Name: (former) Senator David Hoyle

Gender: Male, Straight

Age/DOB: ??/1952 *

Origin: Repurposed Earth, Seattle Washington

Family: Any original relatives are long dead, but he would certainly like to start having a new family here and there... He is the 'one sixth' that appears to have made a tremendous difference in Paxton, since he is one of the two donor parents that Pax and Geoff do not share. His strong abilities may have triggered Paxton's own. Like many of the Vortally active men in this universe, Melissa Larrabie is stupidly attracted to him when she's in heat, whoops that first time was when she realized that he was Paxton's donor... They were at it quite a while, and Melissa put their fraternal twins in stasis for a number of years; Melissa carried Hamael, and he was born a month before Ilya, who had been carried by Carmen.

Other: *Note that Hoyle has a large number of perfected clones, which he has used 3 of so far, to cheat death. See his history for more. He is quite likely to have other children since he keeps his cloned bodies reasonably 'young' post-Combine

Height: 5'9"

Weight: 160, not burly, but certainly far from svelte, 'dad bod'

Hair: Dark brown to black, usually receding, kept short and nicely combed

Eyes: brown, medium shade, slightly on the small side and as time goes on does require corrective lenses (until Carmen and Mel can fix that in his 'so called perfect' clones)

Appearance: Medium fair skin, occasional liver spots due to drinking problem, rarely shows facial hair, is 'average' in most ways; when he chooses to turn on his charms, he does have a broad, open smile; is usually seen with a drink in hand; prefers a nice clean pressed suit and vest, is happy Wilson likes to tailor

Image Credits: Icon/City of Heroes / tektek

Genetic Abilities: Strong suggestion and coercion ability that allows him to sway both individuals and groups to his liking, this power works at close range only, but is actually quite subtle, and it's possible for him to use it without even the stronger of Vortal people knowing it; strong localized telepathy and empathy at near range, within 100 meters, that he can use to directly communicate as well as 'whisper' to get attention without sending any words; moderate but good range aura and Vortal sight which he can use to spot Vortal entities in crowds or within around 300 meters, he used this to spot potential Origin donor candidates at rallies and just wandering around the streets. *Note that with Icarus process done on his clones, all of the ranges on these powers increase nearly tenfold, though their outright ability remains the same.
Icarus Processing: None originally, however his 'first' body died and was replaced, and the 'second' also replaced after some... accidents. The third, however, was treated in-vat, and gave him his first taste of how things really are for the Pantheon. Where his abilities were most certainly strong while he was originally alive, and stronger with the cloned body, the Icarus treated one gave him enough that he realized how his project actually worked. He became much more responsible with his powers and their use, after this. The process did not improve or change his physical makeup.
Skills or Profession: As a politician, his days are over - but in those days before the Events, and even shortly after them, Hoyle was an extraordinary politician to say the least. It wasn't purely because he was able to subtly sway decisions in his favor, using his Vortal power, either. That certainly played into it, but overtly he was a resoundingly smart investor and legal wrangler. He used contacts in the Department of Defense and other organizations to acquire rights and direct Armacham's bioengineering to its peak performance with their Replica Soldier initiative. He was able to keep track of dozens of 'stray' bills and people who would make a difference in the future, and hired Wilson Carver on a number of occasions to facilitate those differences... Particularly when they required disposal. He was always good at water cooler chat, office politics, and basically charming his way through a room full of stuffed shirts and high-income policy makers.
Post-Events, however, Hoyle's political aspirations were absolutely useless, so he turned to simply hosting parties, and when that dried up, keeping Wallace Breen and his own clones on hand to train him up. As he'd gone into hiding, he had very little to keep him entertained or occupied, so his skills actually took quite the hit until the Combine were destroyed. After that point, he helped make logistics easier on the Black Mesa people, as he was still quite organizationally optimized, in his words. A pencil-pusher, in other words.

Personality: A pencil pusher with a dashing smile and a penchant for drinking far too much. His charm is genuine, though he often used it in quite malicious ways. He was used to getting his way, or else, in the pre-Events era, a feature which Aristide and her people emulated quite well. In public he was equal parts determined and baffled, leading people to believe that he was far more idealistic than he actually was. If he'd had his way, Black Mesa might have been nuked as a liability, but was talked out of that by Wilson. He has a dichotomy while working - he prefers to be absolutely obeyed and on top of things, but also craves contact and being surrounded by people. That they're all yes-men is irrelevant. They'd all be yes-men after a few minutes anyway. He is perhaps still addicted to manipulating people, but he's been challenged by the Pantheon's powerful empaths to consciously stop himself from doing this, as it is to them a bit more annoying than it would be if they didn't notice him doing it all the time.
Post-Events, he is considerably more relaxed, and able to enjoy the Rookery's lifestyle even if it's completely off the charts weird. Having a dragon that is at least as manipulative as he is, doesn't hurt.

