Taillights in the Data Trails (Dragonsong!)

[Daglobster]

Kayse flicked his cigarette away from himself, watching intently as it sailed across the coffee table and missed his ashtray by a few inches. "Spit!" he yelled, and scrambled up off his couch to grab it before it lit up his synthfiber rug. He blew some of his messy long hair out of his eyes and glanced around the room.

It'd been an absolute bender of a weekend and it showed on his apartment. The period after the payment for a job well done was always spent partying it up but the past couple of days had been particularly wild. His apartment looked like he'd hosted a couple get togethers and one full on party. Empty and open bottles sat on the counter and table, the ashtray was full of cigarette butts and roach ends , and the whole place smelled like the inbred child of a cigar lounge and a dive bar. The flatvid screen on his wall was playing a documentary Kayse had tuned into halfway through, something about an exploration of galactic sea life

But it was home. Kayse dusted some crumbs off his grey sweatpants and tucked his hair properly behind his long, pointed ears. He took another drag before dropping it in the ashtray. He'd only been awake for an hour or so but it was already two in the afternoon, according to the holographic clock in his small kitchen. He yawned, and with a flick of his cybernetic fingers the program paused and the flatvid screen started playing slow and rezzy synthetic music instead.

"Today Kayse, we're taking it easy," he said, and he nodded almost to affirm himself before walking over to his fridge and peering inside. As he pondered what he wanted to drink a soft chime came from his arm and he looked at his palm. The text message from "Marid" projected out from his palm and he pointed it to his fridge door so he could read it as he drank his nutrisoy.

"Hey there! Sorry to drop this on you so late but I can't make it tonight. And I'm busy all weekend. So next week maybe? I know you already bought the entrance passes but I'll make it up to you. We can go to Freet's, maybe? "

It was a rollercoaster of emotions. Of course, the one day he was wiped out and resolved to not do anything was the day he forgot he was going to a wicked new simrave called "Avalonia". Of course, then he found out his date cancelled, and of course he'd bought entrance in advance, which, of course...

meant that he was shit out of luck, a date, and had pissed away a quarter of his payout on a club opening he suddenly wasn't all that keen on going. Well, at least it was in the Sensenet, so it's not like he had to drive anywhere. Or change.

He looked down at his arm, pulling up the information into his cyber-eyes with a thought. He flicked through the ticket info and saw that the opening was for eight. He smiled.

"Well, I got some time..."


Kayse loaded up his usual programs as he drifted through the transition into the Sensenet space. Avalonia was on a richer section's grid. Fortunately for Kayse, he could hop grids like a frog. He was going as himself tonight, no Chillmute shenanigans, and so he made sure that the trace blockers and ID walls were booted up and running. Back in the real world, a freshly showered Kayse was lying in bed, on top of the covers. His cybernetic arm glowed and hummed beneath the surface. Since it acted as his phone and interface point with the world, it was also his Sensenet rig.

That, combined with the hacking computer installed in his brain, meant that Kayse could slip into the Sensenet almost as naturally as going to sleep.

Back in the virtual world, the host was finally loading up. He'd made it through the last layer of grid security and found himself suddenly stepping through the haze of data and finding his foot on stone.

Looking around, he was in quaint, renaissance-period surroundings. At the center of the virtual space a gigantic victorian style skyscraper cast its shadow over all surroundings. "AVALONIA" blazed in magical letters above the tower's peak. It was a solid sixty floors of thrumming bass and flashing lights, promising all kinds of diversions with a masquerade theme.

The advertisements Kayse had seen advertised thriving raves and ultraluxury dance halls, all contained in a massive virtual skyscraper. The "town" surrounding the giant pleasure tower was made up of smaller virtual businesses. More down-to-earth simbars, rapier dueling circles, and other period stores (For both real & virtual things) and diversions.

Kayse took in the scene a little as he walked up to the tower's gate. Security programs mocked as knights and renaissance musketeers kept virtual comers feeling secure and behaved and added to the atmosphere, and they were also checking virtual IDs and tickets at the door.

