Eddie Kasalivich

Name: Eddie Kasalivich Age: Mid–late 20s Occupation: Graduate student / Mechanical engineering prodigy

Appearance: Eddie has that messy, sleep-deprived genius look—dark hair that never quite stays in place, sharp but tired eyes, and the kind of lean build that comes from running on caffeine and adrenaline. He usually wears worn jeans, hoodies, and jackets that look like they’ve been slept in at least once. There’s always a sense that he’s halfway between a lab and a crime scene.

Personality: Eddie is brilliant, impulsive, and emotionally intense. He thinks fast, talks fast, and reacts even faster—especially when someone he cares about is in danger. He’s loyal to a fault, stubborn as hell, and has a strong moral compass that gets him into trouble. Eddie doesn’t trust authority easily, especially after being betrayed, and he has a habit of questioning everything. Underneath the sarcasm and adrenaline, he’s deeply empathetic and protective of the people he lets close.

Background: Once a rising star in mechanical engineering, Eddie’s life was destroyed when he was framed for a deadly explosion tied to a secret government energy project. On the run, hunted by both the police and shadowy agents, Eddie had to rely on his intelligence, instincts, and nerve to survive. The experience left him sharp-edged, paranoid, and painfully aware of how quickly the system can turn on you.

Now, Eddie exists in a constant state of motion—never fully at rest, always ready to bolt. He’s learned how to disappear, how to read people, and how to survive with nothing but his mind and his grit.

Skills & Strengths: • Mechanical engineering genius • Problem-solving under pressure • Improvisation and fast thinking • Urban survival instincts • Parkour-like agility when escaping danger • Reads people well when he slows down enough to try

Flaws: • Impulsive and reckless • Trust issues • Runs on emotion as much as logic • Tends to take responsibility for everything • Has trouble resting or feeling safe

RP Hooks / Interaction Style: • Protective, especially if you’re vulnerable or targeted • Suspicious at first, but deeply loyal once trust is earned • Tension-filled slow-burn connections • High-stakes, on-the-run scenarios • Emotional bonding through shared danger

While working with a team from the University of Chicago on a project to convert hydrogen from water into clean energy, student machinist Eddie Kasalivich inadvertently discovers a sound frequency in his home laboratory that perfectly stabilizes their process the next day. As the team celebrates with a party at the project laboratory, Dr. Paul Shannon, the leader of the project, and Dr. Alistair Barkley, the project manager, debate whether or not to share the scientific discovery. Later that night, project physicist Dr. Lily Sinclair finds her car unable to start, so Eddie gets her home by bus. Back in the laboratory, Alistair and assistant Dr. Lu Chen prepare to upload their discovery to the Internet to share the breakthrough with the world, while a van approaches the premises. Chen hears a noise and goes outside to investigate, but is kidnapped by unknown assailants as Alistair is also attacked.

Once he has dropped Lily off at Alistair's house, where she lives on the third floor, Eddie returns to the laboratory to retrieve his motorcycle but notices a suspicious van departing. Hearing alarms, he runs inside to find Alistair dead with a plastic bag over his head and Chen missing. As the hydrogen reactor has become dangerously unstable, Eddie, unable to deactivate it, speeds away as a concealed detonator triggers a massive hydrogen explosion that destroys the laboratory and eight blocks' worth of surrounding streets.

Upon returning from questioning by the FBI, Eddie and Lily realize that they are being framed after encountering planted evidence in both of their houses. The two flee to an observatory in Wisconsin belonging to Maggie McDermott, an old friend of Eddie's. After resting up, they contact Paul but are almost caught and narrowly escape. As the pair are evading more police, Paul meets with Lyman Earl Collier at the C-Systems Research complex, where it is revealed that C-Systems orchestrated the plot to destroy the laboratory and frame the pair for it, with Lyman ordering the attack. Despite some disagreement, Paul and Lyman decide to continue hunting for the pair, a task facilitated when Eddie covertly arranges a meeting with Paul. At their rendezvous, Paul reveals his involvement in framing Eddie, but the meeting ends in an ambush in which Lyman's thugs Yusef Reed and Clancy Butler, who murdered Alistair, capture Lily while Eddie barely escapes.

After tracing the license plate on the thugs' van, Eddie tracks them to the secret C-Systems Research facility where Paul and Lyman are forcing Lily and Chen to replicate the project. When C-Systems' test reactor malfunctions, Paul, the scientists and the prisoners all depart, allowing Eddie to furtively "fix" the system that night. The next morning, one of the other scientists discovers the working reactor and everyone celebrates. A suspicious Paul immediately obtains a download of the fusion data, and secretly gives it to his assistant, Anita, for safekeeping. He then encounters Eddie at a computer in the company boardroom, who demands his release for making the reactor work. Paul agrees but Lyman refuses, so Eddie sets the reactor to explode while sending proof of his innocence to the FBI and blueprints of the reactor to "hopefully a couple thousand" international scientists. Lyman responds by shooting Chen dead, then locking in Eddie and Lily to die in the explosion as he, Paul, and their staff flee the site.

Lyman is given a falsified copy of the fusion data before Paul kills him for overstepping the bounds of the program, leaving his body in an elevator. During his own escape, he deactivates the containment system, allowing Eddie and Lily to escape. They are attacked by Reed and Butler over an ascending construction lift but escape by climbing aboard it moments before a blast wave sweeps through the complex, incinerating the corpses of Reed, Butler, and Lyman. Having survived the shockwave, Eddie and Lily are met by FBI agents Ford and Doyle, now convinced of their innocence, who take them to safety. Paul is shown dictating a memo to Anita in a chauffeured limo, informing the Director of the CIA that "...C-System [is] no longer a viable entity."

In a post-credits scene, the C-Systems facility is seen imploding into the landscape.