That is where a lot of his grief stems from but perhaps not as much as he might have thought. Riley grew distance from his sister and someone else became the most important person in his life - someone that he loves more than anything. His mate, Aiden. Though he has yet to say it out loud, he can't imagine living without Aiden even though they've only been together for a year. Aiden's life means more to him than his own does which is why when he thought the other man was dead, Riley did not hesitate to end his. There may be other people he cares about now but Aiden is his reason for living especially now that he knows that having Aiden in his life is also the reason he no longer needs to kill to replenish his lifeforce. He can't go back to killing to stay alive and so he would rather die alongside Aiden than live without him.

Abilities:

Biology

Sunlight
Due to the fact that their sun is dying, it means their planet is quite dark most of the time. While they are fairly adjusted to this fact and that most of their light source comes from what they create, they would be easily burnt by the rays of a younger sun and would find it difficult to see properly. Due to this they have adapted to be able to function in their world and what they couldn't adapt to, they developed technology to help them. So while they might be sensitive to the amount of light another sun puts off, they do just fine under lights that have been artifically created.

Hearing
One of the physical changes that makes Riley unique is his heightened sense of hearing. He is capable of hearing the softest of noises up to one mile away and can hear as far as two miles for slightly louder than normal sounds. It isn't always something he notices as he was born with this ability so he can tune out the sounds around him or may just simply may not be paying attention to start with.

Since he does have a set of animal ears also perched on top of his head at times, Riley actually has extraordinary hearing compared to most. When he has these extra ears, he can hear twice as far as a regular individual from his world. Again, it is something he's learned to filter out most noise so he may not necessarily hear things going on nearby. Typically if he's tuned in to all the commotion in range for an extended period of time, he does get a headache from the sheer amount of noise.

Vision
With their world mostly plunged in darkness enhanced vision is almost a necessity in their evolution. To Riley this means that what a human can't see in the dark - he can. He can see further and sharper and better without the need to squint. Normally he can see his hand in front of his face even if it's pitch black out.

Abilities

Magic
After his parents died, Riley learned how to cast magic from some kids on the street. He only really learned three varieties to start with and only the basics, building on those on his own to develop stronger abilities in these three areas. The fourth type of magic was taught to him by an unsavory individual and Riley tries not to rely on it too much due to what the magic entails. All magic is powered by the wielder's own lifeforce, the more they use it the more of their lifeforce is consumed. Using magic is one sure fire way to end up dying at an early age though it's effects on the body can sometimes vary from one individual to the next. More on Riley's side effects are below.

Fire Magic
The first and most useful magic Riley learned was fire magic. To start with he could create tiny flames such as the way a match or lighter would make. It was enough to get a bigger fire going if given the right kindling and he got better at it throughout the years. He moved on from small fires to larger ones about the size of his hand. These were even better at starting fires and could provide a little bit of warmth but typically it was for frightening away would-be muggers. Eventually he got to the point where he could create flames of any size. They were good for protection or used in fights. On occasion Riley would have an odd job of boiling water for baths or even helping those who shaped metal with the intensity of his flames.

Water Magic
Clean water became hard to get when he was living in a rundown apartment. This is a magic that he's never really developed past filling a large bowl for quick cleaning or to drink.

Cleaning Magic
It's a quick and effective magic that instantly cleans any surface of any size of any substance. While it might be useful in being done as soon as possible it is also technically a huge waste of lifeforce. However, if one wanted to clean a multiple houses in a single day this is what they would use.

Symptoms
These are the side effects Riley suffers from after using magic. The more magic he uses, the worse his symptoms are.

Raw Meat Consumption
This is the most common symptom that a good portion of the magic wielder's population suffers. They have an intense desire and physical need for raw meat. If it isn't for raw meat then it's for blood. Should one ignore this symptom and go without eating meat absolutely raw, they will become extremely feverish, weak, clammy, nauseated, dizzy, and possibly death. Riley has only had this experience once before he knew what it meant to wield magic and it landed him in the hospital. Since then he has had raw meat in his diet but he is capable of eating other foods.

Scenting
Another change that isn't so easily noticed is a heightened sense of smell. This can be both a gift and a curse as Riley is capable of sniffing out others and can track them on smell alone. Or he can be absolutely bombarded with any number of horrible smells that seem so strong he can almost taste them. Much like anyone would, he does prefer things that smell good and tries to surround himself with them whenever possible.

Wolf
This is the most noticeable change as it does cause physical features to appear. For Riley the first thing to appear are a set of silver wolf ears that are perched on top of his head. These allow for more enhanced hearing but is a sure fire giveaway that he's used a great deal of magic. The second change is a silver and dark gray bushy tail protruding from the base of his spine - it is actually fairly painful when this happens but it's really only the beginning of the pain. Due to his prolonged use of magic, these two features are typically permanent for him as are the raw meat consumption and the scenting. Everything that follows are the changes that take place when he's too close to death.

