Registry of the Evolved Database
File #24 May 2011 02:04
|
 Henry Cavill |
Public Background
Thomas Moriarti.
Born January 13th, 1979, to loving parents. An average life; school, sports. A promising career with a paper company called Primatech that took him all over the world on training seminars. The Bomb, sending all that into chaos. Mom & Dad, dead not from the Bomb, but from fallout reaching Jersey and the flu taking advantage of an immune system weakened by radiation. A job opportunity with Homeland Security, and then moving on to working for the Department of Evolved Affairs. Small-time PR work out on the West Coast, once testing was available and he tested as Evolved (Unmanifested). Now back to New York City, on whatever marching orders have called him back to DoEA Headquarters.
True Background
To get the true history of Moriarti, the one he hasn't told a single soul (living or dead), then we must start at the beginning. Where some might think that this was in January, 1979, they would be wrong. To reach the beginning, one must go back, back to the turn of the century. That is where this story of a being begins. For the sake of storytelling, we'll say that this being is a man, and that man's name is Moriarti, for now. We must use descriptions like this, as the normal nouns and pronouns can get jumbled with this particular person. But that is getting ahead of ourselves. So we will start at the beginning.
Robert Sauniere was born in 1902, in Paris, France. The simple son of a poor cooper, he spent his youth listening to his grandfather tell stories of life under the Monarchy, and the Second Empire under Napoleon III.
As he grew older, his wonder for his grandfather's stories waned, as the reality of life took hold. As the Belle Epoque waned, and the First World War raged throughout Europe, Robert found himself working with his father, learning the family trade. He stood in awe of the tallest building in the world, the Eiffel Tower, and cowered with his fellow Parisians as the Germans marched on the City. He celebrated as the German's were kept out of Paris proper, and then again when the war ended in 1918. He continued on, as the family business grew to Sauniere & Sons.
But all would not last.
A trip to London with his father to deliver an order of barrels to a vintner found Robert infected with tuberculosis in the spring of 1938. Barred from travel due to his illness, Robert was given to the care of a sanatoria in London. As it was thought, at the time, that fresh air and labor would help the body fight off the infection, he found himself working on a tuberculosis colony, a farm in the lands north of London.
Medical science at the time was wrong, though, and Robert was dead before the winter of 1939 thawed to the spring of 1940, as Nazi Germany was threatening the rest of Europe, secretly setting its sights on France.
But as one might have deduced, Robert's story does not end here. For Robert's family had a secret, one that they were not necessarily aware of. They were the last living descendants of the Merovingian line, the rulers of what was now known as France. Long rumored to possess mystical abilities, the ancient Merovingian kings were one of the first to possess Evolved abilities, even if they did not know what it was. Not everyone in this line possessed Evolved abilities, and not all those that they possessed were useful.
Although that may depend on one's definition of useful. And now, our story shifts, to late August, 1940, and the home of one John Smith.
John Smith went to sleep one late evening in the summer of 1940, as another World War brewed in Europe; it was yet far enough from London that it was worrying, but not unduly so; the Blitz was still months away. John Smith went to sleep that night, but it was not John Smith who awoke.
Imagine the confusion that must face you when you wake in the morn, and find yourself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling, in an unfamiliar room. When your memories tell you two things about the night before; the first being that you were rasping out your last breath as the effects of tuberculosis took their toll on your body, a feverent wish to see your mother one last time as the nurses looked on in sadness; and the second of reading the evening news, the reports that conscription would soon call you off to war.
Memories swirling and raging in your mind as you stumble up and to the mirror, finding there a face that is not entirely familiar. A dash to the bathroom for water to splash on that strangely-unfamiliar facade, as the shock wears off. Memories of two relatively simple lives blending together as you rise further into consciousness. Those of a French cooper melding with those of an English fireman. Staring down at hands that remember the tap tap of hammer and chisel against wood, and the heat and the burn of the shovel as you load coal into the huge train boiler.
Suddenly finding yourself believing that you've been given a second chance. That your prayers were answered, and that your life is restored. Faith in the church strong in both sets of memories, driving you to believe in miracles, which is what this new individual believed, as he settled into the life of John Smith.
This new man, this blending of the cooper's son and the railway worker, continued John Smith's work. As conscription called out, the good King's man stepped up to serve, but only to be turned away; he was considered more useful and vital as a worker on the rails, than as a target for German riflemen. Regardless, the discipline he had been instilled with drove him to serve, and when he found that he could still serve while remaining at his post as a fireman, John signed up where he could: with the Home Guard (then the Local Defence Volunteers).
