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[nothebestacronym]

P L A Y E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: Mel
OOC Journal: spotters_guide
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: ooooover 18
Email + IM: spotters.guide@gmail.com
Characters Played at Ataraxion: Stiles Stilinski, Damian Wayne

C H A R A C T E R I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Connor Temple
Canon: Primeval
Original or Alternate Universe: original
Canon Point: post 3x05
Number: 035

Setting: Primeval is set in a world much like out own. In fact, it's pretty much exactly our world, except for how a team of select few are conscious of the fact that these things called "anomalies" can open up anywhere, anytime, and lead to pretty much anywhere anytime. But more often than not, what the anomalies tend to lead to is dinosaurs.

History:
Everything begins with Connor, really. I mean, technically, everything started with Helen, Nick's wife, going missing years ago, but Connor is the person who comes to his professor with a news article about monster attacks and lures Nick and Stephen into the Forest of Dean to meet their first live dinosaur and discover the phenomenon of the anomalies. It's in the forest that they run into Abby as well, and when the specifics of the anomalies slowly begin to be understood, the government is, of course, brought into the matter as well.

Connor is on the outskirts of the project at first. Nick and Stephen are kept on by the project as the closest thing they have to experts on the subject, and Nick brings Abby in to assist in handling the animals that come through the anomalies, but Connor is left on the wayside because of his immaturity and rashness.

It soon becomes clear to everyone, however, that Connor possess his own specialties that the project could benefit from (specifically, that he's basically an encyclopedia of information on extinct creatures) and he too is brought in to work with everyone else. And while Connor was absolutely brought on as the logistics side of things, he never fails to put himself forward into dangerous situations as well, fighting off a giant centipede with a stool and a mosasaur with an oar paddle.

Meanwhile, the few friends Connor has outside of the project are starting to become very suspicious of how busy Connor is lately, as well as his suddenly moving in with Abby (only for a week while he looks for a new place, he promises her) and plant a bug on him, which leads to them following him to the site of the next anomaly and taking home an escaped dodo.

Unfortunately, the dodo was infected with a vicious parasite that winds up infecting one of his friends as well, and he dies. Connor takes the whole thing pretty poorly, which is probably why a month later Abby still isn't being too pushy about the fact that Connor promised to be out in a week and he very clearly... well, isn't. Of course, her good graces only go so far when Connor's carelessness leads to Rex, her smuggled out pet dinosaur that she shouldn't technically have, gets out from her flat and is almost eaten by a Pteranodon.

Connor apologizes endlessly to her, but it isn't until he promises to move out that she forgives him for his mistake and says that he can stay in a more permanent capacity, so long as he helps out around the flat a bit more, which he gladly agrees to.

Helen, in the mean time, continues to refuse to stay gone and stop causing problems for everyone, and the next time she pops up she manages to bring a vicious, dangerous predator from the future with her. With a lion and Abby's boss missing at the zoo she works at, they all come to the conclusion that they'll find the predator somewhere there and after one confrontation with the predator that they are sorely outmatched in, Connor figures out that the predator uses echolocation and runs to the van to get a oscilloscope to track it with.

Of course, he's attacked by the predator while he's alone, but Abby and Stephen arrive just in time to save him and armed with the oscilloscope they manage to track down the predator's lair, killing it and capturing its young. Helen and Nick decide to go through the anomaly to the predator came through in order to try to contain the anomaly leading to its original timeline, but once in the past, they're attacked by a second predator and something that happens send the timeline spinning because when Nick comes back through the anomaly to his own timeline, nobody remembers their home office liaison Claudia Brown.

Helen reveals to the group that she had been sleeping with Stephen before her disappearance, just to sow a little discord, and then leaves Nick behind to pick up the pieces of this new reality that he's suddenly found himself in.

Not everything is totally terrible though. In this new reality, the team actually has their own base of operations, the ARC, and everything is a lot more organized and professional now. And while everyone else is convinced that Nick is delusional or suffering some strange effects from the anomaly or something, Connor faithfully tells Nick that he believes him about the alternate reality. Thus cementing himself as Nick's ally and slowly beginning to edge his way in to the position by Nick's side that Stephen had always maintained previously.

Their next call is dealing with raptors in a shopping mall, where Connor entertains his fantasies of being a secret agent, accidentally shoots Abby in the leg with a tranq, and still manages to save the day in the end. They also come to the realization that the presence of an anomaly affects radio waves, which Connor thinks he can use to actually pinpoint when anomalies pop up without having to wait for the animal attack reports to come in.

Thus begins his work on the Anomaly Detection Device, or ADD for short (not the best acronym...)

