estoria | [closed] Tranquil as a forest...

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[closed] Tranquil as a forest...

Who: Chihiro and Soleil
When: IC 8/10
Where: Starting at the CERES Food Stop
What: Meeting up with your hero irl after a hardcore gaming session.
Rating/Warning: Probably not.

[Chihiro was early.

He pulled the CEREvice from his pocket to check the time and fiddle with some of the apps again before tucking it away a few moments later to dust some imaginary speck of dirt from the edge of his skirt. Getting situated in Cerealia had been equal parts exciting and terrifying. For all the new technology here, he absorbed new information like a sponge, though he couldn't help feeling like they were still missing a lot of key pieces to completing the puzzle.

Chihiro felt a bit guilty relying so heavily on others to help, but Soleil had offered and if she knew her way around well enough to help, he would be a fool to refuse it. He really had to think of some way to repay her kindness.]

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( She has the hardest time accepting the idea that someone like Chihiro wouldn't have many friends. She doubts Chihiro is lying or exaggerating. It makes her sad. But she is smiling again. )

Ah, there you go! That's the cute smile I was hoping to see.

( That is a good smile, but she is determined to get a better one out of him, especially after that sad comment. She holds out her free hand. )

I've been looking forward to seeing you again, too. What do you want to do first?

[Soleil seems to have a very small personal space bubble, Chihiro realized as she offered her hand. He wasn't sure where the name came from, but it definitely wasn't Japanese. Perhaps her culture was just more forward, more used to these personal displays of... friendship? Affection?

He was definitely over-thinking this.

Chihiro relaxed a bit and took the offered hand. It was warm. This was... nice. Yes. A little strange, but nice.]

I haven't been out of my apartment very much. I did find some maps of the area, and information about various locations, but it's a bit different to see it in person. Maybe we could visit a few places and then... have that tea?

( She has to contain a squeal as she feels Chihiro's tiny hand in her own. Soleil's hands are calloused from years of swordsmanship, but her grip is gentle. )

Yeah, tea! We can walk around the shopping district and go to one of the tea shops I like. In the meanwhile, you can tell me all about yourself.

( Soleil puts the chocolates under one arm and starts walking with no particular destination in mind. )

[Chihiro can't honestly say that he's ever held hands with anyone for an extended amount of time. Soleil is definitely a unique sort of person and he's sure he's lucky to get to call someone like that a friend.

When she asked about him, it was hard not to remember having this same sort of conversation with Naegi back at Hope's Peak. He'd been so interested in learning about computers and AI, it was really... nice.]

I would be very happy to see the places you are most fond of Soleil-san.

[As for talking about himself... it's always a bit difficult at first, but he tried to put the words together.]

Mm... before I was brought here, I was a student at Hope's Peak Academy. I was just starting really. U-um. It's a prestigious sort of school where they help their students refine their talents. I'm a computer programmer so... so that was my area of study.

Um, oh. Huh.

( Soleil has absolutely no idea what any of that means, so she takes a moment to respond. She hopes she doesn't disappoint Chihiro. She looks a bit embarrassed as she responds. )

Sorry, I don't...know what that is. But that means you're talented, right? I knew there was more to you than only a pretty face.

( She thinks for a moment and nods. )

You should explain what this 'computer programmer' thing is. I can't properly admire you if I'm totally clueless.

[Oh, right! Soleil had said something like that earlier, hadn't she? And now that he'd been in the actual world a bit, it was obvious that people came from a lot of different places, some much more advanced than others, and some with incredibly different forms of technology. He fumbled for his Cerevice with his free hand and woke up the screen.]

Oh- ah... I'm sorry, I should've explained it better. Hope's peak is... well it's a special school. You're only able to go if you're invited. They recognize the... "Ultimate" student in many fields of study. There's athletics, technical skills, and that sort of thing.

[He quickly tapped in his entry code and held up the home screen, covered in apps and different programs, most he'd modified in some way, but they were still recognizable.]

Mm. Do you ah... use your device much? It's a basic sort of computer. You can use it to talk to people or take pictures or play games, right?

[A few more taps brought him to an open coding window where he'd been working earlier. A string of letters and numbers and symbols were neatly written out, though the commands would make little sense to anyone unfamiliar with it.]

Well... ah... all of those are "programs." They're made up of a list of commands that have to be written up in a... well it's a sort of special language that the device recognizes. So that when you press a button, it knows that you want to take a picture or call your friend or... anything really.

[He seems to light up as he speaks, smile becoming more natural and voice rising a bit in pitch as he gains momentum and excitement. Even speaking about it in basic terms like this, it was easy to see how passionate about coding he was.]

So a programmer is someone who writes that special language that sort of... talks to the devices to tell them how to help people. Does that... u-um... make sense?

Hmm. I think so. It sounds like magic, but I don't have much talent at all with that, either.

( What difference is there between unintelligible gibberish on a computer and unintelligible gibberish in a book that both do things she doesn't understand? They may as well both be magic. She puts the box of chocolate under an arm so that she can pull out her Cerevice without letting go of Chihiro's hand. )

I only use this thing to talk to people and take pictures. It's really amazing, being able to talk to anyone I want at any time from anywhere! And these 'pictures' are basically instant portraits. It sure sounds like magic.

( She looks at Chihiro's Cerevice then at him. )

So, you can make something like these devices all on your own? Or make them do special things that they don't already do?

Magic?

[It's not that it's a subject he's unfamiliar with. He's played a few video games, but that sort of thing... it's not really real, right? Different worlds makes sense, but you can't just alter the way physics and logic and everything else works, right?]

