01 . text

[systemize]

[By the time Cadel posts, he has been here several days. He's scoured the network, disassembled and successfully reassembled his phone, contemplated stealing a computer and guiltily put that impulse aside. It's less his fear of garnering attention (though he is afraid of that) and far more his fear of disappointing the absent ghosts of Sonja, Saul and Fiona. If he needs them near him to act lawfully, has he really changed at all? He likes to think that he has.

So he'll do this the right way. Which to Cadel, means the safe way. His network tag reads simply Stormer and is untraceable. He uses text only. Net security has more than once been a matter of life or death for him.]

I'm looking for work. Computer security is my specialty. I can offer network anonymity and protection against hacking, and will take payment or pieces of tech in return. If there's something else you're looking to have done, I might be able to do that, too. I'm trying to save up to build my own computer and I haven't been here long.

[He could offer hacking itself, too, but he's unwilling to do that just for anyone who bids on his services. He's not Vee. But this is one of the few legal options he sees open to him, since he doesn't expect that the part time job he was assigned will get him money as fast as he wants it. He's also disinclined to say his age online-- that'll just discredit him to any potential customers-- but there is a question he needs answered.]

Does anyone here attend college that's underage? Is that allowed for imPorts? I was attending at home and I'd like to continue my studies.

And, sorry, another question. I've never had powers before. Are there classes for that, too?

Thanks,
Stormer

Comments

audio

[abduxel]

You can build computing machines? Guess you learned that at College. Gee, hope they let you bring your mansion with you.

Do people try to hack them up often? Is that a thing now?

[systemize]

I learned it on my own, but I don't have a mansion. Everyone has computers where I'm from. Are they scarce for you?

That's been a thing for as long as someone has wanted to know what someone else was doing, so, yeah.

[abduxel]

[Hesitation, and shuffling in the audio]

Yeah, well, I mean, if you're taking about computing machines, which somehow I think you are... so, um, those are common now, right? You don't mean you all have a computer - a person to compute for you.

So when you hack up a computing machine you can take the information from inside?

[systemize]

[For a second Cadel had thought he was being trolled, but now he more correctly reads confusion, and is a lot less circumspect in explaining. This is his favorite subject, after all.]

Right, sorry, I do mean machines. Pretty much everyone has their own, and it looks like it's the same here. What level of computing are you familiar with?

That's the goal. Everything is networked these days so if you're good enough, you can theoretically obtain anything. Obviously people with more secrets and more funds have better protection, though. It's like a castle's defenses, and hackers try to get through.

[abduxel]

[What's that scratching sound? Yes, Abduxel is literally writing this down with pencil and paper. Attempting to fish for information, but also blend in...]

Oh, you know! Same as you. I guess where I come from is just a little, uh, rural, yeah. Outside all day, on the farm, no time to check out the computing rooms. Some people though, they use them all the time, for... being networked. Technology, am I right?

[...he's so good at it.]

Text; comm tag is "Hiro"

[microbrobotics]

computers here are kinda slow. you're better off building your own anyway. fortunately I can help with that.

also dunno about the college thing. im the same way but ehhhh whatever it's never gonna live up to home so I just went straight to having a job. pays more too.

[systemize]

[This is the first person Cadel's seen aside from him who's altered their comm tag. He instantly gains a bit of respect for someone who sees the sense in being cautious, not to mention someone apparently his age group who went to college early. Cadel likes Hamish, his friend at home in the same boat, but Hamish can be grating. His interest doesn't mean he's going to take an offer to help at face value, however.]

Help how?

What were you doing in uni at home? I'd only been going for a few months so I didn't get very far. I don't care about the money except for building my rig. I hope they let me take a placement test. [It had been hell (and over a year of work) to get the police to let him attend, not to mention all the years of his childhood he'd been prevented from moving up in grades, so Cadel is pretty attached to going to college.]

[systemize]

[Cadel debates whether to let him keep his ruse, but frankly, it's too weird. He can't figure out what the point would be in (badly) pretending he's not ignorant of something in a situation like this, where so many people are likewise ignorant. At the same time, Cadel fundamentally isn't a confrontational person.]

It's okay if you don't know. We're all from totally different places, right? You'll get used to it here. By the way, there hasn't been such a thing as computing rooms for decades.

[abduxel]

[There's a point, but it might not be a very good one. Despite the entry spiel, he hasn't entirely grasped that the big Boss back home won't be punishing him for blending in badly with the mortals - nor that among the imPorts, there are others here who don't "fit in."]

[...Nonetheless, once he realizes it isn't going well, he quite instantly gives up. He tried - good enough.]

Damn, guess I'm that obvious.

Look, I'll level with you, I've been under a rock for a while. You know how it goes. Get caught up with other stuff. Miss some decades of technology. What plane of existence are you from, then?

...And where do people keep computers, now?

TEXT

[abadidea]

[Isaac realizes this is a shot in the dark, but he's going to take it anyway. He's a systems engineer specializing in BIG ships. He's not good at the delicate stuff.]

