Name: Lotus and Liana Zlatari
Gender: Female, Lotus (l) gay; Liana (r) pansexual
Age/DOB: 5 @ arrival, currently 15
Origin: Aperturth, born on Mansion grounds
Family: Mother Anna, father Ideal; half brothers Hicory, Inteus, half sister Pollen, cousins Switch, Persephone and Pandora, brother/cousins Hector and Hermes
Other: like their other siblings and cousins, they are identical twins which run very heavily in the Zlatari line, and will likely have multiple births themselves
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 140, quite muscular and toned, slinky and curvy (shown as adults)
Hair: both have straightened their hair ('the only straight thing about us') but in its normal form it's quite curly and frizzy in wet weather; normal color is a darker auburn blond, with medium brown tones, though they have access to dyes and tend to use them frequently enough that they hardly ever have just one color showing
Eyes: dark and vibrant blue, often tending to a bit bloodshot as they have frequent late nights over coffee and weed...
Appearance: creamy light tan, considerably darker than their mother's, with virtually no scarring or marks beyond a particular mole on the left or right eyebrow/temple area (varies by girl and is the only way to easily tell them apart); they have full lips and large eyes, and are both considered extremely pretty; Lotus uses a red under-suit, while Liana a light blue one; as with their family, they cannot be told apart by their voices
Icarus Processing: Due to their mother being unable to have Icarus treatments, their DNA is being monitored to see how other processes might work. They were among the 'negative markers' that encouraged Melissa to start working on something better that didn't interfere like Icarus specifically does.
Image Credits: Doll Divine Waviera
Genetic Abilities, Lotus: gifted with strong empathic ability, Lotus is the 'sense everyone around her' type, and though she can't openly affect the mood of anyone other than her family members, she has finely tuned her ability to pinpoint individuals in a large crowd, or look for very specific moods or features among them. She of all the Carnies can 'spot a traitor' or locate a spy, anyone with a hidden agenda is open to her mind. This power does work on Pantheon members as well as Vorts to a certain extent, though stronger minds can resist. In addition to this, she can create or enhance plant-based scents into truly hypnotic or psychedelic levels. This is a short-lived, but potent change, so if you're in a room where people are smoking... expect to be high as fuck when you leave. She's working on getting the coffee plants to taste different, they're still a bit too bitter for her and there's a lot of people wanting flavored coffees! The smells that she can create with pollen, leaves, petals, or bark are as varied as she wants them to be, and it does work on dried or older plant matter, though not processed: picked coffee beans, the dried hemp flower, pressed flowers, cut grass - but not treated wood, pulp, cooked plants, or paper. She's frequently found munching on coffee beans, and leaves them out for others the same way that a grandma might put out those little minty candies on their living room table.
Genetic Abilities, Liana: As the more bold of the pair, Liana also takes a more active approach to plant-shaping and sensing, and coaxes small changes in plant matter, she's the one making all that hair dye... As long as the plant has the ability to produce some form of color, she can have it produce a lot of it. This only works on Earth-native plants and only on touch. She does often enough walk through a garden and have all the plants bloom on cue, so part of their act involves setting up a number of colorful plants, and watching them dramatically open up! She's often on hand in a garden where pollenation is required, opening and closing safely hand-pollenated plants. Of the two, she's got a weaker version of telepathy and empathy than Lotus, but still quite present, and also more able to manipulate the emotions in a small group. This is only to the extent of a nudge here and there, she cannot force an angry person to be happy, but she could suggest they take a chill pill and fume in the corner. This does not work on Vortally powered people, however, but she can still sense those around her at a reasonable distance (up to 50 meters).
Genetic Abilities, Both: As with all the Zlatari clan, the girls can sense each other's moods, thoughts, and nearness with ease, as well as anyone else in their bloodline regardless of 'dilution' or distance. They're carrying on the Zlatari traditions strongly in that regard, and will always be close emotionally. These two can only be told apart if they're more than a kilometer distant from one another, Vortally - even the Vortigaunts can't tell beyond the clothes they wear, unless they've been moved away from one another or spent considerable time (more than 2 days) away from each other's line of sight. (That's very rare, indeed.) They can boost one another's Vortal abilities when they're near, and this effect increases with quantity of relatives nearby. As a family unit, they are virtually unstoppable.
