Honesty is such a lonely word, everyone is so untrue...

[haruno]

Who: Sakura, Kaoru, & OPEN
What: A bakery is having a special promotion involving their new line of baked goods, "The only honest joy you'll have in your life!" They're free, and so what if they're chalk full of something akin to a truth serum? Once you bite down, you won't notice your own honesty! It'll be as natural as breathing!
When:

Comments

[steelalchemy]

[Free food? You know Ed is within hearing smelling distance.]

Free cookies? You serious? Those look pretty good.

[haruno]

[ LOOK HERE IS THE TRAY and Sakura smiles, tempted to laugh. ]

Come on, I know you want to try one. I can vouch at least two of the baked goods on this tray are tasty. Help fill me in on the rest!

[steelalchemy]

[Aw man, it's like heaven on... a tray...]

Don't mind if I do!

[HOMF]

[there goes a nut studded brownie]

[haruno]

[ kinky; ]

How've you been lately, Edward?

[steelalchemy]

[omnomnomnom seductive lick]

Ribs are all healed up, so other than the slime attacking our cabin, not bad. Though, work's a pain in the ass. Why are there so many stupid people on the ship?

[haruno]

[ here, have the tray subtly offered to you again sir oh mai ]

I don't know, maybe it's part of the sentient condition. Where are you working this month?

[steelalchemy]

[takes an iced chocolate cupcake]

Probably. I think I remember reading somewhere that IQ's a Gaussian function? So it stands to reason for all there smart people on one end, there's an equal number of stupid people on the other end. And sure, it's going to be that end of the function that needs tech support, but... come on.

[haruno]

Tech support? I can imagine... based on how many questions I had when I started using the Guide. And I read the manual. Twice.

[ she shakes her head. Now she takes lessons? ]

[steelalchemy]

If the questions were about the Guides, I could understand that. But yesterday I was asked "How do I flush the toilet?" And the caller was dead serious.

[haruno]

[ sakura's look of disbelief is only tempered by her half hearted-- ]

They could have been new? Or... born... yesterday?

Or just idiots. At least you don't work at an advice hotline?

[steelalchemy]

[done with the cupcake, reaching for a chocolate chip cookie]

Tech support is practically an advice hotline. "Can I use my Guide to film my slixaph and I having calemptcha?" "Ma'am, you can film just about anything you want with your Guide, but please don't tell me what either of those words mean."

[haruno]

[ no disguising the look of disgust that flashes across Sakura's face. ]

You think they could just wait and figure that out on their own? The Guide isn't that complicated. I could point and shoot the day I got here, and I'd never seen an elevator before!

[ she pauses; ]

Or anything like the Guide, but the point is, none of this technology made any sense.

[steelalchemy]

[yeah, that was pretty much Ed's reaction as well]

I know, right? We didn't have computers or anything like them either. Or talking doors. Those doors freaked me out at first. We'd at least had elevators, but wrapping my head around space travel kind of hurt.

[haruno]

I thought the elevator was supposed to be my room when I first arrived. Then it moved!

[ she's able to laugh about that now LMASD so many months after it happened. ]

Didn't help that the only person who knew what was going on was a three foot tall animal whose back burst into flames when he was startled, and that it took forever for him to type out anything I could understand.

[ and she sighs, looking over the heads of the crowd. space. ]

It still hurts for me, trying to really understand it. I'm working on that, though. But after Noirtica, I refuse to count on someone being around to get us through space. Getting lucky's one thing. Depending on that luck to hold no matter what...

[ headshake THIS DERAILED ]

... Makes me not quite as stupid as the people you're dealing with, but close enough.

[steelalchemy]

No, I think there's something seriously wrong with some of the... individuals I talk to. You're much smarter than them by far.

[haruno]

[ she snorts, partly because she agrees, and partly because; ]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Edward.

[ and she shrugs pragmatically, even if what she says isn't really pragmatic. ]

Stupidity's everywhere. With several million people living in just one square mile, it just seems that much worse.