“Whoa, that does sound pretty awesome,” Quaid said as he settled himself on Tina’s couch. “I’d totally watch that; you should get that idea patented or trademarked or whatever.” Tina spun around in her computer chair to stare at him.
“I told you. It already exists! I watched it this morning it was intense. But I can’t find anything on the internet. Searching ‘roller derby’ doesn’t help because there are too many results. I tried ‘roller derby super powers’ too but doesn’t give me anything helpful.”
“What about one of the teams?” Quaid asked.
“OH!” Tina’s eyes went wide and she spun around to face the computer again. Her fingers clacked across the keyboard, then she hit enter. “I FOUND SOMETHING!” she screeched with excitement. Quaid hopped off the couch and stood behind her looking over her shoulder. The screen changed from the search results page to a silver and orange home page with the name ‘CyberRiot’ at the top.
“Orange server chapter of the official CyberRiot fan club,” Quaid read the second line. “Their team name is pretty cool,” he added.
“How to watch games,” Tina mumbled to herself as she found a helpful link. A dialogue prompt popped up.
[Spectating requires valid Sharp issued identification. Please download our app to register yourself with our system.] A QR-code appeared under the text. Tina was quick to pull her phone out, but Quaid slowed her down.“Are you sure this is right? You didn’t say you needed an app to watch it this morning.” Tina nodded.
“That was an accident that I don’t know how to repeat. This way I can watch whenever the games are on.” She aimed the phone at the screen; in moments she was opening an app that said “Sharp Development.”
[Welcome to the AlterNet!] Text appeared on Tina’s phone at the same time Quaid heard it speak; he was still looking over her shoulder. [Please register yourself.] It said, then her selfie camera opened itself.“It wants a picture of you?!” Quaid asked even as he stepped out of the picture frame. “This is a pretty demanding fan club,” he said. Tina was quiet for a moment, long enough to take the picture, then she looked at him.
“If you’d seen how awesome it was, you’d be taking your picture too,” she said. A ding sounded from her phone, then the computer screen changed. It showed the picture she took of herself with several lines of text.
“It worked!” Tina bounced in her chair and moved the mouse around to click on several links.
“What is all that?” Quaid asked as he read the lines. “NPC ID – Orange.2858823130. Name: Tina Reyes. Age: 23. There’s more too; how’d it get all that with just a picture?”
“Huh?” Tina looked at him through narrowed eyes, then to the screen, then back at him. “What are you talking about?”
“How did it get all your stats from a picture?” he pointed at the screen. “Name, age, it’s all there.” Tina slowly moved the mouse and clicked on something.
“Is it still there?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m looking right at your picture.” he said.
“I’m watching a replay from this morning’s game,” she said. “Wow…,” she sighed. “They’ve got great security. You need to register too!”
“Nah, I think I’m good,” Quaid said as Tina raised her phone.
“It’s easy, I can do it for you,” she held the camera up pointed at him. Quaid playfully put his hand up to block the shot, but she grabbed his hand and pulled it out of the way.
“Hey, take it easy,” Quaid chuckled. “I’m not all that interested in roller derby.”
“You don’t have to watch derby,” Tina said. She jumped up from her seat at an angle that knocked Quaid off balance and sent him to the ground. She stood over him and pointed the camera down. “But you do have to register.”
