Caesar looks at double doors for a long, taut moment, though he never pauses in his step. The hall before her office is long and drawn out--probably to make the walk up towards them exactly that, as long and drawn out for unpleasant thoughts as it can be. Caesar slides his attention back to the situation at hand carefully, determined to not let it bother him. He has bigger things to deal with than Black Knight's cheaper mind games.
For example: Black Knight shot Rex. Immediately after his return, Caesar tried to call up the footage of that particular exchange to get a better idea of what had happened. There was nothing; either his usual access and low-key hacking just wasn't enough to cut it this time around, or the files had been outright removed. How to address this without revealing Caesar's 'investigation', Rex's new location, and the fact that Caesar knows his location, however--those are the real questions.
There's something distracting about the silence pressing in around him, Caesar decides calmly. There's no hum of distant ventilation from his office's silence. There's no sounds of traffic from a city scape. There's faint rustles and scrapes, all just at the border of his hearing, and while they haven't produced anything harmful so far, the sheer call of the unknown repeatedly draws his gaze away from his hand-held readout.
At least the cave has its own natural lighting, such as it is. Caesar holds his scanner-camera combo up at a shadow that scurries away before he can get a good look at it. Part of him is tempted to follow it, but then self preservation and common sense reassert themselves, and Caesar safely hangs back and waits for backup to arrive so that proper protocol can be observed and life and limb safekept.
... No, sorry, that was someone else. Caesar promptly follows the first large shadow he finds, striding quickly to reach the stalagmite the creature had disappeared behind. When he reaches it, unfortunately, the whatever-it-was is gone. There is, on the other hand, a very likely looking cave starting at about waist height, leading deeper into the caverns.
Caesar considers the opening for only a beat before climbing up and through. His modified GPS hasn't given any signals of being unable to penetrate the surrounding rock so far; wandering away from the rest of his team should be--well, if not absolutely safe, then at least within acceptable margins of tolerance.
Brief Not so Brief History I'm sorry: Nature and nuture are the two factors that determine how a person is shaped, and Caesar had it made on both accounts. Born to two brilliant scientists, Caesar was raised in a loving and intellectually stimulating environment by Rafael and Violeta Salazar. The three travelled the world to wherever working situations in the parents' field were most ideal, and Caesar had exposure to a wide array of cultures and environments. This said, the frequent moves made it difficlt to settle down and form strong connections with people outside of his immediate family, and Caesar cherished visits to places where there were people he already knew and loved. When his brother was born during his early adolescence, family life changed, and the four settled down somewhere in Geneva, switzerland. Caesar continued to live the way he had when they were still travelling, for the most part, though the reasons were different: rather than having difficulty understanding his peers due to language and lack of familiarity, he now outstripped his peers so fantastically in the intellectual department that he simply found it difficult to relate on anything more than a superficial level. It fell to his parents most of the time to pull him away from his studies to things like meals and family time, though considering that this was a family of scientists, these activities sometimes involved continuing his studies out loud with his parents.
Rex's presence throughout his adolescent life was both tiresome and enriching to the older Salazar child. Caesar was frequently delegated to be an automatic baby-sitter whenever one was needed, and it was a regular duty for him to help tend to the baby's needs. In spite of how much these activities constantly interrupted Caesar's studies and personal research at the time, Caesar looks back on those times fondly, remembering them as his first experiences in learning to be an older brother. They also had a new, different function in his life: giving him a mandatory task that didn't involve studies. Being a big brother to Rex meant that he had to learn to watch out for someone other than himself, as well as to cope with the unlikely catastrophes and shennanigans that seemed to spontaneously crop up around his brother wherever he went. Rex became an unlikely inspiration for Caesar, and where Caesar had long since experimented and toyed with applications of his knowledge, his projects now took on an occasional playful quality.
Years passed. Rex continued to grow up, Caesar continued to demolish every test and course thrown his way, completing his education in multiple fields with flying colors. Having been following the projects' progress for years and having convenient inside connections, Caesar was able to plunge headfirst into his desired fields fresh out of graduation. His time as a lab assistant was brief but intense, and it was none too soon that he began looking for jobs as a scientist in his own right.
