Kalos
Full Name: Damon Glass; obsolete and unknown to him
Nickname: Kalos, based on the root word for ākaleidoscopeā, meaning ābeautyā
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Mutation: Wing; artificial
Role: Exterminator; a man-made mutant in service to the government, currently employed in capturing the escapees.
Human Form Description:
Like all winged mutants, he is small-statured and slenderā¦ but above all, he is captivating. His every feature is marked with a strange allure befitting of his moniker, Kalos, be it his physical beauty or the minute details of his mannerisms.
His complexion is a few touches darker than pale ā a normal hue ā yet the texture of it gives Kalos an ethereal quality, only accentuated by every other trait he possesses. His fringe sweeps across his brow, dark brown hair framing a fair face. It curls in shallow waves around his ears and has a tendency to breeze into his vision. They curtain the pale blue glow of his eyes, bring them out, and in turn his eyes draw people in. The frail frame of Kalosā bones gives him almost a childlike charm, yet his somber demeanor betrays his age.
Resonance Form Description:
Kalosā most powerful form is his half-transformation, deemed āresonance formā by some humored chemists. This stage is when his mutations manifest, and his beauty transcends itself. In this form, he is mesmerizing. His skin adopts an iridescent sheen, giving the subtlest shimmers of brilliant blues or gentle greens in the right lighting. His pale blue eyes grow paler still, until they shine silver like mirrors. If he wills it, he can make his irises bloom with an array of color and have the hues shift so illusively that those who look, so fascinated, are unable to look away.
Magnificent wings sprout from his shoulder blades, a different pattern every time ā Kalos is one of few who has mastered this skill. He did so out of necessity, for his true wings cannot fulfill their purpose well enough. His redesigned wings tend towards a cold color scheme, particularly shades of blue, green, and violet. This manipulation of his wing-patterns takes up excess energy, however, so he can never stay in resonance form for too long lest he risk exhaustion or fainting from fatigue.
In this form, the quality of his voice is enhanced as well. His usual voice, a soft and pleasing tone, adopts a natural reverb. It is well-attuned to the hearts of those who hear it, thus granting him greater power of suggestion than he possesses in human-form. His voice, like that of most Wings, leaves listeners desiring more.
Familiar Form Description:
In the end, though, a mutant cannot conceal its true form. Should Kalos merge with his familiar, the true pattern of his wings take shape: nothing. Yes, the true pattern of his wings is absolutely nothing. It is almost a cruel joke that the laboratories should fuse Kalos with the genes of a Greta oto ā a glasswinged butterfly ā when he was forced to abandon that same shade of name. The wings of his familiar and his true form are transparent, clear as glass. The only thing that differentiates them from real glasswinged butterflies is the color of the outline. Normal butterflies have reddish borders on their wings. Kalos and his familiarās are blue. In this form, he is very fragile, being a tiny insect with only a 6cm wingspanā¦ though, if itās any comfort, he is toxic?
Personality:
Kalos thinks the government cleverā¦ terribly clever. For, you see, by having most mutant hunters be mutant themselves, artificial or not, the government effectively made it so that it is impossible for them to do anything else with their lives. He has no choice. Kalos knows this all too wellā¦ so he is resigned.
A common phrase of his is that ālife is what it isā, claiming that it canāt be helped. In that sense, he can seem laidback or easygoing, his insouciance bordering in carelessness. He seems to have an ever-present smile, a small lilt to his lips as if everything amused him in some way, shape, or form. He seems to take most things in stride, simply adapting to happenings as they occur, but thatās merely how he seems. Those who think that as his true character donāt know him at all.
The smile is an illusion, just a habit born of procedural memory. Though he does laugh, especially with the occasional sarcastic remark, it is born of fleeting amusement, rarely happiness. Though he claims to be a realist, heās more of a pessimist. He firmly believes that expectations exist to be overturned, and thus actively tries not to have any expectations from anyone or anything. Thatās why when it comes time to make a decision, he seems indifferent or apathetic.
The apathy he feels is forced. In truth, he craves control over his life, seeks some form of security in it. He comes up with specific plans very quickly, and knows how to carry them out. No matter how hard he tries to stop making assumptions, stop having expectations, itās a consequence of being sentient ā itās impossible for him to stop. So often, he is thwarted. He canāt stand something going differently than he expects or had planned. He canāt handle losing that small bit of control he has over his life.
