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    Colin 

Colin

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/colin_special.png
Click here to see Colin in one of the bad endings.
Click here to see Colin in the True Ending.
Click here to see the benign latex.
Click here to see Puro's disguise.

Colin, also known as "Human" by Puro, is the main protagonist and player character of Changed.


  • Action Survivor: Colin is relatively skinny, has amnesia, has no clue what is going on at the labs, and is facing latex creatures who can absorb or transform him with a touch. All he has going for him is his wits, relatively fast speed compared to most of the other creatures, and Puro's help. That's all he needs.
  • Alternate Identity Amnesia: In one of the Special Edition bad endings, he gets transfurred into a white latex creature and temporarily suffers Death of Personality. Puro recovers him somewhat, but it's implied he's completely lost his memory and merely kept his Nice Guy personality.
  • Amnesiac Hero: He's been in cryogenic stasis for so long, he can't remember how he ended up in the tower or who's been taking care of him.
  • And I Must Scream: His fate if any creature chooses to absorb him rather than transfur. His body and organs get digested inside the latex beast. Yet he's still alive, trapped deep inside the now-immortal monster, unable to ever escape or exert his will over the captor, leaving him an immobile prisoner.
  • And Then John Was a Zombie: Almost every latex creature in the building turns him into one of them if they're not outright assimilating him. He also ends up being turned into a dark or white latex wolf in every ending except "I Choose To Stay" and "I Choose To Leave".
  • Baby Talk:
    • In Special Edition's bad endings where he's 'transfurred' but keeps some small shred of his memories, Colin communicates with Puro with sounds, gurgles, and gibberish.
    • In a different bad ending, he gets 'transfurred' into a white latex creature, and is barely able to sound out Puro's name. Puro promises to teach him speech all over again.
  • Badass Normal: Colin's just an ordinary young man, using his wits to escape from hordes of unkillable goo monsters that all want to assimilate him.
  • Blindfolded Vision: As part of the Genetic Project's precautionary measures, the Benign Latex he wears will restrain him if it awakens, immobilises him with its long tail, and blindfolds him, all so he can't escape or pose a danger to any other humans. note 
  • A Boy and His X: A young man and his adorkable Blob Monster.
  • Controllable Helplessness: There'll be instances where the player won't immediately lose control of Colin as he succumbs to double transfur fusions or other, but by then, it's already too late for him.
  • Death of Personality: Many of the game-overs drive home this fact, if any creatures capture and assimilate him in the infested labs he loses his independence and individuality, forever.
  • Disposable Vagrant: Dr. K considers him this, a poor nobody whose fight for survival is jeopardizing the goals of the world leaders to restart mankind and civilization.
  • Dying as Yourself: He passes away in the "Leave" ending, finally succumbing to the lethal virus Dr. K feared he was carrying. As the Steam achievement shows, Puro sadly cares about his human friend's determination so much, the latex wolf doesn't assimilate him, burying him among the ruins instead.
  • Eyes Are Mental: He's the only creature in the lab with blue eyes outside of the Tiger Shark, who Was Once a Man. Notably, his eyes stay blue whenever he gets 'transfurred' but is implied or confirmed to have not suffered Death of Personality, only having them change colour when he's definitely no longer himself.
  • Failed a Spot Check: He has no idea the pants he wears are actually a dormant latex creature, designed by Thunder Science to act as a Restraining Bolt in the unlikely event of his escape from the testing area. Even Puro doesn't realize, only noting there's a "familiar goo scent" about them. The machines however, detect its presence much to the deuteragonists confusion.
  • Fear Is the Appropriate Response: Colin's only human, despite his stoic expression. Being chased by latex monsters like Circle or Feng Yu, there'll be times when he's running scared out of his mind and the biometric Save points won't recognize him, or he'll be too frightened to climb escape ladders.
  • Forced Transformation: Colin gets turned into numerous different species depending on what captures him, with varying levels of brainwashing added in.
  • Fountain of Youth: In the Special Edition, touching one of the large black crystals in the dark-latex wolf territory causes Colin's body to split apart into a handful of dark-latex wolf pups. While the rest appear to be as mindless and feral as every other dark-latex wolf, one has blue eyes like Colin and is shown looking at their paw in confusion, suggesting Colin's mind was transferred into that one pup.
  • Gender Bender: Sometimes falls prey to this depending on the creature that assimilates him, and sometimes he's not happy about it.
  • Gender Bender Angst: If two latex bunnies transfur into him together, he becomes a female latex rabbit. Colin's immediate reaction upon noticing her new gender is to cover her breasts while blushing profusely.
  • Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Because he already wears nothing but a pair of benign latex shorts, every transfur that doesn't end up destroying or removing them results in him becoming one of these.
  • Happily Adopted: Many latex beasts (Puro included in one of the bad endings) will take Colin in under their wing as their sibling or child if they 'transfur' him. In most cases, the former-human couldn't be happier.
  • The Hero Dies: In the "I Choose To Leave" ending, he is confirmed to have the Pale virus and dies from it next to Puro while watching the sunset. The achievement icon shows Puro buried his human friend, with his own fate left unknown, but not looking good.
  • Heroic Mime: Has very few, if any, lines of dialogue, and mostly conveys his feelings through Pictorial Speech Bubbles.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Becomes this with Puro in the Golden Ending.
  • Human Popsicle: Colin was one of many test subjects placed into cryogenic stasis for experimentation with the latex beasts and/or until a solution was found for the Pale Virus. After several years his capsule kicks him out due to Cryonics Failure as the escaped goo monsters travelling through the ducts mess with the room's wiring.
  • I Choose to Stay: In one of the endings Colin can listen to Dr. K and choose to not leave with Puro. It's a Tear Jerker as the monster companion calls Colin out for not keeping his promise to see the outside world with him. As he sadly leaves the building alone, Colin's doomed himself to become a Human Popsicle as the Doctor tries in vain to treat an incurable disease, while Puro will suffer a Death of Personality soon without a host.
