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[electrify]

Name: Zuse Castor
Canon: TRON: Legacy
Canon Point: Prior to all the exploding.


Appearance:

Albino glowing chipmunk on speed with a mullet and pimp cane. ...No. Seriously. Albino glowing chipmunk on speed with a mullet and pimp cane.

Height is about 5'9", with white skin and hair, worn long and combed back into a mullet. Eyes are an electric blue with black hexagonal pupils. His casing is white and blue as opposed to the basic black, with glowing circuitry lines on his chest, forearms, waist, hips, and legs. If the casing is removed - it's basically clothing - the circuitry remains on his skin.

History:

Okay, you know how every now and again you start cursing and talking at your computer as if it can actually hear you? Well, it's true enough it can't be heard (so very few know how to put their words where it'll mean something), but inside every computer is a fantastically stylized (and glowing) digital world where all those little Programs that you use? Are given humanoid shape and form and intelligence (...well, shape and form - that last is debatable given some programs) as they carry out their functions for their various human Users.

For ages and ages and ages, this world went undiscovered until one magical day, a hacker by the name of Kevin Flynn was transported into the System, the world within the computer network of the ginormous software corporation known as ENCOM. Now what happened then - well, that doesn't much matter at this juncture, so we'll just fast forward past this, shall we? The important bit to take from that is that Kevin Flynn decided to create his own digital world from scratch. Calling it the Grid, he kept it on a private server tucked in the basement of his arcade mainly to play around with these amazing new concepts. Flynn brought over a security program from the ENCOM network named Tron in order to keep the Grid safe, and created an administrative program - the Codified Likeness Unit, or Clu 2 - in order to keep all running smoothly as Flynn juggled his time between the Grid and the User world.

In order to fill this new world of his, Flynn went and created thousands of programs, and one of these program was called Zuse. Now, the specifics of just how Zuse came into being and what he was originally intended to do vary greatly depending upon whom you talk to, and that certainly hasn't gotten clearer after a thousand cycles. Some say he was a designed as an interpreter function, others that he was an actuarial algorithm - there's a dozen stories, but the real point is that whatever he might have been meant to do, Zuse quickly evolved and grew past his parameters to become one of the preeminent movers and shakers in Tron City. A program needed something or someone - Zuse would be able to get it, no questions asked.

For countless cycles, the Grid went on as it was, a practical digital utopia full of contented programs under the careful watch of the triumvirate of Flynn, Tron, and Clu 2. At least until one day, a new race of Programs appeared - without having been coded and created by Flynn. These isomorphic algorithms, or ISOs, had evolved on their own and emerged from the Sea of Simulation with no set function, and capabilities beyond any Basic program - even ones like Zuse that had grown beyond their prerogatives. They were something entirely new, and to say the reaction to their existence was mixed is... Something of an understatement.

Flynn thought the ISOs were a beautiful phenomenon, and soon began neglecting the rest of the Grid in favor of learning what he could about these "miracles" - much like he'd been neglecting the real world in favor of the Grid, but that's not neither here nor there. But while Flynn was fawning, Clu was more than a tad cautious - unsure about where they came from, he thought they were a potential threat to his goal of making the perfect system. That, coupled with some severe issues with being abandoned for a new shiny, led to Clu slowly fomenting tensions between the Basics and the ISOs.

It was in the middle of all this growing friction that Zuse first met Quorra, a young ISO. She'd wandered into his sector one fine cycle and as Zuse always knows what happens in his backyard, he was there in time to scoop her out of a spot of trouble with some of Clu's overzealous Sentry programs. They fell together rather easily, becoming fast friends. Zuse had never outright disliked the ISOs, instead seeing them as just more contacts and resources to work with - but after Quorra, he began to openly support peace between Basics and ISOs. It was a big step, given how influential and well-known Zuse was with so many factions on the Grid, but. Whatever, he didn't care, he had a new best friend. Many fun shenanigans were had.

