Computer Troubles (Wynn)

[Oliver Seabrooke]

"Piece of shit..." Oliver grumbled, giving his laptop what seemed like the umpteenth frustrated slap, but it refused to budge from the frozen, blank screen. It had been doing this on and off for the past several days, but today was the worst; he simply could not get it to work, no matter what he did. He gave a frustrated sigh and sat back in his chair, crossing his arms and fuming for several seconds before he realized he didn't need to be getting this upset over a piece of technology. He knew someone that would probably get it up and running again in no time.

He shut his laptop and scooped it under his arm, leaving his room in the dorms and heading towards the library, where he was pretty sure he could find Wynn. Navigating Hammel with only half of his sight was still a bit disorienting, but he managed to get to the place without too much trouble, and only slightly bumping into the door on the way in. Mumbling a curse, he glanced around the place, trying to find the familiar longish blonde hair.

It took a bit of searching, but he eventually found his friend with a relieved sigh. "Hey, Wynn," the Brit greeted with a small smile, holding his laptop out in front of him. "How are you? I, ah, I have a favor to ask..." He placed the device on the table. "I don't know what I did, but I think my laptop hates me. It keeps freezing up and I can't seem to make it stop. Think you could give it a look?" He chuckled. "I figured if anyone could fix it, it'd be you." He still felt bad for his behavior towards Wynn back several months ago when he had been dealing with the partial loss of his sight, and was thankful that they were still friends.

[Wynn Cooper]

Wynn was usually found in the library, and like always there he sat at a little table over between the fictional and non-fiction aisles. He was balancing on the back two legs of his chair with his laptop resting on his lap. His fingers clicked away on the key-board, touch-typing was a trivial matter to Wynn after all. While most would assume he was busy working, he didn't have much to do that was actual work, so he was playing video games. The day so far brought little that people needed to run to Wynn for.

At least until Oliver appeared with a laptop under his arm. Wynn pulled a little red lollipop tucked in his cheek out, "hi Oliver. I'm good I guess, a bit bored." He shrugged his answer. He wasn't much of a guy for the little talk and pleasantries. A lot of times he actually had to think out how he was, it's just not something that crossed his mind too often.

Well, Oliver's laptop was now on the table and his friend was now explaining his predicament. "Sure, I can give it a go." Wynn put his own computer aside and slid the problematic one closer. He opened it expecting to see a mouse of the screen doing it's little buffer motion and files already up. Instead it was frozen on the blank starting up screen. What a useful screen to freeze up on! "Yeah... It's being grumpy..." He mumbled up to his friend as he placed his fingers along the home row.

"Don't worry, I can fix it up in a jiffy." Wynn looked up to Ollie with a little grin across his face.

[Oliver Seabrooke]

"Oh, good, I'm glad I'm not interrupting anything," Oliver smiled, having seen Wynn typing away at his computer and wondering it he was bothering the computer expert in the middle of something important. It was always interesting talking to the somewhat reclusive fellow, but Oliver enjoyed his company; it was a relief from the fast-paced, demanding society that he often felt himself drowning in.

He let out a relieved breath at the reassurance. "Thanks, Wynn," he said. "I'll owe you one." Ollie settled down in a chair nearby and watched as his friend opened his laptop, giving a frustrated pout despite himself as the same screen popped up once more. "Grumpy is a way to put it," he chuckled, glad that he didn't seem too concerned about the problem. He hoped that meant it would be an easy fix for the technopath.

"Awesome," he met Wynn's gaze with his own, smiling as he drummed a small beat out on his knee. "Mind if I watch? I'm kind of curious, if it won't take too long." He thought for a moment, then added,"I can treat you to lunch or something, if you'd like. As thanks for your help?" It was the least he could do.

[Wynn Cooper]

Wynn nodded, glad he could help, and that someone came to give him work. Earlier was a kid who needed their password, but reseting it to '1234' for the kid to then change for themselves wasn't very time consuming nor challenging. The technopath was ready to jump at his opportunity to fix some stuff. After all, one can only play some much tetris and pacman before it becomes a bore.

"You're welcome." He answered without really paying too much attention to Oliver as he stared at the screen and typed to no avail. He nodded and 'uh-huhed' every so often to what his friend was saying, hearing him more than listening.

Wynn opened his ears up to what was being said when he heard a question. "Uh, yeah, sure." He didn't really see what was so exciting about watching someone fix something, but if it would float Ollie's boat by all means he could. "It won't take too long. If it's really stubborn probably around twenty-five minutes tops...?" He tried to do the math in his head, but this was all depending on how the computer would like him or not.

"Um.... Ok?" Wynn wasn't used to getting something in return for his services, he wasn't even sure if that was alright to accept. He was already getting payed to do this after all. Still he accepted the offer of lunch all the same. "Is Chinese alright with you?"

He turned back to the computer, and became typing again, this time with his influence on it. He always figured the easiest way to influence a computer was to treat it like a really old computer. The kind where to get it to do stuff the user had to type out every single command. Well, that was what Wynn was doing. The commands popped up on the screen, every other line. In the lines between was the computers response. In binary code. "It'll take the twenty-five minutes it looks like." He sighed.

[Oliver Seabrooke]

Oliver let out a huff of a chuckle at Wynn's rapt attention to his laptop, knowing most of what he was saying probably wasn't being paid attention to. Which was fine - he still appreciated Wynn's help and liked him as a person. He just took some getting used to, which Ollie had for a while.

"Cool," he smiled, glad his friend didn't seem bothered by his curiosity. Maybe if it happened again, he could figure out how to fix it himself....? Eh, probably not. He was shit with technology. He still had a flip phone rather than any fancy touch-screen phone or whatever they had these days. "Oh, great," he sighed in relief. "That's not too long at all." If he'd taken it to Best Buy, he guessed it probably would have taken a day and cost him over a hundred bucks. Wynn was the best.

