RPGWW

by **Idran1701** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 2:48 pm

Though his current state has changed things a little, Sam's never had much interest in the inner workings of computers. As such, he finds it hard to concentrate on Mr. McSweeny's lecture, as his eyes keep drifting over to that new empty chair. He's had a lot of fun the last few days playing with the other Wunderkind, and even practicing with them a little, and the unformatted area's given him many opportunities to explore, but he figured that for a good long while it'd just be the nine of them as Wunderkind. The idea that so soon they might have another is hard for Sam not to think about, and despite all his efforts at learning what his teacher's trying to teach, he keeps coming around to wondering what a new kid might be like. It might even be Thirteen, but he doesn't think that's very likely at all.

When Mr. McSweeny asks for questions, Sam gets a little worried, until he notices he's asking for them, not giving them. Barely having registered the lesson, he doesn't have much to ask, so he simply sits quietly, doing his best to minimize fidgets and still hoping that he won't be called upon about any of this stuff.

by **Besyanteo** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 3:45 pm

Unlike Sam, Enzo lived for this stuff lately. Programming seemed like it was The Thing to learn, now that he was Wunderkind and lived as sentient data. Enzo Raised his hand, but didn't actually wait to be called on, a bit too excited.

"When will we be learning about file creation and deletion? Or transferring data from our personal drives to the Database? Or maybe networked computers and devices we might be cleared for access to?"

He was fairly vibrating in his seat, keeping detailed text files and hanging on the digital professor's every monotonous word. See, to Enzo at least, while it wasn't quite the real deal, programming had the potential to be for him the closest he would ever get to using Magic in the world he and the others lived in.

by **NebulaQueen** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 4:44 pm

That empty desk didn't escape Silvie's attention. In fact, it had been bugging her for a bit, especially when she remembered that weird Thirteen girl. She didn't think she was going to pop up in class or anything, but why would there be an empty desk unless they were getting a new student or something? Wasn't it a bit early for that?

"Uh...I have a question, too," she interrupted, as her hand shot straight up. "Why's there another desk?"

by **Shinigori V2** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 5:07 pm

McSweeny nods to both children as they ask their questions. "We'll get to it in time, Enzo. Once the lesson plan is programmed in, you'll know."

He turns his attention to Silvie, now. "And that...You will find out after lunch. Speaking of that, it's about that time. One hour for lunch, children."

With that, McSweeny disappears, leaving them for whatever digital lunch they decide they want that day.

by **NebulaQueen** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:51 pm

"Hey!"

Silvie's mouth gaped open before she snapped it shut and glared at the spot where McSweeny disappeared from. She hmphed to herself, and, arms crossed, said, "That was a pretty cheap move."

by **BrainWalker** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 10:39 am

Max leaned back in his chair and stretched out his arms. "Thank god he finally stopped talking." Being one of the three teenagers in the group, a lot of the material that had been covered in class in the couple days since the mission had been painfully boring. Mr. McSweeny's relentless monotone certainly didn't help. At this point, even when he was covering something moderately interesting like computer science, it was difficult to pay attention. Max had actually downloaded a little applet for an oldschool falling-blocks style puzzle game, which he projected on his desk, to break up the monotony. Too bad he got caught with it yesterday.

Still leaning back, Max stared at the ceiling and thought about places he'd rather be. The day after the mission, he and his sister and a couple of the other kids had arranged a little expedition to the 'Great Outdoors' after class. Although they didn't uncover any great mysteries, they all had a good time. They found out that in addition to weather, it also has a day/night cycle. It feels so much like the "real" world, it's amazing. Even the water feels just like it should. If it weren't for the weird wireframe animal population, it might be easy to forget they were still in the database.

Max wondered when they were going to finally get out of the digital realm.

Max sat back upright, and looked around the room. "So, anyone got any plans for lunch?" He's not even sure why they have lunch. A break was certainly welcome, but why call it lunch? It's not like they need nourishment. Although he did miss the taste a real cheeseburger. Or curry from that place just down the street from his old apartment.