While John was unable to fight the war directly, he still worked where he could and worked to the fullest; the British Empire still needed materials transported along the rails, even as others worked to repair them. The methodical, practiced hand of the young Frenchman, building on the years of slow carving at barrel staves, working well with the fireman's need for a steady rhythm when loading the boilers.
He didn't save anyone directly, but his work kept the soldiers, surgeons, and the like supplied with what they needed to keep the British Empire fighting. As the war ended, John moved to London, marrying a beautiful women he had met while taking part in a Home Guard operation; a nurse. Together, they started a life in London, and raised a family. As his life went on, it became more and more that of a singular being, one that lived both lives, than two distinct sets of memories. The life of Robert Sauniere less of a "past life" and more of a vague, half-remembered dream.
Another fifty years passed, and as John's children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren gathered around him, he was prepared to pass on. In a moment of lucidity, he recalled the second chance he was given, and silently offered prayers of thanks as his life slipped away.
But once again, our story is not yet over. For while he believed his second life to be a gift from above, it was the manifestation of his Evolved ability, genetics inherited from his forefathers. An ability that manifests only at the time of death, and allows him to live on. His subconscious, floating free after the torment of tuberculosis, sought out the mind of a doctor, the mind of a healer, to help others where he was unable to find help before, to set right what he felt went wrong in his own life. This transitory state blocked out from his conscious mind, memories forgotten by a mind that could not comprehend what it had experienced.
As John died once more, his mind drifted out over London, searching out a new home, searching for a new host. And finding that host in the form of Gregori Blite, seventeen year old exchange student, preparing to leave England and return to the United States, already focused on Med School and what it entailed. A step up from the simple life of the cooper and the fireman, and one that some seventy-five years of discipline would be a perfect fit for.
With that experience, he breezed through Med School and his Residency, working his way across the States, his skills allowing him his choice of hospitals. Eventually he finds himself as a Neurosurgeon on staff at a prestigious New York hospital run by one Mikhail Puika. He was relatively famous and hansomely wealthy at this point, his skills bringing him a comfortable lifestyle. His noteriety enough to earn him the attention of Mikhail's daughter, Elvira; otherwise known as Yana; and his skill, wealth, and standing enough for the elder Puika to approve marriage. Gregori adored his new wife, giving her comfort and security as she continued with grad school.
But while Gregori's past lives were long and mostly happy, this one was anything but. Unbeknownst to him, Yana decided to use him as a test subject for her own abilities, using a recent camping trip as a cover to infect him with the West Nile virus. Using a smokescreen of devotion and attentiveness to play with the infection, to draw out Gregori's condition until finally, in 2004, his body succumbed to the complications brought on by his wife's abilities. A look of panic in his eyes as he clutched her hand; what if this time was the last?
It was not the last that Gregori knew, but the last for awhile. As his mind drifted again, subconscious flooded with sadness at the loss of his devoted wife, he latched onto the mind of Thomas Moriarti, a man on a business trip to New York City. Thomas' mind was unlike any other that Gregori had encountered before. Compartmentalized. Determined. Like he had experience defending against psychic attacks.
Of course, as Thomas was a Company man, he was trained for just this sort of event. His mind disciplined against telepathic attacks, as a precaution against the Evolved he might run up against in his line of work. So while Gregori's consciousness was able to seed itself into Thomas' mind, it was not able to take control immediately. Giving Thomas the freedom to continue his life as he lived it; business trips for Primatech, bag & tag operations for the Company, downtime on the golf range.
It wasn't until 2006 that Gregori was able to start to defeat Thomas' mental defenses and start to insinuiate himself through the other man's mind. Gregori was not able to blend himself with Thomas' at that point in time, but the seeds were planted firmly, with their roots starting to grow. Because it wasn't until 2006 that Thomas ran across something that shook him to his core, stunned him enough to put cracks in those defenses, cracks for Gregori tos tart to infiltrate.
The Bomb.
When the Bomb went off and took out Midtown, Thomas was just wrapping up a simple bag & tag operation. His Evolved parter, a Cryokinetic, was helping the cleanup team load their subdued target into the back of the van. Thomas was in his car, jotting down some notes for his report as the radio blared an emergency broadcast: New York City had just been hit by a terrorist attack, and the city was in chaos. The sheer panic in the voice of the newscaster, combined with Thomas' flash of terror; his parents lived Jersey; put cracks in Thomas' mental defenses, allow Gregori's consciousness to start to spread and grow.