Events or History: Growing up in the beautiful Pacific NorthWest, Hoyle's life was always somewhat charmed. He never asked his parents whether they too had the same 'glimmer of sight' that David does, a regret of his that he never found out whether their own genes made him what he was in that regard. His father and uncle were minor local politicians, mother a keen office manager for them both. It was due to their constant talk of work that David was interested at all in the family trade, and he took to it easily. He was still quite young, relatively speaking, when he became the Lt. Governor of Washington state in 1988, and then shortly after was elected Governor. Within five years he became a Senator, and had numerous investments in Armacham's bioengineering department. It was his suggestion to Aristide that brought perfected cloning into the mix, as well as setting the Project Origin system into motion.
His genetic potential aided the Origin project immensely, but it was more his monetary contribution that solidified it. Until quite a while after the Combine's arrival, however, he did not know that Paxton was actually one of his donor-children. Considering how important Pax is, he is justifyably proud of his 'son', though still a bit concerned and often irritated to discover that his 'inlaws' are who specifically they are...
Along the way, during his tenure as Governor and later as a Senator, Hoyle made sure that anyone getting in the way of the progress at Armacham's defense and wearponry departments were silenced, usually by Wilson. Though charming, Hoyle made a lot of enemies in that era. Most of his enemies, along with nearly all of his friends, were killed at various times during the Events and afterward. He was quite lucky that Wilson decided against removing him entirely, on one random visit to the Enclave where he resided after the Events - as he was helping to train Breen in the use of his clones, and that was impressive enough as it was. It was his Enclave that was of most use, during the Combine era shuffling people around via the Xen Relay portal that was placed in the hotel's lobby.
Once things had finally settled, with the Combine defeated and life moving forward, the Rookery shows up, and things get much more interesting once more.

Dragon

Name: Nebula
Gender: Male
Size/Shoulder/Length: Medium (broad build) 12' shoulder / 49' l / 60' ws with 4 wings
Colors: Violet, faded belly, neck, and under tail, deep on back, limbs, face, and wings; pink to burgundy fades on wings, black markings, black horns, tongue, back spines and claws; coppery eyes that turn yellow or red with power use, luminescent spots in white to pale pink on sides
Features: Hybrid Night/SilkWing, four legs, four wings; 5 clawed forefeet, 4 on hind with heel claw, forelimbs have silk glands; scaled soft belly, heavy armor along back, sides, and fronts of limbs, down full tail, and over muzzle; hooked beak, forked tongue, external ears, two thick backswept horns, short flat-laying spines from head to tail tip; main wings have 3 visible fingers with an elbow strut, wrist claw, and notable slender claws on each finger, smaller wings have only one full finger, a short strut, and a smaller wrist thumb/claw, wingsails resemble butterfly wings, and have a shimmering quality of scales that lend a 'night' pattern when the light hits it, also these wing scales cast off producing a cloud of 'dust' whenever he takes off.
Powers: Winged Flight, able to fly for only short distances though technically can fly well if he really puts his mind to it. His wings serve much better as display and distraction, but he can also use them to send clouds of tiny scales into the air in front of him, and then ignite it with firebreath. While he does that, he literally runs away in the confusion...
Verbal Speech, along with a strong telepathic ability that is shared mainly with his little Scavenger... um, Human friend, he can speak English and draconic tongues adequately. Though he was born under a full single moon, he cannot properly 'read' minds, but can certainly communicate with others that have the ability, quite easily.
Flame Production, as with all Night dragons, his ability to create flame is reasonably strong, and he uses it mainly to keep others from getting hurt. He knows he's not going to be doing a lot of in-air fighting, so he spits fire upwards, along with his silk, and ignites them to create further distraction and obstacles for enemies. His flames aren't nearly as hot as some others in the Rookery.
Silk Production, his mother's heritage comes in the form of the silk glands that rest in his forelimb wrists, and he is quite adept at spinning sticky webbing, or smooth - he's been asked by Wilson of all people to start making 'functional silk to weave into clothing'. Whatever that means. He enjoys the attention that this feature gets, and has been quite busy wrapping stuff up.
Parentage: Mother was a SilkWing, sire was a NightWing, with at least a few distinctly related dragons around - including Razorwire, who is a bit scary, and Paradise, who is aptly named, and Borealis the Night-Ice.
Origin: adopted from Moonshimmer981 at Deviantart
Other Info: While Nebula was hatched on the homeworld of his kind, he was quite young when he came to the Rookery. With the strength of the local moon's light, his mental prowess improved quickly and he enjoyed being tutored by others with strong powers on the Mesa, below the full moon. But it was only after meeting David Hoyle that he realized what kind of potential they both really had. In their current world, the Rookery dragons must fight the Combine and invasive alien species. But neither Nebula nor David are 'fighters' to say the least. Nebula accidentally set a puff of his own wing scale dust on fire once, and it made such a commotion among the Humans that he did it again... and again. Better tacticians have put him to use now and then, when any stray Combine forces or their Scanners come drifting through an area they need to defend - his ability can completely obscure any form of visual detection, and the Scanners run on visible light for their imaging. Though he doesn't enjoy it much, being deployed via a much larger dragon's teleportation or even being carried into battle has made Nebula - and Hoyle - understand the stakes and the odds in their war. They both play a role that neither expected: organizing refugees and getting people out of harms way, while other pairs and troops take care of the actual fighting. After all, the Rookery exists in a world where Armacham doesn't.