Jessie and Doug | Laptop Woes (backdated)
Feb. 25th, 2024 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsJessie approaches one of the resident tech heads with a dead laptop and a bunch of panic. Doug is awesome. (Backdated to February 25).
Jessie was definitely not crying as she hurried through the halls, but it was a battle she was quickly losing. Her laptop had just died, and she didn't know what to do, but everyone she'd asked sent her to one person. Hopefully she was knocking on the right door because she launched into talking as soon as it opened.
"HiI'msosorrytobotheryoubutmylaptopkeepsshuttingitselfdownandIdon'tknowwhattodo, andeveryonesaidyou'rethepersontoask so helpplease?"
Doug blinked at the wall of words that came from the young lady at his door. Thankfully, whether it was his power or just experience, he was proficient at translating 'so anxious all the words smash together'. "Yep, I'm your huckleberry," he drawled, somewhat recognizing his visitor from around the mansion and interactions on the journals. And he knew from the texting after the attack on District X that Jessie spoke 'meme' about as well as he did, so he figured familiar ground might help her calm a bit and slow down. "The IT monkey is in. Let's see what we're working with."
Jessie smiled a small, relieved smile, wiping her eyes as she followed. "It's Doug, right? We talked on the phone? Sorry I'm awful with names." Especially when she was panicking.
"Talked on the phone, texted a bit, you introduced yourself on the journals, all that jazz." Even without the ability to read body language, Doug would have been able to see how much Jessie was panicking. "Deep breaths. Roll your shoulders," he instructed her gently as he waved her toward a chair. "Absolute worst case, if it's bricked, we can replace it. And even if it's bricked, we can get data off the drives, either by my leet hacker skilz or by sweet-talking a technopath."
"I - wait." Jessie tilted her head. "How would that... work. Does the technopath like, convince the data to move from one drive to another?"
Doug shook his head slowly. "You know what I don't do?" he asked, rhetorically, because he didn't give Jessie any time to even answer before providing the reply. "Ask questions. Because -that- is how you get answers. And the answers don't make any dang sense, and then you just have more questions." He honestly had no idea how Darcy's power worked, even given how much the friendos liked her.
"Good point," she said with a sage nod, starting to calm down a little. There were options. She wasn't sure she could afford a new laptop at the moment, but having the ability to save data off of it would be good no matter what.
"So how are you settling in?" Doug asked Jessie as he plugged in the computer and began troubleshooting. "Seems like you're getting on really well with your roommate?" She and Ashley seemed like the fastest of friends, as far as Doug could tell.
"It's really great here!" Jessie said enthusiastically. "Ashley is awesome, and the laundry is free!" No, she still wasn't over that. "It all kind of feels too good to be true."
Doug chuckled under his breath as he reached into a drawer to pull out a different laptop. "This probably isn't going to help that, then, is it." He set the computer on the desk and pushed it over toward Jessie. "Even if I'm able to get yours booted up, which I'd put at not great odds, it'll probably take a little bit. This should be a bit of an upgrade, plus it's a bit more beefed up security wise." He'd just skate over -why- the extra security was necessary for the moment...
Jessie looked at it, then at Doug, raising an eyebrow. "Sure, what's the catch?"
"No catch." Doug could see the hesitance to trust, the unconscious waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it made his heart ache for the teen. Her energy reminded him of his own teen years at times. "The Professor comes from old money," he told Jessie, waving a hand to indicate the mansion around them, "and we've got a few other wealthy folks associated with the place who give back to help keep it all running." Between Warren, Emma, and the Professor, some days he was surprised they hadn't bought out a small country yet.
"I mean sure, but-" Jessie looked around the room, trying to find words. "Look I think it's really cool what the professor is doing here, I dig communal living, all that's missing is a few cows." She had seen the chickens. "And obviously he's not like, Elon Musk or He Of The Orange Variety or other terrible rich people. But nobody just gives anything for nothing."
The hesitance, the anxiety, the disbelief and expectation of it all to be yanked out from under her - Doug could read it in Jessie's body language. She wouldn't be the first resident of the mansion to arrive and not trust the good intentions of the people around her. It always made Doug want to go out and pound on the assholes who had cultivated that distrust, taken a kind, bubbly person and given them reason to fear. But it wouldn't solve anything, and just be about Doug rather than Jessie, and if he kept telling himself that he wouldn't go out and use the internet for evil. "It's not giving away for nothing," he said gently. "I mean, not to go full Karl Marx, but 'from each according to their ability, to each according to their need' is kinda how it tends to work around here. Everyone here has things that they do to contribute - Kyle teaches kids, for example. People who enjoy cooking help make food for other folks, and so on."
"What if I'm not good at anything helpful?" Sure, she knew a lot about being queer and the queer community and so on, but what good was that?
"It's not about being good at things," Doug corrected gently. "You don't have to have some valuable skill to 'earn' your place around here. You have value just by being you." In some ways, Doug was just paying forward the opportunity that had been given to him those twenty years ago, the opportunity to grow and learn and find his place in the scheme of things. "You're a kind person who wanted to be sure that people you'd only met a few times were going to be okay. If I didn't know anything else about you, that'd be enough," he assured Jessie.
