Clu watched the sysadmin fight to control his temper. Part of him expected to be struck, or to get a disc right through center mass for his defiance. His code-brother could offer no denials, no sharp, defensive comebacks. He knew damn well that it was all true. But that had seldom stopped a tyrant when they were told something they didn't want to hear. He could practically feel the angry static crackling off of the sysadmin, just waiting for a sudden, violent release.
One that never came. Instead, he swallowed it down and responded with a deep shrug and hung his head for a moment, a gesture of defeat and contrition too calculated and practiced to be at all sincere. Which was further proven as he edged further into Clu's personal space. Much closer and he'd be right on top of him; he was already within arm's reach. Would he keep going, maybe haul Clu to his feet and back him against the wall if he continued to defy him. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility. Or maybe he'd force him down and pin him to the floor. As close as he was getting, a thought flickered through Clu's processes that the admin might even enjoy it, in a way other than vengeful glee at seeing this long-time bug in his code humbled. He seemed like the type who might get off on that sort of thing; after all wasn't it him who'd taken the games and changed them from the simple entertainment and athletics they were meant to be back into the sort of orgy of suffering and deresolution that they been under the MCP.
But those fleeting thoughts about the admins potential proclivities were canceled out by what he said next. Whatever Clu had been expecting him to say, what he did say wasn't it. An outline of a grim scenario, an inevitable end. Some of Clu's defiance finally faded as resources were devoted to processing that data. He could be lying. The sysadmin was no stranger to lies after all; he'd lied to Tron, to the system at large, even to his own User. But as much as part of him wished it were so, no matter how he processed it, it still pinged as true to his hacker's instincts. Even if it was a lie, it would fall apart the moment he was presented with any actual code and data relevant to the situation. Programs could lie, but data didn't, and if the admin had anyone who could falsify data well enough to fool him, he wouldn't need Clu to begin with.
He could still be just plain wrong, of course. The data the stats programs presented could be faulty, or the admin could be reading it incorrectly, but given his code brother's obsession with perfection, he found that scenario highly unlikely. He wouldn't have made such a dire pronouncement unless the projections had been double and triple checked by all relevant programs. No, by all indications, this was real, and they were truly heading for disaster.
The question then left to him was, what was he going to do about it? Because his directive demanded that he do something. Help Kevin Flynn in whatever way he needs. Those were the words that lay at the core of his being, and with Flynn and countless of his programs trapped inside the system, he had to act on this data. Attempting to pass the task off onto some other program- if there even was another program who could handle it- wasn't an option.
A treacherous part of him wanted to throw it back in the admin's face, to refuse out of sheer spite. The ultimate 'frag you and the lightcycle you rode in on'. But he couldn't. As much as he loathed the idea, he would almost certainly need the resources of central processing to affect anything on that scale. And his directive came once again to the forefront of his processing. Trapped as he was, what Flynn needed was a stable, healthy system. And for that he needed a stable, healthy sysadmin. Not this tyrant who was gradually spiraling into complete glitching insanity, derezzing and perverting all he'd been tasked to build up and protect. And none of that would happen without something- someone- to keep him in check. Decision gate reached.
"You do know this mess is your fault, right?", Clu finally responded. "You and your glitching obsession with destroying the ISOs at any cost. You introduced a virus into your own system, into part of its BIOS. Do you have any glitching idea how insane that was?! Especially when the code you infected was already known for producing unpredictable effects! It's amazing you didn't crash the whole system right then and there. You created this clusterfault, and you deserve to suffer every bit of the consequences for it."
