Skybox

[Code Name] Skybox

[Gender] Male

[Combat Experience] 7 Years

[Place of Birth] Columbia

[Date of Birth] Jul 4

[Race] Savra

[Height] 184cm

[Infection Status]

Medical tests have confirmed that no infection is present.

[Physical Strength] Normal

[Mobility] Excellent

[Physical Resilience] Standard

[Tactical Acumen] Excellent

[Combat Skill] Standard

[Originium Arts Assimilation] Normal

Gordon Tannen, born in Columbia, was promoted to Chief Inspector of the Columbian Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Arts Units, and Originium following the Propeller Paradise Incident. He has also been restored to his position as Chief Executive of Propeller Paradise. He has entered into cooperation with Rhodes Island to secure legitimate channels for our Oripathy medicine to enter the Columbian market, while also representing Propeller Paradise in our joint aerospace research.

Imaging tests reveal clear, normal outlines of internal organs, and no abnormal shadows have been detected. Originium granules have not been detected in the circulatory system and there is no sign of infection. At this time, this operator is believed to be non-infected.

[Cell-Originium Assimilation] 0%

Operator Skybox shows no signs of Originium infection.

[Blood Originium-Crystal Density] 0.13u/L

Operator Skybox regularly comes into contact with Originium products, resulting in heightened risk of infection.

Hope that suit of his doesn't start leaking Originium. He doesn't take it off even when he sleeps...

—Space Fin 054

[Excerpt from the Propeller Paradise Administration Rules for Secretaries]

04. Anticipate the boss's needs and serve tea at the right time by listening to the boss's voice and observing the scales around his mouth.

22. Respect your boss!! Stop bringing tea whenever you think he's thirsty. You're his secretary, not his mom! Stop treating him like a kid!

09. Do not interrupt the boss, argue with the boss, or steal the boss's words in front of other people. Actually, just shut your mouth, there's no need for you to talk.

15. Immediately remind the boss if he makes a mistake during a negotiation. If you don't, it's your fault if anything goes wrong.

12. Know your boss, and communicate his intentions with absolute faithfulness when negotiating, for you are his personal representative.

17. Use your brain when negotiating, don't just communicate his intentions. No one will take you seriously if they can tell you're just repeating what your boss said.

'Did you really spend six months under Mr. Tannen as his secretary, Mercia? Is it really possible to follow all these rules at the same time?'

'Yes. It just takes more effort. But there is also a way to make him forget all these rules and work with you in a different way.'

'Really?'

'Pay close attention to his outfit, his little robot, and all the Originium equipment and Arts units he fiddles with. Express as much interest as you can feign.'

'...And then?'

'And then, you just deal with him like you would deal with the most talkative boy in class when you were in elementary school.'

—Conversation between Mercia, former secretary to the Chief Executive of Propeller Paradise, and her successor

[Interview from the documentary Bluebeard and the Great Toothpaste Prohibition]

When we talked about 'toothpaste tubes', we were talking about vehicle coolant pipes. When the Great Toothpaste Prohibition was first enacted, we filled the tubes with toothpaste and smuggled it from Kazimierz into Columbia. No one would find out unless you took the vehicle apart.

You could only fool the ATAO for so long, though. Within six months, every checkpoint on the Columbian border had trained casters posted, and all it took was a wave of their wand to expose the goods.

It was around that time that the name 'Bluebeard' started making its rounds. He was a mysterious figure who never showed his face, but it didn't matter. No one ever saw Mr. Max during the Revolutionary War, either. What mattered was that Bluebeard could help us avoid the checks. From anti-Arts coating to invisible tubes... he always had a way.

Everybody knew the toothpaste hero who defied the authorities. They were singing songs about him: 'You can have my smokes and you can have my booze, but you can't have Bluebeard's toothpaste tube.' And you'd hear people boasting about brushing teeth with Bluebeard every night.

What happened next? Heh, he sold us out and went into the ATAO.

Some said he got bought out, other said he was coerced, but all we know is that we never heard from our toothpaste hero Bluebeard again.

—A truck driver who worked as a smuggler during the Great Toothpaste Prohibition

Gordon unabashedly describes his job at the ATAO as 'racing natives, refugees, and smugglers at the border checkpoints.'

