now that that's over with lemme get back to the porn
Title: I Owe You A Love Song [22/?]
Fandom(s): TRON: Legacy/The Princess Bride
Characters/pairing: Sam Flynn/Tron; Quorra, Anon, Ed Dillinger, Jr., Ed Dillinger, Sr., Jordan, Clu, Radia, Zuse, Gem, Alan & Lora Bradley, Dumont, Jarvis, Sark, Kevin, the MCP, etc. (Jeebus Christmas, y’all)
Rating: T+
Word count: 997
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Summary: Horses are lightcycles, ships are Solar Sailers and Recognizers, Prince Edward Dillinger, Jr. of the Grid needs a reason to go to war with Bostrum, and Sam just wants Tron and his father back.
Author's Note: If it’s taking me a month to bang out a chapter then this story won’t see the end until late next year, D:
“You look different,” Jordan says as soon as he sits down.
“Do I?” Ed says dismissively. He can’t tell. In fact, he can’t tell much of anything.
“When someone has a revelation their whole demeanor changes. Sometimes they look brighter, sometimes sadder, but always older and wiser. Well, most of the time.” Jordan sits behind her desk and leans forward, fixes him with a look. “What happened?”
He chooses to stare at the intricate circuitry on the wall behind her. “You read my reports.”
“Not today’s. You didn’t send one.”
He sighs and leans back in his chair. “Woke up, got hustled onto lightcycles because Clu didn’t want to lose the... Dread Pirate’s trail, circled around the Canyon, intercepted them, got Sam back.”
His mother bows her head and sighs heavily. “What happened out there, Edward?”
Does she expect him to recite all of the reports? The only thing he never wrote was that he knew about Zuse. He knew what risk he was taking orchestrating Sam’s abduction but thanks to that Dread Pirate - no, all he did was take Sam to protect him.
“It only got weird after we found them,” Ed chooses to say. “The Pirate wouldn’t give him up, which was what I expected but Clu started saying the strangest things. He…suggested Sam was working with the Pirate to replace me-”
“He wanted to execute Sam,” his mother says in a trembling voice. “That bastard-”
“I thought he was right. When I first found him I thought ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’. I had to make sure he didn’t... challenge me.” He flinches when Jordan slams a palm on the table. “Mother, don’t-”
“Did you plan the abduction? He’s your brother, your flesh and blood-”
“Half-brother, and only for several weeks. It doesn’t matter.” He curls his hands tightly, feels his fingernails dig into skin. “Clu’s lying to me. Sam never cared about any of this. He was never going to-”
“Clu-you said Dumont told you-”
“As Crown Prince of the Grid you have certain traditions to uphold. It would be in your best interest to ask the Records Keeper what your role is for the millennial celebrations, Your Highness.”
Jordan abruptly stands up and walks a little ways from her desk. She stares at the floor, pondering, and then looks at him. “It took you this long to finally see him for what he really is?”
Ed turns the chair around to face her. “Uh, who are we talking about?”
“Clu.” She’s no longer distraught. There’s real anger in her eyes, her voice, her stance. “I know about fCon City. I know he wants to destroy Lord Gibson the way he destroyed Arjia.”
“Really? You never said anything in council meetings. You never-”
“He was always around you.” She paces in a tight circle. “As long as he had you under his sway I couldn’t touch him. He was grooming you, preparing you for the day you become king, and all I could do was to hunt for a chink in his armor.”
Ed looks away. The thoughts in his head during the long drive home aren’t wrong after all. Clu was using him, had always been using him.
“What does he have against you?”
Jordan sighs. “You remember your history.”
“Drilled into my head for fifteen years.”
“You know about the Grid-Arjia War.”
“I can tell you the strategies employed by our army-”
“That’s enough. You know why it happened?”
“Arjia was in an advantageous location and we needed to expand our borders to accommodate our population,” Ed says flatly. “We attempted a diplomatic relationship but that fell apart after our envoys were attacked.”
“Your father ordered it,” she says, not that it surprises him. “He always wanted the war. Even ordered several of our top engineers to find methods of accelerating a Basic soldier’s training. You’ll recognize their names: Alan and Lora Bradley, Roy Kleinburg, Walter Gibbs, Kevin Flynn-”
He jerks his head up. “Him?”
“Yes. The project was kept under lock and key but word got out about its more... extreme use. The machine they built could rectify a Basic completely; you could take one off the streets and reprogram it into a perfect soldier. Imagine what your father, what Clu could've done with something like that? They'd take our people-my people, turn them into war machines, and lay waste to the world just to come out on top."
He never saw his mother so full of fury and fire. "So what did you do?"
"I sabotaged it with the help of its engineers. Almost destroyed it completely but a technician loyal to Clu ratted us out. The project was shut down and its engineers were either ‘detained’ for questioning or tried for treason."
"I never read anything-"
"An official trial would make the project public, and my involvement would only complicate matters. Instead the engineers were tried in secret by a military tribunal. Well, just one; the others were detained for questioning and eventually let go."
Ed frowns. "That makes no sense."
"It did when Kevin Flynn claimed sole responsibility. He would’ve been executed but I convinced the judges to exile him instead. Clu didn't find out until he was long gone. Without him that machine would never work and Clu would never have his army. So he told me he'd undermine my rule every step of the way, take you away from me, make sure Sam would never survive his first year. I had no standing after what happened so I resorted to working from the sidelines.
"That, I didn't do well enough. He’s not just after Bostrum now. He’s planning something big and I’m running out of time. So if you know anything, Ed, tell me now. You know the truth; what are you going to do with it?”
