Draco Lockhard

"Chess did the impossible: it allowed people to play war while playing with dolls. Two favorite games in one."

Draco is Georgian with English roots. His birth name was George/Giorgi, but he changed it legally to Draco. He comes from a wealthy family, equally rich on the English and Georgian side, and he keeps in close contact with both. Because of this, he can speak perfect English, Georgian and Russian and has British English pronunciation instead of American.

He studied law, particularly the international environmental law branch. Due to his young age, he couldn't work in this area yet and needed to start small and build up his influence, connections and experience. However, he wasn't allowed to do this and was instead trained to work at the FSB after the manifestation of his time manipulation ability. His influential family protected him from being taken in for ability experimentation, thanks to his grandfather having a high rank in the Russian military and connections to FSB. Draco doesn't always enjoy his life and responsibilities, but he is very obedient and diligent. He also knows how important his role is, and though he doesn't idealize being an FSB agent and knows how cruel it can get to be one, he saves people in a way no one else can. This lets him feel needed and makes his work worthwhile. Despite this, he wishes to return to his own research field in environmental law someday.

Outwardly, he is very capable and collected, does what is required of him to his best ability and as quickly as possible. He keeps his interests private and looks very serious and intimidating. Inwardly, he is a fantasy nerd with a huge love for dragons and associates himself with one. He only connects with fellow dragon and fantasy lovers anonymously over the internet and never allows his real life acquaintances to see this side of him. There are very few exceptions to this. He strives to keep up his appearances and do what is best for the family.

He can get annoyed with slow and inefficient people and starts to lose it when they waste his time. But more than that he hates religious people and their blind, cult-like devotion. He absolutely despises racists, those who are cruel to animals, and animal- or environment-hurting laws (he isn't vegan though). Usually keeping his cool, he can get into a heated argument with subjects like these, gather every single fact to support his views and use the politest words possible to thoroughly insult his opponents. He doesn't support black and white morality both in life or fiction. The villainous role of dragons in most stories makes him very sad and also angry, and this anger turns into vent posts on the internet or anonymous hate letters to the authors.

He feels like he lives a life full of injustice, and it motivates him to bring more order into the world. Though, as any law student, he is very down-to-earth and disillusioned, knows how much inescapable cruelty and hypocrisy there is and doesn't rely on ideals or hopes. He is very intelligent and attentive to detail. Through his love for chess he has been trained well for predicting actions of others. Chess also allows him to connect with his opponents on a different level and see what kind of person they are, like in a conversation.

He is a senior to Dmitri Yemets and was the one who brought him into FSB on Dontsova's orders. They were partnered during Dmitri's early years there and are now partners again. Both of them traveled to Yokohama to keep tabs on the Rats and possibly capture Fyodor Dostoevsky for the FSB.

Draco's ability, “Ninth Row”, allows him to turn back time in a certain area around himself any amount up to 9 minutes. To use it, he needs to be near a clock that has a round shape and clock hands, so a digital clock on any device won't work. Even a wrist watch could only work half the time, unless the clock face is separated from it while still working. For this reason, Draco always carries with him a pocket watch, which is attached to his vest.

The time rewind can't affect Draco himself, both in body and mind. Other people in the entire affected area forget any thoughts and actions they made or were about to make, and everything they did gets undone. Moving people and objects get relocated to where they were a desired amount of time ago, limited to where this ability space can reach. For example, they can't disappear all the way from the street and end up at the border of the time bubble. This ability can be dangerous and needs to be used with great caution, because of the effects of the rewinded area clashing with one which had a normal time flow. It doesn’t work well with big moving vehicles such as trains, the risk of hindering its movement would be too great here. Possible ability effects look like this: on a small scale, flowers lose some minutes of their growth, food gets slightly warmer again, people forget they ever saw Draco around, a bleeding wound never happens and a person who just died gets revived with no recollection of it.

Draco can rewind time 9 minutes back immediately or in small portions that add up to the limit of 9 minutes. Smaller rewinds can happen one after another, but after they reach the limit the ability will require a cooldown before it is available to use again. The cooldown takes 9 minutes as well. It can be argued that instead of controlling time, Draco controls space, a certain area around himself and its fate. After all, time itself doesn’t move back and remains the same. Moreover, he can control how big the affected area will be. It might even be possible that all his tears at the flow of time are developing a series of paradoxes, but Draco has yet to see the effects of this.

Due to his ability, Draco feels like he needs to do everything in the shortest time possible, because after 9 minutes there will be no way to redo it, and those who waste his time are a dangerous nuisance. He sometimes wishes that his ability could affect him too and make him lose memory of things he has seen, which never occurred for some people he has saved.

• Aside from dragons he also loves dinosaurs and other animals, and wanted to work in a zoo as a child. He owns three pet snakes: a hognose named Medusa (and affectionately called Honey), a ball python named Elrath (often called Banana) and a burmese python Shadow. He provides all three with top quality living conditions. He gives all his love to his snake babies and often does all necessary care himself, otherwise he sets up house workers to do it in his absence.

