Adi

There are other planets out there with life on them. Not all unknown life is as friendly as they say, however. Some creatures find their way to Earth and are thought to be demons, monsters, etc. Caught and locked up for an attempt to poke, prod, and study. However, not all these 'extraterrestrials' are caught and locked up. Some are able to live among the regular humans. Adi is one of those who is mostly able to blend in. Or, at least avoid detection. In the very least, avoid being caught.

Adi comes from a planet that is in another galaxy. One that's roughly 2/3rds the size of Earth. The males all have names starting with a consonant, and the females, vowels. The shorter the name, the more respected they are. There are no two same names at any given time. Those who hold the highest positions on the planet, whether it be military, political, or otherwise, usually only have one letter. Two letters are for direct underlings, three are for extremely influential individuals, and four and five letter names are generally reserved for high-ranking military personnel. Female military personnel generally have names ending in one of three ways, '-ua' (intel/recon), '-ip' (battlefront), or '-os' (deskwork; secretaries and the like). Males have two endings, '-au' (intel/recon) or '-pi' (battlefront). They go by numbers at birth, and once they show interest or promise in a certain field, they are assigned a name, which they are able to have a say in. There are certain endings for certain genders and professions, as well as limits on how short (or long) a name can be. The general working class usually consists of eight to eleven letters, or characters (hyphens and apostrophes counting as part of a name). Six to seven letters are reserved for people who make big figures or play a semi-important role in a company/business. Eight to ten are reserved for general employees in well-known groups; like law enforcement, pharmaceutical companies, etc. Anything more than twelve letters is someone to be avoided; the longer, the more avoided they should be. Whether it be for ending another life, sabotaging important work, or trying to work for an enemy. The longest name in recorded history was Zanba'lakasimordug. Completely made up, but very well-known. He was an individual that went to another planet to offer his knowledge to get back at someone he despised in the military; in the end, it cost many lives, most innocent, and he also caused a major setback in some technology progress. About fifty years' worth, to be a little more exact.

Their planet does not have water or plants, though at one point in time it used to. The planet has mostly mechanical life, though a few hybrids have remained. The mechanical life on the planet is not what the average person would think. It is highly intelligent; all forms are of very high intelligence, equivalent to that of a supercomputer. It has evolved over the thousands of years it has been around, and has greatly surpassed human technology. It is able to adapt to any situation. The life forms that are alive there today were created by human-like lifeforms that resided there a long, long time ago. They had lived with machines all their lives. However, when their resources began running out, they came up with a solution: meld their bodies with the machines. It took a century and a half for the first successful meld to be successful, but once they had perfected the art, they were able to create personalized robot equivalents to transfer their consciousness into. The robot equivalents were able to be changed at the will of the consciousness to look like whatever they wanted, and to be any size they wanted. Most retained a familiar form, though there are always exceptions to the general population.

Each being had their own 'weak spot,' the equivalent of a heart. Destroy that, and the being would be destroyed. It could be something that was precious to them in a previous lifetime: a necklace, a blanket, a lock of hair, or even something as big as, in Adi's case, a suit of armor. The objects were all attracted to their respective consciousnesses, and if the two were to be separated by a wide berth for a long period of time, the consciousness would start fading away. The consciousness will always know where their object is, no matter how far away it is. If a separated object is returned within a certain time frame, the consciousness can be restored, but if the consciousness is on the brink of completely drifting away, then there is little to no hope, especially if the object is damaged if it gets returned. Damaged objects in general, however, are able to be repaired back to pristine condition, simply by being in the presence of the consciousness.

As well as the object, there is another way for for a consciousness to fade, or age, even with an object close by their side. When a consciousness was either merged with a machine, or a machine merged with a consciousness (the difference being, mind to machine is it's only the mind left over -- machine to mind, the machine is build on and around a person's body, preserving what they wanted to be left of their living selves), they lost their ability to need to breathe, thus saving their kind from extinction, as the galaxy they lived in was extremely hostile and was an 'every man for himself' kind of place. (If a planet was having known issues, then it just made them vulnerable and a target, which is why Adi's kind didn't see otherworldly help. In doing so, they have outlived dozens of generations of other races on other planets.) However, with the loss of the ability to breathe, and there only being a consciousness, the consciousness needed something to do to keep itself maintained and in-check. It could go crazy with having nothing to do after a period of time. They did not realize this until someone went on a spree and wound up ending the lives of a dozen or so other consciousnesses. Each consciousness would crave to do something, an equivalent of 'keeping the heart pumping.' For some, it was to do things that would cause an adrenaline rush in someone who was made of flesh and bones. Other things included making people happy, performing, playing pranks, etc. Unfortunately, there were those consciousnesses who craved more dark things -- and those consciousnesses were given the choice to either be ended, or allow themselves to 'age.' Most decided to get things over with then and there, but there were a small handful that hung around and were closely monitored. In Adi's case, hers was luckily only going to occasional flights, or gliding.

There are a lot of things that cannot be explained in simple terms about the place Adi came from, or what her people are (or were). They were always an ambitious race, looking to take leaps forward in technology. They had been working on long distance teleportation when a mishap occurred -- with Adi at its center. That's how Adi came to be on Earth. The teleportation device spiked in activity, numbers going way 'off the charts,' to put it in easy terms, while Adi was supposed to test it going from just one spot in the room to another. Somehow, the calibrations were off, and other proper testing hadn't been done prior, and Adi had to pay for it.

Since the mishap, Adi's consciousness desire has changed from going on flights (or at the very least, gliding) to making humans terrified of her, making them think they were having a nightmare.