Skeksis
The Basics
♥ Character Name: Skeksis
♥ Age: Undefined
♥ Gender/Pronouns: Male
♥ Species: Monster
♥ Occupation: Seafarer, Brewery Owner, Internet Geek
♥ Faceclaim(optional): N/A
♥ Do you play any other characters on this site? If so, who?: Wisp
Strengths/Abilities
Snow Warning: Skeksis' natural magic over ice makes him a formidable opponent, especially when his natural magic is combined with all of his muscle. Expect him to get creative with water and ice. This also allows him to have freezing ice breath and a permafrost armor that's physically tough to break. When he's got the permafrost armor on, his scales will turn an off-lavender color and the very air around him will freeze, making him heavily resistant to attacks. Intense fire melts the armor, and the ice in general.
Maelstrom: This isn't really an attack, but the name of his weapon. Passed down to him by his father, it is a shapeshifting weapon that's been enchanted to use water magic and capable of being magically summoned no matter where Skeksis is. He knows the ins and outs of this weapon so he'll use it to it's full potential which includes making quite the splash. Used in conjunction with Snow Warning and it's a terrifying sight to behold. It can become a sword, a spear, or a trident and shift between the three on mental call. The larger it's form is, the heavier it is, and the more muscle required to use it, meaning that Skeksis sacrifices finesse and speed for bone-shattering swings. This weapon allows him to teleport by cutting through the dimensional space, allowing him to dive in dimensional waters. The exit isn't subtle at all, as a growing puddle of water will bubble up from the ground and he'd fly out of it. No the puddles don't stay. They dry up quickly on their own after being successfully used. The puddles can be cut off by scalding or burning the water, forcing him to emerge somewhere else. This weapon offers the teleportation. Without it, he can only slither to his destination. A good twist on the handle and orange magic blazes forward, forcing the opponent to keep on moving, but like the other powers this weapon offers, it's situational as everything it makes will drink up it's magic.
Soothing Waters: Speaking of a water weapon, it is also able to cut open a pool of healing energy. Dunk anyone in, human or otherwise, and it will heal them for as long as they're in the pool. The pool is stationary, and does not open the way to teleportation, so Skeksis would need to find somewhere completely safe to open up a healing pool. It unfortunately drains most of the water magic out of the sword, so after opening up a Healing Pool, he'd need to soak the weapon in sea water for a while.
Camouflage: A quick ripple of his scales and fins allow him to change colors, blending in with his environment to the slightest detail. This works underwater as well as above water. He's really good at it, but any sound he makes would give away his position. He would have to sit entirely still and not make any sound at all. He'll use this to set up ambushes to his enemies and stupid jumpscares to his friends. Any detail changes to the environment while camouflaged will force him to either ripple his scales again with colors to mimic the sudden changes or just drop the stealth mission entirely.
Battle Ready: Skeksis' girth is massive. He's huge for a Monster and quite strong. It's all muscle. He's a beast underwater and is designed to master naval combat easily. His senses have hyper-awareness to the ever-changing environment, making surprise attacks against him a challenge. Not impossible, just challenging. He's no slouch on land either! He can live on land or water due to having both lungs and gills. That tail is very powerful if it has to carry all that weight but unfortunately he isn't able to jump well. Surprisingly fast for something of his size, his punches can crush in cars and shatter solid sheets of ice. Unfortunately, due to his size, he can't get into small spaces. Size sometimes does matter. His huge hands can barely hold a smartphone in their palms without smashing it! He can't even get through human-sized doorways normally! Being this burly, he sacrifices dime-accurate movement for wide swings. He has a lot of stamina, and only gets more of it when he becomes a force of nature.
Force of Nature: Skeksis mentally whips himself into a growing rage, his magic surging and making him grow in size as the fight goes on. His scales turn red and his strength, speed, and stamina expand to terrifying heights. However, being in this state for too long causes him to tire out quicker. He is also unable to use any of his ice magic while in this state, as that particular magic is fueling it. Once it's over, he will shrink back to regular size and his scales will lose the angry red color. Unfortunately for him, he'll be so tired that he can't even pick up his weapon anymore. He wouldn't even want to move. This is his "special attack", and he only uses it when there's no other option left. His permafrost armor will shatter like an eggshell due to the sudden growth of his body, rendering it useless. He is still very much aware of his surroundings and he can use the sudden explosion in speed to back away and flee. If he pushes himself too far with this, it will kill him as it will drain all of his magic completely.
