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Description
Name: Ike "Glitch" Ruzen Fierman
Age: 18 years
Planet of Origin (seen above as P.O.): Nessa
Position: Field Engineer and Lab Chemist

Wardrobe: Black T-shirt with abstract, glow-in-the-dark pattern because glowing is cool. He wears a denim sweater vest because it's cool enough to wear on the sunny side of Nessa but covers enough to block out the cold winds on the dark side. The rectangular badge pinned to his vest is standard in the NPP. His heavy metal belt protects and carries his excavation tools, while his mechanic's tools are in the leather satchel on his side. Of course, he's wearing those black tights just like everybody else in the NPP. Light armor covers his shoulders, thighs, knees, and feet protect him from blunt weaponry. The goggles, blasters, eye, arm, keyboard, and watch are all explained above.

Ike Ruzen Fierman grew up in a mining outpost on Nessa; his family could never have afforded to live in the big city. As one might imagine, his father worked in the mining industry under Cyrus, who was only a regional VP by that point in time. Ike's father was a hard worker, and often would stay an extra hour to earn enough to support his family. His mother was also a hard worker. During the week she was a teacher at the local school, and on weekends she worked in a bakery. She always brought home something sweet for her son. Speaking of Ike, he was a bright, artistic child, devoted to school (possibly because his mom was his teacher). Every day, he'd find a new book in the school's digital library and bring the file home to read on the desk he'd made from a wrecked miner's cart. From these books he learned all about those other worlds he saw up in the night sky. Kollin, the capital of Nanairo, was the one he liked the most. He always wanted to go there and become one of the NPP, who were, in his mind, interplanetary super heroes. He also learned about all sorts of maths and sciences he's never learned about in school (probably because he was too young, by most people's standards). He was, indeed, a very bright boy.

On one fateful day, when the skies were clouded by sandstorms as if to warn of the coming atrocity, Cyrus decided to pull a PR stunt. He declared that day "Bring your kids to work day." This would prove to be one of the worst decisions in his career. When Ike was eight, his father took him down into the deep mineral mines in the stoney deserts of Nessa, where Ike got to meet all kinds of people from all walks of like. He met nice guys who commuted from the city and gruff, but funny guys who practically lived in the mines. Ike even got to try his had at mining up a few minerals. He had a little trouble telling which drill was which, but he got the hang of it eventually. At about four in the afternoon, not half an hour before the sift ended, An explosion resonated throughout the entire network of mines. It was succeeded very shortly by the sounds of rock grinding against rock as the mine collapsed. Many of the miners tried to run from this immense force, but to no avail. Ike found himself inexplicably separated from his father as the entire planet seemed to fall apart around him. He closed his eyes as a massive boulder came down towards him.

Hours later, Ike awoke with a throbbing pain in his head. He tried to open his eyes, but something was stopping the left eye from opening. Ike tried to reach up to rub away what was probably just some dirt, but he found his left arm trapped under an unbelievably heavy rock. Ike was trapped. For nearly three days, Ike tried to call for help from his subterranean prison. He had completely lost his voice by the time rescue workers found him. Ike was immediately rushed to the nearest medical center, where it was discovered that his eye had been scarred and infected by whatever had gotten into it. His arm was beyond repair, as well. His lungs, esophagus, and throat were all severely damaged by the dust he had inhaled and he was dying from dehydration. Fortunately for him, all of these conditions are treatable in Nanairo. Upon arrival at the med center, he was anesthetized. When he woke up, he had stitches everywhere, but he felt great. He'd been fitted with a basic prosthetic limb, a colorblind prosthetic eye, and a new pair of lungs from a donor. When he asked who the donor was, though, Ike was in for a terrible shock. His father, who always packed a small oxygen tank in case of emergencies like the collapse, had been crushed initially from the waist-down, immobilizing him but not killing him. When the rescue team had tried to move the rocks above him to dig him out, one fell and landed on his face. The lungs in Ike were his father's lungs.

