Blight

Dr Talbot Grimes was a Northern-born social rights activist, xenobiologist, and most notably, the lead researcher and practical engineer within the government funded project that after failure, got labeled “The Aberration”. He was known for his extremist world views and was incredibly outspoken, before being threatened with the possibility of losing his tenure at Ovilarch University, wherein he retreated back to his work silently, throwing himself into the theorem of multiple space that was currently funding his entire existence.

## Dr Talbot Grimes

Last Known Image of Dr Talbot, Tainted by Aberrant Radiation

## Life And Career

### **Early Life**

By the age of 28, Dr Talbot Grimes had made a name for himself in the fields of chemical research and experimental pharmaceuticals, and while secretive about his projects, he consistently procured scientific funding through various educational grants and government sponsorships. It is unknown what these funded projects were exactly, as all involved parties were either not informed of the finer details, or were forced to sign NDA agreements, swearing Grimes' work to secrecy.

### **Political Activism**

After about 15 years of bouncing between projects for various governing bodies, Dr Talbot began publically voicing his displeasure with where he saw society heading. As quoted below from his Manifesto, ***Stagnation of Eutopia***

> "*Creativity and progress go hand in hand, and when one must be forced to place production above either, no societal movement will be made. This applies not just to our own selves, but to the entire system we live within, our ever reliable ticking machine that we must continue to run in, lest we get trampled by the speeding wheel. Running a predetermined track is not progress, it is an obvious and painful plateau upon the timeline of existence"*
>
>

His words fell upon deaf ears however, and as such, in the year 1975 he quit his various positions partnered with the governing bodies he had grown to despise, and instead applied for a teaching position at the Olivarch University, in the role of a tenured lecturer, specialising in his favoured field of Xenobiology, while also often teaching social studies to mantain his necessity within his position.

## The Sheldrake-Grimes Theorem

Due to the niche nature of Talbot's specialities, he had spent his entire professional life being pursued for his expertise and qualifications, simply to be disappointed by the mediocre project he was being asked to direct his precious attention towards. As such he had sworn off "assisting" in such experiments, and had publicly left his own life of experimentation behind him.

This was his steadfast rule, a steadfast, unbreakable rule that tumbled down upon the first month of 1981, the moment *Cambire Sheldrake* arrived on his doorstep.

Cambire was charismatic, well-spoken, confident, and above all, evidently a genius. Talbot was instantly swept up in his words and works, what Cambire was talking about was insane. Stable, self-contained, interdimensional rifts. Splitting the fabric of reality open, within one shielded device, and, possibly, allowing incredibly brief transportation between planes. The experiment was seen as too much of a risk by the powers-that-be within Olivarch University, and as such they refused to apply for a government grant unless Cambire was able to put some sizeable academic backing behind the pitch. Talbot was apparently his first choice, and within two hours of hearing the very first word out of Cambire's mouth, Talbot had signed his name onto the project, for what would be his first recorded practical work in roughly five years.

Due to the ambitious nature of the project, and the large names attatched to it, the scientific bodies within the Fallespont government immediately took a very close interest in the project, pouring exuberant amounts of funding and manpower into the project, much to Cambire's delight, and Talbot's resentment. As much as he wanted the project to succeed, he despised the idea of the Fallespont government burning so much of the people's money on an unrealistic science fiction project while their societal infastructure continued to idle and stagnate, he hated this almost as much as he hated the idea of having to share even more of the credit if the project actually *did* succeed. However it seemed that both Cambire's optimism and Talbot's concerns were misplaced, as upon the decadal mark of the Sheldrake-Grimes project, all they had achieved were hundreds of dead ends, until...

## The Aberration Theorem

They made contact. **Dimension -560**, colloquially known as "**The Depths**", was successfully reached on the 17th day of the 6th month of 1991. No communication was achieved on their first breach but within four more breaches they had managed to land visuals on a wide open plain of The Depths, seeing hundreds of it's inhabitants roaming around. Talbot and Cambire were ecstatic, but while Cambire was happy to call the experiment here and pass on their work and retire, Talbot wouldn't even support the slightest notion of giving up his project to some undeserving, unnamed, drone of the Fallespont government. He pushed Cambire to mantain control of the project by his side, convincing him that the project wasn't complete until they were able to cross, hand in hand, to the Depths themselves. Cambire relented, never being one to say no to Talbot, he took Grimes' vision as their own, and kept the Fallespont board of ethics off their back long enough for Talbot to add the final piece of their puzzle.

The final piece of the Aberration.

Hand in hand. That was the goal, and that was where they were when the portal opened, spitting eldritch answers to a question they had been asking for the last decade. Hand in hand when they were rended apart, ripped from their bodies, through agonising pain beyond human comprehension, to their dismay however they were far beyond human by now, and they were comprehending every iota of that unknowable pain. What was left of Talbot's psyche was torn through one of the unknowable rifts created by the portal, and ripped to the icy depths of Chorus to freeze and die as an abandoned thought, while Cambire was left desolate, distraught, and disarmed, as nothing more than an all-powerful memory in Terrian's dirt.

This was to be their eternal reward, the duo's raison de tra. Cambire Sheldrake, now only known as a disgraced harbinger of death, and Talbot Grimes, nothing more than a blighted stain upon Aberrant's timeline.