feminine_menace | The Other Kung Fu Chick

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Current Location: Out Back of Milliways

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The Other Kung Fu Chick

The doc said YT is okay for skateboarding practice, as long as she doesn't do anything too crazy, so she's been just sort of cruising over the hills. She's roaming further than usual, because she's looking for someone.

She hasn't seen the kung fu chick since she went to the infirmary the other day. YT's kind of curious about her. And she also wants to learn her name, if possible. Maybe learn some of that cool stuff she was doing. After all, YT's planning to join a war effort soon, and afterward, being able to fight like that - or at least half so well, maybe even a quarter - would certainly be useful in her own world.

YT returns to the spot where she first saw the kung fu girl practicing, hoping that maybe she's back there today.

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Steph's glance is sharp. She's a bubbly bright teenage girl, but she was still a Bat, and she can still be scarily intense without realising it sometimes.

"...yes, I did," she says slowly. "Did you see him — recently? Is he okay?"

YT turns away. Normally she can meet any kind of sharp glare, but she feels bad for bringing this up. "It was, like, a month ago. I haven't seem him since and I don't know what's going on now." She turns back to Steph. "I'm sorry," she says, meaning not just for talking about it, but for Zuko flaking out on her, because that seems to be what happened.

Steph drops her eyes, flushing. "Am I that obvious? I keep telling myself I'm over him, but ... man. Don't worry about it."

"It happens," YT says. "Even a smart chick can't always bring a guy to his senses. Believe me, I know." She rolls her eyes as she takes another sip of coffee.

Steph nods. "So ... Merlin?"

Fair's fair, YT decides, and smiles. "I met him here. Well, of course. But anyway, he's nicer than any guy I've been with back home - honest, you know, doesn't feel the need to be macho. He's got no problem with saying what he means, but it's not the same way I do. I'm blunt because I don't like people bullshitting me. He just doesn't let things get in the way of saying what he feels." She smiles, holding the mug of coffee in her hands. "It's rarer than you'd think."

Steph grins. "Yeah ... Zuko's hopeless that way."

Except when he's angry. And then he usually says what she doesn't want to hear.

... Said. Was. She has to remember to use past tense.

"I should totally meet Merlin. Is he, y'know, that Merlin? For real?"

"Yep. Same one. I don't think he's met King Arthur and all those guys yet - way he told it, the Roman Empire's still around, so it's going to be a couple of hundred years. But yeah, it's him. He does magic and everything." YT kind of giggles here: some of this magic is of an intimate nature.

Steph grins. "That's awesome!"

YT grins. "There're times when I almost don't believe it myself. Okay, that's not true. It sounds crazy when I just talk about it, but it totally doesn't seem weird to me anymore."

That gets another laugh.

"Tell me about it. After this place, nothing seems weird."

"Not even that cyborg dude Ng back home. Seriously, he was injured in 'Nam, and now he's goggled into the Metaverse all the time, and hooked up to systems in his truck. A converted German airport fire truck. He used to use voice control on it, but recently he actually came up with some decent neural-interface stuff, so he's doing that instead." YT looks up at Steph. "Seriously. That's the weirdest thing I ever saw back home."

"Wow." Steph grins. "I only half understood that and it still sounds weird."

"Oh. Well, maybe I should explain the Metaverse. It's a really cool thing we've got back home, and it's how I got here.

"The Metaverse is like this whole virtual reality place that's spread over the Internet. Its representation is a big black ball, kind of like a planet, with a Street around the equator. And all the buildings on the Street are computers or servers somewhere. People are represented by avatars, which can walk around in the buildings and stuff. You can play games, do business, shop, whatever."

That gets a curious eyebrow-raise.

"But ... why?"

"Because a bunch of bitheads thought it would be better than just words and pictures on a computer screen, I guess. I understand how the internet works in some other versions of Earth. It's like that, but you can really walk around in it. Some friends of mine have a club there, where the best hackers in the world go and meet. Also major businessmen and Industry honchos. I was in the Metaverse trying to get there when I ended up here, which is why I sort of count as a computer sprite."

"Yeah, but ... why?"

Steph is all about hitting people in real-time. Tim was the computer geek, not her.

"I mean ... why not just walk around on the street?"

"Oh, people do that. Well, not in L.A. It's hard to be a pedestrian there. Folks do all the stuff they'd normally do - and there's a lot of them who can't afford a Metaverse-capable computer." YT shrugs. "People just use the Metaverse too. Folks from all different parts of the world can get together. And they can look like whatever they want, see and do stuff they can't in the real world."

[Yup. *grins*]

"Sounds kind of creepy, really." Steph leans forward in her seat, fascinated. "Is there crime and stuff? In the - Metaverse? I mean, how is it, like, policed?"

"Well, there's a Global Multimedia Protocol Group that sort of runs the place, decides what's allowed and what isn't. Just like on the regular 'net, people try to hack each other and pass around viruses. The GMPG and some other organizations go after those folks, if they can find them, but mostly people just have to be smart and protect themselves with antiviral software. My buddy Hiro runs a security company that makes utilities for that.

"A couple of years ago, this dude named Raven tried to use a weird meme-virus to fry the brains of a bunch of hackers - he had a serious revenge thing going on and wanted to nuke America - but Hiro stopped him, and now makes the vaccine for the meme-virus. That's about the worst kind of crime they ever had in there." YT finishes her coffee and pours some more from the pot.

Steph frowns.

"So — it's like a big world where there's no cops and you can be and do anything you want, even if you're a total thug?"

"Hey, it's not like you can really hurt people in there. Except with the meme-virus, maybe. And it does have cops - the GMPG and the Central Intelligence Corporation really want to keep it in order. A lot of hackers, too. They love the place and don't want anybody spoiling the fun, so they act like a citizen security force. Generally speaking, you can do anything you want so long as you can find the particular area where it's allowed. That seems to work for most people."

Steph nods.

"It sounds like a total haven for supervillains to meet up," she admits, wryly. "It'd be awful on our world. But I guess yours is different."

"Supervillains?" YT has a look that says are you kidding me? But then she reconsiders. "Yeah. I guess L. Bob Rife was kind of a supervillain. Rich telecom executive, got hold of the virus, gave it to Raven. But otherwise, I don't think we have supervillains. And, I mean, they'd find a way to meet up anywhere. If it wasn't the Metaverse, it'd be video conferencing. Or a chat room." YT mimes typing on a keyboard. "Hey! I r Dr. Deathskull! I r evil super-genius! Who r u? U wnt 2 help take over the world/cyber?"

"Supervillains," Steph confirms, and grins at YT. "I used to be Robin, in my world. We're one of the ones with Robin and Batman and - obviously Batgirl, and stuff."

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