Name: Didero Salons
Named for French philosopher Denis Diderot and the similarly French "meetings of intellectuals" held around Diderot's time. What a nerd.
Blood colour: #008240 According to the event thread.
Gender: Male
Symbol: A cartoonish rendering of a pump biscuit <3
Personality: Didero Salons really likes trolls. Trolls are pretty much the greatest species in the entire galaxy. Didero, personally, aspires to one day pen the great Alternian novel--chronicling every nuance of troll culture in a single, beautiful epic. The Empress herself will shed a single tear of pride for her people, and then distribute his novel as an informational pamphlet to alien civilizations when the Alternian military comes to conquer their planets.
All Didero has to do is write it. And acquire some life experiences in the department of troll culture. He's only like, what, three, four solar-sweeps-old? Regardless, the sooner Didero can start compiling research material for his magnum opus, the better.
(Not<3 to s<3lf: Magnum is a GR<3AT nam<3 for a protagonist!!)
Unfortunately, Didero isn't particularly well-versed in matters of tact or social grace. He's enthusiastic about making friends and expanding his horizons, but he approaches the whole endeavor with the methodical mindset of someone playing a dating sim. Didero seems to think there's a right and wrong answer to everything. He does his best to hang back and people-watch silently from the sidelines like a proper student, but will get frustrated and potentially interfere if circumstances don't appear to be unfolding as they should. Books are so much more efficient with this sort of thing!
The types of situations Didero likes observing the best are quadrant related. Didero is young and romance as a mere concept holds a lot of mystery to it. From what he understands, though, romance is definitely good and he should get in on that at some point. He loves studying books and films, the ones his lusus will let him have at least, to try and deduce the proper way to go about this sort of thing. For a child, Didero is surprisingly well-versed in the intricacies of romance on an intellectual level, but the way he gets flustered over quadrants in realistic context makes it pretty clear he has no idea what it is he's talking about.
Strengths:
Expressive
" biggrin "
Didero is quick to take a shine to new hobbies, but his first and true love has always been writing. He's pretty good at it, given his age. His prose is a bit… flowery, but when Didero is writing letters or journal entries, or even taking notes, he's quite clear and thoughtful, with a strong written voice. He's similarly adept at communicating face-to-face as well, though for different reasons. He's a great deal more eloquent on paper. Most of his verbal and physical communication, while his intent is often unmistakable, is usually entirely accidental in nature. He's got an open face and can't lie to save his life, but it adds to Didero's personable charm. He's just a friendly-looking guy.
Diligent
"This job's not going to finish itself!"
Didero is an extremely hard worker. If he sets a goal for himself, he's going to reach it. It may take sweeps, or be painful, or not entirely worthwhile, but as long as Didero sees value in his actions, he'll keep chugging away. He holds similarly dedicated trolls in high esteem, regardless of their motives. Likewise, Didero has obvious disdain for trolls that are lazy or not living up to their perceived potential. (He tends to be far more forgiving of lowbloods than high in this case.) Didero has a soft spot for people who wax poetic about a hard night's work and will happily lend a hand if he feels he'll be appreciated.
Candid
"If you really care, then you should just go for it!"
Didero, for better or for worse, is an honest kid. He enjoys liking things, and is willing to throw himself whole-heartedly into whatever's caught his eye. He also encourages those around him to get excited about their hobbies too, even if he doesn't share that particular passion. He's happy to see other people be happy--doubly so if he was responsible for it--which is definitely attributing to his budding interest in quadrant dynamics. If Didero himself likes someone, he will shower them with attention and praise and support. Additionally, he has a strange habit of memorizing his friends' schedules and interests, and then routinely giving them gifts of mundane objects he thinks they'll like.
Flaws:
Gullible
"What do you mean, 'WHY?'"
If Didero looks up to someone, he'll take what they have to say at face value regardless of whether or not it's a good idea to do so. He's very easily fooled by pretty words and perceived gestures of affection. He trusts authority figures for no other reason than because they're authority figures, which has resulted in a surprisingly casteist attitude for a midblood. Didero has to be incredibly far-removed from a situation in order to be able to process it objectively, as it's all-too easy to play to his emotions. Even the corniest movie can reduce him to a blubbering mess, and it's not hard for someone to work him up into a frenzy on their behalf, simply by acting indignant about something and yelling a lot.
Short-sighted
"Hang on--I'm working on something important! I'll get to that later!"
The more excited Didero gets, the less likely he is to realize the consequences of his actions, which has resulted in more than a few skipped meals and days of sleep--including one occasion in which Didero ran outside to go pick up a book from the public library… only to have realized it was still daytime and scrambled back inside with a nasty sunburn. Didero's tenacity can get rather unsettling when he starts applying it to his interpersonal relationships, too. He's either not interested or really ******** interested, without much middle-ground. During episodes of the latter, Didero's lusus has its talons full trying to keep the little guy in check until he calms down.
