Help me, miss know-it-all! ( Tag: Navi )

[Benton Barrett]

Honestly. He hadn’t been downloading porn.

Or movies, music… etcetera.

Ahem.

Somehow, his laptop broke. It wasn’t doing anything properly, and no matter what he did, his computer wouldn’t do anything. He didn’t know how to make it reinstall the operating system, so he could start from scratch. All he knew was that dammit, his laptop – the one moderately expensive item he owned – was broken. So now, he was down in the computer lab, logging on to one of those computers, to see if he could figure out something with his other laptop.

His own computer was set up awkwardly on the corner of the table, as he tried to find a subtle medium between “smashing the keyboard until it works” and “hitting the appropriate combinations of buttons to make everything normal again.”

His eyes were glued to the computer lab’s screen, which had a Google search page with an infinite list of results for “my computer won’t do anything.” At this point, he was out of his depth. He knew how to google, and he could play games or various other ‘easy’ activities, but when it come to the inner workings of computers? He was completely clueless.

Letting out a sigh, Benny shifted uncomfortably in his chair, his hoodie zipped all the way to the top. He was unusually cold today – and as a result, the room he’d just spent the last hour or so in was a few degrees cooler for his own benefit.

“If I didn’t need my computer, I would throw it out a window.” He grumbled, mostly to himself. Why were they so hard to deal with? They were great when they worked, but beyond that…

He glanced at his computer, which seemed, again, to be completely locked up. Maybe that was something he could use to narrow down his search. After adding a few words, he resubmitted it – and instead of a billion hits, he only got several million.

Great.

His forehead thudded against the computer lab’s keyboard, and it started making that annoying ‘stop pressing buttons’ noise computers did when they were upset.

[Navi Holmes]

Mr. Cohen (or Mr. Cee, as she called him) had a classroom outside of his office that was a genuine computer lab, a haven for technopaths and other such electrically based people like Navi. Sometimes, other students came in during breaks and things to websurf when the library computers were full, but most of the time the place was pretty empty.

Navi liked popping in just to talk to the older kids.

So, between class and her training session (which wasn't for a while yet), the little dark girl scooted down to the classroom and peered inside to see who all was there. Well... apparently no one, really, except a guy with a laptop and one of the computers who looked like he was going stir-crazy. She almost left to leave him alone when his head hit the keys and start making the computer rather irate at him. (He WAS entering more keystrokes than the website could take care of, after all. She'd be mad, too, if someone were talking too fast for her.)

Well... maybe he just needed a little help. Granted, being that she was a thirteen year old skinny all-odds-and-ends black girl dressed up in orange and black (for Halloween, DUH!) with her hair done in curly, poofy pigtails... she didn't exactly look like a computer whiz. Heck, Navi didn't even wear glasses.

Closing the door quietly, the small girl walked over and looked to the new boy. "Um..." she started, looking at the laptop and the screen of the desktop. "Is something wrong?"

[Benton Barrett]

The feeling of the keys was starting to press into his forehead, and he knew that if he stayed like this much longer, he'd come away from it with keyboard grid-lines etched in to a temporary scar. No, thank you. 

Of course, over the wailing of the computer, he hadn't heard anyone come in, or approach, and it wasn't until she spoke he even registered her presence. He jumped, hard enough to almost completely throw himself off the edge of the chair. Thankfully, he locked his legs and wasn't leaning too far in any one direction, otherwise he'd end up as a nice little heap on the ground.

Her question, though, finally clicked. 

"Okay. Points for ninja-like skills because I didn't hear you coming." He replied, which was absolutely not an answer to her question. But he had to put that out there. Girl was either super stealthy with her powers, or he just needed to start paying better attention when people came in the room. He gave her a half-smile. 

"I don't know what happened, but my laptop is messed up. I thought I could look up how to fix it, but... honestly, aside from games and homework and stuff, computers and I aren't really the best of friends." That is to say - he could type well enough, work a mouse and keyboard with enough dexterity to murder aliens and other virtual opponents - but damn if he was not smart enough to fix it.

"I thought I could just, you know reset it? But it locks up before I get a chance, so I'm pretty much at a loss." He let out a sigh, shaking his head. "You wouldn't happen to be a resident computer expert, would you?" He asked, smiling at the obviously younger girl. He was humoring her, of course - he certainly didn't expect her to be any better with computers than he was. She was probably just coming to the computer lab for a class he'd be interrupting if he was here much longer. 

