IC Contact: thisavrou

[notglitching]

ACE Messages:

There's no greeting voice when your call goes to message—only a short period of static. Or is it whirring? Either way, it might not be the device causing the sound.


[[Open for ACE calls, IC mail, or other spammy things!]]

Comments

Private; text

[yorisearching]

[Yori taps at the MID in slow, worried thought. The unfamiliar technology isn't what delays her words.]

Excuse me, but do you remember the high school?

[Cryptic enough to be explained as a mistake, if this is an entirely different Rinzler with no reason to talk about a school. If he doesn't remember. If she's left her friend behind and can't find him. She'd be willing to start over with any version, but her newly regained code twists inside at the fear.]

permatext; permaencrypted

[notglitching]

[It's the better part of a millicycle before Rinzler manages to check messages. Plus several micros of just staring. The user ID is unmistakable. But for Yori to be here, for her to ask that...]

Yes.

permatext; permaencrypted

[yorisearching]

[When her wrist device finally gives an answer, Yori has to hug the nearest wall in sheer relief. Even in her depth of joy at the confirmation, Yori takes care to correctly mirror the encryption Rinzler is using.]

Rinzler! I hoped you were here, but I wasn't sure you remembered anything from Inugami. I'm so glad to hear from you.

[Whether he might have forgotten everything all over again, or wasn't ever there...but he remembers. This time he remembers something.]

I just arrived and met Alan-one. He says Clu is also aboard, are you okay? Is there anything you want me to do or avoid doing?

[notglitching]

[Rinzler remembers. Inugami. The Grid. And before, too. He knows more now than he ever did; can feel the press of memory pull closer at a thought. He doesn't want it. He didn't. He doesn't know.

He knows who Yori had really been looking for.]

Status?

[It's not an answer. Rinzler stares at the questions hovering on his MID and sends it anyway.]

[yorisearching]

[The one-word query makes Yori sigh in familiar irritation, but also doesn't ease her worry at all.]

Confused but undamaged. Signed ship's contract. New designated function Navigation.

[If Clu can get into Rinzler's messages, she may regret that, but if the admin knows she's contacted Rinzler at all there are easier ways for him to trap her.]

Status, Rinzler?

[notglitching]

[Navigation. Useful. Low threat. Administrator Manasseh's focus... but not anymore, was it? The restructuring might present a danger. He should keep an eye out. (He should keep away.)

...Status. Rinzler stares at the line, fingers of his remaining hand curling unsteadily over the keys.]

Functioning.

[Badly.]

[yorisearching]

[That doesn't sound like good news to Yori. If Rinzler meant minor damage or no damage, he ought to say so. One flat word more likely means he doesn't want her to worry. It isn't working.]

Can we meet?

[She can judge just how functional he actually is better in person. If he's too worried about her own safety to allow it, at least that will tell her something.]

[notglitching]

Reason?

[Rinzler has a bad feeling he knows.]

[yorisearching]

[Yori hesitates again over the keys, half-formed fears warring with a need to see him until she hardly knows the answer herself.]

Call it an identity check? It's hard to believe we're both really here when everything is different all over again.

[The fact that he's being so minimal on data about his own status isn't helping. She's pretty sure challenging him on it would help even less.]

[notglitching]

[Identity check. Rinzler stills, long enough that his own holographic keyboard nearly vanishes from inactivity. It might be an excuse to verify damage. It might be a valid inquiry, making sure he's the Rinzler she recalls.

But--]

Tron's here.

[A pause. Clarification:]

Different.

[Tron's here, and Tron isn't him. (Whatever he is; however he's breaking.) Tron's here, and Rinzler knows enough to recognize who Yori really wants to check for. Who she'd been looking for when she met him at all.]

[yorisearching]

[Yori winces. She'd hoped to see Rinzler for this explanation, because it's so complex and so likely to hurt all involved if she says the wrong thing. How can she correct herself fast enough by text, without even watching his reaction? At least he's writing the name now instead of glitching at it. She can probably use it too.]

I know a separate version of Tron is here. It's good to meet him too. That doesn't mean I've stopped being your friend, Rinzler.

It wouldn't be fair to expect either of you to be anything like Encom. But you chose to protect me in that school. I hope you still want to be my friend here.

[At least the priorities and the flat data as implied query sound like Rinzler. Yori puts aside most of her lingering doubt over whether Clu might be interfering in his communications again.]

[notglitching]

[...

Her friend. A separate version. His friend, and Rinzler doesn't know whether the specific hurts or comforts more. He's equally unsure if it should matter.

There's a long lag, but finally, a set of coordinates transfers. Along with one last warning.]

Not good.

[She doesn't have to do this.]

[yorisearching]

[What's not good? The chances of hiding this meeting from Clu? The entire mess? Rinzler's condition? The possibility of friendship under all these complications?

No. Yori has a sinking feeling his terse words refer only to himself, and that...even if it's accurate by Tron's old standards, the hypothesis hurts almost too much to finish processing.]

I'll be right there.

[Whatever he means.]