Description
Xvander's natural shape is somewhat amorphic, a black tar like creature. However since arriving near Wing City he assimilated the body and knowledge of a local weapon's dealer. He has taken in the man's work with a passion. The vanity of his race not letting him pick someone who isn't attractive by local standards.
Tall and broad shouldered the body is powerful. Short black hair and a close trimmed beard, his nature expresses itself in the man's appearance through a sinister air to the man. When he grows agitated or otherwise is threatened his skin becomes pale and black veins rise to the surface.
Personality
Xvander is a ruthless man, and will go to any lengths to get what he desires. He is ambitious and has large goals, both on and off planet. He is patient and willing to wait for his goals to become more achievable, while setting things in motion for long term pay outs.
Xvander's people have a natural psychic webwork that draws them to one another so they may hunt and/or mate. Being young he cannot consciously use it yet, however this does not diminish his ability. He comes across as having a powerful presence, charismatic, attractive, alluring and dangerous. It also makes him highly aware of any psychic happenings around him.
He is drawn to violence and finds it a perfect expression of his race. The more violent, the more desirable the person is, either as an ally, mate, or possibly target for assimilation. However directionless wrath and destruction are something that he frowns on, finding them distasteful.
Equipment
The basic ability package for his people is one that they all begin with. However they have a form of active evolution that takes positive traits from other species to build into their own skills. Xvander is still quite young and has a limited set at the moment, but he hopes to grow with leaps and bounds in such a... genetically diverse setting such as Gambits.
He is still quite young and mostly restricted to the human form that he has taken, however he has already expanded on the abilities of the mere human. Pushing the peak of strength, stamina, durability, and dexterity along with his own regenerative capabilities and senses have made him formidable to any who expect a normal human. However when he exerts himself in any way his inhuman nature begins to reveal itself: His skin starts turning lighter to shades of white while his veins become more pronounced and instead of red are black to the naked eye. As he matures he will be able to control this, however he is still young.
Xvander's people have a natural psychic webwork that draws them to one another so they may hunt and/or mate. Being young he cannot consciously use it yet, however this does not diminish his ability. He comes across as having a powerful presence, charismatic, attractive, alluring and dangerous. It also makes him highly aware of any psychic happenings around him.
To acquire an ability he must first observe the target and get a sample of their genetic makeup. His primary method of sampling is a sharp nail and a scraping of skin, blood, or even hair. While others of his species seduce others with their mind or bodies he is not yet powerful enough, in his own mind, to leave the sampling up to chance. From there it takes time to replicate the DNA within his body to usable quantities. If the ability is compatible he ads it to his general matrix. He is not automatically proficient with any ability he gains and must also spend time practicing his newly acquired ability.
A gift of his progenitor his has a battle form to help him survive if things get dire enough for him that even his enhanced shell cannot withstand. His battle form lets him briefly draw on his ancestral DNA to its fullest potential and his body shifts into a thing of war and death. However the transformation is painful and short lived, he cannot maintain it for long or else his energy expires and he may die.
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs39/i/2008/321/3/a/Symbiote_by_mseprini104.jpg
History
Xvander comes from a powerful race of creatures spawned from the toxic pits of a distant massive world, located deep within Wild Space, where the gravity is several orders of magnitude greater than on Earth. The creatures of that planet were forced to cope with the lack of sustenance by being able to hunt down any and all sources of food and being able to exact every last nutrient out of them. From this toxic quagmire arose a particularly vicious species, the Uradu. Though small in number they more than make up for it with their natural abilities and diabolical cunning.
The Uradu developed from a symbiotic species that would live among the large predators of the world using their own abilities in conjunction with the hunters. However when they developed their own sapience being second fiddle would not do. They began integrating their bodies with those of the predators, taking them over, eating them from the inside out and, inadvertently, taking their genetic material with them, bonding it to their own. From there the Great Culling began and the Uradu spread. They began devouring every species on the planet, multiplying and absorbing. Each generation more powerful than the last incorporating the various species benefits into their own. It took only a single solar cycle, some 12 Earth years, before the planet was almost entirely barren of life, save the Uradu.
