Owen Sweete

Name	Owen Sweete
Gender	Male, straight
Homeworld	Rapturth, caught in a portal storm and brought to Rookery's location, and from there sent to Carramba due to his youth and interest in the multiverse
Class	Junior, 30+8kk Page made 2.23.21
Nut	a little nutty
Totem	Spider; Doll from expired flash site 'gamesloon'
Smarts	13 (....yeah, really*)
Bod/Feet	8
RWP	3
Luck	4
Drive	9 (generally undersea / boats)
Looks	6
Cool	4
Bonk	4
Powers	Plasmids - even though he's pretty young to be 'shooting up', some of these were freely available as 'samplers' for those as young as kindergarden. Their version of Rapture featured much 'safer' Plasmids, but he also was sent tumbling through time/space and the effects of portal storms typically do alter effects of existing gene-changing materials. Plasmids often interact with other things - magic, psionics, other DNA changing effects, and they culminate in this boy dramatically well. Notably however he does have to physically "shoot up" this stuff into his blood stream, and has been told to do this in private where others aren't subject either to watching a kid use drugs, or risk making people swoon or fly into a rage at the sight of blood. -- *Know It All, this formula permanently altered his brain capacity and as such he's able to answer questions quickly and typically accurately - if he's ever seen anything about a subject, he can recall it vividly and has a perfect memory (which is its own down side to be honest); he has sometimes had to be corrected, because the information he's seen / heard has been inaccurate, but once he does know the 'truth', he never goes back to the old wrong answer -- Best Friends Forever, this Plasmid allows him to temporarily (around a week) sway the emotional state of a single person (human only, does not work on species that aren't from Earths) such that they will defend him verbally or even physically, and generally be a nice person to him when he needs it. They are on their own otherwise, but in his presence they're definitely BFFs. When this wears off, the subject might be a bit irate, but again that depends on whether they're in proximity to him when it fades. He's been told specifically not to use this on any adult or instructor in Carramba, and in fact they don't like him using it at all on school grounds. Learning responsibility for his actions, however, means he has a bit more of the stuff on hand... and might start selling it... -- Man's Best Friend, as a Plasmid goes this one's pretty harmless, and has helped him get out of tight spots particularly when swimming around in the depths near Rapture. After all, it works on all creatures without an advanced intelligence: so while it might not work on dolphins and parrots, it absolutely works on dogs and cats, sharks, flitters... this one does work on non-Earthly animals. Creatures which can learn commands tend to take those instructions with keen interest from him, and learn at a quicker pace. They will stop attacking if aggressive, or overall just not attack him if he's wandering through a territory, though it's not clear whether very big creatures are affected by this as much as mid to small sized ones. He has yet to go to a zoo to test it out...
Clusters	Learn All About It +2 Surprising Animal Friends +2
Skills	Recreate Experimental Serums +3 Customize Plasmids +3 Amazing Swimming Skills +3 Teaches Kids And Animals Well +3
Knacks	Get Problem Patients To Behave +2
1	Genetic Engineering / Paveh / Superb
2	Dimensional Travel and Pocket Universes / Lane / Excellent
3	Mars and Venus Cultures / Noah / Decent
4	Cartography / Lari / Superb
5	Ironic Literature / P. Fettel / Decent
6	Veterinary Tech / S. Marad / Excellent
7	Multiplanar History / Prescott / Superb
8	Interdimensional Surfing / K. ahlKhat / Excellent
Pets	plenty if you count his BFF and MBF plasmids!
Parents?	At home in Rapture
Siblings?	Younger sister, in Rapture

He wondered whether he'd be back home before his family missed him. Or... at all. He'd like it to be 'soon'. But then, all these distractions kept coming up. People had helped him get untangled from the weird ruined mess of rebar and twisted metal that was 'their' Rapture, and then had to explain that he was no longer at 'his'. But this boy was stunningly smart straight out of the basinet, and no one doubted him when he recounted stories about being picked up and burped as a baby. The looks on some extended relatives faces when he'd started in on what they said at some party or event? Precious, and enough to prove those stories weren't just made up by a three year old. His memory was only enhanced, strongly at that, when those Plasmids started coming around. 'Retain your memories' indeed. Though it was entirely possible that Fontaine had taken Owen's DNA for them in the first place, or at least, his parents'.

