Post by Lee on Jan 13, 2010 0:37:21 GMT -5
Name: Matthew Johnathan Skyes : Matt
Age: 34 Although he still looks about 24
Secret Word:
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Unimportant
Race: Human
Occupation: Translator and Scientist
Human Physical Description: (At least 300 words.)
Avatar Physical Description: (IF APPLICABLE. Not all humans will have avatars, thusly, this category will not apply to all applications. Remove field if your character does not have one.)
Personality: Growing up in a large family, Matt is very comfortable around large intimate gatherings of people, that is to say people who he trusts and who trust him, whose bond is ether Family or very like. When it comes to his peers he struggles. There is a handful that he deems as close friends, but the rest tend to think of him as a pious ass. Whether this is spurred by the knowledge that he is a Skyes, or simply because of his general disconnected demeanor or his uncompromising stance in the lab it is difficult to say. He doesn’t have much tolerance for those who don’t respect or understand the world they are entering into.
From his earliest infancy Matt has had both a powerful independence and an Iron will. He knows that any task he sets his mind to he can accomplish with reasonable certainty. No matter how long it takes he never gives up or in and never stops trying. It is this aspect of him that can be at times most terrifying, because everything else becomes secondary to the goal. It’s best not to get in his way when he gets into this mode.
Above all he respects integrity of character, respect him, respect the mission and respect the place you are in. Ignorance is the worst kind of sin in his eyes, although he does recognize that people are fallible. What makes you ignorant in his book is whether or not you try to correct your errors and are willing to swallow enough pride to become a student and open your eyes to what is around you. Honesty is his trade and currency and he tells the truth no matter how bad it hurts.
There is disconnectedness to him; it appears whenever he isn’t in the lab, studying, or in his avatar. As though there is a part of him left behind in his secondary body, or that it only comes alive when he is enveloped in study of the world that is his passion and obsession. It has been present even in his childhood, and becomes more pronounced every day; it takes people who care to snap him out of this state.
He still has a child like awe of the world around him; everything is worth exploration and study. He could spend hours simply tracing the veins on a leaf trying to understand its function. It is this child like wonder, this sense of consuming curiosity that drives him, and brings him to life.
Where women are concerned, he seems for the most part uninterested, but that could be because no one has ever really tried to connect with him on a level deeper than physically or intellectually. There is a romantic spark in him somewhere that will ignite when the right person shows up, until then however everything is purely mechanical, and a function of stress relief. He says nothing unless he means it, and the words I love you rarely cross his lips to a non family member.
Talents:
History:
Age: 34 Although he still looks about 24
Secret Word:
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Unimportant
Race: Human
Occupation: Translator and Scientist
Human Physical Description: (At least 300 words.)
Avatar Physical Description: (IF APPLICABLE. Not all humans will have avatars, thusly, this category will not apply to all applications. Remove field if your character does not have one.)
Personality: Growing up in a large family, Matt is very comfortable around large intimate gatherings of people, that is to say people who he trusts and who trust him, whose bond is ether Family or very like. When it comes to his peers he struggles. There is a handful that he deems as close friends, but the rest tend to think of him as a pious ass. Whether this is spurred by the knowledge that he is a Skyes, or simply because of his general disconnected demeanor or his uncompromising stance in the lab it is difficult to say. He doesn’t have much tolerance for those who don’t respect or understand the world they are entering into.
From his earliest infancy Matt has had both a powerful independence and an Iron will. He knows that any task he sets his mind to he can accomplish with reasonable certainty. No matter how long it takes he never gives up or in and never stops trying. It is this aspect of him that can be at times most terrifying, because everything else becomes secondary to the goal. It’s best not to get in his way when he gets into this mode.
Above all he respects integrity of character, respect him, respect the mission and respect the place you are in. Ignorance is the worst kind of sin in his eyes, although he does recognize that people are fallible. What makes you ignorant in his book is whether or not you try to correct your errors and are willing to swallow enough pride to become a student and open your eyes to what is around you. Honesty is his trade and currency and he tells the truth no matter how bad it hurts.