As the tensions mounted between Basic and ISO - exampled by the apparent murder of an ISO, Jalen, at the hands of a Basic - Flynn finally clued in to the problem and attempted to ameliorate things between the two factions by appointing an ISO, Radia, to the position of co-administrator - partnering her with Clu so both Basic and ISO interests could be served. ...Clu wasn't thrilled with the idea. And so he unleashed Abraxas - in actuality, Jalen after being kidnapped and corrupted into a virus by Clu. Using this as "proof" that ISOs were nothing more than diseases in waiting, he pushed for all ISOs to be gathered up for scanning and debugging. It was then that Clu made his move - in one fell swoop he usurped power, and ambushed Tron and Flynn outside the digital equivalent of Flynn's Arcade. Flynn was forced on the run, Tron was corrupted into serving Clu without question and was renamed Rinzler, and Clu now had complete freedom to ensure his perfect system. The first step of which was eliminating the ISOs.

Quorra was, of course, heavily involved in all of this - trying to get the truth about what Clu had done re: Flynn and Jalen/Abraxas out to the Grid at large in order to mobilize them against his atrocities. Zuse tried to help her when he could by upgrading her identity disc to allow her greater access across the Grid, and directed her to Radia, who would be able to get word out quickly. But by the time she got to Radia's sector, it was already too late. The first steps of the Purge were lightning-fast and merciless - ISOs were derezzed by the hundreds, rounded up as they were. Those few who escaped the initial strike were soon hunted down and derezzed in the street - and Radia was deleted by Clu personally right in front of Quorra. Clu then took her hostage against Flynn's last truly loyal program - Anon - and the last Zuse hears of any of them is that Anon, Abraxas, and Quorra were all killed in a massive Recognizer crash.

Oh, and in the course of this, Clu had his club blown up. The first time, that is.

So where does that leave Zuse, hm? In a Grid now abandoned by the Creator and under the oppressive heel of Clu, with his friend and all those like her dead. Game over. End of the line. Sure, a few brave Basics tried to resist, setting up factions and underground movements - and of course among those Basics was the belief that someday, the Creator would reappear and put things to right. But Zuse? He was done. So he washed his hands of the whole damn thing and retreated from the scene at large and reinvented himself as Castor.

As Castor, he stepped forward as the gregarious and flamboyant host of the End of Line, a club Zuse had established cycles ago, but had kept running from behind the scenes. He changed his attire, attitude, appearance - everything really - and while Zuse didn't entirely disappear, he did take quite the step back into the shadows. Castor became Zuse's secretary of sorts, deciding who would get any actual face time with the elusive Zuse and who would simply get relayed messages. Guess which of these two options ever really happened and you get a Kewpie doll.

Of course, Clu knew better, and so Castor/Zuse was forced to strike an uneasy alliance - Castor would be allowed to operate freely in his own sector and run things about as much as he'd like, and in return he'd alert Clu to any especially troubling elements who would come seeking Zuse out. Over the course of cycles, the truce stood, business flourished, and Castor dove into being someone without any ties to anyone. At some point he helped Gem, a Siren program designed to aid those gladiator programs in the Games, grow beyond her own parameters and employed her as his right-hand program. She was his eyes and ears in the Games, his trusted courier and messenger, and - most importantly - she knew exactly who Castor really was. Also, she became his girlfriend. She's pretty hot. Yes, this is important enough to be included.

CUT TO A THOUSAND CYCLES AFTER THE PURGE. The Portal - the gateway between the Grid and User world that had last closed the day of the Purge - reopened, and a new User came onto the Grid and not even just any User. Oh, no, this was Sam Flynn, the son of the long-absent Creator. Rounded up as a stray program and put into the Games, his appearance on the board made everything up for grabs again. From the moment Castor heard about it, he speculated nonstop about what this could mean, how he could take advantage of it, and where the son of Flynn would end up.

