Art by, frog
Age: 280 years
Size: 5.5 ft tall
Species: Notail
Job: Notail Leader of the V-class and Z-class
Likes: Positivity, Affection, Animals, Bio-machines, Free-range pets, Becoming obsessed with a topic or person, Quick deaths
Dislikes: Suffering, Accusations, Negativity, Social issues, Drama
Notable contributions: O-3 is the leader of the V-eterinarian and Z-oologist classes. O-3 takes care of all the O-classes capture creatures when they die or cannot take care of them at the moment. O-3 oversees most of the capture creature operations, ensuring that new capture creatures are correctly cataloged and sorted in usefulness. O-3 is also popularizing bio-machines in notail and alien society.
Original Creator: Atomic
What can be said about O-3 that hasn't been lined out for every notail? He is, on the surface, typical in appearances. He wears a monochromatic outfit consisting of a plain shirt and coat. A giant "O" sits on his back, with a small "3" denoting his title. He is darkly skinned, with brown hair and antennas which are strangely emotional, and will droop and rise with his mood.
What isn't normal about this notail, is his face. It is a typical black mask of a blort on first inspection, though with a white fade at the snout. Looks are deceiving, though. O-3's "mask" is a fauna known as a shellage, a slug crab-like bio-machine created by O-3 himself. This creature is not only O-3's mask but has peeled off his entire face, including eyes, and has integrated with him so he may continue with his tasks as if normal. This false face can open up and even allow him to express himself in a shockingly wide range.
As his actual face has been devoured, pulling the fauna off him will reveal a bloody husk filled with holes.
For a notail, O-3's personality can be described as bizarre. He is always optimistic about the events around him and often brings gifts to anyone who can withstand conversing with him. This reward is often a "treat" that he has created "optimal for notail consumption." It's rumored that because animals adore him due to his hand-feeding of them, he thinks that the same will work with notails, who he calls "higher animals."
As O-3 spends much of his free time stalking others as if they were fauna, these rumors are not unfounded. Trail cameras and trackers will be placed to keep records of the movement and health of his subject. He never steals objects and is rather careful to not "disturb the environment" by touching objects unnecessarily. These perplexing actions are not improved after confrontation, especially as the reasoning for this all is "to observe and document the natural world." He insists that all living creatures, including the intelligent, such as the notails, are all animals in this universe, and thus failing to observe them in detail is criminal in nature.
While he often uses the information he gains professionally, as professional as stalking can be, he may also use what he has learned to bring forward better gifts and topics to talk about. Many are unsure if his creepy attempts at friendship or having full-length documentaries made of them, more on that in a later section, is more unsettling.
O-3 is infamous for his "self-care." He constantly alludes to his attempts to "love himself once again," noting that he was told to do so by an N-class. He has taken this suggestion to the extreme, becoming annoyingly sensitive and unwilling to speak of "troublesome topics." It is stressed by other O-classes that he is exceptionally politically avoidant, which makes him "utterly useless in meetings." During moments where animals are mentioned, he will spring into action to give great insight into the topic, but he shuts down against anything else. He is known to be more interested in fiddling with his tools or writing future plans for the week than paying attention to any stressful conversation.
Oddly, it seems that in the end, his avoidance of stress only succeeds in causing more problems than it solves for him. Any pushing the issue is worthless, as it induces more pressure and, thus, more destructive self-care.
The only time he becomes upset is when lower animals are physically tortured. His empathy for them is so strong that he cannot bear to consider eating animals he believes to have lived a life of abuse, such as most farm animals. Due to this, he has dedicated his life to creating animals that cannot be tortured.
He has changed endless rows of fowl stuck in tiny cages to lay eggs for the rest of their life into thoughtless, painless tubes of feathers. Known as bio-machines, these animals, if they can be called that, are his solution to the abuse that he often relates to his own struggle in life.
"I waited for them like a loyal dog out in the rain waits for their owner to let them in.....but they never came for me. Like a true hound, they were my world, my life, and there was no reason for me to seek shade out of the rain now that they were gone. X)"
As a typical notail child, once he hit a certain age, he was to be sent into the woods, the final test before adulthood. He waited patiently for his friends to join him on this trip, but once the sun fell, he learned that they all ditched him. Each went their own way in the woods, and none of those directions involved him. He shut down upon learning of this and had to be forced into the woods by his caretaker.
This rejection by people he trusted caused him to spiral into a pit of loneliness. When he saw notails from afar, he refused to approach them out of fear of rejection. Fear of becoming a burden. He found comfort in the animals he could tame with his skills as a Z-class.
"Like a free chicken placed in a cage, I called for help every day. The animals in their own binds looked at me with soulless eyes. Why didn't they beg for escape? As the days went on, I begged less and less, until I stopped. Like the fowls who no longer remembered the sun, the cage had become my universe, and there was no reason to wish for anything outside of it. X)"
During his adventures, he found a group of cages with animals trapped within. While he investigated it, a child pushed him into an open cage and locked it as a joke. This joke became cruel though, as the group of notail kept him within it for at least a week, taunting him and the animals within.
He was only saved from this emotional torment when another team of notails discovered the event, released him, and punished the trappers for their behavior. He had lost most of his pets by the time he was released, but he was utterly grateful for his freedom. He accompanied those who freed him and showed utter dedication to the leader.
This creeped out the others so much that they all left without warning in the middle of the night. When he awoke, he realized he was once more abandoned.
