Manta

Sky F. Manta or commonly known as Manta is a character on the Afterglow SMP.
He is known for the murder of Appel, Cringe and Olive, as well as committing suicide and becoming a ghost.
== Physiology ==
=== Appearance ===
Manta is a Phantom-borne, standing at 6'0". Wearing a dark-blue cloak, lined with bones and a golden necklace that used to be at the back of his neck connecting to a purple, glowing spine, with black pants and brown shoes along with a black undershirt. He has short blonde hair and glowing green eyes, with blue marks resembling tears flowing down from them.
=== Biology ===
Phantom-bornes are Phantoms given Enchanted Golden Apples quickly after being corrupted by Chorus Fruit, somewhat similar to Zombie Villagers being reverted. Phantom-bornes are initially made with wings, but Manta lost his in a crash quickly after leaving his birthplace. When fed the Enchanted Golden Apple, the following issues with Phantoms are fixed.
* Burning in daylight
* Less overall health
* Physical appearance
* Being emo as all fuck (Failed to be fixed)
However, after dying, the first two reverted, leaving Manta very vulnerable.
===Abilities===
As a phantom-borne, Manta naturally is able to see slightly better in the dark. This ability is not reflected in game.
After his death, Manta gained the ability to move through solid objects and hover slightly.
== Personality ==
Manta's personality constantly changed throughout the Immortal SMP, starting out a naive, curious little child, lost and forgiving. After seeing the machine that Cringe built, however, took a liking into science, overworking himself at times. Once being hired by Cringe to join the IRF, he was a workaholic, tinkering nonstop on gadgets and gizmos, trying to impress both Cringe and his birth father. However, after spending about a month in limbo, Manta lost many emotions, and all went downhill. Getting rejected by Dragon sent him on a mental crisis trying to find his purpose, and after killing Appel and being fired filled him with hatred, regret and more work. From that day onward he was a vengeful workaholic, not trusting anybody and not letting anything get into his path.
===Hobbies===
Other than doing chemistry, Manta has always been a writer. He enjoys documenting his time as a ghost and traveling to new places. He had a multitude of books and poems in his past life, but was unable to keep them for the next world. He regrets not remembering what was in them, except for one.
=== Flaws ===
Manta's main flaw is trusting those that should not be, and vice versa. He takes liking into those with the same interests as him but will not take into account their true intentions and past.
=== D&D alignment ===
Manta is fully Neutral Evil. He usually only cares for himself, and constantly insults others that get on his bad side. He vandalizes property and has been known for murder and kidnapping.
== History ==
===Backstory===
In the beginning, there was once a great society known as the Chorus of Warriors. They lived in an elusive land called the End, ruled by a Dragon they wished to overcome. They had a great army, commanded by the great Roccus, who was soon to die. To make up for this, a scientist named Skulk created artificial beings to fight in the war for him. He began to work on a flying unit to battle in the sky easily to distract the dragon. He created a being he dubbed a Phantom, but it wasn't powerful enough. They had no fighting capabilities. So, he fed them a chorus fruit, hoping it would give them teleportation, but it failed miserably. He tried to cure one by feeding it an enchanted golden apple, but it was morphed into Manta. He flew off with his then working wings, and left the End, leaving Skulk with the other Phantoms he tried to make. Manta unknowingly went through a rip through dimensions and ended up in a desert, crashing into a structure and laying there for a great, long time, only emerging in an era without years, where chaos ruled. He had to flee from the building, and landed in an area with people thriving, known as Durcinville. Over time, he made a group of three, including those named Vandon and Moose, and they were dubbed the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Vandon as death, Moose as famine, and Manta as pestilence. They were the most powerful beings in the land, but they didn't last for much longer. Every few notable events, the world resets to attempt at making a thriving world, but it never works, so when the next reset hit, Manta didn't wake up in the same place he hoped, he ended up in a temple in a new, very different world.
===Immortal===
Manta started off timid and kept to himself. He didn't do much for a few events until meeting Cringe who he instantly was attached to. He began to do experiments with him and did various tests for the IRF. Eventually, the two had to run from the birth of the General and lived in a snowy mountain for a while. As they prepared for the Stargate event, Manta began to worry about Cringe's health. After the Stargate was opened and Appel killed Cringe, Manta grew a strong vengeance against him and began to plan. As Cringe made the time travel machines, Manta gained explosives and captured Natarii, putting her in a coal mine to bring Appel to. He set off the explosives, killing Appel, but was ridiculed by Cringe. Manta ran off and did science in his own time, as he slowly grew more and more insane. After the failed deal with Cosmos and his second death, he grew tired of it all and finished his job, by working together to build the portal to Afterglow and killing himself and Cringe before he could leave. To read more about his Immortal lore, and travel into Afterglow, go here.
