(no subject)

[userless]

NAME: Anarin
JOURNAL: starlit_dragon
EMAIL: anarin@gmail.com
AIM: Zeteram
WIKI NAME: anarin
CHARACTERS: Freelancer York/Delta encryptedlock


CHARACTER NAME: Gibson
FANDOM: Tron: Evolution
CANON: Chapter 5, as his lightcycle crashes
WHAT THEY LOST: The identity of Kevin Flynn as the User. He knows he helped rescue the User from Clu, but he wouldn't recognize name, face, voice or other identifying marks of Kevin Flynn as belonging to the User. This is important to him because, like many other programs, Gibson reveres the User on a deity-like level; being unable to instantly react to any threat to Flynn will make him ineffective in any sort of protective role, and even if he were to be convinced that Flynn is the creator of his world, he'd lack the emotional ties he already has for the User in connection to him. He'll also probably mistake Flynn for Clu because of this.



ABOUT THE CHARACTER: Gibson is a proud, independent, loyal isoalgorithm. Like Quorra but unlike the majority of programs from the Tron universe, he was not created by the hands of a User, but emerged spontaneously from the Sea of Simulation on the Grid in TC148 (about 1986). By the time of his canon point, he's 153 cycles old (subjectively 153 years but in real world time, about 3).

Gibson's special talent is energy transfer optimization. He has an innate understanding of energy systems and how best to put them to use - for a program, energy is the only fuel the society needs, so this is an extremely valuable talent. He was assigned to the engineering sectors so he could put his skills to use, but left after a violent incident with the Basics there who displayed prejudice against ISOs. Dissatisfied with Basic-dominated society, he and several others moved to the recently-founded, isolated Bostrum Colony in the Outlands, an ISO-only enclave set apart by its green power lines. Unlike the bureaucratic theocracy (later dictatorship, once the User vanished) present in other cities, Bostrum Colony developed a form of democracy and Gibson was elected by popular vote to the ruling council. Here he found an excellent use of his talents - it wasn't easy to provide power to Bostrum's nearly 7,000 ISO residents so far from the main sources of power on the Grid, and it was common to see programs aggressively self-modifying themselves to better take advantage of the limited power supplies. This challenge suited Gisbon's pride very well and he thrived, happily calling the Colony the last truly free place on the Grid.

He holds no grudge against Basics as a whole, though, and like many programs he revers the User as a god (using such phrases in canon as "User almighty"). When the Abraxas virus first began to show itself, he made his way to Zuse's End of Line club to gather information and overheard Quorra and System Monitor Anon describing what they'd witnessed: Clu's coup and the apparent deaths of Flynn and Tron. Angrily, he left the club and investigated for himself, managing to find Flynn and spiriting him out of Tron City to escape Clu's minions - and being captured for the Game Grid himself in the process. There, he was rescued by Anon (by tricking Anon into taking his place). But, because he's loyal and proud, he kept his promise to get Anon out by crashing into the games with a Recognizer and flying off with the Basic.

Returning to Bostrum Colony to reunite the Monitor with the User, Gibson found Flynn gone and most of his city ravaged by the Abraxas virus. He sadly dispatched his friends who had become infected and helped the Monitor to track Flynn further, even putting himself between his friend the Basic and Abraxas himself by crashing his Light Cycle between them - at which point he enters Paradisa.

Gibson's demeanor is easygoing, even when he's in captivity and sentenced to almost certain death. However, he also brooks no insults and has the fighting skills to back up his words. He specializes in baton combat and also has Operator-class privileges in Recognizer and Light Cycle piloting. He takes down several heavily infected Bostrumites after the virus attack and helps Anon dispatch several of Clu's elite Black Guard without any seeming effort. His mind is constantly in motion; as an engineer he uses this to refine his energy systems and it no doubt helps him be effective in combat as well. Even after his canon point, when he's infected he manages to retain a sense of his individuality, telling Anon how to defeat him and fighting the pain until the very end. Other infected programs don't show this at all, instantly becoming mindless monsters. This is a tribute to his strong willpower and his pride in himself.