He checked his tickets. Two VIPs, all-access including the "Catherine Room" and all the free simulation booze him and one other person could drink, complete with any-time virtual ordering.

Neat.

Knowing he could get wasted as freely as he wanted and wake up in bed after, he started searching the crowd of infinitely varied virtual avatars to see if there was any person who looked like they could use a scalped ticket. Might as well make a few hundred credits on the way in, right?

[DragonSong]

Alright. Sensenet.

This was doable, right?

Pink glowered at the small machine she had just finished unpacking from its discrete little black box, biting her lip. She felt kinda bad about this--okay, more than kinda bad. She was pretty sure if any of her friends or family figured out what she was doing, the disappointment and shame would have been a worse punishment than...well. Whatever would happen when they turned her in.

But... She had to do this, didn't she? Teinar needed to grow--maybe not physically, but the isolation just wasn't good for them. Trade with surfacers was always difficult, they just didn't have anything down here to entice people, convince them they were worth the effort.

Nothing except the racing.

Which was where this whole stupid plan came in. God she hoped this was going to work.


Pink liked to believe that she didn't allow a little bit of extra income to really go to her head; her bike shop was a modest affair, and she still lived in the small studio apartment above it, though even before her parents had retired she certainly could have moved to a bigger place. She tried to be thrifty with her money, sending most of it to her parents' retirement facility, but she would admit to a few "extravagances" here and there--mostly upgrades to her favorite racing bike.

But the small rig sitting in the middle of her bed was probably the most expensive thing she'd purchased in...well, in ever. Black market, so that wasn't exactly unexpected, but she knew if this little scheme of hers bombed she'd be digging herself out of this debt for the rest of her life. And that was if no one decided to just revoke her engineering license for possession of illegal goods.

Letting out a sharp breath, Pink furrowed her brow and looked down at the small earpiece sitting in her palm. She turned it over a few times, then huffed again and slipped it on--it fit almost too easily, it was a little disconcerting. Biting her lip, she settled herself on the bed, back propped up against the pillows, and reached over to press her thumb onto the small pad on the side of the sleek, silver datapad that lay next to her.

The screen blinked to life, strings of numbers running down in rows, and she clenched her eyes shut as the earpiece clicked, whirred, and then sparked once, sharply, sending a jolt through her whole body. Oh gods, was this working?

No outside network could reach Teinar--at least, not legally. And black market Sensenet rigs weren't exactly the most reliable pieces of technology.

She really hoped this wasn't going to fry her brain.


When Pink opened her eyes again, her surroundings were entirely unfamiliar. She gaped openly at the cobblestones and renaissance-era buildings, winding avenues, and--oh dear gods, the sky.

Okay. If that was what it actually looked like...maybe this would be worth frying her brain.

Looking around, Pink tried to gather herself, makes some sense of the chaos around her. Alright, her contact had said she should be meeting someone called Reese--which she figured was a moniker rather than an actual surname--at a place called Avalonia, some sort of club.

Right. Okay. So she just had to find Avalonia. She was supposed to have been sent to the right server, and her avatar was...well, just her, really. Colors a little brighter, leather jacket a little sleeker, but she didn't see much else different. Her contact was supposed to know what to look like, so this shouldn't be too difficult.

Right?

Taking a breath, Pink straightened her shoulders and lifted her head slightly, starting off down the street toward the sound of music and the vague flash of lights. She figured that had to be the right direction.

She turned out to be right, but when she caught sight of the building she rather wished she wasn't. "Holy shit..."

Oh, she was so not cut out for this. Why were there freaking knights at the gate?!

The moment she stepped out of her little side street she was immediately jostled along by the crowd. She had maybe half a second to consider just bailing, zipping off Sensenet and tossing the rig out the window, never to return, before she was suddenly almost at the gate to the club and, well, then there was really no going back.

"Tickets?"

She blanched. No one had said anything about tickets. That seemed like kind of important information!

"Umm..." She looked around, trying desperately to think of something to say, anything. Maybe she could talk her way in? Were these guards even real, or where they just strands of code? Did it make a difference?

Fuck.

