I really should be working, but this is too much fun.
Here's an update to Kat. Let me know if you want more:
Katalina Fryst
Age: 28
Date of Birth: January 20, 2483
Place of Birth: Penza, Russia
Occupation: Graduate Student of Julius Schwartz
Bio: Katalina grew up on a failing family farm in Russia. The farm had been passed down for generations and was recently inherited by Kat's parents. One of the last privately owned farms, the expensive autonomous machinery needed to compete with the giant farming syndicates had the family on the brink of bankruptcy. At a young age, Kat showed a proficiency for machines and was able to teach herself how to keep the complicated farm equipment running. Able to fire the maintenance crew, the family was able to keep the farm barely making a profit.
The oldest for four, Kat was responsible not only for maintaining the farms equipment, but also for caring for her siblings. Although she was deeply dedicated to her family, she was disappointed when she couldn't join the other children after school to play games. In school, she was teased mercilessly. She was too smart. Her parents were too poor. She like dirty machines too much. In an effort to make friends, Kat would reprogram the janitor bots to joust each other. Although this would work for a time, she'd always spend more time with the principal than the children she sought to impress.
In high school, Kat had blossomed into a beautiful young woman. A natural beauty, combined with fit body from years of field work, made her many friends and suitors, despite her brilliance. Unaccustomed to such attention, Kat began slipping in school and spending less time on the farm. Despite constant advances from the school's athletes, Kat asked out a boy in the band, who she long had a crush on, but was too nervous to ask before popularity built up her confidence. He was more than happy to oblige such a popular and attractive girl and was quickly transported to the most sought clique in high school.
Her parents, concerned she was spending too much time with these new friends and boy, set strict limits on what she had to do on the farm before she could see him. Angry at her parents and late for a date, she worked hastily to replace the blades on one of the crop cutters. In her rush, she jammed the blade on before the shaft had properly realigned itself to the neutral position. Unexpectedly, the blade snapped into the proper position, cutting Kat across the face. She was left with a deep scar from the top of her forehead, across her eye, to the right side of her mouth. Kat quickly found out that her new friends were just as superficial as her family had said, when they abandoned the newly disfigured Kat. Her boyfriend, not wanting to lose his coveted social status, broke up with her. Devastated, Kat withdrew to her family, which was the only escape from the snickering of her classmates. The only place she found solace was with her machines, repairing the farm equipment in lieu of repairing her self-esteem.
Although dedicated to her family, Kat became bored with repairing farm equipment and left to study Engineering. At university, Kat was overjoyed to find students that liked her for her abilities and not her looks (or what remained of them). She built up her confidence enough to join the crew team, easily outperforming the varsity students from her years of manually calibrating the enormous farming machines. Her real-world knowledge of machines was a delight to some of her professors and an extreme annoyance to others, but Kat was happy either way. Despite all this, she never gained back the confidence to date. She was oblivious not only to how much her scar had healed over time, but also to the countless advances from her engineering and crew friends. Kat never forgot the support her family had given her and frequently visit them as an undergrad, despite her busy schedule.
Kat graduated with a dual major in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering and went on to get a masters in Power System Engineering, hoping to work on space craft that were being developed to explore the stars. One day, while visiting the farm, Kat was working on a broken piece of farming equipment. Working hastily, in a rush to get back to school to study for an exam on Modern Space Engine Control Systems, she paid little attention to her work. Upon returning to school, she received a message that her parents had died in an accident from malfunctioning equipment.
Consumed with guilt, Kat became obsessed with changing the past. But, the few Chronology experimentalists that were left had no interest in a student with no experience and a half-finished masters. In despair, Kat sent a letter to a Dr. Julius Schwartz, who she saw referenced in almost every paper in Chronology, asking if he would consider an experimentalist with no experience, even though he was a pure theorist.
Week 3 NFL
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