Ah, the joys of being the clueless new guy.

[Navi Holmes]

The ninja comment made the younger student smile, bright and cheerful as it accompanied a giggle. She wasn't much of a sneak, but the reference was pretty cool.

Looking at the powered-down screen of the aforementioned device, Navi puzzled a little over the explanation. It just hard-locks every time he powers it up? Well, that could be a couple things... "You said it happens when you're booting up?" she asked inquisitively. "Can I have a look?" She hadn't really answered his question either, but she was way more interested in seeing what was wrong with the computer. "Just turn it on and I'll see if it's something I can fix."

If it was a software problem, there were a dozen easy fixes depending on what part of the coding was failing. If it was a hardware problem... well, she didn't have anything in the way of laptop supplies, but it if it was a simple overheat she could fix it. It would void the warranty, though.

"Oh! Um, I'm Nevaeh Holmes, by the way," the dark girl stated, holding out a hand. "Everyone calls me Navi, though."

[Benton Barrett]

He nodded. "Gets to the desktop, then has a panic attack and locks up." No, he wasn't exactly incompetent when it came to computers, but he damn sure wasn't going to sound like a complete rookie. Or at least, he would try not to. Words like 'desktop' instead of front screen? Yeah, totally a computer boss.

He almost wanted to roll his eyes at himself.

"Uh... sure." He said, with a shrug. Hey, he didn't see why not. It wasn't as though he was making any headway, and if she thought she could help, he wouldn't doubt her. Not initially, at least. People sometimes gave him odd looks when he asked to help with stuff, so he at least wasn't going to treat her like she had no clue what was going on.

He shut the system down, and booted it back on, scooting out of the way, so she'd have full access. It was definitely a software issue - he just didn't know where. 

"Nice to meet you, Navi. I'm Benton, but everyone calls me Benny." His mom figured that eventually he'd get tired of what sounded like a 'childish' name, but honestly, Benny rather liked it. It was what he was always called. He hesitated, for a second, to take her hand - but a little shake wasn't going to freeze her to death. Unless her superpower was glue-fingers. Did someone have powers like that? He took her hand and shook it, gently. 

"So, are you good with computers?" He asked, in a completely non-skeptical way. There was no reason a younger girl couldn't be. Hell, his sister could blow him out of the water on the computer stuff ( well, not the video game aspect of it! ) and she was younger than he was, so... why not? 

[Navi Holmes]

Navi was pretty good with a computer herself. Her dad had taught her to program since she was a little girl, and she could recite C++ like it was an actual language (which it totally was - ask any programmer) and Java was even easier. But not everything required that level of technique; most computer issues were just simple corrupted files or a part-swap. Easy peasy.

Still, most people called the front screen a desktop. Even computer guys did it now, so the fact that Benny used the terminology didn't phase the thirteen year old at all. Instead, she nodded and thought about the problem again. It was probably something wrong with the boot coding, from what he said. It could be a Trojan that she could take care of in Safe Mode, too, but that was surprisingly less likely.

Taking his hand and giving it a good shake (though she was smaller and his hand engulfed hers), Navi smiled. "Nice to meet you!"

Looking at the screen as it booted, the younger girl tapped a couple keys and brought the computer around to starting in Safe Mode - easiest thing to do right now. If it was a virus, she could hunt it down and eliminate it pretty easy. If it was something like a boot source failure, it would be the only way to see if the RAM board was salvageable. If not, well...

She glanced over as he asked about her experience and grinned. "Yeah, pretty good," she replied. "My dad's a software designer, and he taught me a ton of things. I know how to fix a bunch of really common issues. Even some coding stuff, if I have to."

It was probably the best thing she could do, honestly. Though with her power, maybe she'd be able to do it even better at some point.

[Benton Barrett]

He smiled at that. "That's pretty cool. Dads teach you all sorts of interesting things. Mine taught me all sorts of neat little medical things. He's a nurse." He said, just so that they had something in common. That must have been really interesting, growing up with a genius dad ( because he had to assume that if someone designed software, they were a genius ) who could teach you all about the inner workings of a computer.