But surprise surprise - after various adventures and awkward father/son reunions, Sam suddenly appeared in Castor's sector. The second the User blipped on his radar, he did two things: firstly, Gem was sent to acquire the boy and bring him to the club; secondly, a message was sent to Clu's forces letting them know about his soon-to-be guest. Once Sam arrived, Castor was all too quick to invite him up for a private chat and reveal himself as Zuse. He 'agreed' to help Sam get to the Portal so he could shut Clu down from the outside, and in return only asked one thing: just who had pointed Sam in his direction? Sam sighed and told him that her name was Quorra.

...Yeah. Zuse was not expecting that. Hearing that a friend he'd thought derezzed for a kilocycle was alive and well and realizing that he'd just sold out someone she'd trusted him enough to look out for. ...Again. Yeah.

But there was nothing to be done about it now - except not bashing Sam over the head with his light-cane and tying him up all nice and neat for Clu's Black Guard. So as the Sentries burst through the windows and started derezzing left and right, Castor let Sam go to give him a chance to save himself. When Quorra shows up a minute later, he pauses... And then laughs in her face and dives right back into his Castor-persona, dancing and air-guitaring and basically being a jackass. At least until Quorra's arm is destroyed and Flynn - the long-lost Creator - appeared and powered down the entire club before sweeping Sam and Quorra out with him. They almost got away clean, except for the last Black Guard who managed to snatch away Flynn's identity disc - the master key to the entire Grid, the way out of the Portal for Clu, and what Clu had been looking for for a thousand cycles. As the Flynns and Quorra fell away down the ELLYVATAH elevator, Castor derezzed said Guard and took the disc for his own.

With the master disc in hand, he contacted Clu to broker another, final deal - in exchange for the disc, Clu would grant Castor complete and total control of the city. After all, someone would have to run the Grid whilst Clu implemented his initiative of carrying over his "perfect system" over to the User world.

...Of course, Castor knew the moment the disc was in play - his number was up. Handing over this last card, no matter how trump it was, would leave him entirely irrelevant, with absolutely nothing to offer the unit to stop him from derezzing him on the spot. There was always the hope that it wouldn't end that way, but Castor knew better. The only question was how he'd go out - handing over the disc and praying Clu let him off the hook, or actually taking a stand (however symbolic and useless) and not giving up the disc.

Personality:

The first impression you get upon meeting Castor is... Well, I hate to overuse the phrase "albino chipmunk on speed", but. That's pretty much exactly how he comes across. He's overly ebullient, gregarious, off-the-cuff, devil-may-care - he's the life of the party whenever he enters the room, whether or not there's anyone else in there. He's flamboyant - just look at his outfit, stark white and ice blue among a sea of black - and lives to stand out and be a spectacle. Castor says it himself: he is a consummate entertainer, a provider of endless distraction in an attempt to stay focused on something other than the oppressive world the Grid has become. He flirts with anything and everything that moves, regardless of his target's gender or personal inclination (as seen when he flirts with the resistance-geared Program, Sam, even Clu), and personal space? Doesn't know the meaning of the words. He'll poke noses, link arms, hug shoulders, pat cheeks, and if the subject of these very personal bits is discomfited in any way, well. That just makes it even more fun!

One might think this is opposite way to go if one is reinventing himself to avoid detection in a world gone dangerous, but. Think about it. If someone is putting himself that far out there on the edge, right in your face, that's the one you put the least thought into. If everything he is is right in the open, why bother looking deeper? It's in this anonymous ostentation that wraps Castor up in that warm fuzzy blanket of security. It's something he relishes immensely, which just feeds back into his entire smug and smirky demeanor. Plus he knows where all the cards are, who's holding them, and what to do to make whomever he wants do whatever he wants. That's a hell of a power trip. He's definitely a love him or loathe him kind of guy - but even though most loathe him, they still respect the pie-sticky fingers he has, and the black market capability he has. Because let's face it - Castor doesn't run the black market of Tron City, he is it.

