Count

## Appearance

**Count** is a spirit with a face which seems skeletal, having a large, chipped horn and two smaller stubs. His head is cracked, and he has four fangs, coming in two sizes. He wears a coat sporting a gaping hole in its left arm (revealing nothing inside), a large, dracula-styled collar behind his head, a badge of Tyresum Institute's logo, and a red bowtie. His tail trails off into nothingness as it fades into a more purple-y color before fading.

## Personality

Count is perpetually tired and typically upset, a demeanor that was cultivated with age. He has high expectations of his workers, which they often don't meet, resulting in him doing whatever they failed to do instead. His patience is thin, but he never gets furious; he prefers to stay silent and calculated. If someone's bothering him, he'll just ignore it until they stop.

## History

Count was born in Cria at some point in the past as a human. The town took notice to an adolescent Count's intellect, and, given the lack of an education system in Cria, he decided to leave to study at a university in a distant city. Cria's residents celebrated alongside him as he left, and awaited his return over the coming years.

Count's return a few years later was warmly welcomed, and he instantly began working to improve his hometown for the betterment of the other townsfolk. The town's infrastructure in particular was greatly improved under his guidance- it wasn't anything marvelous, nor was it technologically integrated, but it was enough for the town's living style. The town was extremely grateful for what he had done, and Count only continued to introduce improvements to it. In order to continue improving upon the way of life of the townsfolk, Count founded Tyresum Institute, a research institute designed to investigate the peoples' way of lives and how to help.

Throughout all of this, he still maintained a more personal life in Cria. He met a young woman around his same age, and the two really clicked; Count would go on and on about his endeavors, and she’d be willing to listen and support him in whatever way he needed, sometimes asking if she could take over a whole project. It was a cozy situation.

Count put his all into the institute, and the fruits of his labor paid off- the small town was flourishing, and he began to attract top-level employees from elsewhere. It evolved into a very prestigious institute, though its focus began to shift from Cria and towards more generalized help applicable to many cities and towns.

The woman and Count had developed feelings for each other by this point, now a few years from Tyresum’s establishment. However, Count didn’t want to commit to anything yet because of the scale of the Institute. He assured the woman that he would be willing to enter a relationship at a later point, and to just give him a year or two to get Tyresum fully under control as far as size goes, as he anticipated it’d be done growing by that point. She understands.

Years pass, and Tyresum is still growing. Count moves from a hands-on leader to something more directorial, managing the institute and only getting involved with projects when necessary. Tyresum resembles a company more than anything at this point, selling technological goods and inventions to other large companies and organizations. Even at this stage, Count is concerned with expansion, losing sight of any semblance of an end goal and just growing for the sake of it.

The woman who had at one point truly loved Count was not happy with this. He had grown more dismissive of her in recent years, and she was tired of waiting. One day, she calls enough enough after a discussion with a half-hearted Count and decides to never speak to him again. Count never notices, nor even stops to think about why she never came back. He’s too concerned with Tyresum at this point.

In the years ~40 leading to the main story, Tyresum not only maintained its commercial goals completely, but also began harming the small town it once sought to solely aid. The first major incident was the accidental release of a dangerous chemical into Cria’s underground reservoirs, contaminating the water supply and getting most of the residents sick for a solid few months. They’ve also been responsible for two forest fires in Cryela Forest (forest surrounding Cria) which they didn’t take responsibility for.

Count dies at some point of natural causes, but is, in a way, “kept alive” by a combination of his self-preservationist mindset and the harm he’s done needing to be made up for. Count does not realize nor do this, only further aiming to extend the institute’s lifespan and size.

## Abilities and Weapons

Count utilizes techniques in battle which fall under two categories- technological and spirit-based. Count is limited due to resources when it comes to the technological abilities, but can always use his spirit-based ones.

* **Detno-Bombs** - Highly-optimized bombs meant to cause the least amount of damage to the environment while causing heavy damage to mortal beings.
* **Lock Missiles** - Missiles trained to recognize threats and lock onto their location as precisely as possible, maneuvering through obstacles to the best of their ability.
* **Sampler** - A device simply meant to extract samples of material, be it pieces of the environment, a creature's DNA, or something else.
* **Skeleton Bombs** - Bombs which Count can natively create through spirit powers, creating highly unstable explosions that also leave a nauseating gas behind.
* **Shadow Force** - Generic ghostly powers. Ranges from sneaking around as a shadow to firing off ghostly beams and balls.

## Trivia

* Count at one point had a pet, being a similarly skeletal-and-spiritual bird named Champ, whose role was partly adapted into Will.
	+ Champ was able to "enter" people and control their emotions, but this was not direct control over the person's actions. Champ was also unable to speak.
* Count really, really dislikes country music.
* Count loves birdwatching and bird-related things as a whole, with his favorite bird being the Great Gray Owl. He doesn’t reveal this interest, as he feels that it detracts from others’ view of him as the director of Tyresum

## Gallery

A slightly outdated version of Count's current design. Note the lack of the Tyresum logo symbol.