"If you can fix my computer, I'll totally owe you one. I can't survive without my laptop." It was the only way he had right now to skype back home - and that was extremely important to him. Sure, he had to concern himself with other stuff like homework, but it wasn't like he couldn't use the library computers for that if he had to. 

He watched her, as she did her thing, doing some key-tapping to bring up a window he'd only seen once or twice ( and only because he shut his computer down incorrectly ). 

"So, what are you in for?" He asked, curiously. "I mean, Hammel, specifically. Can you shoot lasers from your eyes? I'm still so surprised I haven't found anyone that can do that yet." He smirked, mostly trying to make light of the situation that they were all in a boarding school for unstable, super-powered teens.

The fact that she seemed so comfortable? That was just something that added to the hope that she could take care of it. She didn't seem to be even a little concerned, which he could only hope was a good sign. "So what's the diagnosis, doc? You think it's something fixable, or am I doomed to a computerless existence?" Because that would be a fun conversation to have with his mom. He'd only had the laptop for a year. Maybe it was still under warranty?

Ah well, all he could do was hope that Navi could fix it.

[Navi Holmes]

"Your dad's a nurse?" the younger girl asked in surprise, grinning. "That's so cool!" Despite what happened to her mom a while ago, Navi had a great respect for people in the medical field. After all, the EMTs and everyone had done their best to help her, so... it wasn't their fault. And they had to deal with that every day - not being able to save someone was a big loss for the family, but the guilt she could see on the doctor's face as he told her dad was enough to make her realize it.

So, yeah - nurses were awesome people.

She laughed at the gratitude, though not meanly - she was sure he was exaggerating. "I use my desktop for everything, too," she agreed. "I've replaced so many parts to keep HAL going, I don't know if there's anything left of the original computer other than the case."

As she tapped on keys and brought up the registry to look for some common viruses (may as well, since it was easy), the dark-skinned girl shook her head, not taking her eyes from the screen. "No, but that'd be pretty cool," she admitted. "HAL sucked my up into his memory banks one day, and so here I am. Apparently, I can turn myself into a computer program and run around behind the screen. It's pretty cool, I guess."

The whole thing still scared her a bit, but so far everyone else thought it was cool. And Navi could be brave, just like her mom, so she tried. But she was so scared of being trapped, of becoming corrupted data... or of just being lost and never coming back. It sent a shiver down her spine when she thought about it, so her dark eyes just focused on the screen as she looked for issues.

"Well, there's no viruses, so you've probably got a boot code problem." It sounded pretty simple and it was - there were really only two ways to fix it. "I'll see if it's just a problem with the code itself first, and if it is I can fix it quick." Navi flashed a bright smile at the older boy as she brought up the code screen and started looking for corrupted bits. Since this was a PC, and the OS was the newest Microsoft, and.... ah ha! There it was!

Pointing a small finger at the screen in a scrambled bit of symbols and letters a little bit later, her dark face broke out in a grin. "There it is! That's your problem right there! Just a bit of twitchy code. I can fix that in a jiffy."

[Benton Barrett]

He grinned a little at that. Some people thought a guy nurse was weird - even in this day and age. It was weird to him that people thought he should be a doctor. Doctors did more intense things, sure, but it was the nurses that handled most of the things on the floor. Without nurses, the hospital would fall apart. That was just the way things were, whether or not the nurses were male or female were completely immaterial. 

"HAL?" He asked, curiously. Had she named her computer? Was that a thing you were supposed to do? Yeah, there had been that prompt when he was running the computer the first time, but he'd typed in something weird like 'house party laptop' - not anything that made any real sense. It wasn't a name that meant anything to him. 

How long had she been doing this, if she'd more or less replaced her entire computer bit by bit. He didn't know really how many parts made up a computer - so he'd just have to assume that it was ages and ages. 

He snapped his fingers, as though he was sincerely disappointed that she couldn't shoot laserbeams from her eyes. But he was actually quite impressed with the way she described her power. He looked suitably impressed. "That's really cool! Can you like, go online and just be one with the internet?" He asked, trying not to grin. He wasn't a big science fiction reader, but it sounded almost like she could be Skynet. ( Yes, Benny had seen the Terminator. )

He looked at the screen, sideways, as she looked over the things. When she said it wasn't a virus, he let out a relieved sigh, because he had been almost concerned that poking around the internet might have been his problem. Thankfully, that was not the case - he had no idea what a boot code was, but he assumed it had nothing to do with footwear or cheat codes. He nodded though, because he didn't want her to have to dumb it down for him - she was on fire!

