Office Hours (Open to Xavier's)

[talk_to_you]

Though the semester was drawing to a close, there was still plenty of work to be done. Finals to be administered, grades to be entered into the computer, arrangements made for those students who would not or could not return home over the summer. When they had opened their doors, it had come with a great many changes in policies and procedures. They were, if he recalled correctly, due for an end of year inspection in a week or so.

Doug's own plate was always full as it was. There was a continual battle between himself and various students over the filters he had installed on the internet, up to and including several who wanted to play intergalactic MMO's.

(Which he might have been doing himself. But he had his own private servers for that.)

Right now, he was holding office hours for any of the students who needed an extra meeting with the computer teacher. It was also a good time to get caught up on his e-mails. He had three from various government organizations who wanted him to decrypt some intercepted transmissions, five from museums around the world who needed an artifact or tablet translated, and one from Warlock with several picture attachments from his latest vacation.

Plenty on his plate, but life was pretty good these days.

Comments

[dolemeck]

Dolemeck was sitting outside of the office, waiting for his turn to be seen. He lazily swung his brace clad legs back and forth, thrilled the new equipment did not squeak like the old pair he wore. Unlike the other students, he did not appear concerned about Finals, or unhappy that he would be staying at the mansion during the Summer. He was there for an entirely different reason.

His phone and E-mail account.

[talk_to_you]

Doug's door opened and another student exited. He stuck his head out a moment later.

"Next."

[dolemeck]

Dolemeck came into the office next. He did not appear meek or shy as he did when he first arrived in the mansion. Instead, he adjusted his eyepatch and took a seat, gingerly placing his cellphone on the table.

Professor Ramsey, Sir. I need to ask two things. One, can you see if me E-mail account and phone are bugged by some tabloid, and two... can you find a way to better block me parents from contacting me?"

[talk_to_you]

Doug frowned slightly. "The first is easy, the second slightly less so but still probably doable. But why is a tabloid bugging you?"

[dolemeck]

"I'm the family mystery. There is not much known about me back home, other than the car accident I was in." He gave out a sigh.

"With Da's new found fame in North America, the tabloids are itching to get any information about our family. I also heard that the tabloid in me own country, "The Sun", is notorious for hacking people's e-mails and voice-mails. I want to make sure anything I said or was said to me is safe."

[talk_to_you]

He nodded once. "We should be able to get a better firewall on your phone," Doug agreed.

He reached into his desk and pulled out what looked like a creative reinterpretation of a USB cable. "I'll just have a look and see what we can see."

He plugged one end into his desktop computer, fingers dancing over the keys as he partitioned some space for this project, before plugging the other into Dolemeck's phone.

[dolemeck]

Dolemeck remained quiet, watching and waiting. Why couldn't he have a cool power like this? It looked better than a teleknietic's, anyway.

As he watched Professor Ramsey work on his phone, somewhat amazed at how easily he could put up firewalls and check for all sorts of things. Just by "talking" to the device.

[talk_to_you]

Funny that Dolemeck should be so impressed. Even this far into his life, and what he'd learned to do with his powers, Doug barely considered himself powered at all most of the time.

Computer code? That was almost too easy to even call a language for Doug's powers to decode. Sure, it made it easier, but it was hardly the most complicated thing in the universe, even with the Shi'ar coding on the computer.

"I'm not seeing anything off hand, but that could mean their coder is good. Let's look a little deeper."

[dolemeck]

Deeper into Dolemeck's phone and E-mail account, there was a line of code that showed someone had been looking into his e-mails and text messages. Mostly messages related to when Dolemeck's father had tried to slug him in a drunken rage (only to be saved by Professor Franklin's quick thinking. Other messages that were looked into dealt with Dolemeck's sexuality.

Nothing about his status as a mutant appeared to have been flagged. Just anything that would make for good gossip in a tabloid was touched. Such as angry, drunken messages from his Father, messages from an absentee Mother, a reality TV agent pressuring him to be part of a show about his family during the Summer months...

When did he have the time to deal with all of this!?

[talk_to_you]

"Huh. There's the culprit. Your phone's definitely been hacked, Dolemeck. Fortunately, it doesn't look like it's spread to the rest of the network."

Doug tapped a few keys, writing a few lines of code of his own, before disconnecting the cable.

"They were readings your e-mail and texts. I've added some coding to increase encryption. They won't be able to get back in. But I'd tell anyone you've been messaging or texting to get their own phones checked out, just in case."

[dolemeck]

"Looks like Dayton will be able to get that new phone he wanted... just sooner than expected." He let out a relieved sigh. "I will let my brother know shortly. On a land line, just to be safe. Thank you, Professor Ramsey!"