2019-10-24 - Street Fightin' Techno Girls

Summary:

Toni Ho goes looking for some down time and ends up meeting an unusual girl named Io at the local arcade. And getting stomped in Street Fighter.

Log Info:

Storyteller: None
Date: Thu Oct 24 03:13:17 2019
Location: RP Room 2

Related Logs

None

Theme Song

None

io-niventoni-ho

A punk-rock looking girl with electric blue hair, short-shaved on one side and long enough to go down to her chin, combed over the side of her face and obscuring her eye on the other is currently oblivious to any looks she might be getting in her 'Electric Sheep' t-shirt, and mismatched leggings underneath her black skirt with shorts underneath - one striped thigh-high stocking and one black knee-sock with a star at the top. That's because she's currently got a crowd aroun her as she seems to be effortlessly 'destroying' the competition - some competitive gaming teenagers on Street Fighter 15.

A handful of people, both sexes, are cheering for her or earnestly stating how blown away by her skill - while several others aren't hiding their derogatory comments and how 'she must be cheating'. Io doesn't seem to be paying them any mind.

She finishes her flawless victory, then sticks her hand out, "Fork it over," she tells her competition with a smug, self-satisfied grin. The boy, not any older than fifteen, looks both humilated, and infuriated, "No way," he espouses, with a measure of stubborn certainty. "You cheated."

Toni doens't always take a break. In fact, in this case, she's been outright told she needs to leave the lab for an entire day to get things like sleep and doing something other than running project after project after project. She has, at least, gotten the sleep. And some food. And she's grudginly looking for something to do, when her eyes fall on the arcade. After a moment of hesistation, she heads inside, nostalgia beckoning her. She remembers arcades when she was a little girl, and how she could spend hours playing sometimes. So many quarters she could have spent better! But she doesn't regret it.

Wandering down the shadowed aisles, she's drawn to the hubub, pausing just outside the crowd as she cocks her head, listening.

"Fork it over," Io says, placidly, making a gimmie-gimmie gesture with her one hand. She tilts her head, "Welching on a bet with me is a really bad idea," she informs the boy.

His friends back him up, though, "There's no way you could've won that legit," he continues, "You're not getting it."

'It' seems to be a portable game console that he waggles, before stuffing it into his backpack, and he turns, starting to walk out.

Io exhales, but as the crowd begins to disperse, she instead squints at him, shakes her head, and pulls out her phone. Taps it a few times, tsks out loud. "You should really check your phone."

He turns back, and laughs at her before he starts to walk out of the exit, … but as he leaves, even inside, one can hear him cursing through the door as it closes behind him.

Io exhales, "What a bag of dicks," she mutters to herself. "Got what he deserved."

Outside, through the glass door, the boy in question is getting rather animated in his anger - a mix of anger, and pure panic, that is and his phone seems to be the source of all his most recent woes.

Toni raises a brow at the situation, especailly the tapping of the phone and the boy's reaction. She moves a bit closer, as no one seems interested in playing, then sets a token on the machine in the open slot. "Boys. Fragile egos." she says amusedly.

"That one just had all his social media accounts deleted, along with all of his contacts and apps on his phone," Io says with a hint of satisfaction to her tone, before she glances over to Toni. She half-shrugs, "Soon as he goes to the store, he'll find out that his backup app backed up his phone right after that happened, too. Poor guy." A quick, vindictive sort of grin flashes on her features, just for a moment.

"What a shame…" Toni murmurs. "That's an unusually specific thing to have happen to your phone like that." She chooses Cammy on the screen for her character. "Takes a lot of programming for that to go wrong."

"Think so?" Io's voice is pure confidence, but clearly suggestive that she doesn't think it requires much, if any programming. She picks Chun Li, since she's still on her original quarter. "Boys have fragile egos. Especially when they're with their friends. Doesn't mean you welch on our word, though. That shit pisses me off."

As the game launches, she begins to move and attack with the skill of a competitive gamer, and she holds a casual air over herself too. "I'm Io."

