two ocs in TWO DAYS?? nope. i'm just porting them all onto scratch now. left picture is an asian water monitor, the one with the hat is a blue-tongued skink, and the bottom one is a blue-tailed skink. all of them were inspiration for Varanus. this project totally isn’t subliminal messaging for how i’m actually otherhearted with monitor lizards and a few other reptiles :3 if you found this, have a fish... you deserve it ;3
[NAME]: Varanus [SPECIES]: unknown [RACE]: irrelevant [PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION]: in his base form, Varanus is a l̶i̶z̶a̶r̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ m̶e̶d̶i̶c̶i̶n̶e̶ ̶m̶a̶n̶ 7’3” reptilian humanoid. his scales are a very dark navy blue color that shine in a similar way to velvet and absorb light. he can walk both bipedally and quadrupedally, and he is very lean. Varanus has hands with five digits, including opposable thumbs. he has very sharp claws, a long tail, and a collapsible spiny mango colored dorsal fin running head to tail, which he uses somewhat to convey emotion similarly to the ears on a wolf. various features on Varanus suggest that he is at least semi aquatic, such as slight webbing on his hands and feet, and the sail. his eyes, like his spine, are orange, though they are much more vibrant and glow at all times. they have vertical pupils. he has no external ears. Varanus' jaw can unhinge to twice its normal size in order to swallow large objects. the inside of his mouth is the same yellow mango color as his dorsal fin, lined with hundreds of sharp, needle-like teeth that are used for grasping prey, and a very long, forked, bright blue tongue (like a skink). he usually does not wear any clothes. [ABILITIES/SKILLS]: when he bites prey, he latches on with his teeth and uses one prong of his tongue to inject a temporary paralyzing/sedative agent, and the other a numbing agent. he then siphons the energy from the creature. this is how he eats, and he must do this regularly to survive. he cannot move or detach until he has siphoned a certain amount of energy proportional to the amount of energy in the individual before he started sucking, so he’s open for attack when feeding. the paralysis and numbness wears off on average thirty minutes to an hour after he detaches. Varanus can “monitor” prey by manifesting a swirling cloud of dark fog/vapor in a given area out of sight from the target. a pair of glowing orange eyes can be visible in the center of the fog watching the target. at this time, Varanus is standing completely motionless wherever he actually is while he watches the prey remotely. this leaves him extremely vulnerable if found in this state. he can only “monitor” people or places he has seen or otherwise detected before. he has an amazing sense of smell using his tongue, and can track things for long distances. to compliment this, he can move very silently through most terrain. Varanus can use the energy he absorbs to regenerate his body or rapidly evolve parts of his body to aid him (eg bullet-proof skin, night/infra-red vision, echolocation, stronger legs for jumping, stinger tail, etc). his adaptation powers can’t change his biology too severely, so no growing an extra limb or wings. he almost exclusively uses his power to replicate things he’s seen elsewhere, but not perfectly (gasoline spit with an organic lighter instead of dragon’s breath, for example). as of right now, Varanus can only adapt to one thing at a time. [PERSONALITY]: Varanus hates being out in open, well-lit areas, and usually attacks in private areas or at night time. he likes to stalk his prey for up to a few weeks before he attacks. this allows him to understand their behavior and allow him to more efficiently feed. if he can help it, Varanus does not kill during attacks, believing it to be unnecessary and a waste of time and energy, as he does not require physical sustenance, despite the fact that he can eat normally. he can actually take energy from a variety of food items, but he prefers live or freshly deceased animals to anything else. he wouldn't say no to the odd fruit every once in a while. Varanus prefers to avoid direct confrontation at all costs, but if he is forced to fight, he packs a punch. he forgoes all emotional attachment because he is worried that it could hinder his ability to find food, but it is still possible to befriend him if you try hard enough. [BACKSTORY]: i don't even know yet, so the lore is just that Varanus will never tell anyone. [GOALS]: stay alive, that's pretty much it. (fun fact: "Varanus" translates from latin to "Monitor Lizard", reflecting both his stalking behavior and the fact that he's modeled off of a water monitor) (extra fun fact: the title of this project is a reference to SCP-682, with whom Varanus shares some similarities)
