Staren

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Staren (Scenesys ID: 42)
Quote
"How does THAT work? I wonder if I can study it…"
Profile
Full Name: Staren
Gender: Male
Species: Catboy (Human/Shapeshifter Hybrid)
Theme: (OC) RIFTS-1
Function: SCIENCE!, Mecha Piloting
Status: Active
Factional Information
Faction: Concord (4-2 Gifted)
Groups: Daedalus Initiative, Gatecrashers Union, Die Reisende
Other Information
Physical Age: Mid 20s Actual Age: 25
Still Aging? Yes Voice Actor:
Height: 5'8" / 173cm Weight: 185 lbs / 84kg
Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Blue
Theme Song: Plum Creek Rhythm Section - A Light, an Answer[1]

Profile

Staren is a prodigy engineer and pilot from the magitech city of Lazlo. He has the advanced computer and robotics knowledge of an expert decades his senior, and has now branched out into studying multiversal phenomena. Believing any problem can be overcome with sufficient application of knowledge and ingenuity, the young man dreams of a better future for all. Armed with tools of magic and technology to fight, he has survived over a decade in the Multiverse through care and preparedness belied by a tendency to speak before he thinks. Once naive about the world due to only learning from books, he's now seen the great wonders and horrors and /weirdness/ of the Multiverse and become somewhat jaded, though he is still anxious as ever to learn how it all works. However, the nuances of social interaction remain more mysterious to him than those of physics or magic, and this makes it difficult for him to form close bonds. To help his friends, though, he would move the Multiverse itself if he could find a way -- and his willingness to consider such extreme actions is one of the very things that tends to push others away. In the wake of the Union and Confederacy's fall, Staren is hopeful that there is plenty of good he can do in the Multiverse other than endless fighting...

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History

Born in 93 PA (equivalent to 0 AU) to a dimensional traveler from 20th century Earth and a shapeshifting alien who abandoned her people's magical traditions to study science, Staren was raised in the Free City of Lazlo, city where humans and nonhumans of all kinds live in harmony as long as they can tolerate eachother, a bastion of knowledge, hope, and freedom in post-apocalyptic RIFTS Earth. In those early years, the family traveled often — before Unification, Staren's father would take them to other dimensions and to see his grandparents on the baseline Earth he'd originally come from. With access to myriad worlds, they were able to find cybernetics that were compatible with supernatural physiology and so Staren was enhanced, given the edge of a built-in computer that his parents would have loved to have.

Though little Staren inherited great intelligence, he grew up a loner, not by choice but due to great social awkwardness. His constant companions were stories, games, and academic knowledge. Stories told of simplified people, with well-explained motives and feelings he could follow and understand. Stories told of clear-cut villains and bright shining heroes, and he idealized the latter, taking to heart the tropes of good and its contrast to evil. The physical world and the world of numbers followed well-explained rules with definite truths and right answers, and he soaked up knowledge of math and science like a sponge. Games presented worlds following well-defined rules and used them to /tell/ stories, letting him use his mastery of such systems to feel like a hero, and would in time lead to actual piloting simulations.

After a few years of schooling led to misery due to altercations with the other children, Staren's father pulled him out of the system and homeschooled him — as a retired adventurer and part-time mechanic, he had ample resources to live in comfort with the necessary free time. Staren's academic talents proved that of a prodigy as learned as an expert decades his elder, and he developed a special interest in computers and automation. In time, this combined with his interests in simulated mecha piloting to lead to a focus on combat robotics, but Staren was poor at innovation. In addition, he was a certain kind of lazy — his father's resources, including a large 'laboratory' complex below the house (for the most part, a large storage area equipped with repair and assembly drones, computers, rooms for experiments, and compact fusion reactors) — allowed him to adapt to little physical work — in time, more and more of his improvements were implemented by drone rather than his own hands. Though he could repair machines to work better than they had before, and made improvements to the VF-1 Valkyrie design his father had obtained in another world, he was stumped when it came to developing something wholly new. Science and engineering followed steps — but what steps do you follow to 'invent something new'?

