Zane Lune

""Oh my, Ms. Nyx, I really am quite skilled at being gay, it seems, as I am already the father of a child with another man.""

- -Zane, the second father of an emu

Zane Lune is an paranoid, untrusting, frail spellcaster suffering from a lot of mental anguish. His magic tends to focus on protection and teleportation, though he seems to be more well-known for his Fireball spell, due to a single incident involving it. Feeling inadequate, he tends to latch onto the few people he finds 'beneath him' and uses them as mental punching bags for his own self esteem.

Overview
Behind the cold, calm, calculative exterior, Zane is a narcissistic, vengeful man with an extreme thirst for power. While normally prim and proper, he is easily annoyed and prone to snapping, causing temporary lapses in judgment. Despite being 'Evil' aligned, he can work fine with characters of most alignments outside of 'Chaotic' ones, as his 'evil' stems from how far he will go to achieve his goals, not that his end goal is nefarious. He wishes for society to advance as far as it possibly can, no matter how many deaths it may take to get there. Torture and cruel experiments on prisoners and homeless beggars is the logical choice if humanity wishes to evolve faster; he's annoyed the bulk of society would prefer living in stagnation for the sake of not being 'cruel' to a few worthless lives.

He is currently fighting with his Darwinian stance on life, as on Metrianda, he is not one of the 'strong' who deserve to prosper, like he believed he was on Earth. He agrees with Pareidolia that he is not worthy of her 'perfect world,' and believes he should willingly die, yet he cannot bring himself to do it. He is absolutely devastated that he can't live up to his own philosophy when push comes to shove. Others have tried to tell him that perfection isn't important, but he still doesn't accept that. He is a miserable, self-hating man, who has recently become even more pathetic by sucking up to anyone he deems a threat, in hopes they will not kill him if they happen to become enemies in the future.

Basic History
Born on Mars, he settled down on Earth for college, with the goal of becoming a surgeon. He had just made it to his goal, attaining a cushy job at Singularity as a surgeon who helped attach prosthetics, when he was whisked away to Metrianda.

Primary/Secondary School

 * Age 7: Discovers an old piano in the basement and likes how each note makes a different sound. In time, he learns he can play songs on it if he hits specific keys, and learns the position of each note through trial and error. Is entirely self-taught, and at the time, doesn't know sheet music or note names exist. Plays for fun, when bored.
 * Age 8: Mom forces him to play soccer, believing he's sickly because he doesn't exercise enough. Zane would prefer going into tennis if he must play, but his mom insists he plays soccer, claiming 'it's great.'
 * Age 9: Finishes 2nd grade. Skips 3rd grade (Earth equivalent to skipping 6th and 7th grade).


 * Age 10:
 * Zane's allowed to quit soccer, after a particularly bad asthmatic attack. He is forced to play tennis instead, which he still hates, but far prefers.
 * He becomes fascinated with how bodies work after taking a Biology class.


 * Age 11:
 * Joins the Science Club. Quits the Science Club. Their 'science' is too asinine, what with 'making ice cream with liquid nitrogen' or 'making one's hair stand up with a Van de Graaff generator,' instead of actually studying useful science. Has a vendetta against the Science Club. Wishes the Science Club would burn.
 * Part of his hatred is simply because he felt incredibly awkward there and found it super difficult to interact with people. He figures they all joke about him behind his back now.
 * Learns more about Earth, and takes a heavy interest in it, despite it being painted in an overall negative light by his teachers. Everyone claimed it was a terrible place with pollution and too much corporatism, and yet, most of the planet's top brains studied on Earth.
 * Age 12:
 * Rebels against his mom and quits tennis, refusing to ever go back.
 * Starts dedicating that 'tennis time' to being more serious about studying science and self-teaching himself the piano.
 * Age 13: Learns a girl has a crush on him. Rejects her blankly. She cries. He doesn't care. If anything, he enjoys how easy it was to hurt someone with mere words.
 * Age 14: Becomes far more serious about attending college on Earth. Dedicates his free time to working as much as possible to start paying for the trip.
 * Starts taking a lot of high level courses.
 * Goes back to the girl who had a crush on him and asks if she wants to date now (in hopes of maybe getting some money from her). She rejects him instantly, outwardly disliking him for how he treated her before.
 * Might earn some money through unscrupulous means, but I'm not sure what yet. Sell drugs. Sell photos of yourself to pedophiles.
 * Age 15:
 * The bulk of his classes are college level courses, taught in a special school, far from home. It costs a lot more money, but they are specifically courses taken from Earth's curriculum, and he does it to prepare himself, and to shave a year off of college.
 * Graduates. Earns a huge scholarship to an Earth college as an exchange student, but doesn't have nearly as much money as he needs to travel to Earth (2% tops). Takes out a huge loan, with the help of his parents. He's confident that he will be able to pay it back quickly, once he earns a high-paying job.

