Name: Stig Valstadt

Gender: Male, straight...ish

Age/DOB: 49 in RY2

Origin: Rookery Earth, Arizona, of German descent

Family: Wife deceased in Resonance Cascade, had twin sons who would now be around 17, however their status is unclear

Other: has taken Suzumi under his wing as both an assistant and 'daughter'

Height: 6'1"

Weight: 155, quite thin and long-limbed, wiry and doesn't look nearly as strong as he is; however he does have a surprisingly muscular chest and abs to die for, from working with metals and forges

Hair: none, keeps what little he still had shaved, though it started medium brown and Jew-Fro curly, he went bald long before his head became grey-haired; keeps well maintained facial hair

Eyes: light brown, under somewhat accusatory brows, and does need glasses for distance vision, but has exceptionally good vision at less than 10 feet

Appearance: olive fair skin, with numerous small scars from a lifetime digging and working with engines, metals, and engines. He has the strong 'angry engineer' look to him, and bares his teeth quite frequently (they're perfect by the way, somehow they don't break though he clearly grits them constantly); has picked up pieces of armor, leather and kevlar garments, and when he found out about the Icarus suit, he demanded he be given one. He enjoys turtlenecks and wears blacksmithing frocks and protective gear almost all the time, and does put heavy gloves and welding gear on when needed; speaks with a strong accent, however he does speak six languages fluently...

Genetic Abilities: Unknown, Melissa really wants him to allow her to test his genes, but he has consistently balked at the idea. It's highly likely that he has some form of earth- or metal-based senses at the very least, or perhaps psychometric abilities with them. We'll never know. Melissa is definitely still trying to get gene samples at any rate, to splice with people...

Icarus Processing: None, the idea that he should be cut open and vivisected in order to 'improve' himself is abhorrent.

Image Credits: Doll Divine Niobesnuppa / Arctic
Skills or Profession: Has had numerous career paths, including archaeology, civil engineering, vehicle mechanic, and would have been tapped by Black Mesa in order to work in their maintenance and engineering department. He has a good grasp on physical sciences such as chemistry, explosives, metalurgy, and engines in general, and knows how to fix practically any machine if it's mainly moving parts and electricity (rather than electronics). He has a deep love of exploration and innovation, so he's very likely to pick up a tool and use it on instinct, always figuring out new ways to traverse an area or make it safer. As stated above, he speaks German, English, French, Italian, Latin, and Mexican Spanish (he learned Spanish only locally outside of school or work). Given that now there are a wider variety of people, he may start learning even more - Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Vort...
Personality: it's really not known whether he was ever a 'nice' or 'gentle' person. His gruff exterior obviously hides how much anguish he's felt over having lost his wife and sons, but it is equally clear that he does care about people deeply. Otherwise why would he be so gruff? He is far more practical than most engineers at Black Mesa, he had pointed out a good number of issues even just in passing some tour-guided locations. He is not afraid to call someone on their bullshit, but if he's asked to behave, he will do so - grumbling but not hurling insults.

Events or History: Stig spent much of his childhood and early teens in Germany with his family, who then moved to the USA when he was around 13. Even then, he had proven to be adaptable, intelligent, and focused on sciences. He quickly learned how to make the most of his forceful personality - not a bully exactly, but definitely not a weakling. He towered over his classmates by the time he was in high school, though eventually his friends caught up. He'd met Velma who would become his wife while in college, and they'd been starting their family when the Resonance Cascade happened. He had been on site, on the same tour group that Lois and Suzumi were in when things went bad - his regret over not answering his phone when his wife was calling him has remained for the last 13 years. Hunkered down with the lab workers, security guard, and other potential Black Mesa hires, between him and Claudio they managed to keep the others safe enough to wait out portal storms and other more natural disasters alike, until the Lanes got here and started fixing it up. Suzumi in particular has kept him sane and sometimes even happy - she lost her father in the Resonance Cascade, he had been working in one of the labs and she'd tagged along on the tour, having only been old enough to be escorted carefully around by more experienced members of the team at the time. He would very clearly give his life to save hers, though they both know he's still pining for his own family.

Currently he is working with the Rookery's Xenian exploration team, to retrieve lost equipment and establish new bases there.

Dragon

Name: Ammonite
Gender: Female
Size/Shoulder/Length: Large (very bulky) 15' s / 70' l / 110' ws
Colors: belly from chin to tail tip and behind legs buff khaki grey; fringe scales grey-tan; face, middle body scales, limb fronts, and wing armor medium brown; accent scales fiery-yellow with copper tones; face, all dorsal scales bronze metallic; horns, back spikes, claws reddish brown; wingsails extremely metallic copper; eyes red
Features: Mudwing
Powers: Winged Flight, unbelievably massive dragons like her are often underestimated in the air. Those wings keep her aloft in warm weather, but she does have to work for it - and she has never failed to take wing and land where she wants to be. Though obviously quite strong, she tends not to lift very heavy weights, because she's already pretty big, anything more than three human-sized things on her back, or a truck-sized weight in her claws, will slow her to the point of exhaustion. She prefers running or swimming, but she really does love being with him on Xen - that place allows her to actually fly with ease. Only there, she does incredible maneuvers and can chase down other flying creatures.
Swimming, Burrowing, Running - where she actually does shine is in her ground based transit. Though thundering along you will definitely hear her coming, sometimes you cannot possibly know from which direction, because she has some form of Vortal power that channels the echoes or pressure waves below her feet into a massive churn of noise. She can stomp her foot and cause landslides, or even loosen soil and stones enough to burrow into. Though she can tunnel in this manner, she tends to wait for her human friend to bring sensing devices - you never know what's going to trigger another cave in or rock slide, nor what might be angry because their lair is destroyed. She is quite adept at swimming, however, and with a big enough body of water she can keep pace with fliers above. She does her best fighting on the ground, and is the one you want to call when there's a Gonarch on the loose.
Sonar-like Sounding, Dirt Manipulation; unlike most Mudwings, who can heal or have such other powers, Ammonite tends toward sensing and moving stones and dirt around. She can be remarkably careful if she knows she must be, but she's never going to be light on her feet. So if there's a precious item needing to be retrieved... send her somewhere else, she can clear the way of any other dangers first. When it is obvious that there's nothing of outright value to a hill, she'll reduce it to rubble, and root around in it for any small items or animals. Much of this is done on site at the Rookery itself, keeping the Antlion caverns closed directly around the Rookery structure. Anywhere else, they're fine, just not right here. The dirt that crumbles around her feet while doing this, though, is very healthy, even if it started out dry sand or even parched rock. Rather than taking healing out of mud, she puts it in and makes soil out of dirt.
Parentage: Unknown, pure Mudwings, not really clear whether she's related to anyone else in the Rookery; is the mother of Analog with Steampunk
Origin: Adopted from LunarSolstice981 with lines by PeregrineCella on Deviantart, WoF by Tui Sutherland
Other Info: Ammonite knows she's big and she knows she's dangerous. Like her human friend, she is not at all afraid to throw her weight around to get her point across, but she defers to the leadership and doesn't actively pick fights. She's the one you want on hand to protect a dig site, as long as she runs out of the area, rather than through it, after prey or enemies...