What was it that was on this strange PC? (Open)

(Continuation of https://newarcana.forumotion.com/t2848-winds-of-the-desert-blow-open)

The sun was starting to set as Devin walked towards his family's apartment, carrying a PC that had seen better days.

The pictures of the odd creatures that had been shown on the monitor, seemed like something supernatural, and the two people he met at the school/desert seemed to know what they were. They even took the monitor! There was clearly something unusual going on around here....

"I still don't know what that was all about." Devin thinks as he turns towards the street, seeing home right in front of him.

"Hey honey, how was you day?" Devin's mother asks as he walks in the door, she then notices the PC he's carrying and asks teasingly "Where did you get that? I hope you didn't steal it."

[color=#99ff33]"No, I didn't steal it. But you could think that if you count finding it at the beach stealing..." He replies as he opens the PC after setting it down on the table...... and a amount of sand pours out. [color=#99ff33]"Shoot, I got sand everywhere."[color=#99ff33]

His mother stands up to look at it and says "I don't think you could repair that one... You might be able to bring it to the computer workshop down the road."

"Thanks for the advice mom." Devin replies as he put' the cover back on the PC, and heads out the door with it, determined to discover what secrets it holds.

Now or Never-- Persona Music

The warm breeze of the mid summer air graced Zachary as he moved through the town. The young man had come to this part of San Malarus out of nestalgia for home. Zachary was a recent transfer student from Europe. He was going to attend the academy with the start of the new school year coming very soon. Zachary was presently living alone as he had to leave his family behind for the time being.

Recent trouble with his previous school had led him to seek a new beginning to finish high school, but he didn't think it would take him so close to Japan. It was a new place for him and he was having trouble losening up and adjusting to such a change.

Finally, he had decided to venture out and try to explore-- thus why he was here. He had just rid the train in, a pair of sport-like headphones over his ears as he listened to the melody on them. When he reached the station, he stepped out with the rest. He still wore a rather odd attire of long pants and a blue light shirt. It was too warm for his usual jacket, but he always kept his backpack in case he needed something.

Still, he came to this city area as part of the collections of islands to have a good time and find something interesting to do.

For the time being he was alone and kept a general sense of his surroundings as he walked around, exploring the familiar settings. It did seem similar to home, but nestalgia did sting at him a bit. Perhaps an early case of homesickness. Either way, he kept a calm expression all the same as he had his hands in his pockets and walked along, passing a nearby apartment building that the young man Devin and his family had lived in.

"Let's see now... It's down this way!" Devin thinks as he walks out of the elevator, and heads out the door. The streets were slowly trickling down to only a few people that were still out, whatever their reason for being on the sidewalk... Somehow Devin still managed to almost run into a guy that was walking by, with himself looking kind of suspicious since he is carrying a PC out of a apartment building...

"Oh, excuse me, I didn't see you there." Was Devin's response to the teen that he almost ran into.

"Wait, it's odd for people to have blue hair... Hopefully he wasn't a thief or anything like that." Was his next thought.

Zachary pretty much was in his own realm of thought -- that was till the guy crossed his path just inches away from his nose. Zachary literally bumped into the person, causing him to back up and having hit the computer. It was strange how a person was carrying such a heavy computer, but not unrealistic. After all Zachary too had his own pc set up he couldn't move without having.

He did however see the 'look' he gave him, pertaining to his hair (OOC note: Didn't think people with different color hair was wierd in persona/anime reference) . " Um... I'ts fine... Something wrong?" He asked, wondering about the guy's reaction.

At that moment, he saw how he was carrying the computer, seeing as how it was so badly damaged. Despite some hesitation, he decided to try and reach out. "Um... do you need any help with that?" he said, pointing to the computer.

"Oh, sorry about that glare I gave you." Devin says sheepishly, realizing his mistake "I'm not used to seeing many people with blue hair."

Devin thinks for a second at the person's offer "Thanks, that would be great..."
As Devin shifted the PC sand came flowing out of one of the holes.

"You wouldn't believe where I found this." Devin says, trying to keep things calm... and then he changes the subject and set's the PC down for a minute "My name is Devin, what's yours?"

Zachary looked at the boy named Devin. "Please... many people have much weirder hair color and you poke at mine?" he asked with a tone of sarchasm as he saw someone pass by, with spikey, purple and yellow streak hair. Now THAT was extreme.

Either way, he let it slide and try to forget about it. "Yeah sure, I don't mind helping you out," he said and reached to take a side of the computer to help him move it around. Despite the damage , it did seem a bit puzzling. "You doing something with this thing? I dont want to be negative but I think this thing is pretty damaged to be restored."

They began moving towards a nearby shopping distract, where they could possibly find a computer repair shop. "I'm sure I wouldn't believe where you found this. " he said and was asked his name. "OH, I'm Zachary. Nice to meet you. I just moved here from Europe. Im starting school here in the fall." he said.

"True, I guess." Devin remarks, noticing the neon-purple and yellow haired man.

"I found this in the school grounds, and I was wondering what was on it. So it isn't mine." Devin says, realizing something as he was talking "You haven't heard yet have you? The school was somehow absolutely covered in sand and the air was tuned to a arid climate when your only on the island."

"He doesn't really need to know what I found, unless he asks." Was Devin's underlining thought as they walked.

After finding a computer repair shop, Devin starts to set the PC on the counter, and he asks the older man that's running the store "Would you be able to fix this?"