He was always so good with people, too. So it was no surprise that his discovery while playing with a chemistry set at home one night, led to his creation of a 'friendly' pheromone. This one could be injected, ingested, or even just topically applied! And when his parents applied for a patent on that stuff, they became rich literally overnight.

Owen's trips to the surface were fewer than he liked, but he relished his time above the sea. He liked feeling an actual wind on his face, he enjoyed being... well, dry at times? Always somewhat moist in Rapture, everything was slightly damp even in the best maintained locations (which included his late childhood home in one of the big high-rises). There too it had... puppies? And cats, and birds? While there were specimens and the occasional pet here and there, Rapture wasn't much for keeping small animals alive. They took up food, space, air... So they were a luxury that even his parents didn't buy into. Owen however, really loves animals. So much so that if he does return to Rapture it will be with the intent to bring actual animals safely into the undersea city.

His life from around the age of 8 until puberty was pretty typical of a 'rich kid', he spent time listening to chatter and keeping track of gossip with ease, not really participating in it unless there was something really juicy. And though everyone knew him as the 'smartest kid in Rapture', some felt he was too big for his humble family history. Those... he aimed his Plasmid-aided smile toward, and they melted into adoring fans. But Owen did not abuse this feature. He has always maintained that if it had to be used repeatedly, there's always a chance it might backfire - badly - some day. He doesn't want to find out just how badly.

But he got to buy toys that hardly any of his school chums could afford: self-propelling undersea sleds, aquatic gear that meant he could spend time outside the glass and steel halls ('steel? see, they made theirs out of steel' someone at this weird ruined Rapture said once, he understood later that the Rookery's had been built out of aluminum, and that was pathetic...) looking in from the outside. Surrounded by weird fish, sharks, even a whale or two... And he took care to not allow any of those to be sucked into the little fans on the sea sled. After all, he didn't want to get attacked by the bigger fish, who could smell blood for miles...

He was trying out a new Plasmid mixture on those fish, a tweaked 'BFF' design that would allow him to modify animal moods in the same way as he already could humans', when something... happened. There was always a current, always a flow and pull to the tides around Rapture that he knew was quite dangerous. Him even going out there frightened his folks, but thrilled many others. The Big Daddies down there keeping the place safe and maintained with their gigantic heavy diving gear were like rocks compared to the speedy motion of his sled. But they were able to keep their footing when the movement happened.

Owen's worry wasn't for himself, when he saw a weird almost bioluminescent sheet coming at him. It was for Rapture: if it hit that place full on... what would break? Who would be swept away into the ocean without hope of rescue? What animals might be caught in this nasty tide? He'd never seen anything like this, though. There were luminescent creatures that often washed up into the airlocks, or were growing in the carefully manicured caverns that were safe to explore in 'parks' around Rapture's perimeter. He had even heard of tidal forces making clouds of tiny organisms light up beaches with wave after wave stirring their chemistry. This... was not like any of those things.

This was terrifying. His last conscious thought before it hit him was of relief. If the visual edge of that illuminated water was to be trusted as 'actively' moving, it would miss Rapture by several hundred meters overhead. Good. Then - then he passed out, turbulent waters taking his sled and him sideways into something entirely unknown to him.

Another dimension.

It was still the deep sea, still down at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, but it felt different. It felt... he searched for words he didn't really know. It felt broken. He was also feeling a bit broken. That was because in the process of tumbling out of that thing he later learned was called a Portal Storm, the sea sled had yanked his arms both out of their sockets, he had broken shoulder blades and collar bones, and every movement was sheer agony.

But he was alive, and that was something. And he was still intact, his sled was somewhere near by, his diving gear had spared him from being simply ripped into pieces. So here he was, a fifteen year old prodigy drifting half-dead in the deepest, darkest ocean over what he thought was a nightmare; the brokenness applied to Rapture. What he'd left was a shining domed city, a bubble of human brilliance miles down below the surface. What he arrived to was dark, illuminated here and there only with the weakest of lighting, with paths that he almost recognized as being 'skyway' halls connecting tall buildings - broken into angular ramps, or just not there at all.