[Daglobster]

Bright colors weren't exactly uncommon in the Sensenet. It was easy to make something vibrant when all you had to do was access the object's properties and fiddle with the hues and saturation. And when it wasn't on the buildings, guard programs, or products the colors could be found in the people. As Kayse stood there, leaned inconspicuously against a wall, he took in the scene in all its splendor.

It went without saying that Sensenet avatars ran the full range of whatever people felt like they could get away with under the anonymity of a wireless connection, although quite a few seemed to have bought some virtual merchandise on the way in. In no particular order there was a  purple werewolf wearing a vibrantly plumed musketeer hat, a robot & a guy with blue skin batting at each other with period weapons, and other fine examples of the Sensenet community, alongside folks who had much more mundane avatars.

A brief glance over the active data connections in the region showed that most everybody here was from Cancer. You also had the usual connections from Aedolis and Libra, and hey, even a few Edanis made it to the party. And there was also...

One single connection from Teinar?

Damn. Must have been some pretty hot bootleg rigging going on there to get a connection from a mile underground. Out of pure curiosity (and before he could stop himself) he narrowed in on the data stream to see if he could get more info. Single-access rig, running underneath and alongside Teinar's private network, using... an earpiece?! That tech is vintage, for sure. When he saw he could get audio, he double-checked his stealth programs and patched himself in.

He heard a young woman struggling to procure tickets (By the sound of it she didn't even have any!) and he pushed off the wall. Snowflakes billowed behind him as he made his way over. It didn't look like anybody here came without a ticket anyways, and why not help out the first and only Teinari he'd ever seen using the Sensenet?

The guard gave Pink a blank look. Not much of his face could be seen under the helmet but his digital nature was fairly obvious when her "Um" had only really caused a few seconds of silence before he promptly replied.

"Opening night is entrance by ticket only. Avalonia is an exclusive, all-senses covered club experience for the disc-"

"Oh, hey! There you are!" Said Kayse, suddenly coming in from the side, bumping Pink's shoulder as he lifted his cybernetic arm up to the guard. Like Pink, Kayse was using himself as his Sensenet avatar (although definitely not for the same reason). He was wearing his favorite outfit out tonight, and his VR-ized self had ice-colored eyes instead of his normal green and snow-white hair where he normally had dirty blonde.

"I've been looking for you all over! She's with me. Two VIPs, please!"

Two virtual tickets flashed out of his arm and into the guard's hand, and the knight leaned his halberd out of the way and Avalonia's doors opened to grant them entry. The very first floor was a party all by itself. The music boomed, magical laser lights and enchanted smoke set the scene, and the place itself looked like a ballroom crossed with a sleek club. This room by itself must've taken up at least six floors, and amongst the scattered dance floors all kinds of shapes and people moved to the thrum of the bass.

Kayse motioned for Pink to follow as he stepped into the room. His face lit up considerably as he gazed around, and he could only wonder what the rest of the tower held in store, and she was seemingly almost forgotten as he looked around.

[DragonSong]

Okay, what?

Pink had to resist the urge to skitter sideways as one of the fantastical party-goers jostled into her, and at first she thought he was just trying to get passed her into the club--but then his words actually registered and her jaw dropped open as she stared up at the man in mute surprise for a few moments.

"O-oh! Right, ah...thanks?" She didn't have time to say anything else before they were waved through the gate and into Avalonia.

She had to stop again barely one step in the door, staring around the massive room, utterly overwhelmed. She'd thought she could handle pretty much anything Sensenet could throw at her--she'd been motoracing since she was fourteen after all, how much more intense could a reality that wasn't even real actually be?

Quite a lot, apparently.

It took her a few moments to realize her ticket in had started to wander off once they were through the door. She blinked, then seemed to snap back to herself and trotted after him, reaching for his arm. "Hey! Um, thanks, for, y'know...back there. Are--are you Reese?"

That would make sense, right? She had no idea what her contact actually looked like, but he was supposed to be able to recognize her. Shuffling her feet, Pink straightened her shoulders out and tried to stretch to her full height, pale eyes catching and reflecting the light of the lasers for a moment. She tried to look at professional as she could manage...which wasn't exactly the easiest thing, considering her avatar was wearing her regular racing gear of soft leather pants, slightly ragged t-shirt, and jacket.

