Colin's posts

"A few decades ago." Leo responded.

"I caught the Ouroboros virus." he told her.

"100% fatality rate, and I was no exception." he said.

"But... well... life, death... existence and non-existence... they're funny." he went on.

"I'm still around." he chuckled.

"Yeah, there's active mana and passive mana." Leo replied.

"Active mana is... well, stuff like conjuring the elements, teleporting, that sort of thing." he said.

"Passive mana is... well, it's passive. You can't outright will yourself to manifest it, but it will in the very specific way it's meant to." he told her. "Like myself. Before I died, I had a major gift for making tech work. Miracle tech." he said. "I mean, I still do, but after dying, I received active mana because of the contract I signed." he went on.

"But my tech worked because I unknowingly and unconsciously put my passive mana into it." he said.

"A lot of people don't even realise they're mages due to having merely passive mana, and not finding what triggers it, or what it can be channeled into."

"All right, all right, I was just making sure." Leo said.

"..." he then paused for a moment, and she heard him smack his forehead.

"WOW." he said. "I am SO conditioned to speak carefully about mana that I am an IDIOT." he commented.

"I TELEPORTED you here." he then said.

"If you hadn't known about it before, you would have been FREAKING OUT." he said further.

"Anyway, I think passive mana might explain why and how you can do what you do, despite being blind."

".....hm." Leo mumbled.

"Right then." he said.

'...maybe she should be tested...' he thought to himself.

"Hey, Lunet?" he then addressed her.

"I... hm." he muttered.

"I'm sure you have, but have you heard of the concept of mana?" he asked.

Leo froze for a moment when she said the last part.

"...wait, what?" he asked.

"You can't? What do you mean you can't explain?" he asked her.

He had to admit, the fact that she was able to do graphics was... unusual. Yes, she could code. She had hardware and software that helped with it, but they wouldn't help her with the visuals.

But she was doing it. He had his suspicions, but her statement intrigued him.

"It's all right." Leo replied.

"Contracts can be scary things." he said.

He then paused for a moment, narrowing his eyes.

"And it says this needs to be approved by next week. No. No, that will not do at ALL." he stated.

"I'm getting this... this... THING... to my legal department, and they are going to DO something about it."

Leo did as suggested, and the more he read, the angrier he became.

"Son of a..." he growled.

"My legal representation needs to see this." he said.

"This is borderline criminal. It's NOT, but... oooh, this is getting my blood boiling." he said further.

"Like, no. No, this shouldn't fly." he went on.

"They're trying to legally STEAL your intellectual property off of you."

Leo looked at the contract that she had pulled up, and already his brow was furrowing.

"...what the...?" he mumbled.

"The hell is...?" he asked further, mostly to himself.

"And this... that... what...?" he continued, now having completely forgotten about addressing the 'blind' thing.

"This is insulting." he told her.

"No, this... this is an insult of a contract." he declared.

Leo paused, and then nodded to himself.

"Sure?" he said.

"I can take a look at it." he told her.

"...I can see about having a proper contract lawyer look at it, too." he went on.

"Not sure if I can swing that last one, admittedly." he then sighed.

"But I'LL look it through."

"..." Leo was silent for a moment, and then sighed.

"Contracts can be a real bear." he said.

"I... barely know anything about them, but I've been lucky so far." he told her.

He then bit his lip, and sighed quietly.

"But... but as for you being blind..." he then said.

"I... I might... have an idea in regards to that..."

Leo raised an eyebrow.

"Firstly, thanks for the positive first impressions." he said.

"Secondly, why don't you think it'll be done in time?" he asked.

"Something holding you up?" he asked further.

"Anything I can possibly help with?" he then inquired.

"I'm more a hardware guy, obviously, but I can try."

"That's why I'm leaving it with you for a few months." Leo responded.

"Right now it's about initial reactions." he told her.

"Which is to say, if you notice anything substantial in 20 or 30 minutes, then I'll take it back and tool it some more immediately." he continued. "If not, try it for a few months and then I'll come back for a more in depth report." he explained.

"After the laptop, I have one other thing. But for now, just try the laptop for 20 minutes or so." he re-iterated.

"So." he then said.

"When do you think you want these updates to go live?" he asked her.

Once Leo accepted it, he handed her the laptop in question.

"The braille. Make sure it feels like it's there to stay." he told her.

"And check the text-to-speech program in it." he went on.

"Basically, let me know how the overall user experience is for you." he continued.

"I want to make sure it's as smooth and accommodating as possible for the one using it." he reasoned. "I don't want people to have to compromise or get used to something clunky." he went on.

"This is meant to be tailored to THEM, not the other way 'round."

"Well, your audience is going to love you for listening to them." Leo replied.

"And the testing thing will be amazing." he said further. "Seriously, I like how it's not abuseable, but JUST enough to see if it might be right for the build or not." he went on.

"Yeah, this should improve a LOT." he assured her.

"And I have a new laptop model for you to try." he continued, bringing it back to the tech.

"Basically an improvement over the last one, and want to see if we got it right this time." he chuckled.