Needy
"I'm your friend, Y/N?"
Didero is a social troll. He doesn't need to be talking or even associating with anyone in particular, Didero just needs to be around people in order to avoid feeling lonesome and depressed. He makes a concerted effort every night to leave his hive and head out deeper into town to socialize, or at the very least people-watch. Too much time alone causes Didero to become stir-crazy, or worse, a listless blob. Fear of loneliness makes Didero pretty overbearing in his friendships. He has an awful habit of asking rhetorical questions and offering loaded multiple-choice answers in order to sway conversations in his favor. If Didero believes that a friend is growing apart from him, he'll panic and probably take some incredibly ill-advised action to try and "fix" things.
Weapon: Didero's hunga munga looks suspiciously like a coat hanger but it sure gets the job done. Technically it's a throwing weapon, but as a couple of blades on a handle, swinging it around works just fine too.
Appearance: Didero knows that he's cute and that he could use his appearance to his benefit. He's already vaguely aware of how it helps him in approaching people who may have otherwise have had no interest in talking to him. However, he's not clever enough or mature enough to have figured out how to effectively play up his attractiveness. For the time being, he simply dresses in a clean, bookish manner that emphasizes his friendly face and gently-tousled hair.
Didero tries to act nonchalant about his looks the best he can. (He knows he's got a great smile, and he knows you know, but he doesn't want you to know that he knows that you know that… wait…) He's only smooth about it if he's not paying attention, as Didero is afraid of having his appearance threatened and becomes visibly upset at thoughts of old age or unfortunate troll puberty, as most of Didero's physical appeal comes from his youthful androgyny. He's definitely a boy; he's relatively tall for how old he is, and has some gangly limbs under his clothes, but he has such soft facial features and long eyelashes, that he evokes a level of pity from the more aesthetically-oriented.
Home: Didero lives in the city of New Hemisect. Being a midblood, he lives on the very outskirts of town, but makes a point of heading in to the heart of the city every day to people-watch and waste beetles on fancy café drinks. It's sort of ridiculous how much of his day is spent walking, but it beats living in the slums.
His hive itself isn't anything special. It's compactly built and taller than it is wide, surrounded by a modest lawnring and a lot of neighbors. The aesthetic of the hive is about as ornate as Didero could afford given his caste, and features a lot of wood carvings. It's very gloomy in the dark. Most of the hive is built around a library. Despite the shelf space, (he only has enough books for two of the four levels of the room,) and Didero's own desire to stay organized, it's probably the messiest part of the building, since that's where Didero spends his time when he's not out and about. There are sopor slime stains leading from the respite block to the library ground into the rugs from all of the times when Didero woke up with a story idea he just had to start work on ASAP.
Tucked waaaaay back behind the bookshelves of the library is a stash of Alternian fine art. Didero purchased the prints in an attempt to be cultured, but he just… can't… bear… looking at them.
Lusus: Pigeondad is a majestic avian specimen (or at least as majestic as a big pigeon can get). He's a large, white bird, and there's not really a whole lot to say on the matter. At least, Didero doesn't think so. He cares about his lusus, sure, but when it comes to introducing his custodian to people, Didero ranges from indifferent to embarrassed. There are so many impressive or ferocious or unique lusii out there and Pigeondad is just… a pigeon. He tucks him into his recuperacoon at night and makes that burbling noise when Didero tries to push him out of his favorite chair. He's not even that big--about the size of a large dog. Most of his girth is breast meat anyway. In fact, it almost forms a heart-shape like Didero's symbol… He finds that kind of cute, actually…
Unfortunately you know who else finds Pigeondad cute? Every other pigeon in what seems to be the entirety of New Hemisect. Didero's hive is perpetually being visited by entire flocks of plain ole pigeons there to mill around his lusus, who doesn't even seem to notice, and take up surface space. The birds at least seem to respect Didero enough by proxy to get out of his way when he's moving around, but they know better than to be afraid of him. He'll flap his arms, make a lot of noise, and occasionally up and toss them out the window, but he doesn't have the heart (ha) to actually harm any of them, annoying and embarrassingly intrusive as they are. He can't exactly close his windows (during the night hours at least) or he'll have to deal with the constant "BANG" "THUMP "WHACK" of birds on plexiglass. His neighbors hate him.
Didero tries to avoid spending time in his hive because of this. However, Pigeondad is as dutiful as he is Hatoful, and will trail after his charge, inevitably dragging his entire fan club with him. At least in the urban setting of New Hemisect, a flock of pigeons doesn't draw much attention, which gives Didero the opportunity to pretend he doesn't know why birds suddenly appear every time he is near.
Power: Nope.
