Welcome to the world outside the Grid, Paige. It's glad to have you (mostly)

[forthegrid]

I fail to see what this is supposed to accomplish. How can I do more good here than back there?

I .. I don't know what you expect of me. This isn't the grid, this isn't anywhere I have control. You want me to question more so I am, why do you want me here?

[For you to grow, to learn. You did it before, all the way from medic to Tesler's right hand.]

And that was what you wanted me to question, well I have. I'm not sure what we're trying to accomplish anymore. It used to be fore freedom, for peace, but now I just don't know.

[Good, keep questioning; and keep listening. Others will tell you things you've never been allowed to know. You may be surprised by what you hear.]

Somehow that really isn't all that comforting, but I'll try. I suppose something has to start making sense because everything else looking fragmented.

Comments

So I guess an Eldritch abomination is the last thing to promote healthy growth, huh? :D

[controledfreak]

[Also, move your cursor over the little bouncing icon for a quick translation!]

If you think this is fragmented I would hate to imagine what your world you came from looked like. Perhaps geocentric circles organized in a nice square pattern?

Oh, but your composition doesn't suggest that. Your shape is too formed. You have too many curves. Though you claim that this place is bizarre, you are no more an aberration that me.

Oh they are going to be besties, can't ya feel it? LOL

[forthegrid]

Where I am from is ordered, less chaotic. Or at least it had been. Things ran according to programming and I thought that meant the populace was happy.

A place like this lacks even that order! It's wild and so...alive. It's alien to me and I don't know where or even if I fit into it.

[controledfreak]

[She laughs, and the air laughs with her in a disembodied cackle.]

Where I am from thing are more chaotic. Where time and space blend and twist at a whim. Where you may find yourself speaking to yourself from ten days ago and you recalled the conversation in exacting detail when it occurs latter. Where the concept of numbers and place are fiction and the only certainty is your existence. Which may not be entirely true.

As a creature of order, I would advise you to find the commonalities to make the transition easier. Because chaos is far bigger than you can ever hope to imagine.

[forthegrid]

You're place of origin sounds horrifying. But you have a point, things could be worse and my world is built in the image of one like this so maybe it's not so huge a leap. At least compared to yours.

Not sure I would want to hear what days cycles older me would say.

--oh right and re: two comments ago--absolutely xD

[controledfreak]

We don't normally get visitors, this much is true. Usually those that make the attempt become broken and mad from only a glance for the rest of their natural lives and I would assume part of their immortal one.

Besides. The inability to handle adversity and change is a sign of weakness.

and you're means your but..yeah I am an idiot

[forthegrid]

I can understand, think I'll take a raincheck on visiting and just never cash it in.

Immortal? It's a hard concept for me. As programs we continue on until we're no longer necessary or we get derezzed. I've seen a lot more programs die than be retired.

...oops

[controledfreak]

Truly? So your mind is tied to your body? If I were to break you apart your being would no long exist?

[forthegrid]

[And you are being eyed so warily right now, fingers flexed just a little but not yet reaching doe her disc.]

Something like that. I'm a program, we exist within the parameters of our programming matrix.

[controledfreak]

Oh how INTERESTING. It must be of such great comfort to know what you are meant for and that were your function would be used your obsolescence would mark the cessation of your consciousness.

How DO you function with that in the forefront of your understanding of yourself?

[forthegrid]

.. I try not to think about it. For now I'm a necessary program. I intend to stay that way.

[controledfreak]

So you choose to ignore the inevitability of your cessation? Hmm...

Each moment in this structured order of time is a pulse that cannot be gained. Each second is lost. That you are now apart from your place means that your obsolescence will become even more inevitable. And if your instrumentality is truly as paramount as you say, another of yourself will no doubt take your function. Each moment of each second of each hour of each day.

And this doesn't worry you?

[Yggy, be nice...]

[forthegrid]

Worrying about it doesn't help get me home any faster, and thanks for the reminder. I'm sure Pavel is loving the fact that I'm gone, it puts him one step closer to power.

[controledfreak]

You're welcome.

[lifes_short_pop]

You've been separated from your directives? That's...horrible.

[He may not completely understand the finer details, but he does know a Program unable to be useful is a fate worse than de-rez.]

You're mun's bringing you to the analog world?

[forthegrid]

I think that might have happened long before I realized it, but yes it's more directly clear now. This nexus place is not like home.

I don't know what her plans are, she wants me to learn, to become more or something. You'd think she was my user.

[lifes_short_pop]

Ma3a was pretty bad with straight answers, too. Had to piece together what was really going on by stealing and reading through old email.

And Users are...well, not much different then Programs, it seems. Some are good, some are bad, and most just...try to get by.

[forthegrid]

Ma3a? Sounds like that old compiler. How did you get into that system?

[Now she was taking a half step back.]

What's your name?

[lifes_short_pop]

She's the Encom AI. Math Assistant, version 3. Quite modern, actually. Just not a very creative name.

[His old man's been working on her for years, right under Mackey's nose. Of course, it's not the first time his old man has flown one of his killer aps under the noses of the idiots in charge...]

And I didn't put her in the system. I just work for her. My name's Jet. What's yours?

[forthegrid]

Same compiler, new gen. Got it.

I'm Paige, I work for General Tesler.

[lifes_short_pop]

I've heard the name since I came here. I think I might have run across him once. A little hard to read. The whole situation with The Grid seems...confusing. I haven't liked much about what I've heard, either. Something about a civil war, a coup...

[Flynn abandoning his Programs to die horribly. Tron being dead or much worse.]

I'd like to know what actually is going on, but I understand if it's not any of my business. Trying to defend Encom can be tricky enough.

[forthegrid]

You're saying you really work directly for a user? [Ok she was not used to that, most of those ranking programs didn't get out much these days. She dealt with subroutines and programs intended to be autonomous.]

The Grid is...there's a lot going on. CLU says that things have to change or all of us are at risk but.. I don't know anymore. I don't know if this is the right way to change things.

Civil War will come, if the unrest continues. I just don't know which side is the right side to be on right now.

[lifes_short_pop]

No, I work for Ma3a. She can't leave her dock most of the time, so she has a network of agents that she recruits to act as her eyes and ears, to watch for small problems so they don't become big ones. I suppose it could be abused if she didn't have the best interest of the system in mind.

[Admitting you are a User? That's the second or third fastest way to die on the other side of the screen. Thorne, F-Con, and their Wraiths also made it nothing to be proud of...and it looks like Flynn has done nothing to help matters. He won't lie, but it doesn't mean he'll admit it unless confronted.]

Many Encom Programs serve their Users directly, and most are content with it. What I know, I know from watching. There are a lot of email communications, instant messaging, video feeds. Observe, analyze, report; that's most of what agents do.

If you have your doubts, there's probably a good reason to have them. So many things - and people - aren't what they seem to be.