Upsilon the Mink

Upsilon the Mink (pronounced up-sil-on, not yoop-sil-on) is a 16 year-old mink, and is one of the friends of both Sigma the Mink and Theta the Mink. Possessing the ability to manipulate and control shadows, Upsilon can bend them to create illusions and distortions at his will, which he uses primarily in fighting off Zeti, others against him, and the like. If it was possible, Upsilon would probably be voiced by Newton Pittman (the guy who voiced Gray Fullbuster from Fairy Tail), only it would be a little deeper and have a slight British accent.

Upsilon is the eleventh fancharacter of SigmaAlphaThree.

Concept and Creation
While currently being a fancharacter in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, Upsilon the Mink's original concept was that of being a human with the same name, in a universe not even related to the Sonic fanon, called Hyperion. This story was the same places where the names for Sigma and Theta originated. However, the idea was soon scrapped, and a first design of Upsilon as a blue mink was created. More tweaks to his design and backstory are expected to be made.

Hyperion's story is now being reworked. More on the basic gist of the original story can be found on Sigma's page.

History
Before the birth of Upsilon, Irmia, his mother and a shadow manipulator, and Valdus, his father and a master swordsman, had originally lived on the mainland of Sonic's world, happily residing in a relatively small home in Spagonia. But, due to the swordsman's fair amount of wealth he had gotten as inheritance from the death of his own father, Valdus attempted to convince his wife to move to the Lost Hex, where they could have a bigger house for less, due to the fact that the floating continent was generally unexplored, and as such living there was cheaper.

But Irmia was rather reluctant of the suggestion at first, because she had heard stories of the Zeti living there and how vicious they could be, but Valdus assured her that it was fine, and he would stop at nothing to protect the family if trouble arose. Irmia was persuaded, and as such the two moved to the Lost Hex, into a bigger and nicer home, of a much higher quality than the one they had lived in previously. Not too long after that, the two had a child: a purple mink named Upsilon.

As a young boy, Upsilon looked up to his father a lot and admired his bravery and swordsmanship, and as such was closer to him more than his mother, Irmia. But as a child, he came to learn that he had inherited his mother's shadow powers, and as such Upsilon attempted to use his ability to make a shadow sword to imitate his father's skills, but of course due to his young age this was very hard for him to do. But, his father began to train Upsilon to use his shadow sword despite his young age, and for this Upsilon was greatful.

The mink boy had only heard of Valdus' past feats; he had never seen them himself, but despite this he was greatly intrigued by the tales, and was determined to be just like his father someday, and possibly get up to that level of knowledge in the art of handling a sword. And for this strong bond the father and son shared, Upsilon tended to prefer the company of his father more compared to his mother. Aside from this preference, the family was happy and content for the most part, loved each other very much, and life moved on somewhat uneventfully. That all changed when Upsilon was five years old, however.

One day, when Upsilon was seven, he and his father went out into the snowy forest to explore, and to have room for the young boy to practice is shadow sword powers. It seemed like a normal father-son adventure into the unknown, until a malicious Zeti ambushed the two from behind, mostly focusing on Valdus. Upsilon at this point actually knew how to control his shadow powers, but his father insisted on him staying out of the battle. The older man would’ve usually been able to take a Zeti by himself, but this Zeti was stronger than most others of his kind, and put up a stronger fight. In addition, the sneak attack at the beginning knocked Valdus off his feet and stunned him. The Zeti already had the upperhand in the fight, and furiously began to attack on the swordsman. Because of this, Valdus suffered open, mortal wounds.

The Zeti left by then, seeing that the child was no real threat, and Valdus would be dead soon enough. Upsilon, who had been deeply traumatized and emotionally scarred while watching the battle, panicked and put ice on Valdus’ cuts as he didn't know what else to do, which only worsened the state of his father. He ran all the way to his house to bring his mother to the scene, and when the two came back, his father was dead; he had bled out into the snow.

Irmia was horrified and grief-stricken at Upsilon’s foolishness, so it didn’t help the two’s already somewhat distant relationship. The mother was hit with depression through her husband's death, and began to think irrationally, blaming Valdus' death on her son. Upsilon was shocked that his mother would ever say that; he was deathly afraid during the fight, and would've done something to help had he knew more about his powers and about how to fight in close-combat. Despite this fact, Irmia still put the blame on her son, and gradually the two's relationship worsened.

