11/23

7:30a0: Woke up. Observing trend where I'm sleeping earlier than 16, at the trade of actually having fuller sleep. Progressively, I am now waking 4 hours earlier than I expect to be... I'm getting 8 hours of sleep, but I still feel tired throughout the day.

8a0: Internetted for 10 minutes, showered the rest.

11:20a1: I was in the middle of eating breakfast, then I had a stomach ache, and then I felt tired. So I went to sleep, and I slept for 3 hours? It was a good quality 3 hours too. I don't understand.

12p2: Slacked off a bit, wrote some direction for the next story, wrote very little. Time to pick things up.

1p3:

Story 5

I knock on the doctor’s office. Veronica reveals herself.

Veronica: Captain. There’s a sensitive matter. We were going to migrate soon and we’ll need to move Laffer as well. I’m not sure who to tell to help me move him.

Captain: Leave it to me. I’ll do it myself.

Veronica: I’ll accompany you.

Captain: That won’t be necessary.

Veronica: Isabel’s busy right now, and we can’t have you going out there alone. I insist.

Captain: Very well. Let’s proceed. Are there any precautions we should be taking?

Veronica: You'll need to put on this suit. We’ll need to secure him in the next room across the hall. He’s sedated, so let’s push him in there.

I put on a sealed suit before beginning. Laffer’s on a hospital bed. Pushing on his bed I realize how thankful I am that he’s got wheels; the man’s huge.

Veronica: I’ve got more findings on the Iacchan physiology.

Captain: Let’s hear it.

Veronica: Iacchan Cells come in three variations. The first one is the Control Iacchan, which takes control over the host's body, receives sensory input from the human, and relays it to another being, the Iacchan Queen.

Veronica: From what I gather, there seems to be a small number of Queens, or maybe just one Queen that is centrally controlling all of the infected hosts.

Captain: And this Queen has the concentration to micromanage all of the hosts?

Veronica: Not entirely. There are gaps. If one zombie were to detect a large threat, he would be at the top of the Queen’s attention, and any distant zombies would essentially lie dormant, with nothing more than sensory functions enabled to alert the Queen of any suspicious activities.

Captain: Meaning that we can distract her.

Veronica: It’s possible. The second is the Attack Iacchan Cell. These attackers are what are eating at Laffer right now. Iacchan Cells are highly vulnerable to a human's natural immunity system, but the Attack Iacchans seek and destroy a human's T-Cells. It's similar to AIDS, although in this case, the T-cells can also fight back. The T-cells are at war with the Iacchan Cells, and the winner is decided mainly by the host's health before he was infected, and how large the bite mark was. A human host will first show signs of inability to control their body and a deficient immune system (meaning the host will display a variety of illnesses). So zombies are actually people that are still alive, really sick, and mind controlled. A fully sickened zombie is of no use to the Iacchan collective, so the T-cells are allowed to stay in the body and remove any sicknesses from the body… but not regain control of the body.

Captain: I think I understand.

2p4: Hour 4, the worst hour of the day has passed.

Captain: I think I understand.

Veronica: Good, I’ll continue. The last cell is the carrier cell, which carries the control and the attacker cells from a variety of environments. They can be transmitted through short range airborne or by bites. When the host dies, the Carrier cells eat at the decaying body and generate a large, fist sized egg, which is essentially just a mass of Iacchan Cells. These eggs can be force fed to a victim to infect the victim quickly. 

Captain: Uh huh.

Veronica: Look out!

Laffer gets up and starts grabbing me by the neck. His eyes are glowing yellow and he’s frothing at the mouth. I punch him back and reach for my stun gun.

Veronica: Don’t shoot him! He’s got heart complications!

//Restrain him with your fists

//Pass

I clock him in the jaw and hold his arms down to the bed.

Laffer: Rrarrghhh Let me go!!

Veronica takes out a syringe and shoots him up. Laffer stops resisting.

Veronica: Nice work.

//Story 5 Check 1 Subcheck 1

//”The bigger they are…”

Veronica: You’re not very subtle, are you?

//Roll up your sleeve and flex for her

Veronica: Oh. Aheh. Down boy.

//Don’t do anything

Veronica smiles.

//Fail

I punch him a few times, but the big guy overpowers me. This suit is so clunky. Laffer trips me and gets on top of me.

Captain: He’s got me!

Laffer: Rrarrghhh What’re you doing to me!?

Veronica slips in and applies a syringe to him. Soon enough, he falls flat on top of me. I push and drag him back onto the bed.

Veronica: Close one.

//end check

The rest of the trip is uneventful. We lock up Laffer in a secure room and head back to base.

