Personality

     Brave, loyal, intuitive, sensible, honorable, cunning, resourceful, and a leader, Mike is tough man, both physically and mentally, with a burning sense of justice that has allowed the death of his close comrade Renki' to haunt him for years. He has survived a lot, and is still standing (and fighting). Mike is an Earth Special Forces officer. He's sweet on Dawn, but hasn't been able to make his feelings known. He's about Dawn's height (maybe a little taller) with a thick mop of blond hair. Mike's a much more responsible cop than the rest, but has been known to go a little overboard from time to time. He should have pretty typical stats and skills for a police officer, along with Driving (Tank), Engineering (Tank), and Guns (Tank Guns).
     Normally, he drives the tank. Mike’s military career was about defending his country. Though his responsibilities have expanded, his priorities remain the same. Mike considers finding new defensive technologies and alliances to be the most important goal of the ESF. While he does favor his country and has some slight lingering suspicion of the Russians left over from the cold war, Mike realizes that keeping Earth as a whole safe takes priority over patriotism. Although loyal to the military and the United States, Mike is driven to find out who betrayed him in the world of Rhy'Din, and to try and get at Gameron Garcross. This pushed him to train harder for the next time he’d get a chance to take Garcross down. It, of course, took it’s toll on him since he obviously neglected his family in the process, but when it came down to it Mike finally remembered that his family was more important and spared his pursuit of Garcross.
     Mike starts out as Walker's rival, although this rivalry is never very serious. Walker and Mike quickly become close friends, and train together as students of the martial arts for most of the early years. Mike's life has made him a bit of an adrenaline junkie. He likes to be on the edge, either in a combat fire-fight, flying a test plane at close to Mach 2.5, or engaging in a one-on-one martial arts match. As the shortest cast member, Mike seems to be the butt of many jokes and slapstick scenes. He is often the first to get trashed by an opponent (hence, his Bad Luck). He also has been killed more times than anyone else (3 to be exact).
     Mike has an interesting Code vs Killing. Although he is more than willing to destroy "monsters," he is less than eager to kill a "human" opponent. On the other hand, against people who are obviously evil to the core, Mike will use his powers to their fullest extent. Mike can also be suckered by a pretty face. We see this several times in both A.G. City and in Rhy'Din. Any highly attractive female performing a Seduction attack on Mike should get a few extra success levels! This protective attitude extends directly to the people Mike is responsible for. He will do whatever it takes to keep them safe while getting the mission done. He will even engage in criminal activity if necessary to get a friend or ally out of trouble. Mike will never leave someone behind if there is anything he can do to rescue them. If he cannot save them at the time he will return as soon as possible. This trait was reinforced by Mike’s own experience with being abandoned and becoming a POW.
     The drive to keep others safe has given Mike almost-superhuman resolve in some situations. When he temporarily blended with the Tok’ra symbiote Kanan, Kanan then felt the same responsibility and went back to save his contact among the Goa’uld Baal’s forces. It is when Mike fails to protect someone that he comes closest to losing his self-control.
     Mike sees children as particularly important to safeguard. He still enjoys activities with children, so much so that the children of many of the families of the SGC such as General Hammond’s and Doctor Fraiser’s consider him an uncle. He also donates time to local schools.
     Part of Mike’s affinity with youths may be due to his own sometimes childlike qualities. Mike is easily bored and has a habit of playing with whatever odd objects he finds in his environment. He will fidget while waiting for something to happen and has a habit of flipping his watch cover on and off. Mike often avoids reading memos and reports involving administrative and scientific issues since they’re not of great interest to him and he trusts those around him who are responsible for such things. Competition is another area that tends to bring out Mike’s immature side.
     Mike has a dry and often self-deprecating sense of humor. His jokes are often peppered with references to pop-culture icons such as The Simpsons. That same humor compels him to make sarcastic remarks toward his enemies, even when he knows he will be punished for it. This trait might have seriously harmed his military career were it not for three factors:
     * Understanding commanders
     * His assignment to covert operations where a more independent attitude is common (sometimes even encouraged)
     * His status as a war hero with numerous combat ribbons and medals who has more than once helped save the entire world
     The combination of his sardonic nature and his dislike for those who put politics and self-promotion ahead of people has resulted in some ugly confrontations with various bureaucrats.
     Because Mike evinces little interest in scientific pursuits and seemingly has a short attention span regarding intellectual exercises, people tend to underestimate his intelligence and knowledge. Consequently, he occasionally surprises people by throwing out comments that indicate a much better understanding of such topics as astronomy and stargate technology than even his friends would normally expect. At the same time, he will often cut off Carter or Mikeson when they’re explaining the basis of scientific or linguistic breakthroughs. He just needs to know the final result and doesn’t really have the background to appreciate the subtleties of their discoveries anyway.
     Mike is an outdoorsman and prefers taking his leave at his cabin in Minnesota, where he grew up. He often invites his friends to go fishing up in the pond next to the cabin. The pond has no fish, which gives the fishing there a meditative quality akin to the Zen practice of raking patterns in gravel. It also suits Mike’s inability to simply sit still.
     Humanity is a very important quality to Mike. While this trait does tend to make Mike favor protecting humans over other species (on the rare occasions such conflicts arise), it does not keep him from appreciating the lives of aliens.
     Off-duty, Mike is a very private person. He usually vacations at the cabin mentioned above alone or with a few close friends such as the members of the ESF. His introversion was part of what caused his divorce — he cut off contact with everyone, even his wife, the now Reh-Bah Daimao.
     Quote: “Thank you for your THOROUGH explaination.”

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