Never took this road before

[firefixit]

Who: Fire and whoever finds her
What: Fire has just rerezzed to the Grid and needs a few things explaining
When: Before this End of Line post
Where: An unstable area on the outskirts of Tron City
Warnings: None for now, will update if that changes

Comments

[yorisearching]

Most programs had moved out of this sector after the last influx of gridbugs, but the repair work was slowly progressing back toward the outskirts. Specialized construction programs did most of that, but with so much recovery to do, Yori had volunteered as one of many programs taking detailed and up-to-date note of the damage.

The others in her group were still some way back, though, and Yori was scowling at one particularly crumbled section as she waited for them to catch up. Glitches and gridbugs and stubborn programs, she'd been an idiot to try that job alone.

Faltering footsteps from an unexpected direction caught Yori's attention, her expression lightening to curiosity. A tired program didn't automatically mean a new arrival, but it was a pretty fair chance. "Need any help, there?" she called.

[yorisearching]

"True. But there are times when programs don't want to hear that anything's wrong." Yori kept her gaze focused ahead, but her voice slipped off-pitch from the light tone she'd aimed at. "Sometimes it only hurts to know the problem without knowing how to fix it."

She tried to shake away the dark mood, smiling again. "But for this millicycle at least, fortunately I'm working with programs who are specialists in buildings. Dannik and Dannik tell me they've been putting up housing since before Flynn ever saw the Grid, and Mialynn helped lay Arjia City's foundation." The Danniks also quarreled with one another on every detail, in some compulsion to prove which version was better, but Mia was diplomatic enough to get them to work together

[firefixit]

Fire tensed at the sight of the orange program, her first thought being fight/run! She had to make a conscious decision to relax, although his grin and the friendly way he greeted Yori helped a lot.

Her second was, Yori didn't tell me he was attractive!

"She got held up due to helping me," Fire said, stepping forward and managing a genuinely friendly smile. "I'm Fire, a file repair program. Just rerezzed. It's nice to meet you, Ril."

He wasn't the one who'd derezzed her - in fact, she didn't remember meeting him at all. She hadn't gone anywhere near the Arena after Clu took over - not since that first game where Clu had made his speech and it had changed, horribly, from friendly to fatal.

[OOC: No problem at all! I agree, the Grid needs more programs than those in active play right now. Mind if I NPC them? I promise not to make them do anything horrible.]

[yorisearching]

The speed with which Fire controlled her first reaction impressed Yori, but she could tell that Ril hadn't missed noticing it or the repair program's color. He shifted his staff behind himself with a guilty look, as though he would have liked to hide it entirely. "I swear I only hunt gridbugs now," he said, lifting his free hand in something more like a gesture of surrender than a wave. "I guess Yori explained a bit?"

"Most of the essentials, I think," Yori assured him. "There hasn't been time for details."

Ril was dark-haired and fair-skinned, and reminded her very faintly of Tron in his attention to possible threats. This was not surprising, since Yori had long since concluded that everything was going to remind her of Tron somehow. The two looked nothing alike otherwise.

The former Sentry smiled nervously at Fire. "Do you mind if I ask when you, uh, when you're from? No offense," he added hastily. Yori understood his hesitation--the answer might have been simple enough except that Fire had said rerezzed, which made

[firefixit]

Fire couldn't help but smile when Ril tried to hide his staff and explained that he only hunted gridbugs. It was hard, looking past the orange circuits, but the lack of helmet helped. Programs were always less scary when you could look them in the eyes, and Ril's expression was painfully easy to read.

"Good question," Fire replied. "My memory is a little glitchy at the moment, probably thanks to waking up here. In fact, I've got no idea what cycle it is." She gave him a wry grin, honestly meant. "If it's any help, my last memory is from somewhere between seven hundred and fifty and eight hundred cycles after Clu took over." Unconsciously, her hand went to the spot on her chest where the disc had hit her. She shook her head, glancing over at her rescuer and changing the subject. "Yori said that she and you are part of a team that are reclaiming the damaged sectors of the Grid. Is it really that dangerous for programs to do their jobs now? I don't remember Guards going with me back in the old days."

[yorisearching]

Ril returned Fire's grin with an uncertain but genuine echo. Yori smiled quietly. It was always nice to find things going so much better than her fears predicted.

"You outlasted me, then," the former Sentry admitted. "And you're right, of course, but in the old days--um, the good old days," Ril specified with an embarrassed glance, "there would have been enough security patrolling the area to respond within microcycles if you'd had an emergency. But at the moment, security programs are in short enough supply that the scheduled patrols stick to areas where programs actually live." He hesitated. "I should say, security that anyone's willing to trust."

Yori picked up the thread of self-hatred in that last, and frowned at it. "I told you, Ril, Tron would be happy to add you to the patrols."

He shook his head once, short and definite. "Too many complications. For everyone."

They'd had the argument before, and Yori hadn't come up with any new and brilliant logic to change his convictions, so she only sighed.

[firefixit]

She probably shouldn't interfere, but it was hard to see anybody being that bitter about themselves. Even a Sentry. "Yori evidently trusts you," Fire pointed out to Ril. "And to be honest, I'm glad you've volunteered to come out here. Patrolling is all very well, but if everyone was on patrol, there'd be no-one left to escort repair parties." She smiled at him, turning up the charm a little. "And as their job and mine takes us out to the areas that aren't patrolled, it's a good thing you're here."

She decided to give Ril a little time to absorb the logic - that he was trusted and needed here - and turned to Yori. "You mentioned the others with you - are they construction programs, repair programs, or volunteers?" If she was going to fit into a team, she needed to know where she'd be required. There would be more than one team going out, she was sure, and if Yori's team had it covered then she'd pick another. Or operate on her own. With enough energy, there was no reason she couldn't function alone.