Dmitri Yemets

"When you're in pain, don't act like a suffering hero. You have to either cry out loud or endure. You may give everything to others, but nothing to yourself. On your own, you can tear the pillow with your teeth, smash your fists against the walls. But in public, you should smile."

Dmitri Yemets showed an interest in reading since childhood, inspired by his small and cultured family. Though he was raised with Orthodox Christian traditions, it didn't stop him from falling in love with magic from fantasy books or stories of space travel. He especially liked reading Russian folklore legends and historical novels. This helped him develop into a well-read and intelligent humble boy, and while he was doing great at school, he wasn't very popular with his peers.

Despite this, he managed to find friends with shared interests. They liked to roleplay magical fights or reenact scenes from their favorite books and movies, with Dmitri overtaking the rules for their setting. Eventually, they discovered tabletop games too. Dmitri hoped to partake in live action roleplaying events once he got old enough, and he researched it and became familiar with seasoned participants in advance. His interests and other roleplayers inspired him to grow out his hair and take up guitar and fitness boxing lessons. He got bullied in school for being a nerd and didn't have female friends, but the ones he had were all he needed, and he graduated school with little trouble.

After graduation, he was summoned for conscription, where he made good use of his disciplined nature and strength. He did well with most assignments and trainings, aside from ones that required dexterity. Additionally, the speed and stamina trainings started giving him trouble during later months of his service. It began with a sensation of falling for a few seconds during running. It couldn't be medically diagnosed, which made Dmitri push through it and continue his training. This was how his teleporting ability manifested for the first time, which caught him by surprise and brought him many small injuries and huge embarrassment. He was so disoriented during it, he couldn't understand what actually happened. This moved him to try repeating his actions again, after some rest and with protective measures. His second time went not much better, but he was then sure of it being a special power, and he wanted to discover all of its aspects to use it properly.

As he continued to experiment on his ability, he eventually attracted witnesses, and they reported him to their major. He asked Dmitri to replicate his ability privately, and after confirming the reports, Dmitri was brought into military research facilities for further testing. He stayed there until the end of his service contract and was about to be transferred into another facility for further research. Instead, he was released with all his belongings and taken to a different location. This building housed FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) offices, and the leader of their Special Ability Department greeted Dmitri there. She praised his outstanding performance and cooperation during his research and service duties and asked him to work for her. Dmitri accepted, and was soon taken in by FSB as an intern.

He continued training his body, mind and ability, and exchanging experience with other ability users among his colleagues, helping them where possible. It didn't take long for him to be promoted to a FSB agent. Dmitri was very grateful for this opportunity to be of use to his country and protect people from the shadows. His romantic and somewhat naive nature prevented him from looking too hard into it, even despite recognizing the harm of some of his assignments. Of course, his unquestionable loyalty was one of the reasons he was scouted to work here. He was doing a lot better at controlling his ability, though not without blunders. Despite everything, he remained optimistic about the future.

His ability, HDive, allows him to cross significant distance through teleporting when he is moving at high speed. This can be achieved through driving, diving, or running really fast. Whatever he is holding in his hands and on himself will teleport with him. His usual traveling companion on the road is his motorcycle. If an inexperienced person gets teleported by holding onto Dmitri, they will feel horribly nauseous, weak and disoriented afterwards and will most certainly throw up. This can be prevented by further practice.

The teleporting occurs through moving into an entry rift/portal, quickly passing through a green ability dimension and leaving it through an exit rift/portal, which would be the landing spot in the real world, with some distance away from the entry point. All of this takes only a few seconds. The amount and direction of crossed space can be consciously adjusted by Dmitri. He can use this ability multiple times in a sequence by moving, teleporting, landing, moving some more and teleporting again, etc, as long as his speed remains constantly high and nothing stops him.

Dmitri knows the maximum amount of space he can cross and can usually predict where he will stop, but doesn't always know what awaits him there and can't immediately control his remaining speed. This has resulted in him running face first into walls and doors or missing the spot he was supposed to land in. For a spy, his ability is too loud and sometimes unpredictable, but it still allows him to get through many closed doors, even if he doesn't know what's behind them. It also allows him to get into dimensions made by ability users uninvited. For this, he has to be near the user and know that this dimension exists. It's not so good for spying though, because the user usually becomes immediately aware of the intruder, but there could be some other purposes.