Only a year later, Irmia decided to take Upsilon and herself on a vacation to Apotos to get away from it all, as practically everything around her was starting to remind Irmia of her husband. Along the way in Pumpkin Hill, they came across a young, lavender pika girl, who was maybe around the age of two or so, and she appeared to have been abandoned by her caretaker. Irmia took in the girl, who she named Kestrel, and she became Upsilon’s adopted sister. Even though Kestrel was in the house, she rarely talked to her brother, as she was usually locked away in her room. Thus, Upsilon grew up in a rather lonely environment.

But, now having an infant sister and an emotionally unstable mother in the house, Upsilon felt the strong need and duty to look after the family and protect them, just as his father tried to years ago. And so, Upsilon trained himself to control and get better at his shadow powers. His mother refused to help train his darkness manipulation, since she was usually always cross with him, so Upsilon had to learn by himself. Slowly and surely, he got better at his talent, and he was able to produce many things with his powers, like a shadow sword, his Shade helpers, and other things that could be useful in battle

Now, Upsilon lives a pretty normal life after those events. Of course, Kestrel and Upsilon don’t always get along, and Irmia can sometimes act extremely cold towards her son, but both relationships are gradually improving, and Upsilon is always ready to protect his family if need be, so another incident like losing his father won't ever happen again.

Personality
Upsilon is generally a quiet individual. His lonely upbringing molded him into the secluded person he currently is, although he doesn't mind being by himself; in some cases, he actually prefers being alone. He's more of an observer compared to others, and for this he notices small details normal people would miss. Lately, he's been introduced to more and more people, so he's growing a bit more sociable, although it is a slow growth.

Even though he doesn't say much around larger groups of people he doesn't know too well, he is more talkative around people he is close with (for example, Sigma and Theta.) When he is around friends and family, Upsilon has a lot more to say, and much to his surprise, he can be rather savvy with his words. However, he rarely shows off his charismatic side to anyone, even with his friends.

Shadow Powers and other Abilities
Upsilon's power to control shadows, or shadow-bending, originates from his mother's side of the family. His shadow-bending skills serve for a variety of purposes; they can be used for attacks (for example, the Shadow Overtake) as well as to disguise himself (for example, the Shadow Generate). In addition, Upsilon primarily uses a shadow sword in battle, which is very sharp and as such, it is able to easily slice through many solid and seemingly unbreakable objects.

Upsilon is also good with hand-to-hand combat, and has great agility skills as well as acrobatic skills. While lacking in lower-body strength, his upper-half is abnormally strong, allowing him to perform great swings with his sword and punches at various enemies. In addition, like all minks, Upsilon is an excellent swimmer, and is quite vigilant.

List of Abilities

 * Shadow Overtake: A move that causes a dark black mass to surround an enemy and cover them in a shroud of darkness, thus choking them. This can also be done by sending a stream of shadows directly into a person's airways, not necessarily by covering an enemy in darkness.
 * Shadow Generate: This allows Upsilon to make up to eight nearly-exact illusions of himself entirely made of shadow essence, which can be used to confuse his enemies and allow the real version of him to make an attack. Of course, due to the fact that the clones are made of shadows, there's a possiblity of them having fairly noticeable imperfections. As such, this move is used primarily for attackers that are less sharp-witted.
 * Shadow object creation: With his powers, Upsilon is able to make a wide variety of weapons and other non-weaponry objects that are made from shadow essence; a primary example of this is his shadow sword (seen above), and he is able to make a shadow shield as well, if necessary.
 * Shadow hands: If, for some odd reason, Upsilon isn't able to hold a sword (although mostly in this case, is that he just doesn't want to), he can summon a dark aura around his clenched fists. This powerful shadowy exterior covering his hands allows for him to leave powerful punches and blows on an enemy.
 * Shadow riding: If necessary, Upsilon can summon a wave of shadows to form underneath his feet, move them forward and, and he can ride on them. This is mainly used as a means of fast transportation for emergencies, or for going long distances.
 * Shade creation: Along with Kestrel's witch powers, Upsilon can create a small helper made from a shadow exterior and a magic core, made from an Animation spell, which brings the unliving shadowy husks to life.
 * Swordsmanship: Upsilon was trained a bit to hold a broadsword as a kid by his father, and after his father's death he continued to practice this skill until he became rather knowledgeable in the art, being very capable with his shadow sword (among other sword-like weapons he can create with shadows).
 * Savvy swimmer: As minks are semiaquatic, Upsilon possesses a natural-born skill of treading water and diving into bodies of water with ease.
 * Heightened senses at night: Due to his shadow manipulation abilities being much more powerfull in the dark, Upsilon's senses, agility, speed, vigilance, and capability of controlling his powers are far stronger in the night compared to the day.
 * Upper body strength: His constant training with swords and melee weapons has caused Upsilon to possess a pretty large amount of strength in his arms, which enables him to carry out forceful downwards swings on his attackers with his sword.

