Downtime 6 - Serenity

Serenity grimaced. "A monofilament whip? Ouch, that's vicious. Good thing that you lived to tell about it, and you got faster stronger legs out of it. Looks like you can roll fast and kick some ass with all that gear."

"I still dance. I moonlight as a go-go dancer for clubs and festivals. It's kind of how I made ends meet through the early years of college. Now, I do it partially for fun, and partially because it's hard to rely on scores for steady money."

She takes out her commlink and shows Pr3tti a picture of her on stage at a dance rave, where she is wearing basically a bikini, a colorful tutu skirt, and fluffy shoes.

“We’ll see how the ass-kicking improves after a couple more weeks with Sun’s girlfriend. She’s a pro wrestler. The fights may be choreographed, but her skills and muscles are very real and very strong.

“Oh, that’s adorable!” she says of the picture. “I never get sick of the costumes!”

She whips out her comm to show the skimpy amazon costume. She shows a photo from the programme. In the photo, Pretti is wearing a feathered helm, flip-sequin sports-bra, matching skirt and bracers. Her legs are long and slender, with pointe shoes to make her look even more delicate. Under the photo is the caption, Natalie Tan, Principal Dancer.

“What did you study in college?”

"Sun's girlfriend? A wrestler?," Serenity says, looking at Sun curiously. "No wonder why he's such a good fighter. He punched me in the tit," Serenity laughed.

"I studied Psychology, but I didn't, uh... do very well."

Serenity scans around the facility.

"What other interesting things about this place should I be aware of?"

Pretti reflexively brings a hand up over her heart* and makes a sort of face, as if about to say ‘ow’ on Serenity’s behalf.

*(This gesture probably calls attention to the heart-shaped pendant she’s wearing.)

But instead she says, “I’m sure he blushed so hard the whole room turned bright red.”

As for what makes the place interesting, Pretti shrugs. “I don’t know much about this place. I came here looking for people.” Pretti smiles. “You’re a person.”

The smile fades. Pretti is hesitant to follow those words. What she says next is hardly worth the silent drumroll. “Oh. My number.”

She taps her comm. (The home screen shows Pretti with a blue-haired human girl. Behind them is an iron statue of a boy hamster and a girl hamster who look like they’re puckered for a cartoony kiss.)

She taps the Contacts app. ((I think the comms just need to touch each other to exchange info. At least I’m sure I saw an NPC do that.))

Sun overhears Serenity and Pretti mention the boob punch. His head turns bright red again. He stops working the punchbag and just stares a few inches in front of his feet for a few moments.

Pretti turns with a sympathetic smile. “I just meant you’re a great guy. No way you did that on purpose, Sun!”

Serenity tapped her commlink to Pr3tti's and exchanged commcode information with her.

"Cool, let's hang out sometime. Maybe in the future, there will be some opportunities to work together."

"I'm not much of a brawler sort, but I suppose I can hold my own."

"Yeah, that sounds awesome," Serenity said as she stretched her arms in the air and arched her back. She grimaced as sore muscled reminded her of Sun's strikes on her during their sparring session.

"I think I'm done for the day in terms of physical exercise," she said as she exhaled. "Maybe some dumb fun is in order."

Pretti replies, “If you wanna head there tonight, I better head home and freshen up. I’ll see if MK’s up for it.” Running her fingers along the cartoon hamster on her T-shirt, she explains, “My girl works at Brightworld. She might not be up for karaoke, but we can always watch some anime in the karaoke room while we eat.”

She texts directions to Finish Line, and before skating off she says, “Feel free to bring a friend or three.”
((I guess the friend(s) would be any other PC(s) who would be interested in karaoke.))

Serenity tapped Sun on the shoulder.

"Seems like Pretti and I are going to karaoke. You can come along if you like. I need some non-physical activity after getting my ass whopped," Serenity said, with a wink. She gave him the address and offered him a ride if he needed one.

After gathering her belongings, she walked to her car, a fancy BMW sports sedan, and drove it to the karaoke place. Serenity rented a room, and looked through the food menu and the drink, while waiting for others to arrive.

Pretti arrives all dolled up in a little black dress. She enters the karaoke room looking like a roller-skating waitress, complete with a tray fulla sizzling fried food. She seems quite chipper, despite her lack of a date. “MK’s working late. I don’t wanna watch our anime series without her, so maybe just turn on whatever’s on while we eat.”

What happens to be on is the news. ((Click HERE for the News Flash!))



After seeing the sports report, Pretti is livid. “That fucker deserved to die!” she yells at the screen. She appears calmed when Miho, the medic, starts to speak.

But after hearing the woman say a few words, Pretti is seething. “Traitor,” she mutters.

Serenity refrained from digging into the food so quickly as she watched Pretti's reaction to the news.

"Are these former teammates or rivals or something? What happened?"

Pretti tries to compose herself. “Sorry…” Her voice is a little choked. “Setsuko, the one who died…

“She spent the last week of her life training me for this stupid sport. I was in the game to replace her and some dead teammates.

“I tried looking into the deaths. It didn’t make sense—the body count is so high. Normally one or two… or zero deaths. Like, all teams total. But the Dragons had five. Six now.” A tear escapes a cyber-eye. “I wasn’t smart enough. Then a training accident injured a woman, so Setsu stepped in for her.

“She was shot up in the back. Like… I’m telling you, it was not tactical al all. Just shot up by some jerk with a machine gun. Then, it’s as the medic said. She refused to leave the game. Died in the next play.

“I have the recordings. In my cyber-eyes. I watched her die several times and… she was targeted.” Bitterly she confesses. “They act like the outrider’s death isn’t the natural consequence of playing for keeps. When Setsu was killed, he provided a distraction. He gave our rider the middle finger, then rode up joust style and shot him in the throat.

“Her killers still live.” Pretti says this as if them living is a travesty.

Serenity grimaces, and holds her hands up.

"I can't imagine playing any sport where you're putting your life at serious risk. Life is sucky enough as it is that I wouldn't want to put my life on the line for someone else's entertainment."

She looks at the tray of fried foods and dunks a french fry in ketchup before plopping it in her mouth.

"Are you going to try to get back at Setsuko's killers?"

Pretti says “Yes” without hesitation.

“I never actually wanted to… kill anyone. I know, being a runner, it’s kind of expected maybe. But I have a gel gun… and just wanted to do some good. Emiko, the runner who got me into this line of work, introduced me to Setsu.

“I was supposed to keep her alive. It was too late by the time I figured out…”

Pretti puts salt and pepper on her fries. Lots of pepper.

“Sorry. You wanted a fun night. Me going on about this… I shoulda known this would be in the news. I never watch the news.”

"I didn't know the game was that high profile to be in the news. I'm not really into that sort of sport. When I was in high school, I played volleyball... not the sort of sport that you'd risk your life in."

"How did you find yourself involved in the game, anyways?"

She sifted through the drink menu as she talked, wondering what to drink next.

“When Emiko introduced me to Setsuko, she had prosthetic legs like me. They were blown to bits by an opponent in the game. Her experience was so much like mine, I thought I could introduce her to Threepio.

Pretti shows Serenity a picture of the doctor.


“He’s a cyber specialist. He could’ve helped Setsu, if… y’know.

“I won’t play Urban Brawl again. I don’t know why someone as nice as Setsu got into it—the game is full of sociopaths just looking for an excuse to maim and murder because it makes them feel big. I never liked sports.

“I think volleyball sounds fun though. Especially if you play on a beach!”