Individual Character's full name: Alejandro “Andro” Dantes
Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: Hummerman
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Date of Birth: January 3, 1989
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: Denver, Colorado
Nationality: American
Ethnicity/ Cultural Heritage: Filipino
AppearanceHair color and style: Black hair
Skin Tone: Light brown sugar skin
Eye Color: Dark brown
Height: 5’11”
Build: Athletic build
Visible mutation: Greyish feathers on forearms and chest that are an iridescent green when looked at the right angle
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: N/A
Other features: N/A
Everyday clothing style: Andro likes to dress for the occasion, whether he’s in a suit and tie, business casual, or going hiking, he brings the appropriate gear of good quality. Neither too high end, but also not to the level of recycled clothing.
Uniform: N/A
Sleepwear: He likes to sleep fully clothed, with matching top and bottom PJ’s. He prefers striped PJ’s.
Miscellaneous clothing: Will carry his sunglasses around even during the most overcast skies. He also wears a fanny pack that matches his outfit, in which he stores his supplies for his hummingbirds.
CharacterPersonality: Andro is a goofy but driven dude, who has a huge bucket list that he wants to achieve in his lifetime. He is a son of two hardworking parents but who also valued living life as an adventure, and he has taken on this attitude.
Andro’s largely egalitarian and desires for others to be treated fairly. He is a huge advocate for the environment, wildlife and for social justice. He spends many hours doing activities that either furthers his knowledge for the subjects he admires or is actively promoting their advancement.
He’s also rather passionate and can get carried away in whatever he does. High energy, likes to stay caffeinated, and is always up for a good time. Furthermore, Andro likes all things hip, fashionable, and trendy. He has a pretty substantial social media presence, often posting selfies of the things he’s doing. He sometimes sees himself as a celebrity, but also believes that with fame comes a lot of responsibility. He has a youtube channel where he regularly uploads updates on his life and the lives of his hummingbirds.
Andro loves to process externally and with others. He’s staunchly democratic and wants to hear everyone’s voices. Sometimes, this leads him to delay decisions until all have spoken, but many seem to admire his thoroughness.
Andro is a devoted husband, loving father, and respectable son and takes pride in these things. When all goes wrong, he first turns to family to get through the tough times. He is quick to play, and is a hard worker, but fumbles when it comes to finances and the nitty gritty of daily living. Thankfully his loving wife helps him out in that regard.
On the flip of all of this is that Andro suffers with bouts of anxiety. He can tend to people please, and finds it difficult to not always be doing something. Thus, he can overload himself, overcommit, and can be extremely harsh on himself if something goes wrong. He also falls into FOMO a lot, naturally. Thankfully, he has people who support him and who he relies on to keep him well balanced.
Hobbies/ Interests: Hiking, rock-climbing, vlogging, spending time with his family and birds, visiting new places, doing new things, meeting new people.
Job or part time job and description: Currently a researcher and advocate for ecological preservation at their headquarters in NY. Is planning on applying to Haven.
Fears/ phobias/ concerns: Fears being shut out by others, does not like to disappoint people, especially his family
Special talents: Pretty good at Karaoke, humming and whistling. Also a pretty good chef.
MoralityGood/ bad/ neutral/ other: A morally steadfast, and upstanding citizen
MutationsMutation description: Anti-Gravity Hummingbirds!
Iridescent Feathers: Andro has colored feathers sprouting from his forearms and chest. These feathers are about 2 to 3 inches long, and are slightly uncomfortable. They are an iridescent bright green when looked at at the right angle, otherwise they appear dark grey.
Hummingbird Progenitor: When Andro picks off one of his feathers (or if they fall off) and he coats it with his saliva, the feathers turn into little hummingbirds! The calamus of the feather turns into the hummingbird’s beak and its body develops from the rest of the feather. Without Andro’s saliva coating, however, the feather remains a feather. It takes about five minutes for each feather to form into a fully developed hummingbird (approximately a 21 day-old hummingbird) that is able to fly.
Nectar-Saliva: Andro’s salivary glands produce a nectar that aids in the generation and growth of his hummingbirds. It also slightly colors everything he eats, though has grown used to the taste.
Empathic-Link: Andro and his hummingbirds all share an emotional link. This means Andro can feel whenever one of his birds experiences a change in emotion, and they in turn can feel him. He can also ‘feel’ how distant he is from his nearest hummingbird. The hummingbirds all also have a link to Andro and each other. This link starts out as a thin and shallow connection, though Andro can develop deep emotional bonds with individual birds over time.
Anti-Gravity: Hummingbirds are already pretty light, but Andro’s hummingbirds also have the ability to nullify the effect of gravity on whatever solid object they come in touch with (living and non-living). The hummingbird must be conscious and be in physical contact with the object for this to take effect.
