James 'Glitch' Murray (a_gambling_man) wrote in rrinitiative, @ 2013-02-10 17:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | day eleven, jim, jim and mazie, mazie |
When Lore met Glitch
Characters: Jim and Mazie
Setting: The activity room then the library
Mazie had been wanting to meet with Jim since she caught wind that there was another techie in the compound. Things got away with her, though, and she felt a little shameful that right now was the first time they’d be meeting. Still, it was better than later, she guessed.
The activity room was a place she hadn’t spent much time in. Here and there, every so often, she could be found in it, but mostly she stuck to her room, her own desktop and laptop, so it’d be nice to take a better stock of what they have. She was there now, fingers trailing over the games in their cases and smiling at the sight of a few favorites.
The feeling was more than mutual on Jim’s part, particularly since meeting Rusty and hearing that Mazie was the mastermind behind what they’d been planning, not to mention what had been achieved so far. Needless to say when she suggested they meet, he hadn’t wasted any time and was pretty much bouncing on his heels as he rode the elevator up to the second floor of Block A, humming quietly to himself as he did so. It grew louder as the doors slid open and he stepped out into the activity room, quickly scanning it until his eyes fell on it’s sole occupant who he immediately began walking towards, humming turning into full blown singing as he did so. “...and I can chat with you baby, if your name is Mazie, does your mother know that you’re out?”
Amused, Mazie turned at the sound of a song, her name implemented into it, and tilted her head. "Oh wow, a personalized ABBA song? Impressive," She said, grinning a little at the fact that that was how he introduced himself to someone. "Yeah, I guess Mazie is my name. Also go by Lore on the interwebz, so if you ever saw that around, that's me." Or was her, she'd probably have to get another handle if she ever got out of this place. "Guessin' you’re Jim," She said, Southern twang evident in her tone. "You got a handle I might know?"
The compliment had him offering her a small bow before snapping back up, his expression caught between amazement and disbelief on hearing her alias. “No fucking...the Lore? Holy shit, as I live and breathe, this place is just...” Despite being in prison, he had heard about the hacker’s exploits and followed the news as much as he’d been able but he never would have guessed he would end up crossing paths with her. “Man, it is so good to meet you, you are like a legend. Too big for the likes of me, I mean online I’m small fry. I know some coding and like but hardware’s always been my thing but you, wow!” Needless to say, he was impressed.
Now this was something that always had Mazie feeling a little conflicted. This didn't happen often, the recognition. It had happened a very small handful of times and she always felt really accomplished, really proud of herself, and also really weirded out by the idea of people knowing who she was, like some weird celebrity. And those feelings were always, instantaneously, followed by extreme feelings of self-awareness at the pretentious thought that she was some sort of celebrity.
But today was different. Today, hearing Jim say he'd heard of her before felt like something really special. For being in a strange funk about her skills for the past couple of days, hearing that someone still thought she was good at what she did was really awesome and it had her smiling. "You're sweet, with the flattery and what not. Not really a legend, but I appreciate that," She said, smiling. "Ain't no small fries, though. Everyone out there doing their part is a big deal in my opinion. So you got a handle or what?"
Taking a moment, she smiled again. "Hardware, huh? It'll be nice to have an expert on hand. I know enough to get me by but I bet I'll be coming to you for some help with computers when, inevitably, someone fucks their system up and we need replacement parts. It'll be nice to have another set of eyes on the thing."
“I go by Glitch online but I’m really not much of a presence there outside of a bunch of engineering forums and the usual kind of haunts so I doubt we’ve crossed paths,” Jim replied. “Plus the last three years I’ve been kinda restricted access wise so...” His expression was one of resignation and he gave a little shrug before carrying on. “But yes, hardware is most definitely my thing. I know my way around a computer’s inners thats for sure but it’s not my speciality as it were. I’m more of a creative type when it comes to electronics and the like if you catch my drift.”
“Cool name,” She said. Intrigued, Mazie listened, smiling a little more. "I know how that feels, man. The restricted access thing. It's damn good to have my hands on a keyboard again." He had her wondering what, specifically, he'd done with electronics that classified as creative. "So that…creativity, is it something we can talk openly about here? Because I most definitely want to hear some stories about that."
Grinning at the compliment, Jim tucked his hands into his pockets. “Well thanks, got given it back in my college days and it stuck, seemed a shame not to put it to good use.” Her question had his grin taking on a distinctly conspiratorial edge and he took a step closer to her so he could speak quietly. “I guess that depends entirely on who’s listening doesn’t it?”
