BMDR - Gene


Name: Gene Lange Gender: Male, homosexual Age/DOB: ~17, 2021 (aged around +5 years) Origin: Repurposed Earth, Enrichment Center, Auburn Alabama Family: assembled from existing samples, though he may have some of Damon's genetic line as they do appear similar visually; Jennifer Lange 'sister' (sharing most of his donor parents); with the Rookery's creation he is spliced with Kyell, and they have a daughter Desiderata and the same year Melissa took note that he and Nigel had spent quite a bit of time together... so their spliced sons Galen and Niven were put together Other: With a number of other children, is a 'recreation' of one of the children that perished during the Events Height: 5'11" Weight: 130*, slender, leggy, muscular, Icarus reduced weight and increased strength; he's often mistaken for 'skinny' until he pulls his shirt off, at which point he may attract a crowd; he's not comfortable with that Hair: black, wiry, kept short Eyes: red-orange, had been a clear light brown before Icarus but as some have, they change over time into a more brilliant fire-red shade; he does require distance glasses, but for up close work he's just fine (note they do have to be tempered for warm environments); usually has a bit of a baffled expression, he's much more comfortable in a lab and library, than out in the field, but he's still got those pesky powers ... so here goes... Appearance: Medium tan, a reddish tint indicating that he may be of Arabic or Greek genetic lines, with small moles and freckles, tans a deep bronze in the sun; if he'd let his facial hair grow out he might be confused for a darker Gordon Freeman, actually, save for those eyes... Has a deeper voice than it seems he could, though when it dropped everyone was surprised. Prefers good protective gear as shown: he's out in the field, someone find him a helmet? Genetic Abilities: With a minor amount of the standard Empathy, Telepathy, Vortal senses (close range only on any of them, and easily gets overwhelmed by group powers), his strongest ability is that of Pyrokinetics. He is able to produce fires, and manipulate existing ones, at more than 200 meters if needed (as long as he can see it, usually needs binoculars). The flames he creates will burn anything that is able, though he needs to concentrate to make things that typically don't burn get hot. His control over this power is actually amazing, he's been known to put out whole buildings at once, he can both remove or encourage flames so well. He can make flames 'dance', literally swirling around in shapes to entertain, but also can focus a single extremely hot beam of fire very much like his dragon friend can, accurate to over 100 meters.	Image Credits: Garry's Mod / Insomniac Games - Resistance 2
Icarus Processing: Yes, age 3. Not only did the process reduce his adult weight considerably (he ought to be around 180 with his muscularity) and improve his strength (around 1.5 times normal, nothing spectacular but certainly not average), it strongly increased his Vortal power, but also apparently dramatically improved his intelligence. For this reason, Melissa chose to also induce the Pythagoras downloads to his skill set, so he is well suited to the brainy work that the Rookery needs for its technology.
Skills or Profession: A geeky tech boy, he definitely bears a strong resemblance to a young Gordon Freeman in that regard - turning small broken devices into new sleek detection systems or security. He doesn't care for making traps so much as what might set them off, and he's already created a handful of items that can be scattered into a Combine-held location to disarm their Hoppers and mines. If only Faster! wasn't so hot, he'd be able to drop those just like the Combine do with their en-masse Hopper deliveries...
Personality: More jumpy than he ought to be, given that he's got a tremendously amazing and fire-laden dragon! Thankfully he can focus on things easily and thoroughly, so Faster! doesn't often distract him. He's painfully shy around anyone that he's attracted to, and more so because some of those guys aren't really into other men. But he's been told more than often enough that 'it's their loss', and deals with this by diving back into his work. That work includes helping Mars in her lab, Magnusson in his, and other such people - sometimes involving explosions and that absolutely still makes him leap out of his skin.
Events or History: As he was still quite young when things were going down around him, he was aged a small amount while in the Icarus center, and seems about five years older than he technically is. He was still a pre-teen when the Combine were defeated, however, and has grown up in a world free of them for the most part. He's put his downloaded training into practice, and is actually very innovative about how he uses it. This has helped in Black Mesa, and at the Rookery, where he typically resides.
