Name:Kerry Gilman Tradition:Son of Ether

Social: Charisma (2) Manipulation (3) Appearance (3)

Mental: Perception (3) Intelligence (5) Wits (2)

Character: Nature-Caregiver/Innovator Demeanor-Deviant Essence-Questing

Skills: Animal Training: (1) Etiquette (1) Melee (2) Research (3) Technology (2)

Knowledge:Academics (2) Computer(2) Enigmas (3) Medicine (2) Science (4, Biology)

Backgrounds: Arcane: (1) Avatar (2) Dream (2) Resources (1) Sanctum (1) Node(1)

Arete:4 Willpower:8

Merits:True Love: 1 Poker Face: 2 Twin Souls: 4

Flaws:Child

Other Notes:

Appearance:

Clothing Tendencies:

Known to:

Ongoing Projects:  

Circle and Influence:virtually none on campus

House:Lives at Huntington presently

Library:None at present

Mentor:Mikhail Rodochenko Cabal:Half

Quintessence source:Half node

Magickal style :Etheric based biologically based magick.

Story:Kerry, the Early Years==

Kerry Gilman was born the first child (by about 20 minutes) of your average middle class suburban family. It was rapidly determined by all present that he was both human and male, and notes were made as to various and sundry details such as weight and blood type. His father (Ken) was an aspiring but not especially successful inventor (think Gremlins), who was not so much eccentric as idealistic to the point of naivety. He meant well, but his inventions usually lacked some sort of mass appeal, practicality, or marketability. His mother (Terry,I think you see where the child's name came from) worked in some sort of dull office environment that Kerry was never very clear on the details of (nor was this a situation that he tried very hard to rectify). It sufficed for him to know that Mom brought in the bulk of the money, while Dad stayed in his workroom and tinkered, and occasionally things broke spectacularly. It has been mentioned that another Gilman child entered the world at approximately the same time as Kerry, so perhaps some details are in order. This individual was presumably human much like the first, so one might suspect it to be rather superfluous. However, the latter child was physically unlike Kerry in one very important respect it was of the strange and poorly understood flavor of humanity known as "female". Her given name was listed in all of the right places as Tenna, but she more frequently answered to the nickname "Ten" (thus completing a naming system usually referred to as "distressingly cute"). The first few years of life with these miniature people were relatively unremarkable, so we shall proceed to more interesting events. Kerry was soon found to possess a formidable intellect and an intuitive grasp of subjects far in advance of his years. His sister was not far behind him, but her interests usually lay elsewhere. Contrary to all predictions, there was very little rivalry to be found here; brother and sister were well-nigh inseparable. She was the emotional to his rational, and they complemented one another almost perfectly (almost ... kids being kids, there was occasional friction, but nothing at all significant). This was not so much a case of the boy being pushed into one role and the girl into the opposite role, as it was a case of each twin handling what they felt most = comfortable with, so that the other would not have to. In fact, if there could be said to exist such a thing as an emotional prodigy, Ten would have been the very definition of the term. Her intuitive grasp of emotional situations and problems bordered on true empathy. On the other hand, there was a peculiar inversion that occasionally manifested. From time to time, one of the pair would assume the traits of the other, and -- as if there were a sort of cosmic equation to be balanced -- this would more often than not be instantly echoed by the other. This sort of thing happened even if they were completely isolated from one another, and became a sort of running joke in the family. In this manner, the lie was given to gender stereotypes, and life went on with only slightly more strangeness than it otherwise might have.

