I attended a lecture aimed at convincing college students to pursue the FBI as a career path. The lecturer thought I had potential. I'm lucky he took a chance on me.
[ Talking about Gideon is still hard, but Spencer can manage it obliquely. Time is making it better. ]
I work with the Flash to keep evil metahumans at bay.
( It should be fine to talk about the Flash as long as she doesn't out Barry as being him, right? She saw the Flash on the okCuddle somewhere, she's sure of it. )
But before that, I worked on the particle accelerator. It was a pretty famous machine. Probably more infamous after it exploded and created all those metahumans, including the Flash, but...at the time, it was a scientific achievement...it was made to power the whole city with clean energy. It would've made science journals, I bet, if it had succeeded.
( Sometimes, talking about the particle accelerator is difficult, but in doing so, she supposes she's sort of trying to embrace the part of her that it created — Killer Frost — rather than just mourning the losses she suffered after it — like Ronnie...twice. If she talks about it on her own terms, then maybe she can take control of the feelings she has about the whole thing. That's what she's trying to do, anyway. )
Oh cool, I was recruited while I was in college, still, too. Do you like it? The BAU?
Sorry, I have a lot of questions about what you just said. How could a particle accelerator explode? It's radioactive, not prone to combustion. What is your working definition of the word 'metahuman'? Who or what is the Flash?
[ And right now he's totally oblivious to the idea that this could potentially be a sensitive issue, although he can guess that being near an explosion of any sort can cause trauma. Reid's just momentarily overwhelmed by scientific incredulity at the idea of a linac exploding. At least, he's assuming it's linear. ]
I can't imagine doing anything else now. I've been there for six years.
( Caitlin tries not to think about what happened to Ronnie in that explosion and focuses instead on the grander scheme, because she imagines that's what he's actually asking. Unfortunately, she doesn't know an awful lot about what actually caused the malfunction. )
You know, I don't really know. I wasn't on the structural engineering side, so I don't know what went wrong there. Metahuman is a normal human who, due to the explosion, now has special abilities beyond that of normal human beings.
( ...how does he not know who the Flash is? Does the Flash not exist where he comes from? Which Earth is this guy from, because The Flash — whether Barry or not — has existed on several Earths, so far... hmmm... )
The Flash is the fastest man alive. Runs at something like Mach 3 these days.
I don't think I could do your job; I imagine you must see some really horrific things.
( Which is not to say that Caitlin never does, but not on a daily basis like law enforcement must. ...like her friends that work with CCPD must. )
Special abilities. Like what? How could an explosion cause special abilities?
[ ??????
Reid is just way too literal sometimes. Like being told a folk tale and promptly replying that it didn't make any sense because you can't catch a falling star. Things without rational explanation just don't sit well with him. ]
Your plane of existence must have interesting quantum dynamics to allow for the things you've described. [ This is Reid's best attempt at being generous, and polite. He literally types and deletes a comment about human physiology being unable to tolerate three times the speed of sound. He needs to pick his battles... and he doesn't actually want to offend anyone, he just wants to understand. ]
I do. Although I see some really incredible things, too. "In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present." Francis Bacon.
I don't know how it works, my specialty is biogenetic engineering and neurosurgery. I just know what happened and what the result was.
( ...he thinks she's telling stories, ah. That's the vibe she's getting right now and she supposes that she walked right into that because this is not Central where everyone knows The Flash and Ralph...whose superhero name Cisco has not yet settled upon.
Scale it back a bit, Snow. )
Must be.
I've always liked that quote. It helped me through a lot of tough times. It's a good quote. I'm glad to hear there's balance. I still don't think I could do what you do, so kudos for doing the job that most of us can't.
[ He doesn't necessarily think she's lying, it's just-- well. He's here in part to learn new things, but Reid hadn't fully anticipated just how new some of the things would be. He can surmise from her suddenly growing curt that he's come off wrong, however. This is usually the part where his teammates jump in and save him and smooth things over, and they... aren't here. ]
I don't disbelieve you, I just don't understand. I'm not good with things I don't understand.
[ At least he's honest. ]
To tell the truth, we all do it so other people don't have to. Someone I greatly respect once told me that the day the job stops bothering you is the day you quit. There's no shame in not being able to handle the worst of humanity. We're not more hardened to it than anyone else, we just want people in hopeless situations to have a way out.
( This would probably be exponentially smoother a conversation if Caitlin herself understood the why. She understands what's happening in the bodies of those affected — at least the ones she's been able to study, like Barry, herself, Cisco... — but she doesn't understand how it happened. It shouldn't have been able to, he's right. But it did. )
Well...join the club. I've just sort of had to adjust and work with what I'm given. It doesn't make a lot of sense, it just is where I come from.