  • I Just Want to Be Free: He wants to escape the tower complex to the outside world, knowing there may be nothing for him out in the ruins. Everytime a latex creature captures and starts assimilating him, it's always an unwilling transformation, but there's nothing he can do to fight back against these predators once in their clutches.
  • I'm Not Here to Make Friends: He can choose to not thank Puro when helped, and ignore the friendly wolf at every opportunity, but this will have life-changing consequences for him later in the game.
  • Jumping the Gender Barrier: Several transfurs while Puro is accompanying Colin will have the transfurred latter flirting with or seducing Puro in the transfur screen. Puro's reaction to this occurring is typically confusion.
  • The Klutz: The adolescent often slips on rubbish or manages to get himself into predictments that attract the attention of the latex beasts.
  • Last of His Kind: Subverted. Colin is a Token Human in the game as the human race is virtually wiped out from the Pale Virus pandemic. There are the ultra-rich and world leaders who've bunkered down in an undisclosed location to weather out the apocalypse in hopes Dr. K can find a better solution.
  • Living Clothes: In the Special Edition, his black pants are really a dormant latex creature that were programmed to awaken and restrain from scanning laser lights should subjects like him ever try to escape.
  • The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Most, but not all, of the transfurmations he undergoes he soon quickly happily embraces, forgetting he ever was human.note 
  • Morphic Resonance: Downplayed. Some of the 'transfurmations' he suffers will have him retain his eye color and hairstyle.
  • Mysterious Past: We don't know much of his teenage life before he was put into Cryo-Prison, except that he was happy and largely unaware of the global pandemic.
  • No One Should Survive That!: Even Dr. K lampshades Colin's up against insurmountable odds in trying to escape the lab facility. It's swarming with escaped experiments that want to consume him on sight.
  • No-Sell: He tries to avenge Puro by assaulting Dr. K for killing Puro's sentience and reducing him to his dark-latex default form if their relationship isn't sufficiently high. As the doctor is more flexible and healthy by comparison, this backfires.
  • Not Quite Back to Normal: When he manages to pull off a traffic cone latex attempting to assimilate him in Special Edition, he manages to remove it, but his body underneath has been altered. His shorts are gone, he has white fur all over, and he also has a tail, snout, animal ears, and paws, indicating that the traffic cone latex turned his inner body into some kind of canine-like latex.
  • Odd Friendship: He sparks one with Puro, a dark-latex wolf, one of the latex beasts that instinctively hunt down humans to assimilate or transfur them.
  • Only Friend: As anyone he once knew before the pandemic is now either dead or transfurred, Puro becomes this for him when properly befriended.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Towards the end of the offices in Special Edition, he can find and don a dark-latex wolf costume to get through the dark-latex wolf crowd undetected. The costume is poorly made, and is so unlifelike that every latex wolf present is confused by it, but it's just barely convincing enough that they don't attack Colin.
  • People Puppet: The Wolf King turns him into one if he catches the human with one of his crystals during his boss fight. The transfur screen depicts the human, seemingly having suffered Death of Personality, being turned halfway into a dark-latex wolf and toyed with for the Wolf King's amusement.
  • The Plague: He doesn't realize he carries the deadly incurable Pale Virus and it's slowly killing him.
  • Saved by the Phlebotinum: In the "ESC" ending, Doctor K injects a mutagenic latex serum into Colin that he once tested upon himself. Though it irreversibly changes the human's body into a light-latex wolf-like beast, it successfully eradicates the Pale Virus, and preserves Colin's mind without any adverse side effects.
  • Sneeze of Doom: Colin has a habit of sneezing at either the best or worst times. Sometimes his sneezes are followed by a transfur, but one time, as Colin read that an area was under construction, he sneezed which caused the floor to give out, dumping him into the greenhouse and seperating him from Puro.
  • The Stoic: Lampshaded by Dr. K, Colin always has a calm, cool and collected expression on his face.
  • Super Drowning Skills. He can't swim. Falling into deep water always results in him sinking like a stone, though (un)luckily he never drowns as aquatic latex beasts will always "save" him.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: Dr. K will berate Colin if he leaves Puro behind heartbroken after saving him from the Squid Pups. Him proceeding without showing Puro gratitude secures the Betrayal ending, as K is able to convince the dark-latex beast to assimilate Colin.
  • Unwitting Test Subject: He was brought into the complex years ago as a mere test subject for the Genetic Project. Puro himself later confesses the reason why he's left sticky notes and hazards early-on, because he wanted to test the human's strengths to see if they were a worthy host to assimilate.
  • Vague Age: According to Word of God, Colin's chronologically aged 23, meaning he was abducted as a teenager before becoming a Human Popsicle pending experimentation.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: Colin wears nothing but a pair of pants throughout the entirety of the game.
  • Weak, but Skilled: Noted by Puro, Colin's not physically strong, unable to move heavy metal crates, but the young man is a very athletic runner. Colin can surprisingly move at the same speed as Yuin. The problem? He's hungry, the Pale Virus is slowly killing him, and any food needed to give him an energy burst, is the obvious trap of a latex beast lying in wait.
  • White Wolves Are Special: In the ESC ending, Dr. K uses the same wolf latex batch on Colin he used to save his life from the Pale virus. After three days in observation, he loses his humanity, but keeps all his memories and identity. Puro still adorably calls him "Human".
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: In the Special Edition it is showcased he has Ophidiophobia, so any snake-like latex creature latching onto Colin will cause the young man to run around freaking out before being inevitably 'transfurred'.
  • Worthy Opponent: The Wolf King seems to see the human as this, as surviving long enough before being transfurred in his boss fight will have him choose to accept the transfurred Colin into his pack as opposed to making him a People Puppet.
  • Your Days Are Numbered: The "I Choose to Leave" ending, this is true for Colin as well as Puro. As Dr. K suspected, he was indeed carrying the Pale Virus that devastated the world, and by the ending, he finally perishes from it just hours after exiting the building.

