Trivia

Appearance

Corby is tall, broad and heavyset, built like a barrel of a man. He is fair skinned, and muscled, but fat, and covered in noticeable body hair especially on the chest and arms. He has a strong, square jaw and a pronounced and crooked nose. His eyes are so dark brown that they often appear black, as if they were all pupils and no iris, and he habitually wears one of several pairs of pince-nez glasses for his nearsightedness. He is habitually clean shaven, though may appear with stubble after several days of work in the lab. He has large, square hands with soft palms and neatly trimmed nails; traces of hair growing on the back of his hands and his knuckles but not in great amounts. Both hands are noticeably scarred in places, and he generally wears a pair of black or red leather gloves when not in the lab. His wavy, brown hair is noticeably greying at the temples, but shows no signs of receding. He keeps it cut short and brushed back in the same ‘Ivy League’ cut that he’s worn since his college days.

Distinguishing Features

Both hands bear a number of small, but noticeably scars from chemical burns and other incidents. Generally hidden with gloves.

Typical Clothing

◈ Everyday: A product of an older time, Corby generally dresses fairly formally, in an outfit consisting of a dress shirt, slacks, tie, vest or sweater vest, accompanied by a long top coat, hat and gloves. He wears a watch and often carries an umbrella. He wears brown, neatly polished shoes and pince-nez spectacles with smokey lenses. He favors blues and earth tones in color.

◈ Lab wear: Similar to everyday wear but with a lab coat instead of a top-coat, and medical gloves rather than leather gloves.

◈ Formal: For formal occasions Corby favors either a dark charcoal grey, or a black three piece suit in the american-style with a matching fedora. Generally paired with a bold red tie and red smoked glasses for a splash of color.

◈ Casual: for casual and sporting occasions, Corby’s wardrobe boasts an array of absolutely hideous and garish tropical patterned hawaiian shirts, which he pairs with cargo shorts and birkenstock sandals worn with socks. The fiend.

Specialization

Doctor Corby has degrees in medicine, biology and chemistry, with a focus on organic and biochemistry. His specialty and focus is on the field of organic transmutation; the transformation of living tissue into other forms of organic or inorganic matter, preferably, but not necessarily while maintaining functions of life and sentience.

Religion

Religion: Outwardly and professionally Doctor Corby is an atheist who often purports to follow the joking “religions” of Discordianism or Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, while making occasional references to Satanism or Theistic Luciferiansim.

Somewhat secretly, Corby is infact a dedicated and impassioned anti-theist who believes that godly and divine creatures exist, and would like nothing better than to take them apart to see what makes them tick, and not put them back together again. He believes in the development and advancement of the human species above all others as an apex predator and that if gods exist it is the duty and ambition of humans to destroy and replace them, rather than to bow and grovel to their whims.

Corby takes a dismissive and joking tone towards the religious beliefs of others if they are expressed, and may become outwardly hostile toward them if pressed.

Politics

Doctor Corby is an authoritarian socialist utopian with open and hedonistic “liberal/leftist” social ideology. He believes that all facets of government should be managed by a scientific and philosophical elite who would plan an ideal society for the non-elite. While he believes in an authoritarian structure to society, he also holds freedom of personal expression and belief as ideals. He is against monogamy and heterosexuality as defined social norms, and believes that free sex and legalization of drug use are the secrets to a happy society.

Basically he read Brave New World and said “Let's do that, but less cishet.” .

Personality

Corby is a cheerful, boisterous and outgoing man with a broad and occasionally perverted sense of humor. He has an easy, familiar way of interacting with people and often thinks that his scientific peers are too stuffy and tight laced. He is a flirt and a hedonist with no interest in monogamy and a tenuous at best grasp on the modern concept of ‘sexual harassment’. He is a scientific utopian who genuinely believes the best in people, and often writes off the vices of himself and others as harmless quirks. Corby has two goals in life, the advancement of science for the benefit of the human race, and his own pleasure and indulgence. He sees scientific progress as the way to ease the burden of the common man and is an outspoken proponent of things like automation and the four day work week. Corby is in fact an outspoken man in general, not afraid to speak his mind.

Corby is definitely a man for whom the term ‘work hard, play hard’ applies. He has a tendency to run himself into the ground, spending many sleepless or semi-sleepless nights in a row engaged in research, or academic writing, followed by a crash into torpor and many days of relaxation. Corby doesn’t like to be alone, and very much enjoys the company of others whether he is working or engaging in leisure. There are very few of his coworkers he hasn’t invited to play some sport of game, out for drinks, or quite pointedly, into bed. He takes being turned down with good humor, and saves his temper for arguments with people he considers foolish or ill intentioned.

