Role
Spy
Type of Changer
Miao (Dragon Li Tabby)
Nicknames
Bell, Tabby, Li, and whatever else people feel fit to call him. The main nickname, however, is Bell.
Gender
Male
Age
22
Personality
Hiibel is playful, friendly, whimsical, and easily excitable. Almost everything amuses him, and he gets fascinated with the smallest things. Anything from a remnant of "technology," or a feather falling from the sky, whether from an Aveis or a Mutant, or even something as commonplace as a simple ball of yarn. As a Miao, he delights in tormenting Murin under the guise of "playing" and tends to jump (quite literally) at the chance to play with any other Changer (his favorite game is tag). However, he also has a short attention span and is incurably lazy. He moves from task to task quickly, sometimes completing the previous one, sometimes leaving it for another day, for another time. Maybe. And almost nothing at all can force him to do what he doesn't want. He follows no one's orders (well, almost), though sometimes he just appears to on a whim. Many people know him throughout Aethe , and he is generally well-liked and accepted. Few, even among the Army, know of his job as a Spy. Most people believe that he just likes talking, hanging out with others, and generally just having fun. He is affiliated neither with the Army nor with the Rebels in most people's minds, though because of his job to search out the Rebels, his outward views verge on rebellious. To most people, he seems to miss human company, though he does not go out and say that he wants to bring them back, for that would be treason and liable to get him killed. Truthfully, he couldn't care less about humans. If they wished to live with the Changers, so be it. If not, well that's perfectly fine too. As long as they let him do as he pleases, he has no problem with them.
Hiibel enjoys his job, if for no other reason than that he rarely has to listen to someone's orders. He gets to play around and do things on his own time, even if he has to report every now and then to Liron. Though, that in itself is fun as well. He always seems nervous, though Hiibel has never done anything to endanger him. Liron is one of the few people that Hiibel will listen to and pay attention to, for reasons he keeps to himself. He claims that it's because Liron is a funny person, and he delights in watching his many different reactions, but there may be more to it than that. While he will listen to orders by the Army Leader, he follows them grudgingly, and only because it helps him get away with small things that would otherwise be taken as rebellious or anarchic. It's all for the sake of finding the Rebels, infiltrating, and rooting them out once and for all! Or so he says, and so the Leader takes it. It does give him greater liberty with speech and actions than most of the others in the Army though... Which can cause problems for those in the Army who don't know of his involvement. He's learned to watch his mouth, but sometimes something a little too anti-Army slips out...
Hiibel is outgoing and loves to talk, though at times he says a little too much. And most of the time he doesn't even realize that he has. A name which shouldn't be known, a thought that doesn't quite fit his perceived ideals, anything that pops into his mind, no matter how out of context it is. Most of the time he can cover it up, though there are times when his cover ups lead to even more suspicion. As a spy, he faces harsh consequences for failure, namely death. As such, when he notices that he's given away too much information, he finds a way to "take care of" the informed. He tries to avoid killing as it just seems base and unneeded to him, though if he truly does need to, he will do it quickly to save the person from the pain. And he prefers to take them by surprise, so generally, if it's someone he knows well enough, he'll try to kill them quickly in the middle of a normal conversation, with no warning whatsoever. If he has to lurk and stalk people, he'll do so, but it's boring, and he prefers to leave that to others. Conversations are much more fun.
His feelings toward the Changer-human dynamic is mixed, to the disappointment of many. They lived together for a short time, admittedly with some in fear, so they could do so again, if they opened their eyes. He feels that both humans and Changers are too close-minded. Sure, they are different, sure, they dislike each other, but they have no real reasons behind their animosity. Because humans feared change and difference, they alienated the Changers. And because Changers as a whole made no effort to change their opinions, even going out of the way to form an army, humans had no reason to stop fearing. Of course, the current society is great, so he supports it wholeheartedly. He just has some similar ideas as the rebels, which is one reason why he became a spy under Liron.
