Istra

A mysterious individual who seems to be as old as Entirety itself. Istra has a perpetual hunger that, if not regularly tended to, manifests in a sort of disease that turns them into a world-devouring Eldritch being. After being worshiped as a deity of destruction and rebirth on a planet called Estral, they were abducted and experimented on by Heaven College. Eventually Heaven College began to use Istra as a biological weapon, culminating in the usage of Istra in devastating rival school Hell College. Hell College managed to contain Istra, and after counterattacking Heaven College to obtain information on how to control Istra they determined that they weren't of any threat so long as they were kept fed.

Though their history is chaotic and full of both luxury and horror, Istra remembers none of it. They can only be restored from their inhuman form through being killed, and whenever they are killed they regenerate and lose memories proportional to the amount of damage done to their body. Since they live in such a dangerous environment now, they tend to only have a few weeks worth of memories at any given time.

Thanks to their lack of memories and perhaps just innate nature, Istra is a very relaxed and casual sort of person. They spend most of their time just eating, sleeping, and using phone apps. On the other hand, though, they also happen to be hedonistic, greedy, and somewhat spoiled, often acting passive-aggressively when they don't get what they feel entitled to. Essentially, they're a cat. Maybe that's why they're so unusually close to cat-loving Dicro Corrune... Istra claims that they're destined for each other, after all.

Istra is laid-back and relaxed, seeming unaffected by everything around them. Under most circumstances they don't emote much, responding to everything with a neutral expression, impassive tone, and blunt honesty. They play by their own rules and are ignorant of social norms, sometimes by choice but often unknowingly. They spend a lot of time hiding in awkward places, stealing food from people, and following around anyone they find interesting.

They're forthright with their emotions and, despite their generally deadpan demeanor, tend to make it obvious when they're angry with someone or when they're pleased with something. When wronged they become dark, bitter, and passive-aggressive toward whoever upset them. They're a very indignant sort of person who has a history of being spoiled, so it's not particularly hard to displease them.

On the other hand, Istra is extremely easy to please. They're obsessed with eating, so giving them snacks for free is a quick way to get on their good side. They also love being praised and often encourage others to continue when they off-handedly compliment them on something. Anyone who kisses up to them will automatically become important to them, but one shouldn't mistake this for loyalty. As soon as the snacks stop flowing, they'll move on if they haven't made a genuine emotional connection to the person in question.

If someone has managed to attract Istra's earnest attention, however, they'll be more lenient with them and more willing to do things for them without requiring some sort of award. Ordinarily they're sort of selfish and don't like to do anything that doesn't immediately benefit them in some way, so if they go out of their way for someone or share anything with them it's a good sign that they think highly of said person.

Toward those they like they become more talkative. Normally they're fairly passive and just go with the flow, but with friends they take more initiative and strike up conversations easily, maybe even inviting them out somewhere. When they have romantic interest in someone, it's extremely obvious. They're very bad at covering up both romantic and sexual feelings and seldom attempt to; they may be a bit coy about the former toward those who ask about it due to inexperience (and also in an attempt to be cute), but toward their subject of interest they're extremely affectionate. They don't have much of a filter and again aren't the best with social norms, so they're prone to public displays of affections and fail to understand why that isn't always desired. Dating them is certainly an experience, especially considering how closely they link love and hunger...

Istra's morals tend to be somewhat questionable: they don't know life outside of Hell College, after all, and demons aren't traditionally known for their moral fiber. They have little issue with violence, killing, stealing, threatening others, so on and so forth, especially since their condition makes it so that they end up forgetting the consequences of their actions sooner rather than later. With the presence of Zhirael and his associates, however, they're gaining a better understanding of what's right and wrong and are doing better at consistently being a decent person. Still, they'd be more than happy to kill some stranger for the right price. (The right price is a lot of snacks. Maybe a soul or two.)