===Afterglow Season 1===
After his travel into the afterlife, Manta had lived in limbo for a few months before being called to the mortal plane into Afterglow. He was annoyed that he had to deal with "living" again, but made the most of it. He met back up with a few people he knew in his world prior and reformed the IRF. Manta mainly stayed in his newly claimed lab, crafting away at inventions, and appearing every once in a while, to gather materials. He never appeared after fighting the General, and his fate is currently unknown.
== Timeline ==
Episode 1: What Remains: Manta was spiritually summoned by Popper on accident and ran off to The Temple to meet back up with Final and Phoenix, and also met up with a few other familiar faces. He then left to see Dragon again, just to chat, and left to build a small base for the time being.
Off stream, Manta packed his things and left off with Snowuh to form a base far from the mainland and started work on a railway.
In a small lore recording, Manta met up with Phoenix, Jekyll, Sneggizoroth, Tailoc, Red and Snowuh at a small village and found out that General was still alive in Jekyll's body. He quickly told Phoenix and Red and became allies with the two.
Episode 2: Old Friends, Old Rivals: Many members including Manta travelled to a distant and abandoned laboratory which contained Izonite, along with other things. Manta quickly claimed the lab as his own, but Final took an important book inside, which he asked Iron to retrieve. He, along with Snowuh joined the IRF to research the contents inside.
Episodes 3, 4, 5 & 6: Manta was absent for these episodes.
Episode 7: The Festival: Manta made a brief appearance at the festival, and had a small performance in the talent show, but didn't stay long enough for anything important to happen.
Episodes 8 & 9: Manta was absent for these episodes.
Episode 10: Manta fought against General and killed Iron multiple times. It is assumed that he showed up drunk to the event.
Episode 11 & beyond: Manta didn't appear for the rest of the first two seasons.
== Items ==
Manta hasn't had any notable items in season one, other than books that were owned by others before him, making them not specifically notable to him.
== Relationships ==
Name 	Status 	Quote 	Notes
Phoenix 	Positive 	"I feel like she's the only one that I can count on at this point. I've lost faith in the boss ever returning so she's my last resort." 	Phoenix has been friends with Manta since Immortal, having a few arguments in the past, but ultimately meaning well. Phoenix planned to revive Manta, but disappeared before Manta did as well.
Final 	Neutral Positive	"He's fine, just a smart guy with odd ideals. He tries his best, and that's good, but with how many encounters with Cosmos we have, we might as well get away from him." "Talk to you soon, smarties."	Manta has had mixed relations with Final ever since they met, with Final always getting into troubling situations that Manta had to go with the others to fix. At one time, they both ended up trapped in the Nether together, giving them time to interact. It is unknown what they did with their time there.
ZombiCyder 	Negative 	"Ugh, that familiar looking corpse is starting to get more annoying than usual." 	Manta assumed Zombi to be Appel mistakenly and had felt negative about him without knowing the truth.
Dragon 	Neutral Positive	"I... Don't wanna talk about her." 	Manta had been business partners with Dragon ever since an assignment was given to them by Final. Manta grew feelings towards her and felt terribly heart broken when rejected. He inevitably has gotten over her over time and has gotten angrier at himself about what he's done in the past, and taken it out in angry rants towards Dragon, even when she cannot hear.
Azalea 	Neutral 	"I'm almost positive she wants to kill me." 	
Snowuh 	Neutral Positive	"The kid's a natural, listens to most of what I say. Don't think they can do anything, though." 	Snowuh has helped Manta during times of need, joining him in troubling situations throughout his life and afterlife.
Jekyll 	Neutral Negative	"I don't trust what's inside the thing, but from the surface it's a normal robot." 	Jekyll being inhabited by General and then being directly told of the fact set Manta off extremely.
General 	Negative 	"I've already dealt with this evil robot before, under a different name, but even now it's too much trauma for one dead man. Thank the nonexistent gods that it's gone." 	Manta knew General from the very start of his existence, when Toya created his AI. Manta has had a long going fight with him ever since.
Bronze 	Neutral 	"He's an odd case. He's gone through the same trauma as me but was the vessel for the evil. Still no idea how to feel about him." 	With Bronze being the host of General, it has given Manta the idea they might be more similar than he thought before, with the same situation happening with Manta and Roccus.
Iron 	Negative 	"Thought I could let this guy slide with helping me a bit, but he left fast. That whole fight was weird, but he's dead now, so it doesn't matter." 	Iron helped Manta retrieve a book when Final had taken it from the lab, but after hearing rumors of helping General, Manta began a hatred towards him and came out of his lab to fight against him.
