Jalil G. Price

Human:
-188cm; 6'2"
-Lean, muscular and has wide shoulders. Has scars mostly on his shoulders, has sharp canines and nails.
-Long dark brown hair in dreadlocks, reaches mid-back, usually ties it up. Dark red eyes with a tired look to them, wide mouth, has stubble on his chin.
-Wears simple clothes, usually hoodies or shirts in blacks and whites, plus some jeans and sneakers.

Manticore:
-5'11"; 180 on the shoulder, 2m; 6'7" long(3.7m with the tail)
-Upper body of a humanoid lion, lower body of a scorpion. Has coarse fur on the upper body and a hard shell on the lower. Large front legs and paws, scorpion back legs.
-Face is a monstrous version of his human face, with sharp teeth and lion nose and amber eyes.

Quiet - Jalil has a lot of thoughts, but he rarely brings them out. He does okay with small talk, and can hold up a conversation, but he never really expresses his opinions strongly or talks excessively. He does this via his writings, and Jalil keeps a diary and writes short stories and poems.

Thoughtful - Jalil thinks a lot, both of himself and others, and this causes him to be thoughtful and kind to people sometimes without even realizing it. He does basic things like keeps the door open, gives up his place in line or offers to give directions to those who seem to be lost. But Jalil also remembers surprising details, like people's preferences or small grievances, and might bring an extra cup of coffee for someone who in passing said they were tired or recommends a restaurant for someone who once said they like Chinese food.

Dutiful - Although Jalil rarely seems truly passionate about anything his excitement and fire is of the subtle kind. Just like he hides most of his emotions Jalil hides his passion, and merely does what he really enjoys with quiet determination. The same goes for tasks he is assigned to, at first Jalil doesn't seem like the tenacious type but he in fact is dutiful and will perform what he is in charge of no matter what.

Intelligent - Jalil in smart both academically, and has common sense. Jalil is a realist and perceptive and knows his way around in the world. But Jalil can also write a killer essay and is usually the first one to raise his hand to either answer questions, or ask them.

Bookworm - Jalil LOVES to read, with all caps. He never familiarized himself with technology and books were his main source of entertainment growing up. He reads anything, no matter what genre, and Jalil loves learning about new things via books.

Melancholic - Jalil is almost always just a little bit sad. He sighs a lot, and though he tries to not project his gloominess outward his resting face is that of a sad puppy. One of Jalil's favourite hobbies is writing poems with undertones of misery, and his stories almost always have a sad or tragic ending.

Sensitive - Jalil feels a lot, and his emotions are strong. He takes insults personally very easily, and though he can differentiate between constructive criticism and just plain insults both feel as bad to him. Jalil can, and does stand up to himself when he feels like he needs to, but more often he'll just let most insults slide off and wallows in his self-pity.

Jalil was born in Iran to a small family of manticores that lived in the countryside and lived a simple life, farming their land and living detached from the general society.
Jalil's father hunted just enough humans so he could feed his family, and he made sure his hunting area was wide and he only hunted humans that no one would miss. Runaways, homeless, criminals and so on. Jalil's father forbid Jalil from hunting, and preferred to do it himself. This greatly frustrated Jalil, but he respected his father and his words stuck with the young boy. "When you kill your prey won't be the only one to die". So Jalil obeyed his father most of his early childhood.

When Jalil was about 11 a little sister was born in their family. This was a happy thing, since manticores aren't that fertile, but it also meant that some sacrifices had to be made. The family couldn't afford to buy Jalil school books anymore, so he had to stop the homeschooling his parents had given him and instead Jalil began helping around the house and farm more. Jalil's father worked twice as hard to feed his family, now with the occasional help from his wife, and Jalil was mostly in charge of looking after his sister. Times were tough, but Jalil loved his little sister and wanted for her to not know hunger or hardship. And this drove the young boy to desperate measures.