"They're always listening," She said seriously, looking back at him as she decided then and there that she'd call him Glitch. It was nice to be able to use a handle, to get back into that mode even if it was verbally for now. "So, Glitch, I guess it depends on if you can phrase it properly," She said, keeping her voice low as she watched his eyes. "Or I know another way we can do this, but we'd need to go to the library."
He couldn’t really argue with her statement, given their situation anyone who wasn’t a little paranoid probably needed their head examined, and his smile only grew at the use of his nickname, not realising how much he had missed being addressed by it. “Well we could try talking round the houses but I’m much more of a straight shooter so how ‘bout you lead the way?” He was intrigued to see what she had in mind and he had yet to make his way to the library so it definitely counted as killing two birds with one stone. “And en route you can tell me a little more about this place. I’ve picked up some stuff but you know what they say about the more you know...”
Mazie didn't need to be told twice and she instantly started them out of the activities room and toward the library. She'd been there last with Jun-he and wondered offhandedly where it was, then wondered why she hadn't thought about it for a while. She'd need to check up on him.
"What more do you want to know exactly? There are varying opinions on this place. Some think it's a godsend, some think it's an experiment, some think they really mean to rehabilitate us. The only thing I'm sure if is that I don't trust a damn thing they say," She said, not concerned with keeping that part hidden from any overarching authorities.
“Opinions are all well and good but what I’m really looking for are facts,” he said, matching her pace easily as they made their way downstairs. “Even the small stuff, you get enough of them, then you can build a picture of a place. From the looks of the journals this morning though, looks like things are taking a pretty big change in direction so I’m guessing the big picture’s gonna be changing somewhat...”
"Not sure about the big picture part. They never really gave us much in the way of that. They started off with no punishments, then threw in some stocks for 'good measure'," She added with air quotes, obviously still despising the stocks idea. "And now there's a new checks and balances system coming up. I still feel like I'm playing one giant game of Portal a losing battle against GLaDOS and somehow I don't think we'll be able to destroy this one like Chell did. They say they have this interest in our rehabilitation or whatever but then they go and ask us something insane like which two people would we keep if we had to pick, and you can't be sure if they're just fucking with you or if, say, you don't vote…then they'll throw away your favorite people here. It all seems like one huge cyberpunk mess."
Listening with interest as she spoke, despite the negative things was Mazie saying Jim couldn’t stop his expression from lighting up, delighted by the references that peppered her little speech. “Damn, I can’t remember the last time someone spoke nerdy to me,” he said, brain to mouth filter conspicuously absent as always. “You’re gonna have to forgive me if I start bugging out on you, if I start begging you to talk binary or something just slap me alright. I’ve been so fucking deprived of decent conversation you would not believe. Now I’ve got you and Rusty and my not so little nerd brain is throwing a party.”
That got a real mirthful laugh from her as she shook her head. "Well, maybe you and me and Rusty'll have to get together and just nerd out sometime?" Could be nice, actually. Like being in a live forum. Or…being sociable people. "We could throw a real party, get together and play Halo or something in the activities room with a bunch of junk food."
She nodded her head toward the library and entered, heading to the spot where she knew there were notebooks. Grabbing one and two pens, she brought them to a table and took a seat, flipping it open then positioning a pen on the paper and pushing it toward Jim.
“Sounds like my kinda party,” Jim said, nodding easily. “Throw in a couple hands of cards or some pool and that’s pretty much my dream night....Well some female shaped company being there would probably be a part of my dream night, not that you aren’t female shaped but you’re kinda young for me and I’ve got enough raging personality flaws without throwing pervy older guy into the mix.” Then they were in the library and he was being offered pen and paper and his expression quickly shifted from one of abject back pedalling to understanding and he swung himself the chair just across from Mazie. “Going old-school, got it.” Flipping open the pad, he quickly drew a doodle of two people under an umbrella with a massive eyeball above it watching them and flashed her a grin. “You know there was a time when all we had was this,” he commented, adding ‘So the cameras then?’ beneath his drawing. “Dark times for all of us nerds, I tell you.”
Mazie ended up shrugging a little at first. "I'm kinda spoken for too, but there are lots of other female-shaped people here who aren't, as far as I know. Just don't let me find you hittin' on Autumn, she's my lady."
She watched him draw for a moment and when his drawing clicked, she grinned at it at first. And then she realized she was going to have to try and explain her stance on these cameras to him and the grin faded. "Dark times indeed," She said, reaching for the paper again and drawing it closer to her. She hunched over it, hiding it beneath her hair and her body as she wrote down the words, then passed it back to him.
