Name: Laszlo duMonde

Gender: Male, homosexual

Age/DOB: 30s, unknown DOB

Origin: Rookery Earth, France; among the Shorepoint fringe rescues

Family: None known, though he and Sanders have a clear relationship; in RY7 he is used as a splice for an ELL named Montell

Other: apparently in the European scientific community he was well known and considered the 'finest mind of the age'

Height: 5'9"

Weight: 160, too fit due to real world Outlands life to be a dad-bod, but not really well defined, as he was mostly a nerd and never got around to being too physical

Hair: Black, slightly salted with silver, quite short but obviously afro, also has a nicely kept very short beard

Eyes: Medium brown, usually under concerned, furrowed brows, definitely has that 'are you shitting me' glare

Appearance: dark brown skin with some amount of moles, usually looks rather tired; is almost always still seen in a nice suit with slacks and a tie, a lab coat when he can find one - and down in Rapture there are plenty of those, just... make sure they're cleaned a bit first *of note here, I didn't use the same model (Tobias) from HL2 for him, I wanted him to be a little more interesting and different - also note that even though people believe Russell in HL Alyx is Laszlo, that's a pile of bull and I don't accept that as canon

Genetic Abilities: None known, though he is exceptionally smart indeed, and Melissa thinks that he might be of use to aid in skill transfers

Icarus Processing: none, again Melissa believes that while he wouldn't benefit at all from the process certainly not at his age, he might be boosted by the Pythagoras concoctions, though he's a bit leery at this point since he has all the lab and weird science he can handle just now

Image Credits: Valve, unknown Gmod Modder for suit

Skills or Profession: Though his friend Sanders is apt to exaggerate, Laszlo is honestly brilliant, though practical uses of his extensive knowledge was limited due to the entire world sort of falling apart. Well, that isn't true. Actually his specific field of expertise would have been ideally suited to Combine occupation... but only if used by the Combine. Cellular and biochemistry mixed with neurosurgery, computer science, and programming: put them all together and you have the ability to move consciousness between a brain and a computer. The exact work having been done by the Combine to overwrite invaded worlds populations... But also how to combat that invasive process, that's what will certainly be of tremendous use to the Rookery. Since both Aperture and Rapture had been working on such things already - GLaDOS being specifically the result of it at Aperture - Laszlo is positive that he can find a way to reverse engineer Combine technology and thus reverse Combine 'Conversion'. Of course this means he needs test subjects, as well as tools. His lab set up in Rapture is growing, he'll eventually take over Fontaine Futuristics for this purpose.
In practical terms: Laszlo will be able to reverse the Combine's hold on individual people, Synths, animals, dragons, and the like.
Other skills he has include languages: he's able to speak and read numerous languages including Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, French, Spanish, Italian, English, Polish, and Portugese. He has a functional understanding of Latin, of course. Also coding from the most basic machine level on up, and he's working on understanding Combine code expressly to fix the current problems of the world.
Personality: Focused, quite intense, clearly always thinking - whether it's about what is in front of him at the time or something quite distant. He's personable and actually reasonably cheerful if surrounded by friends or colleagues, though suspicious and a touch snarky if he doesn't trust someone fully. He relies on Sanders to help weed out the ones that he shouldn't be around, to avoid entanglements that won't end well.

Events or History: Laszlo was a prodigy, born in France to an Algerian-Nigerian mother and a Hungarian father, he was already part of numerous worlds. By the age of 3 he could do algebra and read in two languages, tutoring him was not only difficult but expensive: he was fussy about who he was being taught by. He'd already graduated the equivalent of High School by the time he was 9, though he did have to slow down a little at that point - his parents worried justifyably that he was neglecting his personal growth, and in addition to tutoring for college-level courses, he was made to attend a private school. While his social and personal growth will never be 'normal' he's definitely a well-adjusted man and still enjoys human contact and friendships as much as anyone. He would have been awarded some of the highest marks in numerous classes - already an undergraduate in three subjects - when the Resnonance Cascade occurred and he was 11 years old. While that did put a dent in his progress he pushed for even more: something told him he was going to need this education, even in a 'ruined' world. As the Cities went up, and his family was forced to relocate to one of them - city 7, near what used to be Paris - he became frustrated since most of the access to information was now severely curtailed. Within a few years, of course, the Combine's occupation of Earth began, and his family fled to the Outlands almost immediately. It was there as a teenager that he met Sanders, and they struck up a solid friendship. As teenagers they watched the world crumble to pieces, and made their way northward to City 14 - Vienna - where he'd wanted to do more research. Sifting through the ruins of the university there was heartbreaking but edifying, and as time went on they had to evade more and more Combine troops, as well as the wildlife. They did make it to the Shorepoint facility shortly before its demise, unlike on Repurposed or Canon Earth (where they both perished crossing the antlion-infested beaches on their way to the Vort camp nearby).
Notably, the Combine want him alive. Of all the Shorepoint rescues, he is certainly the most valuable, and had been hunted by Advisors ever since the invasion started. Whether they knew of him because they 'read up' on him, or because the Rookery world's Breen told them about him, no one knows. Maybe if he cracks their Conversion code he'll learn this.
Also of note: If Laszlo can crack the Combine's conversion process, Caroline develops ways to reverse the direction of the code flow back into a human or other brain, Rhea and Melissa get the Plasmid-Icarus system working, and the others controlling the Vortal energies nearby, it's going to be possible to re-download people's minds from the Overworld, where they've most certainly been stored as the Conversion is done. The Advisors aren't known to waste information, anyone that's been converted - from soldiers to scientists - has something they want or need to know. Gaining access to that database might be problematic, but there are many steps left in this process left to work on first. If nothing else, having 'blank' bodies that no longer have Combine overrides in their brain to work with might even allow Paxton, Tina, their kids or others with the ability to command them Vortally. These are the pipe dreams of the generation's finest mind.