Thomas watched as the world went crazy. He mourned the death of his parents in the devastation, and worked all the harder as the Company scrambled to keep tabs on the surging Evolved population. He managed to stay on the West Coast, keeping out of the chaos that was New York City. He sat, stunned, with the rest of the world as the Senator from New York, Nathan Petrelli, announced the existence of the Evolved. Thomas was already in on this secret, of course, but it was always that; a secret.
But since the world knew about it, and the US Government was doing it's damnedest to keep America from tearing its own throat out, Thomas soldiered on as he was ordered. When the Department of Homeland Security was tasked to take on the job of registering the Evolved, Thomas was there as an "Evolved Specialist," just another concerned citizen doing his part to help keep America from going crazy.
Thomas did his job, and he did it well. And as he worked to keep the Evolved population in cheek, Gregori continued to spread through his host's mind, working to add him to the numbers of those that were called Evolved. Finally, in the summer of 2008, Gregori had spread far enough, and eroded enough of Thomas' defenses, that he was able to blend with the agent's mind, absorbing and merging with the other man's memories, and restore Gregori's own lost past. And with that emergence, Thomas' whole world changed.
As the whole sum of four lives blended, he came to a revelation; he hasn't been given second, third, and fourth chances by some Divine Intervention. This was a result of Evolved abilities; not those of Thomas, or Gregori, or John, but of Robert, those many, many years ago.
No longer a surgeon, but seeing himself as a healer of a difference sort, Moriarti continued on as he always did, smoothly stepping into the shoes of his most recent host. America barrelled full-speed towards insanity and armageddon. This change didn't go without a total hitch, however. With the discovery of a means to test for SLC in an individuals, Moriarti finally had confirmation of what he had only recently come to believe; he was another Evolved, although on the official Registry he is listed as Registered Evolved: Unmanifested, having a sufficient lack of knowledge to the specifics of his ability to be listed as anything specific.
PARIAH rising and falling, Phoenix up from its ashes. Petrelli becoming President, so on and so forth. Moriarti managed to keep his head down and intact. He was smart enough to stay on the West Coast, and even smarter to cut ties with the Company; as a man operating as an undefined Evolved, what he saw of the Company's operation sickened him. What was seen as a necessary evil by Thomas, could not be tolerated by the new Moriarti. Unmanifested, he was watched, but largely left to his own devices as the Company went after bigger fish for its nets.
As the Department of Evolved Affairs ramped up, he found a job there; as an unmanifested Evolved, he's safe enough to trot out for PR and photo ops, without the danger that comes as you climb up the Tiers. Delegated to outlying DoEA offices for much of the next year, doing his best to remain mostly unnoticed in the grand scheme of things, until he gets marching orders from Manhattan to return to New York City.
Which brings us to the present, as Moriarti returns to New York City, just another DoEA Agent trying to put the city back together. Unaware of just how deeply into it he's tied.
Having existing in one way or another for over a century, Moriarti's personality is a blend of his last four lives, and a melding of the belief systems of the late 19th, early 20th, and late 20th centuries. The defining facet of his personality would be discipline, a trait that has been important in all of his lives.
It allowed Robert to become a skilled cooper bside his father, and not a youth in Great Britain grew up in the post-World War I environment withouth getting a heavy dose of discipline, especially once the war picked up and everyon's focus was on keeping what they had together and surviving through rationing, bombing, and the rest of what Britain dealt with in World War II. It was what allowed Gregori to impress Mikhail Puika, and to win the hand of his daughter Elvira in marriage. It helped Thomas survive numerous bag and tag operations as a non-Evolved field agent for the Company, and later as a part of the burgeoning Department of Evolved Affairs. He is able to establish what he wants, or what he needs done, and what must be done to accomplish that goal.
And he more or less expects the same of everyone. Once he establishes someone's role in life, he expects that from them; again, something that has been a strong trait in all of his past lives. He is the breadwinner, the father figure, the cornerstone, the head of the table. His wife, when he had one, was expected to be the good wife and homemaker (or the trophy wife, in Elvira's case, living in the luxury that Gregori's life allowed). Children were expected to be seen, and not heard.
He is very much an old soul, with a belief system to match.
Unmanifested / Unknown Ability
On the Registry, Thomas Moriarti is registered as a Tier 0. He has tested positive for the Suresh Linkage Complex, however he has demonstrated no Evolved abilities currently known to Homeland Security.
In reality, however, he does possess a demonstratable Evolved ability; just not one that he can do so very easily or immediately.