Border checkpoints are high-speed mobile platforms owned by the ATAO. They are little more than the size of a truck, but their speed is real, and smugglers call them 'toilets running with sirens blaring'.

Gordon's primary responsibility at the ATAO was overseeing one such checkpoint, by himself all year round, chasing natives, refugees, and smugglers that crossed the border, and either negotiating with or fighting them until he retrieved the Originium hallucinogens from their false teeth, or the live Originium slugs from their tails. His biggest achievement over the years was confiscating a crown with a hundred thirty-two foldartals pasted on it, owned by a Sami snowpriest.

Three years passed before Gordon returned from the border checkpoints to the nomadic cities. At Tkaronto port, he was stopped by an excited young reporter who wanted to know if he was the outlaw hero Bluebeard. As Gordon got away from the reporter, he said:

'Sure, people were putting 'Originium' on everything they could think of, and you could say that the president guided Originium fever in the direction he wanted. But why did it have to be toothpaste?

'Took me three years to figure it out. Someone had the bright idea to corner the dental hygiene market with Originium floss, so he called on every favor he could to get this crazy prohibition through Congress. Buying and selling toothpaste was banned the next day.

'That's how the rules of ATAO came about. The rules that some people bleed to protect, and others bleed to defy. How does fighting them make you any kind of hero?'

I thought it was a thief when someone knocked on the door late at night, but it was a strangely dressed Savra who called himself Gordon Tannen. I remembered that my father had kept cursing that name the last time he came home, as though he were his actual son.

Gordon seemed very interested in everything in my house. The warped floorboards, the leaky roof, mom's red and swollen eyes, and my Gaulish accent that I could never fix. That, and my name: Gustave Baune. When Dad left, it was like he took Mom's soul with him. She missed him so much she changed my name to be the same as his, but I could never become him. He was the head of the ATAO, while I was a loser who was good for nothing but cleaning people's cars. When she begged him to give me a job at the ATAO, he slapped her.

Dad left because we weren't good enough for him. That, I accepted, but I didn't need pity from someone who WAS good enough for him... This Gordon, looking down at us from on high.

Thankfully, he didn't say much. Indeed, he didn't say anything at all for ten minutes, as we sat around a table silently, to the sound of Mom crying. He finally opened his mouth right when I was about to see him out.

'You won't be seeing your dad again. Treason. Life sentence.'

I already knew. The courts had sent a letter.

'You're allowed to change your name under Columbian law. Come find me if you want to change it back, or to something else.'

What he gave me was not a business card, but a bottle opener with a propeller on it, and the words 'Propeller Paradise' displayed prominently.

—Marlin Baune (formerly Gustave Baune), son of Gustave, former head of ATAO, in an interview with Maylander

'Gordon Tannen. You deny any private dealings with the traitor Gustave, but you have met with his son, Marlin Baune, multiple times following his incarceration, even inviting him to a tour of Propeller Paradise, where you were sighted drinking and partying with him. What is your explanation?'

'I was Gustave's former subordinate, and he was Gustave's son, so me visiting him means that I had dealings with Gustave—is that what you're implying?'

'Maylander cannot eliminate the possibility.'

'Wow, it's that easy working at Maylander? Okay, I'm reporting that pineapple pizza is evidence of a conspiracy between Siesta and Siracusa. When do I get my paycheck from you guys?'

'Listen, man. That kid Marlin cleaned cars for people in that border town for a decade. He's even smoother dealing with foreigners than I am. The only reason he's still cleaning cars is because old Gustave saw him as a disgrace. And what's worse, made the kid believe it himself. Let me tell you what I'm gonna do with him. I'm gonna open a bottle of champagne with him, and then I'm gonna get him a job at ATAO working at the city checkpoint, where he's gonna shine like he's never shined before. That's how ATAO's gonna be from now on. No freaking glory and no freaking shame. You got the chops, you got the job.'

—Interview with Gordon Tannen by Maylander investigators

Welcome to the Sky Conqueror solo exhibition. I am your guide, Space Fin 054. The tour is about to begin. Please turn off your mobile terminals.

The first exhibit is a video disc set of the classic 70s drama, Sandwalker.