• He loves T-shirts with dragons, wolves and the moon. His werewolf name could be Moon Moon, if only it weren't Ancient Temptress already.
• Despite being bullied frequently and not liking it, he appears to have no lasting resentment towards people and tries to forgive and forget. Sometimes he even doesn't get discouraged after making a fool of himself, if it brightens the atmosphere and everyone's mood in a tough situation.
• Dmitri does make a fool of himself quite a lot, sometimes in a very awkward way. He gets embarrassed, but tries to shrug it off with a smile anyway.
• He really despises lying and can't do it well. For him, lying can only bring trouble and won't fool anyone. He probably wouldn't be able to lie to his friends and family about his job, so he relies on just not telling them a lot and being very vague about it.
• He is of the "I'll help you with your homework!" type and can happily explain every complicated detail about it. He could make a great tutor. Nobody was ever interested in it, but the potential of rambling about historical events still remains in him. Also, his homework usually got copied.
• Dmitri believes that Russian literature and movies can be just as good as foreign ones, and they deserve more attention. Despite being capable enough to read works in English, he usually prefers Russian translations of them.
• He visits church service every Sunday, celebrates Easter with sanctified Kulich bread and wears a cross necklace. During hard times, he prays for hope. During happy times, he prays in gratitude.
• He lost his beloved grandmother while being in military service, which brought him much sadness, because he couldn't be with her in her final moments. He misses her a lot.
• Despite being surrounded by capable women in the family, his mother and grandmother, he still wasn't completely aware of how important their work is. He moved closer towards this realization once he took up cooking and other household chores. Getting older generally improved his views about women.
• He likes the moon and feels drawn to it when he sees it in the sky or symbolically.
• His motorcycle belongs to FSB, but Dmitri is allowed to take it out for a ride as much as he needs. He calls it Gaur. Riding Gaur is his second nature now. Though he is so proficient at this, he still uses protective equipment without question. He can also ride a bicycle and drive a car. He had the opportunity to ride a horse once as a kid and wishes to do it again.
• He loves horses. He would rather wear wolf t-shirts, but he absolutely is a horse girl.
• He also likes bees, because they're cute and hard-working and their colors are beautiful. His mobile network operator is BeeLine.
• He is very patriotic and not immune to propaganda.
• He has a slight hero complex, which is why he is receptive to the possibility of his "magical destiny" and importance to the society. He can get sidetracked into helping people away from his main assignment. However, he doesn't require constant validation of praise as motivation, and he is modest rather than self-important. Dmitri is simply good-natured. He can do a thankless and secret job just as well.
• He likes when songs have deep lyrics with interesting plots. He can spend a long time speculating about their meanings and researching band history to back up his theories. He also enjoys songs with a beautiful melody, which he could memorize and play on guitar easily, or have a fun challenge figuring it out. He strongly dislikes harsh music with lots of screaming, indecipherable lyrics and barely any melody.
• Excessive drinking is unacceptable for him. He rarely drinks himself, it's usually wine or sometimes beer, and he gets very sleepy soon after.
• People who don't disapprove or know of his interests tend to find him likable and trustworthy because of his friendly appearance and kind eyes. He is also very helpful, so his reputation is generally good.
• When he doesn't clash with unexpected circumstances, Dmitri can actually appear really cool. He's not faking it, that's just his natural skills and training paying off. He can't fool strangers with this for too long and reverts back to being silly at some point.
• Black motorcycle gear makes him look especially badass, but he feels a bit too flashy in it.
• The H in his ability’s name HDive stands for “hyperdimensional”, resulting in a “Hyperdimensional Dive”. In Russian, the word ШНыр comes from the verb “шнырять”, which roughly means “to snoop/dart around”. Шныр is in this case a noun which describes a person who does the snooping around. Dmitri is describing himself with this name.
• He has good theoretical knowledge of surviving in the wild, can recognize tracking symbols of other travelers and leave his own.
• He likes archery and crossbows and gladly takes any chance of using them at fairs, in addition to regular rifle shooting stalls. He has won several plush toys and always gave them away to children from either his neighborhood or at the fair.