There are many things a traumatizing event can do to a person. It could have made Ike incredibly claustrophobic. It could have made him afraid to take another step outside. It could have made him hate Cyrus for putting his father in that position in those conditions. However, Ike is a different kind of person from the average. Ike took from this experience a different lesson. From that day forward, Ike wanted to work as one of the people that made things safer for people and saved those who were in trouble already. He studied every data entry in the school and local libraries about engineering, chemistry, spectrology, interplanetary travel, and self defense techniques. Using what he learned, he made a crude mechanical arm to replace the even cruder plastic one he'd been given initially. At the age of Ten, soon to be eleven, Ike applied for the NPP Academy on Kollin. He took all the tests, filled out all the forms, and waited for the response.

Three weeks later, A message arrived at the Fierman household. Ike's mother read it while Ike was out on his daily jog around the outpost. When he came home, she was standing right in the middle of their house's front room to give him a big hug and a warm congratulations. As she did so, she looked up at a picture of Ike's father hanging on the wall and smiled. He would be so proud if he could see his son now.

At the end of the school year, Ike and his mother made the long trip by hovercab to the big city colony. Once there they rediscovered the reason they didn't live there, the food prices. They hurried to the Flight deck and looked for an available ship. A tall man in an NPP uniform approached them and asked if they were the Fiermans. He informed them that the term "full ride scholarship" literally meant Ike got the ride to the academy for free, as well as his tuition, food, books, and boarding. Ike gladly hopped on the carrier cruiser with his luggage after a long goodbye with his mother. Once onboard, he met twelve other students from Nessa who were making the trip to Kollin for the Academy. He found that there were no more seats in the passenger area, and pointed this out to the officer, who proceeded to tell him he was the last passenger and that the NPP wasn't going to send an entire other ship for one extra kid. Thus, Ike ended up having to lean against the wall next to the end of the row of seats. This is where he met Digg, who was a fifth-year student and wanted to be a spectrologist or a light engineer.

After going through all the check-in points set up in the enormous cafeteria, Ike made his way to his room to prepare for his first night on Kollin. He was surprised to find that Digg would be one of his roommates. It appeared that the other had not arrived yet. Digg accompanied Ike to the cafeteria, really more of a dining hall because of all the different lines you could go through, and the two chatted through their first meal at the Academy. When the two got back to their room, they were surprised to see their other roommate had arrived during dinner. He didn't greet them when they walked in, and he didn't even look up from the data archive his nose was buried in. All that Ike could see of him was the top of his obviously dyed-black hair. The tag on his suitcase just had the initial J on it.

After the first year, it was obvious that Ike was not like the other students. He excelled in every math, science, and art class he took, though he fell behind in the humanities classes. He studied almost constantly, only stopping to talk to one of his acquaintances, or his friend Digg. As this was the case, Ike was allowed to move ahead more quickly in the classes he did well in. By the end of his third year, he had already completed the required math classes for all seven years, the science classes required for five years, and two of the available advanced art electives. The fact that he was in these advanced classes earned him the name "Glitch" because other people throught he'd only gotten into the class by some computer error. He liked the name, it seemed to work well with his faulty cybernet. He was still falling behind in history, language, and literature. His buddy, Digg, graduated at the end of that year and managed to jump right into a job on Genshi in the fossil research lab. As one of his roommates had left the Academy, in his fourth year, Glitch and J guy, who had now dyed his hair a sort of gingerish color and who Glitch now knew as Jon, got a new roommate. Kule, the new guy, is not an important character here, so I'll just skip his description. With Digg gone, Glitch got to know Jon better and they almost became friends by the end of the fourth year. Speaking of the fourth year, Glitch finished the elective math classes and the rest of his science classes by the end of it. In his fifth year, instead of trying to find more math classes, the Academy is allowing him to spend that time out of his day working with engineers in a real lab environment.

