Dirk

Dirk's parents were both heavily involved in show business. His father founded and performed in a group (name pending) that became a huge hit. His mother quit her day job to help manage the marketing aspect, which meant that Dirk spent a lot of his early life immersed in the chaotic world behind the stage. His father was his hero, able to make people react to him through the use of his words and his voice. Even before Dirk showed any sort of talent in music, both his parents surrounded him with sounds that he grew up loving. As his parents both began to teach him more about music, Dirk began to realize that their focus was split between him and their shows. Rather than discuss it, his childish solution was to become sullen and he had occasional fits over not wanting to play anymore (which he just as easily changed his mind about and would later insist that his lesson for that day had been skipped unfairly). It was during one of his rebellious phases when he was eight that the three of them were caught in a terrible car accident. Dirk lost not only his parents, but his ability to hear.

There was nothing more frustrating for young Dirk than to suddenly be unable to communicate. He loathed that he had to learn sign language while recovering from his injuries and would throw tantrums when it got to be too much for him. But with patient teachers and lots of repetition, he gradually learned to accept his situation. Dirk really only knew that his parents were gone and that he suddenly couldn't interact with most of the people that he saw. Dealing with a lot of people became incredibly intimidating and he stubbornly stuck with the few teachers and caretakers that were able to speak to him through sign language. He had to be put into specialized foster care because of his condition and spent a few years being shuffled into different homes. When he was getting ready to enter high school, Dirk had a strange encounter with a person that he had never seen before. They were unable to say anything that he could really understand at the time, but Dirk understood that they were giving him a guitar that had once belonged to his father, which Dirk recognized as his favorite intsrument. The person left in a hurry before he could figure out how to give them any sort of thanks. As if by some sort of destiny, when Dirk opened the case and went to play a familiar chord, he realized that he could hear the sound of the instrument. His hearing quickly and inexplicably returned from that point; there was a lot of confusion surrounding the event and somewhere in the mess, Dirk found himself with an opportunity to escape from the lifestyle he had been getting used to.

With the help of a curious assortment of things that Dirk found hidden in the guitar case, he suddenly found himself a runaway. Dirk got as far away as he possibly could and with a ton of luck, managed to get himself enrolled at a high school where no one had any idea who he was or where he came from. He decided to build himself a reputation from the ground up, purposely trying to become someone he wasn't just so that no one would question his situation in life. He also began researching the accident that killed his parents as much as he could, finding that there were a lot of reported facts that didn't line up with his memory and sometimes even contradicted themselves. Dirk remains trying to find information as subtly as possible, suspicious that someone might notice if he's caught snooping around too much.

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∙ The ring that Dirk wears is one that his mother used to carry around her neck. He doesn't remember if there was a story behind it, but he is very particular about making sure that he is wearing it at all times, as the only thing he has from her.

∙ When he's particularly nervous, Dirk will fidget with his hands, spelling out the ASL alphabet without being fully aware of it.

∙ He is an expert tree climber and has used his frame and weight to his advantage in climbing various things; one of his foster families introduced him to rock climbing and he later discovered parkour. While he's not exceptionally great at it, Dirk has maintained a lot of interest in the sport and is fascinated by watching videos.

∙ Dirk's sense of hearing is remarkably sharp. He's more likely to recognize people by the timbre of their voice before anything else. He is able to pick out individual sounds and voices even when there's a lot of noise, but being so perceptive to every sound can easily become overstimulating and makes him anxious to get away from whatever's causing it. He can find a lot of enjoyment when it's quiet, since that makes it easier to pick out a lot of different sounds.

∙ A lot of the musical notes he makes are inspired by quiet patterns he hears (water dripping from a faucet, the rhythm of footsteps, etc).

∙ Dirk's voice actor is Zac Efron, as featured in The Greatest Showman.

WIP

Powers related to sun/day/light.

Revelation/illusion breaker??

Agility/speed high, power average, defense/recovery low

In his magical form, Dirk finds that his physical abilities are closer to his imagination than reality. He feels like he has limitless energy, especially when he can run, jump, climb, and generally move better in this form than anything else. He revels in his freedom of movement, rarely sitting still or standing in one place. Especially in battle, he is constantly on the move and using the terrain to his advantage. Every parkour move he's ever thought about trying is suddenly possible and he wastes no time in putting it to use.

Dirk relies more on his speed and flexibility to allow him to attack from unusual angles, strike before enemies can respond, and generally avoid danger. Most of his attacks are made in passing rather than head-on. He doesn't have a whole lot of defense and attacks that he can't dodge can cause him a great deal of damage. Depending on his adrenaline level, he may be able to continue fighting even when he's been hurt badly, but this also means that he often doesn't realize the extent of his injuries until he actually stops.