Profile
Appearance
Tall and brawny, with hefty mass and strong arms, Leo is built for farm work and helping you move furniture. He’s extremely hairy, except for his left arm, which is covered shoulder to wrist in heavy burn scars that he usually keeps covered. His hair is deep brown and he keeps it long, either loose or in (admittedly, pretty silly looking) pig- and ponytails. Leo’s nose is big and prominent, and he always has a bit of a beard growing. Denim on denim is his favorite look, and you’ll rarely see him without his jean jacket or cowboy boots. He likes tie-dyes and cartoon-patterned T-shirts, and he doesn’t get much enjoyment out of "formal" attire.
He’s also developed some visibly nonhuman traits as a result of his half-alien DNA. Normally almost black, his eyes are now a fiery orange, and when injured or distressed, rivers of glowing orange light pulse from under his skin. His nails are long and sharp, he nicks himself with them sometimes. His lower canines have sharpened as well, having grown into a visible overbite, and a steadily growing pair of orange-tinted horns have sprouted from his forehead. All things considered, he’s not super thrilled. And one day, his alien blood will take over his appearance entirely.
- Usually always wears his small, pink-tinted glasses. He doesn't actually need them to see
- Has a set of ear piercings, and can wear any type of earrings, but his favorites are his silver sun and moon set.
- Fairly top-heavy in build, but it's a soft weight, not really "chiseled."
- Usually wears his hair with 1-2 side-ponytails, clipped with little green butterfly clips.
- Keeps little star and alien pins on his denim jacket collar.
- Has thick eyebrows
- When his Forgesinger DNA takes over completely, he still wears his jacket, though usually with no shirt. His jeans have been tattered down to jorts, but he makes the most of them.
Personality
- Affable
- Compassionate
- Emotional
- Spineless
- Hopeless Romantic
- Sensitive
Pure of heart! Dumb of ass! Leo tries his darndest to be a good person, but his anxiety and penchant for unpredictable, dangerous behavior often gets in the way. He’s not a very bright man, but he’s a good listener and shoulder to cry on, even if he doesn’t quite know what’s going on. He tries to be gentle and approachable, and he doesn’t really like being teased, but 9 times out of 10 he’ll be too nervous to say anything about it (and just wander off to go cry privately.) Facing his problems? No thank you! That's much too scary, he much prefers to just run away from them, and finds more joy in helping others than helping himself.
When you’ve earned his friendship you’ll have his loyalty for life, and Leo often finds himself getting crushes on friends and strangers more often than he can handle. He daydreams of mushy romance and happy endings, and forces himself to stay optimistic even in dismal situations. When his nerves catch up to him, though, watch out! He becomes erratic in his decisions; aggressive, almost. He forgets his own strength, and his pyromania urges can become stronger. He’s a mess! And when he finally calms down, you can bet the regret of whatever he did eats Leo alive.
Likes
- Country and 90's pop music
- Cartoons and Lisa Frank
- Fairies
- Weed
- The (concept of the) ocean
- Lighting things on fire
- Those little shitty plastic toys you get out of gashapon machines at gas stations and diners
Dislikes
- Grunge
- The unknown
- Being dunked on 24/7
- Nonfiction
- Computers
- People who think disliking country music is a personality trait
- Himself
Skills & Abilities
Arson is Legal and the Only Way To Get Into Heaven
History
Adopted by one Mercedes Pierce as a toddler, Leo (Owen, back then) was raised on a government base out in Utah, as normal a childhood as one can have… up until he was 8 year olds, anyway. That was when Mercedes’ wife, Cynthia, began overseeing a secret ongoing experiment called project LABYRINTH, a grand attempt to create hyper strong, hyper controllable supersoldiers by splicing human and alien DNA (from real, actual extraterrestrial corpses!!) Young Owen stumbled upon one of the tests, was blasted with DNA from beyond the stars. It bonded to him, fused with his genes, but he was none the wiser. He felt fine! And he looked fine too; when nothing immediately came of the accidental exposure, Cynthia’s higher ups encouraged her to keep the truth of the experiment from him (and from Mercedes too.) The child was to be raised normally, as he had always been. Don’t draw attention to it.
It wasn’t until Owen went away to college that things began…manifesting in him. He’d always had a bit of a pyro streak, but it came to a head when he set fire to one of the campus buildings in a fit of “impress the cool kids” desperation. He was trapped inside, but the smoke and the heat didn’t bother him, and he survived with only a nasty arm burn to show for it…and a prompt expelling. Kicked out of school and too scared to face his mothers, he fled into the desert, deciding to focus on his “budding” music career. He renamed himself Leo Oberon as a stage name, and tried very, very hard to ignore that something was wrong with his body.
But now Leo’s half-alien form grows harder and harder to ignore each and every day, and he doesn’t know what to do. He’s been growing claws, horns, his eyes glow orange and his teeth grow long. But he's also discovered an online community, the "Fourth Kind Forums," a group of other people who have been experiencing, mutations, of their own. He can only hope they’ll help him make some sense of what’s happening to him.
Trivia
- Leo is an AU version of Hijack.
- He loves Dolly Parton, and had a pet rat named Dolly as a child.
- Before he was expelled from college, he was studying to be a Music Theory major.
- He can sleep standing up.
- He signs off on all his forum posts with "Love, Leo."
- His two prized possessions are his guitar (her name is Virginia), and his lighter, a small blue one with dolphins on it
- He's Baptist, albeit fairly nonpracticing these days.
- Always keeps a small can of hair spray on his person, and can use it to make an improvised flamethrower
- Despite his love of the ocean and sea creatures, has never actually seen the ocean before. It would overwhelm him.
- His favorite movie is Space Jam, unironically.
