Mission Day

SIGNIFICANT EVENT 000000000514 IN TIMELINE 000000002025

Text record of pivotal event 000000000514

(2024/05/14 19:01 - 2025/5/14 14:32)

[Accessed from Timeline 000000000000 via the LorCapita Laser-Cannon]

K-FLYNN:

so what's this, a text post online somewhere?

R_KLEINBERG7:

um yeah i think

in one of those timelines where we're like. characters in fiction or something?

K-FLYNN:

whaaaaa?

coordinates of occurrence: Timeline 000000002025

[location in-universe: post on Tumblr social media web site ]

(2024/05/16)

post by blogger Astercontrol

so I was brainstorming what sorts of creativeness I could try for next year's Mission Day, if I wanted to try and help reclaim that for the fans

which is me being SUPER overzealous, because I only just found out about the existence of Mission Day yesterday

lol who am I to even get involved in this

(BUT who am I to do anything... and yet I still do.)

... For those who are just a few days more behind-the-times than me:

apparently, back in 2016, there was a line in a TRON game which said that May 14 was "Mission Day." Some fans got excited that maybe something cool was gonna happen that day

akin to the Flynn Lives ARG starting in 2009 where fans were led on a whole fun adventure, following clues through a network of webpages (seriously, if you don't know about THAT, take a look)

but no, this time it turned out nothing happened, and people were disappointed.

and when I heard about that, my own rebellious side went:

Who wants to do this with me?? Like a fanzine but more... interactive, multimedia

Maybe it'll take a year, or more, but, like... what if some May 14 you start seeing fanfics posted on AO3 with mysterious clues in them, leading to a webring of Neocities sites all mysteriously connected in their own cryptic ways

Fanlore, fan-made stories, drawings, maybe even animations and games. Fan OCs getting their own place in all of it

Not beholden to whatever f'd up version of the Hays Code the mouse is currently following. So there'll be all sorts of LGBT stuff, all colors of the rainbow and all colors of circuits....

aaaand THEN

then my brainstorms got tornado-strength and I came back to reality some unknown time later with a mess of crazy plans just for the STORIES that could start this scavenger hunt

(the websites are breeding their own plotbunnies and I will face that later)

(I am still not even slightly convinced that I will have the time or energy for ANY of this)

BUT... there is a whole year til next May 14

so....

just a whole disorganized pile of ideas, starting here

Multiverse

Hypothesis: the spiritual energy that makes programs alive is something that functions on many planes of existence, and can connect different realities.

Someone finds out a way to tap into this with the laser technology, enabling travel between different Tron worlds and different alternate timelines.

(Maybe the "miracle" of ISO DNA somehow ends up being relevant to this? Alan quoted Flynn saying this was supposed to revolutionize everything; he even mentioned quantum teleportation? seems like a powerful mcguffin that never got used, might as well use it)

Some Tron AUs that may connect here:

Post-MCP scenario where the originals of the programs that were copied for the Legacy Grid go on living happily in the ENCOM system (my main headcanon that I write in)

Other scenarios where the programs brought to the Grid were eliminated from the ENCOM system and there's no original left behind

Variations on 82, Legacy and Uprising:
Different interpretations of how digitization works, how consciousness forms within the system, etc.

Post-Legacy extrapolations of Tron's future on Flynn's Grid

Tronzler restored by Alan and Sam;
Tronzler regenerated as an ISO by the Sea of Simulation;
Tronzler regenerated into an eldritch horror by the Sea of Simulation;
Tronzler dead;
Tronzler emerging from the sea still broken and half-rectified
etc

Other post-Legacy possibilities

Clu survived in some form after the reintegration;
Flynn survived in some form after the reintegration;
Clu and Flynn both survived in some form after the reintegration;
Clu and Flynn are one merged entity after the reintegration;
Clu and Flynn are dead;
Sam comes back again;
Sam comes back and brings Alan and Lora and Roy;
Sam never comes back and someone else has to try and make things work;
Yori and Ram are still there;
Yori and Ram are not there because they were never brought;
Yori and Ram are not there because they were killed;
Yori and Ram are still there but different because they were rectified;
Zuse survived;
Zuse survived and he turns out to be an amalgamation of an interpreter program hacked and taken over by Ram and he has an epic bitch session with Tronzler about their various struggles, betrayals, split personalities and changes of identity
ETC.