A typical day where Corby is not locked in his lab in a manic frenzy would start with a large, leisurely breakfast (the most important meal of the day), potentially shared with a bed partner from the previous evening, or if he is alone he’ll read the news. Corby would then go to work either conducting research or lecturing foundation trainees and personnel in his subjects. Corby will take a long lunch and perhaps take a break to play a round of golf, tennis or cards with fellow staff or friends. After work Corby is likely to go out drinking, take someone to dinner,or engage in other pleasant activities. If he doesn’t have a bed partner for the evening he’ll spend the last moments of his day before bed writing in his personal journal.

• Occupation: Researcher, Professor

• Skills: excellent cook, proficient baseball batter, moderate physical strength

• Strengths: 

  • Self Confidence: Corby believes in himself and his ideals and will make his voice heard without hesitation.

  • Charisma: Corby’s boisterous and magnanimous personality makes him an easy person to like, at least for most people.

  • Curiosity: Corby takes an academic interest in every kind of knowledge and will never hesitate to investigate something new or to attempt to solve a puzzle.

  • Sympathy: Despite the necessities of his position Corby has a soft heart and is easily able to sympathize with the woes of others.

• Weaknesses: 

  • Arrogance: Corby’s has a serious problem of believing that he’s the smartest, most interesting man in the room as a rule.

  • Stubbornness: Once Corby has decided something he will hold on to that decision and it’s difficult to get him to change his mind.

  • Recklessness: Corby will take risky and harmful means, to himself and others,  in order to achieve his goals.

  • Lust: Corby is a flirt and a pervert-- the kind of guy from the 1950s who never learned that you shouldn’t carelessly touch your coworkers.

  • Sentimentality: Despite dark impulses and a broad dedication to doing whatever needs to be done to achieve his goals, Corby’s soft heart often gets in the way.

• Likes: 

  • Intellectual debate: Corby loves a spirited debate and will happily play the ‘devil’s advocate’ in order to get a good conversation up.

  • Good food: Corby loves to cook and show off his cooking skills, as well as enjoying fine dining and the cooking of others. 

  • Material luxury and indulgence: Corby is a complete hedonist who loves anything that feels good. Smoking and drinking, sex, sleeping in, comfortable furniture, nice clothes, massages and hot baths are all ‘hobbies’ of his.

  • Sports and games: Despite his build, Corby is actually fairly athletic and enjoys sports like baseball, tennis and golf. He also has a love of board games and puzzles.

  • Karaoke: Corby prides himself on his singing voice. You don’t have to do much prompting to get him to try showing off.

• Dislikes: 

  • Religion: Corby has little patience for religion and the religious and will often become annoyed if they are waved in his face.

  • Prudishness: A hedonist and libertine, Corby is at odds with any person or system of morality that puts limits on or demonizes sex and physical pleasure.

  • Anti-intellectualism: Coby believes in the superiority of science and the scientific method and is annoyed by superstition and those who question scientific results.

• Hopes: 

  • Fame and Discovery: Corby hopes to make a scientific breakthrough so momentous that it outlives him in history.

  • Human Advancement: Corby wants the human race to transcend their current level of achievement and advance as a species.

  • Love and connection: Even despite his flirtatious nature, or perhaps really part of it, Corby hopes to find a partner with whom he shares a deeper connection and can build love with.

• Fears: 

  • Obscurity: Ending up unremembered and unimportant is Corby’s worst fear.

  • Being manipulated: Corby hates the idea that anyone, human or otherwise, might be pulling his strings for their own ends.

Isolation: Corby needs to be liked and feel like he has connections with other people. He feels being rejected, alone, and losing people.

Character

Early History

Corby is the oldest over his 2 siblings by 12 years, and grew up until that point as an only child. During this time he spent significant time with his mother who was a home-maker, while his father was a distant workaholic who often slept at his office. His mother was his ‘best friend’, and he didn’t have a lot of friends his own age until his siblings were born. In elementary school, Corby was bookish and aloof, though pleasant and got along well with his teachers.

Corby did NOT get along well with his father, whom he learned early in life was impossible to please, and began to resent him for, he felt, ignoring his mother and him. Corby at an early age found himself trying to replace his father in his mother’s life, and would cook and clean both with and for her and worry over when she was ill or tired. Corby pushed himself academically at this age almost entirely because his success seemed to make her happy. If his mother had been less impressed with his tests and book reports it's possible Corby would have been put on another path altogether.

