- "At the time I had every intention of just doing my job like everyone else. But then, things changed."
- ―Meredith Sharp
| Meredith Sharp | |
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| Biographical Information | |
| Name: | Meredith Sharp |
| Born: | July 23rd, 2123 |
| Nationality: | United States of America |
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| Physical Description | |
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| Gender: | Female |
| Status: | Alive |
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| Portrayed By: | Christina Hendricks |
Meredith Sharp (born July 23rd, 2123) is a scientist who originally arrived on Pandora in the year 2148, roughly six years before the Final Battle between the RDA and the Na'vi clans. A trained geologist and Avatar Driver she had the responsibility of researching, analyzing and prospecting new areas to exploit for the much-desired mineral, unobtanium.
Early History[]
To begin with Meredith's story it must start before the beginning, roughly six years prior to the sixth coming of the Toruk Makto, Jakesully. On Earth, and at age twenty-six, Meredith Sharp had finally finished her extensive avatar-driver training and with her strong academic accomplishments in geologic studies she was a great candidate for working in the interests of the Resources Development Administration, also known as the RDA. She made her six-year journey to Pandora to begin her work, and little did she know that such a world would bring about great personal change.
Prior to her eventual departure from Earth and after she finished her years at the Academy where she studied geologic sciences Meredith had applied herself to see if she would be admitted into the exciting Avatar Program funded by the RDA. After having been accepted via various testing, interviews and other hoops she had to jump through she trained her mind and perceptions into learning how to control and navigate by means of an Avatar. Being one of the select few to be allowed to work with such technology was very exciting to the young scientist and during her extensive training she came to know two others: Norm Spellman, and Tom Sully. The two men became good friends to Meredith, but it was Tom that eventually caught her eye and months into the Program she wished to pursue some sort of bond with him, regardless of how difficult and time consuming the regimen of the Avatar Program could be. Needless to say, any sort of a strong relationship between them ebbed and flowed, depending on what their workload demanded of them, but Meredith was hopeful for the future. Unfortunately for her she was deemed ready for deployment and to begin her work immediately sooner than that of Tom and Norm and was sent on the ISV two years ahead of them. Meredith took this in stride as best she could and, bidding both of them goodbye and that she would see Tom on Pandora, she began her interstellar journey.
Upon her arrival to Pandora, Meredith was put under the supervision of a specialist team for geologic survey research and development. Dr. Sullivan Mandu was her team leader, and six others (including herself) were under his jurisdiction for the work they were tasked with: it was even considered by some to be the next large-scale area of resource extraction away from Hell's Gate (including, naturally, unobtainium). Dr. Mandu and his team were located to a new site (not quite dissimilar to Dr. Augustine's own Site 26) to begin the great task of wide-scan survey: the great expanse of the eastern coastline...the homeland of many Na'vi, also know as the Ikran Peoples.
Contact with these Na'vi was inevitable and the team of humans, using their abilities as avatar-drivers, attempt to communicate amicably with the locals. However they are cautious and wary of these "alien newcomers" to their lands; peace is settled between them but trust is another matter entirely. Meredith accepts this pact of tolerance between her people and the local Na'vi, but soon her innate curiosity for them grows.
It is this curiosity that her gradual desire to understand the Pandoran world manifests. She begins to expand her rudimentary knowledge of Na'vi language with diligence. Reading resource material on the Na'vi that is readily available to all RDA personnel leaves something to be desired to Meredith; it is clearly biased in some aspects against the Na'vi and she knows that, if she truly wished to understand them she must do so first-hand.
This shift in focus, from working solely as a geologist under the supervision of their survey project, did not go unnoticed. Dr. Mandu in particular confronted her in an attempt to realign Meredith back to the task at hand; they were not scientists meant to study the Na'vi or any Pandoran life; what was important was getting the results the RDA wanted for the future of resource extraction in the region, nothing more. Nevertheless, Meredith was resistant.
Eventually the initial survey results were completed by Dr. Mandu's team. The findings were somewhat favorable, good news for his team's prospects of further work, but their data needed further research and from there the higher chain of command would decide the next step. Two team members were chosen to watch their research site while the rest would travel back to Hell's Gate with their findings; Meredith was one of them, and the other was Mason Gelrick. With the majority of the team's departure Meredith acquired a surplus of time to try and further her integration with the locals, free of being constantly under the eye of her team supervisor. Time passes, and although it is slow, Meredith is finally being allowed some trust by the Na'vi. She observes them intently and is also taught by-hand some of their ways of life.
But all was not as well as it would seem. Gelrick, suspicious of Meredith and her loyalties, began to spy on her and report his findings back to his superiors, thinking it prudent that they ought to know of her true behavior. The prospect of Meredith becoming a liability to their project, and to the RDA as a whole, allows for paranoia to rise in Gelrick's thinking; tension rises between the two researchers as a result.
