sure. Sorry.

[throwabookatit]

You...remember things differently? What does that mean?

[ If he told Connor and Hank, she sure wants to know too. ]

[foo_bar]

This whole world ending stuff sounds super serious, eh? [he almost airquotes it, actually.] If it's serious enough to justify a murder school, in broad daylight... It feels like I should fucking remember it happened.

But I don't. The world was fine.

[throwabookatit]

[ Her lips purse. ]

And yet...they said, to that first group, that it wasn't.

We thought, maybe...it was that virus. The...D-756. That's what we were trying to put together. But it wasn't, was it? That was...how recent was that?

[foo_bar]

Can't have been that long ago. 2 months now, maybe three?

Shit, the days blend together now. I'll get the exact date it showed up. I can't remember exactly when.

[but he feels like he should]

[throwabookatit]

So the reasons they were told for being brought here...and the reasons we have been told for being brought here, they're entirely different.

[ That. Does not sound good. ]

...Do they know? That your memories don't match up?

[foo_bar]

I don't know. Part of me thinks they do, part of me thinks they don't care one way or the other.

But there's a chance they don't.

[throwabookatit]

...Okay, so here's the real money question: Your organization. They don't remember this "world ending" event, either?

[foo_bar]

[he laughs a little at that-- like it should be the obvious question everyone asked.]

Absolutely not. I was sent here because they'd detected some strange anomalies, and the local government wanted someone to investigate.

[throwabookatit]

So you hadn't heard a thing about that until you got here?

[foo_bar]

No. There's a reason I said 'hijacking' instead of D-756. I didn't know it had a proper name.

[throwabookatit]

So, what we have here, is a virus only these people have proper information about, and the only other two we have access to claim to know about something the rest of the world doesn't.

...Did you know either of them, from before? Hale, Vivenne?

[foo_bar]

No. I'd read about Vivienne, but I'd never really met Hale until he had decided to be my boss for this program.

[and yet, his enmity of him is... perhaps uncharacteristically deep, given how he treats everyone else. who knows.]

[throwabookatit]

[ well, she hates the guy too, so it's not THAT big a surprise. ]

And you're sure... [ How to phrase this... ] They brought all of us here from different worlds. Are you sure the people running this are...native, to yours? If- if they could've been talking about another world ending event, I don't know.

[foo_bar]

I've considered it-- but it's not like the names are totally foreign to me?