So the young boy's genius produced little. He took some classes with the Lazlo Defense Force, and to support his interest of heroically defending the city, his father trained him in Valkyrie piloting and, in perhaps Staren's greatest true 'invention' at the time, Staren developed new control software to interface between his headware and the robot, allowing him to control it as naturally as his own body. The resulting skill was undeniable, and before even reaching his mid-teens he was accepted as an LDF reserve member — although due to his specialty of mecha piloting, he was never called to work in the city, instead being sent to help fight monsters threatening the farms in the vicinity of Lazlo.

Some years after RIFTS Earth unified, Staren learned of the new multiverse and this great organization of heroes, the Union, that would even accept the help of underage allies like himself. And perhaps there, he would find friends he could relate to, rather than 'normal' teenagers and adults who just didn't get it. At the age of 14 in early 14 AU, He joined up and began meeting new people, some he could even feel friendly around, although at times his social awkwardness and belief that magically returning the dead to life was a good idea put people off. He hit it off well with his fellow mecha pilots in the Wings of Nemesis, and became a member of the Union's first-response mecha strike force.

The multiverse offered much to learn. Staren was aware of the basics of magic, of course, but had never gotten around to further study. He decided to change that, studying potion-brewing under the dragon Damien and golemancy under the great mage Iianor.

At last, in the Multiverse, Staren had friends. Maybe not really close friends, but people he could spend time with and talk to without annoying on a regular basis. He was even able to find someone who wasn't just friendly, but actually seemed to understand him: Morg McGee, undead 'mad' scientist. The mad genius even agreed with his views on raising the dead and had ways to do it! At last, he had someone besides his parents who he could talk to about anything and know he would be understood.

The Multiverse was a world of possibility, full of potential friends, something the lonely boy had been without all his life.

That changed with the death of his commander, Julian. The idea of reviving his fellow hero stuck in his mind, although the Union ordered him not to. He and Morg tried to communicate with Julian's spirit, as they believed only Julian himself should have final say over his own resurrection. Their fellow elites treated this as some sort of disgrace to Julian's memory, even while they themselves rejoiced at random static as some sort of communication from the dead. This behavior would drive a wedge between Staren and the Union that would shake his trust in the Union for years. Julian turning out to still be alive was a good thing, but no comfort on this matter.

Further misunderstanding worsened the rift between Staren and the Union, proving his fears justified again and again. In an attempt to be better understood and be helpful, he often spoke his train of thought out loud — thoughts and ideas that others, perhaps, thought his mention indicated serious intention to pursue them. Every misunderstanding reinforced the idea that the Union mistrusted his ways of thinking, and that it was only a matter of time before he crossed a line and was declared an outlaw. He sought to prove himself useful, but any praise and acceptance he recieved was not as loud as the voices condemning him.

Sure, he had a few 'friends', but aside from Morg, could he trust any of them to remain so if they ever comprehended what he really thought? Were they only friends because they hadn't heard him say the wrong thing yet? Of course, he couldn't ask them that, for in doing so he would probably turn them against him.

At last, Staren met another kindred spirit in the ex-Confederate Rewire. Taken in by his life story of only wanting to fix things and only joining the confederacy to rescue his friend Taro from the clutches of SHODAN, and finding a friend who did not reject his thoughts, they became fast friends. Or at least, Staren thought of it that way — in truth, the cold and calculating AI simply found him a useful ally for its plans. But Rewire had a problem — The Confederacy had damaged him, and he was going to go rampant. This seemingly unavoidable, Rewire sought to leave behind a legacy and to have friends prepared to destroy him when he finally lost it. Staren accepted this tragic duty, but preferred not to think about it. For now, he had a friend — and things had a way of working out in the multiverse. Good always prevailed, right?

Rewire's preparations for a legacy and lack of social understanding won him few friends and many enemies on both sides. This only further reinforced Staren's split with his supposed 'allies', although Optimus Prime won his eternal respect for offering to work together with Rewire, even though Rewire refused the given terms. Unfortunately, time was running out. Rewire began to go rampant. Staren developed weapons to kill his friend, but hoped there would yet be another way.

But things did not always end in happy endings in the multiverse. Another friend of Staren's, not as kindred a spirit as Morg or Rewire but at least someone he could spend time with, found that an earlier version of her own world had unified — one where her father had not yet perished. Staren made it a personal mission to save him. Investigation with his futuristic technology discovered that the man worked in the organized crime department of the police, and as the day of death approached, his original fate became clear. On the day, Staren hired a team of mercenaries and personally intervened — only for a Confederate to show up, mortally wound the man, and leave him in a coma for the rest of his days. Sometimes, there were no heroes. Sometimes there was only Staren, and without far, far more power than he currently had, he would not be enough.

