The Virus Vault (Open)

[Valon]

On the Grid, there was a specially reinforced section that was closely guarded by various guards. It was closely monitored and the guards sent to watch it had to report in often. To make a comparison, it would be akin to a half hour per report in the users' world. If a bad report or no report was given, monitors were supposed to right away to the location. So, to most it was a serious concern. And why was this particular location of such importance? It was the Grid's virus vault. The vault was used as a storage facility for any viruses or bugs that couldn't be permanently derezzed, but captured and imprisoned. Thus, if things didn't go well, it was quite possible that programs or even users could be in danger.

The rather large building was like a heavily armored fortress, except its main function was to keep things from leaving, as opposed to coming in. Still, only some of the guards, monitors and users with the proper clearance were allowed to go inside.

Today, for this shift, Valon was the guard keeping track of the vault. The shift hadn't started that long ago, and there didn't appear to be any threats thus far of anything happening. Than again, nothing rarely did. Valon wore an armored plate that he could use to instantly signal for help if it was ever needed, so he tended to just spend most of his time practicing working on his identity disk combat. No, he usually didn't have any company to pratice with, which suited him fine. He had gotten used to throwing his disk at various angles to get it to bounce off the various walls and such to get a desired hit. He also kept a katana baton for extra help in case he couldn't use his disk or if it weren't enough.

To say the least, he was already practicing throwing it to bounce off various walls before returning to its owner. Yes, the program was bored.

[ROSEMARY HARLEQUIN]

Rosemary wasn't the brightest thing on the grid. She didn't really know why she was even able to go, but it was free to everyone so she felt the urge to. She was always in awe of fantasy type worlds and seeing pictures of this place in the papers made her eyes widen with interest. It was so bright and dark at the same time. She put all of her money aside to visit this place as soon as possible and when the time came, she was running around the streets doing cartwheels. The giddy girl was saying hello to everyone she passed, smiling and being the sweetest she could be. They probably found her to be a defective user. Oh the language the programs used were so cute. It reminded her of her favorite and most beloved character from Star Trek, Data. It was like each one of these was a super smart android. She was half tempted to give them the vulcan salute to see if anyone knew about Spock either. She really doubted it. Maybe it would become a new fashion trend if she did it to enough people while here. Wouldn't that be something? Rosemary starting a trend!

This petite little user really had no idea where she was going as she walked, almost skipping, down the street. There was a definite bounce in her step. She turned a corner and a large looking area caught her eye. It was a mix between a vault and what looked to be like a prison. Well both types of places kept things locked up so why couldn't they technically be one type of business? How philosophical. Rosemary approached the building and looked around. Again, her eye was caught. This time, it was by a someone and this certain someone was making her smile with what he was doing. He was playing around with his light disk. She loved those things. It was like a boomerang with blades. She always forgot she had one of her own. It wasn't like she used it or anything.

Already she felt the flirty side of her coming to the surface. The guard was pretty cute too. She played with her custom made skirt, the dull violet hue of her circuitry, coming to life a bit when she made up her mind to go talk to him. The skirt was a bit longer than the normal type and had quite a bit more flow to it than tight fitting. Giggling to make herself known, she walked up to him and stared as he threw his disk around. "I probably shouldn't be this close around a disk fight with a wall." She teased, wrinkling her nose, trying to look cute. Well she really had no idea if programs liked users or even felt attraction to anything. With all the hello's she had been giving out, not much more was received.

[Valon]

Valon had caught his disk just as Rosemary giggled and spoke, nearly making the program jump in surprise. However, he did slightly cringe. It wasn't often someone came out here for anything, let alone business. Had she come out there for business? No, of course not, he was notified for such a thing first. His face gave a glimmer of confusion before he realized that his mask wasn't active. Upon that thought crossing his mind, the darkly tinted visor formed over his face, covering all above his nose (think Clu sentry!). His posture immediately straightened as he viewed the person before him. He gripped his disk, but at this time didn't have any intentions of attacking her. He was a guard, yes, but he certainly wasn't a tyrant that attacked first and asked questions later. He was in fact the opposite.

"Identify yourself," he demanded, Valon's tenor voice sounding for the first time since his shift started. "The Virus Vault is a restricted area, state your business."

Even as he spoke, he found it hard to believe that the lady before him was a threat. Although he could remember stories from various monitors that had been attacked by unsuspected programs that were actually viruses. Was she even a program? A light frown appeared on his lips, but if she could see his eyes, she'd know he was simply thinking. She looked way too innocent to be out there, yet there was little he could do until he knew what he was dealing with.

[ROSEMARY HARLEQUIN]

Rosemary rocked on her feet like an impatient child as she finally found her footing before him. An innocent pout appeared on her face as he covered his face with those ridiculous masks. She leaned forward and attempted to look up and under the mask in order to see his face. At least he had cute lips to look at, but what else was she supposed to look at while talking to him? Staring at his mouth seemed rude, but apparently they were all used to that so perhaps it was just normal. Or did they stare into where their eyes were supposed to be? Well now she was just worried about the whole subject and bit her lip nervously, letting her eyebrows slant upward in helplessness. As soon as he spoke, she returned to her previous giddy demeanor just to keep up sweet appearances. She didn't want to look like some sort of confused moron, trying to figure out how masks worked on The Grid.

"The name is Rosemary. Pleased to meet ya!" She cooed, holding out her hand at full length, knowing she was being a bit over the top. Did they even know what over the top was? Everyone around here seemed so monotone in both voice and personality. Might as well loosen up a little bit. Maybe they'd follow her lead and be a more lively bunch. Not so serious, asking her to state her business wherever she went. But she was a bit shocked when he said it was a restricted area. They should have more signs or something. In the real world there where road blocks or police tape. How was she supposed to know this place was off limits? Well, it was her fault for roaming... Placing a few open finger tips to her mouth, she looked worried at getting in trouble. "Oh, I didn't know. I'm sorry. I was just taking a walk and... I didn't know this was a restricted area, honest."

[Valon]

Valon watched the woman before him, taking her hand and shaking it. After just watching her odd actions, quickly decided she had to be a user. No program would act that way, unless perhaps they were a drunken program. Even then, no drunken program would bother coming out here. His demeanor shifted from guarded to a much more relaxed one. "A user? I must apologize. My name is Valon. It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Rosemary," he stated, his mask being removed again. He had been told that users were more comfortable with being able to see the faces of programs. Why that was, Valon certainly wasn't sure.

Bowing a bit from his waist briefly, the guard program then managed a smile in greeting. "You've wandered a decent distance away. I'm no monitor, but I would rather escort you back into a better part of town once my shift at the vault is over."

If he had the definition of the word in his system, he would've called the woman before him cute, adorable even, going by the way she acted. "If you don't mind waiting that is, but I would feel more at ease."