Hajime "panty king" Hinata (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hopefragment) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
reverielogs2018-05-17 06:28 pm
hopefragment) wrote in reverielogs2018-05-17 06:28 pm
[open] network/action; pew pew pew
» WHO? Hajime Hinata and NERDS
» WHEN? anytime after 5/17
» WHERE? the observatory OR the bar, either place
» WHAT? come play copyright-infringement-free galaga with him
» WARNINGS? none??? please i hope we don't need them he just wants to play vidya
[A text goes out over the network from username hinatahajime, sometime midmorning of the 17th.]
hey, uh, i found my gamegirl just sitting in the cafeteria earlier. the only game in it was my copy of gala omega, but if anybody's as tired of staring at the walls as i am, you're welcome to come play it with me. i'll be in the observatory for a while, but i might head to the bar later
[When he gets tired of sitting on the floor, that is. Either way, he can be found in one of those places playing his totally-not-a-gameboy. He called it Gala Omega on the network, but it's clearly Galaga.]
» WHEN? anytime after 5/17
» WHERE? the observatory OR the bar, either place
» WHAT? come play copyright-infringement-free galaga with him
» WARNINGS? none??? please i hope we don't need them he just wants to play vidya
[A text goes out over the network from username hinatahajime, sometime midmorning of the 17th.]
hey, uh, i found my gamegirl just sitting in the cafeteria earlier. the only game in it was my copy of gala omega, but if anybody's as tired of staring at the walls as i am, you're welcome to come play it with me. i'll be in the observatory for a while, but i might head to the bar later
[When he gets tired of sitting on the floor, that is. Either way, he can be found in one of those places playing his totally-not-a-gameboy. He called it Gala Omega on the network, but it's clearly Galaga.]
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[He doesn't know anything about -- anything, really, but he wants to learn. He wants to be acknowledge as someone reliable, someone who can do things. Even if he's just a average, ordinary boy, he still wants...]
I mean... yeah. Yeah, I'll do my best to learn whatever you can teach me.
[And he smiles again, genuinely.]
Thanks, Mishima.
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2) There's something in his voice that makes sense. She's always had a bit of an edge, even before it became a massive, unnatural advantage, but hacking back then wasn't a personal hobby - it was something she did with Ryuji, to get his attention, to make him proud, to spend time together like siblings should.
3) holy SHIT stop having feelings in her vicinity it burns us precious.]
Don't get, [mushy, but she physically can't finish that sentence so he'll have to infer it from the way she just closes her eyes coolly to dodge a fluster.] It's no problem, though. You seem like you pick things up at a decent pace.
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Right, right, I won't. So what would we need to do?
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...That's right, we don't have paper or pens around here. That would make it easier, but...basically, first you determine what parts the program will need and what each of those parts has to do, then you write the program according to your plan. For this, step one involves playing the game and taking notes on how it works. But they'll have to be mental notes, I guess. [shrug...]
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...Oh! You could just type it up as a text to me, right? Any notes you'd have. That way we could just access it on our communicators.
[Is he doing it yet, is he helping.]
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Erika starts making small, contained gestures in the vague direction of the Gamegirl's screen as she talks.] Anyways...you're familiar enough with the game to start from memory. The basic programming concept behind old games like this is that the game is...constantly flipping through "frames", like in an animated show. One frame is the shortest time that any change to the game can be made in, like the position of the player or enemies, or the points total. Each frame that passes is an opportunity to check inputs and conflicts and update what's happening on the screen. That can be things like "the player is pressing left, move the ship left", or "a bullet is touching an enemy, deal damage to that enemy".
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Right... so it's like an interactive anime, basically?
[If it's frames that vary based off player action, that is.]
How do we put that into the communicator?
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[....
Oh god there's so much.
She fires up her communicator and does some NONSENSE WIZARDRY to back out of the network UI and get into a coding environment.]
You know Ponk, right? I'm going to use it to demonstrate the principles, since all the game elements are just basic shapes.
[And so she goes.
As promised, she's not the best teacher. She bangs out the code that makes up the shell of the game, promising to explain it later, then moves through the draw function, in order of declaration rather than building up from basic to complex elements. Questions are required to keep her completely on track. But she answers them thoroughly, and goads Hinata to ask them if he shows signs of folding on them out of embarrassment.]
...and all of that is what the game does every frame. Check object velocity, update the screen based on velocity, then update velocity based on interactions between objects. So, to make the paddles move based on button presses, what variable has to change when a button press is detected?
