I'm a new soul

[krypticfactor]

Who: Krypton and whomever happens along
Where: The Light Ways (The Grid's above-ground passenger railway/monorail equivalent)
When: Generally now-ish
What: An ISO unexpectedly drops in.
Warnings: None so far, will adjust if anything happens.

Comments

[yorisearching]

When possible, Yori avoided the confines of public transport. This millicycle, though, walking had new risks she wasn't quite ready to deal with yet.

She had chosen a seat very near the door, trying to inconspicuously watch inside and out at once. The shuddering Portal-built code near the compartment's floor had her instant attention--it could be anyone, anyone--

Yori managed, barely, not to reach for her disk, acknowledging with an internal grimace that she was badly spooked. The green circuitry was a tremendous relief, and she'd knelt beside him almost before his unfocused eyes blinked in confusion and awareness. "Hey," she greeted softly, "you're safe now."

[krypticfactor]

"Safe from what?" Krypton asked the floor, lingering fear making his voice sharp. Turning his head, he caught a glimpse of slim leg and elegant circuits. "Who are you? How did I get here?"

Pushing up on his hands, Krypton finally made it to a sitting position. He was right in the middle of the aisle and blocking any programs that might potentially want to get past, but he hadn't fully noticed where he was yet.

[yorisearching]

The rapid-fire questions meant he was in no immediate danger from low energy, so Yori didn't press her luck getting closer. "Whatever you were worried about, it's cycles past now," she answered the first one, as gently as she knew how. "My name is Yori." Green circuits, an Iso, who probably wouldn't recognize her name. "I'm a friend of Radia." It was the most reassuring and recognizable introduction she'd found on short notice.

"And the Portal brought you here, but I'm afraid it's a very long story." Yori nodded to the open seat beside her own, also momentarily empty. "Come and sit down? You can't get off the compartment till the next stop anyway."

[krypticfactor]

A Basic, a friend of Radia? Krypton blinked at her for a moment, then looked out of the window and realized that he was on a train. "Uh. Okay."

He wasn't quite sure how he managed to get into the seat, but found himself facing the woman in short order. "And add 'where am I', to the list," he added wryly. "So, you said it was a long story?"

[yorisearching]

"A thousand cycles long," Yori acknowledged, with a sympathetic glance. "Most of it going bad to worse. But you're on the Free Grid now, and if things aren't what we hoped for, at least we have a chance to improve them."

She shrugged. "Also you're on the train, heading toward the Arena stop. The Portal has been rerezzing programs in unpredictable locations since Clu and Flynn reintegrated on top of it. A train's not a bad place to show up, all things considered." Yori's smile was tentative, not wanting to offend.

[krypticfactor]

Krypton was too stunned to smile. A thousand cycles? "I'm in Tron City?" he blurted, focusing on the minor until he could process the major issue. "And bad to worse? What happened?"

Actually, he could guess. His own home had, quite literally, fallen down around his ears.

[yorisearching]

She was never going to hear that name without an internal wince. Tron had hated it, and oh, she'd laughed...

Not that the other questions were any easier to answer. "Clu hated your people, enormous walking logic fault he became," Yori said, with a grimace. "He was in control for a thousand cycles, since he betrayed Flynn and Tron. You're not the only one who's returned after the Portal incident, but your cities--" She spread her hands, grief in her eyes, for what little sympathy she could offer to the depths of the tragedy.

"I know Radia will be glad to see you, though, and there are several sectors here where Isos are rebuilding together."

[krypticfactor]

If the cities were gone . . . then so, too, would be the ISOs who'd lived there. Krypton bowed his head, shivering with reaction. The news that some ISOs had survived and were rebuilding was a relief, but didn't drown out the knowledge of how many of his people must have been lost. "Radia . . . she's here? She made it?" he asked, voice edging over into desperation.

While he'd never met the ISO leader, he knew her name. He doubted that there was a program on the Grid who didn't.

[yorisearching]

"She's here now," Yori corrected, with a smile that didn't wipe out old mourning. "I'm afraid she missed the last thousand cycles for much the same reasons as you."

