Report 013 [Voice/Action] | Another 365.25 days have elapsed...

[semper_cogitans]

Comments

[Filter]

[godbent]

You really always talk like that, don't you?

[Filter]

[semper_cogitans]

[... Strangest question he's heard in awhile. And filtered too. It takes a minute for Robert to compose himself.]

... Y-yes. ... Did you... expect o-otherwise?

...

[More awkwardly:] And... is it an... issue?

[Filter]

[godbent]

It sounds sort of silly from an adult, that's all.

[Filter]

[semper_cogitans]

Wh-why does it sound... silly?

[He's not even sure what she's referring to, specifically. The stutter? The word choice?]

[Filter]

[godbent]

Why doesn't it?

[Filter]

[semper_cogitans]

... I s-suppose that question would be... easier to answer if I knew e-exactly what you... were referring to, about how I speak.

[Filter]

[godbent]

The awkwardness, the stuttering, the faltering. I mean you sounded sort of collected a few times there and you do now but on the whole it's very timid. [Haruhi, maybe that's just because you feel unsettled by it]

...Whatever. But as for that question, yeah. I've changed a lot.

[It's just made all the more obvious with Kyon here]

[Filter]

[semper_cogitans]

[... That hits pretty hard, admittedly. It wasn't often that Robert was actively called out on his stutter, even on Terra, but the tic has been a constant source of awkwardness since childhood and has served as an added deterrent from speaking... as well as dovetailed with his anxiety issues, which exacerbated the stutter (and vice-versa) in a wretched positive feedback loop.

To hear someone criticize him on it is... well.]

...

I a-apologize. It is... n-not something I have... much control over.

[The rest of this is easier to deal with, of course.]

... With the length of time you have... been here, I am not surprised in the l-least...

[Filter]

[godbent]

[The apology is brushed over. She feels awkward in general, so pushing that any further, well. Anyway, she shifts and then goes on to the next part]

Yeah, it's in no way surprising. Most people here do so over time.

[Filter]

[semper_cogitans]

... I s-suppose few would be able to say that... they might have changed so m-much as to become unwelcome on their own h-home worlds, though...

[And that's the crawling feeling Robert gets every time he looks at what he's had to adapt to and become in Luceti.]

[Filter]

[godbent]

How many people live in homes so intolerant they wouldn't let someone with new ideas in?

[Filter]

[semper_cogitans]

...

One could... s-say that about my world, I... suppose.

[Though he wouldn't use "intolerant". Even if, perhaps, it is accurate.]

[Filter]

[godbent]

...Really?

[Filter]

[semper_cogitans]

... Terra is... n-not particularly conducive to... dramatically differing viewpoints.

Especially when they are... d-difficult to... scientificially verify.

[... Or if they have anything whatsoever to do with violence. Yeah, Terra is not exactly a utopia...]

[Filter]

[godbent]

Isn't that counter-intuitive though? The premise of science is to explain something you can observe - there's a mountain of empirical evidence for every "supernatural" phenomenon you can imagine here except for maybe ridiculous things, so the goal of science ought to be to explain rationally that evidence.

[Filter]

[semper_cogitans]

I c-completely agree with you - however, on T-Terra, none of the phenomena here are... verifiable. Or even... r-remotely plausible, according to most physics models...

[Thoughtfully] I s-suppose that absence of evidence is... h-hardly evidence of absence, but... here, there is actual evidence.

No Terran s-scientist would deny that the physics of other w-worlds allow for what is... visible, here. But... my own world does not. At least, not as far as... a-any scientist is aware.