Do opposites attract?

[Anonymous]

It had just been the perfect piece he needed for his project. He really hadn't meant to break anything and honestly he hadn't thought it all the way through, he had just been caught up in the moment, the energy of the moment making him forget that maybe cannibalizing the computer terminal in his room for parts wasn't the best idea.

Not his best or brightest idea, though the piece was amazing. It had started as a bust of some wasteland mutant beast thing and it had evolved into having half its face cybernetic and a few electronic devices had given their life for it.

Someone was supposed to be coming to fix it, so Eli had done his best to recover most of the pieces, his room neat and organized, though still over flowing with art projects. He really needed to get more of them to his parents or Keziah. Always more ideas than room. He missed his home, where he and his mom had redecorated it constantly, murals and projects transforming the house into new shapes.

[Tally]

Raley sort of liked these little tasks, though he'd never tell anyone why.  They gave him a chance to slack off, stop at a cafe or drop in on friends on his way to and from wherever it was he was going.  Work was so boring lately he took most any chance to get away from it.  Aedolis tech just didn't excite him anymore.

Sometimes—not always but occasionally—they didn't want some lowly tech guy messing with a candidate's terminal, so they got a Pilot.  Raley waltzed into the kid's room with a few tools in hand and not much else.  He didn't knock.

"What's up?"  He waved at Eli, a gesture of both greeting and dismissal.  "At ease, I'm just here to fix your terminal."

[Anonymous]

When the Pilot entered, Eli was already saluting when he was told to fall at ease. He beamed and gestured to the scavenged terminal, "Hi! Um, well, yeah. I kinda, maybe sort of broke it. Accidentally. I really just needed to parts and apparently you need all the parts to have it work."

[Tally]

"Well no shit.  It's digital.  You can't just start tearing shit out of it.  You a little retarded there?"  Really, who beyond a three year old assumed you could rip something out of a computer and still make it function?

The panel was already off, made his job that much easier.  He got out the wire stripper so he could get himself a line to the software.

[Anonymous]

"Must be." Eli laughed, rubbing the back of his neck, "I was just, kinda wrapped up in my project and I wasn't really thinking and then I didn't know how to put it back together."

[Tally]

"No shit you weren't thinking.  You should try not acting like a mindless fucktard.  Be a little more present in what you're doing.  They'll trim you if you destroy too much of their shit.  Figure you can't follow orders and you're too unconscious of your own actions."

Raley got on his knees and admired the kid's destruction.  He'd messed it up.  Not beyond repair, but just past the point that a layman would be able to put back together.  Easy to fix, but still one of the stupider things he'd seen a candidate get in trouble for.

[Anonymous]

"Yes sir!" Eli nodded, blushing a little, "I'm sorry. I'll be a lot more careful." He squatted down, watching what Raley was doing, curious, "Is it hard? It figure out how to fix this stuff?"

[Tally]

Raley scoffed.  "No you won't.  You can't train the stupid out of someone."

He yanked out a tangle of wires that was going to be of no use to him, and had a quick conversation with the terminal to verify where it encountered problems.  Another bonus of him doing this was that once he fixed it, it would be fixed.  No turning it on and testing to see if his efforts were working.  The terminal would tell him when he was finished.

"Not hard for me.  Technpath."

[Anonymous]

Eli just laughed and shrugged, "Well, I'm trying, that's for sure. No point in building up all that negative energy."

He took a seat, watching Raley work, curious, "A technopath? That's so cool! I've never met one before. I bet that's a really cool power to have. I'm jealous!"