3p5: Worked pretty slowly. I think I'll do some other work for now...
4p6: Ate.

5p7: 
This writing is making me very hungry.

Story 6:

I knock on the doctor’s office. Veronica opens.

Veronica: Come in.

//story 6 check 1

//What’s this about?

Veronica: Aheheh…

Veronica puts her arm on my chest.

Veronica: Calm down, Captain. //How may I help you, Doctor?

Veronica: By swearing your subservience to me? Come in.

//Heyyyy.

Veronica: Hello. Come in.

//story 6 check 1 end

Veronica: I just wanted to express my gratitude.

Veronica turns around and brings out some bread, some cheese, and a very large knife.

//story 6 check 2 start

//Do you operate with that knife?

Veronica: Yes. It’s what we call a bread knife, and I’ve used it for autopsies, to cut solid organs and..

Captain: I get the picture. I hope you’ve cleaned it.

Veronica: Aheh.

That’s not a yes.

//This is an unexpected surprise.

Veronica: Hmm? You don’t remember that certain massage I gave you last time?

Captain: Oh yeah. I’d remember better if you did it again!

Veronica: In due time, Captain.

//story 6 check 2 end

Veronica: Please, sit down.

//story 6 check 3 start

//Remain standing

Captain: I’d like to make sure you’re seated first.

Veronica: The gesture is appreciated.

I seat Veronica to our table and sit down.

//Sit down with your arms folded on the table

Veronica: As much as I’d like to admire your arms all day, I would like to serve us some food.

Captain: As you wish.

Veronica rocks her head to the side and smiles genuinely.

//Sit down with your arms to your sides.

Veronica rocks her head to the side and smiles genuinely.

//story 6 check 3 end

Veronica cuts the cheese and the french baguette. The bread looks really fresh, so I suppose it was stasis-fridgerated. The cheese is a soft milky yellow on the inside, and on the outside it appears to be surrounded by thin, hard white mold. Veronica spreads the cheese slightly onto the bread. She leaves a few chunks of brie whole.

Captain: What cheese is this, Doctor?

Veronica: It’s brie cheese. You can eat the mold, it’s actually quite edible. Go ahead, bite in.

The crisp cut of the bread is layered with a gooey buttery brie topping. The whole chunk of brie is a fine milky flavor that puts a warm smile to my stomach. If this was poison, it would be a good way to go.

A knock at the door.

Veronica: Please, come in.

Terra shows up. She’s carrying a bottle and two cups.

Terra: Oh hi, Captain!

Captain: Hello.

Terra pops the bottle open and pours two cups of bubbling cider.

Terra: Is that BRIE cheese?

Veronica: Aheh..

6p8: Time for a run.

Captain: What cheese is this, Doctor?

Veronica: Captain, you can call me Veronica.

//story 6 check 4 start

//Veronica.

Veronica’s eyes seem to dilate and tremble at my calling of her. Her eyes stare intensely into mine before breaking off.

//Veronica, you can call me by my first name as well.

Captain: Veronica. You can call me by my first name as well. It’s ______.

Veronica: ______.

I nod at her.

Veronica: It’s a nice name.

//story 6 check 4 End

Veronica: It’s brie cheese. You can eat the mold, it’s actually quite edible. Go ahead, bite in.

The crisp cut of the bread is layered with a gooey buttery brie topping. The whole chunk of brie is a fine milky flavor that puts a warm smile to my stomach. If this was poison, it would be a good way to go.

A knock at the door.

Veronica: Please, come in.

Terra shows up. She’s carrying a bottle and two cups atop a plate.

Terra: Oh hi, Captain!

Captain: Hello.

Terra pops the bottle open and pours two cups of bubbling cider. She stops for a moment, wide-eyed.

Terra: Here’s your cider…Oh. Is that BRIE cheese?

Veronica: Aheh..

//story 6 check 5 start

//Why yes it is, Terra. You can have some.

Terra: Okay!?!

Veronica scoots back slightly to allow the green lizard to feast. Terra swoops in, serrates a slice of cheese with the knife, no bread, and uses her snake-like forked tongue to wrestle the chunk of brie free from the knife. Her eyes close; her mouth smiles widely but tight lipped; and her head rumbles in place like a rocket approaching liftoff. Gulp. She leaves the room.

Veronica: That was nice of you.

//If you’ll excuse us, Veronica and I are enjoying a brunch.

Terra: Oh. Okay! Have a nice date!

Terra takes a bow and leaves.

Veronica: She’s a charming little thing, isn’t she?...

//story 6 check 5 end

Veronica: Mmm… And this cider she selected is just right.

