Virgil Hawkins (shock2ursystem) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-10-14 14:38:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !partner thread, presto, virgil hawkins (static) |
WHO: Presto and Virgil in Stark Life
WHAT: Presto and Virgil meet while interning at Stark
WHERE: Stark Tower
WHEN: Recently
WARNINGS: None.
STATUS: Closed, Complete
Virgil was good at working on a computer, but sometimes he prefered to do things the old fashioned way, with a pencil and a pad of paper to jot down notes and help get his thoughts in order. Unfortunately he couldn’t seem to find a pencil anywhere, which meant that he had to hunt one down. After discovering that no one in his group of interns had a pencil, he decided to find another group. “Hey,” Virgil said, walking up to the first one he spotted in the room. “You wouldn’t happen to have a spare pencil, would you?” *** Presto blinked and looked up. “Sure. “ He dug in his bag, and pulled out an old school pencil box, opening it up to reveal all sorts of pencils. “Take your pick.” He smiled at the other man. “Say, you’re Virgil Hawkins, right? I saw some of the work you were doing. You’re brilliant!” Presto liked to check in with what others were doing. His own project, working on paperwork currently for some execs, was sprawled out before him on his desk. His side project, the next gen computer, was currently in pieces on a rack next to him, awaiting a new component being manufactured for it. *** Virgil flushed with pleasure at the compliment. Honestly, Stark didn’t have him doing anything too exciting. Interns didn’t really get a chance to do too much that was innovative, but Virgil was doing his best to show his chops. He wanted a permanent job here once he was done with his internship, and after meeting the big boss himself, Virgil was extra determined to make an extra good impression with the man upstairs. “That’s me. Thanks,” he said, grinning widely as he grabbed the pencil. “I’m sorry though, I don’t think I know who you are,” he added with some embarrassment. *** “I’m Presto. I’m new to this whole thing, really. Haven’t really made much mark.” He didn’t plan on making much noise here, not really. He just wanted to learn. But he also knew he needed to show he could work hard. He wasn’t as smart as some of these people. Hell, not even as smart as Virgil here, he thought, but he could contribute, probably. “I’m Computer engineering, mostly infrastructure. What’s your specialty?” *** “Nice to meet you, Presto,” Virgil said, offering a hand to shake. He grinned. “Electrical engineering. They’ve got me working on hardware here, but I’m also big into software engineering. My best buddy Richie and me, we’d program our own video games when we were kids.” Virgil had a lot less time for that these days, between keeping up his grades at CalTech, working at Stark, and trying his hand at the superhero business. *** “I’m mostly just a hardware jock, but more power to you for crossing the ware divide.” Presto grinned. He did some programming, but it was… not exactly something he talked about. He had cracked Windows, and helped people who had problems with it, underwriting code in ways that helped their computers deal with the new issues that Windows 10 had going on in their computers. Sort of illegal, really. So Presto never talked about it, but he did talk about the hardware. “Do you still do any software work? Of mainly focus on the hardware side?” *** “Ain’t nothing wrong with that,” Virgil said. It was often better if people just focussed their attention to one area, but Virgil had always had a love for both that he wasn’t about to ignore. “I’m taking a couple programming classes at CalTech,” Virgil said. “But they’ve got me just doing hardware here, and between work and extracurriculars,” namely, the whole superhero business that he was still pretty green at, “I don’t get much time to work on my own programs.” *** “Yeah? Sorry to hear that. The world can use a lot of good programmers.” Maybe Presto would look into a way to help out. What use was money if he couldn’t help people? “Yeah, I’m working with Stark designs to create a more stable infrastructure for networking. It’s one of my passions.” *** “No kidding,” Virgil said, interested. Maybe it was the kind of thing that would make most people yawn, but Virgil had always found that kind of thing interesting. “That’s awesome. You mind if I sit?” he asked. He probably should be going back to his own station, but no one could fault him for wanting to get to know some of his co-workers, and for finding out more about what Stark Industries was up to. *** “Hey, the more the merrier. I’ve heard of your work and if you want to stick around and give suggestions, I’ll take them!” He nodded. He waved a hand toward a nearby seat. “Join in. There’s a spare laptop at the side table, and pizza is on the way.” *** “Pizza? Well, now you never getting rid of me,” Virgil said, grinning widely as he took a seat in front of the spare laptop. “I’m so down with offering some suggestions in exchange for some ‘za. So gimme the 411. What’re we looking at here?” *** Presto laughed as he settled down again, grinning. Once the other guy was settled in, he started in on the specs of what he was assigned to work today, as well as going into his own work and how it was influencing his approach. He sent copies of the specs and notes to the other work laptop, casually working around normal safeguards. This was awesome! Being able to work with, and talk to, another engineer who he respected this much? This was so cool! Presto did his best not to show how much this made him bouncy. He might have failed a little. Somewhere in the middle of the discussion, the pizza arrived, to great approval, and pieces were grabbed without even stopping. This was the life, thought Presto, as a pause was reached and they had a few moments’ break. *** Virgil had gone to a poor public high school in inner city Detroit, and while most of his friends had been somewhat nerdy, playing D&D in their free time and reading comics, he hadn’t really been able to geek out about sciency stuff with any of them. The exception, of course, being Richie, who he’d spent many late nights with experimenting with whatever they could get their hands on. College had been different, and yet even still, a lot of his classmates seemed to be phoning it in. But this, this was different. Talking with Presto was almost like talking with Richie. This is what he’d been looking for when he’d finally left Michigan, and though he missed his folks (and even Sharon a little, who would have thought), he knew that this place was where he belonged. And then the break came, and Virgil was able to lean back in his chair. “Thanks so much for letting me work with you, bro. This kind of reminds me of this thing Richie and I worked on…” Virgil started, launching into the story. Hopefully Presto would find it as interesting as Virgil did. |