Jasper Septarian

Jasper Septarian is an unknown, silicon-based creature he's dubbed a "Crystal Human" that was born from an Amethyst Geode deep undergroud. After emerging, he sailed around for long periods of time before settling in Elysium.

Backstory
Jasper before his present incarnation, was a Wizard who was vastly powerful, able to travels through the very fabric of space, and had attempted many methods in an effort to obtain true eternal life. He eventually came across the ruins of the world of Ashkhar, home to the (presumably) extinct Ashkharhii. Among the ruins, was a strange plant that appeared to grow crystals. Taking the plant with him back to Kylorne, he used his powers to study the odd bulb... but disaster struck.

Tampering with the bulb using his alchemy brought catastrophic results. With his underground lab being blown to shreds, a pool of magma from above began to spill out above him, and in an attempt to safe his life, casted his most powerful spell in tandem with the bulb, cooling the magma, but eternally trapping him and the bulb inside... or so he believed.

The mysterious crystal plant had fused with his body, and not just that, but hot water began to seep inside, beginning to form crystals over many, many years... so many, that millions had gone by.

And, on August 25th, eight million years later, the geode cracked, revealing Jasper's new crystal body. Being born with none of his old memories, he dug himself out of the earth below and on to the sands, leaving him to travel all day, before coming upon Elysium. With no memories of his origins, he searches for the answers to his bizarre birth.

Personality
Jasper is a mix between bizarrely intelligent and adorably gullible and ignorant. In book smarts, he could rattle off the sciences and the intricasies of magic for eons, but when catching flirtacious hints or obvious sarcasm, he falls immediately behind. Despite this disparity, he is overwhelming optimistic, even through the fear of the unknown. Though, through living in Elysium, he's learned more emotions as time goes on, which can cause great spills of uncertainty and confusion on to him.

As of recently however, he has been developing intense negative emotions as a result of confusing and emotional experiences, most prominently, learning what anger and hatred are from Avina as a result of her playful lying. An itch around his crystal skull has been messing with him, feeling similar to that of an intense migraine.

Jasper's Crystal Human Biology
The Crystal Human is a species that can only be created artificially, and under very specific conditions, over millions of years. They must have physical contact with a living being from the Ashkhar world, encased in molten rock, and, similarly to actual geode, have hot water seep through its cracks. Like a geode, the Crystal Human will be formed over several millions of years of growth. Then, the geode will crack open when they have been born.

Crystal Humans can theoretically be made with any species, however, no others exist to test that hypothesis, due to their highly specific conditions for being born, as well as the difficult nature to enter the world of Ashkhar.

To mimic their once fleshy skin, they have a silicone-like layer on the outside that had melded with the inner crystal body, creating a thick layer of skin that is surprisingly durable. Beyond the silicone skin layer, is the geode layer, which acts as a Crystal Human's skeletal system. Like the crystals they were born out of, a Crystal Human will have a humanoid-shaped geode body hidden underneath the first layer, with a mostly hollow inside. The crystal of whatever geode they will birthed from will also be contained in their body (For Jasper, he was born out of an Amethyst Geode, so his inner body is made up of Amethyst as well).

As for their sex and gender, Crystal Human's technically lose their sex in the transformation, however, they tend to retain their gender in an aesthetic sense, as they retain the outer appearance of their past human lives. The Crystal Human's cannot reproduce sexually for this reason, nor can they very directly make more of their kind. Despite this lack of biological sex and reproductive organs, they also tend to retain their sexuality from their past life, even with no memories of said life.

While they do not bleed or have nerves, they can feel pain like regular living creatures. However, their magical, inorganic body allows for unique self-regenerative abilities, as their skin and rock body can easily be repaired over time, just over a twenty-four hour time period. No injury lasts for long, as their rock body will click together and repair like puzzle pieces. If the pieces of their body are destroyed and can't be returned, they will simply make a new body, even out of the tiniest speck of dust they left behind, which makes them functionally unkillable for any reasonable person. This powerful, innate magic makes them great spellcasters, even if their initial human form had no magic of their own.

Despite this, like any living creature, they need to eat and drink. Their hollow body contains a highly corosive acid around their abdominal region. This acid does not effect their insides at all, and allows them to digest food and water. However, like the Ashkharhii, they do not experience the same effects of alcohol (however, they also experience it differently than the Ashkharhii.) Crystal Human's cannot get the "buzz" of being drunk, and recieve all of the negative side effects of consuming alcohol. They will be fully concious, but still slur their words and have terrible vision until the alcohol wears off over time. Often this experience is extremely painful for them, so a Crystal Human will actively avoid consuming alcohol of any kind, even if in small doses where it wouldn't effect them.

