(Untitled)

[simon_doctor]

Lavinia
September 12, 2522In the spaceport, Simon finds a seat near the exits to the commuter monorail and taps out a quick textwave to let his father know he's here. Sends it, and then rereads the original reply from the person he intends to meet: the perfunctory agreement that confirmed this trip

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[walk_ins]

The wave Simon gets in return contains the following words:

you really don't know much about lavinia at all

akihabara district, the yosemite boarding house, ask for james bond on the porch, they'll bring me out

we can go wherever

i'll be around tomorrow after 1200 and I have to be at work by 1900

if that doesn't work let me know

[simon_doctor]

A return wave, about twenty minutes later:

Once again it seems I'm forced to depend on you as a native guide.

I'll see you tomorrow sometime between 1200 and 1300.

[walk_ins]

A brusque reply:

i'm not a native

and if you feel forced, don't bother

Akihabara draws its name from the old Tokyo district of the same name, and it serves the same purpose: a place close to the intersection of a few major transport lines, where outcasts of the more nerdish variety tend to gather to pursue various hobbies and vices. The upshot of this: it's one of the very few areas on Lavinia -- in the Core in general -- that it's at least moderately safe to have a sensitive conversation without fear of undue Alliance surveillance.

One of the few areas that isn't a blackout zone, at any rate.

The Yosemite Boarding House is a four-story apartment building possessed of a slightly slapped-on-looking veranda. A bored woman with a cricket bat balanced across her knees sits behind a desk.

[simon_doctor]

Simon's taken public transit to get here, and he's memorized the street map so as not to have to consult it at every intersection.

He takes the stairs up to the porch and stops by the desk.

"Excuse me," he says, "a friend of mine asked me to meet him here. He said to ask for James Bond, but I don't know how serious he was about that."