Istra happens to be rather greedy, both in terms of physical objects (especially food) and emotional matters. As mentioned, they don't like sharing and will hiss at you if you try to move them off of your couch. It's their couch now. Accept it. They'll eat your fries right off of your plate and stare you right in the eye while they do it. They'll swallow your car keys and refuse to give them back until you give them money to buy pizza. They're dangerous.

They're just as greedy with affection, and while they're growing increasingly better at being a healthy partner they tend to be a little possessive and overprotective. This is especially apparent with Dicro, who's dating pretty much anyone who's ever made prolonged eye contact with him: Istra isn't hostile toward his partners or anything like that, but they get pouty when one of his partners wants to hang out with him in private and has a bad habit of following them around when possible. When they feel like they aren't getting enough attention or affection from someone they'll become clingy both literally and metaphorically. They're very skilled at tangling themself up in others to prevent them from leaving until they tell Istra how much they love them!!! They've been compared to a cat, which is... not wrong.

Physical Characteristics

Istra has a large amount of control over their body both inside and out, which is an ability that mostly goes unused. They perpetually have white skin, black hair, black sclera with blue irises that glow in the dark, pointed ears, and a tall figure. What they edit the most often is their proportions: they're always leggy and curvy, usually maintaining an hourglass figure with exceptions here and there.

Their hair is wavy and about waist-length, though they usually keep it tied back a lazy ponytail.. It's so smooth and shiny that it's practically mythical. Likewise, their skin is impossibly clear and their figure is impossibly slender for how much they eat... Istra likes to brag about their appearance like it's the end result of hard work, but the truth is that they're just some weird alien thing who can make themself Super Hot at a moment's notice.

The inside of their body is blue instead of the typical pink/red. As such their tongue is blue, they blush blue, and all of their bodily fluids (istrum - see abilities section) are blue as well. The internal tentacles they tend to unleash for self-defense purposes, on the other hand, are a blue dark enough to be considered black.

Style

Istra is almost always seen in a simple outfit that consists of a black, long-sleeved keyhole turtleneck and thigh-highs that somehow morph into shoes. The truth is that this isn't even an outfit at all: it's a second layer of skin! Istra can control said layer of skin to form various outfits, but they seldom see any need to. They might shrink it back a bit if they're hanging out in a hot tub or getting up to something lewd, but otherwise it tends to stay the same every day. If they ever change things up it's usually situationally, be it to fit in somewhere or because they feel it'll attract the attention of someone they're interested in.

They're not entirely unwilling to just wear normal clothing, but they prefer not to. The feeling of it hanging off of their body is unfamiliar and kind of uncomfortable, so they'd rather just try and replicate an outfit with a more limited palette using their own body instead of covering themself in... weird cloth wrappings.

Body Language

Though Istra's expressions and tone of voice tend to be deadpan, their body language is anything but. They speak loudly through their actions, especially with their arms and legs. They fold their arms neatly when frustrated or displeased and, even if they're the shortest person in the room, somehow have the ability to look down on anyone who upsets them. They toy with their hair often, with the same exact twirling able to express either passive-aggressive disappointment or reserved glee.

The bulk of their body language quirks come when dealing with matters of love and lust. If they're not trying to play cool their feelings are very obvious, to the extent that it seems that they over-express themself intentionally. They'll blush vividly, avert their gaze, frame their face, struggle to find a place for their fingers, kick their legs back and forth, bat their eyelashes, and speak melodiously through a flustered grin. It seems like they do so in order to come off as cute, but your mileage may vary.

Scent

You know that scent when you're pressed up against a window screen on a breezy night, lost in beautiful the sky is? It's like that, though with a warmth around it that's impossible to describe.

Voice

Smooth, androgynous, and reserved in tone. Their voice doesn't tend to get too high or too loud, even when angry. In fact, being upset just makes their tone drop and become more condescending and grave. Likewise, when flustered or excited their voice becomes more drawn-out and musical instead of becoming higher in pitch or volume.

