#don't @ me about any inaccuracies with the coding lingo

[melodyofthevoid]

“ hey, let me take a look... “ any

(credit to @shmunter for these beans once more)

 “Gah! Damnit-“ 

Unnecessary noise made for a less than good working environment. Now, usually Vex blasted music but apparently that was a “public disturbance” and given that they were currently hosting wanted fugitives (other than themselves) that wasn’t really a “smart idea”. At least according to Fin. Which fine, whatever. They would make do. Vinnie didn’t always appreciate all the thudding bass sometimes so he was enjoying himself and the company. 

Now if their “guests” could actually be quiet for two minutes while Vex worked on disrupting the drones’ communication systems that would be phenomenal. 

“No! Stupid piece of junk…” 

Vex clicked out of their magnified vision to turn towards the open door of their workshop, peering out to see what exactly was making the bounty hunter (what was his name? M- something. Who cared) swear so loudly. Said hunter was hunched over the table, laser focused on something in his hands. Various clicking sounds and pixelated bleeps and bloops raising Vex’s curiosity. 

They pushed away from their desk and walked over, craning around the hunter’s shoulder.

“You better not be calling any of my inventions ‘junk’ Greenie, or you’re going to need a new place to hide.” 

Letting out a shriek, Vex’s target threw the device in the air, pulling out a small pistol before blinking and scrambling up to catch the little handheld. He managed to get a hand on it just before it hit the floor, letting out a small sound of relief. 

“Nice reflexes,” Vex snickered, “that how you catch all your targets?” 

“Bolts- you- that was-“ he stumbled over his words before refocusing, his screen’s optics narrow, “unnecessary. And my name is Milo, not Greenie.”

Vex filed that information away under “things to forget in 5 minutes”. Now that Milo was facing them however, they could get a good look at the mystery device. Which turned out to be far less of a mystery than they expected. 

“Is this… a Jumo?”

Scattered pink flicked at Milo’s cheeks, and he held the device closer. Like when Vinnie got into the scrap pile and didn’t want to show whatever bolt Vex needed from him. 

“What? I mean- I don’t- It’s not really-“

Was this bot capable of a full sentence? Vex snickered, rolling their eyes as the plopped down in the chair next to him.

“Relax hunter, I’m just curious. Haven’t seen one of these out and about for a while. They went under a few orbits back and now it’s whatever Aeigis is putting out. I’m shocked it’s in such good shape.” 

That seemed to put him more at ease, and he set the game system on the table sitting back down and frowning at the screen.

“It’s in good shape yeah, but it’s not loading this code. There’s probably some bug I missed again but I can’t seem to find it. Sorry if I uh- was a bit loud hah…” 

Vex blinked, trying to process the words coming from Milo.

Programmed. Programmed himself. This guy?

They looked him over again, squinting. Searching for any sign of a lie. In the 3 days and counting he’d known Milo (which obviously wasn’t much) the general… vibes Vex got indicated that, respectfully, Milo couldn’t lie for shit. Maybe they were wrong about that, and they very well could be, but with how well cared for the little game pad was? 

What could they say. They were curious. 

“Mhm. Mind if I take a look at it?” 

“You’d… you’d do that? Go ahead but,” Milo voice dropped lower, shy grin turning to a scowl, “don’t add any viruses. I know you’ve hacked the hunter’s system before.” 

Scoffing, Vex scooped up the Jumo and pulled up the code on a screen, using their built in jack to project it. 

“Don’t you worry your little jumpsuit about it Greenie. Look, I’ll even let you watch.” 

Milo let out a slight huff, but accepted the olive branch. He really did give off all the threatening aura of Vinnie during one of the few tantrums the bug threw whenever Vex didn't give the him the attention he wanted.

Patting him on the head might result in a shot in the hand though, and Vex just remodeled recently. They'd hate to waste parts like that.

Lines and lines of code flickered by, and the light bemusement faded into intrigue at the sight in front of them. This was by no means the amateur hour 8-bit pixel on a screen code they'd expected. No, this was an entire game.

A few minor loop issues, variables called where they shouldn't be, but in all, shockingly solid.

Little notes dotted each section, outlining in fair detail the purposes and interlocking mechanisms. Some little jokes to himself and ideas stashed away. A decent UI system all things considered.

Vex set about righting the errors, which only took a few minutes. They'd expected to only take that long before because they'd assumed there'd be nothing here. Competence came as a somewhat pleasant surprise.

Dismissing the screen now, Vex booted up the game, playing through the first level to check their work. The assets for the sprites and what not were rudimentary, some clearly just placeholders, but the mechanics were all there.

A few more tweaks and Vex could possibly see themselves considering letting Vinnie try to play this. He trusted Vin's taste above all others.

After finishing, Vex turned to Milo. The bounty hunter had leaned forward during their playtime, and now that attention was back on him, he'd put up a front of nonchalance. Shoulders laid back in the stiffest way imaginable.

"You really made all of this? The base code and everything?"

“It’s nothing- really! Just a little hobby of mine.”

Now that was a practiced defense if Vex'd ever heard one.

“Is this based off of those old side scroller platformers? Like the one with the minebots?” 

There was no time for false humility, Vex wanted answers. 

It looked like the right call too, Milo brightened up immediately and grinned, previous tension gone. 

“Yeah! I modded those for a long time, and I guess I figured I could… try it myself? It’s still a work in progress but it’s getting there. I think.” 

"It's not too shabby, at least for a first attempt. Keep at it. It'll keep you out of my hair while I'm working too, so win win."

"Whatever. But uh.. thank you. Really."

"You're welcome. Now, I need to get back to making sure you and Illiana don't get your sorry bolts captured by Aegis, so I'll be going. Keep it down if you make any more bugs."

With that, Vex left the room, humming low as they pulled up their own code and got back to it. Slightly resenting that Illiana was right that Milo wasn't all that bad for a bounty hunter. He was… endearing. In an infuriating way.

Sure, Vex might've put a small logic bomb in there, but it was small. Couldn't let him get too comfortable after all.

It'd only flip the sprites upside down anyways.