Revised August 29, 2006 to include some things that have popped up in the main EGS Forum, mainly in the Abilities/Artifacts and Physical Abilities sections.Revised September 20, 2006 to finally explain the System/360 HyperCluster and the tendency for the Professor to throw 1201 AlarmsRevised March 24, 2007 to fix broken link (curse you, Comcast) and add a link to some info on the original Sailor Moon S version of the ProfessorRevised September 3, 2007 to include info about the devices that protect the lab from intrudersRevised April 24, 2008 to include info about new items introduced in various RPsKeenfans RP (or wherever the character might appear)
Name: ProfessorTomoe
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Height: 6' 4"
Nationality: Half Japanese, Half American (Central Texas, on mother's side)
Species: Human on the outside (see backstory)
Build: Slim, but not skinny
Hair: Hidden in a jet black shadow most of the time, but it used to be white.
Eyes: Never seen. No visible facial features for that matter, other than a wide grin and a blue aura around his round spectacles.
Skin tone: Usually hidden in jet black shadow, except for his hands which, when seen, are a normal Caucasian flesh tone
Intelligence: Unmeasured
Education: PhDs in genetic engineering and nuclear physics while human (see below)
NOTE: ProfessorTomoe is based upon the character by the same name from the "Sailor Moon S" series (here's a
link to info on the original Professor). However, the backstory and other details are different. The appearance is identical except that his head is never seen outside of the dark shadow that surrounds him (he's learned from past mistakes).
General Personality: ProfessorTomoe is quiet when in public. He likes to watch things happen from a distance, and on occasion cause those things to happen (again, from a distance). Rarely deals with other people, but is friendly on the outside when approached. When he does deal with others, it's usually for one of two reasons:
1. He wants something.
2. He wants to affect something.
In the case of #1, he always makes sure he has something to offer in return. The second case usually involves him either setting something in motion or tampering with something that's happening.
He loves to watch things go awry, but he is not necessarily evil. He may jump into a situation and save everybody's skin (from behind the scenes), only to see that they're dumped right into another equally bad if not worse situation. He could be described as "chaotic neutral." Then again, it's not wise to pigeonhole him into that description...
Background: ProfessorTomoe was born Tomoe Souichi in Austin, Texas, to a Japanese father and an American mother. His parents met while graduate students at the University of Texas. The family moved to Tokyo when he was seven so that his father could teach chemistry at Tokyo University. He followed his father into the sciences, earning a PhD in genetic engineering and another in nuclear physics by the age of 32.
The Professor was heterosexual while fully human. He never married because he never had time, but he did have several relationships that ended mostly on friendly notes. Sex is now mostly irrelevant to him, but his human side is still straight.
While collaborating on an experiment with a team of exobiologists and nuclear physicists, he was involved in an accident that destroyed the lab and most of the building it was in. He was the only survivor. The experiment sought to investigate string theory and how the multiple higher dimensions it predicts would affect organic matter. Something went horribly wrong, the upshot of which was that he was now the host of a being from another dimension. This being saved him from death and changed his appearance to what he is now. After a brief furor in the Japanese press over the incident and the (unreleased) fate of the survivor, he disappeared from public life.
He is the host of an alien creature, but not necessarily an unwilling host. The creature (who he calls his "companion" or "friend" when not speaking in the first-person plural) boosted his intelligence to unmeasurable heights and brought him much new knowledge, allowing him to conduct research and experiments in ways he'd never dreamed possible. In exchange, the creature has been able to experience an entirely new universe, and while doing so basically meddle in human affairs as much as it wants. ProfessorTomoe's mind has only been slightly twisted in the fusion, which tends to keep any deaths from his new work down to a bare minimum.
He only has one goal now: find out what happens whenever possible, whatever the situation. Pure cause and effect.
Abilities and Artifacts: ProfessorTomoe used the knowledge he gained from the multidimensional creature to create a way for him to cross distances and dimensions. He uses a device he calls a "PH jumper, " officially an abbreviation for "ParaHyperspace jumper" (but referred to by the few who know of its existence as a "PlotHole jumper"). It looks suspiciously like a remote entry keyfob for a 1996 Saturn SL2. He can use this device to traverse distances up to one Astronomical Unit, or up to almost 93 million miles, by traveling through a conveniently squeezed higher dimension (hence the "PlotHole" nickname). He can also use it to cross over into other higher dimensions, but he cannot move more than the circumference of the Earth when he does this.
The PlotHole Jumper also has limited molecular manipulation abilities. It has been used to reconstitute creatures that one of his grafted appendages has digested (see below for more on grafting). Reconstitution usually requires a trip through a PlotHole into a random dimension, although the target dimension can sometimes be specified if the reconstituted organism isn't too large.
The Professor has taken advantage of the PH Jumper to build a rather large (and now damn near intrusion/detection-proof) laboratory in a "Pocket" dimension off of the current reality plane. This is where he goes when he seemingly disappears for no reason. He has built devices which allow him to monitor and communicate with the base dimension, but he must cross back into this dimension if he wants to otherwise directly interact with it. He has a "storefront" lab in the base dimension, which he uses to build larger objects on contract and to deliver and receive goods.
