Spoiler(Or, in traditional format)

Name: Dr. Tengeri Nyoka

Gender: Female

Race: Leviath

Color: #00FF78 on #0080FF
Abilities: Tengeri has the ability to telekinetically carry a "bubble" of water with her at all times, allowing her to survive on land as long as the supply lasts. She can manipulate this water at will, allowing her to "fly" through the air, as well as using it offensively. Use of this water is typically kept to a minimum unless it can be easily reclaimed. She can take in water from any sources within three meters, including, if necessary, the air itself. Her cybernetics facilitate most of this water manipulation; average Leviaths have significantly less telekinetic ability. Tengeri is able to survive no longer than ten minutes without at least a small supply of water. Her cybernetic eyes grant an HUD as well as other simple tasks such as active scans and viewing of multiple emission spectra (visible, infrared, etc.).

Description:



Tengeri is a Leviath, essentially a race of sea serpents. About two and a half meters in length, Tengeri possesses various fins but lacks arms. Her species' telekinetic abilities make up for this fact. She has six eyes, though the three on the right side are artificial. Her mouth is full of small, sharp teeth, but due to not-fully-recovered structural damage she is at least temporarily incapable of speech. Much of her body has been destroyed by burns and subsequently replaced by various cybernetics, the power source of which is a small core in the front. She is green-blue in color, with light blue (or, in the case of the cybernetics, red) eyes. Tengeri is surrounded at all times by a field of water, ranging anywhere from an inch to several feet in "depth". Tengeri is usually very amicable, using force only if absolutely necessary.

SpoilerWoo, I got someone to do a drawing for me XD

SpoilerExtracting “Jetsam Engima” file 02023…

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Porter, S. (1213, approx. 1000 s.y.a). The Journeyman. Unexplained Mysteries of Katreporu, (2245, approx 60 s.y.a)

The demon was identical, in all superficial appearance, to Reilen on the day of his disappearance, yet it was nothing like the smirking, unscrupulous predators of the wood folk stories had warned me of. When it first arrived, my brother wrapped around its apologetic husk of a soul, I could not believe what I was seeing.

I believed it even less, after having heard the demon’s fantastical tales. I never truly did accept the man’s stories, until the otherwise unremarkable day he vanished without a trace. Just as he had warned me.

We met the evening he staggered onto the property, trembling, smoking at the edges, and doing his utmost to hide his terror at the latter fact; close to five days after my brother disappeared on one of his numerous hunting trips. Seeing only a doppelganger coiled in my brother’s visage, I was, understandably, horrified. The demon, grimacing with obvious discomfort, repeated the word stuttering repeatedly from my mouth:

“Reilen?”

Before exploding in a burst of flame. It occurs to me only later, that unused to our repeated regeneration, that he fought the impulse for five painful days. His screams lessened as the process reached completion, until he rose from the ash, older than my brother, black hair flecked with steel mined from his eyes.

The demon gave me one wary glance from his crouched position on the ground, before standing and lowering his gaze.

“I’m deeply sorry, sir-Serral. Your brother is dead.”

The words were handled awkwardly, as though he struggled to place the unwieldy things where they belonged. I looked him up and down, grappling with the wrongness of this creature, his quiet honesty that forced me to believe his words. I considered accepting the loss of my brother, and sending the demon that had borrowed his form to carry the message on its way.

I let him in. He said his thanks, followed me to my brother’s room, and collapsed on the bed without a further word. I did not hear him again until dawn, when I awoke to begin the day’s work. The demon said nothing as he watched me wander the house, but nodded when I told him to get ready. He was a capable worker, his inexperience atoned for by his ability to learn. Exceptionally fast. Other than a tacit request for clarification, and replying to every order of mine with a quiet “understood,” he said little else. He never asked anything of me, save to borrow my few books, but never a request to spare him my inevitable questions. I sensed given time enough, he’d tell me, so I waited.

Despite the fact he caused no harm to anyone, the demon was strange indeed. Most unnerving was the way, new life to new life, within, he was the same, silent, steely-eyed man. I never saw him different, and sensing he’d understand even less than I would, did not press him.

Fall came, the cart was loaded with the summer’s produce, and we embarked on the annual three-day trip to Tanika. Reilen would’ve joked about this being the year he’d bring a nice lady back to the farm, like he always did. If the demon was apprehensive about meeting others, he did not show it. The first night was spent in our usual silence, but on the second I offered him a leather pouch full of his wages. He shook his head (that day, he had green eyes and softer features, though his hair was flecked with silver like it always did when it burnt black) and told me to keep it. I have noted what he said, as clearly as I can remember.

“I won’t be staying long,” he said. There was a long silence, during which he watched me from the corner of his eye. “I’ve appreciated the last few months… they’ve been peaceful. Just… please let me stay for however much longer – there’s no need to pay me if you simply give me a place to sleep.”

It was the most I’d ever heard him say at once, and it must have been obvious how I wanted, but did not expect more; because he nodded, sighed, and stared into the darkened woods while he gathered his thoughts.

“You thought of me as some demon, when your brother reappeared?”

“I-“

“No, it was understandable. I shouldn’t have done that – I didn’t understand regeneration then.

