[code="personal project"] (Open)

[Kingston Carmichael]

Kingston sat in the computer lab. His fingers quickly tapped the keyboard. On the computer screen the lettering was appearing. Anyone who didn’t know coding looked at the screen and saw nothing but gibberish. To another technopath or a computer genius would be able to understand the coding.

Kingston was working on a personal project. Sure, the technopath could have done the project on his laptop in the comfort of his dorm. By using a school computer it one, forced Kingston out of his dorm, and two, it would be like an award for Kingston. Although the only down fall to use a school computer was that there no food allowed. So Kingston didn’t have his strawberry yogurt.

The technopath strolled through the coding.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

How on earth was Raylaigh going to pass this class?! He could barely understand the concept of a force, and now his teacher wanted a report on how airplane flew? Was he serious? Ray was not at all familiar with anything like that. Somehow he was supposed to write this report and magically come up with a collection of arbitrary arrows to say how it moved. That was unfair, the arrows weren’t arbitrary, Raylaigh just had no idea how it worked. His teacher attempted to explain it by using the example of his own wings but Ray understood how his wings worked even less than he understood airplane wings so that was a bust.

Wandering into the library the flyer was not in the least excited. Mostly because a friend of his had finished the project and told him that it was going to take a long time. Which was not good, because Ray was definitely one of those people starting the project the night before it was due. And it was a beautiful afternoon and Ray couldn’t stand being inside. But it was either that or fail this class. As much as Ray hated it he really wanted to do well. He hated it, he felt so stupid he just didn’t get it. No matter how much he tried. He glanced casually at the screens of others as he passed. He raised a brow, someone definitely was about a hundred times more advanced at computers than he was. He dropped his bag and huffed into a chair, clearly longing to be elsewhere. He pulled out his notes and the assignment.

He watched video after video and wrote paragraph after paragraph following the assignment, very well making up half of what he was writing. And like a good student he focused by occasionally looking up pictures of adorable animals in the middle of his research. He was bent over his notes when something went wrong. Frustrated Ray beat his wings hard and just so happened to be unlucky enough that his wing switched the power strip under the desk to ‘off’ and the screen went black. Worse… all of the computers in that row went back. He gasped and started shaking the screen like a crazy person. “Oh no… oh no no no,” he repeated horrified, thinking he’d lost everything.

[Kingston Carmichael]

As Kingston scrolled through the coding he made some changes here and there. He liked how his code looked. A small smile formed on his lips as he sat back to admire his work.

Kingston leaned forward again and did a quick scroll through the. He moved the mouse to the little save button. Might as well save it before something happens. Right before Kingston could hit save the computer screen went black. His smile disappeared.

He touched the computer screen. Nothing. The computer was off. He looked around. That was when Kingston noticed the person next to him. So it wasn’t just his computer. It was the whole row. Kingston watched him shaking the screen like it was going to fix the problem or something. “You’re going to break it.” He told the guy in a soft voice.

It had to be a loose wire or a switch got switch because the whole row was out. Kingston slipped under the desk. He jiggled some wires. He bumped his head when Kingston was coming up to see if that did anything. He rubbed his head. Still nothing.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

How the hell did this happen? He looked around, everyone else’s computer was off, leaving people with startled looks, some shocked, some uncomprehending, others pleading. All hoping against hope that whatever they were working on wasn’t gone forever. Ray was convinced however that it was and his pleading turned to bargaining as he tried to shake the computer back to life. Because that would help. Raylaigh slowly felt the confirmation of his doom as it didn’t help. All Ray wanted to do was pass this class, but the universe clearly didn’t want that. He should have just swallowed his pride ages ago and gone to his teacher in the first place. Now it was too late and this crisis.

Ray turned to the boy who spoke next to him. Ray was so frantic that he couldn’t stop himself from blurting. “It’s already broken! Everything is lost! My life is over!” He cried and dropped his head carelessly on the desk. It wasn’t like Raylaigh to panic over class stuff, usually he was very much a careless person, he didn’t really care if he did well, so long as he passed. He really was just naturally stupid he thought, so why even try when he’s just going to look foolish. No one saw him as anything but the clown, the one that had a good joke or two, but no one believed he was smart, not even him. Even when he had the right answer he felt like he’d gotten it by accident.

He wallowed in his self pity, numbly watching the boy next to him crawl under the desk. The flyer didn’t move until the boy bumped his head. The knocking of skull against wood got a wince out of Ray, especially when Ray felt the tremors from the next desk over. Well, it wasn’t that impressive, his bones were hollow, things tended to resonate. He looked at his computer in dismay and shook his head. “Why did this happen now?” He sighed and leaned back in his chair covering his eyes with his hands. His wings beat strongly, he wanted to be outside, in the air where things made sense. Not in this world where the magic box made things happen. Again, he didn’t feel his feathers hit anything but he heard the whir of life from the machines. He peaked through his eyes and watched the machine come to life.

