★ Nero ★ Project name: Stareater
Nicknames: Captain, Vulture, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, selfish coward, memer, jackass, idiot, etc
Age: 32
Birthday: June 18th
Gender: Cis male
Sexuality: Aroflux pansexual, open to sex and casual relationships.
Category: Villain, citizen
Birth Place/Hometown: Earth, America. Claims to be from west Philadelphia, but whether this is true or not remains unclear. (It isn't true. At all. He's from San Francisco, California, the opposite side of the US entirely.)
Occupation: Space pirate/raider/thief/smuggler/menace/etc, Captain of The Vultures raider group and ship Bel-Air, previously Bonepickers raider group lackey.
Race/Species: Space tentacle monster, previously human, scientifically altered. Nicknamed project Stareater.
Voicecanon: Here.
Appearance Description
It takes about one glance to figure out Nero is a space pirate, as he's embraced the aesthetic completely. He's tall at six foot one, and rugged in body type, seasoned and hardy from years of raider lifestyle rather than any particular working out. His body is still faintly scarred up around the chest and abdomen from being experimented on, and it's mainly recognizable as surgical scars.
Nero's a good-looking black man with both cute, punk, and monstrous features. He has pushed back, thick grey hair, on the longer side of usual short haircuts, carelessly messy. His facial hair consists of sideburns and darker scruff. One of his eyes is normal, a pretty cinnamon brown, and the other is a red eye set in an inhuman patch of inky, rough skin. His mouth is full of jagged snaggleteeth, made for predatory, biting and tearing purposes, with a second, smaller row of needleteeth behind them. He has freckles on and around his nose, and piercings in his ears.
Nero has a long, tough and flexible, Xenomorph-like tail, reaching and dragging on the ground when he's standing, with sharp protruding ridges. There are retractable claws in his fingers and toes. At the small of his back, there's a near unnoticeable slit in his skin where his tentacles can slip out, which can only extend a little further than the length of Nero's body, and are usually just halfway out. All of these are the same inky color. The tentacles can harden or soften at will, and function as more sensitive second limbs. They can be used for basic tasks, combat-- or, yes, fine, sexual pursuits. Nero's very skilled at multitasking with them.
Nero's a good-looking black man with both cute, punk, and monstrous features. He has pushed back, thick grey hair, on the longer side of usual short haircuts, carelessly messy. His facial hair consists of sideburns and darker scruff. One of his eyes is normal, a pretty cinnamon brown, and the other is a red eye set in an inhuman patch of inky, rough skin. His mouth is full of jagged snaggleteeth, made for predatory, biting and tearing purposes, with a second, smaller row of needleteeth behind them. He has freckles on and around his nose, and piercings in his ears.
Nero has a long, tough and flexible, Xenomorph-like tail, reaching and dragging on the ground when he's standing, with sharp protruding ridges. There are retractable claws in his fingers and toes. At the small of his back, there's a near unnoticeable slit in his skin where his tentacles can slip out, which can only extend a little further than the length of Nero's body, and are usually just halfway out. All of these are the same inky color. The tentacles can harden or soften at will, and function as more sensitive second limbs. They can be used for basic tasks, combat-- or, yes, fine, sexual pursuits. Nero's very skilled at multitasking with them.
He wears practicality based outfits, with the typical raider sense of style. Indigo, black, and red are colors he likes to wear typically. He adores long scarves. This is on the back of his jacket (with a more suitable color palette, of course). That's right. He had it custom made.
Nero, at any given time, is a combination of goofy and scary in his general demeanor and behavior. He has an attractively deeper, rich voice, with plenty of personality.
Personality Description
Nero is a anarchist, troublemaker type who hardly ever stops moving or chattering for long, and has a love for the spontaneous and needlessly flashy. He's less like a firework, more like a bomb. Whether you find him charming, unbearably annoying, or a mix between the two differs from person to person-- but he's very skilled at ruffling feathers, and opinions about him tend to be on the strong, heated side.
He's incredibly fun to party with, terrible to clean up after or fight on criminal shenanigans. Nero is openly selfish and quick to flee if needed, but he doesn't hide himself away. Subtlety does not suit him, not at all. He can lie and lie, but he doesn't hide. He's a public scoundrel and fugitive, and obviously proud of that. If you've ever seen someone you might categorize as a classy pirate, he's the complete opposite of that, and doesn't believe in the concept of a pirate being classy. He's crude, mean, loud, messy, has little to no morality, and can be kind of an idiot. He loves that! Nero is endlessly comfortable with himself and his lifestyle.