There was a brief period of peace, about ten whole minutes, before the Second Great Culling began and the Uradu turned on each other. This battle was much longer lasting and brutal that the first. Their abilities multiplied as they devoured their own kind and only the most intelligent and cunning were able to adapt to the influx of genetic material without becoming overwhelmed by the information stored within their genes and going berserk.
After 100 cycles, 1200 years, there were only six Great Families, and the original numbers that covered the world has been reduced by more than 99.999%, leaving a population of roughly 50,000 globally. Each family is the direct descendant of the still living Head of their line, the sole remaining survivors of the First Generation: Mekyl, Clombak, Rith-eon, Pilomak, Zevquori, and Ravlyn. Though there are minor Houses they are subservient to the Great Houses. An uneasy truce exists between them with complicated politics existing between each House. The leadership of the race transferring from one House to another every cycle.
They are still the ruthless hunters and given that all other species were eliminated the only source of sustenance was cannibalism. Until the Visitors arrived. An alien exploratory vessel investigating the possibility of mining the apparently barren world, unaware of the intricate network of volcanic and natural tunnels under their landing spot. Their ship's weight collapsed one such tunnel as they were exiting their ship and in an instant they were beset by the Uradu. A particularly quick thinking Uradu took one of the prospectors prisoner and spirited him away to the court of the leading Great House at the time, Ravlyn. The prospector was tortured for information, however they did not have a translator and communication was impossible. Impossible until one member of the court, one Jerash, an older and highly skilled member of the court, offered to merge with the alien and see what could be gleaned though the process.
It was an unmitigated success as Jerash learned all that there was to know from the prospector, taking all his memories and skills for his own, even taking on the alien's form as his own until he chose to reject it. With his newfound knowledge he was able to take a few likewise cunning members of the court and enter the ship, merging and assimilating the remaining crew. With their queen's permission they left the planet with a raiding party. By acting as a ship in distress they were able to lure in several other ships, then the raiding party would take them over and take them back to the home world. From there the ships were dismantled and the Third Great Culling began. Spreading out across the planet with off world weapons and technology House Ravlyn conquered the other Great Houses. However even the off world weapons were unable to slay the immensely powerful First Generation. Ravlyn was able to capture them and have them moved off world with the captured ships and each left on a different moon where they would have to hibernate just to survive the lack of atmosphere. Thus Ravlyn became the only free member of the First Generation and the defacto queen of the entire race of Uradu.
From there the first great setback of their kind. A raiding party attacked an outpost on the edge of Wild Space and were unprepared for the technologically advanced response. This new race outstripped those that had first been overcome by the Uradu and they were slaughtered. A single survivor was found floating in space, hibernating in the vacuum by an unsuspecting mineral transport ship and the survivor was able to get back to the home world. More incidents like that occurred until there were few of their captured ships remaining, as yet unable to build ships of their own, though the industry, built by slaves and designed by those who had consumed various engineers and those few ship designers they had been able to capture.
Ravlyn's policies changed and the infiltration began. It was clear that thy were not as technologically advanced as other races and there was only so much knowledge they could take at any time. So they would wait and build their power slowly. Raiding parties became more cunning and would take live prisoners to the home world as slaves, though few survived the harsh environment. The rumors of this warlike race have spread among those that venture into the torturous area known as Wild Space and those unlucky ones who come looking for them are rarely heard from again.
-Personal Bio-
The creature now known as Xvander was spawned for the sole purpose of spying on the area known as the Multiverse Convergence. A rocky pod was made to contain and protect his larval form until he descended through the atmosphere near Wing City and crashed into the coast. He swam through the waters, devouring what fish and prey he could, for nutrients refusing to absorb the genetic material of what were clearly 'lower lifeforms' until he came across a human, a man by the name of Alexander Price, a weapons dealer. He had happened to swim into the private beach of the man and none of the man's guards gave the small inky shape, mostly invisible against the rocks any thought. Until Alexander shouted in alarm that he was being attacked. He went down and by the time he was pulled ashore he had slipped into a coma. The only sign of attack a bite had been taken out of his leg, though one of the guards said that they saw something slithering into his leg shortly before he blacked out.