Inabilities/Weaknesses
Fishsticks: Despite him being a geek with the internet and technology, he's entirely weak to electricity. Having a weapon that wields water makes him especially vulnerable to electricity no matter where it's from. His very need to be soaked in order to survive above water makes him vulnerable. Too much will kill him. Even using the teleport dive makes him vulnerable as the entry to the dimensional tunnel is still open. It would force him up out of it, stunned and confused. The permafrost armor he can make doesn't do anything against an electrical current.
Soft Shelled: Skeksis has soft, smooth scales for something of his power. His permafrost armor gives him the protection needed to withstand attacks but without it, he can easily be gunned down, blown up, chopped, skewered, bludgeoned to death, and all other sorts of horrible ways to get hurt. Poison will kill him, fire will kill eventually as it evaporates the water he'd normally be soaked with, etc.
Dried Out: He's dependent on water to live above ground. Every two weeks or so, he's forced to douse himself with water or he'll get ill. If near an intense source of heat, he'll start to dry up faster, which means he'll either need to get soaked from the constantly-soaked
Maelstrom, or find another source of water to sit in. When ill, his scales will turn a sickly gray and fall out. His fins will be the consistency of a wet paper bag instead of thick sails. If left too long without water, he'll turn to dust. Slow-acting toxins also achieve this horrible effect. He'll be incapacitated when ill.
Ravenous: His size and power needs a food source, which is all the protein he can get. He's constantly eating to fuel all that might and magic. He'll eat several pounds of meat in ten minutes. He can clear the fish and meat aisles in the supermarket in less than an hour. In the sea, he'll consume sharks, dolphins, the occasional tuna, and other large marine life. He will eat other sources of meat like bacon, red meat, chicken, insects, you name it, he'll eat it. The bigger it is (or the more protein it has), the more it'll offer, and the less hungry he'll be in the long run. He's usually found with something hanging out of his mouth, like a raw fish or steak. He is not opposed to eating other sources of food, but they usually don't offer as much protein as meat (yet they do fill him up, which stalls the eventual decline of health without it). He'd even have rich protein shakes and meal replacements if it means getting what he needs. If he doesn't get a steady flow of protein, he'll suffer the consequences. When cut off, his magic will start sucking on his own body just to keep him afloat. If being dehydrated won't kill him, starvation will. When too malnourished, he'll go into a "hangry" state, turning temporarily feral just for a scrap of meat. Having less muscle and less magic make this state useless if Skeksis is successfully contained. When given food, he'll snap out of it. If not, he'll snap out of it with his last few breaths of life.
Breathless: Skeksis is able to drown both on land and water. If something constricts the gills on his neck and prevents them from opening, he can drown in water. If something forces the gills to stay open while on land, he'll dry drown. He can't forget where he is or he'll regret it. This explains why he takes such good care of the hidden gills on his neck and is environmentally aware of what's going on. It's a very easy way to get him to spill information that only he might know.
Goliath: His size is a blessing as well as a bane. Smart humans can use his own wide-sweeping attacks against him and slow him down. They can use his size to their advantage by kiting him around and getting into narrow alleys. They can whip him into a frenzy on purpose then wait from a safe distance until he tires out. After he tires out, that's it, he's fillet. They can do whatever they want with him afterward. They can use the high ground to their advantage as he can't jump well or climb walls well. He's also very heavy and that can get him into trouble too. Humans have so many tools at their disposal to take Skeksis down it's unfair.