I have a pretty specific voice in my head for them that's hard to describe, but this is a decently close comparison!

Istra's origins are a mystery, despite the best efforts of the various researchers they've come into the possession of over the years. Records referencing their potential existence stretch back almost infinitely, suggesting that they've been around for almost as long as Entirety has. Likewise, it seems that they've never been without their condition: if they go too long without consuming souls their body will corrupt, unravel, and expand into an Eldritch mass that will devour everything it comes across until killed - something that isn't easy to do once they've reached that point.

Most early records about Istra are of them in this state, having consumed entire planets in their pursuit of satiation. Much of their existence was spent as a quiet, mindless mass, only returning to their humanoid state whenever planets they had consumed were destroyed by impact events or other apocalyptic events. This cycle of hurtling through space was unkind to the idea of them becoming their own person: the vastness of Entirety often led to them landing on unihabited planets to begin the cycle anew or, by the time they reached an inhabited planet, they were already too far gone for the planet to be spared.

A shift came when they started to be studied by an intergalactic society of travelers called the Discitus Union, who sought to collect knowledge on all of Entirety. They discovered Istra in a particularly remote area, having taken over a small planet named Estral. After the scouts they sent were promptly devoured, the Discitus Union decided to observe from a distance. A meteor impact led to Istra's reformation and the revelation that the advanced civilization that lived on Estral had managed to survive by retreating to secure underground bunkers. As it turned out, this was not the first time this had happened to Estral, and this particular incident was planned well in advance.

The Estralians worshipped Istra as a deity of both protection and destruction and, though their history was poorly recorded, it seemed that they had known about Istra's condition for thousands of years. They offered periodic sacrifices to keep their "disease" at bay in return for protection from the destruction of the planet. Being as advanced as they were the Estralians could predict meteor impacts decades in advance, but they lacked enough resources to evacuate the planet and were too isolated to find another planet to inhabit. Istra's consumption of planets, however, simply led to them overtaking the surface and serving as a shield against impact events: being an already mostly-underground society and having little other choice, they tried to make their underground world as secure as possible against the surface and hoped for the best. Fortunately for them their plan succeeded not once but several times, and though Istra remembered nothing after each event the Estralians continued to worship them and praise their sacrifice, creating a symbiotic relationship.

The Discitus Union studied Estral and Istra themself for several years and witnessed another "protection event" succeed. Several of the Discitus Union's members chose to remain on Estral while the rest moved on to continue exploring Entirety. They returned some time later to check up on Estral, only to find that it was devoid of life. Upon further examination it became apparent that during another "protection event" Istra had been able to breach one segment of the underground due to the efforts of a cult who believed it was Istra's sacred mission to cleanse their planet to make way for a new, enlightened species to be born. From there it was only a matter of time before Istra was able to break through to each division and consume all of the organic material inside, often aided by the scattered members of the aforementioned cult. Records indicate that several divisions managed to live for a few days beyond the intial breach, waiting for their impending demises.

There was one other elephant in the room: Istra was missing. The Discitus Union combed the planet thoroughly and spent several years making sure no stone was left unturned, but there was no sign of Istra. There was no plausible way for Istra to have left the planet on their own, but without any leads the Discitus Union was forced to move on and hope they'd find answers elsewhere in their journeys.

The truth was that shortly after Estral's apolcaypse, the planet (and Istra) was discovered by Heaven College. They had been observing Estral from a distance for some time thanks to some members of the Discitus Union attending Heaven College and sharing some knowledge, but after the final impact event and Istra's subsequent reformation they abducted Istra to study on their own terms. Thanks to their immortality, Istra was used as a subject for various experiments, especially by the Temperance Overking, Caelestis Elior. Caelestis pushed Istra to their limits and studied them thoroughly, certain that they could be used against their rival school, Hell College. The other Overkings agreed, and a grand attack was planned.

