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Post by Alexander Riggs on Oct 23, 2010 22:41:13 GMT -6
Alex couldn't believe his ears. She really was a psychopath. What kind of person would completely ruin innocent people's lives just because they were related to the person who mildly wronged them? "Wow. Aren't I lucky that I have no family, then," he rolled his eyes, continuing to walk away. "You're insane."
His anger flared further when she brought up his past and grabbed his arm. "That was a fiking accident," he snapped, tugging his arm away. "Leave me alone and maybe one day I can afford a drink again."
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Post by SYN+ACK on Oct 25, 2010 18:25:22 GMT -6
“Tooouchy!” SYN+ACK refused to let Alex’s bad mood get to her. But then again, she had all the advantages here. He could snarl and yell at her, but at the end of the day, he was only doing that because he was powerless and scared. SYN+ACK didn’t really know what scared felt like, mostly because she had always been that one step ahead of everyone, always too quick for them.
Alex may have tugged his arm away, but he wasn’t going to escape SYN+ACK so easy, not while she was still interested in him, “I’ll make you a deal, Alexander Riggs. You drink with me, and stop sulking so much, and I’ll pay you back what I conned out of you. Heck, I’ll even give you back whatever I took the first time.”
“Oooor, if you really have a martyr complex going on, you can stomp off. But then I’ll be bored,” She smiled at him, and it wasn’t a very nice smile, “I’m pretty sure even you can guess what happens when little ol’ me gets bored.”
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Post by Alexander Riggs on Oct 29, 2010 0:33:49 GMT -6
He narrowed his eyes at her proposal. It seemed too good to be true. A con of her level was after something, he just knew it. And it was true, if he left her while she still wanted something, she'd probably just hack into his stuff again. He could do nothing except perhaps stopping her by force, and well... he wasn't interested in getting arrested for physical assault. Especially when she'd probably just play it up to the police and make it even worse.
"What's the catch?" he crossed his arms, refusing to stop 'sulking' just yet. He hadn't agreed to the deal yet, so there was no reason for fake enthusiasm this early. On the other hand, the original goal of the evening had been to get a girl to buy them drinks, and she was offering, so... "You would just give me back my paychecks if I had a drink with you? Are you that desperate for a date or something?"
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Post by SYN+ACK on Oct 30, 2010 23:05:59 GMT -6
SYN+ACK had him. Oh, he could sulk all he wanted, but the hook was deep in his cheek and all she had to do was slowly reel him in. It had been so long since anybody had seemed interesting to her. She planned on having a lot of fun with Alex. Right now, that meant drinking with him. And after that? Well, who knew! She could always use somebody with clever hands.
"I'm that bored!" She bounced a little, hair bobbing up and down as she tried to burn off some of her extra excitement, "Do you know how long it's been since somebody made me? Years! I've been doing this since I was fifteen, and I am good at it! That's not bragging, that's just true. And then, you make me and I have to do a dash-and-dine for the first time since I was seventeen!" SYN+ACK grinned at Alex, real excitement on her face, "I looked at your file, but that isn't everything. I want to know about you! I want to know how you made me so easy when hundreds of thousands of other dupes failed so miserably!"
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Post by Alexander Riggs on Nov 2, 2010 23:36:50 GMT -6
"It's not that hard," Alex stated, scanning the crowds for any sign of Tommy, finding nothing. "I'm no genius. You're the fool who hit the same place twice and let yourself get recognized."
He turned towards the bar, leaning his elbows on it as he glanced around for the bartender. If there was one thing he hated about going to a bar now, it was the idea of paying someone else to do something you were perfectly knowledgeable and adequately trained to do yourself. Some times he just wanted to hop behind the bar and pour his own drinks.
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Post by SYN+ACK on Nov 3, 2010 23:04:26 GMT -6
"It's more than that!" SYN+ACK knew there was no way it was her fault she'd been made. Okay, maybe she shouldn't have hit the same place twice, but she'd done that before without anybody catching on. There was something more at work here. Maybe Alex didn't want to admit it, but she knew the truth, "I used to dress different every time I went out because I was afraid of someone recognizing me, but then nobody ever did! So I dressed even more outrageously, and still nothing! It's you. There's something about you."
