Creation (Mar-11)
Title: Creation
Prompt: 002. Green
Character: Sam Flynn
Fandom: Tron: Legacy
Word Count: 1,129
Rating: PG-13
Warnings Possible, minor, spoilers for Evolution and Legacy, I guess? Dunno :/
Disclaimer Steven Lisberger, Bonnie MacBird and Disney own Tron and all things associated. I'm just having fun in their sandbox.
Summary: Sam gets his first glimpse of the new grid.
Author's Notes:
1) Opening paragraph transcribed from Evolution's opening cutscene and ergo NOT MINE. Used only as a jumping-off point. Please don't hurt me. I bleed.
2) This is my sorry-ass attempt at reconcling Betrayal, Evolution and Legacy where the emergence of the ISO's is concerned. Betrayal implies and Evolution outright states that the gaming grid, at the very least, was in existence at the time of manifestation, whereas the scene in Legacy seems to be prior to any major on-grid construction, as CLU and Flynn are looking at freakin' blue-prints.
3) My cycle calculation comes from here, which basically states 1 year = 50 cycles. This breaks down to about 7.3 days per cycle, so 24 hours would be roughly 1/7th of a cycle. Ish. I suck at math.
4) Sam needs to stop usurping my homework time to write this crap.
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Kevin Flynn. Ah, Grid Development Diary, entry number...In there, behind the screen, things are getting intense. The system's evolving. It's way past games now. The programs, they're like people! But that's not the real mind-melt: it's the ISO's, man! Isomorphic Algorithims. Been seven years since I discovered the Grid, and five since I found them. I...I still can't get over it. They just appeared, I didn't write them; no one did. They had their own functions, their own ideas, ah...uh...f-freewill, man! Try programming that! You can't...The Basic programs, the ones I did write? And the ISO's? Well...some get along, and some...don't. Even my System Administrator, CLU, seems different around them. Jalen, one of the leaders of the ISO's, died in the gaming grids. I think it was...I think it was murder. ...And that's where my new System Monitor Security Program comes in. I wrote it to get things under control. I just hope it's not too late to help. Not too late for...peace.
Sam paused the video with his father still in mid-reach for the camera's controls. He sat back with a sigh. Of all the diary entries his father had made, this one troubled him the most. Sam's original plan had been to recreate the Grid's original environment that had prompted the ISO's to manifest, but this was the only entry that mentioned the possibility that the gaming grid had been fully installed at the time. The mental image he had conjured when the elder Flynn had told Sam the story had been one of pre-construction. Sam pondered the screen for a moment more before sifting through the papers on his desk. It only took him a minute or two to find the sheet protectors he had stored his video diary time-stamp notes in and another minute to find the right one. Sam swapped DVDs and fast-forwarded to the right spot before hitting the play button.
CLU and I were looking over the blue-prints for a new stadium when we felt it. I can't describe it, man, it was...We had the basic gaming grid in place, but I wanted something more complex, something that would be able to handle the ideas I had. So CLU and I headed to the area that we dubbed the Outlands, a border country that was technically off the grid, but signified amazing potential for growth. It was with the main Grid was off in the distance to our right, and the Sea of Simulation behind us when it happened. A long line of programs as far as the eye could see, only we had no idea where they came from...
Sam hit pause again and rubbed his eyes. Right, so basic programming would mean a gaming grid and the basic games to go with it. He had the base-code for the Space Paranoids game, which more than likely would have been Flynn Sr.'s first game installation on his new Grid, which would suffice for now. Sam had gone through the original code of the SMS program his father introduced after things started getting out of hand, and he saw nothing wrong with it. In fact, from what Sam could glean from the data on Kevin's IdentDisk, it was one of those Monitors that had helped salvage the Grid after CLU went nuts. So that was going in as security until Alan got back to him about TRON's base-code.
Sam had the new interface system in place and the grid - his Grid - ready for shaping, all according to the notes Kevin had left on the process. All he needed to do was install the game and the SMS program, and it would theoretically be ready.
It took several hours to get everything properly meshing, and all the diagnostic reports were spewing favourable results. Sam wasn't sure how the new interface would change the environment on the inside, so he didn't know how close to the original he'd be in the long run, but it couldn't be helped. There was no way he was risking a twenty-real-world-year stint inside a computer system. Either way, he had yet to add the digitizing equipment to the system; just because he was using state of the art equipment, didn't mean he could simply start tossing things at it. He didn't want to accidentally overload the thing right off the bat, after all.
Once everything was settled, Sam let the system run for a full day on its own while he took care of real world business. By his calculations, that would give the Grid 1/7th of a cycle to sort itself out. When he returned, he was almost apprehensive. His dad had built his grid from the inside-out, almost. Sam was doing it from the outside-in, so he had no idea what he was going to find. Calling up a program that snapped an image of a piece of the system's code, Sam transferred it off the mainframe and onto a separate desktop computer. He ran it through a 3D-imaging suite he had designed specifically for the purpose of rendering the grid data so one could see what things looked like on the inside without having to physically enter the virtual environment. The imagining suite formed the basis of his grid interface system, allowing one user inside the grid and one user outside the grid to work on things simultaneously. The person on the outside would be able to actually see what was going on, instead of having to rely on mere description and thousands of lines of code.
The cool part was that it was all full colour. Sam figured that something had developed in the coding that assigned the colours he saw to the various components, and he had managed to isolate the string that did it. Using the colours he had the codes for from both his and Kevin's IdentDisks, Sam built a database using a hybrid RGB/CMYK system that he hoped the imager would be able to use to correctly decipher the codes.
It took several minutes for the computer to complete the code analysis and display the image, and Sam's eyes went wide as he got his first glimpse of his grid. ...His grid. Huh.
Kevin's grid had been created out of blue and white circuitry, with his System Administrator in a distinctive yellow and the corrupted systems in red.
Sam's grid seemed to be made out of green and white circuitry; the snapshot hadn't captured any active programs, so he had no idea what they looked like yet. If they'll look like anything at all, he reminded himself. Quorra had reminded him that he would have to eventually go in and personally muck about, since Kevin's presence had been an integral part of the system's evolution, including the emergence of the ISO's. Sam wasn't sure he was ready just yet, but he was getting there. He'd let the system run for a complete cycle and then check back in with the interface. if it was still stable, he would add the digitization software and hook up the necessary hardware. The new laser should be done by then; he'd check in with the department head in the morning.
Right now, Sam was content with his progress. He took a screen-capture of the rendered image and saved it to the hard drive, then erased the data from the grid-snapshot and shut down the imaging suite. He printed off a copy of the picture, and then shut down the desktop. With an affectionate pat for the grid-mainframe, Sam tidied the mess and locked everything up. He folded the printout carefully and smiled. He couldn't wait to show Quorra and Alan, and he hoped they'd be excited as he was at what the future would bring.
Prompt: 002. Green
Character: Sam Flynn
Fandom: Tron: Legacy
Word Count: 1,129
Rating: PG-13
Warnings Possible, minor, spoilers for Evolution and Legacy, I guess? Dunno :/
Disclaimer Steven Lisberger, Bonnie MacBird and Disney own Tron and all things associated. I'm just having fun in their sandbox.
Summary: Sam gets his first glimpse of the new grid.
Author's Notes:
1) Opening paragraph transcribed from Evolution's opening cutscene and ergo NOT MINE. Used only as a jumping-off point. Please don't hurt me. I bleed.
2) This is my sorry-ass attempt at reconcling Betrayal, Evolution and Legacy where the emergence of the ISO's is concerned. Betrayal implies and Evolution outright states that the gaming grid, at the very least, was in existence at the time of manifestation, whereas the scene in Legacy seems to be prior to any major on-grid construction, as CLU and Flynn are looking at freakin' blue-prints.
3) My cycle calculation comes from here, which basically states 1 year = 50 cycles. This breaks down to about 7.3 days per cycle, so 24 hours would be roughly 1/7th of a cycle. Ish. I suck at math.
4) Sam needs to stop usurping my homework time to write this crap.
----------
Kevin Flynn. Ah, Grid Development Diary, entry number...In there, behind the screen, things are getting intense. The system's evolving. It's way past games now. The programs, they're like people! But that's not the real mind-melt: it's the ISO's, man! Isomorphic Algorithims. Been seven years since I discovered the Grid, and five since I found them. I...I still can't get over it. They just appeared, I didn't write them; no one did. They had their own functions, their own ideas, ah...uh...f-freewill, man! Try programming that! You can't...The Basic programs, the ones I did write? And the ISO's? Well...some get along, and some...don't. Even my System Administrator, CLU, seems different around them. Jalen, one of the leaders of the ISO's, died in the gaming grids. I think it was...I think it was murder. ...And that's where my new System Monitor Security Program comes in. I wrote it to get things under control. I just hope it's not too late to help. Not too late for...peace.