Benny's eyes widened, as she just pointed to something like out of the Matrix. 

"Okay, so, you know you could be in the Matrix, right? That's like... that's amazing. You're basically the most intelligent person I think I've ever met." 

[Navi Holmes]

Navi grinned. "It was my dad's, before he gave it to me," she explained. "We're both kind of sci-fi nerds, and HAL is the name of the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It seemed to fit." HAL could be pretty finicky when it wanted to be, and after the mishap that brought her to Hammel, the young girl wasn't unsure that it wasn't just a little more intelligent than an electric box had any right to be.

Well, there was another person who thought it was cool. "I haven't tried yet," she answered with a smile. "My trainer's just having me learn to pop in and out right now, since I only just got got here a few months ago." The training was helping a little, making her a little less scared. And, like a normal computer, her power seemed to have a pretty consistent program for doing things. She'd only gotten stuck again once since she started practicing once a week.

The compliment made the younger student grin brightly; this guy was probably one of the nicest people she'd met since coming here. And he thought she was amazing. "Thanks!" she chirped. "Happy to help! Let me just fix the code, and we'll restart it and see if that helps."

Humming to herself, the young teen typed away into the coding and fixed the damaged section, then made sure that nothing else seemed really amiss (nope). With that, she powered down the laptop properly for a restart, and let the machine do its work. They wouldn't know if it would be a perfect fix until they hit the front screen, but she was confident her patch would work just fine. But while they waited...

"So, Benny, what do you do?" Brown eyes looked over curiously, and the innocence that emanated from her was astoundingly simple. She knew that (like her) a lot of people were afraid of their new powers. Some people liked them; others hated them and wished they were normal again. But Benny seemed like he was really comfortable here, even with students younger than him ninja'ing around all over the place.

[Benton Barrett]

“Huh. I never saw that movie.” He replied, completely unaware that a book version even existed. He grinned, though… if her computer was as good as a 2001 computer, didn’t that mean it was pretty lame, by modern day standards? Weren’t computers back in 2001 like, giant boxes with nine-hundred million wires and weighed enough to sink a battleship? He couldn’t remember, he hadn’t really had one until recently.

The boy listened to her explain how her trainer was helping her with her power, letting her just jump in and out. There had to be all sorts of cool things to do in the internet… on the internet…

Somewhere in the general vicinity of the internet? He didn’t know.

She did her computer-magic, tapping away at the keys, and doing something to the screen that he really had no clue how to interpret, and finally, she restarted the laptop. He was eager to see if her Frankensteinian wizardry was paying off, bringing his computer back from the depths of failure and death. While it was loading though, she turned to ask him the one thing that seemed to be a normal question for this school.

Everyone wanted to know what everyone else could do. It was fair – he would want to know if he was talking to someone who could read his mind and determine if he was lying, or know what he was feeling. Or, in his case, whether or not they should touch him. He rubbed the back of his head a little bit, shifting uncomfortably.

“I think the term ‘heat vampire’ is the best descriptor I can come up with. I suck the heat out of things and people.” He replied, shrugging his shoulders. “Uh, but don’t worry. Only when I’m really cold, or touching someone. So you don’t have to worry about that. Also, I don’t really need it to survive like a vampire does… okay, maybe heat vampire is a terrible comparison.”

He paused, and added thoughtfully: “Plus, I don’t sparkle.”

[Navi Holmes]

"It's okay," she shrugged, smiling. "It's kinda boring until you get to the actual space travel anyway." Sitting through all that evolutionary stuff at the beginning was rough on a six year old - even one as smart and interested in the movie as her. Besides, the books and movie were pretty different, especially because the book was part of a series.

Almost immediately after she asked the question, Benny looked really uncomfortable and Navi felt a little guilty. She'd figured the question was okay, since he'd asked about hers, but... well, maybe it wasn't. But, if he was scared... at least she wouldn't feel so alone about it. No one really liked admitting they were scared.