That's actually a really good way to look at things...I wouldn't have thought of that. Whoever told you that...thank them for me when you go home. Maybe it'll help me gain a little perspective doing my own work.
( Because while it's not so bad for Caitlin as it probably is for Dr. Reid, she has her moments where there's a numbness to everything that sort of comes into play, which really has no place. It's not a bad thing to detach emotion while working, but she needs to make sure she never turns it all the way off. ...that's partially why the idea of losing herself in Killer Frost is so terrifying. Killer Frost already turned it off. At least, in Caitlin's opinion, she's turned off all the emotions except anger. Sometimes that makes an appearance. )
That must be frustrating. Especially as a scientist.
[ If he finds it frustrating, he imagines she does ten times as much, as it's her life. Maybe he can make up for his misstep by giving her an open invitation to vent. ]
I would, but he quit. Took his own advice. I try to remember it when I get overwhelmed. That there's a reason we do this. If we stop caring, we lose the reason.
[ It's not as much an issue for Reid as some of his other coworkers, admittedly. Reid's problem has always been, despite his fussy, neurotic, academic exterior, caring too much. He feels everything intensely, takes everything hard, and altogether his empathy makes him a great profiler but an easily hurt human being. He thinks of Gideon's advice as a reassurance to himself that his caring makes him more human and less a monster, that it in itself is proof that he hasn't started to lose his mind. Caring is not indicative of schizophrenia; it's him doing his job the most human way possible.
Sometimes it's cold comfort, but so far, most of the time, that perspective has gotten him through it. ]
To say the least. It certainly makes it harder to do my job, sometimes, that's for sure.
( At least that's not always true. Life would be a heck of a lot more frustrating if it was. Sometimes the little experience she's got under her belt studying metas like Barry and Cisco makes it easier. The technology she has at her disposal almost certainly does. That makes up for some of it. )
Good for him, then, because it's good advice.
( She doesn't, intentionally, touch on the fact that just because his coworker quit, it shouldn't automatically mean that he can't talk to the guy ever again, but there's probably more to that which she isn't privy to and it isn't really her place to pry. So, Caitlin doesn't. She goes back to the profile. )
What kind of books do you like? I like books, too.
I have to ask, what exactly does someone with your specializations do to defend against metahumans?
[ That's not critical, just 100% curious.
As for Gideon-- ha, yeah, undoubtedly good for him, and screw everyone he'd left behind... Spencer knows that's not really fair, that Gideon had obviously and transparently shown remorse for leaving him with that letter written explicitly for him. But it doesn't change that he'd left, and Spencer's made some peace with it over time, but getting to forgiveness is another story. All he can do without getting too personal is not comment, here. ]
What kind of books? I mostly read non-fiction-- technical manuals, texts for foreign language learning, everything I can get my hands on. When I read fiction it's usually historical literature or classic sci-fi. What about you?
I'm more the defense for the defense against metahumans. I'd consider the Flash, for example, to be the offense. It really depends on the mission and what we're up against, if I'm being completely honest. Sometimes, I end up outside my wheelhouse, but we do what we have to do.
( Well, they have the non-fiction part in common if not the actual books. )
Medical journals, mostly. Once in a while if I have time, I'll indulge myself with some classic literature like Jane Austen books or something.
( She's wondering if maybe this conversation is not going so well, but Caitlin's very rusty with this sort of thing, so it could just be that she's being hypercritical of her own conversational skills — or lack thereof — with people she doesn't already know. )
What kinds of things are the plot points in classic sci-fi, exactly? I mean what differentiates it from modern sci-fi, or is it just the time period in which it was written?
Whatever's necessary for the case. Makes sense. You sound like you're close with the Flash. [ Although he can't believe he's writing that like it's a real name, she's treating it like one, so he will as well. ]
Oh, I do read medical journals as well. We end up working with the coroner's office pretty consistently. But I would say I have a more academic understanding of medicine than a functional one.
Largely it is a time period, but there's been some homages to it in modern literature. The late 1950s to early 1980s were really the heyday-- works were characterized by a grounding in actual science, which was then used as allegory for progressive, experimental social commentary. For example, one of the more famous works, Ursula K. LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness, was published in 1969 and featured a planet of people without gender. These sorts of topical explorations were reliant on the futuristic settings and technology, but always dealt with immediate, real-world societal concerns.
It makes for pretty engaging reading. To me, anyway.
[ Yes, Reid certainly likes his sci fi, and he's socially clueless enough to feel that the conversation is going just fine once you get him onto a factual subject. ]
Pretty much, yeah. You could say that. We've been working together for several years now. He's saved my life a time or two.