After a significant promotion at work following the war, Corby’s father finally began spending more time at home, and that’s when Corby started spending less time there. With his mother occupied with her husband and new baby daughter, Corby finally started spending time outside and with his peers, discovering an enjoyment for sports and the outdoors just as he was in middle school.

As for Corby’s sexuality early in life, it's less accurate to say that he struggled with it so much as others around him struggled with it. After achieving some popularity with the baseball team in middle school Corby was emboldened to become the notorious flirt that was his nature. While his flirtations with young ladies were more open and overt, the time period necessitated a more subtle approach with the gentlemen. Far from feeling disgusted with or ashamed of his appreciation for men as might have been common however, Coby personally assumed that everyone was attracted to both genders and that the taboo against homosexuality similar to keeping kosher, or giving up something for lent. Thus, Corby didn’t refrain from privatelyu propositioning boys he thought would be interested, but generally made a more subtle game of his approach so as not to offend.While this did result in a few public accusations that he was a “homosexual” his public and obviously amoprous relationships with girls made it difficult for such accusations to gain any traction, and most were simply convinced that his accusers were jealous of his romantic success.

Education

Corby attended high school in the American midwest during the era of ‘duck and cover’ directly after the second world war. An overweight mama’s boy, as well as an academic prodigy, his inclinations would have made him the perfect target for bullying if not for his natural charisma and affinity for baseball. Instead he managed to cultivate a decent popularity among his peers, and did a normal amount of socializing outside of school. He considered himself a bridge between the jocks and the nerds and would often mediate between them when there was strife in class. This, along with his academic ability earned him a fair amount of esteem from his teachers, ending up with him being a bit of a golden boy of sorts-- though this wasn’t without its problems, and Corby did get into a fight or two.

Corby started college immediately after high school at an east coast ivy league school in the autumn of 1951. Corby thrived at college both academically and socially, getting his first degree in chemistry before moving on to biology and medicine in graduate studies. He met his long term partner at a campus protest in his early years as an adjunct professor. Corby spent many years with the university and is comfortable and at home in the world of academia, grants, papers, inter-department squabbling and of course lecturing, and avoiding lecturing.

Adult Life (SCP specific)

Corby was recruited to the Foundation in the mid 1960s while he was teaching and working on grant-based research for the university. His unorthodox research was based on the chemical transmutation of living tissue into inorganic material and the reverse. The Foundation had been monitoring his research for years, and eventually approached him with an implicit ultimatum- join the Foundation and continue his work, or refuse and be discredited and expelled from academia. Despite the belligerent tone of the invitation, Corby was none-the-less extremely interested in the secretive organization and what scientific knowledge they might be keeping to themselves.

In his time at the Foundation he has regularly studied a great many of the SCPs which relate to transfiguration of various types of tissue and matter. Specifically he has been studying SCP-217, often referred to as The Clockwork Virus for many years. After years of dedicated research Corby was promoted to director of site-23 commonly dubbed the “Chimera Hospital.”

Around 1988 there was a containment breach during a cargo transport that was using Corby’s site as a temporary storage point. Multiple SCPs awaiting designation broke containment suddenly in a cascade event, and Corby was unable to reach a designated evacuation area before being affected by an unknown temporal anomaly caused by the breach. Corby found himself thrust forward in time by nearly three decades, reappearing in the same laboratory about a year and a half from the present day now, as if no time had passed for him.

After undergoing many rounds of mandatory evaluation Doctor Corby was judged non-compromised and allowed to return to work for the foundation. However, owing to his thirty year gap in knowledge, his clearance level and seniority were greatly reduced-- a significant blow to his dignity. Not only that, but certain rivals in the Foundation had grown in power over the years and used their influence to obstruct him in his attempts to regain power within the organization. It was one of these rivals who pulled strings to get Corby to be assigned to duty on SCP-11037

Outside of the Foundation, Corby maintains a prominent social life, keeping himself fit and busy with sports, especially golf and tennis, tabletop games, karaoke, and especially drinking and dating. He is known, and in some cases feared, for inviting coworkers along on his latest tear, and is considered the ‘party animal’ of the research division. This holds true both before and after his temporal incident, however in the modern day Corby finds himself playing ‘catch up’ in terms of popular culture and the modern zeitgeist.