    Puro 

Puro

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/puro_changed_7_2.png
Click here to see Puro in the worst ending.
Click here to see Puro in the bad ending.
Click here to see Puro in the captured ending.

Puro is the deuteragonist of Changed. He is a friendly dark latex wolf-like creature, the only seemingly benign monster that doesn't want to absorb you on sight. He's capable of speech and helps Colin throughout the game.


  • Ambiguous Gender: Despite being an ordinary dark-latex wolf, he displays characteristics of both genders. His mask is shaped like a female dark-latex wolf's and he possesses the fluffy tail and hair fur that females do, but he has no visible mammaries and identifies as male.
  • Ambiguously Gay: You could just call them great friends, but his infatuation with Colin definitely raises some questions.
  • Assimilation Plot: A low relationship with Puro sees the Betrayal ending playing out. After reaching the end of the Aquatic Area, he'll give up hope of escaping the building alive, as without a host body, he doesn't have long to live before regeneration destroys his newfound sapience. He devastatedly reveals he always doubted Colin could survive with the world outside. Hoping to spare his friend and himself from dying ignoble and lonely deaths, he opts to "transfur" Colin personally, trapping him in a hallway with no escape. The latter has been running from barely sentient monsters, and should know how utterly screwed he is at this point. The worst possible outcome is Puro fully assimilating Colin into himself. The second worst has him instead turn the latter into a blue-eyed version of himself, referring to him as an extension of his being under his control. Only The Power of Friendship and playing on Normal mode can avert this.
  • The Assimilator: All latex creatures are driven by impulse and instinct on a cellular-level to swallow up any human on sight. Puro mostly resists this, though warns Colin to never suddenly jump on, or accidentally bump into him, otherwise he'll absorb him instantly and involuntarily.
  • Big Brother Instinct: After assimilating Colin to be his new little brother in one of the Special Edition bad endings, Puro becomes a doting older brother figure for the non-verbal Colin, giving him words of encouragement when drawing pictures, and feeding him canned food in his den.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Saves Colin on several occasions from stronger latex beasts threatening to engulf him.
  • Blind Seer: He admits to Colin that as a Dark Latex beast his eyesight is poor, and he has trouble registering stationary objects. Puro can however, use his other senses to see the world around him just fine, so this is an Informed Flaw. Without finding an animal in nature to adequately draw comparison to, the wolf tries to explain his ability to see is almost like echolocation.
  • Bookworm: As a pup he was drawn to the Library, fascinated with human works unlike his brethren. After his kind rejected him for leaving, they became his only source of comfort during many lonely days and nights. Puro eventually becomes a Badass Bookworm when protecting Colin from countless threats seeking to absorb him.
  • Call to Agriculture: Wanting to emulate humans, Puro tried to start up his own farm, using white latex beasts he raised from blobs as livestock only to find they tasted terrible.
  • Cruel to Be Kind: How he considers Colin's fate when swallowing him up in the worst ending, as both are doomed to die without each other otherwise.
  • Double Knockout: A strong relationship with Puro before the confrontation with Dr. K will ensure his survival as both fight each other to a stalemate.
  • Dream-Crushing Handicap: Considers himself weak and fragile without a human host inside him. Puro's very disappointed when Colin emerges out of stasis to find he's nowhere near as muscular as he fantasized him to be.
  • Eating the Enemy: His solution for dealing with a particularly persistent light-latex blob that refuses to surrender Colin. Amusingly he's so stuffed he asks his human friend not to poke round anymore vents anytime soon.
  • Eccentric Artist: Puro's quite talented, and leaves all sorts of doodles and drawings lying around the complex for Colin to find.
  • Edutainment Game: The wolf-latex monster learned how to articulate and communicate words through a children's "Mr. Orange" educational toy made by the same robotics company that once rented the tower complex before the pandemic. Though admits writing was harder to learn and he often can't always grasp grammar or punctuation of the human language.
  • The Exile: His own kind will not accept him back after he willingly left their pack.
  • Fantastic Racism: Puro hates the light-latex goo creatures due to Animal Jingoism, and laments the competing species have never liked each other.
