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"Say, why's this thing so empty?"

Flo, the newest alien on the Taxon Board of Affairs (there is no board of affairs, she just finds amusement in abbreviating it TBA), is making a personal visit to Taxon today. As in, in person. She's got the suggestions box in her hands, lifted from it's hook on the wall. It's upside down and she's shaking it, expecting something to come out. She even holds it up above her head to peer inside, just to be sure.

Nope. Nothing.

"I doubt you guys don't have any suggestions for us," she says to the tablet, directly to the screen. Yes, citizens of Taxon, she means you. "From what I hear, you want a lot of things. Mittens cried for days after that whole ordeal."

The hamster's name is not Mittens. That won't stop her from calling him that, though.

Have something to say, Taxon? The wonky weather, the ties that bind (literally), etc. Say it! Flo's here and she's ready to listen.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There is a long moment of silence while River tries to process just what is going on on her tablet screen. What she finally settles on is:

"Its name is Mittens?"

She can get to all the other questions later.

"Of course!"

No. No it's not, but the fuzzier alien isn't around to defend itself. Mittens it is.

Okay, River just shakes her head as if to put this Mittens business out of her mind. That's definitely not the priority here.

"And who are you? I don't think I've seen you before, but it's hard to be sure."

"I'm Flo!" She smiled brightly, pointing at her tricked out name tag, complete with glittery stickers and everything. "It's my first time. Exciting, isn't it?"

"Very." River does not look excited at all.

"I think this is my first time talking to one of you, too. I guess I wasn't as good a conversationalist when I was insane."

Bitter.

"Oh, don't be so hard on yourself!" Cheery is like a disease with this one. "We like you just the way you are."

Sadly, it doesn't look like Flo's cheer is very contagious. "Technically, the way I am isn't the way I was, which is what I'll go back to any day now. It's not very encouraging."

A beat passes, and River moves to lock the feed.

"Why didn't something like this happen sooner?"

"Why didn't what, sweetie?"

Maybe she knows exactly what River's talking about and maybe she doesn't. That's up in the air.

"This glitch, making me different. I've been here two years, I think, and nothing happened before."

Of all the things she's found herself knowing, this is one she can't figure out.

"Maybe we like you."

In other words, she can't give you the answers you want, River. Sorry.

She frowns. Answers weren't really expected, but the would've been nice to have.

"All things considered, that isn't a terribly comforting assertion."

In a lot of ways, Flo wishes she could provide people with answers, but she doesn't have that authority.

She smiles brightly. "But, it's a good thing!"

Her first instinct is to be dismissive, if you say so, but the moment for it passes with a resigned sigh.

"You wanted suggestions, right? People here refer to these irregularities as glitches, and there's a person here completely undeserving of the negative correlation."

Flo taps her chin with the cap end of a pen. Where did the pen come from? Who knows, it's best not to ask.

"That was a term we came up with before Glitch's arrival," she points out. Flo sees River's point, though. "What would you have them be called?"

"Anything else."

Some other time, she would've asked for Simon. Or home. Now she thinks she knows better.

"He doesn't deserve the confusion. Especially not now."

"I don't think 'anything else' would work..."

Tap, tap, tap.

"Then find something that does."

Sorry, Flo. River isn't up to playing the dense alien game.

"We'll take this into consideration."

She means it, too.

"S-so what's going with the weather?"

That wasn't a Glitchy stammer, that was cold. After a day in the workshop Glitch had just meandered up to the office/rec room and commandeered the sofa for sleep, only to wake up at some point in the wee hours freezing due to not putting the heat on. Because it has been summer yesterday.

He had made it home, but...that had been while wearing a summer suit, not at all conducive to being insulated.

"Just some minor technical difficulties. I can assure you we're right on top of it."

Poor guy doesn't look so hot, though. Which is the problem.

"Is the heat working in your home?" A genuine concerned look follows that.

Technical difficulties again. Maybe they had caught on to how un-PC the g-word was...right when he was more or less done worrying about it.

To answer her question Glitch turned the tablet so it would display the roaring fire he started in the main parlor hearth. Don't ask where the smoke goes, the answer will probably involve magic flue elves.

"It's getting there, thanks," he replied, turned the tablet back around, and tugged at the chenille throw draped over his shoulders. "So. You're another...non-fuzzy one, right?"

