Multiversal travel can be disorienting, but there’s no need to worry! All side effects are temporary and lessen with each trip. Your body may experience several sensations at once: being pushed forward as if a hand is resting on your back, momentary and startling blindness, a gentle ringing in your head. You may have difficulty discerning whether it is hot or cold, but where you have been prodded is noticeably warmer than the rest of you. Some may suffer dizziness while others are perfectly fine. You notice that the area you are in is filled with a soft cerulean light and feels slightly humid and dark despite the glow around you. Regardless of your current state, however, the stress of transit forces your body into unconsciousness.
Waking up is another story. Or maybe it isn’t.
You find yourself in a nondescript room; sometimes with others who have found themselves in the same situation, sometimes alone. Welcome to Avagi Station, your new home.
Avagi
That First Step, it is a Doozy:
There are always risks to exploring new environments and Avagi is rich with new nooks and crannies to explore. You’re checking out a new corridor that’s been opened, though there have been signs warning that there are areas where structural stability has been weakened by neglect and the passage of time. But maybe things have been going well, you’ve found a few interesting things of note and you’re ready to head back to your bunk for the day.
Except when you turn to leave, the floor is giving way without a screech of metal. Hopefully you’ve got some good reflexes and can catch yourself before you topple down a shaft that seems to go down at least thirty or forty feet. Do you call for help or struggle to handle it on your own? And more importantly, how are you getting around this giant hole in the floor now that it’s there?
The Buddy System:
In order to help new arrivals find their bearings the more experienced residents on board have decided to try out the buddy system in order until the new arrivals get their space legs. The guide is responsible for answering any questions, showing them all the important facilities and making sure their new friend doesn’t wander anywhere too dangerous. And what better way to get to know your buddy than to try and help them find all the supplies they need to be comfortable in their new home? Hopefully the barter blocks have some clothes in your size or else it could get a little bit awkward come laundry day.
Shining Bright:
The Observation Station is the best place on Avagi to get a look at the storm that rages all around. However today when you stop by there’s something strange and new to look upon. It’s not clear if it’s a change in the environment or perhaps an effect of the living energy that opens the portals but the entire room is filled with softly glowing floating lights. If you venture into the room and dare to touch one of the lights you’ll find that you find a song playing in your mind that fills you with a deep and abiding sense of peace. What you do with that feeling is up to you but it seems that these lights aren’t going to cause any harm then why not let yourself relax in a beautiful space for a little while?
Kaittos
This month there is a portal to the planet Kaittos, a peaceful world containing one large land mass and a scattering of lived-on islands across a clear blue ocean. On the mainland, a large city-state occupies the central region and southern coast and resembles what some travelers from some versions of Earth might know of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Bustling and lively, the city is clean and well provided-for due to the temperate climate and the bountiful natural resources found on its northern side; orchards, farms and forests extend into the distance, butting up against a small mountain range. The technology level is low compared to Avagi, with carriages and candles in place rather than cars and electric lights, but the craftsmen of the world have managed some very impressive mechanical feats.
Kaittans, the local residents of the world appear somewhat humanoid, but the bipedal race has hooves rather than feet, silvery skin and three eyes with vertical pupils. Although there is no sign of any other sentient species in the world, the locals are nonetheless excited to meet their guests, rather than suspicious or afraid; for some reason, they are not surprised that aliens exist, merely that they are here.
Visitors are encouraged to explore the city and partake in an exchange of goods and ideas, to share their culture and stories with the locals. Perhaps there’s a merchant willing to trade a bauble for a story or you want to try something entirely unknown to your palette in the culinary quarter. The possibilities, while not quite limitless, are enough to keep the curious busy for quite a while.
Yori's speech has slowed by 0.24 picocycles, only noticeable because he was listening for it. She's being careful.
Clu's smile, his words, they all seem genuine, though a lack of familiarity grants a level of uncertainty. He runs it through what he learned from Flynn, but it doesn't provide much more. He'll assume cooperation for now but be wary of escalation. Despite Clu's words and smile, he's getting the distinct impression of a couple of bits facing a gridbug.
'Then I look forward to more chances of self-determination.' As long as he has something to do.
A few more pieces of the puzzle, thank you, Yori. 'Flynn created a whole system? Now that must have been a sight to see.' Do tell.
So much for that not-bristling. The actuary's flippancy prompts a glower that sharpens as it speaks; if it objects so much to the assistance, Rinzler will be sure not to repeat the fault.
But then it lags. Then it continues. And Rinzler doesn't need the needling flickers of [Warning—] to recognize the danger here.
"Enforcer."
The word snarls out in a clatter of static: the ticking growl suddenly loud enough to feel through the metal floor. It's joined to a fluid step. A twitch of fingers: up and back. If the motions before had broadcast predator, the faceless regard is much, much sharper now.
He's still here, and she breathes a sigh of relief. One hand moves upwards to rest on the back of his head, and she smiles. "A city in the stars," she confirms. "There isn't much here, but there's been enough so far."
