No Such Thing as Being Alone - 1

–Beginning Basic Expressive Narration of Recording 23–

Recording number twenty three begins as this series of recording typically do, with a statement from one of the main characters of it. In this case it is the Human female, Anna.

“Mark works on a different level,” she says. The recording is focused on her standing form, specifically her tan face. She is blinking semi-rapidly due to the high possibility of Lapadj saying something idiotic.

This possibility is nearly confirmed when Lapadj heaves in a breath and exhales. “But is there anyway to work with him or speak with him?”

He crosses his arms and modifies his posture by shifting the weight of his body between his two legs with a length that he is clearly not used to.

“During lunch or a break we could,” Anna answers tentatively. “Do you want to work with someone else?” Her eyes and face clearly state to any aware being that she is worried over the answer to that question and possibly saddened.

“Say no,” both Grapefruit and Sarela tell Lapadj, beyond Anna’s vision and hearing.

Floating next to the Kharatzara, the Szarehan wavers between the two. Grapefruit is in a obscured location, but I have determined her to be in the pocket of Lapadj’s jacket.

“No,” he miraculously says. “I just wish to gain a different insight into the workings of this company and our project. Maybe a new dimension can prove enlightening and help us work more effectively.”

Her eyes light up. “That is a really good idea. You haven’t really talked to anyone besides me, have you?”

“I have not,” ‘Harrison’ affirms. “That is why I desire a different perspective.”

“That makes sense. We can totally meet up with him during lunch, but we have to get there first,” she says while glancing towards to a basic clock that is attached to a wall. It is not close to the designated lunch time. “Let’s do some work, yeah?”

“Sure.”

Following that exchange, the pair, along with the other pair, sit down at their usual desk. Lapadj considerately takes out Grapefruit and places her on top of the table beside him and out of the way.

As Anna sets up the computer, Lapadj asks: “What are we working on today?”

“We are working more front end today,” she replies. “We’ll be adding a rich text editor to one of our websites so when people write a blog post they can style their post text.”

“What styles?”

“Styling is bolding, italicizing, underlining, and striking through text,” Grapefruit chimes in to answer Lapadj’s true question.

“They already told us which ones to implement. The basic three: bold, italics, and underline.”

“It is your ‘they’ again, Lapadj,” Sarela snickers from the side. “Styling text. Very evil.”

“Well, what if it was Tyra Tarkush they were styling?” Grapefruit wonders, trying to be pragmatic.

Sarela makes a noise indicative that she is pondering the assertion presented to her. “That might be blasphemous. One who has studied and read the Book would be better suited to answer that.”

“Definitely,” the Goddess concurs.

“It is not currently evil, however,” Sarela says, “so Lapadj has no reason to not engage in this task.”

“It does not seem like he is striving not to,” Grapefruit observes.

Her observation is validated by the animated chittering between Anna and ‘Harrison’ throughout Sarela and Grapefruit’s conversation. They have been discussing various ways of accomplishing the task assigned to them. Names of tools like ‘QuillJS’ and ‘TinyMCE’ are referenced. The latter seems to be chosen due to greater Human support and larger amount of customization.

“So how do we go about using ‘TinyMCE’?” Lapadj inquires. “Just drag these downloaded files into the project directory?” He is motioning to a file directory titled TinyMCE.

“Specifically where we keep our Javascript, just to be neat and tidy,” Anna answers and does just that. “Cool, so now we can work on modifying the template with the new editor.”

“Modifying? We are not also creating the page for the user to put in their content?” he asks.

“No, someone else did that,” she replies, not quite paying attention to him.

“Is there anything we will do in full?” he wonders aloud.

It is at that question she turns her head to him and stares at him with an intense gaze. It is easily apparent to anyone with a basic understanding of facial expressions or Human nature that Lapadj has broached a Human ‘taboo’ subject.

“We just do what we are told to do,” she says. “I wouldn’t complain too much. It makes more sense for everyone to do these little pieces. People can focus more easily, but I suppose, as you said, knowing the big picture would be nicer, but we shouldn’t do the big picture, right? Yeah.” She shakes her head. “Maybe Mark has a different opinion when we talk to him later.”

“I hope so.” Lapadj also shakes his head and begins to scan over the Clojure files Anna has brought up for them to modify.

Sarela makes a humming noise. “I am beginning to sense something off about this place.”

“Really? You now do?” Lapadj sharply speaks at her.

“Yes.”

A growling noise is heard from the Kharatzara and he starts to mutter and rant between continuing to speak and work with Anna. Grapefruit chuckles hoarsely until it is assumed Sarela cuts the recording because it has become quite incoherent with all the noises going on and the multiple things happening on the computer screens. It ends abruptly, as it always does, yet this time it is actually welcome.

–Ending Basic Expressive Narration of Recording 23–

*Did you notice anything different in this one? I did. Well, yeah, I wrote it. Things are changing. Things are happening.”