  • Grow Beyond Their Programming: Whereas his dark-latex kind were regarded as a Flawed Prototype as pups by their human creators, Puro exceeded expectations as he eventually learned to read, write, talk, and even draw as he studied in isolation.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: When a friendship blossoms between him and Colin, Puro will belittle himself at every given opportunity even when he's just helped the human out of a jam. He'll sing Colin's praises, as the young man insists on showing him gratitude.
  • Heroic Wannabe: Early on, he tried to script a scenario where he would appear to be an Ideal Hero, saving Colin from white latex tail-like monsters, but as the human requested he stop following him everywhere, it derailed the whole plan to impress his would-be friend. Dr. K calls him out on this stating his ultimate goal was always an Assimilation Plot. If Colin befriends Puro properly, eventually the wolf does become noble and heroic after all.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Becomes this with Colin in the Golden Ending.
  • Horror Hunger: He's driven by a primordial desire of his species' hunger to 'transfur' other humans into themselves, only Colin showing he cares about him can stall these urges for the story's duration.
  • Humans Are Special: Puro's a firm believer that humans are an amazing species bordering on the magical, that can do anything if they put their minds to it. He's unaware Colin isn't superhuman, so asking for help or directions confuses the benign latex creature.
  • I Just Want to Be Badass: He used to fantasize Colin would be muscular when he finally arrived so when assimilated Puro would become so powerful he'd fear no man or beast ever again. A strong relationship with Puro reveals he's now more afraid of losing his only friend, than the other latex creatures and will do anything to protect his human.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: More than anything he wants to be human, some endings have him opt for the next best thing.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends: Puro has been alone for a long time, enough that his Horror Hunger is coming into conflict by a deeper need to have a companion. Already ostracized by his own kind, Colin picks up from the notes left by Puro his increasing anxieties and fears if the human doesn't like him when he arrives at the Library.
  • Innocently Insensitive: In the original version, Puro will make off-hand comments that, while not meaning to offend, come across as insulting. Saying Colin looks weak so he's not suitable for assimilation (most likely to reinforce that Puro's friendly and to put the human at ease), and in one case all but calling Colin fat when he has to throw or carry him by first admitting that Colin is heavy, then straight up whining about how heavy Colin is when he has to bridal carry him past some Frictionless Ice.
  • Intrigued by Humanity: Puro loves everything about human culture and history, spending years alone reading books written by people long dead and gone.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Puro's build, unlike his more muscular dark-latex wolf kind, appears very feminine with long curly hair. He had to explain to Colin when they first met he's not female. He dreams of having a burly body someday.
  • Merger of Souls: In one of the Special Edition betrayed endings a partially-befriended Puro will absorb Colin into himself, but thereafter refers to himself as neither Colin nor as Puro. He regards both individuals that make him up as the two former-lives he once had, before becoming an entirely new being.
  • Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: If you get to know him, he's a big shy sweetheart.
  • Mortality Phobia: Latex monsters after an indeterminate period will regenerate into their base forms and back again infinitely, without human hosts. If they assimilate someone, they'll halt this cycle, evolve, and quickly embrace the fact they'll live forever (by our standards). The goo beasts don't comprehend their resetting lifespans, but Puro does. Fearing a Death of Personality, he's become desperate to absorb someone.
  • Muscles Are Meaningful: Finally achieves the pecs he desired for so long in the Special Edition's worst ending, where Colin fails to befriend him but trusts him with his safety. Puro 'transfurs' Colin into himself directly, and becomes much bigger and aggressive in the closing cutscene.
  • Mysterious Backer: Heartwarmingly, Puro was watching over Colin for years, ensuring Dr. K couldn't devise a no-win scenario. The dark-latex wolf leaves notes and directions everywhere, blocking off dangerous routes, so the human will proceed to meet up in the Library. Even making Elder One promise the dark-latex dragons would grant him safe passage if he proved his worth.
  • Noble Wolf: When fully befriended by Colin, Puro will do anything to protect him from being 'transfurred' by another Latex experiment.
  • Nonhuman Sidekick: Gradually becomes a loyal companion and friend who dotes on Colin constantly during the course of their trek through the tower complex.
  • No Sense of Personal Space: Comes with the inherent aptitude of being a Blob Monster, Puro's friendly, lonely, and often excitedly up in Colin's face.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: He's no fool. Having spent years reading books about the world and human civilization he knows just from a glance the world is already doomed, and only accompanies Colin to kill time.