Nero's a huge dork in that he's super into all things comedic, cheesy, and pop culture. He has a personal strong sentiment for the retro, particularly the 90s. He's also very obnoxious about memes, because he's a jackass. He loves hearing oblivious aliens call him the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the most serious, intimidated of tones. Not all of his jokes are funny to others, definitely not, but he couldn't care less as long as he's having fun with them and making himself happy. He can be quite witty, though, and he has a tendency to win people over the more time they spend in his earnestly goofy and pleased presence.
Assuming Nero doesn't like people, or doesn't have the ability to, would be incorrect. He's pretty damn friendly, even if that's mixed in with snark and harassment. It's true that he's extremely ruthless, but his history built him that way, and really, it makes sense for him. Never tends to be personal, not in a deeper way. Nero's top priority is survival and his own interests, and he expects that if the people he's around are smart, they'll be the same way. If Nero does something for you, even a simple favor, don't expect it to be out of the goodness of his heart. You'll be paying up.
Nero can jump into being hostile and antagonistic in a split second, pretty casual and guiltless with this behavior, as it's fairly casual for raiders, both with friends, enemies, and everything else. He's a fan of getting into fights, for the adrenaline rush and entertainment. Interactions are more prone to bickering and roughhousing, even when friendly, and due to this, Nero isn't sensitive. If you hit him where it really hurts but still want to call yourself a buddy of his, make sure you don't get offended when he gives you the same treatment in return, because then, it's even.
While Nero used to be human, he isn't anymore. He's a monster, and a lot of the time, his predatory instincts will effect how he acts or thinks, even in everyday situations. This can be both useful and frustrating. He's good at observing a person and figuring out how to best prey on them, but then, he can also be inappropriate at times meant to be fluffy and innocent. Then again, nobody should expect a literal tentacle monster and raider to be fluffy and innocent. Sometimes, this will make him act amusing, curling his tail around himself when he sleeps, hissing at people when he's being childish, sniffing or chewing on things, and purring.
His favorite people are the feisty ones that stand up to him, the party lovers, and the passionate. If he sees a shy, submissive person, he'll poke at them to try and get them to react, and if they're just boring, he'll steal their shit or bite them and then move on in disappointment. He likes a challenge, not pretty wallpaper. Nero is extremely cuddly with people he's fond of.
He's obsessed with hoarding. It isn't a standards based hoarding, because he has no standards. He wants priceless treasure, and he wants snack cakes and shiny garbage. An absolute pack rat. He doesn't like sharing very much, don't touch his shit, man. With loot, he goes by the raider rule of 'finders keepers, and additionally, stealers keepers!', so technically, if you can nab something from him without him knowing or at least knowing it was you who did it, well, he might respect that.
This tentacle monster is fully aware of your fetish for him, and is side eyeing you, amused, and will fully tease at and take advantage of it. Something he finds incredibly hilarious to do, is bring up having tentacles in a casual conversation, and see if his conversation partner reacts with 'oh, okay', with disgust, or by getting oddly flustered. It's very telling! Maybe he's a bully. Maybe just a little bit of one. Okay, fine, he's a shameless bully, no doubt about that. Sex is something he's chill as hell about, as per space culture, and he gets extra attention here thanks to fulfilling people's kinks without even trying to.
Nero is all about big adventures and appreciating the beauty in life, seeing it's so fleeting. He takes whatever is thrown at him with a sunny grin. He's experienced a lot of shitty things, and could've easily been a miserable husk of a man, but he didn't go down that path. He shrugged, and said, nah! That isn't me. Self agency is vital to Nero, after it was nearly stolen from him. He's passionate about staying true to himself, and staying happy.
Powers/Species traits
Literal Tentacle Monster
Literal Tentacle Monster
Nero was once human. Not anymore! He's a monstrous predator, baby. He smells and feels like one, completely, despite having a humanoid shape. He's stronger, with heightened senses and dangerous, hungry instincts. Nero is very much an omnivore, and can stomach nearly everything he can shove in his mouth, insides full of nasty, acidic substances. Details on his species aspects can be found in appearance.
Nero isn't immortal, but he can take quite a beating, durable and sturdy as hell. Having thick skin is pretty literal for him, and what would cause grazing cuts and nicks doesn't tend to affect him, though more direct and determined attacks would-- a relentless stab would work better than a slice, and so on. His right eye, tentacles, and tail are the wrong places to try and injure him.
With the combination of claws, tentacles, and tail, Nero is great at climbing up surfaces you could get even a vague hold of, and can support his own weight easily while in odd spots or upside down. He can see perfectly in the dark. Finally, Nero survive without air, in space or underwater.
Nero's big weakness is light. He can handle a normal amount, but even something as mild as having a flashlight shone right in his eyes would disorient and cause him painful headaches. He's more sensitive in his monster eye to this. He wears special goggles often to deal with this issue, and doesn't mention it publicly or to most anyone in fear of exploitation. The most intense levels of light directed purposefully at him would knock him out in a comatose state, and he'd recover in about a week or less depending on the care he was given or not.
