Stoll rasped a chuckle, throat-vox creaking against the half-organic sound. "Be careful what you start, stranger," said Stoll. "If we get into a discussion of the finer points of religious literature then I cannot guarantee your timely departure."

Despite being a fraction of Tiefebronn's age, Stoll had the soul of a far older man. Perhaps he had been assembled from all the material the cyberphrenologist had cast off during his juvinat treatments.

"Things haven't been too bad down here," he said. "Ever since - [unintelligible, cannon test firing] - standby. The biggest problem I've had to deal with is my external contacts trying to renegotiate various agreements in the hope that political turmoil is reflecting poorly on my bargaining position. But I've had some muscle in my back pocket for a while so that side of things is under control. Now I'm just sitting tight and waiting for things to calm down enough for an election to be held so we can restart production. And in case you're wondering, my position on that is exactly the one that you just vocalized: I'm for the correct choice."

[Bullshit Detector] So just so you know, being in the same building as Magos Tiefenbronn puts me on [i]at least[/i] a six out of ten bullshit alert, and his clone isn't much better. So let me just underscore how weird it is that I'm not getting anything from Stoll's statement of his politics. He hasn't been bought off, his vote isn't in the bag - his genetor has not come down the stairs and made him promises, or gone over his head to get Archmagos Brackmann to give him marching orders. This means that, whatever else is happening, Tiefenbronn is [b]not [/b]running this like a coup, and he is [b]not [/b]trying to form an alliance to seize power. He'd be the one to do that if anyone was, but he's not, and that's weird in and of itself.

[Reassurance] That said, he's not being totally straight with you either. He's suspicious and cagey. But... he wasn't when he was telling that story earlier. He's not giving his opinions, suspicions or perspective, but he might let something slip if you spend a point and draw him into a theological discussion.

"Who's the girl with the pretty voice?" said the voice of Stoll's niece. "She doesn't sound like she's stupid! And you should treat her nice, Mrs. Stranger! I bet her aim is fantastic, also hiiiii~ what are you doing later~~~"