Age: 16
Description:
Hair: Bright yellow/curly, tends to be matted.
Eyes: Red with a bright yellow iris that seems to be iridescent.
Skin: is dark with a red tint.
Outstanding features: His nose is quite big. Three nostrils wide. The nose does not stick out much, but does cover, in width, most of the area above the mouth. Each hand has 5 digits-they appear to be 2 opposing thumbs and 3 middle digits. The middle digit is the same length as the "thumbs". The two outside middle digits are just a tad bit longer than one-half the length of the middle digit. Phosphor is considered tall for someone of his age from his race. He is one and one-half kilicam (4 ft 6 inches). In human terms he would look short. His weight is about 59 lipos (lipo-the weight of a "canteen" of water, about 3 pounds, which makes him 177 lbs). His large muscular legs stand out as different from the human species. The legs are very thick. Although his upper body is quite muscular, the legs seem to be more developed through weight training. Shoes are not required, his feet seems to be covered with a regenerating ceramic-like skin.
Halogenates have an incredible senses of hearing and smell. Their eyesight is considered poor. They can see clearly about 5 kilicam (15 ft). All Halogenates have a flap under their arms. These flaps open to reveal bright red gills. They can use these gills to "filter" the air as they breathe. To use them a Halogenate must lift their arms over their heads. This expands the gills out. When the gills are exposed a Halogenate will stop breathing with their lungs. The arms can be lowered, but this is like holding your breath.
Clothes: Phosphor wears the traditional clothes of the Halogenates. A brown-colored tunic with a cloth belt. The belt color tells of his rank in society. Phosphor's belt color is brown. This reveals that he has passed the age of accession, barely. A ring is on Phosphor's left hand on the first short digit. The material has an unusual look. It appears to change color, from a bright gold color to a dull yellow and back again. It seems to do this in subtle steps over quite awhile (about 1 day).
Someone would have to be observant to notice the changes. Phosphor carries a short sword (to us, the sword is normal size for a Halogenate) attached to a leather harness. The sword handle is made of the same material as the ring. The blade can be rusty at times, because of Phosphor's inattentiveness.
Abilities: Phosphor's race has an unusual ability to "smell" different chemicals. As the males grow older this sense becomes sharper as the receptors in their nose develop. Females develop this ability much quicker than the males. The identification of the different "smells" sometimes takes a tremendous effort. Phosphor has learned a few names of these "smells" and what they reveal. Such as water, he can tell how far away it is, what direction, if it is OK to drink. He knows the basics. The older members of his society use this sense to discover and develop a use of chemicals that would baffle any normal person.
General Personality: Has a tendency to become angry easily.
This trait is frowned upon back home. Most mature Halogenates show no emotion in public (private is another story). The level of friendship and age of the person you are with determines this. Phosphor loves nature, and meeting new people. Yet he goes through times where he seeks solitude.
When meeting a person for the first time he would be very shy, but when they know each other that shyness falls away. He can be very arrogant, a flaw he recognizes, but sometimes refuses to control. He is bright for his age; this doesn't help with the arrogance.
Quirks: All Halogenates make noise when they eat. Phosphor tends to be louder than most. There is a belching sound produced because of the constant sucking of air when they swallow. Halogenates love foods that have strong odors, this allows them to eat in peace without the constant barrage of smells they normally have. Because of this Phosphor has some strange quirks. When he "belches" loudly he always says "AHHHHHHŠ.". He also will put his food down and cup his hands around his mouth to direct the sound toward some point, like his sister.
Flaws: Bad eyesight is a major problem when with others. Elves like to make fun of Halogenates, you know the old saying, "Your as blind as a Halo".
Phosphor has a tendency to stand and think about things too much, he analysis every situation. This can be a bad thing to do when you need to run away from destruction. Speaking of running Phosphor is very slow (short legs).
Motivating Circumstances: Phosphor's mother died when he was young. She died giving birth to his sister, Little Moly. Lithium, Phosphor' Father, never got over this. Lithium tried to raise the children by himself; it was doomed from the start. Lithium was a work-a-holic. The children spent most of their time with their grandparents Phosgene and Antimoium. Before long Phosphor got mixed up with the "wrong crowd". He got into trouble many times. Then he discovered a new smell. This smell causes you to feel euphoria. It had to be taken in by the gills. He was doing this smell, called "good" when one of his buddies, named Black Carbon II, died. There was a public outcry. Using "good" was against the society's code of honor.
To allow someone to die from its use was unthinkable.
Lithium had no recourse. He had to punish Phosphor. Black Carbon's parents blamed Phosphor and wanted him put to death. There was so much emotion on the streets after this happened. This outpouring could not be tolerated. The elders decided that Lithium had a choice. Phosphor could be put to death or banished from any Halogenate group. Lithium chose banishment. This was total banishment, as if Phosphor died. As with Halogenate tradition a ring of selinite was placed on Phosphor's finger. This ceremony is how a Halogenate is laid to rest. The ring grows into the flesh and intertwines with the bone of the finger, then hand, arm and finally the ribs of a living Halogenate. A dead Halogenate's body would be filled from the inside with selinite. There is a belief that it stops at the ribs when the Halogenate is living because it is so close to the heart. The selinite gives a smell that any Halogenate can recognize.Lithium gave his only son whatever Phosphor could carry. His sister, Little Moly, cried for days after Phosphor left. She had to stay in doors for a month until she could calm down.
Past History: Since the banishment, Phosphor has come to the edge of the land of the known lands. While there a bright light picked him up and dropped him near a human village. Phosphor had never seen a human up close.
Halogenates knew there were legends of these thin, tall people. They were of many colors the old ones would tell. There was a session on foreign creatures in school. It mostly discussed their smells. There were jars of smells for most of their studies in this area, but not for humans.
He began wandering again for two years. He discovers new smells and tracks them down to see the properties of this discovery. The ring has made its path to his ribs. The pain is less now, but constant, a reminder of his passed deeds, the death of Carbon Black II. He carries with him many small bags of the things he has smelled. He experiments with them.
This character is ©2000 by
Tim Coffelt.