Things That Break Other Things

**"Things That Break Other Things"** is the tenth mini episode of the podcast, and fifth in the series of recruitment mini episodes. It was originally released 8 August 2016.

## Plot Summary

Marcus Cutter introduces the fifth of the mini episodes on character recruitments, stating the location and rough time of its taking place - San Francisco in 2011.1

Jacobi is in a bar2*,* several drinks in and just finished ordering another when he is interrupted by the arrival of Warren Kepler, whom Jacobi initially ignores. When pressed, he replies, fairly sharply, which seems to amuse Kepler. He begins to tell a story about his previous work but Jacobi interrupts him by claiming to be busy.

Kepler offers to buy Jacobi a drink, which turns out to be Balvenie3, claiming to be in a *“very* generous mood” when Jacobi queries the purchase. They toast to Jacobi, Kepler asking his name in the process, while not giving his own in return.

After a moment of silence, Jacobi asks Kepler whether he works in the military, saying that something in his bearing gave the impression of being involved. Kepler replies to this with a quote from William Shakespeare’s play *King Lear,* which Jacobi doesn’t recognise, before brushing it aside and asking Jacobi about his own involvement with the military. Jacobi reveals that while he was never an active member of the military himself, his father was an Air Force recruiter that didn’t have the highest opinion of him for not having ambitions to go into the military himself. While Jacobi did attempt to join the Air Force via ROTC, claiming it was out of a desire for his father to have to salute *him* instead, he was unable to due to poor depth perception.

When Kepler points out there are other roles available within the Air Force, Jacobi agrees, saying that the military always has a use for a “guy like him” and his self-proclaimed talent for breaking things - his expertise in ballistics. He tells Kepler that after graduating from MIT he took a job in Research and Development for them, going on to tell him about the incident that resulted in two people losing their lives. Jacobi was fired after the incident and, when Kepler queries whether or not he had found another position in a similar role, Jacobi says that an incident like that means he’ll “never work on this *planet* again”.

He says that it’s the two year anniversary of that incident, which is why he’s celebrating at the bar and, when Kepler says that it’s a shame to see Jacobi’s work going to waste, responds with a sarcastic remark about Kepler letting him know if any jobs for a “professional breaker-downer” crop up from a well-funded organization.

Kepler then exits the bar, leaving behind a card that Jacobi picks up and reads the company name on - “Goddard Futuristics?” - before the mini episode ends.

## Trivia

1. It is later revealed in *Mission Mishaps: No Complaints* that this event takes place on the 24th of an unspecified month.
2. The bar is stated in the script to be named *Murphy’s Saloon.*
3. Balvenie is Kepler’s drink of choice, and something his fondness for is pointed out several times throughout Season 3.

## External links

* Listen on Libsyn.
* Official script.