Staren would not be enough to save Rewire, either. Post-rampancy, Rewire renamed himself Wireless and hatched a scheme to 'fix' everyone in the multiverse by uploading their brains to a simulation where he could /make/ them happy. Furthermore, the process was faulty, only capturing part of the subject's mind — and not enough to capture their soul. Wireless's attempt to save people was an act of mass murder that would have been mass mind control even if it had worked. Talks with Wireless revealed that his rampancy had made him lose all comprehension of the importance of right and wrong.

Staren helped kill his friend with weapons he developed.

Staren could not help friends. He could not help one of his /best/ friends. The war was endless and meaningless, and as far as Staren knew his 'allies' could turn on him at any moment. Not even bothering to officially resign, Staren alternated between spending time in Lazlo and exploring the far reaches of the local Sector.

Occasionally, Staren still listened to the Multiversal radio frequencies. They were sometimes entertaining, but sooner or later he was always reminded of the Union's attitude toward him. He found some understanding, at least, in the Thousand Dreamers. Friendly Dreamers were willing to listen and offer help, although none could turn Staren's situation around. Untamed Breeze heard him out and came to understand what he meant with his strangely-worded philosophies and ideas, at least.

In late AU19, Staren heard a voice on the radio that not only was not angered at his manner of speech and thought, but seemed to intuitively grasp what he was saying without reading for messages that weren't there, and who spoke honestly and frankly to him in turn. This was the voice of Twilight Sparkle, and seeking another friend that could actually understand him, who he didn't have to worry about accidentally offending or misunderstanding, Staren made increasingly frequent visits to Equestria. Friendly Dreamer Mortimer Balman had retired there, so Twilight wasn't the only friendly face.

In fact, almost all of the ponies of Ponyville seemed friendly. Staren had become an asocial shut-in in his own world — his mechanical and piloting skill were valued, but he earned few friends. And now, Staren was at last learning to avoid hot-button topics when talking to people. Combined with the Ponyvillians' naturally helpful and friendly disposition, the net effect was that the ponies were the first large group of people Staren met without pissing them off. This far outweighed the inconvenience of hooves and the low technology level, and Staren wanted to fit in and, somehow, to return this kindness to the first place that so warmly welcomed him.

He got his chance when Discord, incarnation of chaos, turned Equestria upside down (sometimes literally). His talents were ill-suited to sealing seemingly-invincible reality-warping beings, however — the most he could do was help prevent Discord from acquiring resources from the rest of the Multiverse. Only to see his knowledge and ethics prove useless to protect his new friend — cursed by Discord to believe her friends (in truth also cursed to behave against their natures) had turned against her her, Staren could do nothing to stop one of his most treasured friends from being forced to live the worst nightmare that had haunted him for so many years. Heroism had failed again, Staren had failed again, and completely and utterly heartbroken, turned away from the world.

But only a week later, he learned that Twilight and her friends, had been freed. Staren returned to the fight against Discord, but could only slow and delay the draconequus until the local heroes could reseal him. But this time, there /were/ heroes, and the day was saved.

Before Equestria could recover, the entire multiverse came under attack. Confederate Emperor Viridian Sunrise had done what he could not — unlocked the secrets of the multiverse and used its power to enact his own vision of the future, with power even the Union could not fight. Heroes volunteered for a suicide mission — Staren stayed behind, convinced there /had/ to be some sort of better, smarter plan.

Staren failed to innovate again. The corpses of longtime friends turned up, and he at last confronted the true meaning of death — He would never see them again. The model of the future in his head had to change to not include them. Shaken, he swore never to let this happen again — although it might well be academic if the Emperor was not stopped.

The corpses turned out to be a ploy — the elites on the suicide mission returned alive, the Emperor slain. The heroes /had/ triumphed after all, this time. Staren was relieved, but did not forget his promise. He planned to look for clues in the pieces of technology Wireless had left behind — he would restore the brain uploader, fix its faults, and in so doing unlock a way to conquer death.

