A Clu without a clue...

[tanks4thememory]

Who: Clu here, and anyone who happens to stumble across him
Where: A random alleyway, somewhere in Tron City
When: Sometime post-Legacy mostly, but I'm flexible :)
Warnings: Shouldn't be any, unless people start cussing Clu out for stuff his future counterpart did

Comments

[tanks4thememory]

At the woman's answer, Clu closed his eyes again for a moment. "I'm pretty good at avoiding being seen, when I want to be," Clu responded truthfully. You didn't last long as a hacking program if you couldn't avoid detection, after all. "But you're right, on all counts." Clu had absolutely no intention of allowing a bunch of glitches turn him into some sort of Sark-like pseudo-commander. He'd let himself be derezzed (again) before that happened. He was rather fond of functioning, though, and despite how horrible he felt about what his brother had done, he wasn't eager to be mistakenly derezzed (again) by some innocent program just because he'd frightened them accidentally. And if he was going to function very well in any system while being more than 1400 cycles out of date, he'd probably need some rather significant upgrades anyway, so he might as well start now.

With a sigh, Clu got slowly to his feet, briefly bracing himself against the wall with one hand to steady himself. Once confident in his footing again, he removed his helmet, unconsciously combing his fingers once through his hair to fluff it up a bit from where it had been pressed flat for so long. He looked at his somewhat scuffed and worn helmet for a moment as he held it in his hands, considering. What he was about to do probably wasn't a good idea, letting this woman- who obviously hated his brother, who he'd just met and whose name he didn't even know- tamper with the coding of something that his safety might well depend on. No doubt his brother would've thought it gliched to even consider it. But he doubted that his brother had been the type to trust much, and look what he'd turned into.

Clu vowed to himself right then and there that he would be as little like his tyranical brother he'd never met as he possibly could. And he would start by trusting this woman. Besides, though he had no idea why, he had the feeling that this woman just wasn't the type to resort to that kind of duplicity. With a little nod to himself, he leaned down and set the helmet on the ground, then stepped back a pace or two so the woman could pick it up without getting too close to him.

[OOC: *Clu gratefully accepts the hug* Clu's sorry future-him was a psycho-creep. :( Though Yori doesn't know it, she just prevented this Clu from EVER going in that direction, by making him scared (as will be mentioned later) that it might have been parts of HIS code that contributed to Clu 2's downfall, and thus making him super careful that his thoughts don't turn that way.

And hehehe, was wondering if anyone would catch that. ;) Yeah, it was deliberate; in fact, I had him call Clu 2 his brother earlier on just so I could use that line at the end. And while I'm not a super-big Speed Racer fan, I do really enjoy the movie, and had just watched it on Tuesday, which is probly why I thought of the line.]

[yorisearching]

Yori watched the process of decision closely, the doubt on his face flickering into determined trust as he set the helmet down. It was strange to think of this program as more like Flynn than Flynn's conscious duplicate, but there was an openness in his eyes that made her think of the User in better days, and not the admin.

She picked up the helmet with equal care and backed up another step, because to do anything at all she was going to need to take her eyes off him. The space might give her a nanocycle's warning if he tried anything, although Yori had no idea what her prickly instincts expected him to try. It was clearly paranoia to claim that the admin would try this as a disguise.

Except it would be a crashing good idea for a disguise, wouldn't it, if it could get Yori's trust.

Yori squelched that thought again and deliberately focused on the code seams of the helmet. She hadn't worked on code this old since--well, since Encom. Adding in a modern faceshield that would derez partially or completely at the program's command threw in some interesting bugs, even though she was only copying a very small subroutine.

"I'm sure you were good at hiding," Yori agreed, "but you have a new system to learn." Disregarding the matter of his face entirely, this Clu didn't exactly blend in. "And I doubt you really want to go around avoiding everyone, anyway." It was easier to smile when she could look at the helmet and not the program. "We skipped the introduction phase, didn't we?" she realized aloud. "My name is Yori. And regardless of--everything else, I really am glad to see another program out of Encom."

She couldn't quite call him a survivor of the MCP when his memory of being derezzed was obviously vivid, but here they both were alive.

[ooc: Hah, I thought so. Speed Racer was my last big movie obsession, before Tron, though that was fic-writing and not RP. I try not to have these very often, they take too much energy!]

[tanks4thememory]

Clu, for his part, wasn't even looking at Yori when she picked up the helmet. Instead, he was glancing around, making a basic map of the immediate area in his processor, an all but automatic response built into his coding, now that he wasn't focused on speaking to someone. Learn the area. Seek out potential hiding places, escape routes, and points to investigate. If Yori happened to glance up from her work, while Clu was turned partway around, looking behind him, she might be able to see that the yellow-circuited program had no disk.

Clu was standing with his arms crossed loosely over his chest as scanned the area, not in impatience, really, just to have something to do with his hands. Having spent so much of his life at the controls of his tank, scrambling and climbing through narrow memory channels, and working to modify or uncover stubborn bits of data, he just felt more comfortable if his hands were occupied. It made things easier to deal with, like falling back on pre-programmed directives. And it kept him from thinking too deeply about the disturbing implications of what the woman had told him, even though he knew it was only a temporary distraction.

