Triple character post! (OTA, Nudge to whomever has not met them yet.)
Bradley was in the rec room. He was back to his eternal struggle with improving the television, although at this point it might have made more sense just to build a new one. But this was now a matter of pride. He would best the foul beast, if it took him another month to do so. It had won several battles, but he was determined to win the war. ( Read more... )
She was just outside of the rec room as the lights dimmed and she looked up, curious. Blinking, she pushed open the door to see a man standing there, kicking at the television.
Grinning, she tilted her head. "Trying to fix it?"
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"That, and teaching the bastard machine a lesson in manners."
As if hearing him, the TV flickered for a moment, then went dim completely. Chris shrugged.
"See what I mean?"
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She chuckled at the television before glancing back up at Chris.
"I'm Kat, by the way. Need any help? I'm pretty good with electronics. Computers mostly is what my experience is in."
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Chris hopped over to her, managing to stumble over one of the bundle of wires strewn across the floor, but recovering himself. He held out a hand. "Bradley. Normally, I'm pretty good as well, but this particular delight has one of the worst attitudes I've ever come across. And foulest mouths. I'm pretty sure I've learned some new swearwords in Russian from it."
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"Have you considered threatening it's mother? Usually works for computers." She laughed softly. "Yeah? I learned most of mine from the soldiers. They can cuss up a storm, I swear."
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Chris laughed and shook his head. "Nah. In my experience, threatening aggressive machines only makes them mad. And then they plot against you, or electrocute you, or in the case of computers, they decided it's a good idea to take over the world." He began pulling out a few more wires, eyes closing as he communicated with the petulant TV. "See, now it's mad at me. Thinks I'm mutilating it, or something."
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Glancing down at the television, she nodded and then her smirk turned wry. "Electronics know when to listen to me or I stick my hand through them. Doesn't make me popular with them, but...hey." It didn't really strike her as odd that they were talking about the television as if it were a person.
"Well, what are you doing?" she asked, laughing again. "I'm certain those wires belong inside."
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Hearing that, he became curious about her powers. Whatever it was, he was sure it had to be cooler than talking to electronics."Stick your hand through them? What, do you have super strength or something?"
Bradley shrugged as he looked inside, turning on the flashlight in his right hand with a thought. "Most of these are bit corroded, and its causing the signal to become spotty at times. I thought a simple rewiring might work, but there's hardly anything left inside to rewire to. I plan on replacing them with some brand new ones so that we get more shows instead of snow. But this fellow doesn't know what's good for him, and appearing to think I'm cannibalizing him. Gave me a nasty shock a few minutes ago. His way of fighting back".
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Blinking a little, she laughed. "No. I can become intangible. It plays havoc with electronics for some strange reason. Which is why it's really not good for me to lose my temper around them." She grinned a little and then looked down at the television.
"Oh damn. That's a bit trickier than I thought it might be." A soft smirk took her lips as she crouched down to look at the mess. "Might be nice to not see snow on the television since it's everywhere else." But then she caught onto his language, referring to the television as a he, and she quirked an eyebrow.
"What do you mean, his?"
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Bradley got a little flustered, realizing he had just given an inanimate object a gender. "Er, well, it just sounds more like a he than a she. I'm a technopath, so I sometimes get a little carried away with referring to my machines like they are actually alive."
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She didn't really think it terribly strange and she smiled, impressed herself. "You can actually communicate with machines?" she asked, blinking a couple of times before her smile blossomed into a grin. "That would make fixing my computers so much easier." she laughed, before she shrugged. "Hey, people name teddy bears and cars and stuff. Why not machines?"
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"Yeah. Telepathy, but only with things controlled by electricity. So I'm glorified tech support," Bradley chuckled a little. "Yeah, machines have personalities, just like people. Some seem masculine, some feminine. And this monstrosity is definitely a guy."
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She nodded and knelt down carefully, picking up the wires and handing them over to him. "Nah, I bet it's really helpful." She made a face before smiling, a little taken aback by what he'd said. "Really? They do? I can't say I'm surprised about the tv."
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"Most aren't complicated as an actual person. Most are more on the level of, say, a dog or a cat. But I've met some pretty advanced computers."
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She listened, a half smile on her lips again. "That's got to make it a little easier. Are they really as stubborn as they seem?"
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"Oh, definitely. You know those moments where your computer randomly shuts down as you're working on something important? They sometimes do that on purpose."
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