Zihu <SC-B2>
Zihu Cuvier (a.k.a. Z, Zappy, Sparky, Void Echo, Jailbird.)
"Zihu. Soldier, combat medic, part nictus, and not from the local dimensions. Complicated and weird."
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Unhealthily pale for being mostly-human, glowing marks from under her skin where some of her augments are. Face is young but hair is (mostly) gray. Athletic and nimble build but a little on the thin side.
Special abilities
"More like I produce too much energy and lack a way of channeling it on my own. Getting a cap on it was one step to being able to learn how to wield it."Yeah. Pretty accurate description of her powers if they're ever out of control, though with her expanding Nictus abilities...
"So a live grenade is what you are."
"If my augments fail and I haven't passed out from an energy crash, yeah."
'Natural':
She has a mix of very obvious and far less obvious powers. Most notable of the 'less obvious' ones being that she's part Nictus. She can teleport much like warshades do, give her jump hight a boost, or just fly. She can also sense the lives of those in a small area around her, as well as drain it to enhance her own ability, and see in the dark better - at the cost of being sensitive to light.
These nictus powers went largely neglected for a while, as she had little time or reason to try learning them further until relatively recently. She has made effort to develop them more after discovering Antares left a large fragment with her, containing some memories of things it had learned in it's long life.
These memories include the form of a Hulmanim, a 'Nova', meaning she can shapeshift into a space squid now. Lovely.
Mutation:
Zihu is also a low-level technopath, barely registering as such, a minor mutation passed down from her mother's side of the family. It doesn't do much, though, other than letting her figure out tech she's handling quicker.
She can also see energy though it... really doesn't do her much good. See: light sensitivity from being part nictus.
Her primary mutation, however, causes her to produce an alarming amount of bio-electrical energy, with a boosted metabolism and regeneration, much like some speedsters. The problem: That was all she got from that mutation. She cannot easily channel this excess energy, and she normally produces too much of for her body to handle. This either knocks her out, kills her, or both, she's not keen on testing that limit. When she has something to help her channel it however, it is a versitle tool. Powering technology, enhancing and arcing between allies, or draining foes.
Tech:
Detailed ally-health monitoring, targetting aid, bio-electrical energy manipulation. Some of her longer-distance teleports may be done using tech, though she primarily uses her Nictus energy for that.
Incarnate:
She is a fledged Incarnate, and should be considered dangerous in a fight. Especially with how she fights, recklessly protective of others and capable of getting back up when she goes down.
Apparel & Accessories
Due to her light sensitivity she's rarely seen without goggles to protect her eyes, sometimes wearing a hood to further limit ambient light. She's also usually seen in a dark jacket or sweater and jeans with combat boots. As well as some fingerless gloves.
Specialized Equipment
[Nictus Armor and Arachnos Uniform to go here!]
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Zihu's history is... Long. A lot has happened to her, even before she arrived on Primal Earth. The short of it though: She's from another dimension, and has been through war more than once. Now, though?
Primal is her home.
Early Life
Battalion
She was an adult, almost, when the Battalion invasion began. Everyone was called to arms to drive them back, and with the first few engagements, it seemed they were going to succeed before the war had really begun.
Then the Battalion's upper ranks got more involved.
Rihai spent all her kheldian energy in an explosion to slow the Battalion's forces in one battle that was only a temporary victory.
Aera was taken out in what should have been a minor skirmish.
Nalo covered the retreat of others, Zihu included, to safety. Said they'd meet up further along.
That was the last time Zihu saw them.
Eventually, Earth surrendered and fell under the Battalion's reign. Zihu joined their forces, begrudgingly, as she had no other choice. She warmed up to those she served alongside in time, as many of them were like her: people who's worlds had been captured. Taking on a role of a rapid deployment combat medic, and quite a powerful one at that. Even if she couldn't salvage a situation, it was hard to stop her from doing anything she could to get as many people out alive as possible.
She hadn't forgotten the invasion of Earth, but at least she found a place where she could do something she was good at. Friends made among her fellow conscripts helped ease the pain of everything that had happened, one was even someone she'd fallen in love with. They'd both talked about plans for if they ever returned to something resembling a civilian life.
Displacement to Primal Earth
And then Infinity Traveler came along, a time traveler with jury-rigged and cannibalized tech for her powers. Infini singled out and struck Zihu with her time-jumping tech.
Suddenly Zihu found herself in the Rikti Warzone of Primal Earth, 20-30 years in the past compared to hers. Vanguard and Rikti both picked up on her energy signature. With the latter finding her first and her getting into a fight with them. She retreated when the Vanguard showed up and engaged the Rikti, only to pass out from an energy crash. She woke up a day and a half later in the vanguard base's infirmary where they'd been monitoring her, still in her armor.
