“I just don't understand it!”, Charlie loudly proclaimed. “What does he want with me? All his excuses for why he pesters me changes rapidly! I know he has a reason for it all, but he doesn't want to tell me.

And, every time I confront him about it, he just comes with some dumb excuse, about checking my mental health. Cant, he just see that I'm fine?

Okay, I may see where he is coming from.

For the last month, my work schedule may have been a little confusing to the naked eye. But, you all have to understand, passion is not something you can control. Either it's there, or it isn't there. Sometimes, I work for forty hours straight, and sometimes I take a five-day weekend. There isn't anything weird about it when you're thinking of the right reasons.”

“You know”, Zep began. “I think you just need to install a lock on your door.”

“I refuse”, Charlie instantly refuted.

“Arent laboratory doors supposed to have one, to start with?” Darlow asked.

“Well, technically yes,” Charlie said. “But, I removed it.”

“Why?” Zep asked.

“For science!”

“Of course”, Emse said with a monotone voice. “For there is no greater purpose than that of science.”

As the group walked down the street, to get to the casino, a conversation began. This conversation was participated in by mostly other people than Troy, who was trying to just take a backseat. The initial impression may not have gone as planned, but if he didn't screw up more, it could still end up successful.

“That is rich, coming from you, Esme”, Zep said. “Can your job even be called scientific?”

“Everything can be called science”, Emse defended.

“But, not all of us call gardening science,” Darlow pointed out and adding a cough to the end.

“Botany is a valid, scientific study,” Esme said.

“You can just tell yourself that when you go to sleep at night.”

“How is your profession any better? Your whole foundation is built on false numbers.”

“It is not!”, Zep said. “We just haven't found the link, yet.”

“Your centre has been trying for half a century,” Darlow said. Troy wondered if he just liked to spice up the drama. “With those results, don't you think there may just not be any?”

“That would imply that one of the theories are false, which we are not gonna try to consider.”

“What are your jobs even?” Troy asked, much to his horror. That was meant to be a simple thought! Not a spoken question.

The focus was put on Troy.

“Oh, yeah,” Charlie said. “You don't really know that much about us. Guess that should be expected. Okay, guys, I'm not gonna be explaining your jobs, so I'll just let you try to figure that one out. Esme, you're first.”

Esme sighed, like talking was hard, now that it was required of her.

“Okay…”, she began, drawing out the first word. “I'm a botanist. My focus, in my valid study, is one plant morphology. Done. Next.”

A controller of plants, Troy surmised.

“That's me”, Zep said. “I work in the Augmentation department, with an organic focus. Same department as Charlie, but in a different subgroup. Simple. Darlow, it's your turn.”

“Medicinal chemistry,” Darlow stated, with no further explanation.

“Then there's me, of course,” Charlie said. “As you know, from my flattering explanations of my expertise, and partly from Zep, I work in the Augmentation department. There, I focus on the mechanical side of things. The organic side is simply too restricting for my standards. And, it would be even better, if we were allowed to incorporate Nuclear tech-”

“I think the kid has heard enough”, Zep cut in. “Francis your turn.”

Oh. Troy almost forgot about him. Which was strange. With that bald top of his, it was hard to fathom that Troy would ever forget that particular detail about him.

Francis looked up at the group. Then at Troy. Then back to the group.

“Come on, Francis”, Charlie encouraged.

Francis narrowed his eyes slightly, before releasing air through his nostrils.

“Antimemetics”, he answered.

“Sorry,” Troy said. “What?”

Troy couldn't say he had heard of it before.

“Don't expect any answers, Troy”, Darlow said. “We can't all explain our work. For different reasons of course. Francis here has explained it too many times to count. But, you just can't keep the details about it in your head.”

Well, that didn't make any sense to Troy.

“That's all of us”, Zep surmised. “Not, it's his turn.”

“That's fair”, Charlie said. “Hey, Troy. Quick detail about your job, please?”

This wasn't good. No, this wasn't good at all.

Troy was in a tight spot. Being asked to explain his job was a sore point. Could he just say he was an assistant to Dr Hale? No. The others said which subject they focused on. Troy couldn't really explain that he worked with AI.

