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Author Topic: Who Said I Needed Help? [YuriChamp]  (Read 642 times)

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Anonymous

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Who Said I Needed Help? [YuriChamp]
« on: October 18, 2011, 03:10:48 pm »
Nick wasn't sure how he'd gotten himself into this mess. Actually he did. Some guy had mentioned needing the entire automated controls inside his apartment worked on. Apparently the AI was all messed up. Normally Nick wouldn't approach a stranger, but he was nervous about hacking for credits and he really needed the money.

He didn't have references, creditials, or experience, but that just made him willing to do the work cheap, which had convinced the guy to go ahead and hire him. He'd shown up on time, and they let him in. The guy was apparently married to a shrieking biddy of a woman that could only bitch about her husband hiring an amateur.

The word 'child' was thrown around more than once, but Nick didn't care about the arguing pair. Rather than get frustrated dealing with people, he went right to work on what he was comfortable with, machines. He did hear the wife complain that she'd hired a real mechanic and that they would be here soon. Pah!

Already he had pulled down an access panel and was running diagnostics on the AI system.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 pm by Guest »

Anonymous

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Re: Who Said I Needed Help? [YuriChamp]
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2011, 06:52:45 pm »
Alice knew perfectly well that in the grand schemes of things, her problems were largely irrelevant.  For example, what was a canceled appointment of her 'night job' compared to the dangers of living on the Edanith frontier?  Did it really matter that her very fetching dress* that she had selected for said canceled appointment was currently being creased by her tool vest as she hurried though the halls of station, when out in the space people were losing their possessions and lives to pirate attacks?  Of course not.  And when she finally arrived on what was allegedly a super-rush, top urgent 'i-cant-trust-this job-to-anyone-but-you' call to find another mechanic already at work --!

Yeah. It might not mater in the big picture.  But as far as Alice was cornered,  it was going be one of those days.
 
The wife was yammering in her ear about the other mechanic form the moment Alice walked in their quarters.  The husband had fallen oddly silent.  Alice nodded absently and some muttered confident sounding reassuring words to the former, flashed a sickly innocent smile to the smile to the latter, and headed into the room.

The kid they hired already had the access panel off, so at least he new which end of the 'driver to stick into things.  The woman was berating her nervously hushed husband in the next room, their voices thankfully muffled by a wall or two.  "You ask me," Alice said shortly, still determined to be pissed at the double-booking.  "The AI committed suicide to get away form those two."

Alice slipped a shoe off the her right-front foot.  It dangled in the air from a strap connected her anklet. She then forward slightly, placing her bare sole on the wall near the exposed access panel, letting that sense just 'getting it' wash over her.  "Shit.  Who where they using to upkeep this thing before now?  There's more crossed wires and junk code in this thing than a... I don't even know what.

She lowered her foot, and with a flick of her ankle, slipped the shoe back on.  She then stole a glance at Nick.  "Got a name, kid?" she asked.

*-Art by Ivan Nemmed, AKA "Access"
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 pm by Guest »

Anonymous

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Re: Who Said I Needed Help? [YuriChamp]
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2011, 08:20:45 pm »
Nick had been focused on the task at hand, although he could tell when the other mechanic arrived, because the bickering had changed. He really, really wasn't interested in whoever the wife had hired. All he cared about was getting this fixed so he could get out of there and away from the happy couple from hell.

Of course, then the other mechanic came in. Hopefully they weren't going to get in his way. He had work to do. Nick's head snapped up suddenly as Alice spoke, eyes going wide as his dark eyes looked at her. Oh god, he hated to be so mousy...and was it being a hypocrite to be surprised by a female voice?

The realization that Alice was female was nothing compared to actually getting a look at her. For a moment his mind couldn't quite grasp what it was he was seeing. With an effort of will, he forced his face and eyes to return to a neutral and expressionless state. His voice was flat and low as he spoke. He was always quite, for fear that if he spoke louder his voice would rise in pitch and make him sound too girly.

"I wouldn't rule it out at this point. I would have certainly done it if I had to listen to that night and day."

Further elaboration wasn't necessary, and he turned his eyes back to to main controls of the AI. Although he couldn't help but glance as she pressed her foot against the wall and came to the same conclusion that he had. Now, that was interesting. Of course, everything about her was interesting...in a very strange kind of way. How many women did you see with four tits, four legs, and no freaking arms? Then there was her dress, she looked ridiculous. Well, for being on a mechanical job, anyway. Those weren't exactly prime work clothes there.