'Getting control of those was an idea, but I haven't started implementing it yet. Not sure when I will, or if I will at this point. Some V.I.P.s among us don't like the idea and I gotta figure out what that means for this. Thinking of going to the Governor, asking his opinion on it. Thoughts?'
“Duly noted on both counts,” he replied, flashing her another easy grin, before turning his attention back to the pad in front of them. His expression grew more serious as he read over Mazie’s words and tapped his own pen against it as he thought what to reply. ’Depends on how much you trust this governor guy doesn’t it?’ he finally scribbled. ’I agree you got be careful about this kind of thing but you got a reason for wanting to do this other than playing Little Sister to Big Brother right?’ Because that was important to Jim regardless of how excited he was about the challenge.
Taking the paper back, Mazie scribbled down on it again. Absently she wondered how he could even read her handwriting as it did look like a bunch of scribbles, but now was not the time to worry about that. She could work on penmanship later. Or probably never, really, but whatever.
'I got lots of reasons for wanting to do this. Maybe a little bit is counter-intelligence action against Big Brother over there. Kinda started off with a 'down with the man' strategy, but the other day someone fucking threw some nooses together and tied them to a tree with Autumn's and my name carved in it and that shit is a threat. That plus all the crappy other shit that's going on around here makes me want to have a cyber-neighborhood watch deal going. But again, it's freaking people out, just the idea of it. Just don't go rolling around town talking about it, only certain people know.'
Off to the side of what’d she’d written, Jim quickly wrote down their names along with Rusty’s and popped a question mark next to it - he wasn’t about to start random conversations with people about the camera situation but he did want to know who was in the loop. ‘I can understand why people would be uncomfortable, no-one likes a peeping tom, but keeping a watch on public areas and the like.’ He sat back in his chair and waved a hand towards the books that surrounded them. “The more you know, the better off you are right?”
She took the paper and flipped it on its back, continuing to write there as well. ‘Rusty knows. You, me, and Rusty are safe for now. Couple others too, but let’s just stick to hackers, ok?’ It would give her time to figure out what the right move was, what the next step should be. She watched him motion and smiled a little, but it wasn’t quite right. ’You’d think, right? Not everyone thinks that way though. But I’ll count you in as ‘on board’ for now. Not saying this is going to happen right away or even at all maybe, full disclosure, but I will keep you in the loop. Deal?’
He smiled and circled where she'd written 'deal', an unspoken promise but a promise nonetheless. "Way I see it, us nerds have got to stick together, if only so we can practice our social skills," he said, pen still scratching at the paper as he added 'And cameras or no, I got a couple of ideas for skirting round the powers that be. Keep you posted?'
Mazie watched him writing, immediate curiosity hitting her. She took the paper back and scribbled on it as well. 'You gonna give me a hint?' She hadn't expected the other hackers here to put their own plans together and now she was concerned not only with her decision, but whether or not her ultimate choice would match theirs.
’Lets just call it a way of getting some privacy for now, can’t really say more than that until I get a better idea of what in the way of parts I can scavenge up except hopefully we won’t have to keep doing this.’ He tapped the pad for emphasis. “As much as I love a bit of retro, I prefer it when my hand isn’t being forced.”
Still uncomfortable, Mazie thought it over but didn't see a way to get Jim to put a pause on his plans. She'd only just met him, why would he do that if she asked? You'll let me know asap when you have something, right?' It seemed like all she could do, considering she'd been somewhat vague about her own methods.
Perhaps it was naive of Jim to trust her so easily, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t been bitten before, but she had opened up to him about her plan and he saw little reason not to do the same, already feeling a kinship with the blonde like he had with Rusty. ’Of course’ he scribbled. “Now,” he said, spinning the pen between his videos. “I believe you mentioned something about video games and my brain is starting to itch with all this being quiet, you up for it?”
She could show him the Space Invaders game, maybe he'd already seen it, but instead Mazie just nodded. Maybe another time. "Sure, let's go back to the activity room?" She folded up the paper, trying not to let herself get too caught up in feeling a little blindsided, and slipped their note into her back pocket for proper disposal later. "You any good at Halo?"
Jim grinned and bounded to his feet. “Good does not begin to describe how I am at Halo but for the sake of modesty, I won’t go into details,” he said, already off and heading towards the doors. “Of course it’s been a while so I might be a little rusty which I guess will even things out a little.”
“Don’t get too full of yourself there, Glitch. You don’t know how good I am at Halo,” Mazie challenged, tucking hands into her pockets as she followed him out of the library. “We’ll just have to see, I guess.”
“I guess we will,” he countered, enthusiasm only growing on hearing the challenge in her voice but then he’d always been a sucker for women who called him on his bravado. “Bring it on Lore.”