• He keeps a number of soft and cute dragon plushies hidden in his room. He also has beautifully detailed dragon figurines, hidden away as well. They are all placed on a special shrine that contains all his dragon treasures, also including some books and his handmade gifts from Helena.

• He likes traveling by plane because this gives him an illusion of flying.

• Draco is one of the most respected members of the Special Ability Department despite not being the oldest or the most experienced one. He's just that good at being in charge and giving advice. His intelligence and ability are his strongest points. If the Special Ability Department had ranks, Draco and Natalya Meteleva would be the highest ranked members after their chief Darya Dontsova.

• Despite being good at leadership and working diligently, he wouldn't mind not having to do it. He would actually love not being burdened with responsibilities, it's just that no one does it as good as him. He dislikes it when people mess up and would rather do the work himself.

• This makes him work quite a lot. Being the most competent person around is tiring. He makes up for it with his choleric nature and can handle it, but he also would really like some rest.

• There are many excuses for it, but he’s just very helpful. He might hate the idea but will still help someone out if they ask him. Much of his overworking is not for his own gain.

• Though he primarily did it during his law study years, he can still pull all-nighters on occasion. He spends a lot of time preparing himself to do his absolute best, and work can take a long time too. He would rather be productive than sleep, though he sometimes regrets it.

• Strong alcoholic drinks are basically required for his job, both for an agent and a lawyer. Another job requirement is being able to think with a bottle in his hand. Draco can handle alcohol well but isn't considered a heavy drinker, only doing it occasionally. He is usually seen with a glass of wine other than that.

• He prefers coffee to tea, but tea also has an important place in his life coming from the English side of his family.

• He owns suits for any occasion, all of them bespoke. Some of them come from the Savile Row. They come in all ranges from casual to adorned with fancy, fantasy-like details. He likes his pretty little outfits.

• He usually doesn't flash his wealth around. Though his fashion choices might be a little extra, they're never excessive and pretentious. Draco doesn't shy away from using his wealth but also doesn't judge anyone based on it.

• He is very handsome and capable, which makes it easy for people to fall for him. He has some dating experience and used to have a girlfriend prior to working for FSB.

• His chosen field of research isn’t the most profitable one, but he cares about the environment strong enough to fight for it.

• He believes that humanity deserves to perish for all the harm it has done to the world and to itself.

• He is usually a no-nonsense guy, which is why everyone gets utterly destroyed when he delivers the best jokes, rare as it may be. Draco’s fun side is reserved for those he trusts. His poker face game is so strong. His smiles, as rare as they might be, are of a very special kind.

• Draco uses the internet often and always stays incognito. He primarily needs it for finding law articles, but he also favors fantasy and dragon themed forums.

• Draco admires people who are honest and good-natured. He would rather associate with them than someone cunning and intelligent as he is. He likes those who he can read easily and trust.

• He often has nightmares about his clock being stuck or his ability still on cooldown when he needs it, with some kind of catastrophe following which he can’t prevent. This doesn’t happen often in real life, it’s just something he fears.

• For this reason, he doesn’t overuse his ability in case it needs to be ready for something more important. If his partner gets hurt on a mission, he doesn’t reverse time unless it is absolutely necessary. The need to judge the severity of a wound to justify the use of his ability gnaws at him too, because he doesn’t want them to get hurt at all.

• He also can’t allow himself to get heroic and fight on the front line or sacrifice himself for someone, because his survival is crucial for everyone else’s. His ability can only be used if he’s alive and not hurt too badly, he’s a fail-safe for his team. He works well with both Natalya and Dmitri because they take the role of a fighter and protect him.

• Despite his ability being connected with clocks, he doesn’t like them all that much. Time doesn’t wait for him, always rushing him and reminding that even if he can control it to some degree, he’s not the one in charge. He tries to always have a clock on himself or be near one, but it’s an illusion of control and not a place of comfort. The clock better be silent too.

• Given his Georgian heritage, it’s not unusual that he enjoys spicy food. Especially when it’s both spicy and hot, which reminds him of tasting fire, and that fire is delicious. He also likes cheese and eggs.

• Though his ire is a force to be reckoned with, he gets his point across without swearing. But he can swear if so desired.

• He enjoys sci-fi as much as fantasy and also likes works that connect both of them somehow. He believes that dragons also deserve to be in space. They could come from a different planet, with their own dragon society and no humans. Draco is good with technology and imagines himself to be fitting for that dragon society.

• Gemstones and minerals fascinate him. He doesn’t collect or study them, he just likes to look at them. Black and fire opals are his favorite, to him they look like they contain a universe inside. Wearing them often would be too flashy, but he does own some accessories, usually with small gems.

