milliways_bar | (no subject)

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There is a new notice on the notice board.

'REWARD OFFERED

Good afternoon,

Are you a cat, or a human who has close company with a cat?

If you know the wherabouts of either of the stolen infirmary scanners please return it or snitch on the culprit with some evidence and we will give you a whole salmon. No questions asked if you come with the scanner.

For further details please speak to me or Dad but probably me if any more detectiving is required.

Fry Sandhu'

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Yrael always likes to keep up with what is going on in the bar, just in case something catches his interest. The note from Fry on the notice board certainly catches his attention.

He tilts his head, reading it.

How very odd.

The logic of Fry has gone thus far:

The last thing scanned by the missing scanner was a cat - or at least, something that was shaped like a cat. But it didn't look quite like the cat in the diagram of the book he got out the library. And it would be hard to scan yourself without thumbs and things. So someone else probably scanned the cat. But at least one cat in this place is potentially open to bribery.

Though right at the moment he's playing Angry Birds on a tablet.

Idly, not in any great hurry, Yrael wanders over towards where Fry is seated.

He almost greets Frt, too, but is quickly distracted by sight of the game. What strange-looking birds. Strange-looking birds being used as ammo, it looks like, to the detriment of equally strange-looking pigs.

Not for the first time, Yrael reflects that there are some aspects of technology that do not make a lot of sense to him.

Fry plays each level until he gets perfect three star results, so he's quite good at it.

"Hello Yrael." he says after one round.

"Hello, Fry," Yrael replies, enjoying watching him play the strange game.

"The birds are content to let themselves be used as ammunition to defeat the pigs, for the sake of recovering their stolen eggs?" he guesses.

"It's just a game." Fry says. "They aren't real." This is important.

"Many things aren't real," Yrael replies. "But even most games have stories to explain why the player should work to meet their objectives."

Destroy the space invaders before they invade. Don't get killed by the ghosts. Save the princess. Defeat the villain. Get from point A to point B.

"Some justifications are weaker than others."

"It's easier for me to just think about the physics." Fry says.

He looks over at Yrael. "Did you come to answer my ad?"

"Yes, I did," Yrael replies, taking a seat. "To offer to help. Most of the cats in the bar cannot read, and so would not be able to answer your notice without an interpreter."

"Thanks." Fry says.

"The first scanner was stolen shortly after a cat was scanned. They are expensive to replace. The thief is also bullying my father by taunting him sending pictures of the scanner. There was a second theft, but I have identified that thief with a high level of certainty and can't link them to the first crime."

"So the second theft was by a 'copycat,' so to speak?" Yrael asks, amused.

"I will ask the forge cats if they know anything of the scanners that were taken, certainly. They may have seen something."

"Did you have a cat scan?" Fry asks. "The picture did not match my book."

"No," he replies, shaking his head slightly. "But I will ask if any of the others did."

"What book?"

"A book of pictures of body parts of animals I got from the school library so I could work out what animal it was. I wasn't sure if it was a cat or a dog or a fox."

"A good book to have," Yrael nods. "There are some dogs in the bar from time to time, but the only fox I know in the bar is little Egil, and he is not always a fox."

"Seimei is a fox." Fry says, disappointed that it was apparently not Yrael in the picture, and giving a little sigh. Even he can tell that Dad is stressed out.

"I do not believe I have met him," Yrael replies.

"Apart from the scan, what other information are you working with to find the scanners? You say you believe you have identified the second thief?"

"I installed a security beep on the infirmary door so the waitrats could watch anyone who came in." Fry says. "They were able to see the second scanner going and they tailed the guy but they couldn't get a good look at him but they did identify his dog."

Yrael restrains the urge to remark that of course people who are fond of dogs are not to be trusted.

"A good plan. I assume the thief is in the cells now?"

"No but I'm writing a report for Security." Fry says. "I was hoping he might lead me to the other one. Dad just wants the scanners back."

He tilts his head slightly, curious. "Can the bar not provide replacement scanners? Surely it provided the originals as well."

"No, the old Hank McCoy did." Fry says. "And Bar probably could, but she shouldn't have to, and they're likely to be expensive."

He looks over. "But mostly, someone is messing with my Dad. It's not fair. He looks after everyone here, even when he's tired or overworked or busy. It's not right to mess with him."

"There is a fund to pay for the needs of patrons bound here and for children, would that fund not be a source available for things that serve the common good of the bar patrons, such as new scanners?" Yrael asks.

"And if someone is taunting your father by keeping the scanners from the infirmary, making him worry, would not replacing them simply be a way of showing the bully they do not make a difference? Then, whether or not the thief or thieves are caught, he does not have to worry."

"Why should that fund be wasted on things that are being stolen rather than making the thiefs give them back?" Fry asks. "What if the thief just keeps taking the new ones?"

"One might not have a choice but to get new scanners, if one cannot catch the thief," Yrael says, shrugging mildly.

"And even if they do try taking the new ones, risking the new security measures you have set in place, each theft is another opportunity to gather evidence."

"Oh yes." Fry says. "But I wouldn't be very good at detectiving if I just gave up and bought new things when there's a crime. And I don't think the thief should get away with it. So I'm staking my pocket money on the chance I'll have to buy a fish to get a good witness."

"Buying new things could be part of solving the original crime," Yrael suggests. "If the thief thinks they are so clever, perhaps they could be taunted into giving themselves away. Replace the scanners and point out how pointless their original theft was, thereby goading them into trying again, and then catch them in the act."

"But we still lose. I don't like losing. Dad's used to being hopeless at this sort of thing but I'm not."

Edited 2017-01-10 22:46 (UTC)

"How would catching the thief be losing?" he asks. "You would have the scanners back, and then be able to return the additional scanners to the bar, if you wanted."

"It's losing if we don't catch them. Why would they need more than one each?"

"I have been explaining how purchasing new scanners could help you catch the thieves by taunting them in return," Yrael points out. "I do not see where losing is involved. Your doubt about purchasing new scanners to tempt the thieves earlier was manifested as 'what if they keep taking the new ones?' Now your doubt about purchasing new scanners to tempt the thieves is 'why would they need more than one each?'"

"If you do not know why the thieves stole the scanners in the first place, any conjecture on what they would do if the scanners were replaced is simply that - conjecture."

"I'm eight years old, I don't know what to do, I'm thinking out loud!" Fry says. "But if the thieves don't go for the new scanner then they got away with it, and if they do it'll upset my dad more."

"Fair," Yrael agrees, not really knowing how one talks to an eight year old human versus one of a different age. "I was merely positing the idea that if you cannot catch the thieves on the evidence you have now, you may need to engineer an opportunity to gather new evidence."

"I think I would have to ask Dad about that." Fry says.

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