The Welcoming Committee (Duncan)

[Navi Holmes]

There were a number of reasons why Navi spent a good majority of her free time in the computer lab.

The most obvious was that she liked computers; she played games (mostly learning ones), did all her homework, and kept in touch with her dad pretty much exclusively online. She knew how they worked, both in hardware and coding, and sometimes would just dive into reading code if she had a spare moment when looking at websites. She liked learning, and computers were the best way to see things that you couldn't just go out and touch.

The second reason was her power. Her trainer had suggested that she spend as much time as possible outside their sessions fiddling around and "getting a feel" for how things worked. It was a lot less scary now, since the African-American could now jump in and out without any problems, but if there were any problems with a boot drive there was a still a chance she could get stuck. So... it was still scary, but at least now she could poke around without needing to be supervised by a technopath.

And finally (the reason she was here today), was because of all the cool people she met. Loads of people come into the computer lab when their personal computers malfunctioned or when they needed help on assignments. And Mr. Cohen was usually around all the time to talk to, but right now he might have been at lunch. She wasn't sure; he ran off sometimes for the strangest "reasons", but listening to him fly off on wild tangents still made her giggle.

So, despite it being basically empty, Navi was puttering around the room, picking up supplies left over from a class earlier in the day. Pencils, scrap paper, that sort of thing - just keeping the whole place clean. She could fiddle around on one of the school computers once she was done anyway; the security monitor was always online (seriously, she wondered if they ever slept), so if she had an issue, there was someone looking out for her. But when the door opened, her curly haired head poked up from the row of newer computers with a bright grin.

"Hello! Are you looking for Mr. Cohen, or did you need a computer? The two there on the end are down with some hardware trouble, just so you know."

[Duncan Valentine]

Something was missing. Duncan patted his pocket. Not there. He set his backpack on the ground and knelt. Big pocket: folder of papers, folder of papers, box of flash drives, water bottle. Little pocket: three working pens and one that exploded, plus a paperclip covered in ink.

He zipped his bag with one hand as he patted his pockets again. Where had he put his phone? He had placed it in his left pocket when he left his house... took it out during class... put it on the desk... and left it there?

Duncan slung the pack onto his back and began speed-walking down the hall. It took about three minutes to get back to the lab. He pushed the door open and- someone was there?

A little student was there. Why would a little student be there?

"No, I forgot my phone," Duncan explained as he crossed the room. It was probably somewhere near the back, if nobody had taken it. Ah, there, behind the monitor. He picked it up and slid it into his pocket.

[Navi Holmes]

It didn't even occur to her that the man that entered would be a computer teacher until he crossed the room and picked up the cell phone on the desk. He looked too outdoors-y, at least to her, so when she realized he must be a different teacher her face lit up in surprise. "Oh! I'm sorry! I thought..."

Well, nevermind what she thought - it obviously wasn't really important.

"Um... I'm Navi!' The introduction was rushed and improper, but the little girl scurried around the end of the table anyway. "I help out in here sometimes if a teacher isn't around, even though I only got here last spring. But it's a pleasure to meet you!" A small brown hand stuck out for a handshake, just like her mom and dad taught her, and she beamed brightly at the teacher. He may not have looked like a computer wiz, but then again, neither did she.

[Duncan Valentine]

Duncan turned to face Navi now that his search was over. He smiled at the adorable little girl as she offered him her hand, and he shook it.

"Hello Navi. I'm Mr. Valentine." He told her, and when he got his hand back, he tapped his pocket to make sure that he really did remember to get his phone and hadn't imagined it.

"I think I heard about you," Duncan said, pulling a chair over and sitting down. "Your powers involve computers, don't they?"

[Navi Holmes]

Mr. Valentine! What a nice name! It sounded like a character from a book or something, and the young girl shook his hand happily at the idea. He certainly looked like he could be a dashing hero in an adventure novel. "It's a pleasure to meet you!" she chirruped, happy enough to have another teacher she could gush to about the world of computer sciences.

Being heard about was something kind of startling, and Navi's eyes grew wide at the idea. Really? He'd heard about her? Wow... "Yeah!" she answered after a moment. "I can turn myself into a program on a computer. Or, maybe it's more like a virus or a data packet - I'm not really sure... but I can access programs the same was as..."

Looking around, she picked up a stapler and grinned. "The same as you'd pick up something, or use a touchpad! It's pretty cool."

It was also scary, but she starting to get over that now that she didn't get stuck as much anymore. It'd always be a nervousness of sorts, but she could handle it. Especially once she found out if she could be transferred like any other data packet onto another storage device (though the thought made her shiver a little).

[Duncan Valentine]

Duncan didn't have the pleasure of hearing exactly how Navi's powers worked until she explained it. As far as Duncan could tell, everyone with computer-related powers were vastly different. Sort of how all shapeshifters were different, except he understood computers.

He raised his eyebrows at the concept that it was like picking up a stapler. "That is pretty cool," he agreed. It made healing look boring, really.

In thought, Duncan tilted his head and looked from Navi to a computer and back. "So," he began, "Does it just happen? Or have you figured out how to, uh," what was the proper terminology for this? "enter and exit?"

[Navi Holmes]

The dark girl beamed at the compliment. She supposed it was pretty cool, though she wished she had something more easily trained sometimes. Or at least known about. It wasn't like her power was heavily documented and researched, after all. Not like telepathy or flight or shapeshifting.

"I can pop in and out pretty much anytime now," Navi replied, tracking his gaze to the computer. "I mean, the computer has to be on, and working for the most part, but I don't need anything special aside from that. I can even go into an unplugged laptop, but it kinda drains the battery." She hadn't tried on anything else, like a smartphone or a tablet yet - those worried her a lot, and only a little because they had less memory space.

"Did you want to see?" The question sort of popped out, but the young teen smiled as she said it. "So long as you have a monitor and speakers, you can see and hear me, but I'd need a camera and mic to do the same." That was a limit that she'd found out when she first arrived; the monitors they had were old enough not to be hard-wired for any sort of sound, but thankfully Mr. Cee had hands-free headsets lying around so they'd been able to talk to her after a minute.