And then Caroline enters. Connor misses the mark on her flirtation by a mile at first, because he's never actually dealt with something like that before, until she decides to be a bit more bold and just gives him her number. Of course, in their next anomaly incursion, Connor manages to accidentally wash her number off and he's devastated. Caroline shows up at the flat looking for her phone shortly after, however, and this time Connor manages to keep her number. As well as get her to agree to going on a date with him.

Abby, however, doesn't appear to be a fan.

On his first unveiling of his anomaly detective device, a new animal attack report comes in that seems to suggest that it failed to work, however in their investigation Connor discovers that the Smilodon had actually come through an anomaly much earlier than previously thought, and the next time an anomaly opens up his device alerts them, proving that his invention worked. Unfortunately the timing means he has to cancel a date with Caroline.

Abby continues to be angry and suspicious about Caroline, which leads to a rift between her and Connor. They argue during an anomaly excursion and Abby is abducted by a mer creature, and though they search desperately for her, nothing comes of it and Connor is ordered home, furious that they're all giving up on her.

When they discover the lair of the mer creature, Nick brings Connor with him to bring back Abby, which eventually ended with Abby hanging from Connor's hand off a cliff and slowly dragging him down with her. Abby tells Connor to let her go before he falls too and Connor refuses, telling her that he loves her, and Nick arrives just in time to pull them both up to safety.

Back home, at the flat, they share a quiet moment where Abby asks him again to repeat what he told her earlier at the cliff. Just as he is about to, however, Caroline proves to have the absolute worst timing in the world and arrives to drag Connor off on a date.

Back at the Arc, Nick and Connor's slow and creeping suspicions that their group is being watched is confirmed by the ADD being tampered with. Connor works quickly to fix the problem and track down the latest anomaly, and asks Stephen for advice on what to do about the entire Caroline and Abby mess that he's somehow found himself in.

In the end, Connor winds up breaking up with Caroline through text, and Caroline takes her revenge by stealing Rex while he and Abby are out.

Aware of the potential traitor in their midst Connor and Nick plant a virus in the ADD, and then off to deal with a mammoth on the M25. They discover that Leek, the man that replaced Claudia Brown in this timeline is the traitor, and when Connor attempts to hack the personnel files to find out more about him, he unwittingly triggers the timer on a bomb that Nick is forced to defuse while Connor refuses to leave him and go somewhere safe.

He then uses the ADD to track Caroline's cell phone in order to find her and retrieve Rex, but they're all captured by Leek and his lackeys because, oh what a surprise, Caroline's interest in Connor hadn't been entirely genuine.

In the ensuing escape that gets triggered by the virus Connor had planted in the ADD previously, Stephen sacrifices himself to save everyone else, and series two ends at Stephen's funeral with the group leaving to deal with another anomaly and Connor actually being trusted with a gun because he probably won't shoot anyone on their team again.

Series three begins with the first anomaly popping up in a museum and, along with picking up a new expert to join their team, Sarah, Connor learns that the anomalies can be sealed up with electricity and, potentially, even moved. Which of course starts him on his newest invention.

With Sarah's input, Nick begins to develop a matrix to predict the next appearances of anomalies before they even happen, which leads the team to an abandoned house to investigate before they're run off by a local policeman, Danny. Connor goes back to the house alone to retrieve his lost mobile (from when Abby jumped on him and kissed him, another new interesting potential maybe in their relationship that's been slowly budding between them), he's arrested by Danny.

Jenny, the woman with Claudia Brown's face, manages to get Connor out, but Danny refuses to keep away and begins to poke around their operation. Of course, Danny is really the least of their problems when Helen takes over the ARC with a clone of Nick while they're out dealing with an anomaly (the one where they pick up Sid and Nancy, the diictodons).

With the knowledge that the clones are programmed to obey Helen's commands, Connor cobbles together a fake order from audio they have of Helen speaking and breaks out with Becker to play the recording over the ARC's speaker system. The clone of Nick detonates a bomb and everyone evacuates the building, until Connor realizes that Nick didn't come out with them and goes back in to find him.

When he finds Nick, however, he discovers that the man has been shot by Helen. Connor tries to get Nick back out to get medical attention, but Nick knows that it's already too late and asks Connor just to sit with him instead. Nick gives Connor the artifact that Helen had been so concerned with and tells him that it's all up to Connor now, and after he dies, Connor carries him back out to the team.

