Tartirus

Tartirus
A rudimentary depiction of Tartirus as he appeared in his quadrupedal dragon form.
Species	Manumarian
Factions	None
Age	1,458 Galactic Standard Years
Status	Deceased
Height	Varying
Weight	Unknown

Tartirus was a pesky Manumarian who meddled in and measurably harmed the lives of others. When he was alive, he spent most of his time either close to Ty Omand or off somewhere deep in the forest behind Vespid Heterodonyx's home.

Appearance

Tartirus typically presented himself in the draconic form customarily taken by his species. When using his Manumarian shapeshifting abilities, each form he took reflected the black color of his "default" draconic form.

Abilities

Tartirus was capable of feats commonly characteristic of Manumarians, including:

Shapeshifting

Tartirus was able to shapeshift by physically manipulating his bodily cells, as all Manumarians are able to do with a combination of dedicated training and age. This comes with its own advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages

• Shapeshifting allowed Tartirus to live forever, provided he had access to proper nutrition.
• Tartirus could infiltrate almost any area by simply shrinking down. The more he shrank, the denser he became.
• Some vital organs in Tartirus's body could be actively rearranged, potentially protecting them from damage.

Disadvantages

• Each time he transformed, Tartirus risked damaging his brain.
• If he shapeshifted too often without eating or drinking, Tartirus would fall into a malnutrition-induced coma.
• Despite proper nutrition, if Tartirus shapeshifted too much within seven days, he would have needed to hibernate for a whole week.

Telepathy

As many who have seen and gotten to know Tartirus were aware, he could see into the minds of others. In so doing, he exposed his own thoughts and memories to the telepathy target. Tartirus was able to engage in telepathy via unique organs connected to the different regions of his brain; each organ fed data gleaned from nearby organisms' neural signals directly into their corresponding brain region. Using telepathy, Tartirus was able to learn whether or not someone was a threat before they showed physical signs, both literally and metaphorically see through the eyes of others, and gather vital information from those who refused to give it. However, reading the mind of any organism required him to be within a 15-meter range of the organism and linger around it for some time; this was especially true for non-Manumarian species, for which the telepathy process was like a new language.

Fire Breath

One of the lesser-used abilities Tartirus had in his arsenal is the ability to breathe fire, which was actually a mix of his stomach acid and some other unknown liquid that, when expelled and mixed, became flammable. There were glands in his mouth that secreted this fluid; when it reacted with stomach acid, it caught fire. These glands were similar to those of a snake's venom glands--aiming down instead of forward. The force of the ejected stomach acid was more than enough to project it out; his throat contracted as his stomach acid was forced out, manifesting as a fine mist to maximize efficiency. However, Tartirus had to be conservative, for he had a limited supply of the reactant liquid. Because of this, Tartirus could cook food of his own volition; however, many who ate the resulting product complained of a strange taste. In what can only be described as a strange quirk, Tartirus could receive heartburn if he breathed fire either too often or with poor form. He had to take caution to not breathe in while spewing flames, as doing so risked burning his lungs and other internal organs.

Personality

Tartirus was overly-curious of the pasts of others and would look into their minds to satiate his perversion. If he found something of interest, he would, without fail, tease and torment the person about it. Tartirus had a soft spot for children, but thankfully only ever interacted with Tanner Omand, and even that was profoundly unsafe. On paper, he loved to play tricks on those who were gullible enough to fall for them; in practice, gullibility was not a factor in his targets. He would poke and prod at anyone who showed even the slightest chink in their armor or did anything that could be criticized in any way (this is to say anyone who ever did anything at all). Those who had the misfortune of being around him knew this and didn't suffer his arrogant, self-righteous barbs for long. Tartirus had a habit of "sleeping" in the Drunken Sniper; this was, in truth, a ruse to cover up his mediation and practice of silently looking into the minds of the building's occupants. He didn't seem to care that he was violating their privacy and infiltrating the one thing any individual truly can call their own. Around Tartirus, the phrase "at least I have my thoughts" became an outright falsehood. As mentioned previously, he would dwell in the forest behind Vespid's personal home. It is unknown what he did while alone in that forest, but it was a miracle Vespid didn't have an Imperial regiment smoke his ass. He was rarely angered, save for any moment when his intelligence was insulted. This did not happen often, as he was too obtuse to tell when his intelligence was being insulted. When Tartirus found any kind of technology foreign to him, he would examine it and note it uses. He frequently stole foreign technology from its owners; this should have had a more negative effect on his life expectancy than it did.

Trivia

• Despite his typical personality, he was an exceptional babysitter to Tanner Omand, at least according to warped Timanran sensibilities. Furthermore, Tartirus was protective of the entirety of the Omand family, acting as their self-styled guardian against the perils of the Root Universe.
• Due to his ability to shapeshift, Tartirus was often thought of as a Singularity by fools who couldn't tell their asshole from a hole in the ground.
• Tartirus is FUCKING DEAD, and Nikan killed him. No, really. I'm not even joking. It's canon.