Mm, I think I see what you mean. If the world you're from doesn't have that sort of technology, it would definitely seem like magic.

[As far as making the actual device...

He makes a thoughtful noise, halfway between a hum and a sigh.]

I could put one together if I had the parts, but... how can I put this... there's hardware, that's... the device itself.

[He raps lightly a couple times on the screen as if to stress his point.]

I've learned enough about how they're put together to assemble them, but it's not my specialty. I work with software. It's... the part you can't really see. Kind of like a recipe. The hardware is like the final product, a pie maybe, but it's physical ingredients, like a Cerevice. But without the recipe, the software-- instructions that explain how to make it, it's just pieces.

Different programs then are like... different recipes that produce different results. You might have apple pie, but there's also cherry or banana or lime. In the same way, you could have a program that takes ah... instant portraits, for instance, but you might have another that allows you to make alterations to the portrait, or send the portrait, make it move, a... anything you could think of.

( Soleil takes a moment to think about that. All of this is well above her understanding. She feels embarrassed about that, but also feels bad that this means she can't properly appreciate something that is obviously important about Chihiro. )

Gosh, this is hard. I...think I might get it. It's like, I know how to use a sword, but that doesn't make me a blacksmith.

( She hopes that analogy is somewhere close to what Chihiro was trying to explain about using hardware not being able to actually make it. )

Sorry, I'm not too good with this stuff. I bet you're amazing at it. I wish there were some way for me to properly appreciate it.

[He pauses, gauging her expression. Did he go too fast? She seems so confused, he probably messed it up somehow. Maybe a baking example was wrong, Soleil was definitely more of a warrior, wasn't she?

The example she gave was probably more accurate, though he only really understood swords and blacksmiths as far as they were in video games. But the analogy held, certainly.]

Don't be sorry, it's alright! It... it's not the sort of thing most people are interested in after all. I probably didn't explain it very well either.

[It was true that computers were one of the only things he could really take pride in. Being one of the Ultimates at Hope's Peak was no small accomplishment, but there were many, many other ways in which he was just... lacking.]

Maybe... maybe I could write a program for you Soleil-san? Is there something that you would like your device to be able to do? Or some way it could help you?

[It was a little presumptuous, but it was all he could think of. What would someone like Soliel even need from a computer?]

--Huh? Something to help me?

( She has seen so many amazing things that technology can do, but she can't come up with an idea of something that could help her. There must be something. Maybe if she knew more about computers... )

I don't know. I'm not a very complicated person. I love cute girls, I like going on dates, and I like getting stronger. I'm not sure if those are things a computer can help with.

( She thinks for a moment, then her face brightens as she thinks of an idea. )

Oh, I know! Why don't you just surprise me? I bet you can come up with something fun.

[He nods and listens to her list of things she likes. True, there's probably not a ton of ways he can help with those, aside from an organizer/planner to set up times to meet people or when to exercise, but Soleil seemed to have things pretty well covered.

It would take some thinking to discover something that might help her. Or, well, he'd probably need to get to know her better. A game maybe?]

Mm. That's... I'll try my best! Is there anything that you're struggling with maybe? Even a minor inconvenience. A lot of new technology is born from thinking of ideas of how to correct minor difficulties in everyday life.

Like um... one of the first programs I worked on was voice recognition. You could talk to it and it would run things for you or help you write emails or solve simple problems or even just talk if... if you wanted someone to talk to.

Oh! That sounds nice. I'm usually yelling at it when I can't figure out what to do, so if you can make it listen to me, then that could be helpful.

( If she could use this thing to take pictures and call people without having to deal with buttons and menus, then she would be set. She is too technologically incompetent. Hopefully Chihiro doesn't feel like he is on a date with someone's grandmother. It's kind of embarrassing. )

--Oh! What do you use yours for? What kind of things do you like to do with it?

Mmm. That's my specialty. I would be happy to cater something to fit your needs Soleil-san.

[A small smile lit his delicate features as he thought of ways he might use the software to assist her. It wasn't much, but he could at least do that!]

Oh... well. All sorts of things I suppose.

[How did he say... "I like to talk to mine so I don't feel so lonely because I don't have many friends," without sounding like a complete loser? There was no way.]

The speech-recognition is my favorite. I'm trying to develop a program that is advanced enough to have a conversation and process complex thoughts, like... like a person. I've been trying to use it to find out more about this place and what they're doing, how their strange game system works... so that maybe I can fix it. Make it less scary for new people.

Wow. You think you could do that? That would be amazing! And...making something like a person? Out of technology? That's even more amazing. Heh, heh, that'd make you their mom, wouldn't it?

( She has encountered robots, but the idea that someone made them never occurred to her. That Chihiro could make something remotely similar was unbelievable. )

Gosh, I feel completely one-upped. I can't do anything nearly that cool.

[The praise is a bit much and enough to make him start blushing, but the comment about him being Alter Ego's mother...

Chihiro's face seems to glow red in embarrassment. Mom?!]

U...uwawa... I... u-um...

[He shakes his head, flustered and at a loss for words. All these compliments and-]

P...please Soleil-san, you have a lot of other talents, I'm sure! You're- you're very strong and brave! I... I truly admire that about you.

Really? That makes me so happy to hear!

( Soleil beams and blushes. There is nothing more she likes than compliments from cute girls and, well, she still has no reason to assume Chihiro is anything else. )

I try my best. I want to be the ultimate warrior gal, after all. A strong, sword-swinging lady.

( She gives Chihiro's hand a squeeze and seems to have an extra skip in her step. )

I guess we'll have to agree we're a pair of cool and cute girls.

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[closed] Tranquil as a forest...

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