He sighed, and then he began speaking again, though his tone was still bitter and angry, it was no longer laced with venom. "But Flynn and the innocent programs of the system don't deserve to suffer for your shortsighted, glitching insanity. So I'll make you a deal. Restore the games to their original specifications. No more deresolutions, all safeties back in place, and keep them that way. Do that, and I'll help you clean up this clusterfault. I can't promise it'll be perfect- the only way to fully restore the BIOS to its original functioning capacity would be to eliminate the virus in the sea, and who the frag knows if that's even possible at this point-, but with the resources of central processing, I can repair enough of the damage to prevent the disaster you outlined, and keep similar scenarios from recurring in the future. Deal?"
no subject
One that never came. Instead, he swallowed it down and responded with a deep shrug and hung his head for a moment, a gesture of defeat and contrition too calculated and practiced to be at all sincere. Which was further proven as he edged further into Clu's personal space. Much closer and he'd be right on top of him; he was already within arm's reach. Would he keep going, maybe haul Clu to his feet and back him against the wall if he continued to defy him. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility. Or maybe he'd force him down and pin him to the floor. As close as he was getting, a thought flickered through Clu's processes that the admin might even enjoy it, in a way other than vengeful glee at seeing this long-time bug in his code humbled. He seemed like the type who might get off on that sort of thing; after all wasn't it him who'd taken the games and changed them from the simple entertainment and athletics they were meant to be back into the sort of orgy of suffering and deresolution that they been under the MCP.
But those fleeting thoughts about the admins potential proclivities were canceled out by what he said next. Whatever Clu had been expecting him to say, what he did say wasn't it. An outline of a grim scenario, an inevitable end. Some of Clu's defiance finally faded as resources were devoted to processing that data. He could be lying. The sysadmin was no stranger to lies after all; he'd lied to Tron, to the system at large, even to his own User. But as much as part of him wished it were so, no matter how he processed it, it still pinged as true to his hacker's instincts. Even if it was a lie, it would fall apart the moment he was presented with any actual code and data relevant to the situation. Programs could lie, but data didn't, and if the admin had anyone who could falsify data well enough to fool him, he wouldn't need Clu to begin with.
He could still be just plain wrong, of course. The data the stats programs presented could be faulty, or the admin could be reading it incorrectly, but given his code brother's obsession with perfection, he found that scenario highly unlikely. He wouldn't have made such a dire pronouncement unless the projections had been double and triple checked by all relevant programs. No, by all indications, this was real, and they were truly heading for disaster.
The question then left to him was, what was he going to do about it? Because his directive demanded that he do something. Help Kevin Flynn in whatever way he needs. Those were the words that lay at the core of his being, and with Flynn and countless of his programs trapped inside the system, he had to act on this data. Attempting to pass the task off onto some other program- if there even was another program who could handle it- wasn't an option.
A treacherous part of him wanted to throw it back in the admin's face, to refuse out of sheer spite. The ultimate 'frag you and the lightcycle you rode in on'. But he couldn't. As much as he loathed the idea, he would almost certainly need the resources of central processing to affect anything on that scale. And his directive came once again to the forefront of his processing. Trapped as he was, what Flynn needed was a stable, healthy system. And for that he needed a stable, healthy sysadmin. Not this tyrant who was gradually spiraling into complete glitching insanity, derezzing and perverting all he'd been tasked to build up and protect. And none of that would happen without something- someone- to keep him in check. Decision gate reached.
"You do know this mess is your fault, right?", Clu finally responded. "You and your glitching obsession with destroying the ISOs at any cost. You introduced a virus into your own system, into part of its BIOS. Do you have any glitching idea how insane that was?! Especially when the code you infected was already known for producing unpredictable effects! It's amazing you didn't crash the whole system right then and there. You created this clusterfault, and you deserve to suffer every bit of the consequences for it."
He sighed, and then he began speaking again, though his tone was still bitter and angry, it was no longer laced with venom. "But Flynn and the innocent programs of the system don't deserve to suffer for your shortsighted, glitching insanity. So I'll make you a deal. Restore the games to their original specifications. No more deresolutions, all safeties back in place, and keep them that way. Do that, and I'll help you clean up this clusterfault. I can't promise it'll be perfect- the only way to fully restore the BIOS to its original functioning capacity would be to eliminate the virus in the sea, and who the frag knows if that's even possible at this point-, but with the resources of central processing, I can repair enough of the damage to prevent the disaster you outlined, and keep similar scenarios from recurring in the future. Deal?"