A Harmless Chat

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A Harmless Chat
Date of Scene: 27 May 2013
Location: DPS Holding Cells
Synopsis: Deelel has been held for some time after her attempt to get information from them. Having spent her time in a cell from her point of capture. The MCP comes to talk to her and make the young program an offer...
Cast of Characters: Deelel, MCP
Tinyplot: TRON Train

MCP has posed:
Curiosity.

A strange or unusual object or fact.

A strong desire to know or to learn something..

Cross-reference appropriate project data. Update downcycle simulation. Reopen case files.

MCP held a data pad loosely while data scrolled and scrolled on both sides of his vision and across the central band of the pad itself. He sat in a chair in the holding cellar with the cane leaning against the side with the bearing of a slightly bemused professor peering at a particularly interesting specimen in a jar.

on the datapad was Deelel's telemetry and light pattern, lines of light moving in a delicate dance between the nodes. The Administrator compares this light pattern to another, and to a third set and rotates each simulation within the datapad's confines before laying it flat on a table. "There is more to you than it first appears, program."

MCP says to Deelel who may, or may not have been waking up from an inforced downcycle. "Perhaps it has everything to do with your user... and perhaps it has nothing at all. There is a certain.. core flexibility to programs given long exposure to the chaos of the world of users. But that would not explain how you survived the games." he taps the datapad twice with his fingers.

"It is something that defies proper simulation.."
Deelel has posed:
Deelel has not made trouble other than an incident where she started making music and attracted every last grid bug in DPS to listen. What Chalk would think of that who knows Deelel doesn't she realized just how into it she is and just how hosed she really is. The only real company she's had aside from the bugs has been CHEIF. Now she's coming too from an down cycle she didn't expect and she pauses for a moment as she's very confused. "What where... am?"

She looks up to MCP there's no need to be snaky he's got her over a barrel and any real wit would get her in worse trouble than she already is in.

"The games...I just didn't want to die."

That's all the real thought she gave about it she didn't want to die and fought as hard as she could to stay alive. Strange for her kind but given her seeing how stubborn Users can be against all logic and reason who knows.

"I'm afraid... I can't offer you much more details. I just listens to what the other prisoners had to say...and managed to get lucky."
MCP has posed:
"Luck."

The administrator snorts very softly. "..a curious construct. And one retroactively used to fit an incomplete data set as 'luck' is a user construct. Instead-- I have run a few simulations. with the appropriate data supplied. " He pauses and then continues. "The games were a useful necessity and as such, very data intensive. But I managed to salvage this from the archives.."

The MCP taps the datapad which projects a holographic image of Deelel. In fact, it is a recording of her entire arena record. There is no audio, just the visual representation of Deelel facing off against other programs in the heart of the system controlled by the MCP and his empire.

"And you see-- there are a handful of anomalies scattered throughout the records leading up to.. your absention. And they all point to one thing." The simulation pauses, and then rewinds. Deelel against other programs now focuses on several crucial jumps, spins, defenses or attacks that to Deelel's memory just barely turned the tide of the battle. In the simultation though, she sees herself derezzed.

She sees herself derezzed over, and over, and over as the video jumps between each of these anomalies. Her body explodes into voxels or cracks apart or falls off a platform to disappear in a smear of light and color.

"You should have been derezzed long ago, little program."
Deelel has posed:
Deelel is not going to comment on the horror of the games but it's clear those memories are not happy ones for her and that she's thinking about it. Deelel has to agree after thinking about it for a moment. "It is a user concept but I can find no other way to explain how I survived. I'm some sort of statical outlier then?" She listens more not moving much and wonders and looking at the simulation, she sees this but she knows she just barely managed to survive but seeing herself die over and over again? She cringes with a look of horror on her face and she has no idea on how she survived this at all.
MCP has posed:
"TRON is a statistical outlier. You, little program are an anomaly."

The MCP gives her a very small smile, waving two fingers to cut the simulation feed when it has served it's purpose. "And I would like to give you the opportunity to solve that anomaly. I have collected a great deal of information on the effects of chaos on program internal system processes." He waves two fingers again and a light pattern of startling complexity appears.

The label reads Central Handler Intelligence for Extreme Firepower. And the one beside it is another light pattern. It is sketchy and low resolution with many unknown areas painted as grey in the light show. It is unlabeled.

"--And I have also made an extensive study of programs from systems far more advanced from our own. Or-- should I say. My Own."
Deelel has posed:
Deelel listens and doesn?t say much she/s become very good at that but she does clearly seem to be processing for things. She's pretty sure MCP is talking about how CHIEF is more stable now. She turns out to be right given the label and it;'s contents she looking for a moment at the full meaning of CHEIF's name is something she won't forget. She continues to wonder for a moment and finally speaks choosing her words carefully.

"What do you mean I remember being rezzed on our system."

She's pretty sure she's an 8bit program right nothing more that she's noticed has lead her to think anything else but MCPs words are leaving her very unsettled what's going on here?


MCP has posed:
The administrator looks at Deelel flatly for a long few increments. The scythe could almost literally be heard carving away pieces of time the holding cellar is so quiet and the MCP so still. He raises an eyebrow incrementally before turning his eyes back to the light pattern.

"Fascinating." is all he says on the matter. "Perhaps even plausible. But therein-- lies the anomaly. You see, there is no straight upgrade path between the systems of advanced programs and that of lesser generations. No line that connects us and the future. Even less so in the case of one who was passed from hand to hand so frequently as CHIEF has been. Generating a simulated model renders this result."

