groundzeroes | IC Inbox

[HELLO???? THERE IS A TEEN IN HIS INBOX??????? Rei does frown at the message at first; for all of the nonsense he's gotten into, technomancy is a rare enough secondary magic that he hasn't had too much trouble dodging other users. Recalibrating after getting caught by one is in order.

Still, Hikaru is nice enough to come un-anon, and his request is clear enough (once Rei backtracks through his own post history and figures out who the "boyfriend" is). Learning about another user's capacity as a technomage is probably worth the cost of leaving Taichi alone.]

So he has a knight in shining armor, huh.

[Hey.... but wait. The whole reason Rei got involved with Taichi in the first place was the kid's technomancy. TWO OF THEM. TWO OF THEM]

If you're good enough to get here, how come his skill is unpolished? You're not teaching your boy??

stuff just takes him longer

[Hikaru also isn't a good teacher. He does not have the patience for it. But also.]

and i already know how to do stuff without the magic part of it anyway

[Which is really just his own subtle way of saying he can get more information if he wanted to. He hasn't done any digging on Rei really, just enough to know the guy is pretty fishy. But when you're rich, you know to keep your nose out of that murky shit until it concerns you anyway.]

Is that so.

[How kind of Hikaru to volunteer that information! And how interesting. This kid is clearly smart, but the urge to be a cheeky brat can make you tip your hand early. (Rei thinks of Saburo, fondly.)]

So then, how do you find it? Programming in Avalon, I mean.

[The languages here are all a bit mushy, Rei finds. Less regimented. Which makes sense, considering that magic does half the work of interpreting between man and machine... but outworlder technomancers are rare enough, let alone ones who code and admit as much. Hard to find a conversational partner around here!!!!!!]

[At the end of the day, he's still just a teenager. Who is also a brat. One that is used to dealing with adults and having to act older than he is for certain situations...but still just a kid.

And honestly, he hasn't really gotten to talk about this stuff since Kaoru left and even then, Kaoru had never been nearly as passionate about coding and computers as Hikaru had been.]

a pain before i got technomancy. i helped with a quest around the time when i first got here, finding some random troll who was harassing people. took forever. it's not as straightforward as i'm used to.

building computers is weird here too.

[He's far too normal for all this magic bullshit.]

Hahaha
Yeah, all the extra components that channel magic took some getting used to. Getting a build to look clean was already hard enough without all that other shit in there.

[Rei can't be completely sure-- the quest board sees tons of requests every day-- but because he mentioned it being before technomancy, Hikaru is probably talking about that one quest from over a year ago, right? Rei did that one, too... he spent hours in the library with those damn textbooks. This means Hikaru has been here a while.

Needless to say, Rei is interested. On top of the high specs Hikaru's public persona already boasts (wrow, hi king Arthur), it might be nice to cultivate a relationship of some kind with the kid. If he can manage "suspicious old man who's more annoying than dangerous" tier, he'll be satisfied.]

But you've had time to perfect your craft, clearly. lol

it's weird here how some parts just aren't even needed. like just fill it with magic. i miss things being more straightforward ┐( ˘ ､ ˘ )┌

[Hikaru's just naturally suspicious as a person. His standard is that, usually, people have some ulterior motive but that's just how it is when your role model was a literal criminal when you're a kid. She'd taught him not to trust anybody and so he didn't for a long time. Sure, he's better than he was but he still always jumps to the worst.

And as for Rei, well, Hikaru didn't go digging into anything too far. The less he knows the better, right? It keeps him safe but also way more naive. Again, a keen kid but still just a kid tangling with an adult.]

i'm a fast learner ⭐

by the way, i don't really care that you go around trolling people. [Hikaru does it. Hikaru literally made a troll post bashing King Arthur...that had helped him get the PR job. Which he knows Rei can figure out. But assumes Rei would rather not out Hikaru because then Hikaru could out Rei.]

usually i mind my business so sorry to ruin your fun but he's too gullible for his own good and i was one step away from being brought into some 24 hour protection mantra or something

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