Another nice effect of being this brash and obnoxious is that with Castor demolishing the personal space rule, it forces any other Program to keep him at arm's length since he's certainly not going to be the one doing it. He doesn't do friends - there are employees, supplicants for Zuse, customers, and opportunities. Castor basically pushes at people's patience and tolerance until just before the breaking point, then backs off before slowly wheedling back towards that line. It's like a game, really, and he loves playing it with anyone and everyone he comes across. What it adds up to is making one want to get his business done as quickly as possible and then moving the hell on. Thus with no one sticking around long enough to ask questions or to probe at him, he's even safer. Gem is the only program seen being even remotely familiar with him, and even then she keeps to her Siren image - aloof, distant, unknowable. It's more than probably likely that she's the only Program (besides Clu) who really knows his true identity, knows him, and most importantly - she's the only one Castor trusts.

But even though he's tried to bury himself in his Castor persona over time, Zuse is still there... You'd just have to dig very, very, very deep in order to find him. We're talking serious drilling operation here, people. Though we never see him ever really stop being Castor in the film - not even after he reveals himself to Sam, as there's still a topcoat of Castor-ness - we can extrapolate on how he must have been given certain interactions with others, some basic deduction, and a hell of a lot of headcanon.

The first and foremost thing is that Zuse - as opposed to Castor - is subtle. He uses the push and pull he has on the Grid very sparingly and very wisely, never using more than is necessary in order to keep himself in the black, as it were. He makes a point to keep an ear to the ground and keep tabs on as much as he possibly can. He was so damned powerful and influential enough that even after a thousand cycles of being out of sight, Programs were still lining up and petitioning - no, that's not the right word - begging him to unite the various factions of Tron City so they could rise up and take Clu down.

He was also solid, steadfast, dependable, and stalwart enough that again, after a thousand cycles without seeing him, Quorra trusts him enough to send Sam, the son of the fabled Creator Kevin Flynn, for help. Never mind Programs still came to Castor and tolerated him without derezzing his face for the sake of even a possible audience with Zuse - which speaks to how desperate Programs were to see Zuse and receive his help, and how much they didn't want to piss him off by deleting his secretary.

...Now, here's where we go from deduction and inference to assumption and speculation. You've been warned.

Since his Castor persona is a reinvention of himself, one can figure out that their personalities were at totally opposite ends of the spectrum - the reality is a mixed yes and no. Originally, Zuse was absolutely nowhere near as peacockish as Castor would end up being. Think "speak softly, and carry a big stick", stirred together with a wry, dry, and very British sort of humor. He was much more like his fellow Programs than he was in the film - albeit still very human in comparison. Even back then, he wasn't exactly big on the friend deal, being much more interested in the power plays to be made. So he had a great many acquaintances, innumerable contacts, but again - any possible friends were kept at arm's length. Simply good business, you know.

Over all, he was much more reserved than he is as Castor, goal-oriented, and he believed in the plan Flynn had espoused for an ideal, digital utopia - and later, in Basics and ISOs existing together. Maybe not in harmony - but enough to get by.

Of course, the main reason Zuse began supporting Basic-ISO peace was because of his relationship with one ISO in particular - Quorra. Granted, much like Flynn, he'd already been intrigued with the new development on the Grid due to their complexity, their newness, their infinite wisdom and incredible naivete, and the vast new possibilities they opened; besides, he himself had evolved past his initial programming, so he wasn't nearly as apprehensive of these new ISOs as some other, more primitive functions - they were just the next step. They'd simply managed to take it on their own.

