Name: Max Preston

Gender: Male, straight

Age/DOB: 20, aged, 2024

Origin: Repurposed Earth, AAEC

Family: Unknown splices, though having a similar appearance and slight overlap of powers means he may be related to Simon, or even Veronica; Has a son, Ahmos, with Brell

Other: Among the very few who has been actively cloned after his maturation process, Max has around a dozen Replicas of his own, based entirely on his post-Icarus DNA. They have no active personalities, like Paxton's are 'empty', but he uses them in a remarkably similar manner. Of note, however, is that he can alter them when he's inside one or another, healing their injuries and sometimes changing their features.

Height: 6'0"

Weight: 140* Icarus did lighten his build a bit but he's muscular and toned from lots of activities in the field, with an even build and strong arms

Hair: black, fro, kept quite short and usually under a hat or helmet

Eyes: vibrant green, strikingly so; tends to look a little tired most of the time

Appearance: brown skin, notably on his 'original' body he has plentiful small scars and old blemishes, which for whatever reason cannot be healed by his Vortal powers. He has that one quite dangerous looking scar across his throat, which was present before his Icarus treatment in the form of a gash gotten from a headcrab attack. Also he keeps a short and nicely trimmed goatee. He has typically black features such as a wide nose and very full lips. Tends to smell of machine oils and whatever gets picked up in the ruins.

Icarus Processing: Yes, at age 3, he and some others were all batched together and aged a little as well. The Icarus process did improve his strength by a bit (about 2.5x normal), and his endurance is quite good (up to 4x normal). Mostly however it tuned his Vortal power, below.

Image Credits: Dead By Daylight / Garry's Mod ripped

Genetic Abilities: Though quite clearly used to being out and about, physically tromping around in the Ruins, Max has always been gifted with strong psionics - he's got very good long distance and invasive telepathy which functions at over 10 miles with ease, making his mind a bit overbearing if he's near. He's got decent empathy, though not very strong, and can sense Vortal individuals with ease at up to 5 miles. His strongest abilities are an out-of-body casting, his mind can drift almost 50 miles with no ill effects, and this gives him a clear advantage over the Combine. It was noted when he was originally born before the Events, that he caused a stir among the other youngest children - their vital signs would synch with his, sometimes even moving their heads and limbs in conjunction with his own. Melissa's project then included training for the Perseus project that Paxton had also undergone, and is among the few of the Pantheon who have active clones in the field. He has been tuned to use these clones in a rather unique manner, a bit like Pax's, but also with a flair all his own. When Max leaves his body it can certainly be injured, and he has to rely on others to help heal him (he keeps vials of that blue liquid from Xen on his belt). But when he moves into another body, he can begin triggering its natural healing, or accelerate it, or even alter its appearance. What's more, is that in dire situations, he can enter one of these bodies even when it's been killed, blown up, damaged beyond any reasonable repair, and puts it back together with his Vortal power. It looks horrific, of course, but he knows the limit of his abilities because it's been tested. As an aside, Paxton has snidely noted that if he'd been able to reassemble his clones like this, they would never have needed to find the Medusa