Personality
He's a quiet, intelligent individual who owns his own brewery company, is a total geek, and puts on a bold, brave face to hide just how soft and broken he really is. He doesn't run off and pick fights with people despite his intimidating size yet people think they should pick fights with him. He'll joke with friends (sometimes joking about himself and his lack of feet), he'll prank his friends, and he'd just hang out with friends. He's a gamer and enjoys watching stupid videos on youtube. He's afraid of immensely high heights to the point where he'll cry like a scared child. He donates to wildlife preservation and to feeding children. He volunteers at aquariums and freelance jobs where heavy lifting or demolition is needed. He even ice sculpts as a hobby, selling them online at reasonable prices (Unlike Muffet who has no tact in the financial department). He constantly tries to keep himself busy because if he isn't busy he'll drop into a spiraling depression that makes him not want to be busy. Friends are a welcome distraction from the broken stare that glares back whenever he looks at his reflection.
He pours every emotion he has when in combat, making him fight that much harder. It's cathartic, destructive and dangerous both to himself and everyone else around him.
Whenever friends are over at his coastal home, he hides the journals that he has to keep them from seeing them. He'll hide everything that he doesn't want them to see. Skeksis tries to convince himself everyday that he can shoulder it himself. He can do everything by himself. By this logic it means he lies to himself daily. If it gets too much he'll blow up and destroy everything around him in a fit of fiery rage, then he'll regret it and submerge to the sea. He's a complete and utter mess hiding in a clam shell. It'll take a while for him to come out of it. He doesn't like himself, at all, for numerous reasons.
Life Story
Skeksis is older than he looks. Before the war, he had five sisters and six brothers, all of which were older than him by about a few minutes. He was, unfortunately, the runt of the clutch. Due to how tiny he was in comparison to the rest of his large family, Skeksis was always supervised (much to his annoyance) and cared for by one of his siblings if the parents were out hunting, which was often. His coastal home was huge; his people practically covered the coastline. They were a proud bunch that used both might and magic to overwhelm their foes in a furious tidal wave, but were kind to Monsters and Humans who've earned their trust. They felt it necessary to be what they were because humans were an untrustworthy lot, being deceptive liars and all, and Asgore may need help when the humans would eventually turn on them. Needless to say, when surrounded by such powerful Monsters, things got rough for somebody who's tinier than most. Friendly brawls were common as were magical duels. A few of his brothers and sisters excelled at magic more-so than the other siblings and often argued at who would teach him how to use magic. The oldest sibling argued that each one of them, each day, would train him. Eventually Skeksis got the hang of ice magic. That surprised the siblings as they either had electric magic or water magic.
It was several weeks later after the self-discovery that the siblings discovered that their mother was able to use ice magic. Ice magic was rare among Skeksis' "breed", and those who had it didn't show it as it was looked down on as a coward's tool. Skeksis could've argued that electric magic was the same "coward's tool" but he'd get beaten within an inch of his life by the more stubborn and traditional of his kind, so he wisely kept his mouth shut.
She found out that the runt was able to use her magic, so she trained him herself. He got good at it. This spurred on friendly sibling competitions to see who could perform the best tricks and defensive feats with their magic. It always ended with a punch to the face. Skeksis wasn't punched, win or lose, as he would break easily under the force. If anything, he got frequent hugs from his sisters and shoulder rides from his brothers. He liked it, but he didn't feel like he had the freedom he wanted. Being pandered to constantly due to his teeny size didn't sit well with him. His brothers were powerful and his sisters agile, his father commanding and his mother wise, yet he himself could barely break open an oyster shell. He tried to physically train himself when nobody else was looking, but had to explain the bruises after since he kept accidentally hitting himself with the stick he used. He wanted to be like his siblings but wasn't doing it right. His father decided to train his tiny boy, and during training, Skeksis seemed to disappear. Smirking, his father told him that the camouflage trait skipped a generation and that he was lucky to have it. This compliment caught him off guard and the towering parent won over his son.
He learned not to get distracted that day, and from that day forward, Skeksis became better, bigger, and stronger.
