Name: Sascha Diasis
A bastardization of the middle space in a double rainbow, which is called the “Alexander’s band,” named for Alexander of Aphrodiasis. Sascha is a nickname for Alexander, which in turn means “helper of man.”
Blood colour: Yellow. #BDB70B, specifically. It’s a little warmer than the Captors’, but not by much.
Gender: Male
Symbol:X
XA fermata. In sheet music it indicates you drag out the note it’s placed over. It’s also called a “birdseye,” “Cyclops eye,” or in Italian, a “corona.”Personality: At face-value, Sascha is an obnoxious, if not precocious child. He wants attention and has no compunctions with being an a*****e in order to receive it. He’s lively and enjoys physical activity, but doesn’t get along with others well enough to be able to channel his energy into sports. As such, he falls all-too easily into the role of a schoolyard bully.
Sascha is direct. As much as he enjoys griping about it to other people, he doesn’t shy away from work that needs to be done. If strong-arming someone is the best course of action, Sascha will do that. If tricking someone makes the most sense, Sascha will do that. If talking it out like pals is what the situation calls for, Sascha doesn’t have a problem with that either. Sascha doesn’t sweat details like “other people’s feelings.” He expects others to follow his same, clinical thought pattern. This leads to Sascha being prepared in crises, but also blindsided when emotions influence people’s behavior.
In Sascha’s ideal world, he would be liked and admired by everyone. His roughness in social situations is not usually intentional. It stems from him projecting his personal preference for directness onto others, in lieu of decent empathy skills. If he comes out looking cool, that’s fantastic. If he comes out looking like an a*****e, he tries his best to roll with it and pretend he’s doing it on purpose.
In actuality, Sascha is not above telling people what they want to hear for brownie points. However, he often doesn’t know what to say. Even if he did, he’s not a convincing liar. Because of this, Sascha tends to rely on using physical skills to win people over. His thinking is that even if he’s not pleasant company, he can get a job done reliably, and will be appreciated accordingly.
His frustration with emotional people influences Sascha’s determination to bottle up his own feelings. Sascha celebrates being loud and temperamental, but his bravado is all just a ploy for attention. He’ll argue with someone for kicks, and then become confused and annoyed when the other party becomes genuinely upset. Sascha considers his ability to “get over it” a point of pride, but it alludes to some deeper issues regarding his sense of self-worth.
In group settings, Sascha tries to find a role for himself in the group as fast as possible. He has a hard time just hanging out in a casual setting, since he defines himself so strictly by what he’s doing and how well he’s doing it. Depending on the nature of the group, Sascha will appoint himself as “the muscle” or “the strategist” or even “the leader” if he sees no better alternative—though he’d rather someone else be in charge to validate him in his work. He wants people to tell him he’s doing a good job, so while he’s aggressive in accomplishing goals, he doesn’t actively try to cause conflict with people for the hell of it.
Sascha is competitive and ambitious, which doesn’t sit well with being a lowblood. As a lowblood who is also psychic, Sascha understands his lot in life is to be used as a tool by his superiors. If that’s going to be the case, Sascha wants to be a tool highbloods will fight each other over the right to use. If there’s an opportunity to show off a skill he has, Sascha will take it, regardless of ridiculousness or risk to his well-being. He’s got the “tool” part down, pat.
Sascha accepts the hemospectrum pretty readily. Highbloods live a long time and have a natural psychic resistance, so it makes sense for them to be in charge of running things. At face-value Sascha is okay with this, but he has a very low tolerance for incompetent authority figures. He takes a lot of pride in the idea of being a credit to his empire, so a “weak” highblood is a slap in the face to what Sascha considers to be a very noble sacrifice on his part. Sascha wants strong, charismatic highbloods to look up to and make his contributions feel worth-while.
Right off the bat, Sascha would consider himself solidly a royalist. A big part of Sascha’s character is that he does not value himself as a person. His thinking can be summed up as, “If everyone is ONE person, and A HUNDRED people rely on me to do a job, then as long as I am doing that job, I am worth ONE HUNDRED times more than myself alone.” The empire has the most influence, therefore their opinion of Sascha matters more.
Sascha regards the empire as an all-powerful entity. Perhaps a teeny-tiny part of his subconscious does not like the idea of being forcefully hooked up to a spaceship and drained of his psychic energy for the benefit of highblooded officers. The thought of pitting himself against the empire as an insignificant lowblood is so terrifying, Sascha is determined to never ever acknowledge he could ever be capable of such cowardice in the face of a great honor. Which he isn't.
