13. [text, high priority]

[ifightfor]

[private to Toshiko, immediately subsequent to CLU's first post on the network]
Warden Toshiko Sato.

JA307020|

I require a promise.

((ooc: sorry for the post spam! I DID NOT EXPECT A CLU TONIGHT.))

Comments

Private

[hopeless_hacker]

[yeah she knows what this is about :c]

Go ahead.

Private, video.

[ifightfor]

[Rinzler holds up his identity disc.]

«Conceal this. No tampering. No reprogramming.»

Private, video.

[hopeless_hacker]

[She nods.]

Absolutely. I promise.

...

Rinzler? I will never do anything to your ID disc without your explicit permission. I can promise you that too.

Private, video // spam.

[ifightfor]

[He seems to relax the slightest fraction.]

«Understood. Thank you.

«Location?»

[And once he knows where she is he'll head right there because he has CLU looking for him and he needs to hide his disc immediately and get back.]

Private, video // spam.

[hopeless_hacker]

I'm in my cabin.

If you're going to see CLU, there's something I want to give you first.

Private, video // spam.

[ifightfor]

[He wastes no time on a reply over the communicators, hastening down the hall to her cabin and rapping on the door to announce his presence.]

Private, video // spam.

[hopeless_hacker]

[She's practically waiting at the door, and when he knocks she opens the door immediately and steps back to let him in.]

Are you all right?

[Silly question, but she'd feel worse for not asking.]

Spam spam spam.

[ifightfor]

[Thank the Users for small miracles--a thought that seems equally ridiculous but also extremely literal in context. Rinzler steps inside to join Toshiko, turning to face her and...consider that question.

It's not silly. He's not sure he's all right, to be honest.

At last he shrugs, hands held out toward her and turned palms-up: he has no idea, but he's going to keep acting as if.

Then he pulls the identity disc off his back and offers it to her. No time to waste.]

Re: Spam spam spam.

[hopeless_hacker]

Thank you.

[There's a small safe in the corner of her room where she keeps weapons and other sensitive items; Toshiko goes to it now, using a biometric scan and a alphanumeric code to open it. Never can be too careful. She returns holding a device a little smaller than a matchbox, with six metal contacts sticking out of one side to give a beetle-like effect overall. It has a sliding switch on the top.]

I adapted this from something I found at the last port. If you need me, flick the switch and I'll be alerted to that, as well as your location. If something comes up and you absolutely cannot get out of a confrontation any other way, press the contacts against his chest or back and flick the switch twice. It'll stun him - knock him out for a couple of hours - and I'll be alerted.

[She moves to offer it to him, then pauses.]

I was going to give you this eventually anyway, but....Rinzler, I'm giving you this now because I trust you to use it responsibly or not at all. Alright?

[That said, she offers it on an open palm.]

[ifightfor]

[He looks down at the device, listening to Toshiko's instructions, then back up--at her, at her face--before accepting it from her palm.

How novel, that one act of trust gets you another in return.]

Yes.

[He's hoping for "not at all". He really is. But his last encounter with CLU had ended fatally, after all.]

[hopeless_hacker]

Okay. Good. [She hesitates. Tosh would rather this meeting not take place at all, but she has to accept the inevitable - you really can't keep two people apart on the Barge, not without staying on their heels constantly. Maybe it's better to get it over with.]

Rinzler. Be careful.

[ifightfor]

[He closes his hands over the device, just holding on to it a moment (it looks like a Gridbug, comes the thought, unbidden) before secreting it away in a pouch.

Tosh probably has the right of it; there's nothing good that can come of speaking to CLU in person--except perhaps defusing the inevitable explosion that would occur if Rinzler kept his presence a secret from the other Program for any length of time. He was a loyal creature and a habit of loyalty brought expectations with it.

So he'd meet with CLU, and hope to keep things in some species of precarious balance. "Careful" is the least of it.]

Yes.

[A moment of hesitation.]

Thank you.

[hopeless_hacker]

[She nods, considers wishing him good luck, then dismisses that and just steps back to let him go.]

[ifightfor]

[He offers her a half-bow, sparing no words, and departs.

It's all on CLU now.]