Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Theodore Roosevelt Sutherland, my first Ponies After People character

Name: Theodore Roosevelt Sutherland. He likes to be called Theodore as it is an uncommon name in the post-Event world.  He hasn’t taken up a post-Event name.

Age: Before the Event he was a 36 year-old man, and is now is an immortal male sphinx, technically called an Androsphinx

Gender: pre-Event Male / post-Event Male

Species: Human male pre-Event and now male sphinx post-Event

Species abilities: Flight, sonic rainboom, superior strength, photographic memory, spells - creating food and objects for himself and others with his object transfiguration spell, alchemist, and access to hammer space; along with superior eyesight, hearing, and reflexes.

Species Limitations: Theodore tells others that it is not our limitations that make us better individuals; it is our lifelong attempts to overcome our limitations that make us better individuals. Being an adult sphinx in a world built for ponies and similarly sized species gives Theodore many unique limitations that he daily attempts to overcome.
Theodore’s huge size and massive weight makes it impossible to him to enter most structures or to use public transportation. Even walking on deteriorating bridges, upon underground pedestrian tunnels, or landing on ship decks is risky for a structural collapse.
While flying, Theodore creates a very powerful, wake turbulence. Not wanting his flying friends to be put in danger from dangerous crashes, Theodore spent weeks researching with Pegasus a permanent spell that he cast upon himself that while flying creates line-shaped, multi-colored, light-emitting cloud contrails that warns any flying creatures, airships, or aircraft to avoid being knocked about from his wake turbulence. These glowing and colorful contrails last three minutes, about the same time it takes for his wake turbulence to completely dissipate. Theodore can turn off these cloud contrails when he is being chased by flying enemies or to be less noticeable.
Also, similar to Superman, Theodore must be careful around ordinary creatures, as his great strength and huge size can be deadly to the smaller species from being accidentally crushed or sent flying during an inattentive moment. While on the topic of Superman, during a party with a group of anthropomorphic cats, Theodore became aware that his personal kryptonite is a large dose of catnip.
Many intelligent species and animals experience apprehension to panic when having first encounters with Theodore because of his enormous size and mouth full of huge shark-like teeth. It sometimes take hours or days for many of the hand born and the hoof born to accept that someone as big as Theodore, with his loud, deep, and resonant - booming voice is a caring, honest, and law abiding citizen. Before flying or walking to settlements for the first time, at great expenditure to his bank account, Theodore hires approachable appearing ponies to enter those settlements to make announcements to the natives that there is nothing to fear from the adult sphinx that is going to visit their settlements.
Theodore must be diligent in keeping his inner cat mind from making embarrassing social mistakes. Expressed in a different way, he takes much mental effort to stop himself from being a cute cat doing cute things. For example, Theodore keeps in check his instinctive instincts to lick himself clean or lick others clean. Theodore: “I should remember to keep my tongue away from my fellow citizens, especially by any Earth pony mares. Being slapped by their front hooves really hurt.”
Additionally, when Theodore is angry or frightened, his cat hiss inadvertently shatters nearby glass objects. His sonic rainboom also shatters glass objects. Consequently, Theodore has had many opportunities to use his repair spell to repair glass objects.
Lastly, like most cats Theodore sheds his fur in the spring and fall, while retaining more fur in the winter. In addition, after sleeping in one place each night for a week or more, he can leave behind an opaque layer of blue-gray shed fur. While Theodore’s pony housekeepers have often complain about cleaning up many kilograms of cat hair after his seasonal shedding; many visitors to his nation have noticed that during cold weather, dozens of his pony citizens are often seen wearing cozy sweaters or long coats made out of their much-loved sphinx’s shed hair. His pony housekeepers make second incomes making and then selling those garments.