There is disconnectedness to him; it appears whenever he isn’t in the lab, studying, or in his avatar. As though there is a part of him left behind in his secondary body, or that it only comes alive when he is enveloped in study of the world that is his passion and obsession. It has been present even in his childhood, and becomes more pronounced every day; it takes people who care to snap him out of this state.
He still has a child like awe of the world around him; everything is worth exploration and study. He could spend hours simply tracing the veins on a leaf trying to understand its function. It is this child like wonder, this sense of consuming curiosity that drives him, and brings him to life.
Where women are concerned, he seems for the most part uninterested, but that could be because no one has ever really tried to connect with him on a level deeper than physically or intellectually. There is a romantic spark in him somewhere that will ignite when the right person shows up, until then however everything is purely mechanical, and a function of stress relief. He says nothing unless he means it, and the words I love you rarely cross his lips to a non family member.
Talents:
- Interpreter – Na’vi is a language Matt Has studied all thought his college years as well as the Avatar Training he received. His comprehension is near total and his accent as perfect as one can get without daily interaction with the Native people. In truth he prefers the melodic and harmonic structures of the language often singing in it just for practice. He is very anxious to interact with the native people, to learn more about the world he has dreamt of since childhood.
- Determination – no matter what the task, it can be pretty assured that if Matt sees it as vital he will see it through to completion. There is nothing in his mind that he is unable to accomplish and any objection to that fact is seen as a challenge. It is this mindset that makes him perhaps both obnoxious and remarkably dependable.
History:
G A I A C O R PThe Gaia Corporation, (GAIACORP) the single largest privately held company in existence and a multi trillion dollar enterprise. Currently run by Dr. Genevieve Alexis Skyes, the company has been handed down from generation to generation since its creation in the late twentieth century. Its fortunes were amassed through a variety of industries, mainly the equipment needed to sustain life on Earth’s toxic surface as well as many private investor projects. GAIACORP is the largest oldest, and perhaps most bitter rival to the Resources development Administration, (hereafter referred to as RDA) opposing them fiercely on ethical grounds.
The biggest GAIACORP programs are Earth Stay, Second Life, Gaia and the Spirit Link Program. The Earth stay program began in the early twentieth century and was revolutionary from its conception; an extensive catalogue and map of the genome of every living thing on earth as well as the storage and culture of clone able genetic samples all cryogenically frozen and stored as precaution against what the then CEO thought was inevitable. At the time the project was ridiculed as the largest waste of company funding and an over ambitious project, but it paid out three times as much revenue as the initial investment and maintenance in the twenty second century with the near total extinction of most of the planet’s native species due to Habitat loss. A proverbial Noah’s ark the project is the database from which most cloning companies pull their source genetic materials. Zoo’s and wildlife conservation programs pay millions just to access the database, let alone what they spend on specimens for exhibits. GAIACORP uses gene mapping to vary the genetic pool of their clones, to prevent the narrow gene pool selection that results in deformities of the clone’s offspring.
The Second Life program followed on the heels of Earth Stay’s success and gain investor support far more quickly than Earth Stay. With the world population burgeoning at twenty million people and still growing in spite of the reproductive laws many world governments were beginning to institute, a desperate need for alternatives to the population problem flared. The Aeries Project is perhaps the most well known, successful, and by far the most profitable. An undertaking that took thirty some years to complete, Mars was transformed into a world reminiscent of old earth. GAIACORP began colonization the year Pandora was discovered. Any who wished to colonize the world had to undergo a three year program, training them in some usable skill, as well as educating them on the recycling practices that would be strictly enforced in their new world. There was a joke amongst the developers of the project, that we learned to create new worlds by first destroying our own, unfortunately there was a great deal of merit to the statement. As part of a good will program to increase good press, GAIACORP footed the expense to transfer hundreds of groups of refugees to the new world, employing many to work on the farms where the luxury items that turned the most profit were produced. With the success of the Aeries project, there was some discussion as to why the same process couldn’t be used to clean the home world. The conclusion was that there was no way to completely eliminate the toxic wastes inorganically, at least not in any safe measure. And the cost of transferring the entire population, not to mention the problem of where to house 20 million humans for thirty years made the entire idea prohibitive.