By the end of his stay at the Academy, Glitch had taken all the necessary humanities and managed to pass, if only by a little. He'd done all the field training and combat simulation and flight simulation necessary to be a pilot and a field officer. He had also worked in labs long enough to start actually earning money from it, and as a graduation gift to himself, he replaced his faulty eye and arm with a sophisticated titanium set he'd made himself from materials he'd bought over the years. He also built the battery that powers it all. He'd officially become friends with Jon, who had a secret that Glitch now knew and never wanted to think about ever again so don't bring it up around him. He was now an official officer.

After meeting with Dave from the weapons department, Glitch outfitted himself with the two blasters you can see above. This was probably due to a lingering fear of another incident like the one he had as a child, seeing as he specifically asked for the blasters to be able to destroy large rocks.

--Artist's Notes--

Ike is a lot like me in personality and intelligence. I want to be an engineer or artist, so does he. I excel in math and science but fall back in humanities, so does he. Unfortunately, being like me in not always a good thing. Ike exhibits uncontrollable fits of rage when he's really upset about something and doesn't know how to deal with it. Just like me, Ike is not the most trusting of people, but he just assumes others will trust him. We have our flaws, but I think we're both really nice guys on the inside.

He is, however, different from he in many respects. My name is Isaac Rosen Friedman, not Ike Ruzen Fierman. I no longer have a mullet. My beard is bigger than his, and my mustache is smaller. I'm 16 not 18, and I don't have any mechanical body parts. I'm all biological. Also, Ike's family is not like my family at all. I made all that up for this character. Although, now that I think about it, My mom works at a farmers market and brings home vegetables and fruits... But the father thing is the big hole in this comparison. I never had a father, end of story.

Little mistake I made: I tried to make it look like Ike was typing on his keypad, but it ended up looking like one of his fingers was horribly mutilated. It's not, he's just typing and that finger is raised away from the keyboard.

I'd love to hear feedback from people! Did I do well with the GUI-esque background? Did the story hold together well? How'd I do?

Description
Name: Ike "Glitch" Ruzen Fierman
Age: 18 years
Planet of Origin (seen above as P.O.): Nessa
Position: Field Engineer and Lab Chemist

Wardrobe: Black T-shirt with abstract, glow-in-the-dark pattern because glowing is cool. He wears a denim sweater vest because it's cool enough to wear on the sunny side of Nessa but covers enough to block out the cold winds on the dark side. The rectangular badge pinned to his vest is standard in the NPP. His heavy metal belt protects and carries his excavation tools, while his mechanic's tools are in the leather satchel on his side. Of course, he's wearing those black tights just like everybody else in the NPP. Light armor covers his shoulders, thighs, knees, and feet protect him from blunt weaponry. The goggles, blasters, eye, arm, keyboard, and watch are all explained above.

Ike Ruzen Fierman grew up in a mining outpost on Nessa; his family could never have afforded to live in the big city. As one might imagine, his father worked in the mining industry under Cyrus, who was only a regional VP by that point in time. Ike's father was a hard worker, and often would stay an extra hour to earn enough to support his family. His mother was also a hard worker. During the week she was a teacher at the local school, and on weekends she worked in a bakery. She always brought home something sweet for her son. Speaking of Ike, he was a bright, artistic child, devoted to school (possibly because his mom was his teacher). Every day, he'd find a new book in the school's digital library and bring the file home to read on the desk he'd made from a wrecked miner's cart. From these books he learned all about those other worlds he saw up in the night sky. Kollin, the capital of Nanairo, was the one he liked the most. He always wanted to go there and become one of the NPP, who were, in his mind, interplanetary super heroes. He also learned about all sorts of maths and sciences he's never learned about in school (probably because he was too young, by most people's standards). He was, indeed, a very bright boy.