[Daglobster]

[Song I listened to making the intro post, btw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rq8PjgNI3c]

Fortunately for Pink, the Sensenet didn't have any dress codes, so she definitely fit right in when it came to the looks department. She wasn't completely forgotten by Kayse either, but he wanted to take in the sight, the bustle of avatars and service programs, the wild variety of shapes twisting and bumping on the dance floor.

Pink thanked him, grasping at his arm, and he turned back to get a proper look at her, now that the quick moment of entry had passed. She certainly had a unique look to her, but in the Sensenet he couldn't tell what was avatar and what was actually her until he cracked her ID locks and well...

...that just seemed rude.

The pink of her eyes was a really nice touch, though, and he turned back to fully face her, looking confident until she asked if he was Reese.

"Who the hell is Reese?" Kayse asked, even as he gave her attire a once-over as he looked down at her. A racing fan, definitely.

"Name's Kayse," he started.

He offered her his hand to shake, and a friendly smile. Now that they were talking, he could see that she had a "deer-in-headlights" kind of look and he didn't want to overwhelm the poor girl.

"You new around here?"

[DragonSong]

[Nice!]


"Oh."

She quickly dropped her hand from his arm and stepped back awkwardly. "Er, sorry, I just...I was supposed to meet someone here." She managed to return his smile easily enough--just because he wasn't her contact didn't mean he hadn't helped her, and she was grateful for that--and she took his hand to shake.

Her palms and fingertips were rough, calloused, and her avatar even had a few grease stains streaked over the back of one hand and around the cuffs of her jacket, which she hadn't noticed before. Damn, that guy who'd sold her the rig had really been paying attention to the little details.

Chuckling a little self-deprecatingly, she nodded in response to his question and shrugged. "Yeah, is it that obvious?" She dropped his hand and glanced around again, trying to figure out where she was supposed to actually meet this Reese person without seeming rude. "I'm, uh... I know most people here are from Cancer, right? I'm...not. I'm definitely from out of town. Name’s Pink.”

[Daglobster]

The calloused hands and small grease stain caught his eye. It was a curious thing, to see imperfections in the Sensenet. Why have blemishes or creases in your clothes when you can just program everything to be perfect? Whether intentional or not, it gained her a decent bit of Kayse’s respect. He himself had scuffs on his boots and creases on his pants. Instead of looking like he came straight from a fashion ad like most Netgoers instead, well...

He looked like a real person. So it got him to wondering if she really did just look like that, and if so, she was pretty easy on the eyes. If only she didn’t say she was here for someone else, he woulda asked her to be his date for tonight.

“Out of town, huh? Well you’re not the only one. Folks plug in from all over,” he said, and he leaned back against a railing that overlooked the main dance floor. He gestured backwards with a thumb and gave her a smile.

“Can I get you a drink?” He asked, giving her a slight raise of his eyebrows.

“I’m sure whoever’s waiting for you can wait a little longer,” he added.

[DragonSong]

“Yeah, I guess they would...” Pink’s eyes moved over the crowd, wide and almost childlike in their curiosity. Now that she was adjusting a bit, she could allow herself to really just be swept up in the sheer magnitude of the place—and its patrons.

She’d never seen so many colors. Was that a frickin’ purple werewolf?!

She gave herself a little shake and looked back to him, eyebrows creeping up fractionally at the offer. “Oh, well...”

A drink sounded really nice, actually. And hey, it was a VR—it’s not like she had to worry about him trying to pull something, really, so she could actually afford to take a bit of a risk with a stranger and still wake up in the safety of her bed.

...She was starting to understand how people could like this sort of thing.

“That sounds great. Thanks.” She smiled and nodded gratefully. “Honestly, I’ve never met this guy before, but he’s supposed to be able to find me, so...well, I guess he can just find me.” Fuck it, it wasn’t like she’d been given specific instructions or anything. And this Kayse guy was pretty cute, or at least the avatar was. There were worse ways to kill some time.