Personal Quests / Life Goals: First: Sometime during the first ten years after the Event, he obtained a copy of Twilight’s bodily transformation spell that she used to change herself and her friends into Breezies to accompany the creatures back home in the episode “It Ain’t Easy Being Breezies”. However, Theodore is usable to cast this spell, while it does work for other magical creatures. Therefore, he is on an ongoing personal quest to find a powerful mage who can help him learn to cast this transformation spell. This is similar to how Star Swirl the Bearded helped Princess Celestia and Princess Luna learn to cast their spells.
If Theodore could cast this spell, he would use it when encountering newly returned returnees to change his body back into this human form while wearing a firefighter high protection one-piece suit, helmet, and steel-toe boots when his human hands are needed to get returnees to a civilized nation or to calm a panicked returnee. In addition, Theodore has plans to use his transformation spell to appear as an alicorn pony with a blue-violet coat, a yellow-orange mane and tail, with a silver gray cutie mark in the shape of his sphinx amulet. He would use this pony form when his huge and heavy sphinx body would not allow him entry into pony-sized structures or use public transportation.
Second: Theodore is working to rebuild the United States at the greatest nation on his world, while taking into account all the changes brought about the Event. This goal sometimes puts him into all kinds of conflicts with those who want to create other types of societies in what was the United States.
Sometime during the first ten years after the Event, Theodore flew, while his core team of pony friends traveled by two, long-distance buses to Alexandria to study magic, specifically alchemy to grow plants for food, beauty, and defense. While Theodore did learn Equestrian spells he along with his friends were disappointed that Alex was not putting more effort as she could have into rebuilding the United States government from city, to state, to federal levels. After all, the United States Government is based upon philosophers from classical Greece that proposed the separation of powers in government, the Roman Republic that served as a direct model of government for the writers of the constitution, as well as Enlightenment philosophers such as Voltaire, Montesquieu, and John Locke. Therefore, by rebuilding the United States Government Alex could be saving much of the best of human history.
Theodore is diligently putting his experience he gained in the Quartermaster Corps and his college education to build many small settlements north and east of Duluth, Minnesota. He has also assembled a team of skilled advisers that function similar to Captain Kirk’s senior officers aboard the Enterprise. Thus, after hundreds of years of hard work the largest areas of the renewed United States are St. Louis County, Lake County, and Cook County in Minnesota. Other settlements across North America from Alaska to Florida have joined this nation; while over the years a few have voluntary dropped out or have disappeared from existence. As a result, the number of stars on their flag slowly changes over time adding or subtracting one or two every few years. Some pony humorists have said or written that they find it strange that a settlement of eighty-four ponies, fifteen griffons, seven reformed changelings, and a family of three hippogriffs could be considered a “United States state”.
Note: There are many real-world precedents for nations coming back into existence that had disappeared from existence, having been absorbed as into other nations for years, decades, or centuries.
Third: Theodore is searching for very special ponies and other creatures to assemble on this world the equivalent of the Elements of Harmony of the Equestrian nation, or as he calls them the “Friendship Avengers”. This means that he talks to many creatures in the hopes of finding Element bearers. Theodore has never considered that he could be one of this world’s Elements of Harmony. Of course, he is also searching for this world’s Elements of Harmony, before those villains of dark intent can corrupt them to enslave ponies instead of freeing them.
Pre-Event appearance: He was a six foot tall, large frame Caucasian man with emerald green eyes and shoulder length, straight, black hair and a neatly-trimmed goatee.