He has this tendency to lose focus and to miss details. At times, he's extremely vigilant and misses almost nothing, but he becomes more and more lax as time goes on. As such, sentry duty does not fit him, and he tends to just ignore it, going off to a roof to take a nap, or wandering around looking for someone to talk to. And due to his ambivalence toward humans and his attempt to infiltrate the rebels, some rebellious acts or presence of humans might just go "unseen." Many of the Rebels know him, and a few have seen him turn a blind eye instead of reporting a human and having him killed. While he doesn't know who specifically is a Rebel, his suspicions are slowly being confirmed, and Rebels are warming up to him, so they may even begin to reveal themselves in an effort to recruit him, which of course he would accept.
Brief Description of Human Form
Hiibel is pretty tall and lanky. He is almost always seen with a smile on his face and a mischievous look in his yellow, feline eyes. His light brown hair reaches his neck and always blows with the wind. While he is rarely seen taking care of it, it never appears out of place. He makes an effort to trim his nails, but they grow surprisingly fast and sharp. When he doesn't feel like taking the effort to cut or file them, he covers his hands with gloves.
Brief Description of Animal Form
As a cat, Hiibel takes the form of a Dragon Li. His coat is a light brown with a Mackerel Tabby pattern. His eyes are a bright, piercing yellow, and he walks with a swagger. The end of his tail is a dark black. His ears stick up, and he always appears to be on the alert for something.
Human Skills/Abilities
Hiibel has great balance, agility, and speed. He is also very personable and observant. Of course, he's also extremely lazy and easily distracted, so these skills rarely show themselves. Other than that, he is skilled at searching for and finding information and seeming like he belongs where he is.
Animal Skills/Abilities
As a cat, he actually becomes smarter and more alert. He loses some of his easily-distracted nature, but it's still present and obviously so. He can jump well, has good balance, and is pretty fast. He is able to get into places which he normally couldn't otherwise. However, he loses some of the little fighting power he has, as he's a smaller size, even though he now has claws and sharp teeth.
Weaknesses
He is very naïve and often gets tricked. If someone were to find out his identity, they could continue to get information from him without him knowing. He generally tries to answer honestly, only lying when he knows the truth would get him into trouble. And when he does lie, it's often what he thinks the person would believe. However, his honesty often leads to problems, especially with his loose tongue. And once found out, he would be killed, either by the Army to prevent the Rebels from gaining information, or by the Rebels for being part of the Army.
Because of his aversion to fighting and killing, he doesn't practice. While his fast reflexes, balance, and speed (when he needs to, he can be surprisingly fast, though his stamina is very low) can help him survive for a little while, he is unskilled and can do little more than attack from behind. If brought into a fair fight, or even just one where he can't escape and was unable to take the opponent by surprise, he will almost surely die. Despite sharp claws and a powerful enough attack, he truly does need the advantage of surprise in order to win any of his battles. And while he attempts to gain it, it doesn't always work out...
His secrecy also works against him. He has to pretend to have anarchic thoughts, but it gets to the point where some people may want to kill him for them, under suspicion of being a rebel, so he cannot get protection from Liron or the Army. If he gets into a fight with the Army on suspicion of rebellion, the only thing he can really do is run and hope that it gets cleared up somehow. Hopefully it won't come to that, but if it does, he'll truly be in hiding from the city...
History
At around one, one and a half, Hiibel's eyes began to turn yellow, and they came to obviously resemble a feline's. While he had always learned abnormally quickly and easily, this was the first obvious mark of his feral nature, that he was a Changer, a Skinwalker. Unable to kill their child themselves, his parents sent him out into the Waste, the Desert, the Deadlands. Where another Changer might take him in. Where a hunting party may kill him instead. Where he may find his way to survive on his own. Where a Mutant could kill him. Where he might find his way back home. Where he might starve or dehydrate and die alone. But he wasn't sent with nothing, no. There was an object, a trinket, signifying their link with him, marking him as theirs, if anyone knew how to read it. It seems like they could not let him go completely, for he was their son, despite his mutation.
