Computers and Questions (Adam)

[Adam Deulane]

Adam checked the wall one more time, then slowly lowered the whiteboard onto its hooks. It stayed, finally. He sighed in exasperation and pushed his bangs off his forehead. "No, it's fine," he said testily. "I'm just being an asshole. It's been a long week."

Long week indeed. Trying to stop yelling at people was like coming off of cigarettes. He still hadn't unlearned the defense mechanism that everyone was a potential threat, but he had shut off (or was trying to) his primary way of coping with it, which was to make them leave in as short a time as possible and feeling as badly about themselves as possible. When he was already frustrated, keeping his temper under control made him feel like the Dutch boy with his fingers shoved in a dam.

"Would you be able to help me with the others? I don't want to be here all night." He gestured dully to the remaining three whiteboards. "I need them up if I want to get any work done tomorrow."

[Duncan Valentine]

"Oh," Duncan muttered. "Well! If it makes you feel better, I don't really think you were being an asshole. Technically." The words Duncan would have used were "bit of a jerk" and probably some set of strange nonsense words that he usually replaced swears with. But he didn't say that out loud.

Duncan followed the motion to the other whiteboards with his eyes, and then glanced at the computer screen. Still updating.

"I can do that," he agreed, positioning himself by another whiteboard. "It's too bad you got me instead of someone with strength or telekinesis or something. On the bright side, you can drop the whiteboard on my foot and I'll be fine."

[Adam Deulane]

"Well that's encouraging," Adam said grimly as he hoisted up one end of the next whiteboard. He had been called a lot worse at his last job. "Technically."

Adam's step-father was a telekinetic, and there was no denying that he would have been useful. "Telekinetic maybe, but not strength. I don't write on lead sheets." Adam checked the nails on the wall and carefully lowered his end of the whiteboard down on them. He glanced at Duncan's feet as he did so. "What, is that your super power? Iron feet?"

As much exposure as he'd had to metas, he still hadn't bothered to grasp the PC terms to refer to these sorts of things.