Rion Steiner
Series	Galerians
Gender	Male
Age	Appears 14
Species	Galerian
Sexuality	Not interested
Journal	axinfinity
Player	Becca

Rion doesn’t like people messing with him. Period. He rarely if ever at all tolerates people picking on or hurting him, and is known to have violent fits when they do. His temperamental demeanor doesn’t accommodate him any in anyone’s social circle, and he rarely gets close to anyone, thus he does have trouble making friends. It would help if he cared about making friends to begin with, though.

 

Rion is also known to overexerting his own limits. Occasionally he’ll be stricken with excruciating migraines that will normally leave him feeling lethargic and barely able to even walk. He doesn’t let much of anything stop him, though, not even when he was stricken with blindness. He’ll often exhaust himself to the point of unconsciousness without a complaint. For this reason, it’s obvious that he doesn’t hold that much care for his own well-being. He hates asking for favors, he won’t accept charity (unless persuaded or unable to protest), and he’s often very dubious towards other’s acts of kindness.

 

Sometimes he can be protective of the people or things he cares about—or what few of them have existed. His failures to do so, however, have left a deep-seated scar in him that has led him to turn to other certain outlets. Rion’s morals are twisted and obscure. If you hurt him, he’ll hurt you back, and doesn’t think twice before resorting to self-defense.

 

Over a short while Rion has grown attached to a plethora of dangerous drugs, to the point of addiction. During his stay in Manhattan he had trashed his system with various narcotics and painkillers, such as Valium, Vicodin, Heroine, Cocaine, et cetera, all looted from the apartment of a dead drug dealer.

 

Rion developed his addiction from various chemicals in his time; among one of them was Red. Possibly due to a side effect he feels nothing, completely numbed to the dismay that he’s killed people since his long stay at Memorial Hospital. Over time the awareness of his actions will sink in.

 

Aggressive tendencies aside, Rion can also be rather mature and introspective for someone his age. Almost disturbingly so.

 

 

Abilities

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Before landing up in Manhattan, Rion was granted psychic abilities with the help of drugs and overall science available in the year 2522. Because of the nature of Rion’s creation, he is one of the few that can take such drugs and not die right after taking them. In fact, after awhile the kid became highly addicted to the drugs.

 

Psychic abilities included being able to focus mental energy into a shock wave, something akin to telekinesis. (NALCON). If able to cause enough heat for a short period of time, Rion is also capable of setting flame to objects. (RED.) Another drug allowed an anti-gravity field to be set around him, raising anything within the field into the air, entrapped within the invisible wall. (D-FELON) These powers, however, have not only been greatly reduced by the effects of being thrown back in time, but the drugs that construct the abilities themselves are no longer available, either.

 

Without the use of his psychic abilities, Rion is a survivalist and a recluse, though self reliant. He doesn’t fit in well with other people, particularly with other kids. His introspective tendencies make him come off a little mature for his age. Not only that, but he doesn’t seem to have much problem with killing a person; he doesn’t even stop to ask himself if what he’s doing is wrong. While on the inside he does question why he does the things he does, he doesn’t think twice before defending himself with what he has accessible. In all respect, he could be viewed as a monster with the way he kills in cold blood with such ease. His emotional detachment in such an ugly world has led him to do the things he does. In a way, it’s rather pushed him to be like this.

 

 

Weaknesses

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As a side effect of the drugs, overuse of his psychic abilities can put him in a state of shorting out. Short circuiting will not only deprive the user of any of their other abilities, they become uncontrollably dangerous to be around. Unless treated with the correct drug, allowing himself to short circuit will quickly lead to death. Since death isn’t worth the use of his abilities (and being five hundred years before the drug had even been created, he certainly isn’t going to be able to get it up at the nearest pharmacy), Rion has no other choice but to choose not to use them at all if he knows what’s good for him.

 

As an effect of his abilities, Rion is a drug addict. Being deprived of those drugs, he suffers lapses of withdrawals. Among these symptoms include the agonizing migraines, far more painful than they ever were before. At times they can be so bad that he can barely walk or see, stumbling in a blind haze as he fumbles about.