Dmitri was born in Ukraine, but his family moved to Russia soon after. He lived most of his life in Moscow. Dmitri was an only child, and it left him often longing for a sister or a brother. Their household was well-read, his grandmother and father both being interested in natural sciences and his mother working as a journalist and writing poetry. Dmitri also showed an interest in reading, which began with children's books and folk tales and evolved into epic poems, legends, and novels about historical figures as he grew older. He was so curious about all the possible stories, he gathered whole bags filled with books from the local library. Audibooks were among them too. Dmitri was brought up with Orthodox Christian traditions, and though he was religious, it didn't have a strong influence on his views and interests. He was a polite and kind boy, timid yet friendly.

Dmitri was accepted into a high-profile English school, but despite his growing English proficiency, he preferred Russian culture, folklore, and language. He was often bullied for being a nerdy wallflower, a history buff with good grades, who would rather dive into his books and spend time on homework than hang out with his classmates. Despite this, he did have friends, who he bonded with over love for fantasy and sci-fi worlds. Dmitri's reading habit developed both his imagination and language immensely, and he soon found himself interested in roleplay. At first, it was just him and his friends imagining themselves as magicians and warriors during playful fights, sometimes reenacting stories from fantasy books or historical events. Soon, he was researching more into tabletop roleplaying games to share with his friends. Thanks to his attention to detail and interest in worldbuilding, Dmitri was usually the powerhouse behind the plots they would play out. He wasn't really interested in video games and deemed books, tabletop games and movies healthier for mind and body. He used the internet somewhat but never allowed it to become an addiction and wasn't as well versed in it as some of his friends. He adored high fantasy elves for their elegance and vast knowledge, and he started growing out his hair to be more like them. He couldn't do much for his clumsiness and messy handwriting, though. Additionally, Dmitri strived to be in good shape and as athletic as a young boy can be, hoping to have a body and strength worthy of a bogatyr warrior once he gets older. That way, he could also prepare himself for going into live action roleplaying scene one day. He had long-term hopes and plans, and he was patient enough to slowly work towards them. He wasn't interested in girls and even believed that a woman could destroy a man, a philosophy adopted from his friends. He didn't actually have any female friends to base this on. Though he was respectful towards girls in the roleplaying community for being fellow nerds, he thought men were more knowledgeable in this area. Overall, despite not being liked by most of his classmates and learning to keep his interests private, he had a happy childhood.

Dmitri took up boxing later in his teens, both for fitness and fun. He didn't seek competition at all and preferred punching bags to sparring with a person at first, but soon became interested in this too. For a nerd, he was pretty strong and well built. He didn't use his strength out of malice though, like a bogatyr he strived to be well-natured and helpful to people around and to his country as a whole. Dmitri helped at home too and took up cleaning and cooking sometimes, it was nothing special, but he wouldn't be left completely helpless on his own. He remained kind and attentive to little things, to people and their stories, which resulted in his romantic nature. It was common for him to think deeply about uncommon or inconspicuous details of life and remain curious, optimistic and grateful. He believed that as long as he lived an honest life, God would bring him where he needed to be. Dmitri seeked connections with fellow roleplayers and visited some of their events or themed camps. The participants were usually older than him, but they liked the boy and were fine with him observing or even included him in their games. They were the reason he discovered an interest in rock and metal music, and he started taking guitar lessons soon after. Getting more skilled at it with time, Dmitri didn't compose his own songs and would rather play his favorites. He refrained from singing, because his voice was no good at this, and there was usually someone among his friends singing instead.

Soon after graduating from school, he was summoned for conscription. Because of his disciplined nature and resilience, he was doing pretty well there and could withstand harsh training, especially with anything that required strength. The time during his service made him even more fit. Even though his eyesight required him to wear glasses, he turned out to be great at shooting. This couldn't be said about his dexterity in general, he wasn't among the best at this. He didn't feel like any of the other young men shared his interests, but he remained open and didn't shy away from them too much. Everyone's limits were tested during their training, but they had some fun times, especially when someone brought along a guitar. He missed his long hair dearly and wanted to grow it back as soon as possible and even longer than before. Thankfully, he knew that his genes blessed him with fast growing hair. It was only a matter of time when his service would be over, and the time would come pretty soon.

