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Post by [AlphaSuicune] on Jun 20, 2009 13:50:55 GMT -5
Character
[/u][/size]Name: Given no real name, and as he could barely read, he interpereted the code 'KHR-8' on his cage and experiment sheet as a name, 'Khera' (pronounced ku-HEH-ruh)
Age: Eleven
Gender: Male
Pokemorph: Umbreon
Appearance:
Deathly pale skin, on a normal person, would be the first thing you would notice about Khera. It covers his whole body and, whilst in retrospect not surprising due to the fact that much of his body was artificially created in an environment with little or no natural light, it is very disconcerting and almost worrying to look at. On a degree close to albinism, he doesn't like spending long amounts of time in direct sunlight, mainly because he chars rapidly without factor one billion cream on. He also has extremeley sensetive eyes; they are an almost unnaturally vibrant green in colour, accentuated by dark eyebrows, and seemingly underlined eyes. A dark streak, almost like a tear marking, falls from each eye; an indication, perhaps, of his partially avian Pidgeotto DNA. Either way, along with his solemn eyes it gives the eerie expression that he is always crying.
However, something much more noticeable than even his skin colour is the pair of long ears positioned on the top of his head. They are coated in soft, black fur, the same hue as his hair. Approximately halfway up each one is a thin, neat band of dark green fur, with tapering marks almost dripping down from them. They tend to glow in dark places, or at night, making the boy something of a walking lantern. He also has similar marks scattered over his body; cirles with marks around the circumference, almost reminiscent of an ancient depiction of a sunburst. They are both mildly ironic and a little creepy, giving one the unshakeable impression that this boy is a being from another time, region and possibly even planet, depending on how energetic your imagination is feeling at the time.
There is not much more of note visible on his sallow face. The skin is in general unblemished; no scars are visible, thus taking us to the subject of his hair. As aforementioned it is an ebony black, like his ears, and falls between his eyes, to split neatly in two above his nose. The rest of his hair is a mess, with scruffy ends that almost reach his shoulders. Despite this ruffled appearance, it's quite glossy and well-kept, in places having a soft downiness not dissimilar to the texture of feathers. The word 'hairbrush' is quite foreign to him, but his general appearance is of a person who could do with one.
Moving down onto his frame, it's overall quite lanky; a small feathered ruff is visible between his two pectoral muscles, but there is nothing else particularly out of the ordinary. His ribs are shockingly well-defined, and this coupled with his gaunt face causes him to look bizzarely like a skeleton. Above his large shoulder blades, there is a patch of skin that is covered in soft feathers; two tiny wings resembling a Pidgey's are seemingly stuck there. They don't match at all with the rest of his skin; the word 'Frankenstein' springs to mind, perhaps? They aren't practical in the lightest, but are sensitive almost to the point of ridiculousness; Khera often objects to wearing a shirt simply because it chafes against the petite limbs. The green 'sunburst' marks can be found on his flanks here; his fingers are thin, and bizzarely have no palm lines, giving the appearance of tight-fitting gloves being worn at all times. Down onto his legs which are likewise quite spindly; the remaining two green marks are apparent on his thighs, a mirror of those on his arms. His feet have small pink pads on them; seperated into four toes and a tiny 'big toe' further up his heel, he tends to walk balanced just slightly on the balls of his feet, with elongated ankles, in a satyr-like fashion. The strange body comes replete with a thick tail, and dark fur that goes up his spine almost to his shoulders, above where the tail melds into his flesh. At a glance, he appears to have next to no muscles on his bony frame, but looks are misleading in this case; small, concentrated muscle tissue has been implanted into all his limbs. When the necessary 'programming' is switched on, the boy matches the strength of an adult man in good condition.
A quick word about prototype KHR-8's brain. 'Wierd' is a gross understatement; it's been edited so much it isn't entirely his brain any more. His memory section has been erased, wiped blank; the section of his brain that controls his body and the connecting cords between the lobes have been shrunk, and instead the sector for absorbing and storing new information has been opened out and expanded upon. Khera can absorb many times the amount of information a normal person should be able to in one sitting when it's switched on. That's another large abnormality; a small mechanic device, fitted into the cerebral lobe, takes a certain kind of radio wave. On a person's control (if they have the necessary 'remote), the instrument sends electric pulses through the brain to stimulate it. Khera was bio-engineered as a remote-controlled weapon; hence why the part of his brin that allows him to actually control his body as unnecessary, and was mostly cut out.
