Niko Santos - Shifter

Name: Niko Santos  

Nickname: Niko

Age: 260

Gender: Male

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Occupation: Mechatronics Engineer  

Appearance: Lean with dense, firm muscles and a tall, trim body with an athletic frame. His features are smooth, handsome. He has curly dark brown hair with darker tones around the roots and gentle hazel eyes. The hair gets messy the longer it grows out and always seems to have a careless look to it. When it’s combed back over, he looks sophisticated and dashing.

In his primal form he is a Persian Leopard. His base fur is a tawny brown colour with white undersides, white under the tail and an array of black rosettes spattered across his body evenly. His leopard form is sleek and lithe, agile as most leopards are and strongly built with compact, powerful muscles.      

Human Photo:


Race:Shifter

Rank Requested: Epror Male  

Specialization: Shifts into Persian Leopard

Primal Form Photo:



Height: Human Form: 6”2” | Primal Form: 2’ 46”  

Weight: Human Form: 77kg | Primal Form: 200 lb  

Eye Color: Hazel | Amber  

Hair Color: Dark brown | Tawny brown

Identifying Marks: A long diagonal scar across his back from when he was attacked from behind in a fight by a wolf  

Face Claim: Marlon Teixeira  

Personality: Easy-going, sociable kind of guy and easy to hang around with and enjoys the company of other people. He’s the type to go with the flow and live and let live. Niko is street smart, is creative and fun-loving.  He’s also very resourceful, very thoughtful and an optimist with a spiritual side to him that once people get close to him, are able to see. He’s also oblivious when it comes to anything that involves love but if the people he cares about are threatened or hurt in any way, he would not hesitate to protect them with all his heart.  

Likes:
-Robots
-Swimming
-Out-doors
-Working with mechanics
-Winter

Dislikes:
-Museums
-Opera
-Classical music
-Theatre
-Zoos      
-Smokers

Habits:
-Rolls in his sleep sometimes
-Works on things when he’s stressed
-Prays every night
-Plays with new gadgets he finds
-Taps his feet when he enjoys listening to a good song
-Scratching his head when he’s nervous
-Moves his hand behind his back as if he's looking for his tail
-Walks away immediately from any zoo that's nearby
-Watching fish in aquariums  
-Staying up at night
-Swimming when he's stressed
-Stays outside of any pet shop that's nearby         

History:
Niko spent his child-hood living in the wild in Iran with his family in the mountains. Unfortunately when he was five months old his entire family was shot and killed by poachers who wanted their pelts to sell in the black market. They didn’t kill Niko as they wanted to sell him to the highest bidder. They kept him locked up inside a cage that barely fit him and hid out in dirty, suspect apartments and put a dog tag on him so that he wouldn’t get lost. If he tore it off they would electrocute him. He was also kept up with other captured animals who were really animals and often picked fights with him for food as the poachers would let them out of their cages but would shoot them with tranquilizer guns if they tried to escape. Niko held his own, managing to eat for himself but he knew time was running out. He had heard one of the poachers talking to a potential buyer about how his pelt would make a good fur coat and there were a lot of people who wanted him. He needed to escape so one night when the poachers let them out he pretended to be sick and fainted. Once the poachers put their guns down he ran for it, managing to escape. Luckily, he was only five months old at the time so he was a small target to hit, as well as agile and not easy with the rest of the animals. He spent the rest of his life on the streets, hiding from prying eyes and scavenging for food from dumpsters or trash cans which made him become a skilled hunter.    

One night when he was rummaging through the garbage behind an apartment he was caught by a Mora by surprise who dragged him out of the garbage and tried to get him into the apartment. It turned out the Mora was living by herself. Fearing for his life, he transformed into his human form to try to escape as he weighed more than her. That was quickly put to a stop as the Mora tackled him down, getting him with a choke-hold and choking him into unconsciousness. When he woke up he found himself tied to a bed with rope. He felt drowsy and weak. When he tried to speak his words came out slurred. The Mora was sitting beside him and explained to him that she didn’t mean him any harm but she had to make sure he wasn’t an enemy so she injected him with sedatives. Within an hour the sedatives wore off. The Mora said that she lived alone in the apartment and introduced herself as Arwen. When Niko asked her what she was protecting herself from she told him that she had run afoul of a mob boss who was a Shifter. The Shifter had been sending his men (who were also Shifters) to her home every week to hassle her for some extra money from her.

