I'm a Poseidon native, which is fairly rare in this place. Being a squid has only limited advantages when you're on top of the highest mountain around.
Jerome is twenty two years old, and just starting his graduate studies. His work at the moment has two parts: a theoretical part, trying to explain cetacean thought, and a practical, interviewing and working with cetacean scientists. The latter part takes place mainly at New Fremantle, where Hydrospan have given him access to some of the less sensitive research laboratories.
As a result, Jerome spends about half of the year in the Poseidon Antilles, and he has adopted the Tidewater Grill as a place to hang out. The main reason is Patterner. Since the dolphin is curious about the human condition, he is ever-willing to get into long, involved discussions of psychology. Jerome keeps notes on these discussions, seeing them as usefully complementary to the more observational work he does with the scientists.
His older brother, Basil, works as a Warden, often around the Sierra Nueva cluster. They tend to meet up at No Man's Land, as Basil prefers to stay out of the centre of Haven and has no reason to visit the Antilles.
The course of studies is not too arduous, and Jerome is a very bright student. As a result, he has more free time than is really good for him, and thinks he has more than he actually does. As a result, he spends far too much time lazing around and talking to people, and acquiring radical opinions.
He is a native, and a squid. He feels that the low number of natives at HIST is unacceptable: most of the scientists were shipped in from Earth after Recontact, and most of the students are drawn from GEO and Incorporate families. His biggest complaint, however, is the tiny number of cetaceans (one, in fact) associated with HIST in an academic capacity. Part of this is due to the Institute's siting on top of the mountain, and Jerome would like to see it moved down to the water line. As a grad student, though, he has little influence.
His work requires him to have substantial contact with cetacean scientists, who are almost all dolphins, and mostly called Scientist, Scholar, Biologist, Geologist, and so on. He identifies them with numerical tags (Scientist-1 and so on) in his notes, but keeps this quiet, feeling that it is a bit closer to names than the dolphins would like. He does have a lot of friends in Hydrospan, and it is the only Incorporate State about which he has anything good to say.
He gets on well with cetaceans and natives, less well with Newcomers, and poorly with the Incorporate. His closest friends, apart from his brother, include Scholar, a dolphin who frequents No Man's Land, and Omri, an orca scientist from Sierra Nueva, to whom Basil introduced him.
Species: Human, Genetic Redesign (Squid Aquaform)
Profile:
Origin -- Native
Background -- Wealthy
Education -- Graduate University (in progress)
Goal -- Justice
Motivation -- Curiosity
Attitude -- Cooperative
Profession: Scholar (nearly)
Mental Attributes: Awareness 50, Charisma 50, Education 65, Experience 22, Initiative 50, Intellect 65, Will 42
Physical Attributes: Agility 50, Appearance 54, Constitution 50, Dexterity 36, Endurance 78, Speed 50, Strength 44
Skill Groups: Communications 60 (Interspec 90), Culture 20 (Colonial 40, Earth 60, Native 60), Fine Arts 20 (Photography 40), Human Sciences 40 (Philosophy 90), Life Sciences 20 (Zoology 40), Physical Sciences 20, Scientific Method 20
Skills: Aquatics 50, Bureaucracy 60, Computer Operation 40, Driving 20, Psychology 50
Copyright David Chart 1995-1998