This is also why he is drawn to his powers, even though he despises their effects as well. His subconscious need for control coupled with his history gave birth to a sort of callousness in him. After all, he was designed to aid in capture and killing. Though his role is usually to immobilize and persuade, itās been more than once that heās convinced a stray mutant to kill themselves on order from higher up. Itās not that he likes to do it. He just feels that he has no choice.
There was a time when he was gentler, warmer. He was chivalrous, almost, in his younger years, and surely that foundation still lingers, buried beneath his burdens. There was a time when he tried so hard to control his powers, make the effects disappear. Now he doesnāt attempt to curb his abilities under any circumstance. He wonāt inconvenience himself for anyone elseās sake. Their problems are their problems. Some would call him selfish, but heās aware of that. He believes that he is very self-aware, knowing of all his flaws and weaknesses.
He doesnāt realize that this belief is his biggest flaw and his biggest weakness.
Vernacular:
Perhaps itās due to the ācarelessly insouciantā image, but he has a certain way with words. Heās free with them. Tact seems a lesser concern for him, and he sometimes lets accidents occur. A minor insult here. A thoughtless comment there. He says all this with the same small smile as always, and apologizes for it when he deems it necessary... but again, the aspects of his life he can control, he does. The frivolous words he spouts were each carefully selected before they were said. If ever someone gets him to speak without thinking first, that is when they are, at last, peeling away his faƧade.
Likes:
- raspberry sorbet ā itās a rare treat; he likes sour, refreshing foods in general, especially when itās cold
- camaraderie ā he likes the feeling of being with companions, building bonds; unfortunately, Kalos believes this all to be an illusion
- autumn leaves ā he likes to try and catch falling leaves; thereās a strange sort of triumph in succeeding, after all
- cool weather ā he relishes a bit of wind, even if he canāt quite navigate in it with his feeble wings
- control ā in a life where he feels that he has no choices, he takes hold of what little control he has
- vanity ā he canāt stand people who are overtly proud of their own beauty, be it an other or a human
- snow ā cold weatherās nice, but not that cold; never that cold
- hot weather ā he hates it even more if itās humid; he hates the feeling of air clinging to his skin and wings
- spicy foods ā heās terrible with them; probably the only thing thatāll get him to flush in the face
- insect collections ā seeing butterflies pinned to wood inside a glass case hits a little too close to home
- his wings ā at least the natural transparency of them; he feels like theyāre a reflection of his soul, and the nothingness disturbs him
- his physical fragility ā itās not more than once that heās hated his petite and delicate stature
- physical contact ā people can be addicted to him through touch; past experiences have made him averse to physical contact
- hope ā all itās ever done is let him down; hope gets nothing done; itās a foolās sentiment
- harming those he cares for ā a remnant of his past; nowadays, however, those he cares for number few
- his powers ā specifically, he fears that everyone around him is simply staying with him because they are drawn in by his abilities
- having only no choice ā he is genuinely afraid of the idea that there are no choices in his life; that he is resigned to living a life set in stone
- snakes ā to a lesser degree, Kalos has what he calls a āslight aversionā to legless reptiles
Weakness:
Though he craves control in his life, when it seems like thereās no choice left, he gives up. He stops fighting. Heās struggled too hard in the past and been disappointed too many times. āLife is what it is,ā and no one can change that, least of all himself. He also cannot put his faith in those around him. He is too preoccupied analyzing intentions, wondering if theyāre merely affected by his abilities, to trust them. Then, of course, thereās the more obvious physical fragility, though he did receive some training in evasion and self-defense. He canāt handle a powerful other, but he could probably manage a weaker mutant or human long enough to get away.
Familiar's Name: Psyche
Gender: Female
Familiar Personality:
The familiar Psyche, as the Greek name of origin, could be considered a manifestation of Kalosā soul. Pure and gentle, she is the foil to his callous character. Whereas he has adopted a lethargic view on everything in the world, this little butterflyās a busybody. She flits about here and there, trying to be a comforting presence to everyone she can. Her optimism and love for fairweather skies is a counterpoint to his more pessimistic view.
Despite their differences, their bond is strong. Kalos is gentle with his familiar, and it is around her that his former kind nature reemerges. When it rains, he shelters her in his hands, and when she has something to say, he always listens. He can be quite kind when he wants to be ā now if he would expose that part of himself to someone other than her, Psyche would have no concerns. Their bond is so strong that prolonged separation causes great emotional distress to the point of a physical burden. Kalos needs his familiar to keep him grounded and stabilized, to keep him from delving too deep into his more negative thoughts.
