Application: Dairine Callahan, Young Wizards series

[computerwizkid]

With a small bang of displaced air, a twelve-year-old girl appeared, carrying what might have been a laptop computer, if laptops had eyestalks and jointed legs. She looked around, an increasingly annoyed expression on her face, and groaned

Comments

[tomatohacker]

"Dancing computer!" Of course that's what Ed would gravitate to. "Ed wants Tomato to walk too!" Since that wasn't happening (because Ed does not know that spell), she'll settle for dancing with said computer on her head.

[computerwizkid]

Dairine glanced doubtfully at the computer on the other girl's head. "I might be able to do something about that, actually," she said. She'd never tried giving another computer the kind of upgrade Spot had - actually, she didn't know if a computer that wasn't part wizard's manual could be upgraded that way. But if all that Ed wanted was a walking computer... she might be able to manage that.

[tomatohacker]

Oh, now Ed had a new best friend!

"Ed would like that! Then Ed can talk with Tomato, and Tomato would talk back, and Ed and Tomato would have fun!"

[computerwizkid]

"I'm not sure how much talking Tomato will do," Dairine warned. "Spot started out as magical, if Tomato isn't already magic, he might not be vary smart. But I'm sure I can at least get your computer to follow you around."

[tomatohacker]

Not that Ed minds much, she'll just be mindblown that Tomato can move around. Just like Ein! Except, you know, not cute.

"Ed doesn't care. Can new person help Tomato be Ed's friend, pleeeease?" she asked, puppy dog eyes full force.

[computerwizkid]

"Ok. Lemme see him," she said, and opened Spot's lid. "Spot? Let's get some kind of mobility upgrade for this kid's computer. And probably voice recognition, too."

[tomatohacker]

Ed settled for watching Dairine and Spot with avid fascination. This was exciting! New person and dancing computer are going to help Tomato become a better friend!

[computerwizkid]

Dairine typed in a few commands, and then carefully teased a string of glowing, graceful, arabic-looking text from the screen. She lay it down in a looping diagram on the ground, and placed Ed's computer in the middle. After plugging a few loose ends of the spell into various ports on Tomato, Dairine began to speak.

It was in the wizardly Speech, of course, so if you knew how to listen right, you'd hear her speaking plainly and clearly, explaining what she wanted to happen. The room seemed to get very quiet, as if time and space were leaning in to listen. Finally, she fell silent, though breathing heavily, and carefully took up the spell diagram, feeding it back into Spot's screen.

Tomato stood, a little hesitantly, on jointed legs.

[tomatohacker]

Ed may be rambunctions and like to horseplay, but she knew that to do that to Tomato would break it.

"Tomato can play with Ed now!" She could hug it, though. Carefully. Ed's smiley popped up on screen, showing Tomato's-sort of-happiness.

"Ed thanks New person and dancing computer!"

[computerwizkid]

"You're welcome," Dairine said, still a little winded. "My name's Dairine, by the way. You don't have to keep calling me 'New Person.'"

VOTE: Sparklypoo

[tomatohacker]

"Thank you Dairine-Dairine!" Trust me, Ed will give everyone some sort of silly name.

"Ed will vote Dairine-Dairine into Sparklypoo, so Ed and Tomato can visit Dairine-Dairine and dancing computer!"

Re: VOTE: Sparklypoo

[computerwizkid]

"Um, thanks..." Dairine wasn't sure what or where "Sparklypoo" might be, but she was fairly sure she didn't want to go there. She wasn't going to say so, of course. Telling Ed she didn't want to be in the same place as her would be roughly equivalent to kicking a puppy.