Jessie looked at the laptop, then at Doug, and smiled. "Cool. Really, that's... that's cool. Thank you."
Jessie was definitely not crying as she hurried through the halls, but it was a battle she was quickly losing. Her laptop had just died, and she didn't know what to do, but everyone she'd asked sent her to one person. Hopefully she was knocking on the right door because she launched into talking as soon as it opened.
"HiI'msosorrytobotheryoubutmylaptopkeepsshuttingitselfdownandIdon'tknowwhattodo, andeveryonesaidyou'rethepersontoask so helpplease?"
Doug blinked at the wall of words that came from the young lady at his door. Thankfully, whether it was his power or just experience, he was proficient at translating 'so anxious all the words smash together'. "Yep, I'm your huckleberry," he drawled, somewhat recognizing his visitor from around the mansion and interactions on the journals. And he knew from the texting after the attack on District X that Jessie spoke 'meme' about as well as he did, so he figured familiar ground might help her calm a bit and slow down. "The IT monkey is in. Let's see what we're working with."
Jessie smiled a small, relieved smile, wiping her eyes as she followed. "It's Doug, right? We talked on the phone? Sorry I'm awful with names." Especially when she was panicking.
"Talked on the phone, texted a bit, you introduced yourself on the journals, all that jazz." Even without the ability to read body language, Doug would have been able to see how much Jessie was panicking. "Deep breaths. Roll your shoulders," he instructed her gently as he waved her toward a chair. "Absolute worst case, if it's bricked, we can replace it. And even if it's bricked, we can get data off the drives, either by my leet hacker skilz or by sweet-talking a technopath."
"I - wait." Jessie tilted her head. "How would that... work. Does the technopath like, convince the data to move from one drive to another?"
Doug shook his head slowly. "You know what I don't do?" he asked, rhetorically, because he didn't give Jessie any time to even answer before providing the reply. "Ask questions. Because -that- is how you get answers. And the answers don't make any dang sense, and then you just have more questions." He honestly had no idea how Darcy's power worked, even given how much the friendos liked her.
"Good point," she said with a sage nod, starting to calm down a little. There were options. She wasn't sure she could afford a new laptop at the moment, but having the ability to save data off of it would be good no matter what.
"So how are you settling in?" Doug asked Jessie as he plugged in the computer and began troubleshooting. "Seems like you're getting on really well with your roommate?" She and Ashley seemed like the fastest of friends, as far as Doug could tell.
"It's really great here!" Jessie said enthusiastically. "Ashley is awesome, and the laundry is free!" No, she still wasn't over that. "It all kind of feels too good to be true."
Doug chuckled under his breath as he reached into a drawer to pull out a different laptop. "This probably isn't going to help that, then, is it." He set the computer on the desk and pushed it over toward Jessie. "Even if I'm able to get yours booted up, which I'd put at not great odds, it'll probably take a little bit. This should be a bit of an upgrade, plus it's a bit more beefed up security wise." He'd just skate over -why- the extra security was necessary for the moment...
Jessie looked at it, then at Doug, raising an eyebrow. "Sure, what's the catch?"
"No catch." Doug could see the hesitance to trust, the unconscious waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it made his heart ache for the teen. Her energy reminded him of his own teen years at times. "The Professor comes from old money," he told Jessie, waving a hand to indicate the mansion around them, "and we've got a few other wealthy folks associated with the place who give back to help keep it all running." Between Warren, Emma, and the Professor, some days he was surprised they hadn't bought out a small country yet.
"I mean sure, but-" Jessie looked around the room, trying to find words. "Look I think it's really cool what the professor is doing here, I dig communal living, all that's missing is a few cows." She had seen the chickens. "And obviously he's not like, Elon Musk or He Of The Orange Variety or other terrible rich people. But nobody just gives anything for nothing."
The hesitance, the anxiety, the disbelief and expectation of it all to be yanked out from under her - Doug could read it in Jessie's body language. She wouldn't be the first resident of the mansion to arrive and not trust the good intentions of the people around her. It always made Doug want to go out and pound on the assholes who had cultivated that distrust, taken a kind, bubbly person and given them reason to fear. But it wouldn't solve anything, and just be about Doug rather than Jessie, and if he kept telling himself that he wouldn't go out and use the internet for evil. "It's not giving away for nothing," he said gently. "I mean, not to go full Karl Marx, but 'from each according to their ability, to each according to their need' is kinda how it tends to work around here. Everyone here has things that they do to contribute - Kyle teaches kids, for example. People who enjoy cooking help make food for other folks, and so on."
"What if I'm not good at anything helpful?" Sure, she knew a lot about being queer and the queer community and so on, but what good was that?
"It's not about being good at things," Doug corrected gently. "You don't have to have some valuable skill to 'earn' your place around here. You have value just by being you." In some ways, Doug was just paying forward the opportunity that had been given to him those twenty years ago, the opportunity to grow and learn and find his place in the scheme of things. "You're a kind person who wanted to be sure that people you'd only met a few times were going to be okay. If I didn't know anything else about you, that'd be enough," he assured Jessie.
Jessie looked at the laptop, then at Doug, and smiled. "Cool. Really, that's... that's cool. Thank you."
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Date: 2024-09-09 07:23 am (UTC)