everybody loves me
Who: Ram, OPEN
Where: Tron City (anywhere out in the open, tagger's choice)
When: somewhere in the proximity of...now
What: There's a new Ram on the Grid. Have at it, folks.
Warnings: If you make me put something here I will be severely disappointed.
( swaying to my own sound )
Where: Tron City (anywhere out in the open, tagger's choice)
When: somewhere in the proximity of...now
What: There's a new Ram on the Grid. Have at it, folks.
Warnings: If you make me put something here I will be severely disappointed.
( swaying to my own sound )
Which didn't begin to touch the whole complicated question of identity.
Still, Yori brightened and walked faster on catching a glimpse of Ram down the street. She'd meant to call him soon, but if he was here...
"Ram!" she hailed cheerfully the moment she thought he might notice. It would be somewhat tricky catching up to him if he didn't hear.
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When he finally spotted the pretty petite blond heading his way he grinned. She looked vaguely familiar but he couldn't place her. He opted to ignore that and gave her a friendly wave while he waited for her to catch up. This could be interesting.
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Something made her hesitate, though, on a closer look. She might have ignored the minor differences, if not for the presence of at least four and probably five versions of Tron or Rinzler. "Ah. You seem--different." She wasn't quite sure enough to assume either way.
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Ram avoided the security program at all costs. Anything else meant the end of the line for him.
He shifted uncomfortably and offered an uncertain smile at her last words. "Do I?" he said enigmatically. Frankly, he had no idea who she really was and he wondered if he should from some past exploit.
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She tried to ignore the millicycle's frustrations and smiled, switching mental tracks to what was by now a well-practiced greeting of newcomers.
Curiosity drove her to compare the versions--was this Ram a few cycles newer, perhaps? It would be rude to ask, but...how could he have been updated unless he'd been in contact with his User? "Welcome to the Grid, if you've just arrived," she added. "I'm Yori. I'd be glad to try to help if you need anything. Including explanations, so far as I have them."
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But for now, he ignored the possibility of another version of him out there--with the same name no less--and concentrated on the important details. "Never heard of this System before, but it is a pleasure to meet you, Yori." Without prompt he reached out to take her hand in his own and lifted it part way and bowed the rest to place a soft kiss on the knuckles. He lowered her hand before letting it slip off the tips of his fingers. "You already know my name... So let's just skip to the important parts: what is this System? Why does it suck unexpecting programs in? And
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"Ah--the Grid was created as Kevin Flynn's sealed testing ground, more or less," she said, after a moment, choosing practicalities over the interpersonal minefield. "That would be 1982, in User terms."
Better to explain from the beginning. She slipped into a dry recitation of facts that failed to quite hide her own grief. "Flynn was the only User who'd actually come to meet us in our own world, back in Encom--you remember Flynn? He wanted to see more, understand us better." She grimaced. "Which was working pretty well until 1989, when Flynn's admin program, Clu, decided to betray everyone and trap Flynn inside."
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This. This was more information than he'd ever found within the ENCOM System about the User he was searching for, he realized after he'd processed all the information she so easily handed out. This was like like a information data jackpot for him.
...Now if only he could find some way back to ZackAttack to tell him the news. And--how would he explain it to his User? Hmm.
"You actually know the User Kevin Flynn?" he said with a wide, eager grin that he couldn't keep from his face if he'd even tried. His hands were suddenly back out in front and gesturing excitedly. "Are you serious? A User? Here? In our world? How--?" He stopped short as another calculation came to him and he sobered ( ... )
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"But yes--Flynn was trapped here for more than a thousand cycles." She grimaced. "Clu was in control, and things were--things were very bad."
It was glitching hard to condense so much pain to a coherent paragraph, but easier than going into detail.
"Clu wanted to use the digitization laser, the Portal, to get into the User world and take control there," she said, eyes flickering upward before returning to a focus on the street. Her arms folded in half-conscious comfort. Clu had wanted to use the Portal and the Portal programs, Users erase him. "But Flynn was the only User template, the only way out. Flynn stayed in hiding for all that time, until another User came to the Grid. Sam Flynn."
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He didn't feel like mentioning the fact that he didn't know anything about his own life between his original compile and his recompile. All he knew is he never wanted to crash again.
Ram could see how hard this was on the other program but he didn't want to breach that invisible boundary of personal space again by reaching out to her so he bit his lip and kept his hands to himself with an effort of will. He tried to concentrate on the data she was giving him to process.
"Sam Flynn. I know that name, too. He's related to the other User somehow." He paused briefly. "'M not to disrupt anything he does within the System. But tracking him is okay. He's done some...interesting stuff in the past."
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"Sam and one of his allies got out in the end," Yori said quietly. "Flynn didn't. There was an explosion at the Portal, and it took out most of Clu's army. We hope it erased Clu, or at least most versions of him. But no one's seen Flynn since then."
Yori bit her lip, and offered a shrug. "The Grid's not isolated anymore, though. Ever since that explosion, duplicate programs are all over the place, derezzed programs are reappearing, and Users have been showing up, some of them by accident." She tried on a smile. It felt a touch shaky. "The good news is, since you're from another system, the Portal will probably take you back if you want to go. I can show you the way there."
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He continued listening to her in focused silence until the end where he perked up a bit more. But before he got all gung-ho about the likable option he considered carefully.
"...If I go home now, will I be able to get back here later?" he asked thoughtfully. Yori's data alone was well worth the initial trip. What if he could gather more here? Or even find the User in question for himself! It might be worth the delay if he could go back to his User with all the pertinent data at once especially if he'd never be able to find his way back again.
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And now she hoped this Ram might help her own curiosity. "Are you an Encom program? Tron and I were copied over from that system originally, and the Ram I know, among others. But although a few Users have said Sam Flynn's in charge now, they don't seem to know a thing about how the system itself is doing." It had to be better functioning than the Grid, at least. She wanted to believe that some version of Tron, of herself, had escaped Clu's touch entirely.
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"You sound like you might be looking for some specifics though. Anything on your processor?"
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A moment's hesitation--did she really want to get into that whole explanation? Honestly, no. But this was Ram, on some level.
"There are several versions of him on the Grid now," she said at last, "and things didn't go well for any of them, and none of them remember meeting me since Encom. Which is..." She groped for words, found none, shrugged.
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