Psyche knows all too well how fragile and helpless she is physically, so she tries to give as much emotional support to her allies as she can. Of course, she knows that the one who needs her help the most is Kalos ā noā¦ Damon.
Unfortunately, despite their bond, he is the one who rejects her aid the most.
History: too long; you donāt have to read it
Damonās first memory is that of pain. In the haze of his feverish memories, he remembers blurred colors, muddled sounds, and screaming. The screaming was his.
He was a child donated to the government when he was less than five days old. From infancy, he grew used to the pricking pain of needles as they drew blood, biopsies, ran other tests in order to find a genetic compatibility with available mutant data. All the while, they were pumping the child with supplements to prepare him for his hybridization. They found his genetic match when he was four months old, an age when he couldnāt even roll over. They injected him with an extract, a butterflyās DNA restructured with a winged mutantās genetic code, and he fell violently ill. Damonās body rejected the serum. He grew feverish and every cell of his little body seared with pain as it resisted the recoding of its genetic sequence. When certain cells were converted, the others began to attack them, until it was literally a war within his body itself. He only survived because of the supplementary injections the scientists had given him. This painful stage lasted two weeks.
Even after most of his cells were mutated, it took a long period time for Damon to recover, and even longer for him to stabilize. However, a success was a success ā his parents were alerted to this development, when the laboratory in charge of the boy was given an unusual request. The parents said they did not wish their name to be associated with the newly created mutant in any way, shape, or form. In that way, the name Damon Glass became nothing more than two crossed out words on an old file.
The doctor in charge of him, called Voulgaris, was new to the Project Zero program and sympathetic. She thought it would be too cruel for the child to live without a name. Upon looking upon his newly mutated form, she was struck by his beauty and chose to call him Kalos, a Greek word meaning beauty. As his primary caretaker, she grew fond of him, and if asked she would say that back then, her affections werenāt because of his mutant power. She thought of him almost as a son, and on official files, Kalos was registered under her surname. She broke several rules regarding interactions with the manmade mutants, but at the time, she didnāt see the boy as a mutant. She saw him as the human boy he once was.
However, in the end, he was a mutant, and because of his mutations, Kalosā body developed rapidly. He learned to walk, talk, and read all in the same month. At the end of his first year, though his mutations had still yet to fully stabilize, he was as physically mature as a five year old child ā such was the effect of a butterfly gene. He was then immediately set to training and studies. The training was to help him gain control of his powers, ultimately to allow him to enter resonance form. The studies were to inform and prepare him for his purpose in lifeā¦ as well as try and ensure that he would never turn against the government.
His life was monotonous in that way until about his fourth year. By this time, his rapid development had slowed, and he was growing at the rate of about a twelve year old child. This was the year that his mutations finally stabilized, and the year the scientists finally realized why his resonance form would not activate. One day, they found the boy speaking to a little glowing butterfly with transparent wings. The reason he could not transform, they found, was because he hadnāt possessed a familiarā¦ but that all changed.
Under his primary caretakerās influence, Kalos named the little butterfly Psyche, after the Greek story of a woman who grew butterfly wings after enduring hardships and empowered peopleās souls. For the first time, in his familiarās presence, Kalos felt completely and wholeheartedly content. However, he could now attain resonance form, and his training continued onwards. He was taught how to enchant mutants, hypnotize and seduce them to obey his will. Or, rather, he was taught to have the mutants obey the will of the government. Not his will. Never his will.
And he was forbidden from using his abilities on humans.
Unfortunately, that wasnāt something he could control. It was a natural, unconscious happening. He learned this when one day, they changed his primary caretaker from Voulgaris to someone else. He broke several rules to find out what happened to her ā used his abilities, even, to find out why they would replace her. He found her in the hospital wing, suffering. Through prolonged contact with her charge, she had unwittingly grown addicted to his touch and voice. It had grown too dangerous and she risked serious physical repercussions, so she had chosen to be transferred awayā¦ and suddenly, it all made sense to Kalos, how she had grown fonder of stroking his head or hugging him. Even his name became clearer to himā¦ and he also found out that it was not his true name. This was when the first wall was built.
And there were many more walls after that, but elaborating on his training and the people he met during it would take up far too much time. However, there were a few people who left their mark on him, both in good ways and bad.
