Dr. Morgan Yu (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
psychotronics) wrote2019-05-25 06:27 pm
psychotronics) wrote2019-05-25 06:27 pm
Entry tags:
Aefenglom | Application
Player Information
Name: Possum
Age: 27
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
awkwardpossum
Other Characters: Peridot (Steven Universe)
Character Information
Name: Morgan Yu
Canon: Prey (2017)
Canon Point: Late game, after watching Alex’s video and escaping Walther Dahl’s forces in the Arboretum.
Age: 30 years old
History:
(Setting Background)
Prey takes place in an alternate timeline that diverged from our own history around the late 50’s/early 60’s. Broad strokes: JFK was never assassinated; the Russians encountered hostile alien lifeforms called typhon in the earliest days of the space race. The USA and the USSR wound up working together to contain and study the creatures, leading to new unprecedented advances in technology and space exploration.
Fast forward to Morgan’s time, and the big thing on everyone’s minds are Neuromods, a new technology developed by TranStar, a high-tech mega-corporation founded by Morgan’s parents. Neuromods are set to “revolutionize human learning”, basically by making it so that the knowledge and skills of super smart and talented people can be instantly transferred into the head of any average-joe who has the means to purchase the product. It’s big shit. You can gain a doctorate in chemical biology in like, 5 seconds. The only apparent downside—and the thing that the public doesn’t know-- is that if you uninstall a neuromod, your brain basically does a “restore from backup” like a computer dumping some problematic software, reverting your brain matter to an unmodified state; in other words, you take a neuromod out? You forget everything that happened between when you installed it and when you removed it. But surely that’s not a problem because hahaha, who would ever want to remove a Neuromod, right!??
Personal History:
2005; Morgan is born, the second child of Catherine Yu, a German tech entrepreneur, and William Yu, a distinguished Chinese neuroscientist.
2025; Morgan’s older brother Alex is appointed CEO of TranStar and Director of Research aboard Talos-I, a new super advanced fancy-ass space station owned by the company.
2032; Morgan is recruited as co-director of research and development aboard Talos-I. She joins all the other scientists in the station’s “psychotronics” department in playing god with the captive typhon organisms, studying their ecology. They also engage in dubious human experimentation on “volunteer” test subjects (read: political prisoners and convicts whose alternatives to becoming human lab rats are execution or life in a USSR prison), using them to collect data on typhon behavior and reproduction.
2034; The Yu siblings realize they can use the brains of the typhon to make neuromods that basically give humans super powers. Morgan volunteers to be the guinea pig for this since she is arguably the best candidate, and insists that the only way to truly test these new mods in a controlled environment is to remove some of her earliest (non-typhon) mods and revert her mind back to the way it was before she ever even joined Talos-I. She willingly volunteers for this, knowing that in addition to losing years of her life, her mind will also be subject to a relentless cycle of amnesia, as testing the typhon-mods will require the repeated installation and removal of the experimental modifications with each session. She and her brother have a system in place to “bring her up to speed” between each trial.
Not long into the experiment, Morgan begins to experience “personality drift”, a reported side effect of the frequent cycling of neuromods. Morgan’s behavior becomes increasingly and notably erratic as a result, something that does not go unnoticed by the rest of the crew on Talos I. She alternates between being spacey, aggressive and paranoid on a day to day basis. She also starts having reoccurring dreams about something sinister lurking in deep space, and becomes convinced that “something big” is coming for them all that could spell doom not only for Talos-I, but the entire Earth. Alex insists this is all fine, that her concerns over the experiment are just a side effect of the mod cycling, and this is what she signed up for. Morgan starts to view Alex as an untrustworthy figure, and between her trials she begins using recordings and notes to herself to craft a series of complicated contingency plans. The goals of these plans vary, but they all share one common secondary purpose: to fill in the blanks in her memory, in case Alex decides to do something dubious.
