Come and Knock On Our Door, We've Been Waiting For You

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah, but that's two things, not one thing. I can't do multiple things like that! That's beyond what I can do!"

[Shari]

"Then do a computer with a built in printer or something! I'm not a... computer.... build... engineer."

[Will Stanton]

"I'm kinda...uh.

Kinda, well. Stuck like this. Until you're done," he said, sounding somewhat embarrassed.

[Shari]

"Fine, I'll just have to get this face down now then. I wonder... can you make it show a webcam shot of my face? Like, a live video thingie."

[Will Stanton]

"I have no ideACTIVATING WEBCAM"

A box popped up...and, at first, it showed a digitized version of Will's face, as kind of a loading screen. A light clicked on by the webcam, indicating that it was on and ready to go.

At the moment, however, Will's face was mirroring Shari's actions -- opening his mouth when Shari opened hers, and so forth. There was a pretty clear lime-green button to switch the webcam to 'normal' mode, if she so chose.

[Shari]

"You're simultaneously the best and the absolute worst computer. It's kind of amazing." she says, pushing the line-green button.

[Will Stanton]

Will's face morphed and twisted, and Shari was looking back at her own face, blinking and smiling along with her.

"I wasn't expecting to be a webcam today," Shari's voice came out of the speakers.

[Shari]

"Is that supposed to my voice? That's terrible..." she grouches at hearing her own voice.

[Will Stanton]

"Hey, don't blame me," her voice came out of the speakers. "You're the one messing around with me."

[Shari]

"Whatever dude. Just gimme a bit." She pulls up the image and puts it next to the webcam window. Her eyes unfocus a bit as she goes into almost bit of a meditation, although she probably wouldn't call it that herself. Bit by bit her features shift and adjust, first mapping out the general layout, skin color and hair and then starts smoothing out the details by comparing the shot of herself to the reference image. Finally she turns her head from side to side, adjusting a couple small things like the exact shape of cheekbones and jawline before adding a bit of scruff on the chin. "Time to..." she starts, voice wobbling as it changes pitch and timber. "Drop the... Okay, drop the beat!" she concludes when she's happy with how she sounds. Or rather how he sounds, at this point. "Alright!"

[Will Stanton]

"That's very impressive!" Will said, taking on the voice that Shari has selected. "Dreadlocks and everything. A specific person, yeah?"

[Shari]

"It's DJ Satchmo! Here to drop the beat on ya!"

[Will Stanton]

"I have no idea who that is."

[Shari]

"Well of course you're not in touch with the music of today, grandpa."

[Will Stanton]

"As far as I know, I'm no grandpa. And I am both hip and with it!"

[Shari]

"Yet you don't know Satchmo, so... ipso something."

[Will Stanton]

"It's probably electronic bleeps and bloops and not, you know, real music."

[Shari]

"Natalie likes it and it's good for dancing. I assume. Cause they call it dance music."

[Will Stanton]

"Well, different strokes for different folks."

[Shari]

"Exactly. And there, I'm done." she says, pushing the power-button on the laptop.

[Will Stanton]

"Wait shut down p...." the voice went out.

When the power finished dying down, the laptop twirled and twisted unnaturally until...well, it wasn't Will, at first; it was a copy of DJ Satchmo. But after a couple seconds of shaking his head out, the dreadlocks collapsed down into green hair, and Will was there, in his male form.

"Gah! Shut down properly next time; that was VERY awkward.

Also: no next times!"

[Shari]

"I'm getting mixed messages here."

[Will Stanton]

"Well, 'ts just rude, that's all? I mean, don't worry, I'm ~OK~, but jamming the power button like that can ruin your electronics. Also: I'm not your electronics!"

He didn't seem angry, so much as trying to explain something. He was failing, miserably!

[Shari]

"Wait, you're upset about the power button?"

[Will Stanton]

"I mean, it's just rude. It's like blacking out all of a sudden!"

[Shari]

"Huh. I guess that makes some amount of sense... Fine, no power buttons."

[Will Stanton]

"Thank you," Will nodded. Then paused.

"Wait, no, I'm not sure I quite got my message across..."

[Shari]

"Then I think you gotta get better at explainin'."

[Will Stanton]

"I'm just sayin, you know? I've got things to do and stuff to see, I can't, y'know.

I mean, what I'm saying is that...well, it's not like a computer doesn't have things to do, but..." he said, doing a really bad job of explaining.

[Shari]

"You're... saying I should leave computers running cause they might have shit to do?"

[Will Stanton]

"No! Well, yes, but no! I'm just saying, you know, that I have places to go...not that my needs are more important, but, you know...?" he trailed off.

[Shari]

"You had somewhere to be that couldn't wait 10 minutes?"

[Will Stanton]

"Well, no, not per se..." Will admitted.

[Shari]

"Okay, cool. Thanks for your help then!"

[Will Stanton]

"I mean, I'm glad I could help, but..." Will stammered as Shari turned and headed out.