Power of voodoo

[creator_man]

Who: Flynn, notglitching, and anyone else who would be involved.
Where: Outlands
When: Now
What: Actions, reactions, attempting to reason.
Warnings: Probably some mind screwery. Attempts will be made to keep violence to a minimum.

Comments

[yorisearching]

The weight of the baton and of tension dragged her hand down as Rinzler turned, her fingers tightening on the cylinder. His limp hurt to watch, the worse because Rinzler would never have shown that if he could help it. But there had been no major code damage. None new. He wouldn't need assistance for that, only plentiful energy and peace. Neither of which Yori could give him, no matter how desperately she wanted to.

She'd expected him to take her jet, even if his own did work, if only to keep her out of the sky. Expected him to see her as a potential threat, or an unpredictable factor at the least.

That he hadn't--it meant...something. Surely. Yori didn't quite dare speculate what, not now, not when his absence felt like vital code torn away from her own.

Something. Except she couldn't let herself forget that everything Rinzler managed through fear and reprogramming was meant for his Yori, the Yori who had never given in to Clu, whatever tragedy had happened in that shared past. Not for her. (Never for her.)

She didn't move until the orange jet slipped into the clouds, couldn't look away. It was a wrench even when the last glimmer was too far to see.

"Ram." Tears too audible in her voice. Yori swallowed, blinked, returned her jet to its place on her armor. "Are you all right? That didn't sound like a soft landing."

[namesram]

Ram watched unblinking as Rinzler's helmet turned toward him, the slight headshake warning and recognition, demand and farewell all at once. Then Rinzler turned toward the cliff -- his pained gait a new agony -- and the little program had to clutch the stone tightly to keep himself from moving. Rinzler wouldn't let anyone help him now.

He did shift away from the rocks as the bright spark of the lightjet rose out of sight. Already steadier -- the few moments' rest had helped a lot -- he took a few hesitant steps toward Yori.

"Fine," he said, and then had to repeat the word when it didn't quite come out. "'m fine. Good to go. What--"

What about you... but he already knew the answer to that. Unless Rinzler had done any actual damage when he'd landed on her, she was probably as fine as Ram was: not really, not at all, but enough to keep moving. And she hadn't taken off after Rinzler, so he wasn't in immediate danger either.

His jaw worked silently, and he took a breath. "What do we need to do?"

[yorisearching]

Her legs felt...about like someone had been foolhardy enough to jump out of a lightjet onto uneven Outland rock. Yori tested whether they'd hold her, and slowly stood. Ram didn't look hurt, at least.

That we. She wasn't sure she could plan even for herself right now. "I'm going to find Rinzler's lightjet baton." If it had survived the crash at all. Shooting at him would have done less damage. She should have known better. Users, she had known better.

"And then we need to get back to Flynn." Yori sighed. "Before anyone jumps to any conclusions."

She rubbed both hands across her face, into her eyes. The list of things she could have done differently, might have done wrong, should have done better, that was endless. But Rinzler would be all right, and he hadn't derezzed anyone here. Whether Rinzler accepted her edit or not, she'd seen enough of his code to perhaps do better next time, or help Alan-One prepare.

Rinzler would be very wary of tracking down rumors and traces of Clu in the future. That on its own was a small victory.

Yori began to pick her way down, into the canyon, where she'd seen bright traces from the damaged jet. "Rinzler can make it to the city," she added, realizing how little Ram had seen. "His armor took most of the impact and his energy levels are no lower than mine."