Kept him from thinking about innocent programs being dragged into a massive chamber, it's enormous size designed to intimidate them from the outset. Of them being brought before a massive column of yellow energy, with his features stretched grotesquely over its convex surface and his voice booming out from it, thunderously amplified, echoing back off the chamber walls, seeming to come from everywhere at once, hurting their ears. Of them being flung back against the wall by invisible forces, pinned there as if they were nothing but a scrap of data. Of that booming, echoing voice that was his badgering them, mocking them as they struggled. Of those innocent programs screaming while their very coding was pulled apart and rewritten to serve the monstrosity before them, screaming, even though there was no one but the monster and its servants to hear...

Part of his coding had gone into the program that had betrayed his User, tyrannized this system, derezzed and corrupted countless programs. What if... what if there was something inherantly wrong with his coding that had caused his brother to become such a... such a virus? He was able to alter inanimate codeing to a certain point, as was required by his function. Was this the root of his brother's ability to warp living programs? His own User had called him 'dogged and relentless' when last he'd communicated with him. At the time it had been meant as a compliment, but what his brother had done cast those words in a sinister new light.

When the woman spoke again, Clu paused in his scanning, returning his focus to her. When she mentioned that he probably didn't want to have to avoid everyone, he simply shrugged. "I'm kind of used to it, actually," he replied. "In fact I've spent alot more of my runtime avoiding other programs than I have seeking them out. Just part of being a hacking program, I suppose. Most of the time it was just me and Bit."

He did smile a little though when she introduced herself, nodding his agreement. "It's good to meet you as well, Yori." He paused, then added quietly, "And... thank you."

[tanks4thememory]

[OOC: Oops forgot to add the OOC note to my last post. X3 Anyway, heh, it seems that Clu too Yori's 'he was like the MCP' imagry a bit too literally. X3 Can't really blame him though, given how he was derezzed. X3 He'll find out his mistake for himself when he checks out the system records, though, so no worries.]

[yorisearching]

It seemed strange not to find a disk in the usual spot, although Yori was well aware that as a hacker Clu would never have been entitled to one under the MCP. She couldn't quite convince herself to suggest that he seek one out now. Couldn't send him to the Arena without warning Gem and Tron.

The face shield was never quite going to look natural, and when active it would take more energy from an old-style program than was quite comfortable, but it would do. At least until the hacker found an alternative. Yori looked up, shrugged without meeting the program's gaze. "This will at least give you a chance to explain before anyone reacts, I hope." Users, she hoped no modern Clu caught on to this. Terrifying thought.

"I'm sorry," she managed to choke out, just barely. "For--" She couldn't apologize for being reluctant to trust Clu again. "For...not being a better welcome." Back before everything had gone wrong, she'd have been overjoyed to meet one of Flynn's old programs, particularly one the User had valued so much.

[ooc: Aww, now I feel like Yori's inadvertently misled him. Though...actually he's got a pretty good picture overall, so I probably shouldn't feel that way.]

[tanks4thememory]

Clu nodded at Yori's explanation of sorts about his helmet's upgrades. "I hope so," he said. "Really not looking to get derezzed again, especially not so soon afer coming back from it the first time." He paused briefly as he considered what he'd just said. "...Wow, that sounded glitched." He chuckled slightly. Despite the seriousness of the situation, there was just something about the matter-of-fact way he'd just mentioned his own derezolution and reresolution that struck a chord with his sense of the absurd.

But the humor vanished at Yori's obiously difficult appology. Clu shook his head. "You don't have to appologize," he said, "especially not to me. My brother... he must have done something horrible to you, for you to react the way you did. I'd probably have had a similar reaction, if situations were reversed." He gave a slight, wry smirk, shifting away from that notion quickly, not wanting to dwell on what had to be an uncomfortable subject for her. "Besides, hacking programs don't generaly get warm welcomes in new systems anyway."

Clu waited until he was certain that Yori was quite finished with the upgrades to his helmet before moving to take it back. It didn't look especially different, but once it was back in his hands, he noticed that it did seem to be a bit heavier than it had been previously. As he fitted the helmet back onto his head, he wondered idly if that was usual for modern helmets, or if his only felt that way due to being older coding that had been modified.

Just as he was wondering how he was supposed to activate the new modifications, a new low-level command presented itself to his processes. Ah, alright. Apparently all he had to do was access this little subroutine and- "Whoah!", he exclaimed, blinking in surprise as the facemask rezzed into being with a soft whirr and a click, having been unprepared for how quickly it responded. "Didn't expect it to rez up that fast," he explained for Yori's benefit.

He then chuckled slightly in embarrassment at his own startlement, before reaching up to touch the mask that now covered his face. It was a simple, two-piece affair that extended from just in front of his ears - he was glad that it left his ears free, he'd always liked that about his helmet - to slide out and meet seamlessly in the middle of his face, completely covering it. While translucent to him, leaving everything just a bit dimmer for being filtered through the material of the mask, he immagined it was probably opaque to anyone looking at it from the outside.

