paixaorpg | And your mind is moving slow [active/open]

Character(s): Rinzler, Sora, anyone one else who happens upon them.
Content: Rinzler doesn't understand the basic concepts of the User world. Sora helps.
Setting: Near Central Station
Time: Early afternoon
Warnings: None

It had been barely any time as he counted things and already Rinzler was beginning to think that this world (if world it truly was) was nothing less then inconvenient. He knew that Users had to require some manner of sustenance. He knew, or rather, expected that their world had to have some way for them to input that same sustenance. He even knew the general catch-all term for it, though he wasn't sure when in his many cycles he'd even heard the term. But that was where his knowledge ran out. Where or how this energy source could be found, he hadn't a single clue. He didn't even know if would sustain him.

But, and he was loath to admit it, anything would be better than this. He was already starting to feel the first effects of no longer having enough energy to run at optimal speed and the few lights present on his outfit had long since dimmed to a sullen glow as opposed to the bright contrast they were supposed to be. He had absolutely no interest in finding himself entering emergency shutdown and that meant that time was of the essence here.

But that in turn begged the question. How did he find something he didn't recognize with what little time he had left. It was a question he couldn't answer as he picked his way through the crowd with a gait that could only be called halfway between a (fairly slow) skulk and a stumble.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

To say that Rinzler stuck out in a crowd would be a bit of an understatement even with the lights on his armor dimming like that. And he stuck out enough that it was hard for Sora to miss the guy sulking along in the crowd.

Sora thought he looked hurt or something, like he was about to pass out. Sora didn't want to see someone just pass out on the street like that, so he ran over to the man in the oddly familiar armor.

"H-hey, you okay?"

He wasn't hurt exactly. That would have had a very different effect on him, presuming he'd even found someone he was willing to fight. And thus far, he hadn't had orders to eliminate anyone here, as much as the sheer oddity of this world grated against everything that had been programmed into him. It was almost too strange, really. Still, a question had been asked of him, and for a brief second, his usual growl started up although it, much like the rest of him, suffered a little from the overall lack of energy and came out more like an engine sputtering into life than anything else.

His voice, on the other hand, worked just fine, although it was every bit as distorted as it usually was.

"Negative."

Sora stepped back a little when Rinzler spoke up, startled by the growl. But, still, he wasn't okay, and Sora couldn't just abandon this guy, Whoever he was.

"What's wrong?" Sora couldn't gauge what was wrong with this guy just by looking at him. The darkened mask made it impossible.

Everything was wrong. This wasn't the Grid, people didn't have discs and the crude replica of a sky was all wrong. Honestly, he wasn't at all sure he liked it. He would have thought the change mark something, but if so, what then did it mark? It was too long for a millicycle and too short for everything else. These were less pressing matters however. He could wait for answers on those fronts, and the same couldn't be said about the maddening lack of energy sources present in the city.

"Native energy sources rapidly diminishing. Will require energy input."

"Energy sources?"

There was something about the way this guy talked kind of reminded Sora of Tron's World, and how they referred to things. Come to think of it, the armor this guy was wearing kind of reminded him of the stuff they wore in Tron's World too, only heavily redesigned.

"Wait, are you hungry? Is that it?"

There was a moment of silence at that as Rinzler carefully cross-checked the word against the few he knew from the User world. Why was it that everything in the User world was so complicated? Couldn't it be nice and simple, like the Grid.

"User term. Yes."

"'User'? Are you from Tron's World!?"

That clinched it, it had to! There wasn't any other world where the people talked like that.

Tron's world? The Grid hadn't ever belonged to Tron, even before Clu had come. But he supposed it was a decent enough descriptor, if not without its flaws. Not the least of which was the fact that Tron was - as far as anyone had been able to tell - no longer actually present on the Grid. Still, he nodded slowly at the question.

"Correct." There was a brief pause and he continued on, "Proper designation : The Grid."

"Oh."

But at the moment, that wasn't really important. This guy needed food, but there was the slight issue of whether or not someone from Tron's world could even eat normal food. They were computer programs, weren't they?

But it was they only thing Sora could come up at the moment, so he had to try.

"Hey, l-let's find something for you to eat"

Edited 2011-04-02 09:40 (UTC)

He was indeed a computer program yes. But normally computer programs were no more able to exist beyond the Grid as User were to exist on it. Nor could Rinzler come up with any sort of prior instance of a program escaping to the User world. Besides, if this was how Users recharged he was willing to make the attempt anyway. Better that then the eventual end things would reach if he failed to find anything.

He nodded at Sora's comment. If Sora some idea of where to go, he'd follow.

"Right, um, follow me."

Sora wasn't really worried about where they were getting the food from at the moment, he was more worried about just finding a place to eat. Thankfully, it wasn't long before they did come across a small cafe.

"This looks like a good place"

Even if it had been a good place, Rinzler wouldn't have been able to truly appreciate it. He only had what he knew from the Grid and there certainly wasn't actually anything resembling what he was assuming food looked like. But if this was a place that food could be acquired it was worth remembering, and he took a moment to properly secure the location in his memory bacnks, before turning to look at Sora.

He had no idea of what to do next, and had his face not been hidden by his helmet it would have shown there. As it was, it was mostly visible in his posture. He was unsure, for the first time that he could remember in his many cycles and he wasn't at all sure he liked the experience.

Sora bought a turkey club from the cafe, something simple, and fairly inoffensive. He didn't want to overload Rinzler with something too complicated, or spicy, if this was the first time he was ever eating something.

He split it in half and handed one of the halves to Rinzler.

"You eat it, like this." He took a bite of his half of the sandwich.

He wasn't unfamiliar with the idea of taste. Or rather, of the idea tasting like... more than simply one thing. He himself hadn't ever been in the habit of stopping by Castor's establishment more often then he absolutely needed to, but it was no secret that the End of Line could and would whip up just about any sort of drink it's patrons could want.

Still, it was probably for the best to start him small. It was a new thing and even with the explanation, he spent a good long while scrutinizing the sandwich, almost as if he was trying to read its 'code'. Old habits did die hard, after all.

So with a mental shrug, Rinzler derezzed just enough of his helmet to reveal his mouth, before taking a tentative bite of the sandwich.

"My name's Sora." He spoke up after a while when he realized he hadn't introduced himself yet. Holding his free hand out to shake Rinzler's.

"What's yours?"

It was a very good thing that Rinzler had been able to figure out the concept of chewing food in very short order. Programs might not have required food, but the basic mechanics weren't anything too strange. Just... different. Very, very different, if the texture was anything to go by. Still, it did mean that there was a moment of silence as Rinzler stared at the offered hand, his helmet rezzing around his mouth once again as he did.

"Rinzler," he answered simply.

"Nice to meet you, Rinzler!" Sora replied cheerfully, not really caring that his cheerfulness wasn't likely to affect someone like Rinzler.

Very, very unlikely. As a matter of fact, it got nothing more than the equivalent of a blank stare, before he again derezzed enough of his helmet to return to the sandwich. Social niceties were, alas, not part of his daily life. Sora would have to deal with stony silence.

And your mind is moving slow [active/open]

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