wanderer's lullaby

The alarm blared and woke Winter up, making her groan as she rolled over. She really despised waking up this early, but what could she really do about it? She had promised to help out the baker and his wife, so she really couldn't do much about it. Well. She was under no obligation to be employed there, but if she would really need letters of recommendation for when she did begin work... Even if it was only for a few months, she needed people here in Vale to support her. Though that did remind her of something… She walked over to the computer, making the screen pop on. "Hey, Winter, what's up?" the AI asked. "How are things moving forward with releasing the footage?" The sooner she got that released, the better... She knew Coco was working on it but she hadn't spoken to her friend in some days about it. Coco seemed to be pretty busy as of right now, so they hadn't had much chance to speak. "Well, I got all of the videos downloaded from Coco's harddrive. That transfer was fun--it's so many gigabytes of data. I'm gonna need to wipe them eventually since it's taking up a ton of room on the harddrive. If you want to download any programs, then you'll need to wipe some of the data. Or if you get an external harddrive, that'd be even better. I mean I take up a fair amount of space due to how many programs go into me... Most of the data is already taken up on this computer." Well, that wasn't frustrating at all. Then again, Coco had cameras running at all hours of the day, so she no doubt had tons and tons of footage to make her way through. It was frustrating, but she would have to run to an electronics store to get the harddrive... Well, she at least had one goal for today. She was planning on going out into the city anyway. Might as well make it a point to have a goal. She wished she could have Summer's AI helping her, but she didn't know enough about scrolls to try to work around it basically being malignant spyware that had access to every part of her scroll. Maybe she ought to get a burner as well... If she was going to a tech store, that would probably be best. Burners weren't that expensive nor were externals, depending on how much data they needed. "How much data do you need?" She could look at prices and determine where to go before heading out. Though she doubted prices would vary too wildly... But still, if one place could save her a couple bucks, she would definitely go with that. She hoped that she could find somewhere. "In the meanwhile, would you mind looking at prices for burners and comparisons for whatever data amount you need on the harddrive?" "A couple terabytes is probably best. This is just your abuse, we're talking about. We're not releasing anything related to your sister's. It'd probably be wise to keep that too." Hm, she hadn't considered it but that was definitely a good point... She would need to keep Weiss' abuse too. She didn't want to see any of it, but she knew she'd have to release it to the public at some point too. Guh, all of this was so horribly complicated. She needed to tell Kali and Sienna about her plans for this, so that way they'd all be on the same page. She'd let them take the reins of Weiss and Whitley's case as well as be her legal counsel for her citizenship. She should probably call them and make sure that this was a good idea... Guh. "Very well." She sighed and shook her head. Yeah, this was gonna be a major pain in the ass, but she had no real way around it. With that done, she went through her morning routine (sans showering) and headed off to the bakery. SHe worked there for several hours until the orders were filled and she headed back with Ein. She showered and ate breakfast, then headed back up to the room. The AI had pulled up a list of comparative price points for burners and harddrives. Hm, that wasn't too bad. They were at different stores. She'd just pick up a burner at the store she went to because she could see that she was going to need to take a decent route. There seemed to be a bike car in trains for people to take bikes with them and buses had bike racks on the front. Thankfully, she still had some cash left over from the craft show a few days earlier... Though there were commuter passes that could be paid up front and allow a person so many rides until it went out. She pulled up the route on her scroll and then grabbed her wallet. She headed downstairs and grabbed her bike, taking stock of the weather. It was sunny and decently warm (at least for her) and she didn't see anything in the forecast to worry about. Cloud cover but that was about it. No rain, hail, snow, or anything like that. So she hopped on her bike and wound through the uneven ground, wincing and cringing whenever she hit something. She wasn't used to the gear system, but she figured out how to adjust it to what she needed for the uneven ground. Eventually, she made it to the ferry from Patch to the mainland. She left her bike outside and walked into the building where a man greeted her. "Oh hullo, miss. What can I do for you today?" "One ticket to the mainland, please." It looked like this was cash only. She hadn't gotten out massive bills, just twenties, so she pulled out two. "Could you make change here?" Having some len and lien would be good. "Yes ma'am. How do you want it?" She told him and he made change for her. Her wallet was suddenly a lot heavier, but she didn't mind so much. It seemed like public transit favored len over lien or commuter passes. She really wished she could just get one, but they expired after a certain amount of time. She didn't go out enough yet to use the public transit... A commuter pass would be a waste of money