After the tail growth come the eyes, they are usually silver in color but they become gold in appearance and his enhanced vision does get worse than it is normally. Things are blurry after 150 feet in contrast to his 200 feet of enhanced eyesight but it is better in the more darkened areas. He will no longer see in full color either, losing the most brilliant colors first such as red, yellow or blue. Next come the teeth which is the process of the canines become elongated and is extremely painful. Then his nails start to harden and almost seem to curl up. From then on it's usually a crapshoot of what limb starts to morph until it resembles that of a wolf. These usually gain fur immediately of a silver-gray color. The last physical feature is always the head and by the time they've completely undergone this change, the pain is so excruciating that they are extremely close to dying. The last thing to go is their mind, they might look like a wolf but they don't yet think like one - they can experience the horror of changing while keeping their own minds in the process. It might even take months for this last change to occur and some have gone completely insane in that time. After they go full wolf, death is the last remaining symptom. Their physical bodies are completely drained of lifeforce and they simply lay down and die.

Cures?

Medication
As of yet there has been no medical cure discovered to restore someone's lifeforce after it's been used up. Honestly, no one is looking for one either. Everyone is far too busy trying to develop space travel that they don't have time to worry about some people who were stupid enough to get involved with using magic.

Dark Magic
One known cure is to use dark magic to kill another person. By doing this it seems to transfer the lifeforce from the individual who was killed to the one who casted the spell. This must be replenished regularly as the lifeforce they gain from their victim is drained a lot faster as their own lifeforce tends to reject the foreign one. It doesn't matter if they attempt to never use magic again, they will still die an early death if they do not keep killing others and absorbing their lifeforce. This was how Riley was being kept alive for over a year and the first dark spell he ever cast was called Riax. It is a painful, torturous spell that does cause death but only after inflicting terrible wounds on the other individual. This spell acts like fire, burning a person from the inside out slowly. He has only used this spell once and it was to initially save his life after a murderous pack of other wolves had hold of his sister.

Shortly after gaining his first lifeforce replenishment, Riley immediately sought out another dark magic spell that would allow for quick and painless deaths. This one goes by the name of Zrip and it essentially rips the lifeforce from the intended target in one fatal swoop. No pain, no mess and over in an instant. Most don't even realize anything is wrong and they're dead before they even hit the ground.

Mate
There is only one way for a magic user to stay alive without having to rely on dark magic to steal the lifeforce of another and that is through having a mate. Most people aren't even aware that this is a possibility as it happens so rarely and is information lost to the ages but there is someone born into the world who is a perfect match for everyone. They can't be found through tests or chosen from a list of people who might be compatible - they just exist. When one finds their mate they will feel an instant connection - almost a jolt of electricity or a spark. It's followed by an intense need to be close to them, intimate even and they lose control. Once they have been inimate this desire will lessen but never truly go away completely. But finding and accepting a mate is how someone stays alive without needing to kill. It isn't an instant fix and it isn't permanent but rather than stealing lifeforce, they almost seem to create more. No one truly knows how or why this happens but some believe that the "spark" felt between a mated pair is the spark of life. That it is the creation of new lifeforce and it is shared willingly between the two through the act of intimacy (and blood for those who require it). This means that every time a mated pair share a night of passion, they are creating more lifeforce and will live longer. There are even stories that if they can avoid being killed, they will live forever. Of course people also say that if one of the pair is killed, the other will die soon after. But those are just stories, right?

Riley is one of the lucky few who has met his mate and can therefore sustain his lifeforce without having to resort to killing anymore. It is also capable of reversing some of his more extreme symptoms for a time and eventually he may even lose the ears and tail.

Alignment: Daimonia
Typically Riley would fall better under the Sosyne alignment but recent events in his life have made his grief to be one of the primary emotions. The loss of his little sister strikes him extremely deeply as she was someone he immensely cared for and he believes that he is the one who killed her. Joy is a little harder for him to find these days maybe even impossible on some days but he has to find something worth living for.

Other:

Writing
In a world like there is it important to note that Riley does actually know how to write and can do so quite well as his education was extremely good up until the age of fourteen.

Reading
Reading is also a skill he's developed from an early age and also has a great handle on it even if he will never understand every word to ever exist. After all, his education only goes so far and their world has a great deal of scientific minds.

Cooking
One skill that he absolutely excells in is cooking. Put a random set of ingredients in front of him and Riley can make a meal to die for.

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Questions: None