Roswell
Roswell
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Roswell presents as a physically fit male in his indeterminate 30's entirely as a result of having purchased a high quality morph when he had the funds
Apparel & Accessories
Roswell's apparel focusses on comfort and utility, heavily reliant on promotional items he received over the years.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Phase One How You Got Noticed
Roswell was born and raised in the South Dome of Pavonis on Mars, to working class parents Lisa (a teacher) and Robert (a technician/engineer maintaining the mag lev trains). Younger sister Carly followed her mother into teaching is married to a med tech (Hamish Pine) and has two children Robert and Ciaran; younger sister Shanna left Mars to pursue a career as an influencer on Earth and is presumed dead; older brother Scott became a Jesuit priest and serving on Mars and missionary work in the Sunward region has been posted to a functionary position in the Superior General’s office in the Jovian Republic. His maternal uncle Michael is a minor elected official in the Pavonis municipal government.
Roswell attended university on Mars studying Memetic Journalism with a minor in Data Sculpting, but left without completing his degree to take an internship with a major Martian news outlet. As a gifted researcher and adequate writer, Roswell advanced through the ranks and qualified for an employer subsidised upgrade to a Menton Morph.
His career levelled off as a mid-level reporter, despite direction from editors and management Roswell continued to submit stories that embarrassed the movers and shakers on a city wide, sometimes planetary or system wide level
Fewer and fewer of Roswell’s stories made it to broadcast and even when they did, they were heavily redacted. He was moved between sections, away from politics and business towards areas where it was thought he could get into less trouble, but even when assigned a puff piece on a new starlet or snack food Roswell would still end up submitting a piece that focused on the use of data mining in marketing or inhumane working conditions in factory production.
Along the way Roswell picked up skills and knowledge in a wide variety of fields, researching stories, building skills for passable cover identities working undercover, and managing his own tech as support from employers dried up.
Roswell could have stopped his downward trajectory at any time, and while he told himself (and anyone that would listen) the only reason he didn’t was his own journalistic integrity, secretly he admired the media personalities who were able to balance credibility with career advancement,
Deep down Roswell knew the real reason was hubris and that while he was a home run hitter in research he was a middling writer at best and off putting as an “on air” personality. By the time he was uploading stories from Mercury as a stringer for a third rate media corp, Roswell had to admit to himself that mainstream media was essentially closed to him. He purchased and adapted a number of bots and began supporting himself primarily through his independent meshcast (though taking the occasional corp media contract or research gig when he could). The meshcast gave Roswell the freedom to pursue whatever took his fancy, yielding a small but passionate following but increasingly branding him a conspiracy theorist to the mainstream media corps.
Phase Two A Recent Incident
Although Roswell craves recognition, he has next to no interest in material wealth. He has been content to exist at a subsitence level for most of his adult life, applying any additional income he acquires to purchasing and upgrading tech to assist in his career including his Muse "Bogie."
Roswell's Muse manifests as a monochrome image of Humphrey Bogart in all his trench coated, gumshoe glory.
Phase Three Crossing Paths
Roswell continued to work together on his meshcast, stubbornly insisting there was a viable market for deeply researched journalism as opposed to mass market sensationalism, selling the occasional story as a stringer or doing contract research work, moving through the Earth system as opportunities presented themselves.
Following the fall of Earth, Roswell worked on an ongoing series of stories focusing on the influx of infugees and their impact on the system economy and culture. Roswell developed a working relationship with an infugee coolhunter, Lei Xao which proved to be mutually beneficial as Xao could direct the pair to cutting edge culture and the resulting stories raised Xao’s profile in the cultural community.
Although Roswell’s profile was limited, Lei Xao struggled to advance as an InfoLife (and infugee) and appreciated that Roswell always dealt with her as an equal.
Phase Four Crossings Paths Again
An investigation on the corporate use of emargoed Titan Tech lead Roswell to believe the source of the tech was located on the other side of a gate, in the Eridani system. Roswell arranged to travel undercover, posing as a med tech on a colony supply ship.
