[Tiny D - aged about eight or so, but he looks like a bug-eyed six-year-old girl - is sitting on the sofa in his shop, with an absolutely straight-backed posture that looks alien in a small child. The camera angle is askew; it's likely one of his pets turned on the communicator accidentally, or maybe accidentally-on-purpose because why is the boss ( Read more... )

[The video screen shows a half-lit, ornately decorated room that could be from the eighteenth century if not for the electric lighting. D is seated comfortably on a plush sofa and so are a number of animals - he's flanked by a young raccoon on one side and an odd goat-like hybrid on the other, a few cats are stretched out along the headrest, there ( Read more... )

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I understand well enough that the purpose of this place is re-education, of a sort. We are to come here and have made 'right' the traits that led us to do what the esteemed Admiral would consider 'wrong'. One wonders how the division between right and wrong - between Warden and Inmate - is drawn, but I digress.

A question: how is a person to learn ( Read more... )

Are all the Barge's ports of call so...interesting? Given what I've learnt of floods and the like, one would think the Admiral might steer us to clearer waters, as it were. Given the reports made during the weekend and its aftermath, I am quite relieved that I chose not to venture out.

Jennifer enjoyed herself, nevertheless. I allowed her to hunt ( Read more... )

Having recently returned a lost kitten, I find myself wondering: how many of you on the Barge keep pets or other such companions, and of what species?

I ask because I have a quantity of veterinary knowledge and a certain affinity for animals, and would be more than willing to lend my expertise to anyone whose pets appear to be in poor health or low ( Read more... )

It seems that using this 'network' is the accepted means of communicating, so I will endeavour to do so myself.  Please forgive any uncertainty on my part; I am not used to making public proclamations by way of a medium I previously considered quite private ( Read more... )