Alexander spent two weeks in a hospital while doctors tried to diagnose what was wrong with him. All the while Xvander grew, spreading along his neural pathways and devouring them, replacing them with his own cells, absorbing the genetic material of the man, infesting his brain and gaining his knowledge and skills. After two weeks all of Alexander's core had been replaced and Xvander woke in his place. He immediately went about a new and aggressive business strategy, eliminating other local weapons dealers, his predatory mentality not allowing any competition. In the weeks following he has completely replaced the man's every cell with his own aggressive ones.
However he has received his directive and has moves his business into Wing City proper, using what connections he can gain to gather genetic material from across the multiverse. Some he takes for himself, trying to increase his own power. Other samples he sends to his homeworld through a currier.
So begins...
He swims over towards her, submerging again and rising by her. "We each have our own way, some consume flesh, others hibernate, some meditate. I cleanse, purify." Not giving out information on his home world, but broad information without dedicated use was admissible. "I made these pools. There are other ways, longer, less painful, less effective." He seems to yawn, stretching his jaw wide and when it settles again it is more human, though the eye is still missing the lid has regrown and covers the empty socket. His flesh is becoming lighter as well and the contrast between his skin and the liquid accentuates how emaciated he is, the exertion of the battle burned off a great deal of muscle which now must be regrown and repaired.
Xvander snorts and swims backwards to the middle of the pool for a bit to organize his thoughts before coming back to the edge. "Do demons cull? Weed out the young, the weak," not including the old because it doesn't occur to him to, the older you are on his word the stronger, this is an almost universal truth. "It is like that. It is a weakness of my world that escaped, that can be taken advantage of, used against us, or used to find out about us. Therefore it must be eliminated. I do not care about the host, but the parasite must die." He sinks below the surface again, twisting slowly before rising, his hair is starting to grow now on a previously bare skin, rapidly filling out to cover his face and head.
He shakes his head and rests a hand on the edge of the pool. "Ah, that is a big difference. With a magical race like demons you can take power, steel it, remain as nothing or grow immensely powerful in an instant." He tilts his head and looks up at her, wondering how it was she gained her power, who she overthrew to become Demon Queen. "For us there is no politics of power, or losing it. Once we are born we gain power, strength, cunning, speed and other, stranger abilities. We are always evolving, and those that are... undesirable must be culled before they pass into immortality." It wasn't the propper word, but near as anything else. His race did not have an age limit and would continue to grow more powerful and immensely hard to kill, but there were still ways to kill them, if one was clever enough. Except for the truly ancient heads of the major lines who's abilities were too strange and powerful to truly kill.
Xvander arches into her touch slightly as he feels it along the growing stubble on his jaw. "I know of moons that were shattered by a battle between two Old Ones. I know not how." He looks up at her with a grey green eye, the other still perpetually closed and hollow under the lid. "As for magical races our DNA is not... compatible." He does not elaborate further. To do so might risk divulging how his people steal DNA from other races to add beneficial traits to their own bodies for an advantage over others.
He shrugs at the first question, it isn't something terribly relevant to his people and so isn't widely known. The Elders of his race might know or have memories of early times that have been passed down, or possibly even gazed back in time, but it didn't mater to him. They looked towards the future, evolution rarely looks back.
He lets her tilt his head up and smiles. "You do not find it appealing?" He reaches up with a hand and runs it along his face, smearing some of the nutrient rich solution over the skin but not bothering to wipe it off, in truth it felt good to feel it on his skin where his cells greedily drank it in. "It is the form I took, it is the one that my associates recognize and so it has its uses, changing now would be a long process, and the questions raised would prove detrimental."