Then a new world unified where brain uploading was commonplace and death, true death, was a scarce and horrifying thing rather than just another part of everyone's life. In fact, in this world immortality was seen as a basic right, and one of its denizens happily offered the gift to the Union. A completed, successful device was clearly superior to incomplete Wiretech, and Staren set to studying it, analyzing it to learn how it worked, making sure there was not a catch, no secret mind control programming hidden deep inside. Staren and his parents got their backups as soon as he was sure it was safe, began growing clones, and so claimed a form of limited immortality — Not perfect, not foolproof, but far better than nothing.

No others would accept this gift. One day, people would die again, for real. And he was still powerless to stop it.

But now, there were things he /could/ stop. Earth-1960 was infested with zombies, and a megalomaniacal AI was cloning mercenaries to take over the world's economy. And while helping put a stop to that, he learned of the plight of the gamers trapped in Sword Art Online. There, too, he could help.

Slowly, Staren was drawn out into the Multiverse again. There would not always be heroes, and he would continue to prepare for the day they failed to arrive, but in the meantime he would help them when they did.

And a few days before Christmas of 20 AU, everything changed. Psyber, Kimiko, and Himei, Unionites Staren had had occasional contact with but not really those he would have called friends, came forward to tell him that the Union did /not/ see him as a barely-this-side-of-ethical madman who would go too far any day now. The ones who had given Staren that impression were merely a particularly loud and vocal minority.

It was a Christmas present even he would never have dreamed of daring to ask for.

Though it was merely his perceptions that had changed, Staren found himself in a bright new Multiverse! It would take time to truly trust his allies again, but he didn't need to fear them so.

Things were looking up in 21 AU. Staren had immortality, he had the respect of his peers, he even had a girlfriend. He was helping others, and began to find phenomena in the multiverse that rewarded scientific exploration like the punchcard alchemy of Sburb. Halfway through the year, he decided to study the mysterious Abstractum and in so doing netted himself Eureka, the genre-shifting gauntlet of SCIENCE. Abstractum would prove a field highly responsive to scientific investigation, and between Eureka, Morg's divine inspiration for the construction of impossible devices (Staren's old friend had ascended to godhood many years prior), the nanotechnology that granted his immortality, and his wide assortment of other technology and magic gathered from across the worlds, Staren's confidence began to grow, confidence that he at last had the power to be a hero that could save the day when all other hope was lost.

Eldritch monstrosities from outside of reality coming to end the Multiverse? Yeah, we got this.

That all changed with the coming of the third month of 22 AU. Amongst the looming threat of the Abstractums' enemies, going back in time to finish a closed time loop, and the kidnapping of one of Staren's allies to turn her into a war machine, the dimensional rift over Ravnica, and the cosmic horrors that came out of it, had seemed like just one more crisis that would be dealt with handily in time.

And then Niv-Mizzet sacrificed his Planeswalker's Spark and disappeared through the rift, closing it behind him, never to return from the all-consuming Aether and almost certain doom.

And Staren could not save him.

Once again, tragedy occurred with no hero to step in and stop it. Nothing Staren could do would make it better, and the claims and excuses that 'there was nothing you could do' rung hollow in his ears, for such words would not return Niv-Mizzet to his friends and loved ones, and they would not stop the /next/ tragedy, whatever it would be.

Staren was not the hero that steps in and makes the world right when all hope is lost.

Not yet.

He still needed more power...

After that, Staren had been part of more successes than failures. He'd helped save worlds, and when called for (and perhaps also when not called for) had brought extreme force of arms to bear, even spending a week as a sleepless robot hunting the clones of the Slaughterhouse Nine, and constructing a protoabstractum superweapon so powerful it blew a wing off the Dragon of Calamity, a being of legendary and godlike power.

But after having allies mistake his brutal methods for bloodlust, and seeing a reminder that sometimes, talking can end conflicts and spare lives, Staren began to wonder if there was another path...

In late 24 AU, the Multiverse reshaped itself and the Union and Confederacy fell. With the endless war finally over, Staren could focus on improving the Multiverse rather than endless fighting. He joined the League of Progress, and later the Concord, finding their approach to the Multiverse suited him better than the Union ever did -- letting Elites turn their full abilities and resources towards improving the world, without hamstringing them by insisting on upholding the status quo. At long last, he's found a place in the Multiverse.

Now to solve its infinite problems...

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