It wasn't about to be over easily. During some of the later speed and stamina trainings, something odd started developing in him, a feeling of falling just for a few seconds. While running at high speed, Dmitri suddenly felt dizzy, everything before him went dark, he felt cold blood rush through him and make him lose his breath and footing, which made him stop in fear. He was under the impression that he caught some sort of disease, maybe something with heart or lung problems. He asked for his health to be examined, but nothing unusual could be found about it. It happened more and more often, and he was certain that something was wrong with him. It certainly couldn't be because of running, as he did plenty of that at school and here too and was completely fine after. There was no proven reason to spare Dmitri from this discipline, and so he continued. Instead of stopping in confusion, he tried to instead push through it. And that was how it finally happened. One day, as he ran through his sensation of falling, he saw something opening in front of him, couldn't slow down at this point and ran right into it with a yelp. He barely registered dropping out through a similar thing, immediately lost his balance, and fell to the ground while rolling forwards with his remaining velocity. His skin was scraped very badly and it hurt everywhere, but most of all he felt incredibly dizzy, and when he finally stopped, it didn't take long before he vomited right on the ground. Everyone else started gathering around him and calling him, but he was too disoriented to process anything. He had no idea what just happened, yet he felt like the point where he fell was not quite the one where he ran, however ridiculous it seemed. Slowly, Dmitri came to his senses and started heading towards the infirmary with some other cadets supporting him. He was examined again, and again nothing could be done for him, aside from patching up and leaving him some time to recover. There were scraped wounds all over his body, some even landing on his face. He smashed his glasses during that fall, and with some help from his squad mates, they were mostly put back together by tape. He would be a subject of bullying for his clumsiness after this, but for now, there were some who worried and cared about him.

Dmitri was very confused. He was even more sure now that something was wrong with him. He didn't look forward to trying that again, but he couldn't just leave it before figuring out where the problem was. He didn't rest for long and was soon heading out fully dressed in protective clothing to run some more. He chose the time when there weren't that many people around, just in case he gave them a scare again. Dmitri started running, and while moving closer to his limits he felt that sensation again. This time, he focused on the rift appearing right in front of him and tried to stop before reaching it. But he was running too fast to do so, and so he flew into the rift. Something was moving around him, it was too quick for him to focus on and recognize, but it sure wasn't the running track. He only spent moments inside this space before he saw a rift again and was thrown into and out of it. He barely registered the image of the running track returning before he dropped to the ground again, adding some new bruises to his existing ones. Not so many this time, thanks to his protective gear, and his glasses didn't suffer either. He tried his best to keep the contents of his stomach in place, which made him horribly nauseous. The dizziness was overpowering, and for a while, he felt too weak to stand up, so he remained lying on the ground. Everything was spinning and it hurt all over again, it was terrible, but there was something else. When Dmitri started regaining his strength, he felt it more clearly: it was astonishment. It was wonder. It was something unexplainable and extraordinary happening to him of all people. It was some kind of magic, or God's miracle, given to him as a gift. Dmitri couldn't believe he was chosen to receive such power. He should master this gift and hopefully try to make this experience feel less awful. That was his plan for the foreseeable future, once he would be able to stand up.

He did more experiments like this during his free hour, when everyone else preferred to do more enjoyable personal activities. Very slowly, he inched towards having more control in this power. It was clear that he couldn't stop running into the first rift after it appeared, but he could at least predict when it would open, and he knew that there would be an exit rift waiting for him next. This knowledge made it possible for him to anticipate and time his movements, and he was doing better with controlling his speed after running out of the exit rift every time. He even managed to not land on the floor once and could continue to run, but he was so excited about this happening that he stopped anyway to freak out and celebrate. It was still difficult for Dmitri to regain his footing completely, but that was huge progress for him. He also tried to observe more and more space around him each time he was diving in. For a brief moment, his surroundings were gone and replaced with something green, different hues of green changing shapes. After the exit rift, the surroundings from before returned, but placed him in a slightly different spot. Dmitri was able to roughly estimate the amount of space he crossed, but to be sure, he needed to make marks. His free time was coming to an end for that day, and he decided to leave further experiments for another time. His body needed rest anyway.

