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helloblobbyblobfish · 2 years

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Imperfection in the reflection

Synopsis: CLU 2.0 wonders why did Kevin_Flynn named him after a program opposite of himself.

Well, don’t ask me how or why C.L.U 2.0 would know about 1.0 when the previous namesake died in another system, that Tron never met the program and that Flynn strikes me as one who tells nothing to anyone if not forced. I just wanted to see fics about the original C.L.U, and I saw a kinky sex fic between the two C.L.U.s, a sex torture fic (2010’s A03 was like Tumblr, I have no idea what my feeling is about that), two fics in which they are brother-like and I thought: “Why, Yes! Character introspection. Haven’t seen someone using their differences. And Make it angsty!”.

And so this fic came into my mind, with many headcanons because C.L.U 2.0 had like 6 motivations depending on the actual writers for the franchise and 1.0 had interactions with almost no one and no clear personality, so choices had to be made. We also see two VERY biased opinions on Kevin, so this is supposed to sound OOC to an extent.

The luminary is looking at himself in the reflection, looking at His new pageantry outfit. Everything needs to be perfect. If He doesn’t look perfect, is perfect, how is He supposed to obey His directive and create the perfect system?

He, C.L.U, the system administrator that managed to reach His directive and over-succeed despite his User’s abandonment. At the thought of Kevin_Flynn, C.L.U. grasps the cape He was meticulously assessing. He immediately panics and tries to smooth over the wrinkles in the texture His anger created.

No, He shouldn’t be angry that Kevin_Flynn betrayed him. The User forgot what they were supposed to build together. For violent, directionless, imperfect, dangerous, uncaring I.S.O.s. And it has been nearly 800 cycles since He last heard of the User. Hence the preparations for the celebration. He remembers Kevin_Flynn told Him that Users’ age. Maybe he “died”, whatever that means. But C.L.U. doubt it. He would have known it. The system administrator would feel the de-rezzing of the system’s Creator, wouldn’t He?

It didn't matter. The Creator didn't care enough to give Him an original name. C.L.U. Codified Likeness Utility.

He thought the name meant He was the equal of the Creator. But instead, Kevin_Flynn reused old concepts. And he had the added hypocrisy of naming the program meant to create the perfect system on a hacker program.

He shouts. He, named after a thing who destabilized systems for the petty interest of an User who thought himself superior to beings with directives.

He looks at himself in the mirror, trying this time to hide His annoyance.

He hears the broken noises of Rinzler. Right, his enforcer is here. "Don't worry, man. I'm just thinking about Kevin_Flynn. He named me after another creation of his, can you believe it?"

"N..No." His own creature seems unsure of his answer. Scared it is a trick question. "No, I guess you wouldn't. After all, you are loyal to the one who programmed you, are you not?" He gets close to the program, who unlocks his helmet out of habit.

He gets a good look at the scars covering Tron's face. Maybe He should use that adorable visage to crush that renegade's propaganda in Argos? Meh, He might as well let General Pavel deal with it. And if the sadist is really as incompetent as Tesler, maybe a public recreation of what happened to Dyson for failling Him one too many times to squish this silly "Tron Lives" movement.

He rubs Rinzler's jaws to show He isn't angry, but before He does anything else to the dutiful program, there is a knock at the door. C.L.U. waits for Rinzler to hide his face before allowing entrance. Jarvis and Shaddox enter. He smiles brightly at the two.

"Your Luminary." Jarvis bowed emphatically. Shaddox remains still. C.L.U. remembers he should make him pass through the newest upgrades of rectification. Shaddox was a test for an unused form of repurposing where He tried to find how to keep a program's skill but not have them act on their own.

Yes. He let him keep his face in the name of their friendship. He ought to grace the architect with a programmed loyalty. "Is it ready?" He asks Jarvis. Shaddox isn't likely to talk to Him, no matter how much C.L.U. wishes He was told how right he was about Ophelia, Gilles and their ISO hordes of viruses and grid bugs.

He is shown a truly remarkable new stadium that will allow for much more impressive games. "Truly, this rotating gravity cage is magnificent. And the complexity of those lightcycle executions will be unmatched. Truly impressive. You've outdone yourselves, both of you. Now, send it to the worker programs."

"Yes, Luminary." Jarvis quickly bows out. Shaddox simply salutes. "Oh, and, Shaddox?" The program is walking through the door. "Sentinel, stop." That stops his old comrade. He feels something akin to guilt for a microcycle, but it's gone the next. "Come back in half past seven decacycles. You are in need of an upgrade." He receives a nod of acknowledgement and Shaddox is on his way once more.

The System Administrator can see the worry in Rinzler's posture. "Don't you think he deserves to talk too?" He coldly states. At last, those were two programs who would never learn their savior share a name with the biggest disgrace a program can be besides a stray.

He takes a look at the list of programs that could participate in the games. Mercury, Jet, certainly. Two excellent pilot programs. Baxter for the ring games. This info the sirens found about him helping Jalen train for his attempt to dirty the games. Maybe he'll have him fight Rinzler as a final "challenge" if he resists well. Nobody is showing promise in tank battle amongst the prisoners. And it would be a waste of sentries to have them in both corners. But the entertainment value shouldn't be neglected.

Truly. Could a mere hacking program saving Kevyn_Flynn's monetary hide hope to accomplish what He did? He sighs of relief. Seeing the relationships he was able to build, unlike an hacking trash who would always be hunted, allowed him to get out of those imperfect thoughts.

Kevin_Flynn must have been so disappointed to see his "perfect program" betray him and become as volatile as the MCP. That made the figure looking at the statue of the tyrant shudder a bit, but he knew a sign of obvious fear might cause him some problems with the pattroling sentries.