The Beginning
Jasper wandered the land of Kylorne for many days, frequently being attacked by monsters, but having plenty of run-ins with agressive dolphins while sailing around the land. Eventually finding himself in the ports of Coribya's harbor district, he was greeted by Keerla Vayra, nicknamed "Ria." They begun to show Jasper around the town square, when one other citizen greeted them, M.E., or rather, "Emmi", as well as Endoru Shadowstorm, the leader of the Ivory Order.

Eventually, the chatting group went to sit at a nearby bench, the topic of his origins came up, merely stating, "I am a rock! ...I think." In response, still having little clue as to what exactly he is, nor the exact nature of his birth from the geode. This especially caught Emmi's interest in particular, as her own species is also slilicon-based (however, not entirely, as they are particially carbon-based) in nature, that being of the Ashkharhii. However, their races do not appear to be the exact same, so Jasper's nature still remains a mystery.

After their chat, Endoru showed him to a temporary room in a shelter that had been built, residing on the top floor just beside the stairs. Having asked Jasper what he would like to do, he spoke of how he fished during his journey to find a home, and was gifted with a powerful fishing rod by Endoru in response. With such a powerful tool in his hands, he was further inspired to study the magic that could have created him, and have fun fishing while doing it! However, for the time being, it was late into the night, and he decided to take his repose.

The next day, he was quick to get to work, fishing for what seemed like ages, gathering many materials and a good foof supply in the process. Even on the edges of the harbor district, he had picked up his very own horse, taming it and naming him Onyx. The horse resided in the lobby of the shelter he was staying at until his home was built. During that day, he had encountered another local, Avina, who attempted to flirt with him, however, was unsuccessful due to Jasper's questionable understanding of courtship. Avina suggested that she and him become fishing buddies, to which Jasper happily agreed.

The Cracking
Later that night, the local Inn & Bar opened up, to which Jasper heard the commotion, and went over to see what was happening. Finding everyone drunk and partying, Jasper was notably confused as to what alcohol was and it's effects on people. One of the people at the bar, Lawless, had been passing notes with him, helping explain what alcohol was. Not being an organic creature, he curiously gave into the social pressure and drank a bottle of Golden Mead. It felt absolutely awful for him. Not able to get the buzz, he merely was felt with the slurring of words and the blurring of vision. Feeling awful after drinking just one sip, he left the bar dejected and ironically, more alone then when he started after being unable to properly socialize with other people at the bar.

He begun to write in a new diary about the experiences, before deciding to go and take a trip up to M.E.'s place in the mountains. However, someone else had already gone ahead of him, someone by the name of Millicent who was deeply important to M.E. When Jasper reached the top of the mountain, the two immediately began to chat, mostly leaving Jasper out of the picture for awhile until they got their feelings settled. He also begun to notice that M.E spoke to the tree behind her, "Yg" as if it were a person.

Finally speaking up, he got some alone time with M.E, speaking of his woes at the bar. In the middle of it though, M.E cursed to Endoru from the skies for not inviting her, immensely upset from the realization. However, she quickly returned to try to comfort Jasper. After venting about the experience, he mentioned one last thing, the bizarre connection he felt to M.E despite just recently being born. Finally, M.E asked Jasper "Does the name Ashkhar sound familiar?"

Despite having no memories of hearing the word before, it felt it oddly resonated with him. Both of them feeling this connection, the two of them spoke to work more on understanding Jasper's origins. It was growing late into the night though, and Jasper decided to go home for the night and rest

The Angering
Jasper was fishing by the river, when Avina passed by. He invited her to fish with him, to which she accepted. While they fished, M.E. joined in with them. Avina was struggling with the fishing rod, noticeably upset. M.E. ended up closing in behind her, assisting her in holding the rod and catching her first fish with it. Pointing out the close proximity, M.E. got visibly flustered... and while Jasper was distracted with fishing, Avina not only mind controlled the fish to come to her, but also M.E.

