If Not 104.3

"...And that concludes our broadcast day. Remember to be good to yourself, selflessly joyful, and aim for the head!"

Diego flipped the last few switches, and the equipment gave an audible hum as it powered down. Hobbes pulled the headphones down to his neck, and pushed his glasses up, rubbing his eyes. "So, that marks another hundred episodes, doesn't it?" he remarked.
   "Yes. We have a nice racket going here."
   "Ever wonder what we would be doing if we hadn't found this place."
   "I don't really know. You would probably have a fairly good life as a village doctor though."
   "No, no I wouldn't. I could go anywhere right now and be a doctor rather than a DJ. Kind of odd really. I went into obstetrics to be a real doctor - not a programmer for tiny robots. But right now, I don't find myself really missing it. Maybe it was because I was often on call for emergencies, or I was dealing with multiple hard to deal with patients at once - pained mother and a child that can't speak. But I think I would've retired early and just done this sort of thing anyway."
   "At least you had a retirement plan. I was somewhat on the run because I refused to be part of a militia, didn't often hold jobs long, was in the military subject to call up. Yeah, if they had been able to reach me, I'd either be stuck in Vegas, dead from one of the actions against the reanimates or Citizens, or wandering around on my own refusing to join former platoon mates in becoming raiders."
   "Well, if you could've stopped running, what would you have done?"
   "Probably would've kept running anyway. Just to more places that I wanted to see. I liked doing TV voice-work, I kinda like working with my hands. Probably should've learned more about the SPHERE, hosted a show, done charity work. Not quite what you would expect from my history."
   "Yeah, you're an anti-social curmudgeon that likes to make people happy."
   "Says the doctor that hates people."
   "People are fine, its just patients I can't stand. Five minutes or less 'till they bleed out, yes, demanding service is reasonable. But nano doesn't eliminate pain, and they're either demanding wonder drugs that are rationed, or asking for strange unproven panaceas, and acting like I'm the idiot when I refuse an herbal remedy in deference to actual medicine. Which one of use had years of medical school thank you very much?"
   "They think that SPHERE makes everyone an expert, and that even a novice can be guided through surgery with some diagrams and augmented reality. Never mind it only gives answers if you know what questions to ask."
   "Exactly, Diego, exactly."
   "So boss, what are we going to do tonight then?"
   "Want to try that board-game sing-sing brought last time she stopped by?"
   "The colors give me a headache, and I still don't quite understand the rules. What's wrong with the human ones anyway?"
   "Just looking for some variety."
   "If we wanted variety, we'd hire a team of salvageers to get us some new music"
  "We really should look into that."