milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Claudia's at a table, with what looks like a notebook at first glance - but on second glance, it's covered in numbers.
Binary puzzles: Better stress relief than hacking government agencies, especially when the stress at hand is 'Helena has the hallucination plague, she'll get better, but until then the Warehouse is all unsettled.'

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Joe's been walking around and stares at all the numbers on her table,

"Doing some decoding?"

"Nah, just binary puzzles. Stress relief the easy way."
And then she frowns, and looks up. She's not the best with accents, but Al's is fairly unique in the bar... but Al would never wear a uniform in his right mind.
"Take it the hallucination plague hit you too?"

"The what plaque? No, I must have just caught a cold after my last flight to the Himalayas. Ah, I always prefer flying for that or possibly a good fight,"

He smiles, its the smile of an ace who's been photographed a good deal.

Claudia tries not to laugh at the mental image of Al flying a plane. That's something she sincerely hopes never comes to pass.
"You sure about that? There's a flu going around here - one of my coworkers came down with it. Makes you think you're someone else, on top of being the flu."

"That does sound disturbing but I know exactly who I am. Sky Captain Joseph Sutherland, but it seems like you must someone who looks like me. That's not too unusual especially in a place like Milliways."

"I only asked because you sound like him and he's not from Earth at all. Kind of a unique accent in these parts. I'm Claudia, by the way."
She can play along with Al, for now. Won't hurt anything.

His accent is a little more English but not quite right,

"Trust me, I'm from Earth, born in Devon. Its good to meet you, Claudia."

Sure, Al. And Helena's a dippy American high school teacher.
"Yeah, last time he got sick he thought he was British too. Weird pattern, come to think of it. But at that point I don't think he'd even been to an Earth."

Joe sits down at her table and looks for a rat to order a drink, "There's an alien that looks like me?"

Claudia shrugs. "Dunno how alien I'd call him, he's definitely a human. Just not from Earth."

"Right," That doesn't make any more sense.

"Don't give me that look! I didn't populate the place!"

"No, the rats I'm used to. Just odd to think of someone else with my face who's not me. So what do you do that puzzles relax you?"

And here she thought the problem was the 'alien' part.
"How much you encountered computers?"
Partly she's trying to fish out what time frame Al thinks he's working from. Partly she's curious as to how much the hallucination plague actually fills in.

"Computers, those big machines that are used for big calculations? I've seen one once I think,"

Polly was doing a story on them and he somehow ended up her transport.

"Smaller, by my time. And a lot faster. I work with 'em."
And if she doesn't do the puzzles, she'll probably try stress-hacking the NSA, and that can only end in tears.

"That sounds like something Dax would work on, he's an inventor and the best mechanic I know."

Claudia grins. "Been known to do a little innovating in my time."

"Only way to improve what you work with."

Now there's a taste of home! The digits, anyway. The specific thing being done with them, not so much. "Hey, Claudia. What're you doing?"

repositoryBadger, Minus displays in greeting.

"Hi, Minus. It's binary puzzles. You can't put more than two of the same number in a row, each row and column has the same number of ones and zeroes, and each row and column is unique. It was this or stress-hack government agencies, and since the FBI nearly sniffed me out last time, this seemed like the better bet."

"Yeah, as a Guardian, I'm kind of against that."

Claudia shrugs. "A, the current problem will pass sooner than later, whenever Helena gets better. And B, I'm not sure I want to know what the NSA's sitting on."

"How's she doing?"

"Still not well enough to come home, that's all I know. The last thing we need is Pete thinking he's someone else."
Or, worse: Artie thinking he's someone else.
"Joshua's been keeping an eye on her more directly."

"Yeah, I saw them before. At least she didn't think she was anyone who'd get her in trouble."

"No, but apparently she thinks she's a total drip. About as weird as Al thinking he's from Earth."
At least now she can say Al's been to an Earth, but...

"You should see Guppy. Before I got him to go up to bed, he thought he was a cop and was pointing a banana at people."

"...Poor guy."

"Yeah, the fever hit him hard, too."

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