Weaknesses
Since light and shadow cancel each other out, Upsilon is greatly weakened by the usage of light against his shadow powers. However, this weakness can only occurr when light is directly used at him while his powers are activated, not necessarily when he's out in the open and not fighting. Upsilon's fragile and insecure state causes him to very rarely break down by petty jabs, which are mostly caused by Theta during a fight. He also has extreme weakness in his upper body after his powers have been used for an extensive time. At that point, he resorts to hard kicks to take out his enemies.

His powers also need to be "recharged", or he needs a resting period right after intense, energy-draining battles. This, added with his upper-body weakness after battles, allows him to be an open target for remaining enemies.

Irmia the Mink
Irmia is Upsilon's mother, although she sometimes doesn't even act like she knows him. Of course, in public she acts as sweet as can be and showers him with affection, but behind closed doors she snubs Upsilon and forces him into isolation. Due to the tragic death of her husband and her depression following afterwards, Irmia has irrationally placed the fault on her son. They were never really that close to begin with, but Valdus' death certainly didn't help with the situation. Now, the two have a broken relationship, which is most likely to never be mended.

Kestrel the Pika
Kestrel is Upsilon's adoptive sister. They're constantly at each other's throats and almost always bicker and argue. Usually Kestrel is the one who starts these arguments due to her regular teasing of him. Upsilon has held a grudge on her ever since she was adopted the Underwood household, but not because of something she did: he's upset because the younger girl has always been in his mother's favor. Even with this, the two siblings care a lot about each other and will do anything to protect one another in the face of danger.

Theta the Mink
Upsilon is the closest friend of Theta the Otter (aside from Sigma). The pair are very similar in terms of personality: they can be very quiet and isolated. However, Theta is definitely the more grumpier of the two, while Upsilon can be a pretty happy guy at times.

Upsilon constantly teases Theta, for which Theta gets flustered and angry, and usually yells at Upsilon in response, sometimes making fun of his quirks (like ice sculpting). In the future, though, Theta and Upsilon are seen as being great friends, and act almost like brothers.

Sigma the Mink
Upsilon and Sigma are pretty good friends, although the two are polar opposites. Sigma considers him one of her "bestest friends", and Sigma constantly tries to force Upsilon out of his shell. Upsilon mostly declines, although he sometimes complies. Despite Sigma's strong fear of the dark, she trusts Upsilon completely, even though he has shadow powers.

Dawn the Kuikon and Alice the Fox
Upsilon doesn't talk to these two girls that much, even though most of the time it's because Sigma's talking to this. He remains pretty friendly with the two, but they're not really close enough to be considered good friends. He does happen to be really uncomfortable when being around Dawn, due to some hiccup in their relationship in the past...

Ryder the Mink
Upsilon and Ryder met in Gem High, and they became close friends afterwards. Ryder usually hangs with Upsilon and the rest of the Minks. Upsilon and Ryder are pretty close when it comes to similarities as well.

River the Echidna
Upsilon and River are now in a romantic relationship. Prior to the beginning of their relationship, the two seemed to be an unlikely match: Upsilon had only bumped into her after school the first time they met and acted nervously, then proceeded to follow her to school the next day, which probably made River uncomfortable. Despite this awkward introduction, the two grew closer to one another over time and learning about each other's pasts, and it slowly developed into something more. Upsilon actually turned over to the neutral side from his previous evil viewpoint after encountering the echidna and getting to know her more.

In the future, it is known that the two will have two children, Epsilon the Minkidna and Bubbles the Minkidna.

