thisavrou | audio; march 7th

[The recorded voice that addresses the crew through the MID is affable and slightly apologetic.]

Hello everyone. This is Alan Bradley speaking. I have a couple of questions for the crew, and I think I might as well use this opportunity to introduce myself to those I haven’t met yet: As I said, my name is Alan Bradley, and I’ve been assigned as one of the ship’s MID Technicians. I’m afraid I don’t have any particularly interesting abilities outside of computer programming, but that should be enough for me to do my job here. Some of you may have already met Sam Flynn, my godson from back home, as well as Tron and Rinzler, two, ah, programs that I’ve written. [Is that how he’s supposed to introduce them? It’s quite clear from the misgiving in his tone that he isn’t completely sure. He isn’t even certain he can correctly refer to them as two programs if you want to get technical, but explaining that would be far too involved for a simple introduction, so he’ll have to settle for the potential inaccuracy.] If you ever need to contact me, I’m always available at my personal inbox. [A slight chuckle.] I guess we all are since these things are strapped to our wrists.

Introductions aside, I was hoping someone could tell me who I should see about getting a new pair of glasses? Mine seem to have been lost as I was coming through the portal here. And seeing as my job on the ship will probably require spending most of my day staring at lines of code, I’d like to get a replacement sooner rather than later.

Speaking of my job here, I’m also looking for suggestions for programs people would like added to their MIDs, or improvements made to the interface. I’ll admit, the technology here is quite a bit more advanced than what I usually worked with back home, so anyone with more technological know-how is welcome to offer guidance: other programmers, engineers, AI… I’d be grateful for any advice.

Just leave a reply if you want to get in touch. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

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[A younger voice answers Alan's MID call.]

It's nice to meet you, Alan! I'm Asriel. I'm sorry, I wish I could tell you where you could find new glasses, but I'm not sure who you're supposed to talk to around here to get things like that.

[Any talk about programs and codes go right over Asriel's head. He's not really sure what any of it means, but he does recognize Rinzler's name.]

You know Rinzler? I met him a while ago. He's really cool!

[Alan’s a little surprised when it’s a child’s voice that leaves a response, but perhaps he shouldn’t be -- he’s already heard at least one of his crewmates mention children on the ship, after all.]

Hello, Asriel. It’s nice to meet you too.

[He smiles at the child’s comment about Rinzler.] I’m glad to hear he’s making friends. How did you meet him? [Because from what Alan’s seen of the program, he doesn’t seem like the type to seek people out on his own.]

He was in a vent! He gave me a good scare too, but then he came out and we got to talking. But I can't tell you what he was doing in there, it's a secret.

[Not a secret for any particular reason, just that Asriel's under the impression that Rinzler is a mysterious spy and shouldn't be giving away information.]

[Alan blinks.] Really? [A vent? That’s… unexpected, but no harm seems to have come of it.]

What did you two talk about? [Alan feels rather nosy asking, but he is curious as to how the program interacts with people who aren’t his User.]

Uh-huh, really! And um... well, I did most of the talking, but he asked about where I was from and what kind of stuff I can do!

[More specifically, Rinzler asked about Asriel being a monster. But he thinks that might be a little awkward to mention to someone he's just met.]

[It’s strange to hear the child talk about Rinzler actually showing initiative and asking questions rather than passively waiting to be asked himself. It’s another reminder of just how different the program is around other people than he is around Alan.]

What did you tell him?

Um, well I can't do a whole lot - I'm really good at solving puzzles though, I'm gonna help Rinzler find out more about the ship and all its secrets!