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Species: human
Gender: male
Age: 39
DOB: December 7, 1967
Birthplace: Kent City, Michigan
Praetor:
Occupation: forensic scientist, beta tester
Languages: English
Hobbies: gaming, travel

Personality
To most females, Blake is a certifiable creep. He is a spoiled only child and hates it when things don't go his way. He's also a great lab technician and one of the better crime scene examiners around. Blake has a quick mind and sharp wit and can juggle multiple tasks at once. He has a fierce, determined spirit, and a pragmatic outlook on life.

But he tends not to think very well of others, being very egotistical, and his ability to be bluntly insulting has put him on the wrong side of more people than even he can count. He also has a sick sense of humor, knows more dirty jokes than clean ones, and lacks sensitivity. Infamously, he once cracked a rape joke in front of a rape victim. (The fact that he knows a rape joke gives a fairly good idea of the depths of his humor.) He was subsequently never allowed near rape victims again.

As far as friends go, Blake has coworkers and hobbies, not friendships, but he will call anyone who sticks around him for very long a friend. He spent most of his life being socially ostracized and has trouble opening up to others. He was ostracized in high school for being a science geek, and then in college for using his skills to try and curry favor with the popular athletes. He uses his insults and poor humor to keep others away, a sort of proactive defense: by forcing others to dislike him, he ensures they can't choose to dislike him, and thus it's his power and his choice. At the same time, he's so great in his own mind, who wouldn't want to be his friend? So he's rather liberal with the designation, though it's not an affectionate friendship, and most of the time the term "friend" is not reciprocated. "Acquaintance" would be better. He was lucky his skills earned him the respect of certain law enforcement officials when he was charged. (See below.)

Blake will use anything he can to make himself feel superior. He has a Bachelor's in Chemistry, he's testified in federal court cases and convicted murderers and solved some of the toughest cases, and chances are, you have not. He brags, especially to women, and usually they mistake it for confidence for the first few dates. He's incredibly smug and holier-than-thou, so relationships rarely last long. He will do anything to prove he is right. He also has a habit of dumping women after two or three dates -- before they can decide to dump him.

Naturally, he has found several likeminded people in the Imperium, most especially his Praetorix, and he enjoys the freedom his new life allows him. Some of the walls are coming down.

Physical Characteristics
Height: 6' 0"
Weight/Build:
Hair: brown
Eyes: hazel
Skin:
Face:
Attire:

Collective History:
In the burgeoning small city of London, Missouri, a woman was raped. Anabelle Lawson awoke in her bathtub washed clean of the evidence but with the undeniable knowledge that she had been violated. The physical and mental damage, including a mild concussion, confirmed it. And Annabelle Lawson, forensic crime scene analyst, knew her attacker.

Immediately, Annabelle set out to see justice, but the perpetrator had been careful to erase any and all forensic evidence, regardless of its location. He had been clinically thorough and worn protection. Which made sense, given that he was the head of Clark County's renowned forensics lab, Jeremy Blake.

The case was instant headlines. Blake, the original Clark County forensic wunderkind, was arrested within half an hour of Lawson's accusation, pulled from his bed by a squad of angry police who were less interested in Miranda rights and more interested in trying to get first crack at the accused. It was on the news at noon, six, eleven, and the front page of the newspaper the following morning. No one in the whole tri-county area could avoid discussing the matter. Though Blake had been a key witness in dozens if not hundreds of cases, his reputation for egomania was just as widespread, and most who had worked with him in the lab, in the courts, and in the police, shook their heads and muttered to themselves, :"It was only a matter of time. That one was a bad apple from the start."

One hiccough. Blake claimed he was innocent.

The facts uncontested by both sides were this: Blake had a more than passing interest in Lawson and had pursued her at every chance, flirting and making passes, and generally being a conceited jerk. This was made all the more frustrating by Lawson's consistently cold shoulder. Finally, after a very bad breakup, Blake showed some seemingly genuine concern and Lawson agreed to a date. Blake arrived at her residence on Thursday evening with wine and flowers. Lawson cooked dinner. She had a little bit more to drink than usual, given the recent breakup. Words were exchanged.

Here's where the stories diverge. According to Lawson, Blake became angry and forceful, and there had been something in the wine. According to Blake, he left. To make things all the more interesting, Blake had been caught dealing roofies in college, a charge which was very quickly brought forth in the papers. As soon as the news hit stands, Blake was condemned in both the public's and the press's eyes. He continued to insist his innocence.

