Son of Seve Rodriguez, an Argentinian polo player (and alter ego of Conrad Berthelmes) and Ashley Warren, Walter Bishop’s lab assistant.
CEO of Massive Dynamic #1, Liberty
Known capabilities:
Science!
Eidetic Memory
Affinity for Languages
Limited Shapeshifting
Doctor of Magic, with specialities in Mech-Tech, Defensive and Mental Magic
Creator of the Swirl, a small Design which is responsible for stabilising his adoptive homeworld of Liberty, which was previously under threat of disintegration, because it was metaphysically too close to St James.
General Information:
Jackson falls into the charming rogue category. He was brought up in Lincoln, MA, on St James, and immersed in Science! at an early age, due to the fact that his mother worked closely with the not-entirely-sane scientist Walter Bishop, and his partner William Bell. She often took Jackson to work with her once he got old enough to appreciate it. His father, when he was around, was a strict disciplinarian, but he did take the time to teach him Spanish and German, while he was young enough to learn them easily, as well as English, and encouraged his love of sport. However, Jackson always had trouble applying himself to his full potential, which annoyed Seve no end.
When Walter was undertaking trials on a drug to try to enhance the psyche of his young subjects, Ashley smuggled doses of it to her son (unbeknownst to Seve), hoping it would help him with his studies, and continued to do so even after the main trial was terminated. This caused him to develop an Eidetic Memory, which it took him a long time to learn to manage, and did little to improve his academic abilities: he barely passed most of his classes, and his report card in several subjects declared him lazy or slow. However, he excelled at swimming and running, and at least passed sciences and languages, and Seve pulled some strings to get him a sports scholarship.
He managed to graduate a year early in science and maths, because he could see the textbooks in his mind’s eye, but by then his memory was driving him quietly crazy. It was only intervention by his father, who taught him some mental techniques on how to organise the mass of information he was accumulating in his head, which stopped Jackson going certifiably insane. It helped, but as a reaction, instead of the promising post-graduate careers his professor’s had expected, Jackson ended up bumming off doing anything else intellectual. A short while later, his parents divorced, and for all intents and purposes, Seve dropped off the face of the planet, leaving Jackson little but a legacy of gold of dubious origin in a cave in Argentina, and ownership of a hacienda and wine estate.
Jackson didn’t take it well, and became a professional sportsman, competing in the Modern Pentathlon at Olympic standard. His father’s legacy meant that he had enough money to play the dillettante as much as he wanted, without actually having to make a living. He travelled, making contacts and doing odd jobs for people, not all of them legal (the latter usually under the nom de guerre Jack Deacon, who became book keeper to much of the Miami underworld, as he never needed paper records). However, he was eventually pulled in by the FBI when they needed someone to talk to Dr Bishop, who was still in a mental asylum. Jackson ended up being the point of contact, and became involved with then FBI Fringe Division.
It was through the Fringe Division that he first became aware of the world he now calls Liberty, a St James analogue with a lot of problems, and an inherent instability which risked it becoming consumed by the Abyss. As he became more familiar with it, he discovered that its existence and predicament could both ultimately be traced back to his father, and the cave in Argentina where he stored the gold – which as it turned out wasn’t exactly on St James – and he took it upon himself to help the Liberty authorities to save their world. This was ultimately achieved by the Creation of the “Swirl”, which has both stabilised the world, and caused it to move away from St James, so the two are no longer at risk of grinding each other into non-existence.
He became CEO of Massive Dynamic ‘#1, Liberty, on the death of William Bell in a Fringe Event before stabilisation was achieved. Having known Bell as as child, Jackson had renewed acquaintances with him in the couple of years prior to the latter’s death. Massive Dynamic St James remains under the control of Nina Sharp, but the two CEOs do communicate on a regular basis.