PROMPT POST
ROUND ONE CLOSED!
Go for it, bbs.
P.S. If this does well, I will totes open up a delicious.com.
FLAT VIEW for easier browsing while we get the delicious together.
UPDATE: FILL POST for easier archiving. If you complete a fill please post it here! Further instructions on the fill page! :D THANKS ALL!
NOW CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS, FEEL FREE TO ( Read more... )
This could go seriously wrong. Heart-breaking, train-wrecking wrong.
It could also go seriously right. Maybe he would never have his old life back, but they were offering him a lifeline, a chance. Trapped, sure. But not without a purpose, not alone.
Flynn wanted to say something reverent and profound, something that acknowledged his gratitude. Unfortunately, that kind of sentiment never seemed to make it from his mind to his mouth.
“The three of us? We kick that thing's ass together and then...” Flynn laughed, wrapping an arm around each one. “Yeah! Sounds like a plan to me. Great plan! I'm totally on board with this.”
But what his words said with bravado, his arms said with sincerity, pulling them both into a tight hug as he willed the emotion outward with the same intensity he had used to pull the beam across the junction.
It felt better than any hug had right to. Bodies and circuits connected, and it felt so profoundly good. A feeling of warmth and energy burned through his whole body, and he inhaled sharply with the surprising overload of sensation. He had to close his eyes just to keep from being overwhelmed by the input.
The feeling seemed to be mutual.
“Users, your energy...” Tron breathed.
“I can feel it, too.” Yori's voice was thick. “Oh, it's wonderful...”
Oh, wow...he could feel them both, not just their physical forms, but in such a way it felt like their life energy was passing through each other, sharing the same breath. Yori was like a firefly - bright, mercurial, full of inquiry and hope. Tron's life force was a intense glow of stability, safety, and fidelity, someone who you'd trust with your soul or your car keys without the slightest bit of hesitation or doubt. It wasn't sexual, not in the way he knew it, just a profound surrender to light and life and trust...
Love, you jackass. Call it what it is.
It was at that moment that his legs decided to give out for the second time since jury-rigging the beam, breaking the embrace. Before he could collapse to the deck, Flynn could feel his partners shift position to catch him.
“It's all right,” Tron assured him. “We've got you. You won't fall.”
“Sorry,” he murmured.
A low, throaty laugh was his reply. “What's to be sorry about?”
The intense feeling of connection ebbed as they gently sat him back on the deck. There still seemed to be a piece of his own life given away, and a piece of theirs in its place. He wondered how much of it was attributable to the strange laws and nearly incomprehensible metaphysics of this world
“That was fun!” Yori said, between nervous giggles that reminded him of Lora. “Intense.”
“What exactly did happen?” Flynn asked. “Pardon the clueless User, but hugs don't work like where I'm from.”
“Energy exchange,” Tron explained. “It probably just overtaxed you. You did just channel an entire transit beam through your system.”
Okay. If they weren't worried about it, he wouldn't be, either. “And that's how...uh...that's how the 'sharing' part works?”
Another round of deep, joyful laughter from the Programs. Yori leaned in and tapped the vaguely triangular shape at the center of his chest. “Oh, that's just the Alpha build,” she said with a sultry mischief in her voice. Clearing her throat, she looked over the side of the Solar Sailer. “We're getting close to the Central Processor. It shouldn't be long now.”
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As the Central Console loomed in the distance, Flynn shuddered. There would be no further help from Alan and Lora, sitting in Encom's offices and "merely" risking jail time. If they had any sense, they'd have hauled ass by now and not tried to go back and get him.
In here, it was very likely they'd all die...de-rez...whatever. Sark was just as much of an asshole as his User, but much nastier without the concept of User law to rein him in. No doubt there would be a small army waiting for them, and Master Control himself wasn't going to hold back. Hell, MCP was petty enough to take the whole system down with him as a last resort.
Already, it felt like he'd lived a small lifetime here. He fought for his life, he'd joined a crusade. He'd killed and watched a friend die in his arms. Even if he did return to the analog world, how could explain the things he had seen?
He spared a glace for Tron and Yori, so much like and unlike the humans that created them. Lora might understand, being as driven by "why not" as "why?" But it was a tragic fact that Alan probably didn't have it in him to comprehend what he had created with Tron.
That...hurt.
'Borrowed spark,' my ass. With a deep sigh, admitted it to himself. He loved them enough to die for them if it came down to it, but he also loved them enough to live for them, even if it meant never seeing home.
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Alan's depicted as a bit of a jerk in 2.0 - worse in the comics. Ghost in the Machine is absolutely *vile.* "Ron the Death Eater" vile. One of the visions that the antagonist uses to mind-frell Jet depicts him *killing* Lora. Yeah - that bad.
Good guy, but...has a very firm idea on how the world is supposed to work that doesn't quite mesh with how it actually does. Dillinger even snarks about it in the novelization. This is the guy you trust with the pager, the car keys, your safe deposit box...but that would still think you're nuts if you said anything that sounded supernatural.
Age and the strain of two wild boys, an ill wife, a vanished friend, a company that treats him like crap, despite trying to hold it together with duct tape and prayer...By Legacy/2.0, he's become very brittle and runs on the verge of collapse. But if he doesn't, then who will?
On the upside, he is the guy who is loyal to the end if he decides to throw his lot in with yours. The downside is that he's got an insanely steep learning curve and a lot of mental resistance to something as fantastic as cyberspace.
Once the resistance is broken? Oh, one scary-level "You thought Flynn was bad? I'm worse!" User.
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Now I wanna see a sequel with Flynn coming back to take them up on their offer... or perhaps an AU where jumping into the MCP doesn't actually send him home...
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1) Trapped on system in 1982? Might be a really killer AU.
2) They'd be too polite to push the issue, but after Jordan dies, they might let their grieving friend know that the proverbial door is still open.
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