She reached, slow and careful, to grip the Iso's hand in offered comfort. "I know more will come back, like you did. And we've got a chance to make this Free Grid a place we want to show them."

[krypticfactor]

Krypton flinched at her touch, but overrode the urge to pull away. He knew, on a deeper level, that the Basic was trying to be comforting. Instead, he pasted an awkward smile of his face. "That . . . would be good," he said haltingly. "Maybe if more Basics are like you, then we - ISOs - might have a chance."

The train slowed, coming to a halt. Change here for the Archives, read the sign under the platform number.

[yorisearching]

Still wary of touch herself, Yori recognized the flinch at once and smiled to make up for her imposition, hands drawn back safely into her lap.

Where like her equated to bearing massive guilt-complex, Yori did have plenty of company on the Free Grid. She wasn't going to discuss all the soul-crushing details with a newly returned and nervous Iso. "Clu did enough damage to the rest of the Grid before the end that it's pretty much only the programs he repurposed who still believe anything he said about the Isos, and that's not their fault." She blinked a little too fast, looked away.

The view of the platform slowed further. Yori tilted her head toward the window. "Is there anyplace in particular you'd like to go?" The Archives weren't exactly light reading for anyone--safe enough, but certainly not a place the newly revived Iso should visit alone. Yori wasn't going to suggest it so soon.

[krypticfactor]

It was a relief when she drew back. Thanks to his partially self-imposed isolation, Krypton didn't quite know how to respond to casual touch any more. "I . . . I don't know. I don't have anywhere to go."

Now that the shock of virus/collapsing city/rerezzing was starting to wear off a little, Krypton was starting to be able to think again. With Bostrum gone, he had no home. Nowhere to stay, nothing to do - would anyone need an encryption specialist in the Grid as it was now?

[yorisearching]

"Most people feel that way when they arrive," Yori said, with sympathy. "But if there's no one you especially want to look for, I can take you to the other Isos who've come back. The ones who don't mind being easily found, anyway."

There was a relative lack of Bostrumites in the contact lists, perhaps because they'd never been that big a settlement, and then again maybe because they had started paranoid. Yori hoped for the latter.

She shrugged. "We certainly need all the help we can get in rebuilding the Free Grid--there's no lack of work to do. Do you mind if I ask what your job was, before?"

[krypticfactor]

Krypton shook his head. "There's nobody specific that I want to find, here. So yes, thank you - I'd like to be with the other ISOs." It didn't matter who they were, but right now Krypton was feeling a little out of place and needed something, anything to remind himself of home.

"I'm an encryption/decryption specialist. I used to work with Communications, Transport, Security . . . Statistics." That last came out reluctantly. "I was working on data compression algorithms for the Solar Sailers when everything . . . well, when it all happened."

[yorisearching]

"The Solar Sailers!" Yori grinned, an unexpected if fleeting joy. "I used to help code those, and pilot them whenever I had a chance. Still do from time to time. As for jobs, if you put your name in the registry you can pretty much take your pick. All those areas could use skilled encryption help. Especially Security." And Stats, but Yori wasn't deaf to verbal cues.

She looked out the window, face momentarily blank as she recalled the scheduled route. "If we take the City Park platform it's not a long walk," she said cheerfully. "I know Aadi will be delighted to meet you. She's an artist, from Arjia."

[krypticfactor]

Krypton smiled momentarily in return, Yori's cheerfulness difficult to resist. "I've been on the Solar Sailers, on occasion. I prefer lightjets, though." For a moment, his hand flexed as if he wanted to go for his baton here and now and take off into the dark sky.

Hah. Registry. ISOs had had to register before, as well. "I hope Security's improved from how it was," was all he said in reference to the job suggestion. He'd never worked with Tron City security - only with the Bostrum version. He'd seen enough to know that he wouldn't have been welcome there.

When Yori mentioned Aadi, however, he leaned forward in interest. "An artist? I think I've heard of her - fractals and sculptures, am I right?" He'd also heard that she'd taken up with a Basic - one of the most visible examples of the rare ISO-Basic pairs. Or at least, a visible example on the ISO rumor network.