21 [The Truth Pt. 1] || 23 [The Calm]
Fandom(s): TRON: Legacy/The Princess Bride
Characters/pairing: Sam Flynn/Tron; Quorra, Anon, Ed Dillinger, Jr., Ed Dillinger, Sr., Jordan, Clu, Radia, Zuse, Gem, Alan & Lora Bradley, Dumont, Jarvis, Sark, Kevin, the MCP, etc. (Jeebus Christmas, y’all)
Rating: T+
Word count: 997
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Summary: Horses are lightcycles, ships are Solar Sailers and Recognizers, Prince Edward Dillinger, Jr. of the Grid needs a reason to go to war with Bostrum, and Sam just wants Tron and his father back.
Author's Note: If it’s taking me a month to bang out a chapter then this story won’t see the end until late next year, D:
“You look different,” Jordan says as soon as he sits down.
“Do I?” Ed says dismissively. He can’t tell. In fact, he can’t tell much of anything.
“When someone has a revelation their whole demeanor changes. Sometimes they look brighter, sometimes sadder, but always older and wiser. Well, most of the time.” Jordan sits behind her desk and leans forward, fixes him with a look. “What happened?”
He chooses to stare at the intricate circuitry on the wall behind her. “You read my reports.”
“Not today’s. You didn’t send one.”
He sighs and leans back in his chair. “Woke up, got hustled onto lightcycles because Clu didn’t want to lose the... Dread Pirate’s trail, circled around the Canyon, intercepted them, got Sam back.”
His mother bows her head and sighs heavily. “What happened out there, Edward?”
Does she expect him to recite all of the reports? The only thing he never wrote was that he knew about Zuse. He knew what risk he was taking orchestrating Sam’s abduction but thanks to that Dread Pirate - no, all he did was take Sam to protect him.
“It only got weird after we found them,” Ed chooses to say. “The Pirate wouldn’t give him up, which was what I expected but Clu started saying the strangest things. He…suggested Sam was working with the Pirate to replace me-”
“He wanted to execute Sam,” his mother says in a trembling voice. “That bastard-”
“I thought he was right. When I first found him I thought ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’. I had to make sure he didn’t... challenge me.” He flinches when Jordan slams a palm on the table. “Mother, don’t-”
“Did you plan the abduction? He’s your brother, your flesh and blood-”
“Half-brother, and only for several weeks. It doesn’t matter.” He curls his hands tightly, feels his fingernails dig into skin. “Clu’s lying to me. Sam never cared about any of this. He was never going to-”
“Clu-you said Dumont told you-”
“As Crown Prince of the Grid you have certain traditions to uphold. It would be in your best interest to ask the Records Keeper what your role is for the millennial celebrations, Your Highness.”
Jordan abruptly stands up and walks a little ways from her desk. She stares at the floor, pondering, and then looks at him. “It took you this long to finally see him for what he really is?”
Ed turns the chair around to face her. “Uh, who are we talking about?”
“Clu.” She’s no longer distraught. There’s real anger in her eyes, her voice, her stance. “I know about fCon City. I know he wants to destroy Lord Gibson the way he destroyed Arjia.”
“Really? You never said anything in council meetings. You never-”
“He was always around you.” She paces in a tight circle. “As long as he had you under his sway I couldn’t touch him. He was grooming you, preparing you for the day you become king, and all I could do was to hunt for a chink in his armor.”
Ed looks away. The thoughts in his head during the long drive home aren’t wrong after all. Clu was using him, had always been using him.
“What does he have against you?”
Jordan sighs. “You remember your history.”
“Drilled into my head for fifteen years.”
“You know about the Grid-Arjia War.”
“I can tell you the strategies employed by our army-”
“That’s enough. You know why it happened?”
“Arjia was in an advantageous location and we needed to expand our borders to accommodate our population,” Ed says flatly. “We attempted a diplomatic relationship but that fell apart after our envoys were attacked.”
“Your father ordered it,” she says, not that it surprises him. “He always wanted the war. Even ordered several of our top engineers to find methods of accelerating a Basic soldier’s training. You’ll recognize their names: Alan and Lora Bradley, Roy Kleinburg, Walter Gibbs, Kevin Flynn-”
He jerks his head up. “Him?”
“Yes. The project was kept under lock and key but word got out about its more... extreme use. The machine they built could rectify a Basic completely; you could take one off the streets and reprogram it into a perfect soldier. Imagine what your father, what Clu could've done with something like that? They'd take our people-my people, turn them into war machines, and lay waste to the world just to come out on top."
He never saw his mother so full of fury and fire. "So what did you do?"
"I sabotaged it with the help of its engineers. Almost destroyed it completely but a technician loyal to Clu ratted us out. The project was shut down and its engineers were either ‘detained’ for questioning or tried for treason."
"I never read anything-"
"An official trial would make the project public, and my involvement would only complicate matters. Instead the engineers were tried in secret by a military tribunal. Well, just one; the others were detained for questioning and eventually let go."
Ed frowns. "That makes no sense."
"It did when Kevin Flynn claimed sole responsibility. He would’ve been executed but I convinced the judges to exile him instead. Clu didn't find out until he was long gone. Without him that machine would never work and Clu would never have his army. So he told me he'd undermine my rule every step of the way, take you away from me, make sure Sam would never survive his first year. I had no standing after what happened so I resorted to working from the sidelines.
"That, I didn't do well enough. He’s not just after Bostrum now. He’s planning something big and I’m running out of time. So if you know anything, Ed, tell me now. You know the truth; what are you going to do with it?”
21 [The Truth Pt. 1] || 23 [The Calm]