calligraphy

[isthisart]

Linya is working on a massive flowchart-like diagram of a planned software project for Dr. Cheung. It's laid out in every color and in three dimensions with sprawl of its little writing that takes up most of her office and keeps fading out at the edges and in her shadow when she moves around, but reappears when she turns or approaches.

Comments

[thisvorlunatic]

"True. Unless he's been making very clever investments all this time."

[isthisart]

"Which seems like the kind of thing ImpSec might have noticed."

[thisvorlunatic]

"You'd think. They haven't found the money yet, but given the dried beans incident I'm not confident that means anything. The books-and-petty-theft routine could be an elaborate runaround. Five thousand dried beans."

[isthisart]

"Oh? They didn't turn up a purchase record for the beans? Or a theft report."

[thisvorlunatic]

"As far as the poor fellow could determine, those beans appeared out of thin air. I mean, they were small beans, five thousand isn't a lot - enough to cover the surface area of a bed with a smallish inter-bean margin, apparently. I can think of half a dozen ways I could get my hands on a sack of beans without leaving a clear trail—if ImpSec wasn't bloody following me at the time!"

[isthisart]

"Do they know if he placed them himself?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Well, no. But in the absence of information I'm going to guess yes, because the other option is that he managed to find and hire someone to untraceably cover a bed in dried beans, which presents the same 'ImpSec was bloody following him at the time' problem as doing it himself plus the additional problems of who it was, how he found them, and how he convinced them to take such a crazy job. Well, I suppose the answer to the last one is 'put on his Miles hat'. What an absolute little... Naismith he is."

[isthisart]

Linya giggles. "Unsettling though I find his Miles hat, it is occasionally very entertaining to watch you contemplate your own characteristics from the outside."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I feel a deep sympathy for my parents, I have to tell you."

[isthisart]

"Maybe Aral Adri will take after me."

[thisvorlunatic]

"I wouldn't get your hopes up. You should ask Mother sometime for all my terrifying childhood stories."

[isthisart]

"I'm sure they'll be riveting."

[thisvorlunatic]

"You'll wonder how I survived to adulthood. Sometimes I wonder how I survived to adulthood. Well, I did have help."

[isthisart]

"...I have just accidentally imagined how, er, inconvenienced Mark would have been if you had not survived to adulthood."

[thisvorlunatic]

"...Ah." He contemplates this. "That wouldn't have been good."

[isthisart]

"Probably not."

[thisvorlunatic]

"He might have gotten out alive... and I think he's smart enough to have figured out eventually that he could come home to Mother. But. Not a happy thought, all in all."

[isthisart]

"Sorry."

[thisvorlunatic]

"It's fine." He hugs her. "You didn't engineer his childhood."

[isthisart]

Snuggle.

[thisvorlunatic]

Snuggle.

"Anyway, I've had my fun, I'll let you get back to work now."

[isthisart]

She kisses him and sets him down. "Thank you for keeping me up to date."

Here again is the giant diagram!

[thisvorlunatic]

He waves over his shoulder as he exits the room.



A couple of hours later, he bounces back in with a packed bag slung over his shoulder, wearing undress greens and his ImpSec silver eyes.

"Time-sensitive egg-sitting run," he says. "I've got time for a goodbye kiss, then I'll be back in three weeks or so. Shouldn't be anything dangerous unless something comes up while I'm away - no sealed orders, so either it's very routine or it's very very freaky, but I'm betting on option one."

[isthisart]

Scoop. Kiss.

"I love you. I hope you have a topped-off reading list."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Love you too. Maybe I'll shoplift a book or two on the way to the spaceport," he jokes.

And off he goes.