It's amazing...

[creator_man]

Characters: Flynn and anyone who wants/needs to have a talk with him
Location: Park outside the Jedi temple
Planet: Coruscant
When: Post-event, which would make it... Week 21
What: Meditating in the park. Conversations. Catching up. What have you.
Rating: Should be G. Ish.

Comments

[tronja307020]

The sound of the User's voice next to him finally drew his attention away from the soft green hair, and he glanced up at him for split micromillicycle, his previous worry melting away completely to allow the awe to settle fully in his processor.

He gaped for a moment, glancing at him, at the tall things around them, to the rock wall he'd tumbled over, and back down to the hair - small, flat, tapered strips, now that he had a better look at them - before he was shifting and pushing himself up to his feet unharmed, his fingers brushing and stroking through the colorful blades and analyzing the sensation of them running through his fingers.

"Flynn. I'm fine, I just-...wha-...why...? Why does the ground grow hair?"

They'd never had anything covering the ground on the Grid, save for the boulders and "sand" the User had coded in the Outlands. Was this something that Flynn had seen in his own world, or was it one of the things about this world that followed rules separate from his User's own home? He stared up at Flynn with a wide-eyed awe that he hadn't worn on his face in well over the thousand cycles since Flynn had become trapped on the Grid.

[creator_man]

Flynn... just couldn't help laughing. Tron's honestly surprised face, that question, the bewilderment in the familiar eyes.

After a moment, he caught himself, arm going around Tron's shoulders. "Sorry, man. It's not hair - it's called grass. Grass is a kind of plant. So are bushes," he pointed to some - and then another kind, just to make sure the program didn't get the wrong impression that that kind of bush is called a bush, "and trees." More pointing. "And flowers. They are generally a life form which has roots in the ground and doesn't move around a lot. And comes in near-infinite variety. Every plant has a name, and I'm pretty sure it's impossible to know the name of every plant you'll ever see. Unless you stay in a small area and learn every name there."

It was... a crash course. Really.

Ok, Tron, stop being so freaking adorable...! That's an order!

[tronja307020]

There was a time when he was used to Flynn's laughter, when it seemed to come freely. It's been a long time since then, and he's had a long time to associate the sound with a much more cruel intention coming from his Program. But somehow now, even if it completely confuses Tron - as it seemed to frequently do in the past - it just brings a perplexed smile to his own face, and a soft, unsure laugh of his own.

But then he's explaining things to him, and Tron's confusion melts into absolute curiosity. Despite himself, he's found he's absolutely fascinated with User-world things, and it shows. He glances at each thing he names and memorizes each name and type for future reference. And then the circuits in his mind come to a bit of a sputtering halt when he realizes two things: He's been walking on top of living things, and Root here must mean something different then on the Grid.

He looks down at the "grass" life forms under his feet, looking a little concerned before he sees a small stone that has come loose from the rock wall and come to rest on the ground and steps up onto it. Once safely off of the small, fragile things, he glances back up at Flynn.

"What is their function? There's so many of them! And they just...stay here?" He doesn't need to tell Flynn he's never seen a life form quite like these. How did they ingest the fuel needed to survive, without the use of a mouth? How did they see? Where were their appenda-...well, alright, so the bushes and trees certainly seemed to have appendages, but the grass was only one long form, and the appendages on the flowers looked like they were more of the grass life forms attached to the long stalk at their base.

Oh, but...some of the bushes had flowers, it seemed. Did that make them bushes, or flowers? or were they an inbetween, like Isos were an inbetween of Users and Programs?

His processor was obviously running at full speed behind his eye.

Noooo, don't stop

[creator_man]

The kind of smile, the uncertain laughter, did register with Flynn as something not quite right, but not enough to distract him from the questions, the curiosity, the intensity with which his friend was taking in the new information and its corollaries.

"Various function," he addressed the first question. "Of course, there is simply the fact of existing, as all living things. And then there's the part where the plants are the only life form able to use the energy that the sun... or suns, some places, radiates and turn into a form in which it can be consumed. But... non-plants. During the daytime, plants just soak energy and turn into ... growth." He paused. "And the non-plant life forms tend to eat plants. Either directly or eating other non-plants who eat plants. Or that's how things started, anyway. I know that's a bit... strange. But it's how evolution worked out. First plants. And then creatures who ate plants. And then creatures who ate creatures who ate plants."

He paused for a moment, fingers caressing a blossom on one of the bushes. "And humans, who eat whatever's available."

Re: Noooo, don't stop

[tronja307020]

He stared at Flynn as he explained, so fascinated and amazed, trying his hardest to picture the way the explanation was going so he could memorize just what it meant and how it worked.

"So...the sun works like an energy pool? And then plants drink the energy it makes and...do...this?" He glanced around. There didn't seem to be a whole lot to "this," but if it worked for them, then that was good enough for him. "And the non-plant life forms eat the plant life forms to...take the energy they have? Why does it not trouble the plants, to be ingested that way? They do not survive the process, do they?" And boy, didn't that thought make the whole end-result of the digestion thing Users did even more uncomfortable to think about?

He blinked at the last note, looking from the flower he was touching and back up to him, as if it took a moment to register. "You mean Users eat non-plant life forms...? How?" He certainly didn't remember eating any...life forms. Just steaks. And breads. And eggs. And...oh...the peculiar shape of fruits and vegetables was beginning to make a lot more sense, now that he thought about it.

[OOC: QUICK! EVERYONE HIDE THE INGREDIENTS LIST FOR SAUSAGES!]

[creator_man]

"Pretty much, yeah." Flynn shrugged. "Most non-plant life doesn't have a choice. Humans didn't, either, to begin with. There are no direct sources of energy that animal life can process other than through digestion. Herbivorous animals eat plants. Predators eat them, as well as other, smaller predators. Or bigger, if they can catch and kill them. That's how evolution worked. In the end, one animal developed superior intelligence. It learned to not only gather and eat plants, but to grow and cultivate them, so its kind had enough food to last through the seasons when food was scarce. It developed weapons to hunt other animals with, other than sheer muscle; and traps. And it domesticated some animals, collecting wool for clothing, milk and eggs for food, and then slaughtering the animals for food. Riding some. It... took a very, very long time. Thousands of years."

He spread his arms. "In the end, we could build cities. Space ships. Computers. But in the base of it all, the only way to convert energy in a way to sustain our bodies is through food. And go far enough... that goes back to plants. Who, as far as we know, aren't sentient, by the ways, but your question is valid. It's only a choice - between the plants' lives and our own."

He paused, then added quietly, "nobody and nothing that has been born survives life. As far as I know, it might be different for programs - with proper maintenance, you might live forever. Living things... don't."