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Professor Xivir Thoriston von Eucalyptus is a marcep, a species of alien hailing from the planet Marcatern. He stands at 6'2" with a very long tail and fully padded palms and soles with a digitigrade stance. His headfur is often rather unkempt and just left to fall over in front of his eyes slightly. He has the typical crystals of his species growing from his left shoulder, as well as a leaf-like tail crystal. His fur ranges through a few shades of browns and tans, including a tan front side and muzzle, a medium brown covering most of the rest of his body with dark brown adorning his head, ears, and in a few stripe-like patterns across his shoulder blades, upper arms, and the base of his tail.
His coat shows his Desert Marcep heritage, though the longer tail and claws indicate a bit of the Forest Marcep blood going through his veins alongside the crystalline plates on the top of his snout. He has orange eyes to go with the orange crystals of his family, and typically does not bother to get his crystals shaped in any particular form.
For outfits, the Professor typically wears loose-fitting clothes that are meant to help him blend in with his surroundings, switching out the outfits as appropriate for his destination. His favorite outfit consists of a green shirt with a darker green jacket worn with the right sleeve rolled up and the left sleeve cut off so it doesn't get snagged on his crystals. He also enjoys wearing gray cargo shorts with a longer pocket for his tail. For accessories, he wears an anklet on his right leg and carries a cane he's modified with marcep hardlight technology to bring out various weapons and tools from the cane. He utilizes the cane for fashion and convenience of his tool storage than he uses it for any actual need for one. On his left forearm, he wears a bracer almost at all times containing an advanced AI and computer for his research, it is filled with books on all manner of subjects and countless hours of recordings from his travels. This omnirig of his has been heavily modified with all manner of capabilities to assist his research.
The Professor was raised on the marcep homeworld of Marcatern in one of the large forest cities by the name of Iflorz. He struggled with school, not from acting out, but rather from studying far and beyond what the teachers were instructing the other students. As such he often got bored in class and would wind up pulling out one of his books and reading during class, usually not doing his schoolwork at all. Despite this, he managed to graduate with honors thanks to one of his teachers, Alsrith von Transin, realizing that Xivir was bored with even the advanced classes the school offered and worked with the other faculty members to create an even more advanced syllabus for him. Xivir went on to attend several universities across Marcatern, earning several degrees before he left his homeworld and moved to Absalom Station where he pursued doctorate degrees in biology (with a xenozoology focus), veterinary medicine, and biotech augmentations.
He graduated and took a position at the university at the age of 25, going on to becoming the galaxy's premier authority on all things xenozoology, as well as having a high standing in general medicine and his advancements in the field of biotechnology stunned many of the board of directors. He realized quickly, though, that many of his attempts for funding and grants fell on deaf ears. So when he was 26, and the board of directors went through a drastic change, he assumed a persona of an elderly rambling scholar. It was a manipulation that he never really appreciated needing, but it was for the pursuit of his studies and so he kept it up. He never disappointed the board with their choices to grant him funding, but he often longed for his solo expeditions where he could relax and just be himself.
Xivir had two brothers, Plivin and Remler von Eucalyptus, as well as a sister, Sarla. Plivin was the oldest by three years with the rest younger than Xivir. He often would go on camping trips with his siblings and father, Thoriston Trino von Eucalyptus. It was during one of these camping trips, around the age of 8, that Xivir happened upon a family of kachen (a species of animal native to the planet). One of the planet's frequent quakes had opened a fissure that crushed the family except for one, which he rescued despite his father's warnings to the contrary and nursed back to health with the aid of his mother, Laurish Maren von Eucalyptus. He later named this kachen Tobi-Kael and the two were nearly inseparable, the kachen even following Xivir to school and waiting outside for recess every day. Tobi-Kael had suffered severe injuries, leading the Professor to seek knowledge on biotech augmentations in order to help his friend live a full life without impediments. To this day, Xivir and Tobi-Kael adventure together, with the biotech having been upgraded and enhanced a few times and even a slight AI-assisted increase to the kachen's intelligence, giving him above-average intellect for a sapient creature. The process of this enhancement served as his doctoral thesis when graduating with his biotech degree.