A thought occurred to her and she cocked her head to the side slightly. “So, how come you had an extra ticket, anyway? Just waiting to gallantly rescue the first cute bird you saw struggling at the gate and offer her drinks?” Her tone was wry, but the slight glint to her eyes and minute quirk to the corner of her lips belied a playfulness begins the words.

[Daglobster]

Kayse chuckled and snapped his fingers.

“Exactly. And hey, drinks are included on the VIP pass too, if you can dig that,” he said, and motioned for her to come along. Unlike Pink, Kayse was at home in the Sensenet. It was as real as real could get without being reality and the rebel in him relished the nonconformity of it all.

He stepped down the marbled stairs down to the center of the ballroom, skimming alongside the dance floor as he sought out the place’s bar. It had a three just in this chamber alone but Kayse opted for the closest one. The bar and club was manned by programs mocked up as chamberlains, butlers, and valets. He promptly set himself down on a cushioned stool and motioned to the one next to him.

“Well, it wasn’t my intent to come here and rescue a pretty lady’s night, but my plus one left me hanging. I was gonna scalp it but I couldn’t help myself when I overheard your troubles,” he said, teasing, and with that same grin on his face he perused the menu and asked the bartender for one of their special drinks, a sazerac cocktail, and looked back to her.

After she ordered, he snapped his fingers again.

“Let me guess... you’re from Edanith?”

[DragonSong]

Pink chuckled quietly as she followed him to the bar, though she wasn't quite able to keep her eyes entirely off the pulsing, writhing mass of color and light from the dance floor. Everything here was just so much. "Well, aren't you just my hero?"

Boosting herself easily up onto the stool beside Kayse, she flicked through the menu for a moment before opting to just order a straight glass of scotch. No need to get fancy, really, she did still have to meet a potential contact tonight.

...Maybe she'd celebrate later. Hopefully.

Another small snort of laughter when he guessed she was from Edanith and she shook her head. "Not even close," she replied with a crooked smile and that same playful glint in her eye. "And you? Local to Cancer, or are you also an out-of-towner?"

[Daglobster]

“Not even close,” he repeated, and before much else could happen their drinks were served up and Kayse took his eagerly. It tasted and felt and burned just like a real sazerac and Kayse smiled a little as he tasted and swallowed. Sensation was the SenseNet’s bread and butter. While one couldn’t literally drink or get drunk, SenseNet rigs use electric signals to fool the brain into thinking it’s getting libated and the user can’t tell the difference.

“Cancer, born and raised. Never been off the station,” he said, and se this drink down so he could turn on the stool. Leaning an elbow against the bar, he studied her for a bit more, following those pink lines in her hair and those beautiful pink eyes.

“And if you’re not even close to Edanith, then you can’t be Aedelan. And you’re definitely not from Libra, a spacer can always tell,” he added.

“So you must be from Teinar, then... er, I never quite got your name?”

[DragonSong]

A little warily, Pink took a sip of her scotch. Her eyes widened as the drink burned down her throat and she coughed, then gave a low whistler. “Alright, wasn’t expecting that to feel quite so real,” she muttered under her breath.

Good to know.

At Kayse’s deduction, she smiled slightly and nodded. “That’s right, I am.” No harm in admitting that, right? Personal networks in Teinar were near mythically rare, but they weren’t all illegal.

Taking abridged glance around he room, it suddenly occurred to her that most of Avalonia’s patrons might not particularly care if they were.

With a shrug, she sat back slightly and said, “I’m like you, I guess. Born and bred Teinari. Never so much as seen the surface—the sky outside was the first time I’d ever seen anything like that.”

It was...oddly freeing, this SenseNet place. She’d never have just been spouting this things off to some guy in a dive back home, but here? Well, it wasn’t like she really thought she’d be seeing this guy beyond tonight, and it was nice to chat. Helped calm some of her nerves. With another little smile, she added, “People call me Pink, mostly. Nice to meet you, officially.”