February 2nd, 2035: Alex does something dubious. He makes the decision to keep experimenting on his younger sibling despite her worsening and exhausted condition, and stops bringing her up to speed between sessions. This essentially traps Morgan in a simulation loop that makes her live, forget, and then relive the same day of her life over and over for the course of several weeks. Study continues on the typhon neuromods in this time.
February 22nd, 2035: As all dangerous science fiction monsters tend to eventually do, the typhon break containment. They spread across the station and slaughter nearly the entire crew, leaving only a handful of survivors.
February 23rd, 2035: The point where the game finally actually starts. Morgan breaks out of the simulation loop with the assistance of January, a modified operator (robot) who speaks and thinks with Morgan’s voice and personality. January guides Morgan to her office, where she receives a video from her past self, explaining the current situation to her amnesiac future self. This kicks off a complicated series of events that involve the amnesiac Morgan, with January’s guidance, traversing the overrun station in search of two arming keys that she can use to rig the station’s reactor to overload and blow everything up, and thus spare Earth from a typhon invasion.
Personality:
Prior to the removal of her neuromods, Morgan was known as an extremely driven person who was very hyper-focused on her work. Well educated and intelligent, she was constantly innovating new ideas both in and out of the lab. Even during her downtime, she was known to tinker around with robotics and gadgetry, keeping a large work table stocked with various electronic parts in both her executive’s office and her personal quarters, so that she always had equipment close at hand whenever new ideas struck. She was extremely close to her brother Alex, and the two supported each other growing up under their parents’ heavy expectations. Morgan was definitely known to be (and arguably still is) the impulsive risk-taker of the two siblings, always pushing the envelope and questioning limitations, needling Alex and encouraging him to take things a few steps further. Alex would say that he “used to think we couldn’t be trusted to play with fire without burning the whole house down” until Morgan stubbornly convinced him that some scientific progress was worth the inherent risks. Indeed, Morgan was very much an “ends justify the means” kind of scientist for most of her life, and seemed to be perfectly fine with harming living beings in the pursuit of her studies. Given this, she is very good at compartmentalizing and distancing herself from the victims of her experimentations. She would maintain a calm and professional demeanor while on duty, even while participating in the cruel methods of experimentation that TranStar endorsed by providing “volunteer” human test subjects. There are records of Morgan authorizing test sessions that were essentially execution by typhon, “feeding” volunteers to the aliens in order to collect data on their means of reproduction. As cruel as this sounds, Morgan truly believed that what she was doing was justified, as it was ultimately for the benefit of all mankind, and the deaths of a few condemned prisoners were worth it. At one point, in defense of her beliefs, she insisted that the people of the next generation would be stronger, smarter, and immortal, and that they could judge her if they wanted to, but they would know that they only exist as they do because of her efforts.
Outside of the lab, Morgan had a much more approachable and “chillaxed” demeanor, known for pulling the occasional prank and and breaking protocol by getting somewhat chummy with the rest of the Talos-I crew (much to the chagrin of her more uptight CEO brother). She has a very dry sense of humor, and even post mod removal this remains intact, with the research notes she takes down over the course of the game having a bit of a sardonic, sometimes self-deprecating touch. She has a kind of tired 30-something depressed tumblr shitposter vibe, doing things like describing her own elemental resistances in her research notes (the way she would for a scanned enemy) as being resistant to “good advice” and weak to “toxic family”. January, being a direct scan of Morgan’s personality, demonstrates this attitude as well through occasional sassy deadpan jokes.
Despite being the more approachable of the Yus, it is still difficult to truly get close to Morgan. January cites that Morgan is a naturally suspicious person, and despite her outwardly friendly demeanor she is difficult to truly get to know. She is somewhat reserved in how much she shares about herself, both out of necessity (due to the nature of her work) and out of habit from growing up under very strict and controlling parents. She’s good at keeping secrets, and also at distancing herself from others when she feels it necessary. She kept her relationship with Mikhaila Ilyushin under wraps and hid it from her brother, but was also quick to end the relationship when she was set to start testing the typhon neuromods, the reasoning being that it would be easier for both of them if they ended things with Morgan’s impending memory wipe looming. Morgan never told Mikhaila about the experiments due to their top-secret nature, so she let the other woman believe that things were over between them due to an entirely different reason, and simply did not bother correcting her.