Precession of Destiny== Events were leading towards Kerry's indoctrination into the Sons of Ether for years before he awakened, almost as if some unseen agency were quietly manipulating events in that direction. Probably the first and most visible of these events, if it must be named, was when Kerry's grandfather (on his father's side) died when Kerry was nine. For no readily apparent reason, he left the boy a large inheritance. Receipt of this money was contingent upon Kerry's participation in a meticulously planned academic curriculum. From our outside perspective we can clearly see that the first phase of this curriculum was designed to regularly expose the boy to Utopian ideals, open-minded theorizing, fringe theories, and the like, and to do so in an environment that allowed those ideas to take root. In addition to the monetary inheritance, Kerry was left an expensive Swiss pocketwatch (mechanical, naturally) which seemed almost to call to the boy to be taken apart and studied. This urge was resisted due to extenuating circumstances. For the first time, a wedge had been driven between Kerry and his sister, who was left no inheritance at all. Not only the children, but their parents found themselves at odds for the first time (so far as we know). Ms. Gilman could not understand why her daughter had been judged unworthy of such a gift. Mr. Gilman, for his part, seemed rather embarrassed about the whole matter, and could only offer in his father's defense the observation that the man held some rather conservative (to say nothing of outmoded) opinions about female equality. Opinions, he hastened to say, that he had never supported and often argued with. After some discussion and several arguments by everyone concerned, eventually Kerry was given the choice did he even want to go along with this? He said that he would let everyone know, and went off to a nearby park to think by himself and gaze at the stars. Both Kerry and Ten had been trying to work around this. She tried not to act hurt about being left out (although it didn't fool anyone), and in spite of the fact that he found the thing extremely fascinating and nearly ached to dismantle it, he secretly left the pocketwatch as a gift to her on his way out. Apparently, this did much to heal the temporary rift, for Ten showed up next to him not long thereafter. She sat silently for some time, apparently doing some pondering of her own. Then, clicking the pocketwatch closed, she broke the lengthy silence "I was never really mad, you know. It just hurts that he didn't think enough of me to even leave me a stupid watch. We're so much alike in most ways that even I can't figure out why he ... loved you more. He certainly never let on." "I don't understand it any more than you do, Ten. Not really. I've been trying to think it out, and I get to a certain point and can't go any further. Was it really a question of how he felt about you? I don't think it was. If it were, you would have seen and dealt with it ages ago." "What then?" desperately. Ten was never so lost as in a situation like this, where her own emotions got in the way and she couldn't see what was going on. But then Kerry suspected he had his own intellectual blind spots. This particularly issue was probably one of them. "I think he had something else in mind. Something that only I could do, or at least that he believed only I could do. That part is easy enough to see. It's figuring out what he has in store for me that I can't even guess at." "You resent it. You hate that he's manipulating you. But it's also caught your imagination. You are fascinated by the small taste of what might come of this, and you want to know more." It wasn't a question. "... and you know that's not all of it." "You also worry about me. You would have jumped on it faster than dad's inventions blow up in his face, if it weren't for me." "If that's all you can see, I'm losing confidence in your ability to read me." Ten sighed, reluctant to stop finding fault with herself. "OK, OK. You don't think of me as a burden. You just don't want to be apart from me. You are afraid this will tear us apart. Because we..." She hopped up and stood in front of Kerry and looked directly at him, inquiringly. Kerry looked back at his sister impassively. She was in her element, which was far better than letting her turn her emotions back on themselves. He nodded at her to go on. She looked into his eyes, searching. As always, when it got to this level, the world around them seemed to fade to nothing, and the boundaries grew fuzzy. "...we provide balance to one another. You are afraid I'll be lost without you, and you are afraid you'll be lost without me. And you won't be able to .... to... protect me. Protect me? Give me a break. I'm only twenty minutes younger." "Sorry. Can't help it." Kerry continued to stare into her eyes, even as he grinned at her. They had been over this issue before. Still, she was getting close, too close, and he wanted her to stop there. At the same time, he didn't. Torn, he did nothing for a moment. "That's not all, though. There's something else." "Back off, Ten." "Wait, I can almost see it..." Her eyes narrowed in concentration. He knew from past conversations that what she did wasn't like rummaging through his mind so much as it was like linking together clues that were too subtle for most people to even see. He knew there was also something akin to inertia involved. At this point she wouldn't want to stop voluntarily any more than he would willingly put aside a particularly engrossing puzzle when he had two pieces left. In more ways than one might expect, this was simply her version. "Stop, Ten. Now." Unable to do anything else, he reached out and shoved her shoulder gently, putting her off balance. She stumbled, but did not fall. Instantly tearful, she looked at him indignantly. "That hurt, Kerry! You know it hurts to stop that fast." "Listen to me next time." She stared at him for a few seconds more, then regained her composure, "Sorry, you're right. You've never let me get that close before. But you know I can't help but wonder what you don't want me to see." Was she blushing? No way to tell for sure in the poor light. "Wonder all you like, but don't you dare take things before I'm ready for you to. Especially not you. It doesn't matter anyway. Just take it as given that you are the reason this is in doubt, and I don't consider that a bad thing. Look, I'm being pushed and prodded into who knows what. Normally I would have jumped in the pool with both feet and not so much as glanced to see how deep the water was. You are causing me to step back and get out a measuring rod. Don't you think that I appreciate that?" "Hadn't thought of it quite like that." She smiled, half to herself, then looked at him again. "So." "So. Keep the watch, Ten. I want you to, no matter whether I go through with this or not. It wasn't right of Grandfather to do you that way, no matter what he had in mind. Don't think of it as a second-place prize. Think of it more as me saying that I have no intention of forgetting that you have as much right to this inheritance as I do, and if only one of us can actually get part of it, there's nothing stopping both of us from using it later. If you have to, pretend I bought it for you myself. I want it to be more from me than him, anyway." "Go for it, Kerry." "Hmm?" "The inheritance. If you want it, go for it. If you want it and don't take it, then I really am a burden. It also occurs to me that we could probably stand to be apart from one another, for awhile. Over-dependency, you see? Not healthy. Plus, it's not like we won't ever see each other. I'll consider this watch a promise that you won't forget about me, ever." "I hardly think I could manage to do that, even though sometimes I might like to." She rolled her eyes. "I thought you gave up trying to tease me long ago?" "Not at all, I'm just trying to get sneakier at it." "Not trying hard enough, it would seem." "You are ruining my fun, sister." Kerry grinned to show that he found his transparency more amusing than the teasing itself would have been. "All in a day's work." She grinned as well. "But there's one thing I can still do, from which even your formidable skills cannot save you." "Oh? And what's that?" She looked doubtful. Then a thought occurred, and a sudden look of horror drifted across her face. "You wouldn't..." "No?" He pointed at her melodramatically. "PREPARE TO BE TICKLED!" Ten was notoriously ticklish, a weakness that Kerry was extremely fond of exploiting when she got a bit too smug for his tastes. "Eek!" She leapt up and fled, Kerry chasing her all the way back to the house. The Parents dropped their objections when both children seemed content with the situation. In this manner, the family resolved their differences.

