Dr. Kate McCrae
Mar 10, 2012 0:43:53 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2012 0:43:53 GMT -5
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Introduce yourself.[/ul][/font][/i]
character basics.[/ul][/font][/i]
Age: 32 (plus however long she spent circling around in the black hole before ending up in the parks, but that time doesn’t really count)
Species: Human
Birthplace: Ohio
Movie: The Black Hole
Title: The Robot-Whisperer
Why: Well, okay, her movie has a worse reputation than The Black Cauldron, but I happen to like The Black Hole! Kate cares about the rest of her crew as well as their new robot friend, and even though she may be a bit of a “damsel in distress” at times, she gets to pick up a laser gun and join in the fight, too.
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Character appearance (try to get at least 2 or 3 sentences for each section)[/ul][/font][/i]
Facial description/mood expressions: To anyone observing her, Kate certainly would not seem emotionless; she smiles easily, and if she’s concerned about a friend, it’s obvious. However, she tends to keep more extreme emotions in check. This is largely due to years of training, as giving in to very strong emotions can interfere with her esplink.
Clothing style: Back on Earth, Kate wore the fashions of her day, which generally match up with late ‘70s notions of futuristic clothes. Since joining the crew of the Palomino, however, she is always seen in her red astronaut uniform, which shows the Palomino insignia.
Body build: Kate is slim and not all that muscular. She has the physical training all astronauts get, and does work out regularly (as is vital in a zero-gravity environment), but she’s still not a particularly strong woman in that sense and would be unlikely to win a brawl should she choose to participate in one.
Any unique traits (optional) : She’s got a cybernetic chip in her brain linking her to V.I.N.CENT. That chip’s still there even when he is not – it just won’t do much.
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Original character analysis. (Everything must be in your own words! Please be thorough.)[/ul][/font][/i]
On the other hand, this doesn’t happen often. Kate tends to see the good in everyone, and thus her assessment of others’ characters tends to be sympathetic and generous– sometimes overly so. That doesn’t necessarily mean she trusts everyone as soon as she meets them, but the more she’s around a particular individual, the more likely she is to attribute questionable actions to stress rather than malice. Even with new acquaintances, she tends to give them the benefit of the doubt.
This changes, however, if she happens to be in the company of an AI she knows is protective of humans. She’s always known these protectors to have very good instincts, and if they seem to take an instant dislike to someone, she will strongly distrust that person. Chances are, there’s an excellent reason for that dislike. To some extent, this would be true with her protective human friends as well—but in her experience, robots are almost never overprotective. Humans who ignore an AI’s instincts do so at their own peril.
Once someone has managed to befriend this woman, she’s loyal and caring; often, she’s the first to race over to a wounded companion. Especially if the injured being happens to be, say, a robot. Unlike many humans from her world, she does very much see them as people – even if she’s technically capable of reprogramming them, which is something she would not do except under extreme circumstances: to her, it’s essentially like killing a human. At University, she chose to specialize in robotics largely because she is naturally drawn to robots and tends to develop a rapport with them quickly.
Others will often describe Kate as having good intuition, but like her “ESP”, there’s nothing truly mystical about this. She might not articulate her reasons for believing certain things, and may even just claim she “knows” or “feels” something, but it is based on observations she wasn’t consciously aware of, though she often could not explain what these were, even retrospectively.
History: Kate is the only child of Frank and Susan McCrae. The two divorced when Kate was only three years old, and the little girl wound up living with her mother. She still saw her father often, though, until he was given the chance of a lifetime. He secured a place as First Officer of the U.S.S. Cygnus, under the command of legendary scientist Dr. Hans Reinhardt. The largest and most expensive spaceship ever built, the Cygnus’s mission was to seek out other habitable planets, and try to find life already present on those planets.
On the day he was to leave Earth, young Kate and her mother came to the launch site to see him off. Susan told her ex-husband to take care of himself; father and daughter hugged and exchanged “I love yous”. The girl would miss her father dearly, but unlike in the early days, space travel was considered fairly safe, and though it would be years before she even got to speak to him, there was no reason to believe he wouldn’t come back.
But she never saw him again. `
Years later, when Kate was twelve, the Cygnus had still sent no word of any planets at all, let alone planets suitable for terraforming. Deciding to cut their losses, the American government declared the Cygnus’s mission a failure and recalled the crew to Earth. There were rumors that the spacecraft’s commander had been neglecting his mission in favor of some other cause. In any case, the Cygnus never responded to any attempts to communicate, and so no one knew what had happened to the vessel and its crew. Most assumed they had all died somewhere out in space.
