Jason Shaver

Jason Shaver(also commonly known as Jase or Kuda) is a half-dragon Shapeshifter and the current leader of the Cult of Ustream.

Appearance
Jason is somewhat lanky, with a pale complexion on a somewhat skinny frame. His jet-black hair is untidy and a fair bit longer than he likes it, though never getting in the way of his sharp emerald-green eyes. The most notable thing about his eyes is their luminosity, as they seem to give off a faint glow, improving his low-light vision. He wears a loose, black t-shirt and faded black jeans, as well as a pentagram necklace that is often tucked into his shirt. On his back a quiver is strapped, along with his signature weapon- a composite longbow. Attached to his waist is an ornate sheath carrying a dagger should Jason decide to get closer to his opponent. All of Jason's animal forms are black with green eyes, even if this coloration is impossible in nature.

Personality
Jason is aloof and solitary among almost all members of the Cult, which often seems contradictory to his role as leader. He can, however, be social when needed or among friends, and will willingly step in to help. While he can be aggressive and dominant, especially among others of his own kind, he is friendly once one gains his trust and proves to have a rather quick mind. His common sense rarely rules, however, and he can be very reckless and impulsive, often needing to be reminded by Mimring to tone it down a notch. As with most Durasken-born Shapeshifters, Jason nurses a strong dislike of humans and a fierce hatred of experiments, clones, constructs, and just about any other type of artificial being. Of course, this often puts him at odds with Lord X-Giga-X...

Fighting Style
Jason is a relatively cautious fighter at the beginning of a battle, preferring to stay at a distance until he learns how his opponent fights. Once this is accomplished, he adapts his strategy of combat in order to win. He is built for and fully capable of switching between ranged combat and close quarters combat.

Powers

 * Shapeshifting: [Being Reworked]
 * Dracomancy: Jason can control dragons. This ability was inherited from his father. He has a dragon familiar, Mimring. Additionally, he managed to take a dragon and bind another as a familiar when he was untrained, showing his natural talent at dracomancy.
 * (Limited) Shadowimpery: A discovery made upon the first time using his Darkwing Firedrake form in combat, Jase has a severely limited ability to manipulate dark energy. He is only able to use this in his Darkwing Firedrake form, and due to research believes it is genetic.

Abilities

 * Enhanced Senses: As a Shapeshifter, Jason's senses are incredibly acute, especially his hearing, sense of smell, and lowlight vision. These are often twice the strength or more than is normal for that particular form. Jason takes great pride in his senses.
 * Enhanced Reflexes and Agility: Yet another thing that comes from his species. A Shapeshifter's reflexes are incredible and almost qualify as precognitive if honed. His agility comes from a special chemical created by his body, known as Asyentine. This is very similar to adrenaline in composition and purpose, except that it gives more energy and stimulates his DNA to recode for shapeshifting.

Equipment

 * Flaming Burst Composite Longbow: By far his most commonly seen weapon, this intricately carved compound bow is made from an unnamed substance, though it has been implied it was carved from dragon horn. Though the bow carries the name "Flaming Burst", this trait is actually attributed to the arrows. These arrows are black with red tips and will erupt in flames upon hitting their target, yet the arrow itself remains unharmed by the explosion.
 * Shardifi Dagger: A silver-steel alloy dagger with no special properties other than being coated in a mithril-orichalcum alloy created from melted dragon scales. Jason stole it from Drake Kuro during the events of CoU2.

Strengths and Immunities
Jason, as a shapeshifter, has extremely sharp senses, often double the strength of a normal human's(or whatever form he happens to be in), especially his hearing and night vision. His reflexes are also very good, derived from not just the animal side's survival instinct but also from living for years on the run from Death. In his Darkwing Firedrake form, he is resistant to heat and darkness-based attacks. He has a high enough metabolism that poisons and illness work through his system quickly, rendering them nearly useless, or at least mitigated. His body has a defense mechanism so that if he is badly hurt, he automatically shifts, which heals him slightly. Asyentine gives him more energy than it would give humans.