Jasper suddenly took notice of the odd behavior, and stopped fishing. Asking Avina what was going on, he was only met with sly, playful remarks to him and stringing the mind-controlled M.E. along. This however, progressively got him more upset, as he believed they were friends, and he deserved to know what was wrong. It terrified Jasper to see his friend, who was normally very bombastic and loud, be so quiet and numb. Eventually though, one of the fish Avina mind-controlled ended up hitting M.E. and knocking her into the water, taking both Avina and Jasper's collective effort to save. This also knocked her out of her hypnosis.

Avina continued to lie to his face about what transpired... which made his rage too unbearable. He asked to speak to M.E. in private before he actually snapped, making their way to his apartment before asking his concerns over the mind control. What he didn't expect however... was the fact that she wanted it to happen, and asked Avina to do so.

M.E. ran from the home in an embarrassed state, but Jasper ran close behind in order to get better clarification, unable to understand why someone would willingly want to be in that trance. He managed to corner her by the river, asking one last time that if it was the complete truth. M.E. gave a very serious gaze, before saying that was what she really wanted. Jasper slowly answered "Okay" to her before leaving to go back to his apartment, still unable to get rid of this sinking feeling in his non-existent stomach.

The Hollowing
Jasper came back from his day of fishing out with his new donkey Citrine to find M.E. and Ria talking around the center of town, rolling in to speak with the two of them, and also showing off his donkey as a source of pride, being his second animal to own, and bringing him immense comfort after the events regarding Avina. Being with them brought joy, however, it was to be interrupted by a powerful presence that suddenly teleported behind the pavillion in which they were chatting at, which turned out to be Ria's mother, Aya.

M.E. had approached curiously, yet did not make any sudden moves, finding her familiar, despite the fuzzy memories that were present. Aya then jogged her memory, speaking of how she helped M.E. escape from a large horde of monsters. M.E., having only a minor recollection from only being barely concious during the incident, suddenly sobs out loudly over a reminder of her past.

M.E. goes on about the horrors that she believed she was the sole cause of. People she cared about, who were being killed over and over again by an unknown individual who coiuld only laugh manically at the spectacle. She spoke of trying to be a hero, but feeling as though she single-handedly lead her people to their doom. Aya in the middle of M.E.'s venting, hugged and tried to comfort her while speaking of her own past, wishing for her to see that M.E. may not have been entirely to blame.

Jasper had gotten up and stood beside her when she initially started crying... but ultimately fell completely silent during the entire encounter. He had no comforting words to say, nor any of his own life experiences to try and help ease her own pain. He felt as though he had nothing to offer his closest friend. He proceeded to very slowly, make his way back to his apartment, thinking his prescence would make no impact.

Once he returned to his room, he fetched his diary from his bedside, and wrote it in again, jotting down how he began to feel as hollow as he was physically on the inside... only this time, leaving an ominous message behind in the final page.

"W h y c a n ' t  I  g e t  r i d  o f  t h i s  s i n k i n g  f e e l i n g . . . ?"

The next morning, M.E. knocks on Jasper's door to chat with him about last night, initially apologizing for making him worry. Jasper then nervously explains that he left for the exact opposite reason, because he felt nothing. M.E. asks if he felt sad because of it, and him saying yes prompted a laugh from her. She then explained that, because he felt sad, then he's perfectly okay! However, that lead to Jasper also mentioning how he feels like he's forgetting something, like a memory is trying to crawl out of him and is scratching at his skull (which doesn't exist). Jasper then asks her if he potentially had a life before this, to which she responds by asking if she can cast a spell on him.

Nervously accepting, as it required physical contact, M.E. got under his shirt to feel his sillicon skin, chanting a single note to analyze his body. The spell confirmed that he is from the realm of Ashkhar, M.E.'s homeworld. However, the analysis spell brought up another detail, that his body structure is near identical to that of a gemstone plant from that world. Confused but intrigued, it was a big step closer for Jasper to figuring out the truth of his birth. He once again thanks M.E. for everything, and they promise to hang out again sometime soon. Despite this however, that clawing feeling had not yet vanished.

The Angering: Page 2
Jasper and M.E. were chatting among themselves by the campire in the center of town when the two decided to go fishing together to cure his boredom. When going to the river to fish, M.E. spotted a water spirit swimming around in it's waters, curiously waving hello to them. The unnamed water spirit seemed curious as to Jasper and M.E's relaxed reactions, as she had been kicked out of the previous town she was in. Showing her around for awhile, they stopped at the bar and met with Endoru, where Jasper left for the night, as the sun was setting

Later on, Jasper is exploring around the ports, spotting a new spice shop that opened up that he hadn't seen before. He entered and was looking around at it's wares, before Avina popped up behind him, locking him into confrontation (having been avoiding Avina ever since the first incident.) within her spice shop. Jasper was growing bitter just seeing her, not at all pleased, until like before, M.E. showed up, only remembering the previous incident and gaining a slight blush on her face.