Nero tends to make a lot of weird monster noises, growls, hisses, purrs, screeches, the whole package. Don't question it. He will either act like this behavior is normal and socially acceptable, or you're in a situation where you should be running.
Blood Mage
Nero can't manipulate blood or do rituals, as he would've been able to do if he'd stayed human. Instead, it's evolved and turned more predatory. All his blood magic involves consuming the blood of others. His monster system can take in any type of blood and flesh, even if it was poisonous to most, without being harmed.
The biggest ability from this is being able to rejuvenate himself through drinking blood. He can give himself an energy boost, heal himself even to the point of restoring lost limbs, and it just tends to taste damn fantastic to him, so he's easily tempted to seek it out even if he isn't injured or tired.
The other thing he can do with this is being very attuned to blood, and the source of the blood. He has a sharp sense for the taste, health details of who it came from, and can pick up a more intimate feel for the person or creature if they're sentient leaning.
Once he's had someone's blood once, he can track them down with strong success records (though it isn't guaranteed)— this works best with individuals, but can translate into looking for a specific species, as well. Nero has strong monster senses overall, but his blood magic is what he really focuses to use when hunting. It's best to use blood, but he can get a slightly weaker, similar effect for tracking by eating flesh.
Biography
tw: kidnapping, brainwashing, cannibalism, dark themes
Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down. And I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you how I became the prince of a ship called Bel-Air. - Nero, Vultures Captain
Nero grew up in a poor neighborhood with lacking circumstances, but he was always a bright, energetic kid ready to take on the world with a passion. His parents adored him, and he had tons of friends. When he was seven years old, his powers surfaced. As an aspiring blood mage, he was given an invitation to Starlight Academy, and although the magic aspect was pretty overwhelming to his parents, they couldn't be more excited to give him a shot at an education like this.
Due to their poverty, while they wanted to, his parents couldn't go with him to Manta Carlos, needing to hold down the jobs and living space they already had in San Francisco. He promised to call them every day, and they promised to send him care packages. He traveled over by boat, always a lover of the sea and waves, something special in the saltwater air and wind in his hair, the intrigue and wonder of traveling to a new place.
The first two days at the island were very dazzling. Nero was spending a lot of running about, having paperwork and dorm matters settled, exploring everything. He read all the school pamphlets, looked in all the classrooms, felt a burning pride as soon as he found out the Headmistress was black, just like him. It was nice, to have someone relatable and close at the top of the food chain. This, he decided, was the place for him. He could see his entire future in front of him, like this. He would study the beautiful, indiscriminating thing that was magic, grow into someone his parents could really show off, be able to support them, himself, and others that needed it.
He didn't even last halfway into the third day. When he went out early in the morning, heading to the city to explore the shops, even with an Academy guardian accompanying him, he was far too hyperactive, out of sight within seconds. It didn't take a lot of effort. Nero never thought wonderland paradise on earth could be anything besides a safe haven. Refugees banding together to become something greater. He was snatched up by alien smugglers almost the moment he was off school grounds.
Humans are cheap, easy, adaptable test subjects, very useful for certain kinds of projects. A blood mage, with more potent and changeable blood in their system, was especially perfect for experimentation. Nero was sold for a higher price than usual for his species, thanks to his magic and young age, a specially requested resource for an organization of military based alien scientists. He was taken far away from Earth, to an isolated corner of a distant solar system, a laboratory with too many bright lights constantly switched on. Here, he was treated as a wild animal, kept in questionable conditions and offered no social contact, the aliens neither speaking his language nor having any interest in doing so.
At first, they only peered at him, discussing, and took blood samples. Nero would've liked to claim he had a strategy for keeping his sanity and spirit in tact, here, but he didn't. He was thoroughly broken, several times, over, in this time of his life. There was no powering through it, no rebellion, he'd simply degraded into the animal he was treated as. He ate, he slept, he gave up on trying to understand the alien's language, or anything going on around him, for that matter. All he felt towards his past life was bitterness, so he blocked it out, started struggling to recall memory completely even in rare lucid moments when he went out of his way to try.
Eventually, when they were pleased enough with what the blood testing had led to, they were able to move on to fully working with Nero as a whole. Extensive surgery and behavioral therapy was done to carefully integrate a juvenile parasitic space monster into Nero's system, without killing the host, but instead mixing them into something far more threatening and versatile. Between wanting to minimize his suffering from all the surgery, and wanting to rid himself of boredom, Nero was an obedient and quick witted subject.