By the time we step into Morgan’s shoes at the starting point of the game, her perspective on everything has shifted dramatically. She barely remembers who she is or what she’s done, save for what she knows from January’s briefings and from impressions she gets from the recordings and emails that she has collected from around Talos-I. The basic building blocks of her original personality are all still there, however, even in spite of the supposed personality drift. If anything, the “personality” traits that Alex claims have changed about her are more an adjustment of priorities and motivations. Where Morgan used to be excited about the idea of scientific progress by any means, her experiences in the sim lab and unexpected connection with the typhon have left her far more wary of the possible consequences of her work. Alex views this as her having turned into a “pessimist”, and further evidence of her drifting personality. January—who is basically the embodiment of past Morgan—views it as finally doing the right thing to keep Earth safe.
Morgan as she is now is a very conflicted person. She is filled with a lot of self-loathing and confusion upon the discovery of the things she apparently did in her past, including the human experimentation and dangerous testing on the typhon. She doesn’t view herself as a trustworthy or kind individual, although she will quickly put herself in harm’s way to defend others now. This may be in part because of her perception that other lives are worth more than her own, or self-sacrificing may be her way of atoning for past misdeeds.
Abilities & Skills:
-Building and programming robots
-Inventing things
-Engineering
-Modifying weapons
-Stealthing; being trapped on a space station full of hostile murderous aliens meant Morgan had to git gud at sneaking pretty quick.
Inventory/Companions:V
-TranStar PPN-8 9MM Silenced Pistol (30 bullets)
-A wrench
-GLOO Cannon (limited ammo)
-2 bags of Big Bang Candy (1 open, 1 sealed)
-1 spare parts kit
Choice: Witch
Reason: I figure having one character who’s a monster and one character who is a witch should make for a pretty good balance, plus Morgan would be very interested in studying magic and seeing if there was any way she could use it to change things for the better back home.
Sample:
TDM thread
Name: Possum
Age: 27
Contact:
Other Characters: Peridot (Steven Universe)
Character Information
Name: Morgan Yu
Canon: Prey (2017)
Canon Point: Late game, after watching Alex’s video and escaping Walther Dahl’s forces in the Arboretum.
Age: 30 years old
History:
(Setting Background)
Prey takes place in an alternate timeline that diverged from our own history around the late 50’s/early 60’s. Broad strokes: JFK was never assassinated; the Russians encountered hostile alien lifeforms called typhon in the earliest days of the space race. The USA and the USSR wound up working together to contain and study the creatures, leading to new unprecedented advances in technology and space exploration.
Fast forward to Morgan’s time, and the big thing on everyone’s minds are Neuromods, a new technology developed by TranStar, a high-tech mega-corporation founded by Morgan’s parents. Neuromods are set to “revolutionize human learning”, basically by making it so that the knowledge and skills of super smart and talented people can be instantly transferred into the head of any average-joe who has the means to purchase the product. It’s big shit. You can gain a doctorate in chemical biology in like, 5 seconds. The only apparent downside—and the thing that the public doesn’t know-- is that if you uninstall a neuromod, your brain basically does a “restore from backup” like a computer dumping some problematic software, reverting your brain matter to an unmodified state; in other words, you take a neuromod out? You forget everything that happened between when you installed it and when you removed it. But surely that’s not a problem because hahaha, who would ever want to remove a Neuromod, right!??
Personal History:
2005; Morgan is born, the second child of Catherine Yu, a German tech entrepreneur, and William Yu, a distinguished Chinese neuroscientist.
2025; Morgan’s older brother Alex is appointed CEO of TranStar and Director of Research aboard Talos-I, a new super advanced fancy-ass space station owned by the company.
