Get Lucky

[Trillian]

Ben watched the interaction between the two and wondered if maybe Digital had moved off Kerr and latched onto Sam now. Did that mean there was no more trouble on the way for them? He doubted it, but maybe there were no more life-changing events, like Themba enslaving Ben and almost killing him or Kerr dying in Austria but not really. Maybe all that stuff was over.

"Sam, I'll leave you in Digital's hands. He has all the information you need to know," Ben said with a wry smile, wondering if Sam would get a straightforward version or a twisted kind. Digital was usually pretty good with facts, but sometimes he'd muddle them up with other things when excited or in the middle of one of his visions.  "The info-pack in your room does, too," he reminded, letting Sam know that there were still things he needed to know but he didn't have to get it all off the riddling vampire.

Ben waited for a second longer before turning and heading back to the lift.

[Malkavian Riddler]

Digital grinned his goggled glee when Sam moved closer. The pretty boy had pretty eyes - even through his yellow lenses he could see their flecked beauty. Even better were his cheekbones. They were mountainous and glorious. Perhaps he could assign each of them those words as names.

"I have your ID card for a start," he said, not wanting to go through the tedious process of lining Samuel up against the wall to take a photo of his fake smile. He'd trawled the internet and found a picture of him, cut out the parts he didn't want (the long-haired sadist had been cropped out of existence) and tacked it onto Samuel's card before the machine spat one out, minty fresh.

He took the card out of his coverall pocket and did a trick with it, moving it between his knuckles before making it disappear and finding it again behind Samuel's ear. He handed it over with an explanation of what he'd truly intended on doing.

"I was going to put it down your pants but you're not mortal so you would've felt it. We can save that for later, when I show you to your room," Digital said, assuming many things.

[Existentially Odd]

When Ben said his name, Samuel turned to look over his shoulder at him, giving a smile and a nod at his boss' words. He was nervous and excited enough that his thoughts were jumping; he couldn't anticipate any questions he hadn't asked and would need answered so he was glad to be told there were backups. "Thank you again. For everything," he said and turned back as Ben headed for the lift.

In the middle of an interested glance around the server room, Digital appeared in Sam's personal space, making him blink. This time, the sexual innuendo wasn't something he could confuse. Instinctively, he looked the other over, his gaze lingering on the glimpse of chest visible in the opening of his coveralls. He was tempted... but he doubted it would be a good idea to mix business with pleasure. Again. He didn't need the heartache. Sure, he was great at convenient arrangements at first but he knew himself well enough to understand that he'd grow attached... and that was unlikely to improve his outlook at work.

He looked down at the card in his hand, frowning at the picture on it. "How did you get this photo of me?" he asked, disconcerted enough that he didn't address the matter of his pants.

[Malkavian Riddler]

"Internet. It was at some cinematic premiere or opening night at the theatre," he shook his head then shrugged to indicate it wasn't important. Digital had liked the photo enough to nab it. The place Sam and his ex had gone had snapped photos of lots of good looking couples and put them online. Digital had clicked around and randomly found it whilst randomly looking. His sight was handy that way.

"Do you want to see all the books?" he asked softly, his hand that had given Samuel the card was now moving back and forth over Sam's, fingers lightly tracing the back of it. "You can't touch them though, not yet."

[Existentially Odd]

Somehow, Digital's response wasn't reassuring but there was an element of mystery to it that Samuel found almost wondrous. He didn't recall ever seeing the photo, yet there it was, the thing that would identify him as him in his new life. It was such a sudden and odd turn of events... but he was beginning to suspect that this was exactly the way things would be with Digital.

He smiled, his hand tingling from where it was being touched. "I love books," he agreed, staring at Digital's lips. "And I think I'm going to love my job, too. I don't want to do anything to jeopardise it, okay?" he queried, twisting his hand and grasping Digital's. He gently pushed it towards the other vampire. "We have to work together, we shouldn't... confuse the situation," he said regretfully, looking into the yellow-tinted eyes behind the goggles.