Personality:
...well, really, what can you say? In this world, the person's daemon is an embodiment of their consciousness outside of their body. It helps them to feel emotions and, to some extent, controls their personality. A person with a daemon is, in some ways, no more than an empty shell. Remove, via surgery, completely the part of the brain that controls emotions and the according chemicals; endorphins, adrenalin, pheremones; and you're basically left with a robot. Distressingly, this is what this boy has become.
So instead, to flesh this out a little (LOLPLUG), let's have a little about the healthy boy BEFORE he underwent surgery to turn him into a genetic weapon. Grown, not made, like a certain brand of ketchup, Khera had little contact with normal people during his early childhood. Of course, normal in this sense means the ones not wearing white coats, goggles, smelling of chemicals and generally trying to screw with his brain to make him a mindless kill-machine. He was naïvely curious, and enjoyed learning as much as a three-year-old boy could. A commonplace bubbliness was present in him, and a driving enthusiasm. Paint a picture? Sure, great! Um, we need red, green, blue, orange, purple, white, black, fuschia, indigo, terracotta, viridian and ochre paint, I'll go get them! Being without other kids as playmates didn't seem to have stunted his growth; indeed, it was written on an early report card that 'the boy shows surprising development... it is almost a shame to edit a specimen so energetic'. He didn't have much contact with Pokémon, either; most of the scientist's daemons settled as intellegent Pokémon such as psychic-types, so his daemon was forever copying, say, 'Mister Funny-glasses' fluffy daemon', or 'Miss Poofy-hair's big, scaly daemon with pointy teeth'. He's the kid who would go 'Pikachu? What's one of those?', and was incredibly, extremely attached to stuffed animals. Giraffes, cats and dogs, hippos, birds... you name it and if it was plush he'd have it somewhere in his store pile. His favourite was a small, worn Eevee toy. It was a present from one of the scientists who was assigned to monitor his social development; he was always delighted by the soft fur of her Eevee daemon, and so, naturally, the toy pleased him greatly.
A few dying emotions still linger in Khera; not least, a small spark of envy. People with daemons, people who were complete... he wonders why these people can reach happiness when he cannot. Seeing people with healthy daemons still generates envy in him; sometimes, other emotions too. Contact with other people's daemons can do strange things to the boy's head; sparks of willpower; anger, and sadness at how he had been treated, and a deep pain. On his favourite Eevee toy, a couple of the scientists took pity on them; they sticked a bundle of hairs from Khera's old daemon onto the front of the Eevee plush's felt ruff. Sometimes, when Khera touches these hairs, it's as if he had a little piece of his daemon back. Of course, the creature had likely been terminated soon after it was separated from him, but it brings the boy some small comfort.
History:
Khera was engineered to fight as- ...no, no. Wait a second. If I wrote out Khera's current history now, it would be so much Greek to you. The story actually starts back, when strands of DNA and chromosomes were first looked upon by scientists, who scratched their heads and thought new and interesting thoughts along the lines of 'if people had wings, who would need helicopters?'
Around the time of the second world war, (honest, Pogeymans have wars too), the Hoenn government gave a research grant to a dedicated group of scientists. They were to examine and contrast the genome types between Pokémon, and study the viability of creating human-animal or human-pokémon hybrids. The work was kept hidden from the rest of the world; if word got out that the goverment was funding reseach that involved slicing up many different species of Pokémon and even some humans, there would be an uproar. Nonetheless, certain comapnies began to take interest in the rumoured experiments being done.
At first the results were almost all negative; extracting and clipping DNA sequences was near-on impossible manually, and the enzymes required to do it were many and varied. To combat this, a seperate area of research was set up; it was quickly found that, after some experimentation, different enzymes 'clipped' the DNA sequences at different places, and they could in fact be artificially produced. Another early flaw was that, as humans after all share about 90% of their DNA with Nanab berries, it was extremely hard to find and single out the necessary sequence of DNA to make any difference when spliced into a different creature.
