At first, I thought Prawnn was just oblivious, but the more time I spend smashed between the two of them, the more I realize that he tries to drive Tron up the wall. He thinks he oughtta lighten up.

I'm not really sure how he calculates irritating him will do that. All I know is that I'm stuck in the middle, day in and day out.

Tron usually tries to ignore him. But of course, nobody can ignore a guy like Prawnn for very long. His size alone makes him a distraction. Tron usually ends up spitting occasional, two or three word, retorts over my head at him instead.

Tron cracks me up, however much respect I may have for him. He just seems so professional, so morbidly reserved until he opens his mouth . . . But he always surprises me. He's got more of a sense of humor than I expected, and even stranger, he doesn't seem to plan it. When he does talk, he just fires off whatever is on his mind, however blunt. He's got the filtration capacity of a bit.

I really do think it's kinda hilarious. I also think Prawnn would agree.

The best part about Tron, though, is how he talks to Sark. The commander comes down once every five milicycles or so to try and break him, and every time, he ends up with some taunt or another from Tron, and is otherwise ignored for the remainder of his visit. My personal favorite quote from one of these sessions involved Tron looking distractedly at everything in sight but Sark, and then, when the commander was mid sentence, he suddenly stopped, looked right at him with this twisted, irritated, contemplative expression, and said:

"Are you leaving soon? Cause' the view here is ugly enough without your face in it."

Sark's expression absolutely flattened, his eyes filling with rage and his lips presses together so firmly that they practically disappeared back into his mouth, but he couldn't say a word. He just stood there and fumed, looking so stupid that I almost bit through the back of my hand trying to keep from laughing.

Prawnn, a little bolder than myself, took it a step further. He leaned as close to the force field as he could, and shouted:

"I'll second what he said," at which point Sark turned on his heel and stomped away.

That was one of those times in which he and Tron were on the same side. Sometimes, they do that, despite Prawnn's pestering . . .

Aw hell, what am I saying? In the end, we're always on the same side. All of us. Always. We're conscripts. We stick together down here.

. . . Except in the games.

No. No no no.

I try to shove the thought away, but I can't. I can't get rid of it. It keeps flying around my head like a bit, chasing me down like one of those damned recognizers.

One of these days, Sark is going to get back at Tron. I may have just figured out how.

Oh, in the name of the Users . . .

I just hope I'm wrong.