2032; Morgan is recruited as co-director of research and development aboard Talos-I. She joins all the other scientists in the station’s “psychotronics” department in playing god with the captive typhon organisms, studying their ecology. They also engage in dubious human experimentation on “volunteer” test subjects (read: political prisoners and convicts whose alternatives to becoming human lab rats are execution or life in a USSR prison), using them to collect data on typhon behavior and reproduction.
2034; The Yu siblings realize they can use the brains of the typhon to make neuromods that basically give humans super powers. Morgan volunteers to be the guinea pig for this since she is arguably the best candidate, and insists that the only way to truly test these new mods in a controlled environment is to remove some of her earliest (non-typhon) mods and revert her mind back to the way it was before she ever even joined Talos-I. She willingly volunteers for this, knowing that in addition to losing years of her life, her mind will also be subject to a relentless cycle of amnesia, as testing the typhon-mods will require the repeated installation and removal of the experimental modifications with each session. She and her brother have a system in place to “bring her up to speed” between each trial.
Not long into the experiment, Morgan begins to experience “personality drift”, a reported side effect of the frequent cycling of neuromods. Morgan’s behavior becomes increasingly and notably erratic as a result, something that does not go unnoticed by the rest of the crew on Talos I. She alternates between being spacey, aggressive and paranoid on a day to day basis. She also starts having reoccurring dreams about something sinister lurking in deep space, and becomes convinced that “something big” is coming for them all that could spell doom not only for Talos-I, but the entire Earth. Alex insists this is all fine, that her concerns over the experiment are just a side effect of the mod cycling, and this is what she signed up for. Morgan starts to view Alex as an untrustworthy figure, and between her trials she begins using recordings and notes to herself to craft a series of complicated contingency plans. The goals of these plans vary, but they all share one common secondary purpose: to fill in the blanks in her memory, in case Alex decides to do something dubious.
February 2nd, 2035: Alex does something dubious. He makes the decision to keep experimenting on his younger sibling despite her worsening and exhausted condition, and stops bringing her up to speed between sessions. This essentially traps Morgan in a simulation loop that makes her live, forget, and then relive the same day of her life over and over for the course of several weeks. Study continues on the typhon neuromods in this time.
February 22nd, 2035: As all dangerous science fiction monsters tend to eventually do, the typhon break containment. They spread across the station and slaughter nearly the entire crew, leaving only a handful of survivors.
February 23rd, 2035: The point where the game finally actually starts. Morgan breaks out of the simulation loop with the assistance of January, a modified operator (robot) who speaks and thinks with Morgan’s voice and personality. January guides Morgan to her office, where she receives a video from her past self, explaining the current situation to her amnesiac future self. This kicks off a complicated series of events that involve the amnesiac Morgan, with January’s guidance, traversing the overrun station in search of two arming keys that she can use to rig the station’s reactor to overload and blow everything up, and thus spare Earth from a typhon invasion.
Personality:
Prior to the removal of her neuromods, Morgan was known as an extremely driven person who was very hyper-focused on her work. Well educated and intelligent, she was constantly innovating new ideas both in and out of the lab. Even during her downtime, she was known to tinker around with robotics and gadgetry, keeping a large work table stocked with various electronic parts in both her executive’s office and her personal quarters, so that she always had equipment close at hand whenever new ideas struck. She was extremely close to her brother Alex, and the two supported each other growing up under their parents’ heavy expectations. Morgan was definitely known to be (and arguably still is) the impulsive risk-taker of the two siblings, always pushing the envelope and questioning limitations, needling Alex and encouraging him to take things a few steps further. Alex would say that he “used to think we couldn’t be trusted to play with fire without burning the whole house down” until Morgan stubbornly convinced him that some scientific progress was worth the inherent risks. Indeed, Morgan was very much an “ends justify the means” kind of scientist for most of her life, and seemed to be perfectly fine with harming living beings in the pursuit of her studies. Given this, she is very good at compartmentalizing and distancing herself from the victims of her experimentations. She would maintain a calm and professional demeanor while on duty, even while participating in the cruel methods of experimentation that TranStar endorsed by providing “volunteer” human test subjects. There are records of Morgan authorizing test sessions that were essentially execution by typhon, “feeding” volunteers to the aliens in order to collect data on their means of reproduction. As cruel as this sounds, Morgan truly believed that what she was doing was justified, as it was ultimately for the benefit of all mankind, and the deaths of a few condemned prisoners were worth it. At one point, in defense of her beliefs, she insisted that the people of the next generation would be stronger, smarter, and immortal, and that they could judge her if they wanted to, but they would know that they only exist as they do because of her efforts.
