New kid on the block?

[quorrathexplora]

Who: Quorra, anyone
Where: Tron city, outskirts... wandering about
What: The Grid is gone doesn't mean what she thinks it means...
Warnings: none?

Comments

[yorisearching]

Yori was walking the outskirts of the city again. Which had become something of a patrol, she considered, in mild amusement. It was a good place to find confused newcomers; specifically, the ones who had reason not to dash to the city center and ask in Clu's former strongholds what was going on. On the whole, she was much more comfortable dealing with the nervous programs.

The sight of a helmeted program looking around with a touch more than normal curiosity made her hurry forward, with a cheerful smile. "Hello!" she called. "You look a bit lost. I'm Yori."

And then she blinked at the other program's circuitry pattern, which was familiar. Perhaps not new, after all? Always a bit awkward to greet someone who turned out to have been settled here long since. With all the duplicates, impossible to avoid doing once in a while.

"Quorra, is that you?" she asked, her smile turning faintly embarrassed.

[quorrathexplora]

There were changes. There were definitely changes, and, unlike for so very long, the Grid was raining surprises on her.

The helmet was definitely useless if somebody recognized her. Quorra hesitated for a moment, then deactivated it, frowning in confusion at the other program.

"Yes, it's... I'm Quorra." Her head canted with the question. "Yori... I don't think I know you, though."

More and more confusing.

[yorisearching]

"Oh!" Yori blinked. Both Quorra and newly arrived, to all appearance. She renewed her reassuring smile and agreed, "I suppose we've never met. Things here are--better than you might expect, but there have been a number of complications."

She nodded toward the active Portal. "There are multiple versions of the Grid and the User world that seem to be running into each other, and time is, ah. Tricky."

Perhaps that was a bit much for a first introduction, but it took some explanation before one could say, "It's another version of you I know." Yori hesitated. "You've just come back? From the User world?" And couldn't help asking, "Is everything all right there?" It occurred to her too late that this might be an earlier version of Quorra. Really, a program couldn't keep every possibility in mind all the time.

[quorrathexplora]

No, there wasn't a problem with the timing. Quorra was frowning at the explanation a little, but if she squinted just right, it sort of made sense. "There are... different... mes?" Now that was a concept to wrap her mind around.

No problem.

She even grinned a little as it slid into place. "So, you are Yori, anyone and everyone may be here, and they may be completely different from each other, even if they are each other, since different things may or may not have happened to them? " Did that cover the bulk of the information?

"It's all right, outside. Busy, Sam and Alan and Roy are getting the company, I mean ENCOM, back to its proper shape. I help as much as I can and learn about anything and everything otherwise... pretty much all right, yes!"

[yorisearching]

That was the easiest acceptance of the idea that Yori had ever seen. She grinned back, relaxing a fraction at Quorra's cheerful summary. "That's...how things are here, yes. It's been about as confusing as you'd expect, but programs are adapting well for the most part."

She was glad to hear that one more version of the User world and ENCOM were in good hands. Also, moving along normally and not part of the Portal confusion. "Are you here looking for anything in particular, or just to see what happened?" Yori asked.

[quorrathexplora]

This was Quorra. She had seen enough things she'd thought inconceivable to be aware how important it was to adapt. And this... didn't sound particularly bad, this far? "Confusing... can be all right. With time. Are they... are we getting along?"

She shook her head at the latter question. "I haven't been back. I thought I'd find... a wasteland. But I just wanted to come home for a little bit."

[yorisearching]

It was more reassuring than Yori wanted to admit to hear Quorra call the Grid home. With the User world open to her and a thousand cycles of pain since Clu had destroyed the Iso cities, no one could have blamed Quorra for preferring to forget.

But her question took a long moment's thought. "I'd call it an uneasy kind of peace," Yori said. "There are still programs who would prefer to have Clu back, for whatever reasons, but they're mostly hiding from programs with grudges. And no one's actually claimed to be in charge, though one Tron has been pretty visible in keeping the Grid safe and not many programs want to challenge him."

[quorrathexplora]

It wasn't like Quorra to hold grudges. Not really, and definitely not against what was not at fault. But yes, the Grid was her home, the Sea was her home - even when they were not accessible to her, when they had changed beyond recognition, with time and malicious intent... they were still home.

