The Professor
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Personality
Arrogant, egotistical and extremely self-conceited. He believes in the ultimate power of science and considers himself the most elevated a human mind can be. Very aloof and collected in his interactions, he's contemptuous and haughty. Only in his old age he eventually began to mellow somewhat - if only with the people he's closer to. Expand
If you were to describe the Professor in as few words as possible, you might probably say that he is ego personalized - walking, living, breathing ego. He is very well aware that he's highly intelligent and analytical, and looks down on the world from the knowledge that his "superior intellect" will never be within the grasp of most "ordinary" minds. That makes him arrogant as few others; he knows his contribution can't be matched, and that even in present days he can take on an entire research team in a day's work, so he'll feel entitled to treat other scientists, head of states, politicians, governors and religious figures with the same mix of condescendence, contempt, and mild derision (the latter might not be immediately perceptible though because he can and will be subtle).
As a result there is no challenge, no matter how seemingly impossible, that he won't take home with shining colors just to show he can do it; a prime example being how he "tricked" even the natural course of life, spending centuries at a time into stasis to prevent his own passing, while also having created his own "clone", an essentially immortal cyborg whom he has every plan to school into taking over his work after him, so that his knowledge and greatness might live on eternally.
Believing that his knowledges, and science itself, gives him rights to which "ordinary" people are privy, he has very little qualms and even less scruples when he sets out to something. Although he is usually condescending toward the labor of others, if he finds something noticeworthy in the research of a later-time scientist he won't hesitate to make enough changes to "improve" it and then claim the final result for his own, which if you ask him is not intellectual property since only his input gave the original material the boost to express its full potential. As for ever acknowledging to be wrong on something.... well, it's the kind of thing you wouldn't hear him say dead.
Morally speaking, he seems to always hold himself in a sort of "grey area"; he operates within the laws - technically - and is always very careful to exploit loopholes and logical fallancies when he must breach outside of it. Yet his moral compass is looser than most people; he does not value the lives of individuals half so much as he values the progress of scientific development, and has little to no empathy (except when it comes to his entourage, who are the only ones to which he will show a slightly more "caring" bend). However, don't make the mistake to think this makes him easy to corrupt; money, or any form of material rewards, hold absolutely zero interest to his eyes and any attempt to buy his services will be met with open derision. The promise of power is just as irrilevant since even in his younger years it was not power in his own hands he sought, but control over figures who detained it; Ghertivel was always a "grey eminence" behind the powerfuls and that suited him just fine. He can be swayed to work-on-hire, but only with an insane amount of grovelling, begs, and exclusively if he should be the one to decide that the project at hand holds even the slightest interest for him.
Given all the above it's easy to see why a lot of people find the old scientist frankly insufferable, which suits him just fine since it allows him to conduct his experiments in near reclusion. It's not impossible to deal with him, though; if you have enough patience to put up with all his airs, and can provide him an intellectually stimulating challenge, he might decide that he's willing (at his time) to meet you halfway on that pier.
Likes: science and pushing it past its own limits, research, developing new technologies that will shape the world the way he thinks it should work, successful experiments, studying, working without "external" assistance (no one can measure up with his greatness, so all they would do is slow him), intellectual challenges (stimulating but sadly oh so rare; it's why he started challenging the rules of life themselves!), when government and politicians and worlds beg for his assitance.On a very minor note he enjoys the company of Alysanne. And sometimes Newton when he's not trying to trash his lab. And sometimes Curly when he makes himself useful as a babysitter.
Dislikes: people who disparage his work because they don't understand its genialty, what he calls "the three i" (incompetence, interference, insolence), fools who wear their heart on their sleeve and let the thirst of knowledge succumb to moral qualms (science trumps morality any time), those who think they can buy his work (money is but a construct of the human mind to project value on easily available items and bits of code), children (except Newton when he's not trying to trash his lab), religion (science, not some deiety or other, governs the universe), when other scientists less qualified than him have the AUDACITY to back talk him, forced social interaction (he lives as a near hermit for good reasons!), past times (... who in their right mind would WASTE valuable time that could be used for greater projects? And just to be idle?)