Outside of the lab, Morgan had a much more approachable and “chillaxed” demeanor, known for pulling the occasional prank and and breaking protocol by getting somewhat chummy with the rest of the Talos-I crew (much to the chagrin of her more uptight CEO brother). She has a very dry sense of humor, and even post mod removal this remains intact, with the research notes she takes down over the course of the game having a bit of a sardonic, sometimes self-deprecating touch. She has a kind of tired 30-something depressed tumblr shitposter vibe, doing things like describing her own elemental resistances in her research notes (the way she would for a scanned enemy) as being resistant to “good advice” and weak to “toxic family”. January, being a direct scan of Morgan’s personality, demonstrates this attitude as well through occasional sassy deadpan jokes.
Despite being the more approachable of the Yus, it is still difficult to truly get close to Morgan. January cites that Morgan is a naturally suspicious person, and despite her outwardly friendly demeanor she is difficult to truly get to know. She is somewhat reserved in how much she shares about herself, both out of necessity (due to the nature of her work) and out of habit from growing up under very strict and controlling parents. She’s good at keeping secrets, and also at distancing herself from others when she feels it necessary. She kept her relationship with Mikhaila Ilyushin under wraps and hid it from her brother, but was also quick to end the relationship when she was set to start testing the typhon neuromods, the reasoning being that it would be easier for both of them if they ended things with Morgan’s impending memory wipe looming. Morgan never told Mikhaila about the experiments due to their top-secret nature, so she let the other woman believe that things were over between them due to an entirely different reason, and simply did not bother correcting her.
By the time we step into Morgan’s shoes at the starting point of the game, her perspective on everything has shifted dramatically. She barely remembers who she is or what she’s done, save for what she knows from January’s briefings and from impressions she gets from the recordings and emails that she has collected from around Talos-I. The basic building blocks of her original personality are all still there, however, even in spite of the supposed personality drift. If anything, the “personality” traits that Alex claims have changed about her are more an adjustment of priorities and motivations. Where Morgan used to be excited about the idea of scientific progress by any means, her experiences in the sim lab and unexpected connection with the typhon have left her far more wary of the possible consequences of her work. Alex views this as her having turned into a “pessimist”, and further evidence of her drifting personality. January—who is basically the embodiment of past Morgan—views it as finally doing the right thing to keep Earth safe.
Morgan as she is now is a very conflicted person. She is filled with a lot of self-loathing and confusion upon the discovery of the things she apparently did in her past, including the human experimentation and dangerous testing on the typhon. She doesn’t view herself as a trustworthy or kind individual, although she will quickly put herself in harm’s way to defend others now. This may be in part because of her perception that other lives are worth more than her own, or self-sacrificing may be her way of atoning for past misdeeds.
Abilities & Skills:
-Building and programming robots
-Inventing things
-Engineering
-Modifying weapons
-Stealthing; being trapped on a space station full of hostile murderous aliens meant Morgan had to git gud at sneaking pretty quick.
Inventory/Companions:V
-TranStar PPN-8 9MM Silenced Pistol (30 bullets)
-A wrench
-GLOO Cannon (limited ammo)
-2 bags of Big Bang Candy (1 open, 1 sealed)
-1 spare parts kit
Choice: Witch
Reason: I figure having one character who’s a monster and one character who is a witch should make for a pretty good balance, plus Morgan would be very interested in studying magic and seeing if there was any way she could use it to change things for the better back home.
Sample:
TDM thread