Issue 1 Downtime

Cal was in the kitchen late, and anyone who came by the common room would be able to easily tell that someone was cooking in there. Presently, a tablet was half disassembled on the table, next to a small tool kit and a box of parts, left idly laying while Cal was cooking.

Oddly, a roughly fist-sized cube sat next to his workspace, and could have easily been taken for just a block of black glass, except that it was flashing various colors across its surface with no real discernable patern.

"Hey" Aisha said as she went to the fridge and started rummaging "How's it going, Cal?"

Cal glanced over at her, and again, however visible she might be to everyone else, she was completely visible to him. "Not bad. Just hungry," he said, from where he seemed to be cooking on autopilot. It smelled decent, and from the looks of things it was something heavy on seasoning and low on... well, most things.

"What are you making?"

"Don't know," Cal said. "I got the recipe somewhere online because it fit the calculations of what dietary intake I need given my current level of activity to keep from getting fat. I forgot to copy-paste the name along with the recipe, though, and I'm too lazy to search through the history for the site I got it from."

"Hey Hottie, what's cookin'?" Haley chirped as she bounced into the kitchen.

Cal looked down at the pan, looking somewhat doubtful. "A lot of vegetables and spices. And tofu," he said. He didn't sound too enthusiastic.

Haley made a face of disgust, "Tofu? Ugh. You're gonna make the Texan cry. Where's the meat, man?" she teased, giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Hi Haley." Aisha said. Unlike Cal, Haley would notice that Aisha, and the can of soda in her hand, where strobing.

"Hi Aish--whoa. Body can't decide to be visible or not today huh?" Haley asked cheerfully. "Powers are annoying. I've had a headache for like two days straight now."

Cal just shrugged as he poked at his food with a spoon. "That's what my diet app says I should eat. Sorta. Or its as close as I could find." He looked around for a plate. "Besides, who knows if British meat is even any good."

"It's gotta be better than...that." she said giving a cube of tofu a hesitant poke with her TK.

Cal shrugged. "I don't make the rules, I just cook the food," he said, picking up the pan and sliding half of it onto his plate. He walked over to the table, setting the plate down next to the psychadelically flashing cube, which he gave a tap with his finger, saying, "Oh, shut up." The cube promptly went back to being solid black.

"Yeah." Aisha said "I can't really get solid, this is the best I can do." she smiled "kind of like the tofu, I guess."

Haley giggled. "You're way cooler than tofu, Aisha."

"All the important people can see you," Cal said 'innocently,' smirking and then frowning at the cube for some reason before giving it another poke.

"I don't know about that." Aisha said "I think Calvin may have made a new lifeform there."

"I don't know what to call it," he said. "Other than expensi- oh will you stop singing!" he said, exasperated, giving the thing another poke.

"Did you put special mushrooms in that stir fry, or can we just not hear...well...what the hell is that?" she said staring at the cube while she walked over to the fridge and grabbed a can of Sprite.

"You don't have wireless in your brain," Cal said, reaching for his backpack. "Here, I just need to... Ah, there it is." He picked up his phone and turned the volume up on it, and sure enough it started beeping a cheerful, if simple, tune.

"Catchy," she grinned, cracking open her pop and sitting at the table. "You made that then?"

"Don't remind me. It was supposed to be a hacking program that I wanted to be able to actively learn to get through security systems and leave data-mining programs behind. Completely did not work. Then when I decided that I had to..." He looked right at the cube, raising his voice, "Erase it and start over..." He sighed as the cube started to flash in what could only be described as panic, the tune replaced by a mechanical, repetitive sound that could have been a high-speed "No no no no no no no no no no!"

"It's cute! Why would you erase it!?" she frowned.

"Because it doesn't do what I was trying to make it do? But- oh calm down, I'm not going to erase you," he said, touching one of the sides again. The flashing and the noise stopped for a moment, then a single happy toot sounded as the sides all displayed ":)" and then "<3". "See? How can I erase it when it does stuff like that? And now it's going to spend the next couple hours giving me 'presents.' It's pitiful."

"So kind of like a pet rock that talks back?"

"Yeah, I guess. I haven't been able to teach it much. It can get through security that's about the equivalent of a screen door to get at the file inside right now, then I can't get it to do anything for a while because it's too busy running the file it found over and over and over."

"Ohmigoshthat'ssocute!" Haley practically squealed as the cube smiled and said I love you in emoticon.

"Heh... you think that's cute? Touch it."

Haley reached across the table eagerly and petted the thing like it was a small kitten.

As she did, the surface of the cube lit up around where her finger/hand was, following it along the surface. When she stopped, spots of light started popping up along the surface like it was asking for more.

"Oh my god that's adorable! What's his name?"

"Huh? It doesn't have one. I was going to name the program when it was finished, but... well, it didn't pan out, so it didn't get finished."

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

"...it's a touch-screen cube. Or a program."

"I think it's a girl," she said ignoring him.

"It is super cute." Aisha said "kind of like a neo-pet, or playing Farmville, or something." she reached out and touched the cube.

"I... well, yeah, I guess so, but that's one expensive ass neo-pet," Cal said, taking a bite of his food. Oh god, this really is bad...

"How is the food?" Aisha asked.

"Serves its purpose," Cal said. And that purpose isn't to taste good, thankfully...

Haley smirked as she caught his expression. "Told ya you needed meat."