milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

She had thought that getting away from the flat would help make matters better.

It didn't.

At this moment, she doubted anything could make it all right again.

It's a tell that Sarah Jane is upset over something when, instead of sitting on the sofa by the fire, she's on the floor and leaning against it as she clutches her knees to her chest. Her eyes are open, alert, as she gazes into the flames.

Thinking.

Lots and lots of thinking.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Huh. Well, it's not like I want to. I'm just kind of stuck here for now," YT says, pouting. "I mean, I like this place, but I miss home, and I don't like being stuck anywhere."

"I woudn't like being stuck anywhere either," she responds. "Thankfully, I'm not."

"I can't even go out to most of the other worlds, or at least I don't think it'd be a good idea." Now she draws her knees up to her chest. "I came in from the Metaverse. It's sort of this internet-wide virtual reality. And when one of the computer sprites scanned me, he said I was actually, well, another sprite. And they can't go out into regular space because they're code and it would kill them. So the only places I can get to are other digital worlds, like theirs."

Sarah shakes her head, glancing at YT for a moment. "I'm afraid that I only understood a portion of that. I'm from the 1970s, you see. Computers haven't gone into mainstream use yet."

"Well, if you're living thirty years later now and you've been reading up on stuff, you know what the internet is, right? I mean, it got started in the seventies." Hey, what with the time-traveling and all, she's probably seen stuff that makes the internet look like carrier pigeons.

She nods. "I haven't used it much, though. I've mostly been sticking to books and microfilms I've found in libraries."

"It's really awesome. You know how, you can find anything. Of course, there's a lot of crap too, so you have to be careful. But if you're a journalist in the twenty-first century, you've pretty much got to use it. Good to know how to look up stuff in books too, though," she adds.

"Okay, now for the second part. You know what virtual reality is? That might be in any sci-fi you know. Or if you've been to the future - not, like, of here, but of the twenty-first century - then you might've seen something like it. An...umm, immersive simulation, I think."

There's another nod, if not a frown at YT's journalistic advice. A good journalist needs to be able to pick up on stories and evidence and all of that. Papers were still her best in her opinion.

"I think I'm following."

Hey, Sarah Jane may be a pro, but as she said, she has some catching up to do. "Okay. Well, the Metaverse is an immersive simulation on the Internet. Sight and sound only, but it's really big and the better parts are well-rendered. Everyone's got something called an avatar, which is their digital body. It can look like them, or like anything they want, if they've got the know-how and the resources to make it that way. Mine looks like me. Custom-made, top-of-the-line. I'm friends with a couple of hackers," she explains.

"Anyway, different buildings and stuff are hosted on different computers around the world. You go in one, and you're looking around some code in a server somewhere. But it looks like you're really walking around in a city. I was trying to go into this place I knew when I ended up here. And then I was suddenly able to touch stuff, like in the real world. But apparently I'm still my digital self, too."

It sounds crazier every time she explains it.

Sarah nods absently, not quite paying as much attention as she normally would. It's confusing and not quite her cup of tea, and combined with the fact that she has other things on her mind right now, it really is hard to focus.

YT realizes that Sarah Jane's losing the thread here, and she sighs. "Look, I know it's confusing. Basically, I just can't go into a world that isn't inside a computer. Far as I know, this hasn't happened to anyone else here before."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only