The discovery of Pandora ignited the long brewing rivalry between RDA and GAIACORP. The interplanetary Commerce Administration granted RDA full monopoly rights to all products shipped derived or developed from Pandora, presenting a unique problem to GAIACORP. Pay 3 Trillion for a limited research team to go as a part of the larger RDA expedition, and lose exclusive rights to whatever came of that research or wait for the RDA to screw up the opportunity. The negotiations had been in progress for the contract when corporate spies leaked Intel on a SecOps shooting on native children after an attack on the mine site. GAIACORP immediately broke off the negotiations refusing to participate in such unethical practice. The matter wouldn’t be disclosed to the public until the native population expelled RDA from Pandora.
It was here that the roots of the Gaia program truly sank in. Perhaps the most highly classified, and controversial of GAIACORP’s many projects, it found its basis in James Lovelock’s Gaia theory, that prior to human intervention, the planet existed in homeostasis, or the biosphere adapted conditions in the atmosphere to make it more comfortable for life to exist. This theory seems more valid when put into the context of Dr. Grace Augustine’s research on Pandora, as per the leaked survival guide. Still it is this concept that led fuel to the fire, and when it was discovered that particular species of Pandora’s botany could in fact reverse the harm done to earth to an extent it gave the world the spark they needed to push for an independent research team to be sent to Pandora. There are of course, some voices who think that the plants will simply adapt the Earth to a more Pandoran climate and atmospheric composition. A more select group works in secret, hoping to retrieve seeds from the sacred tree of souls, establishing a link with their own planets life source, believing that humans lacked the interconnectedness of the Na’vi because it was not built into their biology. The Spirit Link program is the GAIACORP version of the Avatar program, although the GAIACORP Avatars prove to be far more advanced than their RDA predecessors. With new advances in gene splicing and an intensive study into Na’vi Anatomy the new Avatars are capable of a 100% uplink with their human counterparts, and have a much larger range.
Founded in the late twentieth century by James Arthur Skyes, an alternative business man and environmental advocate, it began by producing environment friendly products and services. Gaining power and notoriety during the early twenty first century climate scare, by the middle of the century the company switched gears from preventative choices to restorative work. The first step had been the Earth Stay program, and eventually the projects progressed into the development of the survival equipment needed for survival on the planet’s surface. Unfortunately neither Nether James nor his predecessors could convince the public of the damage they were causing, and it seemed as long as the masses could get a beer and watch the world cup, no one cared. The Rivalry and disagreements between the RDA and GAIACORP intensified after the discovery of Pandora, GAIACORP however continued to invest heavily in off world transportation as well as the spirit link program, until the RDA were driven back and the door was opened for a non RDA research team to Study Pandora. With better equipment and armed with Grace Augustine’s book, the scientific community prepared to return to the strange and beautiful world that is Pandora.W O R D [ 1 1 6 9 ] C O U N T
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E A R L Y . C H I L D H O O D
The Earth is not the brilliant blue green sphere it once was, from space it appears to hang nearly lifeless, a mass of toxic grey and brown. A poisoned world upon which life cannot exist without immense struggle, it is marked by war and famine, urban sprawl conquering its once pristine surface. This is the Earth unto which Matthew Johnathan Skyes was born, in a cold climate sealed room comprised of plastic, steel and concrete with his parents as the only breath of warmth or color. Those few whose memories touched upon their home before, say that mankind lost touch with its origins, with everything that defined them as human, and sacrificed it for meaningless creature comforts and mad science. Still from the very beginning Matt dreamed of a very different world. . .
