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Robotics is considered
an older practice that's not
dealt with as much,
especially in Zion, where
manual labor is a heavy
hitter
PATRICK ADDAMS
CEO/LEAD DIRECTOR
Patrick had picked
up the knack for robotics
after being gifted a
smaller model by his
father for his birthday
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Patrick Addams was the original founder and Chief Executive Officer of Variation Tech before the company was eventually transformed into Variant Labs under Adrian Carter’s leadership. Throughout Zion’s scientific community, Patrick was remembered as an older generation professor and robotics major.
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While few viewed him as stubborn and outdated in his later years, there was no denying the influence he carried within both the laboratory world and Zion’s higher scientific circles. Long before Adrian Carter ever stepped foot inside Variation Tech, Patrick had already spent decades molding some of the systems and industrial foundations that laboratories across Zion still relied upon.
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Patrick originally began his career under Phoebe Knox herself, serving directly beneath her as both an assistant and research partner during Zion’s earlier scientific rise. During that period, Phoebe was still known as one of Zion’s greatest minds, and Patrick genuinely admired her brilliance. But while others around her became intoxicated by her unusual choices, Patrick slowly became one of the first people to recognize the darker direction her thinking was heading toward. Even before the fall of North Zion, Patrick reportedly argued with Phoebe behind her doors over morally questionable decisions.
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He spent months trying to make her see reason, often acting as the only sensible voice within private meetings. Those efforts eventually failed as Phoebe’s obsession deepened into something far more dangerous. Witnessing that transformation permanently shaped Patrick’s worldview and heavily influenced the kind of company he would later build himself.
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When Patrick eventually founded Variation Tech, he envisioned it as a laboratory rooted in practical science and old industrial development, straying away from what Phoebe was trying to do. Patrick became known throughout the company as a strangely approachable executive, even with dabbling in the scientific field. Zion also gave him room to build on his studies, as he and President Phase Zion were both intertwined in the same circles.
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One of the most important people Patrick ever took interest in was a young Adrian James Carter II. Long before Adrian became CEO, Patrick personally trained him within Variation Tech and introduced him to much of the scientific world Adrian would later dominate himself.
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Though Adrian and Patrick constantly clashed philosophically, Patrick still played an enormous role in shaping the man Adrian would become. Adrian inherited much of Patrick’s understanding of laboratory structure and operational control. Even many of Adrian’s habits inside Variant Labs mirror Patrick’s older routines without Adrian fully realizing it. Their relationship became increasingly hostile in Patrick’s later years as Adrian pushed for more experimental approaches while Patrick desperately tried preserving the older principles Variation Tech had been founded on.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
​Patrick’s longtime assistant, Lyle Smith, openly despised Adrian almost from the moment he arrived at the company. Lyle viewed Adrian as arrogant, impulsive, and dangerous to the stability Patrick had spent decades building. As tensions between Patrick and Adrian worsened internally, Lyle became fiercely protective of Patrick and frequently argued against Adrian’s growing influence inside the company.
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Lyle was one of few remaining scientists who stuck around the initial transition from Variation to Variant, and eventually left after Adrian took charge.
Over the course of his career, Patrick received numerous medals and industrial commendations. He regularly participated in private council discussions with higher authorities including Phase Zion and other senior political figures tied to Zion’s scientific oversight divisions.
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By the time Patrick reached his seventies, his relationship with Adrian had completely deteriorated. Patrick increasingly viewed Adrian as the embodiment of everything he failed to stop in Phoebe Knox years earlier. Patrick ultimately died during the catastrophic industrial accident inside Variation Tech that would later result in Adrian assuming control of the company and transforming it into Variant Labs. Official reports described the incident as a machinery failure during a public demonstration. Unofficially, rumors spread almost immediately throughout the company that Adrian had somehow been responsible, whether intentionally or not.
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Even years after his death, Patrick Addams remains one of the most important figures in the history of both Variation Tech and Variant Labs overall. To some, he was the last responsible scientist Zion ever produced. To others, he was simply an aging man terrified of progress. But to Adrian Carter himself, whether he admits it or not, Patrick Addams was still the man who raised him into who he eventually became.
