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You're not just a bad boy, Aiden. You're a bad guy." -- Lydia Martin |
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— Himself |
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Aiden is the younger (yet somehow taller) of the Steiner twins. Hereditary werewolves, they were the omegas of their abusive pack, until Deucalion taught them to control their merged super-werewolf form. After slaying their pack and becoming Alphas, they joined the Alpha Pack, their gratitude to Deucalion translating to a sense of loyalty. However, prolonged contact with Scott McCall and his pack caused both twins to question if their loyalty was misplaced. The Darach (Jennifer Blake) killed their merged form, though they survived as individuals. Now stripped of both their Alpha status and their pack, the twins have become members of the Beacon Hills Pack, and Aiden has found a renewed sense of purpose.
Personality
The younger of the twins (by seven whole minutes), Aiden tends to be less level-headed and reserved than Ethan. He is intelligent, calculating, and feels remorse for his actions. Like his brother, he has a strong sense of honor and loyalty. In contrast to his twin brother, Aiden identifies as straight, and his experience having a relationship with Lydia has left him much less emotionally isolated and distant than he once was. Although he's a good guy at heart, he relishes in the bad boy image he and his brother portray to the world. How much he'll be able to move past that remains to be seen.
Background
Aiden Jacob Steiner was born seven minutes after his twin brother, Ethan Conrad. Through an odd twist of fate, he was born just after midnight, while Ethan was born just before, meaning that although they're identical twins, they do not share a birthdate. Hereditary werewolves, they were unfortunately mistreated by their abusive pack, most especially the Alpha. The twins were essentially the pack's omega members, the last to eat and the first to be abused. With the aid of the Alpha known as Deucalion, they discovered and mastered an ability unique to werewolf twins: the power to merge their bodies into a single, enormous werewolf, stronger and tougher than most others. Soon after mastering this skill, the twins slew their pack, stealing their Alpha's status for themselves, and joined Deucalion's Alpha pack. In so doing, they changed their surname to Steiner, hoping to distance themselves from their past.
Deucalion's plan was to steal the power of both Derek Hale and Scott McCall, in preparation for the final showdown with the Darach, Jennifer Blake. To that end, the twins were charged with infiltrating Scott's pack: Aiden became romantically involved with Lydia Martin, while Ethan dated Danny Mahealani. Though it was soon discovered that Lydia was more important to the pack, Ethan discovered that his feelings for Danny had become genuine, much to his brother's dismay.
As the twins spent more time around Scott and the others, Aiden began to notice that Ethan was starting to question his loyalty to Deucalion. Though he felt a strong desire to honor the commitment he and Aiden had made to the Alpha pack, he grew increasingly troubled by the deaths he was ordered to participate in. This was especially true after the part he'd played in forcing Derek Hale to kill Boyd. For his part, Aiden was more troubled by how close Ethan was growing to the human Danny, especially as it mirrored his own deepening feelings for Lydia. When Kali, another Alpha of the pack, threatened Lydia's life, Aiden was on the verge of breaking ranks to defend Lydia, but the arrival of the Darach prevented a confrontation with Kali. In the battle that followed, Kali was slain, and the twins' merged super-werewolf form's neck was broken. The twins barely survived, but they'd lost their ability to merge.
As a result of their near-death experience, Ethan and Aiden were unable to assist in the final battle against the Darach. They both lost their Alpha status, as well as their ability to merge into the super-werewolf form. However, it is possible that this ability may be regained again someday. In the meantime, they are technically Omegas, alone without a pack, and only time will tell if they can gain enough of Scott McCall's trust for him to allow them to join his pack as Betas.
SKILLS
ACADEMICS: Novice - Aiden is an average student in his junior year of high school.
ATHLETICS: Competent - Although Aiden keeps himself in great shape, he's not really much of a team player. Nevertheless, he's competent at several sports, including lacrosse.
FIGHTING: Expert - One thing both twins excel at is combat, though they tend to favor brute strength over tactics.
RIDING: Competent - Riding a motorcycle is more complex than driving a car, involving a greater degree of balance and a keener awareness of one's surroundings.
ABILITIES
BEAST FORMS - Werewolves are famously able to transform into more bestial shapes, gaining various special traits and abilities based on their current form. With training, they learn to perform partial-shifts, such as manifesting claws or fangs while otherwise remaining in human form. By default, werewolves of this type are able to manifest what is often called the "Wolfman" form, which essentially resembles their human shape but with a more bestial edge, including features such as glowing eyes, fangs, and claws. Other, more powerful or exotic forms are detailed in separate power entries, as are the special traits that their various forms provide.
AGILITY: Enhanced-level Power - Aiden's agility is far superior to a human's, allowing him to catch arrows with moderate effort and dodge bullets with a bit of luck. In addition, his running speed and reflexes are ten to twenty times human norms.
