Dizgaia ~ The Dreamfinder's Daughter

Chapter 11 ~ Grid Games

"Greetings, User Flynn."

The computerized though still somehow feminine voice echoed all around them as Flynn placed his Identity Disc into a circular alcove at a console on the smooth, glassy wall. Mia felt behind her back. She had one, too. Just like Tron.

A screen lit up on the wall, showing a picture of Flynn's face along with what appeared to be Grid stats, including win/loss records, total play time, how many games he'd played, and other such things. Flynn removed his disc from the wall and returned it to his back.

"Your turn," he said. "Just take your ID disc and set it in one of the alcoves. It'll register you into the system."

Mia fumbled awkwardly with her disc before placing it in the console as Flynn had done.

"Greetings, User Miandra." Mia's face appeared alongside a line of zeros for her stats.

"Great," said Mia somewhat sarcastically, "Now the computer knows who I am." She removed her disc and, with help from Flynn, returned it to her back. "So, now I'm in the system, right? What do we play?"

"Just a sec."

Flynn touched her name on the screen. The name Miandra, disappeared and a keyboard display appeared above the name space. Flynn typed in three letters: M-I-A, and pressed enter. Now she was listed as Mia.

"Like I said, it's all customizable. I figured you'd prefer it this way. Either that or I can change it to Dream Girl." Grinning, Flynn turned away from the profile board.

"Uh, Dream Girl?" Mia followed him to the center of the gridscape, uncertain whether his alternate name for her was a reference to her relation to The Dreamfinder or it if implied something else entirely. Her feminine ego rather hoped that perhaps it was the latter, but she swiftly admonished herself for this line of thinking.

You're becoming positively daffy, Mia. Just because you're in a fairytale world, you're expecting a fairytale romance to fall into your lap. This is reality. Reality isn't like that.

"As for the games," said Flynn, "There's a few we can choose from. There's Disc Wars, which is kind of like Frisbee if you hated everyone you're playing with; Light Cycles, where you use a light ribbon on the back of your bike to try to cut off your opponent's maneuverability; and lastly, the ring game, which I don't think I have a real name for yet."

Mia had a vague recollection of these games from the Tron movies, though there was something rather bothersome she suddenly remembered.

"Uh, wait a minute... If I get hit with something, am I gonna shatter into tiny shards of glass, or is that just another film-only thing?' she asked nervously.

"You mean like deresolution? Derezzing? Nah. That's only for in-game AI. We're users, Mia. Flesh and blood. Heart and soul. We won't derezz. Hell, even Tron won't derezz when he's in here. He's an outside program, not bound to the limits of this system. I have safety protocols to ensure that won't happen."

"Well, that's a relief," said Mia, although she felt a little stupid for asking now. Of course, Flynn wouldn't allow them to be derezzed.

"Oh, that reminds me. With the games, we can either play against each other one-on-one, or we can play as a team against AIs. What do you wanna do? You're the new player, so you pick."

"I think it'd like to be on a team with you," she mumbled bashfully. "At least to start. Though I'm afraid I might be a bit of a handicap for you."