forum ENCOM OS-12 | OxO | Closed unless you're a fellow Program/User/ISO | Stalkers get a free Light Runner

Started March 25, 2021 by @murphysgirl

tune

Cor almost pulled back when he felt her flinch under his touch but decided to gently continue. It certainly made him feel better when she relaxed. “Sorry. Your hair is just so beautiful.”

"Thank you," she said softly, tilting her head slightly so she was looking into his eyes. "I… I like your hair too."

Cor chuckled a little as he met her gaze. “Thank you. I did notice that though.” he smiled back.

Nora smiled. She wasn't entirely sure of what to say now. Something about the way the light of the energy made his eyes glow made her feel… weird. But in a good way.

Cor wrapped his arm around her waist and slowly leaned a little closer, placing a soft kiss on her cheek. He couldn't help how he felt about her. The feeling of being so close and her soft skin, being like this was one of the best experiences he’d had. Next to falling asleep and waking up with her in his arms.

Nora's lines turned a deep, hot pink - almost the same colour as her hair - when he kissed her. She didn't know why she felt this way, only that it felt good. Better than good. This was brilliant.
She leaned into him, allowing her eyes to close.

Cor smiled a little, noticing her lines and kissed her again. The idea of just sitting there all cycle kissing her sounded absolutely perfect to him, but he wasn't going to force her. After all, she had to get back to End of Line at some point… Hopefully not too soon though.

Nora reached out from underneath the blanket and found Cor's hand with hers. Her skin was cool and damp. She interlaced her fingers with Cor's almost absentmindedly, blushing as he kissed her. This was what she wanted to do for the rest of the cycle, if End of Line didn't require her to be there…

Cor’s smile turned soft at the touch and gently rubbed his thumb against her hand. He didn't really mind the cold but he was a bit concerned that she might not be warm enough out here. “Do… Do you want to go back inside? Some of the inner rooms of the Recognizer are warmer.” he offered with a quick glance over at Bit, just too make sure it wasn't causing any more trouble.

Nora followed Cor's gaze to Bit, who was innocently bobbing above their heads, and nodded. "That would be nice."

Cor nodded at her answer and carefully stood up, not wanting to follow Nora’s earlier accident. “You’re coming too, Bit.” he commented since leaving the little troublemaker alone with a spring of energy… by now he knew better than to take that chance.

(Sorry I haven't been as active lately! Life got crazy and my mental health has been misbehaving.)

No, Bit said, whizzing around Cor's head once. Nora stood up, gathering the blanket around herself.
"Bit, you already made me fall in," she said. "I'm not letting you do any more damage. Now come on."
Bit bobbed up and down in place for a few moments, then zipped away in the direction of the Recognizer.

(It’s ok. I think this time of year just has that effect on people.)

Cor sighed a little when Nora was able to overcome Bit's stubbornness. “Glad you can convince that rascal.” he chuckled softly, taking her hand and leading her back inside.

Nora wrapped her fingers around Cor's, resisting the urge to lean into him. He smelled so good.
"I'm glad as well," she said. "You should probably close the door to the spring, though. Just in case."

Cor smiled and gave her hand a small squeeze as he carefully guided her. “Well, there's not really a door to the spring but I can seal up the bridge.” he assured, agreeing with her advice.

Nora nodded. "Good. I don't want Bit causing any more trouble than it already has."

“I mostly just don't want to see what kind of chaos an energy-crazed Bit can do.” Cor chuckled as he turned slightly and placed his hand on a scan pad. It didn't take long for the bridge doors to close after, allowing him and Nora a little peace of mind before continuing down the corridor.

"You don't," Nora assured him with a smile. "It's not a pretty sight."

“I believe you.” he chuckled. “Oh, speaking of energy… What time do you have to get back?” he finally remembered to ask.

"What time is it?" Nora asked. "It opens at six."

“Umm, I’m not sure.” Cor admitted. “I still haven't gotten around to checking out that upgrade you told me about… But it feels like we've been here for 2 hours. Not counting the drive out here.” he estimated.

(The thing about the Grid time system is that in Legacy, Kevin Flynn says "hours in here [are] just minutes back home". He also says that the portal closes in "one millicycle, about eight hours". The root 'milli' means 'thousand', so that means a cycle is 8,000 hours. One year in Earth time is 8,760 hours. So that would mean that for programs, a cycle lasts about a year. However, we know that to not be true due to Uprising, in which it's implied that a cycle is about equal to a day. But that also doesn't make sense if you take what Zuse says to Clu in the End of Line scene: "How long have you been looking for [Flynn's disc]? About a thousand cycles?" Flynn disappeared when Sam was seven years old (we know this because Alan says the page number has been disconnected for 20 years, and Sam is 27 in the movie), and if we take Grid years to be roughly equal to Earth years, that means that Flynn would have been in the Grid for 7,300 cycles. Zuse's point was to hyperbolate, and so he would have said "ten thousand cycles" (or similar) if that were true. So we must assume that the length of a cycle is neither a day nor a year, but rather something in between. A popular belief is that one year in Earth time is equal to around 50 Grid cycles, which would make a cycle last around a week (7.3 days to be exact). Once I become rich and famous and buy the rights to Tron from Disney, I'm talking to the Tron directors and setting up a proper time system once and for all, because there's too much discord between Legacy and Uprising. I typically use the Minecraft system (there are 24,000 ticks in a Minecraft day, which lasts around 20 minutes). But if you want, we can use "microcycle" ('micro' has no numeric conversion, so using it is safe) to mean roughly a day. It's hard to find a name for something smaller than microcycles because the words that come to mind that you could use - millicycle, centicycle - imply counts of one thousand or one hundred, respectively, to form one cycle. That is, unless we use what I like to call the "centipede phenomenon". If you look at its Latin roots, the word "centipede" means "hundred feet". But no centipede has ever been found with one hundred feet, making the name "centipede" more abstract than literal, and the same concept could be applied to something like a millicycle or centicycle.)

Nora nodded. "We should be okay. As long as Bit doesn't get into any more trouble and slow us down."

(Wow! That's an impressive amount of research and lore! Yeah, micro-cycles works. Thanks!)

“Ok.” Cor nodded. “Then let's get you warmed up and we can relax for a while.”