Current WIP for character sheet:




Forename: Robert
Middle name: Edwin
Surname: Blake
Date of Birth 7th of June 2234
Age: 15
Gender: Male
Psi Scale Rating: P12
Place of Birth: Orion VII
Date of Telepathic Manifestation: December 2nd 2249


Height: 172.8 cm
Weight: 58.7 kg
Eye Colour: Grey
Hair Colour: Black
Profile Description: A healthy subject, somewhere between the medium to a higher scale of the interstellar male human average fitness levels for his age group. The subject has a paler skin pigment than the norm; an anomaly is attributed to lack of exposure to direct sunlight, caused by his extended stay onboard spaceships and stations. His hands' show signs of extensive use in both in manual and delicate labour, an observation that is backed by the relatively higher proportion of muscle development on his upper body, as opposed to his less developed lower body. Mandated periods of exposure to sunlight once the subject is brought to Earth and a balanced exercise program should solve these anomalies and end his dependency on extended space travel vitamin treatments for sustained health. The subject's face is triangular shaped and boasts a strong chin, but is somewhat thin at the edges. His hair is messy and disorganized but seems to be routinely cut to prevent it from impeding the use of hazard masks. All in all, he is a fairly average looking lad of nether stunning or disfiguring attributes, the sort of face a casual observer would easily forget. Clothing-wise, the subject prefers practical clothing such as jumpsuits and casual clothes well suited to a working environment. Notable exceptions include Centauri jackets and a Minbari robe of an as of yet undetermined utility. For terrestrial travel, the subject uses hats as sunglasses to protect his eyes from the unfamiliar strong light. Colour-wise, a preference for calmer tones, such as faded green and sky blue seem to be preferred, though working clothes tend to be of darker shades of black, brown and dark blue.



Robert Blake was born on Orion 7 in the year 2234. His mother, Terry Blake, was the owner and captain of an independent freighter that traded between Alliance, Centauri, Narn and none aligned space. His father, Jack Hammond, is a businessman based on Orion 7. Robert's parents divorced in 2240 when he was six years old. Robert's father attempted to gain custody of his son through both legal and illegal means, prompting Robert's mother to relocate her base of operations to Tradepost Zenith, in orbit around Tau Ceti IV, and to take her son with her on her freighter trips. Robert may have started to show signs of telepathic ability at this time. Robert's skill in employing mind blocks against surface and emotional thoughts in tests attempted thus far may imply that as a child, he may have subconsciously used his considerable telepathic potential to bo block the distressing thoughts and emotions broadcasted by his parents during their separation, closing his telepathic abilities into a partial or near complete dormancy.

Robert lived onboard his mother's freighter until his discovery by the corps. He successfully managed to keep up with his studies through an interactive home study program and learned many practical skills, particularly relating to ship, technology, and equipment maintenance and repair. Between the years 2245 to 2247, Robert resided in alien space, since the Earth-Minbari war closed most of the regular trade routes to the Alliance. Terry Blake traded between the various alien powers and participated in the smuggling efforts of Narn weapons to Earth, though she preferred to avoid the conflict whenever the job requirement didn't necessitate such a joureny. Robert traveled to numerous alien worlds gave Robert unique linguistic abilities in several languages but may have also disassociated him from human society. Lack of communication with children and teenagers of a similar age may further complicate further integration.

During a routine voyage between Earth Alliance and Centauri space, several raiders, pretending to be passengers, attempted to gain control of the freighter. The attempt was repulsed by the crew and passengers, but Terry Blake was killed in the fighting. During the event, Robert was given a sidearm for personal protection, a weapon he was forced to use to deadly effect against one of the raiders. The trauma of the event either awoke a late-telepathic ability or broke open his telepathic abilities from their hypothetical self-imposed dormancy. Commercial telepath Lyta Alexander, who was traveling onboard the freighter on route to witness a business transaction between Xenocorp and representatives of house Milifa, reported that shortly after the battle, Robert experienced an extremely violent mindburst that quickly forced him into an unconscious state. Alexander administrated basic aid and assisted Robert in gaining control of his talent. According to her initial field estimate, the mindburst hinted at a very high Psi scale rating. Further tests have confirmed that Robert is a medium to lower range P-12. Genetic material gathered on the site confirmed that Terry Blake was either an undocumented latent telepath or a rouge blip.

Alexander continued to instruct Robert in basic telepathic control, until a psi-corps ship was able to intercept the freighter in the Centauri Prime system, a week after the attempted hostile takeover.



Tell us about yourself; who are you, how did you grow up ?

There isn't so much to say; I grew up on a freighter so you would think that all those exotic travelling locations would make for an equally exciting childhood, but for the most part, my life's has been about journeys and not destinations. If a freight crew wants to make a decent income, it can't stay anywhere for very long, it should not stay anywhere at all. Some clever clogs back on Earth said that life is about the journey and not the destination, well, that guy was never strapped in a metal box, not even long enough for a five-minute walk, trying to get to all those destinations. I am not really complaining about, alright, maybe a little, but my life was decent, and its a lot more then I can say about a lot of the people I saw out there. I had good grub to eat, most independent crews do; no lousy megacorp to tell us otherwise. Out there in space, even a short-staffed crew gets plenty of free time to burn, so there was always someone ready to teach me something new. Life in space can get pretty dull, especially for the poor sods used to having two feet on the ground and enough space to swing a spanner without hitting something important.