Though devastated by this loss, Connor refuses to give himself time to grieve, rushing to finish constructing his anomaly locking device, as well as to repair the damage done to the ADD from the explosion. He runs himself ragged and avoids seeking comfort from anyone, determined to prove himself in Nick's absence. At the next anomaly site, they have to deal with a giganotosaurus, which nearly eats Connor before Danny swoops in with a helicopter and manages to save him.

They heard the giganotosaurus back through the anomaly and Connor successfully uses his locking device to close it and prevent and entire herd of the dinosaur from coming back through.

All's well that ends well, except for the fact that Abby's brother is back in town and she wants Connor to leave her flat while he's around because she doesn't want to have to explain whatever it is she and Connor are doing (probably because she still isn't entirely sure herself). Connor assures her that he'll be fine finding another place to stay, though as already stated earlier, at this place Connor really doesn't talk to anyone outside of the project so obviously he's lying to her.

Instead Connor bunks unofficially at the ARC with the diictodons, one of which escapes and chews threw a cable on the ADD. After Connor fixes it, they discover that a new anomaly had popped up while it was down and discover a fungus at the location, which they bring back a sample of.

The fungus is discovered to spread incredibly fast and aggressive and they seal it away in a lab only for a trespasser to be infected by the fungus. Connor hypothesizes that heat with kill the fungus so they turn up the heating in the lab and the man/fungus hybrid explodes. However when Connor goes into the lab after to corral one of the diictodons, he discovers that rather than being dead the fungus is only growing faster and Connor seals the lab with himself inside to keep it from spreading in the ARC.

Reasoning that if heat helped the fungus spread quicker, Connor tells everyone to lower the temperature in the lab down to freezing to kill it, nearly killing himself as well in the process. At the end of the day, Lester discovers that Connor's been living at the ARC and tells him to come stay with him instead.

But of course, he wakes up to find himself on Tranquility instead.

Personality:
"You mighty hunter. Me, I'm more logistics and, you know. Back-up."

Conner begins the show as a student just on the cusp of submitting his dissertation for approval, though he never actually manages to finish the entire school thing once ARC really starts to get going. He is still very much a student in almost everything he does though. Putting aside how incredibly smart and competent he proves himself to be on the technical side of things involving the anomalies (as that's really more a point to be explored in the abilities section) Connor tends to approach most things from a student's perspective.

He's the first to start poking around about the anomalies, because he saw an article about a monster sighting and got excited about the possibilities. Each new challenge and discovery that they come across is something interesting that Connor can't help but throw himself fully into. He's absolutely never one to hold back or hesitate, even when he might be frightened or have absolutely not idea what he's doing.

On the other hand, his student's approach to things means that he can get too excited about something and sort of lose focus on the real life consequences his or other people's actions may have in the long run. He can be a little bit short sighted, more focused on the discovery than what that discovery actually means. This also means that he sometimes winds up trusting people that he really shouldn't have, because he has difficulty seeing the shady or underhanded side of things.

Connor tends to take each new betrayal as hard as the last. He wants to believe the best in people, and he wants people to have the best, even if that best sometimes doesn't include him.

"I'm not just a massive intellect you know."

And while Connor is most certainly the brains side of the operation at the ARC, and his talents very much do not lie in the pointing and shooting and the running and the fighting, or whatever else becomes necessary on the field as everything slowly begins to go wrong, Connor also never lets this stop him from doing his best anyway.

In the show's genesis, Connor was extremely childish and naive. He let his excitement for new and interesting things blind him to the harsh reality of those things as well, and he made stupid and somewhat selfish decisions on several occasions as a result. His selfish choices never seemed purposefully ignorant of the effect on others, however, but seemed more to be born of the sort of mindset of someone who hadn't quite managed to grow up just yet.

The show quickly matures Connor, however, as he begins to take on more responsibilities, both in the Arc itself and with his old professor, Nick Cutter. By the third season, in fact, when Nick dies and Connor technically becomes the most senior member of the project, Connor is quietly shouldering the burdens of this position and trying to take care of everything on his own without troubling others. That's not to say that he suddenly becomes serious and reserved, however. He simply... has a better grasp of consequences after having lost so much through the project.

When the show begins, it can rightly be said that Connor only has two people that he an actually call his friends, and it isn't very long in working with Arc before he loses those two friends as well, until the only real human contact Connor can claim to comes from the people working at Arc itself. He isn't particularly talented with social enter actions, is what it comes down to. He says awkward and strange things, has trouble identifying acceptable norms and distances, and doesn't always know how best to form bonds with people, except to throw himself blindly at them until they finally let him stick around (he literally shows up at Abby's flat one day asking to stay for a week and doesn't move back out for years).