During his next free hour, he returned with some chalk and could now pinpoint the estimated point of his entry rift opening and mark it on the ground afterwards. Starting running from the same point and opening the entry rift roughly at the chalk mark, he moved where he was able within his green dimension and marked his position after landing. He couldn't really control his landing spot, and changing the direction was difficult too. The dives were uneven each time, and he could cross both smaller and bigger distances, which he couldn't control yet too. All these experiments were really firing up Dmitri's enthusiasm in discovering the limits and secrets of his power. He was so immersed in this that he stopped paying attention to his surroundings and couldn't really keep up the secrecy of his little game anymore. That's why he didn't notice he started attracting attention and was being watched.

One day, he was summoned to the major of his military unit, with some other cadets joining Dmitri there and describing what they had seen him do. Dmitri was asked if this was true, and he couldn't deny it. When the cadets left, he was requested to demonstrate his ability to the major in a secluded spot without onlookers. Dmitri did as he was told, and he tried to make it as presentable as he could, using his experience from previous practice. There still were some blunders along the way, but the teleportation aspect was clear. He was very curious about which magical destiny could await him after this revelation. It turned out to be his ticket to military research facilities. Though he was taken there without much room to disagree, Dmitri wasn't really that unhappy and went along with it. If this gift could be useful to his country, then it might not be that bad. Of course, he was also promised to receive a generous financial compensation for cooperating. Additionally, researchers there would be able to discover more limits of his power and teach him how to use it properly. With this motivation, he allowed the experiments on his ability.

Dmitri's previous achievements during military service were stated in his records. He was very promising as a soldier, despite his struggles with clumsiness. His training continued in the research facilities to keep him in best shape for experimentation and to see which activities are required to use this power most efficiently. It was during this time that he discovered the existence of abilities and ability users, and he was glad to know that he was not alone. Although Dmitri was mostly treated there as a person and not only a project, the experiments were still exhausting and not much of a break after the strict military regime. When his designated service time ended, instead of being allowed to return home, he was about to be transferred into an experimentation facility used exclusively for researching abilities. The paperwork with all research results on Dmitri's ability had already been relocated before the transferral was abruptly stopped and new orders were given. After a few days, a well-groomed young man in a suitcame to the military facility and ordered Dmitri to follow him to his car. With this, Dmitri was released from service and research duties, all necessary documents and his belongings were packed for him as well.

He was taken to an undisclosed location, a large building that seemed to be a government agency. The man followed him inside one of the office rooms and was then dismissed. In the room was a person who appeared to have a high rank there, a middle-aged woman with a kind yet strong look. Her name was Darya Dontsova, and she was looking forward to speaking with Dmitri. Darya explained to him that they had taken notice of his ability because it showed very strong potential. She also praised him for faithful cooperation with his duties and for withstanding all his trials. Because of his outstanding physical capabilities, strong spirit and loyalty, he was offered to work for her. They would benefit greatly from having him there, and he would be able to train his ability further while interacting with other ability users among his colleagues. Dmitri was overjoyed from being given such an important opportunity. He accepted without much thought. He was given enough time to rest and wasn't pressed with formalities immediately. Darya also allowed him to recover from experiments and have his wounds cared for in the medical wing of the building. In the near future, the compensation which was promised to Dmitri for cooperating with research was also arranged for and mostly sent to his family.

Dmitri accepted his new position as an intern at the Special Ability Department of the FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation). While most information about the agency itself was classified, no common person even knew about such a department, and there were many things Dmitri was required to keep private. He couldn't disclose his occupation to his friends or family, but he assured them that it wasn't anything bad. His work also meant that he probably wouldn't be able to apply to university, which wasn't a big loss for him. What bothered him more was the doubt that he could have a future in the live action roleplaying community. Regardless, he didn't regret his decision. To Dmitri, working with FSB meant being useful to his country and protecting citizens from the shadows. Their responsibilities included measures against terrorism and other organized crime, investigations of serious crimes, surveillance, and most importantly, protecting the integrity of their country by any means. There were others, which Dmitri was not yet allowed to know as an intern. He was regarded with curiosity by his coworkers for being allowed to work here at such a young age. He did his best to be of service there, to train his body and mind, to become more familiar with his ability, and to help others out on their missions. His military experience was very useful for it. Gradually, Dmitri became more experienced, and after a few years, he was promoted to a full-fledged agent. He proved to be fit for this title even though he couldn't execute his ability as flawlessly as some other agents. It remained very useful, and he soon learned how to control it in different ways other than running, such as on a vehicle. Teleporting on a motorcycle and moving on ahead without becoming disoriented was difficult at first, but Dmitri perfected this to the point that he could integrate his ability seamlessly into movement. He could also control the direction and amount of space he crossed, knowing exactly when and how this would happen. The only thing he couldn't know for sure was teleporting on an uncommon terrain, such as behind closed doors, because he couldn't see what awaited him there. It generally led to slamming into objects and walls or falling, which was very inconvenient on enemy territory and stealth missions. Dmitri did his best to keep these situations to a minimum. However, his luck wasn't good enough for this. At least the tendency to crash into things made his body even more tough and resilient, so he could gradually mind it less. His hobbies brightened his free time, he was getting better with guitar practice, and his hair was growing out again at record speed. Most of Dmitri's coworkers didn't bully him for his awkwardness, shyness or his interests, and for now, life wasn't so bad for him.