"So you have," he smiles and looks down into the opaque liquid, frowning at how wasted and weak he knows he looks still. Though the muscle tone is gradually refreshing it will take days before his muscles have returned to full strength and a while longer for his eye to regenerate. "Though, not I suspect now." He looks up at her and nods. It is possible, some have a knack for it, others don't." He was still quite young and exploring those knacks took time and tended to be unique per individual.
Xvander raises a brow at her and places his hands against the side of the pool before slowly pushing himself up. He twists and sits on the edge of it, the thick liquid slowly dripping off and around him before flowing back into the pool. He stands naked, covered in a film of residue. He appears completely human again, no indication that anything happened except that his eye socket is still empty and his body looks slimmer than before. "Hmm, nearly two hours to ask. I thought you would have asked earlier." He smirks a little and walks over towards a rack where some robes are hanging. He uses one towel to wipe the rest of the residue off, completely unabashed at his naked form before pulling on a white robe. The rest of the cave is natural with several other pools, a large one of sea water at the far side that possibly leads out to the ocean. Some wires follow down along the wall from the stairs but lead to no lights, instead to a small refrigerator where he goes and pulls it open. With his back to her he pulls something out and does something that can't be seen before closing it and turning to face her again. "I do this regularly, though I shall need to return to the nutrient bath several more time over the next few days to fully recover."
Xvander grins at her. "A spy that I have told a great many secrets not only of myself but of my entire race, have invited into my secret grotto, that none know of." He laughs a bit and walks towards the stairs leading out. "As for what is in the refrigerator... call it a guilty pleasure." It wasn't something he felt guilty about in the slightest, but he felt that it was necessary to keep it secret none the less. Though he was quite positive now that she would attempt to open it and see what was within.
Xvander waves a languorous hand, inviting her to look as he waits by the stairs. A broad grin spread across his lips as he watches her, curious to see how she reacts when she finds the fridge full of little gold wrapped boxes, one just so happens to be open and waiting for her revealing a perfect little chocolate truffle. He wonders idly how she will react when she realizes she reacted exactly as he predicted she would. "They are each a little work of art, I feel."
"French Valrhona chocolate blended with fresh cream infused with vanilla pods and pure Italian truffle oil around a French Perigold truffle," his grin does not waiver as he recites the ingredients. He stands his ground at her advance, hands clasped lightly behind his back. "A man in Connecticut makes them, and they are quite possibly the best thing I have ever eaten." He nods to her to go ahead and try it. "I was introduced to them quite by accident and found a quiet little addiction. An expensive one as well. They cost roughly $2,600 per pound." By appearances he had several pounds worth in the small refrigerator in the corner of the dark cave.
Xvander looked towards the ceiling in contemplation as he went over her words, as if contemplating them deeply then looking at her again. "Yes, I believe that covers the broad strokes of it." He smirked as he watched her bite into it, if she had anything even resembling a human sense of taste then she would be experiencing something close to bliss. "I'll give you his number, I have it upstairs." He turns and heads up towards his living room again. A he steps back into the house he looks down at where he had appeared before and frowns at the stains from his blood on the floor. It would be quite impossible now to get them out. "Hmm, well I'll speak with Sandra about a rug in the morning." He mutters to himself, waiting for Ada to come up before closing the hidden door.
Xvander watches her with an appreciative nod but when the blood is flung at him he twists. Of courst the magic tracks him but when it strikes his chest instead of being absorbed his aura reacts and the blood, full of useless, now dead, cells, is rejected. He watches it curiously as his aura pulls the liquid off, suspending it and with a thought he crushes it down, twisting it into a tighter and tighter ball of black blood until he has a small marble of the liquid suspended in front of him. "Hmmm, interesting." He murmurs softly before looking at Ada. "Thank you for getting that, though the return was unnecessary." He reaches back and grabs the book case door once more, pulling it open and sending the ball down into the darkness before closing it again. "Would you care for something to eat? Drink? I have a good cognac I believe," he wanders over towards a fine mahogany liquor cabinet, pulling it open and looking over the bottles within.
