BIOGRAPHY: Jade Weston, PhD (The Tomorrow People)
Character Name: Jade Weston
Character Medium: Television
Character Fandom: The Tomorrow People (1990s TV variant)
Age: 29
Physical description: 5'2", slim build, brown hair, white British
Occupation: Pre-Gamma Site: Physicist (teleportation specialist), UK Ministry of Defence seconded to Stargate Command
Occupation: On Tau: Engineering assistant, dogsbody, extra pair of hands
OOC Note: I was unable to find a picture of Alexandra Milman at a more adult age - it was very hard just to find a barely-acceptable picture of her playing Jade. You'll have to imagine her 15 years older.
Brief Biography: Jade grew up in a quiet English village with her mother. An endlessly curious girl, she spent a great deal of time investigating strange things (meteorites, the Loch Ness Monster), and then a great deal more time telling people about them, including her long-suffering mother. She first encountered the Tomorrow People while they were attempting to stop the mad Dr Culex, but it wasn't until living meteors like seed pods began falling near the village that she was put into a life-threatening situation which caused her own abilities to emerge. She was able to teleport herself and the unconscious Megabyte Damon to safety from a burning building, instinctively arriving at the buried spaceship in the south Pacific which served as the home base for the Tomorrow People.
After the nascent alien invasion had been stopped, Jade returned to a somewhat normal life, but her curiosity was heightened even further by her experiences.
When the time came, she went to University and studied physics, a subject offering ample occupation for her endlessly curious mind, and also offering many answers to the endless stream of 'whys' and 'hows' she had been asking since childhood. After attaining her MSci, Jade won a PhD scholarship at Cambridge and successfully submitted her doctoral thesis four years later - a lengthy work on quantum entanglement.
After two years in a research position at Harvard, Jade was approached by a secret research organisation under the umbrella of the British Ministry of Defence. They offered her a position researching teleportation, which she accepted not just because of her interest in the process but to find out if they were aware of the Tomorrow People. They didn't seem to be, but she found the work fascinating as it soon became clear to her that they were working with extraterrestrial technology. After eighteen months, she was seconded to Stargate Command, and ultimately chosen to evacuate to the Tau site when Earth came under threat.
Gamma (and Tau) Site Biography: Upon arrival at the Tau site, although there were science facilities intended, Jade spent several months working with the construction teams and doing whatever jobs necessary to help the massively-expanded colony become properly established. Once the necessities of life had been attended to, she was able to settle down to research again, although much of her efforts were focussed on practical engineering projects, using her knowledge of more conventional physics to assist the engineers in their improvements to the colony.
When the Tau site was attacked, Jade called on her powers for the first time since leaving Earth and teleported herself to safety. She was found by some of the other survivors, and it was with this group that she was able to travel through the gate to Gamma site.
Writing Sample
"Goodnight, John."
"'Night, Jade."
"Try not to stay up all night..." Jade trailed off, knowing there was little point trying to persuade John Shulver to get an early night when he was deep in an idea. She could hardly blame him; she was much the same herself.
She left him to his hydroelectricity plans and walked out into the evening air, listening to the sounds of the settlement preparing for the night. She liked the calm of evening, the quiet that seemed to form from the evaporation of the day's noise. People still moved around, of course; the military being who they were couldn't bear to leave a single minute of the day without a guard posted by the Stargate, and there were patrols of the perimeter as well.
As if there was anything here to be worried about - Jade's quite firm opinion was that the only thing they had to be worried about was if whoever it was who had destroyed Earth was looking for them, and what they might be able to do if they were found. Sure, there were the other lifeboat sites, but humanity - or at least the Tau'ri - were scattered and vulnerable and painfully diminished.
Jade paused in the night air, breathing deeply, calmly, letting the pain subside. The pain of not knowing, the pain of the loss. It flowed over her wherever there were people from Earth, and she'd closed her mind further than she'd ever closed it before. It was almost like being an ordinary human again, although still she felt in the furthest reaches of her awareness the deep sadness that pervaded the population. It was lifting, gradually. People were learning to cope with it. Jade took some reassurance from that.
It wasn't enough though. She missed the contact of other minds, the other Tomorrow People. She was the only one on Tau. Megabyte had probably got to one of the other sites through his father, and Ami had contacted them near the end, to say she was going to Gamma, but that was too far to reach. Until they were able to travel freely between the lifeboat sites, Jade was alone.
She carried on walking, reached her little house, drank some water and changed into her pyjamas. Half an hour of reading, then, with her eyelids drooping, she switched off the light and settled down to sleep.
Some time later she woke up and knew something was wrong. There were sounds coming from outside, screaming and crying and... was that fire?
She realised she could smell burning, then heard an explosion in the distance. Carefully, she lifted the edge of the curtain and looked out.
No. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible.
She looked again. The image was the same. Tau settlement was burning. People were dying. She could feel it, the terror and panic crashing against her walls like waves against the sea shore.
A loud bang and a crash, and her door had burst open. Something loomed in it, but she didn't wait to see what it was. A moment later she was in the forest, leaning against a tree, cautiously looking round the trunk at the burning town. The town she'd helped build.
She watched it for a minute, then two, then longer. She watched for a long time, saw captives being herded through the Stargate, saw the sweeps through the buildings for anybody left.
Eventually all seemed quiet. Jade wiped the tears from her eyes and reached out her mind. Somewhere there must be somebody else who'd survived. She'd find them, and then... and then...
She didn't know what they'd do then, but at least she wouldn't be alone anymore. Barefoot and still in her pyjamas, she set off through the trees.
