Which Genre? (TAG: Anyone)

Jackson likes to read...sometimes. He prefers to read things he's not supposed to and usually these things involve other people; not biopics or fiction. He sighed heavily, coming across a selection of mystery sci fi. Jackson reads a synopsis on the back of one of the books, huffing and rolling his eyes at it. "Books are stupid, anyway." He muttered to himself before walking to the section of the bookstore dedicated tot technology. This place should have an entire superstore for technology in Jackson's opinion. He needed a new one anyway since his was probably still bugged. So he started his hunt for a new computer.

Xion was heading to the electronics store to pick up some parts for her little robot. The nice thing was she could work on the project for as long as she wanted, each day, every day considering her roommate was absolutely never around. She frowned when she spotted Jackson in the store rounding the corner.

Jackson glanced over his shoulder. Like most hackers, he was especially paranoid about everything, and everything, naturally, was a conspiracy. He always felt like he was being watched though, so that probably wasn't the greatest thing to consider. But then he saw that timid but fiery short haired girl looking at him. He put his hands on his hips and smirked at her, cocking his head and giving her an expression that questioned why she wasn't saying hello.

"What?" she asked when she caught him looking at her, like he expected something of her. She didn't even know he would be there. She looked up at him before folding her arms across her chest. It wasn't like he had greeted her. Besides, he was far too smug for his own good. She wouldn't feed his ego by giving him exactly what he wanted. He got that enough when he was 'critiquing' her robot.

"'What'? What do you mean 'what'? You were the one staring at me." Jackson pointed out, dropping his hands and approaching her. "If you wanted to speak all you had to do was say so." Jackson smirked, quite enjoying his joke. "It's not polite to stare. Didn’t anyone ever teach you that?" He went on. "Well, I guess not. It can’t be helped." He ruffled her hair. "What are you doing in a bookstore electronic section? The electronic store is across the way. But I guess there's a reason you're depriving your precious robot of all of the essential things he may need to be a wonderful environmental help." Jackson gave her a playful wink.

"It's not like I intended to stare," Xion replied, slightly annoyed. "Besides, you do more than enough talking for the both of us." She pushed his hand away after he ruffled her hair. Why did people do that? It was like they were treating her like she was twelve or something. "I stopped in here to see what books they had on firewall coding and then I was going to go to the electronic store." It wasn't like she could trust anyone else in her division to do the coding for her because Jackson himself even admitted he would try to hack her little bot if he had the chance.

"Of course you didn't." Jackson couldn't resist snickering at her comment, "Feisty as usual I see." But he said it without any humor, allowing her to push his hand away. "Firewall coding." He echoed, putting his hands in his pockets as he looked off elsewhere. "It definitely won't be titled that way, that's for sure." Then he thought a moment. Wasn't he the one who told her to give him a firewall? "You're better off checking out a textbook or redirecting the use of the codes that you've already got going, squirt." He folded his arms across his chest. "I haven't see you around the division." That would probably be because he wasn't around there much. "How's your precious bot coming along?"

Xion frowned. "Well sorry, it's not like I automatically know about firewalls." she said sarcastically. She was very acutely aware she wasn't like the other students that were naturally brilliant. She was too, but she just had to learn about things first. It made things a little more difficult for her. "It's going fine," she said. She ignored his previous statement about not being in the division labs lately. She had been avoiding them if at all possible.

"Apology accepted. But I do suggest you get some lessons from someone." Not me perhaps someone with patience or who wants to actually help you. "That's...fortunate." He commented with a smirk filled with his own appreciation of his brilliance. He was pretty cocky wasn't he? "Is it an actual thing yet?"

She made a face. She hadn't actually meant that she was sorry for not knowing. Whatever. She folded her arms across her chest. "Yes, there is a mock one. I'm going to turn it on in a few days." she said. It was just to see what worked and what didn't.

Jackson nodded slowly as if he were utterly fascinated by her project. But he wasn't. He'd honestly just used her as an excuse to harass someone for the day. "Right..." He'd rather hack into it than watch its development. "Well if that's all that you needed - my addressing of your obsessive stares-" They weren't obsessive but he just wasn't himself if he didn't exaggerate someone else's actions in a negative way. "Then I think that I'll be on my way finding something productive, or not productive, to do with my time. As fun as this was." He turns on his heels, hands still in his pockets and walks past her towards the coffee shop of the store.

"Obsessive? I'm not-!" It was too late. He all ready left. Xion all but growled in annoyance. She should have just walked the other way when she saw him. She should never have even let him help with her project in the first place... And yet, her poor little robot was sitting in her room with a fresh coat of paint in a familiar shade of yellow.

