Dexter Hight's Links
after dexter died he started kidnapping FMNs to join his gang and north was like no you can’t do that if they don’t even *want* to join you
(dexter: who’s gonna stop me? you? north: yes)
and then they chased each other around for like five years and dexter eventually agreed to leave innocent FMNs alone, with the unspoken agreement being that they would be his ally instead. over an uneasy decades-long alliance, he's gleefully trampled all over north's boundaries, done unspeakable things for their benefit (most of which they fixed eventually) and generally been a driving force in their life, for good and for ill. but hey, it's not all his fault - north makes themselves such an easy target that he just can't resist.
north isn’t dexter’s mortality pet so much as his mortality *leash*, which goes two ways - at first dexter would yank north around and they would let him, and they both knew it was because the alternative was dexter going after unwilling FMNs. nowadays dexter believes it's an arrangement of mutual enjoyment, and north does not disagree. dexter is under the impression that he’s helping to break them free of their morals, and delights in every chink in their calm facade; north is entirely aware of this fact and has successfully exploited it to the extent that he believes they will eventually help him achieve his goals on their own. whether he's correct in his assessment or not remains to be seen.
dexter enjoys hassling rome, because as his highest and closest subordinate (and also as a fellow FMN) he can drop the serious, no-nonsense attitude he affects around his other contacts and fool around a bit. still, they respect each others' competence, and even if he doesn't consciously realise it dexter won't encroach on rome's territory - trusting rome to get the job down is the only reason why he's been able to focus all his attention on forging criminal contacts.
rome privately considers dexter a nuisance (and a amoral one he has to babysit at that) but he takes his job and his contract extremely seriously, which is why it's lasted as long as it has. despite being dexter's subordinate, he functionally has just as much control over his criminal empire, just in a different area (dexter with his contacts and rome through existing manpower). if they ever came to blows they'd be extremely closely matched; this is one of the many reasons rome doesn't intend to let that happen.
dexter began courting adelland after coincidentally meeting her at her fortune-telling shop, not long after he reached an agreement with north re: kidnapping FMNs. one thing led to another, and now her business serves as a base for dexter’s informants. even at the start, dexter was never emotionally attached to adelland, though he liked how pretty she was. he keeps her around because she’ll latch on to any bit of attention he gives her and having a hanger-on boosts his ego.