Profile
Gender: Male Age/DOB: ~250, born on Rookery Xen Origin: Rookery Earth's dimension; currently residing in Rapture Family: Unknown, may have 'family' in this dimension Other: He's quite popular among humans, even to the point that they prefer his skilled cooking to some of the other attempts that their friends make; part of the Shorepoint rescue group Height: 5'7" at normal hunch, can stretch to over 6'4" Weight: 180, mostly heavy bone and muscle, compact and sturdy, overall quite healthy given that he gets to sample the food first... Hair: none Eyes: pinkish-violet with a bright orange-yellow iris on all four eyes Appearance: considerably more caramel yellow-orange than most Vorts, brighter on limbs and over neck / back of head, and more brownish along chest, upper legs, and lower face; when cooking, he does in fact put on a chef's hat, he thinks they're not only stylish, but a good way to distinguish himself from the others of his breed, also to give them a signal that food is ready! Genetic Abilities: like all Vortigaunts, Cookie can speak using telepathic Flux Shifting with Vorts and anyone else with the right Vortal senses. His mental voice is clear and somewhat gruff, like his voice. Also like most Vorts, he can produce an electric field with his hands, though he only uses this to hunt small prey like headcrabs or in Rapture, fish that show up in the airlocks. He much more often will use healing powers and keeps food fresh somehow with it. Icarus Processing: no, of course not. | Image Credits: Valve / Garry's Mod |
| Skills or Profession: As his name implies, Cookie is an adept chef. His skills come from many years of working with the local fauna on Xen, and now he can truly branch out into new flavors and presentations. On Xen, he was not only responsible for cooking for the troops, grunts, and other Vorts in his group, but for hunting and harvesting prey and edibles. His skills at identifying plant life are exceptional, and his many-eyes for locating animals or spices - or even fuel for cooking - are unbeaten among Vortikind. He has an experimental flair, most of the time his concoctions work, but he's learned from his mistakes and keeps records on who liked what dish, who broke out in hives... Down in Rapture, he's enjoying all the available restaurant equipment, which on Xen certainly didn't exist. He has learned that Wilson Carver is quite the chef himself - though Repurposed Vorts seem to be quite averse to getting near Wilson, Cookie and others from the Rookery's dimension have come to accept that human for what he's worth. They share ideas, and it's actually Wilson who is responsible for bringing some of the fresh vegetables to Rapture to keep them well stocked before they have their own gardens set up.
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| Personality: Though he's no 'tv show chef', he does have a strong independent streak that means if you're in his kitchen whe he needs to be working, you are going to leave, right quick. Or, at the very least, follow his instructions - he doesn't beat around the verbal bush, either - like some vorts who would say in a roundabout way 'if the companion might bring this humble Vortigaunt a glass capsule of granulated sodium', he'll absolutely just bark out, "pass the salt". This might be why humans like him so much, because at the very least, he doesn't confuse the crap out of them if they listen to him. He's exacting, but not afraid to take chances or change things up in his recipes. He will almost always follow a recipe that's been written as much as possible - sometimes there are missing ingredients, he'll have to ask about replacements - once or twice, to see how it's received, and then begin playing with it a little. Given that he's down in Rapture, he actually provides incentive for people to come visit not just to help rebuild, but to actually enjoy a pleasant restaurant environment. He likes putting together presentations of food as well as preparing it, but he will often enough just instruct other helpers to set the tables just so, or make sure that the lighting is right. He hardly cooks in the same restaurant twice in a row, and makes large amounts of everything, so the people in the facility have a chance to sample it and get leftovers if they didn't make it to 'Taco Tuesday' or 'Fishy Fishy Friday'. | |
| Events or History: Born on the Rookery's dimension Xen, he seemed too small to be of much use as a soldier, so as a youth he was set up with the gatherers. He did very well with this, and when one of their cooks fell to an animal attack, he stepped right up into those hoofsteps. He was always glad that it wasn't him on the fighting lines - the tales that his elders would spin about Nihilanth's 'training exercises' which pitted groups of Vorts against one another turn his stomach and make him ashamed. When the fighting went to Earth, he wasn't among those sent, obviously, but afterwards in the various portal storms reverberating between Earth and Xen, he took a chance and jumped into one of those green colored balls of light. It dropped him in eastern Europe, where he resided among the groups of human refugees - again he learned how to find prey and distinguish local foods from local trash. Helping set up one of the many stations toward Shorepoint, he was saddened to see the place get destroyed, but then on being rescued by these humans and their new dragon friends, he has hope renewed. Now that he's also got his own dragon, his instincts for herding and collecting have sharpened once more - as an ancestral skill, commanding a 'hive-like' animal like a Xenomorph is actually remarkably easy for him, and Candycorn enjoys his company, only drooling acid on things that need to be broken down... | |