"Name's Nicholas Hawsers. You?"
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 pm by Guest »

Anonymous

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Re: Who Said I Needed Help? [YuriChamp]
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2011, 08:33:11 pm »
"Alice Walker," she replied simply, looking over Nick's shoulder at his diagnostic read out.  So.  They had reached the same conclusion. Bright kid.  Question was where to go from here...?  "And thanks for not staring," she added.  "I know I look ludicrous." She let her words hang in the air for a second or two, then added,  "I had a very different evening planned when I got the 'urgent' call.  Hence the dress."

She shrugged her shoulders, the single strap there coming dangerously close to slipping off, but was held in place by her tool vest (basically old military web gear that had been modified for ease of use).  "So, Nick... Can I call you Nick?  'Cause I'm going to anyway... the brain trust in the next room manged to hire two mechanics.  Normally I'd be kinda pissed off that they didn't call me fist, but you seem like you got a good head on your shoulders, and this mess is going to wind up being two-man job anyway.  Way I see it, there's hardware problem and a software problem.  If we split the jobs between us we can get done in half the time.  Then we can shoot the shit for the other half  and up the labor charge.  Sound good?"  Alice asked with a smirk on her face.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 pm by Guest »

Anonymous

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Re: Who Said I Needed Help? [YuriChamp]
« Reply #4 on: October 20, 2011, 01:48:57 pm »
Nick wasn't too worried about making small talk. He'd only even bothered to ask for her name because it would have been really, really fucking rude not to. An uncomfortable shrug of his shoulders was given when she thanked him for not staring at her, then went on to explain her dress. He almost rolled his eyes. Nick never did get people very well.

"Nothing to stare at."

Simple statement, direct, to the point. Slowly, carefully he unhooked his diagnostic machine as she kept talking. What an idea. Sure, hurry up and get the job done, and then 'shoot the shit' for another hour or two to rake in more money. Nick wasn't sure whether it was brilliant or idiotic. On the one hand, more money was always a plus, but on the other hand...he didn't know if he was willing to stay and listen to the happy couple in the next room for hours.

"I call dibs on software."
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 pm by Guest »

Anonymous

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Re: Who Said I Needed Help? [YuriChamp]
« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2011, 10:55:45 pm »
When Nick called dibs, Alice face fell a bit and she opened her mouth to argue... then closed it again, and shook her head.  "Okay.  Got the easier of the two jobs yanked out from under me.  My fault for talking so much."

Alice had apparently learned her lesson, as she immediately got to work without another word.  She slipped off all four shoes in the corner of the room, then walked back the access panel, again placed her bare sole near it.  She nodded briefly, the turned and walked in a straight line as if balancing on tightrope a point near the center of the room.  She paused there, reaching and stretching her front legs to bring her feet to her tool vest while balancing on her on her rear legs.  From her vest pocket she pulled out a pen-laser, whcih she tucked behind her ear.  She then pulled a hair ribbon from another pocket

Alice then took a seat on the floor bent forward at the waist slightly, then all four  of her feet got to work tying her hair up and out of the way.  Once that was complete, she took the pen-laser in her right front foot, pointed toward the floor sand activated it, cutting a three foot by there foot square segment out.  

She set that aside and undid the latches on the now exposed floor.  All four them released with faint clicks and hisses before she was finally able to pull out her target.

Just a she feared, the main AI brain was a tangled mess of hurriedly spliced and jury-rigged together wires and cables. What should have been a until of metal and glass the size of a large newborn, coiled with neat, orderly rows of wire, had more in common with a hairball spat up by a large mechanical cat.

"Criminal," she spat, mostly to herself.  "I'm going to double my fee."

Still stated on the floor on her rear, Alice held the AI brain in her rare feet, turning it this way and that, while her front feet reached for her vest once more, producing several tools whcih she lay on the carpet square he had removed earlier.  Without so much as glancing a reference manual, she got to work carefully cutting burnt-out, criss-crossed or just plan useless wires and cables, using the excess to make the proper connections.  

This went on for several minutes, then she called, without looking up, "How's that code coming, Nick?"
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 04:00:00 pm by Guest »

 

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