Pareidolia

* Pareidolia
* Maverick
* Warped

*"Let me in."*
—Pareidolia
**Pareidolia**, known to the public as **Silas Burke**, is the symbiotic host of a chaotic extradimensional entity active throughout the world, and is the direct result for various disasters, plagues, chaos and across the world.

Once working for the globally known Tóngzhì Corp as an Assistant Researcher, and on the path to climb the corporate ladder even further, the man once known as Silas Burke worked directly under Dr. Zhu Zixin on the creation of Subject-000, dubbed internally as Project MILITANT. However, when Subject-000 escaped, and Zhu Zixin was killed during the breach, Silas felt personally responsible and underwent a series of risky experiments. Silas was classified as Subject-Null for Project MAVERICK. The transformation worked at first, and Silas, codenamed Maverick would attempt to retrieve the asset known as The Militant, which would end up as a failure. Eventually, Silas' condition would go horribly downhill, and Silas was transformed into a husk of the man he once was, and into the chaotic entity known to the world as "Pareidolia".

The extradimensional entity that Silas is connected too appears to speak to him on a telepathic frequency, however no other telepath is able to hear or interpret this voice whatsoever. Silas refers to the entity as "Saint Veronika". Tóngzhì Corp's researchers have dubbed it as the "Malignancy". Silas has not confirmed whether or not The Malignancy is in fact Saint Veronika, but there's evidence to support it.

## Biography

### Early Life

Subject-Null, born with the legal name of Silas Burke, was once a prestigious top researcher, and part-time field agent working for Tóngzhì Corp, alongside his highly acclaimed father, Cornelius. Cornelius held a spot in Tóngzhì's Inner Council due to all the work he put into building Tóngzhì into the bio-research megacorporation it is today.

Following in Cornelius’ footsteps, Silas was a wunderkind and prodigy from day one. He graduated from the top of his classes summa cum laude from Yale and Harvard Medical School.

It was Silas who learned about Subject-000 while stationed on Dystopia while on a classified mission. From the start, Silas Burke worked closely with the Subject-000 Augments Process as a Research Assistant alongside Doctor Zhu Zixin. After Zixin’s death, and the containment breach of Subject-000, Silas felt personally responsible, and volunteered to be the subject of an upcoming experiment.

### Militant's Escape

Weeks before Subject-000’s escape, Tongzhi had accidently opened a gateway portal to a highly anomalous dimension containing properties that defied the laws of existence. Some form of vapor leaked in through the gateway, and those that were exposed turned into highly mutatiable, grotesque, incomprehensible horrors who were hyper-violent. The compromised staff were put down, all of them having to be forcibly terminated due to their extremely volatile and dangerous nature.

The vapor however, did not dissipate as regular mist or gas might eventually do. It maintained a constant cloud. It was successfully quarantined, and analysis showed the vapor itself was by the very definition of life, a living organism(s). After several years of experimentation, these tiny microscopic molecular organisms had been transformed into something akin to a nanite.

Silas, having volunteered, had these highly experimental “nanites” injected directly into his bloodstream. Miraculously, it appeared to have successfully augmented Silas. His abilities were on par with even that of Subject-000 with the added ability of being able to create manipulations.

He was then sent out to retrieve, or terminate Subject-000, having several encounters and scuffles with him, and other meta-human entities in various locations.

However, over the next few years Silas’ state, physically and mentally began to go downhill. He displayed signs of psychosis, schizophrenia, and a slew of other mental disorders. He had begun babbling about philosophical nonsense, claiming that voices from other dimensions spoke to him. One night, Silas had transformed into an ungodly abomination of a creature. Seemingly a gargantuan biomass of deformed, fused, melted, and mutilated limbs, both human and animal. Somehow, the formless biomass was able to wipe out legions of Security Task Forces, causing the compound to self-detonate. It was assumed Silas had been terminated in the detonation, however, field agents reported his resurfacing in the American city known as Neo Arcadia, perhaps in pursuit of his old test subject.

### Mental Breakdown

After the mental breakdown, the MIA put in all efforts into searching for Silas again, but he wouldn’t be seen again until five years later, in which he was reported in Emerald City, stalking Logan Trent. This stalking went on for months until Silas finally approached Logan saying the words;

*"I’m just a lost wolf, trying to find my way back on the path again. Slowly but surely I’ll find that path again, and before you know it I’ll be right behind you, baring my fangs... Run."*
—Maverick
### Vanishing

He has attacked Logan once, incapacitating him, and as he was about to finish him off, he started to chuckle and vanished a couple minutes after. In recent days, he has been involved with terrorist, anarchists, zealots, and many other types of criminals/criminal acts.

### Dystopia Rising

On his second return to Dystopia, he was able to dominate his way through due to his unorthodox power. Due to the semi-eldritch nature of his abilities, Silas was able to fit perfectly into the chaotic biosphere of Dystopia, using his powers to dominate both humans, indigenous, and monstrous animals a like. For the first time in it's history, Dystopia was dealing with it's first invasive entity. Silas found the anarchic nature of Dystopia incredibly calming, and soothing. He believed that despite the lawless, frenzied lands being what they were, that Dystopia was the one true peaceful place on Earth. Not only did Silas fit perfectly into Dystopia, he did something thought impossible, and likely still impossible for any other individual to do.

