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[mouthyplonk.livejournal.com]

Sam! Guv!

[have an Annie mid-run screeching to an almost halt, looking around herself, confused.]

Wha -

[she stops, looking back from where she came from again]

That was just a shop a minute ago, wasn't it?

[still looking around herself, eyes looking up, then down in confusion]

Doesn't seem to be much of a shop at the moment. Doesn't seem to be much of anything, really.

[turning around herself in a small circle and finally taking a deep breath]

Now just to work out what this is all about. Suppose I coulda slipped and fell back there. Hit my head and now I'm seeing stars [her eyes shift a little, still taking in her surroundings] everywhere. Or maybe I'm still in bed and I never even woke up yet this morning. Drugs maybe? They did bring in those hippies the other night. Really oughta try to keep a better eye on that lot.

Whatever it is, is enough to make you think you lost your mind.

[laughs, rolling her eyes]

And I'm talking to meself now, too. That solves it.

Comments

[mouthyplonk.livejournal.com]

What do you want me to do?

[didorothy]

I'm going to give you a mobile phone. Hold on.

[he disappears and reappears with a mobile, holding it out to her]

It works just like a normal landline phone. Only there isn't an operator. You just dial the number and hit the green button what looks like a phone.

People like you and me, Annie, we're just human. We can do the best to protect people, to get them out of dangerous situations. Fighting out if we have to. But we're not looking for confrontation if we can avoid it. And we're not starting now. We're trying to keep this quiet until we can get him out of our world.

[mouthyplonk.livejournal.com]

Mobile phone?

[examines the phone and looks at Sam]

It's real then, mobile phones, everything, all of it?

[confused half laugh, focusing on looking at the all the buttons, pressing a few then giving him back the phone]

It's too much, Sam. Mobile phones. It's beyond me, all of it.

[didorothy]

I show Gene my flat and he doesn't believe me; why am I not surprised you don't believe in mobile phones? Chris is the only person who's accepted it.

[is he hurt? Maybe.]

[mouthyplonk.livejournal.com]

It's so easy for you Sam, isn't it? Imagine what it's like for the rest of us.

[covers her mouth and shakes her head]

You just don't get it, do you?

[sighs]

That [she says the word with a good amount of disgust] mobile phone, that's real, so what does that make the rest of us?

[didorothy]

[oh.]

[Sam is silent for a moment. Then, quietly, he says]

Real enough that it hurt.

[mouthyplonk.livejournal.com]

[still confused and upset and all those other things, but she didn't mean to hurt Sam. she'd say she was sorry, but all those other emotions stop her, so instead she'll try to compromise]

You just put the number in and press the green button?

[didorothy]

[Sam nods, looking at her, unsure - how does he tell her he really does believe she exists? But he doesn't know what to do, so he doesn't do anything]

There's a list of contact that should show up here, too. [presses buttons on phone to show her] It's just me and Misaki now, because we haven't networked the mobiles to each other just yet.

[mouthyplonk.livejournal.com]

[leans over looking at the phone with him. focusing on that and not on all the other stuff that phone implies]

I'll have me own number, too?

You got yours on you? I can test it out, see if I can manage to dial you without blowing the entire thing up or something.

[didorothy]

[he nods, and then pauses, looking at her]

It's not a mobile, actually. They're glasses, from 2026. Fumie gave them to me.

[he pulls out the glasses, hesitating before putting them on, as if he's trying to not overwhelm her in realising what he'd done before]

[mouthyplonk.livejournal.com]

[laughs because it's all so ridiculous at this point, and it's all a bit maddening]

2026? Don't tell me. She got into a spaceship accident and wake up in 2006, right?

[didorothy]

[the sour look he sends her is not actually upset, but rather normal "Sam Is A Grump" Grumpy]

No, she's from that year. Japan. I make her dinner as her parents don't seem any good at it.

[mouthyplonk.livejournal.com]

You make her dinner? Here?

[didorothy]

At my flat, actually. I actually got Gene to take her and me out for dinner once, which is still a point of pride.

[mouthyplonk.livejournal.com]

[teasing because that all feels somewhat sane and normal at least] So you can let the Guv take you out to dinner, but you still have yet to take me?

[didorothy]

Anything I can do to get the Guv back for making me buy his beer comes easy to me.

[mouthyplonk.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it does.

So when I get back home, I'll get to meet this Fumie?

[didorothy]

You might. I do see her around sometimes. She's around here somewhere.

[grins]

When she and the Guv first met, she used to always zap him with the laser on her glasses. He was furious.

[mouthyplonk.livejournal.com]

[laughs]

I think I'd have like to have seen that.

[still a little uneasy about mobile phones and glasses, but she's trying to make light of it all]

So those ones you got on there, they can do that, too?

[didorothy]

I... have no idea. I only use them for ringing up people. And pirating. And maps and Google searches. God, I missed Google.

[he's slipping into technological geeking mode]

These can actually do a lot more than even the PCs from my time. Fumie says they link into a virtual reality network that imposes itself over physical reality, which can be very dangerous and is why all the maps keep up to date. They've got metabugs and metatags that do all sorts of things I don't actually get, but it's definitely beyond what I knew from home. And the resolution is much better than anything I've seen.

[mouthyplonk.livejournal.com]

Pirating? Should I start calling you Calico Jack?

[everything you just said - WHOOSH and it's a bit intimidating and scary, but she still tries to play it cool]

PC, like a Constable? They in charge of mobiles and lasers and things like that?

[didorothy]

Pirating is the term used to the illegal download of media and programs over the internet. Copyright infringement, basically. A PC is a personal computer.

[mouthyplonk.livejournal.com]

[laughs] Detective Inspector, why you're just a regular law breaker, you are.

[didorothy]

Find me a copy of Star Wars and I'll gladly play George Lucas my dues. At this point, the glasses are the only way I have of playing Playstation.

[mouthyplonk.livejournal.com]

Star Wars?