Fears: hahahahahaha that's a good one. Really funny! If there was anything in the world he ever feared, he'd have LONG figured out how to obliterate it. To atoms. Of anti-matter, preferably.Some, however, claim that he has an unexplainable and completely irrational phobia of sheep. But it's surely slander and rumors.If you whisper "Baaah" when he's not looking your way, he might be freaked out. He might also have you tossed in a spare parts compartment until the compartment rots when he realizes there wasn't actually a sheep.
Strenght: highly intelligent. There is no denying that; while his perception of what's "feasible" might be totally skewered from most humanity, he has a memory like no other and can juggle complex calculations in under five minutes, as well as be able to work with, and upgrade, any kind of electronic or cybernetic devices he comes across even if he's never seen it before (at least if it's human tech; he gets a good educated guess at how alien technology works - but that's it). Give him a riddle and he'll solve it without even looking up from his books. An unforeseen problem with a project? He can probably list ten or twelve solutions off the tip of his fingers. Blue screen of death? He'll rewrite the entire OS to interface with anything from national security to the NASA, then dismantle the computer and rebuild a quantum particle accelerator in its place. And if you complain that in less than 24h you could have just bought a new computer he will reply that you just Don't. Rush. Science.
Weakness: he's... not really "crazy", but sometimes thinks in such large scale that his vision is often misaligned with the "real world" around him. So he needs someone to keep him grounded to reality, and it's usually Alysanne. She's also the closest thing to a moral compass he has. However with her having such a deep influence in his life, he could be potentially very volatile and deranged without her. Or maybe, simply, a broken man.
Sexuality/Orientation: Asexual / Demiromantic
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Biography
Early life and Studies
The middle of three children, he grew up in a family that believed firmly in science. His parents were scientists, and in due time both Leonard and his siblings took after their footsteps. Eventually, he became the one member of the Ghertivel family that people would remember and talk about the most. Gifted with above par intelligence and an outstanding IQ, he was the child prodigy of his schools, taking multiple classes for years and graduating when still underage. At seventeen, he was already a teacher and not even a decade later he became a University Dean. His career was a glorious one, crowned by a number of awards and recognitions - including a Nobel in Physics.
In-depth
Leonard Ghertivel was born in San Francisco, California, on 15 April 2002, the middle child of scientists Jonathan and Margaret Ghertivel (née Dilling). His parents had a great fascination with science, which resulted in his being named after such famous scientific figures as Leonardo Da Vinci, Pythagoras, and Michael Faraday. Ghertivel’s older brother Isaac (b. 1999, d. 2088) and younger sister Marie (b. 2006, d. 2098) were also named in honor of Sir Isaac Newton and Marie Curie. In 1979 his maternal grandfather, Everett Dilling, had been head of a gaming industry in Washington DC that paved the way for a new generation of "smart" videogames interfaces - but he was forced to retire some years later, after he was brought up with charges of abuse of office.
Leonard walked right into his family's footprints from the youngest age. He had a predisposition for study and was gifted with an incredible memory and a queen, inquisitive mind. A child prodigy who took three (and in his teens, four) classes a year, he graduated in Science with Education when just thirteen and was appointed as teacher some months before reaching his 17th birthday. At nineteen, he took a double major in Engineering and Physics, and became a Professor in Computer Science and Information Systems when just shy of 21. Not even a decade later he would become Dean of a prestigious University, a place he would held for the next four years. At fifteen years old, his IQ already was an outstanding +199, the highest record documented at the time. He was assigned a number of awards and distinctions for his discoveries, including the European Medal for Bio-Inorganic Chemistry and the Nobel in Physics.Professional Career
Teaching alone, however, could not satisfy his egotistical spirit and an inquisite mind that wanted to achieve great things. Four years later, he retired from his office to become one of the most famous researchers in the world. He was appointed the lead of pool of scientists, but ultimately would dismiss most of them and work alone, obtaining faster and much more astonishing results. The entire scientific world bowed to him, yearned for his approval but also dreaded his judgement, for his was the final say that could make or destroy the work of years. Yet for all his grandeur and the aura of respect that surrounded him, he led a reserved life in a manor at the outskirts of Chicago, concealing a massive underground lab where he carries out his most important, and strictly classified, projects. Among these was the retrieval of some old codes created years before by his grandfather, a videogame designer who had attempted to create a new, revolutionary Artificial Intelligence. Ghertivel acquired his original patents, enhanced them to the light of modern technology and his own superior knowledge, and created the A.R.G.O protocol; an all-powerful Artificial Intelligence that controls his network and can interface with any mainframe or device.
