Aster Oid (Zenith-59)

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Overview
Aster Oid (Zenith-59) is a Drevuul from the planet Zik. In the Masks system, they were the Outsider Playbook. Now in the Mutants and Masterminds system, they are multiclassed as the Psychic and Shapeshifter Archetypes. They play the keyboard for the Unstable Elements.

Appearance and Personality
Aster chooses to have a more humanoid appearance. The most prominent features that mark them as non-human are their lavender skin, three silver eyes, slightly pointed ears, and silver-blue hair. It is now known that this is not their original appearance, but Aster has spoken about how this is what they are most comfortable looking like, and feel a sense of body dysmorphia as anything else.

Being a Drevuul, Aster also does not choose to conform to any human gender roles. They identify as female-presenting non-binary, using they/them or she/her pronouns, but has a displeasure to being called a girl or female. She shows a preference for loose-fitting, comfortable clothes that range from neon to pastel to leather. She commonly wears a beanie, and an assortment of gifts that she has been given: a leather jacket and driving gloves from Nash, a bracelet with a gem of amber-encassed Iridium from Docikyrila Bayuesa, galaxy-skinned headphones from her music store date with Meir, and then a necklace with half of a tektite heart (Meir wears the other half.)

Powers and Abilities
Zenith has been shown to have a multitude of powers and abilities. She is able to speak 7 Earth languages: English, Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, and Hebrew. They are also very adaptable and support in whatever field they can.

They have access to a Drevuul Scout Ship called Starsong, which has an onboard Artificial Intelligence named Genesis. Their spacesuit, which also doubles as her super hero costume, also gives her immunity to cold, hat, pressure, radiation, suffocation, and vacuums. It has a full space helmet as well as a flight visor.

Telepathy
The Drevuul have inherent telepathic abilities. When they open up a mental communication channel with someone else, it is called a "mind-link." While mind-linking, the participants are able to project verbal, emotional, and imagery thoughts, including memories (though the accuracy of the memories is subjective.) Aster has likened this communication to a walkie-talkie, where they can turn the mind-link on and off at will, or connect and disconnect singular or multiple other walkie-talkies to the channel.

While mind-linking, Aster is able to select who to link up from anyone who is within 100ft of her, and they will automatically understand each other regardless of language. Zenith has been shown to be able to link up the entire team together at one time, though the more people there are, the more chaotic this can be. They have been teaching each of the Unstable Elements about how to protect their thoughts and communicate over mind-link effectively and without accidentally letting stray thoughts slip across. They have referred to this protection multiple times as a "mental wall" that one puts up to protect their subconscious.

Aster is unable to communicate with animals like this, but is still able to mind-link with them and do a "vibe-check", or otherwise sense their emotional state and project emotions back to them.

Zenith usually does not use their telepathic abilities without consent, but they are able to mind-link with anyone they would like (unless the target has abilities to block them out.) While doing this, they have the opportunity to read minds, ranging from surface thoughts to the subconscious. The deeper they dig, the more of a chance they have to be noticed. Zenith has also been shown to receive mental feedback, where they can be injured through strong emotions or traumatic memories.

Mental Blast
One of Zenith's most common attacks is a blast of psychic energy that strikes a target's mind. This does not work on robots, inanimate objects, or anything that does not have a will. It appears as multiple shock waves in a triangular formation shooting out from Zenith's middle eye.

Shapeshifting
The Drevuul also have inherent shapeshifting capabilities. Aster has shown that she is capable of different tiers of shapeshifitng.

The first tier is the Morph ability. This appears to be a purely cosmetic change, and she is only capable of making herself appear as different humanoids of roughly the same size. She cannot take on the appearance of inorganic or inanimate objects. While they can change their outward appearance and voice, it does not change their mannerisms or abilities.

The second tier is the Shrinking ability. Zenith can shrink themself down to the size of a cockroach for a limited amount of time. While like this, they have not been shown to be capable of using any powers at all except to change back to normal size. She has not been shown to be able to make herself much larger than she is normally, unless it is one of her animal forms.

The third tier is shapeshifting into certain animals. Zenith is shown to have an offensive form and a defensive form, both for land and for water. While they are shapeshifted in this fashion, Aster loses all other powers except for their telepathy, but they gain new traits depending on what form they take. It is also noted that while in an animal form, Zenith takes on the characteristics of said animal. The longer they spend as that form, the more they are prone to acting not like herself.