  • Only Friend: If a strong relationship with Colin flourishes, Puro will openly declare this, remarking he will follow his beloved human, forever.
  • Picky Eater: Puro loves only sweet juicy delectables, and detests anything bitter. The oranges grown in the greenhouse by Prototype made him pass out, and the wolf never returned there to eat again.
  • The Power of Friendship: If Colin spends time and shows Puro he cares about him, the latex wolf monster will develop feelings for him, and actively resist trying to assimilate his human friend for the remainder of their adventure, even protecting Colin from other monsters looking to absorb him.
  • Rouge Angles of Satin: In the Special Edition, which otherwise mostly resolved the previous version's Translation Trainwreck, his notes to the player are full of conspicuous typos. Though he's relatively eloquent in person.
  • Rogue Drone: As a cub he broke off from his dark latex wolf Hive Mind to read books in the Library. He still longed to absorb a human for himself very badly, but as Puro absorbed himself in his reading, the wolf goo developed a fascination for mankind, now longing to befriend the protagonist.
  • Secret Test of Character: He later confesses the reason why he's left sticky notes everywhere and hazards early-on for Colin, because he was wrestling with his animal instincts and newfound conscience. Puro wanted to test the human's strengths to see if they were a host worthy of assimilating.
  • Super Not-Drowning Skills: The dark-latex wolf monster cannot swim, his body's cellular density is too great, but since he doesn't need to breathe underwater it's of little concern besides getting his tail wet.
    • Averted as of the Special Edition where Puro does the doggy paddle, but since he wants to imitate humans finds it embarrassing more so since Colin saw the whole spectacle.
  • The Shrink: Defied Trope. He once read a very long-winded book on psychology to understand human relationships better. His notes for a time became nonsensical to Colin, in fact it messed him up so bad, he vowed to never read it again. Puro's a Bookworm, so it must've been an horrendous publication.
  • This Is My Human: How Puro feels about Colin, whether wanting to absorb or befriend him, and gets enraged if any other latex monster tries to abduct his human away from him.
  • Throw the Book at Them: When he arrives to save Colin from the Behemoth, his attempt at stopping the large light-latex is to throw his book at it. This does nothing except temporarily confuse the Behemoth.
  • Unwanted Assistance: Puro means well but can easily distract the player trying to keep tabs on latex hazards. This does result in one instance where in the Special Edition, Colin gets transfurred by a snake-like monster in the ventilation duct.
  • Uplifted Animal: Upon their escape and consequent takeover of the facility, Puro gradually fell out of the primordial desires of his peers' hunger to 'transfur' other humans and instead found himself scouring the library with a newfound sense of curiosity and awareness in humankind.
  • Walking the Earth: In the "ESC" ending he joins Colin to have the journey he always dreamed about having when reading his cherished adventure books.
  • We Need a Distraction: Helps Colin escape the Ming Cat via a cardboard cutout. Also willingly offers to lure the light-latex beasts away in the Latex Forest so they won't try to transfur Colin.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: Puro himself is immortal but isn't immune to this conundrum, being a self-made Uplifted Animal, and fears his dark-latex regeneration cycle will destroy his sapience when he reverts into a crystalline form and then back again.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: He's a lone wolf who abandoned his fellow wolf monsters in favor of exploring the compound and learning about humans. His species will not forgive this nor allow him to return even if he were to one day lose his sentience.
    • In Special's No Trust ending he resigns himself to failure, for not being able to imitate or befriend humans before looking to return to his kind. Puro only aborts when he comes across what was once Colin in the vents.
  • Your Days Are Numbered: Puro, being a dark-latex, can only survive on his own while inside the lab building. Otherwise, like the other Transfurs, he needs a human host to extend his lifespan. In the Easy Mode Betrayal ending, he caves in to his desire to survive and forcibly makes Colin his host. In the Can't Decide ending, Doctor K instead provided an artificial host, allowing him to live without having to consume his human friend.
  • Your Soul Is Mine!: In the Easy mode ending, Puro wanting to avoid an Undignified Death fully absorbs Colin into himself after apologising he's given into his yearnings. He feels the human's consciousness deep inside himself, as he beholds his stronger imperishable body with Colin's eyes.