( Caitlin knows what he means when he says that he's got more of an academic understanding than a functional one because that's how she'd been in high school and the earlier stages of her college academic career. It's nice to be able to have a functional understanding now, too, since she loves it so much. If it's just something he likes to learn about, though, Caitlin can see why he'd rather just read about it. )
Horror movies tend to do that, as well. I'm not a huge horror buff, but I used to be when I was a teenager and I watched a documentary once that helped break down the social commentary of the horror movies between the 1960s and the 1980s. Maybe the creative arts were all especially in tune with what was going on around them and used their respective arts as their soapboxes.
I didn't realize they'd done it in literature, but now that makes me a lot more interested in looking into classic sci-fi. I've always found social commentaries in fantasy or fictional mediums to be kind of interesting.
That's a good comparison. There's a lot of similarities in the socio-cultural commentaries common to horror and sci-fi. Once something's already transgressive in some way, outside the norm, it's easier to add something else onto it and get audience buy-in.
We're kind of in one right now, huh? The power of granting wishes through human goodwill and intimacy. It still sounds like literature to me, and I agreed to it.
( Caitlin has to stop for a second and think about whether she should actually answer that innocuous question honestly. But then she remembers that Barry's actually made the Flash an okCuddle profile and she laughs a little to herself before texting back. )
Yeah, he is. And yeah, he's here.
Right, yeah, I can see why those genres are popular for it when you put it that way. I guess I never really thought about it too much until just now.
Nor had I thought about that, either, but also a good point. Yeah, we kind of are.
Maybe I'll meet him sometime. Or hear the sonic boom as he goes by, apparently.
I spent a lot of time reading literature growing up. As far as social experiments go, I guess I'm all right with this one. Worse case scenario is we all sit around being nice to each other for a few months, and then go home.
( Caitlin decides it's probably better not to point out the fact that Barry doesn't usually cause a sonic boom, even though he should, because it's just another thing that she can't explain and, right now, things are going well again. At least, wellish. )
I think it's a pretty cool social experiment. If it's legitimate, it's certainly ground-breaking, considering the power it takes to pull it all off. I'd be willing to bet that someone here is going to go home, write a book about their experiences, sell it as fiction , and make a million dollars.
Optimism. A lack of pessimism probably isn't sufficient to classify myself an optimist. But realist has a certain philosophical connotation that isn't right, either. I'd say mostly I'm curious. There's an incredible potential to meet people and learn new things here that it wouldn't even be possible for me to be exposed to, normally. If that's all I get out of this, I'll still be pretty satisfied.
Not particularly, no. I'm more of a behind the scenes kind of person.
I'm hoping that I'll be able to do that, too. I'm on my way, I think, having met a few interesting people, yourself included. Ideally, it's real, but if it isn't, I'll take the irreplaceable experiences, too.
Me, too. I'd rather stay in front of the white board.
I count as interesting? [ Reid would not have pegged himself as particularly interesting. He's weird, sure, and probably memorable, but as he'd said, he doesn't get the most attention and he doesn't look for it, either. ] You're the one with the superhero making particle accelerator.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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I attended a lecture aimed at convincing college students to pursue the FBI as a career path. The lecturer thought I had potential. I'm lucky he took a chance on me.
[ Talking about Gideon is still hard, but Spencer can manage it obliquely. Time is making it better. ]
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( It should be fine to talk about the Flash as long as she doesn't out Barry as being him, right? She saw the Flash on the okCuddle somewhere, she's sure of it. )
But before that, I worked on the particle accelerator. It was a pretty famous machine. Probably more infamous after it exploded and created all those metahumans, including the Flash, but...at the time, it was a scientific achievement...it was made to power the whole city with clean energy. It would've made science journals, I bet, if it had succeeded.
( Sometimes, talking about the particle accelerator is difficult, but in doing so, she supposes she's sort of trying to embrace the part of her that it created — Killer Frost — rather than just mourning the losses she suffered after it — like Ronnie...twice. If she talks about it on her own terms, then maybe she can take control of the feelings she has about the whole thing. That's what she's trying to do, anyway. )
Oh cool, I was recruited while I was in college, still, too. Do you like it? The BAU?
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Sorry, I have a lot of questions about what you just said. How could a particle accelerator explode? It's radioactive, not prone to combustion. What is your working definition of the word 'metahuman'? Who or what is the Flash?
[ And right now he's totally oblivious to the idea that this could potentially be a sensitive issue, although he can guess that being near an explosion of any sort can cause trauma. Reid's just momentarily overwhelmed by scientific incredulity at the idea of a linac exploding. At least, he's assuming it's linear. ]
I can't imagine doing anything else now. I've been there for six years.