This setback was breached quite by accident. On examining the DNA found in the back of the brains of certain Pokémon, it was found that there is a large amount of dormant DNA. When analyzed, the strands didn't resemble any other in the creature's body. Other experiments revealed the DNA to belong to other species of Pokémon; the cause for this remains to this day a mystery, but the scientists weren't about to turn their noses up at an easy map to the race-specific DNA of a lot of different Pokémon.
Naturally, soon followed the first Pokémon-Pokémon hybrid. It was both relatively simple and a complete disaster; the scientists attempted to graft Murkrow DNA onto a Pidgey. The resulting embryo lived for a few hours before dying.
Of course, the team's first question was 'what went wrong?' It turned out in later tests that the wrong parts of the DNA sequence had been added. The resulting combination was made to produce a double set of lungs and no brain, which was kind of a problem. The operation was refined and repeated, this time with a partially-developed foetus. This time the results were just a little more optimistic; this time, the baby survived. Unfortunately, it died at a few days old, before it could take its first breath.
Naturally, the technique was refined over time and with more experimentation. More advanced, more risky hybrids were created; and a few of the sucessful hybrids were walking around the lab as proof. So far they were all two species of Pokémon, however; and as fun as mixing a Bidoof with a Magikarp was, it wasn't what the government had paid the scientists to do.
The next advance came from an unexpected source. Team Rocket had plunged in at the deep end, and on a police raid of their headquarters some shocking finds were made. Staring folornly up from glass cases were human subjects. One was covered in patchy areas of flaking scales; another had half its head submerged in a large fungal growth. The horrors kept coming - it was like some sort of freak show. Then they found the remains of the experiments that had been sucessful - slices of brain on a white table, and organs suspended in bubbling fluid. Not nice.
Still, the research notes were things that couldn't be passed up, and soon after the first human-pokémon hybrid was created. The new breeds were dubbed 'Pokémorphs'.
Of course, it was impossible to keep the new toys secret for long. Soon, word got out of these 'half-pokémon monsters', and there was a lot of criticism of the government. Many of the research branches were shut down; those that weren't not had an increased security régime. Nobody was allowed in or out of the goverment buildings - including the Pokémorphs created.
The first 'morphs designed specifically for fighting were nicknamed 'the Helios Project'. They consisted of several Pokémorphs melded with the genes of 'fierce' Pokémon; Feraligatr; Vigoroth and Monferno were among their ranks. They had had special attachments installed into their brains which allowed them to be remotely controlled, by sending special electronic pulses into the tissue. The technology had been specially developed for it, but not perfected; one of the 'morph's brains was fried and they had to be terminated post-experiment, but overall it was a sucess. The scientists had engineered something that could fight in a war; a remote-controlled soldier with enhanced strength and stamina, and special abilities. They were on their way to creating the ultimate fighting machine.
Of course, there was one problem. The 'morphs couldn't help being controlled by the new technology, but that didn't mean they had to be happy with it. Mutiny was swelling in the ranks, and the scientists knew they had a problem in their hands. It became just a little more pressing when it was found that some of the 'morph's daemons had... problems. Some wouldn't settle; others became mute, or worse, blind; some of them became completely detached from their owners. All this was a problem. They were trying to make soldiers, not little wimps who cried about how their daemon can't see no more. Something had to be done.
Then the brainwave came. Cut away the 'morph's daemons. Surely, if a daemon was what allowed people to feel emotions so strongly, and if they were part of the problem, eliminating them would be downing two birds with one kebab stick. Naturally, none of the government-sponsored scientists were happy about this. Some thought it was going too far. Engineering people, yes, as long as it was to protect people, but slicing away people's souls was simply... barbaric! Then another research grant was issued, and suddenly people were able to overlook the horror and start thinking about the 'how'. Saying that you were going to cut away people's daemons was one thing; actually doing it was quite another.
Okay, short time jump here. I'm, sadly, not going to go into the actual science of how they made this machine, mainly because this is meant to be readable for people who aren't scientists. Just take my word for it that they managed to make the machine, m'kay?
Anywho, they did. The machine seemed to work. The people had a lot less personality... but then again, they also had a lot less emotions, and after all, since when do fighting machines need to have personalities? As far as the scientists were concerned, it was a very good idea. They were practically on a roll.
