Posse Member: Nesh

A'ight. Time for you guys to meet some of Zero's long-time buddies. Awwwwyisssss.

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Meet Nesh, the kleptomaniac street rat who can effortlessly steal all yo' goodies right out from underneath your noses without warning.

Species: Kuthein
Gender: Omni/Hermaphrodite; normally referred to as a "he", however
Age: Early twenties (approx.)
Height: 5' 9"
Weight: 125 lbs
Eye color: Bioluminescent violet

Species Blurb: Not much is known about Nesh or his species in general. They're the only species native to Iridekk and have a long and mysterious history behind them. The Kuthein are responsible for creating the vast network of caves and labyrinthine subterranean structures that lay beneath the planet's surface over the span of eleven thousand years when they used to be a purely below-ground race. They finally emerged in great numbers from their underground homes in the thousand years that followed the coming of the first explorers and pirates that came poking around looking for stashed-away riches, all but abandoning the cave systems that they used to call home and opting for a more nomadic lifestyle to better avoid the steady influx of nosy Black Market dealers, colonists, and refugees. But not before they booby trapped a large percentage of the cave systems to keep other species out and away from their treasures. A few select tribes chose to stay where they were and simply avoid invading aliens at all costs, choosing to move to some of the more inaccessible reaches of the labyrinth to keep encounters with strangers to an absolute minimum. The rest of them now travel around the planet in sprawling caravans with a few individuals making their homes in the cities that dot Iridekk's surface, living amongst the other aliens that now call the strange desert-dominated planet their home in relative harmony.

Those that either travel in a large tribal group or have chosen to stay underground are grouped under the Trarran culture. These individuals have a tendency to wear flashier, more traditional clothing splashed with color and are noticeably less friendly to outsiders. Those that live in the cities and surrounding environments are grouped under the Baalbek culture. Kuthein who fall under this category wear very practical, color-neutral clothes that allow them to blend in with crowds and have a tendency to be much more gregarious than their tribal cousins. Both cultures cover themselves head-to-toe in clothing and wear masks over their faces. Identity is taken very seriously in both cultures and is not given away willy-nilly. Both the Trarran and Baalbek believe in a high degree of anonymity and tradition that bars them from showing their faces or bodies to anybody other than family or very, very close friends who can be trusted with their identities.

Info: Nesh is a Baalbek Kuthein. He's incredibly fleet-footed and can free run over any environment with surprising ease and grace if he needs to get the heck out of dodge and possesses very intimate knowledge of his city's layout which makes him almost impossible to catch. He's also a chronic kleptomaniac and often steals things without thinking. It doesn't matter if even he doesn't find any value in the offending item or even if he consciously wants to steal it because it'll somehow find its way into his duffel bag. All he has to do is get close to you, maybe even purposefully bump into you, and your precious nicknack is gone. But you probably won't notice until it's too late and he's disappeared back into the crowd.

Nobody knows about his parents or if he has any siblings because he's always been seen running solo. It's unsure if even Nesh knows about his family because he's never once brought them up in casual conversation. Not that Nesh talks very much in the first place. He prefers to use sign language to converse with others and can't be bothered to speak up and actually use his vocal cords except in very specific environments. And nobody knows what he looks like under that mask other than Zero and the rest of their mutual friends. It's a mysteryyyyy~

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Backstory: As for how Nesh came to be a part of Zero's posse, it all started back when the kleptomaniac Kuthein was just a little (presumably) orphan kid bumming around the narrow alleyways that fed into the main streets, stealing little scraps of food and whatever else was in reach. Vera rode into town one day, bringing her two young children along with her to run a few errands in the city. Zero and Nyx were about five years old at the time and being in Kaltek, one of the biggest and most technologically advanced cities on the planet, for the first time was blowing their little minds. There was a lot going on, a lot of people walking around and past them, a lot of background noise--it was a lot to take in. But, in Zero's case, not enough to render him completely spellbound and unobservant.

A flash of grey and white from across the street caught his eye. He watched as the skinny little skull-masked child slipped around a few of the fruit vendors practically unnoticed, filching several palm-sized fruits from other shoppers' baskets and stuffed them into the pockets of his jacket as he casually continued walking past the market and then around the corner into one of the darkened alleyways, disappearing behind one of the dumpsters. Any normal kid would have just shrugged his shoulders and gone back to looking around at what there was to see on their side of the street but not Zero, nooooo. He had to go investigate the scene that just transpired before his very eyes. So, after making sure that both his mother and his sister were good and distracted, he tip-toed away and booked it across the street, bounding right into the same alleyway he'd seen that other kid walk in to.