facility. Max cannot command more than one of these clones at a time, though, so he'll move them into position as best he can, before hand, and then start 'trancing' from a central point. Though their training is similar, he must return to his body and rest a bit after each jaunt into a Replica. This is dependant upon distance and abuses that it's been through, so if he has to pop into one down the block to pick up a tool, mere seconds must go by in his own body once more. But if he has to stretch 10 miles away and reassemble a blown-apart Replica, it will require several days of down time afterwards. His range for locating and leaping into the bodies is his OOB: about 50 miles, and they can remain at that range even if they die, he will return to his own body at that distance. He can spend a lot of time in those other bodies, his own will 'sleep' rather than go into arrest - but this is from training and practice, and not because it's natural. (Also why he keeps that Xenian vitae, he swigs a small amount of it before going out to a long-distance journey, to give it a regenerative boost.) Notably while in the field as a Replica, he's a bit... cavalier, with them. As long as he knows he's within a few miles of his own body, he will just walk through dangerous areas getting shot at, blown up, crushed, or whatever - if he's within 4 or 5 miles, he can easily just abandon the body and return to his own and report whatever it was seeing or doing. There are limits to his Replica's revival, as he can only leave them in a non-healthy state for about 3 days before they become too decayed to work with any longer. He cannot revive them if they've got a headcrab either, and most certainly not if they've been Combined... And yes, they have tried it. Given that Melissa can create Replicas with reasonable ease, they did go through quite a number of them before he was confident in his own abilities with them. He cannot 'talk through them' from his central point, but when they do talk and move, it's because he is there in them. (Unlike Pax... who cheats.)
Skills or Profession: Scout, retrieval, virtually anything that requires a thinking mind and an expendable body. He'd make an incredibly good test pilot, subject to many dangers. He has a quick mind, though he's not as naturally intelligent as the 'big brains' of the Pantheon, he holds his own and has specific skills like mapping and pathing, he can very quickly spot landmarks and orient himself, which makes mapping an area easy if he spreads out and concentrates. Also he's good with tools, and helps to fix and maintain monitor stations, radio towers, and other such things for the Rookery now. He has also been a bit of a spy, particularly in the Rookery, because he can easily don Combine armor and gear, protecting his identity, and when needed just abandoning a body. Since they are not Icarus treated, there's nothing really to lose from doing so.
Personality: Brave and bold, to the point of 'a bit much really'. He does feel pain, but he just doesn't respond to it the way everyone else does. He does so with a dispassionate 'huh, that's what that's like', and jots down the results of experimentation. He and Melissa, Kitty, and Don have a lot in common in that regard. Though with much less cursing on his part, compared to Mel. He will eagerly go do 'whatever it takes' and as long as he knows what to do when he gets there, he'll repair, break down, shoot, or examine to come report back when he's finished. He does like having direction and goals, though he doesn't really grow bored all that easily either. He knows how to occupy himself, reading repair manuals, checking maps, that kind of thing.