Sandwalker, which depicts the exploits of a free-spirited Kuranta warrior, instilled a certain idea of freedom in an entire generation. Students often skipped class to play 'Sandwalker' on school grounds.

Young Gordon did not join the other children's games after watching Sandwalker. But one afternoon, several trucks from a nearby construction site drove onto the school grounds, and turned it into a sea of sand in front of the stunned security guards. Nobody knows how Gordon fooled the foreman and security, but everyone remembers how he put on a cardboard helmet and raised his arm triumphantly before charging into the sea of sand. The schoolchildren had two hours of unprecedented fun before Gordon was dragged into the principal's office.

Gordon said, 'If you're already skipping class, why settle for standing on the playground spouting lines from the show?'

Exhibit 13 is a game disc released in 1082 by Blue Box Co., Columbia.

Gordon's approach to gaming is unusual. While this game is not considered particularly difficult, he played through each stage multiple times until he reached the inventory limit for all equipment and items, before challenging the final boss. The plan was to use this wealth of items to overcome the boss with ease. However, game discs at the time had a short lifespan, and it broke down when Gordon reached the final stage, so he never managed to beat the game.

Gordon said, 'What's the point of reaching the boss if I don't crush him the first time?'

Finally, we have here a shrub from Sargon.

Originally a tiny bud picked from a wooden stick, it has now entered its fifth generation under the nurturing of Gordon's 'Growth-Encouraging Loudspeaker' and 'Nutrition Lightbulb'. Today, every street tree in Propeller Paradise is a descendant of the original bud. Another 100 saplings have been sent to Rhine Lab, in the hopes that this tree that survived the harsh environment of the foehn hotlands can become the first plant to grow outside the Starpod.

The item previously belonged to an explorer Gordon described as 'a hateful free spirit'. He apparently declined an invitation from the explorer to travel together, not because he was uninterested in going where no one had gone before, but because he saw no point in unburdened exploration.

Gordon said, 'That budding stick would be nothing but a stylish walking stick in your hands. Give it to me, and I'll show you a moving forest the next time you see it.'

'Excellent, Five-Four. Absolutely perfect. You finally understand my needs.'

'When will this exhibition be held, Sky Conqueror?'

'There's no rush. When I pry all of Columbia off the face of Terra and conquer the skies with everyone with super propellers.... that'll be the day. For now, your mission is to recite those descriptions to me every night before bedtime.'

A normally stoic Rhodes Island medic broke down in tears when he saw Rhodes Island medicine on the shelf of a Columbian drugstore.

In just six months, Rhodes Island's Oripathy medicine made rapid inroads into the Columbian market, which had been secluded itself for more than a decade. There is a long way to go until prices drop to a level affordable by the average Infected, but no one can deny that it is a huge first step.

Gordon Tannen, Chief Inspector of the ATAO, has never shunned any opportunity to flaunt his well-deserved pride as chief architect of this development. Following the incarceration of Gustave, former head of the ATAO, and the subsequent changing of the guard at the agency, Gordon Tannen has strengthened his own position while intentionally shredding the relationships that a certain corporation built into the ATAO for the purpose of enacting stringent Oripathy drug laws, enabling its monopoly.

However, rather than emphasize the help he rendered to Rhodes Island, Gordon boasts more often about 'building great things together with the Doctor'. Operators not in the know might believe him to be one of the Babel-era veteran, an elite operator operating undercover, after hearing him boast for two hours straight.

In fact, his first encounter with the Doctor was in Tkaronto four years ago, in an ATAO detention cell. Gordon had been working the border checkpoints for three years, and his only job in Tkaronto was to bring meals to the prisoners in the cells. At the same time, the Doctor had turned themself in in order to get the the ATAO to crack down on Mama John's, which had set a trap for Rhodes Island.

The dealings between the two of them began when the Doctor noticed a few extra meatballs in the dinner that Gordon brought.

'ATAO has every means at its disposal, and ATAO never fails. It's like a portable Arts unit with ready-to-cast Arts installed. All you need to do is aim and shoot, and anyone can buy one of those at an outdoor equipment shop for the price of a few hundred certs.

'The president can use it. Maylander can use it. Capitalists can use it. So why not us?

'That was the most important lesson I learned from the Doctor spending three days behind bars. And all it took was a few meatballs.'