A Clu without a clue...
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
( Not the most auspcious way to start the millicycle... )
At the comment that it would be a long story, Clu nodded. He suspected that any sort of story that would explain someone randomly pulling a weapon on another program like that would indeed be a long one. Though it was at least a relief to hear that it wasn't him she had such obvious hatred for, just a program with a similar name and appearence. He was glad; though he didn't wear their blue circuits, he too was a User believer and would've been upset to discover that he'd unknowingly harmed any innocent programs while glitched. Especially a program that looked like this woman; despite the oddities of her appearance, now that she wasn't threatening him, he noticed that she was rather attractive. Still, given the circumstances, he kept his thoughts to himself.
The woman asked him what the last thing he remembered was, and he frowned slightly as he thought. "The last thing I remember...", he repeated quietly. He then continued in a normal tone, "Bit and I were searching for a missing file, belonging to my User, Flynn, in one of the Encom system's high-clearance memories. We were attacked by recognizers; I destroyed several, but there were too many, and we were forced to flee. We tried to lose them in the canyons, but one of them surprised us. I fired on it, but lost control of my tank and crashed." His frown deepened a bit at that. Besides being a rather unpleasant memory in and of itself, it was also just embarrassing; he'd been piloting that tank for over 50 cycles, for Users' sake! He ought to be better than that.
He went on. "I opened the hatch and climbed out of my tank, ready to flee on foot; Bit followed me. I told it to escape, since it could fly faster than I could run. The last I saw of it, it was making for the head module of one of the recognizers I'd downed." He paused a moment, his frown shifting to one of concern. "I hope it made it alright."
He continued. "After that... well... after that I must have suffered some sort of glitch, because my next memories can't possibly be accurate. I remember being captured, taken to the MCP, and briefly interrogated. It demanded that I reveal the name of my User; I refused, of course. And then..." He winced slightly; glitch or not, the memory felt real. "...And then I think it derezzed me...", he concluded. "After that, nothing, until I rebooted here, barely two nanoseconds ago. But as I said, those last memories must be glitched; if I'd been derezzed, I wouldn't very well be here to talk about it, would I?"
[OOC: Heh, poor Clu is in for a shock. X3 And not a nice one, like meeting his User either. X3]
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"You're not glitched," she said, with a conscious effort at forcing her voice calm. It was much, much harder than usual. "You're not the first program who's shown up here after being derezzed. Recovered data."
Yori made a mental note to add history from Encom to her standard informational datachip. If this kind of thing became more common, the programs would be very lost--there weren't all that many programs left on the Grid who remembered Encom and the MCP. Admin Clu might not have had half as much success taking over if there had been.
"I was from Encom myself," she added. "Conscript in the Factory District under the MCP. But that's a long time ago now. The MCP was derezzed. Your User took a personal hand, got control of the system. I was there." Yori smiled, only a little unevenly. Those were good memories.
She remembered that Flynn had spoken of the first version of Clu with remorse, grief for the program he'd never met. Wouldn't have sent the loyal program in alone, if he'd known then what he risked losing.
Yori didn't know what to expect from this version, this innocent program-brother of a tyrant. But every time she looked at him, her gut clenched in painful fear.
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Upon hearing that, in all probablity, he HAD actually been derezzed was... surprising, to say the least. "Oh...", was all he said at first. Well, at least it was a relief to know he wasn't glitched. Then, after a moment, aware that his response was less than brilliant, he added, "Do you know how the programs being rerezzed? Are their Users doing it?" That was pretty much the only explanation he could think of for such a phenomenon.
Upon hearing that not only had the MCP been derezzed, but that his User had had a personal hand in it, he brightened, a smile crossing his face, and he spared a quick glance up toward the sky, and to where, he presumed the world of the Users to be. Good old Flynn; Clu knew he could always count on him to come through in the end. "That's great!", he said with a chuckle at the unexpected good news. "If any program ever needed derezzing, it was the MCP." He smirked slightly, grimly amused. "And it's nice to know that my User was able to pay that null-unit back for derezzing me. Just wish I could've seen it..."
He sighed. "Though I must really have been offline for a long time, for things to have changed this much, and for another program to take up my name." The humor vanished from his face and tone, replaced with concern and a bit of wariness. "...I know I probably won't like the answer, but I have to ask. What did this other Clu do to make you hate him so much? And to make you so afraid... even just of me?"
He hadn't missed how the woman wouldn't, or perhaps couldn't, look him in the eye, or how her hand was clenched tightly around what he could only assume was a modern version of a lightcycle control rod. What could his counterpart possibly have done to inspire such fear, and the kind of hatred he'd seen in the woman's eyes when she'd pulled her disk on him?
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How she was going to get through an explanation of the rest without breaking entirely, Yori was not sure. But she had to start somewhere. "The system we're in now actually belonged to Flynn." Yori gestured vaguely upward. "Many cycles after you were derezzed, when he was building this place, he used your name and some of your code for a new kind of program, meant to be the system administrator here. I'm sure Flynn meant it as an honor."
