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Post by Bal on May 18, 2012 21:24:01 GMT
The smell of smoke traditionally comes from the kitchen in a house... not the living room... which was the first sign that Nar had that something was wrong. The second was the SIGHT of smoke rising from the ground floor of the building and the blaring alarm of the smoke detector. She rushed downstairs, hitting the button on the smoke alarm as she went, to find out what the hell was going on in her lounge. Fire in the ground floor of a shop that stocked gunpowder among other things was NOT a good sign!
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Post by Carveus on May 18, 2012 21:29:57 GMT
Lao Hua stood there, the woman looking half way between sheepish and terrified at the noise as she flapped futilely at Nar's computer, smoke issuing from the tower. "I-I am not sure how it happened. I was attempting to bring up information like I had seen you do and then this..."
She deflated a little, normally so calm and able to keep her emotions under control; and yet she was utterly flummoxed by modern technology and its apparent tedancy to explode.
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Post by Bal on May 18, 2012 21:33:24 GMT
There was a pause... Nar blinking once, and then twice. Not only was her computer smoking, but she had finally seen the unflappable monastic facade of her 'housemate' broken by a simple bout of technological disaster. She didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or both. For now though she settled for putting out the fire that was her cmputer dashing out of the room towards the kitcehn and grabbing the fire blanket which she tossed over the smoking tower to try and smother whatever was burning inside.
Eventually the smoke died down, and she turned to Luo Hua. "How... exactly did you set my computer on fire...?" she asked, still dumbstruck and bewildered.
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Post by Carveus on May 18, 2012 21:38:42 GMT
"I do not know. I was trying to do what you do when you consult the... 'Wiki'." That word was pronounced with exaggerated care as she tried to regain her composure, tucking hair back behind her ears from where it had come astray in her flapping. "It seems very knowledgeable, I had questions I wished to pose it. Apparently it did not wish to speak to me. I must admit, its displeasure did not have to be so... Violent."
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Post by Bal on May 18, 2012 21:42:38 GMT
Folding her arms across her chest, the other woman sighed, lowering her head and shaking it as she finally released the dry chuckle that had been building at the back of her throat, her arms moving again as she clutched her forehead in one hand. The fire had mostly put itself out now, thankfully, and so she just lead Luo Hua away from the computer by the arm gently.
"Right... it's not that it 'did not wish to speak with you'... it's a machine, it doesn't have wishes, or even any sort of intelligence, it just does what you tell it to... so... one more time. What did you do?"
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Post by Carveus on May 18, 2012 21:45:28 GMT
Unusually for her, she allowed herself to be lead, closer to her normal state of being but still bewildered, she kept glancing back at the smouldering computer. "I pressed the buttons, like you do. I made sure it was on at the plug." That was spoken with a hint of pride, a small smile on her face for remembering that lesson. "And then I pressed the buttons. It mostly beeped at me, so I gave it an offering to appease it."
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Post by Bal on May 18, 2012 21:47:20 GMT
She lead her to the sofa and took a seat, not expecting the other woman would join her, but the offer was there nonetheless. As she spoke, Nar nodded, running a hand through her hair and sighig. So far so good... until... "Wait... an offering? What... what sort of offering...?"
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Post by Carveus on May 18, 2012 21:48:54 GMT
"Rice and water. Like any other offering..." Lao Hua replied slowly, her voice taking on that tone she used when she felt Narisse was being slow. "What else would you give as an offering?"
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Post by Bal on May 18, 2012 21:50:01 GMT
"You poured rice and... oh god..." she said, sighing heavily and dropping her head into her hands. "IT's not a spirit, it's a machine! You don't make offerings to it! You just hit the on button and wait for it to start up, it's... you should have asked me!"
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Post by Carveus on May 18, 2012 21:52:19 GMT
"Narisse," Lao Hua interjected, her tone terse, a muscle tightening in her jaw almost imperceptibly, but knowing some as long as Nar had known her made her much easier to read. "Whilst I am aware it has been some time since we touched upon basic spirituality in your training, I would hope you remember that everything has a spirit."
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Post by Bal on May 18, 2012 21:55:01 GMT
She paused, looking momentarily dumbfounded... but then she remembered who she was talking to, and just nodded, another sigh as she slumped back into the sofa. Time to adjust her strategy...
"Right, yes, of course... the problem is that the 'spirit' of the computer has a different... requirement of offering than a nature spirit. Rice and Water anger them... they... prefer much less temporal offerings. Simple prayers, words of polite request..."
Hopefully she'd buy that...
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Post by Carveus on May 18, 2012 21:58:52 GMT
"And now you're treating me like a simpleton..." Lao Hua let out a long sigh, before adopting a stiffer tone. "I apologise for any damage caused. I will not attempt to interact with your 'computer' again. I shall go tend my plants now." She took a step back from Nar, moving to go up the stairs to the room that held her garden.
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Post by Bal on May 18, 2012 22:01:36 GMT
"No, now I'm trying to explain to you that what you did was wrong in terms you'll understand!" she snapped, glaring at Luo Hua as she rose to her feet again, "Apologising isn't going to replace all the customer data that I had stored on that! You've probably just cost me hundreds in lost business, and all you have to say for it is that I'm treating you like a simpleton?!"
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Post by Carveus on May 18, 2012 22:04:22 GMT
"I was unaware that you dealt with business matters on the machine." Her tones remained stiff, the expression on her face neutral but her eyes belied the fact that she was struggling to keep herself calm. "Again, I apologise. If you would prefer, I could leave?"
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Post by Bal on May 18, 2012 22:09:15 GMT
NAr's lips trembled for a moment or two, before she released a heavy sigh, and shook her head, "I... wasn't implying that you should go, I wouldn't forgive myself if you ended up dealing with this place on your own. It's just..." she paused, making her way over to her friend and rubbing the back of her neck a little bit, "You confuse me, a lot... you seem to want to try and learn about things here, yet you don't accept my explanations when I tell you how they work, just because it's different to how you think it should be. There are no spirits in a computer... it's just wires, and silicon and plastic..."
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Post by Carveus on May 18, 2012 22:13:30 GMT
"Everything has a spirit Narisse." Lao Hua replied, her voice was firm but her eyes held hesitation. "Although, I must admit, these ones do not seem to like rice and water..." She tried to quirk her lips into a small smile, hoping to get some response from the other woman, inject some humour into the situation to try and hide how lost this modern world had her.
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Post by Bal on May 18, 2012 22:23:09 GMT
A moment after she spoke, the woman slumped back down onto the sofa with a heavy sigh, looking back up at Lao Hua with a look of desperation in her eyes... that was until she made that joke, at least, she thought it was a joke. Either way, it elicited a little bit of a chuckle from her, "I guess I need to find the time to get someone to see about repairing it... or at least recovering the data off the hard drive..." she mused, trying to think on the positive.
"Still. You could've asked."
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Post by Carveus on May 18, 2012 22:25:36 GMT
"I wished to see if I could do it for myself. I had observed you several times, I believed my knowledge was sufficient..." she trailed off, before adding weakly "I did remember to check the plug was on..."
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Post by Bal on May 18, 2012 22:36:18 GMT
And at that final comment, she just had to laugh, leaning back into the sofa, she giggled and nodded, "Mhm, you did! Better than some people that!" She then sighed again and relaxed, "Look, this isn't something you can blindly stumble into... most people born in this era can't do that and learn how to use some things. Also, we should maybe start with soemthing easier, like the phone, or the TV."
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Post by Carveus on May 18, 2012 22:40:30 GMT
"Not the noise box, please not the noise box..." she murmured, wilting at the thought of it. She had previously made her feelings about television rather clear.
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