![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keaaluThe Jade God himself seems to finally be growing up a bit - he's been back in my forebrain for a while this past few days and he hasn't seemed quite SO outrageous so far. Granted, the peacock tail was a bit silly (he wants to wear it on duty, but Eri says no-... He probably will, though. :P ), but perhaps getting a command back was all he needed - Synth get bored when all there is to do is pick pockets to finance their lifestyle and swank around at fancy parties.
-----
Iios
Iios is the third (and currently the last) “true” Synth to have been created to date in the canon Dauntless universe; in the works he has a “brother”, Sei, and two bitter rivals, the twins Breeze and Zephyr, but as yet I have no place in the “real universe” for these three yet.
Names:
“Iios” (similar to “Ee-oss” but softer and monosyllabic) is the Kiravai word for the mineral “Malachite”. He will answer to Malachite and variations on the theme, like “Mal”, but like any Kiravai he by far prefers his native name, and usually grows irritable to people persistently using the translation. The one exception to this is in Eri’s case – she sometimes calls him “Kye”, which is a typical Vullish name-derivation and comes from the last syllable in Malachite.
Appearance:
Iios is a Kirasiinu cob; that is, a synthetic Kiravai male, constructed to be indistinguishable from biological Kiravai. If not for his unusual colouration, he could probably easily pass for just any other cob – which, incidentally, he often does, since he is very rarely in the company of his own people, these days.
His skin is a demure, pleasant greyish jade, and his hair (since rather than feathers he usually opts for soft, humanlike hair) is a deeper, “mossy” green, both of which most Coalition citizens assume to have been generated by the famed Kiravai genetic therapy. Depending on his mood and whatever his current circumstances are, however (for instance, if he needs a disguise of some sort, or is just bored of his current style), he can physically remove and change his skull plating. This means he can exchange hair for feathers, for example, or short hair for long hair (as although he can cut his hair, it does not grow back); he usually opts for shades of green, although he does have black, white and varicoloured “wigs”. Since Eri has voiced a preference for the floppy untidy hair he wore when she first met him, he seems to have decided on that as his favoured style.
Aside from colour and style, and his typical slouching manner, he is fairly average, if slightly taller than most, and his clothing gives him an unremarkable, slender build. (In comparison to most Kiravai, he is sleekly muscular, almost bulky. However, in comparison to the average Usurian, for instance, he is still willowy, with a fine, athletic “swimmer's build” rather than that of a body-builder.)
Persona:
Iios is “atypical”, both for a Synth (at least, the common perception thereof) and for a Kiravai. Of all my Kiravai, he has the tendency to be the most stereotypically “swanlike” – proud, arrogant, territorial – and chauvinist and superiorist into the bargain, but he can also be equally silly and playful with his partner.
One of his defining traits is of course his superiority complex – although some would say it is with good reasons that he has it in the first place. Not only is he physically superior – for instance, he is stronger, faster, more durable, not afflicted by any such biological physical fallibility as sickness and old-age – he is also cognitively superior, with excellent memory and computing capabilities, and excels at most of what he turns his hand to.
It is not exclusively that, however, which has given him such an ego problem. He was “brought up” in a world that saw his kind as naturally better, closer to godliness – clean, pure, chaste… perfect. Although lately he hasn’t been living up to all the labels that once could have been applied to him, he still sees himself as a living embodiment of the last – perfect – and refuses to let anybody tell him differently.
Although he sees himself as superior to all but a tiny minority (mostly his own kind), Iios is rather less sneeringly overbearing than he could have been – he has always been fairly just and rigidly logical even if his temper is unstable and his moods shift like sand. His contempt has weakened since being among “Kirasau”, also – provided he can boss them about, which ultimately led him to Halcyon, he is fairly easy to get on with.
