“...And that beam constraint is both what makes it pinpoint accurate, rather than a spreading cone, and intensifies the effective beam output, even though internally the base beam throughput is about equivalent... to...”
“...”
“Are you OK?”
“Hm? Yeah, sorry. Beam throughput?”
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing, just... Look, remember that guy I told you about, the one I met on Io a few weeks ago?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, it’s just Io is the CTATODL theater again this week, and I thought I might see him there, but...”
“You’re just hoping to run into this one guy, whose name you didn’t bother to get, somewhere on an entire moon, just sometime there happens to be increased activity there, and you’re disappointed it hasn’t panned out?”
“Yeah, if you want to make me sound like an idiot, I guess it was a long shot. For the record, though, the active operational area on Io is only a fraction of the moon’s surface, so—”
“C’mon, Shrugs...”
“—SO it’s not actually entirely unreasonable to anticipate encountering other Guardians there, particularly during times of peak operational activity!”
“OK. But you didn’t, at least not this guy, this time.”
“...No.”
“Look, why don’t you try to look him up, like a normal person, and try to get in touch in the Tower? Maybe you don’t have a name to go on, but there’s gotta be something distinguishing about him you picked up on, right? Distinctive gear? Cool jumpship? Funny mannerisms?”
“...”
“What?”
“...If I just... look him up, it’ll...”
“It’ll what?”
“...It’ll ruin the meet-cute.”
“Who’d think the mighty Shruggernaut is just a hopeless, and also hapless, romantic? And they say you just wanna smash all the time.”
“Rude.”
(Man O’ War w/ GENOTYPENULL-ZERO)