The old man reaches out and start's taking the casing off the PC, and asks What did you do to this poor computer? It looks like it was buried in a desert!
"That's, uhhhh.... Exactly where it was. It's one of the schools PC's and I was trying to recover the data for the teachers. Devin says sheepishly as he wipes his brow.

"I guess that's a good reason... Though the business with school is very odd."
The old man says looking the computer over. "I don't think I could fix this... It's too far gone to fix. I could carry over the data to a USB drive, you will just need to pay for the device.

Note:

Nozomi would sigh as he entered the store he was standing in front of after ending his conversation with Tremora. There wasn't any hope for him to obtain the Computer that was linked to the moniter they had retrieved from the school desert. All was lost. He couldn't afford to have that guy see the images on it. Otherwise there sure as hell would be alot of questions...

Then a stroke of luck perhaps. As Nozomi walked into the store he noticed the young boy he saw at the desert with another companion.Perhaps a friend of his?As he then approached the two.Oh hi there Devin. Whats with that dirty computer?Did you find it over at the school desert?He would say noticing it. It was pivotal for Nozomi to retrieve the data that had been found on it.Oh hi there. I don't think I've seen you around this neighborhood either.Nozomi would say greeting the other boy. Seemed like a new face.

"Oh! Hello Nozomi, I didn't expect to see you here.... This wasn't good, since Nozomi walked in. Of course, this is going to be more difficult than it had to be.....

"Yeah, I uh... found it there." Devin says, hoping to not be found out when he start's lying. "I actually found it towards the beach, and it looked like it was submerged partially in the beach sand." He says, hopefully saying it in a way to make Nozomi believe him....

Note::

I dashed around all over looking for numerous computer stores or places for computer maintanence. But I just so happened to see Nozomi conversing with two people in one of these places. Might not hurt to check it out. But lo and behold, Devin was here with the computer.... and some other guy. Wait, looks like Devin is trying to hide the fact that he found the computer after we left.

"*sigh* Sorry to break it to you Devin, but I don't believe that at all." I say walking into the shop. "If you are gonna lie, you have to keep it vague, or make it extremely reasonable. You also have to work on the tone of voice and body movements, because even a slight twitching in your fingers can betray you. So Devin, until you have what we have, you are not allowed to look at those images. Heck, you probably shouldn't even think about them, unless you want some reason for therapy."

I really hope that this dissuades him from looking in to this. I mean, I know we need another teammate, but if I can spare someone that trauma, I would gladly suffer for doing that.

"Great...." Devin thinks, as now Tremora came in as well.... and threatened him? What was this about needing whatever they had to see the pictures? The monitor? And needing therapy?

"I don't understand, why would pictures cause mental issues?" Devin asks, genuinely curious. " There is something strangely creepy about those pictures, but I can't see needing therapy after looking at them. They actually look a bit too cartoony, like the former owner was working on a video game or manga." The picture of the creatures, from memory, does seem a little to unrealistic to be real....

"I don't think it would hurt for me to know what their talking about." Was Devin's next thought as he asked, quietly "If you know what those pictures were of, why keep them hidden?"

"Umm, let's just say that those pictures are bad. Yeah, I guess they do look like that.........." I really hope he convinces himself that it is just some prototype image for a game or manga. I really god damn hope so. "Actually it would hurt in ways you wouldn't even dream of. Ummmm, ummmm, UMMMMM." Oh shit why the fuck did he ask that question!? "Ummm, I guess it's sort of a trade secret? Eheheheheh." Please, please, be stupid and don't put two and two together. PLEASE!

.... This Tremora guy was clearly a loony-toon! There was no way of believing that excuse..

" If you says so..." Devin says, while unhappy with this situation, he seams to have no choice at this point.

"Do you need help carrying it? Devin asks, reluctantly. "You do know that you owe me for this... I'm going against my better judgement to give it to you, since your being so secretive about it. But I'm not in much a position to argue am I?" Devin adds, actually feeling threatened by the both of them...

"I think I'm done." A older man says while walking out of the back while carrying the sand logged PC "Who was the one that's supposed to get this?"

Note for everybody:

Tremora relax...The boy would say in an attempt to defuse the situation with Devin and Tremora. The last thing he needed right now was them breaking out into a strange conflict....Tremora had a habit of provoking people unwarranted.Devin. The computer contains Files I need for a project. Hence I was wondering if I could obtain it instead? It used to belong to me actually.The boy had invented that off the spot. But it was rather plausible

...Plus the comp may have actually had something he could use.Well I'm the one who is supposed to get it. Though only if Devin over here wouldn't mind.He would say. It was up to Devin to decide what to do over here. He didn't mind at all whatever he wanted to go with.

...Hopefully the kid doesn't notice these images or anything. He thought to himself of why did Tremora nearly outburst like that. The panic was very visible on his face. He had to be a little more smooth when it came to this stuff. Otherwise people would assume Tremora has something illegal on there or something...

" Oh... I see." Devin reply's to Nozomi, still leery of Tremora's outbursts " If it's yours, why did you act so surprised when I found it?"

" One minute please." Devin tells the man that's behind the counter, and then turns to the others again " Would you mind telling me what it's for or what's on it? I would love to see what they are.... Or would that give me these mental problems that Tremora was talking about?"

"That would mean that you both have them too...."

The man walks out, setting the PC next to Nozomi and whispers to him "You need to keep you friend on a tighter leash if he run's around making people nervous... But it's none of my business."