This is the character creation template for the DBRIS International Director. Please thoughtfully respond to the following prompts to craft your unique vision of the character.

Once complete, we invite you to submit a PDF of this document to the Co-Create submission portal. One writer will be tasked with turning their character profile into a personal blog post outlining the character’s life + mission.

**This should take you at the very most 1 hour to submit, a few sentences tops for each prompt is more than sufficient.

Name?

Isaac Cornwall

Age?

37

Gender?

Male

What are the 2-5 unique physical traits or wardrobe choices that define this character’s appearance?

Isaac likes to keep his hair in a crop cut but let his beard grow. He thinks suspenders are better than belts and always has several pairs in his office in case he needs a change. He has a long thin scar on his right arm that he tried to cover with a tattoo of a tree. He occasionally paints his nails, to combat rumors that his wardrobe consists of only black and white, but only in muted pastel colors.

1-3 unique habits/mannerisms?

He’s obsessive about being on time, decorating his office and house with both analog and digital clocks, in addition to keeping a pocket watch at all times. Under stress, he would put both hands behind his back and fidget with the belt loops at the back of his pants (as he does not wear belts). Once in a while, especially during times when he is not busy with work, he would pull an all-nighter out of nowhere, simply to remind himself that going to sleep is a privilege for some.

What is the most defining thing that happened to them between the age of 1-18?

When he turned 16, he was first taught of the Trolley Problem and was briefly obsessed with the concept. This would only exacerbate when, while on his way back from school, his school bus went off the road. As Isaac sat closest to the bus door, he tried to pry it open. Someone, and he would never find out who it was, helped him by shoving him toward the door, causing the door to burst open, throwing Isaac out. He was bruised and broke one of his legs, but survived, while the rest of the passengers on the bus died in the ensuing car crash. Though he would never internalize this about himself, this incident gave Isaac massive survivor’s guilt and would give rise to a certain martyr complex, always willing to sacrifice himself, even others if they were insignificant enough, to save the majority.

Do they have a significant other? Kids? Close personal friends or confidants of note?

He has an ex-husband, Adam, whom he’s still on good terms with but rarely sees anymore. They got divorced due to the way his work at DBRIS was beginning to consume Isaac, not to mention the nature of their research.

He is closest with Janet, his labmate-turned-friend from his days in grad school. Despite not being directly involved with DBRIS, Janet remains one of the few people that *get* the struggles Isaac had to go through, and will let him vent for hours with no judgment. It did not hurt that Janet once lied to get Isaac out of trouble for breaking at least half the amount of tubes in the lab, the resulting punishment of which bonded the two quite possibly for life.

Describe this character’s educational and work background before getting involved with DBRIS. What types of “mainstream” science did they study? What degree(s) do they hold? What organizations did they work for?

Isaac graduated from the University of Minnesota with a PhD in Astrophysics, specializing in Astrometry, the mapping of star systems. When his mother first showed him how to spot Orion and the Big Dipper on a trip to the mountains at age 10, Isaac had become dazzled by the mysteries that space and the cosmos had to offer. Unbeknownst to him, this was one of the first signs that he would be interested in the Disco Ball Theory years later. He spent the first 3 years of his career as a faculty at Princeton University before transferring to California Institute of Technology and staying there for the next three. He was briefly promoted to coordinator of the Astrophysics Graduates Program, before deciding to leave CalTech. As far as his colleagues were aware, Isaac had been involved with some pseudo-/neo- science group, but not much more than that.

Describe the specific events that happened with the mysterious incident that led to their parent's disappearance. How did this event ignite the character's interest in DBRIS and Disco Ball Theory?

Isaac has always known that what his parents were involved in was something he did not want to participate in. In their defense, his parents never tried to force him to follow their path, even allowing him a fairly “mainstream” scientific education. In the few occasions where Isaac talked to them about DBRIS, he would feel a sense of unease about what they were researching, fueled by a fear of what DBRIS was researching, the recurrent buzzword “multiverse”.