The more pressing thing he saw, however, was... it could only be called a sea monster, and he tried to scream, nothing happened, but his helmet did begin filling with blood.

***

He would be safe, sound, healthy. Owen woke with a start, and was immediately calmed by several people - and... something else. The medical professionals made it absolutely clear to him that the massive creature looming just outside the glass walls of the recovery room was a dragon and that it was safe.

It was absurd, but there it was. In fact now that he had time to look around in that room there were smaller dragons, some pacing around helping their human companions in the lab, and others swimming with incredible grace outside. They... didn't look like they were angry, they didn't seem like they were waiting for the moment to smash into the place.

So eventually Owen did get told what happened. He was moved by a freak multidimensional stormfront, which was becoming more common these days. They instantly spotted how smart Owen was, going so far as to suggest he might be the smartest kid they had ever met. And coming from one young man... that seemed like very high praise indeed.

They could all compare notes. Owen was unafraid to discuss his condition - that he'd been experimenting with Plasmids as a youth, that he expanded his own horizons. Impressed, but still worried that he would need to be given the last of a proper education, the bunch of adults conferred and came up with something they thought was quite novel.

Rather than giving him 'skill downloads' - he realized they basically meant distilled memories and genetic alteration there too - he would go to a location they called Carramba. It was a high school for people that came from downright everywhere. Owen was thrilled! He could learn how all these places interacted? He could finally be on the surface safely!?

The flip side of this, however, was that they needed to do more research about which Rapture he'd come from. Apparently there were ... well, an infinity of them? He donated blood and cell samples to Rhea and Whitney and Thomas and Melissa, each of them greedily looking at their own experiments. But more than that, those samples were paired with an interview with a very strange man. He stood quite close to Rhea, Melissa absolutely followed him around like a besotted puppy, others were less enthused by the tall scary man's presence. But Lane announced that he'd be either doing it himself, or "having someone else look into the Vortal echoes" to track down the origin of that Portal Storm.

Finding its echoes in the deepest ocean, tracing those echoes back to their origin? Well at least an origin? What was wonderful, what he loved, was that Owen fully understood all of this in theory once he'd been explained how this 'Vortal echo' thing worked. He'd never be able to do it, he was not "Vortally endowed", but he knew that by tracking the path of whatever it was that hit him over his home Rapture, they might some day be able to return him there.

And in the meantime, Lane kept track of this kid by virtue of having a school class about it at Carramba High?!

Owen had a bit of culture shock to deal with even in this Rookery Rapture: there were alien creatures, the Vortigaunts, who likely were going to do the legwork of tracking that echo. But then when he was brought - under much more controlled and far less painful conscious effort - to Carramba by Lane... There were so many more species than he'd ever thought possible. Even the comic books didn't do it justice!

And he had time, to look at them all under the sun, for the first time really in his life. Owen did miss his home. But he had so much else to do here in this modern city, learning about names and places, about the stars - stars were such a distant thing to normal people on the surface, imagine how far they were to people who lived below, in the endless starless depth of a billion tons of water? He did spend a lot of time staring into space, at the moon; he knew that the moon dictated the tides even of his own world, but here he had proof that the moon was beautiful, a shining reflective surface spinning around the Earth. All these facts had been abstractions before.

He was set up at first as a Sophomore, but quickly established he'd exceed that expectation and was transferred into the Junior year in Carramba. A little on the young side for that, chronologically they told him, but they'd had eleven year old graduates, and all he was really there to do was to experience it. After all he was incredibly smart and picked up knowledge that wouldn't leave his mind, ever? He'd ace every sit-down test for parroting back facts with ease. Now, he just needed to find a niche and pick up on social cues, learn all about animals and plants, histories that couldn't possibly be from his own world.

