taxonomites | [Visual] [Location- Random Warehouse]

The tablet briefly displays a skewed glimpse of what looks like a makeshift science lab inside a large empty warehouse-- the emphasis on makeshift. A few library books stacked on surfaces, spines bearing titles like Chemistry for Students and Practical Science. There's bits of pipe, a sink, projects scattered in phases of half-completed.

Paul Smecker rights the tablet, and takes a breath. In one hand he has a pair of safety goggles, which he sets down on the counter with a level of care that is a marked contrast from the last time he made a broadcast.

"Hey, Taxon," he says after several awkward seconds. "I don't know how many people got a chance to know her, but Alexis Castle's gone."

He pauses, opens his mouth as if to say something else, then just shakes his head and presses the button to end the call.

Paul stands there a moment in the silence of the warehouse, then sets a plastic bag full of supplies down on the counter. No need for them now. Class for Alexis has been canceled, permanently.

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"Beats the fuck out of me," Paul answers with a shrug to the words from a man he doesn't know yet.

"If you subscribe to the theory that she gets to go home with a lollipop and no memory of this place, then sure, be thankful on her behalf. Whatever floats your personal rowboat, kid."

It took a few moments longer than it really should have for Stefen to puzzle any of that out, but then, he still wasn't used to the idea of so many people from so many different places and times even. The choice of language was different, and some things, apparently, meant the opposite of what they were supposed to...

To a Bard who made his career out of knowing what words meant, this was unsettlingly confusing.

"Then Lady Bless she stay safe." It was the best he could do from here.

Paul Smecker doesn't know who 'the lady' is, but he understands ritual and religion, or something close to it, when he hears it. Before Taxon this would have gotten a smirk from him, a snide wisecrack.

Now he just nods, tiredly. "Why not? She can use whatever blessings are available, and so can we all I'm sure."

Stefen had never exactly been religious, but there always the expressions, the oaths, the wishes. He didn't know if it would help, but it could and why not try anything that might give an advantage?

"Here's to hoping that she's listening around here, then."

"Yeah." Paul sighs, and rubs at the bridge of his nose. "And any other gods who are listening. Have we met, by the way? I'm Paul Smecker, former atheist."

A little grim humor at himself there.