Still, she managed to crack a smile at the bad joke. "Real vampires don't sparkle anyway," she replied, laughing a little nervously. "So... you're like a heat sink or something? That'd be an awesome power if you could learn computer repair!" Seriously, SO many things were because of simple overheating problems. At least he'd never have to worry about frying a motherboard because the processor ramped up too high.

Looking back to the computer screen, Navi shifted awkwardly for a moment, rubbing one hand up and down her arm. "I'm... kinda scared of my power, too," she admitted, looking over shyly. "I think that's why they bring us here. So we don't have to be scared of it anymore. So we can be almost normal again."

Her mom would have told her that. Told her to be brave and let these people help her, since they knew what she was going through. And she was trying. It was just really hard sometimes.

[Benton Barrett]

He grinned a bit at her estimation of the movie. “Yeah, definitely not my kind of movie. I need explosions in like, the first two minutes, or I just can’t get in to it. I’m so basic.” He snickered a little bit, leaning forward a little bit. “Or dragons. Dragons’ll do in a pinch.”

It was his own fault, really. He’d brought up her power unwittingly, which of course left him open for the question. It was less telling her, and more concern that she might be afraid of him.

“You’re totally right about that.” He couldn’t stand Twilight. But a lot of people did, so he wasn’t going to knock it unless he was sure he wasn’t going to get a healthy dose of ‘BUT IT’S SO GOOD!’ He should have known better – Navi had a head on her shoulders that was filled with awesomeness, not air.

However, her assertion that he’d be a good computer repair person because of his power had him looking at her, confused. “I’m not following. How would sucking the heat out of it fix the computer?” He glanced at his own, uncertainly. Should he just have cuddled with it? Would that have fixed his ‘code’ issue? No, that didn’t make any sense.

He turned back to her as she explained her own fear.

“I… don’t know if I’m ever not going to be scared of what I can do. All I know is that, if I touch someone for more than a couple of minutes, they could die. If I’m really cold, it’s not even a few minutes. I don’t want to hurt anyone.” He said, with a little bit of a shrug. “But…” He looked thoughtful. “If you can learn to not be afraid of your power, then so can I.” Navi was nothing if not a good person. Fixing his computer, issuing words of wisdom for the uncomfortable heat-vampire? She deserved to live without fear.

He just had to remember the ultimate goal for all of them. To be normal.

[Navi Holmes]

"A lot of computer problems stem from parts overheating," she explained, beaming brightly. "Your laptop will never have that issue with you, and it means you can run more tests longer than anyone else without frying a CPU! I mean, that's not what happened here, but any programmer can do that." The black girl was about as cheerful as she could be with this, mostly because getting people excited about the good points of their abilities made it easier to deal with the scary parts of her own.

Navi nodded, understanding. "Well, just keep training," she answered with a weak smile. "You don't seem like someone who wants to hurt people, Benny, so I think if you work at it, you won't have to worry about it." Though it was silly, she held out her hand, fingers all curled together save for her pinky. "Here; we'll make a promise on it. We'll both do our best and have these weird things mastered before we graduate. Pinky-swear!"

It was adorable and incredibly childish, but it was something that had always made her feel better whenever she thought she couldn't do something and her parents thought she could.

[Benton Barrett]

She was gushing about things that Benny had no idea about - which was perfectly okay as far as he was concerned. Her enthusiasm was infectious - if she said he wouldn't have to worry about overheating, then that was something at was clearly awesome.

Of course, Navi's enthusiasm didn't wane, despite the semi-serious subject - she even went so far as to offer him a pinky-swear. Now, outside of his sister, he'd never actually given a pinky-swear before... so this was an unusual experience on its own. Nevertheless, the boy nodded, and wrapped his pinky around her own.

"We'll be amazing by the time we graduate. You'll surf the internet like a pro, I'll... uh... make sure ice cream never melts!" Okay, so that was lame, but he was working on it - no one could blame him for not exactly coming up with a positive use for his powers. Then again, Navi had: "And I'll make sure computers never overheat when I'm around."

They would do it. They'd help each other along the way.

"So, where'd you come from? I've met people from all over, here. I'm from North Dakota, myself." He smiled enjoying the fact that the conversation seemed to be so casual.