Nah, this isn't mirroring RL. It's just that we decided to stick Dawn and Des in an interlude together (which became "Happy Idiot Talking"), and then discovered they were shippable. And then we decided to go for it, with some pretty fun writing results. So: strictly PPC-verse is the correct answer.

(As for your second question: it does apply to me--did, rather, I'm now either above the draft age or about to be--but there's an option to get an exemption on basis of religious...observance probably isn't the word I want, but I can't think of a better one right now. I also don't currently live in Israel, and left before I was ten, but I forget if that factors in as well. Basically, I got the exemption, which then allows you to spend a year followed by visits of up to three months until you're over the age, and promptly spent eleven months there for my gap year post-high school. No regrets whatsoever. I learned a lot, I got to go back to a country I hadn't seen in years--Nariel's experience was mine, actually--and I even became a Boarder and got Permission while I was there. Over all? Best year. Well, heh, ignoring bouts of homesickness because I'd never been away from home for so long before. Apart from that, though, it was *fantastic*.)

~DF

1) "Up up and away" can be used thus to indicate a sarcastic use of the phrase; whether or not the writer puts a comma after it is at their discretion. Personally, I would, but that's not really the issue at hand. =]

2) Leutnant is the German spelling. Desdendelle, if memory serves, does contract work for at least one branch of the IDF; I think he's in a position to know military terminology, even if it is from the proverbial other side. =]