Characters/Nikolai

Current Description

A tall quite definitely otter creature. His fur is sleek brown, with white highlights running down the chest and the occasional small scar on his arms and chest. Across the back of his head is a brushed-metal skullcap, studded with thousands of slim wires that are wrapped back behind him in a loose ponytail, though they often wriggle themselves free to stick outward again. A thin metal band of the same finish circles his neck. Just above his ears are a pair of thick-lensed goggles on a wide strap.

He is wearing a long white lab coat that seems cleaner than it should be. Large pockets dot the coat and hold a seemingly infinite amount of tools, gadgets, pens, and datapads. Lower down, drawstring pants brush metal-toed knee-tall rubber thicksoled boots. On the front pocket of his coat is a familiar but altered patch, a motto that reads 'That which does not kill me...', the rest being torn off.

Old Original Description, for posterity

A tall somewhat vaguely mustelid [weaselish-otterish-ferretish creature]. It's difficult to tell, because his muddy brown and white fur is patchy and almost falling out in places. Burn marks and the odd scar or two cross his face and arms, and the rest of his exposed chest. Across the back of his head is a brushed-metal skullcap, studded with thousands of slim wires that squiggle outward in all directions. A thin metal band of the same finish circles his neck. Just above his ears are a pair of thick-lensed goggles on a wide strap.

He is wearing a long white lab coat that is as dirty and befrazzled as he is. Sleeves dangle loosly with holes raggedly burned, torn, or melted in them. Large pockets dot the coat and hold a seemingly infinite amount of tools, gadgets, pens, digipads, and so on. It is not unusual for him to pull out things bigger than the pockets themselves, like a full chemistry table set. Lower down, ragged one-leg-shorter drawstring pants brush metal-toed tall rubber thicksoled boots.

Don't volunteer for any of his experiments without a very recent self-backup, as Nikolai has a flippant attitude towards death. Which is reflected in a patch sewn into one of his larger pockets, a motto that reads 'That which does not kill me makes me stronger', the 'not' being cleverly crossed out.

Character

Nikolai (named after Tesla) is a rabid experimenter, always gathering information on random (or not so random) esoteric subjects. Alchemy, high energy physics, quantum probabilities, kabbalism, i ching, extreme electromagnetism, robotics, high frequency sonics, ancient weapons, and solipsism are some of his interests...though he is not likely to know a great deal about any of these.

He has been a scientist for quite a long time, probably longer than he can remember. Native to Puzzlebox, his lab is situated underneath Downwarp. He has a peculiar preference towards blowing up his lab every so often, and it's usually put back the way it should be. He also has a very flippant attitude towards death...it doesn't bug him to kill off someone at random purely for the sake of experimenting. He won't push too hard, there's always some other victim, so isn't all that dangerously malicious. Just violently curious...which could be worse.

• Nikolai is currently more sane than mad, having survived a major infection of StrangeVirus that led to the destruction of his laboratory.

• Recently he also discovered that he's a Gridshaman of the Spark devotion. He may have been so for a long time without ever actually joining the faction formally, but a recent [leap into the unknown] turned out to be a rite of self-initiation, according to Induction-Coil.

Nik's personal Backup system

• Nikolai has a quite unique backup system as well, differing from the Mess's system in many ways, both good and bad.

Inventions

• The CharmVirus is an attempted cure for the StrangeVirus. which has had at least a few outbreaks.

• Dreamthief, a holographic mind/memory reader. It takes a backup snapshot of a sentient's entire mindstate, and allows one to walk through memories, pause, rewind, examine in any detail. If changes are desired, the brainstate can be reloaded from the snapshot into the current mind.

• An alternate cure for StrangeVirus that involves burning out the virus entirely from the host body. See StrangeCure and Strange's page for more.

• A metallic glove linked loosely with wires that plug into Nik's antenna-hair that he calls an 'Instantiation Coalescer'. It apparently amplifies normal brain patterns to feed back to the Mess's systems and aid in creating substances from nothing. Generally this is already an easy process, but the glove enhances the connection to enable the creation of more complicated objects.

• The OmniTool: Nikolai's new portable laboratory, in a sphere about 6 inches across. It unfolds, extends, telescopes, rotates, and opens up into nearly anything he might need, and is linked into his virtual data systems for sampling experiments. Portions of it can detach and fold into their own discrete objects. The tool apparently instantiates itself across several folded-up dimensions.

• A Subjectivity Distortion Generator. Does what it sounds like. See current plots below for more.
  • Might also be called an Infinite Improbability Drive. *ahem*

Finished Plots

• Nikolai's overloaded mind, and the recovery from it.
• The infection and curing of Nikolai from StrangeVirus.
• The Generator and its activation.
  • It's been done and over with. The SDG was destroyed in the end. Presumably.

• Newly arrived history: Event Reference 1010011101-2 Is it true? Was it always true, merely forgotten? Or is it invented? What's the difference?

Current Plots

• The traveling ravegolem that once was the Forge/Lab complex is surging with magic mirror energies and wandering around the warps, looking to create a good party.