Xiong "Peyton" Pengfei

Appearance: Peyton has a short figure, only boosted slightly by the elevator shoes that he wears (it's enough to boost him to 5ft flat). His yellow and black hair is to all eyes natural, as well as his snake-like yellow eyes. However, if one looks closely in his eyes, they would notice that there are swirling iridescent colors and that his natural brown eye color can be seen behind it. These are the only signs of Peyton's disease.

He prefers informal streetwear that complements his yellow and black appearance. He always wears his talisman earrings. His tendency to wear baggy clothes has made him get compared to a bear cub, referencing his surname (which he does not like). 

As a part of the Eternal Night Palace, while working as a host, he wears more fancy clothes. During these times he wears a white button up shirt, a dragon vest, a yellow tie suiting his eyes, black dress pants, and sneakers that are meant to look like dress shoes but are not. This is the only fancy outfit he owns.

Backstory: Peyton was born in the Western district to a family running a failing restaurant. In his teenage years, Peyton would keep the family business afloat by gambling. He was excellent at this and could often rake in enough to support a living. This all lay under his Potential, which originally was known as Lucky, providing him with extreme amounts of luck, with the downside that he could not choose when it activated.

Sometimes though, he could tell when he would be in for a dry spell in terms of luck. In his mid teenage years, he sensed the tides turning as he began to lose money rather than gain money in his gambles. He now had two choices: One, work for the Albino Tigers in the hopes of repaying his debt. The other choice was to find employment at the Sable Serpents, from which he had found researchers looking to test new drugs on human test subjects for ludicrous sums of money. Of course, Peyton chose the second option, as it also had the benefit of helping provide for his family.

Although Peyton found the studies fun, they were quite dangerous and destructive. He even thought he lost his Lucky potential along the way, although in truth it had morphed into something else. In the end, the studies gave Peyton the zombie virus-like disease that he is currently afflicted with. The researcher had expected that Peyton would succumb to the disease, but the transformation of Lucky turned into a potential that could utilize his disease. After only three years of being with the Sable Serpents, he was able to pay off all his debt.

Now an adult, Peyton snuck out of the Sable Serpents. He was nothing more than a lowly member who only had membership solely so that he could be experimented on. He moved to the Eastern district to get away from the chaos of both the Western and Northern districts. It was also the original home of his forefathers. He sought to lead a normal life as a bookstore salesman (and a slightly less normal life working part time at a brothel at night). It was a large but homely bookstore with antique wooden bookshelves and beautiful scenery outside the door-- which Peyton was responsible for taking care of. This was also the meetup spot of a group of teenage NPs, consistently after every school day. Throughout the year that he worked there, Peyton got to know these teenagers very well. 

Unbeknownst to Peyton, the NP teenagers were targetted by a group of human potentials, who had harrassed the group throughout school hours. The bookstore that Peyton worked at was like an escape for them. But when the teenagers one day entered the bookstore with suspicious bruises, Peyton relentlessly interrogated them until they spilled the beans. 

Peyton beat the shit out of the bully potentials that were harassing the teenagers and cut off their tongues. 

A few months later, in the mail, he received a letter from the Azure Dragons offering him membership. Turns out, they had been tailing him ever since he left the Sable Serpents, and the person who invited him found him beating up the bullies to be "noble." Peyton was a bit worried about the fact that joining the Azure Dragons constituted betrayal to the Sable Serpents. But after only a few minutes of deliberation, decided the extra money that came with it was worth it.

Relations:

• Jesper Albrecht: Peyton met Jesper through a robot during a job from the Azure Dragons. Although initially Peyton was exasperated by Jesper's unsocial nature and the fact that he couldn't even bother to be there. But one day while Peyton was playing Vale Rune, he fought against Jesper (and got completely and utterly wrecked). Every since then, he always wanted to play doubles with Jesper, although his potato of a computer did the equivalent of gaming cockblocking every time. (Note to self: reword this before adding to RPN).

• Jackson Alessi: Both Peyton and Jackson work at Eternal Night Palace. Peyton only serves wine, and he sometimes serves Jackson's clients and sometimes Jackson himself... wine, not his body. No matter how much Jackson displays his thorny personality, Peyton's impression of him forever is scarred by the things he has seen while working at the brothel. Peyton doesn't care to admit it, but being around Jackson does make him... curious.