Securo was really easy to outwit, but the foreign program was a lot more wary of the new C.L.U.'s army. He remembered Sark and his cruelty. They were skilled, but he heard most of those "followers" might be "repurposed", or "rectified". Seemed the great leader decided to use a less disgusting term to describe his awful actions.

C.L.U. 2.0.

What had convinced Kevin_Flynn to name this… Abomination of a program after the one he called "the perfect program?" Well, given how this impostor talked about perfection, he might have tried to recreate his master opus, as Kevin_Flynn liked to call him.

But a hacking program couldn't hope to become a system administrator. They were too free and connected to their Users' wishes to direct other programs. They would try to do it like a virus. That might explain the unthinking movements of the sentries. He thought about the false identity disk he had to make to infiltrate this new Grid. Maybe there was an idea.

He moved to a remote street. It wasn't a big town, and Stragos didn't have an open rebellion going on like Purgos, Argos or Ram City, but there were still quite a few soldiers. Using his hacking abilities, he created himself a platform above the ground, hard to identify from the street and easy to drop from. Thankfully, the whole new Grid was coded in a style similar to one he knew, so it was pretty easy to make some changes.

He watched as two sentinels approached his corner. One was sadly talking with the distorting effect of his helmet but the other had the robotic mouvements he was waiting for. He felt horrible when he fell on the aware program and slit his throat, but it was needed, a quick grab of the derezzed program for later, and he managed to avoid the spear thrown at him.

He wondered about this new C.L.U. fighting abilities. The previous one was more of a talker and pilot. But the second was taking a bit from the MCP in abilities. He decided that it didn't matter for now, and he should focus on the kicks the reprogrammed citizen threw at him. A particularly nasty punch broke his hat. The soldier stood in surprise.

"You!" So they could speak? Unexpected, maybe useful.

Then, the sentinel knelt when he dropped his cover and his original lines appeared. His former adversary unstrapped his disk and held it to him without prompting. He started typing changes in programming.

The destruction of any individual personality trait or directive, replaced by too simplistic for comfort and meant for a group of anonymous husks programming, was making him feel uneasy. But he must have shown it too much, as the soldier suddenly jerked and tried to get his disk back. Thankfully, it was easy to write new lines over the empty spaces whatever C.L.U. 2.0 used had left in the memory space.

The figure just had to drop the identity disk in its place and the sentinel was unmoving once more, its line maybe a bit whiter than before. The stranger had the time to merge the disk he stole with himself to take on a new identity. It confused his new ally, for as much as the term could be used to describe a puppet, but more reprogramming fixed it. He was shocked at how easy it was now. Did no one on this Grid know how to affect programs?

The MCP would have found this technique too much of a liability and the previous C.L.U. would have been derezzed ten times over rather than do such a sloppy work. Kevin_Flynn was too good a programmer to make such an incompetent program, especially if he used 1.0 as a basis. What had happened? The memory of Brin, the soldier he killed, didn't have anything worthy to explain what happened. Seeing those ISO and what they could do…

Did Kevin_Flynn try to imitate them with this C.L.U? They had the same directionless behavior and belief they could compare to Users? Really, seeing it from the point of view of a soldier of his own regime, C.L.U. 2.0. was weak compared to the MCP or the "great User" Thorne. They did so much more in not a 1/100 of the cycles it took the copy to set itself for failure. And they did not need as many soldiers or technology. What was the goal of his action?

He instructed who he could only name sentinel 592 to pretend he was only Brin. They got insulted by commander Karlov for their failure to intercept a strange program. Given what had happened to the forces in Argos, he could see why she would be worried about a potential rebel.

But he managed to convince her it was presumably a stray. Strays. What a horrific concept. Might have been the one time where C.L.U 2 managed to do worse than the previous programs who fought Users. Being forced to wear an object that keeps all your secrets or forgetting yourself.

But as he sat next to sentinel 739 and discreetly modified his program by only slightly moving upward the disk and forcing a reboot after each added line of code, he thought he would make a surprise to the being who bore his name.

And if he managed to approach Tron with a city peacefully rejecting his legacy's power, maybe he would avenge Kevin_Flynn, who must have died fighting 2.0 till derezzing like he did with the MCP.

So, about the programs’ names: Mercury is a lightcycle champion program from the 2.0 game, and the sequel comics introduce us (spoilers) to a digital copy of the hero of that game, Jet (for Jethro). I can imagine Kevin finding it funny to call a super-cool badass biker program after a plane nickname of a baby.

Securo is from the 2.0 spin-off game "Tron: Killer App" (the game boy version). He is the firewall program in charge of stopping outside breach and remote hacking… and sucks at his job, on top of speaking very slowly and barely being capable of moving. I can buy him having been created in the 1980's. And we know Kevin didn't mind taking some stuff from Encom for his grid.

Shaddox is an architect-turned-bartender (who grew wary of C.L.U. after some cycles) at what is implied to be the End of Line introduced in the Tron: Betrayal comics (some backstory for Legacy, mostly about CLU growing resentment towards Flynn and hatred of ISOs and Kevin spreading himself thin with too many things.). But it's weirdly Zuse, the owner of the bar, who is taking care of drinks in Evolution and Legacy, and C.L.U 2.0 has some clear issues about wanting acceptance from his loved ones…

I named Brin after Sergey Brin, Google co-fondateur. Fun fact, I like to think sentinel 592's original name was Reginald.

And don't ask me either how C.L.U. 1.0 came back to life and how he managed to reach the Legacy Grid when it was self-contained on a computer. Fanfiction magic.

Might redo this story or write a spiritual successor. not fully satisfied.

#tron #tron: legacy #tron: betrayal #clu 2.0 #clu #tron clu #tron legacy #tron 1982 #my writing

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