I was for the most part free to do whatever I liked, but there is only so much time you can throw away at games and vids before you get sick of them, so I ended up working part-time on the ship, even got paid for it, which was even better... once you got to some spot with enough purses to set up shop anyway. My schedule was mostly my affair; space is a pretty dark place so I got to decide when I got up and when I went to sleep and all the things that go in between. Some people on ground level wonder how I ever get anything done, but when there is so little to actually do, even conventionally boring things like homework, studying and reading seem a damn sight better than doing nothing. A terrestrial bloke might enjoy sitting around staring at a screen all day, but he also has to move around places, like it or not, to get by. I can't... couldn't do that, so sitting around drove me crazy. I did more exercise than I had to stay healthy to pass the time and tried to get physical copies of whatever I was reading just to get my ass out of my room. I even rigged up a firing range in one of the cargo holds to keep my aim sharp, but misfires at the cargo put a stop to that. Sneaking off to do it again encouraged me to be much more careful with my aim, least I get busted for damages out of my own pocket.

What are your interests, what do you like, what do you dislike?

I enjoy reading, big surprise right? Every good shuttle service has at least a few books on its data files. I had thousands on my puter and dozens in the paper at any given time. Space is space, heh, well its a premium, so I had to recycle whatever I finished reading and reprint it into something else. I didn't have so many possessions, its hard to have any when your quarters are smaller than this interrogation room, but I kept what I could. Most space guys spend their money on booze and chems, I hardly ever did, both gave me headaches like you wouldn't believe. I guess I know the reason why now; even that Minbari telepath I met wouldn't go near the stuff, then again, most normal Minbari tend to avoid it. Because I didn't drink, I ended up being the responsible guy on shore leave, believe it or not. I had to learn how to keep a cool head and a civil tongue pretty quick, or when to doge one when I couldn't. I ended up saving my money; there hardly ever seemed to be anything worth spending it on. I saved enough to go on some pretty nice trips when I got the chance, I ended up developing a habit of hiking and sightseeing, and I must say I enjoy doing that quite a lot. I can't say I enjoy the company of most human terrestrials. Most news out of Earth seems to be someone complaining about something, most conversations with human passengers are about complaining about something, and that lot complain far more then they should; alliance citizens don't understand how much better out they are than most people. Narns sure don't have it easy, and poor Centauri plebs have it even worse than they do. Minbari are fairly well off, but they don't complain about what they don't have like most erthers do. I don't like music, as a rule, anyone playing the stuff out loud on a ship can't help but having everyone else hearing it. Keeping it to yourself with earphones gets old pretty quick. When I don't have anything better to do, I'll go into a game of cards with the crew. I win nine times out of ten, so they aren't really keen on handing out their cash, but my mum is their boss, so they can hardly say no, at least, not nine times out of ten they can't. I guess we now know why I won so much. I didn't get into their thoughts like I can do now, but I did get a good idea when I should get rid of a hand or when I should bluff my way through one. Some of the guys thought that wasn't natural, but...well, mum won most hands, so they figured I must have inherited her luck, they weren't far off in any case.

Tell us about your background; your family and social life for example?

Not much to say. I got on with the crew, but they couldn't really take me seriously since they were all old enough to be my father; which they might as well have been considering what the genuine article was worth. I made friends with passengers and ground siders now and then, but most didn't stay in touch Relationships ended up being the sort of thing I would make quickly and forget when distance made them more complicated then they were worth. My mother did what she could... but she was busy most of the time, even when everyone else wasn't. She couldn't give me time at the expense of work without having to beach me somewhere, and she certainly didn't want to do that. We were getting closer though, I became more and more useful to the ship with age so she got to see more of me even when she wasn't busy, I was really getting to know her as a person before...sorry...this is hard to talk about, can we talk about something else please?

Sure, well, how about this; you have said quite a lot about your life on ship, but most of your early childhood was spent on Orion 7, can you tell me what you remember about that time?

Wow, I haven't thought about it in a long time. I don't remember the details very well, but it sure wasn't pretty. Mum and d...that bastard argued and argued some more. Things were pretty tense, and I was right in the middle of it. Come to think of it, I think I might have actually felt bits of all of that shit, you know, from their brains, not only by their tones or body language, though even those certainly weren't civil. I think I felt horrible because of it, until, day after day, I just pushed it all away; I stopped feeling what I wasn't supposed to feel and I ignored what I could without plucking my eyes and ears out. When mum and I walked out, things seemed to be getting better, but the bastard wouldn't leave us alone, so mum ended up taking me to work, you could say. I think she really didn't like doing that, that she wanted me to have a normal life on the surface, but she couldn't risk leaving me behind, the bastard would have tried to get a hold of me if she did. Its weird, I never talked about this shit before, never had any reason to. Are you doing anything to my brains to make me more easy going about all this personal stuff? you could have slipped something to the food or did some telepath thing for all I know".

