Michael Salvaresso

*“Every time I yank a jawbone from a skull and ram it into an eyesocket, I know I'm building a better future for my people.”*— Michael, when asked how he bears to live with himself.

# The Pilot

Michael used to be a mundane tourist guide of the scenic town of Sighiosara. A beautiful single man in his 20s, his main concerns was with how many foreign tourists he could meet at night hotels rather than the future That is, until the Suitfall. As he saw the sky on fire, he decided to vacate the premises and hide in a cabin in the woods to wait until this meteor storm to pass over, only to find an large ovoid pod where his summer house used to be.

When he woke up, the first thing he did was to return to his hometown, only to find it battened down and nearly desolate. Truth be told, he did not do much fighting. His suit was optimized for stealth and hit and run, not frontline combat. Most of what he did during those first days were supply runs, civilian evacuation, and searching for survivors. With the help of other Romanian pilots, he managed to establish a relatively safe zone for fleeing civilians. Romania itself was not instrumental in the downfall of the Vannai, but it was alive, and that's what mattered.

But something quite else stirred. When citizens started disappearing at night, Michael decided to investigate, relentlessly stalking the streets of Sighisoara for the culprits. He expected Vannai infiltrators, but what he found was some of his comrades conducted the kidnappings themselves. Rage overtook him, and he lost all good sense of pragmatism and single handedly charged in what he saw as a senseless betrayal of the people he had swore to protect, and barely made it out alive. But what awaited him was somewhat worse than death.

Before Suitfall, Michael was a HIV carrier, probably from his many one night stands with tourists. AIDS came to bloom after Suitfall, and the utter supply chain destruction of the invasion had made any medicine hard to find. The pilot had accepted this, and only hoped he could see his home town free and safe again before he died. But, it did something far worse now, as the strigoi parasite found an extremely weakened immune system to propagate. He passed through base strigosis in a matter of days, with further mutation underway. He remembers very little of this time, a haze of bloodshed and mad exultation, but enough to know that he had a lot of blood on his hands, more that he could ever wash off. His rampage came to an end when he was captured by the newly founded protectorate and injected with a drug cocktail that regressed his mental symptoms.

Michael was devastated when he found out what had transpired. He considered to take his life after founding what monster he had become, both in shape and deeds, but his compatriots convinced him against it. His home needed him more alive than dead, and he begrudgingly complied.

Ever since, he has been working for clandestine operations for the new patron of Sighisoara, the American Coalition. He has become a ruthless operator that only seeks to make his home better place, and perhaps find atonement for his crimes.

## Personality

Michael is displaying all the mental symptoms of strigosis, intensified due to it's advanced nature: Paranoia, sociopathy, and cannibalistic urges. He manages to wrest free from the worst impulses through a soldier's life with adrenaline rushes higher than those of eating raw flesh. He signs up with every mission available as an AmC member instead of only those pertaining to the Protectorate, believing combat helps centering himself.

"Hey, people die; stuﬀ breaks". He has little difficulty with the fact that he needs blood and flesh and drugs to survive and that he does what needs to be done to get it. He might not go out of his way to wreck things or kill people, but he doesn’t cry bloody tears over it either. Not automatically horrid, at this stage of Humanity doesn’t win any prizes for congeniality either.

He lacks the more prevalent haughtiness and love of theatrics his kin has due to physical appearance, but that comes with a detachment from humanity at large. If everyone's going to hate your face anyway, why bother ?

## Appearance

Suffering from advanced Strigosis, the pilot looks nothing like the rest of humanity. His skin has taken a rotten blue color,  and stretched to a ridiculous degree, as if someone attached hooks to it and pulled hard. His eyes are completely sunken showing only tiny beads of baleful light reflected off any light source. His mouth has completely deformed to a pair of incredibly sharp and pointed teeth, akin to those of a predatory fish, and all the hair on his head has fallen off. As a very small silver lining, his physical shape in near superhuman, with sinewy muscles outlining his thin skin.

Michael's fingers have malformed into hardened keratine claws, that make any skill requiring precise manipulation outside his suit.

He most of the time tries to wear very covering clothing to hide his hideous appearance and due to his extreme sensitivity to sunlight.

## Relations & Allies

Michael has difficulty forming close relationships due to his utterly disquieting appearance, and even most other Strigoi avoid him, due to be an all too close reminder what they might become.

# The Suit

> Yeah, I had it decorated to my liking. Why ? Well, facing a suit is already a scary prospect. Facing a mobile suit that could be \*anywhere\* is scarier. Having this pretty thing suddenly appear on your face ? Maybe you'll just throw your gun and run away. And that's one less guy I'll have to kill
>
> Nosferatu, on why his suit is so "creepy".

Nightwolf is a heavily decorated Mesh made to resemble a horrible beast of the Night, custom ordered by it's pilot. It's main designation is to disable enemy suits and vehicles through EMP attacks, a role Darkstalkers excel. It is optimized for rapid strikes and stealth, along with having some tools to perform electronic interference.