The Chronicle of Nicodemus

http://allthekeys.dreamwidth.org/1837.html

Player's Name: I'm Yume!
Contact info: http://www.plurk.com/memorylikeasieve
DW: memorylikeasieve

Character: Nicodemus
Canon: Secret of NIMH/Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Version: Film
Canon Point: Right after he dies, the poor fellow. Or, at least, at the point at which he does so.
Age: Uhm. Uh. I have no idea. Old. I think. It is not stated in canon whether he started out old or that the metabolic strain of the experimentations aged him more than the others but there it is. He is old.
Gender: Male



History: Nicodemus started life as an ordinary rat, albeit one with a rather fancy name. He was captured by scientists at an otherdimensional version of the National Institute of Mental Health that was clearly invested in creating serums (sera?) that augmented intelligence that this world's version tragically never even attempted (otherwise I'd be first to queue up for something like that). Over an indeterminate period of time, he and many other rats and mice were subjected to a kind of neurogenesis therapy consisting of a programme of repeated injections and cognitive tests. These injections were traumatising in their side-effects and in the fact that they radically changed the perceptions of these rodents, and many of the test subjects did not survive. Those who did survive found their capacity for learning and comprehension increased a thousandfold. They were taught how to read which, as one can guess, is a much more important revelation than it sounds: "...I looked upon the words under the cage door and understood them." Their escape was pretty much inevitable.

The film glosses over the time spent voraciously learning everything they could before they settled on a farmer's property and began to build a city. Nicodemus, however, realised that this could only be a temporary settlement, and that their final destination was complete self-sufficiency in a place closed off to humans, ideally the Thorn Valley Nature Preserve. He knew that they could no longer live as rats, stealing from humans. They had grown too intelligent and too wise. They were an entirely new species and thus had to live as an entirely new species. He managed to convince nearly all of the others of this fact and set in motion the Plan to essentially use what they learned to start a rodent civilisation from scratch. If there was any flaw in his plan, any hubris at all in his vision it was in underestimating the lengths some would go to to resist change. He died because of that underestimation of his foes. His legacy, however, lived on, because of his wisdom and his foresight in grooming a protege who would neatly and seamlessly take his place when he was gone.

No-one knows where his otherworldly powers came from, as none of the other test subjects ever evidenced any. They became integral to his very persona, however, and he cultivated the image of the aged wizard, though to what end no-one knows.

Personality:

Fears: HUMANS. Especially humans in laboratory settings, so have fun with that, Nic. He'll get over the trepidation around ordinary human(oid)s quickly enough to interact normally but he'll never get rid of that fear of labs. Also, predator animals. No matter how augmented, rats are still prey animals and still instinctively run from anything that chases. On a less immediate level, he also fears not knowing things. He is so accustomed to seeing and hearing all that now being mostly clueless will fill him with anxiety that he will just never actually show. It's there, nonetheless.

Weaknesses: Old rat is old. No, really, he's so ancient a stiff breeze would crumble him to dust. He is physically weak, slow-moving, and delicate, according to canon, but I can see him pulling a Gandalf in that a lot of the doddering old sage thing could be an act. Also, being only five inches tall in a human habitation has its numerous drawbacks, especially since he's not the climber he used to be.

Mundane Strengths/Abilities: Hyperintelligence. The experiments that gave the Rats human intelligence worked even better for him, the result of which being that he's a wee polymath. A Renaissance rodent, if you will. He has an aura of leadership about him and the confidence, wisdom, and philosophical outlook to back it up. His small size can be advantage as much as weakness, as he can go where most everyone else cannot, and can go unnoticed; and he can manipulate objects too small for human-sized fingers.

Sensitivity/Magical Ability: Ridiculously high. No-one can come up with a concrete theory as to why he has these psionic powers where all the other rats and mice do not, but they are nonetheless there. His clairsentience and precognition may be augmented by technology, but it is still there, and the telekinesis is entirely his own. He can most likely use reflective objects as scrying tools. He also doubles as a great night-light with those glowing eyes.

Supply List: Nothing but a staff and the clothes on his back, I'm afraid.

Game Transfers: none.

Sample RP post:

http://vitaelamorte.dreamwidth.org/2356.html

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Download link-Rodentia Sapiens.rar





1. Chain--Kanno Yoko
Something about this piece gives an air of ... inexorability. Much like scientific pregress and the possibility of its pulling everything along in its wake. It gave me opening-sequence type images of lab-stuff and credits. Woo.

2. Leeloo--Eric Serra
Again, this always gave me images of machines doing who knows what for who knows what purpose.

3.Prologue de Refrain--unknown (I couldn't read the album--it was all in Japanese)
It sounds horribly medical, dunnit? It's from an album called "refrain: the songs were inspired by EVANGELION", with the caps like that, yes.

4. Forbidden Gene--Unknown
Also from "refrain." I couldn't pass up a track with a title like that, and the music itself sounds properly mysterious.

(These tracks were selected mostly because they put across to me an air of mysterious *science!*)

5. Coma--Kanno Yoko
Again, the title's a dead giveaway, but beyond that, the music reminds me of bizarre hallucinations, which I'm almost certain the rats in question went through--a lot of strange things happened to their brains, after all.

6. KAKYOU--Unknown (again, album info all in Japanese)
More hallucination sequences.

7. The Speed of Pain--Marilyn Manson
They're coming out of the dreamlike hallucinations and into the scary stuff. Sourceless pain and nameless fears.

8. Seij minus a-Laick Arctica--Unknown (This was just ... something on my mp3 list... I can't remember where it's from.)
Again, more scary hallucinatory neural misfirings. I imagine sometimes life in that laboratory was nothing short of terrifying.

