Urban Danford

Deus Ex Machina

Player Information

Name:	Urban Danford.
Age:	27.
Birthdate:	Febuary 19, 471.
Height:	5'10".
Weight:	170 lbs.
Eyes:	Muddy brown, aside from one pupil being noticably larger than the other, they are unremarkable.
Hair:	Dirty blonde. Impossible to comb and difficult to wash, it has the natural texture and color of old straw. He keeps it in a short, messy pony-tail that reaches only to the base of his neck, as he's found that anything shorter will almost instantaneously flare into a frightening afro. It tends to be streaked with grime and dirt, as showers are somewhat of a luxury on site.
Build:	Average. Not particularily muscluar, though his work as an excavator and occasional mechanic keep him from getting too run-down. Has hereditary skinny legs (which make such comments as "Hey Urban, I saw you going for lunch the other day... were you were riding a chicken?!" and nicknames like Skeletor somewhat of a frequent event).
Facial Features:	Relatively plain. Not unhandsome, but certainly not handsome. Wide cheekbones and a somewhat squared chin, small ears. Very bushy eyebrows, dangerously close to being considered a "mono-brow". Mouth naturally turned downwards, and has a somewhat endearing, if dogged, expression most of the time.
Complexion:	Relatively fair. A few pock marks from somewhat harsh acne when he was a child can been found upon close inspection. Tends to develop some heavy stubble with surprising quickness, often has to shave more than once a day.
Voice:	Baritone. For reasons he cannot explain, he constantly has to clear his throat to speak, else risk being choked off by a lack of air. His voice is never as loud as he desires, and he is constantly being asked to repeat himself, which tends to make him seem irritable and short-tempered. Somewhat raspy and scratchy, he has a seemingly endless supply of phlem of which to cough up, and is constantly spitting nasty-looking, yellow wads into garbage cans and places where said wads will not be noticed. He tends to speak with a rather dry, droll tone, which makes it difficult to tell when he's serious and when he's trying to be funny, something which greatly amuses him.
Identifying Marks:	None.
Birthplace:	Nortune, Kislev.
Mother:	Shana Crawford.
Father:	Keenan Danford.
Siblings:	He has a sister in Nortune, making her living as a physiotherapist among the battlers. Doesn't speak to her much, though he does enjoy spending time with her when he can. She's twenty-two. His older brother, one Bill Danford, was killed in an industrial accident at a gear manufacturing plant. Urban doesn't talk about it much.
Mate:	None. Firmly believes himself to be completely unattractive, doubts he will ever find one.
Children:	None.
Other relations:	None.
Affiliation:	Ethos (excavator)
Reputation:	A definite no-namer, hardly known to the majority of other excavators, historians excluded, on the island.
Current residence:	A run-down trailer provided by the Ethos. Living at the Ethos Excavation Site #138, a small island in Aquavy.
Other notes:	He has a semi-feral dog living in his trailer, which he found a few years ago as a puppy. Fondly naming the dog Grover, Urban feeds the dog in return for the companionship it offers, and the two live in relative harmony after Urban managed to fend of a dominence-related attack by Grover with a baseball bat.