He is difficult to pin down because he’s highly mercurial – some days you can know him better than he knows himself, and know what he’s going to do long before he does it, whereas other days you can think you know him inside out and he still manages to surprise. He can be as snooty, stand-offish and sneeringly overbearing as any pure-blooded Kiravai Dominae in full flow, looking forever like there’s a bad smell under his nose, or as sweet-tempered as an Ondraii mother, devoted and charming. He can be as excited and carried away as any teenage DuSkai, or as surly and as moody as an Usurian female in heat. And as well as emotionally, he is socially mercurial – some days he’s gregarious and charming, looking like he’s exactly where he belongs, and other days he looks like he’d rather be anywhere but where he is, and lets you know it. He has mellowed considerably since meeting Eri in the latter respect, however – before meeting her, his only reason to mingle among “dirty, smelly biologicals” was to find information and pick their pockets, but now he’s happy to accompany her to parties merely as her consort.
These days he “acts up”, as Eri calls it, more for the delight he gets in startling people. He enjoys winding others up, proving he’s cleverer than they are by catching them out, and likes to be disapproved of. He financed a lot of his early dealings in Coalition Space by petty theft – he was an adept pickpocket, for instance, and once he was on the party circuit he bought himself a reputation as a high-roller solely in order to be invited to more high-end parties, and more “indigenous rich idiots”. Although he has left his more criminal days behind (ultimately earning a respectable role and rank as a Halcyon captain), he still loves to surprise people, and if there’s a shock value to be got from something, he’ll do it. He has been known to turn up for official functions in full makeup and a dress, for instance (where he fauxs a feminine tone rather than outright remodulate to a female voice, so he is still recognisable), or answer the front door in the nude. He also occasionally smokes, partly because it gets people whispering, and partly just because he can. For the same reasons, his behaviour tends to be “ambiguous” – he’ll happily flirt with anyone regardless of gender provided they catch his eye in the right way, or pick fights just for the sake of it.
One general exception to all the above are his dealings with Eri. Like any cob he has a strong sense of lifetime commitment, and is frighteningly devoted to her, his chosen partner – a fact she herself doesn’t really understand, particularly given that she is just a “dirty little biological furbearer” – and he would willingly go out on a limb, at possible risk to his own life, to protect her. He adores her absolutely and without question, without compromise; he might not always betray it, and may tease her mercilessly at times, but always moderates the extremes of his behaviour for her, and would never tease to hurt. Plus, of course, get between him and her and by God you better have a bigger stick than he does (although given that he is inhumanly strong, unnaturally fast, and really quite clever, too, “trying one’s luck” is usually inadvisable at best and lethal at worst). As a friend he is as devoted and protective – it is gaining his respect in the first place that proves to be the hard part.
Brief history:
Iios was created by a small team of Kiravai cyberneticists using the basic schematics used for Azure’s construction; their initial brief was to create an efficient, autonomous military commander, capable of maintaining border security with fewer troops. Although obviously masculine and rather stronger, he is otherwise similar to Azure in general size and ability.
His creation ran almost parallel with Azure’s for the early months, although Ivy (who at the time was on the Construct Team) didn’t know there was anyone more than just Azure, with the technicians taking all the details from Azure’s construction and passing them on to the second team. His creation nevertheless ultimately lagged some months behind Azure’s, and he was finished long after she and Ivy left Vei’la space.
Almost at the very instant his construction was completed, he was taken away and thrust into his official role; his creator complained bitterly about not being given time to teach his “child” but the corporations shouted him down. Iios’ creator, an older cob by the name of Imanu, recognised the illogic to putting an intelligent, sapient but essentially very young creature into a role of such great responsibility without first teaching it such basics as social etiquette, personal duty, even such simple concepts of right and wrong. It was this “moral insufficiency”, however, that the Corporate Managers had been hoping for – hoping they could channel this ruthless superiority into making him a better commander, especially on border patrols. For a time, it seemed to be working – although emotional and untraditional, Iios was a fairly just and logical commander – until he grew fixated by Azure, irritable at the way he couldn’t immediately have her, and determined to get her at all costs. This cost a great deal of wasted time and energy – while he was keeping his crew busy on border worlds chasing leads, they weren’t protecting the Imperium.
