Name: Soloman "TURBOTAXATION" Stern

Gender: Male, Straight

Age/DOB: 35 @ Arrival

Origin: Aperturth, Boston Mass

Family: Unknown status on Aperturth, likely deceased because Boston had numerous facilities that will have been destroyed in or after the RC; is not actively looking for a partner, but he won't be unhappy if some ladies come looking...

Other: Even Melissa's powers are dampened when he's around, and she finds it a bit weird that they have incorporated a supression device in his ties, to ... dampen his dampening? To even allow Pantheon or other psychic types close to him!

Height: 5'8"

Weight: 170 on the dumpier side, not used to much physical activity at all, though obviously the Rookery has started to change this. Surprisingly agile, however, and can squirm around in the ruins with ease, he's used to a desk job though, and wouldn't mind continuing to have one

Hair: balding brown, also going a bit grey, he keeps it shaved or quite short to avoid the comb-over look

Eyes: grey blue, mostly a steel shade with a dark ring; squinty, has needed glasses - well he had them, but they broke a while back in that bus crash and he's never found replacements

Appearance: pasty caucasian, doesn't look old enough to be balding but there he is. With the Rookery allowing him to kind of blossom a bit, he's coming more out of his nerdy boring shell, though his body language will always reflect a shuffle and turtling-in posture; likes suits and ties, though he was never a great fashion follower. He speaks with a quiet, hesitant and heavily Bostonian accented voice, though he certainly is much better educated than many prisoners, and can easily hold his own using the Big Words with the math nerds around the Pantheon if he has to... they just have a hard time understanding him.

Icarus Processing: none, it was not really apparent when he was arrested that he had any Vortal power at all, but when the Resonance Cascade occurred they actually activated tremendously. He doesn't need any further treatments, though he wonders if having that weird processing would help him lose weight?

Image Credits: CFStock and Stockicide on Deviantart

Genetic Abilities: As a Vortal mentalist, Soloman is nearly unbeatable. While he can sense emotions and actually read minds to a small degree at close range (say, a 10x10 office room?) he has a much more broad and overarching ability to negate psionic and Vortal powers. Because he acts as a sort of negation-sphere, it was almost impossible to know what he could do, until that power itself was brought under control in a lab - and that was only on arrival to the Rookery. Finding a safe place to do this was problematic, but eventually Mel and some few others were able to prise apart his DNA to find similarities to Zack's. He does not truly 'siphon' or store any other energies, merely stops them from functioning within a 10 meter sphere. Even extremely strong Vortal entities, including Vortigaunts and even Keenan, have trouble with their abilities when he's around them. With some amount of experimentation, it's known that he can also nullify Advisor powers, which according to everyone is The Best News They've Had All Year. He does have to be quite nearby for this defensive mechanism to be working, and it's completely unconscious, he cannot exert control over it, thus they've had to create a method for him to literally switch it on and off - and Keenan thinks it's hysterical that they decided to put that dampening device in his tie. (Actually, the tie clips, of several styles and levels of dampening strength based on whether he actually needs other powers at the time.) He's been told that somewhere called Zekira has experts that use similar abilities to help other people either get stronger with their powers, or put the kibash on out of control kids powers. Either of those things sounds pretty intriguing to him. Otherwise he does have a very powerful ability to emotionally affect other people, consciously. Scare tactics, sympathy votes, even swaying a jury or two, within around a 25 meter range. While it's best one on one, he can sway groups up to a dozen normal people or three to five Pantheon level folks at 10 meters or less. As an ambulance chaser this worked wonders back home.

Offensive power: Very strong Hypnotize attacks---6x normal power level---This power is out of control Offensive power: Very strong Emotion Sway attacks---5x normal power level Defensive Power: Strong Negate Other Powers defenses---2x normal power level---This power is out of control << he seemed so normal, so did everyone else, until knocked out... (switch some levels of ability though, lol)

Skills or Profession: Soloman always had a decent grasp on people and their behaviors, and let's face it, growing up in a place as corrupt as Boston he learned quickly how to manipulate others. Even if a detective or investigator was sent to his office to pick over records which had clearly been falsified (by him) they would leave satisfied that all was fine and dandy. He's quite good at math and accounting, but what good is that here? He does know that they have needs for good record keepers, and he can spot problems in lists or accounts from a mile away, so there's that. No one will be able to sneak extra bits they don't requisition while he's on watch. Unless they bribe him, which is pretty normal procedure... He is highly literate, though he only knows English and a bit of Legalese thanks to his avoidance of arrests. His abiltiy to recognize authority or skill among a group is pretty strong, he'd easily be able to notice team leaders from grunts, picking out the weak links in an investigation chain, and now applies that to organizational work getting the right folks where they need to be. He still shuffles paper, but he has been given a pretty important logicstics job and certainly understands that his old life of very-white-collar-crime is over.
Personality: Always a bit of a nerd, shy, dumpy and out of shape as a kid led to him being frequently taunted through school. But he rolled with it, got in good with certain kids, bullies, and made sure their grades were passing so they could get on with the fun stuff in high school. He will defer to those he sees as 'actually going to fuck me up', though he doesn't push anyone else around unless they are actively threatening him with nonsense. He would obey Paxton, but not, say, Chandler. He lived a soft life, for the most part, and this is reflected in most of his behaviors. He likes having a nice bed and a comfy office, a tie to adjust, and having busy work. In this Rookery though, he does still have to be outside and among the riders now and again, and has begun adjusting to it.