Xivir rarely spent much time at home as a youth, usually off among the trees and the rather wild area of the city of Iflorz. He spent his time studying the wildlife and flora as well as volunteering and studying at various veterinary clinics in the city. When he wasn't doing those, he could be found somewhere in a well lit area with his nose buried deep in one of his books. He never quite wound up being very social with others but he could socialize when it was necessary, just with a bit of an awkwardness that failed to net him many non-scholarly friends.
Xivir has worked hard to achieve an early tenure with the Absalom University, spending several months at a time teaching classes remotely while he is out on various expeditions to new and alien planets. He devotes a large portion of his life to cataloguing and ensuring the ongoing survival of local fauna in the wake of colonization and expansion efforts across the galaxy. The Professor does bring various animals with him in his adventures, giving them similar upgrades to Tobi-Kael to serve in roles that play to their strengths. These are a few of his companions he's made friends with over the years and some observations on their species.
Tobi-Kael is a kachen and his first companion that he made, having rescued the creature at a young age and nursing him back to health. Tobi had suffered some injuries when the fissure opened that could not be healed through any normal means and so Xivir worked to study and learn the techniques behind biotechnology, seeking ways to augment or replace the permanently-damaged body parts that the quake had caused, one of which being his right front leg being almost entirely crushed.
Tobi and the Professor were inseparable and developed a bond that let the Professor attempt the work he needed to make his friend better fully. It took several years of study, but he managed to do it before even attending Absalom University. Since then, he's improved on the design several times, always making sure to perfect the plans before even acquiring the parts needed. Tobi-Kael trusts the Professor completely and without any question as the marcep has demonstrated nothing but care and affection to the kachen. The kachen, as a species, are fairly large, reaching sizes larger than a rhino overall. Although they reach this size, they are very much a long animal, growing longer rather than bulkier. They have retractable claws that can reach up to 6-9 inches in length, with a sickle-shape at the tips, allowing them to easily grip onto almost many surfaces by digging those claws in. They are expert climbers and top of the food chain in their biomes, relying on their stealth and agility to surprise and take down their prey with ease. The kachen are omnivorous and will eat just about anything organic, but prefer live prey. They can be very loyal and playful, much to the chagrin of anyone that keeps them as a pet. The kachen can live up to 100 years old, and never stop growing during that time, similar to some reptilian species. The longer they live, the longer and larger they get, not really achieving an "adult size" unlike other mammalian species.
Ember is a species of animal known to the locals as a rolling flame. These creatures hunt primarily a particular variety of mechanical insect on the planet Rym by burrowing and lying in wait before bursting up with a gust of fire that temporarily paralyzes the robotic insects allowing the animal to eat it, absorbing nutrients from the compounds the mech had broken down before releasing the pest through its excrements, where it is reactivated by other insects in the vicinity to break down more debris.
Despite this fascinating evolutionary development, the rolling flame is able to consume other prey in a similar manner, only cooking it before consuming the meat. When caught above ground by one of their predators, the rolling flame is able to roll quickly across the ground, utilizing its ability to spray out flame from between the plated shell on its back to increase its speed. The rolling flame has stone-like paws that it can super heat from the inside in order to turn said paws into an almost magma-like substance. The rolling flame is almost a combination of organic and stone, a fusion between the two with their veins running through the rock parts of their bodies. Ember in particular was part of a trio of rolling flames the Professor had captured in order to study how to counteract the insects that were running rampant on Rym and devouring more than just debris. He transported the mated pair back to Absalom Station and his menagerie there in order to ensure their on-going survival while keeping Ember with him and training the younger rolling flame. Ember has served faithfully as Xivir's companion for quite a while, eager to purge evil creatures with his intense fire.
Blintor is a member of blind reptilian creatures reminiscent of velociraptors, known as a tyflosaur. These creatures are born without eyes at all, relying entirely on an advanced form of echolocation that they can also use against their prey in a sonic-type screech, often causing paralysis at the sudden rupture of their eardrums before the tyflosaur goes in for the kill. They are fierce fighters with long claws and talons that they use to rip their prey to pieces quickly before eating, they have been observed to only be carnivorous. The tyflosaur and their preferred prey, a large rodent species called pufrats, have been in an ongoing process of evolution for millennium. Based on fossils, it seemed that the tyflosaur originally had eyes, four of them, but they were ineffectual against the pufrats' ability to camouflage with their surroundings.