WARNING: A buuunch of computer crap/jargon that may or not make sense to readers.
I'm putting together all my computer sense/friend's knowledge plus old timey technology. I used to research nanotechnology, so I have some idea...but to be honest, I don't know when Maxxis™ light boards were invented (I had experience with them in a theatre in the Philippines), and the OS' mentioned might have an altered timeline―considering I keep forgetting what years the show took place in anyways. I half based everything off of the beginning of 'Change of Heart' anyways.
No one might care anyways, but there's that for those who do and might bitch about how stupid I am with computers.
All corrections/tips with some of the computer crap I put up is appreciated, if not, just skip it! I urge those who don't understand much of technology to skip it anyways! I attempt at realistic portrayals of their relationship/conversations.
Enjoy!
―Vera
Ingrid Kruger was happy―a feeling she hadn't truly experienced in years.
Not Minx, the professional heart breaker and female mirror of Riot, just Ingrid. Well, at least she felt like Ingrid on the inside. Ingrid. Eugh.
The reason she left that name was for how nerdy it sounded, because she was only a starlet in a big celebrity world...a world that she realized never noticed you until you went for it yourself. With the gorgeous looks she was blessed with and the bright clothing she wore in parallel to the rest of the Stingers' attire.
But right here, along Techrat, talking about nothing but the endless supply of technology and all of it worth talking about―Minx wanted to stay here, hide her assets with long coats and sweaters, put on a pair of glasses, and stay inside Techrat's garage forever.
But she couldn't do that.
And she knew it.
"So...tell me about the newest lightboards that might come out..." She said, shaking herself away from her bittersweet thoughts as she caught Techrat's attention away from fixing a broken headphone.
He looked up blankly at her, and replied with a flat voice, "What have you heard?"
She smiled at him, though he rarely smiled back, at least when they were with Eric, who was on the phone some distance behind them. She took great comfort in him, and he would never know. She knew Riot would be mortified of the type she had chosen this time, she was the vixen who could manipulate any man and have them kiss her shoes in pure adoration, but she had instead chosen the humble, introvert handy techman. She felt her smile deepen as she thought of it like a revolution.
"I've heard of Maxxis lightboards starting to come into play in the market. Saying they'd make a lot of controls based off direct commands executed through a computer screen." She said and almost snorted at the prospect. Pff, computers? Running the functions of a lightboard? Maybe in year 3052.
And it seemed that Techrat shared her opinions. He gave a small smile and the breath of a smile as he turned back to the headphone, in pieces that were poked and prodded by the tweezers in Techrat's hand.
"Crazy, isn't it?" He asked her with faint amusement.
She could tolerate his emotionless, but really hated it. And it was all Eric's fault. She whipped her head around, her gaze falling on Eric, his back to her as he sat on some make-shift comforter, compiled with random pillows and stuffing, and a few spring coils sticking out of the back. Sometimes, it amazed her how Techrat could build super computers within a night, but have the lack of talent to build a simple couch.
She sighed as she turned back, putting her chin in her palm as she rested her palm on the table that wasn't cluttered with random headphone pieces and light keys. She hoped Eric would leave soon.
"Eric!" Techrat called, rather loudly and uncharacteristic for his natural demeanor, turning around in his swivel chair and meeting Eric's back with a stern gaze. Eric faintly heard his name called out and turned, with little concern. 'Important call!' he mouthed to Techrat.
Minx watched this curiously. What sparked this sudden outburst of an introvert like him?
"Take your phone call outside, you're disturbing my work." He said firmly, and Eric nodded and waved his hand around, as if he were swatting a fly, before getting up and leaving the room.
Leaving Techrat and 'Ingrid' alone...
"There." He said simply as he dropped his tweezers in the middle of the tiny junk pieces and leaned on the table, turning to Ingrid. "I suppose you wanted my opinion on the newer lightboards or computational devices..."
Minx's heart fluttered with joy as she came to a new prospect. Techrat made Eric leave, for her! So they could spend time together without the social standards Techrat was obligated to follow. And Ingrid, but with the personality she developed as Minx...the word 'standard' became obsolete. "Yes, but how about computers for a change?" She asked him happily.
He gave her a full-hearted smile, a happy grin that made her stomach twist with joy and...it made her mind hurl itself against her cranium...she was not a school girl, she was a professional musician, she was a hot, sexy model and singer, her hard work was not geared towards finding one guy that would make her weak...but secretly, she had been waiting for that her whole life.
He talked with much more ease now that they were the only people that remained, "Computers are starting to become an important investment." He nodded. "I believe in their potential to become reduced size and more efficient in holding more data."
"Ah, so you support Moore's Law?" She asked with cautious interest.
"Yes, at least computers nowadays have become much less weight and space. We should have started stacking circuits and cones on top of the silicon chips years ago." He said and crossed his arms, leaning back into his chair.
