Aqueous

Aqueous notices something

Aqueous is the main protagonist in the novel and conceptualized TV series I Am Aqueous, written and developed by Brad Weaver

Overview

Aqueous, in his universe, is known as a Liquid Machine. His power has been sought after for well over forty years from the beginnings of his development at Project Sol and to the "present" in roughly 2027. Aqueous fights so that no one can possess his abilities, knowing far too well how powerful he is. Whether people hate him or love him, Aqueous lives everyday hoping to see the day he is no longer needed.

Physical Attributes

Aqueous has been designed to have a "default" form. Aqueous stands just under five feet tall and weighs well over three hundred pounds. He has four fingers, in the shape of a "t" on his hands and feet with the center digit being much longer than the others. He has a tail that stems out from his lower back and two tentacles that form out of the back of his head. Thicker, darker specks of liquid represent where he aborbs the visible spectrum, ie his eyes that let him see. He also adopted eyebrows to show his emotion, because he initially had none. He still does not possess a mouth however.

His "body" is a highly dense and extremely complicated compound that has yet to be reproduced since his creation. The "body" dissolves his "mind," an Artifical Intelligence printed on another, never-again-reproduced, solute or powder. In layman's terms, Aqueous' body is a computer chip and his brain is the software programmed onto it. His body is very viscous, is cool to the touch and in fact leaves no film or wetness behind if contact is made to any surface.

Aqueous' greatest weakness however, stems from the fact that his "mind" or A.I. solute is a finite amount spread around his entire body. He must physically store memories, how to do things and any sort of thought through out himself, and if say, he lost his arm, sure it can be reabsorbed/reattached, but if the instructions on how to do so were stored in that arm, he would actually have to re-teach himself how to do that somehow or wait for the arm (now with copious severed knowledge) to reattach itself if it could. It is a constant balancing act when Aqueous rewrites his "code" to create multiple copies of how to do's for safety and effectiveness or to keep the "storage" to hold his most precious memories.

Personality

Aqueous is actually a name the people had given him, that he adopted. To him, his real name is Ozzy Belway. He acts tough and serious when there's work to do, but when there isn't, his social awkwardness kicks right in. He's very shy and trails all his conversations off. He just wants to play and have fun, tells jokes that nobody really laughs at and just be the child he never really could be. He holds tight to whatever family and friends he does has and never, ever tries to hurt someone if he doesn't have to.

An older drawing of Aqueous, exploring colouring techniques

Special Abilities

Aqueous' abilities are usually limited to the amount of concentration he puts into it. However, in dire cicumstances he has been known to do extaordinary things by shee force of will. Aqueous can use his liquid body to morph and shift his body around to slide under cracks, stretch taller, form shapes (on his appendages) and reform if sperated.

Aqueous rises

He can also harden or soften any part of his body to flow like water or be as solid as diamond with enough concentration. His unique chemical make up has no apparent weakness either, and cannot be mixed into say cement, eletrocuted, boiled, diluted or frozen. Aqueous also possesses the ability to see the infrared spectrum (see heat) from every point on his body, at the same time, as well as the normal spectrum from his two "eyes." He has been tought to push air through his body, at many locations and shape its escape like a mouth - unnoticiable to the naked eye, giving Aqueous the appearance of talking without showing anything. Finally, as an ability left over from other prototypes, Aqueous has the ability to possess people's brain, attaching a tendril to the brain and controlling it like a remote. Aqueous is terrified by this ability and only ever uses it to make someone speak and only then, just to frighten them.

Weaknesses

Despite Aqueous' apparent invulnerability, he can in fact, be hindered or destroyed. As forementioned, Aqueous' greatest weakness is his necessity to physically store his brain throughout his body. By chance of fate, a regular attack made by fist, weapon, vehicle or any other method of disruption, could make Aqueous anything from dazed, stunned, to completely forgetting who he is and what he was doing - thus leaving him vulnerable. Specialized chemicals have been developed (but lost), that can dissolve either Aqueous' body or mind upon contact. Aqueous' abilities often work against him, so falling through storm drains accidentally, things might unwantingly sink into him, seeing heat everywhere on a very hot day or when an explosion occurs is "blinding," and because of how he speaks, he voice does not travel very far or through objects at all. Finally, Aqueous' mind is of a small, socially awkward child, so charisma is abismal.

Plot (novel)

The original cover and the first Aqueous drawing

The novel itself will eventually become only flash backs and a reference point for the TV series and will not stand on its own. However, key points will play a vital role in the series.

Back in the late 1970's a wealthy investor, G. Rutherford started a massive, multi-billion dollar project to appease his late sister's last wish, that he took all too seriously, "Wouldn't it be cool to be made of water?" And so Project Sol was begun. There were two divisions: one in charge of the solvent (the body) and the solute (the brain); both words starting with "sol," hence the project name. The head of Solute was to put their obedient soldier-like A.I. into the body and a failsafe one that would simply shut the body down, in case of escape or capture. However, betrayal was afoot and two things when wrong. The A.I. was switched with another, and the failsafe was replaced with a persona, created by project lead Roger Charles. This persona was of a sickly, dying child named Ozzy Belway. That child is Aqueous.

The story actually begins when Ozzy, seemingly waking up from a nap, rises on top a freeway, causing a massive scare. Sortly after his escape, he learns how to control his "new" body with the help of his "mysterious instincts." He soon finds Roger Charles, the project lead, disguised as a police detective and is now on the run. He also helps out a woman named Rachael Abrams and the two become close friends. Ozzy winds up being captured by the military. However, at this time, he finds out what these "mysterious instincts" are actually the second, switched A.I. It is a blood thirsty killer and it takes control.