In-depth
In 2034, he retired from academic teaching and became an increasingly influential and powerful figure in the scientific world. He had a lot of decisional power, and in 2044 he and his staff supervised the thoroguh mapping of the human genome; however, as the firs estimations were deemed "disappointing", Ghertivel eventually dimissed the pool of scientist who had been working with him and took the matter entirely in his own hands. In a couple of months of hard work he had completed the map and presented his revolutionary discoveries to the International Scientific Congress; afterwards, his career would just skyrocket, making him the ultimate authority in science and the man whose approval every single researcher tried to earn.
During his career, Ghertivel was respected by many and feared by most for his intolerance of shortcomings, disappointments and failure of any kind. His own co-workers were shown to be afraid of him, and other scientists struggled for his approval which was extremely hard to earn; it was said that he could make or destroy a career with just one word, which over time made him ill-liked by many - most of which, however, never dared to question him openly, keeping their resentment strictly secret.
For all his brilliant academic results, Ghertivel was always a very reserved person and his social life, aside for work, might as well have been non-existant. He took residence in an old manor at the outskirts of Chicago and secretly developed a labyrinthine lab under the manor where he worked on classified experiments and researches.
At the peak of his career, one of his first goals was to acquire the parents for his grandfather's old software codes. Using Everett Dilling's applications as a skeletons on which later improvements and modifies were hung, Ghertivel was able to project the technologies a long way into the future, paving the way to a new generation of advanced A.Is and robots. What he told no one was that his true goal was to get his hands on the projects of a revolutionary (for its time) attempt to create an all powerful Artificial Intelligence. Everett Dilling's projects and blueprints for it would be expanded by Ghertivel over the next sixty years, and eventually became the outset of the A.R.G.O
protocol; an intelligent, ever-expanding mainframe in control of Leonard's lab, able to create its own backups, access other networks no matter their level of encryption, and interface with any kind of technological device, taking full control of anything as simple as an AMT money machine or as complex as an entire manufacturing factory, hospital ward, or scientific department. Like many of Leonard's most important projects, A.R.G.O's existence was kept secret from the world, although in the ensuing decades the Artificial Intelligence's foray into restricted databases would be many, all of them unnoticed. This allowed Ghertivel to be always several steps ahead of others, both in the scientific world and when it cames to politics.Personal Life
Although many hoped to work with the Professor, still Ghertivel had few meaningful interactions in his life. He and his parents were never close, and his relationship with his siblings was non-committal. However, he did acknowledge their competence in the field of work, he just stopped thinking of them as "family" a long time ago - if he ever did. During his years as a top class scientist he ended up being the direct superior of his older brother, but had no qualms when it came to accept his resignment as the latter developed a serious drinking addiction. All through his life he never entertained relationships, casual or meaningful, with men or women and never got married, nor showed any particular interest for other human beings.
In-depth
His relationship with his family was strained at best. During his younger years, he was always absorbed with studies, and in his adult life there was no room for family bonds of any kind. While he did recognize his parents competence when it came to science, he also considered both of them to be "people of average intelligence", and thus unworthy of his time or any particular attention on his regard.