With Quorra, Zuse became personally invested in the ISO issue. From their first encounter, he was just hooked. Her curiosity about everything and adorable childishness, coupled with a brilliant streak a mile wide, an iron determination, and enough drive to power the Portal for a cycle and a half... Seriously. Hooked. He let her in, let her get close, and though they just remained friends for as long as they were together, he developed a not-so-small crush on her. You can tell the strength of those feelings when Sam just mentions her name - and again, this is after being separated for a thousand cycles. He's obviously shaken, his voice catches, he has to pause to regain his composure, and he immediately changes subject and redirects the conversation away from her (not to mention Gem - in true girlfriend vs. ex-girlfriend fashion - rolls her eyes hard enough for them to need recalibrating, which must mean that she is sick to deresolution of hearing Castor/Zuse going on about her).

To someone as well-informed and well-connected as Zuse was, he was aware of the brewing hostilities from just about the start of it all. He attempted to step up, to try and shift things in favor of the ISOs, in favor of a peaceful coexistence, but all he could do in the end was stand by and watch the epic, tremendous shitstorm that it turned into as Clu's Recognizers dropped wave after wave of explosives on the ISO communities and the Guard derezzed the ones who survived long enough to run. He thought that maybe, he could help Quorra stop the genocide by getting her to Radia but when the word came back of the lone Recognizer crashing in the wastes outside the city... That was it.

He'd tried. He'd failed. For all the influence and power and favors - when it came down to the wire, none of it meant a damn thing. He couldn't even save one ISO from it all. He watched the ISO habitation buildings crumble, he heard the screams, saw as Clu's fleet poured out of the clouds upon any who tried to resist... Cliche though it is, war changes a man. Same goes for Programs. And it was all that much worse given how close he and Quorra had become.

After the Purge, while Clu was solidifying his new regime by targeting any potential threats to his pursuit of perfection, Zuse knew that he was on the short list of Programs to be dealt with. So yes, his reinvention and Castor persona was him employing the innumerable talents he'd acquired in his very own witness protection, but it was also to totally and completely separate himself from who he used to be. Castor doesn't give a damn about any of that political bullshit or all those Programs looking for someone to turn to, he only cares where, when, and what his next diversion is going to be and how utterly fantastically spectacular it's going to be. When he's busy playing the glam-wham host of the End of Line Club, he can shove the fact that he has to mind those angles and percentages to the back of his mind and just have some stupid, brainless fun and ensure that everyone around him gets an invite to the party.

But underneath that, Zuse is bone-deep exhausted. He's spent the last thousand cycles balancing nine thousand pieces in a game where the board's never changing in his favor. His alliance with Clu has forced him to do some pretty terrible things - delivering Programs outright to the Guard, denying help where it's more than possible to give it, setting up meetings only to have Clu arrive instead of himself... But when it's either smile as you slide the knife in or be knifed yourself. You do what you can to keep your head above water. He does hate himself more than a touch for all of it, but at the same time. It's been a while that he's been doing this, and he's too tired to self-flagellate constantly. So he's at that point where he's more than likely to simply say, "Yes, I'm a horrible excuse for coding, can we move on to the next item on the agenda". If pressed about it, or if someone should attempt to make him feel guilty/bad about it all, he'll get majorly defensive and the charm will go from his usual smarm-charm to biting and bitter. He knows what he's done, okay, he does not need that crap from people who weren't even THERE.

...Oh, yeah, by the by. Zuse is absolutely scared shitless of Clu. He's had firsthand experience of how totally and utterly ruthless the unit can be, and I'd lay dollars to doughnuts that he knows exactly how it all went down, including the corruption of both Jalen and Tron. As much as Zuse doesn't want to be deleted, being infected and re-purposed like Rinzler is most definitely worse. And as much as Zuse is confident in his own abilities, that fear is what's holding him back from taking the reins and leading the Programs in revolt. He may have evolved beyond his original programming, but so has Clu, and Clu's starting parameters? Were so much higher than Zuse's as to boggle the mind, so. No. That was just not happening. ...Which isn't to say Zuse doesn't hate Clu's guts. Because oh, lord, yeah. Most of the time it's overridden by the terror and the louder-than-usual instinct to survive screaming in his head, but. Yeah. It's there. The son of a bitch has been all gestapo on the Grid for a thousand cycles, makes life hell for everyone, and - oh yeah - killed his pal Quorra.