Owen was also introduced to a number of dragons. More than a few, in fact. The Rookery was filled with them, by its very existence it was a home for them and their riders. Carramba also had its own dragonry program, so there was maybe... maybe hope that he too might befriend a dragon?! Not just an animal pal, but a real honest companion? Who knew. Maybe? Would he be able to take that dragon home?

Who knew? But the ones he was being shown off to had yet to decide whether any of them would be going anywhere with him. He could only charm so many creatures or people using his Plasmids. But Owen wanted to see what could come of just being himself around these...

(Some parts from hatching by Dragonflight

Some folks milled around on the edges, chatting with one another, while others had slipped into the pools themselves.

"Say what?”

It wasn't long before all the little hatchling creatures were bustling around looking for their one-and-only. Over here!  Over here over here overhereoverhere me me me!  You have a school that’s not made of fish!  I heard you!

A little one in bright orange started tittering excitedly, practically rolling in a circle right alongside where Owen was perched, looking into one of the pools.   I am Sabin, okay?

Autumn! You can be mine! A minty green youngling swam right up to the edge, butting her hand against the teenager’s.
“Sounds about right to me!” The tahrim cackled in reply. “But only if you’re mine.”
Alari! It’s Alari! She chirped in delight.

---

“Clever Autumn.” The tahrim girl stuck one hand out towards Owen, other arm filled with delighted, laughing Alari, both of them sopping, dripping wet, of course.

“Owen Sweete.” The teenager replied just as boldly, shaking her hand.

“I’m following you, by the way.”

“Yeah?”

“Yep. Decided. Just now. It’s happening.”

Owen smiled. “Nice.”

***

Name: Sabin-Tonaye’Vanya, Deep Stone Silhouette

Youngling Stage - Adult Stage

Gender: Male

Mother: Lalaye-Takil’Banni

Father: Opoton-Rothol’Tasrah

Abilities: Telepathy, Water Magic, Gravity Manipulation, Sympathetic Link

Personality: Confident, Fun-Loving

Caretaker: Owen

Axolotl

Color Morph: Black Melanoid

Gender: Male

---

*****

Name: Alari-Raeso’Vanya, Fern Dancing Spiral

Youngling Stage - Adult Stage

Gender: Female

Mother: Raeko-Mika’Vanya

Father: Mynso-Halash’Mayal

Abilities: Telepathy, Water Magic, Gravity Manipulation, Sympathetic Link

Personality: Reliable, Kind

Caretaker: Clever Autumn

Axolotl

Color Morph: Leucistic

Gender: Female

(( STATS PROPERLY COMING AT SOME POINT ))

Name: Clever Autumn

(Tahrim names do not contain family/surnames, and are generally two-part phrases - if you decide to change hers.  Can also be longer or shorter than that, but traditionally speaking, it’s two parts.)

Age: TEENAGER

(I’m....bad at figuring out ages for an interdimensional high school.  XD;;;  Ages the same rate as a human.)

Race: Tahrim

Gender: Female [she/her]

Appearance: Probably most resembles a Siberian Tiger -- orange and white fur where fur is to be had (ears and tail, sometimes other patches occur) with the dark brown/black stripes.  Markings may also appear on non-fur-covered skin.  Skin is an almond tone.  Hair is bobbed short and naturally brown, but she prefers to dye it vibrantly when possible.  Right now it’s an intense, bright cyan color.  Her eyes are green.  Athletic build.

Personality: Flexible, Adaptable.  Easily Excited by New Things.  Dry Sense of Humor.  Materialistic.  Loves Swimming.

Abilities/Magic/Powers: Physically stronger than average.  While unable to project telepathically on her own, can ‘hear’ others very well.  Mildly telekinetic.

History: Autumn grew up amongst travelers, never truly settling in a single location.  While she’s seen many places inland, she’s always been attracted to the ones along or in the water.  This has caused some friction with her family in the past, so as soon as she could get away with it, she snuck out on her own and went hunting for some opportunities to get to new and unusual places.

(She is not being truly affected by Owen’s powers because she doesn’t meet the criteria for any of them, but they do make him ‘smell nice’, according to her, and that’s as good a reason as any.)