A confrontation was inevitable at this point; in his own avatar body, Gelrick approached Meredith during her return to the site from the clan village. He tells her what he has done and that her role on the project is finished. Meredith is shocked, but her shock turns to anger and they begin an argument. He threatens her, claiming she has begun to turn savage by becoming so close to the Na’vi; this sets her off and they come to blows where she unwittingly wounds his avatar body badly in the fight. The shock ends up putting Gelrick into an induced coma due to the trauma and his avatar body is killed. In the aftermath of their confrontation Meredith realizes what she has done to him was grounds for imprisonment or banishment off of Pandora, throwing her into a panic. Her only choices at that point were self-imposed exile, or to appeal to the mercy of the Na'vi. Revealing the grand scope of the RDA’s intentions for the local clan’s land she offers, in exchange for their support, all her knowledge and efforts to thwart future RDA activity on their land and along the sea coast. After careful deliberation, they accept.
During the First Conflict[]
When the final battle between the RDA and Na’vi clans came to a head Meredith had already been indoctrinated into the clan which imparted amnesty to her after the incident with her team mate. She does not participate directly in this battle but is supportive of their cause and attempts to aid her clan’s leaders and warriors by means of being a strategist to help prepare what to expect when fighting the Sky People. Many of her clan’s members participate in the gathering under Toruk Makto however, but many also perish. A power vacuum is created in the clan in the aftermath and Meredith finds herself having to stand up to the task with the other high Na’vi to help provide and decide for her people and for the future. In the three years since the final battle Meredith has had to adapt into being a decent hunter of the sea and to put the needs of the clan above all else. The road is a rocky one and even now, years after the fact of being allowed to join them she still finds herself at the skewed border between being human, and being Na’vi.
Meredith also finds herself at a great loss after the battle with the RDA: the arrival of Toruk Makto, Jake, to the clan leaves many mysteries for her to try to understand. Confused over his identity and the familiarity she feels towards him, Meredith fears what had happened over the years she has been disconnected from Hell's Gate. Unfortunately the battle left many dead and mourners in its wake and thus the need to care for her adopted clan took precedence forcibly over her heart.
The Melborne Crisis[]
Meredith's role in this conflict was limited; the disease that ravaged the life on Pandora was greatly limited to that of the forested areas where clans such as the Omaticaya and Tipani resided. The sea clans to the east and west were blissfully unawares of most of the effects of the disease. When news from beyond the coastal territories came to them the crisis came as a shock to Meredith but the Ikran Peoples were thankful to not have seen the brunt of such a disaster and decided to remain to themselves until representatives from the humans and other clans confronted them. The most important moment came after this crisis, in fact, when realizing that the RDA was greatly weakened by two wars in less than five years. It was as good a time as any to attempt to reclaim her freedom and find some way to clear her name against the RDA for what happened years prior at the geologic research site.
The Return to Hell's Gate[]
After almost four years of being removed from the RDA's authority Meredith, now a learned taronyu of an eastern sea clan, decided it was time to confront her past and see if there would be any way to mend her past transgressions. She traveled to Hell's Gate and was confronted by the new administrator Dr. Catherine Harrison who listened to her story and how she came to be a part of the People after the schism she caused by her traitorous actions. Harrison does not punish Meredith however, seeing it needless to pass judgment on her for actions against humans who no longer remained in Pandora. In the years that had passed since her departure many changes had come to Hell's Gate and the RDA; after the Final Battle and the frightening Malborne disease peace between the humans and the Na'vi seemed to have been achieved. Meredith is allowed back to the RDA with open arms to continue her previous position as a geologist.
It is during this time that Meredith is finally granted access to the information concerning fellow RDA personnel, such as the arrival of Norm Spellman to Pandora...and the fate of Tom. Her previous suspicions and confusion from years prior collide with grief over finally having to cope with his death many years earlier on Earth.
Acceptance into the Omaticaya[]
Meredith, shouldered with her accomplishments and her past deeds with the sea clan along with her newly acquired knowledge of Toruk Makto's true identity as Jake Sully, approached the Omaticaya Hometree and appealed to them for friendship. Loneliness from being away from the People inspired Meredith to try and make allies with one of the nearby clans in the jungles and, after some careful deliberation the Omaticaya clan leaders grant her permission to stay and prove herself to the clan. The Na'vi warrior, Ta'zi, was chosen as the one that would keep the clan "eye" on her as she began her life with them. In the months that follow Meredith stays with the Omaticaya and learns their ways, their stories and how to live in their forests.
The Icarus Contingency[]
With the issue of weakening radiation shielding at Hell's Gate brought to light by a powerful stellar flare hitting the colony, Meredith was pushed to the forefront of a serious and life-or-death situation to somehow protect the humans of Pandora by procuring a plan to find enough unobtanium to fuel their home without angering the nearby Na'vi clans. With little engineering training and experience with directing unobtanium mining, she is hard pressed for success in such endeavors. Luckily, negotiations with the natives and relating the crisis to them is understood and the humans were given a chance to save themselves.