…

Or could he? There hadn't been any specific mention about it being secret. The only proof of it, was when Dr Hale stopped him from telling Charlie. But, that could just have been to annoy him. So, Troy wasn't too sure, if that even counted, to begin with.

Troy just made a decision. If he thought more about it, he would just be stalling.

“I work with AI, as an assistant,” Troy said. He was about to explain more, but the reactions he got stopped him.

They laughed. Oh, how they laughed. It was, as if, Troy had just told the funniest joke in the world. Except for Francis of course. He was just walking, like normal.

“Oh, that is a joke for the ages”, Zep said.

“If you aren't allowed to tell us what you're working with, just inform us about it,” Darlow informed Troy.

“Yeah, we won't delve further into it, if you tell us not to,” Charlie continued, with a clap on Troy's back. Okay, that was beginning to get a little weird, with all those claps of his.

How Troy wanted to sigh in relief. No more questions would help him keep his face straight. He would have it easy, even, if not for the weird look Francis was giving him.

----------------------------------

Adam was confused.

A joke had been told. That much was clear. But, when was it told, and why did it take them so much time to react to it. And how were they able to realise it in sync.

Was what Troy told them part of the joke? 'I work with AI, as an assistant.' Was there some trigger, for an earlier sentence of his, ingrained in the meanings of the words?

No. That couldn't be it. Troy had been unusually quiet, for some time now. But, it had to be something he had done. Jokes, which involve two or more people, had more signs than this. To further disprove that idea, Adam had observed no prior planning.

Maybe… Maybe, it was the way he walked?

From Adam's observations, walks showed so much about the person. At the basic observational levels, one could get the average height of people, simply from the distance of their footfalls. In snow, if Adam ever got to see it himself, it could even be used to gauge the weight, by the depth of their footprints.

And it wasn't restricted to just physical estimates either. Oh no, it showed so much more.

The way a person put their foot down, gave out information about their current mood. For now, Adam wasn't too accurate in his estimates with this subject. This was due to his earlier, limited sample size, of three unique people. Now, with it increased to eight semi-constant samples, Adam could hone this skill into a usable form. Finding the age wasn't even too unrealistic. Depending on how much one swayed their feet as they walked, implied the general musculature of the person; something that generally correlated with one's age.

For now, Adam has observed this.

In a very simplified model, most humans unconsciously changed their gait to fit into their current mood. When one stiffly wandered forward, with a hasty pace, it implied a walk of focus, where they have a direct destination. When one rambled trough, not placing their feet too effectively, a feeling of leisure mostly accompanied it.

There were many other walks, but Adam wasn't too sure about them all. Tiptoeing, as an example, could mean a certain amount of happiness, yet it could also be used to express anger, a complete opposite.

The system used simply loved opposites having the same reaction. From a logical standpoint, it made some mediocre amount of sense, but for Adam's needs, it was terrible.

…

What was he thinking about?

Oh yeah, the joke. Adam was getting too focused on the semantics of it.

A reasonable assumption about the joke would be, that Troy wasn't intentionally joking, when-

'Hey, buddy. Got a minute or two?', Dr Fidelis asked out of nowhere.

Why was he communicating with Adam at such a time?... Oh, Adam had a reason. A reason that would impair his current goals.

'Depends. Do you mean a literal minute, or do you mean a longer amount of time?', Adam sent.

'I'd just love it if it took a minute, but, no. It will likely take about... ten minutes?', Dr Fidelis quickly sent back.

This was bad.

'Then, no. My current projects are taking up my time.', Adam answered.

'That sucks, for you, buddy. Cause I have deadlines, which I can't break, and all your deadlines are self-confined.', Dr Fidelis sent.

This was bad.

While Adam had some skill in his multi-tasking abilities, it did not reach far enough to fit his current needs. Having a full-on conversation, while also analysing the movements of so many people, was simply impossible for him currently.

Could he just speed himself up? No. That wouldn't work for two reasons. While it wouldn't prove problematic during the debriefing, Adam still had not experienced slowed down voices. And he didn't think it would be a good idea to test his capabilities in comprehension during an unrelated test.