Weaknesses and Fears
While his acute senses are normally a good thing, Jason's incredible hearing makes him abnormally vulnerable to all sound-based attacks, while his lowlight vision causes him to easily be blinded by bright flashes. His metabolism is so high that he spends energy quickly, and he must eat about his weight in meat roughly every three and a half days or risk starving to death. Like most shapeshifters, he has severe claustrophobia, sometimes becoming almost manic if he is confined in too small a space for too long a time. He is also paranoid and impulsive, which also comes from the shapeshifter survival instinct. His greatest fear, however, is to lose his Familiar, Mimring. He will fiercely defend Mimring with his own life in order to see that no harm befalls the dragon.

Relationships
Jason is typically neutral-friendly with the other cultists. The few exceptions are Lord X-Giga-X and his group, whom Jason dislikes with the exception of Deathstorm. Jason has a good friendship with the Shadow Drake, as well as the rest of his dragons. He also seems to be forming a friendship with Kyton Haryn.

Childhood Discovery
While it is unclear exactly where Jason was born, he grew up in Jeirno, Durasken with the shapeshifter-human hybrid Ganso Turris, both of them being raised by Ganso's shapeshifter father, Kaltai Turris, after he received Jase from an unknown woman who tasked him to take care of the boy. As soon as Jase shifted into a black wolf pup at two years old it was clear that he was a shapeshifter, and it soon became apparent that he was not a hybrid like his adoptive brother due to his overall personality, however he did not display any other forms.

Like all that live in Durasken he was taught from a young age that dragons were the enemy. He usually disregarded this like most children his age, preferring to hang out with Ganso and his scarce friends at the foothills of the mountains near town, until it got dark and the children would scatter to get home. However, while he usually walked back home with Ganso, one evening he encouraged the hybrid to go on ahead without him- he wanted to explore a little and test his growing hunting skills. As Ganso shrugged and headed back into town, Jase agilely wandered around the mountain's base, turning into his rather gangly wolf form upon catching the scent of deer. Nearly as soon as he came upon it, a gray dragon swooped down, grabbing the deer in his own claws. Startled and in sheer panic, Jase leapt back, going into his human form by some instinct that to this day he doesn't understand, and promptly tripped on the uneven ground. As the dragon curiously turned its attention towards Jase, the young shapeshifter found himself concentrating on it- the dracomancy in him finally finding an outlet and bubbling to the surface in order to deal with the threat. The dragon, not expecting this, quickly fell under the influence and introduced himself as Stormshaper to the alarmed and untrained dracomancer. But Jase had another problem to worry about- dracomancy was illegal in Durasken, and if anyone found out, he would be killed on the spot.

Fleeing Durasken
Jase spent much of the next few days secretly getting ready to renege and escape before anyone found out and turned him in. This is what began his infamous paranoia- he kept his plans secret from even Ganso, who at the time was his closest friend. While Ganso's father disregarded his eleven-year-old adopted son's behavior as a quirk most full-blooded shapeshifters have- a certain aloofness, as shapeshifters are a generally solitary species- Ganso kept as close an eye on Jase as he could, sometimes following him as a hawk to see where the shapeshifter was going. However, Ganso was unable to keep up with the wolf form's camouflage.

Jase used his free time to head up to where Stormshaper's lair was so the two could plan their trip. Storm was very willing to aid his new master- he'd taken quite a liking to the child and was determined to make sure Jase was safe. The night before Jase left Jeirno, he snuck into a weapons shop to steal a composite longbow and a quiver of arrows. Neither Ganso nor his father were able to find him the next day, though they noticed a few of his belonings were missing- Jase had taken them and by this time was on Stormshaper's back as they headed south, towards the territorial border between Durasken and the unsettled region of Ustream- and straight into the territory of another dragon.