Flo was aware of how un-PC the word was around this particular fellow. Her aim was to please the citizens of Taxon, not unnecessarily aggravate them where it was easily avoidable. Technical difficulties is was.

"I could get it there quicker," she offers. It's a genuine offer, too. Really, Glitch, she'll fix that. "Yep. Got it in one."

Right, figured it out, he's oh so very clever now.

"That's very kind of you," Glitch allowed with a nod and a smile, then switched the feed to private and let the smile vanish. Time to see if this would work. "But I think I've gotten enough help from you folks, yeah?"

Edited 2011-08-04 14:33 (UTC)

"One second." She appears to fiddle with the tablet and Glitch should feel the temperature in his place start to climb. "Come again?"

Maybe she understands, maybe she doesn't. But Flo isn't like the other TBA-ers (nevermind that there is no TBA) and isn't an assumer. Explain away, enbrained citizen.

The warmth is acknowledged with a nod but Glitch does not relinquish his blanket, not quite ready to give up the comfort.

"The...the new brain." He gave the parlor a cursory once-over even though he knew it was as empty and echoing as the rest of the palace and why had he never noticed how lonely it was. "I'm not complaining, of course not, but it's not exactly what I was expecting."

"What were you expecting?" She'll take notes for next time.

Ambrose, he didn't say.

"All my memories, all my skills, all...I was probably expecting too much."

Glitch was still coming to terms with knowing he'd (apparently) get all of that when he went home. He'd been angry at first, at the aliens but mostly at himself for just going with it.

"...are you not happy with your policy?"

Policy. Look, she's based off an insurance commercial. Some things stick.

"I always thought that thing was a hologram," Puck says, cupping his chin in a hand and staring lazily at the screen. "Something imaginary, like a low-calorie buffet."

"Nope," the alien answered. She knocked on the box for good measure. "Solid as the wall it hangs on."

"Solid doesn't equal real," he remarks idly, but it's more of a rhetorical thing.

"So you're... what, the one who drew the short straw?"

"Hmm? Oh, no," Flo says dismissively with a laugh, shaking her head of hair. "I volunteered."

"And we're supposed to give you suggestions on... what, exactly?"

"Anything and everything!"

"Oh, I am certain the citizenry have suggestions," answers Long, looking over the woman on the screen. Hmf.

"We likely simply do not think our suggestions will be given much attention. After all, the primary wish of most of us is to return to our homes, and if you and your colleagues have not seen fit to grant that, I see no reason why we should expect your co-operation in smaller things."

Flo remained cheery. She wasn't here to be downtrodden and depressing like the others of the TBA, after all.

"Well if we sent you home we wouldn't be able to give you free stuff! Didn't Mayhem answer this when he was in that ball?"

"I wouldn't know, madam. I was uninvolved with that," Long says, unable to help his default to manners even when talking to one of the hamsters.

"Personally the only thing I desire cannot be given 'freely', and I do not think it can be given by you in any case. But many of the people here have left family and loved ones behind-- spouses, madam, or children in some cases.

"If you believe that gifts such as tea and trinkets and foodstuffs can replace such a loss, you and your colleagues comprehend even less of human nature than I do."

"...so, you don't have any suggestions?"

Long frowns, acutely aware he is wasting his time. They care nothing for the trauma they have caused most of Taxon's inhabitants by bringing them here.

"...consistent weather," he sighs. "In something approaching predictable seasons."

Flo wishes she could be more helpful, but her higher ups have rules that must be followed. Rules she is wary of breaking.

"Northern or southern hemisphere?"

"Hey lady!"

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and that someone is not in the least bit amused. "Here's a suggestion!"

The gesture that follows is a very, very mean one.

Flo seems completely unaffected by the obscene gesture. Instead, she focuses on being called 'lady' and points to her name tag.

"It's Flo, see!"

Willow just stares for a moment.

"Mittens? ....Mittens?"

Because clearly that's the most important thing right now.

The most important.

"Yes! Mittens!"

"....You named that hamster Mittens?"

It'll be a while before she gets over that.

"How does that even fit?"

"Oh, I didn't name him." Flo laughs at the notion that she did, though. (...because she did.) "It's a hamster name!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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