Physical Abilities, Both: because the Zlatari clan also displays a remarkable amount of physical mutation, this pair aren't any different, they have a strong speed component to their movement, and are about 2x faster for running, and 4x more dexterous than most. Neither of them take any damage from plant-based saps or toxins.
Events or History: Born in the Mansion on Aperturth, they've never known anything other than a 'weird' world - be it their original location, or this new dimension with dragons and Combine and all that other stuff going on. Their dragons were quite young when they stumbled upon the group, and as a group they can't be separated... They're intent on getting the area around the Grounds cleared of all possible Combine, so that this might become a real town! They've never even seen a town, city, or even more than their own 'village' in this place, what will it be like when there's no more enemy to fight? They cannot wait.
Their home in the Mansion Grounds is generally the Zlatari tent, but Lotus heads over to the southern Hemp field at Dragon Tower 15, and Liana often frequents the orchard at Dragon Tower 14, they both circle the gardens as well.
Dragons Parentage: Unknown Leafwing mother, and Rainwing sire, they have several other siblings from the same nest. Born on the Rookery and have no contact with their 'homeworld' in any way, and don't even care. It's unclear whether their parents are Rookery dragons, but it's very likely, since it seems like the eggs were laid here and not moved here via a portal.
Origin: Adopted from MooncrestNecrozma on Deviantart, WoF by Tui Sutherland
Dragon of Lotus
Name: Blacklight
Gender: Male
Size/Shoulder/Length: Medium-small 8' s / 50' l / 75' ws
Colors: face, main coloration from neck to tail and limbs is extremely dark indigo blue-violet, nearly black on horns; belly scales from chin to tail tip bold salmon pink; body and limb scale armor purple; face, horn, dorsal armor from head to tail tip and dorsal spines *change under control with a range of vibrant blue, teal, bright green, deep red, strong mango-orange, gold, and vibrant yellow - these colors do not stop moving, but don't go into other shades and are always vibrant; *wingsails and all webbing go from very bright pink-fuschia through strong orange, and vibrant insane yellow, with trim contrasting at all times, also always slowly changing with less control than scales; eyes bright cyan, claws graphite
Features: Leafwing Rainwing hybrid, Leaf strongly dominant with only coloration and neck frills Rain
Powers: Winged Flight, Blacklight is a demon in the air, using his color changes to distract and confuse (or delight). He almost has a Silkwing style of flight, in that his wings can maneuver haphazardly around things - but it's all planned, all very much under control. He's strong enough to be able to lift multiple people (perhaps not the whole Zlatari clan at once), and loves carrying things in order to drop them on enemies. He is stable in the air even with bulk, and even when it's dropped - Lotus has no worries of being jostled when they do these stunts.
Communication, though not a Nightwing, it's apparent that being born on the Rookery has its advantages, in that he and his siblings are just as Vortal as their riders, and share a very tight bond with their human friends. Blacklight speaks clearly and in a kind of spooky reverb style, and in caverns or ruins, this can be extremely disorienting, so he uses that to his advantage. He speaks English, a bit of Vortigese, and some Spanish, French, and Korean. He doesn't know any Draconic beyond a few phrases, and none of those are very nice.
Plant Affinity, though not a plant shaper like others, Blacklight's never been known to have any kind of allergic attack or suffer ill effects from any plant material including nasty saps or even other dragon's floral attacks. The girls can use their powers around him more strongly.
*Color Shifting, as half Rainwing it's very clear that this boy got a lot more in that line than most. Vibrant, tremendous coloration though less subtle than some, he can induce seizures or hypnotize Humanoids, and under that signature Black Light those colors absolutely sparkle and shine like crazy. This also works above the big top - a trick they've developed is to have small light emitters temporarily magnetized into place on his wing sails so that the colors are more vibrant and dazzling at night over a battlefield.
Venom Spit, though his bite is still pretty damaging, Blacklight does have an incredibly nasty spit that he can use to gum up creatures or Combine at a distance. He can't use this more than a few times in a battle, so he reserves it for hindering any very large creatures such as Gunships or Striders. It is sticky and gross smelling, anything that it touches will adhere instantly, so just don't touch it? Hah, you touched it. Now your hand is stuck to your face. Do not get it in your mou--ohhhh that's gonna hurt. It is vomit-inducing, in any creature with such a response, which is really horrible because if it gets on your mouth it'll seal... This spit is accurate to around 50 meters, because it's quite heavy, and a good lob of it can easily fill a 2 gallon bucket.