==Back on track== Kerry entered a series of private schools (of which Huntington Academy is only the most recent), some abroad, sometimes transferring in and out at weirdly unpredictable intervals according to the dictates of his grandfather's will. Each time he comes to a new school, he hopes that he will be able to stay for a time and actually get his bearings. This only rarely happens. He has not stayed at a single school longer than half a school year since he began this journey. Still, he has made much progress in the last four years. In short order his studies began to challenge even his abilities. There was no particular pattern to this that he could see. A teacher here and there (and not always in science) would seem to sense that he needed special attention and drove him to think in ever stranger directions, on a level not often seen outside of college level courses "The Michelson-Morley experiment disproved the Ether? Are you sure that it was interpreted correctly? What other interpretations might be possible?" "Here we have a non-trivial axiomatic system defined in a first order language. Godel's incompleteness theorem states that there are always true statements that cannot be proven. In your own words, discuss what this implies for the pursuit of objective truth." "Consider the electron-flow model of electricity. Positrons would naturally flow in the opposite direction, producing an antithetical magnetic field. Given a device that prevented mutual matter-antimatter annihilation, what effects might result from an alloyed metal composed of both terrene and contra-terrene matter?" "Submit a twenty page report detailing the accuracies and inaccuracies in the so-called 'Philadelphia Experiment' legend, including your own evaluation on the potential inherent in the Experiment's hypothesis."