In this time of stress, he came to a rationalization to protect himself. If others didn't know he was following them, they could not abandon him. His training for tracking animals was soon used to pursue the most intelligent prey of all. Notails. He listens for what others need and finds those supplies, trading them for items he needed. The notails he followed remarked that it was strange that he always appeared when they needed a trade, but the plan worked.
He could not be rejected if no one could stop him.
Semi normalcy returned after the woods. His interest in preventing the suffering of animals landed him a job as a gene editor. He became friends with a fellow worker at his job, his first friendship in a long time, when he was suddenly transferred to a better facility to work with bio-machines.
He did not take this well.
"On a dairy farm, a calf is unaware that he is unwanted. Not by the mother that loves him very much, but by the farmer. I was stolen away, "transferred" and would never be able to see the one I loved ever again. Like the calf, I was placed in a room with others, with a chain to my foot. Being prepared for some high animal's need for tender flesh. X)"
During one of his emotional shutdowns, he was sent to an N-class for an evaluation. Here, he is informed he cannot keep centering his life around others, that he must learn to love and support himself first. Originally slow to accept this advice, when he did, those around him say it made him worse. He returned to old habits, watching others like animals, filming them, even speaking as if him and other notails were different species.
His career in amateur documentaries began. His first films being of notail classes and their behaviors, before moving onto aliens when he was allowed short vacations. These films were not meant to be artistic in nature, but the absurdity of filming people with the same tone as a wildlife documentary became a cult classic.
Back at work, he refused to listen to many orders given due to "self-care." As the facility was already failing to meet its quota, instead of firing him, they promoted him to head scientist, hoping that he could be used as a scapegoat for the failure of the most recent bio-machine project.
Unfortunately for all of them, he thrived as a leader. Being in control meant that there would be no surprises, and the project prospered. Contracts were gained with many important notails at the time, including the then-current O-7. A friendship grew between the two, until as always, he began displaying unsettling behaviors towards O-7. It became so bad that O-6 stepped in to scare away "the bloody mutt."
This final rejection would begin a series of events no one could have expected.
"A dog loves their owner no matter what. They are loyal to the end, but when that owner no longer shows that dog any love, it turns feral, and no one should be surprised when it bites the hands that no longer feed it. X)"
For over five years, he stalked O-7, waiting for the perfect moment. Every moment not working was spent compiling information on his ex-friend, following his trail during any free moment he had. Then it happened. O-7 and O-6 had a rare disagreement, and O-7 stormed off to collect his thoughts. Jumping into action, O-7 became cornered by his stalker. Instead of fighting, O-7 politely requested for him to back off, which he did.
O-7 proceeded to die minutes later after this event. Someone had poisoned his drink in the short moment he was distracted.
This was not the intended ending of his newest film, "Life and Death of an O-class." During his five years of following various O-classes, he had hoped that he would film a murder, but when no one committed the act, he was contacted by O-9. Known for his own stalking methods, O-9 urged him to kill O-7 and gave him all the tools he needed.
He became the new O-7 and swapped jobs with the O-3, to allow him the job he truly wanted, control over how the notails processed their fauna.
A new age of advanced bio-machines dawned upon the notail union. Starting with the replacement of egg and meat production and growing organic factory level machines, the advancement into this new age was sudden and frightening. While bio-machines have been a part of notail society since they started tinkering with genes, due to the new O-3, more attention is being poured into this study. Other species are taking notice, especially those who rely on large factory farms to supplement their diet.
O-3 argues his bio-machines cannot suffer, unlike animals placed within cages for their whole life, and thus should be legal on all plants. Others argue that bio-machines are a mutilation of life itself, and will lead to a slippery slope of animals that will suffer endlessly.
The conversation is slowly growing as species take sides, but no agreement has been, or is likely to be, decided. With new bio-machines coming out and heavy adoption by some species, O-3's new reign is as controversial as the person himself.
Feral Senses: Due to O-3's shellage, his senses are greatly heightened, allowing him to see, hear, and smell better than other notails. Due to this, he is a frighteningly fantastic tracker.
O-3's movies, once a cult classic, have entered the mainstream. His films are known for their unique view on intelligent life and their habits. His first documentary was about following a swarm of E-classes, remarking on them as if they were akin to ants traveling the landscape in search of supplies.
Below is a list of the names of some of his most famous movies, including their rating, as well as a small excerpt from the film.
• If tasked to endanger himself for the masses, he will refuse, stating that he must not interact with "the natural events that unfold in the universe." Even in his documentaries, he refuses to involve himself with the events unfolding.
• Before the invention of the chicken tubes he was strictly vegan. Now he happily enjoys cruelty-free meat. Due to many planets lacking such types of meat he reverts to veganism often.
• When O-9 was asked why he helped with the plot to kill O-7 he said it was to "Give that genocidal O-6 less power" as the old O-7 would always agree with his vote. O-9 mentions it feels like a mistake now on a personal level. While O-6 has lost power with the death of O-7, having O-3 following him around feels "highly unsettling." The irony of the situation is not lost on O-9.
• G-440156, the notail who saved him from being caged up, is not only still alive today, but notes that he is "still contacted weekly by his ""friend"" to watch his movies. =)" O-3 has made a movie featuring G-440156, without his knowledge, called "Unsung Heroes: G-classes." G-440156 has commented that "this was going to happen sooner or later. =)"
• His friend at his first job said in an interview, "He always seemed so dedicated to his work. I wouldn't have recommended for him to be moved to a more important position if I knew about his history. He told me his time in the woods was perfect. Guess it makes sense why he never contacted me or answered my calls after the move. Here I thought he used me as a stepping stone for years....."