    Dr. K 

Dr. K

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/doctor_k_special.png
Click here to see Dr. K maskless.
Click here to see female Dr. K.

Dr. K is the main antagonist of Changed. He is a scientist from before the events of the game, whom intentionally 'transfurred' himself using his own drug that would allow its user to retain their memories and free will. He tries multiple times to contain Colin, who he believes may reintroduce the Pale Virus, to the outside world.


  • Adaptational Jerkass: Subverted. His early presence and messages to Colin are much harsher in the Special Edition than in the vanilla game, demanding he simply lie down and let the first latex beast he sees assimilate him. Though he admits to the mainframe IGCT computer that he's merely pretending to be hostile in order to motivate the human to survive.
  • Animals Hate Him: Not hate per se, but being a 'transfurred' human who retained his identity and memories, the latex beasts are indifferent to him. While K's happy they're not seeking a transfur fusion with him, being ignored often does make him feel very alone.
  • Assimilation Plot: It was never his original goal, but thwarting the world-ending virus meant him and his team had little other choice. Played straight years later when Dr. K desperate to Quarantine with Extreme Prejudice pressures Puro over the library speakers to transfur Colin, who refuses, as their friendship with the last human matters more than absorbing them.
  • The Beastmaster: Averted. The doctor retaining his identity whereas everyone else has transformed into latex beasts, is more than capable of becoming the "one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind", but he doesn't want this, instead desiring to see mankind recover from the apocalyptic plague.
  • Bond Breaker: Often tries to drive a wedge between Colin's and Puro's friendship over the course of the game. If he fails, he'll gripe the dark-latex beasts had always failed him before.
  • Borrowed Biometric Bypass: In the No Trust ending, he thanks Colin for restarting complex's backup generator, just before abandoning him to the White latex jungle. Since the doctor "transfurred" himself long ago, the older machinery in the basement no longer recognised him as an active user.
  • Captain's Log: Colin can find tape recordings he left lying around the complex as he tries to man the fort alone, and study the behavioural patterns of the latex beasts.
  • Caring Gardener: The doctor's a proficient horticulturist, trimming and caring for all the trees and vegetation near his lab.
  • Combat Medic: He tries to take out Colin with a sniper rifle loaded with mutagen cartridges. Emphasis on tries because he's not a skilled marksman and only synthesized enough for four shots.
  • Conflicting Loyalty: Special Edition illustrates K is feeling the strain of trying to be a scientist, a Reasonable Authority Figure, and a human being. The mainframe IGCT terminal fears he's behaving unethically towards Colin because he's either suffering from Motive Decay, or has gone mad from loneliness. The doctor elucidates - he's ensuring lockdown to serve The Needs of the Many and not spread the Pale Virus again.
  • Crazy-Prepared: The Lab has several measures he implemented to prevent the escape of potentially infected human subjects. Even the clothes the subjects wear are a countermeasure for escape, as they're really dormant latex creatures that are programmed to be reactivated with special flashes of red light.
  • Did You Actually Believe...?: Berates Colin if he chooses to trust him over Puro in the Special Edition No Trust ending, before trapping the human in the white latex jungle. The doctor informs him he's a massive disappointment, and the dark-latex wolf, once the biggest thorn in the scientist's side is now too heartbroken to come to the human's rescue.
  • Didn't Think This Through: If the doctor sincerely hopes humans will repopulate the Earth after the infected die off resulting in the extinction of the Pale Virus, he's overlooking one glaring fact - the latex beast creations have already escaped the tower and are likely forming their own complex ecosystems. If there are any human survivors left, his teams' monsters will find them.
  • Don't Celebrate Just Yet: His colleagues wanted to observe New Years and celebrate their work on the Genetic Project. The doctor, so close to a breakthrough, refused to participate, knowing the sounds of fireworks would be replaced with firearms when the angry masses would storm the complex for a cure.
  • Emergency Transformation: He was among many bioengineers trying to save a dying humanity from the Pale Virus. The only way they could immunize the population to this incurable disease was through The Assimilator abilities of the Transfurs latex goo monsters, but their creations caused a Death of Personality for any test subject. Ultimately, they succeeded in creating the technology that would allow this trope, but it was too late - the lab was attacked by mass riots and consumed by escaped Transfurs before they could roll it into mass-production. Dr. K was the only scientist who got to use it before all hell broke loose.
