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Chapter 18: Sitting Alone
Jasper had been in the common room for an hour and desperately needed paper and a pen. He thought about breaking into Emmet's office, but the lock conundrum arose again. He had no idea what he was supposed to. There was nothing to do but think and panic.
There was nothing to do but look through the giant glass window towards the sea, sitting on a stool, keeping his back stiff. He couldn't sit on the beanbags as it would be bad for his back and Doctor Johnstone would correct him silently, doing her job and without comment, like a blank interface existing to mask the efficient, cold, unjudging code running on the machinery behind the back panel.
She was so much like Sýnnefa, only she actually spoke, and didn't hide her face behind technology. She was still following programming. Everybody followed programming. It was natural.
But what programming did he follow? A man who had followed Gryaz blindly then put sunglasses on to combat the harsh, grey glares of S
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The Boy who Circled Time Chapter 26: Taking Leave
"You don't need to keep hanging back, holding yourself to fit a certain mould, you know,"It was Doctor Johnstone. She had kept her seat next to him, as all the others had begun migrating back to the common room. She sat idly next to him, her eyes tracing Alice's movements, as she fluttered from person to person, eager and welcome in every conversation, bouncing off the walls and having fun, laughing, giggling and sending beaming smiles over in their direction, Doctor Johnstone waving back to her, giving her own smiles, over the rim of her mug."It's not that. It's just hard to relate to this experience. All my meals before here were silent," Jasper explained, knowing he had to be careful."Are you happy here?" she asked back, taking another swig of her mug, leaning back on the table, relaxed, with slow blinks."Yeah…"It was all Jasper could say. He was happy here. But to make sure that these people would live, he needed to leave and spare
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