Dr. Cibo

 Dr. Cibo is a Talyxian Rooter, situated in the Shigu Dukedom during the Modern Era period within the New Age canon on Planet Tal. Her current age is unknown, though accounts of her existence and sightings date back as far as 10RC, so it is easy to assume she is well over 100 years old.

Rooters do not have genitalia and are all technically considered male due to their genetic data, however Eltus folks can refer to them as either male or female, possibly influenced by their overall aesthetics, demeanour or tonality in voice.

Dr. Cibo personally does not have a pronoun preference, however Eltus folk tend to use female ones ( She / Her ) when addressing her. Cibo will be referred to as such as well for the purposes of this article.

Appearance
Dr. Cibo stands at a height of 200cm with no notable outward distinctions. Her facemask resembles the visage of a human, albeit very crude or faint, depending on one's view. Her overall appearance and color scheme is monochromatic. Cibo does not wear any clothing, although it looks as if she is wearing a scientist styled labcoat alongside a pair of gloves, however all these elements act as part of her actual, physical body.

Most if not all of her body has a cloth-leather type of feel with the odd texture of silicon on the soft parts, whilst the more rigid areas seem to be akin to hardened keratin.

Personality
Dr. Cibo's personality is in line with most Rooters on average, highly analytical, cold cut and enumerating articulate sentences with logic whenever discussing subjects, be they with fellow Talyxians or Eltus, however she also does display a degree of "humanity" in her behavior via usage of verbal inflections, soft gesticulations as well as "ticks" in order to make other Eltus feel comfortable when conversing.

This however does not mean that she does not have the capability to process or feel emotions outside of the rudimentary level and spectrum.

Biography
Dr. Cibo can seldom be seen operating within a Hospital clinic located in the heart of the Shigu Dukedom, nowadays most of the reception duties as well as prescription write-ups are performed by Lorn, the resident Talyxian Stalker and de-facto Nurse.

Dr. Cibo is highly adept in medicine, however her directives from the T-Governing Agency take priority over nursing the wounded and ill. She is tasked with researching in-depth the various interactions between the biology of Eltus and Talyxian genus and genome, having been dispatched to the Shigu Dukedom for this exact reason, as having a liaison close to the necessary biome and establishing her own, secret research facility on the outskirts of the Astna plain, far north into the Tatla Desert.

Usually, after performing her seasonal analysis and acquisition of the local population's genealogy research and data, she returns to her personal research facility in order to file and index the results and run tests. This is also the case when enough biological specimens of Talyxian and/or Eltus flora are collected and encapsulated for safety.

Dr. Cibo also exhibits a very keen interest in Eltus seeds, germinated or not, paying quite hefty sums of Cevia in exchange for the acquisition. The pay readily varies however, because unlike the average Eltus merchant, she grades the quality of the seed based on a few factors such as age, germination success rate, size, genus and species type of Eltus seed. These are also taken back to her main research facility.

Trivia
A quote from Rafe Silves on Dr. Cibo:

"You know me, my son, I've been raised with strife in my soul and weathered against my body, I'm headstrong and do not like being patronized or taking up advice.. [...] I never really appreciated Dr. Cibo as I do now, in my old age, because I look back on all those years and it seems I've followed her advice the most. Do you know why that is, Drago?

''It is because her arguments were always so right, so undeniably justified in fact, that they left one with no room for debate. "''

Cibo is pronounced "Shibo" (Shi-Bo)

The name "Shibo" and her Eltus-dubbed gender is inspired from Gregory Benford's sci-fi series of novels "Galactic Center Saga" where an androgynous woman named "Shibo" who is encased in an “exshell" silicon form of life acts as a guardian and mentor. It is also the major inspiration behind Tsutomu Nihei's BLAME! series, where Cibo is a supportive/side character in Killy's adventures.