Various post-Uprising and pre-Legacy possibilities:

Beck and Paige eventually join forces and/or fall in love;
Beck and Paige eventually kill each other;
Mara and Zed find out who the Renegade is;
Mara and Zed die or get rectified before they can ever find out who the Renegade is;
Tron becomes Rinzler because he is later caught and rectified while Beck is forced to watch;
Tron becomes Rinzler because the rectification process in the last episode managed to infect him before he was saved and he ends up suddenly turning bad at the worst possible time for Beck;
Beck becomes Rinzler instead of Tron;
Dyson somehow comes back;
the Uprising team meets Zuse,
etc

Various non-canon-compliant AUs in all these settings

Ram didn't die in 82;
Ram did die and so did Flynn and then Tron defeated the MCP on his own;
Tron tried to defeat the MCP on his own but failed and MCP was never beaten;
MCP was beaten but Flynn died in there and died in real life;
Flynn survived and got out and tried to build the Grid but Alan and Lora managed to stop him from ruining his life by trying to do that alone;
Alan went into the Grid in Legacy instead of Sam;
Tron never becomes Rinzler;
Flynn or Ram becomes Rinzler instead of Tron;
someone else becomes the tyrant instead of Clu;
Able didn't die
etc, etc.

....anyway

imagining a scenario where various versions of characters from all these timelines connect via the Laser (Head)Cannon

(terrible working name, but it amuses my terrible sense of humor, so there)

....gonna re-read Ram: Expanded by kesomon because there's a fic in there (Interlude- Reprieve) about a similar connected multiverse

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25366543

there are many stories one could tell within this.

But I think I want to tell one with the theme of rebellion, throwing off oppression, expressing freedom and autonomy

...

example for one storyline within it:

the "In Ram Jurisdiction" plotbunny

After Ram is recovered and comes back to life in the Encom system, his original insurance company calls for his destruction.
they have their own backup and don't need the Encom copy returned, they just demand that Encom delete theirs.
because he was stolen from them by MCP
even though Roy wrote him at Encom, they bought exclusive rights to his code so they own him.
Ram and Roy and their friends launch a legal battle.
maybe upgrading Ram in the process so he can be considered a protected derivative work under Fair Use

...

also could take some inspiration from the brilliant fanfic "Anthem," a reprise of the story of TRON 1982 for the world of DRM and musical copyright

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28223541

...because

...this theme of seeking freedom comes up in every iteration of Tron

and the feeling behind this whole over-ambitious idea here... is a celebration of the vast diversity of fan-created content

an overarching theme of wanting to claim this world for the fans-- a theme of the copyright-holding corporation as Oppressor

Fan Mission Day
Fission Day

(day of splitting, separation, becoming independent)

TRONdependence Day

(2024/05/26)

post by blogger Astercontrol

Update on the Mission Day project I mentioned earlier.

Lots more detail at that link, but to summarize the main points:

Back in 2016, there was a line in a TRON game which said that May 14 was "Mission Day."
Some fans got excited that maybe something cool was gonna happen that day
akin to the Flynn Lives ARG starting in 2009, where fans were led on a whole fun adventure, following clues through a network of webpages
but no, this time it turned out nothing happened, and people were disappointed.

and when I heard about that, my own rebellious side went:

Let's make our own interactive Mission Day fan ARG!
Like, what if next May 14 you start seeing fanfics posted on AO3 with mysterious clues in them...
leading to a webring of fan pages and fan blogs, all connected in their own cryptic ways... easter eggs and sneaky links on them all...
Separated by rating, sure, with proper warnings and everything, so people can see the stuff they want, and avoid what they don't...
but NOT restricted by the rigid and sorta LGBTphobic censorship of canon.
so potentially offering a LOT more diversity in fanmade art, writing, comics, animations, games... anything we wanna make.

...And as I got started on this brainstorming, a few things occurred to me.

First:

The main focus of this should be celebration of the great variety of fans and the different ideas they have
and a declaration of our freedom from the "official" owners of canon
Since fans have such a wonderful abundance of different headcanons and AUs, many of which are not compatible with each other in the same storyline...
this will have to be a multiverse.

So.