[Daglobster]

Kayse chuckled, watching her drink her virtual scotch with visible interest. After all, your first virtual drink was just about as important as your first real drink! As he watched her, he was doing something else in his head, running a scan on his cocktail so he could hack more sazeracs into existence later. Copying licensed data is very illegal, but it was child's play to him.

"Yeah, that's how it works for everything in here. Food, drink, pain and pleasure, if a person can feel it the SenseNet can recreate it, all without consequences," he said, and he took another sip of his drink, and then raised it to her.

"Welcome to the SenseNet, Pink. I've never seen a Teinari online before but I'm glad the tech's getting there," he said, and meant it too. He'd been a VR code jockey ever since he was fourteen and never had seen a single trace of data from the mysterious, underground city of Teinar.

He followed her eyes and he himself took another look around the room, observing the crowd and atmosphere that was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to this place. There was another fifty-four stories above them, gods only knew what people were getting up to there in the sky-high casinos, lounges, and if he'd have to guess... more dance floors.

Speaking of dance floors, the music shifted and a staccato burst of synth notes heralded a rush of bass and an increase in tempo. The crowd cheered and the laser lights blazed above them.

"Oh, I love this one!" he said, and he wheeled back around to look at Pink. Indeed, the SenseNet was an astounding place for liberation, and with some sazerac flowing through him and this beautiful pink woman next to him he extended a hand towards her, palm up.

"You look curious, so let's hit the floor," he said, tone challenging.

[DragonSong]

"Ah, right, it's getting there," Pink agreed with a slightly awkward smile, but luckily she could chase it away with another downed sip of her drink.

She didn't want to linger too long on how exactly Teinari tech had gotten her here. She wasn't nearly knowledgeable enough about all this to lie convincingly, and she was sure if anyone pressed her they'd be able to figure out just how many laws she was breaking for this harebrained scheme.

As the music changed her attention was drawn back to the dance floor--and then he was holding his hand out to her, strobing lights shining off his hair like they did the fog that eddied around the bottom of the room, and she found that little competitive spark rising up in her chest at the challenge in his voice.

"Alright." She took his hand and let him pull her to her feet, onto the floor. Her eyes flashed. "Let's see if you can keep up, spacer."

She took two quick steps and twisted slightly so that she was the one leading him onto the floor, glancing around quickly to try to get a feel for the kind of dancing that was happening. Parties like this were a rarity back home, and while she could cut loose with the best of them, she had a feeling the Teinari version and the SenseNet version were very different things.

Nodding along to the beat, familiarizing herself, she cocked and eyebrow and asked over the music, "Pleasure and pain, huh? Why bother with the pain part? Isn't the point of VR to take out all the nasty bits of reality?"

[Daglobster]

Kayse couldn't contain his smile when she accepted and he made sure to grab his drink. His other hand was taken, so he added Pink's scotch to his Drive and it disappeared from the bar as she pulled him away and down the stairs.

"Believe me, I can keep up. You're the fresh pluggie around here," he said as they descended, and he chased his nerves down a bit with his drink.

Viewing the dance floor and actually being there were two different worlds. Here, the music boomed and the smoke and lights from all angles combined to provide an almost mystical, dreamlike atmoshpere. The music was provided by a trio of DJs, each in an extravagant avatar of their own.

And not to mention the crowd. Many people went as highly stylized versions of themselves or other humanoid creatures and shapes, but quite a few more were something else entirely. Everybody was bugging out and doing their own thing. As Pink acquainted herself with the song, Kayse was already dancing slowly. He was more of a groover than a swinger (and he had a drink to take care of, too!)

"VR is for living out another reality. What that reality is depends on the user," he said, watching her as she adapted to the music and he made an effort to move with her more to encourage her.

"Oh! I got your drink, too. Do you know how to use your Drive?"

[DragonSong]

"My what?" Pink replied oh so eloquently, blinking up at him. Swaying slightly from side to side, trying to mimic his movements to some extent, she realized what he must be talking about and her eyes widened fractionally. "Oh! Right. Drive."

Laughing at herself, she shook her head and said dryly, "Well, if my first reaction wasn't enough to clue you in, no. No I do not." She tilted her head to the side a bit. "You offering to teach me?"