Initially her work paid off, but there is always a price. Miscalculations on her part has rendered her previous proposals for their mining schedule were discovered and now the administration of Hell's Gate is forced to cope with the risk of their prior negotiations with the Na'vi unraveling. With the aid of Dr. Catherine Harrison, Jia Hawthorne and various other important personnel at Hell's Gate manage to repair the colony's shielding in time before the radiation flares from A-Centauri incapacitated them for good.
Current Events[]
Six months have passed since the incident with the unobtanium mishap and the threat of the solar flares decimating the human colony of Hell's Gate. The ISV Altair Borealis has arrived to Pandora, bringing new humans, tech, supplies and numerous empty cargo holds to load up precious unobtainium reserves. Unfortunately the ISV, as well as one of its complimentary Valkyrie ships, run into severe problems when a micrometeorite shower impacts both vessels, causing great damage. The plan to make an effort to repair the ISV is set into motion, although controversial in nature: Dominik Temple, a new arrival to Pandora and assigned RDA overseer to the colony, suggests sending Avatar Drivers in specially engineered space gear in order to aid their ailing vessels.
The plan is set into motion (without Meredith joining them) and the drivers are sent to the Altair Borealis successfully but are unable to complete the mission due to an unforeseen explosion. The subsequent disaster destroys the ISV and all its remaining cargo and passengers still in cryo.
Meanwhile, a mystery of the Na'vi begins to unfold when members of the Omaticaya and Tipani scouting forces find an abandoned Na'vi Hometree farther to the south. Meredith is seemingly far away from these current happenings however as she is being put to work on more secretive projects within her department. Her life outside the labs is few and far in between.
Appearance[]
Before her journey to Pandora Meredith appeared as a normal, typical Caucasian female, standing at around 5'7" and with an average weight at about 130 lbs. She is very thin for her height with no prominent bust or hips. Her musculature was of a fit person and her overall health was relatively normal. She has dark reddish blond to brown colored hair, gray eyes, and her nose is slightly crooked due to having it broken in her youth in an accident. Otherwise the rest of her is unremarkable.
In the years that followed after the incident with team mate Mason Gelrick it became difficult to keep her human body properly nourished and healthy, mostly due to lack of RDA support. Human food and supplies were in short supply and in present time her health is somewhat unstable but Meredith has tried to acclimate her body to take more Pandoran types of food (without too much success). She is also more susceptible to respiratory agitation and illness due to using the same Exopack to breathe over an extended period. She has lost weight and musculature due to consistent and long period use in the link bed.
Now however, after being back within Hell's Gate for almost a year, she has been able to receive a more adequate diet and has regained some of her health back.
Her Avatar is a bit more unique in that she dresses in more typical Na'vi fashion than that of the usual clothing meant for drivers to wear. She has adorned her body in various and identifiable Ikran Na'vi dress, as well as blending in some Omaticaya textiles into her wardrobe. Her dark brown hair is braided with sea animal bone and shells. Around her neck, arms and about her waist are leather-bound accessories and jewelry also made of shell beads, feather and stone. Her ears are not pierced. Meredith has adopted the standard loincloth, leather belts and also possesses a hunter's knife. Her bow is typically strapped in place on her ikran, Tezu, when she is in flight and almost always brings it with her when she ventures out into the jungle. What is perhaps most unique to her is the use of red ocher body paint that she puts on parts of her body and her face most every day in two horizontal stripes across her cheeks. This is a habit she adopted while living in the east by the sea and to this day she uses it to identify her home clan.
Personality[]
In the years since coming to Pandora Meredith has had to adapt in order to survive. Leaving the familiarity of Earth for the lush and deceptively dangerous moon five light years from home, she has morphed from a curious young woman with a love of geology to a budding hunter of the Na'vi.
Despite having undergone the perilous tasks of becoming a trusted and fledged member of a clan, Meredith knows all-too well the human emotions of fear, guilt and doubt. She does not know if she will ever become a good Na'vi hunter, despite her accomplishments, and every day she is reminded of her human identity and past despite the years that have passed.
But there are moments when she can be at peace with herself, such as looking to the other moons in the Pandoran sky, or overlooking the sea from atop of a cliff's edge. And even around the village hearth where her fellow clan mates socialize and communicate. Then, she is one with herself. The self-doubt and concerns of what the future will bring fade into the back of her mind, and she accepts the new life the Na'vi have given her. Her abilities and strengths at being Na'vi are ever-improving while at the same time her responsibilities as a geologist for the RDA are ever-growing. Even now she still feels herself walking along the edge of what it means to be human, or Na'vi.