Private Big trouble!

Ekya has gone and done it this time! He, in his insatiable curiosity, dismantled his mom's laptop. He took apart the magical equivalent and put those back together, and he figured he could do the same with this one, but this was a top-of-the-line version. Boy, was he wrong! He knew it would take more experience and understanding after taking it apart than he had to put it back together. Things got worst when she saught her laptop to do some work only to find it in pieces. She was pretty tolerant of his curiosity (since the Subliminal's technology was minimal), but this time he had gone too far. She needed that tool to do her work at the academy. Fortunately, with the help of a tech-guru, she could buy another laptop and recover her work. Still, she was furious with him and decided he needed to learn not to mess with other people's property. She showed him the bill and told him he had to pay for it (which he feared would take him most of his life).

He found a quiet table in the corner of the Comunity Center to layout all the pieces. He did not have his dorm room yet and really did not want to be around his mom for a couple of days. Fortunately, he kept all the parts; unfortunately, he did not take notes on how he dismantled it (which caused him to add a note in the ToDo list: "When taking apart something, TAKE NOTES!"). He stood there looking over all the parts, not knowing where to start.

He was wearing his school shirt and his saddlebags containing his notepads on one side and his tool kit on the other.

@Kada

When Ekya looked up, he noticed the room was not empty anymore, with someone heading over to him. He blushed some, embarrassed about being caught. Bryn (which Ekya assumed was a he from the looks) was about his age and went to the academy, but he knew looks could be deceiving.

When Bryn got there, he smiled and started to gesture. From the gestures and expression, Ekya got the gist that Bryn wanted to know how he was and what all that stuff was. Ekya was now certain the other could not either speak or hear, so he pulled out one of his notepads and a pen. Flipping to an empty page, he wrote.

"I am Ekya."
"Not good. I took apart my mom's laptop, and now I do not know how to put it back together."
After making the wrong assumption with Morgana, he added, "Can you hear?"

He turned the notepad so the other could read it and put the pen on it if he wanted to write something.

From Bryn's gestures, He understood Bryn could hear but not speak, "Ah, another mute. I met another earlier. I had a girlfriend once that was, so I made her a talking machine."

After Bryn revealed his name, Ekya offered his hand, "Hello Bryn. I am glad to meet you!"

When Bryn asked why he did it, Ekya sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, "Weeell - there is a bit of a story to that. In another world, I am an apprentice tinkerer - that is sort of an engineer-in-training. Although I have seen some pretty advanced stuff, most of the technology there is of the steam-engine level, getting this level of gadgets scarce, so, when I can, I take it apart to see how it works."

He grinned sheepishly, "this was the one time I should not have."

He reached back into his saddlebags and pulled out the larger pieces.

Ekya grinned, "Thank you. I am hoping to bring some of this technology to the Subliminal."

Two connectors were mirror images of each other, so he plugged one into the other. They fit!

He grinned like a fool, "well, one down and a hundred more to go. This is like a big jigsaw puzzle."

There was a big plastic board with a lot of little black plastic boxes with tiny metal legs sticking out of them, kind of like tiny, tiny spiders. It had scattered over it tiny pieces of ceramic of all sorts of colors and sizes. The board was covered with metal lines going all over the place.

He successfully connected a few more before sitting back, "I am very new here; how about you?"

Ah, they were making progress. That was until Bryn explained they were a sword turned human. Ekya dropped the piece he was working on, both shocked and amazed. He had met many different creatures in the Subliminal, but never a sword made alive.

"Way cool! My mom has got to see you! She is a biologist. I would love to hear her explanation of you. How did it happen?"

He blushed, "Um if I am prying, you do not have to tell."

For the moment, he forgot the laptop, enthralled by Bryn.