Vaya Sofiathena

Vaya is a biologist and the Void's head scientist, specialising in experimentation on live test subject, turning others into weapons to benefit her employers and the founder of the life force technology that she developed for herself and has applied to her work to build longer-lasting living weapons. She has a touchy history with the Brigade and her main drive for her work has been mostly revenge, ever since the controversy of her work methods was brought to the surface.

Originally, Vaya wanted to help her whole species by finding a way to extend their unfairly short life spans, to give them a chance to compete against all the other long-living alien races, but after going to the Void, she basically became mad at the world. The only thing she cares about by that point is vengeance and to complete her research successfully, just to get back at them for vilifying her based on her methods.

In short, she's a dying woman blinded by desperation and heartbreak, that blames the world for her problems and wants to make them suffer like they made her.

Appearance
Vaya is a tall, lean humanoid owl with purple and brown feathers, wings and a dark diamond shape on her forehead. She often wears a white lab coat/dress with a black belt and vials. She almost always wears her characteristic life force gauntlet on her left arm that has green tubes running from the fingers, meeting on top on her hand and running along her arm to a device on her upper arm.

Personality
Once a kind and curious individual with a thirst for knowledge and a need for bettering the world, Vaya is now a near complete opposite of her old self. After certain events, she became bitter and felt betrayed by those she once worked so hard to help and impress. Her drive easily becomes obsession, which played a key role in her downfall and later fed into her vengeful nature. She’s all around pretty insecure which leads to her superiority complex, her sarcasm and dark sense of humor, as well as her sadistic tendencies and harsh criticism of others. All this, in combination with her now general disinterest in socialisation, leads to her preference of being a loner. As for her attitude to authority, she no longer bothers questioning their motives, so long as she’s allowed to continue her work. While she is more drawn to working alone, however, she would be willing to make an exception if the individual proved to be competent. Showing interest in her work is also a free pass to getting her attention.

Early life
Growing up in Aiolia among other Noctavi, she grew up in a culture that values vanity and looks greatly, although scientific pursuit is just about a second-place priority. Her parents prepared her for an academically successful future, always insisting on guiding her towards a scientific path. Luckily for them, she showed an interest in science, especially biology, from an early age. Her grades were always competitively high among her classmates, Vaya always seeking to surpass everyone and everything due to the pressure from her parents. A competitive mindset that she kept later on life as well, to her further education.

College days
After landing a scholarship by one of the GUP's most prestigious medical schools, Vaya went to study Biology. She began her academic studies working alone for the most part, having little to no real communication with her classmate. That is until she met Xalia and Zerrys, the three of them becoming a regular group for her to hang out with in and out of lessons. Vaya was smitten with Xalia from the start, a crush that she much rather kept secret from both her and Zerrys, as Xalia already had feelings for another. Still, Vaya's near blind adoration and admiration of Xalia as a person and as a scientist really helped push her towards a new pursuit. And due to her species' short life span, it only made sense that she should seek to buy herself time and help her planet out by developing a device which was the first concept of her life force technology, later on.

Working at the Brigade
Upon graduation, Vaya found herself eventually at the Brigade's disposal, working as on of their scientists. There, she reunited with Xalia whom was her coworker, now. During her time in the Brigade, she and Xalia rekindled their friendship and soon even found themselves dating. A fact that only threw more fuel to Vaya's adoration for Xalia, an unhealthy degree of idolisation. For that time, he desire to be with Xalia for as long as her technology could allow her became her strongest motive for her research. So much so that she was beginning to grow desperate.

Solace
During her work in the Brigade, Vaya kept her own side projects in secret, her life force research continuing as normal, growing and evolving and each time pushing the boundaries of morality and acceptable medical practices, until it was simply time to cross the line entirely. Live test subject became more common, survivors were rare, the experiments grew more extreme. Even going as far as to kidnap a Meobian child. Vaya kidnapped Solace (originally named Roam) at infancy, separating him from his parents and brother. She needed to test how Moebian cores worked as units of energy storage, how they could benefit her as essentially living batteries. And after a long journey of failed tests, this was when she was finally making progress. She made Solace undergo a ton of tormentous experiments, to the point where his core craked. An experience that Solace has no ability to recall at all. The end goal was never to kill him. As much as she ignored her own questionable practices, she hadn't been willing to go as far as to murder a child. She needed him alive after all. But as her desperation grew and her time ran shorter, being concerned over who lives and who dies was simply not efficient. Solace's background remained a mystery to the Brigade, until Vaya used it to threaten the Brigade in her Void days. As for Solace himself, he has no ability to recall her or the events that took place in her secret lab.