He immediately rounded the corner of the dumpster, already grinning widely and anticipating an interesting little meet-up with the strange masked kid, but ended up finding the area behind the dumpster empty, save for the few bags of overflow trash lumped into the corner. Not ready to be jipped that easily, he went on an alley-wide search for the kid in question, opening individual trash cans to see if the masked marauder was hiding in them, peeking in between gaps in the garbage collectors, and even accidentally falling into one of the empty dumpsters when he lost his balance trying to peer down into the dark depths of the metal box. He dusted himself off, rubbing at the small bump beginning to form on the back of his head from the tumble he took, and looked around. No kid to be seen. He sighed and started walking back out in the direction of the street to go rejoin with his mom and sister when he got the overwhelming urge to suddenly spin around and check the alleyway one last time. So he whipped around, expecting to see the alleyway as desolate as it was when he first came in and was greeted with the sight of the diminutive masked caper standing directly behind him. Spooked by the sudden apparition, Zero leapt backwards at an awkward angle, unfortunately getting just enough air and momentum to send him falling right back into the same dumpster he'd smacked his head on earlier, falling to the bottom of it with a hollow thud.

Groaning and more disoriented than he was earlier, Zero sat up, holding his head. Ahhhhgahd, ow. That hurt. There was a soft shuffling noise at the rim of the dumpster followed by an equally soft thump of small two-toed feet hitting metal. The second sound caught his attention and he looked up to see the strange skull-faced child reach out to him and pull him back up to stand in the bottom of the metal garbage collector. Zero muttered a word of thanks and went on to introduce himself as Zero Bvyk as he was pushed toward the top edge of the wall and then helped over it, flipping over the top and onto his rump in a small explosion of violet sand as he hit the ground. Sand was so much nicer to land on than sheet metal.

The skull kid followed right after him, landing about a foot away and turning around to sit down in front of Zero, quite amused with the little Vortian's determination and admittedly ridiculous antics. Seeing him fall into the same dumpster twice within the span of three minutes had dissolved whatever instinctive cautiousness the Kuthein had at the moment because nobody could take that seriously. Zero thanked him for his help and glanced toward the entrance of the alleyway, vaguely curious if his mother had noticed that he'd run off yet. Thanks to Zero's blatant disregard for consequences even if he knew they'd be brought upon him by his own actions, he snapped back to attention and asked the kid for his name. Instead of giving him a verbal reply, the Kuthein simply wrote his name in the sand between them, "Nesh".

Zero was beyond overjoyed at the prospect of a new friend and immediately set to work in asking Nesh about how he was able to disappear like that. He'd had absolutely no idea where the Kuthein had ran off to when he was looking for him. Nesh giggled silently at him and pointed up at an a/c unit hanging a few feet over the top of a pile of adjacent trash cans. Oh. So that's where he went. Needless to say, he was impressed by Nesh's ability to go undetected and seek out one of the best hiding spots nobody ever thought of.

They sat there like that for the next ten minutes, Zero continuing to ask questions and marvel at Nesh's combination of short written answers and pointing around, until Vera came looking for him. She'd known where he was after he'd made a beeline for the alleyway across the street since Nyx made a point of telling her that her overly-excitable brother saw something interesting on the other side of the market and was probably going to get himself lost. It barely took her half a second to recognize Nesh's species and she kept a respectable distance so as not to frighten him away from her son by getting too close. Nesh instinctively shied away to the nearest cover, peeking around the side of one of the dumpsters at her. Zero knew he was going to be in trouble for running off like that, but he was determined to make sure that he didn't miss his chance to make a new friend.

He dug around in the little satchel tied to his belt and pulled out a shiny blue and yellow desert glass marble from his small travel collection and gave it to Nesh as a promise that he'd come back the next day and play a game of Ringer with him. Nesh took it but didn't know quite what to do with it at first. Nobody had ever given him anything like that before. He'd had to steal everything he ate and owned up to this point. He watched Zero disappear around the corner with his mother, the little Vortian furiously waving a goodbye at him until he was out of sight.

The next day, after a stern but gentle reprimanding from Vera, Zero returned to the exact same alleyway with an even bigger bag of marbles in tow. He looked around, halfway expecting to see that now-familiar skull-shaped mask perched up on top of the a/c again, waiting for him, but found nothing. He sat down, figuring that Nesh would show up eventually, and started drawing the playing field in the sand. After about a minute of that, he reached over to grab his bag and dump the contents out on the ground so he could sort them out according to size and color, but was surprised when his hand met nothing but more sand. He barely got more than a muttered word of confusion out when his bag floated down into view with Nesh's black-gloved hand holding the top shut. He laughed and accepted his bag back while the little Kuthein walked out from behind his back and promptly plunked down in the sand next to him, eager to do something fun for a change.

From there, their friendship grew. Zero came back to visit him every single day, bearing tidings of marbles and snacks to munch on. Nesh slowly taught Zero how to understand his sign language and even reply back in more or less perfect form in return. When they got bored of playing marbles, Zero started following Nesh around and began learning the fine art of parkour. They spent hours upon hours jumping around, skittering up the sides of buildings, and running across the rooftops like their pants were on fire. And when they wanted to up the ante a little more, they'd go out and steal little trinkets and baubles here and there--nothing anybody would miss, really. But that didn't last long because the real thrill was with taking stuff that was actually valuable and getting away with it.

It wasn't much longer than a month after their initial meeting that they'd end up bumping into the other two core parts of their little group, but that's a story you guys can read from my next installment of Zero's little posse. C:


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Nesh, Nyx, Zero, and Vera belong to me

The Kuthein species are mine as well

Art is also mine