Xvander pours a glass of cognac for her, and it is a good one. He makes a whiskey sour for himself, mixing it with practiced ease before walking over to her. His bare feet silent on the expertly assembled wooden floors, hardly a sound but for the whisper of his robe as he moves. He steps up next to her, holding out the glass and looking out at the ocean. "My world has no magic, not like yours anyway." His tone is surprisingly distant, his thoughts elsewhere, probably on his homeworld.
He shakes his head a little to rid himself of the thoughts of an alien world he can only distantly remember from a time when he was barely sentient, what memories he does have were gifted to him by his progenitor before being sent off, to give him a sense of duty, legacy, and something to aim for. How he would know who and what he was deep within and how to draw on that alien strength. He only had very limited contact with his people and it was a private frustration of his that he would never tell anyone.
"Alexander Price is the CEO of ASI, Aggressive Solutions Incorporated, a problem solving agency. I employ people with a wide variety of abilities from all over the multi verse to do assignments from the desperate, the wealthy, governments and private individuals. I deal in weapons technology and information. I act as a middle man, I suppose between those that want something done and those that do it. Between suppliers and users. Shortest distance, most profit. As Xvader I was sent here to spy on a point of convergence, the instability between universes that is this world and the Multiverse Nexus."
The alien snorts at her reply. "I felt no need to hide it. It is quite easy to look up my public identity. I have a website for the company." He waves a hand towards a door where his office is. "And I should imagine that by now the second bit is quite obvious. My people live in Wild Space, we are aware of what a junction like this is capable of producing and I am here to keep watch." Among other things. Also the blunt partial truth seemed to come across at the whole truth, she should have realized there was more.
He watches her for a moment, walking about the room and looking at the books. That particular section was philosophical mostly on human concepts of war and honor. "Why did you leave your plane? You may well have abdicate your throne for your general and that could mean giving up a good deal of power and possibly an eternity of torture should he win, correct?"
"So you come up here to slum it with us mortals and give yourself a reason to kill the threat to your throne and keep the others weak." He nods and can't feel but that the politics of his home are quite a bit simpler. Pure anarchy, where the strong rule the weak and the stronger make whatever rules they feel like and back them up with their own might with their Queen ruling over them all with unquestioned authority. True, some were abjectly insane by any universal standard, but that tended to be subjective.
He chuckles but does not reply immediately. He turns and watches her parade around the room. He looks back at his memories of her and watches her in still, quiet, contemplation. An insight slowly blooming in his mind. "You're bored," he blurts out, rather than in his usual smooth cadence, it is a blunt and reckless statement. His brow furrows and he scowls a bit at the thought but continues. "Am I wrong? Are you so instilled with ennui that you come to this mortal plane for your thrills?"
Xvander thinks about it and nods. "Alright, you have the strength to make your own rules," and that is that for him. She has the power, she makes the rules. Not for him of course, he falls outside the realm of her control for the most part for various reasons. "I am glad that I can provide adaquite conversation." He sips his whiskey and feels his body settle slowly and a lethargy tug at his mind, but he straightens it would not do to fall asleep on his feet. He downs the rest of his drink forcefully and sets his empty glass down next to hers.
Xvander frowns and blinks as he tries to process what has happened. "I believe we are having a translation error somewhere along the way here." He tries to think of what it may be. "It is assumed among my people that the more power you have the more you control and the more... freedom. You make the rules that those weaker than you must follow and you only answer to those stronger than you. There is conflict among those of the same level of course, but isn't there always?" He shrugs. "You have the ultimate power for your plane, that gives you the ultimate freedom." The politics and responsibilities don't really occur to him.
Xvander starts to argue but feels a dull ache and warmth from his eye socket and nods a bit as his body redirects energy ad nutrients to the vital process of rebuilding an eye. "You are right," he murmurs and turns to her, bowing slightly, turning his head to the side slightly to expose his neck before stopping himself, wrong species. "I thank you for your assistance in getting me here to my cavern."
RPG
