loop while answer, by infiniteviking (G)

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Fandom: TRON
Pairing: gen
Length: ~1,200 words
Author on LJ: infiniteviking
Author Website: fanfiction masterlist
Warnings: Mild spoilers for Legacy. Angst.
Why this must be read:

Because every fandom needs a Figwit, and since Legacy came out the leading contender for that position in the TRONverse is Vint, the Program who briefly talks to Sam on the recognizer (“Be quiet if you want to live!”) and teams up with him in the lightcycle match. This story uses Vint as a way to present an elegant, if horrific, solution to a question raised by fans — if the Games are to the death, and they’ve been running for a thousand cycles, how is the population of the Grid still so large?

His jacket was tight again, new, like him; every time he broke it in, it leveled off just a little differently. They were all shuffling into the corridor, all the losers together: some weeping, some panicking, mostly veterans, grim and resigned. A hand latched onto his arm, and he turned quickly in case someone he'd ended wanted to even the score, but it was only Landin, squeaky-clean little Landin who never would have been here if he hadn't stumbled onto their secret meeting nanocycles before the sentries raided it.

"Vint," gasped Landin, shaking in his oversized boots. "Did they just, out there -- he got me, I was -- why am I still alive?"

It’s illuminating and entertaining to approach canon from a supporting character’s point of view. Vint doesn’t know what’s happening, but he knows something is happening.

"It'll be all right." The words were innocuous, a simple plaintext that Vint had repeated less and less often over the cycles, but they felt strange this time. The guards led the next batch of programs through the gate, and he closed his eyes briefly as he realized it was because this time, somehow, he meant them.

“loop while answer”