Spear
Vaya stumbled upon Spear (formerly Relim) completely by chance, during what was supposed to be a simple outing to clear her head. She immediately saw her state and knew it was the perfect test subject for her life force technology. With Spear falling apart at the seams, it was clear as day when Vaya's test cores were working as they should, keeping the creature, not only alive, but in as good health as possible. With rejuvenated motivation, Vaya found herself working even more on her own side-project than before, even neglecting Brigade-assigned work. She was yielding more results than ever, Spear serving as the perfect test-dummy, the perfect surface to work on. Her limited speech, practically rotten and withered body and lack of any and all background as a person truly was the perfect excuse for Vaya to give up on all morals. She was crossing lines before, but now, now that she also had evidence of her actions working to her favour, there was no stopping her.

The controversy
It wasn't too long after Spear's appearance that Vaya's work was finally discovered. By none other than Xalia, no less, the person whom Vaya had been practically keeping herself alive for, the woman she had fallen for and was determined to find a way to spend as much time with as possible, the reason for her extensive research and methods that went too far. It all happened quickly. Xalia discovered Spear, saw what Vaya was doing, found her research papers, the lab, everything. A fact that filled her with shock and horror for her own girlfriend. One heated fight later, Vaya had no choice but to flee, well aware that Xalia's ethics would encourage her to report this all to the Brigade. And sure enough, Vaya's name was quickly tainted with the consequences of her actions. Betrayed and angry and hurt, she fled and hid, taking what she could salvage, Spear coming with her, practically vanishing off the face of the universe.

The Void and Post-controversy aftermath
With her reputation is pieces, Vaya watched as life around her went on. Only a couple of days after her 'banishment', the Brigade landed their first victory against the Void, the enemy her previous employer was actively trying to defeat. A feat that she had even been trying to contribute to, along with Xalia. But alas, their victory only fueled her anger and hatred for them even further. Her sights were specifically on Strive, the Moebian being a perfect potential test subject in her mind. But that would have to wait. With what little she had left, she knew exactly who to turn to now, the Void being the only logical destination for her now that she had lost everything. They were fighting a common enemy and she knew for sure, they wouldn't turn their back on her for her methods.

Current status
Vaya is currently the Void's head scientist, specialising in creating living weapons while working on her life force research further, at the same time. She tries to combine the two after the results she saw with Spear, a prime example of the effects she desires to replicate on her test subjects. As for herself, she still seeks a sustainable source of life force, her gauntlet specifically designed for that job, but draining life from other beings to use for herself can prove inefficient.

She worked on her own for a start, until an old friend showed up, Zerrys. Delighted to not only be working with such a brilliant mind, but to also see a dearly missed friend, her research has been making strides like never before, giving her hope that one day, she can be the oldest Noctavi to ever live, with Zerrys by her side, as she makes everyone who wronged her pay.

But even though she is highly focused on her work and the Void's demands, Zerrys is often able to convince her to take breaks, to go out, to take time to simply relax and reconnect. More often than not, her agreeing to it is her doing him a favour, but by no means does she not enjoy the time they spend together. She treasures him as a friend first and foremost, the only one who proved he wouldn't betray her, and she holds him dear and near to her heart. She doesn't find herself agreeing with his views sometimes, but she would never start a fight over it. It's the person she's closest to and would absolutely hate to lose him, it's all she has left of the good old days, the better times of her life.

The Void's defeat and the disbanding of the Brigade.
Eventually, the Void had fallen, the Brigade was no longer needed. Which meant, that for people like Vaya, vengeance lost its appeal. It's been years and with the loss of her position in the Void, she lost her funding, her lab, her motivation. However, she didn't lose Zerrys. Now old and tired and with little time left, she gave up on her research gradually, focusing instead on living the rest of her short life with as few worries as she could. She took up new pursuits in arts and music and simply stopping to admire the view, her and Zerrys traveling places now that they were no longer confined within their labs. However, even though she gave up searching the key to immortality, Zerrys didn't give up on it, despite Vaya's request to do otherwise. All she desired was to spend what time she had left with her new-found partner, essentially trying to fill the void Xalia had originally left for so long. She wanted to pretend to be normal, like they were some old, married couple, something that Zerrys did not deny her. They were were inseparable. Even when he was working on continuing their research, she remained nearby, often in his arms, simply resting, talking, giving him advice and ideas. This was by far not the life she had worked to achieve, but she had never been happier. And eventually, a few years of this simple life later, she passed peacefully in her sleep, in her partner's embrace. Zerrys kept her body in a cryochamber, still seeking a way to buy her more time. Centuries passed till he could accomplish that. They spent roughly 20 more years together. For her, a lifetime, for him, a precious moment.

Trivia

 * Vaya keeps plants in her lab. Both for decoration, but mostly to use as emergency life-force sources. They usually come in handy when she needs an energy boost during all-nighters.
 * She has terrible writing skills in anything that is outside a scientific field. While she has pretty articulated speech, she has trouble putting her words on paper. Quick and simplified sentences are her usual go-to.
 * She loves gliding. Not necessarily flying, instead she prefers slowly gliding down mountainsides or big drops. It's the Noctavi equivalent of floating when swimming.
 * She loves horror movies and romance films in secret. The only one who is aware of it, is Zerrys.