Interests

► Information gathering (and blackmail)
► Vlogging
► Urban legends and creepypastas
► Using fake personas to troll people
► Collecting antiques
► Appearing pretentious overly cultured
► Hanging around coffee shops
► Running blogs

Personality

Dismas’ personality is essentially a parody of itself. He loves to over-exaggerate and put on an incredibly dramatic persona, to the point where even he cannot tell if it’s still ironic. He’s very pretentious, but plays it up to the point of absurdity, such as toting around classic novels in different languages so people think he’s showing off how smart he is or posting videos online about him ranting on how he’s the only intelligent person on Alternia. He speaks in an overly-flowery manner that’s peppered with all sorts of quips and insults, and makes sure to sound as condescending as possible when speaking to other people. He wants to put on the appearance of someone who believes themselves to be high and mighty, but he claims he does it as a joke.

He also seems to make it his goal to be as irritating as possible. He loves to rile people up, especially when he’s confident he’d be able to flee without getting harmed, and also frequently trolls people online for amusement. He is particularly relentless online due to being able to hide under the cover of anonymity, using proxies to bypass blocks/bans or creating sockpuppet accounts to continue his heckling. He also likes to take on different identities online, either as a means of getting close to a person of interest by posing as a potential love interest, or making up weird personas that other people cannot tell if they’re genuine or satire. He can be very dedicated to the bit, although sometimes he wonders if he’s now genuinely enjoying writing his cringy ‘self-insert’ shipping fanfiction series…

Dismas’ relentlessness also extends to his tenacity when it comes to his obsession with acquiring information. One he has his eyes set on something, he’ll stop at nothing to get it. He has multiple persons of interest he likes to keep tabs on, and will either pester them for information upfront or engage them in mindgames until they concede. He has a particular interest in gossip and blackmail, especially if it’s something that could potentially ruin someone’s reputation or entire career. More often than not, he’d rather hoard it so he can have something to hold over their head, and only makes it public if he thinks it’d be really entertaining.

Alongside his over-exaggerated pretentiousness, Dismas also enjoys playing up his ‘edginess’. He enjoys causing problems for his own entertainment because he is evil and cruel, and nothing can fix his cold, dead heart (if one can even reach it behind the seven proxies he’s put up). Of course, just like the rest of his personality, all this talk is mostly facetious. If one does manage to get through those theoretical proxies, he’ll become a loyal ally. He’s quite protective of those he’s fond of, albeit in a way that’s difficult to notice. He operates in the shadows, giving grief to anyone who messes with his friends and exposing their most humiliating secrets until they stop bothering them. That doesn’t mean he’s openly soft towards his close companions, though. He’ll continue to talk about himself as an evil backstabber who is waiting for the perfect moment to betray them, but that moment will never come.

Psiionics

Dismas possesses Umbrakinesis psiionics, which manifest in two forms: Umbrakinetic Constructs, and Shadow Warping. When utilising the former, Dismas is able to create shadow-like constructs out of thin air, and use them to cloak his body or objects that he’s holding. He often uses them to give himself large shadowy claws, conceal weapons as something else (such as creating a fake spear or a scythe to hide the real knife in his hand), or to create a shadowy aura around himself to look more monstrous. He is also able to alter his own shadow's appearance, but the effect is merely cosmetic. He relies on the intimidation aspect of how his powers appear, because the constructs he creates are not solid objects and have no effect on others if touched.

The second and more useful function of his psiionics is the ability to teleport between shadows. As long as a shadow is large enough for Dismas to stand in, he is able to jump inside it and instantaneously pop out of another shadow nearby. The two shadows must be no further than a metre apart, and he is incapable of hiding inside the 'void space'. He can use his psiionics as a means of fast travel by repeatedly jumping in and out of shadows, as well as breaking into buildings by warping into a viable shadow indoors. However, using his powers in this way burns a lot of energy, which can lead to him passing out if he were to overuse his psiionics. Because he burns through so much energy by shadow warping, he has an extremely fast metabolism and has to eat a lot of calories so that he is still able to function normally.

Backstory

Growing up on the border of Block 136’s lowblood district, Dismas was not one who could live a life of luxury. The hivestem apartment he lived in was overcrowded and poorly managed, resulting in periods where basic utilities would be restricted or turned off completely. Dismas’ lusus, a Wolf/Goat hybrid, had a particularly voracious appetite and would often hunt the local wildlife or livestock from the farmlands not too far off. But Dismas’ appetite was for something different: Information. Living in the same vicinity as so many trolls meant not only were there many people to interact with, but there were communities forming within the hivestem who had their own secrets and conflicts with other groups. And Dismas wanted to learn everything about them. He began by simply learning about his neighbours through word of mouth and providing information about them to fellow tenants of the hivestem as a means to spread discord amongst the community groups, and then spread his reach to seeking information about other people of interest in the city. This was the beginning of his informant business.

A particularly bad winter one sweep left Dismas’ lusus with little means to hunt, as its primary source of food perished in the cold. It grew desperate, first feasting on the frozen and slowly-decaying corpses of the animals it used to hunt, but then moving onto hunting down trolls to sate its hunger for live prey. However, despite increasing how often it would hunt for food, it was unable to allievate its hunger. Dismas thought his lusus had died when he hadn’t seen it around for perigees, but he was more concerned with building up his information database to care for what it was up to. He had far more important things to worry about than an animal that could easily take care of itself, and the sudden disappearances of his neighbours meant that he was losing his web of contacts. By the time he put together that the two things were connected, his lusus had transformed into a hideous beast, utterly consumed by its ghoulish hunger that can no longer be sated. It still has a piece of its mind left to recognise Dismas as its own charge, which is the main reason why he hasn’t tried to put it out of its misery.