OLGA GROMYKO
[FRIEND/CRUSH/PARTNER]

Dmitri met Olga during one of his missions as an FSB agent. He and his partners were asked to deal with an increasingly daring and dangerous crime organization in Belarus due to FSB monitoring the underworld proceedings of post-Soviet countries. It was known to them that there was a powerful ability user present, and they were well prepared. The enemy organization couldn't deal much damage against elite ability users of the FSB, and so it was crushed, with only Olga remaining. She kept on fighting despite her injuries, but she was eventually overpowered and immobilized by Dmitri.

She was to be neutralized too, but Dmitri felt pity for this misguided teenager, and proposed to his team bringing Olga to Darya Dontsova and asking for her recruitment. He was the most enthusiastic one about this, with his teammates having doubts and Olga not looking forward to following these government looking guys. She was taken to FSB anyway. There, she spoke with Darya and was asked to choose between working under her and being transferred to research facilities as a declawed kitten, devoting her life and body to science. Of course, she could also simply choose to die. However, working for Darya would pay well, more than anything she would get during her own funeral or after being turned into a research project. Also, her hitman skills would surely be useful there and could be perfected further. Olga finally submitted to this pressure and agreed to work for the FSB.

She was partnered with Dmitri to oversee her progress and keep her in line because he was the one to vouch for her. Olga wasn't happy about this at first, but their shared time as work partners quickly brought them closer. They became great friends, Dmitri happily shared his interests with her, most notably his music taste. He discovered that Olga had a nice singing voice, and they would frequently collaborate in covering their favorite songs with Dmitri playing the guitar and Olga singing. They both loved spending time like this. They also liked sparring, which really helped Olga refine her technique. She learned this habit from Dmitri and was then eager to fight anyone, being beaten up in a friendly context like this felt good and fun to her, and she especially liked winning. With Dmitri's recommendations, she became a lot stronger and more resistant to pain.

Olga had a sharp tongue and often playfully teased Dmitri, to which he was somewhat receptive and reacted emotionally, but also didn't mind this too much and could easily forgive her. She never pressed on his buttons too much and never made him feel bad about himself, and she apologized if that was the case. Gradually, Dmitri's friendship with Olga started to develop into a crush from his side. He wasn't too sure and couldn't admit it, and wasn't about to make it known to her, but he really enjoyed her company and how they worked together. She got better every time she was teleported with him through his ability, and she punched her first teleportation experience out of him. Dmitri was a dear friend to Olga too, he was kind and caring, he could tolerate her chaotic troublemaker side, which usually didn't get much praise from anyone. Even if he was grumpy about her attitude sometimes and asked her to be more like a mature woman, he always wanted the best for her.

That's why she held little resentment towards him after choosing to side with the Rats. A part of her still wished that he wouldn't give up on her that easily and would convince her to stay. Dmitri tried to stop her, but it wasn't enough. This situation reassured Olga in her belief that he sees her as an unredeemable villain who is making the right choice. Despite everything, Dmitri still remained a dear friend to her and it was painful for her to lose him and move into an unfamiliar environment. Unbeknownst to Olga, she remained a beloved friend for Dmitri as well, and he couldn't just let her do this horrible mistake without trying to save her after regrouping at the FSB.

His primary goal in Yokohama is to either capture Olga and bring her back to FSB or to kill her so that she won't be an information leak to them anymore. He could never bring himself to do the latter, even under Olga's taunts, so he still hopes to convince her away from the dark side and back to the light.