On one fateful day, when the skies were clouded by sandstorms as if to warn of the coming atrocity, Cyrus decided to pull a PR stunt. He declared that day "Bring your kids to work day." This would prove to be one of the worst decisions in his career. When Ike was eight, his father took him down into the deep mineral mines in the stoney deserts of Nessa, where Ike got to meet all kinds of people from all walks of like. He met nice guys who commuted from the city and gruff, but funny guys who practically lived in the mines. Ike even got to try his had at mining up a few minerals. He had a little trouble telling which drill was which, but he got the hang of it eventually. At about four in the afternoon, not half an hour before the sift ended, An explosion resonated throughout the entire network of mines. It was succeeded very shortly by the sounds of rock grinding against rock as the mine collapsed. Many of the miners tried to run from this immense force, but to no avail. Ike found himself inexplicably separated from his father as the entire planet seemed to fall apart around him. He closed his eyes as a massive boulder came down towards him.

Hours later, Ike awoke with a throbbing pain in his head. He tried to open his eyes, but something was stopping the left eye from opening. Ike tried to reach up to rub away what was probably just some dirt, but he found his left arm trapped under an unbelievably heavy rock. Ike was trapped. For nearly three days, Ike tried to call for help from his subterranean prison. He had completely lost his voice by the time rescue workers found him. Ike was immediately rushed to the nearest medical center, where it was discovered that his eye had been scarred and infected by whatever had gotten into it. His arm was beyond repair, as well. His lungs, esophagus, and throat were all severely damaged by the dust he had inhaled and he was dying from dehydration. Fortunately for him, all of these conditions are treatable in Nanairo. Upon arrival at the med center, he was anesthetized. When he woke up, he had stitches everywhere, but he felt great. He'd been fitted with a basic prosthetic limb, a colorblind prosthetic eye, and a new pair of lungs from a donor. When he asked who the donor was, though, Ike was in for a terrible shock. His father, who always packed a small oxygen tank in case of emergencies like the collapse, had been crushed initially from the waist-down, immobilizing him but not killing him. When the rescue team had tried to move the rocks above him to dig him out, one fell and landed on his face. The lungs in Ike were his father's lungs.

There are many things a traumatizing event can do to a person. It could have made Ike incredibly claustrophobic. It could have made him afraid to take another step outside. It could have made him hate Cyrus for putting his father in that position in those conditions. However, Ike is a different kind of person from the average. Ike took from this experience a different lesson. From that day forward, Ike wanted to work as one of the people that made things safer for people and saved those who were in trouble already. He studied every data entry in the school and local libraries about engineering, chemistry, spectrology, interplanetary travel, and self defense techniques. Using what he learned, he made a crude mechanical arm to replace the even cruder plastic one he'd been given initially. At the age of Ten, soon to be eleven, Ike applied for the NPP Academy on Kollin. He took all the tests, filled out all the forms, and waited for the response.

Three weeks later, A message arrived at the Fierman household. Ike's mother read it while Ike was out on his daily jog around the outpost. When he came home, she was standing right in the middle of their house's front room to give him a big hug and a warm congratulations. As she did so, she looked up at a picture of Ike's father hanging on the wall and smiled. He would be so proud if he could see his son now.

At the end of the school year, Ike and his mother made the long trip by hovercab to the big city colony. Once there they rediscovered the reason they didn't live there, the food prices. They hurried to the Flight deck and looked for an available ship. A tall man in an NPP uniform approached them and asked if they were the Fiermans. He informed them that the term "full ride scholarship" literally meant Ike got the ride to the academy for free, as well as his tuition, food, books, and boarding. Ike gladly hopped on the carrier cruiser with his luggage after a long goodbye with his mother. Once onboard, he met twelve other students from Nessa who were making the trip to Kollin for the Academy. He found that there were no more seats in the passenger area, and pointed this out to the officer, who proceeded to tell him he was the last passenger and that the NPP wasn't going to send an entire other ship for one extra kid. Thus, Ike ended up having to lean against the wall next to the end of the row of seats. This is where he met Digg, who was a fifth-year student and wanted to be a spectrologist or a light engineer.

