Dr. Seth Mendez

Dr. Seth Mendez is a senior delegate, councler and co-founder of the Night City East Bay enclave.

History
Dr Seth Mendez is the senior delegate, councilor and co-founder of the Night City East Bay enclave, or 'Edgerunner High' as it's commonly known. Like Dylan, Seth has sat on the council since its inception and remains the undisputed authority on NuCybe, having been involved in every stage of the technology's evolution from its first laboratory tests to the highly developed systems used by Edgers today.

Born and raised in Orange County, California, Seth was the privileged only son of peaceniks turned dot-com entrepreneurs. Already an introverted and awkward boy and facing prejudice from kids his own age for being both precocious and 'new money', Seth's social set contracted to just his parents and their technophile friends. Despite involvement in challenging and groundbreaking educational programs, social inclusion eluded him.

His interpersonal limitations didn't inhibit his schooling though; it swiftly became clear to every tutor who encountered Seth that the boy was gifted with an astonishing intellect. His junior year mid-term scores led to a sponsorship by Dynalar Technologies and an early admission to the Cybernetics Study faculty at the University of California at Berkeley. Seth eventually left Berkeley with a BS in Cybernetics, magna cum laude, and headed south to Night City University to do his PhD, overseen by his new patrons at Dynalar.

Seth was behind many of Dynalar's early military successes, working with his mentor SallyAnn Miller on early nervous system interfaces for high-speed fighter jets, and later pioneering implanted human reaction time enhancing systems that led to the development of both Sandevistan and Kerenzikov boosterware. For Seth, his work was a series of quandaries that required solutions, academic exercises in overcoming the arbitrary limits of nature. Until Jenny.

Jenny Moran was a lab assistant at Dynalar R&D. A vivacious NCU cybernetics undergraduate at not much younger than Seth, she was earning a little extra rent money by taking a late shift in the clean room. Against all likelihood, the two began a relationship. Jenny discovered the gentle, generous man that Seth could be, and in return Jenny showed him how to connect to the world in a way he had never been able to before. He made friends for the first time in his life. They even talked about marriage. But in the summer of 2013 (the year she was due to graduate) while rushing to meet Seth for coffee, Jenny was hit by a car and critically injured.

Seth was crushed. But he decided he could still make it right: he could make her better. When Jenny's parents asked the doctors to switch off life-support and declare her dead, Seth secretly took the comatose Jenny back to the lab and started to work. When the rebuilt Jenny awoke, there was nothing of his Jenny left, just a cyberpsycho'ed monster of metal, wires and plastic that company security had to put down with shotguns before it could take his life. Dynalar covered it up elegantly, but Seth never recovered. He transferred to noninvasive interface research hoping to find a solution to cyberpsychosis, but the inevitable reality was that all cybertechnology had its price: humanity. The price his Jenny had paid for with her life.

Then, in 2023, came Dylan's liberation of the besieged R&D labs and the discovery of lamilarisolinear technology reality changed forever.

Seth began to see a hope for mankind again, and redemption for himself. He became dedicated to the Edger cause. In his mind, Dylan gave him another chance at living, at being accepted and respected, perhaps even loved. Without question, Seth is acknowledged as the utmost living expert on NuCybe technology, and he and his team of East Bay enclave techies are obsessive in their exploration of its potential. While he's an infuriating pedant and a borderline autistic, Seth is also committed to a world that works for everyone, and even in his early middle years is full of enthusiasm, vitality and nervous energy.

Skills
Cybertechnology 9, Longevity 9, Medical Tech 9, Authority (council) 9, Teaching 6

Outfit
Neural Net, NuCybe Techie Package, Light Armor Jacket, Laboratory