[Malkavian Riddler]

Digital laughed as his hand was handed back to him. "I'm not confused! The people I talk to are! Me, I see things clearly. I might not understand them, but they are not confusing. Like, how does Lazarus' grow his hand back? Or when will the doctor and the soldier consummate their attraction? Or why does a druid sleep in a bathtub?" He pointed a finger upward between them, signifying 'one moment' or perhaps 'shush for now'. "When you look for your info-pack, you'll see another gift I left for you." He grinned devilishly then turned and strode back to his desk and computer. Opening the top drawer, he pulled out a flash drive. "Here are your books but you'll have to use your room's laptop instead of your one, which you did not bring with you tonight." He tutted. "Come look at my servers. Unfortunately they only have rectangular slots instead of round holes, which would've suited me better."

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel's raised eyebrows knitted together as he listened to all the things that Digital was not confused about. His point was well made, because none of it made any sense to Sam. He let it all flow over him, only able to offer a shrug because Digital had phrased the information as questions and they seemed to require some sort of response from him. His wicked smile drew an entirely different kind of response in Sam, one with heat and longing and he fisted his hands in order to stop himself from touching.

"More gifts," he mused, wondering if the one in his room would cause him as much dissonance as the ID badge had, "the mind boggles." He followed Digital to his desk, accepting the flash drive with a grin. "There's a laptop in my room?" he echoed, surprised about the added expense rather than the fact that the other vampire knew his gear was back in his room at the Warwick Hotel. He bent forward to peer at the screen over Digital's shoulder. It only occurred to him once he was within touching distance that his companion wanted round holes in his server for purposes that computers generally did not serve and he turned his head to look at his profile in alarm.

"Uhh... okay," he drawled, snickering despite himself as he imagined Digital fucking his server. "But the rectangular slots, uh, help get work done, anyway. Have you got the system air-gapped or is it all networked? If so, to the Academy as well?" he enquired, looking back at the screen and the code evident on it. He frowned. "Will I be able to store my database here or will it have to be on my workstation - stations - only? Is that... what's that code for?" he enquired, nodding at the screen rather than pointing. He didn't know much about coding, just enough to keep his database in order, but he was curious to learn.

[Malkavian Riddler]

"It's connected. Upload to one place, upload to all of it, though I have put a preview function in place on your laptop for you to review your modifications before you upload them, to stop some monumental fuck-ups before they happen." He grinned at Sam beside him. "No, I didn't envision you doing it, I figured it was because you're new to the system and you'll be dabbling in the archives."

Digital pulled up a screen that showed him all the books in a list, where they were (KGA - the Kerr Galvin Academy Library, LUM - the Luminary Campus Library, PERBS - Ben's personal collection or PERKG - Kerr's personal collection). Whatever was red was not for lending out. Most of the books were in red. There were blank fields for Sam to assign categories to, and whatever books had barcodes would have them there, or a blank field for Sam to assign an identifier.

"Some of this is what Boy Wonder did before I got my hands on it. Crude, but logical. Kind of what he's like in bed though I haven't had the pleasure. I've had visions though, racy ones." He giggled at Sam's expression. "Have you...?"

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel's face was the picture of alarm as Digital slid right off the work bandwagon and into incomprehensible personal territory. He'd been busy trying to decipher the abbreviations and skimming the titles on the screen and then there was... that.

"Uh, who's Boy Wonder?" he enquired, thinking there was a possibility he'd slept with him... unless Digital meant Ben. It made sense that the system was set up by its owner, by the boss, but... crude but logical in bed? His eyes widened. "If you mean Ben, then no. We, uh, haven't really been on speaking terms until recently."

And knowing that his boss was crude but logical in bed didn't really give him anything constructive to think about. Plus, it was suddenly all he could think about. Desperate to change the subject, he searched the screen for inspiration. "So, uh, are there many more books at the Academy that haven't been catalogued yet?" He was pretty sure Ben had told him the answer but right now the Ben in his head was naked and being racy with Kerr and he needed to not think about that.

[Malkavian Riddler]

"Hm," Digital grunted with interest. He scrolled down the list until they arrived at a bunch of books with nothing in the location fields. "Those are all in transition. Either in boxes at the clifftop house at Patterson Cove or somewhere in this building. Maybe the loading dock, more likely a spare room on the thirteenth floor. Boy Wonder didn't want them going into the library here by accident before he goes through it and deems what's dangerous or not. He's... obsessed with powerful books not falling into the wrong hands since he made the Mimic Demons disappear. All but two of them."

Digital grinned again before his eyes raked Sam's body. "Let me show you to your room and to your other gifts."