Veronica takes a moment to allow the aroma of the cider to wash down the bread bits on her tongue. The fizzy apple taste completes and cleanses her palate. Or, that’s what I think is happening in her mouth. It tastes really good.

7p9: Caved in. Ran to the market and purchased brie cheese and a baguette. Onlookers seemed friendlier when I was jogging around with a 3 foot baguette. I guess it looks funny.

8p10: Ate. Gave attractive roommate some brie and cheese, however we did not partake in a brunch together. I offered, she accepted, and later I knocked on her door and served it to her. That's all. I wonder what she thinks of me. Probably thinks I'm a loony, listening to my metal on full blast in the afternoons. It doesn't help that my friend comes over and invites her to outings with me. Nope. Physically we're one wall away, but from sparse conversations I can tell we're worlds apart. She's on Earth. I'm on the Dark Planet. (couldn't help it)

9p11: Took a shower. Watched some TV. Today isn't going too well.Yesterday, I blocked myself from any news websites that I frequent in order to increase productivity. Yet I can't help but be absolutely bored today. Drinking water instead of coke is boring. Only having access to Email is boring. No video games. Minimal TV. And don't you readers feel guilty on me; this is all self imposed. Discipline is a muscle, and I must train it to perfection!

10p12: Exchanged emails with disgruntled customer on ebay. Customer is surprisingly now happy. Worked a bit on enemy values for the monsters. Felt a lot better to change things up, but at the moment I have an urge to finish one thing at a time.

11p13: Much better hour. I'm dying from laughter from this next bit:

Delicacies are rare as a survivor on a space station. Thankfully all the Iacchan aliens, when properly cooked, are safe to eat. Zombie dog is quite good. Baguette and Brie is much better; it’s a bit of home.

Perhaps I should think of something to say. Should I focus on work? Not on work for once?

Captain: So I could never figure it out, what race are you?

Veronica: I’m a Martian. I was born on Mars, remember?

Deerrrrrp.

Captain: Yeah, but what nationalities?

Veronica: Portuguese-African.

Captain: Ohhh.

Veronica: And what of you?

Captain: I’m half German, and a lot of other stuff. We’re seeing a lot of more mixed races out here on the frontier than on Earth, or I mean the Sol System.

Veronica: I see. Have you had your physiology checked for compatibility with other species?

Captain: Interspeciel? Hold on here, that’s not what I meant.

Veronica: Oh. People come up to me all the time about that since I have a degree in xenobiology. It’s really cute seeing other people come up to me and ask me in different awkward ways on how to have intercourse with interplanetary inhabitants.

Captain: Pray tell, how does it happen?

Veronica: If they’re looking for an offspring, sometimes it’s mixing compatible DNA if the lifeforms are carbon based. More oft than not, a computer simulation is run to emulate the genetic code of one lifeform to another, so the offspring is basically an altered clone of just one parent.

Captain: Intriguing. What about…sex?

Veronica: My my Captain… Sometimes the square peg just doesn’t fit in the circle hole. That doesn’t stop a man from… thrusting up against a Horgosian floating collective hair ball sentient though. The concept of romance is still a hot subject in the GS. You’re pretty curious about this subject. Why is that Captain?

Captain: You might consider it perverse for me to be curious on the subject, but you’re the one here with all the answers. I wonder what inspired you to get into xenobiology.

Veronica: Captain!

Captain: As I recall, the hair ball and a woman is basically the premise for Space Horn 7. Reaching much? I think not.

Veronica: Hahaha, this is absurd.

//story 6 check 6 start

//Fortunately I have *ahem* a large circle peg for your circle hole.

Veronica: That’s very reassuring. But if we were going to take your assumption correctly, I got my xenobiology degree so that I can figure out how to fit in ALL the shapes into my circle hole.

12a14: Working at medium speed. I'm feeling kind of tired, and frankly I find it frustrating. I'm thinking I should start meditating and seeing if that helps. I've never really meditated before.

Veronica: That’s very reassuring. But if we were going to take your assumption correctly, I got my xenobiology degree so that I can figure out how to fit in ALL the shapes into my circle hole.

Captain: And I can accommodate that request. Let’s not forget that I’m the Captain of the ISS. I can arrange for any number of shaped pegs for your circle hole!

Veronica: I highly doubt you’d have the authority to do that.

Captain: Oh?

Veronica: Yes, in fact I doubt you’d lack the authority to arrange even your circle peg into my circle hole.

Captain: Oh. Hey. This isn’t funny anymore.

Veronica: Alright. Back to work then. I borrowed a control nub from Elaine.

//If the player didn’t choose to save Laffer

Veronica: Captain, you might be angry with me.