This led to less surgery, more training. Obstacle courses, puzzles, slaughtering and eating anything he was put into an enclosed space with. He went above and beyond in the project, a star for the research. He was perfect, adjusting fluidly to his new species attributes as though he'd been like this his whole life, an intelligent monster and the perfect murder machine. He was a charming glimpse of the future, the model to base a mass produced source of living weapons from. They called the project Stareater, after a classification of deepsea Earth fish that they were endeared to.
Despite all that work, in Nero's late teens, the project lost funding. The efforts towards making subjects besides Nero weren't going well. The alien's government was changing laws and ethics standards. Nero himself, while impressive, was deemed too aggressive. They had to subdue him with the bright lights far too often, as he'd snapped up one of the lead scientists after they'd gotten cocky about relaxing around him, as though he was a pet dog instead of one made to do nothing but hunt. The laboratory was slowly shutting down. The bright, blinding lights slowly turning off.
By this point, Nero had picked up a little of the alien language, and could get a grasp of what was happening. It was one part exciting, one part terrifying. Of course, he knew, he didn't want to keep doing this. He'd grown to enjoy it, but he disliked being treated as an animal, a tool. He still had his lingering sentience, and though it was often only barely present, it counted and made a difference in him. Except, he wasn't sure what he'd do when he didn't have this anymore. He'd been built to have a very specific status and expectation on him, and that, everything he was, would be gone. But it wasn't everything he was, was it now? There was something else. There'd been something else, before this.
After the lab had diminished in population and security, burning lights going out, Nero started his proper rebellion. Their cages weren't stronger than him anymore, they'd developed him too well, and it would be their downfall. He was created to kill, and he had no loyalties, no true obedience when you took survival out of the equation. Nero picked off the scientists and soldiers left over, had himself a feast with all their blood and flesh, tasted victory and revenge on his tongue, a satisfaction no ordinary monster would have settling into him and reminding him he was a person.
After this, came the second part of his plans. Dealing with the other prisoners and experiments. Some were human. There was a chance he could talk to them. His first attempt, he couldn't do anything other than pin the person down and rip into them. He was so hungry. Too hungry. The second, he tried, and his voice came out rough and scratchy from lack of use besides for inhuman screeching and grunts-- he couldn't construct a sentence, and he forgot what words to use, but his eyes were open and desperate, he was trying. This other test subject rejected him. They were panic stricken, absolutely terrified of him. They seemed to have understood their captor's language far better than he did, and knew what he was. He hadn't meant to kill this one, but the way they acted, like a frightened rabbit, a prey animal-- his instincts were on high alert and couldn't be ignored. He hadn't wanted to kill them.
After licking at his emotionally sore wounds for a while, he made a third attempt. He met a girl. Her name was Ashton. She had scars all over her body and a strikingly fierce look in her eyes. She spoke to him. Lonely and desperate, Nero was enamored. Ashton had spent her time here as a subpar test subject, but a magnificent schemer. She stole documents, she memorized the lab's layout, she'd fantasized ways to escape every day to keep herself sane. Ashton was different from Nero. He was both impressed by her and terribly jealous. She had all these plans, but of course, she wasn't brute force. Their cages held her and their weapons would end her life. With them working together, they were able to escape, hijacking a ship. That had gone questioningly, with Ashton barking instructions from the complicated manual and Nero learning on the go, but in the end, he was somehow a natural at flying. It was freeing, fun, and he had so much control.
Nero and Ashton had never been very romantic. He'd loved her, he thought, from the moment he saw her, but they were just two survivors awkwardly clawing their way out of a bad situation. There wasn't any time to stick around, get to know each other, or relax, but they did talk. They talked to each other from beginning to end. About stupid things. 90s cartoons and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and where they were from, back on Earth. Stupid, wonderful, childish things Nero found he ached for unbelievably. Once they found a civilized planet, and Nero seemed to be able to fend for himself, monster instincts muffled by his human traits and memories being dragged back out, they parted ways. Ashton joined up with very official, shiny space military. She didn't want to be weak again, and she wanted to help other people.
Nero went the opposite direction. As both a bred ruthless killer and a young man, a recruiting raider group-- known as The Bonepickers, a vulture-like animal as their mascot-- was extremely appealing to him. Even so, he was careful to be different here. He didn't go above and beyond, he was comfortable simply being an average lackey. It gave him a much needed break, and it lowered tensions with his fellow crew members. He was able to just be one of the guys, like this. He enjoyed that a passion and humor had been added to his usual violence. Raiders were cruel and crude, but they liked having fun.