Strengths:Nectar-Saliva: Andro can control the amount of saliva he creates, and thus often creates more saliva to store for his birdies at their home base.
Hummingbird Physiology: Andro’s hummingbirds bear the closest resemblance to Rivoli’s hummingbirds, which can grow from 4-5inches long (11-14 cm). They have the same strengths as their wild lookalike, except they are all genderless and cannot reproduce with any other hummingbird. General strengths of hummingbirds include; max speed of 60mph, can fly in any direction (even upside down!), and strong hearts that beat very fast.
Gravity Nullification: An individual hummingbird can potentially nullify an object up to 1 ton of mass for at maximum ten minutes before needing to rest. Obviously, they are limited by their small bodies and can only reasonably maneuver something within a mass of 20kg. (Tiny bodies!) Andro’s newly ‘hatched’ hummingbirds have generally been able to nullify a 5 pound object for 30 seconds minute. A day old can nullify up to 20lbs for 1 minutes. A rather mature bird (2 weeks old) can nullify up to a quarter ton for 3 minutes before having to rest. A month old bird is a bird at its most mature and can reach a half ton for 5 minutes. Upon further training, his mature birds can reach the 1 ton, ten minutes limits. Excessive use of their abilities can result in severe fatigue, or even death.
Empathic-Communication: With the birds that Andro has trained the longest, he can merely express an inner desire and utilize it as a signal, akin to a spoken command. The younger ones require more coaxing. This empathic connection is pretty weak, overall, not very effective over long distances and is susceptible to other abilities.
Weaknesses and Limitations:Hummingbird Metabolism: Andro has to eat at least every hour to sustain his hummingbird metabolism and to continue generating his nectar saliva. He’s a snacker. If he is at low energy, this can also affect the energy levels of his hummingbirds. If his hummingbirds are at low energy, however, this does not affect him.
Feather-regen: After Andro plucks a feather, it takes about a month for that feather to regrow to a length that generates a healthy bird. If he tries to generate a hummingbird from an immature feather, it will either fail to generate or be born with huge deficiencies. He has around fifty feathers on his chest and thirty on each forearm.
Vulnerable: Since Andro’s hummingbirds grow quickly, they are most vulnerable in their early phases. If Andro picks off a feather and does not coat it with his saliva within a minute, the feather cannot further develop into a nestling. If the hummingbird’s development is interrupted in the first five minutes, then it will experience serious developmental deficiencies (inability to fly, communicate, etc.)
Reduced Lifespan: Hummingbirds usually live for 3-5 years, but Andro’s record for longest lived hummingbird is a year and a half (R.I.P Felipe). Generally, they live up to one year. If a bird is not fed by Andro’s mouth nectar at least once every 24 hours, they will severely weaken if not die. They are still able to feed on other nectars, saps and bugs to maintain their body weight. When a bird dies, it reverts back to a feather (does not leave a carcass) and cannot be revived. Naturally, Andro has a collection of his favorite bird pals from over the years.
Training Required: Each hummingbird has the intelligence of your average dog, but since Andro only has empathic connections with each, he has to train every new bird how to respond to basic commands. Depending on the bird, this may take a few minutes to never fully comprehending commands. They also each have their own personalities. Fun!
Thin Empathic Link: Andro’s empathic connection with his birds is pretty weak, overall, not very effective over long distances. Andro cannot truly coerce his hummingbirds to do anything, though they naturally readily bond to him. They are also pretty susceptible to other abilities (i.e. other animal empaths or psychics can affect his hummingbirds)
Flock Capacity: More birds mean more mouths to feed and Andro tends to keep his flock around 10-15 birds. (Avg. 7.5 tons of nullified weight, taking into consideration flock overall flock maturity). He produces enough nectar to feed (and fully satisfy) 30 birds daily, given he is healthy himself. Andro could create as many birds as he has feathers, but they would die off without sufficient nectar.
Physical AbilitiesGeneral Physical Capabilities: Andro loves to hike, so his biggest selling trait is his high energy and endurance. He likes to rock-climb and climb trees. He has also practiced maneuvering through the air with his birdy buddies nullifying his weight.
Fighting Style: Has little practice fighting, and is more apt to flee or lift his enemies to a large height and dropping them.
Fighting Style Pros/Cons: He’s a lover not a fighter, and will only ever go on the offensive if it’s to protect another. Remains on the defensive and prefers to talk things through.
History Of Your CharacterAlejandro “Andro” Dantes was born on January 3, 1989 to Elena and Alden Dantes. His parents are first generation immigrants. They both work in the medical field, with his mother being a nurse and his father a physician’s assistant. Andro is the first in his family to be born in the states. He has no siblings, but grew up in a relatively peaceful and tight knit community.
