Merlot Valentine

Professor Merlot Valentine is the head scientist of the Interdimensional Super Prison that orbits Planet Obear.

## Appearance

Merlot is an older gentleman with a toned body and noticeable vertical scar along his left eye which keeps it perpetually closed. He has short white parted hair with strands of a beard and thick mustache. He wears oval shaped glasses and has red eyes. He wears a long lab coat over top of a dark blue polo shirt and beige pants. He has a pen, pencil, and notebook in the polo's left lapel and a stitching of his name on the outside of the lab coat. He has small brown shoes and wears green socks.

## Personality

Merlot is a very dismissive individual with a stubborn disposition. He would rather lean on the facts of a situation rather than the possibilities. He often scolds and ignores his subordinates for their floundering as well as their cognitive acts he deems less than adequate. He will however show respect to his superiors and authority figures such as the Warden and Captain of the Nostradamus. His personality changes ever so slightly while he is within the presence of his wife who leans on him for everything due to her illness. He cares for her and will protect her even from the most minor of inconveniences. Alongside this he treats anyone who challenges him as a lesser being more along the lines of a test subject rather than an opponent. It is said often his cockiness is just his way of assuring his stability of the mind in all situations while others claim he's just a mad man.

## Relationships

### **Aleister Dragmire**

Merlot first met Aleister while he was turning himself in for suspected reasons of uncommon happenstance. Dismissive at first of 'luck' he tested Aleister in many settings across the prison putting him through scenarios where only true bad luck would be the cause of his plans failing and subsequently they did. Upon learning about this phenomenon he adopted Aleister into his care while he remained on the prison ship and ran hundreds of tests on the man until he felt he was ready. Now with them orbiting over planet Obear, he has sent Aleister to scout ahead of the soldiers and find a suitable camp while keeping a close eye on him through his spy drones.

### **Mitsuko Himura**

Merlot originally designed nuclear weaponry for the Captain of the Nostradamus back on Planet Novalis where the ship was designed and created. Upon realizing there might be a way to absorb excess radiation and reuse the materials he began designing as test subject using his insects as a start. Eventually he created a woman who could absorb the powers of radiation to fuel herself from inside of a test tube and then Merlot could expel the radiation forcefully into another nuclear rod for further use. After the events of a riot he noticed his prize experiment had gone missing...

## Merlot's History

Professor Merlot Shumer married into the Valentine name by marrying Patricia Valentine. He was then elected as the head of the science division of Novalis government. After many years of working designing weapons and developing experiments in gene splicing his wife eventually came down with an unexpected illness and could no longer take care of herself leaving him to abandon certain aspects of his job leaving it to his bumbling subordinates to finish his work while he takes care of his wife. Another year went by and he was tasked with helping design **'The Ultimate Weapon'** which would encapsulate species from other planets and allow Novalis to propagate off of the experiments. The Warden promised that the experiments may eventually find a cure for Merlot's wife which in the end is the only reason he's even on board of the Nostradamus today.

Among his peers Merlot was always seen as both an intellectual and insane mad man. His abilities allowed him to quickly adapt to most situations and due to his experimentation he's even created life form nothing more than DNA strands. He also eventually took a prisoner under his wing to study the effects of luck based circumstances to weaponize them. Eventually upon discovering planet Obear he became interested in the powers hidden deep within the mind and body of the race they called "human" and thus began an expedition to discover the secrets of this new world full of materials and minerals as well as discover his own powers by exploring the planet with his own two feet.