Involuntary Consciousness Transference
The ability possessed by this individual is the ability to survive. While some will accomplish this through rapid cell regeneration, or simple invulnerability against harm, he survives in a different fashion. And this ability is not something that Thomas Moriarti was born with. Nor was it the ability that Gregory Blite or John Smith were born with. The ability in question was possessed by Robert Sauniere, and since Robert's death, his consciousness has become something of a psychic virus.
Only activating at the moment of his death, his ability is that to transfer his consciousness into the body of another person. This is done so involuntarily; this ability will not function until the biological death of his current host. Once the current host has expired, his consciousness enters a transient state. Disembodied, his consciousness will drift as it seeks out a new host. Like a moth to a flame, it is drawn to surrounding minds, selecting a new host on a subconscious level (as there is nothing more to him at this time). In the past, this 'decision' has been made within minutes, however unbeknownst to him, his consciousness can exist in this disembodied state for up to six hours. If his consciousness has not found a suitable host by that time, it will begin to dissipate, to lose coherence; he will fade away to nothing, like a melting snowball.
His past hosts have all been (prior to the blending) non-Evolved, and this does not strike him as unusual. In reality, this is due to a combination of factors. The first being that he has a subconscious unwillingness to take a host with its own abilities. The second being that the genetic markers that give the Evolved their abilities also interfer with this transference. More of a natural shield or a barrier than any sort of 'cure' to the transference, akin to the old phrase "like water from duck's back." His consciousness is simply unable to latch onto and infect the mind of an Evolved.
Once a prospective new host has been identified, the infection is immediate, but the effects are not. Like a virus, the seed of his consciousness takes time to grow and spread throughout the mind of the host, until it reaches critical mass. The length of time it takes for this to occur will actually vary dependant on the type of person he's seeded himself in; the weak-minded can be absorbed in six months to a year, while a strong-willed individual will takes years before the 'infection' reaches its peak.
When the spread of the 'infection' is complete, it is at this time that a new personality is formed. A blending of all that he was prior to his last death, along with the life experiences of the current host; memories, skills, experience, and the like all blended together. All of the knowledge and memories from his past lives are present, however anything that was dependant on physical skill or muscle-memory is lost. For example, his most recent past life was that of a brain surgeon. While he retains all that he learned in Med School and his experiences in the operating room, he no longer possesses the steady and delicate touch required for neurosurgery. It is only at this point in time, once the infection has reached is apex, that the previously non-Evolved host comes to possess this Evolved ability, and their body begins to possess the Suresh Linkage Complex. Until the infection is complete, the host will test negative for any Evolved abilities.
While this may seem like the perfect ability, there are still several limitations. The first and most obvious being that it is an involuntary ability. This transference will only occur at the time of actual biological death, and cannot be voluntarily activated in any way, shape, or form. Should someone try to trick him by killing and then reviving the host, the revived body will be nothing more than an empty shell. The second limitation is the range of this ability. While one would think that it has unlimited range, based on the speed of thought, it does not. Put into geographical terms, the reach of this ability is around one-sixth of a mile; about a city block. And that is if it is unhampered. As an individual's consciousness is basically the neurons firing their electric bursts inside the mind, his consciousness can be blocked by a strong electromagnetic field. For instance, if his current host were to die while in a metal cage with all six surfaces electrified, his consciousness would be trapped in that container. If he was to remain trapped in that electified box, or an empty city block, before the end of that quarter-day window, he would simply cease to be.
There is also a limit to how far this ability can extend his existence, one that he is not aware of. He will only be able to go through this transference process nine times in total. The death of his tenth host will be his final, absolute death; his consciousness will have reached a critical point where it simply cannot transfer any further. He has only undergone this transference three times so far (being on his fourth host), and there's nothing 'innate' telling him that he has six more cycles to go. Every time he reaches his death bed (either by natural or unnatural causes), there will be that fear that this was it, that there's nothing further. At least until the 8th or 9th host; after several lifetimes, he's bound to think himself truly immortal, spoiling for a rude surprise coming soon.
If he was to come up against those individuals whose Evolved ability is that to neutralize or reverse another ability, it would simply prevent him from leaving his current host if he was to die during this time of neutralization. It would not reverse or undo the process, as this is not an ongoing process. If you neutralized someone's ability to fly, then they'd still have all those times they had flown in the past; they just would not be able to fly any longer. The idea is the same.
Beyond this, Thomas Moriarti has no other Evolved abilities. So while he drew an interesting one, it's not all together useful in a day to day situation.