Post-Event appearance: His soft, luxurious fur coat is a solid blue-gray color similar to a British Shorthair cat, while his enormous wings are a lighter shade of blue on the bottom wing surface, while having a darker shade of blue on the top wing surface. Theodore’s face is that of an attractive pony stallion, while he usually keeps his long and straight black hair in a bun in the back of his head. When untied the ends of his hair reach his front knees while he is standing on all fours. Theodore wears a meticulously groomed black goatee to make sure that those around him recognize him as a tomcat. While growing up in his second physical childhood as an adorably cute kitten, he despised those ponies that he encountered for the first time mistaking him as a female cat. Theodore also has huge, emerald green eyes that appear to glow in low light.
He can hold objects with his long tail, sometimes using it as a third hand. He is so dexterous with his tail that even those who were college and professional basketball players have said, “Do not under any circumstances challenge Theodore at a game of one-on-one basketball, unless you want to get spectacularly defeated.”
Seven hours after the event, Theodore appeared back in the world recreated as a sphinx kitten the size of a foal. Then, after about ten years, he grew into a huge adult, many times larger than an adult pony. Fun Fact: Theodore has grown to be twenty-five percent biggest and stronger than the cruel Sphinx that was defeated by Somnambula. Theodore is so gigantic in size that he can with ease hold an average-sized, adult pony in one of his front-paws.
For everyday apparel Theodore wears a cargo vest and cargo shorts with big packets that each carries the equivalent of several big backpacks for everyday wear. When flying, his vests and shorts also have civilian aircraft navigation lights, heads-up display of basic flight instruments, and a friend or foe (IFF) identification system. These lights are turned on both day and night to prevent mid-air collisions with smaller flying creatures, airships, and aircraft. Theodore also wears a helmet with a clear face shield. Theodore uses a jumbo-sized, forward facing baby carrier to transport sick foals and sick adult ponies to nearby hospitals. During formal occasions, he wears a tan fedora with a black ribbon, a three piece charcoal gray business suit, with black hind shoes and black socks. Also, when travelling during winter months Theodore wears boots on his hind paws and mittens that double as boots on his front paws.
For battle, he wears armor inspired by medieval horse full barding armor that’s made of lightweight composite armor developed for main battle tanks. Theodore’s “Iron Cat” armor is completely enclosed for protection against nuclear, biological, chemical threats. This armor also has military aircraft navigation lights, heads-up display of basic flight instruments, military grade computers, sensors, and an IFF identification system; with sophisticated weapons merged with Lake Superior agate magic designed to inflict the maximum amount of damage with the minimum amount of time.
Note: Theodore’s overriding tactics are to not fight against his enemy’s strengths. He has learned that the best way to win a battle is to put his team’s strengths against his enemy’s weaknesses.
Personality: Like all returnees, Theodore struggles to reinvent how he sees himself and what he does as a sphinx in an ever-changing post-Event world. To find peace of mind, Theodore sees his physical transformation into a sphinx not as a blessing or a curse, but giving him a series of challenging opportunities to be won. He often trains his body and his fighting skills, while believing that criminal masterminds will eventually attempt to conquer North America or the entire world. By reading, Theodore is aware of the Equestrian villains and thus imagines that similar villains would arise on his world.
After Theodore read the “Journal of Friendship”, written by Twilight and her friends, he became convinced that friendship is the most powerful force in the post-Event world. After all, it was friendship that defeated Lord Tirek despite him having all the Alicorn magic, Discord’s magic, and the magic from thousands of normal ponies. Theodore concluded that the greatest evils in this world can only be defeated by the power of friendship.
To promote friendship, Theodore attempts to help all of his fellow citizens to become successful and happy using friendship. An Eagle Scout who believes in doing a good turn daily, Theodore believes that a cheerful and optimistic personality can move mountains. He often recites the story of the Wright brothers in their quest to build and then fly a heavier-than-air aircraft, something that many thought in that age was impossible to achieve. His avocations include studying magic with his fellow unicorn citizens, as well as talking to Earth and Pegasus, and those of other species about their day-to-day concerns.
Theodore takes weekly trips to a local day spa, as licking his fur clean and preening his wing fathers with his mouth is something he would rather not do. When he occasionally gets depressed and/or stressed, Theodore will sing to himself and those around him inspiring songs such as Star Trek: Enterprise theme song, “Faith of the Heart” from the past human civilization as well as the other world’s pony civilization.
History: Born in Humansville, Missouri his family moved to Duluth, Minnesota for better paying jobs when he was ten months old. After graduating from Duluth East High School, Theodore served six years of active duty in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps serving with distinction, and then earned a political science degree from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Theodore was an assistant professor of political science at the University of Minnesota, Duluth (UMD) when the Event happened. He was sleeping in his bed in his newly bought cottage near campus while wearing a good luck amulet of a face of a sphinx. This amulet was given to him by his older sister Dora Lilac Sutherland. Dora was a junior US Senator on the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. This amulet was made in an attempt by pony wizards and human scientists to create magic amulets, infused with magic from many intelligent creatures from the pony world, which were designed to protect humans from the dangerous magical energy of Equestria. The creation of these amulets is similar to the way that the six “Pillars of Old Equestria” infused their magic to create the seed for the Tree of Harmony. Theodore’s amulet was created from magic donated by a powerful and friendly sphinx. These magic amulets didn’t appear to work as intended, as the human volunteers who wore them while travelling to the Equestrian nation all died. After the science experiments were concluded, two of these amulets were given to Dora, who wears one and gave the other to her younger brother. What was not known by anyone before the Event was that if someone wore an amulet during the event, then the magic from the infused creature would turn that human into that Equestrian creature, in this case a human named Theodore turned into a sphinx.