The bartender was busy fielding drink orders from other people. SYN+ACK pulled out her padd, fingers going to work. Let's see, who was going to pay for her and Alex tonight? Ah, there was a heavy looking bank account nearby who had already been to the bar half a dozen times. She spoofed his info, and when the bartender came over, she smiled nicely and projected the info to him, "Gin and tonic for me! And whatever he wants!"
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Post by Alexander Riggs on Nov 4, 2010 23:26:42 GMT -6
She was fixating on him for some reason. That wasn't good. He couldn't even guess why, considering he didn't find himself all that interesting. Though he was pretty good lookin'... "Look if you're gonna be all crazy stalker girl from here on out, can you warn me ahead of time so I can jump off a railing before you show up with manips of our future children or something?"
The bartender finally showed up and Alex still hadn't decided what he wanted. The weird chick had clearly already decided who was paying, so he supposed he wasn't bound by a budget. Finally he just shrugged at the bartender. "I dunno. Just gimme something hard."
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Post by SYN+ACK on Nov 8, 2010 18:20:19 GMT -6
“Alex, Alex, Alex, what sort of girl do you think I am?” SYN+ACK smiled at him, not even phased by what he said, “I’m not stalking you. Stalking would take real effort. I just have an RSS feed that lets me know what you’re up to. Which is basically like, nothing, because all you do is work and go home. So boring dude.”
The bartender poured two whiskeys. SYN+ACK paid him with someone else’s money and sipped from her own cup, “So, Alex, why did you take that job? And before you said ‘because you needed the money’, yeah, okay, but why that job? Why not jump a ship and head off-planet, or why not work some other boring job somewhere else? Do you like drunken people best of all?”
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Post by Alexander Riggs on Nov 12, 2010 21:59:34 GMT -6
"Well yeah, I work when things are happening, and sleep when things aren't," he shrugged. It was the way bartending worked. "Then I work some more when my last two weeks of working prove pointless because crazy chicks steal it all." He took the glass of whiskey, hesitating for a moment knowing it was paid for by someone else. Then he decided screw it, I'll need this to get through this conversation and just downed a huge gulp of the fiking thing.
She continued to press him about the job. Why the hell did she even care?? He sighed, really not wanting to get into it. "I'm not interested in other planets. This one is crazy enough as it is right now." He decided there wasn't any point in mentioning that he didn't want to leave in case he finally tracked down Anna once more. "And why the specific job? Well I certainly didn't want to work in something where I'd be talked down to by Toppers, and I'm not suited for office job shit. Bartending seemed like a good fit. They're my kind of people, and I get to chill with them all night. They're not all drunks. You get all kinds in a bar. It can be pretty unpredictable and lively some times. Definitely not a boring job."
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Post by SYN+ACK on Nov 15, 2010 23:52:48 GMT -6
“I didn’t steal all of it,” She rolled her eyes. Alex was so overdramatic. You’d think she’d wiped out their whole network instead of stealing half-an-hour’s worth of drinks, “I was only there for half an hour at most. That’s maybe two or three hundred dollars worth of drinks at that time of right. You should see how much I’m making as we speak. Now that’s theft!”
SYN+ACK sipped at her whiskey, listening to him talk. When he put it that way, working at a bar made some sense, at least for Alex’s personality. But still, the words went through her head again: booooooriiiing, “Maybe that’s not completely awful, but it’s still working for somebody else, and having to do what they tell you to do. I make a point of never, ever following anybody’s orders.”
She gestured to the bartender to set her and Alex up again, once again paying with someone else’s card, “Oh, just so you know, I haven’t been the only person looking at your records lately. Some guy in the Below’s been accessing them too, and your whole family’s records.” SYN+ACK watched Alex’s face, interesting to see how he’d react to knowing someone else was looking into him, and for Alex’s sister.
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Post by Alexander Riggs on Nov 20, 2010 23:16:19 GMT -6
"I'd rather follow a boss' orders than a prison guard's," he pointed out, taking a good swig of his drink before turning around to lean his back against the bar. "One day you'll know what that means."
