[01] Permavoice

[clashingtactics]

All this information about other worlds and the floors replicated after at least some of them, it's been a real eye opener...

I already know South America exists in one version of Earth. What about the other versions?

What of the stars and the moon at night? ...Do the stars shimmer? Is the moon even there?

Comments

[text]

[biphasic]

User world

[clashingtactics]

...I'm not sure what you mean. What's a "User"?

[text]

[biphasic]

[There's a pause before he answers]

Not of the Grid.

[clashingtactics]

[Hei silently ponders what is meant by that. If it's anything to do with being in any part of government system, that sort of thing... Might as well find out.]

The Grid...? [A pause as he's just going fishing under the surface of Li's cluelessness to test and see what the helmet wearing person knows, or assumes.] Does this have to do with the world you come from?

[biphasic]

Yes.

[clashingtactics]

Oh, okay. So, what's it like over there?

And when you say User, I guess that would mean me?

[biphasic]

The Grid... is.

[Not helpful, but hey, it's not easy to explain.]

[clashingtactics]

I assume it's nothing simple to describe?

Sometimes I feel that way about where I came from.

[Back to square one then. There's something else Hei's curious about.]

What about referring to me as a User? Is there some meaning behind that?

[biphasic]

Users are... outside the Grid. Not part of it.

[clashingtactics]

When you say 'grid', I think of a power grid, or some kind of system.

Am I getting warmer?

[Users. Hei takes a moment to think further on that clue. ...Do humans somehow use this stranger? There's nothing else to think about that seems to make sense.]

[biphasic]

System, yes. We live in the system.

[clashingtactics]

...You mean some kind of government, or a form of higher power?

[Hei's starting to consider it might be a good idea to keep a great distance away from this odd individual, if that's the case. He's got enough of a target on his back already.]

[biphasic]

[There's a pause, as Rinzler processes this. The only 'government' the Grid has is Clu; what the Users use is something he doesn't know and doesn't care to know.]

Negative. The Grid - the system - is a place. Government of the Grid : self-contained.

[clashingtactics]

Ohhh, all right. In order to fully understand, I'd have to see for myself someday.

Who knows? A replication of the Grid might be somewhere on the other floors. [Nervous laughter] I'm not sure if I'll go see any of them, but I'm sure your world must be very interesting.

Who are you by the way, if not a human? [Not that it's really necessary to ask, but that's Li; a curious and caring person.]

[biphasic]

Replication of the Grid : not currently present on known floors.

[If there was, he would already be there. There's a longer pause before he actually answers the second half.]

Program. Designation : Rinzler.

[clashingtactics]

A program? A living machine, or something along those lines?

[...Interesting.]