Doctor Payne
Appeared in:
Although Dr. Payne was originally created as a player character by Jason for GURPS Darkness, he has reappeared in various forms in other games. Therefore it is best not to contemplate the continuity of his existence but to merely accept the dichotomy that each version of Dr. Payne is both the same and different from each other version. Most versions have the same basic characteristics and origins with minor changes for individual flavor:
Description(original version)
5'11" tall, approximately 185lbs, with a somewhat athletic build. He has light hair and blue eyes. German descent, speaks English with an American accent.
Although he was born in 1930, Dr. Payne appears to be in his mid-thirties. He often dresses formally in designer clothes and suits. He indulges in luxuries when the opportunity arises: fine dining, expensive liquors, and luxury automobiles
Origin (original version)
Born in Berlin in 1930, William Fredrick VonPayne was the only child of the brilliant biologist, Dr. Rudolph VonPayne. His mother, Serilda, was Rudolph's housekeeper and became his mistress but she died in childbirth. As the Nazi party came to power, science funding grew exponentially to supply the growing German military. This often kept Rudolph VonPayne endlessly toiling in secret laboratories. Fredrick accompanied his father and as a result he had a very structured and sheltered, although terribly lonely childhood. It was obvious that Fredrick had a genius-level intellect and was tutored by some of the most brilliant scientists in the world as they were his father's colleagues. By the time he reached his teens, he had become one of the leading minds in the field of biology and bio-warfare. His father placed much value on intellectual development and scientific progress and thus Fredrick never stopped to consider the consequences of their actions, despite the horrible nature of their experiments.
As Fredrick developed, his rebellious teenage nature combined with the overbearing confidence of his superior mind and he began to display too much individuality and a lack of obedience to his superiors. He was then "recruited" into the Hitler youth in an effort to mold him into a more obedient tool for the third Reich. During these years he saw horrible visions of cruelty. His "re-education" had not instilled the Nazi ideal within him. Instead it revealed to him what he believes the true nature of humanity to be: mindless cruelty and greed. His hard heart did not soften as the war came to an end and Germany's enemies invaded Berlin. Instead, all of these experiences only served to increase his callousness and simultaneously strengthened his individuality and rebellious nature.
Fearing for his own safety and the safety of his son, Rudolph VonPayne managed to seek assylum for them both with the Western Allies as the German scientific spoils of war were being divided. They were shuffled to labs in Sweden, France, and finally ended up in a secret bio-weapons lab in Missouri. Fredrick and his father worked as a team and quickly developed the most advanced biological viral weapons the world had ever seen decades ahead of any other lab on Earth.
A few weeks after his twentieth birthday a supremely confident William Fredrick VonPayne disregarded some tedious but necessary safety procedures during an experiment and accidentally released an infectious viral agent he and his father had designed. Although they were able to contain the outbreak, Rudolph VonPayne, Fredrick, and four lab workers were locked in quarantine and dying. Although they began to immediately develop a cure for their creation, they knew there would not be enough time to perfect it. An ultra-secret, ultra high-tech organization, "The Company", decided that Fredrick was too valuable to let die. They offered to cryogenically freeze the group until a cure for the virus could be found and in return they would become exclusive operatives of The Company. They agreed, but by the time the cryogenic equipment was ready, Fredrick was the only one still alive. He suspected that this was no accident, and that The Company had never intended to save his father, but with time short and few options, he allowed himself to be frozen.
Declaring their lab to be decades ahead of all others proved to be no boast. It took 42 years to develop a cure for the virus from Fredrick and Rudolph's notes. Many of the necessary procedures hadn't even been invented yet when Fredrick furiously scribbled them down. Upon his revival, Fredrick was immediately inducted into The Academy, the training ground for The Company. He changed his name from William Fredrick VonPayne to Fredrick Payne and started referring to himself as "Dr. Payne" despite having almost no formal education before arriving at The Academy. It took very little time for him to acclimate to the scientific advances in 42 years of progress. He also learned modern combat, weapons training, and about all those things that go "bump" in the night that The Company was formed to fight in the first place.
Upon graduation, he relocated to The Zoo, officially.
Current Status (original version)
Unofficially he owns a small research lab in New Orleans under the name "Rudolph VonPayne Research" which claims to be working on the next generation of environmentally friendly roach insecticides. In reality, this is his safe haven away from the prying eyes of The Company where he can conduct his own research. He has seen enough secrets in his lifetime to be exceptionally paranoid and he tends to keep most of his work to himself and commit much of his research to memory. He is assigned to a team based in the Seattle area and is The Company's ranking specialist on viruses and viral weapons. He has also developed impressive skills in general medicine, surgery, and cybernetics.
Due to the unique process by which he was "cured", Dr. Payne is immune to nearly every form of bacteria and virus. As a result he rarely takes appropriate containment precautions in his work and has become a non-infectious carrier of countless deadly organisms. He also finds himself constantly developing cures to the ailments of his teammates, occasionally due to his own cavalier attitude towards containment and decontamination.
Fredrick Payne fits the textbook definition of Sociopath, a trait that has served him well in his work. He has a severe intolerance for authority and organizational structure but respects and reciprocates personal loyalty. Although he does not distrust most of the members of his team, the only person in the world he truly trusts is fellow team member Kham Childs, whom he has convinced to be his occasional bodyguard and even more occasional lover. He has a tendancy to speak condescendingly to everyone, including his own team. Regardless of organizational structure, he prefers to lead and rarely follows orders.
Despite his status as a scientist Dr. Payne is not above joining his teammates in combat, prefering to leave the heavy fighting to the "experts" he utilizes his vast intellect, creativity, and experience to tactical advantage.
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