Comments | grid_lined: Eternal revolution

sys_operator in grid_lined

Eternal revolution

Sep 14, 2011 12:38

Who: C.L.U.
Where: Edge of the City
When: Now
What: Here comes trouble. Clu, having been discovered by Flynn and Alan-One, is finally nudged to return to the Grid and the City
Warnings: ... Non-comedic sociopathy? Megalomania and obsessive behavior.

( This is how it sounds )

clu (sys_operator), tron (alan1_tron), anon (voiceless_anon), !open, yori (yorisearching)

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yorisearching September 21 2011, 01:34:31 UTC

The streets in this sector of the city were still emptier than they might have been, but safe enough, given the frequency of patrols. Yori had been paying a visit to old friends, and for once she was not thinking about Clu at all. About four-fifths of her mind was still analyzing the costs and benefits of a suggested lightjet remodel, leaving the remainder to work out a quick way home.

Reflexes that didn't bother asking permission had her disc drawn and glowing blue in guard position at the first glimpse of bright poison yellow as she turned a corner, all other processes dumped. She'd turned to put the wall at her back. Clu, you glitch-- Not an innocent, this time, and not Flynn wearing a younger face. Clu as he was after the betrayals ( ... )

sys_operator November 3 2011, 16:03:52 UTC

Of all things, that brought a tiny smile to his face. "If Flynn was ever acquainted with a sensible, stable plan, it was only a passing acquaintance."

yorisearching November 3 2011, 16:56:45 UTC

Yori inclined her head in a faint nod, not trusting herself to speak. Clu's own relationship with sensible plans had ended with rather more violence. But let him try to explain himself.

sys_operator November 3 2011, 17:23:53 UTC

After a silence, he shook his head, looked down again with slumped shoulders and body otherwise still. "Flynn and I had a long talk not long ago. A couple of millicycles ago."

yorisearching November 3 2011, 18:38:17 UTC

A chill unpleasantly like betrayal gripped Yori all over again. If it was the Flynn she knew--yes, of course he'd want to talk even to Clu, but she hoped he'd remembered to warn Security because he certainly hadn't had the decency to drop a warning note to Yori.

She hoped it was only that. If Clu had done anything else stupid--

"Really," she said, as neutrally as possible. "And concluded what?"

sys_operator November 3 2011, 18:53:59 UTC

"No conclusions. He informed me what was going on, the... special circumstances." Grids colliding, parallel systems, parallel... Universes. Which he supposed, along the same lines, was like parallel systems for them only for Users. Equally confusing.

"He tried to apologize." Clu still wasn't certain what that meant or what he thought of that.

yorisearching November 3 2011, 20:10:19 UTC

At least Clu didn't sound as though the conversation had ended in some kind of vengeance. "It does seem like he's at least working on learning from his mistakes," Yori said, not troubling to hide her doubts on either front. "And you didn't even try to murder him? What progress."

sys_operator November 3 2011, 20:21:33 UTC

Dryly, without bothering to disguise the eyerolling. "After he destroyed everything that I built in a matter of seconds, it didn't seem pursuant to the goal to persist in what I had been doing."

Although he had no idea how to begin going about a different way, or even a different definition.

yorisearching November 3 2011, 22:37:04 UTC

That was a very interesting answer, and not what Yori would have expected. "The goal," she repeated, and put an effort into removing the automatic sarcasm. "Which is what?"

She had objected to most of Clu's eventual methods in every possible way, logical and philosophical and ethical and practical, never mind the dangerous ground of emotion. None of which quite changed the fact that a few of his objectives were valid ones.

Very few, by the end. Yori wasn't even sure what she wanted to hear.

sys_operator November 3 2011, 22:41:01 UTC

Arched eyebrows, dry voice still. "Unless Flynn chooses to change it," to alter his programming, that is. "The goal is the same as it always was. To create the perfect system."

His face scrunched a little, irritated, though not at her. "It's the definition that keeps shifting."

yorisearching November 3 2011, 23:22:56 UTC

Her own eyebrows went up sharply at that. "You'd let him change it?" she asked, deeply skeptical. As amusing as it would be to know Clu had let someone else edit his code--"You redefined the details plenty of times to suit yourself. And this isn't Flynn's system, not anymore." Well. He had as much a stake in it as anyone who'd survived. But not greater.

sys_operator November 5 2011, 15:40:58 UTC

"He's the only one who could," Clu pointed out, absolutely blank-voiced. "And the current structure clearly isn't working to ... specifications."

He didn't want to talk about this anymore. Not with a stranger, not with how completely everything he had built had been wiped out. Obviously not in fulfillment of his task. Even with all he had done, at the core Clu was still a program who existed to carry out the demands of his User, and when his User erased all of his hundreds of cycles worth of work...

yorisearching November 6 2011, 00:44:19 UTC

Flynn was hardly the only one; there were whole packs of Users now, it seemed, and Yori would be willing enough to take a shot at editing Clu's code herself. He probably wouldn't volunteer for that, though. Pity.

After all, she couldn't do any worse a job than he'd already done to--

Which wasn't a productive line of thought when Yori was trying not to get herself derezzed.

She gritted her teeth to hold in the fury and said carefully, "Flynn always did value freedom as much as order; usually more."

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