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[http://users.livejournal.com/_silverfox/]

Date: 05 May
Location: Sitting room
Status: Public (Atlan, Jan)
Summary: Atlan is trying to kill time


Fool, his extra sense told him. You're never going to find your way home like this.

That was true. But then again, he wasn't trying to find his way home right now. Right now he was just trying to keep his mind off of the mess he was in. This place had been supposed to be his ticket home. Well, it didn't seem to be.

Maybe he could at least escape into the distraction of a good movie for a while.

Comments

[jan_skovasja]

"You are rather full of yourself, aren't you?" Jan stated more than asked. "Or just how many of you are working on this project?"

He didn't like the idea of Earth just being a giant lab experiment for some unknown alien race. It was ... rather demeaning.

[kristallprinz]

"Me," Atlan said. "You don't really think I'd still be on this god-forsaken rock of a planet if I had the means to get back home, do you? It's just me, and I've been working hard. If there were more of us and we were interested in staying, your people would be far beyond where they are now."

[jan_skovasja]

"Right," Jan snorted. "And you've made such a big difference all on your own? I doubt that."

[kristallprinz]

"Oh yes," Atlan said. "The right kind of infomratoin in the right hands at the right time can do wonders. A few times I'd almost had them where they could've built me the ship to return home with, you know. But these little barbarians just can never do without a major war that destroys everything again for more than a couple of weeks, it seems."

[jan_skovasja]

This turned Jan's thoughts in a new direction.

"Could it be that your information has had something to do with those wars? Creating new weapons that others feel threatened by? Inspiring a desire to posses it as well?"

[kristallprinz]

"My information inspired the construction of spaceships, not weapons," Atlan claimed. "It's the local Barbarians that can't go a century without some random war."

[jan_skovasja]

"And that technology can't be used to make weapons as well?" Jan asked thinking a little nervously about the things he'd seen in science fiction movies lately. "Not to mention that other peoples might simply like to travel to the stars, too."

[kristallprinz]

"They had more pressing things on their minds than travelling to the stars, really. And while I'm sure you can turn the technology into weapons, the same is true of any rock you find somewhere. That people do it is not the fault of the rock, and not the fault of the person who placed it there."

Was this little mortal trying to make him feel guilty for wanting to go back home?

[jan_skovasja]

"Yes, but the rocks were available to everybody. People don't like it when somebody else has access to a weapon they do not."

"Take me for example. I can no longer use a sword. Now imagine there's another guest here that's an expert swordsman and he carries a sword about, too. Should he decide to use it on me, I can't defend myself with a sword, so I get scared and start carrying a gun. Now that scares him, because I could shoot him while I'm still out of reach of his sword." Jan shuddered. Maybe this wasn't such a good example ...

[kristallprinz]

"Why would you want to carry a sword - or use it - to begin with? This isn't the time of swords anymore, after all. Who would come in here carrying one?"

Atlan started to wonder if that man had watched a few too many bad movies.

[jan_skovasja]

Jan laughed.

"Because I used to swordfight, I suppose. I was looking for something less scary than a gun and that was the first weapon that came to mind." It was a plausible excuse, right?

[kristallprinz]

"The question remains: Why would there be another experienced swordsman seeking to use his sword on you if you no longer use one? Fencing tends to be a lot more interesting if both parties are actually involved."

One thing was for sure: this barbarian was confusing. However, in a way they all were...

[jan_skovasja]

"The idea," Jan explained very patiently. "Is that I'd be scared that he wanted to kill me, not that I'd expect him to want to have a good sporting match. I admit it's not the norm in modern civilised society, but I'm sure it was quite commonplace in the days of the Egyptians."

It certainly still was among immortals.

[kristallprinz]

"The Egyptians were quite civilised, as compared to some modern societies, you know," Atlan said. "They would hardly have been able to achieve what they did otherwise - even though they did have help."

[jan_skovasja]

"Maybe so, but the rest of them hardly would have been I expect." Of course Jan wasn't old enough to know for sure.

[kristallprinz]

"There were a few ancient cultures that would have been quite worthy of advance," he insisted.

"However, as so often, it appears that brawns won out over brains eventually."

[jan_skovasja]

"I never meant to say they might not have been worthy, I merely meant to say it might have been unwise." Jan said. "Or at least seen from the perspective of what was good for them. I could not tell what might have been good for you."

[kristallprinz]

"Getting back home would have been good for me," Atlan claimed.

"Well. Seems like it's not going to happen for another while. I was hoping to find someone here who could help me out with that."

[jan_skovasja]

"I'm afraid I know nothing of space travel," Jan apologised. "You might want to try over in America or Russia. They're exploring Mars there, I believe."

Not that that sounded all too helpful either. Jan was sure that the poor man's home was quite a bit further away than Mars, despite all those imaginary tales about Martians people liked to write these days.

[kristallprinz]

Atlan laughed. "I will do no such thing as give either of those access to the vastly superior technology of my people. Do you have any idea what those barbarians would be doing with it? Actually, I thought maybe some of mine had landed around here and set up a base because of hte region's anomalies."

[jan_skovasja]

"Ah, so you have learned something from past experience? What would such a base, or your people look like, in case I see any? You look perfectly human to me."

Jan wasn't quite sure whether he wanted to run into aliens, but this one didn't seem to want to kill everybody on sight and it probably wouldn't hurt to just keep his eyes open when he went outside.

[kristallprinz]

"My people look like me. Tall, white hair, red or light blue eyes. We have little or no pigmentation."

He considered how much he wanted to tell.

"A base may be dome-shaped, or concealed under something looking perfectly local. People might also be dying their hair and wearing coloured contact lenses..."

[jan_skovasja]

"Ah, they'd be difficult to tell from other natives then," Jan commented. "Let's hope they aren't disguised, if there are any here."

He supposed he could tell the man whenever he saw someone unusually pale, though.

[kristallprinz]

"They most likely will be," Atlan admitted. "They will have no interest in having their presence known."

He should go back to his base at least briefly to get some tools, really. Something to locate a ship or Arkonid technology...

Usually he would have preferred to err on the side of caution, but with all these strange people around here. would anyone really notice him lugging around tools that shouldn't exist?

[jan_skovasja]

Jan nodded. That was what he'd expected.

"Well, I'll try anyway, but I'm not exactly an expert at recognising people in disguise."