More importantly for Dismas, his informant business started booming. He was able to gain a number of contacts for information on the streets, and tapping into online sources was giving him ample blackmail material to hand out to buyers. He started gaining notoriety within Block 136, and soon he was getting customers left and right. In the beginning he would charge money so that he could afford to spruce up his hivestem (now one of the few occupants left thanks to his lusus’ hunger-related rampages), but once he earned enough to live comfortably, began asking for information and secrets in return. And yet, despite this success, he couldn’t just be satisfied with his current web of information. He was craving newer, juicier secrets that normally wouldn’t be accessible to a lowblood like him.

Dismas was recruited as Kitaer’s assistant when he was around seven and a half sweeps old, after he was caught breaking into the Legislacerator’s Office to access official Fleet records. Rather than being punished for it, Kitaer admired Dismas’ gutsiness and felt he would be a good asset for his Detectiviscerator work. During one of his early cases, he was tasked with retrieving evidence from a suspect’s hive, which went incredibly poorly. The seadweller he had been staking out for weeks came home from his band rehearsal earlier than usual, and found that Dismas had broken into his hive. A fight ensued, but Dismas was able to escape with the evidence needed at the cost of his left arm. Luckily, Kitaer happened to have a spare cybernetic arm in the office, so Dismas was able to get a replacement very quickly.

Since then, Dismas has been responsible for recruiting two other members of the office staff: Aislin, who he targeted after hearing of her psiionics; and Daimon, who he was initially tasked with tracking down for questioning about a murder case. He’s settled in quite nicely as one of the senior staff of the Legislacerator’s Office, despite still being in the lowest-ranked job position. However, he has no desire to climb the corporate ladder, as his work as a Legislacerator’s assistant is secondary to managing his ever-expanding information database, now with the law on his side.

Trivia

Appearance

► His voiceclaim is Rob Mungle / Amanojaku from the Ghost Stories dub.
► His cybernetic prosthetic was a spare one they had lying around the office. It was once evidence for a long-solved murder case.
► He often breaks things that he holds with his cybernetic arm because he's still not used to the difference in strength.
► He's ambidextrous, as he had to teach himself how to write with his right hand after losing his left.
► The ribbon tied around the base of his horn is a gift from his matesprit Maidel. He jokingly blames him for "ruining his edgy street cred".

Habits

► He trades in information rather than cash, he won't give you what you're looking for unless you have something interesting in return.That doesn't mean he won't accept money as well as information, however.
► He's not above cyberstalking people he thinks are interesting, chatting to them using different accounts and identities so they don't suspect a thing.
► He likes to appear more cultured than other trolls of his caste, so he hangs around coffee shops and keeps classic literature (in their original language) with him and pretends to read them.
► He carries a pack of cigarettes in his pocket for no reason other than he thinks it's cool and makes him look edgy. He's never smoked one in his life.
► He talks about himself a lot, but not in a way that reveals any personal information about himself.
► When he does reveal any personal information, it's often a lie he's made up on the spot.
► His fighting style involves a lot of ducking and weaving away from blows until he's figured out his opponents weak spots then fighting back, or blindsiding them using his shadow warping to get behind them.
► He calls everyone by their surname, or uses condescending terms of affection like 'dear(ie)' or 'sweetie'.

Hobbies and Favourite Things

► He has a database on information on every troll on Alternia, using a combination of official files available to him through the Legislacerators Office and information he's gathered by other means. The amount of information he has on others varies.
► He's most interested in information about Block 136's gangs, as he knows how dangerous it is to snoop around their territories and won't go near them himself.
► He runs 'anonymous' confession blogs on Tumblr, but the anonymous button secretly takes people's information such as username and email address so he can track them and add their secrets to his database.
► He also has multiple accounts on fandom websites (such as DeviantART and Fanfiction.net) where he makes up a new (usually female) identity and writes embarrassingly bad fanfiction or terrible OCxCanon fanart for trolling reasons. He finds it hilarious that he has a combination of legitimate fans of his work and people who cannot figure out if he's real or just an internet troll.
► He takes a lot of selfies and Vlogs about his life, usually making long monologues about the state of society and how he's above everyone else. Predictably, they don't get many views.
► He can quote many movies, TV series, and novels, though it is unknown whether he's watched any of the shows they're from.

Residency

► He lives on the third floor of a hivestem building in Block 136, on the border of the lowblood district.
► It's a fairly run-down building and many of the other tenants have either died or abandoned their hive. Dismas has used the wealth accrued from his job to turn his apartment right round.
► This includes getting a proper heating and air conditioning system installed into only his apartment, as well as a personal hot water system and gas. Previously, these utilities would either function poorly across the hivestem complex, or be cut off entirely for days at a time.
► All of his furniture in his hive and office are old antiques he's gotten from thrift stores. While he thinks it looks classy, he has no eye for interior design so everything clashes in the most tacky fashion possible.
► He has chessboards set up in every room of his hive, in various states of play. Some of the boards have checkers chips and other board game pieces in addition to the standard chess pieces.

... And Everything Else

► He lovingly refers to his lusus as 'Satan Sparkledogdad'.