Who: Ko, anyone Where: Sectors 46-48, near the edge of the Outlands When: now-ish What: The system has mostly adapted to the power imbalances caused by the Portal, but sometimes the sky has to let off some steam.
Quorra had always loved the rain, both on the Grid and in the real world. She'd only been caught in one major storm outside, and had loved every minute of it.
There hadn't been any good storms since she'd gotten back, however, and she'd managed to miss the warning due to being out exploring the near side of the Outlands and the edge of the Sea, just in case there were any new arrivals.
She was already back to the edge of the city before she realized just how bad the storm was, almost like the ones that ravaged the Outlands from time to time, even as violent as it was, it was oddly like coming home, and she paused, just tilting her face up into the deluge.
Ko had made her way down to the midlevels, keeping an arm hooked around the rail as the wind grew stronger. Down below, the pumps roared away to prevent flooding. The water rushing over the smooth streets made lightcycles useless, and she'd resigned herself to a long hike out of the storm sectors.
Spotting a program still out in the open, she opened her mouth to call out, but reconsidered as a tremendous peal of thunder cut through the rain. Instead, she worked her way along the rail hand over hand until she was close enough to catch Quorra's attention.
The thunder was enough to catch her attention even if the other woman's call hadn't been, and she looked startled for a moment, letting out a relieved laugh a moment later, sweeping sodden hair out of her face, "That's where I'm going." She said, before gauging the distance between where she was and her apartment, nodding towards the building in the near-distance, "My apartment's in that one."
"Nearby? Good." Ko held out a hand; she wasn't normally one for helping other programs along, but in a situation like this it was common decency, plain and simple. And it helped that this program wasn't indulging in tiresome panic attacks or taking unnecessary risks. There was always some bit-brain who ignored the warnings because a little rain couldn't hurt anyone, right? "Hurry -- the storm hasn't reached peak intensity yet."
Lightning snapped upward from a nearby tower. No, the peak hadn't come yet -- but it soon would.
"Thanks." She said, accepting the hand, adding: "Must have missed the storm warning." a moment later, giving a shrug, "Was checking the shoreline. I'm Quorra."
She had the good sense, at least, to be startled by the lightning, "That was close."
Ko's grip was tight, one that wouldn't yield an ally to any kind of storm. She didn't bother with words until they'd gotten into a sheltered walkway, where the roaring rain was at least not roaring directly on top of them. Her hood had blown off; releasing Quorra's hand, the older program reached back to wring water out of her long braid.
"Not as close as it will be," she said, now that they could hear each other. "Check the network next time. These systems won't play out completely for another couple of cycles." She shook some loose strands of hair out of her face and looked the other program over -- the name was familiar, of course; most programs who'd been paying attention knew the story by now. "I'm Ko. Weather maintenance algorithm."
Quorra sluiced both hands through her hair as well, wringing the worst of the water out, nodding once, "I'll remember to check before I go out to the Sea next time. Hadn't had a chance to check since getting back, got back and walked right into it."
She squinted at the horizon, "This one will do some damage if it heads out to the Outlands. Not to the city, just, tumbling rocks probably. Storms get wild out there."
"Impetuous," murmured Ko, but a slight smile accompanied the word.
She tilted her head in agreement at Quorra's assessment. "The whole area will have to be resurveyed after it passes. When the Outlands change, the sky changes with them."
"Sometimes." She agreed, managing to keep her own smile under wraps for the time being, though only barely, "We can't all be paragons of virtue and grace and sensibility."
She tilted her head, brow creasing at the statement, "Really? I don't think I ever knew that before. I saw a lot of storms out there. Not all at once, of course."
For a moment, Ko was still, listening to the storm; then, gesturing for Quorra to come along, she bypassed the transport terminal -- rezzing directly to their destination would be chancy with the Grid's power in flux like this -- and started the long walk down the interior path that would take them into the next sector.
"The terrain and the weather are interconnected," she said. "There used to be outposts to monitor the changes, but they fell into disrepair after the User left."
Of course things had changed since then, but the Users who were (mostly temporarily) in their system had more to do than bothering with weather outposts when the storms weren't completely catastrophic.
