"The arrival of an extraterrestrial lifeform-- dubbed 'Deoxys' by the scientist who first discovered its existence-- on our planet is a matter of intense scrutiny and speculation. Virtually nothing is known about the creature, though it is believed to be some kind of mutated virus. It has continued to successfully evade capture by human hands for several months now, though countless attempts have undoubtedly been made to detain it. Rumors abound regarding its intentions, its physiology, the threat it poses to mankind... but unfortunately, to this day, information and answers about Deoxys are extremely limited, not to mention classified. However, we can say this much: a number of sightings have been confirmed by our specialists, and it is unanimously believed to still reside here, somewhere on Earth. Knowing this, we continue to seek it out... holding onto the hope that it will not act against us out of malice."
- An official statement by the researchers at Mossdeep Space Center
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∴ Summary.
Vector is a Deoxys-- in other words, an alien. He came to Earth originally with the intent to royally screw it over, as per his orders... but upon arriving, he became totally enraptured with how utterly different it was from his homeworld and the life he knew. As a result, he made it his mission to learn about and study every conceivable thing he could before moving on and doing any harm to the planet.
He is ridiculously curious and hilariously naive about our world, which probably makes sense, considering that he's only been here a few months. Vector usually maintains an unnervingly cheerful demeanor, but does not yet grasp the finer aspects of human interaction, society, biology... or anything else, really. Expect him to ask a lot of questions. While he was a seasoned scientist back on his home planet, a mere fraction of his knowledge is applicable to Earth and its inhabitants. In other words, all his prior experience is rendered meaningless here. The poor guy is clueless, and wants nothing more than to fix that by any means necessary.
Unfortunately for those he meets, Vector has a bad tendency to inadvertently injure the creatures he interacts with. This is due to the horrid synergy of terrifying powers and near-total ignorance; he is still trying to figure out how humans work, since they are incredibly different from how he functions. He's killed quite a few people simply by overestimating the durability of the human body.
He struggles to speak our language and makes for a pretty weird conversation partner, but his jovial, optimistic attitude and oblivious nature do give him a bit of an odd charm. The only thing that consistently seems to upset Vector is the threat of being captured. He abruptly becomes very aggressive toward anyone who attempts it, and won't hesitate to strangle, absorb, melt, or otherwise obliterate that individual for trying to take away his freedom. After all, how is he supposed to study the Earth if he's stuck in a little digital ball?
∴ Backstory.
In all truth and seriousness, if one were to ask Deoxys where it comes from, it would not hesitate to tell them. The name of its home planet, however, is utterly unpronounceable via the human tongue; having heard it, then, would do a human no good, since they could never recount it to another of their kind. Many things about Deoxys are similar to that: incomprehensible and strange, to the point of being completely detached from anything we could ever call 'familiar'. It is, after all, an alien.
The circumstances of its arrival are, for the most part, unknown to all but Deoxys itself. It was not the first of its kind to arrive on Earth, but rather the fifth, sent with the explicit task of finishing something that its species had tried and failed to accomplish several times over. The very first Deoxys came to Earth decades prior in the hopes of making peaceful relations with a fellow sentient species. Humankind, knowing not what it truly was, immediately imprisoned it for study. This eventually culminated in a series of risky biological experiments that brought an accidental end to its existence. The last thing it was able to convey to its homeworld was a distress signal, a desperate plea for help that came too late to save it life... but not too late to convince the rest of its species that humanity was likely hostile and vicious.
The Deoxys were indignant at the loss of their peacemaking scout. They promptly organized another mission, sending a more combat-ready pair this time to explicitly confirm the malevolence of Earth's inhabitants. Should that confirmation follow through, they were instructed to leave behind a child-- something that was, in essence, a potential death sentence for the entire planet. Humans, you see, were correct in defining Deoxys as a virus. In particular, their young exhibit the traits of a pathogen more overtly than the adults, and manifest as an ethereal, crystalline mist that only solidifies into a physical form when they mature. Even a few particles of this mist, if inhaled or absorbed by a living creature, will invariably propagate and shut down their bodily functions in quick succession... and from there, even an infant Deoxys possesses enough cunning to intelligently seek out and infect nearby organic matter. Considering the horrific speed and skill with which the contagion spreads, it is little wonder that entire unprepared planets have been left barren in its wake.