As she grew up, Kate discovered a certain affinity for robots; both a talent for building and repairing them, and a tendency to like any robots she met. She’d warm up to a strange robot much faster than she would to an unfamiliar human, and, moreover, most robots seemed to like her, too. Of course, the majority of human beings would have claimed this was impossible – that robots couldn’t actually like or dislike anyone, as they were not programmed to feel emotions. Kate, however, quickly came to believe that some robots had feelings anyway. They were self-aware; they had personalities and hopes and dreams of their own; they were, in a word, people.
However, it didn’t take long at all for her to discover that most humans disagreed with her, so adamantly (and, to her mind, so unreasonably) that she was left with the impression that they were terrified of that idea. There were psychological reasons, after all, that robots were almost always intentionally designed not to look even remotely human. She learned to be very careful about who she voiced her own opinions to.
It wasn’t until fairly late in her university career, when she was a PhD student, that Kate really began to think about following in her father’s footsteps. Even then, it had more to do with the fact that she happened to be interested in some of the same things he was than anything else. She loved the idea of exploring outer space, whether it was searching for new planets and extraterrestrial life, or just finding out more about the way the universe worked. Her specialty, though, was completely different from her father’s, and as it turned out, it was more than her knowledge of robotics that allowed her to become an astronaut-in-training shortly before she actually received her doctorate.
As AI became more common on Earth and in space, people had discovered that some humans were naturally drawn to advanced robots and vice-versa. While this wasn’t surprising, such humans were sometimes dismissed (as Kate had been from a young age) as being far too attached to the “simple machines”. However, it was later discovered that this affection enabled people to employ ESP – External Sensory Processing, a technology that to many humans seemed like a psychic ability – more effectively. Use of this technology requires a cybernetic chip to be implanted in the human’s brain, and would enable wordless communication with any AIs with a corresponding chip. Few really know how it conveys thoughts from one being to another.
ESP technology was by no means brand new, but it had not been used as much after the experiment known as “Project Black Hole”, in which several robots were put into space probes and sent into black holes to send ESP messages about their experiences. In many cases, the esplink failed to work at all, and some of the robots may simply not have lasted long enough to send anything. However, from those robots who did manage to communicate before they became too damaged to do so, the world learned that, even if the gravity in a black hole didn’t crush a spaceship, the heat would still be too intense for anything to survive.
They also learned another thing: for most humans, having a robot destroyed while in ESP-contact with that robot was quite traumatic. Several humans involved in the project went mad as their mind-partners melted and “died”. Whether that project was a failure or a moderate success was a controversial issue for some time afterwards.
Now, though, ESP was becoming more common again, and Kate was considered an ideal candidate to utilize it. This required a very risky operation; many humans who underwent the surgery suffered permanent brain damage as a result. However, a successful surgery would nearly guarantee a job in the highly competitive field of space research.
Believing the potential benefits outweighed the risks, Kate agreed to have a cybernetic chip implanted in her brain, and, the procedure was a success. Even so, it had its costs: many humans would now regard her as a part-human, part-machine freak. But she’d known what she was choosing when she consented to the operation; it simply left her with more time to focus on her work instead of her social life.
Kate trained as an astronaut for some time and eventually joined the crew of the U.S.S. Palomino. This time, however, her father’s history had a great deal more to do with her decision – the Palomino’s mission was the same as the Cygnus’s had been, and although she never expected to see him again, it was still a way of connecting with him. She actively sought to become a part of the crew.
The world had learned valuable lessons from the Cygnus, though. Humanity would not be building any more huge spaceships. Rather, they were sending a group of six this time time around: five humans and one robot.
It was only natural, considering that their personalities allowed for them to all live in close quarters for quite some time without killing each other or arguing constantly, that Kate soon became very fond of the others. V.I.N.CENT, Captain Holland, Charlie, Alex, and even Harry – they weren’t just her shipmates; they were her friends.
They traveled together for eighteen months without finding any sign of alien life or new worlds. Then one day, V.I.N.CENT alerted the humans to the presence of a particularly large black hole. And there was something else, too, which hadn’t moved at all since they’d first detected it: a spaceship. Further analysis revealed that the ship was actually the Cygnus, somehow defying the gravity pull from the black hole. When the larger ship didn’t respond to the Palomino’s signal, the crew decided to take a closer look. As they approached the ship, they encountered something incredibly strange: zero gravity, which shouldn’t have been possible so near to a black hole. Unless, of course, the Cygnus was causing the effect – which it could not have maintained without a crew.
