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Chica Mendez     And so, against Chica's warnings, Ainsley has found herself coming back to the Sixth World. Once again she finds herself in the ruined building that housed the warpgate. Thankfully this time it's not raining this time, and the smog is actually at somewhat bearable levels for once. No need for rebreathers! All in all, a good way to start off, especially in the Barrens.

    Since the sky is clear, she actually gets a pretty good look around this time. A lot of the same urban decay, but way over at the eastern edge of the district, there's running lights, and people, and working technology. If she watns to sight-see, that might be a good place to try.

    Especially if she wants to check out the Matrix, because the reception here is absolute ass.
Ainsley     This time, Ainsley has come prepared. She dressed in a completely different outfit and went out of her way to get a mask and everything. She even tried to make sure it looked ratty enough to be something locals would wear without being vulnerable to the weather. And it even came with enough coverage to keep her tail concealed. If she's gonna be poking around, she can do it entirely in disguise.

    Because she doesn't entirely trust Chica, and that's why the warning wasn't followed. Nothing about her last trip scared her enough. It just made her more fascinated. It's been jussst long enough that the gangers are less 'RED ALERT' and more 'shoot her if they know it's her,' by her understanding. So she heads in the direction of the nearest visible evidence of Matrix reception at a confident pace. If all else fails, she can pick a spot she KNOWS will be hard to see her from while she's checking it out.

    "Sorry, Chica," she murmurs under her breath. "I promise not to draw too much attention this time..."

    Her curiosity is going to get her seriously hurt one of these days.
Chica Mendez     It seems her disguise works, and the confident stride she keeps up is actually pretty important on the street; in a place where the people think like predator and prey, she's showing off that she's a predator. That said, thankfully she doesn't end up running into any Ancients or other gangers. THey tend to go after money regardless.

    The amount of people around steadily begin to grow as she nears the strip of civilization between the Redmond and Bellevue districts. The massive wall that separates the two is manned by a pretty damn large contingent of Knight Errant constantly manning towers and watching the actuion going on below. It's their job to make sure none of the filth escape into the rich person's district.

    Despite being all cloaked and covered up, Ainsley still gets some attention as she walks, from the multitudes of joygirls that wander this area. Some of the things that they suggest are... quite intense. They keep catcalling as Ainsley goes away, only to be replaced as a target by what looks to be random white- and blue-collar wageslaves who felt like slumming it for the day.

    Eventually after she walks awhile, she'll be able to detect the wireless Matrix flowing around her. There doesn't seem to be any terminals to speak of--everyone uses their commlink for that. She might be able to access it anyway, and there's a lot of alleyways if she wants to try and hide while she cruises. Once she tries, she gets welcomed to the Emerald City Grid--it looks a lot like tron lines of emerald, with dozens of icons everywhere proclaiming various goods, chatrooms... there's even Matrix prostitution! These guys might have a problem...
Ainsley     Ainsley is confident to a fault, and even that would show while she moves. Not frantic, manic, or rushed. Robotic. Almost threatening, to a world used to people since beaten down by their luck. She isn't doing that on purpose, though. It's just how she functions these days. It's what allows her to ignore joygirls as if they aren't there, or with a dismissive wave if they get insistent. It's what lets her case the area for threats without seeming spooked. Once she finds a nice spot to sit down that's out of the way of attention -- and she's made sure that she hasn't got anybody following her -- she begins the slow process of sussing out the Matrix and how she would go about accessing it.

    Being a communication wizard doesn't make it easy to do this. She's using a form of magic that doesn't exist in any other person on her world and rarely exists even outside of it, and CERTAINLY doesn't exist here. There's no protocols or measures already in place for someone like her to do this, so she needs to dummy some of her own. Which means she has to scan someone with an appropriate commlink, and that takes some time staring at people as they go by and scanning the air in bits and pieces until she finds all of the chunks she needs. Having gone to the trouble of scanning the deck that she took from that decker's BTL den, it doesn't take as long as it would if she were doing this from scratch.

    She settles in and closes her eyes. She murmurs the code to herself while she weaves the spell. Her aura condenses closer to her. It changes 'color,' so to speak, in preparation for the spell. Mages looking at her with their own Sight would know she's doing something. But she's fairly sure she isn't going to get too many people out here to bother her just right now...

    She finishes reinforcing her dummied connection... and attempts to bridge it into the Matrix. A direct link into her brain. She doesn't know what this will do. She's never tried anything like this before. But her confidence means she won't crack under that pressure.