“You fixed it!” Ray declared, having no regard for personal space, grabbed the boy next to him, who obviously fixed the problem while he was under the desk, and gave him a suffocating hug.

[Kingston Carmichael]

When nothing happened Kingston went back under the desk to fiddle with the wires again. The guy next to him was still freaking out. He was acting like it was the end of the world. Kingston came back up and avoided whacking his head again. Still nothing. The screens were still black. No. Wait. The computers came back to life. Kingston checked to see if the other computers in the row were booting up too.

Kingston lost his balance when another body came crashing into him. Kingston’s body tensed as he was wrapped in a big bear hug. It was the guy next to him. Did Kingston even know this guy? The guy was acting like the two had known each other for years. The guy was thanking the technopath for something Kingston wasn’t even sure he was the cause of. Kingston wished the guy would let go of him.

“Um, you’re welcome?” It was more of a question than a statement. Kingston gently tried to break free of the hug. The only way for Kingston to be free from the bear hug was if the guy let go of him. “Did you save your work?” Kingston asked in a quiet voice. Again he tried to break free. The technopath would have no problem to recreate his coding that he didn’t save. But this guy may think it was to the end of the earth again.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray didn’t know what this little intelligent programmer dude beside him had done but he had obviously fixed the problem. Anyone who had code like that (or really any code at all) was way awesome and knew all of the things about computers. Surely he had fixed it. That was the only logical explanation, Raylaigh surely hadn’t done anything except panic. Which was probably why he was so excited. If this task had been left to Raylaigh they would still be here with blank screens. When it came to things like this Ray was so bird brained. This kid was his hero at least for the ten seconds of excitement that the computer came back on.

He beamed happily, completely oblivious to the other boys discomfort. Anyone who knew Ray knew that he was going to hug them, whether they wanted it or not. Really Ray wasn’t that strong, his bones were brittle and his muscles were not much to speak of. Even if the boy were unable to break Ray’s grasp the flyer soon released him at the follow up question. “I think so… I mean I was so frustrated I hope I didn’t forget.” That was the worst! He wasn’t in the habit of panic saving but it probably would definitely be a good idea. He waited for the computer to boot up and gave the boy a sudden pitying look. “Did you save? It looked like you had a lot of work going on there… I mean not that I was creeping on your stuff or anything, not understand any of that stuff anyways I mean…” Oh for the love of god stop talking, his brain implored him.

The computer finally woke back up and Ray typed his password in and three typos later he was finally in. His eyes flashed over the computer screen his heart in his throat as he opened up Word again. He let out an audible sigh of relief when the autosave mechanism came through for him. He opened it and grinned when he saw his report was intact. He saved a few times in a row just to be sure. He finally leaned back and closed his eyes as if this emotional strain had all but killed him. “You are my hero,” Ray said opening his eyes to look at the boy next to him.

[Kingston Carmichael]

The guy finally let go of Kingston. Kingston felt better now that he didn’t have someone latching on him. It was also good to hear that the guy possibly saved his work. Kingston logged in when the log in screen popped up.

Kingston shook his head ‘no’. He was about to save his work but the computers crashed right before. He opened the coding program he was using. Kingston couldn’t find his work. Looked liked the autosave failed him. The technopath wasn’t worried. He could just enter the computer and retrieve it.

Kingston put his hand on the screen and entered the computer. The technopath saw all of the data on the computer. It wasn’t just what Kingston had saved on his school account; he saw what other students had saved when using that particular computer. All the computer’s information, all the school projects, all the things students saved personally. Kingston looked around and sorted through it all. He wasn’t finding what he was looking for. Where was it? Even if he couldn’t find his coding, Kingston would be able to rewrite it. The code was in his head.

He took his hand away from the computer screen. Kingston looked to the enthusiastic boy. “Hero?” He pointed at himself. “Why?”

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray frowned and felt sorry for the other guy. Maybe it was easy for him but Raylaigh didn’t know that, but if he had done it the one time perhaps he could do it again, maybe he was really good at what he did, but losing all of that work, that could be soul crushing. Ray wasn’t going to lie but he was glad that the word processor on these computers had an automatic save feature but he’d very well had a heart attack for a moment. Admittedly part of him was disappointed, if he’d lost everything he’d probably dissolve into hopelessness then go out flying on this beautiful day because there was nothing to be done. He was a failure and he would just have to accept that fact.

