Post by Jackie on Mar 6, 2015 12:49:34 GMT -5
Character Name: Apollo
Nickname(s): None
Race: Deathclaw (Intelligent)
Sex: Male
Age: 48
Birthplace: Small cave in California.
Height: 7'8"
Weight: 816 lbs (compared to his 1000+ lb brethren)
Eye Color: White
Hair Color: N/A
Hair Style: N/A
Facial Hair: N/A
Skin Color: Tan, brown spots in some places.
Build: Pretty small by Deathclaw standards, and subsequently not as strong, though he's still very fast.
Distinguishing Features: Horns, tail, claws, intelligent and capable of speaking. The larger spikes on his back have been grinded down and have had metal caps grafted over them to prevent them from growing back. Numerous injection/surgical scars in various areas.
Profession: None
Skills: Survival, craftsmanship.
Training: None
Other Abilities: Exceptional sense of smell and hearing.
Apparel: Large piece of brown canvas, a leather belt (used as a collar), and some chain used for a belt come together to make a crude, hooded robe of sorts.
Weaponry: Teeth and claws.
Other Equipment: Backpack crudely fashioned out of some old chains and the basket of a shopping cart, stuffed animal (rabbit), miscellaneous junk and scrap, a couple of old blankets used for bedding, small collection of books and magazines.
Affiliation: None
Religious Belief: Largely ignorant of religion.
Sexual Preference: No preference.
Relationship Status: Unavailable.
Personality: One word best describes Apollo: Cowardly. Despite being arguably the most dangerous creature roaming the wastes at this time, Apollo has absolutely none of the aggression or ill temperament that usually accompany his kind, and will run from trouble before fighting it. Actually, if you had a gun, and had Apollo cornered in a room where he couldn't flee, he would sooner curl into a ball and beg for his life than kill you, such is the extent of his cowardly nature and unwillingness to end sentient life. On the upside, Apollo is very intelligent, on par if not past your average adult human, and has a particular love for reading, carving, and other such knowledge/art related activities.
Born in 2235 in a non-descript cave somewhere in the state of California, Apollo was not born 'Apollo', rather he was a fresh hatchling of one of the most feared creatures to ever stalk the wasteland, Deathclaws. Despite being the runt of the batch, Apollo, just like his brothers and sisters, would have grown into just another mindless killing machine had fate not had something else in mind for the soon to be terror. That fate was the Enclave, and these strange looking creatures came with a vengeance, bringing their wrath down upon the pack just as the pack had brought it's own wrath down on the wasteland at large. Despite the adults fighting viciously in the defense of their hatchlings, and killing several soldiers, they were all inevitably cut down, leaving the few week old deathclaws defenseless. The Enclave weren't here merely to exterminate however, no, they had plans for their latest captures which were to be shipped to Navarro. It was the Enclave's desire to boost the intelligence of the Deathclaw, to the point where they could be issued orders and not only understand them, but carry them out loyally, and they would do this with FEV.
The experiments were hit and miss really, FEV could be a tricky thing, but after some trial and error, the Enclave would succeed in enlarging the brains and levels of intelligence of many of their captured deathclaws. Results were mixed however, a lot of deathclaws often topped out in intellect around the level of an 8 year old human, but in a few instances their intellect would reach or surpass that of your average, adult human. Apollo was one of the latter. After being exposed to the virus, Apollo's brain would develop just as fast as his body over the next few months, though when the Enclave scientists became aware of his runt nature, Apollo would be submitted to a series of surgeries, experimental implants placed in key areas of his body in an effort to boost his lacking physicalities. Despite suffering many painful, invasive surgical procedures, Apollo would survive the implantation processes, only for his body to reject all of them and force the scientists to remove them, it also had the detrimental effect of stunting his growth even further.
With his physical situation deemed unimprovable, the scientists would instead focus on improving his mental faculties. It almost seemed as if what girth he'd lost from his frame was made up for by his brain power, for Apollo quickly proved to be very sharp and intelligent, far beyond the scientist's expectations. Within a year Apollo was able to read at a fairly high level, and was constantly improving, reading was also something he greatly enjoyed and he was happy to get his claws on any sort of books or reading material in general. Unfortunately books and magazines were often few and far between, but what little had been given to him he cherished greatly. Reading also allowed Apollo to practice speaking, as he would read out loud to himself often times, speech was a tricky thing though, as he lacked actual vocal cords and had to mimic actual speech, but Apollo would get by and could be easily understood. It was from a book that he chose the name 'Apollo' for himself, specifically a book on ancient Greek mythology, the figure in question being the god of knowledge. While he considered himself anything other than a god, Apollo did love knowledge and learning, and was fast becoming interested in the arts.
This interest would become easily apparent to his handlers, as Apollo had taken to using his claws to carve things into the walls of his cell. It started out crude and simple, little more than stick figures of himself and humans, but as the weeks passed the carvings would ramp up in intricacy, Apollo starting to sketch things on the walls he'd seen in some of his books and magazines. It wasn't of the scientist's concern however, Apollo had reached maturity, and the time had come for him to be put to use. One day he was taken from his cell and brought to a larger room in the facility. It wasn't a pleasant room, blood stained the walls, ceiling, and floor, some old and some fresh. Claw marks of multiple varieties accompanied the stains, and everything smelled of death. It made Apollo uneasy to say the least. The Deathclaw wouldn't be there long before being made aware of why he was here in the first place.