But the anger Castor has for Clu is nothing compared to the seething rage he has for Flynn. See, pretty much every single Program revered Flynn because on the Grid, Users were akin to gods, and as opposed to most human deities, Flynn was there, he'd created them and patted them on the shoulder before sending them off on their merry way. He was very much an active force in the digital world he'd created, and his omnipotent power over all things coded was demonstrated every single microcycle. So as things slowly started unraveling more and more, Zuse was able to see his Creator... Be an oblivious, derpy thing who believed that everything was juuuuust fiiiine. And then, once the shit finally hit the fan - like all signs had been pointing to happening for a while - he just vanished.

It's pretty much like if God was chilling in Berlin in the 1930s and then disappeared to some hut in Costa Rica the day Poland was invaded and the Holocaust got rolling. That's the best sum-up I can think of.

So there's just... This huge ball of resentment, betrayal, anger, and abandonment that's been simmering at Flynn for bailing on everything. He says it to Sam - he's believed in Users once before, and where did it get him? Things went absolutely pear-shaped, the ISOs were massacred, and everyone else had to start fending for themselves.

On top of this, given the way Zuse looks out the window of the club while discussing the Portal with Sam in the club, we can probably assume that Castor's dreamed of, and possibly attempted, getting the hell off the Grid and into the User world. It's a new world, free from Clu, and a fresh start cleared of all the crap he's had to deal with the last kilocycle - the America to his current Casablanca existence. But at the same time, he's pretty much resigned himself to never escaping - the only thing he can do right now is to keep surviving, best he can and through whatever means possible.

Oh, and due to the whole Flynn thing, Castor has... Major abandonment issues. He's tried to combat this by refusing to let anyone get close enough to possibly leave him behind, not to mention not letting himself give enough of a crap that he can't deal with possibly selling them out for his own survival. But. Should anyone get in there - he'll curse and spit and grumble, and then make sure they all make it and stay ahead of whatever might happen. But that hasn't happened for anyone except Gem in the last kilocycle, so. Good luck getting in there.

IN CONCLUSION. Castor and Zuse together are basically a smarmy crust of Louis Rennault wrapped around a very broken Rick Blaine center. If you do not know or understand this reference, you are a cinematic heathen.

Abilities:

Aside from his amazing fashion sense? Uh.

Okay, going from the fact that given he's been around since the earliest days of the Grid, I'm going to say that he's more than proficient with riding a lightcycle (so he'll be able to rock a regular vehicle once he figures out the differences). Another assumption - given that he says he's designed the End of Line Club himself, and has rebuilt the place at least once - is that he's able to code things into existence - almost like a User, but it takes hella more time and effort.

And, since he's said to have fought with the ISOs before the Purge and he's able to knock out a Black Guard singlehandedly, going to also say he's damned handy in a fight with either his identity disc (which can be used a la chakram-style) or his light-cane, which doubles as a laser-rifle. And since he seems to prefer the cane-gun to his disc, will also go ahead as saying he's a pretty decent shot with it - and so would be with most projectile-type weapons once he got used to the differences.

He's also incredibly shrewd, intuitive, manipulative, and able to ferret out information. After all, that's what he's been doing the last kilocycle - he's gotten kind of good at it.

Weaknesses:

Well, since he's not going to be on the Grid... The coding thing is not going to be an option.

If he's injured in a minor way, he won't bleed - but he will leak pixels (blue ones!) and will have to reboot himself to self-repair. Larger injuries will require a User to check the coding of his disc and removed the damaged lines of code.

Inventory:

◦ This outfit
◦ Light-cane (that apparently has a laser-gun-thing in it, I don't even)
◦ His identity disc
◦ Flynn's identity disc