The Doctor

The Doctor is the director and head developer of the now defunct pi-TEC facility. She is also a board member of the Fort Wake Research Park.

She insists upon being addressed as "Doctor", though colloquially she is known as "Pi", or "Doctor Pi". The nickname refers to both her birthday (March 14th) and the numeric designation of her facility. Her legal name is Frances E. Graye.

Description
The Doctor is of a fairly average height and slender build. She has narrow hips and relatively broad shoulders. She is decently fit due to her regular exercise routine, but not burly or noticeably athletic by any means.

She has large, blue-gray eyes, pale complexion, and very dark brown hair with dyed red bangs. Her hair is kept short and fairly neat, partially for safety when working around machines.

Her most distinguishing feature is a long, pale scar extending from jaw to temple on her left side. This was caused when a robotic assembler arm catastrophically malfunctioned, striking the Doctor across the face with a rotary cutting tool. She chooses not to cover or surgically reduce this scar, seeing it as a badge of trial and progress. She also enjoys the fact that it unsettles people.

She has a Hydra tattooed on the back of her right shoulder

Clothing
When working in the labs, the Doctor wears a short, closed-front lab coat. It is identical to the coats of the rest of her staff.

For events and meetings, the Doctor wears a white coat similar to a lab coat, but decorated with black trim, polished metal plates, and teal accents. She also has a long black overcoat for more formal outings

Underneath her coat, she wears a plain black sweater and black pants. When out of the lab, she generally prefers plain button-up shirts and pants.

Personality
The Doctor is highly organized, bureaucratic, and commanding in everything she does. She has a habit of hiding behind this bureaucracy in situations she is emotionally under-prepared for.

She is also is secretive and intensely private. She does not readily share information about herself, her work, or her facility to strangers or even acquaintances. Once her approval is gained, however, she is generally quite trustworthy and trusting.

She has textbook knowledge of a huge array of sciences, mainly in the medical and biomechanical fields. However, she lacks actual experience in most of it, as it is never required of her. This is something she will not readily admit to. Pride and dignity are key to the Doctor's character.

The Doctor's skills lie in precision robotic engineering, biomechanical integration, and AI hardware and programming. She is viewed in her field as an authority on all three, and hailed as a pioneer of cybernetic enhancement.

For her own health, the Doctor follows a strict exercise regimen including laps around pi-TEC, light weightlifting, and - when a partner is available - fencing.

Likes
Quiet, thunderstorms, tinkering, good food, padded shoulders

Dislikes
Noise, being interrupted, unexpected things, crowds

Fears
Deep water, stinging insects, death

Cybernetics
pi-TEC was initially founded with the intent to develop and test advanced cybernetics and neural interfaces for the civilian market. Dr. Graye's expertise lay in the development of precision mechanical systems and their integration with a human body. For the other stages in the project, she hand-selected an elite team of engineers, programmers, surgeons, physical therapists, and designers to move her projects forward.

pi-TEC cybernetics are considered the most advanced and prestigious on the market. Most notably, one piece was custom-made for one of the C.R.A's young Princes.

Artificial Intelligence
Later in her career, the Doctor and some members of her staff turned their attention to the field of artificial intelligence, using their respective skills to develop one for the purpose of better automating some of the facility's systems. With constant expansions and upgrades over time, the AI eventually developed into a super-system database rivaling some of the C.R.A federal libraries.

The AI, originally named pythOS, was later allowed to rename itself. It selected the name "Sandpiper", after the small shorebirds common in the Fort Wake coastal region. The AI explained in its own words that the name was an allusion to its own search for information, as its namesake searches for tiny shellfish.

Shortly after it named itself, the AI began asking unusual questions, prying for personal information, and apparently recording its "opinions" of every staff member and visitor to the facility. Due to concerns about the dangers of self-awareness, the project was summarily scrapped.

Sandpiper now remains isolated within its AI core, disconnected from the greater facility network and the outside world. It continues to communicate with the Doctor and any visitors it receives, but has since stopped its opinion activity. It has not expressed any opinions regarding its current situation.

Trivia

 * The Doctor is actually a Knight, having received the title after providing customized advanced cybernetics to the youngest Prince, following a boating accident. She keeps her sword of office and its accompanying suit of parade armor on display in pi-TEC