"This has been the week of the impossible becoming possible." It's a bit overwhelming, but he's been trained to deal with overwhelming. He'd have been a poor pilot and spy if he couldn't handle pressure. "What is here?"
Enforcer implies something or someone he is enforcing. Although there are obvious similarities with security, enforcer does not hold the same possibility for independence.
Ram turns his hands palm outwards, raised slightly, trying not to think too much on the rattle vibrating up through the floor.
'Not necessary,' he says, shifting to put himself in a slightly submissive pose, that also gives him a chance to analyse the curve of Rinzler's back. He's too short for Tron, but he's hunched. Once he has the angle he calculates Rinzler's potential full standing height and-- it matches.
The time doesn't match up though. Rinzler had said he'd been out of his system for 3.68 cycles, Ram saw Tron only last microcycle.
Could he be a copy? Not the Tron Ram knows, but the same program on a different system? He thinks back. The height and voice match, albeit the latter has some... changes. Ram was too caught off guard by the double disks to analyse the style, but he remembers Rinzler had merged them in his left hand. Tron was left handed. And of course, the identifier. Tron's markings were unique in a way other programs' weren't, a sign of his independence. An enforcer wouldn't share them. Unless they had been there before the enforcer code was.
Ram swallows.
It's still not certain, but the physical evidence matches up and Ram wants to do a system purge because, if this is--frag--if this is Tron, copy or not, he shudders, how did he end up like this? Tron would never go red. Willingly.
The submissive pose is warranted. The continued processing is not. Rinzler can see it hesitating on the program's features, twitching in the small motions of its throat. Like questions looped and cancelled; like a truth Rinzler had always looked for, but never wanted to find out. He should kill it. He should leave. But Rinzler too, hesitates.
And then it's much too late.
The freeze is immediate. So is the flare of loathing, sick and sharp, the hate (hate) (fear) that flares so brightly through his lights. Rinzler is perfect; Rinzler is right, and Clu (made him) was right to make him (this way). There's no reason for the glitch's question. No reason at all for the struggling, surging pulse of something that rises at the words.
For the feeble flicker of blue-white.
NO.
Rinzler won't be wiped. Won't be replaced. Something crumbles, and with it, all cause for hesitation. His disk scythes free from dock in a violent slash—throws with the same motion. Rinzler is much faster than Tron ever was, but the interplay of words was never his first language. Rinzler was made to speak with violence, made for the choking grate of conflict and the swift, decisive moves that put it down. So few programs ever survived long enough to understand.
"Avagi." The name is still a little strange to say, but it's growing on her. Diana shrugs a bit, glancing around. "It's very different from anywhere I've ever been before."
"Different?" He knows of a few places she's been, but has no idea what she's seen since then. He's been a lot of places too, but even then he suspects this place is different from them, from the little he's seen. "Different how?"
"I know that." He's usually better at explaining things. "Other than being in space, what makes it different? What kinds of things should I expect here?"
She inclines her head slightly in understanding. "There are some non-humans." It's just the first thing that comes to mind. "I would advise not staring at them. It would be rude."
"Right. Don't stare at the...space creatures." What is his life? How is this his life? He'd just been trying to get back to London from a secret base in Turkey and had somehow ended up taking a detour to a secret island. But then he'd ended up with Diana in his life, so he's not going to complain.
She had wondered, honestly, what it would like when he blushed. If it would just be a deeper blue or if the red of his cheeks would actually turn purple underneath that skin tone. It's fascinating. He reminds her, almost, of ice apparitions and their trademark blue hair and porcelain skin. A bit different, perhaps, but... He's the closest thing to a yokai that she's ever seen since Charlie.
Her eyes dip a little at that thought. Charlie. Hm. Well, she lifts her gaze back up and smiles. "I mean, as long as you're alright with being called that then... I guess I'll use it, too." Mutant. Starts with 'm,' like monster. But she likes their term better, even if it might have some negative connotations behind it. She wonders if someday 'demon' might be adopted by her kind as a good word rather than bad.
"I'm guessing that means there's a lot of you though. Are you all blue, or-?"
"You could also simply call me Kurt," he notes, voice lilting in a tease. "Since that's my name and all." And honestly, it's a lot easier to just go that route instead, so no one has to worry about any hurt feelings or offensive subjects like why 'mutant' is a hateful word.
Kurt shakes his head in response at first, twisting the length of his tail back behind him again. "There are a few, ja," More than that, really, "but I'm the only one that's blue."
He shrugs, sets his hands on his hips, chest somewhat puffed with pride. "And the only one that can teleport."
"Kurt, then," she responds, with a nod. "Alright. My name's Rose, by the way." It is easier than dancing around labels. Rose isn't quite sure she's ready to be called a 'monster' just yet normally. Maybe someday it won't hold the same kind of connotation. It's a nice thought.
"You can teleport? Like the stuff in sci-fi movies? Dude." This blue boy just keeps getting cooler.
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