Author: Chippewa Livingston
Archive: Please ask
Disclaimer: I claim no affiliation or ownership of characters or material related to Dark Angel.
An Unauthorized Genetic Experiment: A familiar interface.
"So," I asked her as I let the restaurant door close behind her, "What did your fortune cookie say?" The weird yellow color of sodium-vapor street lights glinted off her hair and made the green splotched design of the coat look muddy.
"It said 'You can learn from everyone, even yourself.'" She pulled the coat more closely around herself. "Yours?"
"Mine said 'The old ways aren't always the best.'" Well, some things were just habit. There weren't many people out on the street at this hour, but I had a mental picture of where all of them were, and where they seemed to be headed.
"Can't imagine what the cookie would mean by that." Her eyes narrowed, and she flashed me half a smile. "Let's go in there."
"There" was a video arcade. A haze of cigarette smoke swirled near the ceiling, and the sound effects from the various machines called to each other like some sort of electronic mating ritual.
"How about we burn a couple of bucks from my tips?" she offered. "What do you think we can put high scores on?"
I have to laugh. We can put high scores on anything we want. The question is: what will be fun? I look at the row of pinball machines, the four or five joystick based fight games, Tetris, and a bunch of the newer ones.
"How about this one?" I said, patting the molded fiberglass shell of "Mortal Combat X." It's got some fairly advanced sensors. You stand on the platform, and the little fighter on the screen duplicates your moves. "I'll bet you can kick its virtual ass!"
I haven't seen her smile like that in a long time. She cracks her knuckles and steps up.
She feeds the coins in, and points to select a fighter for herself, and points again for the virtual opponent.
I lean against another machine, where I can see the front door and the back door without too much difficulty, and hold her coat.
Archive: Please ask
Disclaimer: I claim no affiliation or ownership of characters or material related to Dark Angel.
An Unauthorized Genetic Experiment: A familiar interface.
"So," I asked her as I let the restaurant door close behind her, "What did your fortune cookie say?" The weird yellow color of sodium-vapor street lights glinted off her hair and made the green splotched design of the coat look muddy.
"It said 'You can learn from everyone, even yourself.'" She pulled the coat more closely around herself. "Yours?"
"Mine said 'The old ways aren't always the best.'" Well, some things were just habit. There weren't many people out on the street at this hour, but I had a mental picture of where all of them were, and where they seemed to be headed.
"Can't imagine what the cookie would mean by that." Her eyes narrowed, and she flashed me half a smile. "Let's go in there."
"There" was a video arcade. A haze of cigarette smoke swirled near the ceiling, and the sound effects from the various machines called to each other like some sort of electronic mating ritual.
"How about we burn a couple of bucks from my tips?" she offered. "What do you think we can put high scores on?"
I have to laugh. We can put high scores on anything we want. The question is: what will be fun? I look at the row of pinball machines, the four or five joystick based fight games, Tetris, and a bunch of the newer ones.
"How about this one?" I said, patting the molded fiberglass shell of "Mortal Combat X." It's got some fairly advanced sensors. You stand on the platform, and the little fighter on the screen duplicates your moves. "I'll bet you can kick its virtual ass!"
I haven't seen her smile like that in a long time. She cracks her knuckles and steps up.
She feeds the coins in, and points to select a fighter for herself, and points again for the virtual opponent.
I lean against another machine, where I can see the front door and the back door without too much difficulty, and hold her coat.