How are you at modifying HUDs in suits?

[It's not necessarily that he needs that done, but it'll gauge the guy's capabilities.]

And depending on what you can do, trial and error may be the best bet. I mean, I had to just...sort of figure them out, myself.

[microbrobotics]

[ Always a good sign, huh? Hiro's loosened up since he got here, but he still prefers text when his limbs aren't broken. And sometimes even then. Like today. ]

building a computer. i didn't start out with much money either but there are definitely places in de chima where you can sweet talk yourself into a part or two. or be amazing and repair stuff in exchange for parts.

rig, huh? we talking computer or something bigger? because i was going there for advanced robotics. and there's totally more experience to be had than colleges in that field.

omg ISAAC CLARKE <3

[systemize]

What kind of suit? I've done nano scale DNA wiring before. It would take me some time to familiarize myself with your systems but I wouldn't mind that. It just wouldn't be quick.

[He'd relish the challenge, honestly, with how direly he needs something to take his mind off of, well, everything that's happening.]

Is there something specific you're trying to accomplish? By the way, if you want this conversation encrypted, let me know.

[systemize]

[Cadel's not even going to put a camera or a microphone on his home-built computer, he's that paranoid. Then again, he's been living for the past couple months, until recently, with every CCTV in Australia programmed to identify his every movement. Plus every person who'd known him had their cell phones bugged. He's a little spooked.

Ironically he'd been placed in De Chima, although he doesn't want to reveal that on the network.] Which places are that? I can do repairs in exchange. I think I'd like to build my own myself [he's definitely going to, re: earlier paranoia] but if we need the cash we could build some together and market them. There must be other imPorts who don't want Cold War style mechanics.

Sorry, just a slang term. I'm definitely a small scale builder... when I build. Software guy. But that sounds cool-- beyond cool. Is that what you're doing for work?

[systemize]

[Cadel looks for plots and schemes everywhere. Even he couldn't guess at the true root behind this one, which is what leaves him mystified. He concludes it must've been an effort to save face.]

I get it. But, decades? I'm from Australia, if that's what you meant (?). [This guy is definitely weird. Had he been in underground hiding? Cadel can't begin to guess.]

Either at home or on them. What you're using to talk right now is a computer, just a very small one with limited uses.

o hai ♥

[abadidea]

[You know, with the amount of people who didn't have RIGs around here, it was probably easier to show him than to try and explain. Besides, he wasn't a doctor or a software engineer. As far as the RIG goes, he knows that it works.]

EVA suit. The onboard computer captures information from the environment and integrates a few other tools for moving heavy equipment. It's an Engineering RIG.

Is any of this making sense to you?

[microbrobotics]

we could yeah sure. but my job pays well enough i don't need really need the cash. not that we can't still make stuff if you're good enough...

work's a little of everything. but i'm just okay at programming, so maybe we can work together on something?

[systemize]

I don't know the terms but I think I get it. I can't promise miracles but now I'm pretty curious just to see it. You want changes to the HUD, right? Software changes? Programming I can handle.

[systemize]

I'm good enough. [This could be ego, but for Cadel it's simple fact and he doesn't take any pride in it. His talent has gotten a lot of people outright killed.] If you don't want the money I could code something for you?

I also know how to make DNA based microchips. Nano scale. I could teach you-- it has a ton of robotics applications.

[Cadel doesn't totally get the idea of just doing something with someone else for the heck of it. Aside from an exclusive few people in his life, everyone else only operates with him on the basis of trades.]

[microbrobotics]

[ Hey, Hiro can appreciate that. He says much the same thing. ]

well i'll sure take the DNA-based microchips. what do you even BUILD those on?

[systemize]

When I was a kid my adoptive parents wouldn't let me have a computer, so I made a cell phone that had all the capabilities of one. They thought I'd finally made friends when they kept seeing me on it.

But obviously to be that small your wiring has to be DNA.

[microbrobotics]

friends are overrated anyway. dude, you have got to give me more details than that.

[systemize]

Some kinds of friends are, that's for sure. So that means we should meet up?

[Cadel isn't so paranoid as to be impractical. He could keep totally separate identities online and offline, but it doesn't seem worth it. He has no illusions that the government isn't keeping tabs on him regardless. This is only for his protection from other imPorts, and if some of them seem trustworthy, he's not going to close himself off from meeting up with them.

He might also have a shy sort of curiosity at meeting someone in his peer group who's nice. Cadel knows plenty of other geniuses, but none of them are really friends besides Sonja. Who's, well, Sonja, and thus an exception to everything to start with.]

[microbrobotics]

easiest way to do it. start somewhere public, go from there?

[ See, you're not the only paranoid one. ]

[systemize]

[Non-paranoid people freak him out a little. They aren't safe. How do they live like that?

So this, to him, makes perfect sense.] Sure. Since I just got here, do you want to pick the place?

text;

[earnedmystripes]

there are
power classes i mean
im the guy who does them, actually

yo