Only a very small handful of people were willing to give credence to Blake's claim. They were Special Agent David Goldberg from the Kansas City branch of the FBI, who had worked with Blake on several cases with evidence in the tri-county area; Judge Harry Schwarz, who had presided over dozens of cases in which Blake testified and was the closest thing Blake had to a friend, and Officer Anthony Perkins. Perkins was in the roughest position. He was Lawson's ex-boyfriend. At the risk of being branded a traitor by his fellow police and most especially Laura, Perkins heard Blake's protestations and believed them. After all, why would Blake go through the trouble of destroying any evidence if Lawson remembered him doing it? Lawson herself was quick to counter that it was clearly because Blake underestimated the effect of the drugs he gave her and expected her to not remember, but still Perkins thought something was awry. Certainly, given Blake's past knowledge of date rape drugs, the scientist would not have made so grievous an error in the dosage. Agent Goldberg thought that if the event had occurred Blake would have simply claimed it was consensual sex and not rape, and that his ego would not allow him to make such a conquest and then deny it, particularly after all the months he had put into the effort. Judge Schwarz agreed with both the officer and the agent, and simply refused to accept that the Blake, who fancied himself a great modern hero, would do something so unheroic.

Armed with only these gut feelings and vague inconsistencies, the three men stood with Blake against the whole of the criminal justice system. They also gave Blake the photos of the crime scene and compelled the cooperation of what personnel they had the power to. It was not much. After several weeks, Perkins was put on suspension for his continued participation in the case against the orders of his captain. Goldberg was more successful in the FBI, pulling in a few favors where necessary. Judge Schwarz was perhaps the most successful of all, his orders enabling Blake to pursue the issue to the fullest extent possible from his prison cell.

From there, Blake began to devise a theory that a criminal mastermind, determined to get him out of the lab, had framed him to pave the way for more crimes: a Moriarty for his Holmes. Of course, Goldberg, Schwarz, and Perkins all dismissed it as the result of excessive ego, but Blake did find some evidence that the perpetrator couldn't be him.

Or, at least, that he had not been the one who wiped the room down. At six feet even, Blake would not have needed to use the stepping stool found out of place, or the long-handled brush, both of which showed evidence of being used in the cleanup, nor would he have needed to climb onto the toilet seat to reach the window in the bathroom. Though there was not enough evidence to point to an exact height, there was enough to suggest that the cleanup was done by someone under five and a half feet.

And once they realized that, the order of the cleanup began to make sense. First the outer living room, then the dining room and kitchen, then the bedroom, and only finally the bathroom.

The reason the room was wiped clean was Annabelle Lawson.

Immediately, all malign for the incident was turned onto to Annabelle Lawson. Accusations and theories painted her out as vengeful, psychotic, and a liar. Blake was off the hook, and he was given the opportunity to confront Lawson with the evidence. His former detractors seemed to think he deserved at least that for the three months of imprisonment he had gone through. He took the chance, his ego demanded it, and shouted at Lawson in the interrogation room until she broke down crying, demanding to know if the injuries and trauma had all been in her head.

Any compassionate person might have chosen that moment to look at the evidence and sort out the reality of events, but Blake, too drunk on his own ego, insulted Lawson and stormed out.

Blake's innocence meant Perkins was back on the case, and he continued the investigation, convinced that even if Blake had not done it, there had been a rape committed that night. His greatest ally was now the on-call police psychologist, Jose Maria Alvarez. Alvarez theorized that Lawson had simply snapped, being unable to deal with it, and concocted false memories. He worked with her to try and find the truth of that evening while Perkins convinced Blake to lend his aid to the case. Both cop and psychologist were successful. They gradually pieced together the real events.

On the night of July 15th, Annabelle Lawson was having dinner with Jeremy Blake. She consumed a bit too much alcohol and insulted Blake, who left. Lawson was clearing the table when her apartment door opened again and she shouted from the kitchen at someone she believed to be Blake, returning for something he had forgot. When he did not answer, she emerged from the kitchen and was stuck on the head by her assailant. He then pulled her into her own bedroom and raped her. Groggy from the blow, Lawson believed it to be Blake. It was over in only a few minutes. The assailant left and Lawson, traumatized, went to go pick back up what she had been doing before it started: cleaning up after dinner.

