dear_mun | because it's a legitimate troubleshooting method [walking spoiler]

All right, you've got me: what this about a rubber duckie approach?

Edited (wording, erk.) 2014-12-11 17:58 (UTC)

It involves explaining things step-by-step to a rubber duckie, in hopes of stumbling across where you went wrong. Some people use bears or other inanimate objects, or whatever else they have at hand.

[~~sometimes that is a student who is not so much a student as a self-proclaimed 'science enthusiast'~~]

[Sounds a lot like talking to a jury, some days.]

In that case, I may have to start keeping rubber ducks - excuse me, duckies - around the office. We have eagles to spare, but I suspect a duckie would be more understanding. Eagles are awfully judgmental.

But you say you're faced with a puzzle that defies even a duckie's aid?

Well, that's partly the point of the duckie. The worst it does is squeak at you, even if you toss it across the room.

[he's not sure about eagles, though. have a slight furrowed brow at that...and the question.]

You might say that. It's a bit more difficult to explain a thought process.

Edited 2014-12-11 18:20 (UTC)

Oh, I like that. The squeak, I mean. [Also the idea of tossing ducks, possibly at his partner at the firm. Fallon grins.] I bet it'd lighten the atmosphere if the stumbling gets too tense.

See, I prefer to barrel right through thought processes. There's no point in dwelling on them, not when the solution doesn't want to come. [Shrugs.] Why waste your time?

It usually does, at least in the lab. Finals week is...interesting, but at least productive if you get over the squeaking.

[though...have a shrug of his own]

That's what I'm telling her. [he makes a small gesture vaguely at his shoulder. mun.] She seems to think that if I had one during all this, I might not have ended up in jail.

You're an instructor, then? Or do you work with students in some other capacity?

You know, I have an acquaintance who does an awful lot of squeaking. Though with him, it's more a mouse squeak than a duckie squeak.

[He considers the rest of the man's words, nodding vaguely.] Oh, I don't know... Sometimes the only thing that can keep a man from jail is a good lawyer. [Or a brilliant lawyer, ahem.] That's just the sorry state of the world we live in.

Edited 2014-12-11 18:58 (UTC)

I was a professor at SFIT. I imagine my credentials were revoked about the time they started charging me with First-Degree Arson and Attempted Murder. [he's not bitter, why are you asking that. he was perfectly fine burning off everything related to teaching, and then things got out of control.

in short, he'd need one heck of a lawyer. ~~or therapist~~]

Well, yeah! Not with that attitude!

Charges of that sort do tend to get in the way of things. [That was probably a little too light-hearted, and Fallon makes himself drop the lingering traces of his grin.]

It's a sad situation. I'm sorry we didn't meet sooner; I might have been able to help you out. [There's always a way, especially for those willing to forgo orthodox methods.] Always assuming you would have wanted it, of course.

Well. Your mun thinks answering some question could have solved your troubles before they started?

[fred you are talking to the guy who doused you in diethyl ether because it seemed a slightly better option than killing you.

LOOK AT THIS LINEFACE YOU ARE GETTING. he's not even saying anything, he is just giving you this look]

[considering the tightening of the expression Callaghan's getting at the 'humor'...but when Fallon drops it, so does the rising anger. he reaches up and rubs his face, instead.]

I don't know. It isn't as though I had many options at that point. [~~and it was all for a good cause, too. really. honest.~~]

She thinks if I'd stopped to think about it, things might have ended differently. I'm not sure, and...it ended...in a way I never expected.

[ever familiar with the tone of someone who isn't sure if that's good or bad? there you go.]

[WELL WHOSE FAULT WAS THAT ok it was mostly fred's for poking around where he shouldn't have but

still

~~maybe if Callaghan worked out his problems he won't NEED to throw dangerous flammable chemicals all over his former students~~]

I'm just saying, maybe it's not such a bad idea! I mean, it can't hurt, right? ...Yeah?

[~~HE IS THE VERY MODEL OF MENTAL HEALTH~~]

You and Tadashi. [he stg] This is more complex than sounding off the steps of an invention or experiment, Fred.

[beat]

And I'd probably end up throwing it across the room within thirty seconds. [most people can at least take a minute of their own problems before ending up frustrated with themselves]

Well hey, at least you'd be taking it out on the rubber duck! And not yourself? Or.. someone.. else...

Thanksfornotkillingmebytheway.

[Awkwardly clearing throat before continuing-]

Ok, so people are way more complicated than science experiments, I'm not gonna argue with that! But if you're struggling with something, it still might help to.. talk it out? Somewhere, somehow? It doesn't have to be a duck.

That's usually the way it goes. The law calls your name and you find your back's already up against the wall, that they've been closing in on you all this time. I've seen it more times than I can count. [Been there himself, too, and will be there again all too soon.]

There is always a way of beating the charges. It's just that most people don't know where to look, or don't dare break a few rules to get there.

[He looks the guy over, trying to take him in without scrutinizing, just looking for a sense of who he might be.] I've heard the same about stopping to think. I just don't see what it could possibly change.

