001 __ ( THE GRID )

[isomorphology]

The Grid looks the same day after day, cycle after cycle. Sleek black roads and buildings with glowing lines of energy to decorate them. TRON City is at the heart of the Grid. The skyline doesn't quite go on forever, broken up by the mountains of the Outlands. To the far distance is the Portal - the way out of the Grid. Only one person ever used it: Kevin Flynn. The Creator. Then, his son, Sam Flynn.

Quorra is standing in the roads of the city, looking up at the rain that seems to always fall. She's out of the Grid now. Free to explore the User world. In her dreams, she always returns to the city. She can't tell if it's before or after CLU took over, but it's always empty. Alone in a ghost city. Maybe it's because she's the only remaining ISO.

She sighs and leans against one of the railings of the road.

Comments

[waterfell]

It seems too empty. The silence bothers her more than it should, and she's wary. Mercury keeps a tight grip on her sword as her eyes scan the surroundings. She raises her fingers to touch her earring, and her VR visor slips into place to supply more data about the surroundings.

An energy-signature from some sort of life form? Another touch withdraws the visor and Mercury is left staring at Quorra. Her eyes widen, just enough to be noticeable. She can feel her own slightly quickened heartbeat. The sword is definitely not discarded.

She speaks bluntly. "What are you here to do?"

[isomorphology]

Quorra looks over at the woman, standing up. The lights on her suit glow brightly. She's not dressed in clothes from the Grid, but then again, she's not dressed like any User she's ever seen. Quorra is the first to admit she doesn't know much about the User world... so maybe some people dress like that.

Her gaze goes around the empty city block as lightning crashes over head. "I don't know. How did you get here?"

[waterfell]

Mercury wants to see every world she can, traveling and exploring to the very ends of all of them. Maybe that's why she has so many dreams of so many worlds.

It's the last response she expected from Quorra, who she'd last seen on the other side of a disc battle. Her eyes narrow slightly. "I came by chance, like last time." It's true enough.

[isomorphology]

"Like last time?" Quorra echoes, her head tilting with her eyebrows raised ever so slightly. "You were here before? On the Grid? When?"

[waterfell]

No one would be stupid enough to lie that baldly. The contradiction is too easy and too obvious.

Then... A different world? Almost imperceptibly, Mercury's grip on the weapon relaxes.

"I see," she says, mostly to herself, and to Quorra, "It was about a year ago."

[isomorphology]

She lets out a sigh. Quorra is vaguely aware it's a dream, but she doesn't recall seeing this woman at all. Then again, dreams were strange things. Instead of making it a rather large deal, she smiles and makes a wide gesture with her hands.

"Welcome to the Grid... again."

[waterfell]

"I was interested in it last time," Mercury admits frankly. This kind of technology would always fascinate her. She won't make the mistake of forgetting what happened before, but she's letting that interest in her surroundings make it secondary, for now.

"What can you tell me about it?"

[isomorphology]

Quorra nods but frowns. Still... "How did you get into the Grid?"

[waterfell]

[She'd like to take the credit... so she does. Perhaps in the dream, it's even tangentially true.]

I'm good with computers. [This comes with a sly smile.]

[nohometown]

Sephiroth finds this empty, vast place intriguing. It's like nowhere he's seen before, and he's used to busy cities. The empty places he knows are small, out of the way, and usually when he'd passed through them, it was with troops. He doesn't often travel alone, even though he keeps himself apart.

She is the only person he finds here, and so it's to her that he turns to ask, "What is this place?"

[isomorphology]

Quorra stands and looks up at him. Another person has found their way here - to the Grid. How did this keep happening?

"The Grid."

[nohometown]

That doesn't tell him a great deal. "A fitting name." There is a gridlike quality to the lines of light he sees here. For a moment, he is reminded slightly of Midgar, but perhaps it's just something about the atmosphere. The architecture is luminous and unfamiliar overall.

"Do you live here?"

[isomorphology]

She smiles a bit at it. It is fitting, even if the city they are in TRON City.

"I used to."

[nohometown]

"But no longer? I've never seen anywhere quite like this before." He gazes up at the dark sky, thoughtfully. "Such an empty city. Is it always so quiet here?"

[isomorphology]

A brief nod. "I moved to the Outlands. It was ... safer." Then she shakes her head. "There's supposed to be people here. A lot of them."

[nohometown]

"The Outlands? All these names and places are strange to me." Intriguing, but strange. The idea of a city that should be lively being silenced is not a particularly pleasant one. War, disease, famine: these are things he associates with a sudden absence of population. Yet he sees no signs of any in this place. "What kind of people are they? And if they are not here, where are they now?"

[isomorphology]

She's surprised to hear that. If he's never been to the Grid before, then nothing would be familiar at all.

"Like me. Programs." Quorra holds her arms out to show off the suit with circuits on it; glowing and casting light everywhere.

[hasevolved]

Violet's become used to wandering through other people's dreams by this point, so she leans against a railing opposite Quorra, looking around the Grid in awe. It's really a cool place... like something from a sci-fi movie. Raising her eyebrows, impressed, she eventually notices the woman standing nearby.

"This where you live?" she asks casually.

[isomorphology]

Quorra looks over at the other woman with a slight tilt of her head. More strangers. Is there a new route open to the Grid?

"No." She shakes her head. "I never really lived in this city."

[hasevolved]

"Really?" Violet looks around again, trying to discern what sort of place it really was. Hard to tell, since it was dark, aside from the neon lights.

"But, you've been here before?" she persists, trying to make sense of it.

[isomorphology]

She nods. "Yes. Everyone on the Grid has been here at one point or another."

[hasevolved]

"The Grid?" Her eyes flit to their surroundings, and then back to Quorra. "That's this place, I guess. What is it? Some kind of... city, or...?"

Because honestly? She wasn't sure what to make of the place.

[isomorphology]

"This is TRON City. It's at the heart of the Grid." She explains with a gesture of her hand, pointing to the rest of the area. "How did you get here?"

[hasevolved]

TRON City. Doesn't ring a bell. Not that she expected to recognize it... like so many other places she's seen in dreams, this one doesn't exist in her own world. So weird. But, still.

"I fell asleep," Violet says, with a shrug. "That's how it works. Wandered here when I was dreaming."

[isomorphology]

"...You're dreaming too?" That makes her stop and turn to face the woman entirely. "You're in my dream."