The Term is Technologically Advanced (Reeve)

[Linden McKay]

College was kicking ass and taking names. Whose name was at the top of that list? Linden McKay. Lin was far too busy partying it up instead of actually doing his work. He was lucky that his brain functioned so well, otherwise, he'd be completely screwed. If he failed his class, he'd turn into his older brother. And that was an insult to his intelligence.

As an 'extra credit' assignment, Linden was fixing a few of the students' lap tops and had to write out an explanation of how a 'normal person' (eyeroll) would fix the computer themselves. Funny how they still saw non-metas as 'normal.' Linden didn't need to do much to fix a glitch or virus, he was a techno, that stuff came easily. Explaining how some dumb non-meta or a meta of a different sort would be able to fix it was the hard part.

Now, Linden knew everything about technology. Computers were his specialty, but this was killing him! Why did they need to know how to fix it themselves? They could always just come back to him to have it fixed for a small price. Simple, it was a win-win situation. But no, he had to explain what his power did for him.

Stupid professor.

It had taken a day to fix the computers, but the explanations had taken up his whole week. Thankfully, he was on his last one as he sat in Kali's with a laptop sitting in his lap (duh) and papers spread out on the table in front of him. With a flick of his wrist, Linden dropped the pencil after he wrote the last word and ran his cramped fingers through his hair. Writing was literally a pain. He preferred typing.

Linden smiled up at the waitress who'd been keeping some hot chocolate coming since he sat down as she walked over. She was already flushed and clearly happy that he was in her section. With a giggle at his flirtatious smile, she sat down another cup with a napkin under it that had a string of seven digits on it.

"A job well done," he muttered under his breath while he lifted the cup to his lips and winked at the girl. She was putty in his very capable hands. As were most women.

[Reeve Rzeznik]

Today wasn't one of Reeve's better days.

Sometimes, very rarely, the young man, confused and alone, can barely even stand to be on campus. Sometimes just knowing she was around was too much for him to deal with. On those days, he packed up his laptop into his backpack, and left, to sit down and surf the web, in a place where no one would ask questions or care if he happened to be staring at a laptop all day.

Often times, days like these found him in one of the many coffee shops sprinkled around Pilot Ridge.

Reeve leaned back in his chair, munching on one of Club Kali's freshly-baked cookies and staring at the screen in front of him. He began to absent-mindedly dig into a fellow cafe-goer's Facebook account, until he realized what he was doing, and who it reminded him of. Quickly he exited out of the webpage, which was when the scene before him caught his eye.

Reeve had always been a people-watcher. To emulate people, you have to understand them, and even if he didn't have to research emotion in other to feign it, the boy found social dynamics intriguing. The back and forth nature reminded him of viewing the ebb and flow of an audio wavelength. He couldn't help but liken it to a good beat: The best ones are constant and rhythmic and natural, with just enough spike thrown in so that it doesn't get boring.

The young man had been simultaneously working on what appeared to be homework, going over what registered to the younger tech-meta's senses as bug reports and various spyware and anti-virus information on his laptop, and flirting (successfully) with the coffee waitress. Reeve witnessed the eye contact when he first walked in, the easy-going smile, the way he ordered his hot chocolate with just a little bit of sassiness, as if he was taunting the girl into getting to know more about him.

He saw the waitress's somewhat flustered initial reaction, the way her body eased in closer to his when he spoke, how her eyes constantly looked to meet his any time they could. He saw her hand him a drink, and how her eyes gestured to him, pleading him to notice the extra information she'd left on the napkin besides the quaint logos already printed on it. Reeve watched him recognize this cue and respond. It had been as easy as that.

It was right about this point that Reeve realized he was staring, and there was a cookie hanging halfway out of his mouth.

[Linden McKay]

Flirting was natural for Linden, it had been ever since he'd first taken an interest in the human body (mostly female, but every now and again he'd notice a good looking guy). At age seven he'd first started his flirtatious attempts on the maid that worked for them. She was only older than him by a good twenty years or so, but she was beautiful and always flirted back (at least that was how it appeared to the young boy). Aila was her name and she was in charge of more or less watching the children while their parents were working. Easy enough, unless Linden was in one of those very flirty moods.

When he turned eleven and his power manifested, things changed a bit. His flirting had spiraled into a hopelessly painful attempt and he'd be holed up in his room playing video games or watching tv or on his computer. Rarely did he go out into the world, besides when he had to go to classes at Kocher and Hammel. He barely socialized with anyone and he liked his privacy. He'd even grown distant from his favorite younger sister. The workings of his mind had changed to a technological view of the world and it made social interaction a lot harder.

Luckily, after a few years of power training, his emotions started coming back to him and so had his flirting expertise. It started with him and his sister talking more, then the rest of his family. Shortly after that his popularity had grown and he became his old self again. It had taken a lot of time though. A lot of effort and so much strain that there were days he didn't even attend class because being around people who knew how to balance emotions so easily just frustrated him to no end.

So many people marveled at his power, but few understood how difficult being normal was for him. It had been ten years since his power manifested and he still had rare occasions that he couldn't handle people. That was when he went out drinking or had a fling with Mira. No strings attached, no emotions involved. It was cold, but for a technopath, he'd learned that it was normal. The next day, he'd be socializing with everyone and wanted all of the attention on him. The power he had was quite bipolar at times.

Feeling eyes on him after the encounter with the waitress, he glanced over and noticed a boy, maybe a little younger than him, staring. Rude, yes, but Linden didn't really see it that way. Clearly the boy was in awe of such great flirting. It was a gift. With a smirk, Linden rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged, "Ya see kid, that's how the pros do it." He laughed once, but couldn't help but notice that not only was the boy alone, but before he'd been completely engrossed on the computer in front of him. It reminded Linden a lot of himself at that age.