Dammit. Now he was hungry and nostalgic.

by **Christian** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 10:54 am

Alexis, being unfortunately one of the kids who held back the others, really spent most of the classes absorbing as much information as she could. If anything, she was the one taking the most notes, listening intently to every word said by Mr. McSweeny and seemed completely pooped after every class. At the pace they were going, had they all not had supercomputers for brains, she would've hit the wall and crashed & burned. As it was, she was steadily working her way through the curriculum, at the expense of becoming rather distant.

So, when Mr. McSweeny announced lunchbreak, she did what she always did. Brought out her lunchbox (discreetly mono-green) and took out the sandwich, hot chocolate and milk-carton that she prepared for more or less every morning. Although only data, unable to satiate any real hunger, she'd taken to the small kitchen available to the children happily and although her meals were pretty basic, she prepared them carefully every morning.

So, although she was pretty curious who the new student would be, she didn't let that stop her from digging into her lunch.

by **Shinigori V2** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:28 pm

"Well..." Janet says, opening her box and pulling out a container of soup, "It's way too early for it to be a new student. Maybe there's some..Activity or something?"

She takes a sip of her soup and frowns. "I know we're supposed to taste it, but every time I try the soup, it's like...I don't know. Off. I'd kill for some real food."

by **Idran1701** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:33 pm

"What kinda activity?" Sam takes his own lunch out, a simple brown paper bag with his name written on it in unfamiliar handwriting and a small metal thermos of orange juice, same as every day so far. He empties it out on his desk; a tuna sandwich in a baggie, a small bag of chips, and an apple. "If it's not a new kid, why else would they need a new desk? Oh! D'you think maybe it messed up and just put a new desk there for no reason? Maybe it was just an accident or something weird like that. Or 's that what you mean?"

by **NebulaQueen** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 3:44 pm

"An activity? Maybe...it could be like a game or something."

Silvie was still grumpy about not being answered, though. She plopped her bright red lunchbox on her desk, and pulled out some rather...unusual items for lunch. Root beer, a slice of birthday cake with confetti sprinkles, and..wait, was that an ice cream sundae?

by **Shinigori V2** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:13 pm

"It might be a coding error today or something..." Janet says, before looking awkwardly towards Silvie's 'meal'. "Um...Should you be...eating that?"

by **NebulaQueen** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:39 pm

"If it was an error, than the teacher would've said something," she pointed out. "And why not? We can eat whatever we want, can't we?"

by **Idran1701** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:47 pm

Sam looks at Silvie's "lunch" oddly. "I guess, yeah...but what if eating all that and nothing else gives you a stomach ache? D'you know if you can't get those here? That's what my mom used to say about eating too much dessert."

by **Animala** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:39 pm

Lauren hadn't been paying too much attention to the class: it was all stuff she'd learned before. She'd mostly been thinking about their encounter with Thirteen, and specifically about how she could go about getting some theme music of her own. Maybe a small remotely controlled speaker as a distraction.... And when that failed, she'd pick a random number and try to find something interesting about it. So far she'd been pretty successful: even with the much larger numbers she could now easily handle, she'd still been able to find something interesting about every one. She was beginning to wonder if she'd ever find an uninteresting number. Now that would be something to get excited about.

When lunch was called, Lauren pulled out her peanut butter and jelly sandwich (with the crusts cut off) and looked at Silvie's meal with appreciation and envy. "Man, I wish I had thought of that!"

She took a bite of her sandwich and grinned. "I bet the new desk is for Robert. He'll be the world's smartest cat and fight cybercrime!"

by **Kelne** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 7:54 am

Emily had been paying a moderate amount of attention; most of what had been mentioned was fairly straightforward, if not familiar, but actually living inside a computer gave it a whole new relevance to her. A decent working knowledge of programming was going to be very important for her future, and she had been making the occasional note, mostly about topics to follow up on.

Still, getting a break was a relief. McSweeny's teaching style was a bit, well, dry would be a charitable description. One potential motivation for learning programming would be to tweak his personality a bit. Then again, giving students the aility to tweak a teacher's personality was... Well, foxes and henhouses. But a girl could dream, right?

Dismissing these thoughts, Emily opened up her lunch. Technically, they might not need to eat, but it was one of those human routines, and why fight it? She'd gone with sandwiches, fruit and chocolate milk, feeling that pigging out on junk food would just be wrong somehow. Sure, there was no such thing as tooth decay here, or any of the other dire fates her parents had threatened her with growing up, but the attitudes had become ingrained.