He watched the crowd for a bit, keeping an eye out for Tommy, when the girl pointed out she knew that someone else was poking around in his files. He knew that she was referring to Leif, but he wasn't so sure she knew who he was or why he was poking around. "Oh yeah?" was all he said, willing to test the waters to see how much she actually knew.
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Post by SYN+ACK on Nov 22, 2010 21:40:55 GMT -6
“Not likely. Only stupid people get caught, and I’m the best there is,” SYN+ACK had heard Alex’s words from other people, even before she decided to drop off the grid completely. People were always telling her that she would know what they meant ‘one day’. And that ‘one day’ was always off in the nebulous future, forever out of sight. SYN+ACK had learned that today was the only day that really mattered and she was all too happy to tell that to anyone who tried lecturing her on the future, “Anyway, I’m a white-collar criminal. Do you even know the penalties are if I get caught? Like, nothing. A slap on the wrist. I might have to share a cell with some rich cokehead who got arrested for drunk-flying her daddy’s ship. Or I might even get a job offer from the government. I’ve know lots of other hackers who get paid to protect what they used to hack for free. It’s a pretty sweet deal!”
SYN+ACK took another drink, smiling at Alex. She knew something he didn’t, “Oh yeah. This weirdo keeps looking into everything about you. Only he’s not nearly as good as I am. The really creepy thing is that he’s looking for your sister.” She took another drink, adding, “Of course, he’s looking in the wrong areas. I mean, he thinks she still uses the same last name as you. Uh, duh, am I right?”
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Post by Alexander Riggs on Nov 25, 2010 19:41:57 GMT -6
Well, that certainly didn't seem fair. Alex was growing more and more annoyed with the girl the more she bragged about her so called awesome life.
Alex shrugged it off, deciding not to let on that Leif was only looking for Anna because he hired him to. "Maybe he's like, an ex or something. I dunno." He was a little surprised to hear Leif was still searching for her under Riggs. He was pretty certain he'd mentioned to him that there was a good chance it had been changed. "Clueless move. Last I'd heard, she'd been taken in by a foster family. Maybe even adopted. And if she had, then that's one name change. Then, maybe if she's like, married, that could be another name change. And god knows there are plenty of other reasons for people to change their names nowadays too."
He paused in realization. "Speaking of names, I still don't know yours."
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Post by SYN+ACK on Nov 29, 2010 18:31:50 GMT -6
“She’s only had the one name change,” SYN+ACK said absently, not really paying attention anymore now that it was clear that Alex wasn’t shocked or anything. If he didn’t care who was looking into his sister, then there wasn’t any point in gloating about it. She'd just have to find something else to hold over his head.
However, the topic shifted back to her and SYN+ACK was all too happy to finally officially introduce herself, “I’m SYN+ACK. It's spelt pretty much the way it's said, except with a Y and a silent plus sign in the middle,” She wrote her name out on her padd, showing it to Alex, “I renamed myself a couple of years ago, once the feds figured out who I was. Of course it’s not a legal renaming, but it’s not like I even exist in their records anymore. I purged every single trace of me a few years ago. I’m off the grid, permanently.”
Removing herself entirely was her second most proud accomplishment, right behind bringing the Network down. Of course, she couldn’t brag about that to Alex, not in public anyway. People still remembered the night the Network went down, and not all of them would applaud SYN+ACK’s hacking skills.
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Post by Alexander Riggs on Dec 3, 2010 0:44:27 GMT -6
She actually knew?? He couldn't help but wonder if he could get her to tell him what the change was, so he could transfer that on to Leif somehow. Then again, if this girl knew Anna's last name, there was even a chance she knew where Anna was, and he didn't need Leif any more. But, he had hired him fair and square, and Alex had a less-than-sneaking suspicion that asking this girl for anything like that would give her more to hold over his head. He would have to stick with Leif for now.
He lifted an eyebrow at her name. "A silent plus sign. Is that some sort of douchey hacker thing?" He supposed it only made sense when you made a name for yourself digitally that said name should look cooler than it sounded out loud, but if you were actually going to go by it in real life too, it seemed extra bizarre to Alex to use symbols that weren't even pronounceable.
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