  • Empty Eyes: K has this perpetual "dead-inside" expression throughout the entire game, even when feigning happiness; he failed to Find the Cure! during the pandemic; takes no pride in sullying Colin's and Puro's friendship, and being forced to make immoral decisions to isolate away the protagonist. The only sincere reaction he gives, is for the "ESC" ending when Colin is willing to sacrifice his humanity to stop the Pale Virus.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Except for Puro who is expendable, K doesn't resort to gratuitous violence to accomplish his goal of containing Colin away from the outside world. The doctor switches on floor rotary fans to dissuade the human from proceeding. Should Colin step forward, K immediately shuts them down prompting the appropriate response. It's also the reason why he gives the human a fighting chance to survive and not set up a Hopeless Boss Fight scenario.
  • The Evils of Free Will: Desperate to stop Colin, he argues the human would be happier off losing his individuality inside a latex beast, rather than pointlessly dying alone in the wastelands.
  • Fling a Light into the Future: What he hopes he's accomplished in the "ESC" ending by saving Colin with his latex mutagen and supplying Puro with a 'biorobot'. Though human civilization lays in ruins after the pandemic, the deuteragonists will not die of old age now, leaving ample time to rebuild for the dawn of a new age.
  • Fourth-Wall Observer: In the Special Edition he'll make note of the number of steps taken after emerging from cryogenic slumber, to the total of saved games used.
  • Gas Mask, Longcoat: Check, and check.
  • Gender Bender: Special Edition implies even Doctor K isn't immune to this. The mutagen used to save the scientist's life is very stable (unlike the 50/50 chance Colin gets whenever unwillingly 'transfurred'). The odds are 1 in a 1000 of it changing the subject's gender. Despite the low probability, it can still happen, as the player might find out when the scientist first appears in-person with a Gendered Outfit.
  • Humans Are Bastards: Does some very unethical things to keep the Pale Virus contained.
  • The Immune: Thanks to the K Mutagen, he cannot be "transfurred" again. Puro tries to assimilate him in the Special Edition to rescue Colin, but fails to do anything other than mess his hair up.
  • Improbable Age: According to Word of God, Dr. K is almost 30 years old, meaning he was in his mid-twenties when part of the bioengineering team working to stop the Pale Virus. To be an authoritative figure among the scientists on such a mission of utmost importance, K would've been nothing short of a child prodigy.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: K's not a Mad Scientist nor is he proud of the things he had to do to combat a devastating pathogen, nevertheless argues he did so for the greater-good.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: In the Special Edition. If Puro has a poor relationship with Colin, even the dark-latex wolf silently acknowledges in the flooded generator rooms, Dr. K speaks the truth about humans' apparent coldheartedness.
  • Jerkass to One: Can't stand Puro and refers to him as a "failure" at best and and expendable at worst. This angers the dark-latex beast since he's an Uplifted Animal. Justified in that Dr. K's mission was never to create a new lifeform, it was to save the human race from extinction.
  • Know When to Fold 'Em: Gives up trying to stop Colin and Puro going together in the 'Leave ending', as he can't fight them both. K laments everything he ever did to stop the Pale Virus was All for Nothing before returning to his office in defeat.
  • Lightswitch Surprise: Done with surveillance, K takes a direct approach in dealing with Colin. Revealing himself before trapping the man in a room away from Puro, and incapacitating him.
  • Magic Antidote: Averted. His colleagues and he couldn't find a cure for the virus, as it exploited fundamental flaws in the human genome.note  The only way out was to alter the very makeup of humans themselves since animals proved immune to the pathogen. Combining lab animal DNA into their latex goo experiments, brought about creatures that could assimilate and change people, but it resulted in a Death of Personality. He did eventually find a better method, but it was too late to save the civilization he grew up in.
  • Mind Control: There's nothing he can do for former-humans who were 'transfurred' and suffered Death of Personality, but he has been experimenting with the latex. K developed a mutagen where the subject is void of free-will and completely obedient to his commands; using this on Colin in the bad endings.
  • My Greatest Failure: Being unable to stop the Pale Virus, and is now the only living testament to the 'Genetic Project'. He wanted to save humanity, but in the end was only able to save himself.
  • Mysterious Backer: Heartwarmingly, the doctor was watching over Colin for years, ensuring the youth's capsule didn't have a Cryonics Failure.
