Schreodinger's Cat
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| [[Image:|300px|]] | |
| Data Classified | |
| Schreodiner's Cat | |
| Player: @Spectrum Lord | |
| Origin: | Science |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Stalker |
| Threat Level: | ... |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Unknown |
| Known Aliases: | none |
| Species: | Human? Cat? |
| Age: | Unknown |
| Height: | 3' 1" |
| Weight: | 85 |
| Eye Color: | Black |
| Hair Color: | Blue |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Presumed Austrian or German |
| Occupation: | Thief/Assassin |
| Place of Birth: | Unknown |
| Base of Operations: | Rouge Isles |
| Marital Status: | single? |
| Known Relatives: | none |
| Known Powers | |
| Regeneration, Teleporation | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Stealth (Chameleon?) | |
| Equipment | |
| Long Wrist Blades | |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
Excerpt from Arachnos' classified watch list files
Threat Identification: Schreodinger's Cat (Encoded Correspondence ID: "Cardboard Coffin")
Civilian Identity: Unknown; Loosely speculated to be Erwin Schreodinger
Power Classification: "Stalker" - Assassin/thief displaying chameleon-like stealth properties
Weapon: "Claws" - foot long blades mounted on the wrist
Secondary Power(s): Incredible rate of regeneration; Teleportation
Origin of Power(s): Most likely Science based. Traces of radiation are occasionally found on the bodies of those he's killed and a crate or computer he's accessed. Feline features on a distinctly human body give weight to a possible gene-splicing experiment gone "wrong"
Description: 3ft; light blue fur; dark blue hair/ears; 1930's-50's retro-tech/military "signature costume"
Known Intel:
Sadly, very little other than the bare basics outlined above.
-Several of our operatives have worked with Cardboard Coffin and found his work to be more than satisfactory. Oftentimes his targets aren't even aware he was there until after rumors of his work spread through the streets of the Rogue Isles. He is meticulous in the extreme, keeping to the bare minimum of the goals he is hired to undertake and showing a penchant for cleanly executed jobs. Rarely do we find more than a single, perfectly executed cut upon the bodies he leaves behind, when he even has the need to leave bodies. It is unknown if this is due to a dislike for the kill or due to being very self-controlled.
-Because of the nature of the many mercenary jobs he has taken, it is suspected that killing is not a problem for him, but attempts to be cordial via operatives like Vargas (Serving in Sharkhead as of this report) have netted little insight. Vargas seems to believe Cardboard Coffin enjoys the hunt, much like a cat enjoys stalking its prey. While we are inclined to agree, insufficient data has been given to determine if this is his main motivation or if there is something more familiar driving him (such as revenge or the need to take over the world).
-He dresses in a pseudo-military fashion most popular among German soldiers (and military experiments) from the late 1930s-early 1950s. This could possibly lend credence to his creation as radiation based, as the Natzi's held many such experiments during that time. A lack of accent when speaking detracts from this theory, but does not discount it. It has been a long time since then and he could easily have learned the language well enough to no longer have an accent.
-Cardboard Coffin was, like many of on our watch list, sent to the Zig for a short period of time. An unlucky run-in with a Longbow patrol and a power suppressor caused this infraction, something he was quick to remedy when we staged the early November '08 Breakout.
-He has been seen enjoying a sun bath outside Dr. Shelly Percey's home and lab. He has also been seen enjoying a good ear-scratching from her. She could be the key to learning more about him as he seems to be attracted to her, whether this is a romantic interest or simply a "cat picking its person", is yet to be known. Due to Dr. Percey's current usefulness, pressing her for information is not advisable. Should Cardboard Coffin become more of a threat/interest to us, this assessment may be revised.
-He has styled himself after the famous thought experiment. Why he has chosen to do so in unknown as the only obvious connections are his feline features and traces of radiation.
-Despite the fact that SC shares no physical characteristics with the man outside of being male (and the scientist is noted to have died in 1961 at the age of 73), it is loosely speculated that Cardboard Coffin might actually be E.S. and that is why he chose the title he did.
~Arbitrator Bristol
-There are many among our ranks who share no traits with who they were in a previous life and have even been proclaimed dead. "Cardboard Coffin" is one of many potential threads on the loom of destiny, and yet he is a singular, fascinating, entity that seems to weave himself into the cloth of existence.
~Fortunata Yamamoto
End Excerpt
The Truth
From WikiPedia[1]Schreodinger's cat is a thought experiment, often described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schreodinger in 1935, illustrating what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics being applied to everyday objects. The thought experiment presents a cat that might be alive or dead, depending on an earlier random event.