Once on Eridani, Roswell tried to reinvent himself as mainstream journalist. But the proto-facisitic government soon lead Roswell down the same, downward spiral he followed in the Earth system but at a much accelerated rate. When their media prospects ran dry, Roswell signed on as crew on a supply ship headed to Prospect Station.
Once on station, Roswell continued to upload his meshcast and scrounge for whatever research and writing work he could find. But the options were limited on a station of some 7,000 permanent residents catering to gate crashers, research scientists and mining companies. Roswell began gig work, taking advantage of the broad skill set he developed over the years Roswell found work wherever he could find (or create) it: public relations pieces for Prospect Station itself and various stakeholders primarily Terese Eggsbo and the Janus Collective, tech and medical services for the mine workers and station staff, as well as coroner and research/investigation contracts with station security.
After assisting on an investigation that resulted in the revelation of a Titan Tech based murder virus on the station, Roswell was recruited by the Blue Harvest Firewall cell.
Gender Identity
Male
Sexuality
Currently heterosexual with a pansexual history
Education
Completed two years university on Mars before dropping out to take an internship at a media corp
Employment
Gig worker, mostly creating positions based on his variety of skills
Meshcaster/citizen journalist
Failures & Embarrassments
Steady decline in employers through to his current self employment
Intellectual Characteristics
Overly analytic
Extremely observational
Overconfident in his ability to charm his way out of difficult situations
Physical coward, while reasonably skilled at hand to hand and firearms, Roswell tries to avoid physical conflict, prefers to rely on his Guardian Angel 'bot and when forced into confrontation focusses more on escape and self preservation
Morality & Philosophy
The unvarnished truth is the only thing that can set us free.
Pursuit of the unvarnished truth is the highest morality
Taboos
Roswell struggles to tell anything but the absolute (technically speaking) truth. Though over the years has become increasingly comfortable with the idea that almost anything is true from a certain point of view
Social
Contacts & Relations
Papillion, InfoLife companion in a Dragonfly Morph
Lei Xiao - Communications Tech Prospect Station
Terese Eggsbo - Janus Research Group/Gatecrashers
Bailie Farmer - VIP concierge, Prospect Station
Trecca Gentry - Prospect Station Security Officer
Cole Walker - Prospect Station Security
Alayna Bentzen - Prospect Station Security
Family Ties
Parents Lisa (a teacher) and Robert (a technician/engineer maintaining the mag lev trains). Younger sister Carly followed her mother into teaching is married to a med tech (Hamish Pine) and has two children Robert and Ciaran; younger sister Shanna left Mars to pursue a career as an influencer on Earth and is presumed dead; older brother Scott became a Jesuit priest and serving on Mars and missionary work in the Sunward region has been posted to a functionary position in the Superior General’s office in the Jovian Republic. His maternal uncle Michael is a minor elected official in the Pavonis municipal government.
Religious Views
Lapsed Catholic (Jesuit)
Social Aptitude
Skilled interviewer and adept at establishing and maintaining cover identities, extremely awkward in personal relationships especially face to face
Mannerisms
Talks too fast, prone to sudden movements, tends to jump from Point A to Point C (or Point Q) in conversation but near pathological in conducting research and triple+ sourcing his journalism
Hobbies & Pets
Ongoing, perpetual gin rummy game with Papillion
Speech
Rapid
Wealth & Financial state
Subsistence Level
Conspiracy minded, former mainstream journalist turned gig economy worker with a meshcast, offering his eclectic skills to the highest (often only) bidder.
View Character Profile
Alignment
Anarchist
Age
80 (chronological)
Birthplace
Mars, Pavonis, South Dome
Children
Current Residence
Prospect Station
Gender
Male
Eyes
Cyan
Hair
Dirty Blonde
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale
Height
1.83 metres
Weight
170 lbs
Quotes & Catchphrases
Truth does not mind being questioned, a lie does not like being challenged.
You're not paranoid if they're out to get you, and they're all out to get you
It is difficult to get a sentient to understand something, when their salary depends upon their not understanding it
The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house
Until lions have their own journalists, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter
Why would I ever want to get into a fair fight?