Genevieve was only the most recent in a long line of Skyes to take over the corporation, and she lived up to her family’s expectations beautifully. An only child, she always felt the burden of her predecessors’ vision and the responsibility to carry it out. It affected her private life to be sure; she had very little time for social events and had to consider the future of the company before even considering marriage. A tall order for anyone really, but there was someone who seemed to fill that order perfectly, Dr. Isaac Gregory Menlo, head geneticist on the Spirit Link program, the two met rather unceremoniously in the cafeteria, and proceeded to eat lunch together every day since. He was the one man who never treated her differently simply because she was his boss, but rather treated everyone with an unsurpassed respect and poise.
When he proposed Gene went over the laundry list of reasons for him to reconsider, she couldn’t take his last name, and wouldn’t be able to stay home with the children. Not to mention the long hours she would end up working as well as what it would mean for Isaac’s career. She couldn’t just hand off the company to a sibling to raise a family, however much she might wish to. Isaac still proposed, ready to face the challenges alongside the woman he had come to love. Gene always felt the weight of her predecessors’ vision, but she found a way with her husband’s help to balance her corporate duties with a modest family life. She gave birth to three children, though Isaac was the one who handled most of the diapers.
Matt was the last of three children, preceded by his brother Gabriel and his sister Adrian. Gene’s pregnancy had been excruciating this time through; she had to be hospitalized for most of it leaving her eldest son Gabriel to run the company in her stead for six months. With all the complications, the doctors’ outlook was bleak for the unborn baby boy, but Gene and husband had much more faith in the tiny life growing inside her, in his strength and their own. He came into the world on August 19th with a strength that seemed impossible in something so small. The Doctor who had over seen her pregnancy called him a miracle child, but Gene just smiled and told them that what they thought was a miracle was simply an act of superior will.
Gene always surrounded each of her children with as much greenery and life as possible, wanting to instill in them at the earliest possible age a fiery passion for nature and a painful awareness of the fact that all our actions bear a consequence. As a result the walls of Matt’s nursery were thick with lush scenes from the distant and beautiful moon, Pandora. A bright mobile of purple bat like creatures danced above his crib while his father would read to him nightly. When his sister would watch him, she would play piano while he sat in his playpen surrounded by holograms that his mother would bring back from business trips, cooing and squealing in delight at the images of creatures many times his own size with no sign of fear. It was the only thing that he seemed to sit still for as an infant really, as soon as the disk stopped playing he would be off in the blink of an eye, a modern day Houdini and a mild irritant to his sister.
There was not a child more loved than Matt, and there was never a father more devoted to the education of his children than what Isaac was. Not one of the Skyes children ever set foot in a public education center; Isaac home schooled each of them hiring in tutors on any subject that drew their interests. Math, Science, Language these were all introduced strikingly early ages and yet their success spoke for itself. By the age of thirteen any one of the Skyes children could run proverbial circles around most college freshmen, to say nothing of the moral foundation they were brought up with. Gene took care of her son’s ‘spiritual’ growth, her own faith unsurprisingly linked strongly with the Gaia theory, much like her ancestors before her. It was one of the reasons that she was fighting so hard for an independent research team to go to Pandora, after the release of Dr. Grace Augustine’s book Matt’s mother found proof of the Gaia theory in the ecology and also the hope at giving her own world a second chance to thrive. The composition of the botany seemed to hold the possibility of cleaning up their world, though more research would have to be done before such a thing could even be attempted; Especially since genetic modifications would have to be made to prevent the alien species from simply altering the Earth’s Atmospheric composition to that of Pandora.
