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[not_tron]

 [Gooood morning, Paradisa!

As the sun slowly rises, a man stirs on one of the couches in the Lobby. The circuits on his dark armor brighten and steady from where they were once a dull, even blink, not unlike a computer that's been awakened from standby.

He mutters something about system restarts always getting the best of him - as if any program could resist - that's picked up by the open journal nearby if anyone's listening. The man opens his eyes...

Only to immediately go on high alert. He sits up to get a better look at his surroundings. This does not look like the Grid. What in the Users' name is that light, and where is it coming from? Flynn's mentioned a sun to him, but he's never spent much time describing it except to say that it's almost like the Portal that illuminates the sky when Flynn enters the Grid. They were usually too busy to go into much detail - it was always too easy to get interrupted by gridbugs, and CLU had started giving Flynn weird looks when they talked about it, so Tron had refrained from asking questions about the User world in front of him.

Something is wrong. How did he get here? Even a total change of the system couldn't have done this. The last thing he knew he was just coming back from patrolling for gridbugs. Was he glitching? His code had always been stable. Alan-1 had worked hard to keep it that way, even if Flynn had made some changes to upgrade him for the Grid instead of the ENCOM System. He doesn't ask the obvious question aloud, but it is all he's calculating at the present time: where am I?

One option is to explore, and he's already on his feet to do just that when the journal catches his attention.] A book..? [He asks aloud, frowning when his words appear on the page.] Flynn's books never did this...

[Anyone listening might find that his voice sounds exactly like a certain old man or a non-rumbling version of a certain CLU-serving program. It would be easy to mistake them for each other. And Alan? Well, he went to bed last night - Sam and Kevin could confirm that - but now he's nowhere to be found...]

((Loss start! Open to everyone!))

Comments

Action

[wizard_redfive]

[Oh. Right.] A castle is a type of building, like this one. [She waves a hand at the room around them.] Large buildings, built to impress. Traditionally, castles housed the ruling class and were thus fortified against attack. Nowadays they're mostly used as tourist attractions.

Action

[not_tron]

How did a building bring me here? [The "program" inspects his surroundings again. He's pretty sure that's not even standard in the User world.]

Action

[wizard_redfive]

The castle has access to an unusual type of energy, one that we Users call "magic". It's very strong. Strong enough to bring a program here straight from the Grid.

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[not_tron]

And Users. [It doesn't really make sense, but he's got enough information to run on. He's used to not understanding Flynnisms.]

Is that how this book works, too?

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[wizard_redfive]

[She nods.] And Users.

Yeah. It's a communication device. Talk into it, and people with similar books will be able to hear what you say. Same with writing and some liquids.

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[not_tron]

Who else has them? [Definitely important to know.]

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[wizard_redfive]

Everyone in the castle, as well as a few individuals living elsewhere.

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[not_tron]

[Everyone hearing what he has to say makes secrecy rather impossible.] So private conversations need to be with the book closed.

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[wizard_redfive]

Not always. You can also make conversations private by writing down a filter in the journal.

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[not_tron]

[That makes them much more useful. Now he can contact Users without CLU finding out.]

Thank you, User.

Re: Action

[wizard_redfive]

[She smiles.]

Dairine. Call me Dairine. ["User" reminds Dairine of the mobiles' titles for her: "Mother" or "Creator." While nice, the reverent tone behind them tends to make her feel slightly uncomfortable.]

I can show you how filters work if you'd like.

Action

[not_tron]

[He nods.] Dairine.

That would help. Please do. [He picks up the journal and holds it out to her. He's expecting some sort of holographic display like when discs are activated.]

Action

[wizard_redfive]

[Dairine blinks at the book, a little confused. She had planned on using her own journal for this demonstration. But hey, if the program is offering his, accepting it would probably be more polite.

So she takes Alan's Tron's journal with a smile]

Thanks. Castle? Pen, please. [And behold! A ballpoint pen appears in her hand. Opening the journal to a blank page, Dairine looks over her shoulder to make sure the program is paying attention.]

Action

[not_tron]

[Making things appear from thin air? Not something he wasn't used to. Flynn coded things from nothing all the time, though he didn't go about it quite the same way.

He watches attentively, though, as she opens the journal. He means business!]

Action - Sorry I'm late!

[wizard_redfive]

[And so the lesson begins!]

So right now, anyone can hear what I'm saying. But if I write down a name before I speak, only that person can hear me. [She pens Dairine Callahan into the journal, just so she doesn't bother anyone with this.] Or I can write a description... [Filtered to programs who like users] ...and anyone who fits it will be able to hear me.

You can also filter away from others. We usually use this... [Filtered away from First Gens and people who would harm other residents] ...for more secure data, but you can modify the specifications however you want.

And if you don’t want anyone to hear you, just write “private.” [Which she does.]

Action - it's okay :)

[not_tron]

[He watches and listens attentively.]

It's an authorization code for data. [To put it in program terms. It's fairly simple for him to understand.]