[DISCONNECTED] Mailbox [IC]

[a_perfect_end]

[he got it to beep just like a tape-fed answering machine]

Greetings!

Recently-deposed Grid management and complaints department.

You know what they say: if you can't say something nice, lay it on me. Do your thing at the tone!

Comments

[a_perfect_end]

[Well.

Straight to the point.

He can respect that, and he can perform the same courtesy.]

Killing him was never in the plan. Or, not in mine.

Disc is a tool, same as a socket wrench. I needed his.

He never needed to die for it.

[alan_1]

[Alan would be hard-pressed to tell if Clu was lying face-to-face. Through text, it’s impossible.]

But he did. [Short and biting, a reminder neither of them needs. It feels almost ridiculous to be having this conversation now, discussing the death that happened almost two years ago instead of the one that’s taken its place now, but Alan knows this is the only time he’ll ever be able to talk about it this openly.

He can't flinch from Flynn's death any longer, not when he just saw the body.]

If you didn’t kill him, what did?

[a_perfect_end]

Everybody keeps saying that, yeah. I'll believe it when it happens.

[The last thing he does remember is Flynn's disc bright and slim in his grip, and then he was here.

...Dude. Seriously? Seriously, dude?

Dude!]

I keep telling you, a really fast [there are no such things as monsters, monsters do not exist] enemy, female torso, with bite strength like a forklift and an unbreakable grip.

It. Crushed--

Look, stay away from its limbs; four--or five--allowing for apparent vestigial structure. Super agile, in the bargain.

[alan_1]

[Alan had actually been asking about the first time Flynn died, but Clu’s already made it clear he doesn’t know anything about that, so Alan lets him patter on unhindered. He doesn’t mention that he’s already seen the monster nor that it had broken his arm. Though he feels something dangerously close to sympathy for Clu at the moment, part of him remembers well that Clu will likely hear—or see—that information from Rinzler later.

For now, he’s done the very least he can in this situation. Clu knows the fate of his one-time user—and perhaps Alan knows a little bit more about the admin than he did before.]

I’ll pass the information on to Rinzler. [It’s purely pragmatic. Business-like. It may be all the closing this conversation requires and yet, after a long pause, Alan grudgingly adds two more words.]

Stay safe.

[If only for Rinzler’s sake.]