    >>>>> ARGENT // ATTEMPTING CONNECTION

    She appears in the form of an avatar like her normal appearance, but it crackles a couple of times. There are several problems with doing this without the right hardware and the feedback when she first tries is enormous... but doesn't break the connection. Soon her perceptions adapt. Ghosts of discomfort fade into the background. In meatspace, a blood vessel in her nose popped and the air warped around her for a second, but then it stabilized.

    And she stares out at the Emerald City Grid, baffled by what she's just done. She doesn't pause to examine herself. Instead begins to move with that slow confident gait across the virtual world. She even smiles to herself while she moves. It's a new experience. It's something she never thought she'd get to see. It distracts her from the dangers this might have, just for a little while. She looks at things that might be interesting -- the chatrooms. She goes to check those out, because information is her favorite part of life. It's part of who she is. Part of why she can do this.
Chica Mendez     In spite of the somewhat minimalist design, the sheer size of this particular Grid is probably astounding; it's the public grid, after all. It covers almost every part of the city, though Ainsley would be able to see it sort of fraying off when it goes farther into the Barrens. Even in this small section, there's hundreds of user icons and thousands of businesses, clubs, and stores, some of them even with their own grids. There's more than a coule that Ainsley won't be able to access. Private, y'know--and since she didn't have any Attack or Sleaze programs with her, she couldn't try sneaking in.

    Everything moves at the speed of thought and connection here; if she wanted, Ainsley could zip all around the city. There's a few constants; far in the distance are the grids for the Megacorps that run here, like the Aztechnology pyramid, shaped and rendered beautifully, shown above the Emerald City grid in ascending order of importance and bandwidth.

    Another constant is the tower that pierces the whole thing, one that gives Ainsley the vague feeling of being watched. Seattle's demiGODs are vigilant, watching for any signs of hacking or technomancy. Thankfully, unless Ainsley /really/ tries, it'll be hard to get their attention in this huge mess.

    Many of the chatrooms here are private and locked off, but there's a couple public ones here and there. THe one that Ainsley investigates warps the grid around her when she gets close to become a cafe with a super punky appearance and ambiance. It seems most of the talk is about an upcoming baseball game between the Seattle and Tir Tairngire teams. THere's a LOT of hate for the Tir going around.
Ainsley     The colorful and vibrant Matrix stretches out before someone that is clearly new to all of it. So new that even her avatar stutters just a little bit when she looks out in the distance at the Aztechnology pyramid. She scans the environment and immediately begins to pick out features that she recognizes -- there's a store right there that she walked by on her way here in the physical -- until she gets into the chatroom itself. She enters without worrying about what it's about, and discovers it's about a sport she isn't terribly familiar with. At least, not to the degree these people would be.

    But she decides to take a look at the aesthetics and to listen in on the chatter. She doesn't speak, instead devoting much of her mental energy to making sure her avatar looks appropriate and doesn't keep trying to derez like it's been doing. She doesn't want to stand out more than she already does. She just doesn't know how to properly alter that avatar yet. It'd require a lot more experience with this.

    It'd be impossible to mingle without knowing anything about these teams so she will still seem strange and foreign here, but no moreso than anyone else. Except for her odd avatar that will gain attention from anyone that's received a description of what she looks like.
Chica Mendez     Luckily for Ainsley, it seems that user icons here have a pretty wide degree of variance. Not a single one looks alike unless it's using a guest account or something. Even in this chatroom there's a troll with fairy wings, a few humanoid animals, some hypercomplex looking elves with rainbow pixels swirling around... it's all a little extreme, but at least it's all creative and interesting.

    After she's hung around for awhile, though, someone sends her a contact request in this chatroom. It appears that someone has taken an interest in the cool icon sitting far out of everything and is trying to bring her into the conversation.

    The icon in question is actually relatively mundane in comparison to most. A squat orc with humorously large hands appears to be the source of the contact request, and should Ainsley accept the two will be wooshed together at a table and seated in a corner, shutting off the loud baseball talk. "Pretty cool icon, man," he says as he motions with his large hands at Ainsley. "Let me guess, let me guess. You've got a thing for feathered serpents, huh? You a Mujaji the Rain Queen fan?"
Ainsley     Creative, and full of ideas that she might use later. The lizard lady soaks it in like a tourist might, fascinated mostly with those that have some cohesive theme, something about them that makes them... unique. Flashy is one thing, anyone can be flashy. She has a good eye for the thematic ones, too, wondering if they're similar to ideas that are probably pretty close to their intent.

