Name: Albert Lucian Wiley
Nickname: Albie (But only by people with permission to call him that!)
Age: 38 39 40 41 42
Birthday: November 16th
Sign: Scorpio
Gemstone: Topaz
Blood Type: AB+
Fav. Food: Beignets – baked by his brother, and nearly any kind of pie in existence.
Hated Food: Bananas and anything utilizing them.
School: N/A - he’s well-past school age.
Hobbies: ’We Will Build Heroes’ Robotics – though Albert’s career is focused more on computer programming, he holds an unmitigated love of robotics and can be found building and programming small robots at any given point on his off days. Yes, this includes battle robots. He also enjoys watching movies about robots, and reading books about robots. And really, just about anything that supports his love of the mechanical creatures. He’s a regular attendee of robotics conferences, and once a year drags his children to BotCon regardless of their own interest or lack thereof in going.
’We’ve Spent our Whole Lives Searching…’ Reading – Albert is a known bookworm. He has a small private library in his home office, consisting of a few shelves. Most of these are programming or robots books, but there’s a fair amount of sci-fi, fantasy, and even the odd mystery in there. He doesn’t limit himself to classic literature – instead he’d willing to read just about anything at least once. This man has read the Twilight series to see if it would be suitable for his daughter Emily. (He quickly decided that no, it wasn’t, and sent the copies on to the local thrift store.) He does, however, keep a stash of romance novels in his room and will gladly argue the merits of the Terre D’Ange series to anyone who tries to claim to him that they’re for women only.
Virtues: ’There is a Flame that I’ve been Fanning…’ Patient – Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the greatest of inventions can take years to get right. So, for that matter, can raising teenagers. Between his hobby of robotics, his job as a programmer, and his position as a single parent of a teenage boy and girl, Albert has gotten patience worked into a fine art. He is quite capable of waiting for results, both good and bad, and is well aware that getting something right the first time isn’t always possible – and indeed, that it isn’t always the best option. Bugs in coding and design flaws aren’t always readily apparent, after all, and to call something good just because it appears to be finished would defeat the whole point. As such, he doesn’t rush inventions, and if he begins to notice that he’s losing patience with something or with his children, he’ll walk away for a while and only come back to the situation once he’s certain he’s calmer.
’Like a Smart Man, he Used a Tool’ Cunning – Many men can claim to be intelligent, to be intellectuals. Albert is one of them, but while his IQ is high enough that he has been teased about joining Mensa, the true strength of his intellect isn’t in sheer intelligence, but in his ability to put his knowledge to use. Albert is very, very good at reading situations and predicting potential outcomes; as a result of this he’s become rather good at skewing these situations and outcomes to his desire. This trait, while primarily a virtue, does tie into one of his more negative traits, which will be mentioned shortly. What is important to note about his cunning nature is that it leads him to usually having a plan to deal with something; it’s not always a strategic plan, and doesn’t always follow the laws and rules of logical thinking, but a plan he can devise and enact upon… though he doesn’t always wait for others’ approval or permission to do so.
’If there ever was a Time, if there ever was a Chance’ Affectionate – If Albert cares about you, he isn’t shy of showing it. Whether it be physical expressions like giving hugs or more subtle expressions like remembering and picking up a favorite treat as a present, Albert makes his fondness known. He’s very demonstrative and it’s easy to tell when you’re in his good graces: not only does he tell you, he’s keen on showing it. It’s not generosity, per se, as he doesn’t extend these favors to everyone. It’s simply his way of showing how much he cares. Because of his childhood growing up with a neglectful mother, Albert is terrified of those he cares about thinking he doesn’t love them, and so goes out of his way to prove that he does. It helps that he really enjoys seeing smiles and knowing that he’s the one that put them there, too.
Flaws: ’They are Weaker than You Think’ Manipulative – Albert is a patient, cunning man, and he nearly always has a goal in mind. The problem is, people often stand in the way of that goal, and getting them out of the way? Well, there’s always the permanent option, but he’s no murderer. The other method is to get them out of the way while making them think they’re doing exactly what they want, and that is where Albert’s cunning leads him from the virtuous aspect of it straight into its evil twin. Now, this isn’t to say he’s always successful – far from it! But he is entirely willing to try to manipulate others to meet his own ends, especially if he sees the benefit to him and his outweighing any potential harm his attempts could cause either through failure or being discovered after the fact.
’Listen Carefully to Me’Overprotective – It’s perfectly normal to want to keep those you care about safe, but when you start to hover and put more emphasis on safety than on liberty, you begin to cross a line from protective to overprotective. Albert, however, blew past that line long ago – in fact, it’s so far behind him that he can’t even see where he first crossed it! When Albert cares about someone, he not only wants them happy, he wants them safe. Safe as in away from anything dangerous, like running around the city at night (haven’t you seen the news reports?!? Those terrorists are everywhere!), or wearing extra layers when it’s cold, or calling every fifteen to twenty minutes to make absolute certain that a person is okay. In other words, he takes being protective to its extremely obnoxious level, and it takes a certain amount of patience to deal with him when he gets like this.
’Don’t Turn Your Back on Me!’ Melodramatic – All the world’s a stage, and Albert is a star in his own mind. If something is worth doing, Albert believes it’s worth doing dramatically. He will play up a situation and overreact to it, anything to turn the spotlight on. While he’s not about to burst into tears over burning the toast or wail for help over getting a flat tire, he is going to bemoan his existence if he gets into an argument with his children, or sulk when his newest project gets turned down, or flail and run about in an utter panic if his daughter telephones him to let him know she’s caught a cold. He overblows his reactions to some very mundane things. He’s not incapable of holding his composure – if a situation is truly serious he can clamp down on the melodrama to take care of what needs done. Most of the time, however, any given situation will not rate high enough for him to bother with such an effort.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Eyes: Wide, silver-gray eyes. They’re very luminous, and have a very, very slight upturn at the outer corner.
Hair: Shoulder length, medium-brown hair is rather wavy. He has a few small gray scattered here and there, which he insists are from stress rather than anything else. (He’s not that close to 40 yet, children!)
Face: Albert has a long, but still somewhat heart-shaped face, with high, prominent cheekbones. His nose isn’t overly large one prominent, and might actually be defined as a bit thin. His lips are somewhat broad and of medium thickness. Overall he’s not an unattractive man, and apart from the silver in his hair it isn’t very obvious that he’s nearing 40. He also wears a thing pair of oval, silver-framed glasses.
Clothes: Albert generally likes to wear business-casual type clothing unless he’s giving a guest lecture – in those cases he’ll wear a suit and tie. The rest of the time he’ll wear comfortable sweaters or T-shirts with various geeky sayings (think products from ThinkGeek or Teefury) and khaki slacks. Shoes are generally loafers of some sort.
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