Character Medium: Television
Character Fandom: The Tomorrow People (1990s TV variant)
Age: 29
Physical description: 5'2", slim build, brown hair, white British
Occupation: Pre-Gamma Site: Physicist (teleportation specialist), UK Ministry of Defence seconded to Stargate Command
Occupation: On Tau: Engineering assistant, dogsbody, extra pair of hands
OOC Note: I was unable to find a picture of Alexandra Milman at a more adult age - it was very hard just to find a barely-acceptable picture of her playing Jade. You'll have to imagine her 15 years older.
Brief Biography: Jade grew up in a quiet English village with her mother. An endlessly curious girl, she spent a great deal of time investigating strange things (meteorites, the Loch Ness Monster), and then a great deal more time telling people about them, including her long-suffering mother. She first encountered the Tomorrow People while they were attempting to stop the mad Dr Culex, but it wasn't until living meteors like seed pods began falling near the village that she was put into a life-threatening situation which caused her own abilities to emerge. She was able to teleport herself and the unconscious Megabyte Damon to safety from a burning building, instinctively arriving at the buried spaceship in the south Pacific which served as the home base for the Tomorrow People.
After the nascent alien invasion had been stopped, Jade returned to a somewhat normal life, but her curiosity was heightened even further by her experiences.
When the time came, she went to University and studied physics, a subject offering ample occupation for her endlessly curious mind, and also offering many answers to the endless stream of 'whys' and 'hows' she had been asking since childhood. After attaining her MSci, Jade won a PhD scholarship at Cambridge and successfully submitted her doctoral thesis four years later - a lengthy work on quantum entanglement.
After two years in a research position at Harvard, Jade was approached by a secret research organisation under the umbrella of the British Ministry of Defence. They offered her a position researching teleportation, which she accepted not just because of her interest in the process but to find out if they were aware of the Tomorrow People. They didn't seem to be, but she found the work fascinating as it soon became clear to her that they were working with extraterrestrial technology. After eighteen months, she was seconded to Stargate Command, and ultimately chosen to evacuate to the Tau site when Earth came under threat.
Gamma (and Tau) Site Biography: Upon arrival at the Tau site, although there were science facilities intended, Jade spent several months working with the construction teams and doing whatever jobs necessary to help the massively-expanded colony become properly established. Once the necessities of life had been attended to, she was able to settle down to research again, although much of her efforts were focussed on practical engineering projects, using her knowledge of more conventional physics to assist the engineers in their improvements to the colony.
When the Tau site was attacked, Jade called on her powers for the first time since leaving Earth and teleported herself to safety. She was found by some of the other survivors, and it was with this group that she was able to travel through the gate to Gamma site.
Writing Sample
"Goodnight, John."
"'Night, Jade."
"Try not to stay up all night..." Jade trailed off, knowing there was little point trying to persuade John Shulver to get an early night when he was deep in an idea. She could hardly blame him; she was much the same herself.
She left him to his hydroelectricity plans and walked out into the evening air, listening to the sounds of the settlement preparing for the night. She liked the calm of evening, the quiet that seemed to form from the evaporation of the day's noise. People still moved around, of course; the military being who they were couldn't bear to leave a single minute of the day without a guard posted by the Stargate, and there were patrols of the perimeter as well.
As if there was anything here to be worried about - Jade's quite firm opinion was that the only thing they had to be worried about was if whoever it was who had destroyed Earth was looking for them, and what they might be able to do if they were found. Sure, there were the other lifeboat sites, but humanity - or at least the Tau'ri - were scattered and vulnerable and painfully diminished.
Jade paused in the night air, breathing deeply, calmly, letting the pain subside. The pain of not knowing, the pain of the loss. It flowed over her wherever there were people from Earth, and she'd closed her mind further than she'd ever closed it before. It was almost like being an ordinary human again, although still she felt in the furthest reaches of her awareness the deep sadness that pervaded the population. It was lifting, gradually. People were learning to cope with it. Jade took some reassurance from that.
It wasn't enough though. She missed the contact of other minds, the other Tomorrow People. She was the only one on Tau. Megabyte had probably got to one of the other sites through his father, and Ami had contacted them near the end, to say she was going to Gamma, but that was too far to reach. Until they were able to travel freely between the lifeboat sites, Jade was alone.
She carried on walking, reached her little house, drank some water and changed into her pyjamas. Half an hour of reading, then, with her eyelids drooping, she switched off the light and settled down to sleep.
Some time later she woke up and knew something was wrong. There were sounds coming from outside, screaming and crying and... was that fire?
She realised she could smell burning, then heard an explosion in the distance. Carefully, she lifted the edge of the curtain and looked out.
No. It wasn't possible. It couldn't be possible.
She looked again. The image was the same. Tau settlement was burning. People were dying. She could feel it, the terror and panic crashing against her walls like waves against the sea shore.
A loud bang and a crash, and her door had burst open. Something loomed in it, but she didn't wait to see what it was. A moment later she was in the forest, leaning against a tree, cautiously looking round the trunk at the burning town. The town she'd helped build.
She watched it for a minute, then two, then longer. She watched for a long time, saw captives being herded through the Stargate, saw the sweeps through the buildings for anybody left.
Eventually all seemed quiet. Jade wiped the tears from her eyes and reached out her mind. Somewhere there must be somebody else who'd survived. She'd find them, and then... and then...
She didn't know what they'd do then, but at least she wouldn't be alone anymore. Barefoot and still in her pyjamas, she set off through the trees.