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You know, I don't really know. I wasn't on the structural engineering side, so I don't know what went wrong there. Metahuman is a normal human who, due to the explosion, now has special abilities beyond that of normal human beings.
( ...how does he not know who the Flash is? Does the Flash not exist where he comes from? Which Earth is this guy from, because The Flash — whether Barry or not — has existed on several Earths, so far... hmmm... )
The Flash is the fastest man alive. Runs at something like Mach 3 these days.
I don't think I could do your job; I imagine you must see some really horrific things.
( Which is not to say that Caitlin never does, but not on a daily basis like law enforcement must. ...like her friends that work with CCPD must. )
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[ ??????
Reid is just way too literal sometimes. Like being told a folk tale and promptly replying that it didn't make any sense because you can't catch a falling star. Things without rational explanation just don't sit well with him. ]
Your plane of existence must have interesting quantum dynamics to allow for the things you've described. [ This is Reid's best attempt at being generous, and polite. He literally types and deletes a comment about human physiology being unable to tolerate three times the speed of sound. He needs to pick his battles... and he doesn't actually want to offend anyone, he just wants to understand. ]
I do. Although I see some really incredible things, too. "In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present." Francis Bacon.
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I just know what happened and what the result was.
( ...he thinks she's telling stories, ah. That's the vibe she's getting right now and she supposes that she walked right into that because this is not Central where everyone knows The Flash and Ralph...whose superhero name Cisco has not yet settled upon.
Scale it back a bit, Snow. )
Must be.
I've always liked that quote. It helped me through a lot of tough times. It's a good quote. I'm glad to hear there's balance.
I still don't think I could do what you do, so kudos for doing the job that most of us can't.
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I don't disbelieve you, I just don't understand. I'm not good with things I don't understand.
[ At least he's honest. ]
To tell the truth, we all do it so other people don't have to. Someone I greatly respect once told me that the day the job stops bothering you is the day you quit. There's no shame in not being able to handle the worst of humanity. We're not more hardened to it than anyone else, we just want people in hopeless situations to have a way out.
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Well...join the club. I've just sort of had to adjust and work with what I'm given. It doesn't make a lot of sense, it just is where I come from.
That's actually a really good way to look at things...I wouldn't have thought of that. Whoever told you that...thank them for me when you go home. Maybe it'll help me gain a little perspective doing my own work.
( Because while it's not so bad for Caitlin as it probably is for Dr. Reid, she has her moments where there's a numbness to everything that sort of comes into play, which really has no place. It's not a bad thing to detach emotion while working, but she needs to make sure she never turns it all the way off. ...that's partially why the idea of losing herself in Killer Frost is so terrifying. Killer Frost already turned it off. At least, in Caitlin's opinion, she's turned off all the emotions except anger. Sometimes that makes an appearance. )
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[ If he finds it frustrating, he imagines she does ten times as much, as it's her life. Maybe he can make up for his misstep by giving her an open invitation to vent. ]
I would, but he quit. Took his own advice. I try to remember it when I get overwhelmed. That there's a reason we do this. If we stop caring, we lose the reason.
[ It's not as much an issue for Reid as some of his other coworkers, admittedly. Reid's problem has always been, despite his fussy, neurotic, academic exterior, caring too much. He feels everything intensely, takes everything hard, and altogether his empathy makes him a great profiler but an easily hurt human being. He thinks of Gideon's advice as a reassurance to himself that his caring makes him more human and less a monster, that it in itself is proof that he hasn't started to lose his mind. Caring is not indicative of schizophrenia; it's him doing his job the most human way possible.
Sometimes it's cold comfort, but so far, most of the time, that perspective has gotten him through it. ]
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( At least that's not always true. Life would be a heck of a lot more frustrating if it was. Sometimes the little experience she's got under her belt studying metas like Barry and Cisco makes it easier. The technology she has at her disposal almost certainly does. That makes up for some of it. )
Good for him, then, because it's good advice.
( She doesn't, intentionally, touch on the fact that just because his coworker quit, it shouldn't automatically mean that he can't talk to the guy ever again, but there's probably more to that which she isn't privy to and it isn't really her place to pry. So, Caitlin doesn't. She goes back to the profile. )
What kind of books do you like? I like books, too.
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[ That's not critical, just 100% curious.
