Cornelius Alford

* Casual
* In lab uniform
* Infested
* Infested Armor

## Personality

Quite the calm and silly guy he is. Always making jokes that make other people uncomfortable or bring on conversations that don't suit the subject, maybe even get a little bit too touchy with new people, but he always has a keen eye for danger.

Even if he does seem carefree, he's very enthusiastic when it comes to research of any kind. Human autonomy, dissections, technology ect. And if he ever has the chance to do it or well, if he knows that he can achieve it, he'll probably lose a limb for it. Even better, he'll sacrifice others for the knowledge of the galaxy.

Sometimes he seems to be talking to someone like he knows them well or even it's not usual to speak with no one around in public. It just that someone is always keeping an eye on him, brining up topics he doesn't want to discuss or making him shout at air.

While research comes as the first priority, he always has people on his list called "the zeros". They are people who he can't emit any kind of pain, going from physical to mental. Around them, he's a lovable, kind hearted, enthusiastic doctor who loves to help out.

## Backstory

Simple research ship. Traveling in the outer space, looking for anything that would peek their interest and maybe have the chance to bring back anything useful. Anything that could increase their survivability, increase the recourses or even find other places they can move and live. Just something that would help them survive the supernova millennia that accrued a few decades ago.

He was a simple researcher, just starting his job a few months back, getting accustomed to all these new people. Cornelius was on-board with humans, no other species were allowed on this mission because... Well, humans and aliens didn't really have the best relationship quite yet. It was a group of people, run by the government to do research on anything increasing their survival. From food recourses to planets they can start living at. And if by any chance they found something, orders were to go and explore that place immediately. They didn't really care that much for the humans on that ship, they were more of test subjects than anything, but little did they know... did Cornelius know about that, about anything that was waiting for them in the wilderness of space.

"Year: 2567, October 10th. It's been more or less a year since we were sent out here to find anything useful for the government. So far, nothing that we looked into gave us any hints nor places that seemed to be available for humans. All the planets were filled with too many dangerous species that we couldn't communicate with or they didn't have the compatible atmosphere for us to live in. We're slowly losing food recourses and with the amount of oxygen we have left now, I say the best option would be for us to abort the mission and return back to "Prometheus". My name is Cornelius Alford and the research expedition was unsuccessful. The time we spent here was only a waste. Maybe we'll still have a chance to stop nearby a planet, but I don't believe we'll find anything there as well. I'm sorry..."

With that, the recording ended. It was tiresome, all that had happened, the years that passed, the people that he lived here and the dangers that they faced together. Maybe it wasn't really that bad. Maybe, it wasn't that big of a failure. The ladies were always nice and it was fun to talk to them. The guys were also one of the kind. So cheerful and enthusiastic. He got accustomed to everyone around and he was actually happy with what he had now. But, it couldn't last for long. Everything had an end and it was coming for them.

The day was... December 5th. Which year was it again? It didn't really matter anymore. They were traveling back home. The time after the recording, nothing in particular happened. They stopped once more to a planet, did some exploring and tested the air. Nothing suitable for humans. In fact, the planet, it looked like a pile of organic... flesh? Everything: the plants, the trees, even the ground was some kind of strange substance which was hard and slippery. Like, goo or something of that sort. But, an incident accrued involving a scientist getting bruised by a... thing? Some kind of creature so they had to evacuate quickly. She then got sick a few days after. Her name was, Flora, was it not? Yes, it was Flora. A doctor, a scientist and a very enthusiastic research Cornelius liked spending time with. She was very caring and he even had a crush on her so seeing her in this state made him even more depressed. He blamed mostly himself for what happened, even though they told him otherwise.

Days passed and it seemed that Flora was getting worse by each passing hour. Not only worse, her body... her skin started peeling off, showing off the muscle tissues. It was a death threatening situation and there was no other way to do it then to actually kill her. As much as he wanted to object he couldn't do anything. Nothing that they tried cured the so called "infestation". So, the last resort was to inject some lethal toxins and let her rest from this never ending suffering.

It was the day where they had to do it. The day where they had to bid their farewells to Flora. The day when he told he had to keep his emotions in check for her. But, when they got there, a problem accrued. Flora was gone out of bed. She was on the ship, somewhere, but she was gone. If the disease actually spread through blood or her liquids, it could kill all of the people in the ship. One lethal mistake they made was visiting Flora. The infestation had already started spreading when she entered the ship. Flora just had a bigger dose of it so, the infestation worked a lot faster on her body than any others. Cornelius was lost, he didn't know what to do. He was too confused and knowing the fact that they'd have to kill her by force, it made him want to tear up everyone in the ship. But, by the time they found Flora, she was already... She was not human anymore. What was left of her couldn't even be explained by words. Her body was, disoriented, it had a shape of the human, but the body, her face, it didn't resemble anything near human... "A human of infestation..."