"Maybe it's for somebody from the outside?" she suggested, "You know, like an exchange student? Spend a year in the exotic virtual realities. Memories that'll last a lifetime." The theory was, of course, total bunk, but it was a fun one.

by **NebulaQueen** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:37 am

"Nah, I like what Lauren said better. He could be like...Cyber Bob! Cat of Justice, chasing down Digi-Rats! That's neater than a bunch of tourists."

Silvie grinned at them before she looked back at Sam. "Anyways," she said, in between bites of sweets, "we aren't really <i>eating</i> it, are we? We're just tasting dessert flavored data-bites. I'll be fine!"

by **BrainWalker** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 2:14 pm

"Yep. No calories, half the flavor! It's like Lite Everything in here." Max was a little irritated. Partially because there was no physical reason to be eating but everyone was doing it anyway, and partly because, with everyone else having brought lunch, he was feeling a little left out, and more little nostalgic for some real food. He was hoping someone would be eager to forget psuedofood and go... do something, other than sitting in these desks for another hour.

Well, at least Sylvie sort of had the right idea... closer than anyone else, anyway. He took a look at her 'lunch,' and gave it a half-hearted chuckle. "But if there's no harm or benefit from it, I guess there's no reason not to go all out."

Mabye he'll start bringing lunch again tomorrow.

Max gets up out of his desk and does some standing stretches. It's not like his butt gets tired here in digispace, but it feels better to be moving around.

by **NebulaQueen** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 5:56 pm

"It's not that bad," she muttered. "Hey, why don't you try some of this, Max? It's real good, I promise."

by **Spleen** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 9:35 pm

"Still better than orphanage food," Darren pointed out through a mouthful of his second cheeseburger. He swallowed hard, then addressed Janet. "An' anyway, all real food would do would be to get all over the chips and wires 'n' stuff and mess this whole place up. I hope they keep real food way far away from us, know what I'm sayin'?" He started laughing at his own joke, bits of digital cheeseburger visible between his teeth.

"What I wanna know is when they're gonna let us get in our new bodies. I'm ready for that." He nodded, sagely, picking his teeth with his pinkie nail.

by **Shinigori V2** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:16 pm

The children continue to chat while the eat, and suddenly, the 'intercom' pipes up again, indicating that someone in the 'real world' is about to speak to them.

"Hey, kids." Rivendare says cheerfully. "How's lunch? You all having a good day so far?"

by **BrainWalker** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:31 pm

Max was contemplating taking Sylvie up on her offer when the bossman piped in. He considered responding, but figured that since he hadn't actually brought any lunch, it would be difficult for him to answer the question 'how's lunch?' truthfully. Besides, someone else was sure to respond imminently. For now, he was content to let the conversation start elsewhere.

He leans a little towards Sylvie, and whispers "Could I get a bite of that cake?"

by **Idran1701** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:45 pm

"I dunno...that still doesn't seem like a real lunch. And besides, stuff besides a bunch of sweet stuff tastes good too! An' yeah this stuff doesn't taste the same as real, but it doesn't taste bad either. Just different." Nodding to himself, Sam looks up at the intercom with Rivendare's voice crackles to life.

"Lunch is good! And yeah, today's been real good so far!" Looking again to the new desk, Sam thinks for a short bit whether he should or not, but throwing caution to the wind, he continues. "Um...do you know how come there's a new desk here, Mr. Rivendare?"

by **NebulaQueen** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:57 pm

Silvie nodded silently to Max and passed over the plate and fork. After that, she turned her attention to Sam and Rivendare. She really wanted to know what he had to say about it.

by **Shinigori V2** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 11:02 pm

Mission: 02- Subhuman.
Deck City: The Database: Classroom.
June 15, 3756.
12:20

"Well, I was about to get to that." Rivendare says. "We've got a new addition to the family."

As he speaks, the classroom door opens. A girl walks in, and to some, she's...Passingly familiar. They've seen her before, but can't place where, yet. She's a little shorter than the others, and her uniform is green, with orange highlights. She walks to the front of the class and crosses her arms, looking disgruntled.