Silas conquered and ruled over Dystopia not through brute force, sheer domination or unbreakable spirit. He displaced the island, grabbed it by the reins and took control. Every single being on Dystopia knew what Silas was, and they were wise enough to leave him be. For the foreseeable future, Silas remained on Dystopia. He only ever ventured out when he got bored, or felt something else interesting was occurring elsewhere on the planet.

### The Conqueror Worm

As of late 2021, Silas had left Dystopia and had made frequent appearances across the world. Being active and there being multiple sightings and reports of highly anomalous activity in line with Silas' powers for several weeks on end. After Silas had settled on Dystopia, he was never away from the island for more than a week at a time, indicating a paradigm shift in his behavior, and hinting at the possibility of Silas' interest being driven toward something else.

## Personality

In his early life, in the days before he would undergo augmentation from the hands of Tóngzhì scientists, Silas was a very stoic, serious, and stern man that almost never made any forms of jokes or showed any sign of relaxed, or playful demeanors. He followed closely in his father, Cornelius', footsteps in hopes to become as well respected in the scientific community as him. For his entire early adult life, Silas worked hard to get through school, and university, and to earn the respect of his peers within the scientific community, and inevitably make a global name of himself, to uphold the legacy of his father.

Silas was also a very adamant, blunt, and straightforward man especially when it came in regards to his beliefs. Silas would laugh, and openly mock anyone who showed the possibility of believing in God, or any other form of religious higher power. He believed religion to be a redundant, and primitive form of coping mechanism that early humans would cling to, and thus, any person that believed in such were not only fools, but no better than prehistoric humans quivering in fear in the midst of a thunderstorm.

After Silas underwent augmentation, and was exposed to the gaseous cloud that was extracted from an unidentified dimension, Silas remained mostly the same immediately following the procedures, except for the fact he had become far more strict, and intense. As the months went by, it continued on to the point of Silas becoming incredibly violent, and unpredictable. Those that worked with him in his final days described him as "disturbing", "unnerving", and "extremely traumatizing". All of the people that worked with Silas also had to undergo psychiatric treatment for PTSD, with some not having any interaction with Silas, but were still affected.

After the annihilation of a Tóngzhì compound and the wiping out of the near entirety of it's staff, Silas' personality changed to that of a completely different person. Any recognization of Silas, both physically and personality-wise were completely eliminated. Silas, who now referred to himself as Pareidolia began speaking incoherently, and in riddles. He tends to make references to ancient literatures, and mythologies from across the world. Silas also tends to speak in the third person, referring to himself as a menagerie of different names, and identities.

Silas would have the tendency to babble on about philosophy, the state of the world and humanity, and predictions of what's to come. Although through his ravings, it would appear Silas is simply a madman who goes on about nonsense, he has shown multiple times he can very closely pay attention to what others say, think, or do, and retain information incredibly well.

## Powers

* **Extradimensional Entity Symbiosis:** Silas would undergo a series of experimental procedures by Tóngzhì Corp, the most crucial of which being the injection of biotechnologically modified microscopic organism cluster, obtained from a gaseous cloud contaminant that leaked into our world from an unknown dimension. At first, it appeared the injection simply enhanced Silas' condition, but it would later turn out that the organism cluster was not as modified as originally thought, and the interdimensional organism corrupted and altered Silas' genetic structure to an anomalous state, granting him a slew of different powers and abilities. The name of this extradimensional entity has been dubbed "**The Malignancy**" by Tóngzhì Corp. The vapour-mist which was modified and injected into Silas' bloodstream is speculated to have been condensed **Omega Radiation**.
	+ **Shapeshifting:** Due in part to the entity injected into Silas, he is capable of transforming, and shapeshifting into a variety of forms. It's assumed he can shapeshift into any form he pleases, although for whatever reason Silas does not use this power to it's fullest extent, or barely at all.
	+ **Illusion Manipulation:** Silas can generate images with a wave of his hand, which he uses to create illusions. He was particularly noted to fool enemies who try to attack him with an illusion of himself. Silas even makes multiple illusory images of himself appear simultaneously during duels. Silas can also alter his attire, his voice and his physical aspect in order to resemble another person. He is also capable of imitating people. He could also use his power to alter the appearance of people. However, Silas most notably conjures up extremely convincing illusions of himself
	+ **Dream Manipulation:** Silas can manipulate dreams.
	+ **Hypnosis:** Silas can subtly influence the minds of others, such as when he manipulates people.
	+ **Assimilation:** Silas is capable of absorbing, and fusing with organic and inorganic materials. The assimilation of matter seems to allow him to grow and results in various effects depending on what's consumed.
	+ **Assimilative Evolution:** Silas has the ability to evolve by absorbing and consuming organics.
	+ **Assimilative Infection:** Silas has the ability to assimilate by infecting others with his own genetic material.

## Trivia

* A maverick is an unorthodox or independent-minded person, which was Silas' codename after his augmentation from Tóngzhì Corp.
* Silas now refers to himself as "Pareidolia", which by definition is the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern.
* The Malignancy, which is the organic extradimensional entity in which Silas gets his powers from, is from a still unknown dimension that appears to have been filled with nothing but a Cancerous Lifeform that has consumed not just all life, but the entire universe itself.
* It's speculated by Tóngzhì Corp that The Malignancy is an omnipotent being in it's home dimension, but it can only conduit a tiny portion of it's power through Silas.
* Not much is known about the extradimensional entity connected to Silas aside from it's connection to The Malignancy, but Silas has actively referred to it by the name "Saint Veronika".