I'm working on a framing device (one of the entry points to this ARG; perhaps not the only one) which is a webpage featuring text chats between characters, in one of the timelines
It will show their communication as they test a new adaptation to the laser technology, which opens up connections to alternate universes
Then the links to participating fan pages will be listed at the bottom... framed as a record of "different timeline branches" opened by the laser

aaaaand from that point out, the exploration is free.

Anyone who wants their page of fan content included can get in touch, and links can be added anywhere.

So anyway that's my concept. Dunno how long it will take-- maybe the whole year til next May 14, maybe more. Maybe the whole thing's way too ambitious for me to bite off at this point in my life, LOL...

But, anyone who wants to get in on a private chat planning this, or at least talking about it? Feel free to DM me. I'm doing stuff already, with or without y'all, and I'd love to swap ideas.

I've got a Discord server set up for this now-- message me if you want a link, or to chat about this anywhere!

I'm interested in ideas from anyone else who knows more about ARGs than I do.

I've never really made an ARG before, and I'm going into this kind of blindly with my own idiosyncratic ideas of what would be fun...

which is mainly just "it would be cool if there was a multiverse of different fan pages and stories, all connected to each other in interesting ways that you could find by exploring semi-hidden links and clues on each page"

But all I really have planned out for this so far is that one entry point... (the html page featuring a chat between Encom characters starting up the interdimensional laser to access all the different AUs)

(and a vague idea that various fan pages can be accessed from links on that page)

I think a lot can be done through just linking different relevant materials-- which I've already done a bit of, in just that chat page, where the links to "Event 00000922" and "Gibson" lead to video files and the link to "ROLLO_3.77" leads to a fic I wrote

But I envision this as a very free sort of fan collaboration, where each person can make the experience fun in their own way

so... what other sorts of paths/discoveries/activities would you like to see or create? Feel free to comment or DM or whatever <3

(2025/05/19)

post by blogger Astercontrol

Sooooo.
approaching the last few weeks of April here, programs!
Pretty soon...

It's Gonna Be M(Ission D)AY!

which, for various reasons of my own, I feel like expressing from a very... fanwork-oriented, canon-critical, take-it-back-for-ourselves sorta perspective.

soooooo

I have been working on ... well, I don't know if it qualifies as an ARG like the whole Flynn Lives thing, but....

...it's a sorta-in-universe(s?) access point for a possible connected webring of Tron fan pages.

It has two access points so far-- and two different in-universe framing devices for the branching timelines of all these fanworks.

One is from @spaceandthedigitalfrontier (thank you so very much for the idea!)

The other is my own personal nonsense

Anywayyyy

Here's one entry point.

Feel free to explore.

You can find some things already, through the links there.

A few will be NSFWish, but there will be clear warnings. I am NOT gonna adhere to the Disney Hays Code (this is our OWN Tron, with booze and... purple...) But I want people to feel pretty safe and comfortable with the customization of your own experience that this allows you.

(The things this connects to, at the moment, do include a very VERY beta version of my own personal fan site. It's not ready for any sorta public reveal-- LOTS of pages are not complete yet and just have placeholder stubs. But it's ready enough to offer sneak peeks to anyone who cares enough to hunt it down like a buncha E-Aster eggs.)

I am hoping to add more and more pages and keep this growing-- through May 14th and beyond.

Let me know if you have something of your own you'd like to connect. Or want to make something! I am all for helping people get more independent webpages set up. I am NOT an expert, but I'm learning, and maybe we can learn together.

(okay okay here is one more sneak peek at my site. For people who are suuuuper eager to find Other Ways Of Connecting that aren't dependent on social media dystopia.)

...

K-FLYNN:

Roy. with all possible respect. wtF was all that

??? ???

R_KLEINBERG7:

um i mean

just guessing here but

we think we're the ones categorizing all the universes we access

but thats just from our perspective yknow

i guess probably every universe is trying to categorize stuff its own way

from its own perspective or whatever

as you gaze out into the cosmos the cosmos also gaze into you

or like

youre either dreaming youre a butterfly, or you're the dream the butterfly's having about being you

i dunno it probably makes sense if you try and think of it from one of your zen viewpoints or something

K-FLYNN:

....

...ok. point taken

...have to go sit down a while.

[Back to Timeline 000000000000]