 

Rion also has a dangerously short temper. He can be easily driven by that anger to carry drastic measures, often leading to making risky, if not fatal, mistakes. He acts before he thinks over the consequences, if the consequence ever does come to mind. His emotional detachment can be considered a great weakness, as it leads to his inability to handle social situations. For that he can be an awkward conversationalist, not wasting much time on small talk and usually just getting down to business if there is any.

 

He doesn’t like to rely on others that much, going off and doing his own thing. If anything he has a tendency to push others away, and is known to push himself over his limits to the point where it has nearly killed him several times. On occasion Rion is known to go about taking drastic if not stupid measures in the things he does.

 

Currently, Rion is suffering blindness from the aftermath of his battle with Dorothy, a mother computer from over five hundred years in the future. Time can heal a lot of things (including near-death from a cerebral aneurism), but for now Rion will be forced to rely on voice recognition software in order to get around on the network until he recovers back to his old grumpy, screaming self again.

 

 

Before Manhattan

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The first thing the boy ever remembered was waking up on an operating table, locked away for observation. With no recollection of who he was, how he got there, or what his name even was, it’s among the first thing he seeks once he escapes the isolation room. Finding himself assaulted by doctors and security guards, the boy discovered that his only defense were a set of mysterious, psychic abilities granted to him by a certain dosage of drugs. For however long he had been experimented on, given the power to create shockwaves, set fires, and manipulate antigravity fields. With no other use for weapons, the boy uses these abilities to help discover that his name is RION STEINER, son of a computer engineer in Michelangelo City. He had been taken to the hospital, but unable to remember anything else.

 

With what information he gathered at the hospital, Rion sought out his home in the Forest District of the city, only to discover that his family had been murdered there long ago. Guided only by the voice of a girl named LILIA, a childhood friend though one he couldn’t recall much, Rion sought the answers he needed within the house, collecting memories. Underneath the records left behind by his father, he discovered that his parents’ murder had been caused by the very mother computer that they created, DOROTHY. In the data Rion learned that Lilia was in grave danger for she had been burdened with the only virus program capable of destroying that mother computer, intent on destroying humankind so that she could become a digital god. When Lilia’s father found it no longer safe to keep her in the Steiner household, the girl was taken elsewhere to be hidden. Rion hadn’t seen Lilia in a very long time, though supposedly the two communed through telepathy as children.

 

Along the way he found himself disturbed by the “Galerians”—human clones generated by the city’s computer system and given the same kind of psychic abilities Rion has. His confrontation with BIRDMAN became the first Rion ever stopped to doubt the reasons behind his drastic actions, having killed several people. While many of his foes weren’t even human, a lot of this nonetheless made him question his nature.

 

Drawn by Lilia’s telepathic voice through an old, ragged doll, Rion’s search led him to a run-down hotel in one of the danker corners of Michelangelo City several weeks after fighting Birdman. There, Rion discovered a group of inhabitants which had him wondering whether or not if this race was really a species worth saving, stumbling upon the worst avatars for humanity. Nonetheless, his drive to protect Lilia was still strong, as if something pulled him to her; that was all which mattered.

 

During his search in the hotel, two more Galerians confronted the boy. One of them the murderer of his parents, yet not much older than Rion himself and just as tormented by the cruel experiments at Memorial Hospital. It was RAINHEART who brought Rion’s sins to light; the fact that he had killed humans just as the other Galerians had. Towards the end, Rion began to realize that the Galerians had been just as much victims of circumstance as he was. Rainheart had no control over his actions, as among his last words were “It wasn’t me!”

 

Upon Rainheart’s death, the hotel filled with silence, each room inhabited by now-murdered corpses. There was no question as to what had caused them.

At last, Rion finally heard the first calling of Lilia he had heard in awhile. The two reunited in an abandoned restaurant below the hotel. The two of them faced the realization that they were orphaned by the tragedy of their parent’s creation. But before they had the chance to mourn their loss, they were both faced with one more Galerian—the sister of their parent’s killer, RITA. While at first Rita came off as angry and cold, Rion later realized that she was the only other Galerian other than himself who retained some memories. This led Rion to believe that the drugs given to them had caused the amnesia, though he couldn’t say why. Before he could sort any of this out, Rita had forced herself to short circuit, begging Rion to make the pain stop.