Toni is not a professional gamer, but she's not bad either! She's definitely got Cammy's Cannon Drill down and is good at using her mobility to leap back and forth to where she can't be caught be Chun Li's kicks o' death. The problem is, she can't dodge her fireballs as easily without moving in close or jumping over them. "Toni…" she says absently. "So he bet you the game system against, what, proving he'd win?"

"Yeah, he'd been on a winning streak, so I baited him," Io admits, quite cheerfully. "Asshole." She doesn't take her eyes off the screen, though, especially as Toni gets in a couple hits before she sets off another flurry of Chun-Li kicks at Cammy. She half-shrugs, "I'd play you for something, but doubt you'd give up anything you've got on you that I want," she says, in both friendly, and conversational tones. "Plus, you aren't a bag of dicks. So, good on you." This last is said with a bit of humor. "You take care of your stuff."

Toni hisses as she gets nailed by the flurry before she can get out of the way. "Depends, I guess, if you want money or something else." Toni says as she bounces back wards, then tries to sneak in a Cannon Drill, going low as her charactders pins rapidly to close on Chun Li, then goes up at an angle to try and catch her off guard. "My stuff?" she questions. "And thanks for not thinking I'm a bag of dicks." she adds wryly.

"They like you," Io affirms, "You can tell a lot about a person in how they treat their devices," she continues, still in that general conversational tone. Then, she adds, "Nah, we're good. Just playing for fun, now. Couldn't take anything from you and feel good about it." She says this as if her victory were all but assured.

The purple-haired engineer give Io an odd expression. "If you're sure….how would you know how my devices feel?" she says thoughfully. And, well, gets knocked out. Round 2. "Dammit. Rusty." she mutters, rolling her shoulders a bit before puttin gher hands back on th controls.

"They told me," Io replies with a measure of certainty that only either the very insane, or the people with explicit knowledge formed by reptition and established experience can have. "Your phone, smart-glasses, the earbuds - nice ones, by the way - and the - well, the other thing you're carrying on you." She doesn't name this one outright, showing she at least can grasp it's probably something Toni doesn't want disclosed to the general public.

It's her turn to grimace as Toni's opening move catches her just as she's trying to launch Chun-Li's spinning kicks. "Nice," she compliments, moving quickly to try to recover.

Toni shoots a suprised look at Io now…which results in her being kickedin the face on on screen as she tries to quickly follow up with another low sweep followed by a rising cannon drill. "Huh. That's an interesting talent you've got…" she says after a moment.

Io sthrugs, "Machines are easier to talk to than people, most of the time. They don't lie. They aren't bags of dicks. They don't scheme. They're real. I get them. They get me. Simple as that." She twists the controls to block the cannon drill, but is a quarter-second too late, landing on the ground and watching her health bar dip to nearly zero. "You ever need them repaired, come find me. I'm a fixer."

Toni gets overconfident, moving in for the kill! "You have a shop or something?" she wonders distractedly. "Or you mean come to the arcade and track you down?"

"My contact info's on your phone. I got an apartment. I work out of there, mostly. I work cheap for people like you, who respect their stuff," Io says in a slightly more friendly manner, before she launches another round of Chun-Li brutal kicks at the precise moment. How her contact info is on Toni's phone she doesn't say - but, what she said is true. It's not just a text message either - Io is officially registered as a full contact in Toni's phone as if Toni herself had entered it she will find when she goes to check the validity of the punk girl's statement.

Annnnnd Toni goes down to defeat! She sighs. "So outta practice, it's embarrasing." she says with a sigh. "At least with a proper joystick and arcade controls." She tilts her head, peering over at her, then says. "And you've probably got my data back then. If you can fix anything…I might bring you a challenge." she says simply, stepping back to let someone else dare to play as she smiles. "…see you later then Io, nice meeting you."

"Peace," says Io, holding up her two fingers in the iconic symbol, with a nod. Then, she she calls a young girl over, "Free game," she tells the girl, "Go ahead. Kick some ass. QUarter's on me." She half-grins, shrugging, and she heads out the door of the arcade, going who-knows-where.

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