"Tron," Quorra smiled slightly. "I think Flynn would have been glad. That Tron is all right, and he would have trusted his friend with the Grid." Then she shook her head. "Or a Tron. Isn't that confusing? How do you recognize one version from another? If one Tron is doing that, that means that they aren't exactly the same, and that must get ... how do you know which one you've met, or which one is trying to do what?"

[yorisearching]

"I'm sure Flynn would be glad, although I'm afraid Tron's less certain." Yori hesitated. Quorra would certainly want to know about the User who'd rescued her, kept her safe for so long. "There's...at least one version of Flynn who seems to have survived the explosion at the Portal, although I couldn't begin to say if he's the one you knew. But even if not--yours might show up."

Which only emphasized Quorra's second point. "Telling duplicates apart is getting to be a mess," Yori agreed ruefully. "I suggested color-coding, but no one's taken me up on it." Which was not a joke, though Yori felt it almost should be.

She raised her eyebrows. "Would you object terribly to being called Quorra Two? Or choosing a second name? Users all have more than one name, don't they?"

[quorrathexplora]

It was the last part which made Quorra's eyes widen, and then she threw her head back and laughed in surprise. After a few moment, she swallowed the mirth and explained, "I'm sorry. It has been so very long since I've been the only one, the idea of Quorra Two is just... ridiculous." She took a deeper breath, then shook her head. "I wouldn't mind, though, even if only for the amusement. Although outside, I use the name Cora Cray, so if anybody else objects to numbers added, I can always be Quorra Cray here, too." There were things that would always be difficult, and things that could be but it was optional. She preferred not making those latter ones harder than they needed to be

[yorisearching]

Yori chuckled along with Quorra, the humor of the situation not lost on her. "Well, if you think of a better way, that's welcome--but we've got to work out something." Counting the duplicates still at the Portal, she herself was Yori Three at least.

"I don't think Tron would say he's running the system." It wasn't hard to guess why Tron couldn't trust himself yet, but Yori didn't want to say it. "But he set an example: keep working, get along, and rebuild. And for the most part programs have been willing to do it." Yori was pretty sure Tron didn't understand just how much of an impact his simple presence was. Tron City's inhabitants hadn't forgotten their old hero.

[quorrathexplora]

"I will think of it, but both these options so far are good with me." Quorra canted her head slightly to the side. "If two Users who are known too the same Users have identical names - either just first or first and last name, they sometimes get 'nicknames'. Although the rules there are so arbitrary that I'm still trying to figure them out. Sometimes they're because of a specific unique characteristic, like thin or wearing glasses, but we're the same, so that one wouldn't work. Sometimes it's based on some thing they have done or some situation they've been in, or something particular they have said. And sometimes somebody gives another User a nickname and others just pick it up without knowing why it was given in the first place." She shrugged. "If neither of your two options can be agreed on, that's a third one."

The other part... she could only nod at. Until her thoughts nagged at her and her brows drew slightly together. "You know him. You know what he would say, as opposed to what he's said..."

[yorisearching]

It was hard to think of a description that didn't apply to one duplicate as well as another. Given the Grid's history, most of the differences tended not to be things any program would want to be known for. But Yori smiled understanding of the concept.

"I...knew my version very well." Yori shut her eyes. "I've loved Tron since before either of us knew anything about the MCP, or even Encom. But my version isn't here. Not yet." She sighed, blinked hard, tried to answer the implied question. "Similarities, though--I can make a pretty fair guess. And I have been making a point to meet every duplicate of Tron who turns up. I'm still--hoping."

[quorrathexplora]

"... oh." It was barely more than a whisper. "That was a story I wasn't told." And here she had thought after a thousand cycles, she knew all of Flynn's stories. She reached her hand to rub Yori's arm, gently. "That makes sense. Hope is... a good thing, maybe the best thing, and good things don't ever die. Or... so a User movie says, but I agree."

It was... hard to hope. But it was harder not to have hope, and yet now she could sense some that she'd been forced to abandon trickling back, and that felt... so very strange.