The Firedrake of Darkshroud Pass
Jase and Storm continued their flight southward for a few days in a slightly wandering fashion as if unsure of their destination, pausing only to rest and let Storm hunt for the duo. At one point the two found a mountain ridge that overlooked a nice valley and decided to stay there in order to regain their energy. They had scarcely been there an hour before an angry roar sounded above them- the resident dragon, a brilliant golden-copper Plated Firedrake. The two ducked out of the way as the firedrake released a stream of flame before landing, declaring himself to be Mimring Thunderscale, and angrily challenging Storm, who had no right to be there. The gray refused, but the indignant firedrake was not to be brushed off so easily and flew at Storm to attack him. Now knowing he was able to do this, Jase concentrated on Mimring to try to calm him- until Mimring sensed the dracomancy and slashed at Jase, breaking the shapeshifter's concentration. However, this was enough for Storm to gain the upper claw and he managed to pin Mimring, struggling with the other dragon until Mimring, with a savage roar, shot out a torrent of black fire. After that, the firedrake easily broke away in a sudden burst of strength. Jase readied his bow in case Mimring attacked, but instead, the dragon flew off into the cloudline, leaving Jase mystified.

No more than a minute had passed before Storm cried out in warning, which was enough for Jase to drop to the ground, instinct and reflexes saving him from the firedrake now engulfed in black fire who had tried to catch the dracomancer off guard by coming in from behind. Dracomancy influenced his instinct here and he somehow knew Mimring was now not in his right mind, and so he concentrated full-force on Mimring, half of him wanting to just make sure Mimring was under control and the other half wanting to ensure that the firedrake would not be a slave through no fault of his own. The result was something Jase had not remotely expected- almost immediately after he had tried to influence Mimring a link was established, a powerfully brilliant psychic bond more powerful than the one he had with Storm, which allowed him to feel the primal, feral instincts without them affecting him as they did Mimring. He also felt the dragon's energy depleting as he fought with Storm- and a split second before it happened he knew that Mimring was going to fall unconscious from exhaustion.

Life-Partner's Bond
Jason stayed near Mimring's side until the dragon awoke. This took several hours, however when Mimring did regain consciousness he jerked back from Jason, growling by instinct, until calming down as he felt the dracomancy linking him to the shapeshifter. Though Mimring was distrustful to the extreme at first, Jason and Stormshaper together were able to convince Mimring that they meant no harm. Mimring eventually accepted this, if only because he felt the truth of those words in Jason's own mind due to the master-familiar bond. However, neither master nor familiar were sure that they wanted to be linked, but neither were aware that the link could be easily severed.

The next few days were spent in Mimring's territory; Mimring wasn't sure he wanted to leave his home but didn't want to let Jason leave without him. He wasn't sure what the reason behind this was, but the two were quickly growing to be rather fond of each other- perhaps a side effect of their bond. This grew to be so powerful that when Jason announced to his two dragons that he was going to head back to Jeirno to talk to a friend about something, the firedrake insisted upon coming with the other two.

A Quick Reunion
Jason rode Stormshaper back to where the two had met, with Mimring following simply because he didn't know the way. When they reached the mountains where Jason had discovered his dracomancy, he told the two dragons to wait for him there. They agreed, and Jason shapeshifted into his wolf form and ran into the city, turning back into his human form upon reaching Jeirno's gates. Memory served him well here, for he easily found his way to his old house and lightly rapped on the door. To his relief, Ganso answered.

Ganso was excited to see Jason again, but the latter cut the former off and said in a strained voice that he needed to show Ganso something. And so Jason led the very confused Ganso out of the city and up the mountain path to a ridge below where Stormshaper and Mimring were waiting. Upon Jason's mental word, the two dragons swooped down onto the ridge behind their master. Ganso jumped back and formed a void in his panic, warning the dragons not to come closer, and Mimring growled before Jason quieted him. Then Jason introduced both sides to each other and reassured them that neither side would hurt the other, then explained what had happened to him and his current situation.

Ganso listened warily, but finally was more than willing to help his adopted brother. He went back into town briefly to get Jason some supplies, then urged Jason to flee south into the wilds of Ustream- which was largely unsettled and so Jason would be safe from Durasken's laws and persecutions. Jason thanked the hybrid, climbed onto the back of one of his dragons, and the three went south, straight towards Ustream.

Quotes

 * N/A

Trivia

 * Jason is highly skilled at playing the flute, however he usually stops when someone is listening.