Dennis

SUMMARY

Dennis is a university professor at Tempest and the mind behind the wonder that is the Weather Machine.

PERSONALITY

Dennis is the hard-working, quiet, generally annoyed, incredibly intelligent scientist/engineer/mind who is credited or blamed (depending who you ask) for the Age of Lights and the subsequent Lights Out Era. He's the genius behind the Weather Machine, a device he'd rather leave behind and focus on other projects. Even though he came up with many helpful inventions, his failures associated with the death of the WM has left the collective mind of the City to blame him for it. This has soured his mood. He's a pessimistic depressive with a penchant for rude comments about pride. He's not intentionally rude or cruel. It's a byproduct of the last major social interactions he had with people were negative ones that were only criticisms of him.

HISTORY

Dennis was a strong willed, hard-working, albeit blunt young boy and eventually young man. When the success of the WM came into fruition in his late thirties, it only further boosted his self-confidence. And to those close to him, it gave off an air of superiority because, well "They never built a post-modern wonder of the world." and the like. While he never verbally expressed his pride, it was quite evident. In the manner he walked and talked and his fame slowly became all he talked about. Even though the Weather Machine brought about his social power, it became less meaningful to him. All that mattered now was keeping up a public image of wit, intelligence and yet City-wide camaraderie. He was a person of the people. Not a weirdo like Vincent or a shut-in like Earl or even a possibly dangerous Tillman. He was Dennis! A chonky oaf who only wanted to help. He's not that any longer. Obviously.

Even though the WM was not the cause of The Lights Turning Off event, it got swept up in the media and public conscious as being one of the "bad machines". Dennis quickly was shunned and retreated from his very public life in the flash of an instant. He, among Vincent and Tillman, were labeled as enemies of the new society, enemies of The City. Those who once praised his work and bowed in awe at his brilliance were now spitting on his newly dug grave, seemingly betrayed by his even existence. Unfortunately, due to a whole series of events that grow more shrouded as the hours, days and centuries pass by, he was quickly toppled from that high seat. He now lives as a scientist hermit, never venturing outside. It's by design, from his humble basement, that he can't see the Weather Machine off in the coastal distance. To say he hates his device is an understatement. Every time it's brought up, he only attributes it as a monument to his young hubris. It's why he's handed off mentoring Darren to Edgwus on the WM. It's not something he ever wants to revisit, even if he literally built it (well designed it anyway, he had a huge team help build it). If it never gets fixed and The City lives in eternal sunshine, sunshine he'll never feel directly again, he's fine with it.

For reasons he won't talk about, he needed to surgically replace his biological eyes. On his own, by himself. He replaced them with biological-interfacing spectrometers. Says it helps him to process light data internally.