• The name of his ability is based on eight rows (and columns) in chess and gives them an extra one. Ninth row can be interpreted as a place outside the chessboard, for something that happens behind the scenes or beyond the usual turn of events. The time bubble around Draco creates a different reality by his own rules and loses its connection to the main board, the outside world.

TBA

DMITRI YEMETS
[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.

NATALYA METELEVA
[PARTNER/FRIEND]

Draco and Natalya are the most respected members of the Special Ability Department, often assuming leadership roles or acting like mentors for everyone. Some even joke about them being the mom and dad of the department. They aren’t the kindest or most harmless looking people and both are somewhat feared by others, but still trusted for their capable and helpful personalities. They work well together, with Natalya protecting him in a fight and Draco taking over their strategy or supporting her with his ability. He doesn’t get scared easily, which is ideal for tolerating Natalya’s ability. He doesn’t approve of her bloodlust though and tries to bring her back and calm her down when it awakens. Draco still doesn’t feel entirely equal to Natalya and respects her as his senior. He's even surprised to be treated with the same level of respect she gets from others. He learned a lot about abilities, agent work and fighting from her after being recruited there. Their shared time as work partners has slowly helped these two reserved introverts to open up and become closer as friends.

Natalya shares Draco’s intelligent side, serving as an excellent opponent in chess. They are both no-nonsense and realistic in their approach to life, with many shared values, though Draco doesn’t entirely support Natalya’s unwavering obedience for rules. He believes that she needs to think more with her own head and see more nuance, but doesn’t always voice it. Similarly, Natalya isn’t as blunt and inconsiderate as he is and can notice where he oversteps with others. She sometimes reprimands him for this and makes sure that he remains respectful to their coworkers, even if his criticism is justified. Sometimes they share this criticism in silent mutual understanding or witty inside jokes. Their fights are rare and very calm. Both try to listen to each other, though it’s more difficult for Natalya to act outside of rules and orders.

Due to being the more energetic and talkative one, Draco is playing a big role in Natalya opening to the world more and rediscovering what fun means. It’s been a really, really long time since she last had a friend like him. Some of Draco’s dragon, snake and other figurines were carved by Natalya as a gift of gratitude for this. Draco gladly shares his general knowledge of the world with her and makes sure that she discovers more than she is used to, more than she was taught. He feels sorry for her and doesn’t believe that he can fix anything, but still wants to make his friend’s life even just a bit better. His influence is helping to awaken the humanity in this weapon, it’s just taking a really long time.

HELENA BLAVATSKY
[FIANCÉE]

Usually not the one to be friendly with a criminal, Draco felt too sorry for Helena to treat her like one. He saw the need to help this unwilling prisoner who had nothing to herself and let her find a way back into normal life. Keeping this purely professional at first, he allowed her to join him in investigating Yokohama and observing the aftermath of Fyodor's demise. He also allowed her to stay with him until they would find her a proper place to live, fully respecting her privacy.

Over time, they slowly grew more friendly with each other, enjoying each other's company and sharing their interests and weaknesses. For Draco it was a worrying sign, because he wouldn't want his rescue to become too attached. He didn't want to take advantage of her gratitude and wanted to keep her safe, while safety can rarely be found in his line of work. While keeping their relationship carefully friendly, he was asking himself many times if what he's doing and feeling is right. Though the more he found out about Helena, the more he felt protective and fond of her. Being trapped in thoughts, questions and denial, he was brought closer to resolving it once Helena was able to show him her feelings first. Draco took the time to think over everything in advance and ultimately decided to allow himself this love.

He treats her with great care and respect, even though she does get glimpses of his usual crankiness. Even later on, when she becomes more aware of how obnoxious he can be, he still remains doting and protective with her. He's giving Helena lots of freedom and chances to back out in order to not push an unfamiliar kind of relationship on her. He might appear reserved, but really is very loyal and determined to be there for her despite her doubts. He carefully considered and made this decision and he will commit to it. Especially seeing as how Helena respects his kind of background too and doesn't seem to mind his personal quirks. Despite keeping it slow, he's very dedicated. Spending time with her makes him really happy and lets him feel free from his usual worries, free to show her who he is and what he likes. It uncovers in him emotions he didn't know he had. He likes her honesty and boldness and is trying to match her in this but isn't quite there yet. He's usually careful with his words and signs of affection, not wanting them to be too much or inappropriate. He's more daring lately however, seeing how much she appreciates this and that she's not afraid of the amount of love he holds for her. Knowing that it's mutual, he is looking forward to spending the rest of his life with her.

Draco is very supportive of her craft and interests and forever grateful for all her gifts, they're very dear for him. He is glad to share his love for snakes with Helena and especially enjoys observing Helena's friendship with all his pet snakes. Draco and Helena like to match and coordinate their outfits, with his snake babies joining them sometimes too thanks to Helena's gifts. He has no fear of her or her interests and even likes seeing some of their unusual connections. He feels very soft for Helena and wants the best for her, even if he does bully her a bit sometimes. Also, he likes to call her Lena.