Unable to sanction his position any longer, High Command instructed their latest “assets” – the Twins – to remove him to a cybernetics facility where he could be reprogrammed or decommissioned, whichever was more likely to be successful and of course whichever was cheaper. Naturally, he resisted, and on a one-to-one basis he may have won, but superior numbers ultimately proved near-fatal for him (although he gave as good as he got, and Breeze suffered considerable damage). The time it took Zephyr to get assistance for himself and his “sister” and call for retrieve was time enough for the Dauntless crew to discover Iios and remove him to safety – Azure herself was adamant there was a kernel of goodness in him, in spite of the shabby way he had treated her the few times they were together.
He spent the following months or two on the borders of society – in both a metaphorical and a literal sense, keeping primarily to border worlds and lurking at the fringes where he would draw as little attention to himself as was possible. His lack of fingerprints and DNA, and his skill with computers, made him quite the expert thief, and a little money under his belt made him bolder, so when he finally met Eri it was at a high-end University Fundraising party in Ondra’s Primary City, turning heads as a rebel and an exciting rogue.
Notes:
Iios was originally a concept for an RP character who ultimately was never used.
First met in: Rogue in Velvet
-----
Related art may come soonish, if I get my accounts up to date and dig up some motivation. :)
I'm also trying to rewrite Ivy's profile a bit, since she never really had a "personality" in there - although I think I'm being influenced by my music. The group "Lamb" always reminds me of her - especially the tracks "Gorecki", "Stronger" and "Please"; I think it's because there's a beauty and an essential sorrow/longing in a lot of their music, which is how Ivy is turning out. :( And I don't mean in an "emo" way either - hers has always been a sort of quiet, patient, undemanding sorrow. She's been burned sufficient times that she just... accepts it. A sort of "why bother" attitude. She was never this way when I first "met" her - she was cheerful and happy to do whatever. Now, I don't know. It must be a terribly lonely life for her kind. Maybe that's why she always seems to fit that "angel" stereotype - quiet, patient, loving, always alone, and posessed of an eerie, smiling melancholy.
Although I should probably change my CD, because Lamb always makes me feel like crying for no reason whatsoever. :P It just... gets to me.
-----
Iios
Iios is the third (and currently the last) “true” Synth to have been created to date in the canon Dauntless universe; in the works he has a “brother”, Sei, and two bitter rivals, the twins Breeze and Zephyr, but as yet I have no place in the “real universe” for these three yet.
Names:
“Iios” (similar to “Ee-oss” but softer and monosyllabic) is the Kiravai word for the mineral “Malachite”. He will answer to Malachite and variations on the theme, like “Mal”, but like any Kiravai he by far prefers his native name, and usually grows irritable to people persistently using the translation. The one exception to this is in Eri’s case – she sometimes calls him “Kye”, which is a typical Vullish name-derivation and comes from the last syllable in Malachite.
Appearance:
Iios is a Kirasiinu cob; that is, a synthetic Kiravai male, constructed to be indistinguishable from biological Kiravai. If not for his unusual colouration, he could probably easily pass for just any other cob – which, incidentally, he often does, since he is very rarely in the company of his own people, these days.
His skin is a demure, pleasant greyish jade, and his hair (since rather than feathers he usually opts for soft, humanlike hair) is a deeper, “mossy” green, both of which most Coalition citizens assume to have been generated by the famed Kiravai genetic therapy. Depending on his mood and whatever his current circumstances are, however (for instance, if he needs a disguise of some sort, or is just bored of his current style), he can physically remove and change his skull plating. This means he can exchange hair for feathers, for example, or short hair for long hair (as although he can cut his hair, it does not grow back); he usually opts for shades of green, although he does have black, white and varicoloured “wigs”. Since Eri has voiced a preference for the floppy untidy hair he wore when she first met him, he seems to have decided on that as his favoured style.