In a near stupor, Lawson cleaned her apartment to erase all trace of both the dinner and the rape, not even realizing what she was doing, totally mechanical, but still as methodical as every bit of her training. Finally she ended the cleanup in her bathroom, stepped into the tub and washed off the last of the evidence. She fell asleep there, a combination of the concussion and exhaustion.

There was only one thing missing from the crime scene. After the crime, Lawson had a small area of pain on the back of her head. During the rape the assailant had pulled out s small bit of her hair, presumably while holding her down, but Jeremy Blake had a different idea. He remembered seeing a delivery truck outside Lawson's apartment complex when he left, and he compared her injuries to those of some other rape victims in the area. He found one where a witness remembered seeing a delivery vehicle in the area, the same vehicle he witnessed, and they tracked down the driver from the company. They found that his truck had been within three blocks of four different rapes including Annabelle Lawson's. A thorough search of his house revealed strands of hair form each of his victims. One of the strands was matched to Annabelle and the case was solved.

It impact on the lives of those it involved, however, was potent. Annabelle Lawson was viewed as dangerously unstable and fired. Renewed interest in his college days stymied Jeremy Blake and caused an upset in a few court cases with indiscriminate defense attorneys, who used the incidents to question Blake's credibility. Blake had to resign himself to less testifying and more administrative tasks. Officer Anthony Perkins, though he had done the right thing, was viewed with some distrust as an officer who had trouble following orders, and his career dead-ended. Harry Schwarz, the honorable judge, was seen as abusing his position for personal benefit and retired early from the job he loved. David Goldberg continued to work with the FBI, but also found his career dead-ended, and his actions were more closely monitored to make sure he was not abusing federal resources for non-federal cases.

The only one who did not suffer from all this was psychologist Jose Maria Alvarez, but Alvarez maintained a strong interest in the fates of the involved parties, as he used a fictionalized version of the events in his best-selling novel "False Crimes."

Individual History
The biggest influence on Jeremy's childhood was his mother. An only child, his mother was well-educated, a bit eccentric, and left a professional career to be a stay-at-home mom. Jeremy was her world. She fostered his love of science and Sherlock Holmes and encouraged him to be different, even if it made him unpopular and weird to the kids at school. No matter what, she loved him. Her support helped Jeremy through his school years, where he was an outcast, that creepy science nerd who was always mixing stuff up, the kid you thought would probably end up making bombs and blowing himself up.

But Jeremy did not conform to his classmates expectations and survived his high school years. He attended Michigan State University on a science scholarship where he studied chemistry with an emphasis in crime scene processing. He was involved in a scandal when it was discovered he was mixing drug cocktails for athletes to use in date rapes in exchange for social status. He was arrested and sentenced to community service and very, very nearly kicked out of the chemistry department and the school. (He was suspended for a semester, but the fact that he had not used any school materials for his lab, and his mother's intervention, kept him in. Barely. He lost his scholarship.) The rest of his days at MSU were not pleasant, as he was ostracized by the student population for his involvement in the case.

For a time, it seemed like the conviction would spell the end for Jeremy's dreams of becoming a great forensic examiner, but not many students were pursuing forensics careers at the time and there was a shortage in the country. Jeremy was recruited by Clark County, Missouri, despite the blemish on his record. (He was also pardoned by the officials of Clark County for his "youthful indiscretions.") Clark County was a modest but growing county, with the arrival of three major factories creating a population boom. This also meant crime was on the rise, and Clark County was in need of more criminologists.

Jeremy became the junior lab technician, one of only three people working in the lab. He had a particular genius for odd details and cultivated (often bizarre) Holmesian hobbies and tastes. When the senior technician died suddenly of a heart attack, Jeremy was tapped to step in until a replacement could be found, but he ended up keeping the job and recruiting juniors to work under him. He managed to run the lab extremely well, turning it into a model of efficiency. He was a fair, if frequently inappropriate, boss, and he helped the lab build up a positive reputation. Soon the surrounding counties were sending crimes to Clark County for processing.

But the lack of sophistication and celebrity Clark County offered was unsatisfying. Blake fancied himself a Holmes, and he was missing his Moriarty. He would have left Clark County, but there was no longer a shortage of qualified people in his field, and the blemish on his criminal record prevented him from working in more and more states now that they could afford to be less desperate. He was stuck.

It wasn't completely terrible. He did have a certain degree of celebrity in the Missouri courts, helping send away countless dozens for their crimes. He was involved in a few federal cases, nothing more than a footnote on the national news, but at least it was something.