Istra was starved in a closed space until they were beyond the point of no return. Their mindless, monstrous form was transported into the depths of Hell College's labyrinth and released, at which point they dramatically expanded and consumed everything in sight. At the same time Heaven College issued a more direct attack on campus proper during finals, ensuring that few people would be in the labyrinth and everyone would be too distracted by Heaven College's attack to notice Istra rapidly overtaking the labyrinth. The few people who noticed would be devoured on sight, so it wasn't until Istra began to spill out of the labyrinth and onto campus that a large enough force to do anything to stop them became aware of them. With Istra proving to be difficult to fight back and forces divided between them and Heaven College's onslaught a massive portion of Hell College's population was killed, especially professors, seniors, and other powerful students who were on the front line. Eventually Hell College managed to fight Heaven College off and do enough damage to Istra to cause them to reform, but Hell College was devastated.

Upon reformation Istra, as usual, had no memory of the incident. Hell College attempted to kill them repeatedly, but despite their best efforts there was nothing they could do to keep them from reforming. Eventually they gave up and held Istra captive, wary that they would devolve again but also not willing to let so powerful a weapon return to Heaven College's hands. They were monitored primarily by Zhirael: a recent Hell College graduate and part of the science department. He studied their anatomy as best he could to figure out how dangerous Istra was, but there was only so much he could do. Thanks to the betrayal of a Heaven College professor, however, Hell College was able to launch a covert operation to obtain all of the documentation on Istra as possible. This was enough for Hell College to determine that Istra was only a threat to them if starved, and given how many demons on campus already required souls to survive accommodating them would be nothing the school wasn't used to. There was a bit of conflict over keeping the being that almost killed them all on campus, but in the end it was ruled that allowing Heaven College to get their hands on them again had to be prevented at any cost.

Istra was permitted to live on campus and, in exchange for allowing themself to be observed and periodically experimented on to gain a greater understanding of them, they were given free access to food and enough access to souls that there was little risk of their "disease" taking over again. This was aided by Hell College and its labyrinth being dangerous places: losing their memory upon each death was inconvenient, but it would keep their condition at bay even if they never ate a thing. Zhirael worked on helping them control their hunger and avoid memory loss, but of course each time they died he had to start over from square one. By the time Zhirael left for his home Reality people were considerably less worried and tense about Istra and left them to their own devices. Though they lost their memories frequently, Istra maintained learned knowledge and so was encouraged to attend classes and study various subjects. Being rather lazy, though, Istra has spent most of their time at Hell College lounging around and eating everyone's stuff instead.

     It's been around 200 years since Istra first arrived in Hell College, though as of the impending beginning of Hell College as an RP their memories only stretch back around two months ago. This semester is already shaping up to be an interesting one for them: in addition to Zhirael's return there's the arrival of a certain someone whom Istra feels an inexplicably powerful attachment to...

One of Istra's defining features is their "condition". Everything about Istra's body seems to be geared toward the consumption of souls, and though they don't need to eat to survive their body craves sustenance regardless. If they go too long without eating, their body will begin to become covered in black splotches and eyes. At this point they must either consume a large number of souls or be killed in order to keep their condition from progressing, but are still salvageable. Once their body starts distorting and unraveling, however, they've reached a point of no return: no matter how many souls they consume they won't return to their normal form.

At this point Istra must be killed to be restored, and by the time they've reached that point their defenses increase and they become hostile, making killing them highly difficult. Their only instinct is to devour, so anyone who gets close to them in this state will likely die by their hand. Well... tentacles. Istra can spread out infinitely so long as there is mass to overtake, so if left unkilled (be it intentionally or because the beings in question lack the firepower to cause them to recede) they can overwhelm planets of any size, requiring apocalyptic events to be killed.

