NameNathan (Nate) Matheson
Alias: Relic or The Architect
Age46
OccupationSprayer by night, Engineer-Inventor by day. Was a city planner before, and a high school Advanced-Level physics teacher before then.
Appearance
Nate is a taller man, standing around six feet tall. He is powerful, and has a powerful bearing, but his weight is well under control. Muscled and fit, without being excessive. His clothes tend to be calmer colors, with no insignias or symbols. Suits are also nice.
Gear Nate carries around, at all times, a burner cell phone, a wallet with some cash and a few licenses or keycards, and a Swiss army knife, along with a set of lockpicks. During his time assisting in the construction of Northgate, he was given a small microchip in his brain, a chip which allows him to record massive amounts of information and recall it at will. The chip functions as a perfect memory locker for sensory input or thoughts he has.
Aside from that, Nate has several cans of paint, both spray and traditional, hidden in various places around the city. He tends to travel light, not carrying around anything that can't fit in his pockets.
PersonalityNate was, at one point, an excited man, with a clever sense of humor and plenty of energy. His vitality made his classes fun for his students, and his competence and intelligence made him engaging and interesting to speak with. His eyes always flashed with happiness whenever his students asked him a challenging question. Since then, he's mellowed out dramatically, with age, hindsight, and perspective.
He serves as a rock, providing calm thoughts and clever solutions. He can be incredibly manipulative when people he care about are in danger, but he is mainly a straight talker with a brilliant mind. His experience in Qi Gong and T'ai Chi help him remain cool and focused, but not detached.
He is soft-spoken now, but his voice cuts through a room like a knife, and deep, deep beneath all his collected cover, a long buried flame of rage is ever-present.
Misc Info/Extra-During his frenzied life, the two things which kept him sane were his wife and his inner peace. He is a skilled practitioner of Qi Gong and T'ai Chi Chuan. This inner peace and calm has helped him cope with life, and help others recover in the same way. The hard aspects of the martial arts have kept him in shape, as well.
-Having Northgate based on his ideas has helped Nathan assist in Sprayer ops. He knows where the shortcuts are, where the secret rooms and the passages. He knows how to bring everyone home.
-Despite his age and knowledge, he is
not the leader. He is a navigator, leaving the decision making and the leading to someone with more passion. He dispenses advice, and keeps the younger members from going too crazy.
-At one point in his teaching career, he instructed Paige Waters. He was disappointed with how the fire in her had died out, something he could see quite easily, and wishes he had been able to be more than just another teacher for her.
-His inventions and gadgets are useful to the team, especially when he has time to work on them.
BackgroundNate was born in a small city in the Northwest, an open and free place, before the Northgate movement swept the nation. He grew up unfettered by the laws currently in place, playing in nature without a care in the world. His father wasn't around too much, working a stressful, high-level management job at a law firm and lobbying group (ironically, the one which eventually proposed the Northgate concept). The father wasn't around too much, so it was his mother, his brother, and his cat in the house, most of the time.
In school, Nate's careful and sturdy upbringing revealed a bright curiosity in science and progress. He wasn't a genius by birth, but over the course of his years in school his constant studying, learning, and preparing slowly crept him up the class rank. He didn't graduate valedictorian, but he was in the top fifteen. His college experience was much the same, filled with long chats with other intellectuals about the brightness of the future. The days were filled with stress, but almost carefree. He graduated summa cum laude from school, then went back for a masters, and a Physical Doctorate. Both fell with ease beneath his voraciousness for knowledge.
During his time in graduate school, he volunteered at a high school, first to give a lecture on the properties of thermodynamics as practice for presenting findings later in life, and then, when he was received outstandingly well, he had a thought: the students who applauded him so heartily were the same students who would make the future great. He decided to become a teacher, hoping to guide these children on the right path.
For years, he taught thus, rapidly becoming one of the school's most valued employees. In his spare time, he traveled, giving lectures of idealism and excitement about the possibilities for the future, slowly building a name for himself in the scientific community. During his time teaching and traveling, he met a brilliant woman, Mara, who he fell in love with. After plenty of beating around the bush, he finally won her heart, and the two of them were wed, to his delight.
Only a few years passed before everything changed. One night, while he sat, tapping away at his computer, a strange number popped up on his phone. The caller had a proposition for him: would he like to help plan the world's safest city? His mind kicked into overdrive, bringing images of color, happiness, and smiles. Of course, he accepted graciously.
The work began soon enough: he and a group of other scientific powerhouses collaborated online, hemming and hawing over every tiny detail of the place. It was all theoretical, of course: the safety measures were incredibly expensive, or so he was told, but the idea of a perfect city would inspire change. He, Mara, and the rest of the group spent months upon months building the place in simulations and models.
And then Nathan saw one morning on the news, Northgate. Implementing all of the safety measures he had helped to plan, but without the interesting, fun, or inspiring features he had thrown in. In essence, a police state. He tried to call in a complaint, but some time ago, Northgate officials had approached the group about buying their ideas, as efficient and clear as possible. Mara and Nate were outnumbered by the other developers, almost all of whom had agreed to the situation. The city itself was being remodeled according to the faux map of Nate's creation.
Angry and betrayed, the couple took to the internet, looking to find some way they could undo the damage they had caused. They found the answer in the Sprayers. The pair of them quietly moved to Northgate, and, after days of looking, found their way into one of the groups.
It didn't last long. Mara was taken only a few nights into the operations, whisked away from Nate before he could even do a thing to help her. He didn't see her again for weeks. She was entirely different. Demure, sheeplike. None of the inner fire or intelligence he had come to rely upon was there. She left him too, claiming her calling for justice prevented her from loving him anymore. Their history protected him from revelation, as she was leaving the area, perhaps permanently.
But the change struck him dearly. He retreated from the Sprayer group, without any warning. Without his knowledge of the area., the rest of the team was captured as well, further cementing his loss and pain.
When he heard that a new group of Sprayers were trying to set up shop, he knew right then that he couldn't make the same mistake. He sought them out. He joined them, providing his knowledge, expertise, and level head. He'd be damned if he'd let anyone care about be captured again. And if the chance came to shut down the horror he had helped create, then he'd be damned if anyone would stop him.