It's no surprise really, that people typically have less than stellar first impressions of him, as a result. What this means for Connor, however, is that he can be quite self-conscious and doubting. He expects people to roll their eyes and him and ignore him, he expects not to make friends, so the fact that he eventually becomes quite close to all of his coworkers means that he treasures each of them deeply. It also means that overtly friendly behavior, or even flirting, are difficult for him to comprehend.

Basically, being subtle doesn't work with him. Much better to be direct.

In an operation full of stoic looking soldiers, and vague scholars (and Abby, of course) Connor can be viewed at the bright, human element. He's never afraid to show his emotions in any situation and is extremely obvious about how he feels at any given time. He loves, he mourns, he worries, and he cries. And laughs, of course. If there is humor to be found in a situation, Connor will find it. Because maybe he doesn't simply think this whole thing is just a game anymore, but it's still fantastic and he intends to enjoy every minute of it that he can.

In the end, however, he just wants people to love and accept him. For all that running around after dinosaurs is basically a childhood dream come true for him, what he most wants out of his work at the Arc is to keep the people he cares about safe, happy, and if at all possible, proud of him as well. He likes to please people. Particularly if he views them in some sort of mentor role, which he's never really quite given up looking for, even after Nick's death.

This sort of mind set does, unfortunately, lead to him feeling betrayed on more than one occasion when he decides to put his faith in the wrong person. The betrayals don't get easier either. They simply become a little bit more... expected.

Also, from the timeline he's being taken from, he literally just came out of almost freezing to death to avoid being killed by a prehistoric fungus, so he's probably going to be a bit leery of the cold for a bit. Really, he's already one to wear a lot of layers, so for the most part it shouldn't pose too much of a problem for him though.

In terms of his most important interpersonal relationships... well. Most of them are dead, unfortunately. Of the two friends he had before the project started, one of them died from a parasite that he caught from a dodo and the other one presumably (and perhaps also somewhat understandably) doesn't speak to him anymore.

Stephen was the next person to die on Connor and while they were admittedly slow to shine to each other, they eventually took on a distinctly brotherly feel to their interactions. Specifically, the sort of pest little brother, big brother equal parts picking on and protecting little brother, sort of dynamic. Stephen had been part of their original number, and while Connor had attempted to make light of it at first when Stephen nearly died from a giant centipede bite early on in the show, there was a certain truth to the fact that with Stephen's death, the thought and threat of death seemed to creep up on him even closer than ever before.

Because if Stephen could die, what was to stop the rest of them?

Nothing at all, Nick would come to prove later, with his own death. Nick Cutter began the series as Connor's professor, and it's quite clear from the fact that Connor never really stopped calling him that, even after they left the school setting, precisely what sort of relationship Connor had with the man.

Nick was Connor's mentor, through and through. He was the first person Connor really chose to look up to and, for the most part, he also managed not to disappoint Connor in this position. At the start of season two and beyond, Nick begins to place more and more trust on Connor, rather than Stephen, to the point where Connor is really his right hand man instead.

Connor deeply treasures this trust, and Nick's death hits Connor harder than most. He sits with Nick while he dies, then carries him out, and he takes Nick's words that it's all down to him now, very much to heart. He pushes himself to near exhaustion in the aftermath following Nick's death. Because in the end, Nick wasn't just a mentor, he was family, and even if he's gone now, Connor is still striving hard to make him proud regardless.

Abby is the only one left from the original four, aside from Connor himself, and to say that things are complicated between them would be a massive understatement. In the beginning, Connor was crushing on her hard and all too awkwardly. But as their working relationship continued to solidify and he realized that she had real feelings for Stephen, he took a big step back and tried to be a friend to her instead, actually trying to help her with the whole Stephen thing on multiple occasions.

Granted, he was still interested, and still looked at her from time to time, but he stopped pushing. Started focusing on their friendship as well, which blossomed wonderfully under the attention.

Of course, just as Abby was beginning to entertain possibly being interested in Connor as well, a challenger had to appear in the form of Caroline, who in the end was only manipulating Connor, but the damage was already done by then. They fought about and around Caroline a lot, Connor for the most part not even understanding where these disagreements were coming from. He had, of course, proclaimed his love for Abby a bit earlier, but having already come to the conclusion that Abby would only ever see him as a friend, had been content to let that love simply lie as friends and focus dating on the girl who was seemingly actually interested.

Once all the mess with Caroline had been cleaned up, there was something silent and unspoken between Connor and Abby, understood but unexplored. And while Abby is just now beginning to actually poke at that tendrils of something, their... whatever is in no way resolved or even named at this point.

He does love her, though. There's no confusion on that part at all. He'll do anything for her.

Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:
Connor might claim to be more than a massive intellect but that is a huge part of what he is, in the end. He's not a fighter. He's pathetically overwhelmed in a fight, though he'll still give it his best go so when he loses he can say at least he tried. And he's at least capable of responding quickly to his surroundings and finding something nearby to re-purpose as some sort of paltry defense. Until someone more capable can come along and save him anyway.

Also, you should probably avoid handing him a gun. He's gotten better over the years the more he's been exposed to their necessity, but he still shot Abby in the leg with a tranq instead of the velociraptor he was meant to.

He gets over excited about things and had trouble keeping his mouth shut sometimes and mostly he's just looking for approval from authority figures, which was nice for awhile when Cutter started choosing Connor over Stephen, but now that the professor is dead too... well, Lester isn't really the warm accolade sort of guy. Connor also doesn't give up on things lightly which. Well normally it's a good thing, particularly when it contributes to saving the day, but sometimes when it's in regards to people it comes off as pushy or invasive. And he doesn't mean to be, not really, he's just not a very deft hand with boundaries.

Because at the end of the day, before he joined the ARC project, Connor was any other awkward geeky boy with limited social interaction and a vague understanding of how to do that friend thing with someone new. He does try though, he really does. Most days he's still just that puppy growing into too big paws skidding into walls and knocking stuff over with his tail.

So, you know, it's a good thing he's literally irreplaceable to the team. While Connor was at university to get a doctorate in paleontology with a focus in evolutionary zoology (clearly a passion of his, since he had a database of extinct creatures that he'd been working on since he was a child), he really starts to shine at the Arc in regards to his engineering and computer savvy.

Not only does he prove to find hacking high level top secret files a breeze (and apparently, just something fun to do when he's bored) but he single-handedly builds the anomaly detection device, the anomaly equivalent of the mars rover, and the anomaly locking mechanism.

Inventory:

• (2) diictodons
• (2) pairs of color skinny jeans
• (1) set of fingerless gloves
• (1) chain with a ring on it
• (3) short sleeve t shirts
• (2) long sleeve t shirts
• (2) neckerchiefs
• (1) red hoodie
• (1) black leather jacket
• (1) pair of brown boots
• (1) artifact

Appearance:

Connor Temple is portrayed by Andrew Lee Potts

Age: 26

AU Clarification: n/a

S A M P L E S
Log Sample:
For being stuck in an enclosed spaceship with nowhere else to go, Sid and Nancy were once again proving themselves to be expert hide and seek players, and Connor was beginning to worry that one or both of them was going to burrow their way into the walls and, depending on which direction they did it in they would either wind up jettisoned into space, or destroying some no doubt necessary bit of wiring or mechanics that would wind up jettisoning them all out to space as well, because Connor only thought in fatalistic ultimatums these days. Or at least it felt like it, anyway.

Of course the idea that the diictodons could actually bite and claw their way through the type of metal that would be required for a ship of this size and activity was entirely improbable, but that didn't stop Connor from worrying regardless.

Sid and Nancy were the only thing from home that Connor had. Well, that and the artifact of course. But where the diictodons brought him joy and wonder and fond memories of Abby and Rex and her flat, each time he looked at the artifact all he remembered was the professor slumping down next to him in the burnt out wreck of their base and taking his last breath. All he could think about was the pressing weight of responsibility that came with it.

Because being suddenly thrown up into space wasn't any excuse for him to slack with the artifact, obviously. This place had labs, and while it might have been nice to have Sarah around to help, it wasn't as if he couldn't get something accomplished on his own.

It was a real pity too. Before the events in the Forest of Dean, before the anomalies and the ARC, before Helen Cutter, and the professor's death... Connor might have been pretty excited to find himself in this place. As it was now, however, he was far too busy worrying about the rest of the team back home to enjoy himself very much.

Well, that and tracking down the diictodons again, of course.

Comms Sample: [video]

[when the video feed switches on, connor is smiling anxiously into the camera, hands picking at a loose thread on his jumper before he stops to wave instead.]

Hey, hullo, Connor here. Again. Ah-- [a slight wince] I'm sure you all can guess what I'm here about by now, business as usual, yeah?

Sid and Nancy got loose again.

[his hands move to fiddle with his necklace now, sliding the ring up and down the chain nervously.]

I know, I'm sorry guys, really I am. And I'm working on a better way to keep them contained in me room when I'm not there with them but until then [a halfhearted shrug] you all know the drill. Give us a ring if you find them, and if they chewed up anything of yours I'll do my best to either fix or replace it, yeah?