 

And he did.

 

Lilia stood, horrified as Rion used his abilities to slam Rita to the ground, beating her to death. Not only that, but with how easy it was for him to kill someone in such a manner. Here, he confessed to her that he had been experimented on at the hospital and given a plethora of drugs. Lilia seemed to act strange upon realizing this; Rion didn’t notice. The two could barely look at each other.

 

Regardless of his actions, neither of them could ignore the fact that they were the only ones capable of taking out the mother computer. If they didn’t, more Galerians would just be produced, and they would never be safe. They had no choice but to infiltrate the Mushroom Tower, where Dorothy resided, and the birthplace of the Galerians.

 

With the help of Rion’s abilities and Lilia, the two gradually made it up the tower, one level at a time to the near very top, once again facing situations where the boy had no choice but to kill, while facing the illusions of the Galerians he’d killed. Birdman scoffed. Rainheart accused. Rita warned him not to go any further. There wasn’t any time to stop and think about it, though. Somehow, the higher up the tower they got, the stranger Rion felt. As if he’d been there before. And he had been.

 

Facing a room full of cloned replicas of all the Galerians that had died, remained an empty container where Rion had been born. In that instant, his “brother” appeared, introducing himself as CAIN—his twin. And then everything became clear.

 

Rion is not the original Rion, but a clone of the original. The “real” Rion had died some time ago after being admitted into a hospital, shortly after the murder of his parents. In truth, Rion the Galerian hasn’t been around that long, as he spent most of his life in stasis, created and constructed to look just like Rion Steiner. The realization of this took a devastative turn for Rion, losing any idea of what to believe at this point. Cain scoffed and smirked then, angered by his brother’s betrayal against their kind, lashed back. For awhile, the two fought, until eventually Rion found himself seeing the real side of his twin. Cain sneered at the two; “What’re you going to do next? Kill mother?”

 

Cain and the truth led up to Rion’s final confrontation with Mother, Dorothy. With Lilia, who had at first denied the possibility that her friend could be dead and replaced by a Galerian, gradually began accepting this new reality and stayed by Rion’s side as they went to see Dorothy. There, Dorothy gave Rion the order to turn and kill Lilia, expecting that he had no reason to be attached to the girl in spite of his memories. This proved to be the digital god’s fatal flaw, as Rion simply glanced to Lilia, turned to Dorothy and refused her order. But this didn’t come with a heavy price.

 

The battle had proven fatal on both sides. Rion fought Dorothy while Lilia attempted to figure out the terminal. Eventually, they were able to subdue the mother computer, and Lilia transferred the virus program into Rion.

 

While the two had succeeded in destroying the mother computer by this program, Rion overexerted his own strength from the battle, now too weak to handle the virus program inside him. In the end, this caused his brain to shut down and ultimately killed him. Or so he thought.

 

As the Mushroom Tower began to crumble, Rion collapsed. Lilia caught him, and while he had been dying and could no longer speak he sent weak messages for her to leave him behind—let him die. At first she protested; he knew that if she stayed she would die, too, and Rion was in no condition to escape even if he had a chance of survival. Eventually, he pushed her away, forcing her to leave him behind in the crumbling tower. He lay in a nearly dead heap by the open crevice of the tower, watching as everything around him began to fall. Several explosions blasted all around, throwing him off balance and out of the tower.

 

Broken, defeated, and dying, Rion expected to find death. Instead, he woke up somewhere far more different.

 

 

In Manhattan

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When Rion woke up, he was blind and severely wounded, suffering from physical overload and cerebral hemorrhaging. He couldn’t do much of anything, except for crawl agonizingly out of the ruins of what had once been a house. One of his major concerns had been where his medical pouch had gone, as he was on the near verge of short circuiting and, without any Delmetor, could not chance the risk of exerting his limits any further.