She sighed, "But you really don't expect Moore's Law to take off that far, right? Please look at the IBM devices and the Commodores and tell me you are joking." She raised an eyebrow and straightened her back. This would end in an argument, she knew it, even though they had never been in an argument yet. "It was a given that silicon chips could only be engraved with light through Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopes, the circuits built on top of them would become obsolete without the light engravings, what if we took in devices through Acetate or Carbon sheets. Carbon could easily be manipulated, making it smaller and thinner than silicon chips tenfold."
But instead of the fight she envisioned, she was given a contemplative nod as Techrat's lips turned to a sarcastic frown that said, 'I'll check it out'. And check what out? Her hypothesis? She inwardly screamed with glee, no one had taken in her opinions before.
"It's an interesting thought, but I believe that while we have an abundance of silicon, we use it. There is hardly any test data on Acetate sheets, and I know that Carbon is highly toxic, until we can find another use to make it safer, I doubt we'd find a way to study it. Though research in fullerenes is starting to spark an interest." He said and then shook his head. "I don't believe we should worry about Silicon just yet, Minx―"
"Ingrid." She blurt out impulsively.
Except she didn't mean to say it aloud, something clashed within her mind from him calling her Minx, and she had to say it without hesitating with it in mind yet.
He looked up at her with an eyebrow raised as she covered her mouth with fingers that were adorned with multiple rings.
"I mean, in...valid...that we shouldn't worry about Silicon!" She said and urged so desperately to turn away from him and bury her head in her hands in embarrassment.
Wasn't this a site to see? The vixen that could use and abuse men, chew on them like they were bubble gum, and could throw away the same men, once again like throwing away a bubble gum wrapper, was nervous and couldn't find the right way to control her thoughts around Techrat.
She hoped that Techrat would take her pathetic excuse of a cover up as a fault of her thick, German accent and would delve back into their topic.
But he was never one to play along.
"Ingrid?" He asked with utter confusion. While she was thinking of how to tell him how bad her name was, he came up with the answer before her. "Is that your name?"
"Unfortunately..." She said and shook her head, looking down at the clasped hands in her lap.
"Unfortunately? I think it's beautiful." He said, giving her a shy smile. Her lips mirrored his smile.
"Thank you." She said, almost blushing. She shook her head. "Unfitting for the Misfits' kind of thing."
"Why?" He asked innocently.
"Listen to it. Ingrid." She said and rolled her eyes. "It is not fit for something like showbiz, and I know Riot would laugh at it. And Rapture too."
"I'm hardly sure that Jem is either, yet it's all the rage now." He scoffed. "You'd have to give the music world some trust."
She shyly nodded, not wanting to say more. He decided to pick up their conversation before they became completely silent.
"Is there anything else I should know? That I don't know about you?" He asked curiously, with a wry grin.
Minx could hardly resist a smile back to him. "Only all you can find about me on magazines and the spoken word."
"I'm sure you have some secrets up your sleeve, Ingrid." He said with an underlying tone of seductiveness. She raised her eyebrows and gave him a sultry look. Oh she loved this side of him. A side she only saw in him.
"Oh I'll be sure to hide them extra well, in places I'm sure you won't look." She said and winked.
"Are you sure about that?" He asked. "I will be searching thoroughly."
And he flashed her a grin with eyes alight with the atmosphere of flirting, that she blushed blood red.
Her Minx-side wanted to grab his face and drive her lips against his, until she felt ravaged by his hands and breathless and satisfied by him.
But she was shy, nervous, and calm in front of him. It made her wonder why on Earth she would become such a different person around him.
And they kept that gaze, so full of many meanings and interpretations of what was happening every second between them. It was a peaceful, luscious air between them, both seeing the underlying seductive energy that filled over the brim of their silent tension.
But alas, all good things are to be ruined.
"Hey Minx, your golden gang is waiting outside for you. Hurry up, he's scaring the associates in the lobby." Eric's voice rang with a pierce, firm tone.
Minx looked back at Eric, or where he was standing to call out for her before he left, then to Techrat, who shared a similar look of sorrow at her departure.
"I suppose this is farewell for now." She said grimly. He nodded, and she began to walk away from him.
He called back one last moment―
"But you'll have to come Friday to see my revolutionary 2 megabyte data card." He said, a wry grin pushing at his face.
Minx immediately swirled around, giving him an incredulous look on her face, as her body went slack with pure shock.
After a full minute of trying to recover her composure, she cleared her throat and nodded, putting a hand at her hips.
"I see." She said quietly. "If it's silicon, I will consider that night a cheap date."
And she left with the last word, her walk and gait returning to the haughty persona she took on in public and to her band mates.
"You'll always have a different opinion." He said, chuckling to himself before tossing the tweezers in the air and catching them, returning to his work.