Undergraduate School

 * 2211 (16): His first semester is absolute Hell, and the second isn't much better. Took the maximum number of credits possible, confident he could handle the work load, given he was knocking out the last of his core classes. Despite how easy the classes are, the rough transition to Earth made this a poor choice. He's sick, stressed, and miserable, often finding himself either incapable of attending class, or nearly passing out during it. He refuses to drop out of any of them, and he survives with a nigh-perfect GPA solely due to his own perfectionism. His low grades tend to be due to poor attendance or bad presentations (given he's shaky and out of it as he stands in front of the class), as his written homework is fine.
 * He feels heavy and sluggish due to the gravity differences between Mars and Earth. Even getting out of bed is difficult due to the added weight. He develops anorexia, which becomes worse due to all the stress he's facing.
 * Takes a single extra Biology course during the Summer, letting his body rest otherwise (but still studies on his own often).
 * 2212 (17): Core classes are mainly complete, and he's focusing more on his majors. Takes a few less classes. His body (and to a lesser extent, his mind) is still transitioning between Earth's atmosphere and culture, but he's improving. He still takes more sick days than he'd like.
 * Takes another few college classes during the Summer, along with taking a paid internship at a biolab, mainly cleaning equipment and sorting paperwork.
 * 2213 (18): Final year. Still sickly, but getting better. He dates for the first time, but it's not out of love; it is merely an 'experiment' to learn how to manipulate women to his favor, given he wants to find a good job by any means necessary.

Graduate School

 * 2213-2217 (18-22): The transition to Medical School is pretty stressful, but he manages it much better than his transition from Mars to Earth. During his second year, he starts dating a fellow student, whose parents run a relatively well-off hospital (she plans on going into the same field). He often spends more time with her parents than with her, though not to the point it's suspicious. He is already preparing for residency under them.

Residency

 * 2217-2220 (22-25): Trains under his 'girlfriend's' parents, learning how to become a surgeon.

Roboticist

 * April 14,2221(26): Begins residency at Singularity, and they notify them they intend on hiring him afterwards. He breaks up with his 'girlfriend' instantly.
 * 2222 (27): Residency complete.  Works at Singularity full-time, mainly attaching limbs, with a bit of programming on the side.

Metrianda

 * July 12, 2222 (27 - five months until 28): RIP everything he strived for.

Philosophy

 * Is 'Evil' Really that Bad?: He does not consider himself 'evil,' or at least doesn't consider his type of 'evil' a bad thing. He may be out for himself most of the time, but he also tries to work towards what he believes is the greater good—he simply doesn't care about how many casualties are necessary to get there. 'The Greater Good' to him is the advancement of science and technology, not social issues like poverty and world peace. He may even find world peace to be a bad thing, as lack of conflict may lead to scientific stagnation.
 * Survival of the Fittest: The strong deserve to survive and the weak are disposable tools. Zane himself requires help constantly, but he rationalizes that he is merely utilizing the weak to his advantage, as any strong person should.
 * Fair Trade: While he may cheat a 'lesser' being, Zane prefers making deals with people he respects, trading his own talents for theirs. These deals tend to be fair, at least in his eyes, but the moment he believes his services are of greater value than what he is receiving, he will stop exerting effort. Given how full of himself he is, his 'fair trades' may not feel fair to the other party. To him, sitting around and ordering a brute to do all the manual labor is a fair trade, as Zane's superior intellect is potentially even more important to completing the task than the brute's ability to carry out his orders.
 * Logic over Emotion: Emotions are the antithesis to logic and perfection, and as such, Zane hopes to one day purge them from his body. Until that happens, he'll blame any faults or hypocrisies he has on 'the curse of being human'. When suffering from any emotions he does not like, he breaks it down from a biological standpoint to detach himself from it; he was not 'emotional;' he was merely suffering from a chemical imbalance.