Veronica opens a door and reveals Laffer. He’s looking grayer than usual.

Captain: Did you not run him through chemotherapy?

Veronica: I tried but it didn’t work. So I infected him instead.

Captain: You went against my orders.

Veronica: I’m sorry, Captain. But I’ve made a lot of progress with him. Watch.

//end

Veronica: I’ve made a breakthrough discovery.

Veronica fiddles with her controller and brings Laffer on his feet. He’s secure through a glass wall. He’s standing tall, although he looks pretty sick. His nose is spewing with snot.

Veronica: The subject is responsive to basic commands at the moment. Currently, all I have is get up, move here, move there…

Laffer takes his hand and wipes his brow. Looks like he’s coming down with a fever.

Captain: Did you tell him to do that?

Veronica: No. The subject is free to act on its own but is highly compelled to take mental suggestions.

Captain: How are you doing this?

Veronica: The Iacchan carrier cells act as transponder units to communicate with one another. The wax has a transponder property to it as well. It’s able to emit signals on a frequency we can’t hear. While I can’t exactly modify the frequencies so that any zombies will turn to our side as soon as they come near us, I was able to implant a controller function into Laffer. In other words, Laffer is my exclusive zombie, and I am his Queen.

1a15: Worked at decent speed.

Captain: Good. So why is it you can only control Laffer?

Veronica: I haven’t been able to replicate any other Queen signals. It’s like as if the other queen signals are encrypted. It makes sense too, a zombie would belong in only one queen’s domain at a time. Perhaps in the future with more research this might change.

Captain: So what kind of applications are we talking about?

Veronica: We could possibly find a partial cure if we were able to recode any zombies that came within our range. If that range happened to be the entire station, maybe we could even block out the other queens. I need more time. At the moment, all I can give you is Laffer.

Captain: Maybe we can put him to use. If Elaine can rig him up with a security camera, we can have our own controllable zombie spy.

Veronica: I’d like to keep him for further testing, unless you’ve got more infected candidates in mind…

Captain: Wait, we stun zombies all the time during the night. The other zombies usually try to drag them away, but there are usually a few stragglers left. Couldn’t we convert them to our side and have a huge zombie army?! We could give them guns too!

Veronica: Digit manipulation is very complex. I’ve barely been able to give him commands to get up. From what I gather, the Iacchans are having trouble with this as well since they’re trying to control a species from another system, but they’re far better than I am at it. They might be able to control a zombie into using a gun in the future.

Veronica: As for our own army, I don’t think it’s possible. The problem is that the zombie already has Iacchan control cells. If we introduced more, our own control cells would simply skip over the old control cells since the old ones are already doing a good job. The only way to get a zombie to our side is if we cure him and turn him back into human first. But then at that point I’m sure you’d just want to keep him a human, aheh.

Captain: So. No cure, and you’ve figured out how to control them.

Veronica: Yes.

Captain: Is there…anything else?

Veronica: Mmm… not that I can think of. I’ll keep you posted, Captain.

Captain: See that you do.

I stand myself up from the table. Veronica stands and places the controller down. I almost forgot we were on a date.

2a16: 

I stand myself up from the table. Veronica stands and places the controller down. I almost forgot we were on a date.

//story 6 check 6 start

//”I appreciate the brunch. Let’s do it again some time.”

Veronica: Absolutely.

Veronica comes around the table and leans in for a kiss. She kisses on the cheek and then backs off. She bites her lip and glances furtively on my lips.

Veronica: Good night.

//Kiss her. (test veronicaTotalPoints)

//Pass

We kiss. I feel her arms slowly slide across my sides to hug me.

Veronica: Mmmm….

I cradle her head in my hand and gently push her towards me a little more. Her breasts in her exposed attire press against my chest.

Veronica: Mmm! (breaks kiss off)

Veronica gently pushes me away.

Veronica: I don’t think that cider wasn’t alcohol free. Aheheh. I’ll see you later.

Veronica adjusts her exposed bra in front of me. I turn away.

Captain: Good night, Veronica.

Veronica: Good night, Captain.

//Fail

I kiss her on the lips. She doesn’t resist at first, but she backs away too soon.

Veronica: I’m sorry, I wasn’t ready for that.

Captain: The fault is mine. Have a good night.

Veronica: Good night, Captain.

//story 6 check 6 end

Laziness: 3.5 hours

AD3 Related Work: 8.5 hours
Self Productivity: 4 hours
Review: I wrote 2,800 words today. I really lazed it up in the beginning half of the day. The latter half was really good. Everything about today was good, but my concentration was poor. Concentration is always the biggest problem. Grade B-.