Hector Stairos

"If you need me I'll be in my fireplace."

*Long sip of coffee from the fireplace. There sits Hector, dozing off in the embers.*

Hector Stairos is a fire spirit from an unnamed world. He is friends with Skyler, Dove, North, and other members of the so-called "Happy Tree Friends" group.

## Appearance

In order to blend in with society in Safe Haven, Hector takes the form of a medium length, red haired human. His hair lays flat on his head in the front but has a very obnoxious cowlick in the back. He has warm gold eyes. His typical outfit consists of casual T-Shirts of varying color and jeans with some neat ol' combat boots.

However in Combat or when he's alone he will return to his natural form as a fire spirit, which looks simply like living fire, fire that takes the shape of a man. Because his body is made of flames he can also change the shape of his body and become a different being other than human.

## Personality

Hector is very laid back about everything. His kind lived prosperously back in his home world and despite having been a member of his kingdom's guard he takes very little seriously. Nonetheless, he does have feelings. He cares greatly for the people who live with him at his Tree, and would like nothing more than for them to be happy.

While he won't admit it, Hector does harbor some guilt for the many times his friends have gotten harmed on his watch, so he took a silent vow to make sure that they were safe as long as he remained in Safe Haven.

Hector enjoys naps and prefers to remain in his natural form, but restrains himself because he does not want to end up burning one of his friends. He also likes maple wood over other wood to burn on, and loves the taste of coffee in his human form even though it does nothing for him. He hates monologuers. Sadists and Masochists also weird him out, as well as the concept of mating.

## History

Not much has been told by Hector so far.

Hector grew up in a kingdom made of flames inside a massive cavern full of natural gases and oil reserves. His kind found it long ago and it had been burning for thousands of years. Hector himself lived alongside dozens of other people, enjoying their prosperous lives. From an ember he was taught their ways: breathe, dance, burn, and consume. Those four points dictated his life. And things couldn't be better. His kind aged rapidly and soon he was already an adult. Adulthood lasted their whole lives, but childhood was very fast if they had the right fuel.

Hector was taught how to shape his body if he ever needed to and ended up adopting the skill rather quickly and displayed a strong need to protect people after learning his kind's history. There was no real job election process, so he simply showed off how he could change form so skillfully and his combat prowess and was offered a job of working alongside the guards of his kingdom.

Past there is untold until the Cataclysm, where Hector spent 5 years as a homeless person until he met Skyler. Skyler offered him a job at Marc Tenebrae's cafe. Hector accepted the offer and took an interview with Marc, who was amazed at Hector's true form and hired him because he believed he would be useful in a kitchen. Unfortunately his story gets slow for a while as he and Skyler worked and slowly became friends.

When Marc turned and started attacking Safe Haven, Hector was in the Cafe when the chaos nuke went off and reduced him to a small flame. Thankfully Skyler helped him regrow and he aided her in relocating herself after Marc was supposedly killed by North. He met up with Dove, a frequent customer, along with North, Jarek, a priestess named Shamal, and two others named Shangfa and Sun in order to go after two kids named Gamma and Lambda who were trapped in Marc's "lair" far off from Safe Haven. Along the way they were ambushed by dozens of people guarding Marc's lair. In the middle of their fighting it became apparent that these people weren't alive since they kept regenerating from fatal injuries. The team fought through it regardless and slipped into Marc's Sanctum. Inside they were confronted by a man wearing a gas mask. He taunted them for a bit, injured Skyler, then collapsed a staircase behind him as he went deeper into the Sanctum.

Hector then revealed his spirit form and slipped into the rubble to blast it into the room so that the team could get through the staircase while he stayed behind and ate one of the couches in the room, which turns out was Gas mask's favorite couch. After eating his couch and helping Skyler down the stairs they came upon Gas mask holding Lambda and Gamma. He then offered Skyler the choice of saving one and herself or going with him and saving both kids. She chose to save one and herself, but the one she chose got killed and the other went back with them.

Some time later Skyler came back with the dead kid, but the dead kid was alive after all but in a rage Gamma killed her again and leveled a street, then ran off. The group figured that they should leave him be. In the meantime the team needed a place to stay, so they relocated to a giant hollow tree that had been turned into a house on the inside.

After settling into the house the team started planning on how to help Skyler because she revealed that a bit of Marc's soul was inside her and brought forth the possibility that Marc could be revived. They tried many things including sending her to a magic shop where they tried to banish the soul bit but ended up killing the shop keeper with a curse set on the soul, then they were attacked by a woman named Silvia who tried to capture Skyler. The team got out okay, but Skyler was still stuck with the soul bit. After several run ins with the undead soldiers created by Marc the team decided to send Skyler off with the police so they could find her a safe place to stay.

((To Be Continued...)

## Powers and Abilities

**Fire Manipulation:** Because of Hector's natural form being a fire spirit he is able to control flame is various ways.

* **Fire Absorption:** Hector is able to absorb other sources of fire in order to replenish his own flames.
* **Heat Manipulation:** Because Hector rarely fights alone he needs to be able to keep himself from burning his allies and also needs to be able to melt though things he needs to melt. He is able to control the temperature of his flames to make them hotter or colder, and can also adjust the temperature of the air around him in order to keep from causing heat strokes in his allies.
* **Elemental Intangibility:** Since Hector's natural body is made of fire and fire is typically intangible most attacks done to Hector will simply pass through him unless they are water based.

Despite all of this however, Hector requires a fuel source and will constantly have to refuel if he blows his full power on casual fights. However this is rare because he is usually unable to fight alone and therefore has to pull his punches.

**Pyrokinetic Shapeshifting:** Hector can freely shape his body in order to take the form of something such as a human or a pigeon (Don't laugh). While he is limited to one form at a time, the variation of the form is unlimited. For example he could remain in his fire form and create flaming hands in order to punch his opponent with very hot hands.

**Moderate Intelligence:** Hector never received as much education as many of the others in Safe Haven due to his kind's lack of need to know pointless things. Because of this he struggles writing but can read very well.

**High Creativity and Imagination:** Hector's combat skill relies entirely on his ability to imagine different ways to reshape himself to be useful. His ability to create what he imagines is important as well, and allows him to come up with dozens of different and cool ideas on how to deal with certain opponents. His lazy nature is rather beneficial here because it allows him to hang out and relax while daydreaming and imagining different things.