 

He first met James Potter and Negi Springfield, both who helped Rion with getting him fixed up a little. Potter made idle conversation to take Rion’s mind off of the pain while Negi ran off to find help, Fran Madaraki being the only doctor they could think of. While Rion and Fran kicked off on a rocky start, he nonetheless agreed to stay at the Madaraki Institute while he recovered from his injuries. To Rion’s surprise, Fran honored the fact that he didn’t want to be experimented on, and started to respect her a little bit more.

 

During this time Rion was being sought after by Birdman. He decided to lay low, and requested that Fran not divulge in his location, let alone allow visitors to see him.

 

After the Big Fucking Attack, Rion was once again held up in his room, the door blocked by debris. For several hours he spent in there, and could no longer take it and crawled out of the room’s window himself. He fumbled his way about the streets, tripping and crawling until he was stumbled upon by Harry Mason, witnessing Rion tripping over himself and overall having a hard time getting around. When Harry’s paternal instincts kicked in and he started to help the boy, Rion felt more or less suspicious by default, probably due to his previous encounters with adults. Nevertheless he allowed Harry to aid him with his scrapes and bruises, and went on his merry little way.

 

Shortly afterwards, Rion stumbled upon what was once the New Museum of Contemporary Art, now dubbed as the New Museum... as well as its self-appointed curator, none other than V himself. Right away V had taken note of the boy’s condition, promptly inviting the boy to soup (whether he liked it or not. Rion technically had no choice in the matter). Having grown used to his blindness, Rion followed V to the kitchen and was later introduced to radio dramas, something which Rion found he enjoyed.

 

However, after leaving Rion decided to keep a low profile once again, with Birdman still out there looking for him. He hid away on the unpopulated west side of the island, scarce on food and surviving on tap water from one of the run downed buildings. He lived in alleyways and even cardboard boxes until he housed himself in an abandoned warehouse. Later he was forced to flee to the next building when a gang of crab parasites chased him out. Rion barely made it, and hid away in the neighboring factory, which was more run down than the other place. It was in such bad shape that the building was slightly tilted, and the power hardly worked. Rion hid in closets most of the time, overdosing while the crab parasites continued trying to seek him out. At this point he lost all reason to care what became of him.

 

During his stay in the west side, Rion had looted the apartment of a dead drug dealer. Having taken little interest in the corpse, Rion found himself more keen on the drugs left behind, and started overdosing on those rather than trying to find food. This was a cause for concern, particularly V and Harry Mason; both sought Rion out afterwards.

 

At one point Rion disappeared without a trace, somehow waking up on top of the Empire State Building with two others, Flonne and George Weasley. Having lost thee days, deprived of food for a month, and fallen gravely ill, Rion had to be carried down by the two. Afterwards, though, he walked away, stubborn and unwilling to go to a doctor and convinced he could take care of himself. When an accidental voice post was made shortly afterwards, Harry Mason quickly went to go find Rion. Finally, Rion gave in, and allowed himself to be found.

 

Much to James Sunderland’s disapproval, Harry dragged Rion home to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

 

Even though Harry told others to help the boy around, Rion doesn’t let his blindness render him completely helpless. If anything, he's definitely not dependant and is loathe to the fact that Harry mothers him the way he does. While his system is trashed from the drugs and his body withered from malnutrition, Rion's obstinacy has him not accepting the aid of others when getting around.

 

Since his stay at the cathedral, Rion had been reunited with Lilia, who was perplexed if not horrified by his condition. This propelled Rion to become even more self-reliant and refused the aid of others. Oftentimes when Harry offered a hand, the boy insisted on just following people by the sounds of their footsteps. This helped him get along fine.

 

Shortly after his arrival, Harry had requested Rebecca to take care of Rion’s drug problem (much as he’d refuse to admit that this is a problem to begin with). As usual, he had been mistrustful as he is by anyone in the medical field, but he quickly warmed up to her. If anything he’s decided that he would allow Rebecca to “help” him to get Harry off his case awhile.

 

As time past and the reality that Birdman was still running rampant, Rion learned of his attempted murder of Lilia. When the realization occurred that no one was doing anything about Birdman, having no idea how dangerous the man was like Rion did, the boy decided to take it upon himself to draw Birdman away from Lilia himself.