DOMINATION: Enhanced-level Power - All werewolves have a predatory aura about them which makes them seem naturally threatening to non-supernatural beings, such as humans and animals. With a little concentrated effort, Aiden can dominate weaker-willed humans, and even the largest, most predatory animal is likely to submit when Aiden growls with his eyes glowing.
MERGING: Supreme-level Power - Aiden has the power to merge his physical body with that of his twin, Ethan. The resulting gestalt werewolf gains Supreme level strength, toughness, and stamina along with every other power that each of the two has separately. Sharing thoughts, the two operate fluidly as one being.
MIND-LINK: Basic-level Power - Aiden is mentally linked to his twin brother, Ethan, and the two are able to sense each other's general condition and emotional state. With clear thoughts and focus, they can even communicate telepathically. No other psychic or magical powers have been demonstrated that are able to disrupt this connection, as the two are always aware of one another.
NATURAL WEAPONS: Enhanced-level Power - In his werewolf form, Aiden has sharp fangs and a jaw powerful enough to shatter bones, but his real weapons are his claws, which can carve through stone and even steel.
PAIN TRANSFER: Enhanced-level Power - Werewolves can alleviate the pain of someone else by transferring it onto themselves. This requires physical contact and significant focus, becoming more difficult depending on the severity of the pain.
SENSES: Enhanced-level Power - Aiden's senses are heightened to the level of a wolf. When he causes his eyes to glow, his night vision becomes excellent, far better than a human's. His hearing is also greatly enhanced in any form. But the sense which is truly superior is smell. With a little concentration, Aiden can pick up scents that are days or even weeks old, and can isolate individual scents in a sea of aromas.
STRENGTH: Enhanced-level Power - Aiden Steiner is strong enough to crush or bend metal, even dead-lifting up to a few tons with an effort. He punches are hard enough to crack stone.
TOUGHNESS: Enhanced-level Power - Aiden's tough enough to shrug off or endure non-lethal wounds from personal-level weaponry (swords, handguns, rifles, shotguns) without great loss of ability. His enhanced regeneration allows minor wounds to heal almost instantly, and even severe damage heals within a few hours to a few days.
ADVANTAGES
MOTORCYCLE - Aiden and his brother Ethan have matching black motorcycles.
POWER OF THE PACK - Everyone has heard the phrase "strength in numbers." For this type of werewolf, the expression is quite literally true. After being accepted by the pack's alpha (or alphas, in unusual cases), a werewolf gets stronger, faster, and tougher than they would be as a lone wolf. The strength of this enhancement depends both on how many total members the pack has, as well as how close together the members are at a given time. The size of the pack also affects the pack's alpha, whose powers increase when they're leading or protecting their pack members. In practical terms, this usually does not increase the characters' power ratings to a higher level than is on their sheet, though when the pack is strong and working together their abilities may increase from, say, Basic to Basic+ or Enhanced to Enhanced+. In staff-approved circumstances, those powers may be elevated from Basic to Enhanced or Enhanced to Supernatural as befits the current plot or scene.
TWIN - Aiden shares a special bond with his twin, Ethan. Often, when one is suffering great pain, the other will sense it, even from a great distance.
WEALTH - The Alpha pack had resources from an unknown source. When Deucalion left Beacon Hills, he took most of those resources with him. However, the twins have an independent source of money, a trust fund set up by their now deceased parents, which allows them to live in relative comfort while in high school.
WEAKNESSES
LUNAR CYCLE - Werewolves are closely tied to the phases of the moon. This affects them in various ways, such that they are at their strongest when the moon is full and their weakest during a lunar eclipse. The phase of the moon also strongly affects the werewolf's emotions, such that they can become almost overwhelming near the full moon. Werewolves often find a strong urge to shift during the full moon, as well as on the nights just before and after a full moon. Most werewolves eventually learn to control their shifts and to manage their emotions via various methods.
LUNAR ECLIPSE - During a full lunar eclipse, a werewolf is powerless and essentially human.
MOUNTAIN ASH - Mountain ash, when activated, creates a barrier against most supernatural creatures. Werewolves cannot generally penetrate such a barrier, nor can they create one.
ROWAN - The wood of the rowan tree, also known as mountain ash, creates a supernatural barrier against most (if not all) supernatural creatures, including werewolves.
WOLFSBANE - Aconite, also known as wolfsbane and monkshood, is a flowering plant which is poisonous to humans, but is especially deadly to werewolves. When introduced into a werewolf's system, whether through ingestion, inhalation, or directly into the blood, wolfsbane slows or even stops the natural healing process. It also forces uncontrollable shifting and increasing weakness, eventually leading to death if left untreated.
