Name: Damon Governor

Gender: Male, hetero

Age/DOB: 28ish/1995

Origin: Armacham-Aperture Genetic Lab

Family: Has at least one semi-sibling with shared spliced DNA in the Pantheon, but is not close to anyone otherwise; seems to be related to some of the 'reborn' kids, given their appearance and powers (Gene with his weird red eyes, for instance)

Other: Wouldn't mind being spliced up with someone, though unlikely at best to want to be a father in the true sense. Thankfully that means when Melissa wanted to 'see what would happen', Demi was created with Cricket as her 'mother'.

Height: 6'2

Weight: 150, made lighter by Icarus treatments, much more muscular than his weight might suggest

Hair: Richly black, heavy/satiny, long (usually to waist)

Eyes: Red, formerly a reddish brown but have changed over the years to show more fully crimson

Appearance: Somewhere between Native American and Hindi in physical looks, mostly because his genetic background includes both of those origins. He is not often smiling, though he certainly has a sense of humor. Likes comfortable clothing and to show off his muscular arms.

Genetic Abilities: Extremely strong visual camouflage ability, which extends to electronic sensors as long as they're not looking for heat signatures or other features. He can literally stand in bright, broad daylight 2 feet away and not be seen by anyone's eyes. Over the years he also has practiced 'darkness' manipulation, to be able to cause or alter light - or in this case, absence of light - to be able to creep around in shadows more easily. This has developed into a form of teleportation, mixed liberally with 'he's actually smoke'... sorta. Also has moderate psionics of empathy and telepathy at short range.

Image Credits: Doll Divine / Ammotu (left), Tektek Maker (right)

Skills or Profession: Groomed as a spy for Armacham, and would certainly have made a good one. He likes shadows and lurking, watching and reporting back. He has a set of downloaded infiltration skills which he put to good use almost every day of his teenage life. From entering buildings unseen, rifling through old files, hacking into still-working security systems (though not computers outright), and searching for specific information among files, Damon is well suited to infiltrate and then take care of himself if he gets caught. Had the world not gone the way it did, he would have been among Armacham's highest-paid (or highest demand) specialty workers.

Post-Events, however, Damon's skills have needed to be more physical and less intellectual, so his infiltration tactics also regard defense and clearing out of animal or Combine presences in safe houses. His raw strength is not a match for, say, Geoff or Kitty, but he's still able to punch first, ask questions later.

Personality: Serious and a loner, Damon follows orders well but doesn't mind figuring things out on his own. He's no slouch intellectually, but he definitely concentrates on the tasks he's given and little else until they're done. While he is often seen as the sour-puss of the group, never let it be said he doesn't have a sense of humor. He dislikes physical pranks, however he enjoys snide remarks and poking fun at even himself when needed. From the way he often looks or declines to speak, one might assume he's not as bright as many Pantheon members, but that would be a mistake - he's much better than average in almost all ways. The one thing he definitely enjoys about not being an Armacham lackey, is his choice of dress and hair style. Where they would usually have kept his hair short cropped and his clothing subdued, Damon loves having a long mane of hair - the girls like that hair - and clothing that match his crimson eyes.

He's taken a page from Wilson's play book, and could be seen as remarkably vain if he lets himself loose in Wilson's closet. They're almost of the same build, after all, and Wilson can test things out on him before working on his own duds. Seriously, they're so gay for clothes and hair. Damon does clean up very well indeed.

Events or History: Among the older of the students at the Enrichment Center when the Events occurred, Damon had already been tested and retested for the efficacy of his downloaded skill sets. Thus he was able to help sneak around the facility when needed, almost as well as Martin with his electric teleportation. GLADOS knew about his 'shadow walking' but could do nothing to accomodate his power, her sensors were and are still all visual and not heat-based for the most part. Damon could explore, find food, bring back information, and help find strays with a greater ease than most others.