Fears

 * Loss of Control: Both mentally and physically, but especially mentally. His entrapment in Metrianda is a loss of control, the world being too confusing and unfamiliar for him to be able to prepare for what is yet to come. It's a nightmare, and one of the biggest reasons why he desperately wants to return to Earth, where everything makes sense again. This is by far his biggest fear, and his other fears often play into this one.
 * Being Seen as a Failure (Control of Success): He is a workaholic perfectionist who tends to put his all into his work, and if he still fails despite all that, he feels incredibly inadequate and helpless. If someone he doesn't respect considers him a failure, he'll likely be fine with it, but if people he respects think the same, he becomes incredibly distressed, especially if he believes he succeeded in whatever goal he set out to do. He'll feel lost and confused, and the fact that he's 'too dumb' to even understand why his actions were considered a failure makes him feel even more inadequate.
 * Becoming 'Fat' (Control of Weight): One of the few areas he feels he has consistent control over in his life is his weight, and when distressed, he falls back on this, 'controlling' his food intake even more to make him feel accomplished again.
 * Downpours: A fear he gained in Metrianda, after being given a 'debilitating fear of water' during a Museum puzzle. He's fine with bodies of water, but freezes up during heavy rainstorms, due to experiencing one while he had the phobia. He had trouble sleeping each night until Maldreth's Commission arrived, granting him a room free from the sounds of rain.
 * His Own Contradictive Beliefs: He is aware that his philosophy holds many contradictions, and this scares him. He wishes to be perfect and logical, and yet, he understands that 'perfect logic' means an absolute loss of humanity and free will, which makes life not worth living in the first place. He finds humans(oid)s to be flawed and illogical, and yet, he still longs for their companionship over that of a robot. He both envies and pities Susan for her robotic mind, and can't seem to come to a real conclusion on what he truly wants. He wants both and he wants neither, at the same time.

Trivia

 * Zane's middle name, Eugenius, was chosen by himself after he was stripped of his nobility. It means 'well born.'
 * First impressions mean so much to him, both in terms of his grudges, and in terms of what he will latch onto about a person. If a person plays Monopoly once, he will bring it up constantly from that point forward, whenever he wants to please them.
 * Zane is actually short for a Marsling, due to the lack of gravity making them taller on average. It was odd to move to Earth and suddenly be taller than average (91st percentile).
 * When he doesn't have another test subject available, he sometimes experiments on himself, and through this, he learns he rather likes feeling pain; psychologically, this springs from his hatred of his body and the desire to make it suffer.
 * If spoken to while sleeping, he has a tendency to sleep talk back, but normally with entirely unrelated answers (like... randomly mentioning muffins).
 * He speaks flowery English, throwing in Middle English terms on a whim, because he feels it makes him sound more high class.
 * He used to have freckles, but started covering them up with makeup in his teen years, as he disliked how they looked. Imperfect!
 * He almost always wears gloves, as he's a bit of a germaphobe and absolutely despises skin contact with anyone else.
 * He's starting to wear them less in Metrianda, as he becomes more used to people.
 * He secretly enjoys having his hair stroked. He will often nonchalantly stroke it himself when worried or in thought.
 * Hates the sun (burns easily). Also hates the cold (low body fat). Whoops.
 * He's a lover of Classical music and is incredibly skilled with the piano. He's far more open about his emotions through music than he'd ever let on elsewhere (outside of anger).
 * Zane secretly has a soft spot for rhythm games, most notably Love Live. Umi is his favorite girl.
 * Zane has a secret love of muffins, his favorite being Cranberry Orange. He refuses to let himself eat them.