The Shifters were all deadly or poisonous beasts such as bears, scorpions or giant snakes that would have killed her. Niko was about to leave, wanting nothing to do with it until the Mora told him that the mob boss was also selling leopard skins on the black market and she could offer him protection and a home to stay in. Niko agreed to stay. During that time, he discovered he learned how to fit into human society. He took some local classes in judo and taewkwondo as well as learnt some fighting skills that were more practical. He trained with her every-day and put these skills in practice when the mob boss’ cronies came to hassle Arwen in a group. Niko protected her as best as he could using his fists and improvised weapons as he couldn’t reveal his being a leopard without being killed. During all of this, he made friends with a werewolf who lived further down the street after he saved the werewolf from getting hit by a silver bullet in the middle of a civil mob war. It turned out the werewolf, who he came to know as Randalf, was a mechatronics engineer who made a living by creating robotic animals for films and TV. He let Niko experiment and tinker with a robot jaguar he was working on for a film that had problems walking. Niko managed to figure it out. Surprised, Randalf showed him some other projects that had some malfunctions which he fixed within a few hours without any help. It turned out that Niko had a natural talent for robotics and Randalf decided to take a chance on him and paid for some online courses for him to learn. Eventually Niko ended up working for him and was able to earn enough money to buy a small apartment in the city. He kept in contact with Arwen though and Niko began to live and enjoy life, trying out things that regular humans did. It was here that he discovered his love of surfing as he would often go out to the beach to swim in his animal form. Randalf too, was going to get a hefty sum for one of his robotic inventions he’d sold off.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly until the mob boss, having heard of Randalf’s profit from the selling of the robot wanted in on a piece of the action. He sent two Shifters, a bear and a scorpion, to his house to intimidate him into giving him the money. Randalf refused, fighting them off. The mob boss didn’t take that well and ordered a raid on Randalf’s house the following day. Niko was there at the time and so was Arwen. The raid became a full-out brawl and Randalf was stabbed with a silver knife from behind, then shot in the chest. Enraged, Niko attacked the one who’d done it, tearing his head off. The rest of the gang ran, hearing the police come. It was the first time Niko had killed anyone and later when they were in the hospital (The knife and bullet had missed major arteries), he snapped at Arwen. He could not forgive himself for what he’d done. Randalf fell into a coma. Niko grew angry, inconsolable. Then when he was walking home from work one night he saw one of the Shifters, the one that’d shot Randalf, sneaking into his house. Niko attacked him, throwing him against the ground and grabbing a broken shard of glass nearby, threatened to stab him with it unless he told him where his boss’ hideout was. The Shifter did so. It was at a desolate apartment on the outskirts. Niko left, transforming into his leopard form when he was out of sight.      The mob boss was playing poker with his buddies when Niko found him. Niko waited until they left then broke in, grabbing the gun from the table that the mob boss had left and slammed him against the wall, aiming the gun at the side of his head. Niko threatened him, telling him that he’d kill him. The mob boss laughed in his face, telling him that he wasn’t that type of person and that he was glad Niko had come because he knew what Niko was. He recognized the number on Niko’s tag. It was an identifier for animals that poachers used. The mob boss was the buyer that had wanted him when he was a baby cub. At that moment the police came, surrounding the house. Niko dropped the gun, backing away. It turned out the mob boss was wanted for orchestrating human trafficking and operating child prostitution rings as well as multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. He was sent for a life sentence to jail and at the same time, Randalf was taken off life support. He was cremated, his ashes scattered across the water by Niko. A few months later Niko was asked to stand as a witness for the trial and he forgave him. He knew revenge would not bring Randalf back but neither did he care about the mob boss. And he moved on with his life.        

Father: Ricardo | Status: Dead

Mother: Lisa | Status: Dead

Siblings: None

Spouse/Mate: None

Offspring: None

Pets: N/A

Other Important People: Arwen | Status: Alive  

Joining Keys: -Keys have been swept away with magical tiger wand. ^_^ ~It Twas Eden

-sticks tongue out-