MARIAM PETROSYAN
[FRIEND]

They are not familiar with each other as of yet. There is a potential of great friendship here, because of their shared interests and introverted personalities, capable of interacting more comfortably. They could be book buddies, exchanging recommendations and experiences about their favorite stories. Dmitri would love to explain to her some in-depth details of magical or governmental systems in their shared fantasy titles, or something that she didn't understand, and Mariam would love to listen and find out more by having all her questions answered. She could be the one to help him with arranging music with her superior music theory knowledge, and they could also play together. They are both dreamers and notice things other people don't think about. They both understand what hurts other people emotionally and how to avoid it, and would appreciate the attentiveness about each other.

However, Mariam being on Fyodor's side is a big drawback for Dmitri, because he can't condone partaking in terrorism. If he won't make an effort to see past Mariam's affiliation with the Rats, her absent eyes and the mysterious air about her, he won't find out how kind and warm she is as a person. It's less dramatic for Mariam, because she is more neutral in her views and sees good and evil in everything equally. She thinks Dmitri to be a fool to not see the hypocrisy with crimes and corruption caused by his own agency. She probably won't admit it to his face, because it would not be polite.

DRACO LOCKHARD
[PARTNER/FRIEND]

For some reason, a vehement atheist and a committed Christian manage to work well together. Draco just barely tolerates this part of Dmitri because otherwise he finds the man a great partner and a friend. They have many different habits and values, with Dmitri being too naive and optimistic for his liking. But it comes with being a genuinely good guy, which is something Draco admires about him. Dmitri feels like Draco needs to appreciate life and its wonders more sometimes, but he treasures his friend and can easily put their differences behind them. Dmitri can’t quite put a name to the feeling he experiences when seeing Draco at his full height towering over him, but it causes him to respect Draco even more.

Both of them are smart and love a good long talk. Draco isn’t as open about his interests as Dmitri, and even Dmitri gets to only see a small part of it, but he is aware of Draco’s love for dragons and promised to not tell anyone. They mainly discuss and recommend books and movies to each other. Draco doesn’t do TTRPG or any roleplay, but he agreed to teach Dmitri how to play chess. Dmitri previously had no experience with it and his progress is slow but steady. Draco is still the strongest player here, but he hopes to see Dmitri coming close to beating him one day.

He appreciates Dmitri’s smart and mature personality, but also hopes that one day he won’t have to feel second hand embarrassment about his clumsiness. Dmitri is generally alright with thinking everything through first and acting second, which is Draco’s preferred course of action. But sometimes Dmitri really lacks it, and it pains Draco to see this. Though he still appreciates Dmitri’s strength and endurance and knows that he can handle this better than Draco. They are both skilled agents, with Dmitri being more suitable for fighting, and they protect each other with their strongest points. Dmitri is perceptive enough to see how much Draco works to help him and everyone else, and he is grateful for his efforts. Dmitri knows that he can rely on his partner and that he cares even if he’s too stoic to admit it.

Draco was the one who brought Dmitri to FSB and was both his partner and superior since he started out as a trainee. In his eyes Dmitri still remains a rookie in some things, and Draco feels the need to act as a mentor to him. He can even get protective sometimes. When he saw Dmitri taking an interest in Illet due to their shared interests and her nice personality, Draco warned him not to be too friendly with her. He knew her longer than Dmitri did, and also had a chance of playing chess with her, which cemented in him the understanding of how deceivingly cunning she can get. He knew that Dmitri was a sincere person and could be too naive for her mind games, which is why he deserved better.

His friendship with Olga was not exactly better though. Draco was aware of his crush and didn’t support the idea of feeling this way about a criminal. Still, there was something amiable about her, and Dmitri enjoyed her company a lot, which is why he saw no need to step in. Though he did warn Dmitri as much as he could and gave him a reason to doubt her motives, which played a part in her unrestricted defection to the Rats. It was thanks to Draco’s distrust of Olga that Dmitri was uncertain about intervening. Her defection was no surprise to Draco, who quickly deciphered Dmitri’s awkward lie. But he could also see how miserable this made his partner, and he didn’t push Dmitri too much. He is ready to neutralize Olga if this remains the only way, but he also allows Dmitri to try talking her out of working for the Rats, because he knows how important she is for him.