>This feels like a silly question, but what does its being Friday
>afternoon have to do with the simulator glitching at seven-second
>intervals?

Someone is doing something Very Electrical elsewhere in the school complex at that time:

"So how'd it go with the docs this week?"

Mikoto took a drink of her own Hassy before answering, "Another Friday afternoon, another hour blasting 10-Minute Walk tokens into the pool."

"Banter's Not the Same If You Say It Slower" Explanation: It's a callback to the first episode of A Certain Scientific Railgun, where the staff at Mikoto's school are assessing her ability to launch small pieces of metal at ludicrous speeds by having her fire repeatedly into the swimming pool, so as not to subject the neighborhood to actual hypervelocity impacts. (This is even more important when you're doing these tests inside a spacecraft, not that I think even Mikoto could shoot an arcade token through the SDF-17's pressure hull.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.