astercontrol:

Having shippy Tron fic thoughts today, and find myself a bit stuck on why there is so very little written of the Alan/Roy ship.

Like virtually none, as far as I can see.

I mean…. okay, I get that Roy barely even appears in any of the Tron source material. Which is probably most of why.

‘Cause in 82 he’s just Popcorn Coworker, and the only hint of him being Ram’s User is that he’s played by the same actor and he’s cubicle neighbors with Alan just like their programs are cellmates. Which… blink and you’ll miss it. I wonder what headcanons anyone even had about him before Legacy and The Next Day short came out.

Now, being the devoted 82 fan that I am, I’m happy to disregard any later canon that I don’t like. But I will readily accept that The Next Day happened, and that Roy Kleinberg is the same guy as Popcorn Coworker, and is the programmer who wrote Ram.

And there is… well, I’m not gonna say “tons” or “a lot” or “no shortage” of Tron/Ram fic, because I very deeply feel there should be MORE…

But, considering the amount of Tron/Ram there IS… and considering the supposed echo between worlds, and the influence it has on relationships on both sides…

I dunno.

Maybe it’s just that the few glimpses we get at Roy are enough to convince a fair number of fans into the headcanon that he’s ace/aro

…while his program, in contrast, is a slinky seductive twink who’s easy to headcanon as the guy who got nicknamed “Random Access” even before anyone in that prison compound knew what his initials stood for.

And, this could all just be a sign that not everything mirrors on both sides.

BUT it could also be a sign of the “Programs are a manifestation of the Programmer’s ideal self/ inner desires” headcanon, and…. That could be Fascinating to Explore…

now that I’ve given it some more consideration I think the most fascinating part of it is that, unlike Ram and Tron, I have some real difficulty imagining either Roy or Alan making the first move on the other

I mean… even if they were feeling an *overwhelming attraction* they didn’t know what to do with (maybe in echo of what their programs were up to, in the style of that Alan/Kevin fic “And the Table”) 

Even then, I imagine them both just being far too proper and repressed to act on it (though, to be fair, all the characterization we get comes from that movie and there is NOT as much as I’d want in order to make good predictions of behavior, especially for Roy)

So I kinda think it would take either an absolutely off-the-charts level of outta-control horny, combined with being stuck with each other in a space neither one could leave

Or, intervention from Lora and/or Kevin (either of whom I can absolutely imagine playing matchmaker in the interests of expanding the polycule)

(I’ve been thinking about this because when I brought this up on discord a while ago, one of my friends there suggested a truly lovely scenario for how this happens and I am STILL thinking about it)

(even though I am TRYING to limit my screen time lately because I’m literally harming my health with how much I’ve been sitting at the computer lately but OMG the hotness of that damn movie…)