Aside from colour and style, and his typical slouching manner, he is fairly average, if slightly taller than most, and his clothing gives him an unremarkable, slender build. (In comparison to most Kiravai, he is sleekly muscular, almost bulky. However, in comparison to the average Usurian, for instance, he is still willowy, with a fine, athletic “swimmer's build” rather than that of a body-builder.)
Persona:
Iios is “atypical”, both for a Synth (at least, the common perception thereof) and for a Kiravai. Of all my Kiravai, he has the tendency to be the most stereotypically “swanlike” – proud, arrogant, territorial – and chauvinist and superiorist into the bargain, but he can also be equally silly and playful with his partner.
One of his defining traits is of course his superiority complex – although some would say it is with good reasons that he has it in the first place. Not only is he physically superior – for instance, he is stronger, faster, more durable, not afflicted by any such biological physical fallibility as sickness and old-age – he is also cognitively superior, with excellent memory and computing capabilities, and excels at most of what he turns his hand to.
It is not exclusively that, however, which has given him such an ego problem. He was “brought up” in a world that saw his kind as naturally better, closer to godliness – clean, pure, chaste… perfect. Although lately he hasn’t been living up to all the labels that once could have been applied to him, he still sees himself as a living embodiment of the last – perfect – and refuses to let anybody tell him differently.
Although he sees himself as superior to all but a tiny minority (mostly his own kind), Iios is rather less sneeringly overbearing than he could have been – he has always been fairly just and rigidly logical even if his temper is unstable and his moods shift like sand. His contempt has weakened since being among “Kirasau”, also – provided he can boss them about, which ultimately led him to Halcyon, he is fairly easy to get on with.
He is difficult to pin down because he’s highly mercurial – some days you can know him better than he knows himself, and know what he’s going to do long before he does it, whereas other days you can think you know him inside out and he still manages to surprise. He can be as snooty, stand-offish and sneeringly overbearing as any pure-blooded Kiravai Dominae in full flow, looking forever like there’s a bad smell under his nose, or as sweet-tempered as an Ondraii mother, devoted and charming. He can be as excited and carried away as any teenage DuSkai, or as surly and as moody as an Usurian female in heat. And as well as emotionally, he is socially mercurial – some days he’s gregarious and charming, looking like he’s exactly where he belongs, and other days he looks like he’d rather be anywhere but where he is, and lets you know it. He has mellowed considerably since meeting Eri in the latter respect, however – before meeting her, his only reason to mingle among “dirty, smelly biologicals” was to find information and pick their pockets, but now he’s happy to accompany her to parties merely as her consort.
These days he “acts up”, as Eri calls it, more for the delight he gets in startling people. He enjoys winding others up, proving he’s cleverer than they are by catching them out, and likes to be disapproved of. He financed a lot of his early dealings in Coalition Space by petty theft – he was an adept pickpocket, for instance, and once he was on the party circuit he bought himself a reputation as a high-roller solely in order to be invited to more high-end parties, and more “indigenous rich idiots”. Although he has left his more criminal days behind (ultimately earning a respectable role and rank as a Halcyon captain), he still loves to surprise people, and if there’s a shock value to be got from something, he’ll do it. He has been known to turn up for official functions in full makeup and a dress, for instance (where he fauxs a feminine tone rather than outright remodulate to a female voice, so he is still recognisable), or answer the front door in the nude. He also occasionally smokes, partly because it gets people whispering, and partly just because he can. For the same reasons, his behaviour tends to be “ambiguous” – he’ll happily flirt with anyone regardless of gender provided they catch his eye in the right way, or pick fights just for the sake of it.
One general exception to all the above are his dealings with Eri. Like any cob he has a strong sense of lifetime commitment, and is frighteningly devoted to her, his chosen partner – a fact she herself doesn’t really understand, particularly given that she is just a “dirty little biological furbearer” – and he would willingly go out on a limb, at possible risk to his own life, to protect her. He adores her absolutely and without question, without compromise; he might not always betray it, and may tease her mercilessly at times, but always moderates the extremes of his behaviour for her, and would never tease to hurt. Plus, of course, get between him and her and by God you better have a bigger stick than he does (although given that he is inhumanly strong, unnaturally fast, and really quite clever, too, “trying one’s luck” is usually inadvisable at best and lethal at worst). As a friend he is as devoted and protective – it is gaining his respect in the first place that proves to be the hard part.
