The Other Kung Fu Chick

[feminine_menace]

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.

Comments

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph wrinkles her nose.

"I dunno ... we have some serious trouble sometimes. I mean, there was that whole Desh-Theire thing. I nearly killed people."

[feminine-menace.livejournal.com]

"But you didn't," YT points out. "Say, has anyone ever gotten killed here? Or got their brains erased or something?

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph hesitates, and then nods, reluctantly.

"We try to keep it a safe place, y'know? But ... we can't stop everything."

[feminine-menace.livejournal.com]

This isn't a huge soul-shattering revelation for YT. She'd kind of had faith in Bar's judgment, even knowing some of the kinds of people it let in. But she knows better than to feel totally safe anywhere.

"So it's not just breaking up brawls and stuff," YT says quietly. "At least you guys try. Better than most of the cops back where I come from."

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Most of ours, too," Steph admits, with a rueful grin. "That was why I got into the vigilante thing in the first place. We had some good ones, though. Just not all that many."

She plays with her bracelet again, absently.

"But here's - It's not more dangerous than Gotham, it's just the danger comes in sharper bits, if you know what I mean. Like, Gotham's always dangerous, but I never got every bone in my body broken at once there."

[feminine-menace.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. I do know," YT says, nodding. "Where I come from, we don't really have laws anymore. Government collapsed. The cops and stuff are privatized. And I do a very dangerous kind of job. But here, the danger's sharper, like you said. Mostly I think it's weirder."

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Yeah, that too," Steph admits, grinning. "I mean, of all the things I thought might happen after I died, none of them included, like, getting electrocuted by an ex-boyfriend, or helping save a world from civil war, or nearly dying again of a flu that gave me freakin' wings."

[feminine-menace.livejournal.com]

"Fuckin' Milliways," YT mutters, because that says it all. "I'm gonna be helping save a world inside a computer, if things go right, but I've actually done that before back home. Except the people this time are programs, not just avatars."

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph has to laugh. It really does.

"Good luck, it sounds pretty wicked."

[feminine-menace.livejournal.com]

"I'll need all the luck I can get. My friend Hiro and I are gonna help them fight a virus that's taken over most of the 'net where they come from. But like I said, I've done that kind of thing before." YT takes a sip from her coffee cup. "And I'll be a Web Surfer program - well, I am, but I really will be when I'm in there - which means I can fly and make portals to other systems and stuff." She grins. "It's kind of like being a Kourier, but more hardcore."

[alwaysroomforhope]

"I have no idea what half the stuff means, but it still sounds cool," Steph says, and she grins, sipping her own coffee. "Plus, I'm totally all in favour of crazy rescue missions. I mean, it's hardwired into the bat thing."

[feminine-menace.livejournal.com]

YT laughs. "Yeah, I guess it would be." It seems kind of hard-wired into her too, sometimes, although it's not because of a 'bat thing.'

"I can explain at least one part of that without totally scrambling your brains," YT says. "I'm a Kourier back home. It's a little like being a bicycle messenger, except we're on skateboards, and we use magnapoons to hitch rides from cars and get around."

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Magnetic harpoons," Steph translates, and glances at her questioningly. "That sounds way, way cool."

Dangerous, but really cool.

[feminine-menace.livejournal.com]

"Oh, it is," YT says, grinning. "Of course, being a professional thrasher, I don't get a lot of respect from other folks. It's just part of the package deal. Means I have to be smarter and faster than they are. Sometimes I get in a lot of trouble." She sips her coffee. "But it's better than flipping burgers or working behind a desk any day, or being a drone like most other people. That's one of the things I like about this place, nobody here's a drone."

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph laughs. "Except when they're possessed by tofu."

[feminine-menace.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I heard about the tofu." YT looks very uneasy. By her way of judging things, being a yuppie is a fate worse than death. "But even with the tofu, it's just temporary. Most people spend their whole lives being drones. In a box."

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph nods. "Yeah, I guess. But isn't it sort of the same thing, being drones and being plugged into a computer all the time?"

[feminine-menace.livejournal.com]

"Huh? Oh, you mean the Metaverse. It's not like that. People go in and out. I mean, there's some bitheads who're goggled in a lot, like my pod Hiro, but he works there. Although he also wears a gargoyle rig - that's, like, a portable computer - with a Metaverse overlay, which is so geeky it's not even funny. I make sure he gets a healthy dose of Reality every now and then. Juanita keeps him in line, too. She's his girlfriend and the smartest person I know."

[alwaysroomforhope]

"Man ... talking to you is totally like something out of a book," Steph says, grinning. "Future tech or something, like Tim used to like. I totally want to visit your world some time."

[feminine-menace.livejournal.com]

"Actually, it is out of a book, sort of," YT says, smirking. "A book called Snow Crash. Hiro doesn't know yet, though, so please don't tell him."

"Sure, if you're one of the bat-folks, I think you'll do okay. But I'd have to come back here from Reality first. I got in here from the Metaverse - don't know how that worked, but it did - and from what the computer sprites've told me, code and matter don't mix too well." YT sighs and props her chin on one hand, kind of despondently. "So if my door turns up, I don't think walking out of it would be a good idea just yet."

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph grins at being called one of the bat-folk. She is, but it's always nice to be reassured.

"Yeah, when we went with K to fight off the tentacle thing, they couldn't actually fire out of Milliways ... bit of a problem. Don't worry, I can't get anywhere without someone else opening the door anyway. My door just leads to -- wherever. Heaven, or Hell, or whatever."

[feminine-menace.livejournal.com]

YT drums her fingers on the table. "I'd been wondering about that," she says. "I know there's some other dead people here. Some of them are Bound, and some aren't. It seems kind of weird that people end up here after they die, because they have something to deal with first." She shrugs. "Better than ending up in Purgatory or being a ghost, I guess. But then, after that, you either stay here or you just go, poof, forever. What's the point of that?"

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph goes a little quiet, sipping her coffee, for a moment.

"I dunno. I'm waiting for someone to tell me... I don't even know if it's unfinished business or if I'm gonna be re-re-thingo, you know. I mean, death isn't always permanent, in our world. But ... I try not to think about that."

[feminine-menace.livejournal.com]

"Sorry," YT says, kind of hunching over her coffee cup. "It's just kind of bothered me since I heard about it. I've gone most of my life without believing in God and this whole thing looks like it's gonna break my streak."

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph nods, sympathetically.

"I don't ... Well, I never really believed in an afterlife either, apart from a sort of ... Well, y'know. When I died I pretty much figured if there was a down, that was where I was heading. This, though..." She gestures at the warm, welcoming bar.

"Well ... I still don't know what comes next. I just ... don't wanna find out, that's all I know."