Appendices
Log Icons
| Moriarti | Thomas | Gregori |
 |
 |
 |
Appearances
| Date | Title | Summary | Cast |
| 20th | Sometimes They Come Back | While Yana deals with the ghosts of her past on the anniversary of her first meeting with her departed husband Gregori, something new to deal with arrives in the form of a gatecrashing Federal agent. |  and  |
| 23rd | There Will Come Soft Rains | Moriarti's spur of the moment request to see the Midtown crater puts himself and Yana in the middle of a hot situation. |      |
| 27th | It's The Drugs | A little thing like a mugging isn't about to get Yana out of a meal with Moriarti. | |
| Date | Title | Summary | Cast |
| 4th | PR Talk | Moriarti runs into a potential new neighbor, and puts enough of a spin on things to make Ziadie's head ache. |  |
| 14th | Till Death Do Us Part | …is not good enough for Yana. Recent events involving the DoEA and her ability spur Yana to start turning up the heat. Plans to snag a DoEA agent of her very own in the works. It is much more complicated than she realizes, but still, the die is cast. | |
| Date | Title | Summary | Cast |
| 17th | Right Where We Left Off | After a shocking event of the night before, an even more shocking… and revealing morning after occur between Yana and Moriarti. Ghosts are no longer ghosts, and the Queen of Webs undergoes a game of Russian Roulette, complete with the sound of wedding bells in the distant future. | |
| 18th | New Kid On The Block | Moriarti is assigned to some topical DoEA work — and Katie has a different favour to ask. |  |
| Date | Title | Summary | Cast |
| 7th | Heaven or Hell | Yana is awakened in a state of unrest by a thunderstorm. With Moriarti at her side, she is forced to face the harsh conflict of leaving loose ends untied, and her position and fate in all of this. She comes up with her own plans for her future and the Red Death. But can she do it? |  |
Skills
Having lived as a Frenchman, an Englishman, and an American (so far), Moriarti is fluent in both French and English. He also has the ability to affect a spot-on English accent. Although both the English accent and his pronounciation in French are both rather antiquated; the French coming from the early 1900s, and the English accent circa the 1950s.
With his first job (and his first life) being that of a cooper, a barrel-marker, Moriarti has picked up a love of wood carving that has been a consistent trait throughout his existence. His first life didn't allow him enough time to become a master, and he's never dedicated the time since then, so he wouldn't be earning a living from carving. But he's had enough practice at it where someone can recognize what it is that he's trying to carve; not enough to earn praise or accolades, but a nice enough hobby when it's slow.
Having served his previous life in the Medical profession, Moriarti still possesses the skills of a neurosurgeon, and the knowledge that goes with it. However, this current incarnation is not a doctor, has no plan of becoming a doctor, and had very little experience with anything remotely related to medicine beyond simple first aid. As such, while he retains the knowledge and skills of a neurosurgeon, he lacks the fine motor skills necessary for such work. He'd be useful enough for basic first aid (bandaging wounds, setting broken limbs), but nothing that would necessary a steadier touch (such as surgery of any form).
Moriarti has had experience with a number of sports throughout the years: Soccer, Rugby, Tennis, and Golf to name the major experiences. While he's not a star player, he's skilled enough not to be an embarassment to himself on the field of play. He is also keen on continuing the workout regime he had prior to the blending; a visit to the gym every other day to keep in shape.
Spending a decade as an undercover agent for a shadowy Company has given Moriarti a sizable amount of training and experience to draw from, and this has only been built up apon in his time as a Federal Agent. He's proficient enough at hand-to-hand combat to defend himself as the need arises; although it will be more of a straight fist-fight, rather than anything fancy. He's also had training with most of the handguns and rifles used during his time with the Company, and his current tenure as a Federal Agent. Moriarti may not be a master sniper or a crack shot, but he'll hit his target, most of the time. He's steady enough on the firing range where he can empty a clip into the target; they might not all be in the silhouette, but he's at least hitting the target on every shot.
Relationships
| Mom (D) & Dad (D) - Thomas' mother and father, who lived in New Jersey when the Bomb when off and ripped New York City to shreds. They were not caught up in the initial blast, instead falling victim to radiation poisoning and influenza. |
 |
Dr. Elvira Blite - Moriarti has somehow found himself involved with Dr. Blite; a fellow employee of the government, a fellow Evolved, and the widow of his former life. Where his marriage to Yana was picture perfect and cut off far too short, Moriarti isn't exactly sure where he stands with the good doctor this time around. |
|---|