Oliver knew he was getting paid for his services, but Wynn was also his friend, and he wanted to show him more personal gratitude for his work. "That sounds good," he agreed; he couldn't remember the last time he had eaten Chinese. "When do you have your lunch break...? Or do you get one?" He rubbed the back of his head, chuckling slightly. He wasn't exactly sure how Wynn's job worked.

He watched curiously as Wynn began working at his computer again, crossing his legs and rubbing his chin as various things began to pop up on screen. "Ah, a bit stubborn, huh?" he frowned. "That's fine, I can wait. I wasn't really working on anything important anyway, just muckin' around." In reality, he had just been looking up new music since he hadn't been having any student problems in the dorms yet that day.

[Wynn Cooper]

"Really?" He pulled his eyes away from the screen to Ollie, "I usually take fifteen or twenty minutes." To Wynn that extra five minutes added a lot of time, going from his norm to working on it for a while. Saying he was good with computers was an under statement when compared to the tech support at Best Buy or Small Dog. Working at one of those stores he'd be on top, but with the rest of the school being different from other schools the norm was different. He couldn't imagine waiting a day or two (maybe even a week) just for his computer to return in it's previous condition. It'd drive him nuts.

The Vermonter chuckled a little, glad his friend was okay with Chinese food. He knew Oliver wasn't fond of fast food, neither was he most of the time, and Chinese was rather greasy depending on the order. Wynn shrugged. "I guess you could say I'm on call more than working shifts. So I don't mind when we go." He doubted anyone would need him for a dire emergency. If so, he wasn't the only technopath around.

His attention returned the the computer, and he began typing questions out. Most were just simple yes or no questions. Then he asked a more in depth question:

What is wrong?

A moment later:

01001000011001010010000001100011011000010110110001101100011001010110010000100000011011010110010100100000011000010010000001110000011010010110010101100011011001010010000001101111011001100010000001110011011010000110100101110100

All those ones and zeroes was the response the computer gave one character at a time. Wynn was a computer genius, true, but he hated binary code. He often lost track of which set of zeroes and ones goes to which character. It would take some time to translate.

After a few minutes of quiet mumbling Wynn deciphered it and turned to Oliver. "It's no wonder why it isn't working. You've got to be nice to it." His face was serious as he took into consideration the laptop's 'feelings' as he put it. "You shouldn't go around calling things pieces of shit and expecting them to work for you."

[Oliver Seabrooke]

Oliver shrugged with a bit of embarrassment. "I don't know anything about tech, mate. Back before I knew you, I'd have to take my computer issues to non-technopaths, and it seemed to take forever." At least, it seemed like it had. And Ollie also wasn't going to let the opportunity go to have an excuse to be away from the dorms for at least a little while - he was sure Ella and Zeb could take care of things if any issues came up.

And while it was true Oliver despised most fast food, he did have a certain soft spot for 'Asian' food, even if it was very Americanized. He missed his mother's authentic Korean cooking, though. "Ahh, gotcha," he nodded in understanding. "That's pretty much what I do too. It's actually a very easy job, being a dorm monitor, until something comes up." He spent most of the day in his room, except for when he felt up to venturing outside. He used to do that way more than he did now; it was much more of a struggling to get around on hiking paths post-accident.

He shut up as Wynn went to work, switching between glancing around the library and watching his friend type away as he tried to figure out the source of the problem. When all the zeroes and ones appeared, Ollie blinked several times and looked away, finding the sight a bit dizzying in his condition.

When Wynn spoke up, he returned his attention to his friend, gaping slightly at what he said. "Wha..." He felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment as he looked down at his hands. He had almost forgotten that Wynn could communicate with electronics like most communicated with other people, and he felt awkward at having been 'caught' treating his laptop badly. "I didn't really mean it," he sighed, wringing his hands together. "Do I need to, like.... Apologize?" How strange was that? Still, he looked up and smiled meekly at his friend.

[Wynn Cooper]

Wynn shrugged. "Some non-technopaths know what their doing, but a lot of amateurs." By no means did he intend to offend any of the other workers at the school, but he showed little respect for people who couldn't reset a simple password in two or three minutes tops. The waiting was irksome, and they had to do all this unnecessary inspecting and digging before finding the problem.

"Same here." Wynn's job was a slow one most of the time, and there was always Cee who could fix things (plus students tended to be more familiar with him than the Technopath). He could just sit around playing video games or chatting with online friends until a kid timidly approaches him for assistance. He was perfectly happy with staying in the comfort of the Library or IT room.

He watched as Oliver reacted. Still more worried about the laptop than realizing his friend was getting embarrassed. "Well an apology isn't necessary, but it'd probably make it feel a little better." His fingers went back to clicking away on the keys to do his part of fixing the problem. "I can explain things to it too."

[Oliver Seabrooke]

Oliver could understand Wynn's impatience. It wasn't uncommon to feel irritated by people in a similar profession that weren't necessarily up to par. His own coworkers were an example of that. Yes, he did like Ella and Zeb, but they had absolutely no sense of how to make the kids respect their authority. They were both way too easy-going.

"Well then, maybe we should do something together more often," Oliver offered with a small chuckle. "I don't know about you, but I get bored of sitting around after a while." Then again, Wynn seemed much happier to sit around with electronics all day than Oliver was, so maybe the offer wouldn't sound so good to him. "I mean, only if you want to," he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Oh, um, okay," he replied, turning his attention back to the laptop. "Er..." Wow, this was weird. "I'm sorry... I called you... A piece of shit. I didn't really mean it. I was... Just... Frustrated." He was talking to a machine. What. Oliver shook his head and looked back to Wynn. "Was that alright?"