What catches a lot of the children's attention, though, is her features. Her ears are unlike any humans they've ever seen, sticking roughly six inches out from her head and coming to a very noticable, if rounded, point. Her hair is naturally two-toned, white in the front and black in the back. And her skin...Her skin is unnaturally white. Almost bleached. And then Rivendare speaks, reminding some where they've seen the passing resemblance.

"This is Kidritta Osbourne...I'm sure some of you know about her. She was digitized just yesterday and has been training since. Remember, she's not from around here, and is still adjusting to her new world, so...Try to take it easy on her, okay? I'll let you guys talk for a bit, and then..I've got a mission for you! So...Settle in a bit, and just relax. School's out for the day, so just get to know your new sister."

And with that, he cuts out, leaving Kidritta at the front of the room, glaring lightly at the bunch.

Silvie, Max

Spoiler:

by **NebulaQueen** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 11:20 pm

Silvie just gaped at Kidritta, and looked less like a girl or a robot and more like a highly advanced fish. After the momentary shock wore off (and was replaced with a stronger sense of confusion), she gave the new girl a nervous, almost fake smile.

"Uh, hello...new kid. Sorry, there's something I gotta ask Rivendare reeeeally quick."

And with that, she stood up, and rushed to the door.

by **BrainWalker** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 11:24 pm

Max takes a bite of the cake as he listens to Sam and Rivendare talk. You know, it's not the best cake he's ever had, but it's actually not too bad.

And then the freak show walks in... What? Kidritta Osbourne? No freaking way.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. No offense, chief, but I've seen Ninja Surfer Kids 2 through 5, and there's seriously no way miss goth elf chick here is Kidritta Osbourne."

Max crosses his arms. "And if she was only digitized yesterday, why is she already in class instead of having to go through months of training like the rest of us? One day hardly seems fair."

You don't tell a guy he's going to meet an actress he's a fan of and then bring out some punk bleecher chick instead.

by **Shinigori V2** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 11:36 pm

"'Nit fir, izzit?" 'Kidritta' says. "Nit fir'z ben tirnd int' i frick lok th' rista yo, an' werin' me pents on th' itsid, an' ben a lev'n kempewtir!"

She glares harder, and raises a fist to Max. "N hew'r yew callin' a gith ilf! E firget m'r arsekckn th'n y' 'vr kniw!"

Max:

Spoiler:

by **BrainWalker** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 11:43 pm

At this onslaught of gibberish, Max can only stare, and blink. After a moment, an eyebrow is raised.

"I'm sorry, what? Were those words? I think I might have heard a couple in there, but I can't be sure."

by **Shinigori V2** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 11:48 pm

That just serves to infuriate "Kidritta" further, as her eyes flare, and..She begins to cough.

As she does, Rivendare pipes up again. "Erm...Her linguistic programming is acting up a bit. Just a second."

After a series of violent coughs, she seems to clear her throat. "Ay says, who's yer kallen a geth elf?! Ay'll keck yer bitt!"

by **BrainWalker** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 11:57 pm

"Okay, that's a little better." Max gestures as if he's offering his next point in the palm of his hand. "But, really, I think it's pretty clear there's only one person in this room who even comes close to fitting the description of a 'geth ilf'."

by **Spleen** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 1:33 am

"I don' get it," Darren declared. "Who's she supposed to be? Somebody famous or somethin'?" Darren looked heavily skeptical, and crossed his arms to bring attention to this fact.

by **Kelne** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 1:50 am

Emily rolled her eyes at the borderline antagonism of the others and resolved that somebody ought to be welcoming.

"Emily Hasting," she said, extending a hand to the girl, "Welcome aboard." She didn't really share Max's enthusiasm for the Ninja Surfer movies, but wasn't about to hold Kidritta's connection with the franchise against her.

by **Christian** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:16 am

The name made a brief connection with the article they'd gotten just a few days ago, her digital mind remembering it, but she'd never seen one of the films, so this was her first time seeing Kidritta, and with how things were going, she felt like Emily. It wasn't exactly easy being a new person. So she shuffled up next to Emily and nodded shyly, "H-Hi, I'm Alexis..." she half-whispered, trying a smile. "A-are you a movie-star?" She shot a few nervous glances at Max. She hadn't seemed him acting like that before, and it made her uncomfortable. If he was such a big fan of this... uhh... Ninja Surfer Kids, shouldn't he be excited that she was here?