The same could be said for his siblings. His sister Marie dropped out of teaching to get married with a Russian man; after which, she and Leonard never had any further contact. His brother Isaac worked under his supervision for several years as a chemist, but they were always on distant terms and did not frequent each other much - outside of work. In 2075, when Isaac Ghertivel's drinking addiction became problematic, his dismissal was approved by Leonard, and that was the last record of an interaction between the two brothers. However, upon his passing, Isaac's will left a rare botanical specimen to his brother, which Leonard had delivered to his mansion on the very day of his funeral. He also greenlighted the donation of his brother's organs and DNA for a top-secret genetic engineering project, possibly recognizing that their common DNA made Isaac stand out as "superior" to other donors.
His cold, noncomittal attitude always kept people at arms length. However, solitude seemed to suit the reserved scientist just fine. He never felt any want for companionship. In fact, he often showed little tolerance and understanding for any shortcomings that might rely on family issues, since he believed family ties were just unnecessary cumbersome for researchers.
Disappearance
Despite the increasing rumors that wanted him to run for Presidency or in the very least at Congress, politics never seemed to interest him most and he showed only despise for the powerful, graciously agreeing to work with them only when their begging act was good enough for his whims. But this would all change abruptly as the man who might have been this close to sell the world suddenly started being less and less heard from. Allegedly busy with some top secret research from which he couldn't be swayed, he eventually disappeared from the public scene, leaving behind his heritage in history books for centuries to come. But his mysterious disappearance concealed an even grander plan; the Professor set out to cheat death itself, spending centuries in suspended animations with his lab entirely run by A.R.G.O. On given timeframes, he would be awakened to check out how far technology and research had come, and finish some side projects, before returning to his millennial sleep.
In-depth
For all his ambition, however, he never tried to enter directly in the government (despite receiving many pressures to become a Member of Parliament and Congressmen, with a fraction of staunch supporters who would even want him to run as POTUS). Ghertivel preferred to work in the shadow, making himself the indispensable advisor of all nations leaders - and not just the head of states of his own country; he was a grey eminence, subtly manipulating the powerful into playing right in his hands, and that suited him just fine.
Eventually, there came a moment when the "golden man" who had left such a profound mark on the world of science and technology seemed to disappear off the social radar, only replying sporadically to working contacts with a laconic declaration of being hip-deep at work on researches so complex, he could not afford even a moment's distraction. As time passed, these contacts became more and more sporadic, leaving his contemporaries in the blank as to what had befallen the Professor. Some spoke of an illness, perhaps a degenerative disease that had pushed him to retire in order to not let the world know about his real conditions. Others spoke of a ploy by his competitors, or possibly an assassination attempt gone wrong. But after even the occasional communications ceased, it was generally assumed that Ghertivel had met his end. Still, his influence was all but forgotten; his name became one of the most remembered in history books, right alongside the great masters of past age. To date, his works are studied in Universities and a fundamental corpus for researchers all over the universe.
Ghertivel, however, was far from dead; intending to trick even the natural cours of life, which would eventually claim him as he aged older and older, the Professor had himself hibernated in the secrecy of his lab, with the A.R.G.O protocol overseeing to everything in his absence, and proceeding to wake him from suspended animation at given intervals, so that he could get himself up-to-date with the current levels of technological advancement and carry out some side projects before returning to his artificial sleep. This process continued, never-changing, for millennia on end.
During the time he spent awake, he would eventually contact the most eminent people of the "new" time: rarely, if his interest was piqued, offering to boost their discoveries from the height of his own superior knowledge, but most frequently just mocking their efforts and showcasing their weaknesses - which, often, resulted in grovelly requests for his help and supervision. If he felt the begging was sufficiently good, and the project had potential, he would "consider" the offer, though any attempt to buy him over with money and favors would get the same scornful derision that had courtesigned his approach to figures of power in his own "life and time". After his contribution was over, he would cut off communications and return to his millennial sleep, leaving his now-contemporaries with the rather troublesome issue of how to explain the involvment of a person who should have been died millennia before, and who had just vanished off thin air again. Many of those who tried to boast their collaborations with him were, in fact, considered "not fully there" in the head - and, in the worst case, even locked up as madmen. It is possible - nay, it is almost certain - that he had taken the eventuality into account, if not downright planned it himself.