Other Info: Blacklight is a bit more outgoing than his bond, but defers to her judgement and decisions. They function as a very good team in the air, and he likes showing up at parties she's 'enhancing', to give a bit of a lightshow...
Dragon of Liana
Name: Center Stage
Gender: Female
Size/Shoulder/Length: Medium-small 8'6" s / 50' l / 80' ws
*Colors: face, body, limbs, and dorsal armor as well as spines and back/tail ridges vibrant midnight blue, wing arms grade through dark green and bright yellow at fingertips; under armor from chin to tail tip is vibrant pink-violet; face, neck, limb and tail fringe, and body/tail spot scales incredibly yellow; wingsails and neck frill, webbing grade at body from incredibly vibrant yellow which also trims wing edges, to vibrant pink-violet with only the smallest amount of slightly-orange between; eyes bright green, claws dark graphite *All colors but eyes and claws subject to change in intensity and reflectivity
Features: Leafwing Rainwing hybrid, with Rainwing dominating most features except head shape and wings, forelimbs have smaller Leafwing style claws
Powers: Winged Flight, like her siblings, Center Stage is a dramatically good flier, in short bursts. She likes to reserve her strongest flying for short duration and high effort, and then goes back into the shadows or backstage to recover a little, and then back out for more. During those bursts of activity, however, she's really strong - freight car lifting strong. She does lurch a little more than her sibling in flight overall, and is less spot-on for turning or accuracy, but who needs accuracy when the target's an entire squad of Combine and your weapon of choice is a goddamn flat car that's 20 feet long? Splat. She can rocket into the sky with extreme speed, and equally turn toward the ground to brake just short of slamming into it, and Liana does manage to easily stand on her head - or her tail - for this stunt...
Communication, as with the others in her nest, Center Stage was born on Rookery Earth and has access to more Vortal communication than most. Able to connect with her siblings and any Nightwings in the area (that is to say quite a few here on the Grounds) and she has a strong Vortal connection to her human friend. She speaks loud and clear, in English and Spanish - she loves rolling her r's! She understands but doesn't really speak much Vort, or other human languages.
*Color Shifting, good lord these colors. They're all under specific control, she's never out of touch with what her scales are doing. While they all tend to be in the same overt color scheme - deep blue, remarkable yellow, bold pink - each of those can become almost glowing in its tone, sparkle with a glittery reflection, or dull into a boring washed out pastel color scheme if needed. She can look like she's absolutely plastered with glitter, alternating which scales are shining or dull, she'd be equally at home in the big top or at a New Vegas stage!
Prehensile Tail and Really Sharp Claws, since she inherited her father's overall abilities, that tail is able to help her maintain weight distribution in burst flights, or even carry spare equipment without getting in the way. Very strong on its own, she can use it to bash things, lift heavy items off of ruined streets so others can pass easily, or hold it straight out for Liana to walk on during performances. Those hind claws of hers are also very, very sharp - used on her homeworld to dig into cliff sides and thick tree trunks, they're more of use here to claw the hell out of Combine machinery and those weird blue metal walls. If she comes in for a 'hug', watch out for those hind feet.
Venom Spit, like her sibling above, Center Stage shoots out a nasty smelling goop much like hot tar, accurate to around 50 meters but weaker at that distance, as it 'cools' and solidifies quickly in open air. This isn't a bad thing - she has learned how to fly pretty high up, and time her shots so that the goo is effectively obsidian bullets by the time it hits troops below. It has no true toxin, just the consistency of it is enough to gum up even strong creatures, machinery, and also serves as a temporary prison shackle for any given Combine soldier. Over about an hour, it does become brittle and fall away into pieces, so it's not good for long-term use in any way, but you can see where she's practiced, from the bits of it scattered around targets. The brainy bois back at the Rookery are trying to figure out ways to use this substance, but so far have come up with 'just use it fresh'. (It might come in handy as a 'window' if they can find a way to treat it so it won't break from minor jostling.)
Light Soak, the remnant of her mother's influence, Center Stage can rely on sunlight to power up, and does like day time battles for this reason. She can re-power herself in just a few minutes, but she cannot rely on this ability to 'not eat', or anything like that. She considers light to be a 'snack food', not a meal.
Other Info: Center Stage does like being in the spot light, but only briefly, and only when she knows what she's doing. She does practice quite often, she has the work ethic of the Zlatari clan.