The fact that death was around every corner in this part of space wasn't something that inspired depression here, it was a simple, cold fact of life, and one you could accept and turn into a reason to make the best of every second you spent alive, and the people you were with. Raiders weren't much for loyalty and standards (things Nero didn't have much of anyway), but his friends and their shenanigans were still great to him. It didn't matter if someone would be dead tomorrow, or if they'd be stabbing you in the back, because in the moment, you made the most of everything. No rules, shameless emotions, thrill seeking joyrides. Nero fell head over heels in love with this lifestyle. It was beautiful, to him, where would've been petty or intimidating to most.
When Nero was twenty-five years old, about eight years as a raider under his belt, there was a lot of drama he wasn't a fan of going on. The military was coming down hard on raider groups and ravaged areas of space, especially The Bonepickers and their territories, as they'd been an infamous pest for a long while. It all eventually came down to a ridiculously big battle at one of the military's recently set up bases, almost all of the Bonepickers banding together to ambush and raid them. It was a hopeless looking bloodbath. Either side could come through and ruin the other, it seemed like. Sure, there was a chance the raiders would win, but it wasn't guaranteed. Nero was sick of this, it wasn't at all what he'd started with and loved anymore. He thought having the group be so huge added to it. You got more attention from the wrong people, that way, opposed to how it would work with a smaller crew. He wasn't interested in space gang wars!
It was easy. Hilariously easy. Nero wasn't a very notable Bonepickers member at all, he made sure not to be. Slipping away from the fighting was simple. A few people would make it out, but not many. The fighting was in the cargo bay, and nobody was wearing a space-proof suit. He opened the airlock. Bye bye, both groups. Welcome back, independence. It was a despicable move, absolutely. Completely unforgivable. He didn't care. One of the survivors, a tiny little badass by the name of Kek (Nero would never stop giggling at his friend being named this), decided to stick with him and help kill off other survivors that were pissed off. They sort of counted as their own space pirate crew, now, and he gave her vice-captain status to sooth her salt over mass murder occurring just after she was promoted. She never lets him forget about it, though. She never lets him forget about ANYTHING.
After that, they did their own thing. They got a little ship, which Nero fondly dubbed Bel-Air, and became The Vultures, taking the Earth vulture as their mascot and a nod (or a mockery of?) to their old group, Bonepickers, which was now fully dead and ashes after years of crime. They've picked up and lost crew members over the years, always keeping the Vultures small. It's better, because they get more loot this way.
And a short time after that, Ashton reappeared in Nero's life, of all things. She'd heard about his being responsible for wiping out part of her military group and his own whole raider group, and she was pissed. Except... less so, when she realized who he was. What a coincidence. She didn't put up with his shit, not at all, but he could tell she was soft on him. They never saw each other for long. It was always a chase, a heated argument, a stolen kiss, gone again. And sometimes, they talked. About stupid things. 90s cartoons and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and where they were from, back on Earth. Stupid, wonderful, childish things Nero still found he ached for, and now, he ached for her, too.
It was dumb, because he was dumb. He took years to even ask her on a date, and when they finally got together, when they finally seemed to stop and smell the roses, sit together in her apartment instead of all heart racing adventure, hold hands, it went to shit. Her superior caught them together, and he despised Nero for what he'd done and kept doing. He tried to kill Nero, while he was vulnerable, like this. They blinded him with bright lights and would've been trying to pierce through his chest and heart. Ashton put herself in the way, and she told Nero to run. For once, he didn't want to be the selfish coward, but it was too late to be anything but that. So he did. He ran.
Heartbroken from head to toe but with raider teachings of 'no funerals, no mourning, flinch and you're dead too', he couldn't address it for a long while. What you did, in these situations, wasn't sinking into depression. It was retribution. Nero was a space pirate through and through, so that was exactly what he chased after. He dragged his crew into an idiotic revenge mission, and some of them left, but others stayed, especially when he promised the possessions and money of a renowned military leader. There were no big battles this time, like there'd been with the Bonepickers. This was all personal, all vicious, just the way Nero liked it. They went after this man in his own home and they took him down for good, a twisted justice served for Ashton. Nero had the honors of eating him alive, and made sure to never forget how he tasted.
Nero settled down, following that, and while it's painful, he's moved on and gotten back to endless space shenanigans. It's been a couple of years since then, and he's had the Vultures together overall for a decent while. He has fun with life, he likes being himself, he likes his crew, and he likes what they do. He has it pretty good, he'd say. Being alive and still standing feels sweet.
Most recently, he's been attracted to the new Space Station, and bought an apartment there. When on breaks from traveling and crime, Nero and his crew hang out at the Station, ship kept safe in a shadier docking area. Nero looked at his kingdom, he was finally there-- to sit on his throne as the Prince of Bel-Air.