His favorite subjects in elementary school were science and arts and crafts time.
Andro started growing his feathers at the start of highschool. This was a source of bullying for him, since the feathers didn’t seem to do anything but draw attention. Andro decided to not let it bother him, and instead rallied other students and fellow mutant supporters to get on the board for student council. He also did well in class, and loved the sciences, and made many friends.
After highschool, he decided to go to veterinary school. (2005-2011) His parents wanted him to become a dentist or doctor, but did not argue with this decision. Andro loved his studies and was able to devote his time to research as he worked toward his degree.
He then pursued his masters in Laboratory Veterinary Sciences studies, but instead of devoting his time to a lab after graduation, decided that being cooped up for studies had exhausted him. He then chose to do wildlife conservation for a few years in the Rocky Mountains after graduating from veterinary studies. (2012-14) He met his wife, Evvie during his time volunteering. (2013)
Andro and Evvie landed a job doing research for the conservatory partnered with their volunteer program (August 2014) and soon they got married. (September 2014) Andro was chosen to spearhead the avian division. He felt especially drawn to the hummingbirds. During his avian research, he grew curious and did tests on his own feathers. One day he decided to taste his own feathers and after putting one under the microscope a curious thing happened. His first hummingbird began to develop right in front of him! He named it Sterling. (June 27, 2015) His discovery also coincided with the birthweek of their son, Dominic. (June 30, 2015) The three of them continued to develop their little family for the next three years
In April of 2018, Evvie received a recommendation and took a job at the Wildlife Conservation Society in NY, to do research on endangered flora. They both agreed to move, having found an abandoned greenhouse provided by a donor for Evvie’s research. For the next year, Andro continued to do his avian studies for their branch in Colorado long-distance using their greenhouse to continue hummingbird research. Then, Evvie was able to put in a good word for Andro and they both work for the same Conservation Society. Within the past year, however, Andro has felt the desire to do more than just wildlife, but for the mutant race as well, recognizing their unique niche in the environment and is seeking to apply to Haven.
RoleplayWhat’s your OOC alias?: Spero
Where did you learn about this site?: Google
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: Eisenhower Brand-Garcia;
A'Ziala JordanSample RP:“How’s it hummin’, avians? Thanks for tuning in today. Hummerman here with Hummer Jr. - wave hello, Hummer Jr. We’re back at our Avian Palace after our weekend trip to the coast, and guess what? It’s hatching time!”
Andro held up his phone to his smiling face and brought the camera view to include Dominic, aka Hummer Jr. who gave a huge smile to the camera. Andro loved how Dom too enjoyed the spotlight. His little eyes lit with excitement.
“Let’s head on over to the hatchery, shall we?” Andro gestured to the camera for the viewers to come follow. He’d learned that his videos were most popular with the younger crowd on the interwebs, though his videos attracted the attention of all kinds.
He and Hummer Jr. waded through the neatly arranged rows and pots of wildflowers, some in bloom, others still budding. Most of these plants had taken the past couple years to grow, but his wife Evvie was the best of the best when it came to making a thing grow. A few of these foreign species were adapting to the space they manufactured in their little upstate NY greenhouse.
Hummingbirds zoomed above, around, in and throughout the plants. Some paying little attention to them and more attention to their daily nectar collecting rounds. A couple of the more eager ones flew down to hover in front of Andro’s video camera looking for their own share of screen time.
“Look who’s here! Good morning, Cash and Bigby.””
“Cash! Cash! Up! Up!” Dominic called out to one of the birds. Cash was the current Alpha Mentor for Flock A, which meant that he was in charge of guiding the three month old birds to develop their anti-gravity abilities and to maneuver larger objects for longer periods of time.
Andro gave a wink of approval to Cash, who had hovered above Dominic, wanting to give the guy a little boost. Once he had the approval, he attached himself to Dom’s collar.
Hummer Jr. vegan to float off the ground and he giggled, all giddy. Normally, Andro did not give permission for the birds to lift Dom whenever Dom pleaded. It was not healthy for either of the two parties to get used to such enabling behavior, but he permitted it at this moment because he was there to supervise and the viewers would love it.
“Guess we’re going up!” Andro whistled and looked over to Bigby, who was the Alpha Soldier for the flock. He showed off his training by calling over two other birds to clasp onto either of Andro’s sleeves and began propelling him in the air after Dom, toward the incubating area.
The viewers on youtube loved seeing their greenhouse from the aerial view, so Andro made sure to pan the camera across the wide space to catch the busy fluttering about of hummingbirds. A little more than half were his, while the others were species he brought in to observe.
“Soon we’ll get to meet the new hatchlings!” He said to the camera as they floated over to the nesting and incubation corner of the greenhouse.
So far this morning was all going as planned.