She found herself probed with questions. Which she answered truthfully even if it meant getting locked away: She was a member of an alternate dimension's Battalion, though with no interest in starting or fueling war between the two. She wanted to get home, without leaving the two timelines connected and opening the way for a war to start. She managed to get them to let her roam free, something made a bit easier with her ability to teleport, and her search for a way home began.
First year-or-so on Primal
The first month and a half on Primal Earth were eventful. A brief look into Portal Corporation lead her to look elsewhere for a way back, not wanting to trust them. She ended up working with heroes on a few occasions, one of these was dealing with events surrounding Post-War Praetoria... She didn't expect to witness Earth falling a second time.
A few were surprised when she threw herself into helping one of Vanguard's larger operations to secure a new home for civilization in Praetoria. Fighting against what should have been impossible odds to turn the tide and make sure that operation was successful. She didn't do it to get in better with Vanguard, either, she did it as a genuine act to help.
At some point during all of this, she also joined up with Arachnos. Becoming a combat medic for them while eyeing the possibility of using one of their portals to get back to her dimension...
The next month she made more acquaintances, learned Antares had left a semi-conscious fragment of its being with her that she began trying to unlock the power of. Her heart was torn between staying with Primal Earth to protect it and going back to her squads and lover. A few chance conversations had and overheard and she's come to a new decision...
Zihu is staying on Primal Earth, to become another of its protectors against whatever may threaten it.
Unfortunately, Primal Earth's version of her Aunt became targetted by Malta, as were known members of her family. Zihu was marked as a persion of intrest in relation, and targetted for capture alongside the others. Arachnos support kept her from being captured that time but... Now she had to watch herself, while trying to figure out what happened. She knew Aera was working with the Shining Lights on their mess of issues, and suspected Malta might be among them but...
The Malta cell connected to what happened had gone into hiding, they knew they were going to be hunted down. Zihu didn't have the best contact with the Shining Lights, either, on top of being a member of Arachnos. She did what digging she could, but couldn't find much.
Then that Malta cell poked its head out of hiding long enough to make another attempt at capturing her.
She was less lucky, this time...
Primal is her home.
Early Life
Born and raised in Etoile Isles by Warshade and Peacebringer mothers Nalo and Rihai. Zihu only met her biological father a handful of times. He tended to keep his distance for her safety (and to avoid possible awkward conversations around the rest of her family.)
Odd as it might've been, they still managed to make it work, though there was no shortage of things happening to keep people busy.
The Nictus energy she was born with showed itself quickly, the life-draining hunger and light sensitivity in particular. Though her abnormal eye colors were the first indication of her actual mutation: grey and brown.
Her mutant powers awakened when she was 7. Causing her to produce an unhealthy amount of bio-electrical energy with the metabolism boost to support it. No super speed or reflexes, however, and her body couldn't actually handle that much energy easily. It was a good thing Nalo was a Warshade that could drain some of it, but for Zihu to manage it on her own wasn't really possible at the time. Her aunt, Aera, came up with some tech-based solutions that helped manage and disperse it safely.
At least when the energy production did finally crash she could sleep, for a while, but between those moments it was a race to put a better cap on it.
Desperate to keep Zihu's powers from killing her, they searched for ways to slow her metabolism down to something closer to normal. Finding various temporary solutions that helped, mostly in the form of substances she could eat, drink, or that needed to be injected.
Further ways of channeling that energy were sought over the years, tech became a surprisingly close friend despite the chance of her powers frying it. It was discovered she had a similiar affinity for firearms that one of her mothers' host had, and began practicing with them. She eventually turned to favor energy rifles like her aunt, mostly because she could be a walking power source for the weapons.
Light sensitivity sucks when your powers are energy-based and refuse to change color, though.
Odd as it might've been, they still managed to make it work, though there was no shortage of things happening to keep people busy.
The Nictus energy she was born with showed itself quickly, the life-draining hunger and light sensitivity in particular. Though her abnormal eye colors were the first indication of her actual mutation: grey and brown.
Her mutant powers awakened when she was 7. Causing her to produce an unhealthy amount of bio-electrical energy with the metabolism boost to support it. No super speed or reflexes, however, and her body couldn't actually handle that much energy easily. It was a good thing Nalo was a Warshade that could drain some of it, but for Zihu to manage it on her own wasn't really possible at the time. Her aunt, Aera, came up with some tech-based solutions that helped manage and disperse it safely.
At least when the energy production did finally crash she could sleep, for a while, but between those moments it was a race to put a better cap on it.
Desperate to keep Zihu's powers from killing her, they searched for ways to slow her metabolism down to something closer to normal. Finding various temporary solutions that helped, mostly in the form of substances she could eat, drink, or that needed to be injected.
