PROMPT POST
ROUND ONE CLOSED!
Go for it, bbs.
P.S. If this does well, I will totes open up a delicious.com.
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UPDATE: FILL POST for easier archiving. If you complete a fill please post it here! Further instructions on the fill page! :D THANKS ALL!
NOW CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS, FEEL FREE TO ( Read more... )
“How is that? Wasn’t my father around here most of the time?”
“He was not. Flynn gave us instructions, told us his expectations and then left for the real world, as he called it. He put me in charge to create the perfect system without providing me with the resources in order to do that. Without cleaning up the ISOs out of the way or allowing me to do that. He set me up to fail.”
“That is somehow familiar” replied Sam. Clu looked at him questioningly, but the boy did not offer any explanation. Sam felt anger darkening his mind. Had the program been lying; it would have been so much easier. But he was telling the truth, without trying to misrepresent his actions, without offering some fake remorse. The system administrator program was cruel and ruthless - not a liar. “What did you do to him?”
“Let’s say, I took over” said Clu with a smirk. Sam stared at him. He had gotten used to the idea of being in a computer. To the idea of talking to a program that looked like his father. To the impression of finding said program quite convincing. Yet he was ready to reach for his disc now.
“He ran away” said the program. His voice was cold, despising. He turned to the window and pointed out at a large beam of light that seemed to be floating in the distance. “He was on the way to the portal. That’s the way out of the Grid. It uses massive power and it can’t stay open forever. It can be opened only from the outside. This is one thing you need to keep in mind too.”
Was that a threat?
“How much time I have left to get there?” he asked.
“Plenty, for now.”
“That’s what happened to my father? He didn’t make it?” asked Sam. He learnt about the coup. He slowly nodded when Clu finished talking.
“So he ran” said Sam. “And still he didn’t make it there on time.”
Clu did not reply. He was staring out of the window with his arms folded behind his back. His face was impassive.
“Do you understand, why it was necessary?” he asked after a while. Sam looked at him. Suddenly he realized that this is what the program had been waiting: to be justified. To get the confirmation that he had acted according to his programming and had handled the problem the best way possible. Sam wondered if his father had ever realized that.
“You let him know about the issue, about the troubles with the ISOs. He didn’t solve them and didn’t let you to do it, even though it was contrary to your programming” said Sam. “He told you to accept the ISOs, even though they were a risk to the system. He accepted imperfection, thus got corrupted, seeing it from your point of view. Without the coup the system would have collapsed, sooner or later. You have acted according to your programming. I don’t blame you for that.”
Clu looked at him in astonishment, his circuits made a fiery flicker. There was another sparkle and Sam looked down. The circuits on his own suit, that had been pure white, turned light neon green now. Sam did not feel any change and did not understand the swift. Clu seemed to be surprised as well.
“So” said Sam. “He ran away. Where is he now?”
“He is hiding somewhere in the Outlands.”
“The Outlands?”
“That’s how the territory beyond the Grid is called. It is an uninhabited area, dark land with rough terrain. You would call it a desert. A program would not survive there, but he, as a User could create anything.”
“So why didn’t he create an army of programs to fight?” asked Sam.
“He fought, but… Way under his capabilities. The programs he sent against the sentries and the Black Guard… They had no chance. As if they were sent to fail. He didn’t do anything when Arjia City got demolished. As if he just…”
“Didn’t even care” finished the line Sam. Clu shrugged.
“But he is still alive” said Sam. “He sent a page yesterday.”
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“Since twenty years” said Sam. “He is sitting there and has done nothing? For getting out of here? For the programs that had been loyal to him?”
There was another flicker. Furious already, Sam looked down. The circuits on his suit were dark green now.
“Why is this happening?” he asked. Clu stepped closer to him and touched the circuit on Sam’s chest curiously.
“This is what happening to appropriated programs” he said.
“I am not a program” retorted Sam. “And I did not get appropriated.”
The system administrator pulled back his hand, he did not reply.
“What are we going to do now?” asked Sam. “Why did you send that page?”
“I wanted a User to get in here, obviously.”
