OFFICE HOURS

[didntgetdadslooks]

Got something you want to say to your good friend The Professor's Assistant? Come on in, don't be shy! Her official hours are daylight hours - girl has to sleep? after all, probably - but if you knock on the door at night she'll generally answer. Please just make sure to leave the in-game date and time in the header of your toplevel!

All comments are screened for confidentiality during the course of the experiment.

Comments

[snackooed]

This whole experience has been a bit eye-opening for me with that, if we're being honest. I mean, for magic...er, I should say, magic magic, to be real is one thing, because people have been confusing scientific phenomena as something supernatural forever?

[ She pretty ungraciously shoves a bit of her sandwich into her mouth... ]

The way I see it, there should some kind of scientific basis for all of that stuff. Even in the places some of us come from where magic exists, it sounds like it isn't as simple as waving a wand and making something appear out of thin air. If there's a logical system behind it, it's just a matter of them having resources that we don't, or using resources in a way that we aren't, or something like that...

The talking animals are what I've had to just play along with, though.

[didntgetdadslooks]

[ Angel shrugs. ]

I figure it's something about physics in different worlds. Any sufficiently advanced technology, right?

[ She shrugs. ]

I'm not going to question evolution in other dimensions.

[snackooed]

I probably shouldn't either, to be fair. To them, we're probably the ones they're questioning, right? Or, at least, that's what I'd imagine. And it's no excuse to be impolite, I suppose...

[ Hrm... ]

So if it really is a different dimension thing, do you know what this one's like? Above the water, I should say. The fish seem similar enough to the ones in mine, but I'm definitely no marine biologist, so I wasn't really able to tell anything just from that...

[didntgetdadslooks]

Oh! Well, it's Earth in 2020, pretty similar to a lot of your worlds. I... haven't actually seen much of it at all, but apart from some historical differences, you'd probably recognize a lot of it if you somehow broke out now and went up to the surface.

[snackooed]

Wait, 2020? I guess I don't have to worry about being late for work anymore, I'll be eight whole years early...

[ Gosh, 2020...she was still studying abroad in Europe back then! ]

How much of it have you seen?

[didntgetdadslooks]

[ Angel sort of... ponders how to answer that. ]

A few islands?

[snackooed]

[ What, like, Hawaii? The Caribbean? But she doesn't seem to have much of a tan... ]

How about Los Angeles? [ With the sandwich still in her mouth, Christ-- ] Never been to California before?

[didntgetdadslooks]

Nope! I'd love to, someday.

[snackooed]

Oh, I bet you'd enjoy it, then! Most people do, I mean, there's a reason why the tourists come out in droves, they eat up that whole Hollywood area...

[ She's still talking with her mouth full, someone needs to teach this woman etiquette-- ]

Not to mention, our burgers are pretty famous.

[didntgetdadslooks]

You don't say?

[ She tilts her head a little. ]

What makes them famous?

[snackooed]

Oh, people come from all over the country to try them! I think the secret is that the quality of the meat and the toppings are really good, but they're able to keep the costs of the burgers themselves cheap, so you feel like you're getting away with a steal...

I will say, though, between you and me, the fries can be a little controversial.

[didntgetdadslooks]

I'll keep that in mind!

What's so controversial about them? ... Pretend for a second you're talking to someone who's only ever had food court fries.

[snackooed]

[ Why does that make it sound like she doesn't have to pretend very hard... ]

I'm pretty sure it depends on who you ask. I've heard the whole gamut, from "they get cold too fast" to "they taste like cardboard with salt". The real answer is that they don't double-fry them, from what some experts have informed me. I'm pretty bad at cooking, so I've never made fries for myself, but apparently the usual way to make them means you put them back in the frier a second time, after you let them cool for a bit.

So the tourists get tricked, but the real locals know to ask for the fries well-done. They're more like chips in fry form that way, but there's nothing wrong with that, if you ask me...

[didntgetdadslooks]

[ It's probably fine! ]

Huh. I didn't know making fries was so complicated.

[snackooed]

Well, like I said, I'm a pretty bad cook, so the best I can do is heat them up from the freezer, and even then I struggle. It's the kind of thing that makes me glad we have cooks here...it'd be a little embarrassing if everyone found out that I'd have a hard time fending for myself in the kitchen at my age. Studying abroad in Europe didn't exactly help, either...the food there is really a bit hit-or-miss.

[didntgetdadslooks]

Aw, I'm sure you're not that bad. Besides, you're probably better at it than me - most of what I can manage back here is toast and pasta.

[snackooed]

Do you have your own little living quarters back here, then? With a kitchen and a bedroom and all? I was kind of curious about where exactly you sleep, since I didn't see a room in the living area that was yours...

[didntgetdadslooks]

Yup.

[ She gestures at a door in the back corner of the room. ]

It's a little more than what you guys have so that I don't have to go out too often, but I promise there's not a mansion or anything back there.

[snackooed]

An underwater mansion sounds like a bit of a waste, anyway. Not much of a yard...

[ But more importantly-- ]

Even if it's more upscale than what we'd have, I'd definitely get stir-crazy hanging out in the same room all the time. Hopefully you at least get the chance to get a change of scenery every now and then...

[didntgetdadslooks]

Well... I do sneak out to grab food from where you guys get it, sometimes. And most of the time-

[ She gestures and summons up a holographic screen showing surveillance footage of the Lounge. ]

- I'm not really looking much in here.