By the time they had the chance to run, they were all laying dead on the floor with huge, popped lymph glands on their body, which revealed open organs, bones, ect. All that was left now was Cornelius and Flora... The two so known lovers were standing in a bloodbath. Corpses laying left and right. It was... "romantic" in a way.

The last thing he remembered her saying was something like "I'm sorry... But, by the time they would have gone to their homes, chaos would have emerged. The infestation couldn't accept them so, they'd be turned into mindless mutants with no other reason than to spread the disease. But you, they chose both you and me. We can-". Before she even finished the sentence he would have already run off, trying to escape this "hell hole". His mind was too weak to comprehend the situation. Cornelius couldn't believe what he was seeing, he just couldn't. He had to get to the emergency pod as fast as possible, he didn't want this anymore. Yet, by the time he could open up the pod somebody stoped him in his track.

She had already caught up to him, standing there, not moving away from him even by a inch. His mind was lost. He didn't know if what stood in front of him was actually Flora. That kind hearted and caring researcher who was so enthusiastic about finding out something new. But, at that exact moment, something ticked inside of him. Like a his flesh was covered in Coras acid, and it was slowly burning of his skin. He saw his flesh peel off, change it's structure into something else. It was disgusting, he didn't want that. He didn't want any of this. He just wanted some sleep...

Why was he attacking her? He didn't want to do it. The confusion made him do it. The rage. He just felt so much hate then. Agony, disgust. It was all tearing him apart inside out. He mostly hated himself for this, for making such stupid mistakes, for letting Floras curiosity take the best of her. He didn't want any of this yet he was doing it of sheer hatred for himself. The last thing he heard was her saying: "I'm sorry..." and after that, blank was what he saw.

He woke up, in a hospital... in Prometheus, his home. The destination where all of the crew members had to arrive at, yet he was the only on left. He was left all alone, with nothing more than the infestation inside of him. The infestation which could lead to major destruction, but he had to hide it. He had to hide it from the world. He had to get away from the government. Break any contact he had with them. Cornelius had to find someone. He had to find... Flora...

## Resources

A nice amount of money from the research job he's doing and the compensation for the incident in the research expedition, a ship with a small installments of research rooms bedrooms and other essential rooms.

Currently living in an apartment that he owns with a lot of research based rooms and technology helping with it, also other essential rooms for daily basis.

### Specialisations

Medical treatment, technology creation, toxin creation, engineering.

## Power

### Infestation

Source: Racial

The user gets the ability to mutate/render his body/flesh into an organic lair which covers both his inside and the outside, making them a lot more durable and increasing their muscle strength. Yet, he also gets the ability to create/cover any kind of solid material in an inorganic substance which deals damage if come in contact with it. While he seems to the offensive type, he can also tank quite the amount of damage which gives him quite the advantage in a battle.

**Virulence:** The host has the ability to create/cover (any solid, flat or bumpy material) with a inorganic substance which if come in contact can do drastic injuries to any part of the body. The power can server also another purpose when come in physical contact with any human or robot. If he touches someone (physical contact is a necessity, again), they'll have any of their limb paralyzed for 2 turns. If an organic being is inflicted by it while their skin is bare, then they get the infestation disease. The traveling speed on a solid ground is 25m/s, the distance it can travel is 5 meters length, 1 meter width and its height is 1 meter. It deals 8kN of force if it hits anyone. Virulence can be used once per turn and he can't recast it when it while it hasn't stopped at the 5 meter length.

**Armour of flesh:** An ability coming from virulence which lets the host cover his body with a pile of inorganic flesh which is quite durable to any of attacks, gives an increase of strength to the user and an increase in weight. The inorganic flesh can't be used on any kind of material to increase it's strength, nor can it cover any other humanoid being .The user gets an increase of:

* 10 kN of punching strength
* 50 kN of armour
* An increase of weight by 300 kg
* An increase of lifting strength by 400 kg

**Mutation**: The host is given the ability to transform/render/mutate any of his body part or his whole body into an organic humanoid creature, which increases their natural durability, their muscle strength and their resistance to the temperatures. This ability becomes very handy when used with armour of flesh since it increase his stats by a nice amount. The increases that he gets are:

* 10 kN of natural resistance
* 8 kN of punching strength
* 300 kg of lifting strength
* 600°C and -40°C of the temperature

It can be held for 4 turns and has a 2 turn cooldown if his whole body is covered in it. If he wants to transform any of his limb separately it would last for 8 turns and have a 3 turn cooldown. The maximum of limbs he can mutate is two and not more. He can transform any of his limb, going from the feet to his head. He also gets a 20% increase in all stats when rendering any separate, specific limb.

**Infestation disease:** The host is given the chance to infect someone (only organic humanoids) by using his virulence and if come in contact with the skin, flesh, ect. The infestation disease makes the victim have a dizzy feeling which reduces their eye sight, reduces their hearing and gives them a painful stomach ache. It lasts for 4 turns and evaporates after that relieving all of the symptoms immediately. The infestation can resist up to 70°C of heat and -10°C of cold.