 

Another piece that troubled him most was that Rion had found himself awake in Manhattan without his medicine pouch, some of which would be essential to his survival under the circumstance that he were to short circuit. Plagued by the fear of what would occur if Birdman had fallen in possession of the bag, Rion snuck out of the cathedral one night. What more, he chose to bait himself away from the cathedral in order to draw Birdman farther away from the place Rion had come close to calling a home.

 

For around a week, Rion had gone missing. Lilia was the first to notice when Rion did not go down for breakfast the following morning. While he had never been a morning person, she began noticing that he was nowhere at all within the cathedral, and addressed the others about it.

 

Unbeknownst to them, the boy had been heading off into the direction away from most of the other populace—to Riverside, the district in which Rion first entered Manhattan. Suspecting that his bag to be among the shambles of the house he woke up in. All the while unaware that he had a spectator following him the entire time.

 

For four hours Rion endured torture. Rather than giving away Lilia’s position, he had fabricated Lilia’s murder instead. Naturally, Birdman didn’t buy it. By the time Harry Mason arrived, the boy had been afflicted with a shattered elbow in his left arm, two broken legs, severe burns, fractured ribs, and eyes mutilated beyond recovery. Harry managed to ward Birdman into retreat, and promptly placed his priorities with the boy’s safety.

 

Reluctantly, Harry carried Rion to the North General Hospital, contacted Rebecca, and proceeded to wait. With Rion’s chances of survival were looking slim, not to mention sick with delirium, he began hallucinating and calling Harry “dad”. Once Rebecca arrived, it was obvious that Rion would need to receive more advanced treatment. For the time being, she made do with making him as comfortable as possible, injecting him with morphine, and proceeded to amputate his eyes.

 

Practically under a medically induced coma for a month, Rion’s chances of survival were undetermined until he woke up. With some of the city’s surgeons on their way to aid him, however, it was only a matter of when he would wake up, and what kind of road to recovery—if such a thing exists—he had ahead of him.

 

 

Relationships

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Birdman - Rion’s feelings towards Birdman is very straightforward: The guy creeps him right the fuck out, and Rion wants nothing to do with him. Aware that Birdman is somewhere within the city and Rion unable to sufficiently fend for himself in his blind state, he is currently trying to avoid Birdman like the plague. This inevitably ended when Rion had decided to bait himself from the cathedral, Lilia and its occupants included, as well as search for his much-needed medicine pouch. He suffered hours of torture by Birdman, who inflicted Rion with several serious injuries, including a shattered elbow, two broken legs, fractured ribs, and gouged eyes.

 

Lilia Pascalle - Rion's childhood friend... the real Rion, anyway. But that doesn't mean he hadn't developed a fondness for her. Whether if his feelings of needing to protect her are true or not, he isn't sure. What does it matter in the long run? She accepted him for being the "real Rion", and that was enough. Enough that Rion had decided she would be worth dying for, as well as everyone else, when he decided to draw Birdman from the cathedral. Rion went so far in protecting Lilia as to come with an elaborate fabrication of her murder. Unfortunately for him, this wasn’t enough for Birdman to swallow. Or choke.

 

Rita - On the surface, Rita seemed like any other of the psychotic Galerians hell-bent on Lilia’s death and further hindering Rion’s life. However, by the time Rita came to challenge him, Rion was through with fighting, and tried to talk her down from it. When she seemed beyond reason, Rion realized that Rita was far different from the other Galerians, mindless and cruel. Like her brother, Rainheart, Rita was also a victim of mother, and thus was genuinely regretful when she begged Rion to kill her. At the time it seemed to be the right thing to do, until Rion felt genuinely guilty for what had been done to Rita. All in all, he feels sorry for her, as wishes to make things right again. Considering that he was solely responsible for the death of her brother, this might make things a little complicated.

 

Negi Springfield - The two have yet to really interact; even while Rion had been recovering, he didn’t pay Negi with much regard. While Rion has a difficult time saying thank you, he really does appreciate Negi’s help when it was needed.