“What’re you doing?” He asked watching the boy touch the computer, now Raylaigh wasn’t a computer wizard or anything but he did know touching the computer wasn’t going to do anything. Even though he’d just been shaking his own in a desperate attempt to get it to function again. He had no idea what was going on with this thing but he was staring at it like he was expecting it to spontaneously turn off again, because that was totally what had happened. He flapped his wings, but luckily he’d leaned forward and now his wings buffed themselves against the wheels of the chair. He looked at the boy wondering if he was actually there. Just when he was about to reach out and wave a hand in front of the other boys eyes, he replied.

So he had heard him after all. “’Cause I don’t know what you did down there but you got it working again!” He exclaimed, “I only wish I could help you out with your stuff though. That’s weird those isn’t it, all the computers going down… huh,” he digressed thinking to himself the mystery of it all. If the power had gone off or something than it would have all made sense, but this was just strange. “Do you think someone has the power to turn off computers?” Because that would be a strangely annoying power. If the poor kid wanted to be left alone he had better well say something because now that Ray’s panic attack was done he was bored and he would do anything to keep from working.

“What were you working on anyways? Sorry, I don’t mean to be nosy,” well that ship has sailed… “But it looked intense.” He watched the other boy with bright and curious eyes, his wings fluttering with happiness like a dog wagging its tail. Like someone to talk to was the best thing ever, which, in Ray’s case it was.

[Kingston Carmichael]

Kingston listened to the boy talking. When the boy mentioned about someone having a power to turn off computers, maybe Kingston did do something without meaning to. The more he thought about he couldn’t remember a time where he turned off a computer, let alone a whole row of computers. He could only remember about short-circuiting computers. Kingston was a technopath with not the absolute control of his power. It was a possible he did do something.

As for turning the computers back he was positive that he had nothing to do with that. That was someone or something else. All Kingston did was looking for a loose wire or something. And if that didn’t work them Kingston would of tried something else to get the computers to turn back on. But someone beat him to it. Not that it was a race or else anything.

Kingston stood up some to look at the rows of computers in front him. Those computers seemed to working fine. He sat back. “Coding for a game I’m making.” Kingston scratched his head. Intense? He guessed to other people it was intense.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

It was a bad habit that Ray just talked and talked without actually verifying that the other person was a willing participant in the conversation. For all Ray knew it was this kid’s fault all of the computers turned off, but then again Raylaigh had no idea of his power so it was just as likely that someone else had done it. It certainly couldn’t have been Raylaigh, no way, he didn’t know the first thing about computers. Maybe it had been a very specific power outage. Like someone had flipped the switch that had all of the computers on it by accident. It was a short outage, it would have been just about anything. Maybe someone had kicked the cord or something. Raylaigh shrugged it off, it was back on now, who cared how it happened. He was just going to save every time he wrote a sentence. Just in case.

He watched the other boy stand and look around. Ray watched him with curiosity, wondering if he was going to be left in the dark about whatever conclusive thing the other boy had discovered. Apparently not, Ray was not going to be privy to whatever the kid was thinking. The flyer’s mouth dropped open. Oh… just a game he’s making. He just stared at the kid, how could he just… he said it like it was no big deal. Like it was something everyone did all the time. Ray couldn’t even operate Word on a good day and this kid was just, oh you know, creating a video game, baby stuff. “A game?” The stunned boy finally was able to sputter out.

Shaking his head like a dog, Ray couldn’t even believe it. His eyes were wide as saucers as he stared at the kid a new found respect and well maybe he was a little impressed. Finally he breathed and his face broke into a smile. “Dude,” he said laughing a little bit, “That’s awesome! What kinda game are you making?” Raylaigh’s eyes were bright with interest and his project was all but forgotten. This was working out in his favor, he’d been begging for a distraction and here was one!

[Kingston Carmichael]

Kingston finger’s typed out the code again in the game making system. Kingston did luck out that he didn’t lose the entire game. It was just a level he had to recreate. Kingston had this happen to use a school computer and his laptop when he worked on projects. It didn’t matter if the projects where for school or for him. And then he had a bunch of flash drives with things saved on them.

He watched the other boy out of the corner of his eye as his fingers typed. The technopath was taken back by the other boy’s reaction. Kingston was trying to name the emotion the boy was feeling, but unfortunately Kingston couldn’t name it. He stopped typing when the kid’s full attention was on the technopath.

“Platform game,” Kingston answered in a quiet voice. It wasn’t a complicated game or at least to Kingston it wasn’t. The setting was a castle. The goal was to get the prince to the top of the tower to save the princess. There were enemies the prince had to fight and obstacles to get around.

“What are you working on?” Kingston asked hoping that would take the attention off of him.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh didn’t know the first thing about making video games, he played them, sure but making them was a whole different beast. Ray found himself wondering if he could do that. People who could draw were people who could be in games right? After all, wasn’t that a big part of games now? The flyer shook his head, that would be a number one way to get him to kill himself. He hated computers and math and stuff and that was what he heard it was all about. Couldn’t he just fly around all day? Maybe he could be a delivery person or something. It was complicated to Ray. Even as he pretended to type another sentence he peaked at the other boy’s computer and found himself extremely impressed by the code. He didn’t know what any of it meant and that made it that much more complicated. Computer languages, were just that, languages, and if Raylaigh’s talent in French was any indication, he was not likely to be good at learning computer languages.