And besides, those ears were kind of cool. She wondered if the girl had always secretly wished to be an elf, or something...

by **Idran1701** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 2:48 pm

"Wow! Hi, I'm Sam." Similarly impressed, Sam waves at her, never having expected someone famous to be coming here. Of course, he's never heard of her before the news article either, but that doesn't make it any less amazing to him. And the fact that she apparently finished training so fast only adds to it. "Are you from the Deck too? What'd you train to do? I'm an archer! And yeah, are you really a movie star? That's so cool! Oh wow, how's your hair doing that? It looks really neat, is that how it looked outside too?"

by **Shinigori V2** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 2:59 pm

Kidritta looks wearily at Emily's hand, before taking it for only the quickest of shakes, before pulling back and wiping it on her leg. "...Ye, ey wos a movie stir, 'fir ey got bet en helf be a sherk. New ey'm here en weth yer."

She frowned at Sam, and tussled her own hair. "Et's jes' th' wey m' har es, elret? Lev et alen!"

Max:

Spoiler:

by **Christian** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 3:06 pm

Alexis smiled faded a bit at the rude behaviour of the new girl. Well, maybe... maybe she was just... unused to other kids! Yeah, that must be it. And nervous, especially since she was the new kid... "A-a shark?" her eyes widen, "A shark bit you in two? D-Did it hurt? Is that why you're here? Did they tell you you were going to be a wunderkind when they took you in? It must've sounded really weird."

Usually, Alexis wasn't so talkative, but having a new kid showing up, not to mention a moviestar, with really cool and weird hair and ears, was pretty neat. Besides, she shot a glance at Sam, he seemed even more excited about this.

by **Idran1701** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 3:07 pm

Though about to say something about what happened to bring her here, Sam closes his mouth, not able to think of anything that wouldn't probably sound dumb to her. Instead, he just shakes his head at her last reaction, frowning. "No, I was saying it looks neat, not bad! It's really cool-looking."

by **Shinigori V2** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 3:29 pm

Kidritta calms down for a moment, tugging at her ear nervously, and lowering her voice so that only Sam and Alexis can hear her. "Hey, um...Can I ask you guys a question? ...What is this place, really? And what are we?"

by **Idran1701** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 3:36 pm

"...Oh, um..." Lowering his own voice, Sam looks at her with sympathy. "I guess they didn't really have time to tell you about all this. Um...we're in a computer right now. Some of us got real hurt, like you, an' some of us were in the orphanage, like me, an' so we got changed into a computer program, an' we're all called Wunderkind. This place is the Database, it's where we live an' where they train us an' stuff. Right now we're still learning, but when we're done, they're gonna give us robot bodies so we can do stuff in the real world to help protect people and do stuff too dangerous for people that aren't robots. It's kinda scary at first, but it's okay, we'll all be here to help you. Mr. Rivendare said it's kinda like we're all part of a big family now, an' we're all brothers an' sisters."

by **BrainWalker** » Thu Aug 20, 2009 3:44 pm

As Rivendare goes silent and the impostor starts whispering, Max's annoyance grows. Ignoring an irate teenager is not a good way to win them over.

Max folds his arms again. Sure, getting eaten by a shark sounds like a plausible accident on the set of a movie about surfing, but anyone attempting to impersonate a celebrity would surely be up to date on their current projects. But then, if someone was trying to impersonate Kidritta, how could they possibly be doing such a terrible job of it? This situation just doesn't make any sense.

Max addresses Rivendare as directly as one can address a disembodied voice from an unidentifiable source. "Okay, bossman. If we're all going to get along and play nice, I'm going to need a couple questions answered. One, if I'm supposed to believe whitey here is Kidritta Osbourne, how come she doesn't look anything like her, and why does she speak with that ridiculous accent? And two, if she just died a couple days ago, how is it that she's already here, and why did she only have one day of training when the rest of us had months?"

Okay, so that was more like four questions combined into two pairs. Whatever.

Actually, Max isn't entirely sure he wants to know the answer to that last pair. That's a disturbingly rapid turnaround.

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