Disaster struck almost immediately for the second expedition, and complications forced one of the two Deoxys into stasis before their transport meteor even landed on Earth. The other was attacked on sight by the temperamental dragon known as Rayquaza, and suffered such significant harm that it, too, went into stasis. Four years passed before the pair were able to reunite and contact their homeworld again... and when they did, it was to report with total certainty that Earth was populated by detestable, violent creatures. The two of them mated and left their infant child behind to infect the planet... yet more than a decade later, careful review and study of the Earth showed that life on its surface somehow continued to flourish. Since the child intended to exterminate humankind had apparently failed in its task, the Deoxys race arranged a third mission as their last attempt to do away with the world that had so grievously offended them. They sent what they believed to be an ideal candidate, an individual versed in battle as well as knowledge, someone who could strategically analyze the situation and facilitate the spread of the Deoxys virus.
This fifth Deoxys slumbered in the center of a much larger meteoroid bound on a long, gradual course toward our star, unconcerned about the potential damage such a transport could wreak upon the planet when it collided with its crust. It woke up the tiniest bit prematurely when said meteoroid was abruptly destroyed just outside Earth's upper atmosphere, again by the timely intervention of Rayquaza. The dragon viciously assaulted the invader, sending the wounded Deoxys careening down to the planet it had intended to visit, thereby bringing its journey to an unexpectedly eventful end.
At the top of the towering Sky Pillar, a human came across the weakened Deoxys shortly after it regained consciousness. The boy, like many humans, did not recognize it and thought it wise to capture and imprison the undocumented, mysterious creature-- but upon sensing hostility, the Deoxys immediately lashed out, absorbing and assimilating the poor soul before he had so much as a chance to defend himself. Despite their engagement being violent and brief, the alien learned a great deal from its initial encounter with a human being. It altered its shape to more accurately mimic the structure of the creature it had consumed, believing that this would enable it to blend in with the native populace... and it is only at that point that this particular Deoxys took on the form it-- or he, rather, after that point-- currently exhibits. He eventually named it 'Vector', an identifier chosen amidst his extensive research into our world.
After recovering and getting his bearings straight, Vector sought out Myoga, the Deoxys child that had been charged with condemning the Earth to annihilation. Considering the telepathic connection and means of communication that all Deoxys share, it didn't take him long to find her-- though she did attempt to avoid him quite earnestly, fearing that he had a violent temperament because of the offense-based form he took. As it turned out, he was far more interested in hearing Myoga out than scolding her for slacking on her duty. Though his ability on the battlefield was undeniable, the main reason he had been selected to visit Earth was due to his scientific knowledge... a knowledge that had become truly extensive thanks to the fuel his positively rampant curiosity provided.
When placed on an entirely new planet for the first time, then, Vector was shocked and elated at how different it was. He knew that humans had slighted his fellow Deoxys multiple times over, but he became hesitant to wipe them all out once he actually arrived on their world. He needed to figure out how they worked before he could kill them. There were so many things to learn... he had to analyze the ecosystem of the planet, study the local wildlife, find out how to communicate with its sentient denizens, and more... all of which would require extensive, time-consuming research. With that mindset, it didn't take too much persuading on Myoga's part to convince him that he should at least give Earth a chance. He proceeded to do exactly that, making it his personal goal to discover anything and everything about the Earth and its countless, colorful creatures. That is why he is still here-- and why he has resolved to stay here, holding onto the belief that this planet has wonderful things in store for him.
∴ Character.
