- █ █ B A S I C S
█ NAME ▬ Elias Murphy
█ AGE ▬ 26
█ NICKNAME ▬ Eli, Derg
█ GENDER ▬ Male.
█ RACE ▬ Fire Mage / Komodo meta. hybrid [Varanus komodoensis]
█ ORIENTATION ▬ Bicurious (more heteroflexible)
█ OCCUPATION ▬ Crownless Grunt / Muscle / Guard Lizard
█ PARTNER ▬ Single
█ SLAVE ▬ None
█ █ A P P E A R A N C E
█ HAIR ▬ Black
█ EYES ▬ Amber Red
█ BUILD ▬ Leanly muscled [5"8]
█ TATTOOS ▬ A dragon spiraling down his right arm, from shoulder to wrist
█ SCARS ▬ Several
█ BIRTHMARKS ▬ none
█ █ P E R S O N A L I T Y
█ THEME SONGS
█ ▬ O1 Shoe - EGG
█ ▬ O2 Money - Mystery Skulls
█ ▬ O3 Land of All - Woodkid
█ LIKES
█ ▬ s**t with dragons on it.
█ ▬ Tabletop Games
█ ▬ MMOs
█ ▬ People being afraid of him
█ ▬ His family - blood is more important than anything.
█ ▬ Meat.
█ ▬ Heat.
█ DISLIKES
█ ▬ Veggies. Even as an adult he hates them.
█ ▬ Crowds.
█ ▬ Any kind of insult, no matter how vague, unless you're one of his friends.
█ ▬ Cold. He can't stand being cold. Literally.
█ ▬ spIDERS OH GOD NO. (severe arachnophobe)
█ PERSONALITY TRAITS
█ ▬ Standoffish
█ ▬ Boisterous
█ ▬ Pushy
█ ▬ Selfish
█ ▬ Disconnected
█ ▬ Introverted
█ ▬ Morally Ambiguous
█ ▬ Easily influenced / coerced
█ ▬ Lacking in solid direction
█ ▬ Go with the flow
█ █ H I S T O R Y
█ BACKGROUND
Eli's father came from a relatively stable family.
Eli's mother did not.
Eli's father was a fire mage who was interested in engineering.
Eli's mother was a monitor lizard metamorphose who ran around with a pack of ghouls and lycans and other reptile metas, thieving, gambling, and vandalizing as they went, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
When Eli's father met Eli's mother, he saw a wildness and passion that his life always seemed to lack before.
When Eli's mother met Eli's father, she saw a sincerity and kindness that she hadn't ever realized she'd missed out on.
As much as they loved each other, they were absolutely terrible together. Where they were alike, they butted heads, and where they were different, they couldn't seem to find compromise. Every time they broke up, they swore up and down that they'd never get back together again, only to wind up tangled up in bed together a night or two later.
This was the dynamic Elias Murphy was born into. When The mage knocked up the metamorphose, he manned up and he married her, and they said they'd tough it out together. They made that oath, and they planned to stick to it. His father dropped out of college to head straight into the work force to support them. And his mother, well.... she kept doing what she did. Less running around, but she brought in money by her own means, pushing like she always had. For a while, his parents led opposing lifestyles - his father tried his best to stay on the straight and narrow, to be a good example for his infant son. But his mother quickly became the primary breadwinner of the household. She had an established network of clients who bought whatever she pushed, and she was witty and clever and charming, and she could likely convince a goldfish that it needed to buy a snorkel. It was understandable when his father got tired of working the daily nine to five grind for s**t pay when his wife was raking in hard cash mostly from home. So both of his parents fell into the crime rings.
This was the world Elias was raised in. He went to public school, and went to his room when strangers came over and his parents told him to. They both loved him, his parents. Everything that they did, they did for his sake. To better his future, so that he would have clothes on his back and food in his mouth and shoes to wear to school. His father was too proud to ask for help from his family, but on the rare occasions that Eli and his parents went to family reunions and he got to play with his cousins, his grandparents usually gave him little presents and trinkets. If there was tension between his fathers side of the family and his mother, he never noticed it. Young Eli had other things to worry about. Like the fact that his body temperature couldn't decide where it wanted to be.
