While the community was notably one of autonomy and caked in clandestine deals - it was also one of stiff competition. An ever learning, ever evolving crowd that would just as soon leave you in the dust if you didn't purge the cycles of this week's code craze and keep up with the cutting edge. It was also a gathering of people that could scatter at the drop of a single hand gesture to cut from the pack and vanish again into obscurity. These were not very sociable people - normally. That's what made Dash such a lovable and unique version of the occupation; at least with the ladies. However, even in such a den of experts, his identity remained a prized possession, of which no digital trail existed. He was erased from existence long ago, and by his own hand. There were now a host of names associated with the Hapan native, and they changed with a revolving door policy so as to never be fully identified. Anonymity and all was a needful for such a venue.
Cube like sections sat in various array off to the side and peppered the landscape of the bar. Each one of the four walls held a dual holo-emitter that lit up the participant in the repulsor chair as the battle commenced. A battle of code and digital daring, attempting to usurp the other three in a game designed to test their merit and their abilities in something a little more challenging than gaining high score at the latest version of Trooper Terror. Digits flew as coded messages raced across the S-threads connecting them to the underground connections that they kept in touch with. Various poses struck as those that played concentrated. Such a diverse crowd but all centered on the prize, the high honor of slicing through the security locks, and gaining access to formally forbidden. It was like a drug that held just as much or more addiction than the glitterstim addicts dusting the Black Sun ring. Seated in a lotus position, with his tongue slid out to the side, Dash's fingertips flew in furious pace, navigating the holo-board like he'd invented the actual layout specifically for his digits.
"Get a load of that junk data. Seriously, are we really using Antax version five? Thought that got bricked with the Pyform beta." Dash exclaimed with an exasperated sigh, shaking his head and shifting his view to the mirror image of the three other competitors hosted in the right hand side of his screen. Most of them didn't bother to look up at them, as it would distract from their work and the race - but Dash was a slicer of a different color. A blinking section of code was forcing one competitor to growl in frustration.
"Welp gotta a little hiccup there at the bottom of your segment. Can't compile with that algo, it's wave time is too fragmented." Dash called out across from his opponent, having circumvented the security protocols of the cube to hi-jack his own opponent in order to correct the fatal flaw.
"There we go, rookie mistake, I'm sure it won't happen again." A subtle laugh was offered at the kid's expense as he shifted gears back to the task at hand.
"Was that really necessary?" The synthesized voice of a woman echoed nearby to Dash. A floating black orb shifted back and forth behind the slicer's head, moving from side to side. The chiding tones of his favorite creation rang in his ears. He'd already got a few dirty looks by now, and more than a few requests to dissect the
SPHERE that was currently bobbing up and down, looking over his progress.
"Entirely! Can't let the competition go bust a third of the way through the maze, where's the sport in that?" Dash answered back with a cackle to
D.A.R.C.I. She was a wonderful companion, but had some misgivings about his attempt to rub his victory in even more after helping one of his opponents with their mistakes. Apparently she'd picked up some sense of morality along the way, and it continued to baffle him to no end.
"Logic would indicate that would only slow your progress, but furthermore its just plain rude, how will you make any friends this way?"
"By bribing them with puffcakes."
"They are not the answer for everything as you claim."
"You're just jealous because you can't eat them. It's understandable."
"01001011 01101001 01101100 01101100 01101010 01101111 01111001"
"Didn't know you had joy to kill, darling." The back and forth banter would normally slow someone down, but Dash simply spun his chair before his right index slid right through the last keystroke and the other three screens immediately froze up, showing Dash's login name;
Daaren flashed on the screen as the victor, and every one of his opponents fell back in their chair grumbling angrily as the pompous youth argued with the disembodied female voice that escaped that metallic ball floating around him.
"You know what they say gents, mess with the best..." He didn't finish it, they all knew it, and he stood up and started towards the bar for a drink. The SPHERE floated right along with him, keeping track of his steps, and probably calculating some fiendish plan to make the youth frown for hours.
[member="Cryax Bane"] | [member="Bond"]
