Primary Leo

Leo has the appearance of an effeminate young man, with attractive features he goes to great lengths to mask. He has fair, freckled skin, light brown eyes and red hair that he's grown out long, shaggy and messy. His left eye is missing, which he covers with an eyepatch.

He's shorter than average, standing only at 5'5 without his ears, with a svelte, thin build. He possesses the standard feline features most NEK0 possess, furry red ears on his head and a red tail extending from behind. He has one long, continuous burn scar around his neck and upper torso, and a string of numbers is stamped onto his wrist.

He tends to wear baggy clothes that obscure most of his features and prefers jackets with raised collars to hide his neck. He tends to keep his tail around his waist or leg, out of sight.


Personality Description: Leo has spent his whole life dreaming of freedom, of being able to live without the abuse of the NEK0 company and whoever their clients are. Now that he has it, he wants to keep it. As a result, he tends to keep to himself, preferring not to draw undue attention and trying to remain inoffensive when talking to people.

He's a very closed off person, slow to trust and uncomfortable with most forms of physical or social intimacy. Among other NEK0 however, he tends to warm up faster.

Many of his NEK0 traits are almost a point of shame for him. He hates his own innate subservience and is very frustrated with what he considers his own weakness. This frustration tends to bubble under the surface and he may act out once it hits the boiling point.

Active Abilities:

Mark of the Soulless servant:

• Leo has been marked by a spell that turns him into the perfect double agent.
• The mark is generally hidden from most forms of detection, any supernatural means of analysis will detect it as a spell simply designed to increase his attractiveness and nothing else.
• When the spell activates, Leo immediately loses all free will, becoming perfectly obedient to the owner of the spell.
• While in this state, a physical symbol appears on his skin at the small of his back. His physical weakness is removed, and he magically gains the capabilities of an adult human male of above-average fitness.
• All memories of what transpires during this state are stored within the mark itself. As such, Leo possesses no memory of what's happened once the spell ends.
• The spell is activated via telepathic ping by the one who originally had it planted in him, the user is also able to access his senses when active, and command him remotely.
• The mark runs deep within Leo's being. Attempting to dispel or remove it is incredibly painful, and potentially lethal.

Minor Magicks:

• Leo has been performing magic studies in between his classes. He can now be considered something of a novice, and is capable of casting minor spells.
• Spells he can perform at will are all relatively small. Things like small short-lived visual and audio effects, being able to levitate and move objects the size and weight of a glass of water, or producing flame the size of a basic lighter.
• Anything more elaborate than that will, at minimum, require some combination of more powerful magic foci, some kind of spell tome or other reference material, or another more experienced spellcaster.

Manifested Guardian:

• Leo is currently learning to create a magical construct that he can control at will to defend himself.
• Currently, this is limited to a pair of large, spectral arms with claw-like hands.
• Leo is able to form these arms anywhere within 2 meters of his body, and can dismiss them at will. He can control them with all the precision of his own limbs
• The arms themselves are significantly stronger and more durable than a human.
• Any damage inflicted on them will reflect proportionately on Leo. Meaning if an attack strong enough to cause a crack in the arms hits them, they will damage Leo's arms too. Inversely, if Leo were to hurt of break his own arms, the Guardian arms would lose functionality to match.

Passive Abilities:

Polyglot:

• Leo understands and can speak all human languages known in the narrow reality.

Quick Learner:

• Leo can learn many things 5 times faster than a human would, quickly picking up on new concepts and easily remembering them.

Enhanced Endurance:

• It is very difficult to tire out Leo. He has 3 times the endurance and stamina of a physically fit human. He can also stay awake indefinitely, and he requires very little nutrition every day. He can, however, sleep or eat more than he has to, if he wants.

Unaging:

• Leo does not physically age. They still might die of old age eventually, though one usually can't be certain of when this will happen.

Weaknesses:

Vulnerable to Persuasion:

• Leo has been engineered for obedience. As such, it is very easy to persuade him to do something. Even if he actively doesn't want to do something, he will find it difficult to resist the compulsion to obey almost any command issued to him, or any kind of strong suggestion for how he should behave.

Feline Diet:

• Leo's diet is about as limited as a cat's would be. Caffeine, chocolate, and many types of spices can make him very sick, as can most processed foods.

Feeble:

• Leo is about as physically strong as a 10-year-old child, and no amount of strength training can change that.

Biography:

Leo is one of many NEK0, created as a slave to be sold off to whoever paid for him.

Unlike most NEK0, Leo never had a singular master, rather, he was rented out from his original trading post to different owners over a few months at a time. His treatment ranged from dismissive to actively abusive, depending on who he stayed with.

One of Leo's masters, a well-connected crime boss, rather than just use his new slave like the others, devised a plan to take advantage of his rotating ownership. Anyone who could afford a NEK0 was bound to be wealthy, and as such, was a prime target for thievery. This man commissioned a mage to place a spell on Leo that would allow him to be controlled remotely, before sending him back to the trade post. If the plan worked, he'd be able to make some good money. If it failed and the NEK0 was caught, well, chances are it'd just be killed with no way of tracing back to him.

Leo eventually ended up back at the trading post, and life resumed as normal. However, without realising, Leo was being used to steal from his masters. The spell would take control and Leo would work against his masters for the criminal, from feeding them blackmail material to bank info, anything that would help. And since Leo had genuinely no idea what was happening, it made it far easier for the NEK0 to maintain his innocence.

There were a few close calls, however. One of his masters tried to torture a confession out of him after realising his money had been stolen, resulting in the loss of his eye. Another tried using a kill collar on him. Fortunately for Leo, it malfunctioned, leaving him alive, unfortunately for him, it left him scarred.

After sustaining that kind of visible injury (and extracting an extra fee out of the overzealous customer) the NEK0 company were ready to write Leo off as damaged goods and extract his organs for reuse. Before they had the chance, however, their trading post was discovered by the scouts. They raided the facility and whisked him away to the island along with the others. Leo was enrolled in the academy, and soon after picked out his new name, ready to try and leave the past behind him.

His secret criminal master, however, eventually found out what had happened. He was aware of magic, of course, but a magical island containing all sorts of knowledge, information, and resources? That was new.

He left the NEK0 as is for the moment, content for him to live his life until he found an opportunity to take advantage of his little sleeper agent.

Resources: He lives in the dorms and receives a stipend from the academy.