Describe your telepathic manifestation; what were you doing before it happened, how did you feel?

Your did do something to my brains, didn't you? Well, I can't be mad at you, this is your job, and I guess the more information you get out of me, the better you can handle my case; the corps takes care of its own and all that. Well, looking back, it just hit me out of the black like a plasma bolt; mum had just...fallen, and my own handgun was still hot from firing at the bastard raider who did her in. Next thing I knew, all of space seemed to have said fuck all to the galactic centre and tilted its orbit around my brains for shits and giggles. I went down before I really knew what was going on, I am sort of glad that I did; at that moment, I couldn't handle any more shit being thrown my way. Next thing I knew, I was in the ship's medical station, and my head was blowing up. Lyta, you know, the telepath who was travelling on the ship to meet some Centauri bigwig, well, she helped me out. It was really weird, she knew talking to me wouldn't help me at that moment, so she got into my head and told me to build a wall. It took some doing, but got it done, she was showing me how to do it every step of the way. I can't really explain it, but I got the idea when I was doing something right or when I was doing something wrong, heh; I guess I was literally getting the ideas straight from her head. This stuff will get some getting used to.

Lyta wanted to send me to the corps right away, but it just wasn't practical. Even with mum...gone... the crew still had a contract to keep and Lyta was wanted right away on Centauri Prime. We spent most of the remaining voyage working on my control, you know, on how to keep out of other peoples heads and keep my wall up, even when I was doing something else. Lyta talked about the corps, of how you telepaths...we telepaths take care of our own. I still don't know what to make of it, but it doesn't sound half bad, so I said ok. The ship was a shared business, so the other crew had more stake in it then I did. I gave up my inherited shares to the other guys to settle my debt to them. I won quite a lot of cash at cards using an edge they didn't have. The guys didn't want my money, said it wasn't like I knew what I was doing, but I insisted they at least got mum's shares in the freight. A telepath can't legally keep shares anyway, and mum would have wanted the guys to keep going without her, so it seemed like the right thing to do. I guess what I really wanted to do was to just walk away. A few days after we arrived at Centauri Prime, a Psi-Corps ship arrived to pick me up. You know the rest better then I do.

How did the crew react to your talent?

They were fine with it for the most part, but I got the idea they were pretty uneasy about it all the same. Mum had just died, so I think they felt a bit guilty about holding anything against me. I think they were both sad and relieved to see me go. They sent me a few messages, so it isn't like they don't want to have anything to do with me, they just don't really want me hanging around the ship like I used to. I guess you can understand them, there isn't a lot of privacy on a freight, so, folks are a bit touchier about someone sifting through their brains.

How do you think would have your mother reacted?

To me being a telepath? I think she would have understood. I think she would have wanted me to join the corps just to get off the freight and finally live a normal... well, normal for a telepath life on the ground. I wonder if she knew we had the telepath gene all along, if so. maybe she would have felt differently. Mum loved space and she really valued her independence. She would have never fit in in the corps, so if she knew she had the talent, I guess that's why she was an independent freight pilot rather then in a megacorp or military. Maybe she spent all her life on the run, maybe she didn't, she never said anything about telepathy and never raised a stink about a telepath passenger. She was always good at reading people, so I wonder if she wasn't a telepath all along. Maybe she thought since I didn't do strange things the only telepath could do that she didn't need to spill the beans about it, you can be just naturally lucky or talented at cards too.

Have you been in contact with your father since your telepathic manifestation?

He sent a message after he heard about what happened, but he went quiet pretty quick when he learned what I was. I haven't heard from him since. Figures, he goes after me all my life, but with mum gone, and complete freedom to gain custody, he gives me the cold shoulder. I guess a telepath is more trouble then he is willing to have to get his kid. I sure as hell don't need him so the feeling is mutual.

How do you feel about Psi Corps?

I don't really know. Lyta was nicer than she had to be, and all the guys I met so far were more than decent. Everyone here seems to want to really help me, like a long-lost relative. I didn't expect it, but its nice having so many people looking out for me... with mum gone and all. Even this interrogation has been more decent then it has to be, I should know, I have been on the wrong side of an interrogation table at least a few times, never my fault, but the guys doing the talking sure as hell didn't care.

Do you want to join Psi Corps?

Yep, I sure do.



-write your characters telepathic manifestation from your character's point of view. It should contain the last hours or minutes of your character mundane life, the telepathic manifestation (basically its as if you can hear everyone thoughts all at once, to a p-10 the experience is akin to a deaf person suddenly hearing a rocket engine right by their head, so as a p-12, your experience is much worse, so bad, you lose unconscious shortly after it). The memory extract ends with a scene of your character waking up in a hospital, getting a short repeat of the telepathic manifestation as a telepath assigned to you helps you build your initial barriers against the surface thoughts of others-