NOTE: One of several devices protecting the lab is a Dimensional Distortion Field (DDF for short). This field acts on any matter or energy that crosses it without authorization, with devastating results. To date, attempted break-ins have resulted in the culprits being reduced to a fine mist of their bodies' component molecules, although it is capable of wreaking other havoc if programmed properly. The field's effects can be time-delayed, again depending on the situation. Fortunately the Professor usually has a sense of humor (albeit twisted) about break-ins; as a result, the DDF victims to date have been reconstituted with wiped memories (and in one case, sans clothing).
The Professor's "friend" was a genius on several levels in his home dimension, but he was perhaps most skilled in technology based on something most humans would normally consider rather harmless. That technology involves the use and manipulation of marshmallows. These inocuous little treats are in fact highly dangerous objects in the creature's home dimension thanks to a slight difference in the way his dimension's physics operate. The creature has been able to adapt his skills towards marshmallow tech in other dimensions, and he has passed this knowledge on to the Professor. For that reason, the Professor is never without a bag of oddly-colored marshmallows in his lab coat, and you can never be sure just what will happen if one of these "treats" is unleashed.
One can never tell what kind of technology, weaponry, or instrumentation The Professor will whip out at any time. To date, he has utilized the following in various RPs:
* HoloCorder - a device capable of taking a wide range of measurements. Also used to create holographic records of incidents. Can be operated remotely.
* Stasis Bubble Generators - devices capable of encasing targets in stasis fields by way of targetable Stasis Bubbles. Early versions were quite large, but he now has handheld versions which can be combined with other items (see below).
* PlotHole Vortex Generator - a very large version of the PlotHole jumper, capable of creating PlotHoles large enough to swallow a medium-sized singularity. Usually mounted on a vehicle of some sort.
*
c-vector Weaponry - perhaps the most devastating item in The Professor's arsenal. A combination of a Stasis Bubble Generator and a PlotHole projection device. Any item hit by this is accelerated at a right angle to the speed of light, effectively removing the target from reality. No target has ever managed to find its way back into reality after suffering a hit from a
c-vector weapon.
Physical Abilities: ProfessorTomoe is physically normal aside from his shadowy appearance. He has no special physical abilities aside from those that come from something he's added onto himself in his lab. The exception to this would be speed and reflexes - his "friend" has given him (and his grafted organisms) the ability to react and move faster than the eye can see over short distances (less than 50 meters). This ability, combined with the PlotHole Jumper, usually allows him to escape attacks aimed his way.
His body mass and surface area limit what he can graft or implant. However, his grafting abilites are pretty well unlimited in terms of the organisms that he can fuse to his body. As long as it can shrink down to fit, and as long as it doesn't weigh so much that he can't walk, he can graft it to himself.
The fusion with the alien does allow him to avoid sleep for long periods without mental degredation, but when he goes too long he has a tendency to fall asleep without much warning. He no longer needs to eat, but he occasionally does so just for the experience.
The Professor and his alien friend have implemented one item of technological assistance to maximize the potential of their symbiotic relationship. They have linked themselves on a partial neural level to a massive HyperCluster of computers - specifically, several million radiation-hardened IBM System/360 Model 67 units running CP-67. The systems are spread across millions of alternate dimensions and are linked via cross-dimensional interfaces. The System/360 known in this dimension is an old design which dates back to the late 1960s, but its counterparts in other dimensions are quite different to the point of some being unrecognizable as computers to people from this dimension. The things that link them all are their common heritage (there's an IBM in every dimension, or so it seems) and the lucky coincidence that they all seem to be capable of at least understanding the CP-67 operating system developed in this dimension.
There is a drawback to this link, though. Due to the way the neural link operates, and due to the limitations of the common software that forms the basis of the link, certain sensory inputs can cause the link to experience a buffer overflow. Put simply, too much cute can cause a lockup. Other images that trigger emotional states can have the same result, but cuteness is the biggest culprit. When a lockup occurs, the Professor will issue a "1201 Alarm," an error message from code in the system that dates back to the Apollo lunar missions. 1201 Alarms do not incapacitate the Professor, but they do briefly make him flustered and a bit absent-minded until he can get the link back online.
To prevent (or at least lessen the occurrence of) 1201 Alarms, the Professor has dedicated part of the HyperCluster to a buffer. This area stores images that can be used to counter the effects of overly-cute images (or others that similarly inspire emotional overloads). Most of the buffer data is collected from 4chan.org's imageboards, mainly /b/. The data in the buffer needs to be refreshed from time to time to prevent 1201 Alarms. Rapid sensory input can outstrip the buffer's ability to cope, and to that end the Professor is working on a constant datastream link to keep the buffer fully loaded and refreshed at all times. That link is not yet fully functional, due to problems with keeping certain 4chan imagery out of the stream (mainly /c/, /cm/, and /y/).