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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blind Azathoth" data-source="post: 3627669" data-attributes="member: 22041">Yeesh, I'm slow at this. Here's hoping it doesn't take me a week to hammer out the stats.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/nervous.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":heh:" title="Nervous Laugh    :heh:" data-shortname=":heh:" />  But I've finally got a background, yahoo![sblock=Overlong backstory ahoy!]Many plant-based superheroes and supervillains have appeared in the world over the years, and almost without exception they have all had one thing in common: they're all, for some reason, also scientists. From the deformed but noble Bog Creature, to the seductive and ambiguously aligned Venus Flytrap, to the vile villain called the Chloronic Man, these floral heroes and villains tend to be of a particularly intelligent nature, often with plant-related specialties that either result in their transformation or which simply serve as dramatic irony.Isaac Ridley is no exception to this rule; he is an intelligent man, a learned scientist with degrees from highly rated universities. However... the Bog Creature, Venus Flytrap, and their ilk have all had something else in common with each other but not Mister Ridley: they were human before becoming photosynthetic freaks. For Isaac, it was the other way around...Salix, son of Azedarach, was born far from Earth, to a people who could not only control plants—they also happened to also be plants. However, they were also a dying people. Almost all of Salix's brothers and sisters began to waste away, no matter their age; they became frailer, weaker of body and intellect, until death took them. They did not know what was causing this plague upon their race; they had no cure for this virus; they could not even produce an antidote based on the biology of those few who were not effected—like Salix.So, the government made the decision to send a few healthy individuals to other civilizations in the universe, to gather information on their science and medical advances secretly, to converse—covertly—with the best minds in the field on these other planets, in the hopes of learning something about that which afflicted them. Salix was one of these individuals, sent to a planet about which little was known other than the strange biology of the majority of inhabitants; his people had passed by the planet some time ago, after brief and unpleasant contact with the species living on it. As with the others, Salix was fitted with a device implanted in his skin, a piece of technology his people had created that would allow him to take on the shape of a native.His assigned planet, of course, was Earth, and he landed in the United States. Aside from the device implanted in his body, he possessed none of his people's technology; even the craft he arrived in disintegrated upon arrival. He was to live among humans, gathering data for five years—during which time millions of his people would have died, but the majority would still likely be able to utilize any information or treatment the travelers had discovered—before being retrieved.The first months were hardest. Broadcasts from Earth had been studied on his trip to the planet in an attempt to decipher their language; he had quickly realized that there were many languages spread across the surface of the planet, but his aptitude for them allowed him to cope. He had little knowledge of human civilization, however, and this, coupled with his imperfect grasp of the native languages, led to much confusion and frustration. But he persevered, taking up a human identity (Isaac Ridley) before earning a GED so that he could then enroll at a local university, where he gained a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, then a master's degree, in four years.You may be wondering how an alien with little knowledge of Earth found the money to attend college. Well, Salix was forced to do something a bit...naughty. He had only a short period of time available to him, and he needed money quickly, so—he stole it. He used his ability to manipulate plants to break into a bank vault and stole a large amount of money from it. He also left a note: "I am very sorry. I need to save my people. I will pay you back one day." Stolen money in hand, Salix was able to pay his tuition, although he later learned that if he had landed in another country he might not have had to pay at all and felt so guilty that when he did pay the bank back, he adjusted for inflation and paid interest as well.All the while, Salix worked to perform his mission as best he could, spending almost all of his time outside of classes reading up on other subjects—anything that he believed might be able to help him, might provide a clue to the source of the virus or even provide an antidote. But he found nothing—no disease like this had ever struck Earth's plant life, and the plagues of its fleshier inhabitants were too different. Disheartened, Salix gave up and waited for his retrieval at the end of his five-year mission.He landed in 1960. As you can probably imagine, his retrieval never came, and he has mourned what can only be the death of his race for forty long years.As time passed, Salix began to live out a more normal—or at least more human—existence on Earth. He achieved a Doctorate at Freedom City University in the late '60s, and began to lecture there afterwards (it was by doing this that he earned enough money to eventually pay back the bank he robbed). He left behind the woods in which he initially dwelt, taking up residence in a real apartment in the city. He also left behind his true form, for the most part; for decades, he rarely took on his own shape, only occasionally doing so when he wondered if he still could.Knowing everyone you ever knew has almost certainly withered away into dust is not a very cheering thought, as you can probably imagine. Salix—but now more Ridley than Salix—sank into a depression that lasted decades. He performed his duties at the college admirably, but outside of the classroom, he kept himself aloof from people—even though he began to think of them as other people, as if he were really one of them!—and lived a lonely life.But one day...he became, for one person, a hero. It was late, and Ridley had come to the park in one of his occasional attempts to cheer himself up by surrounding himself with his fellow plants. But he was not the only one there; he heard noises as he walked through the park: cries for help. A woman was being chased through a heavily wooded area of the park; a man with a knife was her pursuer. Ridley saw them—and he instinctively summoned up powers that had long laid dormant, bringing to life the grass to grab the man's feet...and the trees to dislocate both of his arms.The woman was afraid at first—the trees had just come to life, after all—but she soon recognized that she was no longer in danger. Then she saw Ridley, and knew it had to have been his doing. Assuming he was one of Freedom City's many mutants or superheroes, she thanked him for coming to her rescue. He stayed with her while she called the police and they apprehended the attacker, but he fled when it was his turn to answer the authorities' questions.At home, Salix suddenly felt a tiny spark of hope in his life, a little light in the darkness, a flickering of warmth—he felt good for the first time in many years. And, well, you can probably imagine what happened next. He wanted to do it—help someone, that is—again. So he did. And then he did it again. Isaac Ridley finally became Salix once more, not just in body—for he fights crime in his true form and under his true name—but in mind. For two months now he has hunted the predators and criminals and thugs and villains of the city; for two months now he has endeavored to make up for decades of doing nothing to help and protect the people of the city...of his city.Salix has a new mission.[/sblock]</blockquote>

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