On the seventh day of Christmas
Title: Dawn
Fandom: The Matrix: Degrees of Separation
Characters: Agent Anderson/Agent Jean
Rating: G
Word Count: 500+
Summary: Agents Jean and Anderson watch the sun come up in the Real.
Dawn
***
The sun came up.
Not for the first time, not for the last time. Somewhere beyond a thousand times now, though Agent Jean suspected only the machine intelligences of the Alliance kept count. For the humans, it was simply enough that the sun rose at all.
Heavy metal tentacles curled around Jean, holding his small Runner-body fast. The Sentinel curled around him, each tentacle carefully draped and arranged so Agent Anderson could flit away at a moment's command. Jean shivered softly in the grip, hardly more than a vibration rippling through his chassis, but Anderson's tentacles tightened in response. Each millibar of pressure increase registered on Jean's sensors, and his mind warmed with a smile he could not show.
The world brightened. First dark lightened to grey, then the disc of the sun rose above the horizon.
Jean had yet to meet a person, machine or human, who could not remember exactly where they were when the sun arose. It was much the same in the Matrix after the darkness and storms that came in response to the Mainframe being cut off from the Matrix. Though Jean thought he was perhaps being a bit biased in feeling that had been a worse darkness. Humans would no doubt argue with him.
Machinery whirred softly, and Jean twisted his head to see Anderson's optics partially lensed-over. The Sentinel shifted as Anderson noticed him looking, and Jean nuzzled at the larger machine.
Color returned to the world.
Jean turned off his Runner-form's lights, and Anderson did the same. There was a soft whirr as Anderson's lenses contracted almost completely. Jean simply edited the inflow of data on the fly. It allowed him to look without directly taking in all of the sunlight. He should not, of course, as the light still reached his optics and caused them strain. Yet, Runners were in great supply still, and the factories still ran. They could be replaced.
The sight of the sunrise could not.
"The simulation in the Matrix does not accurately capture this," Jean whistled in Machine-code.
"It does not," Anderson agreed.
"There's too much light-data, I think. It would be very difficult to process and project an exact mimicry of a true sunrise." Jean paused, reviewing data in his files. "As well, there is the fundamental difference between what we see and what humans see to account for."
"Yes." Anderson remained silent for a long moment. "The humans say the Matrix has a green-tint to it."
"I have heard that as well. I do not understand why. Perhaps it is psychosomatic, a side-effect of their viewing raw-code on their data-screens."
"Perhaps."
Jean said nothing more. His thoughts raced, formulating and discarding theories about human perception, recording the changes to the landscape as the light increased, feeling every millibar of pressure as Anderson held him. It was not the same as being held in the Matrix as a psuedo-human. It was, however, neither better nor worse than that. It was simply different.
The sun rose over Avalon.
-End-
Fandom: The Matrix: Degrees of Separation
Characters: Agent Anderson/Agent Jean
Rating: G
Word Count: 500+
Summary: Agents Jean and Anderson watch the sun come up in the Real.
Dawn
***
The sun came up.
Not for the first time, not for the last time. Somewhere beyond a thousand times now, though Agent Jean suspected only the machine intelligences of the Alliance kept count. For the humans, it was simply enough that the sun rose at all.
Heavy metal tentacles curled around Jean, holding his small Runner-body fast. The Sentinel curled around him, each tentacle carefully draped and arranged so Agent Anderson could flit away at a moment's command. Jean shivered softly in the grip, hardly more than a vibration rippling through his chassis, but Anderson's tentacles tightened in response. Each millibar of pressure increase registered on Jean's sensors, and his mind warmed with a smile he could not show.
The world brightened. First dark lightened to grey, then the disc of the sun rose above the horizon.
Jean had yet to meet a person, machine or human, who could not remember exactly where they were when the sun arose. It was much the same in the Matrix after the darkness and storms that came in response to the Mainframe being cut off from the Matrix. Though Jean thought he was perhaps being a bit biased in feeling that had been a worse darkness. Humans would no doubt argue with him.
Machinery whirred softly, and Jean twisted his head to see Anderson's optics partially lensed-over. The Sentinel shifted as Anderson noticed him looking, and Jean nuzzled at the larger machine.
Color returned to the world.
Jean turned off his Runner-form's lights, and Anderson did the same. There was a soft whirr as Anderson's lenses contracted almost completely. Jean simply edited the inflow of data on the fly. It allowed him to look without directly taking in all of the sunlight. He should not, of course, as the light still reached his optics and caused them strain. Yet, Runners were in great supply still, and the factories still ran. They could be replaced.
The sight of the sunrise could not.
"The simulation in the Matrix does not accurately capture this," Jean whistled in Machine-code.
"It does not," Anderson agreed.
"There's too much light-data, I think. It would be very difficult to process and project an exact mimicry of a true sunrise." Jean paused, reviewing data in his files. "As well, there is the fundamental difference between what we see and what humans see to account for."
"Yes." Anderson remained silent for a long moment. "The humans say the Matrix has a green-tint to it."
"I have heard that as well. I do not understand why. Perhaps it is psychosomatic, a side-effect of their viewing raw-code on their data-screens."
"Perhaps."
Jean said nothing more. His thoughts raced, formulating and discarding theories about human perception, recording the changes to the landscape as the light increased, feeling every millibar of pressure as Anderson held him. It was not the same as being held in the Matrix as a psuedo-human. It was, however, neither better nor worse than that. It was simply different.
The sun rose over Avalon.
-End-