Further ways of channeling that energy were sought over the years, tech became a surprisingly close friend despite the chance of her powers frying it. It was discovered she had a similiar affinity for firearms that one of her mothers' host had, and began practicing with them. She eventually turned to favor energy rifles like her aunt, mostly because she could be a walking power source for the weapons.
Light sensitivity sucks when your powers are energy-based and refuse to change color, though.
Battalion
"There's forces patroling the galaxy that make things difficult. I don't want to name them here, or on a first- second? Meeting though.She had to think about that last part for a moment. And normally she's relatively upbeat but... she keeps remembering her past like that.
...My Earth didn't stand a chance against them."
"Oh.. I'm sorry to hear that. My condolences."
"Worse part is they're who I fell in among afterward, got the same looks from others who's planets were overtaken that I gave them originally."
"I... you had no choice.. Do you.. maybe need a hug? Or a sidehug?"
"... Probably."
She was an adult, almost, when the Battalion invasion began. Everyone was called to arms to drive them back, and with the first few engagements, it seemed they were going to succeed before the war had really begun.
Then the Battalion's upper ranks got more involved.
Rihai spent all her kheldian energy in an explosion to slow the Battalion's forces in one battle that was only a temporary victory.
Aera was taken out in what should have been a minor skirmish.
Nalo covered the retreat of others, Zihu included, to safety. Said they'd meet up further along.
That was the last time Zihu saw them.
Eventually, Earth surrendered and fell under the Battalion's reign. Zihu joined their forces, begrudgingly, as she had no other choice. She warmed up to those she served alongside in time, as many of them were like her: people who's worlds had been captured. Taking on a role of a rapid deployment combat medic, and quite a powerful one at that. Even if she couldn't salvage a situation, it was hard to stop her from doing anything she could to get as many people out alive as possible.
She hadn't forgotten the invasion of Earth, but at least she found a place where she could do something she was good at. Friends made among her fellow conscripts helped ease the pain of everything that had happened, one was even someone she'd fallen in love with. They'd both talked about plans for if they ever returned to something resembling a civilian life.
Displacement to Primal Earth
"I know who I used to work for were all /too/ eager to design me something custom to optimize my powers."Twice she's lost everything...
"Prefer to be your own agent?"
It took Zihu a few moments to answer, and her tone was /bitter/, "... It took me a while to warm up to them in any measure."
"You sound like someone who bit through their last leash.
... Sorry. I shouldn't make too many assumptions. Bad habit of mine."
"You're... half right, though. Bit more like someone cut it off me without warning."
"And now you're wondering what's next?"
"... Pretty much."
And then Infinity Traveler came along, a time traveler with jury-rigged and cannibalized tech for her powers. Infini singled out and struck Zihu with her time-jumping tech.
Suddenly Zihu found herself in the Rikti Warzone of Primal Earth, 20-30 years in the past compared to hers. Vanguard and Rikti both picked up on her energy signature. With the latter finding her first and her getting into a fight with them. She retreated when the Vanguard showed up and engaged the Rikti, only to pass out from an energy crash. She woke up a day and a half later in the vanguard base's infirmary where they'd been monitoring her, still in her armor.
She found herself probed with questions. Which she answered truthfully even if it meant getting locked away: She was a member of an alternate dimension's Battalion, though with no interest in starting or fueling war between the two. She wanted to get home, without leaving the two timelines connected and opening the way for a war to start. She managed to get them to let her roam free, something made a bit easier with her ability to teleport, and her search for a way home began.
First year-or-so on Primal
"Was it ever really a choice that could be made? Going back or not. I don't think it was..."
The first month and a half on Primal Earth were eventful. A brief look into Portal Corporation lead her to look elsewhere for a way back, not wanting to trust them. She ended up working with heroes on a few occasions, one of these was dealing with events surrounding Post-War Praetoria... She didn't expect to witness Earth falling a second time.
A few were surprised when she threw herself into helping one of Vanguard's larger operations to secure a new home for civilization in Praetoria. Fighting against what should have been impossible odds to turn the tide and make sure that operation was successful. She didn't do it to get in better with Vanguard, either, she did it as a genuine act to help.
At some point during all of this, she also joined up with Arachnos. Becoming a combat medic for them while eyeing the possibility of using one of their portals to get back to her dimension...
The next month she made more acquaintances, learned Antares had left a semi-conscious fragment of its being with her that she began trying to unlock the power of. Her heart was torn between staying with Primal Earth to protect it and going back to her squads and lover. A few chance conversations had and overheard and she's come to a new decision...
Zihu is staying on Primal Earth, to become another of its protectors against whatever may threaten it.