What for? But Sam did not utter the words. He knew it anyway. To change the game. To get a User here and convince him to take Flynn’s place as a creator. To capture a User and use him as a bait to allure Flynn out of his hideout. Even with the system administrator’s logical capabilities, there had been no way for Clu to know who would come and what would be his reaction.
“The next step is up to you” said Clu. Sam nodded.
“I want to see the Grid” he said.
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His guide during the trip was the most annoying creature he had ever met. The program’s name was Jarvis; he knew the system for sure, but he just could not stop talking. Not just when he was answering to Sam’s questions - and there were plenty of questions -, but all the time.
The Recognizer made its way above the city slowly. Sam was listening to the history of the buildings and watched the view. Soon he discovered how to tap the coding of the system and access the information of the sectors. After that he did not need the explanation anymore, yet he let his guide talk.
It was the work and accomplishment of centuries that he found. It was order and logic. The system used power in a most efficient way and it did not produce byproduct or waste. It had limits and it was about to reach those limits. As time had passed the system evolved and had reached a higher complexity. Sam kept on updating the codes and compress information. The system administrator had not done that before - because back in Kevin Flynn’s days the procedure had not existed nor it had been needed - Clu did not know how to do that, because Flynn had not known it when he had created his digital clone.
Later the Recognizer landed and Sam met the locals. They were not like human beings; these creatures all had specific purpose. Most of them seemed to be marveled by the encounter. Sam tried to find out if the programs were satisfied, happy or oppressed: but quickly he realized that he and they had very different conception of happiness. There was no famine on the Grid, there were no natural disasters, disease or criminals on the streets. Sam could not help but kept on pondering about his world, about the melting icecaps, the wars, the emerging chaos. The citizens of the Grid were annoyed by the security clearances and by the rude Guards; yet the whole picture put Sam’s real world in shame.
He asked Jarvis to bring him to the most popular social spot and they stopped by a club called End Of Line. The slimy owner of the club, an extravagant looking program called Castor came to lead them around. He was not happy to see the guests leaving soon after; but Sam’s intention was not to spend time at the club, but to let the word of his arrival spread. The light beam of the portal was visible from the whole Grid, but Sam wanted the programs to see him and to hear as he asked his guide to bring the Recognizer to the shore of the Sea of Simulation.
There he began to work. He found the code of the poisoning that kept the sea dirty and dangerous. The code was a block in the complex sea to prevent any life to emerge. It took time for Sam to find the programming that would be able to have the same effect after the removal of the infection. Once he was ready with his own code, he placed it in the sea. Then he took out a few drops of the digital water and cleaned it. The cleaning was contagious; once the tiny amount of pure water would return to the sea, the whole sea would clean up itself.
“Sire” said Jarvis as he walked toward Sam. “My Master ordered me to remind you that the… special coding in the Sea of Simulation has a… certain purpose.”
Sam smiled.
“Don’t worry about that” he replied. He let the clean drops of water fall into the sea. The impact was immediate: first the shore started to change. The black water turned pure light blue and the darkness that floated above the water, now disappeared. It was visible as the sea cleaned itself, further and further toward the open portal.
“There was no need of the poisoning anymore” explained Sam to Jarvis who was standing next to him with jaw dropped. “There is another code now that prevents any unwanted life forms to manifest.”
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He waited. The celebration began. More and more programs arrived from the city. How curious, Sam thought, that Clu did not change the name of the city after the takeover; and how curious that the system administrator never once mentioned Tron during their lengthy conversation.
Sam waited and remembered. Christmas. Twenty Christmases. With his Grandparents, with the Bradleys and then alone. Getting to the school in the morning and going home in the afternoon, to an empty house, to a lunch that had been prepared and left there by an employee. It did not matter what kind of grades he got, because he could not present them to his father. His Grandparents died without knowing what happened to their son. Kevin Flynn left them - for what? For his ISOs? Sam saw their code in the sea, saw that they would flow into the system uncontrollably without the block, regardless of the capacity of the Grid. A digital frontier to reshape the human condition? Instead of bettering the real world with his inventions, Flynn would have pushed the Grid into the same misery that the real world lived in - overpopulation, starvation and depleting of the resources.
He was not there for Sam and he was not there for his digital creations. He did not come now; probably he was sitting in his hideout, letting time to pass, living just for - staying alive.
