You should start playing again. The new quest system is very engaging.

What if you don't find ANY of the Nic Cages?

Unavoidable. They are there to talk. They cannot help but talk.

I'm not sure I can shop in this store until after April. These bits are bad enough that I can't send you anything without at least minor edits. Tense agreement is important to me. But I am most interested in Plague and Evil Sorcerers. I realize I would be getting a lot more material than you. How much is an unfinished MCP worth to you?

That's a terrible thing to suggest to another human being who is already attempting to maintain too many hobbies while in grad school. I'm attempting to adult successfully over here.
On that note, I'm pretty sure I gained like 3,000 XP in the past two days for 1. Figuring out how estimated quarterly taxes work, all by myself; 2. Figuring out how to pay federal estimated taxes online without a tax service 3. Doing my Ohio estimated taxes on Paper and Mailing Them In like it's 1850. I may have gone up a level in Adulting.

Then our house will be blessed with many Nic Cages. It's like a religious thing.

Is there a way to make them talk less? Is it possible to maintain control of the conversation so they are pushed into a responsive rather than active role?

Hrummph. Don't click on the NPC if you don't want to buy their wares; it's rude. I will allow you to edit your work, but it needs to be on a reasonable schedule. The shop will close at the end of May, definitely.
The original fiction, huh? Wasn't expecting that. I warn you, Evil Sorcerers is VERY pretentious and some of the stories are a bit of a slog to read. If you insist on separate purchases for your two levels of MCP, getting the better chapters only of ES would be one purchase, and getting the worse chapters would be another. I'm going to say that this November's portion of Plague is also one purchase, and if you want to read the end that I am writing now, that's another. So, the entire rest of the MCP is worth either all of ES, about 50k of stories of variable quality, or all of Plague, which is shaping up to be about 100k, or you can mix and match.

It's not a hobby, it's just something to have open at your desk.
Good job. Someday you will be able to go on Adulting raids by yourself. In the 1850s.

I think there are quasi-religious images that incorporate Nic Cage. I'll see what I can do.

Click. Click click click. Look, you can make it sing and dance by clicking really fast.
Mixing and matching. Short stories make it easy to say no to author-reported mediocrity.

I thought the whole point of Pokemon Go was walking around? Is this the armchair naturalist's edition?
I fully intend to set up time travel expeditions to solo raid the 1800s. So much good loot. Unfortunately, I'm not an optimal character class for soloing in that time period.

I think you can buy those Catholic prayer candle things with Nic Cage on them.

So, you ignored my question about the committee meeting, huh? Huh? You wanted me to fail, HUH? Well, I didn't. The meeting went fine. Everyone was nice and liked my ideas. Now I just have to execute them. The ideas, not the committee members, I mean.

Leave the NPC alone. The NPC is tired.
Hmm. I might want to do some editing of my own if there is to be a time lag before the exchange. Let me know when your trade goods will be ready.

I have it on when I walk to work. That counts. It's easier to catch pokemon while I'm sitting around reading articles.
Whose fault is that? You made your character creation choices with a decent understanding of raiding in the 1800s. Didn't you?

Please don't set your room on fire using Nic Cage's face. It probably correlates with swimming pool deaths.

Pretty sure I answered it. Not sure why it didn't get sent. Probably has something to do with High Sierra. Please don't execute your committee. What are these plans that you're supposed to be executing in place of your committee?

Probably the end of May, if that's the cutoff for the exchange. I do love me some deadlines.

You only catch pokemon that invite themselves into your office?
I optimized my character for level grinding in modern settings. I would have to re-spec pretty heavily to make a good build for 1800s raids.

I don't have to light the candle to appreciate the divine beauty of Nic Cage. No need for fire hazards.

Plan: Scan a lot of teeth. Cry because the teeth are in bad condition. Run some surface complexity analyses in a vain attempt to categorize diet. Try to track down intact jaws. Attempt to estimate body mass based on molar size. Fail at one/all of the above. Cry again.

Consider your line dead, then. Do you care if you miss some plot developments in the short stories? They technically stand alone, but do refer to past events. Characters and objects might appear or disappear without explanation.
How goes the writing? I didn't make my word count yesterday. Burning through my buffer. Has your Daniel Jackson-equivalent died yet?

Yep. Office Pokemon only.
Fool!

Sounds like an important and deep proverb. One need not light the candle to appreciate the divine beauty of Nic Cage.

Isn't that just your undergrad thesis? Why did you need another degree for this?
I didn't read "jaws" as "jews." That wouldn't make any sense.

My line dead? Confused.
Yes, I care deeply about plot developments. Give them to me.
Ha ha ha! You think I'm still writing my original project? No. I started plotting the back half of the MCP instead. It goes a lot faster because it's mostly filler. One day I used my endophyte diversity Methods section for my word count. Camp is the Wild West of NaNo.

So... Mr. Mime? It's the only Pokemon I can imagine in your office, for some reason. All others would look out of place.

It's one of the tenets of my religion. I'll be sending you some compelling documents regarding conversion if you're interested.

It is disturbingly like my undergrad thesis, yes. At least all the crying is the same. Many of the particulars are thankfully different. But teeth are most of the game in a lot of paleontology, and 3D imaging is the future, so those are going to come up a lot.

Deadline. Line dead. Pay attention.
But some of the plot developments are in the crappy stories. You said you didn't want to purchase the crap. You have to choose. All plot developments included, or only decent quality fiction.
I think you're the only one who considers Camp to be the Wild West. I felt like I cheated the one year I switched projects partway through. I hope you actually intend to, you know, finish the MCP, since you've taunted me with it and are now plotting the rest of it.

My officemate is the loudest chewer in existence. Cringe.

Only if my office is in Europe.

Please don't. I have studied the holy texts. I know the swimming pool death statistics. I've seen National Treasure.

I will assume that you are simply recycling your undergraduate thesis data. That's what paleontologists do, right? Look at the same specimens over and over?

Nope. No attention will be paid.
Moo. Give me the good stories and a summary of the plot developments.
Nope. Camp is the shiftiest thing ever. You can change your deadline whenever you want. You can use it for editing. There are no rules.
Wait, what? I intended to taunt you with it for three years, plot out the whole thing, post half of it on AO3, then stop writing and burn all of the evidence and ghost any readers I've managed to attract.

Ew. Chew louder to drown them out. Play Meshuggah whenever they eat. Maybe they'll get the hint.

You need to come with us to see Battle Beast and Kamelot. Otherwise you'll be alone in the house all evening. There are still tickets. It will be fun. Come.

We now return to our regularly scheduled method of communication.

To transfer a conversation off the NaNo cabin, no, I've never intentionally padded a story using a subplot. The only subplots I've ever intentionally added are romances; the others just grow, kudzu-like, out of the main plot, and I futilely beat them back. Why do you need padding? Why not just progress the main plot? Let it happen. Unless there's some pressing reason not to?

Yes, paleontologists stare at the same three or so specimens our entire lives. It will be difficult for me to draw conclusions about condylarth evolution from my rodent data, but darn it I guess I have to. We must stick them with quills.

We're still on for an end-of-May deadline, yes? I hope you're hard at work editing your offering. I suppose I need to edit mine, as well, if I intend to not be ashamed of it when I show it to you. Maybe I won't be writing that other thing after all.