As for Gideon-- ha, yeah, undoubtedly good for him, and screw everyone he'd left behind... Spencer knows that's not really fair, that Gideon had obviously and transparently shown remorse for leaving him with that letter written explicitly for him. But it doesn't change that he'd left, and Spencer's made some peace with it over time, but getting to forgiveness is another story. All he can do without getting too personal is not comment, here. ]
What kind of books? I mostly read non-fiction-- technical manuals, texts for foreign language learning, everything I can get my hands on. When I read fiction it's usually historical literature or classic sci-fi. What about you?
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for example, to be the offense. It really depends on the mission and what we're up against, if I'm being completely honest.
Sometimes, I end up outside my wheelhouse, but we do what we have to do.
( Well, they have the non-fiction part in common if not the actual books. )
Medical journals, mostly. Once in a while if I have time, I'll indulge myself with some classic literature like Jane Austen books or something.
( She's wondering if maybe this conversation is not going so well, but Caitlin's very rusty with this sort of thing, so it could just be that she's being hypercritical of her own conversational skills — or lack thereof — with people she doesn't already know. )
What kinds of things are the plot points in classic sci-fi, exactly? I mean what differentiates it from modern sci-fi, or is it just the time period in which it was written?
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Oh, I do read medical journals as well. We end up working with the coroner's office pretty consistently. But I would say I have a more academic understanding of medicine than a functional one.
Largely it is a time period, but there's been some homages to it in modern literature. The late 1950s to early 1980s were really the heyday-- works were characterized by a grounding in actual science, which was then used as allegory for progressive, experimental social commentary. For example, one of the more famous works, Ursula K. LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness, was published in 1969 and featured a planet of people without gender. These sorts of topical explorations were reliant on the futuristic settings and technology, but always dealt with immediate, real-world societal concerns.
It makes for pretty engaging reading. To me, anyway.
[ Yes, Reid certainly likes his sci fi, and he's socially clueless enough to feel that the conversation is going just fine once you get him onto a factual subject. ]
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( Caitlin knows what he means when he says that he's got more of an academic understanding than a functional one because that's how she'd been in high school and the earlier stages of her college academic career. It's nice to be able to have a functional understanding now, too, since she loves it so much. If it's just something he likes to learn about, though, Caitlin can see why he'd rather just read about it. )
Horror movies tend to do that, as well. I'm not a huge horror buff, but I used to be when I was a teenager and I watched a documentary once that helped break down the social commentary of the horror movies between the 1960s and the 1980s. Maybe the creative arts were all especially in tune with what was going on around them and used their respective arts as their soapboxes.
I didn't realize they'd done it in literature, but now that makes me a lot more interested in looking into classic sci-fi.
I've always found social commentaries in fantasy or fictional mediums to be kind of interesting.
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That's a good comparison. There's a lot of similarities in the socio-cultural commentaries common to horror and sci-fi. Once something's already transgressive in some way, outside the norm, it's easier to add something else onto it and get audience buy-in.
We're kind of in one right now, huh? The power of granting wishes through human goodwill and intimacy. It still sounds like literature to me, and I agreed to it.
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Yeah, he is. And yeah, he's here.
Right, yeah, I can see why those genres are popular for it when you put it that way. I guess I never really thought about it too much until just now.
Nor had I thought about that, either, but also a good point. Yeah, we kind of are.
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I spent a lot of time reading literature growing up. As far as social experiments go, I guess I'm all right with this one. Worse case scenario is we all sit around being nice to each other for a few months, and then go home.
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I think it's a pretty cool social experiment. If it's legitimate, it's certainly ground-breaking, considering the power it takes to pull it all off. I'd be willing to bet that someone here is going to go home, write a book about their experiences, sell it as fiction , and make a million dollars.
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I'm not sure I'll really believe in wishes until I see one come true, but I'll be happy to be proven wrong.
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I kind of feel the same way but I'm more cautiously optimistic, I think, than skeptical.
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Optimism. A lack of pessimism probably isn't sufficient to classify myself an optimist. But realist has a certain philosophical connotation that isn't right, either. I'd say mostly I'm curious. There's an incredible potential to meet people and learn new things here that it wouldn't even be possible for me to be exposed to, normally. If that's all I get out of this, I'll still be pretty satisfied.
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I'm hoping that I'll be able to do that, too. I'm on my way, I think, having met a few interesting people, yourself included. Ideally, it's real, but if it isn't, I'll take the irreplaceable experiences, too.
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I count as interesting? [ Reid would not have pegged himself as particularly interesting. He's weird, sure, and probably memorable, but as he'd said, he doesn't get the most attention and he doesn't look for it, either. ] You're the one with the superhero making particle accelerator.
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Yeah, I know I do, but you work for the FBI in the Behavioral Analysis Unit. That's kind of awesome, I don't know if you realize.
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I think it's awesome, but I signed up for it. And I don't really socialize outside of work.
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