"Wonder if this is how it felt to be a memory guard...", he wondered aloud, more to himself than to Yori. If so, he could understand why they were always in such bad moods. Then, to Yori, he asked, "Well? Does this help any? There's nothing refelctive enough around here for me to tell what it looks like from the outside." He shrugged slightly, awaiting her opinion.

[OOC: Nah, more like a combination of Clu's immagination getting the better of him, combined with his lack of knowledge of how much things have advanced since he's been gone. Back in the old system, a program with all of Clu2's abilities probly wouldn't have been able to continue looking relatively normal; it would have taken up too much energy and processing power.

And I didn't know whther Yori was done or not, so I kind left it open for you to finish next time if she wasn't. X3 As for what Clu's mask looks like, I'm thinking kinda like Cobra Commander's metal facemask from the '80's GI Joe cartoon. You can look up an image if you don't remember it, but basically it's just a blank, wrap-around, silver thing that covers his whole face.]

[yorisearching]

Yori chose not to mention that her own case was not all that specially horrible. Her reactions had clearly traumatized the hacker program enough without implying worse.

But to be honest, when one listed Clu's crimes, comparatively speaking, Yori tended to consider herself on the more fortunate side. He'd never derezzed her, or those closest to her. He'd never told her to murder anyone, though it would have been stupid of him to ask it with an army of better-trained fighters at his command. What he'd done to Tron was no different than what he'd done to half the surviving programs, by the end, and her loss no greater.

He'd tormented her, tainted her own programming, twisted her mind--but by the mercy of the Users, he'd never carried out his plans for the Portal.

It only felt worse because Yori had known Clu, called him a friend, expected better. She was willing to admit that was not quite rational.

Neither was it strictly rational that simply not seeing his face could change anything, when she was well aware of what hid under the helmet. Nevertheless, Yori felt herself relax, on levels that had nothing to do with coding or rationality either one.

"You look like an out-of-date hacker program," she said, "so I think it's a big improvement." Almost a joke. There was even a smile that didn't feel like it would break her face.

Still, she didn't think she could quite bear the kind of long and involved conversation that always went with explaining the Grid's present state. Yori held up a datachip. "Here's some basic information you might want," she said, and edged just close enough that he could take it from her hand. "Should be backwards compatible."

[tanks4thememory]

Had Clu been aware of Yori's thoughts on the subject, he might have commented that the fact that her own experiences only didn't seem so horrible in comparison to the extra-horrible things that happened to others was not an especially convincing argument in their favor. And he would still have been convinced that what had happened to her was quite enough to prompt her initial reaction. But he wasn't, of course, and thus simply waited quietly for her reaction.

When Yori finally relaxed, Clu smiled, relieved, behind his mask, and chuckled slightly at her comment. "Yeah, apparently so," he said.

He then nodded his thanks as he accepted the datachip, also not coming any closer than was necessary to take it, before backing off slightly. The formatting was somewhat more complex than he was used to, but he was indeed able to access it. As he scanned it, he found himself very glad that he'd spoken to Yori first; it made the data there alot easier to process, though his eyes still briefly widened in surprise at the mention of duplicates of programs and Users wandering around.

Upon finishing reading it, he nodded slightly. Before returning his gaze to Yori. "I think I'm going to need to do what it says here, and find one of the public terminals," he said. "So if you'll just point me to the nearest one, I'll just... leave you alone, then, and you can go back to whatever you were doing."

Though he didn't mention it, he had another reason for wanting to access the terminal. The strain of derezzing and rerezzing, not to mention the various shocking revelations he'd just experienced, were beginning to take their toll on even his energy efficient systems. He figured he could use the terminal to find someplace relatively safe to stay, for the time being, so he could rest and recharge a bit and proccess his next move.

[OOC: Assuming the chip she gave him is the same one Anon gave him below. Hope that's correct. X3]

[yorisearching]

"I think that would be best," Yori agreed wearily. It was hard work, fighting herself, and she'd been exhausted to begin with. "There's a public access station in the next block that should be in good repair." She pointed the direction.

It had to be nearly as hard on the hacker to watch her reactions as it was for her to keep struggling with them. There didn't seem any good reason to go on paining them both.

But she couldn't go without making some variety of her usual offer to help. "You can call me, if you get into trouble," Yori said. Her message box was included in the chip's information, though not, of course, her home apartment. She had a feeling that any farewell smile would look both shaky and very fake, right now, and gave a single nod of acknowledgment instead. "I--hope things work out well."

[ooc: Well, I think Yori's would be a bit more detailed than Anon's version, since she can give the really basic explanation by voice--I just don't want to write out the whole thing. But I'm sure there's even more detail on the terminal, so it's fine!]

[tanks4thememory]

Clu nodded his understanding. "Alright, sounds good," he replied. He made a mental note to check on that message box before he settled anywhere, though he really had no intention of using it, outside of an emergency.

"I hope things work out for you too," he said, by way of a farewell. "And thanks again, Yori, for everything." A trace of grim humor crept into his voice as he added, recalling their initial encounter, "Including having faster processing speed than reflexes."

Then with a final nod and slight wave of his own, he headed off in the direction Yori had indicated in search of the terminal, soon rounding the corner and vanishing from sight.