xp_logs | Haroun and Nathan, Friday afternoon

Nathan, still fairly jetlagged, stops in to see Haroun. They play Go and have one of their traditional friendly/hostile conversations about the Kashmir trip, Haroun's dreams, and an assortment of other subjects. (You'd think these two had missed each other or something.)

Nathan paused at the door of Haroun's room, smiling a little at the sight of him awake and obviously alert. "I didn't bring you back anything from Kashmir," he said, coming in and taking the chair beside the bed. "We shopped a little, but were kind of distracted while doing it. Hence, I don't come back bearing as many gifts as usual."

Haroun snorted. "You suck. What kind of a friend are you? I didn't get you anything from Paradise either, so I suppose we're even." he said with a grin.

"No peacocks that Bella could dismember in a fit of jealous rage?" Nathan asked, and then shook his head. "Ignore me. Loopy from jetlag still, and they just ran me through the machines that go ping again."

"Nope, no peacocks, sorry." he said with a laugh. "I'm a little isolated down here, and my access to the boards is still out until the furball resets my access codes. What was so important in Kashmir?"

"NGO that I thought was doing something underhanded. They possibly are, but the folks in the field are innocent, from what I could see." Nathan slouched in his chair. He felt much better than he had yesterday, but still headachy and wrung right out. However, he was very determinedly not paying attention to whatever was going on inside his head. "Oh, and I had a drink with my uncle."

"Oh boy." he said with a noted lack of enthusiasm. "When it comes to you and your family, no wonder you had a hot date with the Machine That Goes Ping. Bet you're glad they got the XXXL model so that they can fit your carcass in there all in one go, eh?"

"Oh, the reason for the machine that goes ping is something else entirely," Nathan said. "And Gideon just wanted to explain what was wrong with my memory. Hurray for clarification."

"Well, don't you feel all special now." Haroun said with a grin. "But you need some rack-time, man. You look like I feel." he said with a grin. "If I was mobile I'd suggest a friendly outing on the mat. But since I'm not - Go board's over there if you're interested."

Nathan immediately fetched the Go board. "So he did explain," he said as he set it up. "The problem with my memory during the first twelve years of my life is that he decided to edit it. With my mother's telepathy."

Haroun whistled. "You just canNOT catch a break, can you? At this point what do you have left that's uniquely yours?" he wondered.

"Well," Nathan said dryly, letting Haroun take the first move, "there's the little redhead upstairs. I keep reminding myself about her."

Haroun placed his stone and waited for Nathan to make his move. "There is her, yes." he said with agreement and not a little envy. "You going to be able to keep putting yourself on the thin red line like this?" he asked curiously.

"What do you mean?" Haroun's first move was typically overaggressive. Nice to see that some things don't change...

Haroun looked at Nathan. "You've got a little girl who needs you." he said. "And you're out there breaking your brain and wrestling with your lovely relations and making time with the Machine That Goes Ping." he said. "You ever think about going REM on us, maybe shifting focus to intel or something?"

"I have no head for intel. Ask GW. And I did not break my brain wrestling with Gideon, thank you very much. The Askani are doing that all on their own." He shifted irritably in his chair and made his move, perhaps a bit injudiciously.

Haroun looked at the board. Nathan's play-style had changed. Again. Damn him. Placing his next stone, he looked up at Nathan again. "Regardless of who actually did the breaking, it got broken again." he pointed out sensibly.

"Haroun, what do you think this sudden new interest in humanitarian work is all about? I'm almost forty years old, and I've taken a hell of a lot of punishment over the years." Not as much as the man in the bed in front of him, but they both knew that. "At some point I'm not going to be able to manage standing on the front line anymore, and I want to have an alternative that still makes a difference."

Haroun nodded. "But you are thinking about it, which is what I was wondering. Hell, I sometimes wonder what the fuck I'm doing on the front lines. Mine isn't a flashy or potent ability, and I did just get ripped apart." he noted. "But I don't know how to do anything else, and there's still good I can do - I think - on the front lines."

"You've still got plenty of time to investigative alternatives," Nathan said, then cracked a smile as he made his next move. "I mean, you, too, will get old and decrepit at some point."

"Bah. Better living through inventive cybernetics." he said with a laugh that was not at all genuine. "And right now I have no desire to be a REM. I'll leave that to you old and doddering people." he smirked, and made his next move.

Nathan pondered the game and then made his next move rapidly, realizing only after he'd done it that it was considerably more daring that he usually would have risked. "Oh, bite me. I got in a rather pleasant bar brawl upcountry while Angelo and I were in Kashmir. Old ex-SAS friend of mine runs a bar at a trekking base and his neighbors were taking exception to the fact that he was serving alcohol."

Haroun grinned, and made his next move quickly. If things went his way, he'd capture a significant number of Nathan's stones soon. "Stone knives and bearskins." he muttered. "Kashmir, that is."

"Angelo had, shall we say, an in-country conquest. I was trying very hard not to laugh at them... him and this half-British girl we picked up as a translator."

Haroun almost choked on his laugh. "No shit? Angelo? Wow. I'm amazed." he said with a laugh. "He must have this intel thing in his genes or something - he's already picked up the local ladies thing."

"I bought the kid a spot on a trek, which was where she was heading when we picked her up hitchhiking, in return for the translation services. You should have seen their warm and lengthy goodbyes." A smile was tugging at his lips as he contemplated his next move. "I think he'll do just fine, you know. Once I get his language skills up to snuff."