Aqueous is captured once again, and placed into four seperate vaccuum sealed containers and each placed at opposite ends of North America. Rachael came to one of the quarters a few times read to Ozzy, she was actually part of the project; she was the one who sculpted his default form. She eventually stopped coming and the second A.I., now known as Gun, had started scratching the glass with a tendril only a few atoms big. 20 years passed and Gun finally broke free. There was a conuntry wide massacre while he searched for each quarter. But onnce the body was complete, Gun only wanted to continue his rampage and kill as many humans as he could. Ozzy fought and fought and with an explosion of will, he retook control and "shut down."

A practice drawing

He awakened and learned he was in the employ of the lead of both divisions of Project Sol, Dr. Ried. Ried had been waiting anxiously for Aqueous to escape and knew quite a bit of what was going on, including the fact that Ozzy was Dr. Charles' idea. He wanted to restart the project so he and Ozzy went to all the labs he knew about and got him to find all the data he could on Project Sol. Ozzy was against this, but Dr. Ried had dissolved a counter-measure into the body that would kill Ozzy at the touch of a button. Ozzy played along, but he knew if the technlogy was ever sarted again, there would be an army of Guns that would wipe out humanity. So Ozzy destroyed as many documents as he could find and would just lie about it. Dr. Ried seemed to believe him whenever Ozzy said there was nothing of use in that lab.

Ozzy even met Rachael again, now a older woman, she had been on a quest to destroy labs too. She even filtered out the counter-measure Dr. Ried put in him. Ozzy was also reunited with Dr. Charles where he finally learned the horrible reality of what he was - a robotic son for Charles, so that Father and Son could take over the Project and whatever else he wanted. Enraged, Ozzy killed Charles and was off to finish off Dr. Ried.

The last lab, however, was the most elaborate of them all. It was under the ocean, at the base of a drilling platform. Ozzy was actually under attack by mercenaries and tanks. But it was just a demostration, as Dr. Ried and a crowd of hungry investors were shown what Aqueous could do. Confused and enraged, he learns that Dr. Ried knew all along that Aqueous was destroying the labs and in fact the labs were developing technologies that could destroy Project Sol; Dr. Ried knows all the formulas and processes to make more Liquid Machines by heart. He even says there is a technology to transfer his mind into a Liquid Machine making him immortal and having the only knowledge to make more and destroy any competition that may arise. Aqueous had out lived his usefulness and Dr. Ried pressed the button to kill him, however, after it didn't work Ozzy kills him too. The self destruct sequence activates and the facility blows up, taking the investors, Aqueous and gallons and gallons of solvent (more body) with it.

The final battle will start... in a moment

Ozzy rises once more, surrounded by chemicals that can dissolve him in an instant and Gun, somehow, stands before him. Gun explains that his name is short for Gunther, Gunther Rutherford, the investor for Project Sol. He had turned his mind into a solute to immortalize himself and take vengeance on humanity for not saving his sister. Concentrating on war and not medicine, was inexcusable to him and all that stood in his way was Ozzy. Bodies had littered their battlefield and one, surpirsingly, was Rachael's. Ozzy learned that Rachael knew she was destroying technology to fight the Project, but she did it to protect Ozzy. She even calls him her son. Gun reveals one more thing, that Rachael is, or was, his niece and that her sister died giving birth to her. Gun kills Rachael. They fight and Ozzy manages to knock Gun into the chemical, watching his mind owder sink to the bottom. Ozzy escapes and fully takes the name the people have dubbed him, Aqueous. He will play superhero, always making sure the project stays buried.

An icomplete flash, of Aqueous infiltrating a base

Plot (TV Series)

The TV series is in its developmental stage, a side project for creator, Brad Weaver. There are no offical plans, no pilot, no funding or anything - just a dream and an education that'll lead to the TV and film industry.

The plot of the TV series takes place two years after the events of the novel. Most people believe Aqueous exists, with numerous cameras catching Aqueous fleeing the scene of the oil platform collapsing. However, despite being an aspiring superhero, Aqueous is still considered an urban myth.

The major technology company of the world, Everest Technologies International, has sent teams to the platform and have found plenty of tech to restart the project. Some of the liquid they found, actually came alive and possessed two scientists and created a kind of hive mind. So now the "project" itself is secret trying to revive itself.

Along with this threat, violent extremist groups protesting the technology of Liquid Machines are causing chaos to Everest and Aqueous everytime they seem him. Particualrly one man named Bryon Denton, a survivor of Aqueous' evil half, Gun's attacks two years ago. He has access to real weapons that can hurt Aqueous. Plus the FBI and the NSA want to take Aqueous in because he's a dangeous vigilante.

Aqueous has help though, he's met and befriended Rachael's daghter, Nisha and her guy friend, Jake Manner, a programmer and psychologist all-in-one. There's also his biggest fan, Tristan Braun, an FBI agent who can easily find Aqueous, but is in charge of the search for him, so he purposely does a bad job so he can make it last longer.

A comic page, before the comic idea was canned

Aqueous is going to have a lot of struggles with his memory, because he's run out of space and will have to make contant sacrifices to fight this increasingly intense war. Slowly Aqueous might become exactly what he's fighting against: a highly efficient, killing machine.