Fast forward an undetermined amount of time, and we find Caesar, the two older Salazars, and a handfull of others working on a project guaranteed to change the world. Laboratory politics inevitably present themselves as the stakes get higher, but Caesar does his best to stay on good terms with his coworkers where he can, such as with Meechum, and the family friend Rylander, and to tolerate and work professionally in cases where he can't, such as in the case of Van Kleiss.
Towards the end of the project, things began to spiral out of control. Shouldering the burden of the situation as an adult and capable scientist, Caesar participates in some emergency meetings held by his parents and fellow scientists. When it comes time to make the final decision, Caesar is the one that personally initiates the chain of events that almost immediately backfires. Unforseen consecuences start popping up all over the place, compounded by the possibility of an inside job screwing things up even further. When it looks like the main reactor at Abyssus will overload and meltdown, the site is evacuated, with only a skeleton crew remaining to try and salvage teh situation. Soon it becomes clear that a meltdown is unavoidable, and Caesar is ordered out of the room by the only authority strong enough to force him to abandon his post: his own parents. His escape is rushed, shock-muddled, and full of terror at the knowledge of the risk his parents faced. The explosion takes place earlier than expected, just as he's initiating his mobile laboratory's navigation systems, and these are damaged on impact. He spends the following fifteen minutes throwing himself into bringing his craft under control, and when he finally succeeds, the world around him has changed.
This is where things begin to diverge from the accepted timeline as the original series knows it. As before, the first thing Caesar does is to track down the Omega-1 nanite, but at this point in time the OM-1 is still with Rylander, which is where Caesar finds it. He learns from the old man about the five years he's lost, and Caesar stays with him for a brief span of time, throwing himself completely into getting up to date with the new discoveries and scientific progress that he's missed. Grief is something he avoids; with the certainty of his parents' deaths, and the assumed death of his brother, science becomes something of an obsession for him, with only Rylander to break the pattern of solitude and work.
As soon as he feels he's acceptably current, Caesar offers his talents up for Providence, and is accepted almost immediately. Time eases the pain of his losses fractionally, but considering that he does everything he can to avoid actually dealing with them, the pain doesn't fade as much as it would have otherwise. His work at Providence is respected, his occasional eccentricities ignored, and Caesar is on his way to regaining his status as a leading authority in his field.
Roleplay Sample:
It wasn't enough to avoid thinking about what time of year it was. The date managed to sneak up on him anyway, and he wasn't quick enough to unconsciously dodge it. All it took was a lingering glance at his computer screen's date, before the glance turned into a long, uncomprehending stare. Why was today significant? The answer hit him like a load of scrap-metal breaking free of its securing restraints:
Today was Rex's birthday.
Memories flooded in unbidden, and Caesar found himself unable to hold them back. Chubby baby Rex, waving tiny feet and hands in the air. Their parents and him surrounding a toddler Rex with encouragement while he practiced teetering but enthusiastic little steps. A slightly older Rex crying brokenly over a mangled toy. That same Rex awed and delighted when Caesar handed it back to him, miraculousl fixed.
"...ir? Sir?"
Caesar dragged himself back to the present, and was startled to realize he'd all but stopped breathing. Hoping his sudden intake of breath wasn't too obvious, Caesar grabbed the nearest stack of papers, and turned.
"What is it, Dr Miller?"
He heard the young woman hesitate. "The new thermochromagnifier is here, and we're recalibrating it now."
Caesar thought about it, and gave her a bland, approving look. "Thanks--I'll be there as soon as I can."
She left. Caesar turned back to his computer, giving the corner a long, silent look.
Rex was gone. Nothing would change that, not even a day spent in mourning.
Caesar put the files down, and went to help his assistants.
Character Blog: http://evowhisperer.tumblr.com/
( Mod Note: Zal you may have caused a couple of ugly little tears...Caesar, bby, c'mere let me hug you ;-; App approved by the way!)
