Microstory 164: Dathan Shapiro

This is an experimental Bellevue Profile microstory. The introduction can be found in Microstory 101. More to follow.

Dathan Shapiro shared his ability with Hankford Apolomure, though in a much broader sense. His brain was extremely efficient, which allowed him to collect a wide variety of skills, as well as retain episodic memory with 100% accuracy. While his protégé, Denton Wescott could absorb knowledge by simple proximity, Dathan would still have to learn new things the old fashioned way, but he would be able to do it at a far faster rate, and without the neurological side effects. Dathan found himself in the midst of a constant internal struggle, though. On the one hand, he wanted to know as much as he could about the world, but he also felt overwhelmed by his knowledge, and was never able to stop thinking. All of the things the brain does while in sleep mode, he was evolved to do manually throughout the day, but this meant that his body lacked the rejuvenation that sleep also provides. Unlike Jen or Tamra, he would have to gather that missed energy by eating a bit extra and by consciously slowing down activity. As a coping mechanism, he developed a grand sense of superiority and entitlement. He went back to college several times over, and earned licensure degrees in a few different fields. After he was bored with that, he moved on to receive magnatoral degrees, and ended up one of the handful of people to become a supermagnus, which basically meant that no one in the world knew more about a given subject than he did. Still feeling unfulfilled, he went ahead and attended law school for the standard six years, medical school for the standard nine years, and finally pursued a teaching degree for the standard eight years. Just about the only thing he didn’t do was become an aidsman, because he was both a pacifist and rather selfish. Not happy with teaching at any one institution for too long, he decided to become a guest lecturer for anyone who asked. When he was in his 70s, he and Denton joined Bellevue together, but did not work with each other very much. Denton focused primarily in genetics while Dathan worked with Cambrio in general research. When called to action, he participated in Team 8 to provide them with a plethora of useful skills out in the field.