A cat, along with a flask containing a poison, is placed in a sealed box shielded against environmentally induced quantum decoherence. If a Geiger counter detects radiation then the flask is shattered, releasing the poison which kills the cat. Quantum mechanics suggests that after a while the cat is *simultaneously* alive* and* dead. Yet, when we look in the box, we see the cat *either* alive *or* dead, not a mixture of alive *and* dead.
Schreodinger did not wish to promote the idea of dead-and-alive cats as a serious possibility; quite the reverse: the thought experiment serves to illustrate the bizarreness of quantum mechanics and the mathematics necessary to describe quantum states.
/end wikipedia
However, what someone intends often has little to do with what others will do with an idea.
A young Austrian who eagerly studied all the papers the greatest minds of his time published, Nikita "Tesla" Chernov, read this thought experiment in the 1935 annual edition of his favorite science journal and decided to test the theory out in an attempt to prove (or disprove) Copenhagen's interpretation.
Undertaking this task required, of course, gaining access to radioactive isotopes. This forced Nikita's hand and he ended up joining the Russian military. It was during his first year of service that he was given the nick-name "Tesla". Not for any electric-related incidents, but rather for the sheer number of inventions he submitted to his superiors.
Eventually, years later in 1944, he was finally given clearance to undergo his own experiments with radioactive material. By this time, he had become obsessed with testing the experiment put forth by Erwin Schreodinger. A pureblood Russian Blue tom cat was placed inside a large cardboard box along with a vial of liquid that, when it met oxygen, became a gaseous poison. A geiger counter was placed inside, with a trigger to smash the vial holding the poison should any radiation be detected. The box was then sealed and placed in a contained room holding a small, but powerful radioactive isotope that would trigger the geiger counter within 24 hours.
Chernov left the cat in the room over night and returned in the morning. Upon opening the box, he found the body of his dead cat lying next to a shattered glass vial.
'Surely this proves Copenhagen wrong' he thought to himself as he picked the cat up to dispose of it. But as his hands lifted the body in the air, a strange thing occurred. Scratches appeared on his arms and tiny bits of blood began to seep out. It was as if the cat was clawing at him in protest of being manhandled so. But the cat's stiff, dead body weighed down his hands.
Blinking and shaking his head, Chernov tried to clear his mind and when he looked again, the cat -who had been quite dead a moment before- was alive and mewing and clawing at him, trying to find purchase on his arms.
Startled, Nikita dropped the cat. He, of course, landed on his feet and meowed indignantly.
The scientist rubbed his eyes and when he looked again, the cat lay dead on the ground before him. But the claw marks on his arms were still there, still bleeding.
And that’s when he realized the supreme truth of the experiment. Copenhagen was correct. In this experiment, the cat was both alive *and* dead at the *same* time. It was man who was limited to seeing the cat as either alive or dead.
Excited by his success, Chernov picked the cat up and took him back to his lab to begin new tests. The cat, safely cradled in the scientists' arms, began cleaning himself, occasionally licking at the blood of the human who carried him.
Over the course of next few months, just past the new year, Nikita bombarded his pet with more radiation and observed some strange and exciting changes in his cat. The Russian Blue was growing bigger, and it was becoming easier to see him in both his states of living and non-living. Soon, the cat was almost 3ft tall. Not long, tall. And much of his hair had fallen out, the expense of the radiation treatments. Even his tail was gone, fallen off from the rotting decay his state of death induced. And yet he grew in height and his features evolved as his state of living forced him to change and adapt.
The cat became intelligent, learning from Chernov in secret, now hidden and written off as dead to the Russian government. Said to ultimately be a failure of a promising experiment that could no longer be funded.
Nikita died of radiation poisoning in the early 1950's and his cat set out to find a place in the world. The cat's powers, no longer stimulated by constant radiation exposure, stabilized and he found he was not only alive and dead at the same time, but also 'there' and 'not there' at the same time, allowing him to step through matter. The humans and creatures in the world could only see him or not see him, often determined by his own interaction with them.
Schreodinger's Cat took the name of the experiment that created him as he now was because humans expected a name. Cats and other creatures didn't need them, but humans did for some reason. He survived by stealing food and kept himself amused by hunting prey, adopting long blades to replace the claws that rotten away long ago. The human obsession with 'right' and 'wrong' puzzled him and despite his increased intelligence and awareness, he has never been able to understand it. He takes jobs because they alleviate his boredom in what seems to be an immortal existence. Hunting and stalking living creatures by those more powerful is just the cycle of life. Taking pretty toys from others is simply a means to keep entertained.
This has somehow caused the humans to label him a "villain". So be it. He will continue to live as he pleases. Just like every other cat in the world.
Personality
Data Unkown
Specific Power Info (OOC)
Stalker Claws/Regen with Teleport Power Pool
