Anyway, enough preamble. Here we go!
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A Day In The Life
"Get up, dirtbag! This ain't your momma's house!...Get up, dirtbag! This ain't..."
The voice was that of a gravel-throated trog drill sergeant I'd heard in a "Karl Kombatmage" advert and it was loud and right in my head. I groaned as I rolled over to glare at the holodisplay that was blinking 9:00am in red at me. As I sat up, the blaring changed into the soft voice of woman reading off the stats and projections for today's weather and events, which I promptly ignored. I really need to change that, I never pay any attention and it's always fucking raining, anyway.
I peeked quickly into the Astral to check on my wards which were fine. I guess Alex has gotten bored with trying to break them down every time he gets drunk...either that, or he's stopped drinking. Never happen!
I left a message for Nancy that I was off to work and she could let herself out. I called out to Cat and asked him to send a minor spirit to let me know if she took anything she shouldn't, then left my apartment and headed down the hall to the showers. After taking care of business there, I headed out across campus to deal with The Idiots.
"The Idiots" are my Freshman Introduction to Anthropology 101 students. I teach the class for Professor Tomlinson; it's one of the requirements for my grant, and not one I'm happy about. Most of the idiots don't even show up to class, they just subscribe to the live feed and "watch it when they can." Judging by their grades, "when they can" is indistinguishable from "never." Today's lesson was a basic level discussion of the "Scientific Method" and why following proper procedure is important. This, to a bunch that thinks having to type up their own work instead of simply linking to existing lit is too much work.
Whatever, it pays most of the bills.
The class was tedious, as always, and the hour long "Office Hours" period that followed was nearly as dull. Grading papers and answering messages from students and other faculty rarely takes up much of the time, but I'm required to be there. The only times it's even vaguely entertaining are when the Professor is there and he gives me a real bit of work, or when one of the co-eds is flat-lined enough to actually attempt to come on to me in the office where it's immediately sensed, recorded and reported to campus security!
I usually spend the "Office Hours" hour doing my own thing -- working on my Thesis, keeping up to date on my studies or planning what to do with my day. Today was mots; I basically sat and surfed the Miracle Shooter nodes looking for events for later in the day.
After office hours, I hit the gym, grabbed some flats from the vending machine and was doing laps on the tracks when I got a flash that one of my flagged events was underway in the commons outside. I switched my AR to display my Miracle Shooter Avatar (an old-style "wizard" complete with pointed hat, bushy beard and a wand!) and went outside to do battle. By the time I got out there, several other warriors had already engaged the tentacled monstrosity that had broken up through the ground. Let me tell you, casting lightning bolts in AR is a hell of a lot easier than it is in real life! Anyway, we fought the thing for about half an hour before if finally retreated back into it's hole. There was some celebrating; one of the warriors managed to level up his avatar. Then, it was back to the showers for me.
After that, most of the day was taken up studying or taking care of minutia. Around 10, I headed over to Club Ntz to meet up with some friends, do a little drinking, and do some scenic viewing. There was one chick with a whole retro "Mercurial" look going on who scanned me a couple times and was interested, but too much chrome weirds me out. I can't help but look at the holes on the astral...creepy. Around 11, Nancy showed up and I decided to try for a repeat performance. A couple hours later, we went home.
Goto "Get Up!"