As soon as the Palomino pulled away from the Cygnus, though, the smaller ship began to be pulled into the black hole. While the crew was able to keep the vessel from being sucked in, the ship was damaged while escaping the gravity pull. They had no choice but to retreat and keep close to the Cygnus, with its zero gravity. This time, when they approached the ship, the lights came on, and Kate was sure she saw people onboard.
That soon proved correct, though when the crew first went to investigate, they didn’t initially find anyone on the Cygnus at all. Almost as soon as the Palomino’s crew was onboard the larger ship, something on the Cygnus destroyed all weapons the crew had with them – including V.I.N.CENT’s lasers. When the little robot collapsed, Kate ran to his side, terrified that he’d been badly damaged. He turned out to be all right, though, and so the group went on. Still, like most of the Palomino’s crew, Kate considered this a very bad sign.
Things got even more eerie when they discovered that the Cygnus seemed to be crewed entirely by robots, with a menacing red “monster” running the operation. No sooner had one of her shipmates voiced this idea, though, than Dr. Reinhardt himself spoke up to contradict it.
In the meantime, Reinhardt’s robot (Maximilian) and V.I.N.CENT had taken an instant dislike to each other – which wasn’t surprising, given that Max’s only response to V.I.N.CENT’s demand for his identification was to threaten the crew.
Reinhardt explained that when he’d gotten the recall, he felt he was on the brink of an incredible scientific breakthrough, and so he refused to leave. He’d sent the crew home, but Kate’s father had chosen to remain with him. Unfortunately, Officer McCrae had died some time ago.
Obviously, after twenty years, there were going to be a lot of questions. Reinhardt agreed to give Kate and her fellow scientist, Alex Durant, information. In the meantime, the rest of the crew would get to work on the first steps to repairing the ship.
Reinhardt fulfilled his promise, showing the scientists, among other things, a new power source capable of providing enough energy to run everything on Earth.
Durant was clearly fascinated by Reinhardt, but Kate’s apprehension was stronger than her thirst for knowledge, and she could never forget that the man was dangerous.
Later, the human crew of the Palomino had dinner with Reinhardt. During the meal, the man announced that he intended to go through the black hole. Again, most of the Palomino’s crew thought this was madness, and as soon as Reinhardt left the room, Captain Dan Holland, Charlie, and Harry revealed some rather disturbing experiences they’d had while wandering the ship.
The garden Reinhardt claimed was only large enough for one was actually “big enough to feed an army”. Reinhardt’s cloaked, masked, eerily humanlike robots had been seen holding a funeral. One robot apparently had a limp, which could have been simply a malfunction, but it certainly wasn’t anything Kate had ever heard of before.
Unlike her human comrades, Kate did not find it absurd to think robots might feel emotions; she believed many did. However, much of what the others had pointed out confirmed that there was something very wrong onboard the Cygnus. Still, Durant wanted to stay, and journey into the black hole with Reinhardt. When V.I.N.CENT called Holland back to the Palomino, Kate remained with her colleague.
Durant was so enthralled that he refused to leave even when Kate told him of the captain’s orders (relayed through V.I.N.CENT) for them to return to the Palomino. Kate, believing the Cygnus would not survive the trip, tried to get Durant to see reason, but was initially unsuccessful.
Then V.I.N.CENT let Kate know that Reinhardt had lied: the crew of the Cygnus had never left the ship. Reinhardt had murdered her father and essentially turned the crew into zombie slaves with no will of their own. Kate pulled Durant aside and told him what she’d just learned. He went and pulled the mask off one of the “robots”, revealing a human face.
At that point, the colleagues tried to leave together and return to the Palomino, but the elevator doors closed before they could. Maximiliian rushed towards them, blades whirring, and murdered Durant.
Reinhardt scolded his homicidal robot, then begged Kate to “protect him from Maximilian!” Even she isn’t sure how serious he was about that, but it didn’t matter: he was a murderer and worse, and in a just universe, would die in the black hole. Without fully thinking through the potential consequences, Kate informed Reinhardt of her opinion. She realized he might kill her for that.
She’d forgotten he could do worse.