Due to their poverty, while they wanted to, his parents couldn't go with him to Manta Carlos, needing to hold down the jobs and living space they already had in San Francisco. He promised to call them every day, and they promised to send him care packages. He traveled over by boat, always a lover of the sea and waves, something special in the saltwater air and wind in his hair, the intrigue and wonder of traveling to a new place.
The first two days at the island were very dazzling. Nero was spending a lot of running about, having paperwork and dorm matters settled, exploring everything. He read all the school pamphlets, looked in all the classrooms, felt a burning pride as soon as he found out the Headmistress was black, just like him. It was nice, to have someone relatable and close at the top of the food chain. This, he decided, was the place for him. He could see his entire future in front of him, like this. He would study the beautiful, indiscriminating thing that was magic, grow into someone his parents could really show off, be able to support them, himself, and others that needed it.
He didn't even last halfway into the third day. When he went out early in the morning, heading to the city to explore the shops, even with an Academy guardian accompanying him, he was far too hyperactive, out of sight within seconds. It didn't take a lot of effort. Nero never thought wonderland paradise on earth could be anything besides a safe haven. Refugees banding together to become something greater. He was snatched up by alien smugglers almost the moment he was off school grounds.
Humans are cheap, easy, adaptable test subjects, very useful for certain kinds of projects. A blood mage, with more potent and changeable blood in their system, was especially perfect for experimentation. Nero was sold for a higher price than usual for his species, thanks to his magic and young age, a specially requested resource for an organization of military based alien scientists. He was taken far away from Earth, to an isolated corner of a distant solar system, a laboratory with too many bright lights constantly switched on. Here, he was treated as a wild animal, kept in questionable conditions and offered no social contact, the aliens neither speaking his language nor having any interest in doing so.
At first, they only peered at him, discussing, and took blood samples. Nero would've liked to claim he had a strategy for keeping his sanity and spirit in tact, here, but he didn't. He was thoroughly broken, several times, over, in this time of his life. There was no powering through it, no rebellion, he'd simply degraded into the animal he was treated as. He ate, he slept, he gave up on trying to understand the alien's language, or anything going on around him, for that matter. All he felt towards his past life was bitterness, so he blocked it out, started struggling to recall memory completely even in rare lucid moments when he went out of his way to try.
Eventually, when they were pleased enough with what the blood testing had led to, they were able to move on to fully working with Nero as a whole. Extensive surgery and behavioral therapy was done to carefully integrate a juvenile parasitic space monster into Nero's system, without killing the host, but instead mixing them into something far more threatening and versatile. Between wanting to minimize his suffering from all the surgery, and wanting to rid himself of boredom, Nero was an obedient and quick witted subject.
This led to less surgery, more training. Obstacle courses, puzzles, slaughtering and eating anything he was put into an enclosed space with. He went above and beyond in the project, a star for the research. He was perfect, adjusting fluidly to his new species attributes as though he'd been like this his whole life, an intelligent monster and the perfect murder machine. He was a charming glimpse of the future, the model to base a mass produced source of living weapons from. They called the project Stareater, after a classification of deepsea Earth fish that they were endeared to.
Despite all that work, in Nero's late teens, the project lost funding. The efforts towards making subjects besides Nero weren't going well. The alien's government was changing laws and ethics standards. Nero himself, while impressive, was deemed too aggressive. They had to subdue him with the bright lights far too often, as he'd snapped up one of the lead scientists after they'd gotten cocky about relaxing around him, as though he was a pet dog instead of one made to do nothing but hunt. The laboratory was slowly shutting down. The bright, blinding lights slowly turning off.
By this point, Nero had picked up a little of the alien language, and could get a grasp of what was happening. It was one part exciting, one part terrifying. Of course, he knew, he didn't want to keep doing this. He'd grown to enjoy it, but he disliked being treated as an animal, a tool. He still had his lingering sentience, and though it was often only barely present, it counted and made a difference in him. Except, he wasn't sure what he'd do when he didn't have this anymore. He'd been built to have a very specific status and expectation on him, and that, everything he was, would be gone. But it wasn't everything he was, was it now? There was something else. There'd been something else, before this.
After the lab had diminished in population and security, burning lights going out, Nero started his proper rebellion. Their cages weren't stronger than him anymore, they'd developed him too well, and it would be their downfall. He was created to kill, and he had no loyalties, no true obedience when you took survival out of the equation. Nero picked off the scientists and soldiers left over, had himself a feast with all their blood and flesh, tasted victory and revenge on his tongue, a satisfaction no ordinary monster would have settling into him and reminding him he was a person.