A young human man would be shoved into the room from the opposite wall, and a message over the intercom would make it clear to Apollo what they wanted him to do... "Kill the man." The voice demanded. Apollo would look upon the speaker dumbly, as if he couldn't understand. "KILL the man." The voice demanded again. Apollo would turn to look at the human in question, whom had pressed himself into a corner and looked positively terrified. The Deathclaw would look back towards the speaker before speaking himself. "Why?" Not the answer the scientists were looking for. Two power armored soldiers would enter from the opposite wall where the man had been pushed in from, one holding a large sparking device. Before Apollo could speak further, an arc of electricity would shoot forth from the weapon, striking Apollo. It was a gripping pain the likes of which he'd never felt before, and the Deathclaw would howl loudly in agony as he dropped to the floor. While the burst was only a few seconds long, it felt much longer to Apollo. When it stopped, the demand would come over the intercom once more, even more forceful. "KILL THE MAN." Again, Apollo would do nothing, and again he would be hit with the arc weapon, which resulted in a fresh burst of agony and pained howls. This would repeat another time before the soldiers removed the human, and more would arrive to take Apollo back to his cell.
Every other day for the next couple of weeks this pattern would continue, Apollo being taken to the blood spattered room, and a person shoved in with him. Sometimes they were male, sometimes female, sometimes old, sometimes young. One of them was even hairless and rotted looking one time. It didn't matter, every time Apollo would refuse the command to kill the individual, and every time he would be subjected to the painful electric shocks. The Deathclaw would endure however, even when the scientists stopped feeding him during the last week to try and 'encourage' him to kill, if only to satisfy his own hunger. Much to their surprise, Apollo still resisted. Many of them found it perplexing really, why would the creature endure so much pain when killing the subject would end it all and bring a reward? Apollo had seen his kind in their raw form, nothing more than mindless killing machines. He didn't like to think that he could have ended up as one of them, and subsequently he gained a high appreciation for sentient life, regardless of the shell it inhabited. While he had to thank his captors for their role in granting him higher intelligence, he was quickly becoming aware of the sinister reasoning behind it. He had to get out...
Apollo's opportunity would come a week later, the Enclave had organized a field exercise involving two other intelligent deathclaw, albeit on the lower end of the spectrum. It was their hope that Apollo would come to understand his intended purpose by seeing the other deathclaw in action, oblivious to the idea that it was morality that was keeping Apollo so docile. The intended training ground was actually a small caravan Enclave scouts had discovered camped several miles north the previous night. About half way through the short trip to the caravan, Apollo's chance at escape would arrive. It would come in the form of a sandstorm, fierce and blinding as it ripped across the wastes. It would send the assault force scrambling, and seizing the opportunity, Apollo would bolt into the storm, disappearing in the raging sands before his handlers even realized he was gone. Fortunately Apollo hadn't been fitted with any sort of compliance-enforcing device. Besides his unwillingness to kill sentient life, Apollo was the ideal experiment, always obedient and never hostile towards his handlers, so they hadn't deemed one necessary.
Big mistake on their part to say the least, and so Apollo would run, and run, and run some more. Despite being completely blinded by the sandstorm, he would keep running till he physically couldn't run anymore, and by then he'd put quite a few miles between him and his prison. After a night of rest, Apollo would continue on again, and for all intents and purposes he's been 'running' for the past four decades. Apollo would get by scavenging ruins, collecting any junk he deemed useful and modifying it to serve his needs, a skill he would get better and better at as the years progressed. He would live on a diet of small animals and insects, never going after anything larger than a giant ant or radscorpion, though he was happy to scavenge the carcasses of larger animals that were killed by other means and left to rot, he would never consume human flesh or that of his own kind however, and if possible he cooked whatever he caught before eating it.
Apollo quickly gave up trying to interact with the wastes at large, as any attempted contact always ended with either the group in question fleeing, or more often than not, attempting to fill him full of lead. It was a disappointing affair really, he yearned for any type of friendly contact with another intelligent being, but his appearance would forever prevent such a thing from happening it seemed. It wasn't all bad though, Apollo enjoyed his solitude in its own right, and he would go on to scavenge more books and magazines, replacing those he'd left behind fairly quickly and expanding his collection over the years. Apollo was never able to settle down any where for more than a few years unfortunately, often times he was chased off by something, groups of wastelanders and large wildlife usually, sometimes the paranoia of being chased down was enough to force him to move on as well. He could sometimes find security in the presence of other deathclaw packs, so long as he submitted to the alpha, which Apollo always did. Even then he was only ever really tolerated, never truly welcome by his unintelligent brethren, perhaps because they could sense he was far different than them.
Apollo has called many states home over the years, and it's very likely he'll call many more home in the years to come.