Sam paused the video with his father still in mid-reach for the camera's controls. He sat back with a sigh. Of all the diary entries his father had made, this one troubled him the most. Sam's original plan had been to recreate the Grid's original environment that had prompted the ISO's to manifest, but this was the only entry that mentioned the possibility that the gaming grid had been fully installed at the time. The mental image he had conjured when the elder Flynn had told Sam the story had been one of pre-construction. Sam pondered the screen for a moment more before sifting through the papers on his desk. It only took him a minute or two to find the sheet protectors he had stored his video diary time-stamp notes in and another minute to find the right one. Sam swapped DVDs and fast-forwarded to the right spot before hitting the play button.
CLU and I were looking over the blue-prints for a new stadium when we felt it. I can't describe it, man, it was...We had the basic gaming grid in place, but I wanted something more complex, something that would be able to handle the ideas I had. So CLU and I headed to the area that we dubbed the Outlands, a border country that was technically off the grid, but signified amazing potential for growth. It was with the main Grid was off in the distance to our right, and the Sea of Simulation behind us when it happened. A long line of programs as far as the eye could see, only we had no idea where they came from...
Sam hit pause again and rubbed his eyes. Right, so basic programming would mean a gaming grid and the basic games to go with it. He had the base-code for the Space Paranoids game, which more than likely would have been Flynn Sr.'s first game installation on his new Grid, which would suffice for now. Sam had gone through the original code of the SMS program his father introduced after things started getting out of hand, and he saw nothing wrong with it. In fact, from what Sam could glean from the data on Kevin's IdentDisk, it was one of those Monitors that had helped salvage the Grid after CLU went nuts. So that was going in as security until Alan got back to him about TRON's base-code.
Sam had the new interface system in place and the grid - his Grid - ready for shaping, all according to the notes Kevin had left on the process. All he needed to do was install the game and the SMS program, and it would theoretically be ready.
It took several hours to get everything properly meshing, and all the diagnostic reports were spewing favourable results. Sam wasn't sure how the new interface would change the environment on the inside, so he didn't know how close to the original he'd be in the long run, but it couldn't be helped. There was no way he was risking a twenty-real-world-year stint inside a computer system. Either way, he had yet to add the digitizing equipment to the system; just because he was using state of the art equipment, didn't mean he could simply start tossing things at it. He didn't want to accidentally overload the thing right off the bat, after all.
Once everything was settled, Sam let the system run for a full day on its own while he took care of real world business. By his calculations, that would give the Grid 1/7th of a cycle to sort itself out. When he returned, he was almost apprehensive. His dad had built his grid from the inside-out, almost. Sam was doing it from the outside-in, so he had no idea what he was going to find. Calling up a program that snapped an image of a piece of the system's code, Sam transferred it off the mainframe and onto a separate desktop computer. He ran it through a 3D-imaging suite he had designed specifically for the purpose of rendering the grid data so one could see what things looked like on the inside without having to physically enter the virtual environment. The imagining suite formed the basis of his grid interface system, allowing one user inside the grid and one user outside the grid to work on things simultaneously. The person on the outside would be able to actually see what was going on, instead of having to rely on mere description and thousands of lines of code.
The cool part was that it was all full colour. Sam figured that something had developed in the coding that assigned the colours he saw to the various components, and he had managed to isolate the string that did it. Using the colours he had the codes for from both his and Kevin's IdentDisks, Sam built a database using a hybrid RGB/CMYK system that he hoped the imager would be able to use to correctly decipher the codes.
It took several minutes for the computer to complete the code analysis and display the image, and Sam's eyes went wide as he got his first glimpse of his grid. ...His grid. Huh.
Kevin's grid had been created out of blue and white circuitry, with his System Administrator in a distinctive yellow and the corrupted systems in red.
Sam's grid seemed to be made out of green and white circuitry; the snapshot hadn't captured any active programs, so he had no idea what they looked like yet. If they'll look like anything at all, he reminded himself. Quorra had reminded him that he would have to eventually go in and personally muck about, since Kevin's presence had been an integral part of the system's evolution, including the emergence of the ISO's. Sam wasn't sure he was ready just yet, but he was getting there. He'd let the system run for a complete cycle and then check back in with the interface. if it was still stable, he would add the digitization software and hook up the necessary hardware. The new laser should be done by then; he'd check in with the department head in the morning.
Right now, Sam was content with his progress. He took a screen-capture of the rendered image and saved it to the hard drive, then erased the data from the grid-snapshot and shut down the imaging suite. He printed off a copy of the picture, and then shut down the desktop. With an affectionate pat for the grid-mainframe, Sam tidied the mess and locked everything up. He folded the printout carefully and smiled. He couldn't wait to show Quorra and Alan, and he hoped they'd be excited as he was at what the future would bring.