Alexander Grey

Alexander Amadeus Grey is a cybernetically-augmented long-tongued fruit bat. Having found an interest in both cybernetics and gaining weight since a very young age, he has had most of his internal organs enhanced or replaced, in part to facilitate his ability to gain weight and maintain his independence.

As an adult, he received an education in robotics and taught himself biology, chemistry and wider engineering. He took up self-employment as a cybernetics engineer to provide services to fellow cyborgs following the collapse of the mainstream cybernetics industry, and to enable himself to work from home.

Now, having been a cyborg for nearly 16 years, he has grown to an immense size and weight for his species, with daily struggles to complete basic tasks and maintain his mobility.

Background

An academically brilliant, if socially isolated, child, Alex took a very early interest in cybernetics—a field that was heavy on the public imagination at the time—especially following the first successful cybernetic augmentation, when he was 7.

Five years later, Alex—using forged identification to bypass age restrictions—underwent his first cybernetic operation at Asimov Industries, opting for discreet internal modifications to hide them from his family. He would undergo another operation in the following year. Two years before, Asimov ended their cybernetics programme entirely. Already heavily overweight from his sedentry, academically-focused childhood, his weight increased dramatically following each surgery.

He graduated university with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering aged 21, and subsequently completed a master’s degree in Robotics two years later.

Personality

Alex is a competent, if lazy, scientist, intellectual and cyborg.

He is liberally minded and holds many progressive values, being open to many world views, however he tends to be quite logical when considering them. As such, he is particularly frustrated by anti-scientific and pseudo-scientific beliefs.

Alex is educated in multiple sciences, particularly robotics, biology, mechanical engineering and programming. He believes strongly in scientific advancement as being the driving force for both personal and global improvement, which is why he signed up for cyborg conversion as a teenager, despite the immature technology of the time. He is a first generation model developed by the Asimov Corporation, which has since ceased to exist due to poor adoption of cybernetic technology. Using his knowledge of the sciences, he performs software and hardware upgrades and maintenance to himself and makes a living providing services to the few other Asimov model cyborgs that exist.

Despite his love for science and technology, he often finds himself victim to it due to the increasing age of his cyborg components and the necessity that he test much of his cybernetic engineering work on himself.

Socially, Alex is introverted and maintains a small cache of friends. He often chooses not to participate in social activities, preferring to spend his free time experimenting or relaxing. He is relentlessly curious and will often research topics he doesn’t know about whilst in the midst of conversation. His ability to easily research and recall information makes him seem arrogant or distant at times.

Since a young age (younger than he can remember) Alex has been interested in gaining weight, in what he later considered a significant aspect of his self identity. Although already morbidly obese beforehand, following cybernetic conversion he has utilised aspects of body’s abilities to increase his appetite, digestive efficiency, physical capacity and—later—mobility.

Despite his size stunting him significantly, he remains independent-minded and—living alone—will often try to achieve tasks himself before seeking assistance from either technology or friends.

Appearance

Alex is a long-tongued fruit bat (Macroglossus sobrinus) with a light grey-brown fur colouration and medium-length blue-black hair. He is unusually short and wide compared to many of his peers, traits that often cause him issues.

Although a cyborg, Alex opted that most of his components be non-visible. His most prominent cyborg accessory is a large pair of computer goggles which are (seemingly) permanently affixed to his head and serve as a means of visual feedback, corrective lenses, and for eye protection whilst working. The goggles glow an orange-yellow colour whilst active.

After decades of substantial and protracted attempts to gain weight, Alex is now extremely obese and functionally immobile without assistance. Even with his numerous artificial physical enhancements, he struggles to move or walk without outside assistance and lacks any practical amount of strength, agility or dexterity, making him incapable of even simple tasks. His ability to see and speak are also slightly stunted by the amount of fat built up around his head.

As a result of his limited mobility, he has resorted to enhancing his body with more advanced yet invasive machinery. The most noticeable of these enhancements is an electromechanical exoskeleton that extends from the base of his neck, covering parts of his wings, legs, the back of his hands, and the base of his feet. The exoskeleton is integrated with Alex’s goggles, allowing it to move his limbs with greater strength than his own muscles.

However, the exoskeleton only assists Alex in moving his arms, legs, and fingers. It does not compensate for his large size and weight. He remains restricted in terms of reach, as his arms are unable to extend beyond his own body. Additionally, his movement speed is limited, as his stomach is constantly in contact with the ground.

Abilities

Alex’s cybernetic enhancements grant him physical abilities far in excess of non-cyborgs. These enhancements include:

• A stretchable undercoating bound under his skin, which protects his electronics against electrocution, magnetism, and EMPs. This also allows his skin to easily grow and shrink with his body.
• Completely efficient, instantaneous digestion. Powered by nanites, Alex can consume almost any matter, which will immediately be converted into base nutrients and energy without any waste material.
• Superior skeletal and muscular strength, making him able to carry significant weight.
• A reduced need for oxygen.
• Programmable nanites. Blank slates that can be programmed on the fly to perform simple biological tasks (such as repairing an injury) and supplement biological functions. These are limited in both quantity and ability.
• An electromechanical exoskeleton to aid in physical movement.

There are also many non-physical benefits, including:

• A direct connection to communications. Alex is able to browse the web, make and receive phone calls, intercept radio signals, and perform many computational tasks on his goggles.
• An expansive memory, able to retain and recall vast amounts of information.
• Accelerated processing power, allowing him to mentally perform complex calculations and play out multiple hypothetical scenarios.
• A mental connection to technology. Being able to control his own components and compatible external technology through thought alone.

However, some of these benefits are negated by Alex’s sheer physical size. He is too large to use or navigate spaces that aren’t specifically adapted for him and requires external assistance to complete most tasks.

Being a cyborg has some downsides, though. Being an obsolete model by a liquidated company, his components fail with increasing frequency with no warranty or support. His firmware is woefully out of date for the same reason. Alex has tried to combat this by writing his own software patches; however, the code that maintains him is poorly cobbled together. This has led to him being hacked occasionally.

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