 

Fran Madaraki - Rion didn’t like her, and even less upon the mere mention of cutting him up upon their first meeting. But then, by default the kid has a thing against any doctor. However, Rion warmed up to her a little, almost to the point where he feels he can trust her somewhat. The fact that she withdrew the notion when Rion didn’t react well to being experimented on again helped. He even had half a mind to let her know that he got out safely after Clover's attack, but lost track of her afterwards when he went into hiding. She may or may not have also had a hand in helping Rion when he was in need of a surgeon.

 

James Sunderland - Naturally, Rion isn’t exactly very respectful towards adults, and for that he lacks some respect for James as well, despite him asking the man for an obvious favor. Nonetheless, Rion didn’t view James as a dependable person at first, but was a little surprised when the man offered help should Rion ever need it.

 

Harry Mason - Much like with James, Rion was dubious towards Harry’s kind acts towards him. It is Harry, though, that gradually allows Rion to realize that, hey, maybe all adults aren’t so bad after all. As he has that effect on many, Harry has grown to be something of a father-figure to Rion, something which he does not want to lose. When Harry started to become careless with his own health, Rion got upset, and not because it was hypocritical like he said, but secretly because Rion had already lost two families, and couldn't bear the notion of getting close to someone only to have them die so easily on him. Regardless, Harry had promised Rion that he wasn't going to be dying anytime soon. Harry was also the first person he ever bit the bullet and thanked for helping him. After saving his life, Rion had started calling Harry “dad”.

 

V - At first Rion had a feeling that V was mad—but of a different sort. Not the kind of blood-crazed psychos he had witnessed when facing the Galerians, or the drug-driven perverts of his own world. Somehow, Rion views V as a dependable sort, someone he could actually confide in if needs be—although the chances of that happening anytime soon isn’t very likely. V is a friendly type, though. Plus, he introduced Rion to a whole new world of entertainment (such as the pleasures of Braveheart, Tchaikovsky, and audio dramas). Strangely, Rion has come to see V as something of the crazy uncle he never had. 

 

Maria - Dead Friends Forever, hooray.

 

Flonne - When Rion woke up on top of the Empire State Building, Flonne aided Rion down with the help of George Weasley. He hasn't seen much of her since, but had a good vibe from her. Even though she had gone for help, Rion had already left to drag himself back to his little hideaway before Flonne could aid Rion.

 

Rebecca Chambers - Much like with Fran, Rion's first impression of Rebecca was that he didn't want anything to do with doctors. However, under Harry's supervision he seems to be okay with being looked over, especially since she doesn't seem so bad after all. Rebecca also came to Rion’s aid when he needed a doctor. Since Rion doesn’t want to make Rebecca or Harry feel any guiltier than they already do for not making it to him in time when Birdman attempted to murder the boy, Rion conveniently left out the detail that he had regained his sense of sight for only a short while before losing his eyes entirely. He feels he owes Rebecca that much for helping him, anyway.

 

Fletcher Tringham - Offered to help Rion figure out how to recreate Delmetor. While the prospect of their goal is a bit of a stretch, he seems capable of understanding how the process might work. Someone that Rion might be able to turn to for help during his drug dilemma.

 

Jeff Andonuts - Another helpful volunteer to recreate Delmetor. Whenever Jeff seems to express sympathy for Rion in any way, Rion quickly tries to brush it aside, though. The last thing the kid wants is pity from someone he barely even knows. Jeff seems nice enough, however. Young, but smart. Definitely not like the scientists from his own time.

 

Sora - Told him a little bit about Christmas traditions and Santa Claus (for Rion also known as The Claws). Not very helpful for the kid, though, thanks to Birdman.

 

Garnet til Alexandros XVII - Garnet had an unfortunate first encounter with Rion while he had been tucked away in the pantry during the Christmas Eve party. At least he had the decency to apologize for startling her over the network shortly after. They crossed paths again on more friendly terms, though leaving Rion in a dire situation and having seen the woman’s death. Garnet has offered to help him in the best way she can by healing his legs. Whether it works or not, time will tell. Ironically, Rion feels kind of sorry for her more than she feels so for him, and he can never quite place why.

 

Zack Fair - Talked to him over the network some, and had brief mentions of dying and the sort, but nothing serious. Zack might have developed a sense of protectiveness over Rion, though, so who knows where that’s going to go.