Character Type: Shapeshifter

Name: Ash
Gender: Male
Age: Young Adult
Species: Sival (Dragon-like Shapeshifter)
Height: 5'10" (Human) 7'2" (Native) ~18' Length (Dragon)
Weight: 128 lb (Human) 241 lb (Native) ~650-700 lb (Dragon)
WDSA Status: Unregistered


Personality:
Ash tends to be polite and courteous, friendly but just a little reserved. In most situations he comes off as shy and a bit submissive, especially around non-hostile strangers. He tends to be indecisive, and prefers to have someone to follow - although he isn't incapable of deciding things for himself, he still tends to question his decisions and worry over them. Among his own people, his family, he was more open and affectionate, playful with his siblings. He enjoyed spending time with nestlings, and has a soft spot for small cute things. His role within the colony was dictated by the caste he had been born into, and thus he was fairly sheltered - it chafed a little, and when he was given the opportunity to leave with the expedition and explore a new place, he was excited.

He can be fierce when provoked to hostility, but would generally rather not have to fight. Generally he hopes that just posturing in a threatening manner will dissuade conflict before it arises. He knows that this isnt' always the case, and has a general idea of how to fight in his larger forms, although his experiences have largely been in scuffling with his siblings.

Since arriving in Wathais, he is largely confused and frightened. He has never seen so many different kinds of people before, or really been expected to interact with them - he has seen humans before, in his homeland, and while curious he was generally not expected to treat with them. He is a bit overwhelmed and out of his depth.


Abilities:
Shapeshifting
Ash is capable of fluidly shifting from his 'natural' form to a fully 'dragon' or fully human form. The innate magic that makes the change possible allows him to carry over small personal objects and clothing between forms. Holding any one form for too long of a time is tiring, however, and he is prone to slipping back into a softer form when he is exhausted. Aside from the healing factor, none of his forms impart any special abilities outside of increased physical capabilities.

Fast Healing
While he is in his natural or 'dragon' forms, he heals much more quickly than a normal human - injuries that would take days to heal may only take him hours, depending on the severity.

Resistances
Most drugs and poisons designed to work on humanoids do not affect him. Alcohol and recreational drugs do nothing. There are still poisons and venoms that will harm him, but it generally requires greater doses and may be to a lesser degree than most humans due to his alien nature. He may also discover that he is 'allergic' to certain things.

Senses
In all of his forms he has keen senses - especially eyesight and scent. While his species are omnivorous, they are still largely predators, and as such his motion-based vision is especially good.


Weaknesses:
Immune System
He is susceptible to respiratory illnesses, especially when stressed.

Injury While Shifted
If Ash shifts while injured, the wounds will carry over between forms, and could potentially cause serious problems. A break to a wing could translate into a break to an arm, or worse, his ribs and spine.

Language
Being not native to this world, Ash does not (currently) understand any of its languages. He will have to learn them.


Physical Description:
Human
As a human, Ash is a bit taller than average for a human male, and has a fairly slender build. His body is lightly muscled and he possesses long limbs - long fingers better suited to playing an instrument or using a quill than to weaponplay. His skin is a rich bronze color with a slight olive undertone. His facial features are angular, his cheekbones are high and sharply defined, and his lips are full and slightly downturned. He has a long, aquiline nose that is just slightly prominent, and there is a very slight cleft in his chin. His eyes are almond-shaped and heavy lidded with just the faintest slant to them; they are an orangish honey color with thick lashes. His irises are fairly large compared to what is normal for a human, with little white visible, and his pupils are oval shaped, reacting to light as a cat's would.  Also deviating from his otherwise human appearance, his ears have a slight feathered point to them, and his canine teeth are more prominant and sharper looking than is usual for most people. His hair is a dark brown very near to black and picks up reddish highlights in the light, bleaching to an auburn-color when he spends a lot of time out in the sun. He wears his hair long and loose, and it falls to around his collar-bones.

Dragon
As dragons go, Ash is on the smaller end of things. His body is long and low, similar in build to a cat, and his wings are broad, with membranes reaching roughly 1/3 of the way down his tail. His forearms end in thickly scaled hand-like paws, while his hindlegs look more like a raptor's talons. There are scales covering most of his body, including large sections of his wings. Where they cover his legs, they are similar to the scales of a bird, but as they move up over the rest of his body, they have a lifted appearance and look almost like feathers. On his wings, large broad scales further the impression of feathers, and perhaps even serve a similar function. Similar feathers form a flexible crest on the back of his head and down along his neck - this can be moved and flared out similar to the plumage of some birds, and is used as a form of expression. There are four sets of boney horns on his head: a small pair just above his brows, the largest pair a short distance behind that above his ears, then two mid-sized pairs can be found to either side of his jaw. His scales are largely a bluish black in color, however they are marked by gold spots on his face and crest, and tipped with gold throughout the rest of his body, creating a banding effect in places. Sections on the edges of his wings and along his tail fade into an orange-red color. His eyes are a similar gold-orange color, and feature slit pupils capable of expanding to take up nearly the full iris.