As you probably guessed, Serral, I’m not from here. I’m not even from this world.” The demon was silent for another while, and continued when I had nothing to say.

“A long… very long time ago, Serral, I angered an- I angered a demon. It punished me by tearing me from my home, and casting me in another world. And another, and another, and another after that. Some worlds, he would wait until I had almost forgotten my tormentor, before he-” here, the demon paused, teeth gritted in anger “-plucked me out of that life and moved me on. In others, I grew so dispirited I thought I’d end it, but he watched over me and carried me off again.”

He stops again, this time to raise his gaze to meet mine.

“Even now, more than anything, I still want to return home – if only so I can die there.” He quells my protest at this defeatism with a wave of a hand, a tired expression. “I’m waiting for the demon to make a mistake, send me somewhere with the magic or technology to escape him.” The demon smirked. “Before this began, I didn’t believe the former was real. But I’ve been proven wrong. So many times.”

“Perhaps the Elder in Tanika-“

“No, Serral. I doubt she could help me at all – and if she could, I’d be gone before I stepped through her door. Like I said, this world’s nice. I needed the break.” The demon smiled for the first time, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I appreciate your concern though, Serral. Thank you.”

Something occurred to me in that moment. “But… if you weren’t Telpori-Han, why do you… you-“

“look like one? My body didn’t last long getting dragged through time and-“ he seemed to search for a word here, and settled for “-across worlds. A little scrap of a ghost is all that’s left, but I can draw from the world I’m dropped in and rebuild myself each time. I… I appeared near your brother, and I suppose I took his form. Until I regenerated.”

The demon appeared to be considering continuing, but on seeing the look of disbelief on my face, shrugged a little. “I’ll just vanish, one of these days. I’ll look back fondly on this time, though. Good night, Serral.”

After that one night, the demon retreated into his usual tacit ways again, until the midwinter night when I returned to a deserted homestead. True to his word, the demon was gone – and the only thing on my mind was the realisation I had never asked for a name.

SpoilerTor Kajan, age 53, was born July 3rd, 2382 aboard the Niri-Duntul Nulhu, a diplomatic vessel en route to Bertrand City, the second largest city-ship in the Human Federation and the closest to Telpori-Hal space. His mother was one of a dozen diplomats sent to negotiate a permanent agreement between the Telpori-Hal and the Inter-Species Confederation, and his family was one of the first to make their homes on a human city-ship.

Tor and the few other young Telpori-Han were taught well enough by the tutor brought by the diplomats, but their differences in age meant that they had to do most of their studying on their own. Tor did well enough in the assigned curriculum, but he found himself especially drawn to his parents' fields- his mother, the diplomat, was always happy to help him develop his skills working with other people and cultures, and his father, the engineer, would let Tor join him in the engine room and show him the ins and outs of their ship whenever they went on trips to other cities.

In his late teens, Tor got a job at a store fairly near his home, but was soon fired because his employer didn't like him taking breaks every 45 minutes or so to regenerate, simply telling him to "tough it out a while longer." The official justification was entirely fabricated, and had it not been for the risk to the delicate diplomatic process of joining the Inter-Species Confederation, his family might have launched an equality lawsuit. Similar things happened several more times until, in his mid-twenties, he was fed up. He'd had it with uncaring bosses telling him to just "suck it up", he'd had it with explaining his species over and over to every person he dealt with for any significant period of time, and he'd had it with having to always check that there was a fireproof place within a few minutes of wherever he was. He wasn't going to deal with it any more, and he had just the plan to manage it.

After a fair amount of research, he eventually found an opportunity on a small shipping company- a single ship, a crew of about 10 or so, and no more than four people of the same species. The captain, a Hattallan by the name of Glenn Ternell, valued inter-species cooperation quite highly, and when Tor approached him about the opening as the assistant engineer, his situation endeared him to him just as much as his skill with a wrench.

After about five years, the ship's primary engineer left, leaving Tor the sole person responsible for the ship's upkeep. As the years went on, the crew changed and grew, Tor eventually moving his way up to second-in-command.

When Captain Ternell passed away in 2419, the crew broke up. Tor hadn't spent much on luxuries over his career up to that point, and he had a fair amount of money saved up. Taking out a loan, he bought a ship of his own, and on August 15, 2419, the Phoenix was launched. Several of Ternell's old contacts immediately took up contracts with him, and that was enough to get him started.

He never stopped studying human culture, but he never really forgave them either. He'd met very few humans who had been open and accommodating to his species, and he never stopped having to explain things, and he could always see that momentary expression of "whoa, that's freaky" cross their face. He learned more about their history and culture so that he could conduct business better, but he always preferred doing his business with other nonhumans.

It was 2436 by the time he was abducted, and he'd made a decent life of it. He'd done a few things he regretted and a few that weren't quite legal, but he'd made his life as best he could.

SpoilerReaperistic, your username as in your actual Forum username
Also, I am going to enter later today, should I just edit this post, or make a new one?
You can PM me the answer if you feel that is better

SpoilerHoly crap every time I finish reading a character entry I refresh the page and there's like five more.