Jalil, one night little after his 12th birthday, went for a hunt on his own after his sister cried from hunger yet again. He didn't know what he was doing, and thus he picked a very poor spot for hunting that was too close to their home. It was a rather big road few miles from a small village, and Jalil lay in wait in a shadowy spot for an unlucky passerby. After an hour one came by on a scooter, and in his manticore form Jalil struck. He pinned the person down, and started to aim his stinger straight at the person's heart. But Jalil hesitated, when he saw the fear in his prey's eyes and heard their screams of terror. He didn't see food, but a person. But Jalil also thought about his sister, hungry and weak, and with a heavy heart Jalil stung the person and pierced their heart with his stinger, killing them.
That night Jalil brought meat home for his sister and she went to sleep full for the first time in her life. But Jalil also learned what his father had always meant with his words, as a small part of him died.

Jalil was a novice when it came to hunting, and thus he left a big pool of blood at the scene where he killed his prey and didn't consider someone would be missing them. So when the child of the village chief didn't come home from their shopping trip to the city the villagers started looking for them, and only found traces of blood on the side of the road and a scooter. The blood traces continued for a mile or so towards the fields, but then they ended. But that was enough to make the superstitious villagers suspicious. They had wondered before about the family who farmed near their village, who seemed to sell most of their grain but never kept it for eating, and whose house often seemed empty in the evenings and early mornings. The village was small with barely any police officers of their own, and thus the villagers took law in their own hands.

The villagers began investigating, or more like harassing, the manticore family. They kept their farm under watch 24/7, and made it so they couldn't go hunt. And one day when Jalil and his family were out working on the fields few villagers searched their house, and found the bloody clothes Jalil had hid in the shed. The villagers went to tell this to others, and they gathered a small mob, and went to confront the family that night. But when Jalil's mother and father denied all accusations things got violent, and in a panic Jalil's little sister shifted into a manticore out of fear. This triggered a fatal domino effect. The nearest man shot the small child, and when her parents tried to attack the mob they ended up being shot as well, dying rather easily due to their weakened state. In the end the family was dead, and the villagers burnt their house down.

When this all went down Jalil was out fetching water from the faraway well, and when he was on his way back he saw huge plumes of smoke rising from the house. Jalil raced back, and only saw a group of men with gasoline and matches by his burning house. Jalil was enraged, and in his anger he shifted and killed the group. After he was done Jalil ate some of the men, collected the bodies of his family and fled.

A local scout of the academy heard of this incident, due to the villagers spreading a rumour to the neighbouring villages about the family possibly having been manticores, and one of the children of the family having escaped. He contacted the academy, and a small scout group was dispatched to search the area around the village and burnt down house. And they did find someone, Jalil crying by three freshly dug graves in a forest. The scouts took the young boy with them, and Jalil didn't have energy or will to resist.

Few months after Jalil arrived on Manta Carlos he was adopted by a married couple, Desna and Juniper Price. The two already had multiple adopted children, and it took Jalil a while to get accustomed to family life with many family members who were all of mixed backgrounds and descents. But by the time Jalil graduated middle school he was part of the family.
From the start it was clear to the Prices that Jalil was a very intelligent and very troubled child, and he did excellently in school and also went to therapy. Jalil learned English very quickly, despite only picking up the language when he arrived on the island, and also studied multiple other languages. Jalil always loved to read, and it didn't take long for him to read through any and all books his new adoptive parents owned.

Once Jalil graduated high school he had a clear plan. Jalil had a gap year, during which he worked part-time and with the money he saved Jalil traveled back to Iran, and visited his parents' old house and their graves. With this pilgrimage Jalil tried to gain himself some closure, and in a way that was exactly what he got. Jalil stayed in Iran for around a month, surviving on the dried meat rations he had packed with him.

After Jalil returned to Manta Carlos he enrolled into college at the age of 20, and began studying literature. He's kept at it to this day and is now trying to get his master's degree, aiming to go all the way to getting a PhD.

Lives in a small apartment near the academy
Works part-time in the library and occasionally receives support from his adoptive parents