Neon Jungle

[voiceless_anon]

Who: Anon, OPEN
When: Now.
Where: Somewhere near the Arena.
What: Anon is newly (re)rezzed and very confused, and is looking for somebody who'll explain what's going on.
Warnings: Probably none.

Comments

[quorrious]

Quorra had taken to lurking around the arena much the same as she had back before things had taken a turn for the worse and the coup had happened. Granted, most of the time she still watched from a perch somewhere well away from the crowds, they were something she was still struggling to get used to again.

As such it was easy to spot the one still spot in the flow of traffic, she blinked, then again, trying to make sure that she wasn't seeing things. Yori had told her that programs sometimes arrived from elsewhere, even after having been derezzed, and her meeting with Flynn out in the outlands was proof of that.

She beamed, swinging herself down easily from the walkway above, landing lightly, taking a moment to regain her bearings before unfolding and making her way towards the system monitor.

[voiceless_anon]

Anon scanned the crowd again, and froze at the sight of a small, dark-haired program making her way towards him. No, not a program. An ISO.

Squeezing nimbly between the moving programs, Anon headed unerringly in Quorra's direction. He hadn't dared hope that Quorra had survived, but there she was, looking whole and error-free. Warmth rose in his chest, a sensation that he tentatively classified as happiness.

It wasn't long before they were face to face, Anon waiting for Quorra to speak.

[quorrious]

She moved forward easily to meet him, grinning broadly, glad to see a familiar face, or, rather, a familiar helmet, but it was the same thing in this case. She caught his upper arms, giving a gentle squeeze. The ISOs had always communicated a lot through touch, and Quorra was no different, especially now that she no longer had reason to be, "Greetings, program." And then, her tone amused, "Long time."

[voiceless_anon]

Anon nodded at Quorra's greeting, mirroring her arm-grab and carefully exerting the same amount of pressure that she had used on him. He was smiling beneath the helmet, relief and joy mixing together until he couldn't tell one from the other.

Long time? He cocked his head on one side, silently asking her how long it had been. From his perspective, it had been a matter of millicycles, but he was steadily growing more certain that it had been considerably longer.

[quorrious]

"Doesn't seem like that long for you though, does it?" She was perceptive that way, and she knew that he'd been derezzed all those cycles ago, she'd seen it. She turned then, making a sweeping gesture with one arm to indicate the whole grid, "Welcome back to the Grid, Monitor. There've been some changes, most notably we survived a coup and a thousand-cycle reign of terror by Clu, and we're back stronger than ever."

[voiceless_anon]

A thousand cycles? Anon stood up straight in shock, whipping his head around to stare at Quorra. While he knew that programs were capable of running indefinitely, his own lifespan thus far was measured in millicycles, not cycles.

Clu, however, he knew more than enough of. He'd seen, first-hand, what the admin program had been capable of. Knowing that he was no longer in power was as much of a relief as finding Quorra safe. Still, with all the alterations to the Grid, he'd have a lot to catch up on.

Politely, Anon offered Quorra his arm, gesturing away from the arena in an invitation to walk with him. With Quorra there, perhaps he'd get some explanations for the changes.

[quorrious]

She actually grinned then, taking the offered arm and steering them both carefully off the main thoroughfare and onto a lesser-used walkway, crowds still made her a little tense, but she was getting better, "Afte you got me out of the city, Flynn found me, and I became his ... well, his companion, I suppose, but also his student, and then, right when it was starting to seem that all hope was lost, that the resistance wasn't as strong as we had hoped, something changed."

Her smile spread, gone warm, "Clu tricked Flynn's son, Sam, into coming here, and just by being here he reminded Flynn of everything that was worth fighting for."

[voiceless_anon]

Briefly, Anon wondered what a 'son' was. It had to be something good, if the User had been able to convince Flynn to fight back.

Still, this was what he needed to hear. He'd never considered that Flynn and Quorra would have both made it out, and more than that, survived together. Well, if anyone deserved to learn from the User, it was Quorra. He loked down affectionately at the small ISO and made a rotating motion with his free hand. Go on, go on . . .