Events or History: As above. He is quite functional in the Rookery, enjoying the benefits of having his Replicas scattered here and there - he can utilize the portals available in many locations to enter an area and activate the clone there, though if that clone leaves the location in that way, he must return it to nearer his body (over 100 miles is a bit iffy and he's never been comfortable going much father, certainly not off-world). While he does know that he could technically speaking just reside in these new unmarred bodies, he likes his own, though even he admits if Mel Icarus treated the clones, they would work just like his own.

With dragons, he does sort of wish that he had a wider range, but still he knows he's of much more use than many!

When he's in his Coffee Grounds body, he and Bones do work at Dragon Tower 8, the south-east area maintaining hidden sensors, and doing a bit of hunting. However, his body there is kept in stasis just like one of Paxton's Replicas, and has its own power supply resting in the Catacombs below the mansion.

Dragon

Name: Sticks and Stones Will Break My Bloody Bones; "Bones"
Gender: Male
Size/Shoulder/Length: Large (all over) 12'5" s / 52' l / 130' and 60' ws
Colors: head, neck, limbs including wing arms, body, tail richly black with 'bone' markings in vibrant red, limbs have smaller scales inset in red and blotchy ash; under parts from chin to mid tail ash colored grey red, varies from darker graphite to paler grey and from faded red to a strong clumpy red, also present on lower tail fin, greyer and less clumpy on neck frill; fin crest on head and neck, down back light and medium grey in stripes and black barring; neck and tail spines deep crimson; backs of main wings deep crimson in a very even shade, backs of smaller wings faded red also in a solid shade; under main wingsails is darker ash red with vein markings in bright red, and spatter in deep crimson, under smaller wings is pale red with the same veins and bright blood looking spatters; horns, claws, antennae brilliant white spotted with blood (sometimes! only sometimes!); eyes richly reflective black with a white marking around them
Features: Mysticwing, variant, species details unknown; four legs and two pairs of wings, many fins, crest, antennae, nose and jaw horns, backswept horns, and chest fin; scaled skin with armor scales, egg layer but can easily adjust to live birth sired out of those which do that.
Powers: Winged Flight, with wings as massive as his, Bones is truly an impressive sight in the air. He's not going to be doing much detail work, he is huge after all and that means he needs a lot of space to take off and land, but he is overall a very sturdy and swift flier. He's capable of lifting tremendous weights, though doesn't like large bulky things as much as a capsule or bus shaped item that can hold things and not just break apart under him. He's been known to lift machinery out of buildings, at the behest of someone needing that machine somewhere else, and other folks get to deal with getting it into the space it needs to be fit. Obviously he can keep up with the fastest of fliers at least for a short time, but he is built for durability and distance, rather than just speed bursts.
Communication, Bones has a rumbling, massive voice fit for a massive scary dragon. However it's not as outright frightening as it might be, and he has been known to croon and sing having picked up some bits from recordings from Rapture, and even the whales which habit the Aerie island above it seem to like that. He understands highly technical English - mostly construction and mechanic type wording, and can ask for specifics about machines needing to be moved. Understands Vortigese with a wide vocabulary he's able to speak, and can learn plenty of words in a variety of other draconic tongues than his own mysterious one. There are other Mysticwings but they may or may not know the same words he seems to use. He has a very strong Vortal connection to his rider, and claims to sense the 'empties', his cloned bodies scattered around the whole of the Rookery's landscape. This way he does know whether one of them will be needed and how to best get there. He can speak and hear telepathically with any mind that shows Vortal power.
Sonic / Pressure breath, though this might not be a particularly strong ability, he's such a huge dragon that he can take in a massive amount of air and blast it out of his mouth with such force that it will knock even sturdy items over, breaking down weak walls, and putting most vehicles on their sides. It can deafen if he uses it to shout at full volume. This ability isn't really so much a weapon as an effect, and thus it's not terribly effective at distance, and he doesn't use it in combat, as it usually requires him to be breathing for other things instead. But planting his feet and lining up a shot, he can play Combine Bowling, setting up a building to topple onto troops as they scuttle through a ruin. Along with his breath being 'big', he's also just incredibly large and strong - though he's not the overall biggest dragon of the Rookery he's definitely among the largest, mostly by virtue of having such big wings and plenty of them. His strength on the ground is more impressive than while flying, honestly, and he can dig like nobody's business with those claws. He's dug through solid concrete and stone, as easily as you'd root through a garbage bin, and he is fully capable of using all of his wing claws for this purpose as well, though tends to keep his smaller wings as manipulation, and the bigger ones as defense in a ground fight. He has fought - and won - a Gonarch, Garg, Tank Synths, and several other huge invasive creatures and enemies, just hitting them and protecting himself with his wings.
Durability, though his name implies otherwise, Bones is extremely sturdy, and has hardly ever taken actual damage from anything less than a plasma weapon or incredibly thick bullet fire. Other dragon breath weapons might do the trick, but at least here on the Rookery he doesn't need to worry about that unless he encounters some of the weird rogue dragons out there. His wingsails are his weakest point, but only the small ones, and only from the underside: the dorsal covering of the wings is incredibly thick and velvety with 'ablative' scales. So when he's all curled up with that deep red wing around himself, chances are likely that he's protecting something or someone while doing so.
Parentage: Unknown, unrelated to the other Mysticwings in the Rookery, but he's rather impressed with Pavonine, wouldn't they make some interesting and colorful offspring?
Origin: Adopted from GuildKnight on Deviantart, original species by x-tamara-x and Mooncrest-Necrozma
Other Info: Note that when his large wings are folded down fully, they cover most of his body with a single crimson shade, making his markings less disturbing to those who might be sensitive to them. Below, he's shown in full 'display' mode, though, so he will look quite terrifying to enemies with any sense in their brain. That said, he's quite personable and not really 'scary' to anyone he likes. Those blood stains on his claws? They're real though, so... there's that.