My brain isn't quite up to par right now, so you don't get a hellacioiusly awesome little story from me. What you DO get is a little bit of information about a character from another universe, Dr. Anubis Al-Rajid. He goes by Doctor Al-Rajid, Doctor, Al-Rajid, or Sir. He... is not fond of his first name. He thinks it's clichéd and trite. Sometimes Cuchulainn* calls him Nubs, which is how his staff can tell that they're actually serious about each other.
There has always been an Anubis Al-Rajid in charge of ANKH, far before it was ever actually ANKH. The current incarnation is the youngest descendant of the Ptolemeic line, technically making him the hereditary pharaoh. This is not surprising; it's always been that way. They say the pharaohs were descended from the gods themselves, and the Al-Rajids have prided themselves on the hard evidence of this. Some consider it a curse, some consider it a blessing, but the biological Al-Rajids are shapeshifters. They can assume the form of a canine that resembles a Nubian jackal, although typically with longer ears. While that might sound awesome, Nubian jackals are about fifteen inches tall at the shoulder. That's not even a foot and a half. While the ability to turn into a tiny dog at will has never seemed particularly useful to the Al-Rajids, it makes for a splendid party trick and an excellent way to disappear in urban settings; nobody in Cairo ever notices a jackal running about. Dr. Al-Rajid rarely takes his canine form; no opposable thumbs, y'see. And you can't do chemistry without those. Doc sure likes his chemistry. The good doctor turned thirty-five sometime in the fifties, and has not aged since. He was educated in England and Daddy's money kept him out of the war. He ended up working on a few military projects before having to take over ANKH.
Anyways, here is his picture. The human form isn't definitive; I don't think I'm happy with the eyes and nose. Or that goofy headband. From the looks of it, he hates the headband, too. At least I got his petroglyph necklace right. The jackal, however, is definitive. That is his default expression.
I've got a great size chart sketched up of him, Cuchulainn, Scara**, and Leo*** standing in a row. The top of his head comes up to Cuchulainn's chest. Scara's a little taller than he is, but she's technically still a puppy, and Leo towers over everybody.
*Cuchulainn: Former IRA insurgent, big fluffy werewolf. Works as a bonesmith. You'll meet her later; she's about as close to my heart as Eggy and René.
**Scara: Scaramouche De Osso, Leo's young niece; he's raising her as his own. He tends to use her protection as his excuse for leading the Washingtonian massacre in Canon!verse and is an amazing father in both the standalone 'verse and in Canon!verse.
***Leo: Galileo De Osso, half-Mexican college dropout. Lives in San Francisco and is the head of the werewolves of California. Is an absolutely fantastic guy until he sees you as a threat to his kid. And then he absolutely will kill you. His canine form is absolutely frigging massive. Leo will get a post of his own sometime, too, though he may end up sharing it with his kiddo.
Edit: And because I can't sleep, here's Cuchulainn. She's a heriditary lycanthrope, which is about as close to our universe's definition of werewolf as you can get. She can change parts of her body at will, and while she looks mostly human most of the time, there are some things that don't change. Like her nose- inside, she's still got the lupine olfactories. Her brain is always human; she never plays by instincts. (Plus, it allows her to keep sensory input without processing what that input means. A human brain could process what a wolf's nose can smell... Let's just say that would not be any kind of pleasant.) It's too hard to change back. Her ears, though, stay canine. It's too hard to change between the two, given the way canine ears are set up. The canine ears are just that much sharper, and she doesn't need to be inconspicuous these days. She's not wearing clothes because I didn't feel like drawing them. The collar's on there for legal reasons, but that's not her tag. Those are initials on there, but she ain't sayin' whose.
Huh. She looks a little like somebody I knew in high school. Can't say she acts like that person, though. Cuchulainn's got a past, and she really doesn't want to talk about it. (Hint: Many, many people consider her a terrorist.) And she's not afraid to murder the livin' hell out of you. Also, curiously enough Cuchulainn's one of my few theist characters who generally has a positive attitude towards the idea of a god. (Dr. Al-Rajid is by default, Eglantine and René sorta are, given the whole 'oh hey we're voodoo monsters shit that's a religion isn't it' thing, and... yeah, that's it. None of the other 'Frisco vampires do, the Chicago Syndicate would be utterly fucked if they believed in religion, and the other vampires I've come up with are sheer fucking monsters. The humans too, for the most part, with the exception of a lot of Cuchulainn's past associates. Red was pretty religious. Anyways, I'm rambling.) I guess her basic rationale is A) She can't drive herself to believe that humanity could be as horrible as it is to itself if there was no God and B) Her favorite being is the avatar of an Egyptian god of death. That's gotta count for something, right?
