Some Turn to Dust or to Gold (Gilbert/Mattie)

[Gilbert Fredrick Beilschmidt]

He couldn’t believe he was doing this. It had been a while since he had taken a class here at the University, but he was bored and he figured his computer skills could always use a refresher. After all, for the life of a hacker, it paid to keep up with the current trends and find out what was new in the way of defenses in computer systems. Though so far, Gilbert had to admit this class was a waste of time and money. It was all things he knew, but then again, he really shouldn’t be surprised. He was stupid in thinking it, the stuff he was interested in wouldn’t be taught in this class. But Gilbert wasn’t one to quite.. . oh he got bored and wandered off topic easily, but keep his attention and you were golden. This tough… this was different. Though it wasn’t till after class, when he usually stayed over to do his homework on one of the many rows of computers with the sunken in screens that he saw his teacher frowning.

Walking up to the teacher, he couldn't help but to admire the man. Mr. Williams looked about the same age he did, or close to it, and yet he had accomplished so much more. Shaking his head, he stopped in front of the desk and cleared his throat. He didn’t want to startle the man to badly and have him die of fright, but he did need the man’s attention.

"Mr. Williams?"

With this that said, he placed a jump drive down on the desk next to him, a smug grin trying to work its way to his face. He would awe the teacher so bad he'd bed left speechless. Though he was curious as to what had the teacher’s attention do fast to the computer screen.

[Deleted]

It was one of those long days, the kind that dragged on no matter what you tried to do to make it pass easier. Those were days that were plentiful in Matthew's life, for even if he did accomplish so much in a single day, and the weeks seemed to blend together as if they were flying by, the truth was they weren't. It was only around five in the early evening, and he still had so much to get done, and truthfully had all night to do it; and he would've gotten it done much faster had he not been stuck on this one stupid issue with his coding.

He was on his own laptop, of course, as it was modified and built by he himself to run smoother and faster and get what he needed to get done done; but no amounts of money could give him the memory to remember the very precise placements of the brackets and inputs that he needed. And that was frustrating. 'And this is why having a second life is a bad thing.' He mused internally with an audible sigh, resting his head upon the palm of his hand, eyes staring bleakly at the screen.

He had been so focused on trying to remember correctly that he did not notice someone approach until a shadow fell upon his screen and the voice spoke. "Mr. Williams?" His instinct was to tense up, and his hand clenched as his first thought was that he lay in danger, but it was gone within another second, and he eased upon seeing it was one of the students. He narrowed his eyes slightly in thought as he quickly took in the appearance and posture of the being, and recognition came upon him. 'This is the one that blew through everything...'

The other - whom he recalled to go by the name of Gilbert - sat in the space next to him, a grin on his face reminding Matthew of one of his own brothers. A slightly smug one, as if he knew the answer to the universe and was refraining from telling just because he felt like it. Regardless, Matthew felt no annoyance at it, and merely nodded in greeting. "Evening, Gilbert." He greeted rather formally, not fully intending such. It had become a bit of a habit; be polite before you get the job done - not that there was a job in that division to get done tonight. No, it was just his hobby of a pass time of a way to make extra money. But tonight, with this particular server, he was struggling, and all he truthfully wanted to do was go home and sleep even if was only five; his hobby was not giving him any joy tonight.

[Gilbert Fredrick Beilschmidt]

"Evening Gilbert.”

Frowning as the normally cheery man addressed him as if he was the one person that he didn’t want to see, he could only wonder what got stuck in the man’s throat. Moving around the desk quickly and without a word, his eyes saw row upon row of coding.

"Having problem with a code, ja? Let the awesome me here help you out. “

Placing his hand on top of the mouse so his teacher couldn’t close the computer screen, his eyes scanned row after row of letters, numbers, and symbols for what should have been a perfectly working code, but something was throwing a wrench into the works. He didn’t need to ask Mathew what the code was trying to accomplish, he could read it as easily as any learned adult could read a book for a five year old. The main thing was, Gilbert didn’t care. It wasn’t his business what the code was used for; he was more interested in getting the thing to work. Really, they say the best people at their jobs could do it successfully without really absorbing what the information means, and that’s what he could do. Though he did often store little pieces of information just in case he needed it later.

Speaking lightly under his breath, Gilbert highlighted a portion of the code and stared at it for a few minutes. It didn’t take long for a smile to come to his face and for him to release the computer back to his teacher.

"You want a repeat code here that terminates after three cycles; this colon should be a bracket. Right now the program is literally falling off a cliff before it gets enough power to run the designated action."

Walking back around the desk to sit down, he crossed his legs and rested his hand on his fist that was being propped up by his elbow on the arm rest. His denim pants went well with his rocker t-shirt and it all made a certain image that seemed completely at odds with the words that had just left his mouth. Eyes sparkling at the confusion he was sure he had just thrown his teachers mind into, he chuckled.

"Now, I wanted to know if I could turn on the rest of the assignments so I would stop worrying about the time waster. If so, they're all in the flash drive in front of you."