Native
Ash's native form is somewhere between that of a dragon and a human. Overall, his build and facial structure are humanoid, although his legs are still somewhat similar to those of a bird of prey, with large talon-like claws, he still has a tail nearly as long as he is tall, and he still has wings. His body is covered in black scales, patterned similarly to those of his dragon form. His facial structure, while more humanoid, is fairly 'flat' compared to a real human's, and instead of hair he has a mane of long feather-like scales. There are still horns above his brow, and back amidst his mane, above his ears, as well as along his jaw - in general these are shorter and more blunt than they are in his dragon form.


Background:
Ash was part of an expedition of Sival who, finding their home colony growing too crowded, sought to found a new colony elsewhere. They had a nice place picked out, a cliff with natural caverns that could be worked into rooms and dwellings, and in clearing it out they found that caverns were connected to the ruins of a larger structure that had been abandoned. Long story short, while exploring the structure, something triggered some old magic in the place and Ash found himself abruptly displaced and cast out far, far away from home.


Accessories:
Clothing
The clothing that he arrived with is of a light and fairly fine cloth, woven of some sort of plant fiber. The fabric is soft and dyed - the shirt a dark purple and the pants near black. Metallic embroidery has been worked around the sleeves and collar of the shirt and about the cuffs of the pants. He did not arrive wearing shoes of any sort.

Belt Knife
He has a finely made leather belt dyed dark, with a short knife in an embroidered sheath attached. The knife appears to be made of horn or bone, and the hilt is wrapped in soft, dyed leather.

Jewelry
He has a torque made of a pinkish coppery looking metal. It is worked in a curving vine-like design, and is set with a single smooth reddish opal stone.

This place was strange. Different. Taconin sat upon the bed that had been given him, dark-tipped fingers feeling the texture of the quilt beneath him, the slight give of the mattress beneath this slight form. He didn't need it, he didn't sleep, but no one had asked him about it, and he hadn't seen any reason to bring it up. He was a child and a child needed a bed - a place to sleep, shelter from the night outside. It hardly mattered that the night did not frighten him, that the cold did not bother him, that he had been places darker and colder.

That darker, colder place whispered to him, reached out for him and pulled - the slightest pressure, not demanding, but there all the same - even as he sat here in this room, upon this bed. A reminder that it was there, that it waited for him, would keep waiting for him. A part of him longed for it, the familiarity of that nothing-place, the place between other places, the place that he had been drawn from before he could be given form here.

But another part was curious about this place, wanted to explore it, to understand it. He had never been to this world, had never held a physical form until now, and the sensations of it were intriguing. He pressed his palm flat against the bed again, put all his weight on it in a sudden motion, felt it bend then bounce back up. He pulled himself fully atop the mattress, then did it again, throwing his whole body into the motion - and again, it bounced him back. It was entertaining, feeling out these boundaries of physical things, feeling them react as he was also physical. Perhaps if he had been a normal child he would have laughed - he wasn't and he didn't, but still the bouncing was fun.

A child needed a bed, but more than that, a child needed a parent. He had been given that as well. He had frightened the men that had found him too much for any of them to serve - and those that had summoned him had been taken away, so they wouldn't serve either. But a parent had been found, one that was not afraid of him - and more interesting, one that the men had been afraid of themselves.

The parent was a humanoid creature, winged, with thick black scales - it had memories of a child, old memories. He had adjusted his form and been told that this creature was now Father. He accepted it and had felt something strange, something new, something pleased at the Father's reaction to him. Father's thoughts had been bittersweet, joy and sadness mixed. It wasn't 'fun' like the bouncing now, but the taste was something he could savor, something that - after considering it - he enjoyed. That was new, too - the realization that he could enjoy, that this was an option open to him here, in this world. It was another reason he stayed, despite the reminding tug of the between-place.

He had never had a parent in the between-place, but he'd had a sire and a dam that had birthed him, and he'd had a progenitor, a Mother, that had overseen his creation. Mother gave the Others form and boundaries, rules to bind them in those forms. Mother had offered them to him as well, but because he was Different, it hadn't been as necessary a thing. Still, he knew that he was like enough to the Others that if Mother called, really called and not just this subtle reminding whisper, then he would have no choice but to answer. It was was comforting to think that he was not so Different after all.

But Mother did not call for him, and even if he had gone into the between-place, gone beyond it to where her throne lay, there would be nothing for him there - and he was Different enough to be bothered by that. It had never been a problem before, he had never had anything to compare it against, but he realized now that he had been bored there. He'd had a form and boundaries, but he hadn't had a purpose, not really. Here... Father gave him a purpose, even if that purpose was only to be a child. And though it was confusing, as he bounced on the bed he found that he enjoyed that purpose.

No, he would still return if Mother called, but for now he would remain with Father. This was his place, boundaries had been set, and he had a purpose - it was all he needed. He would stay here.