The discussion over sending a research team to the alien moon sparked within Matt a dream unlike those of most thirteen year olds. It was Matt’s most fervent hope to earn a position on the expedition, something he badgered his parents about for months. Isaac told his son he would have to get a PHD or MD in order to even be considered, a thing which his son took to heart and after months of debate and persuasion Matt enrolled at the Skyes Institute, pursuing dual major in the field of Ecology and Biochemistry with minors in Botany, Genetics, and Language. His parents were concerned, that he was taking on more than he could handle, and to an extent they had valid reason for concern.W O R D [ 1 0 8 6 ] C O U N T
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C O L L E G E . Y E A R S
Matt’s education was a harsh one; The Skyes Institute holds the title of being one of the best schools of its kind, and with good reason. The percentage of students who passed the entrance exams was less than 1 and of that one percent only half earned a seat in the classroom. To say he got the spot without help from his parent’s considerable wealth and influence would taste a lie, but perhaps a more accurate explanation would be that his parents helped the admissions board see past their son’s age. Matt’s scores on the exams spoke for themselves, had he been older he probably wouldn’t have needed his mother to intercede on his behalf. The condition of his admission was that he keeps up with the course work with the understanding that he would be afforded no more special considerations on the part of the faculty. The clause had been intended to discourage Matt from enrolling before he turned eighteen, but he and his parents had agreed to the condition. Matt’s father had been reluctant of course, but he knew his son’s capability and obstinacy better than anyone. Matt wouldn’t be happy unless he was pursuing in full force whatever goal he had his mind set on, and more than anything else the Skyes wanted each of their children to find their own happiness.
Matt had originally set a goal of completing his degree in seven years, ambitious it was truthfully unrealizable considering the broad fields of study he had chosen. Most of his peers treated him with distain because they believed he had purchased his way into the academy, others treated him like a walking freak show, something that had to be pulled at and prodded until the fraud was discovered and revealed to the waiting audience. It was his unshakeable confidence that bridged arrogance that seemed to unsettle and irritate his peers most. The problem was, he had every reason to be confident in his abilities. Socially he was far from popular, but he wasn’t quite an outcast either, as he got older he seemed to find his own niche of friends who accepted him and some who shared his dream.
Perhaps the most important among his peers was Isabella Thorne; she was accepted during his eighth year in the institute and proved to be one of the most promising biochemists the school had seen in years. Matt himself often felt intimidated by her, and at the same token he could think of no one he found more attractive as a person. With Isabella attraction meant more than looks, in that category she could best be described as ‘cute’ standing just at five foot four inches. She was pale as pale could get with short brown hair and bright silver blue eyes and a temper that would frighten a sailor. Her biggest passion however was the Avatar Program, and her goal (like so many really) was to join one such program and work on developing the Hybrids for future trips to Pandora, maybe even securing a position for herself on the expedition.
Perhaps that’s why their relationship seemed to flow so naturally at first, she seemed to be one of the few people outside of his own family that could truly grasp his passions. It started simply enough, they shared the same lab station in different classes, and would often run into each other when coming in to finish an extra lab or get a head start on a project. Coffee, lunch, dinner, sharing an apartment and later a bed. They seemed like the perfect couple to everyone on the outside, but there were things beneath the surface that others didn’t see. Matt was a workaholic, desperate to finish his degree he was falling farther and farther behind his goal with no end in sight, still he lived for those brief hours with her in his arms, cooking dinner or just passing out from exhaustion. Isabella began working as an intern at RDA, working later and later until eventually she stopped coming home. He came home from a particularly rough night at the lab to find their bed empty, all of her things gone. She left a note saying she was tired of living with only a shadow of a person, and that if he ever figured out what was most important to him to give her a call. He never did call her; he was too hurt and too proud to admit that she could hurt him. He stayed away from relationships after that, graduating two months later, a full four years behind his predicted seven, but he was at the top of his class.
The application was sent the day he graduated, and his acceptance to the Green Mother expedition was celebrated properly with his family. The scientific community managed to get approval from the ICA (Interplanetary Commerce Administration) to send a non RDA expedition to Pandora. GAIACORP along with Hecker would be funding most of the expedition, a fact which didn’t hurt Matt’s application one bit. Truth was Matt’s avatar had began the splicing process when he entered The Skyes Institute, to avoid damage done by using growth hormones thus shortening the life span of the avatar by increasing the aging process unnaturally. Avatar training was a blur to Matt. It seemed so strange to think that he was so close already, that in just a few years he would be on the surface of the world he’d dreamed of since childhood. The language was easy for him, he had studied it all through college, and was fluent by the time he left Avatar training. On his twenty-eighth birthday, Matt went into cryo sleep, waking up fifteen years later to take his first steps on Pandora.