The first use of these new soldiers in a battle came soon after the technology to cut their daemons away was implemented. The soldiers performed exceptionally well; one of the first sucesses for the government 'morphs. Outside of the cushy and well-run government labs, other teams were making Pokémorphs for their own sinister purposes (reputedly, Team Rocket were back in operation, and had created a boy with jet-black hair and the ability to sense and control Aura), but they were ignored for the time being.
This was about ten years ago, when the scientists were studying the possibility of 'test tube babies' - 'growing' their subjects. Finding parents who were willing to let their children be experimented upon was a problem, and if the alien DNA sequences could be inserted into the experiment at an early stage it opened up new possibilities; not least, more advanced brain manipulation than they would have thought possible. So far, winged 'morphs had all been failures - now, though, there were possibilities for some more adventurous combinations. Happily for the research team, the lab-born subjects idea worked like a charm, and they were able to press on with their experiments.
A young lady bent down and stared into the shockingly green eyes of a small boy. As she extended a hand, at first he regarded it as if it were a bomb, then reached forwards and patted it gently.
The lady smiled.
"Hello, there. I'm going to be working with you from now on."
As she stood back up, the boy twitched his long black ears curiously. His daemon was currently resting in his lap as a tiny Vulpix, occasionally blowing smoke. They'll have to cut that soon, the woman thought. Plus he still has to have some of his brain removed.
It's almost a shame passed momentarily through her head, before she shooed the thought away. He was indeed a charming little boy, but he was built for war. He had been created purely for that purpose. He'd never find happiness anywhere else. That was what she told herself to stop the nightmares. It generally worked.
"Miss?" The boy's staring green eyes were fixed on her face. "What's that?"
He pointed to her daemon; a slender Gardevoir, oddly female, who turned her head to watch him curiously. The woman smiled.
"That's my daemon, Shinala. Say hello, Shinala."
The Gardevoir-daemon turned her body, so that her skirt ruffled, and looked down at the little boy.
She's right. The boy's face lit up in wonder as the daemon spoke directly into his head. Pleased to meet you.
The boy reached up to touch the new creature; then thought better of it, and dropped his hand. The lady smiled.
"Like I said, I'll be working with you from now on." The boy tilted his head in confusion.
"Working... with us?" Petting his daemon, he looked utterly confused. The woman gave a tinkling laugh.
"Don't worry. It'll all be explained soon enough."
-x-
The boy pressed his hands up against the glass sides of the machine, worried eyes staring out. The woman watched from a few feet away, impassive face set in stone.
A flick of a switch and the machine whirred to life. The small boy shrunk back against the glass as the metal above him crackled, a beam slicing down between him and his daemon. Panic flickered across his face as he suddenly realised what was happening, and he reached out a tentative hand and too late
-x-
One of the team stood back a few steps, seemingly to survey the specimen from a broader angle.
"All in all, a brilliant sucess. He's sentinent, you say?"
"Absolutely." A woman raised a hand out of her white starched pocket and clicked her fingers. "It seems a demonstration is in order. I shall get KHR-8 to perform a task. Quite a simple one; well inside his capabilities. Khera! Can you look over here, please?"
The boy's face turned slowly, almost imperceptibly, towards her, and a soft gasp was heard from the assembled crowd as they saw his face. It was deathly white, and two tracks running from his eyes looked like tear streaks. Slowly, he got to his feet, moving slowly and yet with an alien grace, and moved over. The woman smiled, and tapped a few buttons on an unseen remote.
"Khera, dear? I'd like you to do something for us." She held up a note inside a crumpled envelope. "You know the lab down in the village? Of course you do. Can I trust you to take this letter to the professor there? He'll give you something. I want you to take very good care of it and bring it back here. Okay? Okay, fabulous. Here you go."
She extended a delicate hand and pressed the letter into his outstretched palms. Holding the creased paper up to his face, the boy studied it, holding it gently as if it were a fragile insect of great intrest, before looking up and nodding slowly. The woman smiled at her colleagues.
"We shall await your return, then." The crowd watched, hushed, as the monster without a daemon turned and left, walking on almost silent feet out through the doors.
-x-
Career:
Not very applicable.[/center]
The Daemon
[/u][/size]Horrifically, Khera has no daemon. It was severed from him, as anyone who has just read that needlessly long 2,000+ word history shall know. Do I need to put anything else here? I don't think I do. Birdy?[/center]