After this, came the second part of his plans. Dealing with the other prisoners and experiments. Some were human. There was a chance he could talk to them. His first attempt, he couldn't do anything other than pin the person down and rip into them. He was so hungry. Too hungry. The second, he tried, and his voice came out rough and scratchy from lack of use besides for inhuman screeching and grunts-- he couldn't construct a sentence, and he forgot what words to use, but his eyes were open and desperate, he was trying. This other test subject rejected him. They were panic stricken, absolutely terrified of him. They seemed to have understood their captor's language far better than he did, and knew what he was. He hadn't meant to kill this one, but the way they acted, like a frightened rabbit, a prey animal-- his instincts were on high alert and couldn't be ignored. He hadn't wanted to kill them.
After licking at his emotionally sore wounds for a while, he made a third attempt. He met a girl. Her name was Ashton. She had scars all over her body and a strikingly fierce look in her eyes. She spoke to him. Lonely and desperate, Nero was enamored. Ashton had spent her time here as a subpar test subject, but a magnificent schemer. She stole documents, she memorized the lab's layout, she'd fantasized ways to escape every day to keep herself sane. Ashton was different from Nero. He was both impressed by her and terribly jealous. She had all these plans, but of course, she wasn't brute force. Their cages held her and their weapons would end her life. With them working together, they were able to escape, hijacking a ship. That had gone questioningly, with Ashton barking instructions from the complicated manual and Nero learning on the go, but in the end, he was somehow a natural at flying. It was freeing, fun, and he had so much control.
Nero and Ashton had never been very romantic. He'd loved her, he thought, from the moment he saw her, but they were just two survivors awkwardly clawing their way out of a bad situation. There wasn't any time to stick around, get to know each other, or relax, but they did talk. They talked to each other from beginning to end. About stupid things. 90s cartoons and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and where they were from, back on Earth. Stupid, wonderful, childish things Nero found he ached for unbelievably. Once they found a civilized planet, and Nero seemed to be able to fend for himself, monster instincts muffled by his human traits and memories being dragged back out, they parted ways. Ashton joined up with very official, shiny space military. She didn't want to be weak again, and she wanted to help other people.
Nero went the opposite direction. As both a bred ruthless killer and a young man, a recruiting raider group-- known as The Bonepickers, a vulture-like animal as their mascot-- was extremely appealing to him. Even so, he was careful to be different here. He didn't go above and beyond, he was comfortable simply being an average lackey. It gave him a much needed break, and it lowered tensions with his fellow crew members. He was able to just be one of the guys, like this. He enjoyed that a passion and humor had been added to his usual violence. Raiders were cruel and crude, but they liked having fun.
The fact that death was around every corner in this part of space wasn't something that inspired depression here, it was a simple, cold fact of life, and one you could accept and turn into a reason to make the best of every second you spent alive, and the people you were with. Raiders weren't much for loyalty and standards (things Nero didn't have much of anyway), but his friends and their shenanigans were still great to him. It didn't matter if someone would be dead tomorrow, or if they'd be stabbing you in the back, because in the moment, you made the most of everything. No rules, shameless emotions, thrill seeking joyrides. Nero fell head over heels in love with this lifestyle. It was beautiful, to him, where would've been petty or intimidating to most.
When Nero was twenty-five years old, about eight years as a raider under his belt, there was a lot of drama he wasn't a fan of going on. The military was coming down hard on raider groups and ravaged areas of space, especially The Bonepickers and their territories, as they'd been an infamous pest for a long while. It all eventually came down to a ridiculously big battle at one of the military's recently set up bases, almost all of the Bonepickers banding together to ambush and raid them. It was a hopeless looking bloodbath. Either side could come through and ruin the other, it seemed like. Sure, there was a chance the raiders would win, but it wasn't guaranteed. Nero was sick of this, it wasn't at all what he'd started with and loved anymore. He thought having the group be so huge added to it. You got more attention from the wrong people, that way, opposed to how it would work with a smaller crew. He wasn't interested in space gang wars!
It was easy. Hilariously easy. Nero wasn't a very notable Bonepickers member at all, he made sure not to be. Slipping away from the fighting was simple. A few people would make it out, but not many. The fighting was in the cargo bay, and nobody was wearing a space-proof suit. He opened the airlock. Bye bye, both groups. Welcome back, independence. It was a despicable move, absolutely. Completely unforgivable. He didn't care. One of the survivors, a tiny little badass by the name of Kek (Nero would never stop giggling at his friend being named this), decided to stick with him and help kill off other survivors that were pissed off. They sort of counted as their own space pirate crew, now, and he gave her vice-captain status to sooth her salt over mass murder occurring just after she was promoted. She never lets him forget about it, though. She never lets him forget about ANYTHING.
After that, they did their own thing. They got a little ship, which Nero fondly dubbed Bel-Air, and became The Vultures, taking the Earth vulture as their mascot and a nod (or a mockery of?) to their old group, Bonepickers, which was now fully dead and ashes after years of crime. They've picked up and lost crew members over the years, always keeping the Vultures small. It's better, because they get more loot this way.