Unfortunately, some of his bad work habits got him into trouble. He had an interest in attractive young ladies, one of whom happened to be an up and coming crime scene analyst, Annabelle Lawson. Jeremy made passes at her, flirting shamelessly, until finally Lawson agreed to go with him on a date. The next day, Jeremy was accused of her rape. He was arrested and jailed. Despite his protestations of innocence, his disagreeable habits gave him few friends and allies and his bail was denied. Through the small handful of people who did believe him, Blake was able to investigate the case on his own, as much as he could from a jail cell.

While in jail, Jeremy's mother died of kidney complications, her last letter to her son being one of support and love. Even if no one else would, she believed in him. It was both devastating and encouraging for Blake, who renewed his energy towards clearing his name. It was Jeremy's careful deduction that led investigators to realize that he was not the one who cleaned up the crime scene, and to the realization that fault for the lack of evidence lay with Annabelle Lawson. Jeremy was cleared of the crime and consumed with fury and anger at Lawson for all the trouble she had caused him. He managed to get into the interrogation room and ruthlessly berated her while the police, now sympathetic to him, stood behind the mirrored window and watched. Even when Lawson cried and sobbed, Jeremy did not let up, unleashing a torrent of abuse no one deserved, least of all a confused rape victim. A devastated Lawson protested that she did not make up the injuries she suffered, the bruises or the tears, but Jeremy was beyond caring about the truth. He accused her of jealousy of his career and blamed her for his mother's death. His words went beyond hate. Finally, when he had said everything he could possible say to hurt and demean Lawson, he spat on her and left.

He went straight back to work and tried to readjust to his job after being locked up for three months. it was a little difficult. he had lost some of his edge and his rapport with his subordinates. In his absence, the lab had been under someone else's direction, and Jeremy found himself having to re-do all of his protocols and get his staff back into line the way he wanted them, and the replacement was still working there and potentially could take over his job again... It was unpleasant. And then Perkins came in and coerced Jeremy into helping find whoever actually did rape Annabelle Lawson. In the end, it was Jeremy's memory of a delivery truck outside Lawson's apartment that solved the case. finally the real perpetrator was charged and convicted for his crimes.

As much as Jeremy had always told himself he wanted media attention, the reality of the negative coverage he received continued to follow him after the case. The media had been very thorough, and attorneys were quick to discredit him on the stand. Over the course of the next year, Jeremy's role in the lab became more and more administrative. He had dreamed of infamy, and lost the work he truly loved.

Post-Extraction
The lives of the people involved in the true events behind the novel False Crimes diverged for a year as each watched their careers crumble and Alvarez wrote the book. A month after it was published, Alvarez invited Blake, Lawson, Goldberg, and Schwarz to his new house for a small get-together. Though there were still some hard feelings, they all came, and there Alvarez introduced them to their second chance, the Fleet, which he himself had already decided to join.

It was hard to grasp the existence of the multiverse or the invitation, but Jeremy Blake knew one thing. If he left his universe, he would also be leaving behind the stigma of the media coverage, and he could work in the lab again, just has he had before. He could do the work he loved and no one would question his reputation. He had not prominent ties to his home dimension, so he accepted.

In the Fleet, Jeremy was certified Science/Security and assigned to work in the Investigative Sciences group, the Fleet's criminal lab. Also assigned was Annabelle Lawson, but after a few short weeks and some Praetorian assistance, they managed to forgive each other and be professional coworkers. There was no end to the miracles of the Fleet: the technology was beyond his wildest dreams, and the people were fantastic. For once he was surrounded by people he considered intellectual equals. He had access to lucrative riches and resources. There seemed to be nothing beyond his grasp. Best of all, he enjoyed his work immensely, even branching out into some crime scene analysis at Investigative Services' invitation. There was even a broad social base for him, people who would call him friend, and mean it. Life was good.

About two years after he joined, the Conference occurred. Jeremy was presented with the same options as the rest, and chose (with the agreement of the others from his dimension) to rewrite history so his mother lived to see her son's name cleared and he could be with her at her deathbed.

Jeremy currently lives in the Neighborhood in a fine Victorian-styled three-story house, similar to the one he grew up in, but with extensive automation and computer integration. He has two cats, Holmes and Watson, and a ferret named Hector. He works with the newly-established private detective firm as a forensic and scientific consultant and also occasionally consults with PietTech Industries Research and Development, mostly as a beta tester for their gaming division. He is technically single, but