9. Whisper--Evanescence
They're coming out of it, now. Reaching a kind of stability. Realising they're afraid and moreso what they're afraid of.

10. Fear: The Mind Killer--Eon
The only thng we have to fear is fear itself.

11. Hitomi--Kanno Yoko
Not all of them survived, I'm thinking. Twenty rats and two mice excaped, but out of how many?

12. Classical Gas--Vanessa Mae
There's something about this, maybe it's the echo effect, that seems contemplative. They've escaped by now and wondering where to go, perhaps.

13. Signal To Noise--Peter Gabriel
Because this piece is just so damned relevant. Really. There isn't a situation you can't apply this one to.

14. Across the Universe--Aine Minogue
It's ... meditative. Makes me think a bit of Nicodemus, and also of the idea of their being between worlds. And it sounds kind of end-credity.

In which the mun thinks about this FAR too much...

As anyone with a shred of realism will tell you, chemical increase of intelligence is still a far-fetched, science-fiction idea, right up there with X-genes and the development of psionic abilities from the absorption of drugs in uetero.

What follows is the wildest of speculations:

Standard Injections

From not-quite-exhaustive research regarding the action of neurotransmitters and neuropeptides, it can be extrapolated that manipulation of such chemicals can result in vastly accellerated synaptogenesis.  Also, actual neurogenesis might not be unheard of.  The cerebrum of the typical specimen of R. Norvegicus is notably smooth when compared to that of, for example, a primate, affording ample room for the increased formation of gyri and thus, increased neuroconnectivity.

What the injections would have to consist of, then, is not the neurotransmitters or peptides themselves, rather, chemicals that stimulate increased endogenous production of said chemicals, finely tailored so that an overproduction of, for example, Substance P, doesn't completely disregulate pain sensations, or that a sudden influx of adrenaline doesn't explode their hearts.  I imagine a lot of test subjects died in monstrous ways before this final formula was devised.

The finished serum, apparently administered as a kind of chemotherapy over time, would nonetheless hold a lot in common with Clair's "Zombie Juice" neuroregenesis serum, with overstimulation of random cerebral areas a key side-effect.  Once the test subjects were physically recovered, then the cognitive testing and conditioning would ensue, ensuring an at least partial crystallisation of the newly formed pathways.

The serum's apparently drastic effects on not only the neurotransmitters and peptides of the subjects' brains but apparently also a partial resequencing of their DNA (producing a viable mutation), and its documented effects on the cellular decay of said subjects (again, possibly a product of the genetic resequencing, eliminating or at the very least decreasing the potency of genetic factors responsible for cellular decay), cannot be beleived to be lacking in long-term side-effects, as well as a few unforseen comorbid (for lack of a better term) manifestations:

The Case of Brutus

While the species R. Norvegicus is not without its variations in morphology re: physical size, it is documented that the character referred to as Brutus was a rat of prodigious size, possibly rivalling that of R. Norvegicus' cousin, the African/Gambian Giant Pouched Rat, which can reach a weight of up to seven pounds.  This can, in probability, be attributed to an increase in pituitary output, as the marked increase in neurogenesis/synaptogenesis, is not unlike that seen in a mammal's embryonic/infantile stage.  Giantism isn't without its systemic shortcomings, most notably early death due to congestive heart failure.

The Case of Nicodemus

In which woolly science reaches dizzying heights of implausibility.

It can only be supposed that, unlike the other escapees, Nicodemus was not a part of the test group that held the majority of the characters, but rather of a different group, of which he is possibly the only survivor.  This can most plausibly account for the marked difference betwen him and the others, as none of the others present even a hint of psionic abilities.

Most likely, in addition to the drug treatments the others had recieved, this group received an additional round of treatments, ones responsible for an apparent hyperactivity of cerebral regions either dormant in the original brain of R. Norvegicus or created during the drug-induced synaptogenesis/neurogenesis.  It's a long-held theory that the potential for psionics lies in the unused portions of the brain, one which has never, to my knowledge, been concretely refuted.  This can easily account for the documented instances of telekinesis, clairvoyance, possible low-grade telepathy, and possible precognition.

The ocular bioluminescence is, however, not easily explained, except as some exaggerated from of retinal reflectivity, after the fashion of a tapetum lucidum.  One can only speculate how difficult it is to sleep when confronted with the problem of one's own bioluminescence, especially one attained so unnaturally.

The metabolic strain of such hyperstimulation can account for the character's apparent impossibly advanced age, and the genetic resequencing can theoretically account for his survival in such a state.

Day 3

It looks as though this place we found is called "the Nexus," a place where realities meet?  Heinlein was mentioned.  There might be other books explaining this, too.  There are a lot of humans here, but so far nothing like we escaped from.  Maybe not all humans are that bad, but it remains to be seen to what extent.  We've gotten no less suspicious, it seems.

Things to remember--Monsters in refrigerators, Things with a capital "T", and the concept of something called the "El oh el."  LOL?  Look up what those initials could stand for.  Nobody seems to know what causes it, but they don't regard it as particularly dangerous--more like annoying.

Discussion continues on whether to take the human Derek up on his offer of space near his home.  I'm leery of the cat, even if she does seem to have nothing but affection for Nicodemus.  Instinct, I suppose.  How much instinct can you safely lose before it gets dangerous?  I don't know.  We're divided on everything from the cat to humans to where to go to who to trust.  We'll have to agree on something, and soon.  The "Sanctuary" flooded and even though we weren't affected, who knows what'll happen next time?

-J