He queues the next slide as if he were a visiting lecturer, and there are a number of code sequences that gradually scale up in complexity. The 'resolution' on the image changes from simple polygons to more complex light patterns. Except-- in every case, there is a point where the system seems to stall-- and then to falter-- and then inevitably to start crashing.

The terrifying crash sliding a program into complete deresolution, every process practically destroying itself simultaniously as the complexity grows too great. The system cannot support itself or hold, and the simulations collapse in a heap of ashen grey lines and bitter red nodes.

"A rather vexing problem, as you would expect. And quite excruciating, should such an upgrade attempt be made from such flawed principles. Every trial a failure. Every simulation except one, done out of a moment's curiosity."
Deelel has posed:
Deelel is finding it strange to have a calm chat on their own kids with MCP but stranger things have happened. Still she wonders is MCP's problems personal or user error such thoughts slide quickly out of her mind as the topi gets a bit more serious. There was really no way to upgrade it seems Users just made new generations of programs from scratch than just upgrading them. She cringes viably thinking on what she knows about CHIEF if anyone had rights to hate users it was him with all that been done to him.

The next information on the screen is informative and rather scary then she pauses at the mention of a lone success.

"Wait one succeed?"

Suddenly she's got a terrible feeling she's not going to like where this is going very soon.
MCP has posed:
The MCP gives that same very small smile of satisfaction and curiosity to Deelel again. "Indeed." He prompts the simulation to run, watching Deelel rather than watch it run. "See. The problem arose from a sector that I did not expect. It is an avenue of advance that I had not considered and so, I must-- graciously extend my thanks to you again Deelel."

The simulation rubs. There are numerous errors and blank grey spaces, but the system builds into a complex mesh of nodes and processes without inherant collapse. --"It is not until I saw the pattern from the angle of data compression that I corrected my mistakes, however reasonable they seemed. "

The Administrator idly spins the light pattern as it is showcased on the table, twisting and examining the nodes with the half-lidded attention of a drowsy predator. "How you survived such an act, I am not certain. Where? Even less certain. Possibly another OS that I raked through carelessly or a system cracked open by the virii known as the heartless. Another anomaly piled on anomaly. People appear and disappear from this town, this user town that is brimming to the gills with them. --- "

The MCP tchs softly. "Which is why you and I are sitting here. Oh. I could ostensibly let you go now, even though the first riddle has only spawned even more copies of itself. I think you've had time to reflect that our method of operations here is quite dissimilar from that of the home sector. --But I am wondering if you yourself have any innate curiosity. Or whether you choose to remain ignorant due to the flawed nature of your construction."
Deelel has posed:
Deelel really does not like where this is going she quite remembers their first meeting in that ruined part of the Encom OS and it's rather stuck with that memory for a moment. Also there is a mixture of understanding and a good helping of dawning horror as well within her as she starts to see here this is going. She was the one simulation who survived thee experiment she really doesn't like that's going. She only remembers what she can from her 'birth' to now and this is rather distressing to her

how did she survive was she from another OS? She doesn't have any memory of such so how could she be? Then again with how reality has been she doesn?t know anymore after all finding out the true nature of the users, both the good and bad of it has now left her questioning things. She's also being given a choice but if she's from somewhere else another system? Does she have friends? Others that would be worried about her perhaps a better place she's suited to be? Would she be opening them up to risk if she made some sort of a deal with MCP she's let to think and she nods once clearly MCP is making an argument that even with her issues she can't ignore. There's also the fact MCP might do something to her but she has no option that might lead to her escape.

"I was mistaken in my actions towards DPS..." She'd really have to wait for something to go bad if anything did when it came down to it she's realized this that she was far too Turbo over it.

"Your saying I?m broken and I don't realize it..."

Her survival in the pits is pretty telling given the simulations.

"Let me guess you want to find out for real on me just what's going on and to further your own upgrade research...?"
MCP has posed:
The Administrator waits while Deelel processes this new information.

He gets up and presses a button on the cane. The force field drops away and the MCP leans against the cane with idle amusement.

"I am saying that what you do now, is entirely your own choice. Think on the consequences wisely. Perhaps those not even limited to yourself."
Deelel has posed:
Deelel has to think about the actions it could have she could die, she could go on being broken. Then again there couod be other programs out there at risk because she doesn't remeber anything and there's also implications of her freedom if she agrees to this. She spends a good amount of time thinking this over. "I am ... interest not knowing is worse than knowing. What ifs are prehaps the worst thing in the world I found, though what would be done with me after if I were to agree?"
MCP has posed:
"Nothing that you would not already agree to. You may ask CHIEF if it would ease your decision making, though whatever is done is not likely to be as arduous nor as potentially dangerous." The MCP takes a seat again with the cane across his lap.

"There is an element of risk, yes. And unknown territory to explore-- but I would rather we do so civilly, with a minimum of discomfort and without coercion." The administrator's expression is very-- very dry.

"I understand now where that path leads, and as such, correct and adapt to new situations as available."
Deelel has posed:
Deelel takes a deep breath, not that she needs to it's just a user habit she's picked up. She's had this uncanny ability to fit in with them socially. Some of her friend don't even get she's not organic life.

"All right, I accept. Not knowing the truth is worse and it's better than being in a cell doing a concert for the grid bugs. As good of an audicance as they are."
MCP has posed:
"Yes.." The MCP says softly. "Not knowing is often the greater trial." the administrator gestures to the nearby chair. "Sit. You and I have much to discuss."