I guess you had an interesting time, anyway?

[...that's a different look Fred's getting now. it's sort of a resigned you're-irritating-but-i'm-starting-to-remember-why-i-had-no-problems-with-you-hanging-out-in-the-lab.

other than, well. general approval of people being interested in science and technology, even if it wasn't their forte.

~~he's still a teacher, even if it's kind of overshadowed by certain things.~~]

Don't put me in that position again.

[another beat, and then he clears his throat, dropping in to his lecture-voice]

'Dear Duckie; the other day I doused a young man in a highly flammable chemical, because assuming he didn't immediately reach the toxitiy levels, it seemed the option least likely to kill anyone. Why, yes, I do remember another incident with flammable chemicals, and all those measures ending up useless in the face of simple human error...'

[did we mention his lecture-voice may or may not have high degrees of Sass in it right now?]

Edited 2014-12-11 19:47 (UTC)

[for all intents and purposes, he's a mild-mannered college professor. possibly ex-military, and he may or may not have been in the black outfit the entire time. We Just Don't Know. he carries himself well, at least, even with the faint notes of resignation/defeat, there's something in him that isn't quite ready to just give up completely.

close to it, maybe, but not yet]

I hadn't much experience with this sort of thing before, if that's what you're asking. [he makes a very light shrug] As for stopping- I couldn't. There wasn't time.

[no time to think, no time to hesitate, no time to do anything but as quick, as brutal, as efficient as possible. he hadn't time to even regret anything.

he pauses again, then...sort of tilts his head] For various definitions of 'interesting', yes.

[The Sass is not appreciated. This Duckie is just trying to help.]

Uh-huh, alright. So which part of this is the problem? Because it sorta sounds like the flammable-chemicals thing was a solution. Not.. Not a chemical solution, I mean like a problem solution.

I'm just kinda confused about which part you're stuck on.

[He really is a perfect duck substitute.]

I'm stuck on...

[have a frustrated sound, and Callaghan running his hand through his hair before clenching down on to it slightly.

and have a few microbots skittering over his hand, too. hello, we're here too]

These. I'm stuck on these, Fred, and where I'm going with them, and...how I can get back some control over any of it.

[there. he's being Honest, now. this musebox is going to be the death of him, he just knows it.]

[The fellow's certainly a lot more serious (severe?) than the people Fallon spends his time with. Even the men and women he defends carry Broadway's gaiety right into the courtroom. Though it's odd to see someone so solemn, there's something in the man that seems worthy of regard. And really, it can't hurt to entertain more grounded company. Sometimes Fallon wonders whether his acquaintances are a little too ephemeral.]

There never is. There shouldn't be time, if you're really living. [Is that a problem? Probably.] And you're still here, aren't you?

'Interesting' is a word of many tones and talents. [Fallon flashes a grin.] I guess the question is what you make of it. Or maybe how you move ahead with it.

[Slightest of jumps because oh geez where did those come from. Gonna try and keep it cool though.]

Control over... the microbots? Or just, uh.. sort of in general?

[Said softly, as Fred is making an effort to be as d e l i c a t e as possible about this. He is trying to help, honestly, because whatever Callaghan is going through it seems like it's wearing down on him. He may have made a TON of bad choices, but at least he's going for the less-lethal ones now. That's a step in the right direction in Fred's book.]

[things are different when you feel like you /have/ to move, you /have/ to act, you're on a timeline and there's no time to stop and think because you'll turn the corner and it's time to /act/ and if anyone gets in your way you can't /let/ them

and this isn't that sort of time. he lowers his hand, the microbots skittering back in to his sleeve.]

Can't do one without the other. Even if I went back in to prison at this point, I doubt I'd stay there for long.

[there really isn't a place that could hold him.]

[funny how deciding to set everything on fire in an attempt to cut yourself off from everything holding you back can alter things.]

So I am. [and it's strange to talk with someone who's taking this all so lightly- it finally occurs to Callaghan that he may not be fully on the 'side' of the law, and then he decides that doesn't make a difference one way or another.] Depending on 'setting', it seems to either involve working with the mob, going on the run, or finding out how 'good behavior' can balance 'life without parole'.

Yeah, that's not surprising...

[Seriously, how long do the Batman villains ever stay in Arkham? Prisons basically have revolving doors for super villains, it's kind of futile to try it that way.]

[But then again, Fred's never really SEEN an alternative, at least not in his stories. Most comics are meant to keep going on an endless loop. Bad guy does bad thing, bad guy goes to jail, breaks out again, it keeps going. It's not an answer. Fred is lost in thought for a moment before asking..]

If you could go anywhere you wanted, without having to worry about jail or- or running into us, where would you go?

because it's a legitimate troubleshooting method [walking spoiler]

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oh god he really is

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NOT EVEN ON PURPOSE

it hurts because callaghan /did/ pause when hiro made him think and then krei had to open his mouth

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krei ruined everything 8(