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Um... to make the paddles move...
[He's looking over the code she's managed to type up, still honestly a little in awe that she was able to do something like that.]
It'd be paddle position and velocity, right?
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[And the relevant code gets punched in.]
The reason I didn't here is because...hm. It's a principle. It's easier to read and follow if you have the draw function do all the direct modifications to position, then have everything else create inputs for the draw function. Like...imagine all the buttons on your TV remote worked normally, except to change the volume, you had to crack it open and manipulate the circuitry directly. It's kind of like that? Messy design works, but it's harder to keep track of. Programming is as much about the human element as the machine element.
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[He nods, bringing his hand to his lips again as he tries to take mental notes of everything she's telling him. She's right, it would be easier to do this with a notebook. Maybe Ezra will lend it back to him if he asks?]
So... will we be able to play this on our communicators, then? Since you're putting it together?
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[Save, compile, run. What comes out is Pong - sorry, Ponk - stripped down, with no scorekeeping and no movement from player two.]
...Maybe I should have you build this before we move on to Gala Omega.
[She looks thoughtful. Teaching really does not come naturally to her.]
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[Huh? Huh?? His eyes go wide, and he brings up both hands in front of his face as he shakes his head.]
I-I don't think I could build something like this on my own. I kind of get what you're saying, but...
[...Well. Maybe he could try it? She did explain it, and just because he's never done it before doesn't mean he can't do it now. He pauses, then offers a bit of a resigned shrug and a smile.]
I'll try.
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[She gives him a sideways glance, checking to see how serious his protest was. Then she opens up a new window and rapidly does something in it, dunks the resultant file in a message, and fires it off to Hinata.]
That's a shortcut to the coding environment. Open it up and I'll walk you through each line...
[Here comes a crash course on syntax and god knows what else.]
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[He opens his messages and opens it as instructed, greeted with all that code that suddenly looks a lot more intimidating now that he's doing it himself. He gives her a bit of an uncertain glance, then nods. Okay, yeah. He can do this!
He does need a fair amount of help, but surprisingly enough (to him), he does feel like he's learning, even if his keystrokes aren't even close to being as confident and sure as hers.]
Umm... thank you, [he says partway through, taking a second to stretch his fingers and crack his knuckles. He doesn't usually type this much? He needs a break.] For showing me all of this, I mean.
[And for being patient with him, and for not making fun of him, and for-- a lot, really. "All of this," really sums it up.]
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He thanks her, and for once, Erika doesn't brush it off, only nodding in acceptance. The impulse is there, but there's something real and solid about this moment that makes her take him seriously and weigh the sentiment; for an instant she finds herself on the other side of the dream, not Erika playing at living in space but a stranger in space remembering at being Erika.
It fades, but leaves echoes behind.]
I got into this because of my brother. [There's a human element, she said. It was a bit of an understatement; there are human elements, plural, and omitting them does no service to his education. Maybe the gloss will come off the idea of talent if he understands how much of it is up to fate.] He's older, and it was just one of those things...spending time together is better when you have an interest in common. He was a much better teacher than I am. Do you have any siblings?
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[He can't help it. His mind immediately flashes to the girl he'd only known for a few days, the girl so desperate to be worthy to stand beside her brother that she was willing to do whatever it took for Hope's Peak to acknowledge her talent. Even though she was just as untalented as he is.
It brings an ache to his chest, lodges something in his throat, and his eyes sidle away from hers to focus on the screen again.]
It's... nice to have family you can stand beside like that, [he says finally. It sounds odd, off, even to his ears, but it just seems to fit right now.
But right, she'd asked a question, hadn't she? He shakes his head.] Oh... no. I was never really that close to my parents, either.
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It's not his fault. Grief washes up and rattles her ribcage; she presses the pain down until it burns down to glass. She opens her mouth and the smoke comes out as frustration.]
No wonder... [She reaches over and kind of. grabs his upper sleeve with a few fingers and gives him a reprimanding yank.] I'm not telling you this to get platitudes back. He taught me, and I'm teaching you, so you need to learn your history.
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[Why's she tugging his sleeve?? He glances sideways at her with more than a little confusion.]
It's not a platitude. I just knew someone who'd be really jealous of that, that's all.
[But he nods, lips quirking into a small smile.]
But yeah, okay. I want you to teach me as much as you can, okay?
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She can't muster a smile to return to him, but that's not out of character for her, anyways. He gets a solemn nod.]
[hope fragment get, or something??]