Reinhardt ordered his sentry robots to take Kate off to become another robot, so she used her esplink to tell V.I.N.CENT what had just happened. Then there was the waiting as she was escorted to the hospital, unable to do anything but pray someone would rescue her in time. Of course, as usually happens, the captain, B.O.B., and V.I.N.CENT showed up at the last moment. Captain Holland shot and disabled the lasers that had begun cutting into Kate’s skull, and together, captain and robots destroyed all the sentries and saved Kate.
In an attempt to fool Reinhardt and get back to the Palomino, Kate and Holland donned the capes and masks the evil scientist’s humanoid “robots” were forced to wear, obscuring their own identities. Soon, though, Reinhardt caught sight of them on one of his security cameras, and, knowing who they really were, ordered his sentry robots to “fire on any humanoids between medical and Palomino”.
The two humans, V.I.N.CENT, and B.O.B. managed to destroy many sentries in the resulting laser fight, but there were so many robots the captain eventually realized they would not be able to get back to the ship in time. Against orders, Charlie came to rescue them, dragging the reluctant Harry Booth with him part of the way – until the panicked Harry pretended to have broken his leg, then ran back to the ship when Charlie was gone.
Charlie destroyed the remaining enemy robots, freeing the others, but in the meantime Booth had taken off. However, he was not able to fly the ship properly, and though Reinhardt tried to blow it up before it could, the smaller ship hit and damaged the Cygnus. For a while, once the Palomino exploded, the crew had thought there was no other means of escape – but then V.I.N.CENT reminded them of the probe ship they might be able to use to get away. As B.O.B. and the Palomino’s crew hurried to get there, the Cygnus encountered a meteor storm, and because of the previous damage, the meteors were too much for the huge spaceship.
When they were almost there, after surviving several perilous situations, Maximilian appeared, trying to stop them from leaving, and shot B.O.B. with his lasers. Kate and the other humans, fully aware that V.I.N.CENT was the only one of them who stood any chance against Maximilian, continued to race for the probe ship. Kate remained in ESP contact with V.I.N.CENT, so she could tell that he wasn’t being seriously damaged, but she also learned B.O.B. was dead. Other humans might have used the phrase “damaged beyond repair”, but that wasn’t exactly the problem. The B.O.B. unit could probably be repaired, but the mind and soul within the machine would not be his.
There was little time to mourn for lost friends, though, as they still had to escape. But when they made it to the probe ship, they learned that it had been programmed to go into the black hole, and again, there was nothing to do but pray.
Time and space grew strange, and became… fuzzy. Perhaps they were there for ten minutes; perhaps for a thousand years.
She only knows that she closed her eyes for just a moment, and when she opened them again, she found herself alone, and looking up at a very familiar set of constellations.
Earth?!
Ambitions: At this point, her top priority is to find out what happened to V.I.N.CENT, Dan, and Charlie. They are the three people she cares about most in the entire universe. Until then, she’ll have short-term goals like finding a job and making friends, but nothing will be as important as locating the rest of the crew.
Strengths & abilities:
*Smart
*Caring
*Knowledgeable scientist; particularly skilled in robotics
*Good intuition
*Balanced – capable of seeing and considering all sides in a debate
Flaws:
*Almost no training in hand-to-hand combat; she is, after all, a scientist
*With friends, gets hurt rather than angry and will very seldom tell anyone how she feels; this may ultimately lead her to withdraw from someone, leading the bewildered person to wonder why she never talks to them anymore
*Easily overwhelmed in crowds
*Poor leadership skills (she is neither comfortable with this role nor competent at it)
*Has difficulty maintaining friendships with other women
Likes:
*The rest of the Palomino’s crew, though she’ll have a few harsh words for Harry if she ever sees him again
*Old B.O.B
*Friendly AIs in general
*Science
*Exploring outer space
Dislikes:
*Reinhardt
*Maximilian
*Crowds
*Being called “girl” or “child”
*Mushroom soup (food aversion, though she can’t even remember why)
Fears:
*Being “reprogrammed”
*Losing more of her closest friends
*Public humiliation
What makes this character unique: She’s one of the only “space scientists” (as the movie calls them) in Disney canon. Kate and the other survivors ultimately go through a black hole, and the film never really states exactly where they end up; this makes her one of a very few protagonists whose fate is still quite uncertain. Also, in a movie with only one female character, Kate never ends up with a significant other – for Disney, that’s extremely unusual.
RP SAMPLE: See Raksha?
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