Moxyland - Lauren Beukes [14]
I go into our room to find Zuko playing video games on my machine, when he knows full well it's only available for homework, and besides, I'm supposed to be meeting skyward* online.
'Uh-uh, bro. Off. On the pitch. You can round up some of your playmates and practise for a couple of hours.'
'What about the thing?' Zukes asks, because he's tagging along tonight. Ashraf doesn't like me to involve him in the extra-mural, being a minor, but between the soccer and our 'special projects', I keep him distracted, off the streets, out of the kind of trouble I got into at his age.
'Don't sweat it,' I tell him. 'We got plenty time. We're only leaving here at nine-thirty. So hit the field already.'
'What?' Ashraf freezes mid-scoop, sweaty crumpled shirts dangling from his arms. 'We're not still going?'
'Chill, baby. Toby's got a friend who is going to sort it one time. I'm not going to let a disconnect stop me. It'll be smooth sailing. Promise.'
'After that stunt at Stones, you're still counting on Toby?' Ashraf is about to get majorly wound up, but then he slices his eyes meaningfully in Zuko's direction. 'I'm gonna do the laundry. We can talk later,' he says.
But it's good for the kid to know what's on the level and in the open. You can't hide shit behind closed doors.
It's better that Ashraf is off to do the laundry. He takes it as a personal affront that I spend so much time in Pluslife. 'Our life not good enough for you?'
But before skyward*, we were Disney channel, strictly kid's stuff. We gotta step it up if we want to be taken seriously. I plug in the headphones, ignoring the huffiness in the background as Ash slams the door behind him, connect to the Plus server and I'm gone.
Skyward* is waiting for me in Monomotapa, which is what I call my house in Avalon. With
59.3 million registered users, it's one of world's favourite virtual escapes, which makes it easier to blend in unnoticed.
Despite the Euro-traditional name, Avalon is Asia-centric, so the game world is six to eight hours ahead and more than half the population don't speak English, which suits me perfectly. What's the point of escaping to Plus if the world is too close to the one you just left? And besides, you can make an okay living, earning Avalon guinees (guineveres, current exchange G7.26 to the ZAR) teaching other residents English.
skyward*'s avatar is looking uglier than usual, a stubby obese woman with a lumpy bald head and features on the wrong side of a mix of Asian and black. He says it's so people underestimate him, because even in game space everyone wants to be skinny and beautiful. I couldn't be bothered with the customising, I just uploaded a photograph and skinned it direct to my avatar. It's more honest.
I spent more time on doing up my place. It's pretty humble, designed to be bio-friendly, all recyclable materials, solar panels on the ceiling, a wind farm in the garden. Not that you need to generate energy in-world, but it's the principle. It's a shining example to throw into contrast the kind of excesses the neighbourhood attracts, which is why I chose this location specifically.
It's a recreation of the LA hills, which pulls in celeb wannabes by the dumpload, all avatared to resemble their current favourites, living or deceased, the Cary Grants and Tupacs and Gwyneths and Engelica Ks. The fankids go totally overboard, doing all this research online, re-creating every detail, right down to the brand of soy milk their celebrity keeps in the fridge or the mosaic tiling in the bathroom or the guest lists for their parties. Sometimes there's more than one celeb clone in the neighbourhood, and then they get into this