In the wastelands, Hiibel wandered and was able to find some food and drink, though he obviously couldn't last for long, especially as a young child. Luckily for him, the Leader of the Army happened across him in the desert, lying there unconscious, a silver ornament adorning his neck. He woke up at times during the trip to Aethes, but most of what he remembers is being fed water and mice during those instances. At Aethes, he continued to be nursed back to health, and a strong admiration for his savior, the Army Leader, grew.
In Aethes, Hiibel experienced his youth. He grew up with Changers and became the friendly person they all know and love today. He stayed near the Army base, watching the practices, wondering what it would be like to join and be part of the Army someday. While he spent his time wondering, years passed, and he met someone his own age there, a young Aveis named Liron, in training to be a spy. Despite a slight aversion to Hiibel due to their opposed natures, Liron and Hiibel warmed up to each other. Hearing stories from Liron, Hiibel became genuinely interested in becoming a spy and actually pursued something for once. When Liron became Spymaster, Hiibel gave him a small bauble as congratulations and worked even harder at becoming a spy. Under Liron's tutelage, he rose to the ranks of spy in the Army and enjoys following Liron's commands, though he does take the time to tease him from time to time.
Years later, he is devoted to the Army, to Liron and the Leader in particular. Trained as a spy (though not as skilled as Liron would like, despite his best efforts), he is often sent out away from the Army camp, out to investigate trails, to find out information, to determine who harbors rebellious thoughts. He sporadically wanders into the desert by his own volition, sometimes gone for hours, over a day even, sometimes gone for only minutes. Sometimes he brings back a recruit, sometimes he's empty-handed. Sometimes he comes back injured and exhausted, at other times he's barely winded. No one knows the reason for his exploits, but many assume it's just on a whim. There's no rhyme or reason for his trips, though there is one day of the year during which he always seems to be out there for some amount of time...
Rumors:
Almost everyone in Aethes, except for the very new people, know that Hiibel is a friendly, enthusiastic, playful Miao. Not much is known of his past, but there have been guesses made about his hometown and the like, but nothing has been confirmed.
He is often seen near the army base (well not very often, but definitely more often than he hangs around any other part of the city), so some believe that he has a connection to the army. These people believe that he wanted to be a soldier but gave up due to his lack of fighting ability. Of course, this is only a select few people... The majority believes that his real reason is to collect information because of a grudge. They know of his great intelligence and believe he watches the practices, so he can figure out what fighting styles and techniques they use. And the fact that he is seen harassing (or so they see it) a kestrel Changer there only supports this assumption. While they have no idea what grudge this could be, they assume that it is the root of his on-the-verge-of-rebellious ideas. And his "angry" looks toward some army officials behind their back helps to support this assumption.
No one, really, not even those in the Army, other than Liron, the Leader, and a few others, know that he is in fact a Spy working for the army. They assume that he's a lazy, laid-back person who's excitable and fun to be around. There's nothing wrong with him, but they know he'll get into trouble with the Army at some time, once they decide that they won't put up with his rebellious actions anymore, or if he takes it a step too far.
The only other thing worthy of rumor is his trips to the desert. No one can make heads or tails of it or figure out what in the world he's searching for. Some assume it's just a whim, while others are determined to find out what specifically makes him go out. However, there is no pattern for his ventures, so few realize that he's gone until he's missing, or until he comes back with some new object, Changer, or information.
Attitudes:
For reasons stated above, Hiibel feels obligated to the Leader, and he is one person whose orders he will most likely follow. Likewise, he is close friends with Liron after spending so many years working with him. He is the only other person that Hiibel will listen to, though he may pretend that he won't, taking the time to tease Liron about something small instead.
Other
Transformation is slightly painful, but not problematic for him. It does, however, take him a full 7 seconds to transform, which does not help in most situations. No one knows why his transformation takes so long, but it may have something to do with his near-death experience in the desert. Since he grows smaller, his clothing does not rip, though it does hamper him at times. He does keep sets of clothes buried or hidden around the town for emergencies, as he cannot use the special material that would link him to the Army. So far, changing clothes has not been a problem for him.