This would all change after the incident on Christmas morning. Isaac, then faculty at Caltech, was visiting his parents for Christmas. It was an odd sensation to be sleeping in one’s childhood bedroom again, and more so when he woke up for breakfast on Christmas Day. For Isaac heard his parent’s voice calling out to him before he witnessed the horrifying sight that was waiting for him beneath the Christmas tree in the living room. As Isaac stumbled into the room, he could see a child sitting beneath the tree, bearing the exact face of Isaac when he was younger. When he tried to approach the child, his father’s scream echoed in from the kitchen. When he turned toward the scream, he saw an old man standing in the doorway and, once again, bearing the exact face of Isaac, but one that had been ravaged by time and old age. Isaac tried to scream for his parents, but all he could hear was a strange mechanical sound coming from the old man’s mouth. Soon, everything was plunged into darkness, and Isaac woke up, finding himself all alone in his parents house. For the next few weeks, Isaac would try to contact his parents and any relatives or acquaintances, eventually turning to the police. But it was like his parents vanished into thin air.

Isaac knew what he saw that day. He knew what his parents were involved with. Yet he still feared the Pandora Box that was DBRIS. But it was his only lead to finding his parents again, and to understand the exact nature of what he had seen. He began to look into his parents’ old contacts in the organization.

Describe the state of the character’s personal life after having devoted themselves to Disco Ball Theory?

For one, it did cause a rift between Isaac and his husband. He had always been quite career-oriented, but the added drive of finding his parents put him into a daze. He began spending more and more time with DBRIS, eventually quitting his job at CalTech to devote entirely to his research at DBRIS. The core tenant of the Disco Ball Theory, once he had grasped the concept and understood where it stood within his traditional field of science, appealed directly to his love of the mysteries of space and the universe, which had now expanded much further than he could ever imagined. Eventually, this devotion to the Disco Ball Theory would alienate himself from most of his scientific colleagues, with the exception of Janet, and eventually his own husband. By the time the divorce had been settled, Isaac’s office practically transitioned into being his home.

What is the character’s personal philosophy on Disco Ball Theory?

Isaac is constantly aware of the fact that the Disco Ball Theory could be wrong, or at the very least, misguided. Yet, he believes the potential for failure is precisely what allows it to revolutionize science. Furthermore, this belief ensures that Isaac would not go too far into this research even if the theory ends up being false.

What are the character's long-term visions for DBRIS, and how do they intend to achieve them?

Isaac envisions a future where the Disco Ball Theory is accepted into popular science the same way that quantum theory or string theory had done in the past, but he knows that such a vision is still far away. His immediate goal is to make DBRIS’s research at least a viable new field of science and attract more scientists into its ranks. His plan for DBRIS is to appeal to the masses’ interest in the supernatural and unexplainable aspects of science, attempting to build frameworks that could provide explanations for these phenomena.

How does this character respond to those who believe Disco Ball Theory is a hoax or pseudoscience?

Isaac, as a former skeptic of the Disco Ball Theory, maintains that the theory does not have strong appeal to the wider scientific community. Thus, he refrained from commenting on accusations of pseudoscience, preferring instead to build wider reaching platforms, both on social media and with published academic articles, to form a strong foundation of both DBRIS and the Disco Ball Theory’s legitimacy, letting the material speak for itself (though he would not refrain from leaving the passive aggressive comment on social media through his clone account when he’s in a bad mood)

Who does this character work closely with within the organization? Are there any significant friendships or rivalries?

As a relative newcomer to the organization, Isaac faces a lot of skepticism from the old brass, people that have spent their entire lives in the org. His rise to power was a combination of connections that his parents had already fostered as well as direct results from his research that has propelled the organization forward. Isaac’s strategy to keep his reign on the organization consists of elevating younger members and researchers that have connections (such as family or mentorship) with the old members, keeping them in his close circle and letting them appease the older members of his more modern policies. He also promotes a more interdisciplinary approach to the org’s structure, allowing for more collaborations between the different departments within the org, while ensuring that he has loyal collaborators in each field.