Issue 1 Downtime

Cal was sitting at breakfast, a smartphone in his hand that was... showing an odd display, almost like something you'd see out of the Matrix. It was wired to a USB hub, the cable connecting it looking obviously like it had been patched together to connect two things that generally didn't go together.

A wire ran from the USB hub to a connection in Cal's arm, apparently providing power based on the socket that the wire was plugged into. Cal was plugging flash drives into the hub, apparently which ones making some sort of difference based on the fact that he was picking and choosing them, the only visible difference being the numbers written on the drives.

"Hey Hottie," Haley grinned, approaching with a tray full of food. "Need non electronic company, or too busy making money to buy me something cool?" she giggled teasingly.

Cal smirked a little, plugging in one last flash drive. "If it's you asking, the answer's always 'yes,'" he said, smirking a little. "Just give me a second so I'm not... distracted," he said, looking at the display, frowning slightly at the gibberish, then giving it a distinctly annoyed tap on the screen. "Hmph. Oh well," he said, pushing it aside next to his backpack.

Haley smiled and sat down across from Cal. "So what's up? Have good dreams?"

"Only when I'm awake," he said, pulling his lunch tray back in front of him. "How about you?"

"I hope I didn't moan in my sleep," she winked at him, spreading some jelly nonchalantly on an English muffin.

"Oh, so you DID dream about me," Cal joked, smirking up at her through a rather distinct blush.

"Yep. Maybe I'll show you sometime. I think I could sorta like...share things like that with my TP," she grinned.

"Still trying everything out?" he said with a knowing smile.

"Let's go for a walk pretty far from the mansion sometime and we'll see what I can do. The last thing I want to do is broadcast my naughty dreams to the entire school when I'm just trying to show you," she smirked.

"Hey, listen...about the whole...telepathy thing. Let me tell people at my own pace...it's kinda like...embarrassing and stuff."

"I kind of got that idea when you didn't say anything about it in class," he said dismissively. "I'm not a rat, don't worry."

"Thanks," she smiled a bit bashfully.

He smiled back. "No problem. Some things just make people act weird, y'know?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "What do you think of classes so far, other than power control?"

"Not bad," he admitted. "I mean, they're classes. Kind of boring, but nothing really hard. Except lit classes. I hate lit classes. What about you?"

"I like most of them. Better than I did back at home at least. I don't mind power control, actually. I think I might get to blow stuff up in there and the teachers are both hot."

"Yeah, I guess," he muttered, taking a distracted bite of his pancakes. Score another for the great feathered pretty boy.

"Oh come on. You can't tell me that you don't think Miss K is hot,"

Cal shrugged. "Kinda too 'preppy popular girl' for me," he said, shrugging.

"See now I'm really just questioning your taste in girls. You made out with me for one, and now you're not thinking Miss K is a fox?" she teased.

"So?" Cal asked, probably more defensively than the statement had warranted.

An older looking woman in a grey suit and white hair in a bun wearing wire-frame glasses walks past the table and, for a moment, glances at Cal's little project.

The project looked like a smartphone with code streaming over the display, attatched to a USB hub.

The programming showed a much different story, though. The phone's general programming was all gone, save for a few subprograms that made the screen and other parts work. The rest was replaced by a personalized program. The flash drives in the hub all held various encryption and security programs, not THE most sophisticated methods, but definitely up there. To the best of Ashlie's knowledge, the program in the phone was trying to hack the drives. It was probably the closest thing to an obstacle course that a computer could have, at least that Cal could think of.

The woman continues walking and sits down a couple tables over. She wouldn't be particularly suspicious, in fact she looks about as boring and bland as humanly possible. She looks like someone trying to fit in by being unremarkable, which probably makes her stand out in her own way. Plus she's just kind of sitting there, not eating, not reading, not doing anything really.

Cal frowned, his eyes tracking the woman as she went past, his voice lowering like any kid when a teacher came within earshot. He turned his attention back to Haley, but part of his mind was on his visual displays, or rather the auxiliary readings. Confirm readings.

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Reading coherent photon arrangement energy patterns.

Figures. Open comm port.

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Port 1 open

He waited a moment to verify the code he saw behind the hard light projection. Cute. How many people think you're really an old lady?

She seems surprised that Cal noticed. At least that soon. Oddly enough she gets up to walk over to the table and sits down. "Miss Crusek. Mister Strong. You are being rather rude to your friend here. Though her phone-usage almost has her on the same level of digital awareness as you." she jokes. Probably. It's hard to tell with how dry she sounds.

Cal looked up defensively. "I'm not being rude to her," he protested. He hadn't been the one to bring up their teachers being hot, after all...

"Perhaps I misinterpreted, but you seemed to be initiating conversation on comm port 1, something your friend would be unable to participate in."

Cal swallowed, instantly tense. Dammit, why'd I even get up today?. "I don't know why anyone would be interested in that," he muttered, seeing the day going from 'okay' into the toilet in no time flat.

She leans over to Haley and stage-whispers. "I'm not sure why but he thinks I'm messing with him."

Haley stopped mid-chew of her English muffin, her own phone in her other hand. She looked utterly confused.

"Uh....what?" she asked, forcing a swallow.

The woman looks blankly at the wall for a moment.

"He was about to text me." she comes up with the closest fitting explanation. "I thought it would be rude to exclude you from the conversation."

"Uh...okay?" she said still looking confused.

are...you as confused as me? she asked, hopefully just to Cal.

The woman looks confused. "You don't mind the person you're talking to having a conversation in their head at the same time? My apologies." And with that she simply disappears.

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>>"Those are not going to break the encryption of my data."

comes a helpful ping over Cal's open port.

Cal, meanwhile, had turned a very distinct shade of red, and wasn't making eye contact. Almost as confused, he confirmed.

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>>So what was that?  I see through the little disguise, so you have to make me look like an idiot?

"That would be a... shit, I don't know, I thought it was someone screwing with me over the net, now it looks like a computer program that's fucking with me," he said out loud, still not looking back up at her.

"What?” she asked. "Way lost dude."

"Yeah, welcome to my life. That wasn't a person, that was a hologram."