Before you ask, yes this amulet combined with the human to pony transformation spell is able to transform humans into sphinxes. For example, if a Human Preservation Initiative human wore this amulet while walking into an area strong in magic, the amulet would turn them into a sphinx kitten. This technique also works for the other amulets that were created.
Theodore has a political philosophy of encouraging many small settlements, so the destruction of one settlement would not become a death blow to his nation. During the plague, the distributed population living in many small settlements of about one to three hundred citizens saved most of the population.
Why had infected ponies had difficulty finding and then gaining entry to these rural settlements? In these settlements Earth pony citizens had grown rings of trees around their villages, growing living walls of trees, grass that create volatile oils designed to burn fast and hot when ignited by magic. Pegasus pony citizens built cloud blockhouses over these settlements to discourage air invasions; while Unicorn pony citizens spent much effort learning defensive spells based on Lake Superior agates, which created effective defensive against ground and air attackers. Theodore also spent much time, resources, and effort to create local militias in each community that served as their national army. In addition, he was able to pull buses into the air to safely transport his civilians away from herds of infected ponies. Think of this, in the TV series four Pegasus ponies are able to fly safely two princesses and their gold plated chariot. Now imagine what a much larger, adult sphinx with or without armor could pull. Once a month for three days he trains with U.S. Air Force Special Tactics Pegasus Commandos in coordination with Earth and Unicorn mechanized Infantry.
Theodore has served once as President of the United Sates or the United State of Minnesota as most ponies call their nation. The nation’s Capitol Building is located in the federal building of the Duluth Civic Center Historic District. During the plague the nation’s political leaders and their staffs survived in underground tunnels mined into the bedrock by friendly Diamond Dogs in exchange for keeping anything valuable like silver and gold that the dogs find while digging. Fun fact: In the 1880’s, a silver mine was dug into a hillside about one mile west of downtown Duluth.
When possible, Theodore is assisting the “Cartographer and Demographer Agency of Alexandria” in their attempt to create reference guides of all the settlements of North America, as well as create a census of all creatures that can think and talk similar to humans. Therefore, he can be found wandering the lands in search of documenting any useful infrastructure while taking a census of those talking creatures in any given area. For example, he loves interviewing those ponies who live in isolated settlements, from farmsteads, to lighthouse keepers that protect shipping on the Great Lakes, to ponies who work at the pony express mail delivery routes to name three of many possible ways people have adapted their surroundings and themselves in the post-Event world.
Theodore has built and lives in a geodesic dome home, the size of an aircraft hangar, on an abandoned UMD parking lot.
His catchphrases: I fear no enemy, as my friends and I have the most powerful strength of all, the magic of friendship. I survived this long by making friends. My object transfiguration spell, alchemy, and access to hammer space have helped me make some new friends.
I’m looking for a powerful mage to help me learn the transformation spell. Do you know anyone that might be able to assist me?
In the evenings, I sometimes read the Journal of Friendship to foals. I’m not sure if these colts and fillies want to hear these stories or they simply want to snuggle up and then fall asleep beside me while I read exciting stories from memory to them.
How did I get things to appear in my hands? I can pull things out of my personal hammer space. That is an easy ability that all talking species appear to have the ability to master.
I’m rebuilding my United States one person, one family, and one community at a time.
My fellow citizens, if you want to save the best of human civilization, then you should work to the best of your ability to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of our United States. Only addle-brained fools would not support the rebuilding of the greatest human civilization in all of human history.
While I look big and scary, I’m really a nice and trustworthy person, who happened to become a really big kitty-cat. It is those of criminal intention that have reason to keep away from me.
It warms my heart while I watch pony foals carrying and playing with their Theodore Androsphinx dolls. All the profits from those doll sales are sent to a fund to rebuild the University of Minnesota, Duluth that was renamed by the ponies who administer the campus as “Knowledge City”. (Fun Fact: The UMD Statesman is the campus newspaper is distributed by Pegasus pony carts to settlements across the Upper Midwest. The most popular sections are the lists of recent returnees, dating advertisements for rare species such as a female Minotaur seeking a male Minotaur, and job notices for new or expanding businesses and government positions.)
My name is Theodore Roosevelt Sutherland. Can you guess whom I was named after?
We United States citizens work hard and then we play hard. With that we can do anything, including bringing back our United States as the lighthouse for enlightenment in our new world.
I hope that the Internet comes back soon. I really need to update my Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.
(Theodore said the following during a gathering of heroes before an important battle.) Every team of superheroes needs the big guy. I don’t think, or at least have not seen for myself, any hero bigger than me.
To answer the call of nature at my Duluth home or in my University office, I have a large and strongly constructed, custom-made composting toilet. When I travel, I use a spell to reduce my size to that of an adult pony to use those restrooms. No, I don’t have, never did, and will never have or use a litter box.
I have always wanted to visit my ancestral home in the Orkney Islands. It would be fun to visit there, find out if any of the Sutherland family has returned, and see if I make some diplomatic, trade, as well as sister city exchange programs.
Do you happen to know of any single, scholarly, and sociable female sphinx? I’m not a racist against my fellow, transformed United States citizens. Alternatively, I’m having some emotional problems having meaningful relationships with those ponies that through no fault of their own will die of old age in two or three hundred years.
Note: Although some readers my find this to be an excessive description of one character; many professional writers write five to ten page descriptions for each of their central characters. Also, these authors write up to one hundred pages of background notes per story, despite the fact that many of these details don’t appear in their published novels.
In addition, I hope that my original character inspires other writers to create characters based on species not yet used for characters, such as the gargoyles personified by Scorpan, the hippogriffs personified by Queen Novo, and the satyr-like creatures personified by the Storm King.

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