Sam leaned his forehead against his knees. Bitterness burned him from the inside. He wanted his father to know that he, Flynn was wrong, that he was wrong about everything. But there was no way to tell him, to call him to account for his actions. Yet, somebody had to pay the price for Sam’s loss.
He slept. The recharge cycle was short, but satisfying. He woke up when the first firework popped above his head. The real celebration was just about to begin. He stood up and looked around, surprised of the number of programs that gathered on the shore.
Then he noticed the change. All the circuits on his suit were glowing red now. It was not the same color that Jarvis and the guards wore, but a fiery crimson with pulsating silver currents. Jarvis, who was walking to him, stopped abruptly.
“Sire” he mumbled. He seemed to be surprised and pleased.
“Impressive” murmured the boy. “I’m ready to return to the city.”
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Anyway, later in the day I will post the next part, with proper warnings, because the things will be way more brutal here that I expected.
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They met in the observation room of the Throne Ship again. At first none of them talked: Sam saw the proud look on the program’s face and it made him hurt. The same expression he wanted to see on his father’s face - that he saw on his father’s face now. The program was about to tell something; but Sam did not want to hear any word of gratitude. He could not take it.
“You have created the perfect system” said Sam, before Clu could speak. “I saw your work that would have taken centuries in the real world. It’s a pity that my father failed to recognize that, failed to say thank you. So I guess I owe you that. Thank you.”
The system administrator was standing there without a word. He did not smile anymore; his face was unreadable.
“When I return home, I’ll put the Grid on a different server. The recent one is old and does not have enough capacity anyway.”
Clu nodded, but still did not talk. He was looking at the red circuits of Sam’s suit.
“What does it mean?” asked the boy.
“It means” said Clu, “that you don’t believe in Users anymore.”
Sam chuckled.
“I AM a User” he said. “How could I not believe in their existence?”
“No. What it means… What are you working for?”
Sam shrugged.
“For a better world, I guess.”
Clu nodded.
“For the perfect system, here or in your world. Not for individuals, that can and will fail you. Not for Users, who promise something now and change their mind in the next nanocycle. That’s what it means”
Sam nodded. That was it. Not just the answer to his question, but the next thing they needed to sort out. The upgrades of the City, cleaning up the sea, the red circuits on Sam’s armor - all of that was put on one hand of the balance scale. On the other hand there was only one thing: that Sam could shut down the whole system from the outside, that Clu risked everything with letting him return to his world.
“And so” he said, “One more question.”
“What is that?”
“What happened to Tron?” asked Sam. Clu looked at him, amused.
“Oh, that” he said.
“He fought for my father.”
“That’s right.”
“But he didn’t make it to the Outlands” said Sam.
“Ah, right again. Two for two.”
He was mocking at the boy. Sam did not mind it - not anymore. It was so much easier now, that he gave the rein to his anger. It made him determined.
“He is Rinzler” he said. “You reprogrammed him.”
“I was sure you’ve figured it by now” replied Clu. He was still smiling, but it was different now, colder. There was something in his tone that warned Sam to be very careful.
“What happened to him after the disc battle?” asked Sam.
“He overcame the repurposing. That resolute loyalty toward the Users…” Clu shrugged. “That was the biggest risk about his new coding. And the reason why I’ve never sent him after Flynn. If anybody, he could’ve found him, but there was a huge chance for such an encounter to break the new programming. Considering that it was enough for him to see you, a different User for a total breakdown, I guess it was a just suspicion.”
“And now?”
“Now he is broken. Getting back to his original programming.”
“You won’t do it again?” asked Sam. Clu laughed, some of the tension eased.
“He overcame it once, he can do it again. I’m glad it happened the way it did. Believe me, he is not the kind of enemy you want to lose out of sight.”
“Does he have his memories?”
“He does.”
“Then I want to see him” said Sam. The system administrator smiled, ice-cold.
“No.”
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WARNING. The upcoming parts of the fic are rated NC-17 for heavy non-con and abuse.
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This is a great story indeed, I just can't wait to read more!
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I'm looking forward to see how it's going to come to that scene plotwise, and how it'll turn out... Guh.
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