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel frowned at the list. He'd practically lived in the Oligarchy's Library and it didn't seem to be enough books. Where were the rest? It looked like only half the collection he'd expected, possibly a little more. He raised his eyebrows yet again at the explanation that books were spread across different locations but... they were still on the list, just not shelved. There were more, there had to be more. He straightened up when Digital mentioned taking him to his room. He glanced at his card, thinking he'd have to get a lanyard for it.

"Great," he agreed as they headed to the lift. He didn't even know what floor they were headed to, yet; he'd let Digital choose the buttons. He transferred the USB and card to his left hand and slid them into his pants pocket while his right loosened his tie then ran through his hair, causing it to lift before it settled daintily. He wasn't sure if he should bring the books list up or not. "You always call Ben 'Boy Wonder'?" he drawled, one side of his mouth lifted in a wry half-grin. "That doesn't seem very... respectful," he smirked, appreciating the vampire's rebelliousness anyway.

[Malkavian Riddler]

Digital didn't know enough about Kerr's chest vault to explain that this was where the books had gone. He didn't know, and neither did his voices. At the challenge of Ben's nickname, Digital explained.

"Oh, only since he went to Batman," Digital replied, then looked pensively at Sam. "I've respected him longer than you have," he said with a smirk, then laughed at Sam's expression. "Don't be hard on yourself. I'll be hard on you instead," he said with a chuckle as he checked Sam out.

Ooh yes, tasty. He was keen to climb up his body all the way to his cheekbones, and maybe mount them too.

"Hey, how far can you stick out your tongue? Show me?"

It wasn't an invitation to kiss.

[Existentially Odd]

When Digital laughed, Sam did too, appreciating his colleague having a go at him. 'Trophy Wife' had definitely been a worse nickname; the taller vampire wasn't wrong. Sam realised in that moment that he could respect Digital. He might be difficult to decipher but he was wily and intelligent and more tactful than Sam himself was, when the situation called for it. And he wasn't going to let Sam get away with anything, it seemed. They were, indeed, equals.

Of course, he had no idea who Batman was, but assumed that it was Kerr. He resembled a dark knight, after all.

Sam thought he was getting better at Digitalisms... until he was asked to stick his tongue out. He gave his companion a pensive look, mildly distracted by the fact that the elevator arrived. He stepped in, briefly pondering the wisdom of being trapped in a tight space with a man who looked at him like he could devour him whole and with his tongue sticking out but it didn't seem untoward. It was too weird a request for him to be suspicious rather than merely curious.

As he spun to look at the doors again, he gave a little shrug. "Uh... this far?" he hazarded, poking it straight forward and going somewhat crosseyed as he looked at it. He knew of people being tongue-tied and that they couldn't mimic this action but he couldn't fathom why Digital wanted to see it. His tongue wavered upwards, towards his nose but he couldn't touch its tip.

[Malkavian Riddler]

Digital's grin broadened at the display. "Oh yes, that'll do nicely. We can have a lot of fun with that."

His coveralls weren't baggy enough to hide the tenting but Digital called no attention to it beyond pressing the button for the fifteenth floor and the box glided smoothly upwards.

"I've put you in room 1515 because it's a corner and it sounds cute as you," he said through his smile. The elevator bonged its arrival and Digital led the way, walking with a bit more sway to keep himself comfortable. He could feel himself rocking and bouncing, and looked down to see his clothing moving around like there was a live creature inside. There kind of was.

"Put your ID up against the black square until you hear a click... there you go."

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel gave him a reproachful look as Digital said they'd have fun with his tongue but... his body certainly seemed to be looking forward to it. Sam's gaze lingered on the evidence of the other vampire's desire, fighting a mirroring response in his own body. Vomas. He had to remember Vomas and how that had gone so terribly wrong. Mind... Digital hardly seemed the long-term type... but no, he was the problem. Could he see himself falling in love with Digital, though?

As he watched Digital prance his boner down the hallway towards his new home, Samuel was definitely charmed, and love seemed an infinite distance away. A safe, uncrossable, unfathomable distance away. He was torn as he stepped after the bouncing orange suit, wondering what Digital's ass looked like as he approached the door and did as instructed. It clicked and Sam pushed it open, turning to look at Digital instead of walking inside. "You know we really can't," he intoned with a pointed look at Digital's crotch. "We have to work together. It would make things too complicated," he asserted.

Stupidly, he found himself hoping Digital had a convincing argument ready because he really wanted to be persuaded.