one } voice; un: jane doe (they know what everybody knows)

[scathefires]

Who wants to help me settle a bet? I've got two questions if you do.

One - do you have an expression where you're from that goes "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades"?

And two - what the hell do horseshoes and hand grenades have to do with each other anyway?

private to seifer and nida.

So we never went camping, back in the village.

[that's. pathetic, but it's the best he can do for offering an olive branch to his brothers.]

Comments

[therevanchist]

Plenty of those.

[She sounds like she's speaking from personal experience. So many grenades, Jason.]

[scathefires]

Yeah? Any particular importance in accuracy with those?

[therevanchist]

It doesn't hurt, but you've got a few meters of leeway.

[scathefires]

Sounds about like what we've got where I'm from - 'cept we measure in feet, not meters.

[therevanchist]

[He can't see it, but Revan just looked down at her boots.]

I'm assuming that's one of those historical accidents and not that you have to go around converting each other's measurements into your own shoe size.

[scathefires]

That's way too much math for anyone to manage.

[soooo. nope.]

Nah, it's some outdated standard of measurement. Most of the world doesn't even use it, the States are just stubborn about hanging onto it, I guess.

[therevanchist]

Not that I'm advising idiosyncratic personal measurement systems, but haven't you got droids for the math?

[Why use a calculator when you can use a beeping trashcan with an attitude problem?]

[scathefires]

Mm, we'd prob'ly need to have droids, period, before we could have 'em for math.

[therevanchist]

You...don't have droids?

[Who does all the boring crap?!?]

[scathefires]

Not unless you’re referring to a specific brand of cell phones.

[therevanchist]

[She more or less knows what a cell phone is now--and her common sense has been putting up a rare successful defense against her curiosity to keep her from disassembling the one she was issued on arrival--and is thus aware they are not talking about the same thing.]

By droid I mean robot.

[scathefires]

There's little robots that can roll around a room and vacuum on their own, but that's about all we've got on that front where I'm from. Anything more advanced is either still hypothetical or fictional.

[then again, so is jason.]

[therevanchist]

...Huh.

[When you've had AI for a good 25,000 years, the idea of a civilization without it is a novelty.]

Why floor cleaners?

[It just seems like a weird thing to invent first, okay.]

[scathefires]

'Cause floors get dirty and people don't wanna clean 'em, I guess. What would you do with a robot instead?

[therevanchist]

[Assassinations, apparently.]

If I tried to make my utility droid sweep floors, he'd just start running over my feet instead.

[Which wouldn't happen if she did regular memory wipes, but she's not a monster.]

[scathefires]

[well. that's not entirely a terrible idea - probably more efficient, if it does lack the personal touch of a traditional assassination.]

There's a pretty easy fix for that, y'know - just keep your feet up and out of the way.