She followed at the other woman's side, nodding, "I always wondered if the really bad storms made it all the way here, or if they lost momentum and fell apart on the way."
Her head tilted, thinking back, "Most of them seemed to be moving away from the City though. And gathering power as they went." Most of the storms she'd watched from the Sanctuary were truly impressive.
"The sectors around the city are supposed to be configured to draw energy differentials away, but they fragment without maintenance." And that was maintenance only a User could do. It wasn't a direct criticism of the Creator, but many things had fallen by the wayside when Clu was in power.
Ko hadn't intended to follow up on the subject -- Quorra had surely had enough curious programs pestering her for stories about Flynn and the Outlands -- but the ISO didn't seem reluctant to talk about it (or at least about the weather). "How long were you out there?" she asked quietly.
She hadn't had as many as one would think, likely because they all thought the same thing, though she was rarely reluctant to talk about it, and especially not now, "Almost as long as Flynn was, I think. Over a thousand cycles." She shook her head, "I ... actually sort of lost track, after a while."
"Understandable," Ko murmured. Even programs who couldn't involuntarily lose track of time would sometimes ditch their logs deliberately when faced with endless cycles of tedium.
She studied the ISO. Sometimes even programs on the Grid were grounded during storms -- Flynn and Quorra had stayed hidden for far longer than that. "What did you do?"
She tilted her head, "The whole time, or just for storms?" Because the first was a little complicated, but the second wasn't: they'd stayed inside, the sanctuary half-buried into the rock face as it was was safer than most places, even for the wilder storms.
Ko gave a little nod -- it had been Quorra's experience, and Ko's curiosity wasn't compelling enough to impinge upon it under circumstances like this. If the ISO seemed amenable, perhaps there would be time for more directed conversation later. For now, the question meant whatever Quorra wished.
There hadn't been any good storms since she'd gotten back, however, and she'd managed to miss the warning due to being out exploring the near side of the Outlands and the edge of the Sea, just in case there were any new arrivals.
She was already back to the edge of the city before she realized just how bad the storm was, almost like the ones that ravaged the Outlands from time to time, even as violent as it was, it was oddly like coming home, and she paused, just tilting her face up into the deluge.
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Spotting a program still out in the open, she opened her mouth to call out, but reconsidered as a tremendous peal of thunder cut through the rain. Instead, she worked her way along the rail hand over hand until she was close enough to catch Quorra's attention.
"You should be under cover!"
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Lightning snapped upward from a nearby tower. No, the peak hadn't come yet -- but it soon would.
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She had the good sense, at least, to be startled by the lightning, "That was close."
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"Not as close as it will be," she said, now that they could hear each other. "Check the network next time. These systems won't play out completely for another couple of cycles." She shook some loose strands of hair out of her face and looked the other program over -- the name was familiar, of course; most programs who'd been paying attention knew the story by now. "I'm Ko. Weather maintenance algorithm."
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She squinted at the horizon, "This one will do some damage if it heads out to the Outlands. Not to the city, just, tumbling rocks probably. Storms get wild out there."
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She tilted her head in agreement at Quorra's assessment. "The whole area will have to be resurveyed after it passes. When the Outlands change, the sky changes with them."
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She tilted her head, brow creasing at the statement, "Really? I don't think I ever knew that before. I saw a lot of storms out there. Not all at once, of course."
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"The terrain and the weather are interconnected," she said. "There used to be outposts to monitor the changes, but they fell into disrepair after the User left."
Of course things had changed since then, but the Users who were (mostly temporarily) in their system had more to do than bothering with weather outposts when the storms weren't completely catastrophic.
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Her head tilted, thinking back, "Most of them seemed to be moving away from the City though. And gathering power as they went." Most of the storms she'd watched from the Sanctuary were truly impressive.
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Ko hadn't intended to follow up on the subject -- Quorra had surely had enough curious programs pestering her for stories about Flynn and the Outlands -- but the ISO didn't seem reluctant to talk about it (or at least about the weather). "How long were you out there?" she asked quietly.
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She studied the ISO. Sometimes even programs on the Grid were grounded during storms -- Flynn and Quorra had stayed hidden for far longer than that. "What did you do?"
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