Sascha fears dying alone and being forgotten. Buying into the system is, to him, the most thorough way to make sure this never happens.
As far as the other end of the hemospectrum goes, Sascha is not so out of touch that he can't understand why other lowbloods are unhappy with the caste system. He just believes they should suck it up or find a workaround, since they're not going to accomplish anything by hanging around and whining. Sascha can see the appeal of being part of the rebellion and causing a big spectacle, but feels none of them should be surprised when the party ends and the military crushes their idealistic little skulls. He admires their enthusiasm and work-ethic, though, even if he considers it misplaced.
Strengths:
Pragmatic
“Why not work smarter AND harder?! Make ‘em eat your dust!”
Sascha’s scrappy, but not stupid. If whatever he’s doing isn’t yielding positive results, he’ll take the time to re-strategize. He’s not above asking for help when he believes he needs it, and will take relevant advice and criticism into consideration. Likewise, Sascha readily gives respect to those who impress him, regardless of past experiences, or what the individual in question may think of him. Sascha probably won’t stop being a jerk entirely, but he’ll at least be more likely listen when told to cut it out. Sascha isn’t petty.
Self-Assured
“Brains, brawn, and I ain’t half-bad to look at either! Ha!”
Sascha’s worldview isn’t particularly optimistic, but he’s confident he’s got what it takes to succeed anyway. When Sascha decides what he’s going to do, he charges straight ahead. He prioritizes fast, decisive action, and thus rarely feels shame or regret. While Sascha does get flustered over loss and mistakes, he’s a firm believer in “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” If he’s not going to be the luckiest, then he’s just going to be the strongest!
Hardy
“What, you think a little bump like this is gonna take me dow—OW! Ow… Jeeze…”
Lowblooded trolls don’t get to be as outspoken as Sascha without more than a couple people wanting to take a swing at them. Sascha views injuries as badges of honor, so he’s hard-pressed to back down from a fight, even when he knows he’s outmatched. Sascha’s always out to prove his worth, which leaves his lusus with her claws full trying to keep her son in line. Despite her best efforts, Sascha’s developed quite the pain tolerance.
Flaws:
Unconscionable
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
Sascha holds himself and others to very high standards. Completely unreasonable standards, actually. He expects himself to be capable of withstanding any amount of physical, mental, or emotional abuse. He never lets himself off the hook. Sascha doesn't allow himself to be vulnerable, and copes with feelings of insecurity by overworking himself to the point of illness or injury. Left without a distraction, when Sascha becomes genuinely angry or sad or afraid, is a meltdown. Sascha doesn't take loss well, and the way he works himself frequently leaves him on the edge of burnout, both mentally and physically. His frustration with himself only amplifies the frustration he feels for other trolls who don’t meet his expectations for strength of character. He’ll accept the weak and unskilled, but not the complacent. Quitters are scum, and he's no exception.
Restless
“GOD, I DON’T CARE. CAN I PLEASE JUST LEAVE NOW!?”
Sascha is impatient, and has a lot of energy. If he doesn’t get it out with activity, it’ll just channel itself into his attitude. Sascha is personable when out and about, and downright chipper when at the center of attention. When being forced to sit still or stay quiet, however, Sascha becomes especially surly and belligerent. Even when “quiet time” is self-inflicted, Sascha can only keep it up for so long before he needs to get up and go do something more engaging. The longer he's forced to go without moving his body or interacting with people, the more agitated he becomes, until he's at risk for throwing a tantrum. When he's finally able to go out and do something, he's usually so high-strung he'll be prone to snapping at people and breaking things. He doesn't know how to relax in any way that doesn't involve wearing himself out first. The most effective way to win an argument with Sascha is to bore him.
Callous
“Suck it up.”
Sascha has a tough skin for criticism and expects the same from others. He’s so determined to not let things get him down; he’s got very little tolerance for his own emotions, much less those of others. The emotion Sascha is most comfortable with is anger, which he views as the most productive and the easiest to incite. Meanwhile, he will immediately abandon trolls who are depressed. His usual reaction to exposed feelings is disdain. Yet, when faced with extreme emotional outbursts, Sascha is quickly overwhelmed, even frightened, by his inability to deal with the problem.
