(no subject)

[a1enzo]

Enzo comes in tired.

A whole lot of systems were improperly shut down recently, and need to be thoroughly checked for errors as they come online again. It's important and time-consuming, but not actually dangerous, and so it is deemed good practice for the cadets on their internships.

He's in a mood to collapse now, but prophet duty calls: he needs to write up an explanation of the effects of extreme weather on the User electrical system.

Halp.

Comments

[04_after]

"Busy?" Quatre asks, coming in from outside, He's dressed in business clothes (though he shucked his tie and jacket somewhere), but has the remains of some grass sticking to him, and a blanket slung over one arm, holding a thermos in the other.

[a1enzo]

Blink.

Blink!

"Quatre! Dude, it's been ages!"

[04_after]

Quatre's smile quirks up, sincere and a bit amused. "That sounds about right. I'm glad to see you."

[a1enzo]

"Same! What have you been up to?"

And why do you look like you've been camping in formalwear?

[04_after]

"Picnicking," Quatre says, looking down at himself and laughing slightly. He brushes at a bit of grass; when it doesn't budge, he shrugs, and glances to Enzo before taking the seat across from him. "I was feeling philosophical, and it's lovely here in the evenings. How are you? Are you still at the academy?"

It's hard for him to track how the pace at which Enzo's life moves.

[a1enzo]

"Uh-huh. I've got a year and a half to go."

Timescale translated For Your Convenience.

[04_after]

"Is that what you're working on?"

[a1enzo]

"Sort of. Not exactly. It's not normal homework, it's prophet work."

[04_after]

Quatre's pause isn't as long as it might be on someone else; smoothing over his own surprise is almost first nature by now.

But still: he's surprised. "Prophet?"

[a1enzo]

"Yeah, I'm teaching the other Guardians about Users now."

There is no great pride or smugness in his attitude as he says this, and certainly nothing religious or mystical. As far as he's concerned, it's just a job title.

[04_after]

"Huh," Quatre says. "Are people adapting okay?"

[a1enzo]

"The cadets are. The older Guardians give me a lot of funny looks." He grins. "And the Prime Guardian gets a headache whenever he has to talk to me."

That, apparently, is a source of perverse pride.

[04_after]

Quatre returns his grin. "Well, they'll figure it out eventually. I'm glad the effects haven't been negative."

[a1enzo]

"Well, I've been trying to mke it fun, to take the edge off. Lots of movie nights and concerts of User music. And sometimes I bring guests and play 'em up like rock stars."

[04_after]

Quatre nods, serious, though he's definitely amused. "That's probably a good way to normalize it," he says. "I can't help but thinking it'd be overwhelming for most of your guests," he adds, half-laughing. "You're bringing in people from various backgrounds, or?"

[a1enzo]

"Yeah. We do Q&A sessions. I brought Guppy to talk about the human body, and a Programmer, and a couple heroes, including my girlfriend."

Belated so sorry for that!

[hey35andholding]

Oh Enzo. You look frustrated.

So. So frustrated.

"Did somebody forget to press your off button?

Enjoy more frustration from the blonde with the mug of beer!

No worries!

[a1enzo]

Clem must be used to Enzo's expression: a friendly sort of oh, great, it's you.

"Close enough," he sighs. "A lot of systems powered down without shuting down properly. Now they're starting up again, they all need checking over."

[hey35andholding]

She is indeed - seeing Enzo without it would be like seeing the Mona Lisa without a mysterious smile. "Want me to buy you some digitized coffee?"

[a1enzo]

"I'm not allowed."

[hey35andholding]

This expression. "What do they feed you at that school?"

[a1enzo]

"Oh, it's not school, it's my sister. There were some... incidents when I was little. I'm not allowed Java 'til I'm 1-0-0."

[hey35andholding]

Oh Enzo. You don't get to stop there. "Did you shave the dog or something?"

[a1enzo]

"No, I wouldn't still have all my limbs if I did that. I'm... honestly not sure what I did. My memory was... kind of corrupted. And Dot won't talk about it."

[hey35andholding]

She raises an eyebrow. "That just means there's wall somewhere out there with your name in six-foot crayon block letters."

[a1enzo]

"I don't think so." He faintly remembers... construction crews.

[hey35andholding]

She'd be impressed if she could hear narration. "She seemed pretty level-headed when I met her," Clementine considers. "Whatever it was had to be big."

[a1enzo]

"Yeah. Anyway, point is, she's serious about my not having Java. Code cola's my limit."

[hey35andholding]

She rolls her eyes. "Maybe Bar can digitize some Jolt for you."

Which is an even worse idea, but hey.

[a1enzo]

"Just regular cola. Seriously She'll know."

[hey35andholding]

She already KNOWS that Enzo. "I'm not dumb," she replies, ordering the cola for him.

[a1enzo]

"Thanks." He grimaces at his document. "I'm gonna need it."

[hey35andholding]

"I can see. Whatt're they making you do this time, reprogram the world from scratch?" she asks.

[a1enzo]

"No, I'm writing a report on what happened on the User side. I mean, it was probably a big storm, right?"

[hey35andholding]

"I guess so. But Reno's always having a lightning storm."

Clem, of course, is about five years behind the current timeline, so her storms aren't likely the ones Enzo dealt with.

[a1enzo]

Enzo is more or less permanently in 1997, while at the same time being subject to pretty much any bits of popular culture which seem funny at the time regardless of their year of origin.

"Maybe you can tell me if I'm getting this right, then."

[hey35andholding]

"Sure," she says. "Lay it on me."

[a1enzo]

"Well, I know storms can cause power outages. Is it always 'cause of the lightning, or anything else?"

[hey35andholding]

"Nope," she says. "A lot of different things can take out the power; branches going through lines or cars backing into poles, for instance."

[a1enzo]

"Okay. So if it's a storm, the wind could knock down a branch?"

[hey35andholding]

"If it's strong enough." She has to ask "Where is all of this going?"

[a1enzo]

"Just trying to give everyone an idea what would make a lot of systems go down all at once. Not like we can do anything about it, but knowing's still good."

[hey35andholding]

"That's my little green virus defender," she smirks. They do say knowing is half the battle - at what point Clem's failed the battle...