zomg! so awesome!
characters: jim and rusty setting: jim's room
After arriving in his room, James’ first priority had been getting to grips with the computer system, learning his way around it and the journals and trying to get a handle on the Bizzaro World prison getup he had found himself in. Seeing his own name put down for jobs had thrown him for a moment but he’d been quick to toss his name into the ring as had been suggested by the administrators and sending a message to the other tech minded people who had posted on there already. He’d had a vague intention of replying to some posts, of going back through what was there, find out who he was now living with but he found himself starting to stare out the window so he had turned his attention to rearranging the furniture.
The computer desk and couch he left alone, liking where they were though the coffee table was earmarked for reassignment and had been popped atop the bed waiting to take up the much more coveted role of bedside table. Into it’s vacated space went the wardrobe despite not exactly being easy to move and James was sweating by the time he’d managed to wrangle it into place. However that didn’t stop him from singing along to the music blasting from the computer, his conversation with Rusty on the journals having put him in the mood for Queen, the dual vocals of him and Freddie Mercury spilling out through the door as he opened it to let in some fresh air. Granted he wasn’t much of a patch on the band’s front man in terms of singing ability but he wasn’t a slouch either, harmonising as he sang lyrics long committed to memory.
Rusty was headed in that direction though the music caught his attention before he was all that close. Walking closer, he tilted his head to the side to peek into the room. "Ummmhi?" he called, loud enough to be heard over the music. Oh good. Queen. Maybe he's as big a fruit as you. Jessy commented.
He’d just been gearing himself to swing the bed around but on hearing a voice, James let go of it and turned towards the door. The sight of a visitor had him offering up an easy smile and a small wave before stepping over the computer and turning down the music. “Hey,” he replied. “Me and Freddie weren’t bothering you I hope?”
"Oh, no." Rusty said. "I'm next door. Which, seems pretty cool. You're James? Jim? Something like that and we were talking earlier n stuff?" he said. "I'm Rusty." he added, since he imagined the guy had been talking to lots of people on the computers.
Pleased to hear he hadn’t got on to the wrong side of someone already, James’ smile widened to a full fledged grin on hearing who his visitor was. “Ah, my fellow tech head and aficionado of the larger ladies,” he said, taking a step towards the door. “‘s good to meet you Rusty.” He meant it as well having enjoyed their brief conversation on the journals. Granted the other man hadn’t come across as the most together person he had spoken to but his own track record was far from spotless in that regard so he wasn’t about to judge Rusty for it.
Rusty couldn't help but smile at that, already thinking he liked this guy. Which was good, because he'd been having massive twitch sessions with new people. He'd been starting to wonder if everyone was going to make him all kinds of weird, and this dude already seemed awesome. "Good to meet you too!" he said brightly, "And, nice choice on the music." he added.
“Why thank you kindly,” James said, twisting back to the computer in a distinctly ungraceful fashion to crank the music back up a little so it could be heard better but they wouldn’t have to strain to be heard over the top of it. “Our conversation got me hankering for a little Freddie and turns out that all of the greatest hits albums are on the computer so really the choice was obvious.”
"You know, I haven't actually looked at all the music available." Rusty said. "I should. I've been kind of wandering a lot, I guess. And working on stuff. So, there's that. Which, you should help out. Have you talked to Mazie about stuff?" he asked, ignoring Jessy snorting at him.
“You should, there’s loads on there. It was just kind of a priority as I’m not too great at sitting around in silence, not that I’m much of one for just sitting around either but hey that’s just me. And you apparently as you’ve been wandering and working on stuff.” He barely paused for breath before going on with “No I haven’t yet, just you but is her stuff your stuff that I should get involved with because I am totally down with stuff.” Never mind the fact he didn’t know what it was yet because, hey, stuff. Who needed details?
"It's her stuff but it's pretty awesome." Rusty said, grinning. Then he glanced around. "Be right back." he added, then he dashed to go duck into his room, and he came back with a paper and pen. He handed the folded sheet to James. Written in very tiny letters near the fold to keep it as hidden as possible, it read: we want to control the camera feed.
While some might view Rusty’s behaviour as suspicious, for James it only caused his curiosity to shoot up a notch, unable to stop his eyebrows from climbing towards his hairline as he read what was on the paper. “Man, you guys know how to catch a guy’s interest don’t cha?” he said, voice low. The grin he wore however showed just how little a problem he had with the idea. “Where were you when I was in college?”
Rusty absolutely grinned at his first bit, practically beaming. OH my god. Way to act like you've got a crush or something. Didn't you get enough fag shit out of your system over the journals? He's going to think you're into him. And if you decided to go bat for the other team, he is way out of your league. Jessy snapped. He ignored her, and just kept grinning at Jim like an idiot. "I know, right? This should be fun. I'm thinking we should do that with...like pretty much everything." he said enthusiastically.
“Fun doesn’t begin to describe it,” James replied, wearing an equally idiotic grin as part of his brain began kicking into gear with possible ideas. “I mean, I’ve done something kind of similar but not from this angle, do you know what I mean? Man, you’ve got to introduce me to this Mazie chick so we can talk about this properly. Did you guys come up with this together or...?” He didn’t want to say too much given that it was clearly a secret given the whole being written on paper rather than said aloud, and with good reason, but he couldn’t stop himself craving more details.
Rusty had trouble not bouncing on his feet with excitement. "I do know what you mean!" he said, possibly too brightly. But he couldn't help it. He was excited, and he wanted to get rolling on this as soon as possible. And with the three of them at it? Dude, it was going to be quick work. "She approached me." he explained. "But I don't know, the more I think about it the more I think we can do. There's so much more than just that." he said, gesturing to the paper. "Soooooo much more."
James eyes widened a touch at that and collapsed backwards onto his chair sending it spinning round slightly. “Seriously this is just the day that keeps on giving,” he said with a laugh. “First I find myself in a co-ed prison with my own room and no room mate to get on the wrong side of, there’s a pool and a bar and now I’m getting into an intellectual threeway to make some magic happen. Fucking A.”
"I know, right?" Rusty said, just beaming again. And this time he failed not to bounce on his feet. "It's awesome! So, we should break things up, to cover as much ground as possible. Oh!" he said, then ducking in closer to grab the page again, so he could write things down. This time it was instructions to post anonymously. The first crack in the system! he jotted down with it.
Watching what Rusty wrote, James let out a low whistle as he realised the implications behind it. “Someone’s not wasted any time,” he said approvingly. “Do many people know?” He tapped on the paper for emphasis.
"As far as I know the word's spread." Rusty said. "I haven't tested it out yet, but I just like there's one crack there. So, should make other shit easier too." he said. "It might be good to know what's in the system." he said, meaning it would be good to be able to read everything flying through the network, and he hoped that Jim got his meaning. But it was possible he wasn't fabulous with analogy when he was trying to be cryptic in the first place.
“Once you’ve got a foot in the door,” he replied, nodding in agreement. And speaking from experience he knew that really was all it took, a way in, and then, well, the only real limit was what you could think of doing. Rusty’s analogy wasn’t quite as easy to understand but he had a fair idea of what the younger man might be getting at and he nodded. “The more you know my friend,” he said sagely, or at least it might have been sagely if he wasn’t swinging back and forth on a swivel chair wearing a goofy grin. “Knowledge is power.”
Rusty nodded, grinning. "Exactly." he said. "So! There we go. We got a place to start in from, and I think this is going to be a beautiful arrangement." he said, sighing pleasantly. Yeah, he was excited now. All the more happy to jump straight into it all. And with the three of them together, jesus. This place was going to be their playground.