Stark Industries, Monday

[endsthegame]

After a moderately succesful, if confusing, time at the dance, Ender had retreated back to his room to do some work. That had lasted him his entire Sunday: with Ichigo gone, it was too easy to get sucked into data with the door closed. Maybe he should request another roommate, at some point.

On the other hand, he liked his space uninvasive.

At Stark's, he found himself tinkering on something. The specs for the old satellite might have gone through, but that didn't mean he wasn't trying to brush up on more of the science behind it. At this, he wasn't as gifted with his hands or instincts as some of the Stark Industries employees-- or even Ben.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

Ben, fresh from his trip to Turtle and Canary's to get chocolate for Aravis, poked his head through the doorway. "Ho, Ender."

[endsthegame]

"Ho, Ben," Ender called back, looking up from his project. It didn't resemble much just yet; he was fine with that.

[momslilassassin]

"New project?" he asked.

[endsthegame]

"I'm just messing around," Ender replied, shrugging. "I'm thinking communications."

[momslilassassin]

Ben's lips quirked up. "Because you're so naturally chatty," he teased.

[endsthegame]

"Communications aren't about being chatty," he admonished, "It's about communicating units of information. Chatting has nothing to do with it."

[momslilassassin]

"Remind me to stick you in a room with Threepio," Ben said. "It can be both."

[endsthegame]

"Should I even be asking you what that means?"

[momslilassassin]

"Threepio is a droid specializing in human-cyborg communications," Ben said. "He's also" very "slightly...neurotic. Uncle Han has been threatening to shoot him at least once a week since I was born."

[endsthegame]

"Did they program him with that personality?" Ender asked, curiously, "Or did it grow into him?" He didn't think that was technologically possible, but there had been some books speculating on it.

[momslilassassin]

"I think he's grown into it," Ben said. "Droids develop quirks if their memories aren't wiped periodically. Dad hasn't let Artoo be erased in probably fifty years. He can't be plugged into anyone else's StealthX because he's so used to working with Dad's, but he's Artoo. No one else would think of flying with him."

[endsthegame]

Well. That was interesting.

"What do you think causes it?"

[momslilassassin]

"I'm not sure," Ben said, "and any attempt to poke at Artoo was met with his little zapper claw. I think it might be part of the programming that allows him to learn to interact with the X-Wing. He just learned to interact better with humans, too. It could also be from spending time with Threepio, who was built for facilitating."

[endsthegame]

"Machines in this time aren't programmed to be that smart," Ender said, tilting his head at the notion. "The fact that they retain any of these experiences at all has to do something with some module in their memory chips."

[momslilassassin]

"When I get the droid finished, we can observe its behavior," Ben said.

[endsthegame]

"Maybe keep a monitor on its internal memory."

[momslilassassin]

"That's a good idea," Ben said. "I haven't finished sealing that portion up yet, so something can still be added."

[endsthegame]

"I can probably dig up a few components for you," Ender noted, glancing towards the back. "If we figure out how it works, it might go a long way towards making space travel less boring." If you weren't in stasis, anyway.

[momslilassassin]

"Or you could figure out hyperspace travel," Ben said, "but the droid is probably something we could finish this summer."

[endsthegame]

"You don't even know if your universe's drives hold up in mine," Ender told him, "And I'm not that much of an engineer."

[momslilassassin]

"Not excited about the idea of trying to build something and hoping we don't blow ourselves up?" Ben said.

Because, naturally, this sounded like fun to Ben.

[endsthegame]

"I'd rather not," risk failure like that, "Blow you up just yet."

[momslilassassin]

Ben smiled. "Knew you liked me."

[endsthegame]

"I could be referring to finding some other way to blow you up," Ender noted.

[momslilassassin]

"Are you?" Ben asked.

[endsthegame]

"Ask me at the end of the summer."

[momslilassassin]

Ben smirked. "I'll try to stay on your good side, then."

He really wouldn't put that much effort into it, no.

[endsthegame]

"That might be a good idea to start with," said Ender, who didn't particularly buy that. "But I might have to get that promise in writing."

[momslilassassin]

Ben snickered. "Don't you trust me?"

[endsthegame]

"Not when it comes down to 'being good'."

Well, not at all, really, but that wasn't anything personal.