Upon death, Istra's "infection" will "panic" and recede, reverting Istra to their default humanoid form. The process of death and revival destroys their memories, but exactly how much of their memory is destroyed varies. In an event such as them being bombed after consuming a large area they won't have any memories whatsoever. If their "condition" hasn't even manifested, they get their head cleanly cut off, and the head is immediately kept against the neck so that it reconnects and heals quickly, they might only lose a few minutes. The more damaged their body is or the longer the healing process is dragged out for (such as body parts being kept far away from each other - though in this case they'll begin to just generate new ones eventually - or their corpse continuing to be attacked) the more memories are destroyed.

There are a few things they never forget, though: they always remember their name, birthday, and pronouns. They also don't forget knowledge, such as languages, math, etc. They just lose their personal memories and any associated connections and opinions they've formed from them. Also of note is that they never forget any memories they have that involve Dicro, though why this is remains a mystery... a really gay mystery...

Condition aside, Istra has enhanced speed, reflexes, flexibility, durability, and superhuman strength. They have night vision and an inhuman healing factor that makes it difficult to kill them via methods such as blood loss. They don't have any innate magical powers, but their soul has potential for it should they be provided with a tome or staff. Primarily, though, they rely on their strength in combat as well as their ability to split open any part of their body on demand, revealing a mess of tendrils that they can freely manipulate just like any other limb.

They have an astounding amount of control over the inside of their body. Its area is impossibly infinite despite Istra's outer body being decidedly finite. There's no limit to how much they can eat so long as it's small enough to fit inside of their body (be it through normal eating or splitting open their body to make room); they couldn't eat a truck because it's too large, but if you were to cut said truck into many smaller pieces then they could still somehow fit it all in there. No matter how much they eat they never get full, gain weight, or get sick. There are few things they won't eat, but they won't eat anything that's sharp or corrosive. This is because they lack digestive fluids and digest things via pressure: needless to say it isn't very pleasant to rub a knife all around your insides.

On the other hand, they have to consciously initiate the digestion process, so they often use their own body as storage space since there's no danger of anything happening to whatever they choose to put in there. Be careful, though: if you make Istra eat your wallet for safekeeping and they happen to die afterward then the healing process will choose to sacrifice your spare change and gift cards instead of Istra's memories.

Istra has a large amount of control over the outside of their body as well - though since they don't utilize this ability as often it's unclear as to what extent. Primarily they use this to make and change their attire: all of the black on their body is actually something like a second layer of skin. Every now and then they might adjust their proportions a bit, add or remove various minor body parts, alter their hair length, so on and so forth; they just make minor adjustments here and there depending on their mood or what they just feel like looking like that day.

Istra's saliva, blood, etc. are all a fluid called "istrum". Istrum has healing properties and seems to be the source of their enhanced healing factor, so it's often used as an ingredient in healing potions on campus. In larger doses, however, it also functions as a muscle relaxant and therefore also serves as a useful ingredient in anesthetics. Istra is able to control the viscosity and properties of their istrum depending on what they need it for at any given time.

This is one of the many things that makes their "corrupted" form so dangerous: once one comes into contact with them, they're immediately exposed to so much istrum via the skin that prey very quickly becomes unable to struggle or think clearly. If anything, though, this is something of a blessing: Istra's "corrupted" form is so powerful that it's nigh impossible to escape from them once they become aware of your presence. It's for the best that witnessing what comes after can only be done numbly and from the very brink of consciousness.

• Istra's concept was partially inspired by HeLa cells and my personal experiences with recurring skin conditions. Now they mostly just eat everything but ya know
• Their name is a corruption of the name "Astrid," which is just a name I like that I wanted to use somewhere. I still don't have any OCs named Astrid. Maybe someday...?
• Despite how long they've been at Hell College, Istra doesn't have a permanent residency. Instead they tend to sleep in arbitrary places around campus. Since Maple Manor's connection to Hell College was established they've started spending most of their sleeping time there, inconveniently napping in the middle of hallways by windows and in random beds. There are plenty of empty bedrooms, but Istra prefers the warmth of a bed of someone who got up from their spot for like five seconds to grab something.

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