Mannie von Frankenstein's Story (Tobyverse)
Gentlemen and ladies, I'm here to ask you a question. What is power? Some of you might say that power is position. If you're a CEO or Senator or Director of something, that's power. But that isn't YOUR power, its the office. Some of you might say wealth. You come from families of unimaginable riches, or carved out your fortune all on your own. But wealth only facilitates other kinds of power. And some might say knowledge. Knowing is half the battle. But violence is the other half, ladies and gentleman. You know what power is? POWER is power. The ability to hurl a bus, to not fear bullets, to hurl and shape the very elements of creation themselves, that is what power is. And today, I'm here to offer it to you.”
SOME TIME LATER
“A magnificent performance sir.”
“Lotta bullshit though.”
Manfred “Mannie” Von Frankenstein (never call him Manfred) comes from a very famous, very dangerous family. While his illustrious ancestor was never one of the founders of Atlantis, the family did eventually come to live there for a period of time, until Karl Von Frankenstein's involvement with the Nazis got them into trouble with a very shadowy individual who burned down his lab, blew up his experiments and shot his bodyguard. The message was clear, and the family fled to the United States, using fake passports to gain entry. Eventually Karl, and then his son, Dietrich were able to do enough favors to get themselves citizens, and Manny considers himself a true-blue American. Up to a point. Growing up in what was essentially the Addams family, but less fun, everyone expected Manny to become a dark and troubled child. This couldn't be farther from the truth. Mannie was a cheerful boy, always smiling and if there was some talk among his peers of deals gone bad or strange things offered, well, that was just children's gossip.
When he decided to double-major, with Biology being the first focus, everyone watching got a little nervous. The university couldn't afford to have fiasco like the dead walking or an angry mob burning down the science labs. But when the other half of the equation turned out to be Business Studies, they breathed a sigh of relief. How dangerous could someone with a business degree be?
After college Mannie continued his education into certain other dangerous fields, such as chemistry, medicine and the one that terrified everyone, physics. It wasn't that he seemed to be a genius, or a protege, he just soaked up all the information. He also began working for the Prometheus Foundation. In the future Mannie would describe his time working there, and his meteoric rise and equally quick fall as one of the most educating experiences of his life. He has stated that the course he put himself on today was directly because of his work for Hiram Gilgamesh, and that he wishes the old bastard the best of luck. Because Mannie didn't really fit in at Prometheus. To him, there were too many layers, to much misdirection. The things they were creating were fantastical, incredible, but most never saw the light of day. Mannie wanted to change that.