“Sweet!” Ray exclaimed with excitement then paused, “What’s that?” He felt like he should know what a platform game was but he was drawing a blank on the definition. He wondered if it was more like a Pong sort of thing or pacman or something more like Super Mario. Either way it would be awesome, for someone who looked to be younger than him, that was definitely an accomplishment to be proud. Not to mention he was doing this in his spare time. Ray instantly translated that to someone very smart and he jealously wished he had this kids smarts. Now that the conversation had been initiated Ray not so subtly looked at the screen.

The boy turned the question back on him and Ray flushed looking back at his screen, hating to be reminded of the assignment he was supposed to be working on. “Oh… Just a Physics project. I have to write a report about airplane wings.” He gestured vaguely at the screen and gave the boy a long suffering look. “Boooorrinng!!” And not to mention hard! “It’s gotta be five pages and we’ve gotta have diagrams and all that sorta fun stuff. He said I get extra credit if I apply it to my power.” He rolled his eyes. And his Physics teacher knew he needed the extra credit badly so of course Raylaigh was bound to attempt to do it. But he really didn’t see how an airplane wing was anything like his little tiny wings. There was actually no way in Physics that his wings were meant to actually help him fly.

[Kingston Carmichael]

This student totally baffled Kingston. He didn’t know what a platform game was. Maybe the student played before and not realized what type of game it was. “Mario.” That was the best for Kingston to explain what a platform game was. Surely the student would know Mario. If not, then this kid did not play video games.

Kingston typed as he listened to the student explains his physics project. The kid changed when he was talking about his physics than when he was asking about Kingston’s game. Yes, Kingston liked the company of computers and not be bothered by people. But other people were always interesting to him. He knew that he felt the same emotions as other people. He just didn’t know the names to those emotions. And he didn’t know what causes those emotions.

“What power do you have?” It was clear that the student had some sort of flying power because the teacher wanted the student to make connections. Then it dawned on Kingston. He didn’t know the student’s name. Maybe he should of asked that first.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

“Oh!” Raylaigh exclaimed with a bright smile. Everyone knew who Mario was, even those that didn’t do video games knew who Mario was. Not only that but well, if Ray could say so himself he was a Super Mario master. Ray’s wings fluttered excitedly and he bounced in his chair leaning toward the kid, a bright and childish light in his eyes. “Oh you’ll show me sometime, won’t you?” The flyer’s mind was flying and his imagination was painting the images for him. He found himself itching to sketch to paint. Mario… no this kid, the Creator, mastering his own game. Raylaigh’s smile didn’t falter as he watch the boy and committed his features to his memory.

Maybe not so much his exact features but his idea, his large calculating eyes, his thin frame. In Raylaigh’s mind he was transforming into something greater than a boy behind a computer. He was becoming a master, someone with strength enough to build and to create. His art teacher said that he had an eye for the unseen. And while Ray wasn’t sure quite what that meant he wondered if that was kind of what this was. Kind of the way he’d heard a song and painted the images in his head. It had given his art teacher endless surprise when Ray’s self portrait turned into something that didn’t resemble him at all. It was indeed an angel but the face wasn’t his, it was stronger, scared and determined and fierce. The art teacher inquired over the features and Ray had closed his eyes and replied, ‘That is what I see.’

The question pulled Ray out of his thoughts and he didn’t hesitate in pulling up one of his feet onto the desk. “I’ve got feet wings,” he said proudly before breaking into giggles. That sounded truly ridiculous. He fluttered them and gave the boy a wink. “What about you? What can you do?”

[Kingston Carmichael]

Kingston moved the mouse to the save button. He clicked it. This time he wasn’t going to lose his work again. Then he went back to typing up his code. Kingston thought. What would be the point in making a game if he never showed anyone or let anyone play? Every now and again he would send it to his dad to look for any glitches. It would be interesting to have someone else play the game and for Kingston to get feed back about. “Sure.”

Kingston looked at the kid when he put his feet on the desk. It wasn’t a common thing for people to do. Unless someone wanted to tick someone else off. It amazed Kingston to see little white wings sticking out from the kid’s ankles. Kingston hadn’t seen anything like that before. Which is saying something since the technopath attends a school for meta-humans. “Would it be alright if I touch them?” Sure Kingston had seen students with wings, but those can out of the students’ backs. Wings coming out of ankles were new to Kingston and it interested him. He didn’t know why though.

“Technopath,” Kingston pointed to the computer in front of him. “I enter computers.”