In recent years...
Ever since, his existence has been shroud in mystery; few people have come across him, and most of these weren't believed when they claimed to have been contacted by a legendary scientist who lived in the far past. He has, however, been operative for the last couple years, together with a robot assistant and a chimera that carries the last genetic heritage of his deceased brother. His bizzare "family" saw also the completion of his newest, most ambitious project; his own clone, with additional cybernetic implants derived from the android Alysanne's own blueprints. An indestructable, eternal copy of himself who will carry out his intelligence and work when he should be no longer of this world. Or maybe, merely, the child he never had...
In-depth
Recently, he has been active again - though only a selected few are aware of this. His lab is in full activity, operated solely by himself and A.R.G.O, with the assistance of one of his "test-bots", which goes by the name of Alysanne. Although Ghertivel has often resorted to her aid in the past, he considered her as nothing more than another of the many appliances on the lab. But recently, something seems to have changed in their dynamics. Perhaps fueled by the robot's steadfast devotion - which overwrote even her programming - or by her decision to stand by his side when some other units of her line went... rogue, Leonard began to increasingly rely on her. A mutual bond of respect was established... and, over the years, it's possible that something touched the otherwise steely heart of the old scientist, a feeling he was not prepared for. Could it be... affection?
To most people who ask, he'll never confess the true depth of his feelings for Alysanne - whatever they might be. In fact, he tends to be noncommittal around her. But she's, undoubtedly, the only person that he'll listen to, and the only one who can sway his decision. Their bond grew closer and closer, until he decided to not only put her apart but also make her part of his new, more ambitious experiment; creating a cybernetically enhanced clone of himself.
The experiment proved successful. The clone was created in a dish, and artificially raised to the age of about six years old. While the DNA is all Ghertivel's, the cyber-implants are derived from Alysanne's blueprints and include, most notably, her self-repair utility which in fact made the little clone impossible to damage - and immortal in his own right. Naming him Newton, Leonard considers him to be his greatest achievement ever; a version of himself with endless years to gain an even wider knowledge and intellect, and ultimately able to defeat death for good rather than elude it by and by. However in more informal terms, he treats Newton like his and Alysanne's child. And so the recluse, the solitary man who never wished a distraction from his lifetime's work, has finally felt the longing for a family of his own - eccentric as it may be.
Or even more than that - as over the years he also managed to salvage the project for the chimera experiment that was meant to result from his brother Isaac's DNA. He has, thus, completed the work and brought the creature to life, taking notice of how it - he - displayed human intelligence pretty much from day one. The chimera, by the name of Curly, seems to share some personality traits with the late Isaac Ghertivel, and some if not all of his memories; as a result, the two occasionally banter just as two long-term separated siblings would, and Leonard has often charged Curly with his "nephew"'s custody, usually when he is afraid that Newton will destroy something valuable in the lab.
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Professor Gallery
A gallery of great art of Leonard done by various talented artists!
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Character Ties
Family
Curly (played by cri86titanium) An experiment derived from my brother Isaac's DNA, which seems to have preserved some of his personality and mental faculties. In fact, he very often sounds just like he IS Isaac. Acquaintance
Yaazecsus (played by Leighoflight) Partner of my would-be brother, some kind of unlikely, highly volatile shapeshifting pretty boy chimera which has miraculously not yet imploded for some reason. *Sigh* Isaac's always been sentimental, that's his biggest flaw. 
Light Raygun (played by cri86titanium) A nuisance who seems to have decided that just because my brother had the hots for her late husband, and I helped her deliver her third offspring, I will be willing to assist her in the future as well. Absurd, fanatical, nonsensical. 
Antadurunnu (played by Leighoflight) A boarish, plague-ridden hillibilly crafting illicit unpatebted chemicals in a shack on sone remote world that I had the misfortune of visiting THANKD TO MY DEAR BROTHER AND HIS PARTNER opening dimensional gates all over MY LAB *glares daggers at Curly and Yaaz*