Initially, his parents assumed that Elias was a komodo metamorphose, like his mother. Reasonable, since he clawed up his crib as a baby, and made a game of slapping daddys ankles with his sturdy tail as a toddler. It was when he set the drapes on fire that they became aware that he was a bit different. They had been prepared for Eli to be cold-blooded, like his mother. Not entirely, since they were still people after all, but they knew his body would have difficulty regulating his body heat. They'd gotten him sweaters and blankets and jackets and long underwear to help him keep his precious body heat. They had not been prepared for his body temperature to suddenly spike without warning, causing him to overheat under his layers of clothing. He had fire in his blood, like his father, but his mothers inability to regulate it. The result was several early years of passing out either from cold or heat, until his parents eventually learned the golden rule - layers. Lots of easy to remove and easy to add layers. At least until he learned to control it better.
Eli imitated his parents as much as he could. And, when dealing with the people who came to his house, his parents smiled and laughed and joked, and their tone and eyes went as cold as ice and hard as steel as soon as there was a misstep on the part of the visitor. they were coiled tight as springs, ready to pounce, to bite, to tear apart any who threatened malcontent. It was a wonderful way to deal with clients buying drugs. It was not a wonderful way to make friends as a child. He didn't deal with the typical teasing and bullying that most kids went through very well at all. He treated them like affronts, like threats. So that by the time he was in middle school he was a loner, your typical not-so-well-off kid wearing his cousins hand-me-downs who no one quite got along with. At least, no one who had any kind of normal social interactions. Elias was still learning to control his fire when he met the nerds. It started out, in fact, making friends with a fire mage who offered to help him. Who, for whatever reason, wasn't put off by his hissing or grunting or rough, chilly demeanor, or the fact that he seemed permanently suspicious of everyone around him. Nope. All of that went right over the kids head. Because he was socially blind, just like his other nerdy friends. They thought it was neat that he was a metamorphose and a mage. They invited him to sit with them, talk with them. One of them compared him to a dragon. He'd heard of dragons, sure, but the way his buddy talked about them, you'd think they were gods gift to tween boys. That was the beginning of a friendship that lasted all the way through high school. In the interest of becoming more dragon like, his mage friend helped him learn to control his fire, primarily, through his breath. And over the years he went on many a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. He took the dragon as a personal sigil of his. They were, arguably, the happiest years of his life. Studying and hanging out with his little circle of friends (from all walks of life) he did better in school, and was even able to graduate with decent grades. But not grades quite good enough to merit a full scholarship, like most of his friends. And unlike his other friends, who didn't do quite as well, like him, they came from families who could pay the difference. His couldn't. Instead, he followed his fathers path - he joined the workforce.
His parents encouraged him to stay legitimate, but flipping burgers and hauling scrap got really old, really quickly. With all of his friends having moved away, he quickly became depressed, spending days in his room in his parents house, and playing World of Warcraft online. Things went on in that manner for some time, until his mother had one of her visitors over who was a little too desperate, who didn't shrink back when she bore sharp fangs and hissed. He heard her yell from his room and burst into the den to find the man grabbing hold of her, manic. Honestly, she was probably going to be fine, using her teeth, her tail, her claws. But at the moment, his father wasn't home, and Eli felt rage that someone would dare lay hands on his blood in his own home. He didn't kill the man. Hardly even injured him, honestly. He dug claws into his shoulder and tossed him to the ground, and bore the face of a demon at him, slitted eyes and sharp teeth, tongues of flame licking from between them as he ordered him out. The junkie obliged. And it was no small stroke to his ego once the rush wore off. He started accompanying his mother and father separately when they went out, as back up. He was the perfect terrifying muscle. But when he was offered more money to protect other people, to guard shipments and locales and shady shipping containers, who was he to say no?