Jasper, when asked how he was doing, responded with a deadpanned "I'm fine." Not happy with the familiar scene that had played out before. Avina, while being flirty, suggested that M.E. come closer to her, to which Jasper responded in hostility as to not repeat the previous hypnosis event. Avina tried downplaying his anger, but that only made it worse, causing him to further lash out at her for ignorning his feelings. M.E. tried midigating the problem, trying to tell Jasper that they've talked it out and that she's changed, however, Jasper hasn't seen the evidence for this supposed change, and further stuck to his anger. M.E. then had Avina promise her a favor, wishing for her to properly apologize to Jasper. Ria had accidentally walked in on the confrontation, but did not say much. Avina then approached Jasper, saying sorry, but was still in her tone, annoyed. Leaving Jasper quiet, he eventually left in his own silence, feeling a what he believes to be a bubbling anger that makes his head want to shatter like glass.

He leaves to his room, writing in his diary, however, ending today's entry with another worrying quote. ". . . W h y d o  I  w a n t  t o  m a k e  h e r  f e e l  p a i n ? ...What is wrong with me? What the hell am I doing?"

With that supposed anger boiling inside him, his body begun to erupt, causing his amethyst skull to crack and fracture heavily, revealing the geode innards... only this time they were struggling to heal.

The Healing
Jasper stayed inside for quite a long time, only going outside very late at night to fish so that no one would see his injuries. During this break period, he began enchanting a brand new fishing rod for M.E. as an apology, calling it the "Rod of Apologies" after it. Like the rod he was gifted when he arrived in Elysium, it was as strong as a fishing rod could get.

For the first time, he was about to step out during the day, when M.E. walked into the apartment building at the same time he was about to leave, taking a moment to internalize the damage done to Jasper's skull. She freaked out, rushing over to see if he was okay. Jasper simply explained that his head just exploded, not sure what was even the cause. Taking the confrontation outside, M.E. was careful and slow when examining Jasper's body, as touching around where the major damage was done brought him immense pain. Seeing that, while most of his body was still rigid, that there were loose bits, she made the suggestion to regrow the crystal naturally, rather than rely on the regeneration that was for some reason, not working to heal Jasper's massive wound. However, he was noticeably worried less about the repair, and more so the actual cause of the explosion. He spoke of how that scratching in the back of his head grew suddenly very loud, before his head shattered like glass.

Hearing this, M.E. asked to cast the spell she used on him before, only instead of looking at his physical makeup, she would peer into his mind and soul to see what was present. She would have to touch his head for it to work, which would cause him more pain, but he accepted. With her palm gently against his head, and humming the single note, she was able to see that... he had two souls present in his body. A larger, average sized soul that layed dormant, barely moving, and a second, more jittery soul that pulsed, similar to a heartbeat. M.E. relayed this information to Jasper, which visibly startled him that there may have been a "him" before him. Nonetheless, M.E. stayed calm and assured him that it was okay, that if the other Jasper inside of him wasn't further purusing, then that meant that this could be fixed. Jasper was still nervous about having to sit in a room for awhile to grow his skull back in regularly, but M.E. assured him again that she would be there to watch him and make sure he was okay. With that assurance, he accepted. Before M.E. left to make preperations (since Jasper seemed to be able to walk fine on his own), she once again thanked him for the fishing rod, making Jasper smile before the two parted way.

It was weeks later before Jasper finally went with M.E. to Karath-Din to make his recovery. He was slow, as to not further damage himself. Once arriving, they directed Jasper to a scalding hot sauna room, and then applies the crystaline seed in between the cracks to begin the healing process. While initially, Jasper was to be alone in the room, M.E. offered to stay, as it was far too hot for most folks. The two spent time together in the sauna's waters until three days passed, where Jasper's wounds finally healed, looking as if he hadn't gotten hurt at all. With that success, Jasper took his leave, needing to check up on his pet horse due to the length of his stay.

Fun Facts & Extra Information

 * Jasper has Delfiniphobia (phobia of dolphins)
 * His name comes from two separate crystals, the Jasper and the Septarian. Despite this, he is made up of neither of these crystals, primarily made of Amethyst and Quartz.