[hider Leith Walton] [list][*][u][b]Name:[/b][/u] Leith Walton, Professor of Machina, Ph.D. [*][u][b]Age:[/b][/u] 23 [*][u][b]Gender:[/b][/u] Male [*][u][b]Race:[/b][/u] Human [*][u][b]Appearance:[/b][/u] [img]https://safebooru.org/images/1749/79d32a4b7304095165e39b961f6bca0811dd9f65.jpg?1830438 [/img] [*][u][b]Personality:[/b][/u] Leith is a man powered by ego and ego alone. He loves nothing more than to be showered with (in his mind) the much deserved attention his work provides. Thankfully, he’s long since come to the conclusion that it is easier to catch flies with honey, as it were, devoting much of his efforts to improving the lives of those around him. Both to gain their admiration and to show them how “amazing, magnanimous, attractive and humble” he truly is. He also has a tendency to get overly involved in [s]things he should really let others handle[/s] his work, [s]often[/s] sometimes to disastrous effect. It’s hardly HIS fault you primitive savage’s farm caught fire. He’s invention would have totally worked if you hadn’t messed it up somehow. But don’t worry! He’ll help you clean up your mess. [*][u][b]Abilities:[/b][/u] [u][i]Better Living Through Machina[/i][/u]: Leith is a natural inventor and tinkerer. Given the right materials and a thorough understanding of the core principles, he can theoretically construct just about any machine imaginable. From autonomous farming golems to world destroying doomsday weapons, all he needs is an unlimited budget and books to read. As such he prefers to make more simple gadgets; Replicating various abilities he’s seen in the new world to lesser extents. At the moment though, he only has his favorites on hand including… [u][i]Shockwork Cane[/i][/u]: An advanced and compact clockwork generator that Leith uses as his primary means of self defense. While its wielder is passable at best with his...swordplay, the difference is made up for as the cane delivers painful electrical shocks to whomever he bludgeons. Secretly he has named it ‘Bettsy’ and can sometimes be heard complimenting it during its daily hand winding. [u][i]Foam Bombs[/i][/u]: A set of refillable brass canisters that fit comfortably in the palm of ones hand. When a small switch on the side is flipped, two internal chambers mix together and form a compound made from simple starches and gelatins, which burst out from a release port. The result is a thick, fast drying foam that is surprisingly durable, one canister’s worth being able to hold up to a thousand pounds of weight. With only the occasional accidental discharge to watch out for. [*][u][b]Skills:[/b][/u] Engineering,metallurgy, chemistry, machining, praising himself. and dashingly handsome in a suit. Or a dress, if you shove enough alcohol in him and ask nicely. [*][u][b]Backstory:[/b][/u] Born in the city of New London, Leith was the son of famed Minister of Frogien Taxation, Sir Bradly Walton; also known as the Queen’s Gentlemen for his harrowing life of manly adventure, stiff upper lip attitude, and impeccable manners in the service of Her Majesty. Being the son of such a respected man, you might expect that Leith’s childhood was one of strict discipline and noble doctrine. ...but you’d be dead wrong. Sir Walton was, at least privately, a known softie. Leith and his five sisters were basically spoiled to their core, the grizzled veteran basically buckling to even their slightest whims. So, for much of his early life, Leith enjoyed lavish parties, expensive boutique dresses(more a whim of his sisters, not that he seemed to mind) and suits. However he grew bored as he entered his teenage years, finding little joy in the material pleasures that had sustained him for so long. Eventually, while out on his morning walk, Leith came across a public demonstration of the submersible golems used to trawl the Thames for debris and instantly fell in love. There was just something engrossing about the polished brass beings that begged for his attention and it was not to be ignored. Quickly he enrolled in the University of London’s School of Machina Arts and Sciences, his lackluster performance from prior years in school being thankfully ignored thanks to a generous donation from Daddy. It was...a difficult adjustment period to be sure. For one, while he was certainly...an enthusiastic learner, he was pretty much ignorant of any sort of mechanical knowledge when he began his attendance. That, combined with his fellow students regarding him with little more than an eccentric spoiled party goer with a passing fancy, left him with few friends. It took Leith three years to finally pass his freshmen courses. Three years of the most regiorous study of his life, not just of machina but all the sciences he could get his hands on. And in that time, the dismissal of his peers had evolved to outright mockery, even well respected teachers advising him that (perhaps) this was a poor career choice for him. The act had all but insulted the young Leith who, now finally competent enough to understand the basics of his craft decided to redouble his efforts. It took him only two more years to finally finish his degree and an additional year to obtain is Doctorate, buoyed not by his fathers influence and wealth, but sheer desire to spite those that had insulted his greatness. After graduation Leith took a teaching position with the University, devoting huge swaths of his time to researching and improving upon the works of his ‘contemporaries’ for quote ‘the public good’. His lectures often devolving less into actual machina and more into the immense design failures of his fellow teachers and alumni. While many outside his craft lauded him with praise (all deserved) he’d garnered something of a cult of hate around him. This scarcely bothered Leith, who was more than eager to feed their annoyance and throw their collective failures back in their face at every opportunity. But as they say, Pride cometh before the fall. During his final year in the world of New London, Leith supervised the construction of several high pressure distilleries for local spirit manufactures in London. While it wasn’t his normal vein of work, he’d taken the job largely so a particularly annoying peer would be denied the chance to have it. But the workload of refitting and redesigning three dozen facilities at one time was just too much for one man to handle on his own (despite his insistence otherwise). So...he cut a few corners on machining tolerances here and there. It was just a distillery afterall, what was the worse that could happen. Apparently the worst that could happen was flooding the streets with scalding alcohol, thankfully claiming no lives but injuring hundreds. The scandal that followed all but ruined Leith’s reputation. To the point that even his father suggested he take time to...distance himself. So that the familys honor might be maintained. When that mysterious letter arrived Leith all but slammed his seal of approval on the blasted thing. Even if it was a joke, a chance to escape his embarrassment and provide his considerable talents to those worthy of them was an all too sweet chance to pass up. [*][u][b]Origin:[/b][/u] The World of New London. An alternative history where the British Empire never tired and became the world government during the early 1400s. Here, with little conquest left to the world, the Empire turned its attention to rapid advancements in the sciences, eventually (by pure happenstance) developing a sort of psuedo-perpetual motion machine. Where in the amount of work put into their simple clockwork systems was significantly less than the amount of work such a system could turn out. [/list] [/hider]