Tesla The Hedgehog
Tesla and Upsilon had a tight rivalry since the beginning of Gem High. They both despise each other.

In Tesla Boom, there was a brief period where they worked together.

Others
As stated before, Upsilon is much more quiet around strangers and people he sees occasionally. He prefers to keep to himself (unlike Sigma) rather than mingle with others, and because of this he doesn't know too many other people really well outside of the characters mentioned above. Even though he's not sociable around strangers, he's not hostile; he just enjoys being by himself rather than meeting new people.

Genderbend: Silonia the Mink
Silonia the Mink is Upsilon's female counterpart. She sports a high ponytail tied back by a black scrunchie, and she wears a short-sleeved red jacket, and grey and black bodysuit (similar to Theta's genderbend), along with matching boots; the gloves for both versions are kept the same. Silonia's personality only varies slightly from Upsilon's. Silonia is less quiet than Upsilon can be. She usually forces herself to engage in social contact with others rather than keep to herself, which is what the normal Upsilon usually does. Silonia is also a tad bit more mean-spirited than the normal Upsilon, and she enjoys teasing and sometimes picking on other people for no reason at all. Aside from their appearance and personality differences, Silonia and Upsilon share the same backstory, and the same powers.

Theme Songs
Upsilon has a couple of theme songs, which are not of any particular use, but I just think the songs fit him at some points (and I just really like these songs).

Strange Talk- Eskimo Boy (Draper Remix)(Because... "Eskimo Boy". He lives in the snow. The lyrics fit at certain points... so yeah.)

Singularity- Alone (Because he's a loner, yo.)

Heist & Haddow - Inner Being (Around the 1 minute mark or so. This is usually for when he uses his powers and such.)

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihDkZC5PmiA Feint & Boyinaband feat. Veela - Time Bomb] (Rrrandom.)

Heavy Young Heathens - Mulholland Drive (It sounds freaking awesome, also THANK YOU 111 FOR UPLOADING IT!)

Trivia

 * Upsilon is the eleventh fancharacter of SA3.
 * His first biography was made on the fly. Needless to say, it wasn't that well-written and there were lots of plotholes...
 * Upsilon's original concept design in Hyperion was completely different. The fact that the original Upsilon was actually a human certainly widens the gap in difference. However, both characters share similar qualities, like their personality (both are moody).
 * Upsilon's cuffs on his jackets have faded shreds floating in mid-air. This is easily done by his shadow manipulation powers (although at first, they were in his design just for a cool effect).
 * His personality used to be based off of the main villain in the Hyperion series: Hyperion.
 * Upsilon's design from Hyperion looked like a ripoff of Michael Jackson, with curly black hair, red jacket and all. The red jacket was brought back into his current design.
 * Upsilon doesn't get cold or frostbitten easily. Due to his upbringing in the Frozen Factory zone, he has built up a resistance to the low temperatures of the zone.
 * Thanks to KAT, Upsilon has a slight British accent; it's just very faint.
 * He is SA3's personal favorite of her characters, although SA3 does pick on him a lot.
 * Upsilon's human appearance unintentionally looks like a lot of characters from various anime/fanime; for example, he bears an uncanny resemblance to Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Hitoshi from Nyan Neko Sugar Girls, and Gray Fullbuster from Fairy Tail.
 * He seems to be a personal favorite for trolls, as his page has been vandalized twice so far.
 * He is the only one of SA3's characters that can sing well.
 * On the day he was created, SA3 thought about shipping him with Amy Rose. That idea was quickly scrapped. SA3 also thought about shipping Sigma and Upsilon together, and thus acting as a replacement for Theta; she even made a fanfiction of the pairing, although it was horribly written.
 * In many story ideas SA3 makes, Upsilon is almost always the only character that dies, and it's usually in a very gruesome way as well.
 * Upsilon technically isn't his real name; it's a pseudonym he's had ever since he was a kid. His real name isn't known by anyone except his mother or himself.
 * Upsilon's basic character idea and personality traits have been reused a couple of times in old story ideas SA3 made when she was younger.
 * He has a talent for making ice sculptures. It was a passtime his father and he used to partake in, and he continued the craft even his father's death. Upsilon is very secretive about his hobby, however, and has only shared information about it with only a couple of people.