Sally and Vince - New Equipment

>”Vincent, once! You hit the key *once*!”
>”Look- Sorry, but it’s not going right!”
>”They’re slow! You have to be patient!”
>An onerous grinding came from the blocky construct sitting on Vince’s desk, the ponderous little machine struggling to figure out what the hell the human smashing his keys wanted
>”Scooch over,” the nandroid grumbled
>”I- Hey!”
>Forcing her partner from his wheely chair she took a seat at the console

>In Vince’s absence Sally had taken the brunt of his work on the Weatherman case, some amicable brushes with federal law enforcement helping to resolve the affair justly
>Beyond that, though, Crawley wanted to keep her in reserve should she be needed, rather than assigning her to a new partner
>He was damn satisfied with her results in wrapping up the former case and saw her potential as a fully fledged detective, not some “notebook” as she’d been sold
>So she waited in the mingling months, more secretary than detective, helping to file and sort and organize like her nandroid cousins
>Later, the department had taken the cheaper option for that kind of clerical work, Sally helping to unload the few dozen bulky machines that now graced desks around the precinct building
>With hours of free time and only the squarish computer to keep her company Sally set to work
>By the time Vince had returned in good health she was the department’s stand in tech support, clearing up the myriad of errors the other less-able users ran into
>And that’s where she found herself again, staring back at the suffering screen of Vince’s computer
>”Alright, watch me for a sec.”
>Flipping one switch the frozen monitor blacked out, and with another the tiny light on the computer was extinguished
>”Okay, what did I do?”
>”You…,” he narrowed his eyes. “You shut off the monitor before the computer.”
>”Good. Now watch again.”
>Two more clicks and it was up again, screen cleared of the hodgepodge of commands Vince had spilled out
>”Monitor, then computer.”
>”Right. Now I’m gonna show you how to use a disk.”
>Sally bounced to her desk opposite him and, ruffling about in one of the drawers, swept past the dense red manual for the already worn box she’d been playing with
>Plucking it from its cluttered home she withdrew the disk, just thick enough to give it some sway as she handed it around
>Turning to Vince then to the disk drive, pointing carefully, she slipped it inside
>Locking it shut she flipped back to the waiting screen
>Typing out a few simple commands the drive whirred back to life, grinding anxiously for understanding
>Sally rolled her eyes and kept at it, the screen finally flickering to a pixelated introduction, colored blobs welcoming themselves
>”Hey, wait-”
>”Yep,” she smiled. “They run games.”
>Tapping a key a harsh chip-tune played back, a narrow maze scanning onto the screen
>In Vince’s last ambulatory weeks in the hospital he would hobble down to the common rooms, spending too long at the newly installed cabinets entertaining himself
>And now Sally had summoned up his favorite one at the press of a button
>He leant in, a finger’s flick at the arrow keys twisting and dodging the pursuing ghosts
>Score racking up quickly she flipped the game off, another key returning her to the blank screen, empty save for the dancing cursor
>”Hey, wait-”
>”You can play if you can show me how to start it again.”
>”Where’s this coming from, Sal-”
>”Just do it Vince,” she grumbled
>Being the singular person in the department who understood the things (or at least bothered to read the manual) Sally spent most of her working time fixing other people’s errors, mistakes, and trying to hammer in how to work them on their own
>”Fine, jeez.”
>Hesitating he typed out what he thought she’d written, finger hovering over the return key
>With a tap a readout followed up, prompting him to choose which drive he wanted to read
>She’d put it in the topmost of the two, so…
>”One,” he mumbled, putting it in. “Bam.”
>The ghosts spilled back onto the screen, another tap replacing the blank black void with the maze
>Fumbling with the arrow keys he tried to evade here and there, picking the keyboard controls up quickly
>”Good. Now, I’m gonna go get some blanks and show you how to write a disk.”
>”Wait what?”
>”Vince they’re not just for games, they do important stuff. They’re a tool-”
>”You’re a tool,” the detective muttered back, flicking the arrow key again to nab a cherry
>”Alright, no more,” she spat, flicking the twin switches before he could do anything
>Stealing the disk away from its drive she slipped it back into her desk, fetching the manual and slapping it in front of him
>”Read over this while I go grab the disks. I want you to know how to open the word processor by the time I’m back.”
>”The what?”
>”You heard me,” she smirked, marching off to the new computer storage room
>At least with teaching Vince she could be a little bit more direct, she reminded herself
>With him she could count on a more forceful approach actually working, too
>And then, mercifully, there would be *two* people in the building who could figure the things out