The camouflage he abused vigorously, the ice magic he used willingly, and his swings became more focused and less clumsy. After finally beating his dad, he was rewarded with his old man's far older blade, Maelstrom. It had seen a lot of use over the years up the family tree so it definitely accumulated some sweet enchantments. The blade was designed to get more powerful per wielder as one enchantment from the previous owner was traditionally put on the weapon. His mother had suggested to her husband that he put a healing enchantment on it because of, well, motherly instincts and tiny youngest son. He agreed, and that was his one enchantment for his generation. His siblings were in an uproar but they were quickly calmed when they realized that their youngest sibling had the harder life because, well, he was the runt. He didn't even come up to his father's midriff and he still grew up despite the odds stacked against him. It was inspiring. Normally runts didn't make it due to the hungry wildlife!
Despite the rigorous training and "adulthood coronation", time never stopped. A few days after that special day, war broke out.
His entire family went to war. Every one of his kind went to war. Even he went to war, much to his fright. The humans were scarier than he had anticipated. His kin put up a fight, but were ultimately cut down. One by one, his siblings were dusted, the growing wind carrying their remains to the sea. A group of humans cut him off from the rest of his family, along with one of his sisters who told him to hide in the cave. There was a hole at the bottom of the cave which made him stop his crazed retreat. In a last ditch effort to save what family she had left, she shoved Skeksis down the hole and took a final stand against the approaching humans who cornered her. When he landed, he immediately camouflaged despite the agony in his ribs. The humans never noticed him down below, even as his sister's dust followed him.
Unable to climb, having bruised ribs, and covered in his sister's dust, Skeksis made his way through the colossal cavern, where he eventually collapsed from exhaustion in the river that naturally flowed through the caverns. His weight kept him from being washed away by the current, and was down there sleeping even as the other monsters arrived. The dust washed away, but the agony did not. He remained in the river, eating the fish that would come by and denying a certain somebody any chance of making out with a fish underground. Occasionally he would come out and mingle with other Monsters, but would disappear as quickly as he had arrived. He lurked the marshes of Waterfall, out of sight and out of range of the Echo Flowers. When the human came down, he felt something was even more wrong than before. Engaging them would be a very bad idea.
He hid from them until the barrier broke.
When it did, he made the mad dash for freedom, leaving the mountain in hopes of finding his family. Even ten years after freedom, he's still looking. He had created a brewery company in hopes of getting the funding needed to keep searching without much hassle from the humans. He gained as much knowledge as he could about the new world, and that humans were not the same as the humans who killed his kind. He's successful at everything else... but finding his family. He needs all the luck he can get if they're still alive.
Sample Roleplay
The aggressive clicking of keys on a keyboard resonated within the otherwise quiet room.
He had many a sleepless night trying to find his family. The barrels of rum that he had from the surplus at his brewery and nets full of fish fueled the sleepless nights. Search engines came up with nothing. Government websites came up with nothing. Even history pages came up with nothing. Eventually, he had to take a break as his eyes were starting to itch from staring at the screen too long. The sea dragon turned away from the monitor, using a thumb and finger to rub the bridge of his nose in irritation. Skeksis ended up turning off the computer since nothing was coming up and he needed to busy himself with something else. He passed a mirror which made him pause. Did he dare look at himself while in this state? Curiosity said yes but everything else said no but the damage was already done. He found himself staring back into dark circles beneath bloodshot eyes, paler blue-green scales, and dried up tear tracks. Reminders of what he was looking for that he may never find again.
He lazily slithered away from the reflection, forcing himself not to care about his appearance.
His dark, grotto-like home was haphazardly decorated with all kinds of ocean-related stuff, from anchors on the wall to fishing nets and shark jaws as trophies. Sea shells were strung about with fishing line and the occasional miniature aquarium with it's own sustained ecosystem sat in a few corners. Most of them were just collective decorations that he found while riding the ocean currents. It was all replaceable so he didn't have any deep connections with them. Any electronics he had were designed to be airtight to keep moisture out.
I need a good soaking. Luckily he had a pool that had a self-recycling waterfall at one end. The sound of a waterfall or rain soothed him. Still being lazy and not wanting to do much, he gracelessly dropped in with a splash, face down into the water. When his weight started sinking him down was when he opened up his gills, taking in the clean water. He decided to sit there, at the bottom of the pool, watching the bubbles that the mini waterfall made skim the surface.
The more he was left to silence, the more tears the water masked.