Brief history:
Iios was created by a small team of Kiravai cyberneticists using the basic schematics used for Azure’s construction; their initial brief was to create an efficient, autonomous military commander, capable of maintaining border security with fewer troops. Although obviously masculine and rather stronger, he is otherwise similar to Azure in general size and ability.
His creation ran almost parallel with Azure’s for the early months, although Ivy (who at the time was on the Construct Team) didn’t know there was anyone more than just Azure, with the technicians taking all the details from Azure’s construction and passing them on to the second team. His creation nevertheless ultimately lagged some months behind Azure’s, and he was finished long after she and Ivy left Vei’la space.
Almost at the very instant his construction was completed, he was taken away and thrust into his official role; his creator complained bitterly about not being given time to teach his “child” but the corporations shouted him down. Iios’ creator, an older cob by the name of Imanu, recognised the illogic to putting an intelligent, sapient but essentially very young creature into a role of such great responsibility without first teaching it such basics as social etiquette, personal duty, even such simple concepts of right and wrong. It was this “moral insufficiency”, however, that the Corporate Managers had been hoping for – hoping they could channel this ruthless superiority into making him a better commander, especially on border patrols. For a time, it seemed to be working – although emotional and untraditional, Iios was a fairly just and logical commander – until he grew fixated by Azure, irritable at the way he couldn’t immediately have her, and determined to get her at all costs. This cost a great deal of wasted time and energy – while he was keeping his crew busy on border worlds chasing leads, they weren’t protecting the Imperium.
Unable to sanction his position any longer, High Command instructed their latest “assets” – the Twins – to remove him to a cybernetics facility where he could be reprogrammed or decommissioned, whichever was more likely to be successful and of course whichever was cheaper. Naturally, he resisted, and on a one-to-one basis he may have won, but superior numbers ultimately proved near-fatal for him (although he gave as good as he got, and Breeze suffered considerable damage). The time it took Zephyr to get assistance for himself and his “sister” and call for retrieve was time enough for the Dauntless crew to discover Iios and remove him to safety – Azure herself was adamant there was a kernel of goodness in him, in spite of the shabby way he had treated her the few times they were together.
He spent the following months or two on the borders of society – in both a metaphorical and a literal sense, keeping primarily to border worlds and lurking at the fringes where he would draw as little attention to himself as was possible. His lack of fingerprints and DNA, and his skill with computers, made him quite the expert thief, and a little money under his belt made him bolder, so when he finally met Eri it was at a high-end University Fundraising party in Ondra’s Primary City, turning heads as a rebel and an exciting rogue.
Notes:
Iios was originally a concept for an RP character who ultimately was never used.
First met in: Rogue in Velvet
-----
Related art may come soonish, if I get my accounts up to date and dig up some motivation. :)
I'm also trying to rewrite Ivy's profile a bit, since she never really had a "personality" in there - although I think I'm being influenced by my music. The group "Lamb" always reminds me of her - especially the tracks "Gorecki", "Stronger" and "Please"; I think it's because there's a beauty and an essential sorrow/longing in a lot of their music, which is how Ivy is turning out. :( And I don't mean in an "emo" way either - hers has always been a sort of quiet, patient, undemanding sorrow. She's been burned sufficient times that she just... accepts it. A sort of "why bother" attitude. She was never this way when I first "met" her - she was cheerful and happy to do whatever. Now, I don't know. It must be a terribly lonely life for her kind. Maybe that's why she always seems to fit that "angel" stereotype - quiet, patient, loving, always alone, and posessed of an eerie, smiling melancholy.
Although I should probably change my CD, because Lamb always makes me feel like crying for no reason whatsoever. :P It just... gets to me.
