Name: Clay Brunner

Gender: Male, Straight

Age/DOB: ~34/1999

Origin: Repurposed Earth, Enrichment Center

Family: Spliced, unknown relations to any existing Pantheon, possibly related to Corey, but more likely splices connect him to Takeshi

Other: Jade and Autumn, daughters with Eden, probably other offspring both spliced and naturally conceived (with her and others); donated to the ELL project, making Ardell

Height: 5'5"

Weight: 130 (is a bit more pudgy than images), lighter than he really should be due to Icarus, not remarkably muscular in any way

Hair: bright to pale blond, frizzy, flyaway, kept short and usually messy

Eyes: light green, looks innocent until he starts gazing at rotting things

Appearance: fair skinned with few scars, rarely has facial hair but if he does grow a beard it's basically invisibly blond. Prefers green and brown clothing as shown, and often has remnants of dirt clinging to him

Genetic Abilities: Moderate sense and control over dirt and stone, growing quite strong over time; can accelerate decomposition and is extremely good with making soil out of any other form of dirt/rock. He can take loose sand or soil, and create extremely durable 'stone' of it within moments, though this can exhaust him if he has to do a lot of it. If there is any kind of organic matter in a chunk of rock, he can worm it out and either cause that stone to dissolve from lack of stability, or turn it ultra-hard. Has minor close range empathy, but lacks any other form of Vortal power.

Icarus Processing: Yes, at age 3, this process increased his strength a bit, though he was never one to practice, and he uses this strength only when needing to move rocks or other heavy items; it did also improve his shaping and sensing abilities, and likely added the empathic power from latency

Image Credits: Icon/City of Heroes / tektek

Skills or Profession: Clay has always been responsible for keeping the Enrichment Center and Black Mesa able to grow food - along with Eden, they make sure that the dirt is properly fertile, and that whatever she plants gets a good hold into the ground. Armacham likely intended Clay to be an environmental engineer, a terraforming power would net them billions if they worked it right. He has had downloads which allow him to recognize any form of stone, rock, dirt, sand, even gems and other geological features, as well as a lot of inorganic chemistry. He enjoyed learning those things the old fashioned way, too, and is a bit of a bookworm... just don't read the titles of those books in his den, because they will gross you out. Since he has the ability to effectively decompose any organic materials in minutes, he has served as the 'waste management' of Black Mesa. While on one hand he knows this is a tremendously important role, he also doesn't particularly relish it, and has made as much of an effort early on, to make the subsequent need more palatable. He's quite smart, but rather focused on his work above ground. Particularly after the Rookery was established, and he got to get back to work on the place's exterior and interior floor plan, Clay enjoys seeing his handiwork.
Personality: Clay is a dependable, diligent, and focused man. He is pretty quiet, and not much for noisy celebrations or gatherings, he more enjoys watching sunsets from the top of the Mesa, with Eden and their kids. He is known to be a touch on the morbid side, and while he doesn't look it, he's quite the detective - coming at this from the same angle that Mars did. She likes putting holes in things, he likes finding out how they got there. They actually make a surprisingly good team, and he always laughs at her jokes, because he's one of the few that finds morgue humor hilarious. That said, he's not at all off-putting in that way unless you don't expect it. He can be cheery and does truly enjoy hanging out with other families, trading stories about kid barf and where they found that last snark nest.
With Varve's arrival, Clay's personality got a bit more open and active, but not by much.
Events or History: Created from three or more donor parents, Clay was among the younger of the students in the Enrichment Center when the Events occurred. He didn't truly come into his own as a force to be known, until many years later when Isabella flew out of the Center, and he helped reshape the field above to protect them and funnel water into the facility. He essentially kept to himself for years, until he escorted Eden to Black Mesa - she was pregnant with Jade, and it was there that he became a father. He also met Mars Walsh in the facility, and became reasonably good friends with her. Essentially if anyone ever needed to have a rock shaped, a dirt plot made ready for planting, or bodies dissolved quickly... Clay was your man. Still is. He made forays down into the bottom of the Enrichment Center, and discovered the absolute hell of half-rotted bodies left behind from GLADOS' murderous nerve gas spree, but he among any of the teenagers there was able to see just exactly which of those corpses had been dead before the gas hit them...
When the Rookery was started, and actually before then during some cleanup of Black Mesa, Clay truly was able to show his stuff.