Their land offensive form. In this form, their weapons are a set of deadly claws and teeth. They also have access to:

 * Darkvision
 * Danger Sense
 * Tracking Capabilities by Scent
 * Leaping (up to 30ft)

Leopard Seal Form
Their aquatic offensive form. In this form, their main weapon is delivering a wicked bite. They also have access to:


 * Darkvision
 * Danger Sense
 * Tracking Capabilities by Scent
 * Environmental Adaptation (Underwater Movement)

Stag/Elk Form (Felle)
Their land defensive form. In this form, their weapons are their antlers. They also have access to:


 * Increased Toughness/Protection
 * Low-Light Vision
 * Danger Sense
 * Sure-Footed Movement

Blue Giant Rock Lobster
Their aquatic defensive form. In this form, their weapons are their claws. They also have access to:


 * Increased Toughness/Protection
 * Low-Light Vision
 * Danger Sense
 * Environmental Adaptation (Underwater Movement)

Flight
While only some Drevuul have the innate capability of flight, Aster is one of them. They are able to hover in place or fly around without any visible or audible effects, but they have to be conscious to do so. With Earth's gravity, Zenith can fly up to 125mph. It is unknown how fast they are able to fly on Zik, but Aster has claimed that the gravity is more dense there, so she has a more difficult time of it.

Density Manipulation
Probably the most finicky of their powers, Aster can increase or decrease density. They are still very unpracticed at this, having learned after they came to Earth and accidentally punched Meir into a mirrored wall in the sparring room. Though they have tried to use this in combat situations by increasing the density of their attacks or decreased the density of an opponent, it has proven too difficult to use properly. Their main applications have been to decrease Megaton's weight so that she can move around properly, or increase the density of the air around a target to slow them down. However, this still does not work every time.

Solar Energy Control
Another variably used power, Aster developed the use of solar control while on Earth. After Void Roil accidentally opened a portal through space into Aster's dorm room, she found that her boyfriend was becoming hypothermic from not being able to completely protect himself from that type of travel yet. Panicked, and knowing that some Drevuul could manipulate solar energy, Aster tried to use a modified version of this with her own body heat. The alien was successful in amplifying her body heat to warm up Meir, but it then abruptly lowered her own temperature and put her into a temporary catatonic state.

Since then, Zenith has only used energy directly from the sun or from Void Roil's abilities that can replicate a sun, and is unable to use electricity or other heat energy effectively. They have been shown to use it as a beam of sunlight to heat and destroy targets (and to heat up a pool), though they have since adapted to using it as a stun attack. They create a bright flash of light that temporarily stuns and blinds targets.

This power is particularly effective against vampires.

Terrinoth Abilities
Zenith has some lingering abilities from their time as a Druid when the Unstable Elements were translated to the world of Terrinoth. While there, she was able to Soul Bind her Druid Staff that allows her to summon it and constrict a target in a tangle of vines. They also were taught by La Cucaracha to summon and control leeches, which she can use to remove poisons.

History
After winning an essay contest, they were sent by the Council of the Zik Republic to be an intergalactic transfer student at Halycon High. But on their way to Earth, their scout ship, Starsong, was shot down (presumably by the Drevuul Hegemony, but uncomfirmed) and they crash landed somewhere in an Arizona desert. While they were still woozy from the crash, Zenith began to emit a distress signal via telepathic singing. This drew the attention of musical villain, Cherry Bomb, who decided to kidnap the alien and use her voice to reach the top of the charts. In Session 16: Descending Scale, the Unstable Elements were alerted to Zenith's capture by Apollo, as well as knowing that Cherry Bomb could not suddenly appear with a national album. The team staged a rescue, and brought Zenith safely back to Halcyon High, where she is now enrolled as a junior.

Home Planet
Aster is an alien from the planet Zik. She is responsible for the continuation of the civil war and must remain on Earth for their own safety. She still does not have contact with her family, and wants to do what she can to find them and help her people.

Identity
An aspect of the Drevuul is the ability to shapeshift. Most of the Unstable Elements know that Aster does not use their original form, but they have not revealed their original form to anyone. Their daily appearance is what they have chosen and feel most comfortable appearing as. This goes against a specific mantra of the Drevuul, known as The Path, where one must only shapeshift when necessary but otherwise remain in the appearance you were born as.

Aster also identifies as female-presenting non-binary. Their pronouns are they/them and she/her, but they do not like to be referred to as a female/girl/lady etc.

Zenith
Aster is a youth scholar sent to Earth to learn about Earthlings, specifically the heroic students at Halcyon High. They are very knowledgeable about various Earth cultures and technology, and wish to know even more, even if it puts them at risk.

Romance
Romance Aster is in a romantic relationship with Void Roil/Meir Dahan. They will do whatever they can to keep him safe.

Seeker-14
Aster is inspired by their relative, Seeker-14, who died protecting Halcyon City from Axis Earth.

Weaknesses
Aster is just beginning to learn how to swim. She can't swim very well unless she is shapeshifted into an aquatic creature. She also does not like to lie and is quite bad at it.