for her if it expired. After getting her change, she headed out to the area of the ferry for people on foot or bikes. The ferry lurched forward after it set off and she gripped the railing hard, not used to the motion of the ocean. When she was in the cars, it was a little bit less noticeable, but being on foot today... She really noticed how the ferry moved and how the waves sloshed the boat around. She was looking forward to finishing driver's ed and getting her permit so she could drive. This was ridiculous... It felt terrible. She couldn't imagine being on foot every time she wanted to go into the city. But that would take time. They only had an hour of ed every day and it was something that usually happened over the summer… She kept her eyes fixed on the horizon, not wanting to look down at the ocean. Something in her definitely feared the deep depths even if she'd never really thought about it before. How had Clover dealt with this in his early life? Being on a boat all day, everyday. He came from a poor fishing village and had been friends with that Robyn Hill woman at one point... He hadn't gone into great depth, but he loved fish. He even kept his own aquariums despite how often they were gone on missions. She'd seen them a few times. The memory of his Semblance downturning from good fortune to bad due to his mindset and cracking the biggest tank... Ouch. She picked up her scroll and looked down at it, trying to avoid looking at the water. She wondered how they were... But it was still early in the morning and they might very well be on a mission from the general. It wouldn't do well to call them. But she was curious. She dialed Clover's number and it went to voicemail immediately. Probably out in the field then. "Hello, Warrant Officer Ebi. It's...Winter--" That hurt to say. Not Major Schnee, just Winter. "--I was wondering how things were. I remember your fish tank burst a few weeks ago. How is it going? Did you replace it? I was just curious. Goodbye." She clicked and hung up, then put it back in her pocket. She felt so alone and isolated, more than she ever had in Atlas somehow... At least she did have legitimate connections there. She wasn't super buddy-buddy with the Ace Ops, but they did care about her. And then General Ironwood was the father she'd never had. The man truly was one of the best people she'd ever met in her life. The ferry eventually reached the mainland and she hopped onto her bike, pulling out her scroll before moving to see where all she needed to go. Grab the route 60 bus then go to the transfer station, hop the route 82... She could do that. The Route 60 was only about a mile away. She started riding, blinking when she felt the wind blowing through her hair and around her face. It felt...freeing to be able to be out like this. Nothing had really been stopping her before. It was her mind keeping her trapped on Patch now that she had the bike thing down... Plus, this was good exercise. She rode the mile to the bus stop and, when it got there, she put her bike on the rack in front of the bus and then entered the bus. It was moderately populated, but she found a seat near the back, and settled in. She had never really stopped to watch the city. It was fascinating to watch people mill about. She'd mostly been in conversation with the general or focused on her task at hand. She'd never simply just...watched people. Well, aside from Atlassian parties, but there wasn't much to watch there. People dancing or women talking. That was all she was allowed to do. It was terrible. She would not miss those parties by any stretch of the imagination. She absolutely loathed those abhorrent parties and truly would not miss them. Eventually, she got to the transit station and pulled her bike off the rack, walking it over to the 82 waiting port. She waited about fifteen minutes, then repeated the process. She double checked the route on her scroll, seeing that she'd need to ride about a mile away from the nearest bus stop to get to the strip mall where the technology store was. It was a smaller business, seemed to be owned by a local family, rather than the big chain stores. Somehow, they were a bit cheaper than the large chain stores, but she wouldn't complain. She arrived after riding there and locked her bike up on the provided rack, then walked inside. A young woman greeted her. "Hello, and welcome to Wamzo Technology Store. What can I help you with today?" "I need an external harddrive and a burner phone." She paused for a moment. "Oh, and some headphones if you have them." She hadn't thought about that. She would need an open line of communication with the AI when she was scooting around town like this or whatever else. She needed the burner for the AI and the AI alone. Though... Oh no, she hadn't thought about a bag or anything like that. "Would you...happen to have any bags?" "We have a small selection of backpacks if you want to look at those." The woman smiled. Winter showed her the harddrive she wanted and led her to the section with those. She told her which one she needed, then did the rest of her shopping. She found some cheap bluetooth headphones that would do well for her. It seemed like no scroll had a headphone jack for some reason. She had seen it on the laptop, but not any scroll or tablets. Weird. After checking out, she put everything in her backpack and repeated the process to get back to Patch. It was well into the afternoon by time she returned, but she still had the house to herself. She sighed and plugged the harddrive into the laptop. "There you go. Feel free to transfer the data." "Gotcha. And do you have a burner so I can be with you?" "Yes, but