And, to make the idea all the worse, he couldn't go back to his original perception of time, after speeding up. Adam would need an external clock for that, and Dr Fidelis likely didn't have one on hand any more. Dr Fidelis had mentioned dismantling it during the last debriefing, so the clock could be integrated with Adam at a later date.

So, with the debriefing needing to be done, Adam needed to put his analyzing on hold. Not for long though.

'Will it be a maximum of ten minutes?', Adam asked.

'I can cut it down to that if you answer quickly.', Dr Fidelis suggested.

'Then let us do the debriefing.', he sent.

'Great! I'll just set it up quickly.'

Adam needed to notify Troy about this.

“Listen”, Charlie started. “Some strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.”

“Be quiet!”, Zep nearly hissed out.

“Well, you can't expect to wield executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you,” Charlie continued.

You know, Troy had been putting in a lot of effort, in establishing himself in the group. This included giving the speakers his full attention.

But, even with that, Troy had no freaking idea, why they began talking about politics. None of them was drunk, yet, so why had they started something so stupid and inane?

“Why did you even start discussing this? You knew he wouldn't give up his opinions, even if they are wrong,” Darlow said, adding to the growing fire.

“It's not my fault he criticized the current system of government election,” Zep pointed out.

“But, it is your fault for giving your opinion”, Esme added.

“Not helping, Esme,” Zep said.

“I'm not trying to help,” Esme clarified.

“Look. Can we all just agree that the current system is not perfect? It has flaws. But, if we try to change it, we'll just fuck it up even more,” Darlow said, trying now to be moderate in the whole context.

“Never!”, Charlie proudly proclaimed.

“Why would I agree with his idealistic world-view?” Zep said, agreeing with Charlie's proclamation.

Oh, Troy just knew that the whole thing wouldn't stop for too long of a time.

Troy looked over at Francis, to see how he was doing. To his surprise, Francis didn't even have his eyes open. Just for some refreshing, they were walking down a semi-crowded street, dodging people near-constantly. This man was doing all that while having his eyes completely closed. How? Just… how?

Troy just kept staring at him.

Without opening his eyes, or otherwise letting light into them, Francis looked over at Troy. It was as if he could feel Troy's stare on his side.

Yeah, Troy did not involve himself with that, instead just thinking 'nope' over and over again. Just looking forward seemed much more fun.

But, all in all, things seemed to go well for him. While the introductions had gone off to a rocky start, it had streamlined itself at this point. And Adam had not reported any- Oh, no. No, no-no.

'Bad news. Dr Fidelis has called me in for a debriefing. He says it will take a maximum of ten minutes, but I'm not sure on the truthfulness of it. I can't analyse during it. Please, try to delay the start of the poker game, for as long as possible.', Adam sent.

And, off Troy had gone, running his mouth.

This wasn't good. He needed to do something soon, or his trump card wouldn't be usable.

“Do you mind if I put on some music?” Dr Fidelis asked, while setting everything up. The microphone was all good, so Adam was already able to hear him.

'Will it lengthen the debriefing?', Adam sent.

“Not particularly, no,” Dr Fidelis said.

'Then, I have no qualms with music.'

And, in all technicality, Adam had never heard music before. So, hearing it wouldn't be too terrible.

“Great! I'll just put on my playlist… there. Perfect. Classical music really does ease the mind.”

Adam couldn't agree with that statement. What exactly made more stimulation feel like less than the original amount of stimulation? It didn't make sense, in Adam's mind. The looping nature of the music could be it, but that was just a quick theory.

“Anyway. Should we get started?” Dr Fidelis asked, sitting down on the chair in front of the camera. Adam still wasn't sure why he needed to see Dr Fidelis's face but did not complain about it. It did help him make a larger model of facial expressions.

'Lets.'

Without further ado, Dr Fidelis' face twisted to serious. A rather radical change. Even the mannerisms disappeared, replaced by newer, more nuanced, ones.

“Let's focus first on the latest completed test; The Blue Puzzle. During the end of this puzzle, Troy Maxwell, your guide, tried to jokingly persuade you into striking from testing. While this never actualized itself, through the context of his words, you showed a larger interest in doing so. Can you tell me why that is?”

This was gonna be a long one. Adam couldn't believe that Dr Fidelis only said it would take ten minutes.