Aidan Connor

Aidan Connor is a shapeshifting alien cephalopod who came to Earth through the Rift.

Early Life
The individual now known as Aidan Connor was born on the planet Thaumas as one in a batch of about 20-30 eggs. Despite the large number of siblings, its mother was very loving and protective of all of them, nursing its young and dragging them around in a bag of sorts until they were old enough to swim on their own and singing to them the tales of old, of the time before humanity came, of the dark time and of the man in the blue box who saved them all. Its father was never there, as kraken generally don't form couples like most sentient life forms, but do some mating dances, exchange sperm and then go separate ways to both lay their own batch of eggs. The young kraken was very curious, more curious than its kind usually were, always wanting to explore the world around it and often dreaming of travelling beyond it.

Arrival on Earth
When exploring some strange iridescent lights, the young kraken suddenly found itself lost in time and space, in a place called Cardiff on November 23, 1826. The shock brought on by the sudden arrival on a new world, and the strange noisy city around it left the young creature frightened and confused. By reflex, it imitated the appearance of the first life form it encountered. A strange, noisy being that ran off as soon as they saw it. Not long afterwards, more of their kind approached to check what was going on. Though the creature didn't understand what the strange sounds they were uttering meant, it could tell from the calmness of the voice of one of them that it had friendly intentions and allowed her to wrap it in something soft and warm and lead it away. Luckily for the young kraken, the woman who had found him was longing for children, but unable to conceive, and decided to take the strange "orphan" in and raise him as her own. The "boy", named Aidan Connor by his adoptive parents, soon learnt to imitate human behaviour and speak their language, perfecting the illusion of humanity to the point where it would be quite hard to tell he wasn't human. Unless you checked his internal anatomy that is. Less than two decades later, the humans who had taken care of him passed away at the age of fourty, which was quite a high age for working class citizens in those days.

Life on Earth
Aidan himself lived on, and due to the extremely slow aging of the kraken compared to humans, watched several generations come and go and significant events of human history taking place. Christmas Eve 1869 the Rift which he'd fallen through was closed through the sacrifice of a young girl, and the involvement of a certain man in a blue box. 1883 the Torchwood Institute came to Cardiff, having only just found out about the Rift and at the time seeking to kill and dissect, or torture whatever aliens they could find in order to get access to their abilities and techonology. After a run-in with the organisation which nearly ended in his death and left him frightened and wary of them, Aidan went on the run. Across the world he wandered, or swimmed, learning about the many aspects of human culture, both good and bad. He watched as humans slaughtered eachother during the early half of the 20th century, which to him was very strange and horrifying. The concept of war was something new to him as most kraken are, despite their reputation, very peaceful beings who believe that killing other living beings, except the occasional non-sentient prey, is wrong. It wasn't all bad though, and the maturing kraken found that he quite liked mankind and their culture, despite its darker sides. Though the constant need for money cause a bit of trouble to him. Over the years Aidan tried out several different kinds of work, everything from a medic on the battlefields of the world wars to a singer and an actor during the days of Swinging London, with a role in some sci fi show on the BBC.

Looking for the Doctor
The years passed, and things started happening. Aidan saw the coming of the 21st century, and all it brought. Living shop-window dummies, a spaceship crashing into Big Ben, spaceships over London, the pepperpots and metal men, the huge demon killing people with it's shadow, the planets in the sky, everyone turning into clones of the former prime minister... Aidan saw it all, and was surprised at humanity's blindness to it. Though not all of them. Over the years, Aidan heard mentions of a mysterious "Doctor", who apparently had something to do with it. A man in a blue box. Likely the very same man as the one of the ancient legends that his mother had sung to him during his childhood. The man who'd saved his kind from extinction at the hands of greedy humans. Finding his life on Earth too lonely, Aidan decided to try to find this "Doctor", in the hopes that he could help him get back home.

Personality
Over the years, Aidan has learnt how to play human quite convincingly. It's all an act though. There are many differences between him and a human. Not only does he have completely different hormones and instincts than humans, he was also raised with completely different customs, norms, ethics and moral values, and therefore has a completely different way of thinking and a different view of things, which to a human would seem strange, if not absurd. For example, kraken tend to live in nomadic colonies consisting of a matriarch and her offspring, and only get together with other kraken when they rise to the surface to socialise and mate once every thousand years, often with multiple individuals. Thus to Aidan human customs like settling down with one individual are unnatural and alien, though he tries to adapt and see things their way, and he's starting to think a bit more like a human for every year that passes.

Aidan's a quite a calm and peaceful individual and would never kill, as the nomadic nature of the kraken and the size of their home planet has meant that they've never needed to kill others for territory or food resources and therefore never became a war-like species, though he can use violence if he feels that he or the people he cares about are threatened. Aidan's friendly and charming, humorous at times, playful, intelligent and a very fast learner. He still doesn't understand some human concepts, such as love, except for what he's seen or read. While Aidan tries to get all human cutoms right, he's not perfect, and there are ways to discover his inhuman nature if you look hard enough. For example, Aidan is a bit awkward when it comes to human body language, particularly facial expression. This is because of the natural body structure and habitat of the kraken, which has resulted in a communication more dependant on sound. He has trained himself to use facial expressions in human form by habit, but they're never as natural and genuine as those of real humans.