Dragon

Name: Varve (a layered clay)
Gender: Male
Size/Shoulder/Length: Medium (bulky) 13' shoulder / 55' l / 105' ws
Colors: buff white-tan belly and limbs, shimmering taupe-brown armor scales with black edging, tan-caramel brown fading back fin and darker brown fade wingsails, sails have sand-colored spotting, all webbing has tiny grit-brown-charcoal pigments; black claws, tongue, horns; copper eyes.
Features: Pyrrhan Sand Dragon, four legs, two wings, long tail; heavy scaled skin with very fine scales on neck, belly, under tail, and most of limbs; heavy plated armor along neck, back, and upper portions of limbs, and along tail; 5 claws forefeet, 4 on hind with a heel claw; 3 fingered leather wings with an elbow strut and short wrist thumb, all bearing large claws; soft leathery fin from middle of head to tail tip for heat release; tail has long sharp stinger and venom sac that delivers an incredibly painful and dangerous substance; black forked tongue, short stubby nose horn, high jaw horns, external ears, and two short swept back horns on head.
Powers: Winged Flight, Varve is a strong flier, particularly at low altitude and close to the ground. He is much lighter on his feet than you'd think by looking at him, and quite agile in the air, though he does produce a lot of wind when landing or taking off from a standing start. He can soar in the warm desert air over the Rookery for hours at a time, and loves doing so.
Verbal Speech, with a massive voice, Varve can speak English, dragon tongues, and likely can understand creatures which burrow such as antlions or headcrabs. He also has an empathic bond with Clay, and they trade secrets when near each other silently. In association with this, Varve's hearing is exceptionally keen, and he can hear motion even deeply below ground, from above.
Fire production, sand dragons are known for having heat-radiation, and he is no exception. He and Clay are able to remain near each other with careful control over this ability. His flame is hot, but also often rather broad and billowy, almost like heat haze. He can only spit it around 30 meters before it simply becomes a cloud of hot air, so Varve keeps to a much smaller localization - and uses his heat to help the locals fire their pottery or purify large amounts of water with steam.
Stinger, the end of his tail is barbed with an incredibly strong and nearly 3 foot long hollow spike, which feeds to a venom sac in the end of his tail. Varve can use this to stab almost anything to death outright, but also the venom is quite dangerous. Clay can safely say he's immune to it, somehow, possibly due to his power over decomposition, thus it's likely that Varve's venom is a biologically active septic fluid. The venom alone can dissolve organic matter almost as well as Clay's power, so between the two of them they often pump that venom into specially designed storage containers, and use it to dispose of waste in the Rookery.
Survival, because of his biology, Varve is essentially immune to thirst, and can go for very long periods without drinking. He also doesn't need to eat nearly as much as you'd expect from a dragon of any size, let alone his build. Most of his liquid needs are met by consuming the random antlions that wander up from the caverns nearby, and he is one of the few creatures alive that can also consume Bullsquid without ill effect. (He doesn't think they're particularly tasty, though!) When in the dune desert, or even in the light scrub where the Rookery sits, Varve can submerge himself in loose sand, or hunker down surprisingly small and camouflage himself with ease. He has been known to do this to help train newcomers or riders, springing himself out to take them off guard, or training them to spot hidden things among the dunes.
Parentage: Unknown, purebred Sandwings, unlikely to be related to any of the other Rookery dragons from his homeworld.
Origin: adopted from Moonshimmer981 at Deviantart, Wings of Fire by Tui Sutherland
Other Info: Of the two, Varve is the more outgoing and friendly, direct type. He enjoys pranks, and has turned that into those 'training' exercises that he does in the desert. He also loves listening to the various animals of the desert - whether they're native or from offworld - and considers the deep bellowing of the antlion queen to be remarkably musical.