After ordering a cup of iced coffee, which was typically uncommon for him, he spotted the girl looking extraordinarily useless. And for once, he felt like helping someone that wasn't himself. What the fuck He mentally groaned before dragging his feet to the one part of the store he was sure he knew better than anybody and picked up about three of them. He returned to Xion and dropped them in her arms before she could process it and started talking before she could protest. "You'll probably need to read every word in those books considering you probably don't know every lasting detail in any one of them. Before you start whining about how much they cost, and since you mentioned before something about money, I'll pay for them. I'm not buying them for you. They're a loan." They most definitely were not a loan. He had his own copies in his room and he'd already read them all at least twice since he got them two years ago. But he couldn't just let her think that he was nice. Cause he wasn't.
"On top of that I guess I can teach you something about...I don't know. Whatever it is you don't know which in my eyes is nothing. But looks are deceiving or whatever it is that they say. Can you agree to that? Because seriously you talk and whine and complain way too much for my taste. It gives me a headache."

"W-What?" she stammered and barely caught the books he all but threw at her. Was this man bipolar? He went from being a jerk to being okay in the span of a few minutes and it was giving Xion whiplash. "You don't have to do that!" she said quickly. Shame made her cheeks burn and turn a light pink. "Why would you even want to help me?" She was afraid this was just another attempt of a bully trying to humiliate her further. Pretend to be nice enough to help her and when she let her guard down, he would yank the rug out from beneath her feet.

"I know I don't. But I will." Sadly. He walked to the register and took each book from her as she spoke, handing the EVE cash. He was a hacker for crying out loud. He didn't hold anything in a bank or digital component. "I don't want to. But I am." Sadly. "I'd love to tell you that people are nice and selfless but that would be an utter lie and it would be unfair to you for me to do that." This was already feeling kind of mistake-ish. "I thought I already told you about how our division needs to unite. Power in numbers or something." He waved a dismissive hand and headed out of the store. "I'm not going to plead to help you, you know. Take it or leave it. If you leave it I already bought the books and it would be a pain to walk back in there so keep 'em."

She tried to protest but he had already paid for the books. She ducked her head. She didn't have anything to make it up to him. Her brother was the one being paid to be here because of his military disability and honorable discharge from the marines. Maybe she could ask her brother for money to repay Jackson? Nevertheless, she followed him out, trailing right behind him. "Thank you?" she said uncertainly.

"Oh, and there's none of that." He said abruptly, stopping and turning. "I don't do the 'thank you' or 'sorry' thing. So don't say either because if I've ever said it, or say it because I will definitely be saying it in the near if not immediate future, it was a rhetorical and or sarcastic phrase not meant for anything more than to demean you." Jackson gave her a wicked grin. "Who knows, maybe one day you'll turn out as evil as me, squirt." He ruffled her hair again before turning and walking again. "I guess if you'll be my successor then you'll have to learn how to learn to keep me form breaking your codes. I guess that would be impossible, but, it's worth a shot."

Xion blinked owlishly. That would be a hard habit to break because if nothing her mother had drilled good manners into her head. "I'll try," she said, not promising to avoid using the words. She made another face when he ruffled her hair. She was going to have to keep a brush with her to eventually straighten out her hair if things kept up like this. She looked up at him as he started to walk again. "And... if I don't use hacking for evil?" she asked, wondering his stance on that.

"Hacking?" He echoed, stopping and looking at her in a solemn way as if she had done something very wrong. "That's what you believe all coding is? Hacking?" He said it as if it were a curse word. Of course that's what coding typically was but if that was all she believed that it were then they were going to have big problems. "Coding is universal. Coding is not strictly hacking. Coding is what keeps your phone active and downloads an app to your phone and is what makes that app an app. It is what makes everything digital - digital. That's the first thing that you need to drill into your head because if you don't I may just have to reduce you into a collection of numbers." He said it as if he could really do it too.

"I've done coding," Xion said. How else did he think she did the programming for Wall-E's personality chip? How else would she make him move the way he was supposed to or react? She did have a bachelor's in computer sciences after all. "You were the one who wanted to hack Wall-E. You're the whole reason I'm looking into firewalls and protection codes for him."

"That's great. Really. Great." He stuffed one of his hands into his khakis and sipped from his straw. "It's not my fault that it's true. And that's why you're going to learn. And if you don't, whether it's from me or not, I'm hacking that stupid little environmentally assisting thing." Well, he's probably going to do it anyway, but she didn't have to know that.

She glared up at him. "Not if I can help it." she countered. She was pouring everything she had into that little bot. She wasn't about to just let him take control and hijack her hard work. She could all ready feel her mind racing to think of something to stop him.

"Good preservation." It was meant as a compliment, but also not as a compliment. Jackson didn't give out compliments freely. It's always meant as an insult somewhere along the lines. "Any questions? Because if you don't ask now I'm going to treat you like a moron for stupid questions. No coding specifications, just our arrangement and further relationship...inquiries." He really wanted her to get it out now.

Xion exhaled slowly, trying to reign in her shattered nerves. Regardless of what she said whether it was now or later he would still treat her like a moron. "Why are you such a jerk?" she blurted out. She then winced because she hadn't meant to ask that.

Quite blatant aren't we? Jackson smirked cockily at her, chuckling as he slurped the remainder of his drink and tossed it in a nearby trashcan of which it rebounded off of. "Because it's fun." It was true. It was fun. It also had a bit to do with his past...well a lot to do with his past but it was still fun. "Any remaining relevant questions?"