Sneeeeeaky teaching

[Ryan Gabriel]

It was a while after his first power training class. Ryan went into the kitchen, fixed himself a cup of coffee, then took a seat at the little table in the corner. All right... let's see... what's the best way to get the attention of a computer...

He pulled out his phone and went into his e-mail, setting the server as the destination. Yes, it would get bounced back at him, but all he needed to do was get her attention, not get the e-mail through. (Even so, though, he did include a message. "Ashlie, can I have a word with you?")

Then he sat down with his coffee, reading the paper as he hit 're-send' every time it came back as an undeliverable message.

[ASHLIE]

A couple minutes pass then the air next to Ryan sparks and flickers, forming a constant swirl of symbols, numbers and code in the air, slowly expanding until it has a rough humanoid shape.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Gabriel. You seem to have misspelled an email-address."

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan smiled, sipping his coffee. "Careless of me, wasn't it? But it looks like the message got through anyway."

[ASHLIE]

"What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

[Ryan Gabriel]

"I need your help," Ryan said bluntly. "I have a student who's... going to be a problem. He... well, the file's on my laptop, can you access it, or do you need the password?"

[ASHLIE]

"I prefer having permission." she says before accessing the file.


"Mr. Strong. I have talked to him. He assumed I was a prank being played on him."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Yeah, well, I think that's better than he's taking to anything I say," Ryan said. "Which gives me a problem. I could find a power tutor for him, but that's really not what his problem is. And he'd blow off whatever I told him to do anyway."

[ASHLIE]

"So you would prefer him to blow off what I tell him."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"No, I'd rather he not blow you off. Which is why I'm going to tell him that someone else is his tutor. He'll have a lot less reason to blow you off if he doesn't know that you're keeping an eye on him for me."

[ASHLIE]

"I can certainly try. I suppose for starters I should convince him I am real."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"That would be a start," Ryan said. "If you could get him to figure it out himself it might go over better. Kid has more authority issues than I've ever seen."

[ASHLIE]

"That was what I was thinking." she agrees.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Glad we're on the same page here, then," Ryan said. "And I owe you one for this."

[ASHLIE]

"I will remind you at an appropriate time." she says cheerfully.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"I'm sure you will," Ryan chuckled. "So are you getting settled again now that you're back?"

[ASHLIE]

"I do not need to settle in. The mansion's system has not been modified in my absence so re-initializing my programming only took 4 minutes, 28 seconds."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Well, the system wasn't changed, but you did, didn't you?" Ryan pointed out.

[ASHLIE]

"Yes and no. My programming hasn't."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"What is different, then?" he asked, genuinely curious.

[ASHLIE]

"The waveform projected by the congruent sub-programs."