That came out more kindly than she'd expected, which was good. Not this program's fault.
"Only things...went wrong." Yori could give a litany of the sysadmin's crimes, but it wouldn't help either of them. She gritted her teeth, a bitter grimace. "He betrayed Flynn, and--Imagine if the MCP had been able to recode any program he chose, in ways you'd think only a User could. Even the programs most loyal to their User."
If the hacker program could get a clear enough picture from the comparison, maybe Yori could get away with not mentioning the details.
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As the woman began her story, Clu was again surprised, this time by the revelation that Flynn was the User of this entire System. His gaze followed the woman's gesture upward and he glanced around them briefly before returning his attention to her. A part of him wanted to ask more about the system itself, and how Flynn had come to create it, but he could tell that this was difficult for her, and didn't want to interrupt. Thus, he simply nodded, tucking the information away for more thorough processing later, and waited for her to continue.
Then, as he listened to the rest of her story, the last bit of it told through clenched teeth, he felt as though the ground had dropped out from under him. The hacking program staggered back against the nearer building, sliding down to sit against the wall without realizing it as he struggled to process the horrible information that had just been imparted to him. He wanted to deny it, to say that it was impossible, but the woman's pain was obvious, and she had no reason to lie to him, not about something like this.
"How... Why...", Clu muttered, staring at the wall of the building opposite him, seemingly unaware at the moment that he was even speaking the words aloud. "Why would he... Why would he betray his User like that...? How... how could he... how could anyone want to betray Flynn...?" It didn't compute. Not in the slightest. Flynn was a kind, loving User. He had only ever been good to Clu and his other programs. Clu couldn't even begin to calculate any set of variables that could lead any program containing even a fragment of his code to betray his User.
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And this woman... he'd seen the kind of hate that had been in her eyes, how personal it was... this other Clu... he must have done that to someone the woman was close to... someone... someone she loved? Or maybe even -he shuddered at the thought- to the woman herself? No wonder she'd been afraid of him!
Finally, Clu raised his head, his eyes focusing in on the woman again. Clu couldn't recall having ever cried before buttears of remorse for what his brother had done were in his eyes when he looked at her now. "I'm sorry," he said, voice tight with emotion. "I'm so, so sorry. I'm sorry my brother hurt you. I'm sorry he hurt everyone. If I could've been here... If I could've done something... anything... I would've... I would've done..."
He lowered his gaze to the ground in front of him and shook his head, closing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep, shuddering breath, letting it out in a sigh as he attempted to bring his scrambled emotional subroutines under control. Finally after a long moment, he opend his eyes again, still staring at the ground at his feet. "I can understand now...", he said quietly. "Why you hate him... Why you're afraid of me..." He paused a moment, then continued. "If you... if the programs here... if you want me gone, I'll understand. I'll get in contact with Flynn... somehow... I'll ask him to transfer me to another System... maybe back to Encom, maybe somewhere else. I don't want... I don't want to be a burden on everyone here... a source of bad memory files..."
He paused again, taking a deep breath, seemingly trying to screw up his courage for some purpose. "But...", he finally said, "but if you... if the system will have me... and if Flynn allows it..." He turned his gaze from the ground, back to her, the tears gone, his gaze now quietly determined, with the faintest glimmer of hope behind it. "I can't change the past. I can't change what he did. But... I want to stay. To try and help... fix some of it, maybe. Make up for a little of what he did. So that maybe I... and my name... don't have to just provoke bad memory files any more." He paused again giving her a moment to think about what he'd said. "This isn't a trick," he finally concluded. "I swear to you. I'm not my brother."
And with that, he gave another sigh, closing his eyes and lowering his head again. He could only wait for her answer.
[OOC: And after that super-long and super-emotional scene, I'm off for the night! Laters! *wraps her poor, heartbroken character in a blankie and heads off to bed*]
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She looked away, unable to accept or deny the hacker program's offers, either one. Ask him for help, and give another version of Clu opportunity to take over? Tell him to get out, when the Flynn he knew was gone and the systems outside so updated they were unrecognizable?
But in spite of the name, she had to believe this program was more like Anon, an innocent victim, than any real connection to the sysadmin. Or else she had to derez him, and she couldn't do that.
"If you walk around with that face, what's left of Clu's army will turn you into a figurehead--if a former victim doesn't find you first and forget to ask questions," Yori warned. "You ought to let me update your helmet a bit." If she didn't have to see that face, maybe she'd be able to think beyond blind panic.
[ooc: *hugs Clu, since Yori won't* Aww, you'll be okay. *...then pokes phrasing* "I swear to you. I'm not my brother." Was that a conscious Speed Racer quote, there? Fellow fan, or just coincidence?]
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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.]
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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!]
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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."
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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.]
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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.]
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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."
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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]
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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!]
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