    Until the chat request. Not seeing anything wrong with this, she accepts the request and she's brought to a table. Her body in the real world twitches a little on reflex, fingers curling as she responds to stimuli that is only in her head, but her avatar remains calm, as if this were perfectly normal. Her tail even curls around one of her legs on reflex, keeping it 'out of the way' even if that's not necessary here.

    She immediately lies. She can lie, and it's her real body that cringes when she does it. "Feathered serpents in general. I think they're... majestic," she tells him, knowing that it'd sound painfully egotistical should this person know what she really looks like. "What about you? Are you a fan of her?" she replies, mildly deflecting, amused by the question. Easing out of it without waiting for a reply, she says, "I'm Argent."
Chica Mendez     Oh, hey, there's some pixel art done here, too. Pretty good stuff, too. This place is much, much better than meatspace isn't it? You should staaaaay....

    Ahem. Yes, all in all it's pretty clear that this place is just another type of escapism. At least here it's living, breathing escapism though. The shared hallucination of an ever-expanding Matrix.

    The orc with the large hands grins a bit when Ainsley gushes about feathered serpents, but there's a bit of a... weird edge to it. There's something just... slightly off, but it's hard to place what it is. He rolls his hand emphatically. "Eh, not really. Dragons are cool and all, but I heard that Amazonia's been getting their asses kicked recently by Aztlan. I guess her dragon stuff isn't worth much. Not to mention..." He pauses, and shakes his head.

    Ah, that's right. She introduced herself. One of the commically large hands reaches out. "Sh0rtstack," he replies with a cheesy smile.
Ainsley     It's off, and that is something she latches onto immediately. Ainsley stares at him while he replies, nodding sadly at what he's saying about Aztlan winning. But then, she doesn't seem too broken up about it. Or really super invested in his reply at all. His behavior was strange from step one, as someone that initiated a conversation with her instead of the other way around.

    "So, Sh0rtstack, is this about baseball or did you have something else to talk about?"

    She didn't touch his hand, instead keeping her apparent composure impersonal. Her smile was mild yet she seemed intense. Paranoia? Yes, perhaps it was paranoia. Healthy paranoia. She has enemies in this world and only one friend, so random conversations from strangers set off red flags. Especially when the first thing they notice about her is the avatar she showed up with.
Chica Mendez     Whoa, cold shoulder. With a grin, Sh0rtstack's hands go up in mock-surrender. "Sorry, guess you're not the touchy type." Maybe it was his face. There was something off and familiar about it.

    "Baseball? Nah. I saw you sitting off away from the conversation, and..." He thoughtfully strokes his chin--which looks pretty odd, considering how big it is. "You do look pretty familiar. Kind of one of those 'deja vu' things, I guess. Like a different time or a different life." He shrugs once, then slowly leans forward in his seat. "Like another life..."

    It's when he gets closer that Ainsley might see it. She once looked deep into the eyes of a person as they died. Those same eyes are reflected here in this orc's digital face. The eyes of a dwarf don't really belong here.

    Suddenly his expression goes blank for a few moments, like the user had stopped paying attention to the window or something. Then it resumes, and a slow scowl comes across his face. "Another life... my deck. My money. My... scales. Called you scales. You killed me, you slot. You killed me!"

    Suddenly he's reaching forward with incredible speed as the icon starts to shudder and sway. Like tiny specs of color that made up the whole image. Like nanites. Maybe... it might be time for Ainsley to leave.
Ainsley     As the situation devolves, she doesn't say a thing. Ainsley stares into the eyes of someone that is very dead, and it slowly begins to seem unreal. The change is gradual, from friendliness to pure wrath. She had no regret about what she did to that BTL dealer, because it was no different than what this life would have given her anyways. But this was a different animal. It was frightening, in a way that was beyond comprehension. This wasn't a ganger or a witness, it was the digital ghost of the person.

    That last shout and the lunge...

    And he catches nothing, only scattered pixels as she disconnects in a snap. Thankfully the system isn't holding her in, and there's no feedback from her doing this.

    Back in the real world, she gasps and jerks as if to throw her hands up in defense against reaching arms. It's a brief moment as her mind realigns with the physical world. She frowns to herself and then gets up to a stand, and then looks around for threats, in case someone found her physical body while she was doing that. She may not be able to spirit walk or whatever it is mages here do, but she may be just as vulnerable, she realizes, when she connects to the Matrix. And she needs to assess what just happened.

    Calmly, despite her pounding heart, she thinks aloud, "That can't be normal. Even for here."