And a short time after that, Ashton reappeared in Nero's life, of all things. She'd heard about his being responsible for wiping out part of her military group and his own whole raider group, and she was pissed. Except... less so, when she realized who he was. What a coincidence. She didn't put up with his shit, not at all, but he could tell she was soft on him. They never saw each other for long. It was always a chase, a heated argument, a stolen kiss, gone again. And sometimes, they talked. About stupid things. 90s cartoons and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and where they were from, back on Earth. Stupid, wonderful, childish things Nero still found he ached for, and now, he ached for her, too.
It was dumb, because he was dumb. He took years to even ask her on a date, and when they finally got together, when they finally seemed to stop and smell the roses, sit together in her apartment instead of all heart racing adventure, hold hands, it went to shit. Her superior caught them together, and he despised Nero for what he'd done and kept doing. He tried to kill Nero, while he was vulnerable, like this. They blinded him with bright lights and would've been trying to pierce through his chest and heart. Ashton put herself in the way, and she told Nero to run. For once, he didn't want to be the selfish coward, but it was too late to be anything but that. So he did. He ran.
Heartbroken from head to toe but with raider teachings of 'no funerals, no mourning, flinch and you're dead too', he couldn't address it for a long while. What you did, in these situations, wasn't sinking into depression. It was retribution. Nero was a space pirate through and through, so that was exactly what he chased after. He dragged his crew into an idiotic revenge mission, and some of them left, but others stayed, especially when he promised the possessions and money of a renowned military leader. There were no big battles this time, like there'd been with the Bonepickers. This was all personal, all vicious, just the way Nero liked it. They went after this man in his own home and they took him down for good, a twisted justice served for Ashton. Nero had the honors of eating him alive, and made sure to never forget how he tasted.
Nero settled down, following that, and while it's painful, he's moved on and gotten back to endless space shenanigans. It's been a couple of years since then, and he's had the Vultures together overall for a decent while. He has fun with life, he likes being himself, he likes his crew, and he likes what they do. He has it pretty good, he'd say. Being alive and still standing feels sweet.
Most recently, he's been attracted to the new Space Station, and bought an apartment there. When on breaks from traveling and crime, Nero and his crew hang out at the Station, ship kept safe in a shadier docking area. Nero looked at his kingdom, he was finally there-- to sit on his throne as the Prince of Bel-Air.
Extra
Worst Memory: Being kidnapped and taken to space, then experimented on, as a child. Death of his girlfriend Ashton.
Best Memory: Watching 90s shows, escaping the laboratory, time spent with Ashton, shenanigans.
Likes: Crime, memes, candy crush, sex, blood, meat, people, retro aesthetic, talking, trash.
Dislikes: Rules, military, rival space pirates, cleaning.
Weaknesses: Light, academically inclined matters, selfish, messy.
Strengths: Brute force, instincts, surviving, witty, bullshitting, comfort with self.
Fears: Loss of free will and choices, caring about people only to lose them.
Habits/Hobbies: Memeing, playing mobile games, having sex, getting his ass kicked, thrill seeking, teaching aliens 90s slang and telling them it's hip.
Skills/Talents: Criminal activities, combat, being annoying, beatboxing, cooking (AKA frying anything available until it tastes good enough to eat, so he's a lifesaver), whistling, hunting, never shutting up.
Best Memory: Watching 90s shows, escaping the laboratory, time spent with Ashton, shenanigans.
Likes: Crime, memes, candy crush, sex, blood, meat, people, retro aesthetic, talking, trash.
Dislikes: Rules, military, rival space pirates, cleaning.
Weaknesses: Light, academically inclined matters, selfish, messy.
Strengths: Brute force, instincts, surviving, witty, bullshitting, comfort with self.
Fears: Loss of free will and choices, caring about people only to lose them.
Habits/Hobbies: Memeing, playing mobile games, having sex, getting his ass kicked, thrill seeking, teaching aliens 90s slang and telling them it's hip.
Skills/Talents: Criminal activities, combat, being annoying, beatboxing, cooking (AKA frying anything available until it tastes good enough to eat, so he's a lifesaver), whistling, hunting, never shutting up.
Additional Information
Fight me, space police, other pirates, and innocent tourists thinking their spaceship will be left alone. Nero's ready for shenanigans any day, any time. Take him on, punks.
The Vultures and their antics are pretty well known in space, usually dreaded, and some places hate the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song thanks to Nero having it as a calling card.
The Vultures and their antics are pretty well known in space, usually dreaded, and some places hate the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song thanks to Nero having it as a calling card.