I haven't set it up yet." She got the number set up and everything, but she didn't have apps or anything on it. She popped the lock screen open and connected it to the house's wifi signal. "There; you can go ahead and install on if you want to. It's literally the only reason I got one. Your programs are incredibly useful." "So I can go ahead and use as much memory as I want? There is a 'lite' version of me that Summer made to specifically be a digital assistant on scrolls that wouldn't take up as much data. But if you're saying I can go ahead and fully install on the scroll..." "That's exactly what I'm saying." The AI nodded and she saw some shifts in the UI then saw a download bar pop up. "It'll take a while since I do take up quite a bit of data in my full form." "That's fine, I didn't have anything else planned for today." She shrugged, then pulled out her tablet to start studying for her GED again. She stayed with that until she heard a knock on her door, making her blink. She got up and answered, it being Qrow. "Hey snowdrop." She felt her face warm slightly. She still could not get past the nickname. "How was today? You hungry? It's about dinner time." Winter nodded a bit. "I got a fair bit of exercise today, so food would be welcomed." Riding her bike several miles that day... Yeah, it was definitely a fair bit of exercise. Getting through the forest had been an absolutely miserable experience and she'd been forced to figure out how to deal with the gear shifting system. But once she had, it'd been much smoother sailing coming back. It didn't make it any more pleasant than before, though... She still hated being out in nature and it was hard to deal with the lack of adequate roads. There was a trail that the family obviously used to get between the coast and the center of the island, but that was about it...It was just hard to see in the dark when going to and from the bakery and the general store... She could see it clearly in the daylight when biking, but not so much when it was dark out. "Let's go get some then." Qrow smiled at her and offered his hand to her. She willingly put hers in his and they headed down the stairs together, her behind him since it was too narrow to walk side by side. They headed down to the kitchen where Raven was waiting for them, looking annoyed. "Geeze, you two! Did you forget about driver's ed?! We're late!" Winter flushed hotly and facepalmed. She had been so focused on Qrow she did forget. Raven opened a portal and they headed through, walking into class late. She felt everyone staring at them and her face heated up. Damn it all, how could she be so absent minded?! She normally wasn't this bad! Guh. They sat down and went through the hour of lesson, then returned to Patch. After they returned, Qrow got into the freezer and pulled out their dinner, heating it up in the microwave. She sat down at the table, resting her cheek against her hand. What a kind of long day. Her legs definitely hurt quite a bit due to all the riding. Aura could prevent injury, but it definitely didn't prevent pain, especially just normal muscle pain from normal exertion. She was military, sure, but it didn't mean she was used to running or biking miles each and everyday. She was definitely fit, but she hadn't worked out in quite a while… "So how was today for ya, snowdrop?" Qrow placed her plate in front of her and he sat across from her. "It was fine, I suppose. I got out and got a harddrive and a burner. The AI is still installing itself on the burner. I can only imagine how much it needs to manipulate the code to be able to work on modern devices. The OS has got to be vastly different than what Summer built it on." Yeah, that was definitely a good point. She hadn't used Summer's laptop too much, but the OS looked different. Then again, it was working just fine on the current OS on the modern laptop, so why would it be any different? Qrow nodded. "Yeah, it has to radically rewrite the code to be compatible with modern OSes. The original version was built on the Rainbow open-source operating system on a distro that's incredibly outdated. She also did a lot of alternating to the distro to make it run more effectively and more efficiently like she wanted it to." Winter shook her head. Only Summer would be crazy enough to basically rewrite an OS from the ground up. She didn't know about Rainbow, but Coco talked about computer stuff enough that she had some idea on how to follow what Qrow was saying. "Yeah, she was just as nuts as she seems." "I mean...she built a fully-functional AI by herself. I doubt even the Atlassian military has the capability to do such a thing. Unless there's some sort of black op project I'm not aware." She was just a normal officer, high ranking, sure, but relatively normal. She didn't have access to the various black ops projects that the military no doubt dealt with on a daily basis... She didn't have security clearance for it. "I really don't think it's far-fetched to rewrite an OS at least partially. Why in the world did she decide she needed to rewrite the OS?" She couldn't help but be curious about that at least... Summer was one of a kind, truly. She was insane and crazy and uniquely one-of-a-kind. Nobody else could match her in her...entire demeanor. "It didn't work like she wanted it to. She cracked the OS open like a nut, rearranged it, then put the shell back on. If things didn't work like she wanted them to, she could and would rebuild them if possible. If anyone could've rewritten the entirety of Valian and Atlassian law, it woulda been her. But she didn't study law beyond what was necessary, though...her definition of 'necessary' is different