  • Not with Them for the Money: The Doctor keeps in regular contact with the ultra-rich and world leaders who've retreated to a secret bunker, not for wanting power or favours, but because he desires to see mankind re-emerge triumphant against the viral apocalypse.
  • No Fair Cheating: He'll call Colin out over the intercom if he decides to wear a disguise Puro made for Colin to sneak past the toughest areas of the Dark-Latex beasts' territory. The monsters don't catch on, since they can't understand the human language.
  • Nominal Villain: He's trying to save the last of humanity from an extinction event that the infected Colin threatens to bring about.
  • Professor Guinea Pig: Dr. K began experimenting upon himself when he ran out of time and human "volunteers". Luckily it worked and although his body was irreversibly changed, his mind was left intact.
  • Pro-Human Transhuman: Although becoming one with the "K batch" of light-latex goo to avoid succumbing to The Plague, the doctor retains his sanity and rationale. He's hostile towards Puro, and especially Colin, but desires to see humanity bounce back from the apocalypse and talks regularly with the ultra-rich and world leaders in their secret bunker retreat.
  • Properly Paranoid: He never takes his mask off, almost as if it's a memento to his days as a former-human scientist, even though he's essentially immortal and immune to disease. In actuality, it's solely to suppress his newly amplified sense of smell after he had undergone the transfur procedure.
  • Quarantine with Extreme Prejudice: Dr. K is willing to go to great lengths to prevent Colin from reintroducing the Pale Virus to the outside world. It's hard to argue against him, given this pathogen ended modern civilization several years ago.
  • Rasputinian Death: Slowly succumbing to the Pale virus, and being shot up pretty badly during the riots, he took the K mutagen to save himself. He woke three days later transformed and the bullets fell out of his new body.
  • Sensory Overload: As a latex beast his sense of smell has become so acute that he finds odours very off-putting. K is always seen wearing a gas mask to suppress aromas and scents.
  • Sinister Surveillance: He watches Colin's every step from the moment the young man emerges out of his cryogenic capsule. It rapidly starts getting on the human's nerves as the doctor interrupts their progress.
  • Sole Survivor: Of the bioengineering science team working to stop the Pale Virus pandemic.
  • Sycophantic Servant: Turns out Dr. K as the Sole Survivor of the research team is having difficulty maintaining the entire tower complex all by himself. He hopes he can turn Colin into an obedient animal that'll obey his commands via 'transfurmation' and the success of this varies depending on the method/mutagen used.
  • Take a Third Option: Ultimately he's able to devise a better solution for all parties when Colin himself cannot decide to leave or stay in the tower.
  • Taunting the Transformed: K is not above mocking Colin's misfortune in several game overs when he's become a latex beast.
  • They Call Him "Sword": He has no No Name Given, all the machines refer to him as "Dr. K", but "K" is merely the name of the latex mutagen he used upon himself to avert death from the Pale Virus infection.
  • Transhuman Treachery: Subverted. He's not an escaping experiment that wants to absorb you, and is only antagonistic towards Colin, by attempting to feed him to the latex goo beasts, because he's trying to serve The Needs of the Many beyond the tower complex.
  • Unwinnable Training Simulation: In the 'Special Edition' the player can find "games" in his office made from recordings of Tail infecting rioters outside the tower. It's impossible for the escaping monster to lose, which suggests K's unable to come to terms with how humanity ended on that fateful day.
  • Was Once a Man: Once a brilliant scientist he's now a latex wolf-like creature with light, dense, soft fur, the only vestiges he ever was human are his clothes and intact-intelligence.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Doctor is willing to do anything to keep the virus from being reintroduced to the world, and when he suspects Colin of being a possible carrier, he'll resort to imprisonment or forceful transformation to keep him from leaving.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: It's not known what happens to him after the events of any of the Special Edition's Betrayal endings, as he breaks off all communication with the deuteragonists.
  • White Wolves Are Special: With his transfurred appearance and big ears he looks like a fennec fox. Confirmed by Word of God, that the scientist used a wolf-like latex batch to save himself. However, the doctor is not a Noble Wolf for most of the game, antagonistic towards the deuteragonists.
  • Worthy Opponent: He acknowledges Colin as such after his sniper attack fails.
  • You Are What You Hate: He's not pleased he had to transfur himself with his own mutagen in order to survive the Pale Virus, nevertheless since he doesn't carry the deadly virulent considers himself more human than the protagonist.

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