Avalon

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When Time Is Not The Essence

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Neal knew their time on this planet was never measured the way it used to on the Earth. It didn't bother him much at first mostly because he was too busy trying to understand how the fuck to function further.

That was almost a year ago.

Today marked close enough of what he still counted as a year (by Earth standards) but in reality was far from time system here on this planet whose name once again fled his brain. Something PHI related and that was all his mind spat out after spending long time trying to understand clock on the wall.

''Hey, Neal!'' Peter's cheerful greeting pulled the CI out of the musings and he looked over at the agent. They'd been here for so long he had no idea and now he will have to ask Peter to explain this all over again.

''I heard somebody got a solid lead yesterday.'' Neal just said with a glint in his eye. ''And they even got a goodnight kiss for that.'' he added smirking into his coffee.

''Man, you have absolutely no manners.'' Agent grunted with just a playful amount of annoyance.

''Oh Peter, don't hurt my feelings, I'm most polite!'' Neal mocked slightly and played perfect hurt all over the place.

''Don't let Jones hear you.'' the older man teased and gulped a large chunk of his own coffee.

''Aww, you just love to hurt me, Peter.'' conman pouted at the agent expressively.

''Geez you guys ever stop that?'' Diana walked past them with only mild hint of mock annoyance.

''We just show our love for each other like this!'' Neal called back the passing agent and smirked at Peter who was already rubbing a finger at his forehead.

''I just hope the others won't take this wrong...'' he sighed in really tiny worry that one day the new bosses will find their teasing inappropriate and they will get demoted or even worse- Neal will be sent away.

''Then let's make this day count on our good graces.'' Neal chirped back as he stood up and greeted few of the other agents.

That was two days ago...

In Neal's book at least...

Seven days a week they got like majority of work done thanks to regular hours that where supposed to be somewhat near twenty hour mark in Earth time. It was when workload was high. And they got the rest of ten hours of sleep at the special cabins high up in the building. It made one day thirty hour long. Way too long in Neal's opinion.

So then seven days were just working days, there were three left for rest. To sum up it was ten days per week.

So far the math had been easy among the converting everything into Earth time so it would be easier to understand.

But an hour made up hundred seconds and that's where Neal began loosing it.

It didn't help his math that there were ten weeks within a month, terrifying amount of time. Which made twenty months within a year. All that in Earth time.

He badly needed a calculator and tab of converting units in his head so it would be easier not to loose that ever precious time.

To locals it was all easy since they did not know any other way of measuring time so for them it was all simple as that. To Neal it was like trying not to get lost in a maze.

Somehow only he couldn't deal with such dramatic change. Everyone from the bureau had it easy or so it seemed.

He kept his musings to himself and missed his hat terribly while trying not to visibly feel terrible in his dark grey ''suit''. It still looked bad on him and he missed Byron's old clothes that June so easily gave to him. And he missed his watch. And hat.

He now sported a very tiny- compared- slim device around his ankle. It reminded him of those fitness trackers all the New York's runners sported on their wrists.

This one was black and sleek and rather snug. It didn't omit any sound not had any visible strap clip and it did look quite solid piece.

It never chafed though. To the CI it even felt as if it radiated softness around his ankle. It also didn't sport any indicator light like his old one. This was one solid piece of deepest black Neal's eyes had ever seen and it just never chafed.

On his left wrist was another similar bond. Same deepest blackness ever and solid touch of velvety feel. Just this came in a smaller size and it looked more like random rubber band some teens wore. It was rather tiny looking but it felt almost absent since Neal usually forgot it even existed unless he looked at it. And he kinda did it often enough. Because he still missed his watch.

And hat...

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