from anybody else's." Qrow shook his head and Winter sighed. Of course. Of course she would study law unnecessarily. She didn't seem to be as crazy about is Kali was but...she wondered. "Summer, just how much law did you study?" She didn't care if the AI or Summer herself answered. "Uh, fair bit." Qrow pulled his scroll out. "I needed to make sure I was still acting within the law or within a legal grey area to make sure I was still in the clear for half the things I did. Do you want to know what areas I studied?" "Yes." The AI proceeded to list off dozens of areas of law that had been studied and Winter sighed. She couldn't even be surprised at this point. She really couldn't. Summer was just absolutely, utterly, impossible and insane. She couldn't remember even half the laws around what the SDC did, let alone as much as Summer would be able to handle. She just... Who was this woman? She still didn't have the answer. Summer was insane. The woman was so utterly, incomprehensibly insane. To do even half of what she did and live to talk about it... Yeesh. "I see." "Well, it did keep us outta hot shit half the time. She knew what she was doing and defended us. I would hate to see what would've happened had she become a lawyer." Qrow shuddered and Winter shared in it. That would've been utterly horrifying. Yes, lawyer Summer would be absolutely, incredibly insane. She probably would've been able to completely rewrite Valian law in due time. Possibly become president or at least put on the council. What a mess. Summer was something else. The more she learned, the more she could really see just why Qrow continued to pine over her despite her having been dead for so long at this point. "So I see." Winter shook her head again with another sigh. Seriously insane. The woman was something else. "So how's the fish research going?" "Uh... I haven't looked into it yet." Oops. She'd been so busy with other things that she hadn't thought about it. "AI, can you put an order into the one in my room to start on that?" Why bother when she had a digital assistant to do everything? The AI really didn't mind doing everything. In a way, that was part of its programming... It never really seemed to get frustrated or anything when asked to do things. It was always exciting and such... So yeah. Might as well just ask the AI to start doing the research. "What type of fish again?" "Betta." "Can do then." She was pretty sure the thing gave a two-fingered salute just from the tone of its voice. Winter shook her head again and fell quiet, finishing up her dinner for the night. She put her dishes in the dishwasher then kissed Qrow on the cheek and headed back upstairs. When she sat at the desk, a word document had already been pulled up and had multiple recommendations on products and basic necessities. At least a five gallon tank, water 78-82 degrees, heater, filter, a sponge filter being beset instead of a hang-on back, water testing kit... So many different recommendations. The nitrogen cycle? What was that? Ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. Basically turning toxic products into non-toxic products. Apparently there were products that could cycle a tank within a week. It just needed a constant source of ammonia. Filter media would be best, but the products could cycle the tank in very little time. She was glad for that. She really had no idea what she was doing. If things could take care of it for her, she definitely wouldn't complain. "Even for a long-finned male, I would suggest a ten-gallon tank. Five is the bare minimum, but people seem to suggest ten being better unless it's a super heavy tail type like a rosetail," the AI put in. "There are also wild types but those are more advanced since they'd need RO water that is mineralised to a certain degree. Domestic splendens varieties are seen as relatively beginner-friendly fish. Though if you want a community tank, minimum twenty gallons. Do you want more than just a betta?" Winter shook her head. "No, I don't want that. I saw live plants were on the suggested list?" "NOt necessary. Suggested, but unnecessary. Especially for a beginner. Silk plants can serve just fine in this case." "Very well. Maybe Qrow can arrange for me to go somewhere and be picked up." There was no way she'd be able to lug a ten-gallon tank on the bus. She would need someone to take her and drop her off. She at least wouldn't be very long. She had her suggested list of products ready to go. She just needed somewhere to put it all… She looked around the room and started picking up. All she did was dust and put the dirty clothes in the hamper to be taken care of. They had been sitting there for years; they definitely needed to be cleaned. She hadn't removed any of Summer's clothing, so she'd need to put this away when she did her laundry next. Eventually, though, she found a little place where a stand for a ten gallon could fit (based off measurements given) and smiled a bit. It was right between the piano and the desk. If she was working, she could easily just look over and see the fish. That sounded lovely really... Bettas were so colorful and interesting looking. Plus...she'd never had a pet before. Sure, you couldn't really bond with a fish like a cat or a dog, but it was a pet... It would be interesting to see what came about from it. She sat down at the computer and put in an order for the different pieces and paid with her card, then stretched a bit. It was still a bit early but she was tired after having gone so far away and biked so much. She got ready for bed, then took her meds and laid down for the night, snuggling into the covers and waiting for sleep to take her.