Resides in Rapture, with trips to the Aperture facility, and occasionally back to the Rookery itself for recruitment or a breath of fresh air now and again.

Dragon

Name: Lampblack
Gender: Male
Size/Shoulder/Length: Small 8'4" s / 37' l / 58' and 48' ws
Colors: Body including limbs, head, and upper tail is bright orange with scratch-mark patterns of deeper red-orange mottling at random; limb digits, up to knees/elbows, and most of tail are black with scratchy fades to the main color; wingsails are brightly sky blue and aqua blue-green also with brighter and darker scratchy markings; scale patterns in aqua; spines and fringe dark charcoal into black at tail and lighter grey-brown toward head; claws grey; eyes deeper blue-green
Features: Silk-Hivewing hybrid, Silk dominant; four slender and muscular legs with 5 and 4 strong curved claws; four leathery butterfly- and insect-like wings, 3 and 2 fingered with elbow strut and stiff wrist thumb all with short claws; body is heavily scaled and evenly armored, with overlapping scales on neck, sides, limbs, and tail, more even small scales and armor on belly and wing arms; face is dished with curved beak, jaw nubs, external ears, prominent eye armor, two elegant spiraled horns, and two long antennae; dorsal spines are large and pointed, from head to tail tip, tail has barbed end
Powers: Winged Flight, though not a tremendously fast flier, Lampblack is strong in the air, stronger than his colorful wings might make him look. He carries his human friend as well as gear needed almost everywhere, and can fit into places that many larger dragons cannot due to his small size. Though he isn't all that completely comfortable down under the ocean - unable to go out into the crushing sea like the Sea and Icewings can - he's adjusted well to life in Rapture and looks forward to the day when he and his other Silkwing friends CP and Plasmid can come up for air.
Verbal Speech, with a hissing and somewhat quiet voice, he's learned a lot of technical jargon and uses it frequently enough that he can carry on conversations with engineers up on the surface. He speaks Draconic but actually prefers English and French. He can listen in on Combine code but only to the extent that he then can match what Laszlo is working on - checking for consistency and copying it, but not actually understanding what it means. He can also use his antennae rubbed against his horns, to make 'music', which sounds eerily like a theramin.
Silk Production, as a dominant Silkwing he is able to produce silk from glands in his wrists, and does so with a deadly aim. Most of his silk is of strands so fine that he could use them to lay circuitry on a board... And does that sometimes. He can also make large webs, mainly when he spots bugs or vermin lurking in the clean room. Cannot have them disturbing his friend.
Parentage: Unknown Silkwing mother and Hivewing sire, clearly related to Grabbity though where his brighter colored wings came from who knows
Origin: Adopted from Moonshimmer981 on Deviantart, Wings of Fire by Tui Sutherland
Other Info: He feels a little useless and like a leech - he can't go out and hunt for food like the bigger dragons, though he can work with his paws it's usually to hand larger tools or equipment off to Laszlo. When a teleporting dragon shows up he does like going topside or to wherever Laszlo needs to be, and will protect the human from harm out there if they have to go looking for new items in the rubble of a city. Lampblack is bewildered at the amount of destruction that their world has faced, but he takes inspiration from those around him: they will not need to rebuild everything, but they certainly can try at least cleansing their world of the invasive Combine. The Hivewing part of him really relishes that.