AUDIO \\ NO FILTER O%
[ Here are some lines of Unix. You've probably never heard of it, more underground than the random lines of code you see in mainstream Hollywood. how does computer ]
[ After that impressive but ultimately unnecessary display of Unix, there’s momentary radio silence before whatever was trying to get into the system activates the audio function. That ( Read more... )
[ After that impressive but ultimately unnecessary display of Unix, there’s momentary radio silence before whatever was trying to get into the system activates the audio function. That ( Read more... )
If Flynn hadn't been kneeling, he'd've fallen out of his chair. As it is, he almost manages to anyway, and with a very undignified flailing motion that no one's around to see, he switches on his own wearable.]
Alan?
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He stared at the device, regarding it with the disbelief best reserved when seeing a UFO dance the foxtrot above your head. He open his mouth, but found no noise. ]
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...yeah?
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It was good for keeping him from looking too stupid, at least.
So there's Flynn, wearing sleek white and not looking a day over 60.]
Turn on the video setting, Alan.
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...Flynn!
[ It was Flynn, just beyond all the white, the crow's feet and lines that didn't look like they had been carved by laughter- it was Flynn. Alan was sitting on a bench, in the shade; he couldn't blame a heat stroke or a concussion brought on by the trauma of arrival. It was real, it was his eyes telling him the truth. It was a lump in his throat and in his chest, it was a strangled noise he didn't mean to make. It was silence covering his mouth again, but he fought it. ]
God, I- Flynn, you're not-
What is this?
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[Behind Flynn's smile are tears, making his voice unsteady and his eyes over-bright.]
This...this is a long story.
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...long time coming, Flynn.
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[Flynn just looks at Alan in silence for a long moment, that familiar face grown old like his own had. He swallows, hard.]
Where are you? I'll come pick you up.
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[ He uses his full name, as if it were some sort of anchor. Tethering him to the reminder this was real ]
A quiet little place called Kurzweil, I've been sitting here long enough to fiddle around with the device. I'll...send you coordinates, I suppose.
[ beep boop sent. this was surreal ]
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[Flynn's not hurrying; there's enough time in the world for--okay, yeah, he's hurrying. Out of the apartment and into the elevator and across to the teleporter, which pops him out in Kurzweil. His wearable leads him to the coordinates provided...]
Alan?
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Alan felt his feet move toward Flynn with an apprehension he didn't like. He willed his legs to go faster, terrified if he didn't break out into a run now, Flynn would disappear again.
He still wasn't convinced it wasn't all going to just fade away back into another thirty years without closure, without Flynn when he reached out and gingerly touched Flynn's arm. ]
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Alan.
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[ Alan remembered this as a residual sensation twenty years in the making, the crushing embrace so very familiar in the way it dragged him in without warning, like being struck by charismatic and affectionate lightening. Flynn squeezed, and Alan squeezed hard. As the taller of the two, he felt Flynn's chin hovering just above his right shoulder, Alan found his head rocked forward with a wave of emotion, forehead falling against Flynn's own left.
But something about it felt...off, as though Alan didn't have to be aware of the strife Flynn went through for much longer than just twenty years for Alan to just feel it radiate off him. This contradiction of joy and sorrow evoked a choking but dry sob from him. It was then, when he buried his face farther into Flynn's shoulder in an attempt to muffle himself, did he notice it.
His hands found it before his eyes did, brushing over something hard, cold and circular--just hovering on Flynn's shoulder blades. He didn't pull back, but he did make note of it. ]
Flynn- ?
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After so long, the disc is a part of him, and Flynn, lost in guilt and the strange feeling of hugging someone in whom he can't feel the circuit energy flowing, isn't sure what Alan's hesitancy is about.]
Yeah?
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The wet shine in his eyes still virbrant, but despite that, a smile again found his face and a weak laugh followed. ]
Look at you, Flynn. Man alive, I don't even know where to begin. Have you been here? This whole time?
You got old, buddy.
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Look who's talking.
[But it would take death to completely wring the banter out of Flynn.]
It's...more complicated than that. I've only been here a few months. Before that, I was on the Grid.
[It's a conversation Flynn's owed Alan for even longer than he'd been trapped. Yet one more thing he'd had all the time in the world to regret.]
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