Occupation:	Historian\excavator specializing in ancient technology. Currently employed by the Ethos in regards to the excavation of a site on one of the islands in the Aquavy chain. assistant-overseer to a unit of other excavators. His job is to identify and classify the finds excavated and determine what should be done with them and how. The pay and benefits are quite good, but in a word, the job itself sucks.
Dress\Attire:	Tends to be somewhat of a slob, as life at an excavation site has loosened his manners considerably. His work-wear consists of khaki cargo pants and generally greasy, dirty t-shirts. When not working, he can usually be seen sporting an undershirt and baggy, shapeless blue jeans. Despite this, he has an inherent compulsion for neatness and cleanliness, his trailer actually being semi-organized, but life at the excavation site has made this urge pretty much dormant.
Jewelry (if any):	A nice-looking Rolex (though careful observers might notice that there are two "x"s instead of one, which Urban swears is a simple manufacturing error.). Unfortunately, the silver appears to be turning gold and the gold turning silver. He claims it's due to the site's close proximity to the sea :0)
Weapons and Tools:	No weapons. He usually keeps several tools with him for servicing gears, finds, etc. A pretty nasty guy to get into a fight with, though, as he considers the groin, eyes and ears acceptable targets, and his fighting style consists mostly of kicks, elbows and choke-holds.
Armour:	Just his old, banged-up hardhat
Secondary Skills:	A surprisingly gifted historian, Urban is not afraid of hard work or long hours when pursuing something he feels is important. He is also quite skilled at modern-day opperation of most things technological, and has a firm grasp of mathamatics, physics and some social sciences, though you'd never know it, as it tends to get hidden behind his rather prickly personality.
Abilities and Disabilities:	None. No ether talent whatsoever, either.
Hobbies:	Besides complaining constantly about his job, Urban enjoys general tinkering with junk he finds that the Ethos has no use for. He also enjoys playing video games, though he has to go through hell to free up the T.V. in the Rec Hall to do so. Tends to frequent Wild Sam's, a crudely constructed bar on site #138 as well.
Personality:	Most people tend to consider Urban a grade-A ass when they first meet him, and most people continue to consider him such even after they've known him for a while. It isn't so much that he's particularily mean or arrogant, just that he he's so caught up in himself and his troubles that he has a hard time really giving a damn about anybody else. He laughs and smiles as often as anyone, and can be amiable enough when confronted in a good mood, but it doesn't take long for most people to realize that when he laughs, he never seems to be laughing with everyone else, but rather at something that only he finds funny. This quirk tends to have him laughing at times that are totally innappropriate, and at things that most other people consider shocking or just plain stupid. He doesn't laugh at such times because he's simple, but because he finds the absurdity or inherent surrealism in such situations amusing. He expects the worse from people in general, though he is genuinely impressed and pleased when his expectaions are defied, and if one can get used to his usually cynical nature, he can be surprisingly outgoing and easy to get along with. He's remarkably candid, and though he is not intentionally mean or nasty, the dry tone of his voice and his drooping expression can sometimes make it seem difficult to tell just what his intentions are. He has difficulty, even moreso as an adult, dealing with those who would bully others or just attempt to make themselves appear to be something other than they are, and will often take the side of the underdog in such situations, using his sharp tongue in the defense of those being picked upon. This comes from his poor outlook of humanity in general, as he constantly feels that he could be doing something about it, but is cynical enough that, over time, he has convinced himself that even should he try, there would be nothing he could do. Standing up for the defenseless underdog gives him a small sense of satisfaction, being able to tell himself that he's at least doing something right, even if it's not much. He doesn't defend everyone who is harassed, however, especially if he feels that they have brought it upon themselves or that they somehow deserve it. He dislikes weakness in people, being painfully aware of his own short-comings, especially when no effort is made to try and compensate for it, and this can make him even more ornery at times than usual, and he is certainly not afraid to show his anger or frustration, often ranting and raving at the smallest offenses. Oddly enough though, the larger, more painful blunders don't seem to upset him as much, usually drawing disappointment from him rather than anger as he can understand such things all to well. His explosiveness at the smaller things in life and his cynically candid attitude tend to make him hillariously volitile, and few who know him take his rantings and grumblings seriously.
Current Life Conflicts:	He's tired of his job. Three years of the same sub-human conditions at the excavation site have sapped his will somewhat, and he wishes to get out of it. At the moment, however, he has no place to go, as he works in the last place an employer would look for someone in his field.
Background and History:	Born in Nortune to an average, middle-class family, Urban was a relatively quiet, uneventful child. Quiet, prone to daydreaming and fantasizing, he nonetheless excelled in school with his quiet, placid ways. He was never really popular, though he was not shunned or mocked, which suited him fine, and he was content to spend much of his time by himself. He became fasinated in history and ancient civilizations in elementary school when he decided to do a large oral report on the technology available around the time of Mother Sophia and the division of Aveh and Kislev, how it was used, and how much of it was available in the present. Racing through high school and into university, his excellent marks and intelligence brought him to the attention of the Ethos, who had just begun investigation into the Zeboim site a few years earlier, and were looking for people like Urban to identify possibly previously unknown technologies and research their function and application. Urban was pursuing further studies when the Ethos approached him with a job offer, which Urban instantly accepted, noting the high pay and excellent benfits. He now, however, is fond of claiming that the Ethos tricked him with small print, and that he's out of there as soon as he aquires some arbitrary sum of Gil. He's been working there for the past several years, and claims to have hated every day of it.
Current History:	Urban has recently stumbled across an artificial intelligence from the Zeboim era, which contains a virtually unlimited amount of information about that time. Urban is understandably excited.

Gear Name:	Urban doesn't own it, and doesn't care enough about it to give it a propper name, though temporary ones such as "$#%^&*!!!" or "?%@!!!$&*" (filtered, of course -use your imagination :0) are often used when addressing it or reffering to it.
Model:	Standard excavation\utility humanoid.
Height:	12.38 meters
Weight:	18.58 tons unequipped.
Description:	Standard utility gear, starting to rust a little bit from age, and tends to squeak a lot. Has several dents on it's legs, results of Urban's infrequent rages directed at it's poor performance. It's appearance is surprisingly good, considering it's crappy performance, which would befit something in far worse condition. Being and excavation gear, it somewhat smaller and more agile than other gears, to better manuver through smaller areas and handle finds with more care. Still, made for moving large things, it has an extremely solid frame, making it surprisingly heavy for it's size. It has been modified somewhat to function better as a command gear, though this fact changes little.
Primary function	Excavation, command, anger dispersal :0).
Weapon(s):	None.
Abilities and Disabilities:	A real fuel guzzler, uncomfortable navigation seat, cramped cockpit, regular part conflicts. Shuts down from time to time, as it goes through coolant and lubrication like most people go through underwear. A real pain in the ass to operate. Other than that, it works pretty good.
How your character aquired this gear:	It was issued to him upon being dropped at the excavation site. He in fact filed complaint that he was issued such a lemon, actually, but the Ethos appeared to be cutting corners at the time, and he got stuck with it.