Bostrumites are described as fiercely individual, and Gibson is no different. His tracklighting is green like the rest of his colony and his hooded jacket often falls open, revealing the tattoos on his chest. Though he has this rebellious streak, Gibson is very fair-minded. He admires and respects the User and gives Basics the benefit of the doubt, as shown by his rescue of Flynn and his willingness to gather information at Zuse's bar and assist Anon. Holding on to an elected position for over a hundred cycles must mean that this fair-mindedness extends to decisions and judgments related to politics as well, because he's hardly a smooth-talker. In fact, more often than not he comes off as snarky or cocky in his speech, and if it weren't for his actions he'd probably be perceived as cruel. Although a bit deceptive by omission, his loyalty is demonstrated by the many times he risks, and eventually sacrifices, himself for his allies and friends.



THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: The fifth subsector was showing fluctuations again. Gibson nodded as the other program delivered her report, making a few mental notes and wondering if it was finally time to replace some of the aging capacitors. That would mean sending out a trading party to one of the other enclaves, or maybe even Arjia City, which could mean a delay of ten or more microcycles until the problem could be fixed. Annoying, but new capacitors would solve the problem for at least ten or fifteen full cycles.

Assuming, of course, that he could confirm that was actually the problem. He could send someone, but it was quicker--and more efficient--just to go himself. If it was just a faulty line somewhere, he could reroute it and have everything up and running in moments.

It wasn't long before he was perched up at the section he'd isolated as the cause of the irregularity and dipped his hand into the energy flow. From here he'd be able to sense the root cause--but he drew his hand back with a startled exclamation. That wasn't green at all! It was--there was some kind of foreign influence, draining it, making it turn yellow. Much more cautiously, he stripped off a glove and lightly tapped his finger against the yellow section.

It was unmistakable this time. That was a distinct sensation of something he hadn't felt in cycles: physical pain.

Quickly, he shut down the immediate subsector and leapt down from his perch. For now, the residents in this area could head over to the third subsector, but he'd have to call a council meeting to see if anyone else could handle this or if they were going to have to hire an expert from Arjia.

Gibson could handle anything the Outlands had to throw at them, but this was a virus.



FIRST-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: [Gibson picks up the book curiously. It doesn't have any visible or otherwise detectable power source and, not having had experience with this sort of device before, he doesn't instinctively flip it to the most recent page. Instead, he pages through from the beginning, starting a bit at the recorded voices and frowning at the different kinds of handwriting. Digital letters were much easier to read - uniformity did have certain advantages, after all, and as much as he was proud of his unique appearance, the engineer in him certainly appreciated that some things should remain constant.

Eventually he flips through the massive number of pages (being unsurprised that they fit easily into the lightweight book; data was like that) to the blank one at the end and mutters "hmm", starting again as it appears on the page in a familiar Grid text format.]

This is seriously how Users communicate? Could it get any more inefficient?

[He's not terribly impressed.]



INTENT: I've been quietly liking Tron since well before Legacy came out, and the original movie in all its cheesy, 80s glory holds a special place in my heart. It was one of the great early pieces of fiction that gave real personalities to AI or programs. Naturally, when Legacy was announced I got back into the world of Tron and devoured the related media, though I've kept mostly out of the fandom. Gibson in particular was an instantly likable character to me, and even though he was only in the game briefly, the "Tron File" on him was more than detailed enough to give him a working background.

Recently, I've also noticed that it's becoming harder and harder to get York and Delta involved in castle events or new people appearing because York especially has become jaded. With nearly all his important CR having dropped at least once, some of them multiple times, it's like pulling teeth to get him to develop strong bonds with anyone new because he'll just think they're going to leave on him--and, in most cases, he'll be absolutely right. To get myself more involved in the community as a whole, I decided it would be a good idea to app a fresh face. I've toyed with several ideas, but Gibson fits what I want to accomplish in Paradisa: someone with enough curiosity and technical knowhow to be intrigued by the world, friendly enough to strike up a conversation with a stranger, and with enough conflict inherent in him to keep things interesting. While I don't have any specific plans for him as of yet, I think he'll be a good enough addition to my current set to justify picking him up.