| Dragon Name: Candycorn Gender: Male, Drone, Low Ranked Size/Shoulder/Length: humanoid, on four feet ~4', standing over 8'5" / from head to tail tip approximately 16' long Colors: A highly reflective white, almost silvery body, with alternating yellow and orange markings along back of head, under chin, back vents, under arms and legs, and on spikes along tail, tail tip is literally candy corn colored, yellow teeth, probably the inner teeth on second mouth are orange Features: Xenodragon, edible/nonstandard; four limbs adequate to either quadruped or biped motion, with sharp short claws, feet have 3 plus heel, hands have two thumbs and two thin fingers each; hard chitin armor/exoskeleton; head is elongated and bean shaped with no eyes; tail is quite long and extremely strong, flexible, tipped with a spike that is candy corn in color only; back vents serving unknown purposes Powers: Hive-mind, though they operate mainly with pheromones, this Xenodragon does receive and understand information and commands from his Vortigaunt partner, mentally. He cannot particularly think for himself, except for entertaining himself with small prey or scooting around looking for good hiding spots - so when he's given a command, or hears one from another 'important' source, he will obey it without question. He is a low ranked drone, but given that there aren't too many of his kind around (whether it's 'kind' or 'something sorta like a couple generations ago') he may rise to a female and get more respect. Acid resistance, blood, spittle; as most Xenomorphs, they have evolved a strong and extremely concentrated acid blood. As a defense mechanism it's mostly served them well, and here he may get to use it if any Combine get too close, or if something in the deep ocean starts hunting him. His chitin is completely immune to damage by acid or toxins, as well as being quite hard to pierce. He can drool on things and the spit while nowhere near as nasty as his blood, can eventually dissolve metals, organic compounds, and even glass. He is careful not to do this anywhere but a spot he's been designated: it's been treated Vortally by some of the matter shapers, to resist his caustic extrusions, and he can drag whatever he wants to chew on into it. Stealth, even though he is literally blindingly white in bright lights, Candycorn can only be tracked by scent if he wants to be hidden. He'll find just the right angled doorway, or a coil of cables, or even a planter, and just... stop being seen. Of course, you can still locate him if you take a whiff of the air: yes, he smells like honey-sweets, actually quite delicious. Edibility, and now we get to this part where he's actually edible. That candy-corn spike on the end of his tail, while sharp as hell, can be dropped off in self defense. And once it falls off of him, the edge dulls quickly, and whatever external compounds had been holding it together start breaking down. The end result is that there's a foot-long chunk of almost pure honey-like gel waiting to be gathered and used in preparing food. So far as anyone has been able to tell (and anyone who has the skills or powers to do so has in fact, done so) it's completely harmless and doesn't contain any of the acid or caustic toxins that might otherwise be found in his body. There's speculation that his back vents are also such a food item. And the little nubs along his tail. Like almost all of the 'edible' dragons that Baeris has encountered (though she doesn't ever plan on residing anywhere near this world, she's brought the Healing Den around for a visit to check up on the new dragonry) the dragon seems completely oblivious to pain when edible parts are removed. Most people won't up and take parts off a Xeno, however, and only Cookie has been able to get him to actively drop the tail tip. Otherwise they have to trick him into it, which he kind of finds fun. Xenomorphology, because he is still a Xenomorph in the truest sense, Candycorn's reproductive cycle must involve a parasitic relationship with a victim, inside which a hatched 'face hugger' will generate their final form. Since there haven't been any other Xenos having offspring yet, it's unclear how they're going to manage this... Maybe cloned human flesh, it doesn't have to be sentient or awake, but he also doesn't have to worry about finding a place to lay eggs, he's no queen! He can interbreed with other similarly sized dragons, or even likely humanoids, although it's also known that those females that might be about his same configuration kinda think he's a little on the dumb-as-rocks side. Parentage: Unknown, though he might share some kind of interdimensional heritage with those other edible Xenos from the Healing Den. Origin: Adopted from Crazy-Zoroark on Deviantart Other Info: Though seemingly from another of the odd dragon-oriented dimensions, Candycorn would fit in with some of the more... edible of the dragons, as well as the other Xenos. Given that there are already a few from the Healing Den or other such Nexus worlds, it's possible that there might be more 'fun sized' bursting and wholly edible dragons in the Rookery's future. Keenan doesn't know what to think about this. Well he does. He just doesn't know how to put it in words, maybe "oh how about we don't" or "can we please not mention eating sentient life forms now". | |
