"You've missed lunch three times already this week. Come out with me." Was the text message on McCarthy's phone.
McCarthy was half distracted by an article she was reading and, without bothering to actually check the time, sent back, "I haven't missed lunch. It's only 11."
"You missed it the last three days."." McCarthy knew that Schwartz had voyeuristic habits that would have been considered, extremely unprofessional in a normal work environment. But this wasn't a normal work environment, and Schwartz, despite her habits, was still a close friend, and mostly just used it to give McCarthy little helping hints like this.
Had she missed lunch that much? Meh. "All right. Where to?"
"Tacos or Chinese?"
"Tacos. I've been looking at Chinese for three days."
Schwartz knew just where to go, and translated McCarthy's order for her, so that soon she was eating the most authentic fish tacos in Daven's Port wrapped in tinfoil with her best, and probably only friend. And of course, they were talking shop.
"So how's your Starr project coming along?"
"She's gained another 50 pounds and started refusing foods other than sour cream again. I'm thinking of releasing her and seeing what happens."
Of course, she knew what happen. That was part of the fun. Starr would try to get her fix from regular sour cream and be completely unable, and eventually, she'd come crawling back.
"Is it kind of counterproductive if they stop eating other foods?" Schwartz pointed out. She at least liked to pretend she was a responsible adult who wanted to help her employers make money.
McCarthy waved her hand dismissively. "The other subjects in the study behaved as expected. Starr just has an addictive personality that I decided to exploit."
Now Schwartz's interest was piqued. "Well, that means it doesn't matter if you let her go."
"I mostly want to see how long it takes her to come crawling back," McCarthy agreed, nodding. "And what she'll be willing to do for her fix."
"You'll have to up the fix, of course."
"Getting interested?"
"It's got a little bit more...flare...then your usual projects." Schwartz said, playfully haughty.
"Would you like to join me for toying with her?"
"Maybe. I'm a little...between projects right now." Schwartz admitted, feeling embarrassed. "It's like writers block."
"It really is," McCarthy sighed. "I think that's why I'm toying with Starr so much lately. I love working for Yeng, but I haven't done anything just for me in ages."
Schwartz took a chug of water, and stared off into the sun thoughtfully. "We've got to have some vacation time stored up right? I mean, when was the last time we took a day off?"
"I don't even remember." McCarthy glanced around at all the people. "Where would you go if you went on vacation?"
"If I /went/ somewhere, probably back home." Schwartz shrugged. "But that's not what I'm thinking."
"What are you thinking?"
"Taking some time right around here, in Daven's Port. Doing what we enjoy for ourselves...or at least finding some inspiration. It's hard knowing how to trick consumers when you only have lab rats."
"You know, we could probably spin this as a new project and get funding for it."
"Probably." Schwartz crumpled up the aluminum foil that was all that was left of her taco, tossed it in the trash, and wiped her mouth. " So where do we start?"
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