A Clu without a clue...

[tanks4thememory]

Who: Clu here, and anyone who happens to stumble across him
Where: A random alleyway, somewhere in Tron City
When: Sometime post-Legacy mostly, but I'm flexible :)
Warnings: Shouldn't be any, unless people start cussing Clu out for stuff his future counterpart did

Comments

[yorisearching]

It had been a very long millicycle, and Yori was glad to be headed to her apartment. She didn't have energy to think much beyond the route home and her recharge needs when she got there.

Until Clu's face looming with nightmarish suddenness from an alley sent all Yori's processes into frantic overdrive, hatred and terror ice-cold in her throat.

One hand went to her vehicle baton to ensure her escape route, the other snatched out her disk to guard herself. Yori snarled, "Clu," and only then realized that in fact Clu had never been in the habit of wearing Encom vintage armor.

[ooc: Are you having trouble with your lj-cut? You should be able to edit. Either cut and paste the main text into the spot between the tags, in html-mode. Or select everything you want to hide before using the cut button, in rich text mode, and then whatever's hidden should be gray.]

[yorisearching]

Yori chose not to mention that her own case was not all that specially horrible. Her reactions had clearly traumatized the hacker program enough without implying worse.

But to be honest, when one listed Clu's crimes, comparatively speaking, Yori tended to consider herself on the more fortunate side. He'd never derezzed her, or those closest to her. He'd never told her to murder anyone, though it would have been stupid of him to ask it with an army of better-trained fighters at his command. What he'd done to Tron was no different than what he'd done to half the surviving programs, by the end, and her loss no greater.

He'd tormented her, tainted her own programming, twisted her mind--but by the mercy of the Users, he'd never carried out his plans for the Portal.

It only felt worse because Yori had known Clu, called him a friend, expected better. She was willing to admit that was not quite rational

[tanks4thememory]

Had Clu been aware of Yori's thoughts on the subject, he might have commented that the fact that her own experiences only didn't seem so horrible in comparison to the extra-horrible things that happened to others was not an especially convincing argument in their favor. And he would still have been convinced that what had happened to her was quite enough to prompt her initial reaction. But he wasn't, of course, and thus simply waited quietly for her reaction

[yorisearching]

"I think that would be best," Yori agreed wearily. It was hard work, fighting herself, and she'd been exhausted to begin with. "There's a public access station in the next block that should be in good repair." She pointed the direction.

It had to be nearly as hard on the hacker to watch her reactions as it was for her to keep struggling with them. There didn't seem any good reason to go on paining them both.

But she couldn't go without making some variety of her usual offer to help. "You can call me, if you get into trouble," Yori said. Her message box was included in the chip's information, though not, of course, her home apartment. She had a feeling that any farewell smile would look both shaky and very fake, right now, and gave a single nod of acknowledgment instead. "I--hope things work out well."

[ooc: Well, I think Yori's would be a bit more detailed than Anon's version, since she can give the really basic explanation by voice--I just don't want to write out the whole thing. But I'm sure there's even more

[tanks4thememory]

Clu nodded his understanding. "Alright, sounds good," he replied. He made a mental note to check on that message box before he settled anywhere, though he really had no intention of using it, outside of an emergency.

"I hope things work out for you too," he said, by way of a farewell. "And thanks again, Yori, for everything." A trace of grim humor crept into his voice as he added, recalling their initial encounter, "Including having faster processing speed than reflexes."

Then with a final nod and slight wave of his own, he headed off in the direction Yori had indicated in search of the terminal, soon rounding the corner and vanishing from sight.