[quorrious]

"Clu's master plan was to build an army and re-open the portal, take them all to the User world." She shook her head, "Obviously we couldn't let that happen." Her brow furrowed, "I'm not telling things in the right order, really. Just the important parts. To get to the outside, Clu needed Flynn's disc, and Flynn knew that the only way to stop him would be to reintegrate. Even if he wouldn't survive."

[voiceless_anon]

Anon frowned under his visor as he tried to process this. Leaving aside why Clu would want to conquer the User world - given how complicated Kevin Flynn was, Anon was quite sure that he'd never want to go there - building an army would be complicated. How had Clu managed to sway people to his cause? Granted, he was a persuasive speaker, but once programs started processing instead of reacting, they wouldn't have stayed with him for long. He'd derezzed Abraxas, Clu's excuse for a war on the ISOs. He remembered that very clearly.

And what was reintegration? He'd come into existence long after Clu's compilation, and had no idea of how the renegade admin program had been created. But Flynn - did Quorra mean that Flynn was dead?

Anon stopped, looking down at Quorra beseechingly. His muscles tensed, something that Quorra, with her hand on his arm, could probably feel. He needed to know, but he wasn't sure if he was going to like the answer.

[quorrious]

Her brow furrowed slightly, continuing speaking even though they'd stopped walking, "I feel ... a little sorry for Clu, actually. He was following a flawed directive as best he could" She shook her head, "That doesn't excuse him of anything, but he should be pitied, I think, more than feared."

She shook her head again, looking up at the system monitor once more, "Flynn, Sam and I made it to the portal, with Flynn's disc, but Clu was there, waiting. The portal was closing, Flynn did the only thing he could, he sacrificed himself so that Sam and I could get his disc out into the User world. He'd created Clu in his own image, and all he could do was bring him back, destroying them both in the process."

Her eyes had gone sad, bright with unshed tears, "The reintegration is what caused the explosion at the Portal, and now it seems to have a mind of its own, pulling programs, and sometimes users, in from all over. Different systems, different times."

[voiceless_anon]

Quorra's grief was evident, and Anon patted her on the arm in a clumsy attempt at comfort.

Well. That explained a lot.

Anon moved to start walking again, but stopped as his circuitry dimmed for a moment. A quick self-diagnosis suggested that he was running low on energy. While he wasn't in any danger of derezzing (again), it would be sensible to either take in some energy (a memory of Zuse's destroyed bar opened and closed, unbidden) or offline for a while. The problem with both options was that he had nowhere to go for either of them. He'd never felt the lack, until now.

Re-rezzing, added to the energy drain from his last battle, had clearly taken a toll on his reserves.

[quorrious]

She was glad for the attempt, anyway, clasping his arm warmly again, "Thank you." She shook her head then, "I found him again, in the Outlands, so the Portal saw fit to bring him here as well."

She tilted her head slightly, studying Anon for a moment while he ran the diagnostic, smiling a moment later, "Do you have anywhere to stay? Have you been here long?"

[voiceless_anon]

So Flynn was derezzed, along with Clu . . . and yet he was still here? It was another item in the list of puzzling things that the young Monitor was forming.

At Quorra's questions, Anon shook his head no for the first question, paused, and then repeated the action for the second. He looked at her, wondering if she'd offer to help him find somewhere. The energetic ISO that he remembered was still just as bouncy, but there was a strange new calmness to her. Flynn's teachings, perhaps?

[quorrious]

She was still the same old Curious Quorra that she'd always been, she'd just learned a good dose of patience over the thousand cycles she'd spent as Flynn's apprentice. She nodded then, giving his arm a gentle tug once more, "We'll find you a place to stay, I'm not sure if the security programs are localized somewhere, but there'll be somplace in the residential blocks at least, and you can always move later."

She tilted her head once more, "Would you prefer to stay closer to the heart of the city?" Her own residence was out on the outskirts, she liked it better that way, but she could imagine that the monitor would like to be closer to the action.

[voiceless_anon]

Anon started walking again when Quorra tugged at his arm, considering the option she'd given him. Yes. He nodded firmly, hoping that there would be somewhere to stay near the center. From there, he'd only have half the city to run across if he was needed. If he was on the outskirts, he'd have to race right across the city, taking up precious microcycles.

Anon's hand tightened briefly on Quorra's arm in a show of gratitude. He was lucky to have a friend like Quorra on the Grid.