During their fight with GLADOS he was among those chosen to take her apart. He helped retrieve the undamaged Cores which were eventually used to replace her. He was in the 'upper portion' group descending through the top of the Containment Unit, finding camera and security emplacements and taking them out of commission. After that point, Damon's skills were used outside to claim safe areas and make sure that Combine didn't kill people while they were being escorted to the Enrichment Center or other areas.

Damon enjoys his time at Black Mesa, at least as much as the Enrichment Center, because there is a lot of shadow in both, to slink around in. He and Wilson have learned to challenge each other, and Damon's actually a bit better at moving around while invisible than Wilson is. While Wilson cannot truly teleport through shadows, Damon might well be able to, unseen as he is.

Dragon

Name: Dymati (smoke particles, Czech)
Gender: Male
Size/Shoulder/Length: Medium / 10' shoulder / 20' long nose to rump, tail +++ / 90' wingspan (!!!)
Colors: Graphite, Grey, Smoke, Haze; oil-slick shiny bubble-like pattern on back of neck down to rump, smoke at the edges of wings as well as full tail seems to never stop moving.
Features: (SMOKE DRAGON omg) Sharply clawed feet with back-pointing claw, Badass Head/Jaw Chompers, 3-fingered webbed wings made of solid smoke?, Tail is smoke
Powers: Control over all manner of vapors, smoke, gasses and particles in the air. Can extend his wings to provide a 'smoke screen' covering a massive amount of visual area, as well as penetrate through porous materials pretty easily. Anything that allows air to easily pass through, he can move through as well (including force fields which would normally prevent a physical being from passing, allows him because of his density).
Alter Particulate Mass; is able to change the constitution of a small area of particles in the air - making it thick or chunky, toxic, more easily breatheable, or remove it entirely. He's able to dust off things or clear tiny particles of chemicals this way, but not reliably make any larger puddles or non-gas substances change. Now if someone were to vaporize that puddle of radioactive waste, he'd be able to disperse it cleanly...
Shadow-walking; can move between existing shadows or obscured areas from steam, smoke or dust, within 100 yards.
Size Shifting; can increase his density - as he is, he's actually almost intangible at that size. He can reduce the amount of space between particles until he is around 4' at the shoulder, and is incredibly strong that way. He can also decrease his density and all but blur out at the edges, which increases his ability to see and move through shadows or dust, but also makes him more vulnerable to winds or manipulation of particles.
Verbal and Vortal Speech; speaks with a rumbling but unusually quiet voice, almost sub-sonic. Vortal contact with him is apt to make sensitive people cough slightly, or squint because they can't see through him easily (even if it's just a hello, it's often to the mental equivalent of 'waving away the smoke' afterwards). His mind as well as his voice seems to linger and cling to things, like fog resting down on the ground in the morning.
Parentage: Unknown. Seems to be compatible with normal dragons, particularly those with magic or Vortal powers. Not particularly compatible with non-magical dragons.
Mate: At the Checkerboard Ball 2022, paired up with Dantinath, who on the surface is a Pernese dragoness, but... yeah no, definitely not just Pernese with the color, and the fact that she roosts in a place that doesn't exist, called The Outside with her beautiful rider Misota, the Mistress of the Outside. They have 10 'hatched' offspring and 8 spliced grey Knockoffs (pawns if they're good about it), with the family name of Dumani, meaning 'smoke'.
Origin: NeekoX3 on Deviantart did this marvelous dragon :)
Other Info: Damon claims that this dragon showed up while he was shadow-walking. That might be true, as no one has any other explanation for where he came from. The massive dragon ... what a misnomer there! His 'mass' is mostly smoke. While he can be ridden it's only by Damon, and only when he's slightly smaller than shown in comparison. Their names are even similar, who knows what exactly attracted Dymati to Damon. While he's friendly enough to others, Dymati usually keeps to himself or explores with his bond. It is a bond: they seem to be completely compatible in personality and style. Heck, if Dymati could wear clothing, he'd probably strut around like Damon does in his.

Came from this egg: