Solomon Madison (born 12 June 2052, died 15 April 2112) was a research scientist and philosopher at H+XTROPY labs.

Early life and death

Solomon Madison was the only child of a neurosurgeon and politician, who encouraged their son to read widely and think deeply in all manner of subjects. As a twelve-year-old, Madison won a nation-wide academic decathelon; the next year as a middle school student, he falsified his registration records and cut school in order to compete in a debate intended for high school students, which he won by some margin.

In 2070 he met Michael Miller and the two became the playful ringleaders of the experimental H+XTROPY sub-lab, which provided funding for the research on a variety of transhumanist concerns. Madison played the grounded realist foil to Miller's exuberance and enthusiasm and together they made a very successful combination. Madison was very shaken by an experiment that went terribly wrong and almost took the life of their young friend Kenneth Heppe, and became disillusioned with life in the sub-lab. At this time, he used all of his savings to build a small, no frills sub-lab nearby with the intent of talking Miller into moving to a separate location. The superflu put an end to those plans and the project for the private sub-lab was hastily finished.

Madison was lukewarm on the project to create a new psychedelic drug called jack, one that created a temporarily alternate reality for the user, but Miller talked him into it. Along with Heppe and the much younger Marlon Simmons, the four of them successfully completed their experiment and, at Madison's urging, vowed to depart from H+XTROPY labs at the conclusion of testing, which they did in March 2112.

Madison and Miller found life difficult in their squalid little lab and, when they weren't sharing jack-fueled hallucinations, tended to bicker. After one such fight, and against Miller's warning, Madison went for a long walk in the spring rain. He a few hundred yards from their sub-lab home when four attackers fell upon him, stabbing him and shooting him once in the side during the struggle. Finding he carried no valuables, they left him to die in the mud. He managed to crawl home and knock weakly on the hatch, only to die in his lover's arms.

Disposition and traits

Upon initially meeting Madison, people often found he came off aloof and cold. Those who grew to know him understood his dry and subtle sense of humor and that his serious demeanor was a facade for a very mischievous dark brand of humor. It was said that if you didn't like Madison it was because you didn't know him well enough; and if you knew him well enough, you loved him as a brother. He was immensely popular in H+XTROPY labs.

Goals and motivations

Madison felt very strongly that the time for living underground had passed and that the dwellers of H+XTROPY labs needed to emerge to make a mark on the world. The irony that he himself had invested in a sub-lab was not lost on him, yet he grew frustrated with Miller's apparent contentment with living out their final days in a hole in the ground addled by drugs. His frustrations overwhelmed his normally unflappable sense of common sense, which in turn led to his death.

Primary residence

Solomon Madison was laid to rest atop a small hill near the Miller-Madison sub-lab. A rudimentary gravestone carved by his partner stands at his grave.

Attributes and Abilities

Madison was erudite and extremely well-spoken, seemingly never having to fish for the right word. Throughout his life he was told that he would make a great salesman, which he took as a backhanded compliment he took great glee in despising. Madison was thin to the point of being unhealthy, ate little, and exercised less.