After going through all the check-in points set up in the enormous cafeteria, Ike made his way to his room to prepare for his first night on Kollin. He was surprised to find that Digg would be one of his roommates. It appeared that the other had not arrived yet. Digg accompanied Ike to the cafeteria, really more of a dining hall because of all the different lines you could go through, and the two chatted through their first meal at the Academy. When the two got back to their room, they were surprised to see their other roommate had arrived during dinner. He didn't greet them when they walked in, and he didn't even look up from the data archive his nose was buried in. All that Ike could see of him was the top of his obviously dyed-black hair. The tag on his suitcase just had the initial J on it.

After the first year, it was obvious that Ike was not like the other students. He excelled in every math, science, and art class he took, though he fell behind in the humanities classes. He studied almost constantly, only stopping to talk to one of his acquaintances, or his friend Digg. As this was the case, Ike was allowed to move ahead more quickly in the classes he did well in. By the end of his third year, he had already completed the required math classes for all seven years, the science classes required for five years, and two of the available advanced art electives. The fact that he was in these advanced classes earned him the name "Glitch" because other people throught he'd only gotten into the class by some computer error. He liked the name, it seemed to work well with his faulty cybernet. He was still falling behind in history, language, and literature. His buddy, Digg, graduated at the end of that year and managed to jump right into a job on Genshi in the fossil research lab. As one of his roommates had left the Academy, in his fourth year, Glitch and J guy, who had now dyed his hair a sort of gingerish color and who Glitch now knew as Jon, got a new roommate. Kule, the new guy, is not an important character here, so I'll just skip his description. With Digg gone, Glitch got to know Jon better and they almost became friends by the end of the fourth year. Speaking of the fourth year, Glitch finished the elective math classes and the rest of his science classes by the end of it. In his fifth year, instead of trying to find more math classes, the Academy is allowing him to spend that time out of his day working with engineers in a real lab environment.

By the end of his stay at the Academy, Glitch had taken all the necessary humanities and managed to pass, if only by a little. He'd done all the field training and combat simulation and flight simulation necessary to be a pilot and a field officer. He had also worked in labs long enough to start actually earning money from it, and as a graduation gift to himself, he replaced his faulty eye and arm with a sophisticated titanium set he'd made himself from materials he'd bought over the years. He also built the battery that powers it all. He'd officially become friends with Jon, who had a secret that Glitch now knew and never wanted to think about ever again so don't bring it up around him. He was now an official officer.

After meeting with Dave from the weapons department, Glitch outfitted himself with the two blasters you can see above. This was probably due to a lingering fear of another incident like the one he had as a child, seeing as he specifically asked for the blasters to be able to destroy large rocks.

--Artist's Notes--

Ike is a lot like me in personality and intelligence. I want to be an engineer or artist, so does he. I excel in math and science but fall back in humanities, so does he. Unfortunately, being like me in not always a good thing. Ike exhibits uncontrollable fits of rage when he's really upset about something and doesn't know how to deal with it. Just like me, Ike is not the most trusting of people, but he just assumes others will trust him. We have our flaws, but I think we're both really nice guys on the inside.

He is, however, different from he in many respects. My name is Isaac Rosen Friedman, not Ike Ruzen Fierman. I no longer have a mullet. My beard is bigger than his, and my mustache is smaller. I'm 16 not 18, and I don't have any mechanical body parts. I'm all biological. Also, Ike's family is not like my family at all. I made all that up for this character. Although, now that I think about it, My mom works at a farmers market and brings home vegetables and fruits... But the father thing is the big hole in this comparison. I never had a father, end of story.

Little mistake I made: I tried to make it look like Ike was typing on his keypad, but it ended up looking like one of his fingers was horribly mutilated. It's not, he's just typing and that finger is raised away from the keyboard.

I'd love to hear feedback from people! Did I do well with the GUI-esque background? Did the story hold together well? How'd I do?