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[popcorngifs]

[ Here are some lines of Unix. You've probably never heard of it, more underground than the random lines of code you see in mainstream Hollywood. how does computer ]

[ After that impressive but ultimately unnecessary display of Unix, there’s momentary radio silence before whatever was trying to get into the system activates the audio function. That

Comments

[Audio]

[fight4theusers]

[This is a voice he thought he'd never hear again. After all this time... the last he'd heard of his User was in the old System, through the garbled interface of the I/O tower. The voice has changed, slightly, but there's no mistaking it.]

Alan-1! You're... here?

[Audio]

[popcorngifs]

[ Well there's a voice he recognizes. But the possibility that it was the program he wrote back in the eighties, quite literally, in the flesh, was not the first explanation to come to mind. ]

An interactive system that mimics the user's voice?

Thought of that in '95.

[Audio]

[fight4theusers]

[How could his User not know him? Granted, it has been a very long time...]

No... no, that's not...

Alan-1, my User. It's Tron. I... I am very glad that you are here.

[Audio]

[popcorngifs]

Tron?

[ He repeats it like it will suddenly make sense. It doesn't ]

I wrote that program back in '82, hell, last I heard it wasn't even in ENCOM's system any more. And Tron- Tron is my old programming nickname, Flynn would call me that.

How do you know all this?

[Audio] KEYWORDS RELEVANT

[fight4theusers]

[Tron tries to calm, but for his User not to recognize him... has he changed so much? Fallen so far?]

Yes... yes, you did write me, back then.

[And he called him an "it." Does Alan-1 really think so little of him?]

Flynn brought me to the new Grid... I... much has happened since then.

[He hesitates, unsure if this is the right way to go about telling him everything.] Perhaps if we were to meet, I could explain better. Where are you?

[Audio] lmf- /sad violin

[popcorngifs]

[ If you're having Grid problems, I feel bad for you son. But I got ninety-nine problems and this ain't one. ]

Alright, I promise to be reasonable if you tell me who put you up to this. Or even who gave you that kind of information, and, I'm sorry but, the Grid?

[Audio]

[fight4theusers]

No one put me up to anything. I... I don't know how I can help you believe that I am telling the truth. I am Tron, the program you originally created.

[Tron's voice is becoming increasingly agitated. Why doesn't his User know him?]

Flynn brought me into the new system he created, to be his security force, many cycles ago. He... never told you?

[Audio]

[popcorngifs]

[ Alan takes notice of the change in "Tron's" voice, and decides not to press an answer out of him. Yet. ]

I don't think Flynn would have let something so important to slip his mind, especially if it concerned myself or one of my programs.

Look, I'm having what amounts to the longest day of my life and, I never thought I'd be saying this again, but Flynn is coming for me. Maybe...maybe he can clear this up.

[Audio]

[fight4theusers]

I'm sure he had a reason... I...

[Tron's entire world is getting turned upside down here, Alan. Give the poor program a break. He pauses, and there might be something of a choked sound that's quickly cut off.]

All right, Alan-1. I will... leave you alone. I do hope Flynn can explain things better.

[Audio]

[popcorngifs]

[ Alan feels like he should say something, though he isn't really even sure why. Something in his gut was resonating an undeniable sense of guilt, that was the only word he could put to it, and again, he didn't know why. Should he say something? But, what? He didn't even have a grasp at the situation at hand. ]

Yeah, wouldn't that be something?

[ It felt cheap, but they were the only words he could find. Flynn, you better have some explanation for all of this. You owed him that much. ]