audio.

[hisstrength]

[Tris sounds tense. She had so many questions in mind when she first arrived that she never got around to taking to the network. Now's not the time for any of them, except this one.]

So destruction and fighting and everything aside. Does anyone know... how long someone can stay uhm. Passed out in a coma? I know some people dream of what's happening at home like that but how long does it normally last?

Comments

[hisstrength]

No kidding. I mean I don't plan on dying here, and I might've helped if they'd asked, but I guess they don't do that.

[teenyoda]

Kind of the thing about omnipotent beings. They're not big on permission. I mean, do you ask a bug before you squish it or take it out of the house?

[hisstrength]

No, I guess not. I mean, bugs don't usually try to argue with me either, but I'm not sure that makes much of a point.

[teenyoda]

Maybe they do. Maybe we just haven't figured out the lingo. All I know is I'm not sharing sleeping space with something that has more legs than I do.

[hisstrength]

But you're also not telling it to help you win a war. ...Imagine that, though. Armies of crawling things fighting in our stead.

[teenyoda]

Have you seen what a flood of army ants can do to a carcass? Bees can be trained a little, I think. Bugs are a bit harder to train, but some people have managed it.

[hisstrength]

How do you know this stuff?

[teenyoda]

Lot of late night wanderings on the internet.

[hisstrength]

I guess I missed out.

[teenyoda]

How can you not look up weird shit on the internet? It's sort of what the internet is for.

[hisstrength]

Well, for example, by the internet not existing where I lived.

[teenyoda]

... That kind of sucks.

[hisstrength]

Like I said, I guess I missed out, even though I don't know on what.

[teenyoda]

So much. So many cat videos. Honest. So, are you from the past or something?

[hisstrength]

I really don't know. But if the world you're from is mostly intact, I think you're probably the one who's from the past.

[teenyoda]

... Really? I don't know... I know a guy here from the future and he says they're all in space ships and stuff.

[hisstrength]

[For a moment there, she doesn't sound that casual.]

I can tell you people in my city can hook a computer up to people's brains and control what they see and hear.

Maybe the space ships come even later.

[teenyoda]

... Whaaaaat? I... have no idea what they can do with his timeline. You should maybe go talk to him and see if you guys are from the same one. I'm pretty sure not, since he didn't mention anything like that.

[hisstrength]

Maybe we are. I don't think I could really explain how it works though, I mean, I don't know any details.

And hey, you have the internet. [And a world that hasn't gone to shit.]

[teenyoda]

I don't know anything from his other than aliens, spaceships, and the south is apparently alive and well and has peach pies.

[hisstrength]

[One of these things is not like the others.]

...Peach pies.

[teenyoda]

Yes, we talked about pies and how he's not sharing recipes with me because he's a grumpy jerk. But not really, he's pretty cool.

[hisstrength]

[did she just laugh? no way. you imagined that.]

So who's this grumpy jerk I'm supposed to be looking for?

[teenyoda]

His name's Leonard McCoy. He's a doctor on a space ship from the future. Don't let the scowl fool you, he's actually pretty decent.

[hisstrength]

But he still won't share pie recipes.