It was in this way that Elias eventually became a common fixture among Crownless' muscle. The money was good, the work was easy enough, and even though his parents were clearly uncomfortable with it, he was finally able to help support them. Hell, eventually, he even moved out on his own. And the work, over the years, only got darker and darker. Eventually, he wasn't keeping people out of the cargo... he was making sure they stayed in. But everyone around him went along with it, so why shouldn't he? It wasn't his business, not really. It was just a way to pay the bills. He learned to numb himself to the tears, to laugh along with the others when they kicked the poor suckers back in. He blotted out any guilt from his mind with pointless justifications. He did the work Crownless wanted him to. He was good at it. He liked it.
He didn't feel any remorse at all.
█ ABILITIES
▬ KOMODO SHAPE
Like his mother, Elias is capable of transforming into a fully grown komodo dragon. In this shape he measures about eight feet long from nose to the tip of his tail. He very rarely completely transforms, although he does have a weird habit of sleepwalking and shifting into his komodo shape. More frequently, Eli shifts just parts of his face and his teeth, as well as his claws and tail to batter people with. He can sprint at speeds of up to 13 mph in his lizard shape, but only for incredibly short bursts before becoming exhausted.
▬ FIRE MANIPULATION
Like his father, Eli can control, and manipulate any fire that is within his environment. However he is not quite as skilled at controlling it as he is controlling his transformations. Fire can very quickly grow out of his control, and past a certain point he can no longer put it out or stop it even if he wanted to. Most of his fire manipulating techniques are very basic, and he cannot issue finer control over flames. He can extinguish small blazes, hold flames in his hands, and even throw small fireballs. He cannot control fire that he cannot see. Oddly, his primary method of controlling the flames is not through hand motions, but through sounds. If he is gagged, he cannot control the fire. He uses mostly grunts, hisses, clicks, and shouts to direct his magic.
▬ FIRE BREATH
Eli's primary method of generating fire to manipulate is through his breath, hence why sound is vital for him to control it. So if there is not already fire in his environment, he creates it by exhaling with a 'Haah' sound. This gives him the effect of breathing flames like some kind of dragon, which is the idea that he got in middle school. At the time it seemed really cool, but as an adult he realizes that it's a little ridiculous. Still, it was how he learned, so he can't be bothered to learn another way, now. He can breathe and control flames even in his lizard form, though he rarely does.
▬ VENOMOUS BITE
Like natural Komodos, Eli is capable of producing a deadly venom through his fangs. While his bite is not quite as severe as a normal komodo dragons, it is still a formidable force. The venom decreases the victims blood pressure and expedites blood loss in hopes of sending the victim into shock. However it is somewhat slow acting, and usually takes a few days to cause very serious damage, by which point most sane people have either gone to a hospital or to a caim.
█ EXTRA
-- Even as an adult, Eli struggles with maintaining his body temperature. He is incredibly susceptible to the cold, and if exposed to cold temperatures for too long, he will collapse and eventually die, as his capillaries do not contract the way a normal humans should. While his sudden spikes in temperature are much less frequent, they still occur occasionally when he is under duress. In these cases, his temperature skyrockets, and he will suffer a heatstroke is not cooled down. But not too quickly, or else his body won't be able to regain the appropriate amount of heat, and he will die anyway.
-- Even though he acts like the big tough gangster now, at home he's still a huge dork. His walls are covered in posters of dragons on fantastic landscapes and commissioned art of his D&D and WoW characters. He quietly misses his nerdy friends. Most of his friends these days are online.
-- Even though he's strong, Elias' endurance is shitty. he can sprint incredibly quickly in both human and lizard form, but only for about a block before he's completely spent.
-- Speaking of shitty, Elias' hearing is the worst, which is admittedly not the best trait in a guard lizard.
-- Eli doesn't have much of a moral compass. For the most part, he doesn't mind what Crownless does. But he's very malleable, and he considers his own blood to be more important than anything else.
