Comments | singularity_rpg: 004. Level The Field [OPEN]

a_perfect_end in singularity_rpg

004. Level The Field [OPEN]

Jul 13, 2011 12:05

[Oh noes, another rooftop. Wait, no, it's the same rooftop. Why give away a separate location?]

It just looks cleaner, from up here.

Greetings!

I know some of us parted under awkward circumstances before, but fair is fair, and I won't. Be needing these. Anymore. So! You're welcome to them.

[Why yes, yes that is a perfectly straight row of ( Read more... )

clu (au)

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[video; encryption 100%] double_discs July 13 2011, 18:33:52 UTC

[rrr?]

Acknowledged.

Still do not think of it as your fault.

[video; encryption 100%] a_perfect_end July 13 2011, 19:24:31 UTC

My responsibility, then. It was, and it is.

[video; encryption 100%] double_discs July 13 2011, 19:30:44 UTC

[Fine. He won't argue with you.]

Prefer it here. [Location ping: garden zone 13.]

[video; encryption 100% --> action] a_perfect_end July 14 2011, 02:05:21 UTC

[Anything.]

You've got it.

[He cuts the feed, almost without waiting for the ping to finish tracing, and books it there.

The shore is all rock, jagged and vertical, and somewhere far below the edge the water is turning a deep, stagnant red as the sun trails beneath the horizon.

Here is where he's supposed to be--this is exactly it--and he's looking, in the gathering gloom, but doesn't see the other program.]

Rinzler?

[He gets the seething hiss of the surf for an answer.]

[action] double_discs July 14 2011, 02:21:47 UTC

[And a soft purr that accumulates slowly from behind and to the side.

His circuits are dark, dark enough to match the reflected sky in the sea, and the shadows cling to him even more than usual in such a state. It's easy to hide in all the nooks and crannies out here. Having played hide and seek with a dragon in the cliffs before sort of helps.

He steps closer and stops short.]

Here.

[action] a_perfect_end July 14 2011, 03:04:04 UTC

[He thinks he hears--no, that can be a trick of the stones, the water, the air in this strange place, so close to the sea.

That voice is not a perception error.

The calculation takes him, doubtless, longer than it would Rinzler--a quarter-second passes while he analyzes a trajectory and then they are together, and his arms entangle the other program, and he's not letting go or letting up, crushing Rinzler close.]

I thought--I didn't--I am--[his chin slides awkwardly beside the slick dark glass of Rinzler's helmet, breath tracking ghosts in the dark surface] I am so. So. Sorry.

[action] double_discs July 14 2011, 03:11:56 UTC

[Rinzler's only reaction is a blink of surprise and confusion. Sure, instinct kicks in before he can override it and he tenses automatically as he's rushed but otherwise he does not react to CLU's sudden hold upon him. He doesn't know how to react.

The words don't help him to understand what's going on either.]

...Acknowledged. It is...all right.

[action] a_perfect_end July 14 2011, 03:35:14 UTC

[Clu feels the tension, the gathering strain of inaction, bunched up in the enforcer's frame.]

No it isn't. [The correction is not loud, but scalpel-sharp, underscored with a slight shake from the shoulders.] I shouldn't have left.

[action] double_discs July 14 2011, 03:40:58 UTC

[The enforcer stands absolutely still. The rebuke he understood; the admission of guilt he did not.]

Did what you calculated best. Not my...area.

Shouldn't have reacted against you.

[action] a_perfect_end July 14 2011, 04:11:53 UTC

[He sighed, slowly eased his grip, but didn't let go, seeing at last a way to close most of the logic gap.]

You did what you calculated best, at the time. You chose the correct action from limited contingencies.

You're why I'm here. You did very well.

[He could let it go at that.]

[action] double_discs July 14 2011, 04:28:57 UTC

[Rinzler rumbled uncertainly for a long span, processing through the calculations into nice, neat conclusions. The thoughtful moment passed and the noise stopped.]

I chose...what I wanted. Not what was logical or correct.

I was displeased, and I fixed it.

[If there was almost a lilt of an inquiry, if there was just the slightest bit of trepidation in each word, if there was an uncertainty to the sentence... then it was due to not fully understanding why he did it for that reason, did not comprehend what emotion drove that reaction to its fullest. And was he wrong? Was his programming at fault? Had he ruined CLU's perfection?

Yet he knew he wouldn't have done it another way, and that did not displease him.]

[action] a_perfect_end July 17 2011, 01:56:19 UTC

Believe me, I noticed. [Huff of breath at the irony, almost amused, a little outraged.] We've talked about this before. You did what you had to do.

[It had only ever been a question of when. Rinzler was too sharp, honed to too fine an edge, to avoid this eventuality. And if some part of him had hesitated during the rectification, if, somewhere far down, he'd simply missed a friend, if he'd only wanted everything perfect between them when the inevitable happened...]

...Exactly. You fixed it. Served the greater goal. You executed the plan.

[And that, paradoxically, was both pleasing and a comfort. If. They could both stay like this, deeper shadows in the dark of the cliff, then it would be fine. It would.]

I never meant to transfer that responsibility.

[That was fact.]

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