Moon:
Captain Maldreth Matriad: His boss and a man he very much respects, as he helped give him some hope that Metrinda had some actually civilized, respectable people living in it. The two played chess every week until the man was taken away by his wife. Zane greatly misses their time spent together, though the two have figured out that communication is still occasionally possible through the means of an alternate plane Zane sometimes visits in his dreams.

Co-Captain Gaiya Shigar: He's become a big fan of her in recent months, admiring her ability to work under pressure. He feels responsible for leaving her behind on their mission, and is still struggling with those regrets, despite her assuring him it wasn't his fault. To him, she was his replacement boss—both literally and in his 'heart,' as she felt like someone he could look up to for guidance whenever he was feeling down, just as he had with Maldreth in the past.

Co-Captain Sa'an Morogon: He never cared for the man much, but he was just starting to gain some respect for him when he died. He was in the Underglass when it happened, which hurts him even more. He was killed by his mother, Solarious Morogon, who he had tried to help just days prior, and it was all for nothing. He failed.

Nyx: A Moon Hero he did not originally get along with, but is now one of his closest friends. The two can get into a bit of mischief together sometimes, while they also tend to help lift each other up when the other is down. They both care about their boss' safety, and the fact that they have each other helps keep each other at least a little more optimistic of their chances. It's nice to know someone else is just as motivated to save him.

Solarious Morogon: Used to be another friend (albeit, one that got on his nerves), but now an enemy. For a while, he believed she could still be 'saved,' but now he is more pessimistic. It pains him to know she has discarded them completely, given she was the one who helped him out of a rut after their boss was taken away.

Muka Mizari: Yet another Hero he disliked at first, that grew on him with time. He likes the man now, but still finds him rather incompetent, and enjoys criticizing him. Despite this, he wouldn't have it any other way, as Muka makes him feel better about himself. He hopes the man's incompetence (which is really just bad luck) never changes.

Benjiro Liebowitz: He liked the man as 'Edward,' but is having major difficulties embracing the new one, due to his extremely different personality. Things took a turn for the worse when the scientist was drunk in the Dream Plane, which Zane absolutely despised. He was already feeling far more distant to the man, ever since he started kicking him out of conversations, either by asking him to physically leave or by speaking Spanish, a language Zane doesn't naturally understand. Zane scoffs at the idea Benjiro even considers him a friend, and believes him to be a liar who only made such claims to manipulate him (or out of utter ignorance).

Stygiana 'Blue' Nevergreen: His temporary adopted daughter and temporary 'Captain' as well. He is very protective of her, and enjoys her company, as he feels he can be 'weak' around her without being judged as much. He also feels a sense of power over her, being her caretaker, but he does not abuse this position and truly tries his best to be a good 'father' for her, while her other adoptive father is a captive on The Sun.

Sun:
Pareidolia Di'or: His former boss (above Captain Matriad), and current enemy. He used to look up to (and kiss up to) her, but after she lost her cool during a text conversation with her, he has discarded her completely. No longer does he think she's a powerful, calculative mastermind; now he finds her to be a brute unworthy of her status as ruler of The Sun. He is perhaps a bit too confident that he believes they could take her down in a fight—though he does know that they don't stand a chance when facing off against the entire Sun in the process.

Robasa:
Mayess Kian Shigar: He doesn't know much about her, but overall, he respects her, despite his initial distaste for her (blaming her for his summoning to Metrianda). He would enjoy that she's fine with making sacrifices, and is curious about her and Maldreth's former friendship. Given what Maldreth has warned him about, he does fear her potential mental instability and that she may shoot them down at any moment, so he doesn't fully trust her.

Mayor Finnigan Leagallow: He feels bad for the man suffering through so much, and doesn't envy his stress and workload. That said, after a fake text from 'Finnigan' was sent to him, he has not been able to feel comfortable around the man, knowing he was played.