• Raphael Shaw: Peyton and Raph bonded as lab rats during the year or so the two of them were in the Sable Serpents. They often worked together when Peyton took missions with the Serpents. Throughout their time together, Peyton grew to extremely like Raphael's prickly nature. When Peyton left the Serpents, he didn't see it as him betraying Raph. He's very heartbroken to realize that Raphael hates him for the betrayal. All he wants is to mend that relationship and turn things back to how they were in the past.

• Bolt Beckman: This guy fucking assaulted Peyton outside of an Alfredson's. Peyton doesn't even know his name. What the fuck.

• Camila Gaspari: They are not on good terms, as they had a scuffle once in the past. Peyton knows that Camila's toxin hurt. 

• Isobel Pham: Isobel was Peyton's debt collector. Peyton got along well with her, as due to her timid nature Peyton got the impression that Isobel was collecting debt because it was her job, not that she enjoyed it. Regardless, Peyton does hold a small bit of a grudge in the back of his mind for her having to kick him when he was down.

• Tri and Paris: The ones who experimented on Peyton, primarily Tri though. Because of his willingness to be a test subject, Peyton still has a good impression of both of them. 

• Kinz: They both were lab rats. Their personalities, with Peyton liking a little teasing harassment and Kinz pretending to be mean, really mesh well. He was initially scared of her symbiote, but after getting a deviant-like ability for himself, he feels much more comfortable around Kinz. Their relationship is up for changes with the wind, especially after Peyton betrayed the Serpents. 

• Damian: Peyton was initially disgusted with Damian's violent and carefree nature when Peyton first became a test subject. This was especially magnified when he saw Damian lose his composure and nearly almost killed Peyton along in his senseless berserk massacre. With the modicum of morality that he had, he vowed that he would be better than Damian. However, after Peyton acquired his new Potential through the lab experiments, his outlook on Damian completely changed. Now, Peyton has a rare bit of empathy for the tentacle man, even so much as hanging out with him even after Peyton left the Serpents. Damian towers a whole foot and a half above Peyton, and even taller when he chooses to stand on his tentacles. Peyton likes getting hoisted up by his tentacles.

• Tazz: Schoolmates during high school. The timid Peyton and the reclusive August didn't interact or notice each other much save for one particular disastrous science project. In the present day, Peyton has conflicting feelings of love-hate towards August, envying his wealth and seeing him as a rival, but also being swayed by the man's kindness. 

• Yuto Nishimura: Peyton and Yuto are friends with benefits, often spending time together exchanging physical affection

Character Playlist: Taiyan Puzhao (formerly Sol Lucet)

 Strengths: 

• His virus boosts the hallmark of Potentials: their increased physical powers. On the battlefield, Peyton is an offensive powerhouse.

• His virus also gives him night vision through IR light

• Peyton can selectively control how much the virus affects him. He seems like a normal person most of the time. At half power, his Potential allows him to be able to discriminate against friend and foe. He can also choose to let himself go loose and use the full power of his Potential. 

• Peyton can infect others with the virus which gives them the standard effects of the virus (albeit at a lower capacity) and makes them lose control. 

Weaknesses:

• His potential and disease are always in a balance of power and control-- he can never use his disease in full strength while having control over his body

• Those with abilities that nullify pathogens cannot be infected by Peyton's virus

• Healing Potentials are effective at nullifying his disease

  • Additionally, unless the healing potential can differentiate between different afflictions and selectively heal afflictions, if Peyton is healed by a Potential it will both heal his wounds and suppress his disease

• His defenses are lackluster, moreso when he's under the effect of the virus

• The virus causes a feeling of hunger for those infected. Peyton usually is able to suppress this, and if he doesn't, he often eats two meals after a battle. 

Weapon of Choice: A rifle with a sword style bayonet attached to it. Reloading is a pain, but the extra power it provides in comparison to a normal gun is worth it. The more control he has on his disease, the more he relies on firing the rifle, and the less control he has on it, the more he relies on the bayonet.

To add some extra utility, sometimes Peyton will use a rifle that fires darts instead of bullets. Unlike his other rifle, the power isn't enough to damage HPs, however, the darts are capable of piercing an HP's skin. This rifle also has a mount for a bayonet.