Never took this road before
Who: Fire and whoever finds her
What: Fire has just rerezzed to the Grid and needs a few things explaining
When: Before this End of Line post
Where: An unstable area on the outskirts of Tron City
Warnings: None for now, will update if that changes
( Destination unknown )
What: Fire has just rerezzed to the Grid and needs a few things explaining
When: Before this End of Line post
Where: An unstable area on the outskirts of Tron City
Warnings: None for now, will update if that changes
( Destination unknown )
She should let Ril speak for himself, but she didn't think he could have been involved with this particular skirmish. Besides the statistical improbability of Fire reappearing so close, Ril had said before that his main duty station had been the Arena. "They're still working in the last block." Yori pointed the general direction.
She looked back at Fire, with a smile meant to reassure. "One more thing I should explain, though...and don't think about it too hard, because no one understands why it's happening. You might run into different versions of the same program, or programs who remember something on the Grid quite differently than you remember it. It doesn't mean anyone is wrong. Things are just--very strange."
Yori sighed. "Programs have seen at least six versions of Tron so far, and none of the Trons remembers anything quite the way I do." Not even counting the variants that were closer to Rinzler.
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She glanced down the street, hoping to catch a glimpse of Yori's team, but saw nothing. "Until they get here, did you want some help? I can scan whatever building you want to work on and tell you where the errors are, if you like. My first primary function was to repair buildings damaged in Gridbug attacks." Her programming had been expanded considerably since then, of course, but it was always pleasant to return to her original task.
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Which included physical repair, of course, battle damage and gridbug decay; but Clu's damage ran far deeper than the destruction of property.
Yori walked a few steps backward toward the coordinates where she'd left the construction team. "I was doing a quick survey, to mark any change or danger since last time, but it would be better if we headed back to the construction area. More efficient when everyone's working together. I'm designed for analysis more than repair, anyway, although to be honest buildings were never my specialty." She grinned, and indicated the direction. "Coming? They'll start thinking gridbugs got me if I stay away too long."
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Even on passive scan, she could sense the damage to the buildings around her, and the repairs that had been done. There had been some good work there. However, it seemed that most of the structures around here had at least partial damage.
"Buildings may not be your speciality, but you and your team look like you're doing very well so far," Fire said thoughtfully, her attention only half on their path. "And don't tell me you're 'just' analysis. Analysis is a vital part of the repair process. Can't fix it unless you know what's wrong, after all."
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She tried to shake away the dark mood, smiling again. "But for this millicycle at least, fortunately I'm working with programs who are specialists in buildings. Dannik and Dannik tell me they've been putting up housing since before Flynn ever saw the Grid, and Mialynn helped lay Arjia City's foundation." The Danniks also quarreled with one another on every detail, in some compulsion to prove which version was better, but Mia was diplomatic enough to get them to work together.
Before Yori could decide that it was quite safe in this company to add the fact that Mia was an Iso, she sighted Ril turning the corner toward them in his usual sweep pattern. He was helmetless, but otherwise forbidding in orange-lit black armor, carrying a staff. "Ril!" she called at once, lifting a hand, so that Fire would know it wasn't some other Sentry.
"Yori!" he answered, with a broad grin. "I was starting to wonder if I should come find you."
[ooc: Hope you don't mind my random characterizing. I'm not planning on making new accounts, but it doesn't feel like a city without background programs.]
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Her second was, Yori didn't tell me he was attractive!
"She got held up due to helping me," Fire said, stepping forward and managing a genuinely friendly smile. "I'm Fire, a file repair program. Just rerezzed. It's nice to meet you, Ril."
He wasn't the one who'd derezzed her - in fact, she didn't remember meeting him at all. She hadn't gone anywhere near the Arena after Clu took over - not since that first game where Clu had made his speech and it had changed, horribly, from friendly to fatal.
[OOC: No problem at all! I agree, the Grid needs more programs than those in active play right now. Mind if I NPC them? I promise not to make them do anything horrible.]
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"Most of the essentials, I think," Yori assured him. "There hasn't been time for details."
Ril was dark-haired and fair-skinned, and reminded her very faintly of Tron in his attention to possible threats. This was not surprising, since Yori had long since concluded that everything was going to remind her of Tron somehow. The two looked nothing alike otherwise.
The former Sentry smiled nervously at Fire. "Do you mind if I ask when you, uh, when you're from? No offense," he added hastily. Yori understood his hesitation--the answer might have been simple enough except that Fire had said rerezzed, which made it a question of when she'd been murdered.
[ooc: Go right ahead if you have a good idea! :) A version of Ril has a little history with me and Jazz, but they all exist for the sake of the story.]
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"Good question," Fire replied. "My memory is a little glitchy at the moment, probably thanks to waking up here. In fact, I've got no idea what cycle it is." She gave him a wry grin, honestly meant. "If it's any help, my last memory is from somewhere between seven hundred and fifty and eight hundred cycles after Clu took over." Unconsciously, her hand went to the spot on her chest where the disc had hit her. She shook her head, glancing over at her rescuer and changing the subject. "Yori said that she and you are part of a team that are reclaiming the damaged sectors of the Grid. Is it really that dangerous for programs to do their jobs now? I don't remember Guards going with me back in the old days."
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"You outlasted me, then," the former Sentry admitted. "And you're right, of course, but in the old days--um, the good old days," Ril specified with an embarrassed glance, "there would have been enough security patrolling the area to respond within microcycles if you'd had an emergency. But at the moment, security programs are in short enough supply that the scheduled patrols stick to areas where programs actually live." He hesitated. "I should say, security that anyone's willing to trust."
Yori picked up the thread of self-hatred in that last, and frowned at it. "I told you, Ril, Tron would be happy to add you to the patrols."
He shook his head once, short and definite. "Too many complications. For everyone."
They'd had the argument before, and Yori hadn't come up with any new and brilliant logic to change his convictions, so she only sighed.
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She decided to give Ril a little time to absorb the logic - that he was trusted and needed here - and turned to Yori. "You mentioned the others with you - are they construction programs, repair programs, or volunteers?" If she was going to fit into a team, she needed to know where she'd be required. There would be more than one team going out, she was sure, and if Yori's team had it covered then she'd pick another. Or operate on her own. With enough energy, there was no reason she couldn't function alone.
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