[Daglobster]

"Oh, she's really fresh," Kayse teased, mostly to himself. He stepped a bit closer so he could speak to and hear her better.

"But don't you worry, Pink. You've found yourself one of the best teachers there is when it comes to this stuff."

He slowed down his dancing so he could focus on explaining.

"Drive's your personal control station. It's got your avatars, any VR objects or accessories you like or want to hold onto, and yes you can put stuff like food and drinks into it. Plenty of servers and hosts also have their own extra tabs you can browse. Think of it like it's a video game!" Kayse said.

"Touching your forearm pulls it up," he continued, and he showed her how by touching the middle of his forearm with the bottom of his drink. It pulled up boxes and menus in front of him, and was basically the SenseNet interface for when you were actually inside it. Kayse used his fingers at first to show her, but then lowered his hand and operated it by thought alone.

"If you focus, you can do it without hands. A lot of stuff in the SenseNet's based on thought, to be as little invasive as possible.

Then he danced a bit further away, inviting her to follow him deeper into the crowd, into the moment. He pulled up his stored files and turned the interface around so she could see an image of her scotch displayed on one of the inventory boxes. The rest were concealed. Kayse literally reached out, plucked the file out, and with a flick of his hand he tossed a stream of data at her.

"So now if you check yours, you should have your scotch and be able to pull it out."

[DragonSong]

“Whoa.”

Pink’s eyes widened further as she tried to absorb everything he was talking about while simultaneously trying not to seem like a total idiot. The basic concept seemed pretty straight forward though, lucky for her.

Brow furrowed a bit, as though she didn’t quite believe this would work for her, she tapped her forearm dubiously. Sure enough, an almost identical information box popped up—though of course it was a bit less intricate than his, not so much history of collecting VR odds and ends packed into it.

“Huh!” Smiling a bit, she tapped on the image of her drink, and the glass appeared in her hand. She laughed outright, shaking her head before she took a sip. “Damn. Now if I could keep a bike in here, we’d really be talking,” she chuckled, eyes glinting.

It suddenly dawned on her that that wasn’t a terrible idea. VR motoracing...there were a whole lot of variables she had no clue how to work through there, but it might be worth keeping in the back of her mind.

And speaking of her mind...

She screwed her face up a bit and tilted her head at him again. “You sure this is...y’know, safe? What with the program getting into my head and all?”

She probably sounded like a total rube, but she couldn’t deny that the idea of that freaked her out a little bit.

[Daglobster]

“Who’s saying you can’t keep a whole bike collection?” Kayse added, and he raised his eyebrows and got back to grooving, closing the distance between them again.

She brought up the safety, and Kayse sobered a bit.

“If you take care of your equipment it’s safer than spaceflight,” he said, widening his arms a bit for emphasis. “Take bad care of your stuff though and you can have connection issues, and maybe even glitch,” he said, wanting to be honest with her.

“And using it’s like using a drug or playing too much flatvid games. It’s pretty easy to get lost in it but most rigs have usage limits to make sure you stay healthy.”

He grinnned.

“But hey, you look like a gal that works with her hands and wits. You a racing fan? Teinar’s where they do the motorails, yeah?” He said, tilting his head. He knocked in another deep drink.

[DragonSong]

"Oh, you could say that," Pink chuckled. Was it really that obvious she worked with her hands?

Oh. The callouses. And the grease stains. Right.

She flushed a bit, for the first time really wondering what she might have done if she had actually chosen her avatar rather than letting the guy who programmed the rig just figure it out for her. Of course, with what Kayse was teaching her maybe she could tweak it a bit...

Shaking herself out of that particular train of thought, she smiled crookedly and answered, "Yeah, motorails are pretty much the big thing underground. The only thing, really." She laughed a bit, genuine but just a little self-deprecating; her eyes glinted a bit as she mirrored his movements, closing the distance between them further until her chest nearly brushed his as they rocked and swayed to the music. "Still, it's a great thrill. Wouldn't trade it for anything."

Knocking back another shot of her whiskey, she added, "I'm more than just a fan. I've been undefeated since I was sixteen."