InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Do not mock Happy Fun Ball!"

Grigory Williamson (arollofthedice) wrote in inpoormerit,
@ 2010-03-21 17:53:00

Entry tags:

gor, gor and riff, riff

In Times of Crisis..
Who: Gor, Riff
Where: The Pub
When: Mid-day

Gor's little adventure had left his pale skin reddened from the sun. He was not at all accustomed to being in direct sunlight, and it seemed his floundering on the beach had been a little too much for his body to handle. Although he was not so badly burned that his skin was peeling, he did, nonetheless, feel somewhat sick.

Driven by the rumbling of his stomach, the teenager had managed to scrounge up a can of condensed chicken noodle soup. The bowl was sitting in front of him now, still steaming from its time on the stove, but the book in front of him had captivated the teenager's attention. The large hard-covered book featured large, colorful drawings of a variety of fantastic creatures, and Gor was combing through the book with an all-consuming interest in its contents.

He doubted he'd ever see any of his gaming group ever again, but if he ever did, at least he'd be ready with 4.0.

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tinfoilhat
2010-04-05 03:57 am UTC (link)

All of a sudden, she was feeling weird again. He was getting all excited about her robots like they were just toys. They weren't. "I don't know It depends on what sort of parts I can scrounge up to be honest..."

Riff ran a hand over her head, listening to the short bristles for a moment. It was a comforting sort of sound that reminded her of Velcro. She liked Velcro in a weird sort of way. "Few hours I think... I don't know. I kind of lost time... But then I started to fall asleep."

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arollofthedice
2010-04-05 04:10 am UTC (link)

Oh, no. Gor was beyond toys. In fact, had they been toys, he would have been considerably disappointed. The fact that she could make working robots... He was, when all was said and done, a huge fan of everything geek.

"Well, I don't really know anything about building robots...and not a lot about code. But if I can help..." He lifted his shoulders, suddenly looking like his awkward self again, as if realizing he was acting like a total nerd.

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tinfoilhat
2010-04-05 04:20 am UTC (link)

Yes, working robots, talking robots, walking robots, slithering robots... All sorts. She had that AI program back home but that was home and her head was not here. Willard. Poor, lonely Willard.

"No, I think I'm good... No offense or anything but I've been doing shit like this since I was fifteen. Well, I mean, not this scale but smaller things," okay, she couldn't really explain to be honest. Very few could accept that a fifteen year old girl had gone to college. Little did she know.

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arollofthedice
2010-04-05 12:35 pm UTC (link)

"Y-yeah," Gor answered in his self-conscious way. "I g-guess I know how you feel. There's a complex logarithm with an inverse arctangent fraction containing multiple variables -- it's actually a variation on Gauss -- that I've been working on for the last three years. I guess I hate it when people offer to help too." It was kind of his pet project...and, come to think of it, their captors had left the equation at home.

Damn.

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	tinfoilhat 2010-04-06 10:29 pm UTC (link)
	Riff stared at him for a long moment. Oh sure, all of that made sense in her head but that didn't make the person saying it sensible as he looked like he was like... twelve and her kind of intelligence level didn't happen that often. "Er, how old are you exactly?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

arollofthedice
2010-04-06 11:17 pm UTC (link)

"Um... S-sixteen?" He did, of course, know how old he was, but the hesitancy and questioning tone was born of wondering why she wanted to know. It made him self-conscious, because people usually only asked when they were preparing to insult him.

Hunching his shoulders certainly did little to make him look his age; try as he might, he seemed to be hovering between a man and a boy -- and very, very awkwardly so.

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	tinfoilhat 2010-04-07 12:54 am UTC (link)
	She blinked at him... And then she smiled in a knowing sort of way. She would've patted him on the shoulder if that didn't mean touching him. "Are you in college yet?" Hey, when it came to her, that was a totally appropriate question. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

arollofthedice
2010-04-07 01:31 am UTC (link)

The relief in his expression was so visible that it could almost be physically measured.

"N-no. Next year." His smile was a little timid, although, truth be toldm, Riff was turning out to be pretty damned nice. It didn't take much to impress Gor: a nice person was impressive enough. "I'm pretty much guaranteed a full scholarship to MIT. I just need to write an essay." In the back of his mind, he wondered if he would ever actually see MIT -- probably not. Just his luck: a few months left of his imprisonment at home and he's suddenly kidnapped, whisked away to...here.

So far, it didn't seem any worse.

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tinfoilhat
2010-04-07 02:11 am UTC (link)

Her smile brightened a little. MIT was a very good school and it was turning out that he was very much like her. "That's brilliant. I went to Cambridge when I was fifteen. It's... pretty difficult to be that young and in college but you'll have a couple of years on me." Her coding was almost forgotten. Almost. She was still running it in her head and she found herself counting a little on her fingers although it was only thumb and index finger. She was making memories in binary using a code on her fingers.

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arollofthedice
2010-04-07 02:18 am UTC (link)

Gor might have gone to school when he was fifteen had his parents taken a little more interest in his schooling. His teachers had attempted to advance him a few times, but his parents never granted their permission due to an avid lack of interest That, of course, wasn't Riff's problem, and he wasn't about to come off as the world's biggest whiner.

Fifteen and in college was, nonetheless, an impressive feat, even to him.

"Only fifteen? That's awesome. Robots -- and computer -- must have come a long way since then, huh?" He wasn't quite sure how old she was, but she looked to be maybe five years older than that -- perhaps more. The lack of hair made it a little hard to judge. As far as robots and computers went, five years was an eternity. "Have you got to make any, you know, groundbreaking discoveries or anything like that?"

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tinfoilhat
2010-04-08 01:20 am UTC (link)

Riff had been lucky that her parents had been attentive and loving and encouraging. She loved her parents, really. They were fabulous and she missed them though they had sort of lost touch as her OCD started to take over her life. Really, she probably needed medication or therapy or something... But she was busy. She had projects.

She breathed a laugh and nodded, "Yeah..." Understatement of the year to be honest. Riff rubbed the back of her head, smiling sheepishly, "Um... Well, I worked on some working for Sony but recently I kind of quit. Although back home I have this really great AI programme I'm working on. Willard's really quite responsive and becoming more capable to learn every day... Or was. Without human interaction, I don't know what will happen."

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arollofthedice
2010-04-13 02:23 am UTC (link)

Gor looked truly interested as she outlined her work -- particularly when she mentioned the AI program. Willard. It seemed somehow fitting for an AI, even if he currently knew nothing about it.

It also seemed to fit her, although he couldn't really say why. Nor did he give it much thought.

"You developed your own AI?" He was suitably impressed. "Did you start from scratch, or did you begin the program with defined parameters?"

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tinfoilhat
2010-04-13 03:55 am UTC (link)

Oh it was definitely fitting... Or at least she thought it was. Willard was just a fun name. Unless you used Willard Kraft as a reference but really, one fictional principal wasn't enough to damn a name.

Riff shook her head a little, "I started with something from Sony's Tokyo division. I've just been modifying it. A lot. And translating... Really, apparently they couldn't be bloody well bothered with a translation into English." There was a sharp bitter tone in her voice. She wasn't at all happy with how they'd been treating her or her projects. Good thing she didn't work for them anymore.

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