Cosmos 	Negative 	"Do I even have to explain this? He's been waltzing around our worlds for ages and won't stop. Trying to reason won't help, and death doesn't even get rid of him." 	Manta attempted to negotiate with Cosmos and ended up dying in the process.
S.C. Choccy 	Neutral 	"Eh, kinda indifferent. This one specifically doesn't hate me, but I'm pretty sure New Alona's lineage isn't the kindest to me or my actions." 	B.S. Choccy banished Manta from New Alona when he kidnapped Natarii.
Xevarokk 	Neutral Negative	"Who? I think I heard from a few people about him, but can't tell much about 'em. Lots of advertisement 'round the place makes an annoyance though." 	Manta was busy during the Xevarokk arc and never interacted with him.
Chris, Kroxx, Nix	Neutral Negative	"Ugh, why does he have to have so many aliases?" 	
Cringe 	Negative 	"I took my life to get rid of him, and now he's back. Can't deal with this bullshit..." 	Manta and Cringe were the owners of the IRF and spent much time together creating inventions and experiments. After Manta got his revenge on Appel for killing Cringe, he was fired from the IRF and had to fend for himself.
Hamilton 	Neutral 	"Look, the kids got the spirit, but he fucks up a lot. Nice and all, but he can be a hassle." 	Hamilton, like Snowuh, has helped Manta through times of need, especially after getting fired from the IRF.
Midas 	Neutral Positive	"Oh yeah, the museum keeper. Donated a few times. Nice from what I can tell." 	
Vanzant 	Neutral Positive	"He's here? Didn't know that, but I am quite fond of George. Helped me a while ago." 	George Vanzant made a deal with Manta about the ownership of the land of the IRF, and Manta was able to kick Cringe off his property.
Runner 	Positive 	"This dude's fucken' hilarious." 	
== Quotes ==
==Mini Stories==
To read more stories like these, go here.
== Trivia ==
*Manta is slightly deaf in one ear after exploding Appel into smithereens.
**He also has a permanent slouch from a stab in the chest and from hanging himself.
*Manta has gone through multiple depictions of "Limbo."
**Supposedly, none of them served the purpose of torturing his afterlife.
*The quote at the top of the page was never actually said by Manta, but was the title of SkyManta's first stream of season 1 and will be said in upcoming lore.
**The quote is notable, however, due to the irony of Manta being absent for a majority of season 1. He himself was not held dear enough, and therefore was lost.
*Manta supposedly listens to Weezer.
**For context, during the beginning of an event after discussing what to do to fight Iron, Manta mistakenly believed that a copy of General's OS drive was back at the lab, but due to being slightly drunk forgot if it was that or a DVD of Weezer's Ratitude album.
== Gallery ==
<tabber>
|-|Artwork=
MantaArt_Crypt.webp||Artwork by Cryptiid
MantaArt_Crypt2.jpeg|Ditto, with a simpler background
MantaShoulder.png|A closer look at Manta's cloak
MantaArt_Dragon.webp|Dragon's depiction of Manta
NatariiArt_AppelDeath.webp|Natarii's depiction of Manta killing Appel
MantaArt_Natarii.jpg|Another interpretation by the same artist
Manta_bee.png|Bee's depiction of Manta's final death
MantaArt_Snowuh.png|Snowuh's interpretation of Manta
MantaArt_Orb.png|Another interpretation by the same artist
MantaStuck_Personal.png|Stuck killing Manta, by AppelCyder
MantaArt_Alchemy.png|Alice's interpretation of Manta
MantaArt_Silly.png|A (joke) interpretation of Manta by Saddie https://fridaynightfunking.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000307989/r/4400000000001970883
VandonsArt_CringeStuckManta.png|Artwork of a discussion between Cringe, Manta and Stuck, by Vandon
|-|Screenshots=
CringeCaveImmortal.png|The cave that Cringe and Manta lived in during Immortal
MantaCringeChat.png|A conversation between Manta and Cringe during Immortal
Durcin_PestTrophyRoom.png|A trophy room that Pestilence had in Durcinville
|-|Other=
Manta_LoreHoodie.png|The hoodie SkyManta wears in live action recordings, and what one of the skins is based on
mantapicrew.png|Picrew
mantachactersheet.png|Manta's character sheet
Gendermanta.png|Manta in the Gender Swap AU, art by Snowuh
RS!Manta_Sketch.png|Manta in the Role Swap AU, art by SkyManta
</tabber>
Category:Characters
Category:Season 1
Category:Season 3