Character History: Born in 1978 to Rebecca Lord and Joe Colby, Matthew Colby was raised by his mother in Modesto, California. Product of a one night stand during Mardi Gras, the young co-ed Rebecca had no desire to retire to the Louisiana swamplands with her son’s father and instead took the boy home with her. Matt spent most of the year in California with his mother and eventual stepfather Keith, and his summers with his father in the small town of Honfleur, Louisiana.
Matt had an uneventful, and mostly pleasant, childhood; his mother and stepfather got on well enough with his father that the yearly visits were never a hassle. His father’s great love of his Louisiana swampland home instilled in young Matt deep respect and reverence for nature and its creatures, leading to his choice to enter into a Biology program at CSU Stansilaus, graduating with honors in 2000 and immediately entering into a Master’s program in Science, Ecology and Sustainability.
During a summer visit in 2001, Matt spotted a juvenile gator in the water while on a midnight tour and, thinking it the perfect size for his father’s new breeding program, attempted to catch it. Not realizing the actual size of the animal, he was surprised when it immediately clamped down on his outstretched hand, just as his father had always warned. The tour passengers managed to help him stop the bleeding and steer the pontoon back to the dock, but not before he had lost two fingers to the gator’s bite. It was only three weeks later when, barely adjusted to his newly missing digits, Matt awoke in the nude in the bayou mud with no memory of the previous night. It was another month before he realized what was happening: he had become a therianthrope, and shifted into the form of the American alligator with the coming of the full moon.
In 2003, his father succumbed to a heart attack while climbing the stairs to feed his showpiece, a seven foot alligator named Old Bill who lived in a concrete enclosure just outside the front door of the old house. Toppling over into the enclosure, Joe Colby was half-eaten when he was finally found. Matt inherited the property and, city life having become too hazardous with his monthly transformations, moved back to Honfleur and took over the business. He lives at and operates Colby Gator Farm and Midnight Swamp Tours, breeding small alligators to sell for hide and meat. A small souvenir shop on the property sells t-shirts, knickknacks and gator jerky. Old Bill remains on the property and is often treated like a pet, though Matt keeps his distance.
Character Profile:
Matt is an optimist, which is strange considering the fact that he shifts into the same sort of reptile that ate his father each month, on top of having grown up knowing he was the biggest accident of his mother’s life. He is greatly reverent of nature and animals, though has no qualms about eating meat or even raising alligators for their hides and meat. He is a firm believer in the ‘circle of life’ mentality - eat or be eaten. He is friendly, but careful not to let anyone discover his secret, greatly fearing being taken by the government or a clandestine research lab for study. He had yet to find out much information about his strange condition and is desperate to learn more, as well as to find the creature that bit him.
Appearance: Dark blond hair; Dark blue-grey eyes; 6’2; well fit with a strong jawline and a tendency towards day’s worth of stubble. Missing pinkie and ring finger on right hand. Low body temperature.
Strengths: Amplified hearing to the degree of ability to clearly distinguish infrasound; inhuman strength, including vise-like strength in the jaw; skilled swimmer; can go long periods without oxygen.
Weaknesses: Therianthrope American alligator; cannot control monthly transformation during full moon and occasionally experiences memory lapses of his time in animal form. Intolerance of cold water or weather. Severe silver allergy.