mark i

[rockstark]

[there's music drifting over the network this morning. loud, upbeat hip hop, to be precise. it's almost drowning out the sound of power tools. after a few minutes of this, a hand reaches into the view of the video feed and grabs a water bottle. Tony dictates idly from somewhere offscreen]

So, I think I'm getting my bearings. Thanks to those of you on the volunteer can opener brigade, that is. I gotta hand it to this place, it's like Mardi Gras with better beads. I flash my shoulder at the natives and they give me free power tools. So, uh, things are coming along. I might almost be able to make a decent pad for myself at this rate, lack of answers aside.

[what he neglects to say is that as soon as he IS settled, he'll he looking for said answers.]

One question, though. What's this I keep hearing about kids?

Comments

[closedcircuit]

You're building a house here? Aren't there already places to live?

[rockstark]

No, no, the house was already built, I bought it. I'm just ... making it better.

[he says that as though it's something completely logical that ANYONE would do]

[closedcircuit]

What is there to make it better about?

You just live in it, right?

[rockstark]

Well, I'm an engineer. I build machines and other stuff to make people's lives safer. So I need a workshop with the right space and tools. [it isn't untrue, just... very watered down]

[closedcircuit]

An engineer?

[A very unsure look, filled with a bit of hostility.]

Your machines will turn against the people you're trying to protect.

[rockstark]

Not this one. I control it... It's totally cool, you can trust me. Isaac Asimov had some good ideas, but that one doesn't hold water.

[closedcircuit]

You can't control some kinds of things, and you shouldn't try. There are some aspects of science God never intended man to mess with.

[rockstark]

See, here's the problem with that: you've got to believe in God to think it makes any sense.

[closedcircuit]

How can you not believe in God?

[ To an adolescent for whom faith is the only grounding available, it seems ridiculous. ]