Weapon: Sascha likes to settle problems with his fists. His transition from thought to action when he decides “I wanna hurt this guy,” is usually too fast for him to want to bother with a weapon. Plus he likes the visceral feel of using his bare hands to do stuff. In serious combat, Sascha would use deer horn knives. They’re deadly, bladed weapons suited to Sascha’s preferred fighting style. Most importantly, Sasha thinks they look really cool.
Appearance: Sascha’s a pretty big kid. He’s tall and a little bulky. He has immaculate posture, but in a way that says “fight me,” more than “upstanding child of Alternia.” He’s got a square face with severe eyebrows and two fangs that poke out over his bottom lip. Despite a generally upbeat attitude, and outgoing personality, Sascha’s default facial expression is a scowl. His hair is straight and cut at the chin, with short bangs that sweep to his right. His horns jut out from the back of his head around the base of the skull. They curve around his head to behind his ears, after which they immediately turn straight up and narrow to points just above his head.
Sascha’s outfit is pretty basic. The intent is practicality, but Sascha can’t help but gravitate to accents that he thinks make him look like a tough guy. He wears hemotyped camouflage pants tucked into work boots. His shirt was once a plain, if not baggy, black tee, but the neck and sleeves have been torn open into a muscle shirt, which he tucks into his pants. He wears black gloves and a large, yellow bandana tied cowboy-style that has his symbol printed on it in black.
Home: Sascha lives in Chittentown. His hive is one of many small residencies built into the cliffs surrounding the city. It blends in with the surrounding rock, and isn’t much to look at on the inside either. Sascha is something of a pack rat. While the style of furniture in his hive is simple, every flat surface is covered in some kind of knick-knack or poster. Sascha doesn’t consider himself a collector, but if he sees something colorful or shiny he can carry back to his hive, he’ll take it. He’s not above using his items for target practice either, though, so his hoard is in constant rotation.
His hive opens up onto a shelf-like ledge with paths leading past a number of other cliff hives and down into town. There’s enough flat space in front of Sascha’s hive to contain a small, fenced-in yard. It’s just a patch of dirt containing a row of boxes, upon which Sascha will set up items and try to psychically knock them over.
The back of the hive opens up into a series of tunnels Sascha and his neighbors are meant to use in case of an emergency.
Lusus: Bagworm Mother, or just “Mother” is not a particularly large lusus. In her entirety she’s not quite as tall as Sascha. She looks like some kind of hideous rat-grub hybrid. Her long body extends up into a shell made of detritus held together with silk, which Mother is able to spit from her mouth. Much of the bric-a-brac from Sascha’s hive tends to end up in his lusus’s shell. Sascha doesn’t mind, and will often attempt to attach random items to his lusus in order to “pretty her up.” Bagworm Mother doesn’t usually appreciate this, but can’t find it in her to tell him to stop.
Her specialty is camouflage, and as such she’s not a vicious lusus. She often finds herself barely able to keep up with Sascha, much less force him to knock off whatever it is he’s doing. She chooses her battles with her charge carefully, only stepping in when he's visibly distressed and in need of a good calm-down snuffling. Or a calm-down bite depending on what the situation calls for. For the most part, she trusts in and encourages Sascha's desire to appeal to highbloods, believing it will keep him safe. She's supportive of Sascha and while she avoids conflict whenever possible, she's not a panicky creature. Her wariness usually allows her to get a head-start with trying to shepherd Sascha out of harm's way before s**t starts going down.
Sascha appreciates his lusus taking on the responsibility of raising him deeply. He's aware that she's not a strong animal and he's not an easy troll to get along with. She's the only creature Sascha trusts, and he makes a Herculean effort to be a good son to her. He does think of her as a worry-wart, though, and doesn't always take her concerns for his safety as seriously as he probably should. He can't be a troll she can be proud of if he's always running away and keeping his head down! Jeeze. Best interests aside, she’s just a little worm-ferret thing and he’s a big, strong, psychic troll! He’ll protect them both and then she can stop worrying so much.
Power: Telekinesis. Technically. Sascha has the makings of a fully-telekinetic troll, but at the moment he’s quite bad at it. He can pick things up, but holding them still for extended periods of time is a problem. He’s prone to overdoing it, and more often than not he flings his target across the room, or grips objects too hard. Sascha is determined to master his powers and trains frequently. Despite this, he's self-conscious about showing them off just yet. (Not that he’d let anyone know that. He’s more self-conscious about feeling self-conscious than he is about being a lousy psychic.) The glow of his psionics is red.
(Battle-ways, Sascha's powers will fall under Offensive Style B.)