Dragon Name: Faster! (as in, The Flames Make Him Go Faster) Gender: Male Size/Shoulder/Length: Medium-large 9'6" s / 50' l / 100' ws Colors: Mottled brilliant orange, yellow, red in equal amounts, and almost always seem to be different when seen in the corner of your eye - they don't actually move, but it sure seems that way; scales along neck, shoulders, legs, and back are outlined in extremely dark black; wingsails are more brilliant sun yellow with orange flame patterns; back fin mostly yellow-orange mottled, tail spines graphite, horns, claws also graphite, tongue black; eyes actually brilliant yellow-orange not blue as shown Features: Sand-Skywing hybrid, large build with big wings, four strong legs heavier fore, with 5 and 4 short curved claws and heel-claw; two leathery 4-fingered wings with short wrist thumb, elbow strut, all with thick curved claws; skin is mostly tiny scales, but with large plated armor over neck, back, limbs, and tail; head is boxy with short nose horn, high jaw horns, and two short, backswept horns; from top of head to start of tail has a fleshy fin, from tail to tip heavy triangular spikes Powers: Winged Flight, this big boy is fast in the air, and flickers around even narrow areas like flames themselves. He doesn't tend to fly remarkably high, or for very long stints, but when he does you know it. He leaves a heat trail, and if there is any sign of moisture in the air, it vaporizes and creates lines like old jet planes. Yes, he plans on 'sky writing' with this, once he figures out how. As he is quite large, he is relied upon to carry goods, but nothing that can burn, because honestly he's too hot to hold on to sometimes. It's entirely possible that the flames do make him go faster. Verbal and Vortal Communication, Faster! is able to speak clearly in several dialects of Draconic, and English with ease, he understands a bit of Vort, and some other Human languages but not enough to feel confident speaking them aloud. He and Gene have a strong Vortal bond, unusual in a dragon of his breeding, though he doesn't 'speak' mentally so much as empathically pinging his bond and making sure everything's okay on the ground. Fire Production, if there is one dragon who could compete with Brightburn (Paxton's big red showoff from Equestria) for heat and flame production, it's Faster! He's simply always hot - it's likely that his Skywing sire (still on their homeworld) was a 'firescales' type, with overheated power within. Given then that his Sandwing mother tolerated that heat long enough to lay this egg, Faster! is definitely benefitting from both. Though he does glow, it's usually while flying or getting ready to breathe his trademark flames. He is warm - but not burning - to the touch, and on cold nights he attracts a gathering of critters, humans, Vorts, and other dragons alike, to dogpile on him. He loves this attention, by the way. Of course he does. His actual fire breath is stunning: a brilliant white-gold blast framed with orange and red, leaving nothing but haze behind its main burst. This is accurate to over 250 meters, though he can pinpoint a smaller beam to over 500 meters. The swath he can lay of this fire is brief, maybe 15 meters long, but that's more than enough and it's certainly hot enough to melt metal and cause explosions in any vapor or fuel depots. Faster! can also do 'tricks' with it, like blowing smoke rings, only it's literal fire circles and shapes. Glass Fusion, because they do live in the desert and concentrate efforts on keeping the Combine out of it, there's a lot of sand sitting around - dry and hot, which Faster!'s Sandwing side really loves. His heat is such that he can burrow into a dune (the Mojave has certainly expanded, where most of the desert in this south-west area was scrubland, some has gone fully dune desert like California) and come up with glass melting on his scales. Obviously this doesn't harm him, and it can be collected by intrepid or crazy Humans for their own use. He likes leaving shiny footprints in the sand. He can do this with most very dry sand, it doesn't have to be in the dunes. Unlike his Sandwing parent, he does not have a poison stinger on his tail, and must rely on simply biting or clawing for killing prey. He is however immune to Sandwing venom (and actually, immune to basically all venoms). Parentage: Unknown Sandwing mother, Skywing possibly Firescales sire Origin: adopted from Moonshimmer981 on Deviantart, Wings of Fire Tui Sutherland, Joi Ang Other Info: It's of note that Faster! and Hellfire do not get along at all. They're all but polar opposites in terms of personality, though they're both remarkable fliers and fire-casters. Woe to the area if they decide to compete for mates... He does however fit right in with the 'kings' - Reina and Duke's brilliantly colored Skywings simply love him, and Faster! has tried to nudge his friend to hang out more with Duke. Just in case. You know? nudge nudge wink wink?