Events or History: The aforementioned Ambulance Chaser routine was a common one for him, insurance fraud, and writing plentiful bad checks - all of them ignored until he crossed the wrong Family. Someone had caught on to him being there equating to a clean record, so they made sure to separate him from his office, and all came out pretty quickly. He'd been working an insurance racket for nearly a decade, fresh out of high school and with a Bachelor's Degree in accounting that he may or may not have actually earned. (He did actually earn it.) But once he was arrested and placed into Aperture custody - they'd been tipped off too, that something was 'weird' about him, and they cannot resist weird - it became very apparent that they were going to be experimenting on him just like the other poor schlubs in the program. He was on the bus the longest, they hadn't figured out the best method of focusing or using his powers, and he was being sent off to a better equipped facility to the west when all hell broke loose. The moment he went unconscious due to the bus rolling and a bit of head trauma, his power stopped working, and everyone else on the bus suddenly mutated like crazy. It was like a toggle was pressed, and BOOM dinosaurs and mantises left and right. Local Lane was very careful when taking him out of the group, having to work from a distance. Soloman alone was briefed and kept separate from the others while they were herded over to the Rookery.

He doesn't particularly like being in the desert, he tends to burn and peel and there's no goddamn sunscreen any more? His head peels! Ew! But then this magnificent and sneaky dragoness came to him all on her own. Dynasty puts muscle at his disposal, and he's learning how to actually ride her, though ... he's also a bit afraid of heights, something he'd never even thought about back home.

Currently he resides in the Hidden Valley former Brotherhood of Steel bunker, working from their old records room. Dynasty likes it in the Valley, and commands the artificial sandstorm with her own powers.

Dragon

Name: Dynasty
Gender: Female, though she presents quite masculine in many ways
Size/Shoulder/Length: Medium-large (broad, big) 11' s / 60' l / 96' ws
Colors: Face, neck, lower limbs, belly from chest to mid tail medium grey; neck, limb armor, body, tail, dark graphite; wing arms nearly black; central limb armor, markings on scales, horns, claws, wing and fin markings vibrant gold-yellow; wingsails and fin, tongue, deeply black (with markings); eyes red
Features: Sandwing Nightwing Hybrid, Sand strongly dominant, Nightwing coloration and powers
Powers: Winged Flight, remarkably sturdy in very difficult conditions such as sandstorms or aerial bombardment, Dynasty is confident and even comfortable among the swirling dirt and smoke. From that smoke, she likes to make her appearance with wings outspread looking like fire against the night sky. Yes, she's an absolute drama llama. She prefers low-altitude flights, because she loves seeing the sand whip up behind her. She can maintain a good balance even in very strong winds, and reliably can lift very heavy items while doing so, thus she's been tasked on occaison with moving heavy equipment to and from the Valley under the cover of night. She would love it if her 'rider' would actually, you know, ride? Because she thinks it is wonderful hearing his gasps and commentary. Oh - wait, no he is afraid, but she likes hearing it anyway.
Communication, her nightwing side offers a much stronger Vortal bond to her human friend - she was hatched on the Rookery after all, so many of the Nightwings and hybrids find themselves gifted with a close partnership. She can sense and communicate with him at any distance, and his nullification power does not work on her, and her alone. She can communicate with other Vortal minds around 5 miles away. Otherwise she speaks English and some Vortigese, and only a small amount of Draconic, though she does understand their native tongue.
Sand and Fury, she has control over sand itself, whipping it up with a few pushes of her large wings, but then controlling it within a 100 meter radius. This is more than enough space to keep the entire Hidden Valley area under a sand storm, or clear it instantly if needed. She can burrow in loose sand and dirt, preferring dry grains to soil. Dynasty can hurl chunks of stone or dirt, lob wobbly balls of sand, or blanket an area within 50 meters using this power - she's an Earth Bender. She has been known to solidify the sand around an enemy or creature, move it around to see what it is, and maybe eat it straight up. Using the sand around her, she can seem almost entirely hidden, and emerge as above with smoke and 'flames' on her wings. She lacks a breath weapon, but she is well adapted to the hot and cold of the desert.
Parentage: Sandwing father Leopard of the Desert, and Nightwing mother, **
Origin: Adopted from LunarSolstice981 with lines by PeregrineCella on Deviantart, WoF by Tui Sutherland
Other Info: Dynasty puts muscle at Soloman's command. She absolutely loves playing with the sand and junk found around Hidden Valley, and will protect their home from underground incursions as well as from the skies. She's actually much friendlier than any strong-arm brute, and is more than smart enough to have realized that their partnership is for the best for everyone out here. They have to go over to the Rookery proper now and then, when someone finds or captures an Advisor or whatever else, Soloman and she put the fear of ancient gods into those slugs.