Recent Events
Since then she's shoved aside thoughts of going back. Working for Arachnos and occasionally helping against other threats as they came to her attention.Unfortunately, Primal Earth's version of her Aunt became targetted by Malta, as were known members of her family. Zihu was marked as a persion of intrest in relation, and targetted for capture alongside the others. Arachnos support kept her from being captured that time but... Now she had to watch herself, while trying to figure out what happened. She knew Aera was working with the Shining Lights on their mess of issues, and suspected Malta might be among them but...
The Malta cell connected to what happened had gone into hiding, they knew they were going to be hunted down. Zihu didn't have the best contact with the Shining Lights, either, on top of being a member of Arachnos. She did what digging she could, but couldn't find much.
Then that Malta cell poked its head out of hiding long enough to make another attempt at capturing her.
She was less lucky, this time...
Mental Trauma
[... I might put something here eventually but for now I'm just going to point at the Battalion section of her history and say "What do you think?"]
[I'd also like to note that her "No one left behind" attitude is also because of the Battalion's invasion of her Earth.]
[I'd also like to note that her "No one left behind" attitude is also because of the Battalion's invasion of her Earth.]
Morality & Philosophy
No One Left Behind.
Even if she doesn't like them. If she's tasked with protecting them, or they're caught in the crossfire of a conflict that isn't theirs, so help anything that gets in her way of keeping them alive.
She's a soldier and a combat medic, not someone out for power and money. Though she still does end up breaking laws, there are lines she'd be hard-pressed to cross. Some may find her surprisingly careful about avoiding collateral damage and preventing civilian casualties. Anyone that's currently being considered one of her 'charges' that gets into a hairy situation will find her very quick to throw herself into the fray to pull them out, even at risk to her own life.
Her enemies, and those she's tasked with fighting against, however... Will find the full offensive capability of her powers pointed their way.
Odd, that she'd fall in with Arachnos, but that's what happens when the Villains are potentally more trustworthy about portals than the 'good guys'. Even if she's no longer looking for a way home, now she's simply there to keep the people who had no other choice from getting needlessly killed.
Even if she doesn't like them. If she's tasked with protecting them, or they're caught in the crossfire of a conflict that isn't theirs, so help anything that gets in her way of keeping them alive.
She's a soldier and a combat medic, not someone out for power and money. Though she still does end up breaking laws, there are lines she'd be hard-pressed to cross. Some may find her surprisingly careful about avoiding collateral damage and preventing civilian casualties. Anyone that's currently being considered one of her 'charges' that gets into a hairy situation will find her very quick to throw herself into the fray to pull them out, even at risk to her own life.
Her enemies, and those she's tasked with fighting against, however... Will find the full offensive capability of her powers pointed their way.
Odd, that she'd fall in with Arachnos, but that's what happens when the Villains are potentally more trustworthy about portals than the 'good guys'. Even if she's no longer looking for a way home, now she's simply there to keep the people who had no other choice from getting needlessly killed.
Taboos
One line she refuses to cross is the needless killing of Civilians, people who aren't armed, or shouldn't be fighting. Same with general unneeded destruction, though she knows the people she tends to work alongside see things differently and keeps these as personal limits.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
As of 7/2021, Earth's survival is her priority. She's remaining on Primal Earth as one of it's protectors, even if many won't see her as such.
As to what actually motivates her... old, painful memories. Seeing her Earth fall to the Battalion, as many worlds did afterward, and fresher memories of witnessing Praetoria's fall to Hamidon.
Seeing signs that the Battalion exist as a threat in Primal Earth's dimension only serve as further encouragement.
As to what actually motivates her... old, painful memories. Seeing her Earth fall to the Battalion, as many worlds did afterward, and fresher memories of witnessing Praetoria's fall to Hamidon.
Seeing signs that the Battalion exist as a threat in Primal Earth's dimension only serve as further encouragement.
Titles (for my memory, Badges)
No One Left Behind
Cause for Concern
Medic (or another healing badge)
No One Left Behind
Cause for Concern
Medic (or another healing badge)
Current Status
Reported MIA/KIA on Arachnos file after Malta once again attempted to capture her.
Age
??? Hard to place and time travel does no favors.
Children
Gender
Female
Eyes
Right one is a dark brown, left is pale grey, rarely leaks nictus energy
Hair
Silvery-grey with faint purple streaks
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Unhealthily pale, with faint purple spots
Quotes & Catchphrases
"No fight was ever won by the side that gave up hope."
"I won't stand idle while another Earth falls."
"I won't stand idle while another Earth falls."
Khelda - ??? Sounds weird when she speaks it.
A lot of other languages to varying levels from being in the Battalion of her dimension.
Also the Battalion's 'Common' language.
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments