So much knowledge!

Let me present to you....*drumroll*

Tiro!!!!!
This is actually an old pic (you can see the dating in the signature), which I inked last year. But I didn't get to colour it until now (and for once this pic did not suffer the neglect my other uploads did). adlfhaouisdhauoisdhfoauhsd He'sh mai wittle baby.

So, explanation: this fellow is a character that came to life one day when bored in German class. After I designed him, I kept on making him pop up on random pages and drew him reading books, drawing, and playing with a blue ball. Hence, he was named 'the Learning Monster', until I found a proper name for him. But then his complicated design went serious and I decided I shall develop a neat story. :3 So now I am going to turn this guy into a web comic someday, once my skills settle at a level I feel will be fitting to illustrate it. Maybe I'll even slot in a couple animated panels.
I didn't want to upload him until now because I wanted THIS PIC to be the first one and because I wanted a new watermark, which I now overuse. I tried to pepper up the rather bland background with the skills I've learnt recently; it wasn't easy, suffice to say.
There are actually recognisable titles on those book spines. I'm sure you guys will know at least SOME of them...


A short synopsis of how I think the story will go (but there's still a lot to iron out!):

_{Tiro was an experiment in a state-of-the-art laboratory which busies itself with innovative and sometimes controversial projects. The latest discovery had been of a new animal, found underneath vast sheets of ice of the arctic south pole. It's odd appearance - slug-like body, lack of skin, ligamental components, mostly black-and-white coloration and vacant eyes - was not the only interesting aspect to it: it produced chemicals which had the capability of healing wounds and repairing a plethora of different types of tissue damage. A miracle for medicine! But when the laboratory's fair and moral CEO leaves temporarily due to illness, his right-hand man in comes in charge, and very ambitious. When a scientist comes up with the idea that, if a creature could be developed with the slug's (named the Medic Snake, oddly enough) and human genetics, their medicinal properties could be accutely increased, the new CEO leaps at the idea, though for far more material reasons. Despite the hesitance of many, Tiro was 'born' following the many failed attempts made combining multiple genetic animal genetic structures to bridge the gap between the slug's anatomy and a normal person's.
However, they did not count that their new creation would start craving knowledge and wouldn't stop still to allow the scientists to study him; Professor Joanne Tuena -Tiro's volunteering caretaker - recognises his potential and starts shovelling information his way. Books, TV shows, documentaries...anything to allow the sentient being to grow intellectually. The labratory team, inevitably, builds a positive relationship with him, after all the shared pranks, accidents and clumsy occurences. It now becomes all the more difficult to rectify their decision to keep him as a lab rat for the rest of his life...}


Tiro has a mostly human physique, though with notable differences: he still has the vacant eyes, strange ligament structure, and antennae 'horns' of the Medic Snake, which is used for showing emotions but also for 'smell'. Instead of four fingers he has five, the same can be said about his 'toes'. His legs are digitigrade, which means he can easily walk on all fours, but most of time walks on two (but has terrible posture which he refuses to break out of).

Because he has no visible mouth (the Snakes feed on moss by excreting chemicals that break down the mixture and absorb the nutrients through the skin. He feeds in a similar fashion, but with some draw backs due to his severe mutation), Tiro cannot speak: he can only utter muffled grunts, such as 'Ng' or 'Hrmg'. For that reason he relies on sign language or a computer console with keyboard; he uses the latter the most because not everyone knows sign language.

He also cannot, and doesn't need to, blink. So don't verse him in a staring contest... you will lose.

Personality: very very curious. Curiosity kills Tiro, essentially. Cheerful fellow who has very little grasp on taking things seriously, not because he doesn't want to but because he doesn't know how to be serious. Therefore oftentimes, he is rather naive and ignorant of facts and doesn't learn them until it gets explained to him; sometimes the hard way. Likes playing games too: his favourite toys are a blue polka-dotted ball and a plush lizard. He is, however, the most avid student one could have; despite his jumpy disposition, once you give him something to learn, he WON'T STOP.



Basically, it's a sci-fi story about your usual alien experiment scenario. But I don't want this to become a serious 'experiment-gone-wrong-and-will-kill-you-all' story: it'll be more along the lines of a comedy with some extra themes, a little like....I suppose 'The Big Bang Theory' and all those medical comedy/drama shows. (Mind you, I have not watched a lot of them, so I'll probably have to do a little more 'research' in that respect. ) It's supposed to be funny, cute, heart-rendering and mostly light-hearted; none of that end-of-the-world depressing mush.....well, okay, just a little bit, but seriously ONLY A LITTLE BIT.

I actually want to learn sign language; firstly to be more useful when I need to be, and also because when I start writing this story, I want to be accurate.

You shall see this fellow pop up on a regular basis...with concept art of other characters who I still need to fiddle around with. XP



Tiro is © ~ValkyrieLightDragon


DO NOT copy, redistribute or use without my explicit permission!