Unfortunately, regardless of how well Vector's disguise mimics the form of a human, there are certain aspects of it that he has never been able to perfect. The most glaringly obvious of these things is the color of his skin, because-- as many of the more amiable people he has spoken with have told him-- humans do not have blue skin under any circumstances. Sadly for the poor Deoxys, his manner of 'seeing' functions via a spectrum of electromagnetic waves quite different from the one humans use, and he therefore has no real way of comprehending what 'blue' is... or any other color, for that matter. It is a painfully obvious abnormality that he nevertheless has to live with, considering that he has no means of fixing it.
His ability to blend into a crowd may be depressingly low, but somehow that has not stopped Vector from continually eluding capture. He does look enough like a person that most people hesitate to throw a Pokéball at him, particularly in public, and those who try to trap him and corner him alone are typically never seen again. He does also have the convenient ability to teleport away in the blink of an eye if placed in what appears to be an inescapable situation, a tactic that has yet to fail him if things take a turn for the worse. Vector notably wouldn't mind sharing more information about himself with the denizens of Earth, if they weren't so intent on shoving him into a tiny digitalized space... but so far that seems to be the approach most humans take, leaving the Deoxys rather wary and defensive of anyone resembling a Pokémon Trainer.
He is an intensely inquisitive creature, one who is earnestly delighted to be visiting our planet. Earth had always been his intended destination when he left his homeworld many years ago, and he views it much as a starry-eyed, clueless tourist might: constantly asking questions, investigating objects around him, and habitually trying out new and interesting things purely for the sake of it. He possesses no concrete idea of what is normal or acceptable, and has had to learn social norms by experience. Vector is definitely eager to learn these things and generally takes them to heart, but being a recent arrival means that he is still woefully naive when it comes to some of the most basic aspects of human society.
The first new thing he had to learn was how to speak-- not just speak English or any other given language, but how to actually speak, seeing as his species communicates via telepathy and having vocal cords (not to mention a mouth) is a completely new experience to him. Telepathy works fine on humans, he has found, but his native language tends to make them... uncomfortable, to put it extremely nicely. Blistering, scream-inducing headaches are inevitably the result of Vector 'talking normally'. In his attempts to converse with our kind, he initially took to holding someone hostage and hijacking their nervous system, accessing their repository of knowledge in an effort to psychically force them to translate everything he wanted to say. It certainly worked, and gave the Deoxys remarkably quick access to a decent grasp of the English language... but the process invariably broke whatever poor sap he used as a translating device, and he had to go through several victims before he could understand 'speech' well enough to attempt it himself.
Even today, Vector's manner of speaking is odd and roundabout, and he regularly has to take pause mid-sentence and scour his mind for the proper words. Stranger still, however, are the emotions he displays and the ways in which he reacts to things, both of which tend to be at least mildly unsuitable for the situation at hand. His species' outlook on life and death is very accepting compared to ours, and he holds the stalwart belief that the two are not nearly as separate or different as humans fear. Due to that, morbidly enough, he doesn't see dying as a terribly bad thing; indeed, upon killing someone, he regrets the fact that he can no longer interact with them more than the fact that they're... well, dead.
Incidentally, the Deoxys does have a bad habit of accidentally murdering things thanks to his inconclusive knowledge of their biology. It is easy for him to forget that terrestrial creatures need to breathe, or that they are remarkably fragile compared to his kind. It never ceases to amaze him, how breaking a certain bone can instantly shut down a human's entire body, or how the loss of just one limb can cause them to leak a veritable deluge of fluid. Their weak, fleeting existences fascinate him, and Vector will often react to seeing grievous injuries with excitement and unnerving curiosity... up to and including damage to his own body, which he has been observed to nonchalantly shrug off regardless of its severity or the extent to which it may cripple him.
This is assuredly because his ability to regenerate lost tissue is absolutely staggering. Unless the crystal embedded in his chest is completely annihilated, Vector has consistently proven himself able to reconstruct any part of his body within minutes. That ability likely contributes to his casual views on mortality and pain; since his risk of dying is positively infinitesimal and he feels pain for a far shorter duration than humans do, he can't easily relate to the intensity of their reactions. He self-admittedly loves watching them, but has grown to understand their point of view well enough that he willfully limits his more visceral study of human anatomy to those individuals who threaten his freedom and well-being.