"Getting him fitted for the plugs in the back of his head, O Morpheus?" he grinned. "And no, actually, I don't think I would have liked to have seen that." he admitted after a moment's reflection and a placement of a stone on the board.

"I don't know, I thought it was endearing. I thought it was particularly funny that they thought I wasn't paying attention. Samie wrote me off as the grumpy old man early on, I think." Nathan made another brash move - that paid off, big-time, and he blinked at the board thoughtfully. "This is turning into an odd game."

Haroun looked at the board and swore impressively in Arabic. ~You son of a leprous goat!~ He placed a stone to try to salvage the damage Nathan's unexpected strategy had done. "I'm prickly that way, I guess." he admitted. "Although this design has much better neural conductivity - or so they tell me." he muttered. "Still think it's glitched."

~Saul's more of a... well, no, leprous goat works,~ Nathan replied, and then switched back to English, making another startling move that basically undid Haroun's salvage work. "You'll get used to it. Time, remember."

Haroun blinked at the board. "Stop that." he said accusingly. Nathan's last move was about the worst place he could have picked in terms of damage to Haroun's own strategy. "Keep your noggin to yourself." He placed another stone to try to get a Plan B going.

"I was," Nathan protested, and followed up Haroun's move with another of his own. He was only tangentially paying attention to the game. His mind was racing, around and around in circles, Gideon and the Askani and all of it.

Haroun made another move, seeing an opportunity in a flash of insight. "Suuuure you were. Grump." he said with a raspberry to top it all off. "And yeah, I'll get used to it, but that doesn't mean I'm going to have to like it. I keep having these dreams..." he muttered.

"Dreams? Have you talked to Charles?" Nathan blocked the move with one of his own. "I'm a big believer in meaningful dreams these days."

Haroun nodded. "You would be. Precogs and psis, they think everything has some kind of bloody meaning." he said teasingly. "And yes, I've talked to Charles. Basically, I can expect some odd behavior as my body gets used to the new cybernetics. If it persists, then he'll look into it. Adjustment trauma, he calls it."

"Hey, my subconscious talks back. I've learned to pay attention to it." Nathan leaned back in his chair, pondering the board. "And that makes sense. Adjustment trauma. Your mind trying to resolve what you've been through."

"And mine works like normal people's, not those weird AM/FM antennas you psis use for brains." he said with a grin, and then placed another stone. Yep. Opportunity was still looking good.

"There's nothing normal about your brain," Nathan pointed out, then blocked Haroun's move. "Trust me."

Haroun laughed. "At this point your four remaining neurons are looking a little steamed, Chump." he said with a laugh. It felt good to laugh again. He was expecting Nathan to react defensively, and his next move sprung the trap. Gotcha!

"Oh, look. You beat me." Nathan tilted his head, looking at the board. "Or you will, in another... three moves."

"If all goes well." he said, and then scowled at Nathan. He hated it when Nathan threw a game. Absolutely hated it. "There's a way out."

"I didn't throw the game, stop looking at me like that. I'm just not focusing well." He tried another move, a bit more cautiously.

Haroun snorted, and then placed another stone on the board. "So maybe you need to get some sleep instead of coming down here into the Medcave and keeping me and/or the Machine That Goes Ping company."

"You kept me company, after Youra. Well, you also shouted at me at inappropriate times, and you'll notice I haven't done that..."

"You needed it." he said, but with less heat in his voice. "But you still need to get some racktime."

"I don't want to sleep." His hand shook a little as he made his next move. "At least when I'm awake I can pretend they're asleep. If I sleep, it'll just be the empty sky."

"So take the evil blue pill - not THAT evil blue pill, Moira will smack you for that one - and get some nice chemical coma time." he said. "It's what I do."

"Later. Maybe. We're not quite done the game yet."

"Didn't you just say I was going to win in three moves?" he smirked.

"I lied." One move cracked the board right back open, and Nathan smiled blandly at him.

"Goatfucker." Haroun said, and then placed his next stone - which locked down a good third of the board right there. "Don't try to trick me with your sorcerer's ways..." he misquoted.

"Not much of a sorcerer." And he was starting to lose his grip on the pattern of the game, again. Haroun was indeed going to win. "So, you'll get to crow," he said a bit foggily. "Making me run around the board like a chicken with my head cut off... deja vu."

"Ahh, but you do fuck goats." he said, placing another stone at a crucial intersection, denying Nathan more of the board. "I have you now!"

"Moira is not a goat." Nathan shrugged and made what would almost certainly be his last move.

"Didn't say she was. You've got a sideline going with the goats. Hence Pakistan. Or India. Depending on who you listen to." he smirked, and placed his final stone. "And bang. You dead."

"You're very odd." Nathan leaned back in the chair, smiling lopsidedly. "So, you beat me. The brain must be in working order after all, fever or no fever."

"I do all right." he said with a triumphant grin. Victories these days were in short supply, and he planned on enjoying this one. "Take my victories where I can earn them."

"Want to try again? Best two out of three?"

Haroun looked at Nathan askance. "You up for it?" he asked seriously. "You look out on your feet."

Natha thought about it for a moment, and then smiled ruefully. "Probably not. Raincheck? Not up for the sleeping, like I said, but I could pretend. I missed my own bed."

Haroun nodded in response. "Catch some racktime. And go talk to Charles if you're having problems with your guests."

"I have an appointment for tea again later." Nathan hauled himself wearily up out of the chair, putting the Go board away. "Take it easy," he said, turning towards the door. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"You too. I'll be here - it's not like I can go anywhere. Catch some rack time, go snuggle your goat." he said with a laugh.