With regards to his own forms of expression, Vector has yet to master the art of exhibiting the 'common facial contortions' that humans use to convey their moods to one another. By default he does not show any emotion at all, displaying only a subtle frown and a wide, piercing gaze that has caused many a confident Trainer to lose their nerve. When actively conversing, fortunately, Vector has taught himself to properly smile; the result is actually a very amiable and sweet expression, but the Deoxys has a penchant for wearing it a little too often, especially since he has noticed how well most humans receive it under normal circumstances. He will thus be seen smiling in situations where nobody should ever smile... for example, his hauntingly blank expression is debatably preferable to the sight of him warmly beaming at you while his tentacles wring your neck.
The aforementioned tentacles are notably what Vector prefers to use in lieu of human arms. He will shift back to them whenever he is alone or around someone who already knows his true nature, as he still finds himself fairly clumsy when using his fingers. Vector is actually very happy to spill the reality of his origins if a good opportunity arises. He loves nothing more than discussing Earth's countless wonders with someone fortunate enough to have lived on the planet their entire life. Most of the reason he chooses to 'disguise' himself is so that he can avoid being imprisoned; so long as one does not have that goal in mind and they treat him warmly, the Deoxys will likely count them among his friends in short order.
For those who do grow close to him, Vector may occasionally deign to show his traditional appearance, should he like them enough. While he is fond of his altered, human-like guise, it is based on his combat-oriented form since that was the form he subconsciously shifted to when first threatened by a human. Taking on that battle-optimized physiological structure makes him dangerous, yes, but also renders him extremely vulnerable. Having the chance to shift back into a more durable shape often provides him a measure of relief, and he finds it refreshing to take an occasional break from pretending to be 'one of us'. The constant risk of being ensnared by human technology, however, is among Vector's only fears, and he is therefore hesitant to show anyone his true face and irrefutably reveal his alien nature.
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∴ Miscellaneous.
- No, you don't have to read the entire profile. I know it's too long. I know. I just really like writing characters, okay? It's fine to just read the summary at the top. If you do take the time to read the entire goddamn thing, that would be fantastic, but it's not in the least bit required. I can't exactly expect everyone who wants to interact with him to sit down and read an entire novel beforehand.
- The character's name comes from the definition of the word vector that is used in biology, which refers to any creature that acts as a host for a virus. It is a name he chose personally; since his species are essentially sentient, multi-cellular viruses, he found it to be an appropriate descriptor. It's not technically his real name, but to be fair, his real name is unpronounceable alien gibberish. He prefers going by Vector, since 'Deoxys' is effectively a human-made name for his species as a whole.
- If I'm not in the mood to roleplay, please don't pressure me. I come on this chatroom primarily to hang out with my friends, and I admit that I'm not always up to playing with new people. It's nothing personal, I promise! I might be in the mood some other time, but even if I agree to a scene, I don't like being pestered repeatedly about it whenever I log on. Please don't ask every single day, or I may lose interest due to stress and the feeling of being obligated to do it. I can never 100% promise a scene to anyone, and I am never of the belief that a scene is something that can be 'owed'. This is a mutual undertaking that's supposed to be enjoyable for both players. If one or the other is forced into it, it ceases to be fun for that person.
- It should probably go without saying, but most of the lore/history for Deoxys that's listed in this profile is fan-created interpretation. It is by no means canon. There is no canon for the species' life and history and society beyond Earth, so my friends and I devised our own theories and ideas. If you don't like them, that's fine! You are free to make up different ones-- just know that this character will act based on the fanon background we personally made up.
- Cerumon struck again from the depths of Pokémon gijinka hell to create this spaghetti monster. You're fucking welcome. :>
- All of the art displayed on this profile was done by yours truly! If you like it, I do have a gallery here on Eka's.
Vector is predominantly predatory, though I actually like using this character more for interaction than anything! Occasionally, he might be willing prey in the name of science... but he'll inevitably teleport out once he's done 'studying' someone's insides, so he doesn't exactly make the best meal. :I
